You can spin magnets above a copper surface and create a board that hovers, albeit not very high, but it does hover or you can freeze a superconductor and have it float above a magnetic track and also get a hover effect. The dream of course is to get a hoverboard that bounces under your feet as it floats above the ground but does not limit you to a track or localized area. Colin Furze comes close with simulating that hoverboard feeling while creating something that will still take you anywhere a skateboard will go.
Scheduled Maintenance
The site will be down for a few days from March 14 – March 18.
The Recall that Never Was
Yours truly in an interview with Bridge City News today:
Watching the Olympics in Ukraine
It was a heartbreaker this morning watching Canada take silver medals after losing to the United States 2-1 in three on three overtime. Nevertheless, we have much to be grateful for. This piece about watching the olympics in Ukraine keeps things in perspective.
The tone of the Ukrainian Olympic coverage is humane. Like other national commentators, the Ukrainians pay attention to their own athletes. But they do a better job than some of explaining the sports, of dwelling on the funny moments, of keeping things in perspective. Hockey fights and little scandals get abundant and amused attention. Commentators and correspondents seem unscripted, and they laugh spontaneously. A sign language interpreter brings the the banter to a broader audience.
And so, ironically, when I watch the Ukrainians covering sports, I can think about the sports. I get to have that distraction, that pleasure, that moment.
And this, of course, is what Ukrainians are doing for many of the rest of us, on a vast scale, the scale of life itself: buying us time, buying us moments, with their pain, with their lives.
(Via Dave Winer)
The Bad Review Revue
Melania: “The significance of Melania isn’t the contents of the film so much as the fact that it happened. It’s not impossible that it might be evidence in an impeachment trial. And in any case, it is an important document in the decline of American public life.” — Robert Hutton, The Critic
How to Make a Killing: “In this sadly stunted comic thriller, a delightfully depraved Glen Powell must kill seven of his family members to inherit $28 billion. Would you? By the end, the film commits the worst crime of all by killing our interest.” — Peter Travers, The Travers Take
Wuthering Heights: “It is difficult to recommend a movie that goes so far out of its way to be more racist than its 19th-century source material.” — Noah Berlatsky, Chicago Reader
Midwinter Break: “Midwinter Break should be titled Midwinter Boredom. The admirably talented of Lesley Manville and Ciarán Hinds are stuck in this lethargic drama about a married U.K. couple confronting their relationship problems during a trip to Amsterdam.” — Carla Hay, Culture Mix
This is Not a Test: “The film struggles to bring its non-zombie characters to life.” — Ross McIndoe, Slant Magazine
Cabel Sasser on Photographing the Wes Cook McDonald’s Mural
In a post last year, I linked to Cabel’s Wes Cook talk it but today he’s filled in some of the missing details about photographing and recovering the mural. I love this so much.
After learning about “Vision 2020” from a collector — the McDonald’s initiative which, as a I note in the talk, you did watch the talk right?, would require all McDonald’s to remodel by 2020, and remove any trace of Ronald — I really began to sweat about the mural. So, I would occasionally email the franchisee, and see if there was anything I could do to preserve it.
Assuming the chance of saving the mural was slim, a high-resolution photo seemed like the next best saving bet.
And, amazingly, the franchisee agreed to let me do it!
I reached out to photographer Aaron Lee, who does wonderful work and seems always up for adventures, and asked if he could come up and do a multi-photo-stitched giant capture of the mural for permanent safekeeping.
We hit the road.
As a side note, within a couple of Cabel’s photos, I noticed that the McDonald’s had a Greg Olsen print on the wall. It turns out, that’s a painting of my friend’s friend. The pal in question, Geoff, had us over to his friend’s house where I saw the original painting hung over that same piano. It’s a very nice painting, and their house is filled with beautiful paintings, most of which (if not all) are by Utah artists.
This painting is called “Dress Rehearsal”. Unfortunately I can’t remember her first name but I remember the gist of the story. Her dad, Steve Lund, was friends with Greg Olsen, the artist, (read: he had purchased many of his paintings) and she and her sister posed at the piano where the painting would eventually end up.
I love the self referential nature of the artwork — if you look closely you can see the painting of the girls (more specifically the piano) in the top right corner of the painting. And that painting has the painting in it too.1 I believe it was my friend Geoff who took a photo of us in that room but I don’t know if I ever saw the print. I should ask him.
- and so on… for eternity, obviously.[↩]
Apple Earnings Q1 – 2026
Apple’s earnings report today shows that the company is not slowing down with iPhone still bringing in all time records for revenue.
From Apple News Room:
Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2026 first quarter ended December 27, 2025. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $143.8 billion, up 16 percent year over year. Diluted earnings per share was $2.84, up 19 percent year over year.
“Today, Apple is proud to report a remarkable, record-breaking quarter, with revenue of $143.8 billion, up 16 percent from a year ago and well above our expectations,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “iPhone had its best-ever quarter driven by unprecedented demand, with all-time records across every geographic segment, and Services also achieved an all-time revenue record, up 14 percent from a year ago. We are also excited to announce that our installed base now has more than 2.5 billion active devices, which is a testament to incredible customer satisfaction for the very best products and services in the world.”
The most notable part of the report is that iPhone is once again growing hugely in China.
Here are the Six Colors charts.
Corn Lund’s Anti-Coal Mining Petition is Live
I didn’t get to run the recall petition that I wanted, but I am going to take part in the petition to stop coal mining in the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Here’s Corb Lund in an interview explaining why we should care:
See coalpetition.ca to sign up.
Five O’Clock Somewhere 1.0.4 Update Now Available
I’ve been busy making updates to my app Five O’Clock Somewhere and today the newest version 1.0.4 has been approved and is available on the US and Canadian app stores. This new version includes maps of the various locations where it is currently happy hour!
If you enjoy the app, please consider adding a review.
Download and Print Scripts from Rian Johnson
American director Rian Johnson has published a collection of his tv and movie scripts on his website and is encouraging folks to “[p]rint them, share them, [and] act them out with your friends.”
A small charter school took the script from Knives Out and adapted it to a play, and performed it with Johnson in the crowd.