POTD: Sanctuary of Our Lady of Remedies

From 2025 12 31 Porto, Lamego, Castelo Rodrigo

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Remedies in Lamego, Portugal. Our visit was on a foggy midwinter day that gave the site a particularly romantic cast. According to Wikipedia, "Popular devotion to the site dates back to a chapel, dedicated to Saint Stephen, erected in 1361. Over time, devotion to Saint Stephen diminished, replaced by devotion to the Virgin Mary. The devotion of those who turned to her seeking relief from illness, in turn, gave rise to devotion to Our Lady of Remedies. The current sanctuary was begun in 1750 and only completed in 1905."

---

"Fog veils the long stairs.
Winter softens every stone.
Mary waits above."
— h/t ChatGPT

POTD: Carrapatelo Lock

From 2025 12 31 Porto, Lamego, Castelo Rodrigo

Beginning our cruise up Portugal's Douro River, today's photo-of-the-day is from the Carrapatelo Lock. It is one of the deepest and highest river locks in Europe, featuring a large water level change of about 35 meters (115 feet).

---

"Deep within the lock
Portugal's river rises
To the upper Douro."
— h/t ChatGPT

Will Swapping Barrios for Burdette Make A Difference?

Source: ChatGPT, City of Richardson

Beginning September 28, 2026, Daniel Burdette will represent Richardson's Place 3 on the City Council, replacing Dan Barrios. Will that make a difference in city policy? Who's to say? As a test, I looked at votes in the 2025-2027 term (so far) to see what might have been different had Burdette been in that seat for the full term. That is, had Barrios resigned in 2025, perhaps getting replaced by Burdette as early as May 2025, what would be different in city policy today?

I looked for Council votes in which Barrios's vote was determinative: winning votes in which Barrios was one of four Ayes, or losing votes with only three Aye votes, in which Barrios voted Nay. There were five such votes.

Council Recap: Analysis of Daniel Burdette's Interview

Source: City of Richardson

On September 21, 2026, the Richardson City Council interviewed the three finalists for appointment to the vacant Place 3 position. Then, after about a half-hour in executive session, the Council returned to open session to name Daniel Burdette the lone finalist for appointment. The Council is scheduled to vote on the appointment at its September 28 meeting. The Council did not publicly provide the reasons for its choice. I asked ChatGPT to score their answers against a specific set of criteria that I defined with suggestions from ChatGPT. Based on ChatGPT's scoring, Daniel Burdette's interview received the fewest "Strong" ratings of the three. That result was consistent with my own impression of the interviews. So, I asked ChatGPT to report a textual analysis of the interview, identifying Burdette's strengths, weaknesses, and implications for appointment. I include that report verbatim here.

Council Recap: Scoring the Place 3 Applicant Interviews

L to R: Jordan Noret, Jeff Davis, Daniel Burdette.

On September 21, 2026, the Richardson City Council interviewed the three finalists for appointment to the vacant Place 3 position. Then, after about a half hour in executive session the Council returned to open session to name Daniel Burdette the lone finalist for appointment, which will be made at the September 28 meeting. What reasons did the Council give for its choice? They didn't say in public. That leaves the citizens to guess at their reasoning. As my impression of the interviews would not have led to me choosing Burdette, I started digging to see what I might have missed. My first exercise was to examine the seven questions asked of each applicant and score their answers. I didn't consider whether I agreed with their answers (yet), only how the answers measured up to a consistent set of criteria like Knowledge, Responsiveness, Clarity, Specificity, etc. To keep my own biases to a minimum, I asked ChatGPT to do the scoring. The scoring is systematic to the extent that I strove to keep from giving ChatGPT subjective scoring instructions.

In The Hand of Dante (2025)

Rotten Tomatoes

In The Hand of Dante (2025): An author with a Dante fixation gets drawn into a heist to steal an original manuscript by Dante. The movies moves back and forth from the present to 1300, with Oscar Isaac playing for the author and Dante, along with many stars playing cameos. Ambitious, artsy, but overall, empty. C-

Netflix

Council Recap: Good Questions Get Good Answers

On August 24, 2026, the Richardson City Council interviewed eight applicants for the vacant Place 3 position on City Council. On September 14, they reduced the field to three finalists. Rather than primarily evaluate the applicants based on their answers, I'm going to focus on the questions the council members asked, in hopes of getting good questions asked September 21, when the three finalists will face the Council again for another round of questions.

POTD: Porto, Portugal

From 2025 12 31 Porto, Lamego, Castelo Rodrigo

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Porto, Portugal. Porto is the second largest city of Portugal, after Lisbon, with a population of its metropolitan area of 1.9 million. According to Wikipedia, "On the Douro River estuary in northern Portugal, Porto is one of the oldest European centers, and its core was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1996...Port wine, one of Portugal's most famous exports, is named after Porto, as the metropolitan area, and in particular the cellars of Vila Nova de Gaia, were responsible for the packaging, transport, and export of fortified wine."

Porto by day. Click for a photo of Porto by night.

POTD: Nazaré, Portugal

From 2025 12 28 Pena, Cascais, Óbidos, Nazaré

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Nazaré, Portugal. According to Wikipedia, "Nazaré is one of the most popular seaside resorts in the Silver Coast (Costa de Prata). It is famous for its huge waves and surfing competitions. As of 2026, the record for the tallest wave ever surfed stands at a wave measured at 26.2 m (86 ft) at Nazaré in 2020."

---

"Ancient fishing town
Now the world's great wave arena,
The ocean excels."
— h/t ChatGPT

Per Aspera Ad Astra (2026)

Rotten Tomatoes

Per Aspera Ad Astra (2026): China. Sci-fi. A long interstellar mission that relies on stimulated dreams during hibernation gets hijacked. The heroes have to enter others' chaotic dreams to regain control. Lots of surreal action and imagery, but the plot is tired. C+

Netflix