@pre@boing.world
There's a woman I know who, when she was pregnant, was very keen to hear the opinions of crystal diviners and homeopath medics on what sex her new baby would be but wouldn't let the ultrasound-scan technician that actually knows tells her because Spoilers.
On that note, I'm happy to watch #doctorWho #badWolf #tv
@lapizistik@social.tchncs.deI learned¹ about the Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature² that has more than 10000 books scanned and available online. Just great.
It is hosted by the University of Florida. So let's hope that it stays available, i.e. that the Republicans don't find the old children's books from 1750 to woke.³
__
¹via
@chrisnelder@mastodon.energySo glad to see that Tony Seba has something new to yell "Disruption!" about - AI and robots and abundance. Yay. Hope I never have to hear another thing about his recycled views on energy.
@jrm4@mastodon.socialUgh. So twitter right now is WAY too effective at dividing the Dems. I hope we get this out of our system.
For the record, the big problem here is misplaced faith in the (white) left; e.g. Bernie's a good cheerleader but *wildly* ineffective on the ground because at the end of the day you have to work within the ugly system
a thing elder black folks in politics excel at, which the white left ALWAYS seems to forget
@trochee@dair-community.socialI'm not an atomic scientist but I thought I knew all the element names well enough to recognize them [0], so today's news about #Samarium (h/t/ @…) is extra weirdly ominous because I *don't* recognize the name
it's oddly made-up-soundin…
@luana@wetdry.worldThe iOS 26 Camera icon looks so much more skeumorphic than the rest of the icons and it looks so good I really hope they don’t change it. If anything, I hope they make the other icons more skeumorphic too
#wwdc
@pre@boing.worldSo farewell then Pinetime Watch 🪦.
It isn't showing any signs of charging. even after a completely-flat battery reset. Last hope gone.
Now nobody at all is running my custom software I think, and I have no way to fix the bugs.
Could replace it, but I'm not really paying any attention to the things it measures anyway. Heartrate is too unreliable to be useful and steps seems likely to be counting my leg-jiggles since I tend to hit 10,000 most days without trying or leaving the flat.
The software which tracks my time and mood is probably better running on the phone really. Easier to add notes and detail. Can't really input text from a watch. Location data can be added in ways the watch couldn't.
So back to not wearing a watch at all I think. Who needs it now we all carry pocket watches with internet and telephony.
#pineTime #smartWatch
@tiotasram@kolektiva.socialUS political contradictions; knowledge systems
As Trump at least partially succeeds in constructing an alternate reality for his most ardent followers, it's tempting to think of his dogma as false, in contrast to some imagined "truth" which his non-followers are smart enough to believe in. But a more nuanced view of knowledge would admit that different groups of people have different shared truths, constituting different knowledge systems which each deviate from what's objectively measurable in different ways, and in fact they each accept different standards of what is objective, so there's not really a single "ground truth" we can even compare to to determine which of these knowledge systems is "more correct" (similar problems arise even if we only care about "more useful").
To make this more concrete, we can see that e.g., competing quantum physics theories, or likewise competing religious beliefs, have no reasonable basis on which to judge between them, either in terms of "truth" or "utility." So the Trump-dogma knowledge system, although bad, morally repugnant, etc., can't so easily be dismissed as "false" in my view. "Distorted" or "malignant" or "evil" or "contradictory" are better monikers, in my opinion.
But what I'm even more interested in thinking about is: in what ways does the current American liberal "common sense" knowledge system already bear the scars of past fascist lies & contradictions? I can think of a few:
"Columbus was an explorer."
This is "factually accurate" in the same way some of Trump's propaganda is, but it's also a cruel distortion of "Columbus was a child murderer," and it's a misrepresentation that serves an evil purpose, yet which is widely taught in elementary schools today.
Another: "dropping atomic bombs on civilians in Japan was necessary to end WWII."
Perhaps in the future we'll have "family separation & the 2025 ICE crackdowns were necessary to end the immigration crisis," although I dearly hope not.
"Reparations for slavery aren't reasonable," is yet another...
I'll close this rambling with a question: what other fascist lies have you noticed that are normalized in America right now from past Trump-like leaders (or even from less overtly fascist institutions)?
@midtsveen@social.linux.pizzaOkay, so sorry, I had to make it a whole #Thread because, well, it just felt right.
Much nicer this way, don’t you think? Hope you have a super chill and lovely evening!
https://social.linux.pizza…
@tml@urbanists.socialWas going to one bar but it turned out to be karaoke night so hard pass.
Walked on, past a bar called “The Eccentric“, and obviously I had to check it out. I am after all something of an eccentric myself, I hope.
The name is not misleading. You enter down a few steps into what looks like their liquor storage. The bar has more bottles of booze than I have ever seen in any bar. Apparently in fairly random order, but I am sure they have a very sophisticated system. Only customer so …
@Xavier@infosec.exchangeI'm so encouraged with the spat between Musk and Trump. I hope that there is a agent of chaos whispering in Musks ear, "oh my god, Trump is such an idiot. You are so much smarter. If you yell loud enough, he'll listen. Wait, did he just roll his eyes again. That little fucker doesn't respect you. You need to teach him some respect."
@parltrack@eupolicy.socialso why don't we make @… vice-president of the european commission in charge of tech sovereignity, digital and internet things? https://berthub.eu/articles/po…
@ingo@social.stuetzle.ccDo you check the Trump and Musk screenshots for authenticity? I hope so ☝️
@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.socialHey. I don’t know how to share this here. I don't know how to "frame" it for Mastodon...
But I want to share it. Because I know other people out there hurt. I know how isolating it is.
So, this isn't snappy & well-packaged. But neither am I. And neither is pain.
I hope this somehow helps someone feel less alone in their pain:
@chris@mstdn.chrisalemany.caIs this enough to shake some American lawmakers out of their foolishness and dump Musk and all his businesses?
Probably not, honestly, but one can hope.
“Dmitry Novikov, first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs
"I think that Musk has a completely different game, [so] he will not need any political asylum, although if he did, Russia, of course, could provide it," Novikov said, in remarks translated from Russian.”
#russiaukrainewar #musk #starlink
https://dmv.community/@jcrabapple/114636458312326546
@hacksilon@infosec.exchangeMac OS Tahoe trying to catch up to @… with Spotlight, I see. Hope they expose the APIs so Raycast can do it better, as usual. #WWDC25
@rberger@hachyderm.io"The world is full of darkness. So much is going wrong. Experts agree that America has succumbed to right-wing authoritarianism; call it fascism or something else, these are extraordinarily difficult times.
This post is a break from all of that. At least kind of.
In this piece, I will try and convince you that Doctor Who is the best TV show ever made, explain to you why it matters, and why it’s particularly important in our current context. In a time when cruelty and fear dominate headlines, it’s worth celebrating a show that insists on the power of kindness, intellect, and hope."
#DoctorWho
https://werd.io/2025/doctor-who-is-the-best-show-ever-made-heres-why
@bobmueller@mastodon.worldThat a judge makes a comment like this so early in the process gives me hope that there will be a favorable outcome for writers whose work was pirated. Like me.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/05/jud…
@45names@mastodon.social
@rasterweb@mastodon.socialWhat we used to call “Bad News” can just be referred to as “News” now, and “Good News” no longer exists to confuse things so I hope that’s clear.
@shaun@mastodon.xyzWhoever greenlit this _focus-stealing_ nag on the #Google home page, where it routinely interrupts whatever I'm typing into the search box: know that you're helping to drive me _away_ from Google, and that I hope you develop some sort of horrific incurable body odor to which your own nose never becomes acclimated.
@pre@boing.worldA wish granting god baby, granting Conrad's wishes in service of the Rani, turns London into a misogynist utopia and The Doctor into a good husband and insurance worker.
Hard to say why misogynists are so keen on the American 50s. Perhaps because it was before blacks had the vote and women could do banking.
And if anyone doubts this ridiculous tale, their table stops working and their family might call the doubt police, so they soon learn not to. All very oppressive and subversive.
Ruby manages to doubt anyway. And all the disabled people who simply never enter into Conrad's mind. Nice touch that. Great scene in the tent city filled with the dispossessed. They don't seem to have actually done anything so far but maybe they'll get more useful in part two.
Conrad is on TV telling a story about a man named Doctor Who.
Giant dinosaur skeletons walk the city, stepping over sky scrapers, and a bone palace towers above the city. Because I guess Conrad wishes for it to be so in order to give the Rani somewhere to live.
The palace is beautiful and Gothic.
But doubt is seeping in. Rogue is back, on the TV in hell, telling the Doctor that tables don't work like that. So he investigates. Gets himself reported to the doubt police who take him and Belinda to the bone palace.
The Rani's split from Miss Flood gives the pair of them a good chemistry. Queen and her maid of honour. Seems like Mrs Flood is likely to be the Rani's downfall. She doesn't like being told to make a sandwich.
A lot of exposition going on, but they at least put a hat on it: "Isn't just exposition, I need you to doubt"
So that's the reason for the strange wishes: To make the doctor have doubts so severe that the reality collapses, and Rani can rescue Omega. Omega is the dude in a Mask from the first 3 doctors episode, who gave the timelords time travel and got trapped in the underworld in the process. Timelords forgot him and never mounted a rescue, but presumably Rani is now hoping he'll bring back Galifrey.
And with London collapsing into the underworld and the doctor falling from the sky, we get the episode break and have to wait until next week.
That's not a cliff hanger, that an already-falling-from-the-cliff hanger.
Poppy really is his daughter he's shouting as he falls. And you know what that means?
🤨🤔
Back in Space Babies, the worst episode of the Nchuti seasons, that space baby asked if he was her parents and he said he wished that he was their parents.
That wish has been granted somehow?
Is this space baby Susan's mother? They have very different skin tones, but that doesn't matter much in a regenerating species.
Never have found out much about The Doctor's child. When he traveled with his granddaughter everyone assumed he'd met his own kid, the grandchild's parent.
But that doesn't have to be true for a time traveler. Maybe he met the granddaughter before he met his own kid, and maybe his own kid was just wished into his family line 60 years later (or billions of years in his timeline I guess).
Pretty fun episode but not sure it makes much sense. Why doesn't the Rani just wish for Omega to be back instead of all this doubt and underworld bollocks?
Last one next week. Super long episode. Hope it's all cleared up. Good chance we'll meet Susan again I think. And maybe see Omega's mask once more.
@BugWarp@wikis.worldFinally finished #Andor and I say it without a doubt: it is the most important (perhaps the best) Star Wars content since the original trilogy. I'm so happy that I got to see it but at the same time it's a shame that (probably) nothing like this would be made ever again.
Some more deep thoughts here:
@lschiff@mastodon.sdf.orgTrump's budget eliminating funding for #IMLS --and so many other critical federal programs-- means we can't wait for court cases to proceed, but need to keep the pressure on our elected officials to stop this budgetary assault on our country. I just called my representative and senators and hope that you all will as well.
@mrysav@social.linux.pizzaI don't even remember the last time I played a game day 1, but wowzers am I getting the whole "games have so many bugs on day 1 these days" vibes from Oblivion Remastered. Hope patches can iron out the issues!
@lapizistik@social.tchncs.deA democracy is – how Pratchett puts it in Small Gods – a system where everyone distrusts the government, so everyone is somehow (un-)happy about it. And this is how it is meant to be and where checks and balances comes in.
And now there is a Trump administration where a alarming number of people just trust everything done by them regardless of what it is.¹ If we needed another sign² of Trumpism being far from being democratic: here it is.
I really hope people in Germany continue …
@smurthys@hachyderm.io
