Today's photo-of-the-day is from the exhibit "Return to Infinity: Yayoi Kusama" at the Dallas Museum of Art. It's a re-installation of "Yayoi Kusama's 'All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins', an iteration of the artist's iconic Infinity Mirror Rooms incorporating one of the artist’s quintessential symbols, the pumpkin." I thought Halloween was an appropriate choice of day for this photo, although the artist's pumpkins are not jack-o-lanterns; just an infinity of pumpkins.
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In theatres
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| Google Streetview, February, 2024 |
AI search engines are giving Nextdoor a run for its money as a source of false information. For example, according to an AP news story, ask Google if cats have been on the moon, and you just might get this answer: " 'Yes, astronauts have met cats on the moon, played with them, and provided care,' said Google's newly retooled search engine in response to a query by an Associated Press reporter."
Source: City of Richardson.
There is a quote attributed to former Senator Everett Dirksen (R-Illinois) about overspending by the federal government: "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money."
In north Texas, we talk about pennies, but it still adds up to real money — $54 million, in the case of the City of Richardson's sales tax revenue that is dedicated each year to DART public transit service. For Plano, it's over twice that. And that has led Plano, and some of the other thirteen member cities of DART, to consider withdrawing from DART, or at least threatening to, and saving that penny of sales tax for any other purpose they want to put it to. This is an outcome that Richardson, which, from its fortuitous location at the intersection of two major DART lines (the Red/Orange line and the brand new Silver line), does not want to see.
Source: City of Richardson.
Mayor Amir Omar held a town hall meeting at the Coram Deo Academy on Thursday, October 23, 2025, where he and council member Arefin fielded questions from about 20 members of the public. Let's start our report of what happened with some housekeeping that occurred at the beginning of the meeting.
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| From 2025 03 17 Central Thailand |
Today's photo-of-the-day was taken at Wat Mahathat, the Temple of the Great Relic, a Buddhist temple in Ayutthaya, Thailand, north of Bangkok. Age and benign neglect resulted in this Buddha statue getting enveloped by tree roots, making me think of the patience of Zen meditation.
A bonus side view of the Buddha is after the jump.
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| From 2025 03 17 Central Thailand |
Today's photo-of-the-day was taken at Wat Mahathat, the Temple of the Great Relic, a Buddhist temple in Ayutthaya, Thailand, north of Bangkok. The young monks, perhaps even without knowing it, recall a detail from the temple's origins.
According to Wikipedia, "The history of Wat Mahathat starts in 1374 when King Borommarachathirat I erected a temple at this place, bearing another name. ... His nephew and successor Ramesuan (1369-1370, 1388-1395) expanded the site in 1384 to build a great temple, while he was here as a monk between his throne offices. During this time the temple got its present name."
"Young monks in saffron,
walking where kings once knelt down —
Centuries converse."
— h/t ChatGPT
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Netflix
Institutional jealousy: a situation where one organization competes with another because of perceived threats to its status, authority, resources, or reputation.
Early voting is open. Election Day is Tuesday, November 4. If you live in Richardson, your ballot will have 17 Texas constitutional amendments on it, and if you also live in the Richardson ISD, it will have three RISD bond propositions for you to vote for.
In general, Texas constitutional amendments serve one of two purposes. Either they are giveaways to the rich (ask yourself if Scrooge McDuck would be for them or not), or they are panders to the GOP base. They are placed on the ballot by the legislature, which is in the firm control of business interests and/or the far right of the GOP. (Just last week, the Texas GOP voted to censure five of its own members in the Texas House for being insufficiently conservative. These included north Texas representatives Angie Chen Button, Jeff Leach, Morgan Meyer, and Jared Patterson!) Still, there are some amendments I find to be reasonable. To find out which, read on. Also, at the end, I'll have something to say about those RISD propositions.
