As you may know, Netflix released an Exploding Kittens game, as they have a contract with the guy to make an Exploding Kittens show. The game was flaky as hell, and I figured out an easy way to steal another player's Defuse card. Between those factors and the cheap graphics, I deleted it and went back to the o.g. Exploding Kittens game, which is stuff fun.

Hello! You may remember me from LinuxPPC's greatest hits, here on Slashdot! And that little life-altering car crash that happened twenty years ago...

I've served as a Milwaukee County Supervisor, an elected position here in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, for most of the past decade. We need to adhere to open meetings laws. And as part of the County Board Finance & Audit Committee, we are in charge of making decisions on how to spend millions of dollars on contracts and spending and overseeing the $1.2 billion budget.

That committee has been meeting since 11AM today. Now, usually we have seven supervisors in attendance, along with the chief legislative researcher, a committee clerk, legislative analyst, committee coordinator, and a host of other staff from the office of corp counsel, comptroller, audit, etc. Additionally, we usually have at least 25 people (at least!) who attend to speak on items, either as a supporter or a departmental representative, etc.

Today, we had six members attending in person and a seventh on part of the meeting via Skype. More importantly, everyone in the room was seated at least six feet apart. That meant we had a comparatively empty room. I did have the option to call in via Skype. Hopefully this will not result in me being a Darwin award nominee.

I don't yet know how we will handle the next full County Board meeting in a week or so. Or how the COVID-19 situation will impact the swearing in of the next County Board and County Executive, which happens around May 5, with several weeks of transition prior to then. That said, we have really good people working in our local government. We'll make the best of it. Public health and safety is our highest priority. Hence we will look at everything we can do to preserve that and carry out our duties.

"Good luck -- we're all counting on you."

No pressure.

Again, I challenge you to set it up so you can outperform his amazing performance. And, I challenge you to out-fundraise him. See if you can raise $4,000, maybe $8,000 for childrens healthcare research. Do your best, champ. Show us what you got!

A man from Milwaukee, Wisconsin is trying to play pinball long enough to break the standing Guinness World Record for Longest Marathon Pinball Play of 30 hours 10 minutes. Heâ(TM)s using the Extra Life gaming/DIY fundraising platform to webcast his attempt and raise money for Childrenâ(TM)s Hospital of Wisconsin. He gets a five minute break every hour, and yes, he is wearing an adult diaper.

So, my wife and are geeks. Well, I'm a geek; she's a nerd. When she was pregnant and we confirmed it was a boy, thus began the question of what to name him. We were both interested in something a little archaic, or possibly iconic. An online baby name generator suggested "Steele Rod." We weren't going to name him after Isaac Asmiov, as my wife thought Isaac Haas would be a tad too close to Isaac Hayes. Meanwhile, my daughter asked if we could name him Cudahy. (A real Milwaukee joke: "That way we know he'd be musical... he'd have a lot of bars.") One night, after ticking off a list of science fiction authors, I suggested Ellison. My wife remembered Lt. Col. Ellison Onizuka, the mission specialist who died on the Space Shuttle Challenger's last mission in 1986. A few days later, our science fiction baby was born with Spock ears and bearing the name of a curmudgeonly writer and an astronaut. I hope it's a fitting name for a bright, thoughtful, and as yet un-curmudgeonly boy.

One must beware of folding it too many times.

I remember the end of the Cold War. I thought we would eventually start dismantling most of the nuclear arsenal that's cost trillions of dollars to build and maintain. (I'm not even going to mention the cost of cleanup at this point.) So why do we still have the massive stockpiles? I understand that Russian nukes are a problem. I understand that Putin is not the nicest guy in the world, to say the least, and may not be that amenable to reducing his stockpile. But god knows the Russians will need to save money. As do we. Our roads and bridges are crumbling, but we still maintain these ICBMs... for what exactly? It's up to Congress to change this. I say it's time.

I'm a Mac user, you insensitive clod. And it's funny, but continual saving by a recently purchased Chromebook prevented me from losing anything when due to its hyper-frequent crashing. It's a defective unit, nothing to do with Chrome OS. Suffice to say that soured my slight migratory experiment; I'm typing this on my trusty MacBook Pro.

Milwaukee alders are very powerful in their community and on the city council. What's different here is that Milwaukee is the largest city in the state. It's the state's economic driver. So what happens here has resonance.

What may not be so different is that here, the taxi scene is dominated by one company with a de facto monopoly made possible by previous city action. Ald. Bauman is interested in expanding the choices available to consumers. Hence this action.

I serve on the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors. That body has been maligned so many times it's not funny. One of my colleagues was just elected as an alderman. But that's another story.

Meanwhile, I've got this open data resolution that I'm working on...

Milwaukee has a number of parallels to Detroit, but just enough differences that we are not, and will not be, the "next Detroit." Milwaukee is on the upswing. The city has a growing population once again, following its decline during the era of deindustrialization and urban-to-suburban flight. Milwaukee still has good bones, and as more people come here, they find it has a real vibrancy to it. We're truly blessed with a number of great local coffee roasters, including Anodyne, Stone Creek, Sven's, and Valentine, in addition to the ubiquitous Colectivo (formerly Alterra). Pabst, Schlitz and Miller made Milwaukee a beer capitol, and now we've got fantastic microbreweries, Lakefront Brewing, Milwaukee Brewing Company, St. Francis Brewery, and the crowdfunded Brenner Brewing Company. There's five colleges and two major universities within city limits, and a great publicly-owned international airport.

Milwaukee's Green Corridor along S. 6th Street is our sandbox for sustainable development. Among many attributes, it has the world's largest slab of water-permeable concrete, which was made part of the stormwater containment system that runs a beautiful stream and provides water for the on-site community gardens. A food hub is being developed just across the street from there, and we're showing true green development is replete with benefits.

The 20th century saw Milwaukee's first apex, and we're building toward a larger, more sustainable one right now. I'm thrilled to be part of it.

Yes. I have to wonder what the three-year-old daughter of the man thinks. The three-year-old daughter of the now-dead man. It's utterly shameful that this happened. Especially the way that it ended the man's life.

Nelson Mandela is a hero to many, myself included. May he rest in peace as we honor and mourn him, though we never shall forget him.

Before Hurricane Katrina, fuel prices followed a predictable rhythm, where gas was cheaper in the summer and diesel was cheaper in the winter. After Katrina, it all went to hell, and pretty soon everything was US$4 a gallon. Diesel has crept back up to that or higher, so even though I still get 42-45 mpg, it still costs plenty to fill up. And I think it blew away the ROI calculations.

About eight years ago, I was addicted to the idea of biodiesel. Loved it loved it loved it. Got a VW TDi just to eventually be able to run biodiesel in it. The mileage was great. Still is great, as I still have the car. But the cost of maintenance has lessened my interest in having it.

To be fair, part of it is problems that I've brought upon myself. I didn't listen when they said "after doing this upgrade, UPGRADE THE FUEL INJECTOR AND THE EXHAUST, or you will pay thousands in repairs." To be fair, I wanted to verify their claim. Which proved to be true.

If that weren't enough, part of it for me will be the cost of repairing body damage, which was not caused by the upgrade in HP/torque that I had done a few years back, but rather a side-effect of the car crash that I was in thirteen years ago (as seen on Slashdot!), which shredded my left eye and wrecked my depth perception. (Tight turns in and out of my garage are a bitch.)

That's got nothing to do with diesel vs. hybrid. It's all about my vision, or lack thereof. But take into account that at least with the TDi, you need to get synthetic oil, and religiously have it changed. You'll need a new fuel filter each year -- North American/European ppl, do this in October. And there at long last, the infamous VW ,,Elektriksystem nicht funktioniertin" problem is creeping in on my car. Or maybe the right headlight really is burned out. Either way, it's getting time to move on.

So now, I still want a car with great mileage. And I'd like get an American car, a UAW car. The Ford C-Max hybrid is of interest, as it satisfies both interests. Even if the mileage may not be all that it's billed to be. And the looks aren't all that great either. But, what can you do? Perhaps -- maybe -- deal.