Network [A Bug's Life]

Posted by Jonathan M. Gitlin

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/03/heres-bmws-first-all-electric-3-series-the-2027-i3/

MALAGA, Spain—Late last year, we got our first chance to drive the new BMW iX3. An all-electric version of one of BMW's best-sellers, the electric SUV is arguably the new head of the class in the competitive premium SUV EV segment, with good driving dynamics and an extremely efficient electric powertrain. The next new BMW EVs to use the company's Neue Klasse platform is the one we find more interesting here at Ars, even if it won't sell as well. It's the 2027 i3, or BMW's first 3 series EV, and it goes into production in Munich this August.

A proper sedan

It has been a few years since we first saw the Neue Klasse sedan concept, and it has mostly remained faithful to that design as it made the transition from concept to production model. Light has replaced chrome for BMW's traditional kidney grille, which here contains kidneys within kidneys. Like the iX3, there's a valley down the hood, but here the kidneys are long and wide, unlike the bucktooth look of BMW's new SUVs.

The biggest change is at the rear. Sadly, the i3 has little of the elegance or charm of the concept aft of the rear axle, but the demands of real-life practicality meant BMW needed to raise the rear deck a few inches in order to give the car proper cargo-carrying capacity. And yes, the rear window does have the traditional "Hofmeister kink." At launch, the i3 will be just a sedan, but BMW showed us a silhouette of a wagon variant—Touring in BMW-speak—that we very much hope crosses the Atlantic at some point.

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As a small boy I ate cold cereal for breakfast. I liked sugary treats like Frosted Flakes and Cocoa Puffs, but some cereals like Cap'n Crunch I found over-sugared and would not eat. I also wouldn't touch anything with marshmallow bits in it, so no Lucky Charms.

I ate these dry. At the age of 9 I started finding the taste of milk to be sour and spoiled - I had probably developed a slight allergy - so I simply stopped using it.

As an adult my tastes changed to more boring cereals, like Special K and Product 19. I never much cared for corn flakes, though.

On special occasions, or when eating out for breakfast, I'd go for an omelet or scrambled eggs and sausage. But whatever the breakfast, I never ate very much in the mornings, preferring a large early lunch.

Eventually health reasons led me to give up cereals and I turned to fruit. For a long time this was apples, and I developed a taste for tart but crisp and sweet apples, like Fujis and Braeburns. Occasionally I'd spell these with pears.

But after a while I started finding apples too heavy to eat. I tried other fruits. I liked kiwis, and they're supposed to be good for you, so for a while I ate that. But I found, to my surprise, that while a kiwi as a special treat is great, as a regular diet they quickly palled. I eventually settled on a can of mandarin orange slices. No peeling or tearing up, simple to eat.

That worked fine until I started having trouble swallowing. Oranges would not chew up into mush that I could get down. When I was in the hospital and they put me on a liquid diet, I was surprised to find for breakfast cream of wheat. Did that count as liquid? But I could get it down.

On coming home, I settled on packets of instant cream of wheat. B. has a little kettle that boils water in a jiffy, and a small measuring cup used only for water, so I can fix it easy with a little salt substitute and a lot of margarine added. My dietician approves; she wants the fats and the calories in my otherwise meager diet.

The first time I stopped in at the grocers to buy some more cream of wheat, I discovered to my delight that there was also instant grits. I'm a northerner but I've always had a taste for southern US food, and I love grits. They're basically cream of wheat except with corn (maize). So now I alternate between the two, finishing one box of packets before turning to the other.

And that's my breakfast these days.

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It's challenge time!

Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.

Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!

Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.

Go!

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Happy birthday,

james_davis_nicoll and

perennialanna!

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This morning when I emerged from the side door with recycling, Mama Violet was lying in front of the garage door. She eyed me balefully. It then got hot enough that this evening I heaved windows open in my room and the kitchen. I suspect we'll switch to a/c soon.

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https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260317.html

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Everyone needs contact comfort sometimes. Not everyone has ample opportunities for this in facetime. So here is a chance for a cuddle party in cyberspace. Virtual cuddling can help people feel better.

We have a cuddle room that comes with fort cushions, fort frames, sheets for draping, and a weighted blanket. A nest full of colorful egg pillows sits in one corner. There is a basket of grooming brushes, hairbrushes, and styling combs. A bin holds textured pillows. There is a big basket of craft supplies along with art markers, coloring pages, and blank paper. The kitchen has a popcorn machine. Labels are available to mark dietary needs, recipe ingredients, and level of spiciness. Here is the bathroom, open to everyone. There is a lawn tent and an outdoor hot tub. Bathers should post a sign for nude or clothed activity. Come snuggle up!

Mood::

busy

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http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20260318

The Girl Genius comic for Wednesday, March 18, 2026 has been posted.

http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20260318

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This is today's freebie, inspired by a prompt from LJ user My_partner_doug.

( Read more... )

Mood::

busy

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Read The Stranger by Albert Camus and spent the entire time thinking about the Ben Affleck smoking meme, or perhaps a little cartoon man smoking a cigarette and muttering bah in a French accent, which is to say I had a deeply unserious reading experience. I found this book to be surprisingly (darkly) funny, because the main character/narrator, Meursault, just floats through life— including his own trial and forthcoming execution for murder— by responding to everyone and everything with abrupt and odd statements about how nothing matters, actually. Promotion at work? It's all the same to him; nothing matters. His girlfriend wants to get married? Sure, if she wants to; it's not like anything matters. The blurb describes this as the "story of an ordinary man who unwittingly gets drawn into a senseless murder on a sundrenched Algerian beach," which led me to expect that Meursault would be an accessory to murder, or perhaps framed for a crime he didn't commit— especially as, early on, a shady acquaintance has him (Meursault) write a threatening letter to his (the acquaintance's) ex— but no?? He literally just shoots a random guy multiple times at close range for no reason?? Because Life Is Absurd And Nothing Matters, Actually????

In a rare (and only very, very loosely book-adjacent) movie update, I saw The Bride! (2026, dir. Maggie Gyllenhaal) last weekend and it was SO much fun. It is not a particularly coherent movie— it does feel like a sort of Frankenstein's monster in itself, cobbled from about three different premises ("what if Bride of Frankenstein was Bonnie & Clyde?"; "Frankenstein 2: Mary's Revenge, A Feminist Retelling", etc.)— but as a fan of campy horror and classic Hollywood I felt incredibly catered to. I also watched National Theatre's Ncuti Gatwa-led The Importance of Being Earnest, which is in fact as absolutely delightful as it looks. (It's available on YouTube through tomorrow, the 18th, and streaming on National Theatre at Home after that.)

Music:: The Man I Killed - NOFX

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Oh my GOD can it be spring yet, I am SO TIRED OF WINTER. There is a tiny tiny tiny pink nubbin of rhubarb in the garden. No asparagus yet. I cannot wait to get the dopamine hit of seeing my summer clothes for the first time in months.

The NT's production of The Importance of Being Earnest is of course a delight (Sharon D. Clarke deserves a knighthood and Ncuti Gatwa wears clothes, and few clothes, to perfection); velveteenrabbi and D's Pesach class is as excellent as one might expect; somewhere on this desk is an embroidery needle and I am convinced the gherkin is going to stab herself with it. Wednesday is actually largely unscheduled and I need only survive the conference Thursday, which requires me to leave the house at godawful o'clock.

I am looking forward to the three-hour train ride and the Dessa concert so much. And then I get a weekend in my favorite city! I have been promised brunch and a museum and rainbow cookies and bagels. (Promised by myself and I intend to follow through in every particular.)

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Note to self:
Next time, take the fairy lights inside for the season, when I start noticing pollen in the air, if not before. I don't want pollen getting all over them.

Errant thoughts:
I wonder how many parents with babies born on March 17 name them Patrick.

Seeing the name written there now, it looks rather neat, with "trick" in it. It could rhyme with hat trick.

Yesterday I noticed that Baby Yoda rhymes with Baking Soda.

Hey, it's Green Day.

As long as I keep that leftover baking soda in the corner of the sink, there will be nothing else needing to be cleaned with it.
As long as I keep that cap-ful of leftover mineral oil on the counter, there will be nothing else that needs to be greased.

Hey, Ginger Ale is appropriate for the day. It came in a green can.

Watch on YouTube

Video title: Celebrating Ireland on St Patrick's Day
Posted by: Gardiner Brothers
Date posted: Mar 17, 2021

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( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Mood:: obsessed

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With a bit of luck, Linnea has taken her last final.

OMG. There was a time we weren't sure she'd learn to read or count, let alone graduate from uni with a degree in computer science.

The kid.... is an example of freaking overcoming some pretty icky odds. Stubborn and persistent.

Fun fact: she's going to use my cap from my MS degree. Which she will decorate in pink, with a small bit of purple for me. I'm thrilled with this.

I am so freaking proud of her.

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Allotment salad!
Got Things Into The Ground (as well as out of it); I am as ever running massively behind but the weather was lovely and touching soil remains very good.
It was warm enough to have the back door open for a bit.
I am really, really enjoying the self-indulgent Very Expensive Lebkuchen I got from SousChef in the January sale. They make an excellent supper.
Bloods taken today do include a full blood count; alas no ferritin (that's scheduled for... May? April?) but I do get a sneaky extra update on how my estimated haemoglobin is doing.
libgourou continues to Work. I remain very pleased about this.

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Posted by Jon Brodkin

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/03/judge-upholds-apple-delisting-of-free-musi-app-that-streams-songs-from-youtube/

Musi, a free music-streaming app that had tens of millions of iPhone downloads and garnered plenty of controversy over its method of acquiring music, has lost an attempt to get back on Apple's App Store. A federal judge dismissed Musi's lawsuit against Apple with prejudice and sanctioned Musi's lawyers for "mak[ing] up facts to fill the perceived gaps in Musi’s case."

Musi built a streaming service without striking its own deals with copyright holders. It did so by playing music from YouTube, writing in its 2024 lawsuit against Apple that "the Musi app plays or displays content based on the user’s own interactions with YouTube and enhances the user experience via Musi’s proprietary technology." Musi's app displayed its own ads but let users remove them for a one-time fee of $5.99.

Musi claimed it complied with YouTube's terms, but Apple removed it from the App Store in September 2024. Musi does not offer an Android app. Musi alleged that Apple delisted its app based on “unsubstantiated” intellectual property claims from YouTube and that Apple violated its own Developer Program License Agreement (DPLA) by delisting the app.

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I thought I was doing okay on the weekend, but now that I'm back at work things are really rough on my brain.

Work is intensely demanding. My dreams were violent and graphic last night and I woke up wanting to do nothing more than call in sick but the work-placement person I'm responsible for started today and I had to be there to talk to her and try to find things to do despite having no idea what the rest of my team is doing and being in maybe the worst possible position to find tasks for a bright graduate who'll be here two days a week for a few months. I had two meetings in a row this afternoon with different parts of the org I work with that were properly existential: we stumbled over questions like "who's responsible for drafting the Scottish guidance on active travel?" or "what exactly do we want local authorities to do regarding the built environment?" This would be so unfair for a new person who feels like she's jumping in at the deep end just being in a meeting about what we're doing on one Government consultation.

I only realised today that I'd kinda conflated two different TfL invites and now the thing I'm going to London for tomorrow, I dint even want to and it doesn't seem worth it. I've got a train ticket I hate to waste, but bleh. Bleh!

Counseling is right after work on a Tuesday, so I managed to squeeze in a quick Teddy walk in the glorious sunshine (the weather has been amazing today, that's today's one saving grace) and then absolutely exhausted myself trying to explain my week. She's not available at rhe usual time next week but I won't be the week after, and the week after that she won't be, so I took the unusual step of fitting in an appointment at a different time next week; usually if my normal one doesn't work I just skip it, but it feels like I need more at this point.

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Windy as heck today. The kind of gusts that make you rethink every step you take outside. A lot of the usual low‑lying spots around town are flooded, but thankfully none of it slowed down my drive to work. Small victories.

We’re sitting right in the cold‑front side of the storm now, and you can feel the shift — winds swinging from the south around to the northwest, dragging that sharp edge of colder air behind them. It’s already getting that raw, unsettled feel.

Tomorrow’s shaping up to be downright chilly and frozen, so whatever isn’t iced over yet probably will be soon. Spring is taking its sweet time this year.

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Posted by Kyle Orland

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/03/world-id-wants-you-to-put-a-cryptographically-unique-human-identity-behind-your-ai-agents/

Over the last few months, tools like OpenClaw have shown what tech-savvy AI users can do by setting a virtual cadre of automated agents on a task. But that individual convenience can be a DDOS-level pain for online service providers faced with a torrent of Sybil attack-style requests from thousands of such agents at once.

Identity startup World thinks its "proof of human" World ID technology can provide a potential solution to this problem. Today, the company launched a beta of Agent Kit, a new way for humans to prove they are directing their AI agents and for websites to limit access to AI agents working on behalf of an actual human.

If you recognize the name World, it's probably as the organization behind WorldCoin, the Sam Altman-founded cryptocurrency outfit that launched in 2023 alongside an offer to give free WorldCoin to anyone who scanned their iris in a physical "orb". While WorldCoin still exists (at a current value well below its early 2024 peaks), World has now pivoted to focus on World ID, which uses the same iris-scanning technology as the basis for a cryptographically secure, unique online identity token stored on your phone.

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Posted by Stephanie Stacey and Oliver Roeder, Financial Times

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/03/arizona-indicts-prediction-market-kalshi-for-running-illegal-gambling-operation/

Arizona’s attorney general filed criminal charges against prediction market Kalshi, accusing it of operating a gambling business without a license and offering illegal wagers on elections.

“Kalshi may brand itself as a ‘prediction market,’ but what it’s actually doing is running an illegal gambling operation and taking bets on Arizona elections, both of which violate Arizona law,” Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a statement on Tuesday.

While Arizona’s case is the first time criminal charges have been brought against the company, several other US states have alleged that Kalshi’s markets constitute illegal and unregulated sports betting.

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A Bug's Life

Here's BMW's first all-electric 3 series, the 2027 i3

A proper sedan

breakfast

Just One Thing (18 March 2026)

(no subject)

D.O.P.-T. (yesterday)

(no subject)

Cuddle Party

Girl Genius for Wednesday, March 18, 2026

Poem: "Who Once Knew Better Words"

Weekly reading (etc.)

(no subject)

a Hat trick of Patrick of green ginger

Watching HR-- spoilers!!!!!

Fingies crossed

some good things

Apple can delist apps "with or without cause," judge says in loss for Musi app

Bleh

🌬️

How World ID wants to put a unique human identity on every AI agent

Arizona indicts prediction market Kalshi for running illegal gambling operation

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