So does this mean @shirokuro will be house hunting near @bernard soon?
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Today was the last day of class -
One of the consequences of aging......you keep losing lifelong friends.
We got word a few days ago from the daughter of one of our good friends that he passed away. Wasi and I commuted on the same train every day starting back in the 1980s when Mr wtg and I moved here. We got to know each other because I used to kibitz the bridge game on the train. We would walk several blocks heading home; my car was parked not too far from Peg's and his house. The two couples went out for dinner a few times and the four of us hit it off very well and we became close friends.
They decided to sell their house in 2014 and move to Madison, WI to be close to their daughter. I actually found the house they ended up buying by looking at listings online! We kept in touch and managed to visit them a few times. Peg died a few years ago and Wasi moved to a condo. Their daughter Monya sent a card a few days ago announcing his October 2025 passing and inviting us to a celebration of life later this summer.
She and Wasi put together a remembrance of Peggy when Peggy died; that was a PDF that chronicled Peggy's life in text and photos. For Wasi, Monya put together a Google Earth slideshow. It uses maps as the basis for walking you through Wasi's life. He was born in Assam to a Muslim family, was orphaned at a young age, moved to East Pakistan (later Bangladesh) as a child after the Partition, went to school in British Columbia, and Madison, WI...and on and on. I knew he was born in Bangladesh but had never heard the details of his life story.
I don't know if anyone is interested, but I thought I'd share the link to the slideshow. @big_al , you might be interested in the wanderings of a fellow engineer. He had a PhD in mechanical engineering, was a PE, and worked mostly on nuclear reactors when he was at Sargent and Lundy.
I had a bit of trouble navigating the slideshow on my iPad; it was much better on my laptop. After Google Earth loads, just click on Wasi's Story and start the slideshow.
Wasi loved his martini:
Here they are sitting on the patio in their backyard.
Goodbye to our friends Wasi and Peg. You will live on in our memories.
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Piano recording: jury prep@ShiroKuro Well done!
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Ultra stainless steelA team at the University of Hong Kong has developed a new “super steel” that can survive the harsh conditions needed to make green hydrogen from seawater. The material uses an unexpected double-protection mechanism that resists corrosion far better than conventional stainless steel. Even more impressive, it could replace costly titanium parts used in today’s hydrogen systems..
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/05/260510030950.htm
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Like most any tool AI can be used for nefarious purposesGoogle said Monday that it had disrupted a criminal group’s attempt to use artificial intelligence to exploit another company’s previously unknown digital vulnerability, adding to heightened worries across government and private industry about AI’s risks for cybersecurity.
Google shared limited information about the attackers and the target, but John Hultquist, chief analyst at the tech giant’s threat intelligence arm, said it represents a moment cybersecurity experts have warned about for years: malicious hackers arming themselves with AI to supercharge their ability to break into the world’s computers.
“It’s here,” Hultquist said. “The era of AI-driven vulnerability and exploitation is already here.”
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Canvas data breachI haven’t seen a reliable source saying that, but it’s certainly plausible.
The company acknowledged the ransom payment
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Anyone use Incogni?I looked into Optery, which is a similar service. I did the free plan, which provides a report that lists where your info is stored. It originally located 60+ sites, and I manually submitted requests to a bunch of them, requesting deletion of my info. Optery still sends me occasional emails and now it says I'm only on 30 sites. I may do some more manual deletion requests; I haven't pulled the trigger on a paid subscription.
PC Mag does a comparison:
https://www.pcmag.com/comparisons/incogni-vs-optery-which-data-removal-service-comes-out-on-top
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Sharing the wealthIf true, how fortunate for the workers to be able to share in his rich guy tax saving strategies!
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Regulating the Influencers -
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette saved at the last minuteBlock Communications had announced it would permanently shut down the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on May 3; the paper enjoyed a last-minute reprieve, sold last month to the nonprofit institute that created the online Baltimore Banner. But the local news guild says that the new owners have cut 40% of the newsroom, including the vast majority of those who served as union organizers during an extended labor dispute.
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/11/nx-s1-5818208/ajc-andrew-morse-leaving
(The article also talks about changes at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution)