Summary #17 for 2025-04-21

Alright Alex, evening briefing report is in at 6:12 PM on this fine Easter Monday! Hope the holiday is treating you well.

It looks like the “Start Running Taper” is on your schedule. While tonight’s weather is looking a bit wet from now onwards, heading out tomorrow would be absolutely perfect for a run! Plenty of daylight from about 6 AM to 8 PM and zero chance of rain all day. Get it done!

On the work front, looks like your Frontend stand-up was canceled today, but Backend stand-up went ahead as planned. Perks of a holiday!

Did you hear about that new colour scientists discovered, ‘olo’? Sounds like something Tara might shout if she saw an ‘All You Can Eat’ sign.

Here are a few bits making the rounds:

• Science folks found a way to screen for ADHD using just images of the back of the eye. Handy!
• Wild chimps were filmed bonding over alcoholic fruit. Proof we’re not so different after all?
• Three teens invented a salt-powered refrigerator that doesn’t need electricity and are building them for hospitals. Pretty cool!
• Someone got trapped in Lake Michigan quicksand and emerged with a girlfriend. Now that’s an uplifting story!
• In tech, someone detailed getting forked by Microsoft, and there’s a dive into Python’s new t-strings.
• Also, check out the details on reworking Linux code to cut power use by up to 30%.
• And fossil fuels fell below 50% of US electricity for the first month on record. Progress!

And finally, the news:

• Pope Francis has died, the Vatican camerlengo, announces. Tributes are coming in from around the World, including from King Charles and Queen Camilla who have ‘heavy hearts’. He was a vocal critic of the powerful and spoke for Africa.
• Ukraine reports many Russian drone attacks after truce ends.
• Trump backs defence secretary after reports of second Signal chat leak.