Tootfinder

Wooo, the new computer chair should be delivered day-after-tomorrow and I'm pretty stoked. The old chair is kinda falling apart, but for a cheap chair it did a great job...however, the "new" Aeron should be a significant upgrade. Also, the rollerblade wheels will be moving from the old Office Depot chair to the new one...

Microsoft pauses new GitHub Copilot signups for Pro, Pro , and Student tiers, tightens usage limits, removes Opus models from Pro, and limits Opus 4.7 to Pro (The GitHub Blog)
https://github.blog/changelog/2026-04-20-changes-to-github-copilot-plans-…

Changes to GitHub Copilot plans for individuals - GitHub Changelog
As shared in our recent blog post, we’re making the following changes to Copilot plans for individuals as part of our ongoing efforts to ensure service reliability and a sustainable…

The 2026 Bulgarian parliamentary elections were held on April 19, 2026, following the resignation of the previous government due to protests.
The elections were marked by significant public discontent over issues like corruption and the cost of living,
with the Progressive Bulgaria coalition emerging as the victor

Von der Leyen congratulates Radev on victory in Bulgarian election
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has congratulated former president Rumen Radev on his victory in Bulgaria's parliamentary election...

How did the Urban Network Flow Adapt to the Collapse of the Carola Bridge?
Jyotirmaya Ijaradar, Ning Xie, Lei Wei, Sebastian Pape, Matthias K\"orner, Meng Wang
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.19947 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2603.19947 https://arxiv.org/html/2603.19947
arXiv:2603.19947v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: The unexpected collapse of the Carola Bridge in Dresden, Germany, provides a rare opportunity to characterise how urban network traffic adapts to an unexpected infrastructure disruption. This study develops a data-driven analytical framework using traffic data from the Dresden traffic management system to assess the short-term impacts of the disruption. By combining statistical comparisons of pre- and post-collapse motorised traffic distributions, peak-hour shifts, and Park-and-Ride data analyses, the framework reveals how traffic dynamics and traveller choices adjust under infrastructure disruption. Results reveal that the two closest bridges, the Albert and Marien Bridges, absorb the majority of the diverted motorised traffic. In particular, the daily traffic volume on the Albert bridge increases by up to 81%, which is equivalent to 3.5 hours of traffic operating with maximum flow. Peak hours on critical links are significantly prolonged, reaching up to 250 minutes. Besides redistribution, the overall daily motorised traffic crossing the Elbe river declines by approximately 8,000 vehicles, while Park-and-Ride usage increases by up to 188%, suggesting a potential travel mode shift after the disruption. The study reveals the patterns of traffic redistribution following an unexpected disruption and provides insights for resilience planning and emergency traffic management.
toXiv_bot_toot

Entangled Encounters: Material and Social Transformations of Religious Communities in Europe
https://ift.tt/QeF96Cj
Since the turn of the millennium, migration to Europe has significantly increased. Individuals have…
via Input 4 RELCFP

Entangled Encounters: Material and Social Transformations of Religious Communities in Europe
Since the turn of the millennium, migration to Europe has significantly increased. Individuals have come to this continent often fleeing conflict and political instability as well as seeking improved social and economic wellbeing. For migrants, engagement in religious practice is a key resource in the post-migration period. Religious activities and infrastructure offer practical and spiritual support, as well as being a source of social belonging for newly arriving migrants. These factors often…

Following California implementing a law raising its minimum wage to $20 for more than 500,000 fast-food workers in the state in 2024,
Christopher Thornberg, founding partner of research firm Beacon Economics, offered a warning about the state raising its minimum wage.
“California’s well-intended push to reduce income inequality via wage floors is beginning to have a significant negative impact on some of our most vulnerable workers
—our youth, particularly those from lower-i…

Economists warned California not to raise the minimum wage to $20. They were wrong in almost every way so far, another economist says
“The results are nowhere as dire as predicted,” Berkeley’s Michael Reich told Fortune.

Grr and argh.
The people who make government websites generally tend to do a halfway decent job of meeting the spec, but they really really need to learn to push back when the spec is FUCKING STUPID.
Having just completed my "Annual Filing" with Companies House - and why is that even a thing, we're not posting fucking vellum to Victorian clerks who scurry up ladders to deposit the sacred paperwork in the appropriate filing cabinet any more - I got a new scary emai…

So the new #Kreutz #comet #MAPS is *still* following the constant rapid rise in brightness it has shown since discovery: a dumb extrapolation - https://cobs.si/analysis/?comet=2688&from_date=2026-01-15 00:00&to_date=2026-04-30 00:00&observation_type=V&observation_type=C&plot_x_value=1&plot_y_value=1&fit_option=1&exclude_faint=on&exclude_issue=on&observer=&association=&country=&compare_values=compare - has it get 10,000-times brighter than the Sun at its extremely close perihelion which makes so sense at all, of course, physically.
"It must therefore be assumed that this increase in activity will level off significantly in the near future," writes https://fg-kometen.vdsastro.de/koj_2026/c2026a1/26a1eaus.htm: "More likely are parameters m m0=12.0 mag / n=4 (or even lower), which would still result in a (very short-term) maximum brightness of about –9 mag (but this would probably still be significantly too bright) – always assuming that the comet survives its perihelion passage unscathed."
For other views see http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iau/cbet/005600/CBET005663.txt and https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.17626 and https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10236580364221799 and https://cometografia.es/cometa-kreutz-2026-a1-maps-analisis/ - and the actual brightness is tracked at https://cobs.si/obs_list?id=2688 where it has reached ~11.5 mag. now.

Entangled Encounters: Material and Social Transformations of Religious Communities in Europe https://relcfp.com/cfp/religion/europe/migration/2026/02/18/entangled-encounters/

Entangled Encounters: Material and Social Transformations of Religious Communities in Europe
Since the turn of the millennium, migration to Europe has significantly increased. Individuals have come to this continent often fleeing conflict and political instability as well as seeking improved social and economic wellbeing. For migrants, engagement in religious practice is a key resource in the post-migration period. Religious activities and infrastructure offer practical and spiritual support, as well as being a source of social belonging for newly arriving migrants. These factors often…

Entangled Encounters: Material and Social Transformations of Religious Communities in Europe https://relcfp.com/cfp/religion/europe/migration/2026/02/18/entangled-encounters/

Entangled Encounters: Material and Social Transformations of Religious Communities in Europe
Since the turn of the millennium, migration to Europe has significantly increased. Individuals have come to this continent often fleeing conflict and political instability as well as seeking improved social and economic wellbeing. For migrants, engagement in religious practice is a key resource in the post-migration period. Religious activities and infrastructure offer practical and spiritual support, as well as being a source of social belonging for newly arriving migrants. These factors often…