By the middle of this week, insurgent progressive Democrats may have defeated establishment candidates in two vital primaries,
for a Senate seat in Michigan and the governorship of Wisconsin.
If and when that happens, the elite news media will overflow with
“Dems in Disarray!” stories,
and the the centrist Democrats who have been issuing dark warnings about their party’s left turn will be in a full-blown panic.
Those centrists need to take a deep breath, settle…
Based on daily values, the July average of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa was ~429.1 ppm. That's "only" 1.2 ppm higher than last year. But don't hold your breath: the upcoming El Niño will probably speed up the increase again.
Not that I share all of @… 's rosy post bubble projections, but his #AI book sure is a breath of fresh sense, and a good antidote to the LLM mania echo chamber.
Back in the country for less than 24 hours and we've already voted. Now if only we could imagine a world in which a non-Liberal could one day win our riding in a regular election. This time, of course, it's a by-election on the last day in August, so I'm not holding my breath.
#cdnpoli
You have to rest. There are industrial buildings on the opposite bank---abandoned granaries and silos---but they're so rain-rusted and sun-bleached, they have their own charm, like public sculptures. When you've recovered your breath, we continue.
MIT engineers have developed a test to detect disease-related compounds in a patient’s breath.
The new test could provide a faster way to diagnose pneumonia and other lung conditions.
Rather than sit for a chest X-ray or wait hours for a lab result,
a patient may one day take a breath test and get a diagnosis within minutes.
The new breath test is a portable, chip-scale sensor
that traps and detects synthetic compounds, or “biomarkers,” of disease, which are in…
"“There is that sense of theatre with fire and flames,” says Jeremy Pang, a third-generation Chinese chef in London and founder of the School of Wok. “It feels quite traditional and exciting. But we have found that we can get just as high temperatures, and just as good cooking, with electric.”
The secret to traditional Chinese cookery lies in the “wok hei” – literally, the breath of the wok, meaning the smoke and heat that the chef must master, to give all ingredients the right de…
"“There is that sense of theatre with fire and flames,” says Jeremy Pang, a third-generation Chinese chef in London and founder of the School of Wok. “It feels quite traditional and exciting. But we have found that we can get just as high temperatures, and just as good cooking, with electric.”
The secret to traditional Chinese cookery lies in the “wok hei” – literally, the breath of the wok, meaning the smoke and heat that the chef must master, to give all ingredients the right de…
I just hope the cool people won't just be offline, when Bluesky draws it's last breath.
I hope they'll realize, that community funded alternatives, that are built for people and not corporations, are the way to go.
Social media isn't dead.
Big tech "solutions" are.
Nuclear scientists and the University of Michigan want to build a massive data center in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan.
If built, the data center will, among other things, run simulations to help America build nuclear weapons.
The residents of Ypsilanti Township overwhelmingly oppose the construction of the data center
and voiced their opposition to the computer warehouse during a public board meeting on June 16.
In a show of support that’s often rare from local lead…
Pulling dead bodies from the sea
#AnthonyGuidera #BrettBaxterClark #RichardEllis
Baywatch Nights 2x08 - Last Breath
Ukraine update from Giorgio Provincialli and Alla Perdei.
World War One lasted 1568 days. Russia's illegal full scale invasion has now gone 1569 days and counting.
Over 1600 first-hand reports from ground zero, and over 300 videos in this time, nobody compares to the work done by Giorgio and Alla. True heroes.
Please share the friend link to bypass the paywall, and help the truth reach more people:
Hope Has No Shovel: Why We Fling Our Wishes at the Sky
Watch what the body does with a wish. The child inhales before the candles, holds the secret behind her teeth, then gives it to the room with one hard breath....
https://bolesblogs.com/2026/07/08/hope
🔊 #NowPlaying on #BBCRadio3:
#KeyChanges:Radio3sEssentialHistoryOfClassicalMusic
- 1600: Opera's First Breath
1600, Florence. At a lavish Medici wedding, Jacopo Peri’d Euridice introdces a radical new idea: drama told entirely through music. This is the birth of opera.
Relisten now 👇
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002x5vz
Post-Perseids Sunrise At Raisting Earth Station (2026)
(Pictures from between 5-6AM this morning... I still need to process the meteor shower images from the hour before, but not holding my breath...)
#LandscapePhotography #RadioTelescope
Sonnet 130 - CXXX
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red, than her lips red:
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath …
As someone who reveres Programming Pearls, to even be mentioned in a related breath by one of our greatest programmers is…more of an honor than anything on a CV. Going to call it a day and go out for a ride. (-:
Thoughtseeds as Latent Causes: A Dual-Process Computational Phenomenology of Focused-Attention Meditation
Prakash Chandra Kavi, Daniel Ari Friedman, Gustavo Patow
https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.14833 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2607.14833 https://arxiv.org/html/2607.14833
arXiv:2607.14833v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Meditative expertise involves sustained attention, rapid recovery from distraction, and coordinated dynamics of large-scale brain networks. We present a computational phenomenology of focused-attention meditation traversing four attractor states: breath focus, mind-wandering, meta-awareness, and redirect attention. Within a dual-process active inference formulation, the model implements a three-layer nested Markov-blanket architecture: (L1) a high-dimensional physiological neuronal substrate modeled as a stochastic multivariate Ornstein--Uhlenbeck process over attentional Yeo networks; (L2) a low-dimensional generative model (System 1) that encodes latent mental content as thoughtseeds and evaluates autonomic action tendencies; and (L3) an agentic metacognitive monitor (System 2) that implements a Global Neuronal Workspace (GNW) capacity bottleneck to selectively gate these tendencies. In L3, meta-awareness functions as the GNW ignition signal, derived from policy-prior divergence and dynamically gated by direct competition between orchestrator and distractor thoughtseeds. Policy selection actively minimizes expected free energy, and L2 actions furnish descending predictions over network activity to close the enactive perception--action cycle. Training uses variational Expectation-Maximization (EM) across expert and novice phenotypes. Simulations reproduce behavior consistent with empirical observations and findings in contemplative neuroscience, providing a tractable link between first-person phenomenology and objective neurophysiological measures.
toXiv_bot_toot
My pitch if I ran a TV production company would be something like:
Twelve episodes a year of 3-episode serials: That keeps the number of sets you have to construct down. It gives each story the complexity of a movie and time to breath without the frantic pace. You can have one every season of the year.
You gotta remember to focus on the companion. This isn't really a story about The Doctor, it's about the companions asking the question, Doctor Who?
Episodes should generally start with a companion's face or escapade coz they're the ones we're identifying with as we figure out who the doctor is.
At some point in 2027 you'll cast and announce a new doctor.
This is when you call Billie Piper in to film and release a webisode which is just the regeneration into Billie so far: her going "Oh, hello?" Then shaking her head and saying "oh hell no" and shaking harder until she shakes the face off into the new man or woman you picked who says "Oh, that was close".
That change into the Bad Wolf Doctor was just bad without a capstone xmas episode. So a one minute tik-tokable short to announce the newbie frees you of it.
Then you can start ep1 filming and released nearly a year later on the 65th anniversary with a story that focuses on the companion getting into trouble and meeting The Doctor.
Cast nobody famous. The production is about making stars not finding them I don't want anyone having preconceived notions about the character from seeing the actor in that other show even it it was a really good one and they're great.
Earthbound cross-time time-travel story for serial one to pick up new companion, intervene in an aliens vs aliens space-war in serial two, go screw up history and fix it for the third and aliens endangering companion's family for the fourth.
When they're 3-episode serials you only need four a year. Different writer for each.
Cliff-hangers between episodes in each serial of course, with stories about the nature of time and space and getting along with other cultures and running up and down corridors and scary monsters and of course the question "who is The Doctor and how can they fix this without guns or violence with just a screwdriver and two hearts worth of compassion".
The Doctor is some weird looking older dude, more importantly vivid and strange and scholarly than handsome. He has a big coat and no question marks. Then he can change clothes but with the same coat always have the same look. He needs to be able to do a good arrogant rant at himself while he thinks.
The companion is curious and brave and young enough to be naive and surprised and energetic. Doesn't do what she's told. Wonders off against orders. Maybe sometimes bombs things.
Obviously you keep the blue box and the tune and make a new style screwdriver.
You need to do the behind the scenes shows too. Not sure if they make or cost money but they are brilliant for the geeky fandom. That may be why it came back last time.
Anyway. Sadly I don't own a production company.
I cancelled the TV license in the mean time. Give the money to Big Finish instead. These audio things are expensive. I've bought bundles before. Anyone have favorites? I lose track of which one's I've heard.
#doctorWho
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on BBCRadio3's #BBCProms
Joseph Parry & David Roche:
🎵 Divine Breath (Awen)
#JosephParry #DavidRoche
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on BBCRadio3's #EssentialClassics
Matthew Coleridge, Lionel Handy, Choir of Royal Holloway, Southern Sinfonia & Rupert Gough:
🎵 The Breath of Life (7. These Great Trees are Prayers)
#MatthewColeridge #LionelHandy #ChoirofRoyalHolloway #SouthernSinfonia
@cdarwin@c.im
