Tootfinder

Ukraine war latest: 'We'll give them very good protection, very good security' — Trump says in White House meeting with Zelensky: https://benborges.xyz/2025/08/18/ukraine-war-latest-well-give.html

Really good piece from @derekbjohnson.bsky.social
Is XBOW’s success the beginning of the end of human-led bug hunting? Not yet.
https://cyberscoop.com/is-xbows-success-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-human-led-bug-hunting-not-yet/

@… yeah, that’s a good take. it also has me wondering if the project has sufficient staffing. sometimes those post-acquisition things can get kinda lean due to leadership problems

2/2 I continued blogging Alberniweather and on FB and Twitter but I gradually removed my personal self from Facebook and eventually during the Pandemic, I decided the Facebook environment was just too toxic even for weather stuff and I shut down my page and left Facebook completely.
The impact on traffic to Alberniweather.ca and its prominence in the community was, and still is, significant.
I have diehard followers, many who have become friends over the years, I still get the odd call from media, or even the public about random weather things.
I have good connections with a few folks at Environment Canada (though their staff have become thinner and more transient :(
and major events still get spikes of local traffic but I since about 2022, and after I removed myself from Twitter that year, I don’t blog nearly as much. I would do a few posts in a week, and then go months without posting. I just got out of the habit I guess.
But I am still interested in the weather. I still feel like Alberniweather is a useful service for people in my community. I still feel a willing obligation to inform people about the weather and I believe I am trusted to do so by the public and local leaders. I’ve never made any money at it, I sold ad space on the website for a few years but it wasn’t worth the hassle and I didn’t feel comfortable taking the money when I was councillor. I have had some generous spontaneous donations at times.
But mainly I do it because it’s interesting, and I hope it is useful for people especially when people are looking for information during a major event.
The highest traffic I have ever had on Alberniweather pre-FB exit was the local Dog Mountain forest fire in 2015.
post-FB exit: the #underwoodfire
People want easy access to reliable local, trusted, information.
Large media orgs have mostly given up on this.
I am grateful we still have an active local newspaper and radio and that both trust me and I trust them.
@… @…

Interesting that some who replied to my post on tax and GDP growth yesterday missed the point.
The point isn't to debate whether tax -> growth (it might, with a tail wind).
The point is that
1) Growth won't happen like it used to.
2) That is good because GDP growth is ecologically and socially lethal.
3) So our leaders (sic) had better adapt to the new reality and use taxation and other measures to build a better, fairer future.
More here:

Getting Real about the Crises Facing the UK | Stop the Damage! Build a Better Future!
Britain and the rest of the world face a set of almost intractable challenges, ecological (including climate), economic and social. Yet political leaders with few exceptions are failing to propose the actions and policies that could address the scale of this pancrisis. Here though is an alternative initiative, a kind of alternative manifesto with a portfolio of illustrative policies...

Best way to destroy US tech leadership is to put import taxes (tariffs) on everything they sell overnight.
https://apnews.com/article/apple-trump-computer-tariff-c01b5ce0265b0d294dd10b8966be4436#

Trump plans 100% tariff on computer chips, unless companies build in US
President Donald Trump says he's imposing a 100% tariff on computer chips— a move that raises the specter of higher prices for electronics, autos, household appliances and other essential goods that depend on the processors. Companies making computer chips in the U.S. or planning to do so will be spared the import taxes. During the pandemic, a shortage of computer chips increased the price of autos and contributed to higher inflation. Investors continued to bet that Big Tech companies such as…

Good night, sleep well!
"Today’s global civilisation, however, is deeply interconnected and unequal and could lead to the worst societal collapse yet. The threat is from leaders who are “walking versions of the dark triad” – narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism – in a world menaced by the climate crisis, nuclear weapons, artificial intelligence and killer robots."

When Donald Trump didn’t like the weak jobs numbers that were released on Friday, he fired the person responsible for producing them.
It was a move with few precedents in the century-long history of economic statistics in the United States.
And for good reason: When political leaders meddle in government data, it rarely ends well.
Perhaps most famously, there is the case of Argentina, which in the 2000s and 2010s systematically understated inflation figures to such a degre…

Trump Fired America’s Economic Data Collector. History Shows the Perils.
Economists say unbiased data is essential for policymaking, and for democracy.

The BBC's "Verify" team has done a good job in explaining that this viral image of European leaders waiting for Trump has been generated by AI.
But quite why they've slapped an "AI GENERATED" warning over the image, rather than just simply "FAKE" is puzzling.

Would it not be a good idea if ALL media, newspapers, radio, tv, magazines, podcasts,,etc. were to ignore Trump and his regime for a while? Just don't show up at press conferences at all. Isolate his fragile attention seeking ego.
https://www.t…