The author rebuilt a side-project (setlist.rocks) and re-discovered Rails 8, praising its modernized, “no-build” front-end approach (Hotwire/Turbo/Stimulus) and familiar server-rendered workflow that made development fun again. Despite Rails and Ruby's declining popularity, the post argues Rails remains productive and enjoyable for small, back-end-focused web apps and rapid prototyping.
New drone mapping and soil/pollen analysis suggest the Band of Holes on Monte Sierpe (about 5,200 pits) was likely a landscape-scale indigenous trade and accounting system—akin to a giant khipu—used around the 14th century by regional traders and later repurposed by the Inca. The patterning of pits, presence of transported crop residues, and strategic location support use as a visual, communal ledger or marketplace rather than agricultural or water-capture features.
NASA’s DART mission crashed into the small asteroid Dimorphos in 2022, and follow-up observations show the impact not only shortened Dimorphos’ 12-hour orbit around its larger companion by 32 minutes but also measurably altered the pair’s orbit around the sun. Stellar occultation timings indicate the heliocentric orbit slowed by about 150 milliseconds (a velocity change >10 micrometers/second), the first confirmed human-caused change to a celestial orbit and a useful data point for planetary defense planning.