As Republicans try to pin blame for shutdown damage on Democrats,
they are hailing a federal bureaucracy they normally bash as wasteful and overreaching.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/us/poli

Shutdown Politics Has Republicans Singing Government’s Praises
As Republicans try to pin blame for shutdown damage on Democrats, they are hailing a federal bureaucracy they normally bash as wasteful and overreaching.

Watched the showing of 'Culloden' on BBC4. Saw it at 13 when it came out, on recommendation of our history teacher as we happened to be doing that period. He was shocked at how "gory" it was but there'd been nothing like it in the TV before.
Part off my education about imperialism and suppression of traditional people's, but also an knnoculation against the romantic myth of the Jacobites.
I've always been much more Jacobin than Jacobite.

They have a great “big” point here about incrementalism but also: fiber, water, and even minimal activity specifically are great first steps towards feeling better.
I suspect that a lot of us 1st-worlders feel lousy in part because we’re each paving our own way to T2D, colon cancer, and heart disease. @…

Meine Prognose für das BSW: Die Namensgeberin wird abtreten. Sie kann keine Verantwortung und Personalführung. Das ist nicht ihr Ding. Sie liebt Opposition und ihre persönliche Freiheit zu sagen und zu machen was sie will viel zu sehr. Letztens bei Lanz hat sie ausserdem ein sehr fragwürdiges Demoktratieverständnis zum Besten gegeben. Die ist jetzt endgültig in der Schwurbler-Ecke verschwunden.

Media stuff

Rewatched all of Buffy

Broken wrist meant I had to sit on the sofa for a month doing nothing really. I re-watched all 200 or so episodes of Buffy for the first time this decade.
What an achievement in TV production. Amazing show.
I'll watch it again next decade maybe.
Not that I read a huge amount. Hopefully more next year.
"Outland" by Dennis E Taylor, and actually also his "Not Till We Are Lost"
"Broken Money" by Lyn Alden.
Think "Severance" was the most remarkable show I watched this year, with "Trek, Strange New Worlds" also being great again.
"Pantheon" was a pretty great cartoon, haven't seen the second season yet.

Brock Purdy shriveled on 'Monday Night Football.' 49ers need him to bounce back in a hurry https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6836642/2025/11/25/brock-purdy-49ers-panthers-monday-night-football/

Another loft pottery find; the back says 'Hand painted', 'Made in Japan' but nothing else; as far as I can find out there were a bunch of Japanese studios doing imagined desert scenes from 1920-1950s. I can't find an exact match, but there are loads of similar ones depending on the painters mood I guess.

Rams star Puka Nacua apologizes for antisemitic dance on livestream (The Athletic)
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6900166/2025/12/18/puka-nacua-apology-rams-adin-ross-stream/?smid=bsky-nytimes&utm_social_handle_id=did:plc:eclio37ymobqex2ncko63h4r&smtyp=cur&utm_social_post_id=627222008
http://www.memeorandum.com/251218/p143#a251218p143

"The story of the East Wing’s demolition is the story of the Trump admini.writ large, a metaphor for what he’s doing to American democracy. The current President doesn’t seek permission. He fears no one and nothing. He is protected by the most lethal army in the world and a Supreme Court that has made it almost impossible to hold him liable for actions even remotely connected to his duties. This has allowed Mr. Trump to become the most openly corrupt president in American history."…

The corruption was weird af tho
What the fuck?
I do have a journalctl log but I couldn’t really find the reason everything failed on it.