Tootfinder

Rams' Puka Nacua feels like 'kid in the candy store' getting to learn from Davante Adams https://www.nfl.com/news/rams-puka-nacua-feels-like-kid-in-the-candy-store-getting-to-learn-from-davante-adams

I feel like computers are getting more like cars, or... how I view cars.
I do not need/want to spend a ton of money to get everything computerized car with ever sensor and camera and screen there is because I just don't think I need it or it's worth it for how much I drive.
I get that some people want that, and should probably have it, but I've got like 35 years of driving experience and I think I do okay.

Some baby squids can go from hatchling to near-adult in a few hours to a few days, and I'm like, the FUCK, humanity, we gotta raise these things for like, 18 YEARS? 😂 https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/some-baby-squids-ca…

Some Baby Squids Can Go From Hatchling to Adult in Mere Hours
Learn more about baby squids, what they look like, how fast they grow, and their favorite snacks.

Imagine if we had investments like this into clean energy, infrastructure like fast trains or into healthcare.
Instead it’s all set on fire for bullshit autocomplete.

Meta says it has taken down around 10M Facebook profiles so far this year that were impersonating or repeatedly reusing content from large content producers (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/14/following-youtu…

Following YouTube, Meta announces crackdown on 'unoriginal' Facebook content | TechCrunch
Like YouTube, Meta says it won't penalize users who are engaging with other people's content, doing things like making reaction videos, joining a trend, or adding their own takes.

Code is a confusing engineering object for our human brains. It is a bit like building a bridge or a kitchen utensil: it’s an object without a mind, it has a function, it can fail, people do unexpected things with it. But it can also feel a bit like a person given a task: it has behavior, it •decides•, it •acts•, it •causes•.
(All arguably true of a bridge too, but most of us don’t think of bridges that way!)
The lay understanding of code leans heavily on the idea that programs are anthropomorphic, little homunculi with agency.
2/

The Meta AI app is a privacy disaster
It sounds like the start of a 21st-century horror film: Your browser history has been public all along, and you had no idea. That’s basically what it feels like right now on the new stand-alone Meta AI app, where swathes of people are publishing their ostensibly private conversations with the chatbot. […]
😬

The Meta AI app is a privacy disaster | TechCrunch
Meta does not indicate to users what their privacy settings are as they post, or where they are even posting to. So, if you log into Meta AI with Instagram, and your Instagram account is public, then so too are your searches.

Question for y'all #SystemicGames¹ folks who like multiplayer/#coop games:
How do you logistically manage actually having a co-op, multiplayer playthrough of a complex video-game in your life?
I've always struggled, hard, with satisfying my needs here; not only is it so hard to find people who 1. like complex games, 2. like multiplayer/social gaming, and 3. have time/s…

LinkedIn tips:
1. You don't have to read the posts.
2. If you don't like a post from someone you follow, then stop following them. You can keep a connection without following them!
3. If you don't like a post from someone you don't follow, then mark it as not interested. Send the signal to inform both the recommendation algorithm, and the people who design the recommendation algorithm, what content you don't want to see.
Whatever other people are…

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #VarietyMix
Lance Ferguson:
🎵 Could Heaven Ever Be Like This
#LanceFerguson
https://lanceferguson.bandcamp.com/track/could-heaven-ever-be-like-this
https://open.spotify.com/track/0ZWA9Nij9LXHHQxBjTwEjj

There is little about Scott Jennings,
or the words that come out of his mouth,
that corresponds to reality.
A decade into Trump’s capture of the Republican Party, Jennings is the premier crossover enabler.
He is perhaps CNN’s most recognizable face alongside its primetime anchors,
and he is feted on jokey, tough-talk shows like Bill Maher. 
But Jennings is a representation of our own malady,
a projection of a country whose political culture is now…

Scott Jennings in the Hyperreal and the Myth of the Escape Hatch
Jennings is like a simulation of a Trump enabler.

"You talk as if a god had made the Machine," cried [Kuno]. "I believe that you pray to it when you are unhappy. Men made it, do not forget that. Great men, but men. The Machine is much, but it is not everything. I see something like you in this plate, but I do not see you. I hear something like you through this telephone, but I do not hear you. That is why I want you to come. Come and stop with me. Pay me a visit, so that we can meet face to face, and talk about the hopes that ar…

And that's how you do it 🎤🗑️ #AIChatBot

What do people want to smell like, besides themselves? Flowers, mostly. Some want to smell like grapefruit.

Meta says it has taken down around 10M Facebook profiles so far this year that were impersonating or repeatedly reusing content from large content producers (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/14/following-youtu…

Following YouTube, Meta announces crackdown on 'unoriginal' Facebook content | TechCrunch
Like YouTube, Meta says it won't penalize users who are engaging with other people's content, doing things like making reaction videos, joining a trend, or adding their own takes.

If you don't like Debian, maybe rocks just aren't your thing, I love rocks, they sit there, never move, never break, just stable, just like Debian. :debian:
#Linux #Debian #Rock

It seems like, again, just following the plain logic of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence (which, again, I do not subscribe to), that every law passed under Trump, every supreme court justice appointment by Trump, every supreme court ruling by Trump appointed justices, all the illegal firing, etc, must all, necessarily, be null and void.
And if not following from the insurrection act, or from the oath of office, then following from the Declaration of Independence itself. The logic here being that a constitution is a contract between the people and their government, which the later upholds in order to maintain its legal status. The violation of said laws by the government violates "consent of the governed" (which, again, I have issues with the concept entirely but we're just going to ignore that) and therefore nullifies the authority of that government, granting " the right of the people to alter or to abolish it."
That seems a lot like the hard reset some folks have been looking for. Given that existing flaws allowed this state to be reached, it would also be necessary for the true authority to correct those mistakes before assuming authority that derives from these principles.
Now, personally, I don't subscribe to any of this logic but it's interesting to explore, as an outsider, where the logic goes.

@… Look less like a bot and more like a human before following me. KTHXBYE

Huh, so the American "No Kings Day" is happening on the same day as the Commonwealth's "Kings Official Summer Birthday".
Strange coincidence.
I think there should be no kings and no king's birthday celebrations FWIW. Power passed down the genetic line like a mutation is ridiculous, and anyway no power should be concentrated in one person like that in the first place.
Have a happy holiday, whichever you are celebrating/protesting.
#kingsBirthday #noKingsDay

Hrmm, it seems like there aren't many sources on how to put a PiKVM onto a proper VLAN. It seems like it's using `systemd-network` for networking, might have to put together an article on how to do it properly assuming I can remember correctly.
#pikvm #homelab

ESCoT: An Enhanced Step-based Coordinate Trajectory Planning Method for Multiple Car-like Robots
Junkai Jiang, Yihe Chen, Yibin Yang, Ruochen Li, Shaobing Xu, Jianqiang Wang
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.09581

ESCoT: An Enhanced Step-based Coordinate Trajectory Planning Method for Multiple Car-like Robots
Multi-vehicle trajectory planning (MVTP) is one of the key challenges in multi-robot systems (MRSs) and has broad applications across various fields. This paper presents ESCoT, an enhanced step-based coordinate trajectory planning method for multiple car-like robots. ESCoT incorporates two key strategies: collaborative planning for local robot groups and replanning for duplicate configurations. These strategies effectively enhance the performance of step-based MVTP methods. Through extensive ex…

@… Feels like it's been like that all of July. Most humid stretch I can remember

Mike Evans on Emeka Egbuka: Looks like a running back but catches like Chris Godwin https://www.nfl.com/news/mike-evans-on-emeka-egbuka-looks-like-a-running-back-but-catches-like-chris-godwin

Good idea, perhaps the Commission could put this vision into practice for #EV roaming, so that the #AFIR provisions do not remain a dead letter?
From: @…

European Commission (@EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu)
Attached: 1 image 🛬 Plane lands. Flight mode off. 💬 “Welcome to Italy! Use your mobile plan just like at home.” 8 years of free EU roaming – we've come a long way: → 2000s: €0.50–€1/min calls → 2007: roaming caps → 2017: the end of roaming charges → 2022: the improved “Roam like at home” pack extended to 2032, bringing: 🌐 Fast 5G access across the EU 💰 Protection from unexpected charges 🆘 Better access to emergency services Fair for opera…

Introducing CQ: A C-like API for Quantum Accelerated HPC
Oliver Thomson Brown, Mateusz Meller, James Richings
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.10854 https://arxi…

Introducing CQ: A C-like API for Quantum Accelerated HPC
In this paper we present CQ, a specification for a C-like API for quantum accelerated HPC, as well as CQ-SimBE, a reference implementation of CQ written in C99, and built on top of the statevector simulator QuEST. CQ focuses on enabling the incremental integration of quantum computing into classical HPC codes by supporting runtime offloading from languages such as C and Fortran. It provides a way of describing and offloading quantum computations which is compatible with strictly and strongly ty…

:nixos: #NixOS has made me like :bash: #bash. I use it so frequently with pkgs.writeShellApplication and have accepted to use its non-POSIX "advanced" features like (associative) arrays, the [[ ]] conditional syntax, the variable string mangling magic, etc. I absolutely love how writeShellApplicati…

Strong lensing and Hawking spectra of charged black hole under Lorentz violation theory
Yenshembam Priyobarta Singh, Ningthoujam Media, Telem Ibungochouba Singh
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.09864

Strong lensing and Hawking spectra of charged black hole under Lorentz violation theory
In this paper, we investigate the strong gravitational lensing effects around the Reissner-Nordstr{ö}m-like black hole (RN-like BH) in bumblebee gravity. We calculate the lensing quantities such as deflection angle, radius of the photon sphere, angular separation, relativistic image characteristics, Einstein ring and time delay. By taking the supermassive black holes (SMBHs) like Sgr A*, M87*, NGC 1332, NGC 4649 etc. as RN-like BH, we compute the lensing observables and compare with the observ…

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
Mating by copepods is a complicated process since they are always at risk of predation by other plankton or fishes. Male #copepods carefully mechanically and chemically track a receptive female, capture them, and deposit an adhesive spermatophore near the genital open…

We drove to Goulburn yesterday. We left Canberra just before 10am. Approached Lake George at exactly the right time. I've never seen it look so beautiful. The water glittered in the sunlight. It was absolutely stunning. We were both struck by how we had never seen it look so jewel-like, not once in all the years we had travelled this road. Of course, on the trip home, it was just Lake George again. Always appreciated but nothing like the gorgeousness that we had encountered on the way th…

AI is just a tool, like a pencil. A pencil that can only write and draw what some faceless corporation somewhere allows you to write and draw.
#AI #theMastersTools

Series D, Episode 06 - Headhunter
SOOLIN: Not very, by the look of it.
DAYNA: It was like a tomb up there.
AVON: Orac is wired up and ready in the resuscitation room. Hurry it up.
[Vena and Avon in the mess room.]
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/406/326 B7B2

Blakes7Bot | Search
Companion site to the Blakes7Bot Twitter, Mastodon, and Bluesky accounts. Automated lines of Blakes 7 dialog. Includes a script search facility.

How are you doing these days? If you’re looking at the news or opening social media feeds, it’s a lot, I know.
I continue my practice of writing back to posts on social media. Also its antidote: writing back to works of art served up at random. It’s a little like surfing, taking the waves as they come. It’s a little like dancing. It’s one way to reclaim my attention, one way to stay alive to the present.
#Art

Ever-refreshing Hells and a few Heavens
Writings in response to social media posts and works of art.

Dak Prescott’s latest quote shows he’s just like us https://insidethestar.com/dak-prescotts-latest-quote-shows-hes-just-like-us

What Russian bombardment feels like in Kyiv: https://benborges.xyz/2025/07/10/what-russian-bombardment-feels-like.html

Is anybody else very sensitive to acidic flavors?
Like, most hot sauces just taste like slightly vinegar with a side of burn to me (and thus aren't particularly pleasant to eat), i can't taste the pepper at all.
Every store bought Asian sauce in a jar (and some frozen ones) tastes predominantly of vinegar to me. I've found exactly one frozen orange shrimp sauce that actually tastes sweet and orangey like restaurant sauce does, rather than just like acid. I assume this…

"My mother didn't particularly like the look of me and my dad didn't like the sound of me": Pete Townshend and the lifelong search for answers
https://www.loudersound.com/bands-artists/interviews/pete-townshend-interview-2025

Lifshitz-like Metastability and Optimal Dephasing in Dissipative Bosonic Lattices
Stefano Longhi
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.09485 https://arxiv.org/pdf/250…

Lifshitz-like Metastability and Optimal Dephasing in Dissipative Bosonic Lattices
In dissipative bosonic systems, dephasing is typically expected to accelerate relaxation and suppress coherent dynamics. However, we show that in networks of coherently coupled bosonic modes with non-uniform local dissipation, the presence of quasi-dark states leads to a nontrivial response to dephasing: while weak dephasing facilitates equilibration, moderate to strong dephasing induces a pronounced slowdown of relaxation, revealing the existence of an optimal dephasing rate that enhances equi…

You've got mail!

britain nationalizing and privatizing steel production like a cat that's not sure if it wants to be in or not

In late 2023, the US Army Drill Team did things like this, yet yesterday, under the command of potus and kegseth, the Army had difficulty walking in step with one another.
Unless there's another reason the soldiers would break step...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UbR96SWcP

I don't know if I have lost my voice or if it changed and I don't like that.
Do I need to be vulnerable in public or is it enough (for me) to be in conversations with friends.

Symmetric quasisymmetric Schur-like functions
Maria Esipova, Jinting Liang, Stephanie van Willigenburg
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.08083 https://

Symmetric quasisymmetric Schur-like functions
In this paper we classify when (row-strict) dual immaculate functions and (row-strict) extended Schur functions, as well as their skew generalizations, are symmetric. We also classify when their natural variants, termed advanced functions, are symmetric. In every case our classification recovers classical skew Schur functions.

I’d like to go back to being angry about just small time shit again

Cardinals' Trey Benson aims to step up alongside James Conner: 'I feel like we can have two RB1s' https://www.nfl.com/news/cardinals-trey-benson-aims-to-step-up-alongside-james-conner-i-feel-like-we-can-h…

dbpedia_country: Person-Country Affiliations (DBpedia, 2016)
A bipartite network of the affiliations between notable people and countries of the world, as extracted from Wikipedia via the DBpedia project. Countries include former countries, empires, kingdoms, and some country-like entities.
This network has 592414 nodes and 637134 edges.
Tags: Social, Affiliation, Unweighted

I feel like that video of the squeaky tank is a riff on a Tex Avery cartoon or a Mr Bean or Mel Brooks or Monty Python chase scene
Waiting patiently at the crossing for all the piddling vehicles to go by before resuming the chase... And the last one is a little old person on a bike
But Google is crap now so I can't remember which one it was.
#LazyFedi help me out h…

How would you like Google Gemini reading all of your texts and other messages even if you never asked it to?
Yeah, me either. Here's instructions on how to tell Google to go fuck itself. I give it 50/50 odds they bother to honor the setting.
https://youtu.be/Ee3UIVDkWNM

Something like one in ten documents in this archival fonds (generated by the 19th-century state) are requisitions, receipts, or correspondence regarding stationary or postage.
This has me wondering: what percentage of communications in today's bureaucracies deal with IT?

If like me you use Arch Actually, note that there seems to be significant unavailability of much of the website right now, including the AUR contributed package resource.
#ArchLinux #Arch #Linux

I feel like some people lost the thread on this one. everyone needs to chill.
#videogames

Discovery and dynamics of a Sedna-like object with a perihelion of 66 au: #TNO

I have so many drafts on my blog (https://blogs.linux.pizza/), that I dont know what to do with anymore.
It felt like a good think to do when I started writing the posts, but then I always gets stuck in some details and start taking breaks lol

Very large rock formation near Wick that looks like a bear!
https://maps.app.goo.gl/xcbyx52hj6PHvaMn7

Having a union is like being on a version of Blind or Glassdoor where you can spill the tea *and* actually take collective action together with your coworkers. Recommended to say the very least!

I do not like how Haskell’s antagonism towards cyclic imports leads me to put all my `data` declarations in one file, and then distribute the functionality everywhere.
You don’t have to have classes to benefit from information hiding a la object-oriented programming.

Kürzlich las ich in einem Internetartikel in Leserkommentaren die geringschätzige Bemerkung, dass ein Großteil der Menschen ohne inneren Monolog seien. Es wurde impliziert, diese seien dumm, unfähig nachzudenken.
Mir war das nicht bekannt und ich habe geforscht und festgestellt, das ist ein Vorurteil. Wie sich nachdenken ausdrückt, ist, ja, #Neurodivers und unterscheidet sich zwischen den…

What It’s Like to Be ‘Mind Blind’
Aphantasia, or mind blindness, refers to an inability to visualize imagery. One person living with the condition describes what it's like.

So grateful for the clear, unequivocal witness and voice of Rep. @maxwellfrost.bsky.social
who visited the horrifying detention camp in Florida.
As he said, “I didn’t see any Russians who’ve overstayed their visas.
Only Black & Latino men who look like me.”
@maddow.msnbc.com
https://

Sherrilyn Ifill (@sifill.bsky.social)
So grateful for the clear, unequivocal witness and voice of Rep. @maxwellfrost.bsky.social who visited the horrifying detention camp in Florida. As he said, “I didn’t see any Russians who’ve overstayed their visas. Only Black & Latino men who look like me.” @maddow.msnbc.com

The military is a lot more complex than most folks know. Keep that in mind. Don't give up and assume they're all just born to kill, or that if they are deployed against Americans they'll shoot. Some may, some may not, treat them like people and some of them might act like people. That's the take away here.
Since this toot is more popular than the parade itself, I'm gonna mute to save my inbox.
I also want to apologize to the admins here for the extra traffic. :P

❝I have noticed that we people privileged by supremacy have a tendency to take this same stance toward newly aware people, a stance which is not ours to assume. We seem to feel that it is our business to meet people who are in the same place that we were just a few short years or decades ago, and meet their shock and surprise and anger and dismay with a skepticism and an impatience we haven't earned.
We say things like "are you surprised?"
We say things like "why does this shock you?"
We say "oh so you're only angry now?"
We say things like "where have you been?"
…
Instead of asking “are you surprised?” say “I was surprised once, too; here's what I know.” Instead of “what took you so long?” say “I just got here recently; here's what I've learned.”❞ https://mastodon.social/@JuliusGoat/114847074342312772

Series B, Episode 05 - Pressure Point
VILA: [Grabbing Blake's arm] You'll hit him!
BLAKE: Let go! [Shakes free, takes aim, and fires] Avon, run for your life! [Muttering] Come on, come on.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/205/447 B7B5

Blakes7Bot | Search
Companion site to the Blakes7Bot Twitter, Mastodon, and Bluesky accounts. Automated lines of Blakes 7 dialog. Includes a script search facility.

Man, I had a shit week.
Tried to stretch outside my comfort zone in a big way; but failed myself really badly.
Old trauma woke up at a crucial moment, and bit me really hard; and I think the whole thing, instead of being healing, just … doubled everything down.
I’m feeling worthless in a whole new way.
Feeling like I undid, in like one hour, years and years of self-confidence building.

Lions' Jahmyr Gibbs praised by RB coach who vows to 'push him like no other' in 2025: 'The sky is the limit'

https://www.cbsspo…

Nextdoor unveils new features like an interactive neighborhood map called Alerts, partners with 3,500 local news outlets, and more, to revitalize its app (Mia Sato/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/news/706618/nextdoor-redesign-ai-reco…

Can Nextdoor overhaul itself to be useful?
Neighborhood app Nextdoor is adding local news content, an AI-powered recommendations chatbot, and a map of emergency events.

"But billionaires would never invest in anything that wasn't a solid business!"
I can't even reply to inane statements like that, I'd probably die from laughter.

Quantum-Corrected Deformation of RN-AdS Black Holes with a Cloud of Strings Immersed in Quintessential-like Fluid
Faizuddin Ahmed, Abdelmalek Bouzenada
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.10069

Quantum-Corrected Deformation of RN-AdS Black Holes with a Cloud of Strings Immersed in Quintessential-like Fluid
Inspired by Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG), we investigate the Reissner-Nordström (RN) black hole (BH) solution coupled with a cloud of strings in an anti-de Sitter (AdS) background, surrounded by a quintessence-like fluid. We begin by analyzing the optical properties of the BH through null geodesic motion, deriving an effective potential that governs photon dynamics. This effective potential is central to understanding key phenomena such as photon trajectories, circular null orbits, photon sphere…

Here’s your definition, asshole:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zionism
Now fuck off.
https://indieweb.social/@loui…

ªªªªª^{ªªªªªªªªªª}

'If someone doesn't like it, we'll close it' — Poland's Duda calls out Ukraine, allies over attitudes toward key military aid hub: https://benborges.xyz/2025/07/10/if-someone-doesnt-like-it.html

I feel like there's a rule: the more expensive a piece of software is per seat, the worse the UI/UX/artwork is.
Random free mobile game? Probably looks really good (it has to, the art is what sells it so you watch the ads/buy powerups/whatever).
$100K /seat EDA tools? Parts of it are probably still using Motif.

Rode the bike down the street at work to see the hole. I really like the street sign lying on its side in the ditch...
#road #menomoneeFalls

Predicting NFL All-Pros at every offensive position: What they look like, where they're picked and who's next

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/pr…

JWTs Are Not Session Tokens , Stop Using Them Like One
When JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) hit the mainstream, they were hailed as the solution to everything wrong with session management. Stateless! Compact! Tamper-proof! Suddenly, everyone started stuffing them into every web app like ketchup on bad code.
🧑‍💻 https://archive.fo/01UkP

I'm migrating my articles and blogging, and you can kind of follow my process.
I just posted this, which includes this line: "Building your goals in someone else’s sandbox alone is not ideal, a little like building a castle on sand."
https://davaug.medium.com/online-longe

Online Longevity - David August - Medium
I am shifting my article posting and blogging to a new place: https://davidaugust.ghost.io (I signed up for the 14 day trial… not sure yet if investing in paying monthly or annually is a good idea)…

fake moderates are like "no kings? lets compromise and just have 1"

I have my share of issues with Parkrose Permaculture, but she has a lot of things I do strongly agree with. I can't stress enough that you never dehumanize your enemies. You can respond appropriately to violence. You can defend yourself from them by any means necessary. But you do not dehumanize them. You always limit your response to the minimum necessary to defend yourself.
There are a number of former Nazi skins who became antifascists after realizing they were wrong. Those folks tend to be some of the most dedicated because they feel a debt, and some of the most knowledgeable because they were there. Coming out of these types of cults, police included, is hard and takes time. A lot of us don't have the ability to work with them. But some do.
By repeatedly humanizing your opponent, you can break some of them. The #Seattle Police Department was not defunded but saw a massive reduction in numbers because their morale was destroyed. Some people will never change. Some people are broken and feel like they need the power. But if you change one person's mind, even give them something to think about, it's a crack. If even one cop quits, that's one less trained gun pointed at you in the future.
The 18 year old marines and federalized national guard troops out there are literally kids. A lot of them came from poor communities. They are being used in a way they haven't been trained to do, doing things they (should) have been told are not legal. They joined to get out of poverty, to go to college, or to "defend the American people" (regardless of how misguided that is). Few, if any, of them joined to abuse people. They will be especially open to persuasion.
Remind those troops that they are carrying out illegal orders, that they are being called on to violate their oath to protect the constitution, that they are suppressing the free speech of the fellow Americans they swore to defend. Remind them that the people they could be illegally arresting now are just like their parents, their neighbors, their families, the friends who didn't join. Remind them that this is the first step. They will be called on to kill Americans if they let this keep going.
Remind them ICE sleeps in hotels while they sleep on the ground. Remind them that their drunk and incompetent leadership thinks of them as disposable tools. Remind them that some of these people are out protesting *for them* against cuts to the VA and other services. Remind them that the people they're defending refuse to make college free so they can recruit from poor schools. Remind them that they will always be welcome when they're ready to join the side of freedom and justice.
When you dehumanize your enemies, you unify them. When you humanize your enemies, you can divide them. There is no weapon available to us right now so powerful as compassion.
https://youtu.be/YtWOYUDMsBw

#Blakes7 Series C, Episode 12 - Death-Watch
DEETA: So, you have an answer for the Summons to Justification. Like what? Surely not a Blood Feud? [rises to face her] I can't have killed someone who's close kin to both of you. Particularly not as your friend here is a citizen of the Vandor Confederacy. As I assume you are. [drops a metal ID card at her feet]
KARLA: [Picks it …

New Lions RBs coach Tashard Choice thrilled to coach Jahmyr Gibbs: 'I'm going to push him like no other' https://www.nfl.com/news/new-lions-rbs-coach-tashard-choice-thrilled-to-coach-jahmyr-gibbs-…

Aspora, which makes financial tools like remittance services for the Indian diaspora, raised a $50M Series B co-led by Sequoia and Greylock at a $500M valuation (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/15/aspora-ge…

Aspora gets $50M from Sequoia to build remittance and banking solutions for Indian diaspora | TechCrunch
Aspora (formerly Vance) is trying to build a verticalized financial experience for the Indian diaspora by keeping convenience at the center.

Yup, looks like it’s real:
https://mastodon.online/@michael_w_busch/114690725887737610
And too be clear, for the locals, this is in Sibley county somewhere — so not “southwest of Minneapolis” as in Eden Prairie.

How many fingers am I holding up?

Cowboys first-year HC Brian Schottenheimer on his late father, Marty: 'I know he's proud; I miss him like crazy' https://www.nfl.com/news/cowboys-first-year-hc-brian-schottenheimer-on-his-la…

Dust rabbit (n): like a dust bunny, but it's a full grown adult not a baby

Today's ride to work on the borrowed ebike. Took a route I really don't like due to flooding of the Menomonee River, but it was okay. Made it under 24 minutes. (My car commute is typically 15 minutes, so that's pretty good!)
Brought a spare shirt to work since I have to wear a backpack to carry things. Also, 6.66 miles? Epic.
#biking

The Pentagon's Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO)
today announced contracts with
Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and xAI
to help it use artificial intelligence for a multitude of military purposes
- each with a $200 million ceiling. 
https://www.

Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and xAI get $800M to hop in bed with Pentagon
: Looks like DoD FOMO struck Silicon Valley

I've noticed more Russian propaganda bots that just appear and get reported and banned within a few hours. The accounts tend to be around for a few days. They often have super obvious AI generated avatars, no posts of their own, and copy and paste replies with little to no actual content. The propaganda doesn't even seem like it's trying. Just the same painfully obviously false stuff about #Ukraine.
Meanwhile, LLMs exist that can make those types of attacks far more subtle. Has anyone seen an analysis of Russian bot behavior over time? It seems like they're getting worse, but it's hard to know if there isn't something else going on.
From my perspective, it just kind of looks like the whole machine is falling apart. It's really pathetic to see how even Russian propaganda, which is like... their main thing, seems to have collapsed. They used to try, now it seems like even the troll farms are phoning it in. At some point you gotta wonder how long Putin has left before he gets the Gaddafi treatment.

Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers doesn't like new helmet, says 'it looks like a darn spaceship out there' https://www.nfl.com/news/steelers-qb-aaron-rodgers-doesn-t-like-new-helmet-says-it-looks-like-a-darn-spaceship-out…

Internet Matters survey of 1,000 UK kids aged 9 to 17: 67% say they use AI chatbots regularly; of that group, 35% say it feels like talking to a friend (Noor Al-Sibai/Futurism)
https://futurism.com/lonely-children-ai-chatbots

Vast Numbers of Lonely Kids Are Using AI as Substitute Friends
Children are replacing real friendship with AI, and experts are worried about how easily chatbots integrate themselves into their lives.

This dungeon cube is kind of cute! :beholderpeek:

I'd venture this backlash isn’t just because of one Epstein PR mistake. It’s because Trump smells weak and vulnerable, and his supporters are looking for an exit. The MAGA types loved Trump because he made them feel like winners. And right now he doesn’t.
That doesn't mean we win, yay, time to kick back. His supporters are in an abusive relationship, and they will find it hard to leave.
What this means is − keep the pressure up. ←
Worth skimming this whole roundup from @…. I just don't think the backlash happens without larger underlying weakness.
#uspol https://toad.social/@wdlindsy/114851991461182777

Trash panda update: they're not gone but seem to be starting to learn we don't like them. The super soaker is the weapon of choice - they hate it but it doesn't do any permanent damage.
I had one pop out in broad daylight earlier and pummeled it with the super soaker until it climbed up a tree out of range.
Another one showed up after dark and froze when I walked out the back door, maybe it thought I couldn't see it?
It thought wrong.
EDIT: The one in…

Series C, Episode 05 - The Harvest of Kairos
SERVALAN: What?
JARVIK: I made it look convincing.
SERVALAN: Oh, it was convincing all right. It convinced me. Three Mark Tens and fifteen years' supply of Kairopan.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/305/331 B7B6

Blakes7Bot | Search
Companion site to the Blakes7Bot Twitter, Mastodon, and Bluesky accounts. Automated lines of Blakes 7 dialog. Includes a script search facility.

Q&A with researcher Petter Törnberg on his pre-print study showing how social media's structural architecture creates problematic outcomes like echo chambers (Jennifer Ouellette/Ars Technica)
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/08/study-social-medi…

Study: Social media probably can’t be fixed
“The [structural] mechanism producing these problematic outcomes is really robust and hard to resolve.”…

Okay chat, this video has baffled me for far too long. What in deconstructed cottage pie heck is going on here? :neocat_confused:
#AskFedi

That’s not necessarily the only way to use machine learning to assist coding. It is, however, one of the “magic diet pills” promises at the heart of the current hype bubble.
Whatever the dev tools of the future look like, until we have Lieutenant-Commander Data, difficult human thought will be at the heart of writing code.
6/

London-based Noah, which is developing API-focused stablecoin infrastructure to enable real-time cross-border payments, raised a $22M seed led by LocalGlobe (Ben Weiss/Fortune)
https://fortune.com/crypto/2025/06/10/noah-thijn-lamers-stable…

Exclusive: Stablecoin startup Noah raises $22 million, adds Adyen vet as cofounder
“I feel like I have the energy of [when I was] 25,” said Thijn Lamers, who is 66 years old.

Claude Code, Gemini CLI, and CLI Codex, terminal-based AI tools launched since February, have surprisingly gained ground on AI code editors with traditional UIs (Russell Brandom/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/15/ai-coding-tools-a…

AI coding tools are shifting to a surprising place: the terminal | TechCrunch
For years, code-editing tools like Cursor, Windsurf, and GitHub’s Copilot have been the standard for AI-powered software development. But as agentic AI grows more powerful and vibe-coding takes off, a subtle shift has changed how AI systems are interacting with software. Instead of working on code, they’re increasingly interacting directly with the shell of whatever system they’re installed in. It’s a significant change in how AI-powered software development happens – and despite the …

Squint, which uses AI and AR to modernize manufacturing processes, raised a $40M Series B led by The Westly Group and TCV at a $265M valuation (Allie Garfinkle/Fortune)
https://fortune.com/2025/08/12/exclusi…

Exclusive: Squint raises $40 million at $265 million valuation to modernize manufacturing for companies like Pepsi and Michelin
Squint has raised a $40 million Series B at a valuation of $265 million, Fortune has exclusively learned.

SCOTUS rejects NetChoice's emergency appeal to block a Mississippi law that requires age verification and parental consent for teens to join social networks (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/us…

Supreme Court Allows Mississippi Law on Children’s Use of Social Media, for Now
A trade group representing sites like Facebook and X said the law ran afoul of the First Amendment.