@sean@scoat.esA beautiful set of events:
- @… hosts a podcast on the CBC about big tech and #enshittification (it's called Understood; very good)
- the most recent episode is on antitrust and is mostly a takedown of Amazon's bad behaviour (with Lina Khan)
@hikingdude@mastodon.socialThis was a very nice loop between #ohlstadt and #garmischpartenkirchen!
Beautiful views to the #mountains, an excellent way, almost no major roads and we also escaped a little rain…
@YaleDivinitySchool@mstdn.social
@mlawton@mstdn.socialThis grassy field has always been a beautiful buffer between the river and the train tracks that service the local waste management company that owns it. This time of year, wildflowers and butterflies are everywhere and it’s one of the highlights on this part of the greenway.
This week, I’ve noticed it’s suddenly begun to accumulate vintage fire and rescue vehicles. I don’t know what to make of it, but I hope it’s temporary.
@nelson@tech.lgbtCalamus 23 This moment as I sit alone
A promise of global unity, Whitman sharing his adulation for men in other countries.
I guess this is an antidote to Whitman's nationalism? His celebrations of America seem sweet and sincere but they are very American-centric. Here he's explicitly saying men of other lands can be just as wise, beautiful, or benevolent as American men. It seems unusual that he feels he has to say it explicitly.
As for the queer reading, his conclusion is
I know we should be brethren and lovers
There's that word, "lovers". It's so brash it's hard to understand. It seems uncharacteristically direct even understanding Whitman as a gay poet. Maybe this is some 19th century romantic language, mixing what feels very gay in with a more general celebration of brotherhood? Or maybe it is literally what it says, Whitman eroticizing international men.
@memeorandum@universeodon.com'Very disappointed in Elon': Trump, Musk spar amid continued criticism of 'big beautiful' megabill (Aaron Pellish/Politico)
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/05/elon-musk-donald-trump-fight-00389480
http://www.memeorandum.com/250605/p74#a250605p74
@hikingdude@mastodon.socialHey friends! We just returned from a longer walk along the #Osterseen near #Iffeldorf.
We try to avoid any elevation to support my wife's recovery from her knee surgery.
The walk was nice, but the weather was awful for photos. Very bright, very hazy. As much as I enjoyed the walk…
@midtsveen@social.linux.pizzaIt’s truly remarkable that we exist at all. Each of us breaks free from the chains of history and authority to experience life anew. Today, countless souls will awaken to their first love, their first union, or the birth of new life. Others will face heartbreak or part ways.
This moment, this very act of being alive and conscious, is a quiet act of rebellion against the forces that seek to suppress our humanity. To exist freely for the first time is the most radical and beautiful thing…
@pre@boing.world
A 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.
@hikingdude@mastodon.socialOkay, I tried not to make it overly complex. Just a very brief cut and some music.
Here's the clip of today's walk 🙂
https://video.franzgraf.de/w/vaEHJN15GYZ7BUtgVaT81m
(powered by my own Peertube instance :))
@soundclamp@mastodon.xyz#ListeningClub That was “The Sea” by Brother Ah, spiritual jazz from 1978. Very literal and beautiful.
@randombaywatch@mastodon.social#KristaAllen is very beautiful
S11E12 "The Ex-Files"
#BaywatchHawaii #RandomBaywatch
@chris@mstdn.chrisalemany.ca🚂Coming to Vancouver Island this summer? Headed to Tofino!? Make a stop for a train ride in Port Alberni! 🚂
Every weekend will have rides using a restored diesel loco and heritage passenger cars on the waterfront.
4 weekends will feature the 95yr old No7 Steam Locomotive!
News article here: #SteamTrain #PortAlberni #VancouverIsland #Summer #Tourism
