Tootfinder

In 2024, the FBI sought to launch a sweeping "pay-to-play" investigation examining interactions between Sen. Susan Collins and a top donor, records and emails show.

Confession: The donor, an ex-defense contractor, told agents his company won millions in federal contracts by bankrolling campaigns of powerful politicians.

Shutdown: After Donald Trump returned to office, the investigation died, a casualty of his purge of the FBI.
Its closure shut a poten…

The FBI Anti-Corruption Squad Was Circling Susan Collins — Until Trump Got in the Way
After the FBI caught a defense contractor’s CEO making illegal campaign contributions, it sought to launch a sweeping political bribery probe involving Collins and others. Then the second Trump administration dismantled the unit handling the inquiry.

from my link log —
How to include Git version information in a Golang binary.
https://blog.carlana.net/post/2023/golang-git-hash-how-to/
saved 2024-05-13

How to include Git version information in Go
It's easy to automatically include a Git revision with every Go build

Fruits Of Labor (Of Love)
(A 10x8" silver chloride print I made last night of a scene captured in the Bernina Range in 2024, which reminded me of 18th century landscape painting...)
#SilentSunday #LandscapePhotography

Hispanic voters who helped re-elect Donald Trump in 2024 are discontent with his second-term economic and immigration policies,
according to recent polling
– indicating they may not be willing to support the president’s party in the midterm elections.
Despite a record number of Hispanic voters casting their ballots for the Republican president,
more than 65% said they are displeased with Trump’s handling of his job
and 78% said they would prefer to see the Democ…

Hispanic voters’ support for Trump wanes over economy and immigration
Polls show voters who helped elect president unhappy – and may be willing to vote Democrat in midterms

He won't declare actions for an #EmergencyBrake though. Because 'growth'.
Headline: Andy Burnham to chair emergency Cobra meeting amid extreme heat.
https://gettingreal.org.uk/2024/05/02/

The Emergency Brake | Getting Real about the Crises Facing the UK
Imagine that you are in a vehicle, going fast towards an immovable barrier. What do you do? Press the accelerator harder

A look at Quincy, a rural Washington farming town of 8,500 that benefited from a data center boom as its poverty rate fell from 29.4% in 2012 to 6.2% in 2024 (Nathaniel Meyersohn/CNN)
http://www.cnn.com/2026/08/11/business/data-centers-ai-economy

‘Brand-new everything’: How data centers transformed this small town’s economy
A $15 million aquatic center with a six-lane pool, waterslides and a lazy river opened in Quincy, Washington, a few weeks ago.

Jährlicher Zubau und Rückbau der #Windenergieleistung in #Deutschland. Stand: 31.07.2026.
Summen der Inbetriebnahmen und Stilllegungen pro Jahr.
Der Datenbestand enthält ggf. unplausible Datensätze.
👉 Zusatzlesestoff:

Many Americans underestimate health risks of extreme weather, new study finds #America

Many Americans underestimate health risks of extreme weather, new study finds
A changing climate increases the health risks posed by extreme weather. However, according to the 2024 Yale Climate Opinion Maps, only 47% of U.S. survey participants believed that global warming would harm them personally.

The Drone flights vs car break-ins chart in this article is fascinating: It shows a sharply declining rate of car break-ins, and then, as drone flights are introduced later in 2024, the rate of decline slows.
And "The SFPD increased patrols in bipping hot spots like Fisherman’s Wharf starting in 2023. Cops also started using bait cars and building cases against major bipping gangs. " And that correlates with the fastest rate of decline - good, old fashioned policing.

Rest in peace, Bip City
Car break-ins, long a symbol of dysfunction in San Francisco, have fallen precipitously in recent years. Surveillance technology is partly to thank.

Brian Schottenheimer, Cowboys lose key pass rusher for start of 2026 NFL season https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl/dallas-cowboys/news/cowboys-lose-charles-snowden-three-game-suspension/76542357b63b576f4cc8f5d2

ooh, gillian welch & david rawlings have been playing another new song on tour recently (along with "midnight bones"), called "goodnight." looks like it was debuted in 2024. part of the encore on this recent tape: https://archive.org/details/gillianiowa

Gillian Welch & David Rawlings Hancher Auditorium Iowa City IA 8-5-2026
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings live at Hancher Auditorium in Iowa City on August 5th 2026. Taped from front row center of the lower balcony. 

What Raiders Gained and Potentially Sacrificed in 2024 NFL Draft https://www.si.com/nfl/raiders/onsi/las-vegas-what-gained-potentially-sacrificed-2024-nfl-draft

Have a fabulous birthday, America!
“Cruising Queens”
2024, Moises Salazar Tlatenchi. Oil on canvas, glitter, and yarn.

Häufigkeitsverteilung der Bruttoleistung von #Balkonkraftwerk​en in #Deutschland mit Stand vom 31.08.2026.
Unplausible Inbetriebnahmedaten vor 2018 durch Registrierungsdatum ersetzt. Sonderregelungen nach

Source: Apple passed $10B in annual sales in India for the first time in FY 2026, up from $9B in 2024-25 and $6B in 2022-23, as it expands its retail footprint (Sankalp Phartiyal/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

"Out of Bib – Lernen auf dem Campus: Eine vergleichende Analyse zu Ergebnissen aus einer Studie der Nicht-Benutzung in Kooperation mit ausgewählten deutschen Hochschulbibliotheken" von Miriam Wildermuth in den Berliner Handreichungen zur Bibliotheks- und Informationswissenschaft des @…:

Mit der Studie ergibt vieles wieder Sinn, wenn davon gesprochen wird, dass »die Politik«™ Sorgen ernst nehmen müsse – die Sorgen sind nämlich rassistischer Natur und weniger Abstiegsängste. Passt auch zum Sachsen-Anhalt-Monitor 2025, demzufolge 90 Prozent mit ihrem Leben zufrieden sind. Nur die Ausländer, Schmarozer und Queers stört den Deutschen.

Wilson's 2027 NFL Draft big board: Dante Moore over Arch Manning as eight QBs crack preseason top 50

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/news/2027-nfl-draft-bi…

No idea if this looks reasonable, but it's a start. objdump from Synopsys' open source toolchains looks similar.
Ref:
https://foss-for-synopsys-dwc-arc-processors.github.io/documentation/2024.06/toolchain/
Addendum: also r…

"Some designs of emojis are very different for the same codepoint, especially the ones depicting emotions/reactions. Examples coming to mind are 😨, 🔫. What are your thoughts on this?" - The (water) pistol 🔫 was originally a hand gun which looked a lot more real. In response to its frequent use in criminal or other unsavory contexts (e.g., as a threat), most platforms replaced it with the colorful plastic toy gun design in 2018. (In 2024, Elon Musk had it turned back into a realistic hand gun for the Twemoji design 🙄)
I'm torn. On the one hand, I don't think we can stay on top of all potential uses of emojis (or should even try to limit them) and people who want to use emojis for threats probably can still do so. On the other hand, I do find it rather hard to imagine that the green plastic 🔫 could be used as a threat... so... I guess good job, designers/tech firms? #emojis #linguistics #WorldEmojiDay
https://emojipedia.org/pistol#designs

Finally caught up with this two-year-old archive (🫣).
It'sage isn't relevant, as it talks about things that are unlikely to change: Your data is only yours if you also have it on physical media in your possession. (And stored there in open formats.)
Because services will come and go, promises will be forgotten, data loss will not cause more than a shy "sorry". Especially for free online services, but it also happens for paid services.

Das heutige #Rausgeschafft ging dank heute auslaufendem und nur vor Ort einlösbarem 15% IKEA-Rabattgutschein zum IKEA, hin und zurück 23km.
Insgesamt bin ich diesen August 829km geradelt. Das ist neuer persönlicher Rekord und schlägt den bisherigen Rekordhalter August 2024 mit 695km um mehr als 100km,

Anzahl der Inbetriebnahmen von Balkonkraftwerken pro Jahr in #Deutschland mit Stand vom 31.08.2026.
Unplausible Inbetriebnahmedaten von 1900 bis 2017 wurden durch das Registrierungsdatum der #Steckersolaranlage ersetzt.
👉 Zusatzlesestoff:

Anzahl der registrierten #Balkonkraftwerke in #Deutschland mit Stand vom 31.08.2026.
Der aktuelle Höchststand liegt bei 1488280 registrierten Anlagen.
Unplausible Inbetriebnahmedaten von 1900 bis 2017 wurden durch das Registrierungsdatum der

#doctorsfordrabusafiya
Le Dr Hussam Abu Safiya est pédiatre. Il dirigeait l’hôpital Kamal Adwan, dans le nord de Gaza.
Arrêté par l’armée israélienne le 27 décembre 2024, il est depuis maintenu en détention sans inculpation ni procès.
Les Nations unies et Amnesty International ont dénoncé le caractère arbitraire de sa détention. Son avocat fait état d’une grave détériorat…

Elon Musk Threatens Legal Action Over Documentary’s 2024 Election Claims
https://people.com/elon-musk-threatens-legal-action-over-documentary-2024-election-claims-12113839

Präsident enthüllt: - Ex-ÖFB-Teamchef Franco Foda lehnte Millionen ab #News #Nachrichten

Washington’s battleground 3rd District is a high priority for both parties.
The district went for President Trump in 2024 while reelecting moderate Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.
Gluesenkamp Perez, a centrist who was first elected narrowly in 2022 and has made a name for herself by sometimes breaking with her party,
successfully fended off primary challengers on Tuesday to advance to the November ballot.
Republican Braun, a retired Navy captain, won the other sp…

Anzahl der registrierten #Balkonkraftwerke in #Deutschland mit Stand vom 31.08.2026.
Der aktuelle Höchststand liegt bei 1488280 registrierten Anlagen.
Unplausible Inbetriebnahmedaten von 1900 bis 2017 wurden durch das Registrierungsdatum der

Author of DNC's 2024 "autopsy" says he concluded Gaza war hurt Harris (Holly Otterbein/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/2026/08/06/dnc-2024-autopsy-author-gaza
http://www.memeorandum.com/260806/p129#a260806p129

Today I found a open source thing for doing _exactly what I needed_ but then it didn't work and I inspected the source code and found that it uses services that are no longer online.
Turns out it was all vibe-coded and the LLM referenced services that are long dead presumably because the training data ends with 2024 or so and it just assumed the services are still up.
The person doing the vibe coding didn't bother to check. Now the code is up on Github and you get recommend to use it by search engines. Great stuff.

Don’t look now, but suddenly the U.S. Senate is in play
At the start of this election cycle,
it looked like winning control of the Senate was all but out of Democratic reach.
There are 35 contests on the ballot in November.
Of those, nearly two dozen are effectively over before they’ve even started,
given the advantage one party holds over the other.
Of the remainder, most are being held in states Trump won in 2024,
which makes them, broadly speaki…

Democratic Senate control has moved from a reach to a toss-up
The four-seat gain Democrats need to win control once seemed all but out of reach. Odds are looking up, though the party still faces a tough path, with toss-up races in a half dozen (mostly red) states.

What should Vikings do with J.J. McCarthy? Divorce seems inevitable after losing starting job to Kyler Murray

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/what-should-vikings-do-with-j-j-mccarthy/

Anzahl der Inbetriebnahmen von Balkonkraftwerken pro Jahr in #Deutschland mit Stand vom 31.08.2026.
Unplausible Inbetriebnahmedaten von 1900 bis 2017 wurden durch das Registrierungsdatum der #Steckersolaranlage ersetzt.
👉 Zusatzlesestoff:

Angie Craig is a cryptocurrency shill:
#Minnesota #mnpol

Structure and Dynamics of the Inner #Corona Measured from the DEB Initiative 2024 #Eclipse Image Sequence: #CitizenScience and Solar Structure: https://aasnova.org/2026/08/03/featured-image-citizen-science-and-solar-structure/

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on #BBC6Music's #Afrodeutsche
MJ Lenderman:
🎵 Wristwatch (6 Music Session, 10 Dec 2024)
#MJLenderman
https://mjlenderman.bandcamp.com/track/wristwatch
https://open.spotify.com/track/4j2DQgFAyVuKOBFpq4vEPR

#Streudiagramm der #Bruttoleistung von #Balkonkraftwerk​en in #Deutschland mit …