Tootfinder

Day 6: Kamome Shirahama
Before I wander much father afield, I'd be remiss not to include at least one Mangaka (I've got 8 on my planning list; if you think Manga is pushing it just wait until you see what the next few days have in store).
I'm currently following "Witch Hat Atelier," and it's absolutely amazing in several dimensions: first class world-building, deep philosophical themes, nuanced diverse cast, tightly-constructed interwoven plots, deep mysteries that keep everything churning and show up in unexpected places, absolutely stellar art both in terms of in-panel depictions and page layouts (some are Watchmen-quality), especially if you are sartorially inclined, and general kindness of its core messages. This is a series I wish every programmer would read, because it includes excellent advice about software design in multiple ways (did I mention there's an intricate and logical magic system within which the main character innovates in legible-to-the-reader-as-innovation ways?). Also, I bet I would have enjoyed this just a much as a 10-year-old as I'm enjoying it in my 30's, which is something that takes well-honed skill to pull off.
Shirahama is a master of her craft, and I'm honestly kinda surprised to see Witch Hat is only her second series. Definitely thinking how I can get my hands on her earlier work in English.
#20AuthorsNoMen

Filing: Sony and Tencent reach a "confidential settlement" over Tencent's Light of Motiram, a game that Sony alleged was a "slavish clone" of its Horizon series (Jay Peters/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/news/847080/sony-

Sony’s legal battle against Tencent’s Horizon ‘clone’ is already over
Sony has reached a settlement with Tencent in its lawsuit over Light of Motiram, a game Sony alleged was a “clone” of its Horizon series.

Writing unit tests for my random number generation library continues to be difficult. My tests are failing because the bias in the distribution exceeds my expectations, but I'm wondering whether I should just repeat the test more times and permit it to exceed expectations some of the time (as long as it does it symmetrically/rarely/etc. My gut tells me that second-order expectations aren't any better than first-order expectations, but another part of me disagrees.
Thinking more as I write this (writing is thinking): second-order tests can at least give me better info to work with towards fixing things I think! So maybe I'll invest in them.
#coding

Maxx Crosby, Geno Smith Get Honest About Raiders Tanking https://heavy.com/sports/nfl/las-vegas-raiders/geno-smith-maxx-crosby-giants-tanking/

This is what happened to the web when the software industry never spent a moment thinking about long term stability. About users. About usability. About anything other than features and a fast buck.
Among many other failings.
Would be nice to some professionalism in future. One can hope, but I despair.
https://jimsbutchery.com.au

Thinking about giving to folk in #Gaza; quite complicated feelings. Firstly, we do *have* to give, and give personally, because conventional charities are not effectively getting relief to Gaza -- presumably because they are being blocked by #Israel -- and because our governments are doing nothing.
Bu…

Meta Hid Evidence of Social Media Harm, Court Filings Claim | Thomson/Reuters
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/meta-research-mental-health/2025/11/22/id/1235682/

The #IWW #GDC as an antifascist organization was always kind of a hack. It was a beautiful hack and it worked well for what it did.
In 2016, as Trump was rising, I found info from the Twin Cities GDC. They were super organized, building an amazing community defense organization. When we (Seattle) went to set up our chapter, following their lead, they were extremely supportive. When I got shot, Twin Cities folks were at my house keeping my partner safe. They literally flew people out to support us. They very much remain in my mind when I think about what mutual aid looks like.
Unionism is an important strategy of a larger fight. But it's important to realize that it's not the other way around. The GDC was built to defend the union, because there wasn't something larger to do that work. It filled a gap.
When we organized against Trump, we tried to make the GDC the greater thing. We tried to make the GDC into the vehicle for social revolution against the fascist threat... And it sort of worked. We were able to do a lot.
But that was never what it was built to do. It was always built as an appendage of the IWW. This contains its own problem. If Unionism is the revolutionary movement, then it becomes impossible to build a truly revolutionary society. Unionism centers "workers" which implicitly decenters those who can't work in the traditional sense (the young, the elderly, those physically or mentally able to work). It also decenters care labor that hasn't yet been widely commodified. Sure, there are all types of hacks to patch the holes, but the fundamental construction starts from the wrong assumptions.
It felt, for a while, like things could go another way. Like that our ability to bring members in could shift things a bit, maybe set the GDC on more equal footing with the core focus of the IWW. But that was always an illusion, far less important to think about than the crushing terror of the regime we were fighting.
Now, I will absolutely trash talk the IWW on occasion but in the end I do think they're doing good and important work. Any criticism I have should be taken with a grain of salt... And I know I do have a lot of salt. Again, Unionism is an important strategy. It's useful both in improving immediate material conditions and as part of the most powerful weapon we have against the capitalist system: the general strike. It's important, I can't say that enough. But it's not sufficient.
I've been thinking about this a bit recently, and I wonder if there are any other GDC organizers or former organizers who might be feeling the same. Feel free to DM me. I'd like to get some more perspectives and see if my understanding from several years ago deviates significantly from what other folks are feeling right now.
I'd also like to bounce some ideas around that come from my own organizing experience.

Ripple Effects
Hosted by Soph Dicker from So Invested following Australian founders and VC operators on a transformative two-week journey in Tanzania...
Great Australian Pods Podcast Directory: https://www.greataustralianpods.com/ripple-effects/

The American patrol satellite had the targets in its sights:
two recently launched Chinese spacecraft flying through one of the most sensitive neighborhoods in space.
Like any good tactical fighter,
the American spacecraft, known as USA 270, approached from behind,
so that the sun would be at its back, illuminating the quarry.
But then one of the Chinese satellites countered by slowing down.
As USA 270 zipped by, the Chinese satellite dropped in behind its…

Military satellites dogfighting as tensions escalate in orbit
U.S. and Chinese satellites routinely spy on each other in orbit, rehearsing for more aggressive operations in the event of war.