David A. Kennedy posted an update about Underscores, the popular starter theme from ThemeShaper, which is owned by Automattic. There has been no development activity on Underscores for several months, but David says it is still an active project. Ulrich Pogson, who is not affiliated with Automattic, has joined the Underscores team with commit access.
Apparently the Components starter theme generator for Underscores was taking too much time and attention away from Underscores itself. Components is being retired, but some of the things the team learned from it will be carried over to Underscores.