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Silksong crashes Steam, Nintendo eShop on release day — highly anticipated indie video game took six years to arrive and is already one of the most played games ever on Steam. My (sainted, octogenarian) mother asked me about Silksong today. Its launch was so big that the type of news she listens to covered it.

I went back to 2010 this week. I didn't buy and bitcoin or, ahem, play any classic 8 bit Nintendo games. I did blow the metaphorical and some of the actual dust off my PowerShot S95. (More on that in a minute.) It took me a couple tries to get it going. It took me even longer to figure out how to use the damn thing. The S series of PowerShots (S95 to S110 or so) have dual physical wheels, which is the best. I had to work to remember exposure compensation. I also had to set the time, date and things like picture style. All of this took some futzing. Unfortunately, about 10 years ago during one cold and miserable winter, I got depressed and left the S95 on its back for six months (while running the wood stove). The meant it got some killer sensor grime, which I cannot clean. In broad daylight the dirt is invisible, but indoors the dirt specs are a curse. This is a shame as the S95 has an F/2 lens and works quite well in low light. With that said, I took a stroll through downtown Edgartown and snapped a few street shots. The best second hand store on MV was on this street for decades. Now it's a boutique that sells uber-expensive skin care products. Downtown Edgartown is still bustling with "shoulder season" people. The kids are back in school, so now it's blue haired retirees and buses full of people with name tags. It's a PITA to navigate around them, but TBH I cannot blame them. The weather is perfect here this time of year. The four trees in front of this house are of historical significance. That thing on the other side purports to be a Volkswagen. Looking down toward South Water St. That farthest point is Chappaquiddick. Built in 1703(!), this is one of the oldest buildings on the Vineyard. I quite like it, but the modern signs in front of it are ugly AF. This is the only shot I posted that I don't totally like. For some reason I shot it wide open (F/2) and there's significant smearing in the upper corners. As I mentioned, I'm just getting re-acquainted with the S95 after a decade. Also what's happened in the interceding 10 years is that my vision has deteriorated sufficiently that I can NOT read the controls of the camera without my glasses on. This makes all aspects of photography more complicated. EDG harbor with Chappy in the background. There's not one but two catamarans in this shot. One is the famous Mad Max and the other is even more strange looking, somehow. My mother was friends with a Swiss woman who owned a farm on Chappy. (That is a huge deal. Chappaquiddick isn't that big, and the island itself is eroding. Land on it is very precious.) She was born in 1924 and refused to accept the idea that Mad Max was a real boat. A kid dropped their heart glasses and some kind soul put them on top of a mailbox in case they came back looking for them. This sweet dog was waiting patiently for his mistress. He turned to look at me just for a second before she returned. The S95 is fast enough that I caught him the moment his head turned.

If you could only pick one of your Cervelo and your Roubaix to do 75% road, 25% fire road, which one would it be?

I think a lot of the iconic clothes of Miami Vice were from Armani, too. Truly a giant in his field and a style icon.

I'm not sure Sen. John Kennedy has seen it either.

One of the greatest clothing designers ever, Giorgio Armani, has died at the age of 91: I am sure he came into my orbit in 1980 as the person who created Richard Gere's iconic looks in the movie "American Gigolo": RIP to a legend in the industry.

My nickel - gravel gearing is fine. My Cervelo has a 40T front and 10/44 at the back. It's fine for 95% of everything and only leaves me slightly wanting plowing downhill (you run out of gear). Otherwise I don't sweat the fact that I probably ride it like a 6 speed instead of 12 speed. RE: E-assist, I'm biased. If you think it'll help you get out more, go for it, if you think you'll use it as a crutch and lean on it too much and not get the exercise benefit I think you're after than avoid the temptation.

dinosaur marathon

for Dusty

The Worst Air Disaster You’ve Never Heard Of Captain, that was a lilly dilly! https://magazine.atavist.com/2025/american-hindenberg-zeppelin-disaster?src=longreads

Dea Matrona at Royal Albert Hall:

The gear sets on gravel bikes tend to be a bit shorter than on road bikes - you can upgrade them if you are making the bike do dual duty (and swap the mud tires for road tires).

That's the one I was assuming you would look at. Too much money but the S-Works Creo 2 looks sick.

I mean, it's a nice starter system.

I think gravel is the way to preserve the option of putting wider tires on. With road tires it seems like they are slightly less efficient than road bikes. Agreed on the e-assist. I'm circling the Creo and this is the most similar to it, geometry wise.

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I don't really know much about gravel bike, but is choosing a gravel bike more limiting or does it give you more options because they are equally good on the road? If it were my first bike when trying to get into it, I would definitely want it to be comfortable as a road bike. I'm assuming that local clubs are more likely to have road rides, but I also don't have a clue if that assumption is correct. Regardless, I can't see why you would buy anything without pedal assist. Speaking from experience, it will allow you to ride more and longer, but it also will encourage you to do it more often. It looks like the Diverge is as much or more than Specialized ebike options. Just a lazy man's two cents, fwiw.

Demo’ing a Diverge Comp Carbon this weekend. I’ll take her out on some farm roads and see how she feels. Brent thinks I got the sizing all wrong (58 even though I’m 5’11”) but Brent’s bike also has been ridden maybe 2-3 times in the last year so we take his advice in proper proportion.

Perhaps this will prompt Panasonic to finally add SACD playback on a DP-UB9000PC successor... probably not.

Magnetar reveals new UDP900MKII and UDP800MKII 4K players https://www.techradar.com/televisions/blu-ray/4k-blu-ray-fans-rejoice-magnetar-reveals-two-new-4k-blu-ray-players-at-cedia-expo-2025

You had me at 'bleak'. ...but I kept reading...you had me again at 'dreampop'....but I still read all the way to the end. I will definitely be giving the whole trilogy a listen, if it's as good as the one track.

Not bad! His voice reminds me a bit of Ian McCulloch from Echo & The Bunnymen.....

Bougatsa

The Anne Boleyn rubber duck is available from the RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company) shop in Stratford on Avon. https://shop.rsc.org.uk/products/anne-boleyn-rubber-duck , Now £7.50 Of course if true to life, its head should fall off.