The final trailer for the new Dune movie is here. Watching it gives me chills (yeah I know, fanboy is not a good look for a senior citizen). Can’t wait for October 22.

It’s a wet week in both KY and Socal. Can’t remember the last time that happened.

This is really interesting and a bit scary. Drones able to fly unassisted through forest using an AI navigator. Technically cool, but somehow I think this may come back to bite us. Our machine overlords are a step closer to inception.

And here’s a guy who has taken an idea of mine and fleshed it out. (He arrived at the idea independently, and he’s clearly a better engineer than me.) The idea is to use a precisely targeted laser for bug control. In his case he targets mosquitos, but I was thinking about how to control the damnable Mediterranean Olive Fly that damages olive crops in the US. The fly makes growing olives about twice as hard and expensive as it would be otherwise.

In slightly political news, I’ve seen a lot of “Lions, Not Sheep” hats and shirts during this trip – mostly at the airports. I wondered what that is a reference to, and now I’ve learned that it’s a slogan that the anti-vaxxers have adopted. Seems you’re a sheep if you follow rules. And then I learned that a Utah entrepreneur huckster named Sean Whalen has monetized the slogan via this weird, unsettling website, featuring bearded wannabe military types (mostly Whalen) modeling LnS shirts and hats with menacing looks. And women (mostly Whalen’s new wife) who apparently will only procreate with oh-so-alpha bearded men. The whole thing is a bit confusing, but at the root of it all is the ever-present infantile conservative attitude of “you can’t tell me what to do!”. No rules for me, I’m a free agent in the universe. Somehow we “sheep” have to find a way to push back on this. I prefer to live in a society with rules, rather than rule by the biggest baddest dude with a gun (they call that most of the Middle East, by the way). Maybe all the “Lions Not Sheep” wearers should make their way to Afghanistan, where bearded dudes with guns are at the top of the rotten heap. I’ll buy the first round of one-way tickets.

And finally, on a lighter note, this is prime tomato season in Kentucky. Went to the local farmer’s market yesterday and picked up some amazing heirloom tomatoes, which K then transformed into a scrumptious Caprese salad. There’s nothing like a vine-ripened tomato in the fall. Perfection.