Monday, August 10, 2026

Tulsa's Little League softball and baseball teams cheated this year?





I didn't see a good write-up (especially about the judge's decision), but sounds like both teams lied about residency (and maybe falsely represented a player as having a disabled sibling (and maybe tried to manipulate game data)) to add ineligible players to the teams. Amazing it wasn't caught sooner--by that age I'd think the various competing teams in the area are extremely aware of who the good kids are, notice immediately if someone's playing out of zipcode, and are quite eager to report it.

In other sports fraud
USA Swimming put CFO Cory Hilliard on leave Monday following his arrest on allegations he embezzled nearly $10,000 while working for the University of Colorado’s athletics program.
...
This is USA Swimming’s second hiring scandal in as many years. The group hired ...its new CEO in February 2025. Nine days later, [the new CEO] pulled out from the role after USA Swimming discovered

Today's news and jokes

This movie is the source of Princess Leia's Shadows of the Empire look.

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— Pablo Hidalgo (@infinata.bsky.social) August 5, 2026 at 9:09 PM


James Cameron tells a good (self-effacing) story about editing Aliens

We got to hear him tell stories about editing ALIENS. This fucking ruled

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— Rocco Botte (@roccobotte.bsky.social) August 9, 2026 at 2:15 AM

The team's mascot is a bag of cement

#LeaguesCup2026 action tonight as #NewYorkCityFC takes on #CruzAzul. Even the mascots are ready for the action.

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— Steven T (@steve1t.bsky.social) August 9, 2026 at 3:42 PM

apparently Cemento has seasonal looks

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— Luke Knox (@lukeknox.me) August 9, 2026 at 4:52 PM

this mariachi Cemento plush is a steal at a mere $85 www.ebay.com/itm/17744558...

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— Greg (@booksnotwooks.bsky.social) August 9, 2026 at 5:05 PM

Sunday, August 9, 2026

Some fun highlights from this week's DARPA lift challenge

DARPA:

The DARPA Lift Challenge aims to shatter the heavy-lift bottleneck by seeking novel drone designs capable of carrying payloads more than four times their weight. This would revolutionize how we use drones across all sectors.

As military missions become more complicated, warfighters need more capable drones to use across diverse scenarios. The same applies to infrastructure inspection, package delivery, disaster response, and other civilian applications.

Current multirotor drones, also known as unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), are simple, affordable, and easy to operate. But their payload-to-weight ratio is low, typically 1:1 or less.

Meet the Teams

This account has posted lots of highlight clips:









Chris Gethard did a very funny follow-up episode to what's in the dumpster (with Scheer and Mantzoukas again)

The payoff's not as funny as the original, but otherwise it's great:

If you're not familiar with the original... The dumpster episode of The Chris Gethard Show from 2016 w/ Paul Scheer and Jason Mantzoukas is one of the greatest 40-some minutes of television. If you haven't seen it, don't Google it, go in blind. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwi_...

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— Annie Wu (@anniewu.bsky.social) August 8, 2026 at 1:59 PM


In June there was a live follow-up to The Chris Gethard Show's dumpster episode for its 10th anniversary, and it's online NOW. www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW9i...

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— Annie Wu (@anniewu.bsky.social) August 8, 2026 at 1:58 PM


Back in 2017.

Baby monitor offering “A.I.-scheduled lullabies” (AI roundup)

i wrote about smart baby monitors and how an increasing number of products in the nursery are trying to dispense advice to millennial and Gen Z parents: www.nytimes.com/2026/08/02/b...

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— Sapna Maheshwari (@sapna.bsky.social) August 3, 2026 at 12:03 PM
(Owlet, Nanit’s biggest rival, offers a $300 pulse oximetry tracker that attaches to a baby’s foot through a sock. Huckleberry, a free app for tracking feedings and diaper changes, markets a $120 upgrade membership with “optimized nap predictions” and access to an artificial intelligence chatbot that, after logging your baby’s habits, can deliver personalized guidance and pep talks. CuboAi’s $359 Smart Baby Monitor 3 touts “A.I.-scheduled lullabies” and sends alerts when a baby’s face is covered.)