> I'm also a bit sad to hear that Strange Loop is now finished? I only found them last year or so and it seemed like so many of the talks were exceptional quality.

You might want to watch Alex Miller's talk that has been uploaded recently:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suv76aL0NrA

And yes, it's sad that it ended!

However he made a very good case for why sometimes it's good for things to end. If you watch the whole talk it all makes sense.