Tootfinder

AMD reports $390M in revenue from MI308 AI chip sales in China in Q4; CEO Lisa Su says orders were "from very early in 2025" but shipped in Q4 after US approval (Nikkei Asia)
https://asia.nikkei.com/business/tech/

AMD rakes in $390m from AI chip sales to China but warns of uncertainty
Company sees $100m more revenue from China as Beijing weighs rules on Nvidia, other foreign chips

Yes. A personal search engine, visualizer, and interface builder.
“look, the way grok is integrated into X is gross and stupid and bad, but i do believe having an LLM familiar help you navigate the dark forest of the internet is going to be the future — ideally this is on your device or through a trusted and secure host, but it will be immensely helpful”

dame (@dame.is)
look, the way grok is integrated into X is gross and stupid and bad, but i do believe having an LLM familiar help you navigate the dark forest of the internet is going to be the future — ideally this is on your device or through a trusted and secure host, but it will be immensely helpful

🐎 Broncos say their new stadium will be ‘privately financed,’ but ‘private’ often still means hundreds of millions in public resources
https://theconversation.com/broncos-say-th…

Broncos say their new stadium will be ‘privately financed,’ but ‘private’ often still means hundreds of millions in public resources
Rarely are sports stadiums financed entirely with private funds.

I did some “coding” over the weekend, but the output isn’t code, it’s structured as Standard Operating Procedure documents that automate the things I wanted done in repeatable ways. It’s human readable, but it was written by Claude to be run by Claude. In the past this could have been a bunch of shell scripts but that would have been more rigid and fragile, harder to develop and understand, and much less functional.

Apple Music introduces Transparency Tags, a metadata system for music distributors and labels to disclose AI-generated creative elements like artwork or lyrics (Murray Stassen/Music Business Worldwide)
https://www.musicbusinesswor…

Apple Music launches AI transparency tags — but only if labels and distributors declare them
The move was announced in a newsletter distributed to industry partners this morning (March 4).

Judges To AG Pam Bondi: It’s OK For The Gov’t To Dox People, But Not OK For People To Dox Gov’t Employees? | Techdirt
https://www.techdirt.com/2026/03/05/judges-to-ag-pam-bondi-its-ok-for-the-govt-to-dox-people-but-not-ok-for-people-to-dox-govt-employees/

Trump Says His Unpredictable Style Gives Him Leverage. But It Has a Cost. (Tyler Pager/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/us/politics/trump-says-his-unpredictable-style-gives-him-leverage-but-it-has-a-cost.html
http://www.memeorandum.com/260204/p137#a260204p137

Fun new piece of information. Google search results now include this text (I think it took less than an hour), but the LLM still doesn't know what a "walowadick" is.
This gives us a bit of signal, and we'll get some more as time goes on. Some of my other pieces, like the "towards a fractal anarchism" post on dbzer0 (https://slrpnk.net/post/18413750) has shown up in LLM results, but it seems like it took several weeks or maybe months.
So I'm guessing there are some regular encoding jobs, probably no more often than once every few months. It'll be interesting to get that signal and see what happens. I'd also be surprised if there isn't some kind of prioritization based on hits, but, again, we'll see what signal we get.

Okay. Here it is. A quick note on that new "AI declaration".
Which is mostly just a bit clueless but which also assembled some of the most vile people on the planet for a bunch of scientists and activists to put there name next to.

If your tent is big enough for fascists, it's no longer a tent but a concentration camp in the making.

Nothing to Declare
Making big public statements is always fun and people who think themselves to be important love doing it as a way of trying to influence public opinion and/or politics. They are a way for institutions and individuals to organize and try to shine some light onto important issues. We’ve seen many such things in the […]

For fans of #Steam games where you can build -really- broken mechanics like Balatro or Slay the Spire (#deckbuilders, #roguelikes, etc. - "Make the numbers go UP!"), LOOTPLOT has been *extremely* satisfying for me
It's like: "what if Incredible Machine, but Ballionaire" - you randomly get access to a bunch of items that each have their own mechanics and trigger/play off each other, which you build out on a grid - but the grid itself can be manipulated by the items. Some of the interactions are absolutely wild.
Plays a little rough on CrossOver - I think the dynamic scaling plays havoc with texture calculation - but is still enjoyable all the same. (It's written in LÖVE - I really hope the author releases a macOS build!)
The sale price of $3.49 is crazy good for the enjoyment value I've gotten out of it
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3057190/LOOTPLOT/

Postmodernism and Christianity
A lot of people think that postmodernism is always the enemy of Christianity, but that is an oversimplified scenario. Postmodernism has many ideas that can be combined with Christianity. One may view it as a problem, but it can be a resource for Christian philosophy, Christian mysticism, Christian apologetics, and even for the understanding of the Bible.

Postmodernism and Christianity | David Boles, Blogs
A lot of people think that postmodernism is always the enemy of Christianity, but that is an oversimplified scenario. Postmodernism has many ideas that can be combined with Christianity. One may vi…

There’s a cat on me but he’s not on me the way I want him to be on me so I can be comfortable but if I move he’ll leave why is life so hard!?

It's almost 1 in the morning but the kid brought home a nasty cold from school (COVID negative on RT-LAMP but stuffy and sore throat and generally not having a good time) and gave it to us.
Slept a good chunk of the day and now I'm cleaning up the lab.
Every time I think I've put away all the random wafers I find another cassette buried somewhere.
Anyway, this bench is slightly less of a disaster now. Still have a lot of random samples to organize whuch might be…

Karoline Leavitt insists Trump had a
‘feeling based on fact’
before Iran strikes
but still won’t detail imminent threat to US
https://bsky.app/profile/the-independent.com/post/3mgbo5u6tz423

The Independent (@the-independent.com)
Karoline Leavitt insists Trump had a ‘feeling based on fact’ before Iran strikes but still won’t detail imminent threat to US https://trib.al/5YeFS5S

Ranking each of the first 59 Super Bowls: A Giants win is No. 1 but probably not what you'd expect

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/ranking-all-59-super-bowls-giants/

Today three years ago. oh boy that was a nice tour. But also one of my first longer snowshoe tours where I learned how much energy this can drain :-D
But it was worth the walk!
And this "today x years ago" is one of my favourite features of image galleries like (in this case) #immich.
The curiousity each day "oh has there been some cool thing I did a couple of yea…

I just realized AudioEye is giving a session at CSUNATC.
I have seen dwindling return on investment for the talks for some time now (sales pitches), but wow does that move the needle for me.
But CSUNATC platforming overlay vendors is … well, not surprising, frankly.

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #VarietyMix
Bombay Bicycle Club:
🎵 Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You)
#BombayBicycleClub
https://nomorejealousy.bandcamp.com/track/eat-sleep-wake-nothing-but-you-bombay-bicycle-club-remix
https://open.spotify.com/track/3nClCcBmn9NnrRQkQTkx1J

from my link log —
The one science reform we can all agree on, but we're too cowardly to do.
https://www.experimental-history.com/p/the-one-science-reform-we-can-all
saved 2026-03-04

The one science reform we can all agree on, but we're too cowardly to do
OR: the long overdue forest fire

Ah, Google Documents.. So convenient.. But #Google is bad and the current US government is crazy.
What is the closest existing alternative to GDocs which is not owned by an american for-profit?
So far, Libre Office docs could be a replacement but there doesn't seem to be an integrated way to do co-editing online with it?
Conditions:

• I am not interested in L…

Come on, Virginia, don't make me wait!
Catholic girls start much too late,
Ah, but sooner or later, it comes down to fate,
I might as well be the one.
Well, they showed you a statue, told you to pray,
Built you a temple and locked you away,
Ah, but they never told you the price that you paid,
The things that you might have done.
So come on, Virginia, show me a sign,
Send up a signal, I'll throw you a line,
That stained glass curtain t…

Several Android apps have made sounds in the last few weeks while all sounds have volume at zero (ringer, text, media, etc)
I gave volume override permissions only for alarms, CGM, and PagerDuty
I didn't love that an embedded video in Chrome played a sound when my low glucose alarm went off, but I can accept that some wires got crossed there
But Lyft making a sound when there's no volume override actively in effect? Absolutely not.

Here’s a perfect encapsulation of why #YIMBY hopes for new market-rate housing to lower rents are in vain. San Francisco has the highest rents in the country, but still not high enough for developers to build. It “could really help” if our extreme rents got even higher, though!

This week: SF rents hit No. 1 — but developers say they need more
Developers still struggle to raise equity

Right! After, frankly, way too much work, I once again have a garden gate which opens properly and easily both ways, and which closes and latches properly and easily. I don't love the galvanised steel gatepost, but it should not need to be replaced again in my lifetime.
#TheJoyOfCrofting
#Crofting

🇺🇦 Auf radioeins läuft...
Depeche Mode:
🎵 But Not Tonight
#NowPlaying #DepecheMode
https://djpepusnik.bandcamp.com/track/depeche-mode-but-not-tonight-remix-2023
https://open.spotify.com/track/0mOAeFylUraa4kUB1B9QW3

> The other thing I notice about the #Epstein case but also the case that concern me and my friends is that, the general public is much more interested in by the Predators and their compromised network than by helping the victims.
https://

Ricardo Mendes
5 February 2026 Epstein Abuses Impunity The other thing I notice about the #Epstein case but also the case that concern me and my friends is that, the general public is much more interested in by the...

Apple Music introduces Transparency Tags, a metadata system for music distributors and labels to disclose AI-generated creative elements like artwork or lyrics (Murray Stassen/Music Business Worldwide)
https://www.musicbusinesswor…

Apple Music launches AI transparency tags — but only if labels and distributors declare them
The move was announced in a newsletter distributed to industry partners this morning (March 4).

I quite enjoyed Mrs President at the Charing Cross Theatre tonight https://charingcrosstheatre.co.uk/theatre/mrs-president
But my goodness, some audiences are awkward post-lockdowns

Mrs President at Charing Cross Theatre
Art Pond Foundation presentsMRS PRESIDENTWritten by John Ransom PhillipsDirected by Bronagh LaganIn Mrs President, Mary Lincoln is a woman at war—with her grief, her detractors, and herself. Vilified by an envious elite and accused of treason, she strives to rebuild her public image to win the hearts of the American people. She turns to the world’s first celebrity photographer, Matthew Brady, who helped her husband, Abraham Lincoln, win the presidency. But their partnership unravels into a …

That was a pretty uneventful affair, which is good. The Cosmic liveslak I tried worked well, a much better experience than before. Furthermore very much up to date, the first patch to version 1 already included. Had only to install grub (included, but not activated) and uninstall some standard liveslak packages. But that goes with every Slackware install, so no biggie. Cosmic-greeter behaves a bit quirky also, but that goes for all Cosmic installs. Next week: tweaking.

I listened to two AI generated presentations in the last two days. Yes, students and junior scholars were mimicking jargon they did not fully understand already before AI, but listening to them read out jargon they did not even mimic themselves is really another level of cringe. Yes, I know these are fancy words that people in our field would likely use, but you know, I was actually more interested in what _you_ think about the subject. 🙄

First they added AI to the browser without asking anyone if they wanted this.
first backslash
So they said "but you can disable it through the change of boolean values of godzillion registry keys with absurd names in about:config".
another backslash ensue
So they said "We made it opt-out"
another backslash ensue
So they say "ok there will be a killswitch"
Ok. Not so bad this time.
But can we stop saying they "listen to their users". They don'…

Twig wants to know if this carrier makes his butt look big. #CatsOfMastodon

I give monthly to PBS, NPR, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and Urban Milwaukee because I appreciate what they do, but there are soooo many others that put out the occasional article I want to read but can't justify paying a monthly or annual fee for. I wish there were an equivalent to the Libby magazine rack for stuff like the Wall Street Journal or The Verge.

So I busted out an old laptop and installed headless ubuntu minimal (I like to start small) so that I can start setting up some autonomous agents. My first step was to install Claude Code so that it could setup everything else for me, but after a few hours at it, both Claude and I admit that Claude Code is broken on a headless install. We tried a bunch a different way to get it to take a damn key, but the installer insists on an OAUTH auth that requires a browser.
I have a dislike fo…

Started playing satisfactory with the 8 yo. Thought he would struggle but he recalled the video we watched some time ago and just knocking it out the park so far.
But this is some crazy time sync madness ouch. Great game though.

Just two days of oatmeal cut bad cholesterol by 10% #plantbased

Just two days of oatmeal cut bad cholesterol by 10%
Eating nothing but oatmeal for just two days might sound extreme, but it delivered a striking payoff in a new clinical trial. People with metabolic syndrome who followed a short, calorie-reduced oat-based plan saw their harmful LDL cholesterol drop by 10%, along with modest weight loss and lower blood pressure. Even more surprising, the cholesterol benefits were still visible six weeks later.

Brandon Aubrey: Tender from Cowboys would be 'big pay raise' but 'not the ideal' https://cowboyswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/cowboys/2026/03/04/cowboys-brandon-aubrey-second-round-tender-quote…

What’s key to understand in Venezuela is that the US did a coup and got the president Maduro out.
But the regime is still there. The VP took power. Chavismo is still in charge. The armed forces, paramilitary, everyone is still around. The opposition, that likely won the last election, is still not in charge.
It’s really unusual. And shows the US, as usual with Trump, might not have much of a plan.
Good article on the new president Delcy Rodríguez

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. @…

@… but but why how, what security flaw is hiding in there?

@… The WMATA website is fairly good at explaining the basics for new riders. I haven't used WayMap, but I'm happy to learn about it. I use the DC Metro app, but partly because it's good for buses too. Can't compare WMATA to Bart, unfortunately.

https://www.youraislopbores.me/

Are you overwhelmed by the sheer mass of news stories surrounding the two biggest cyber-related stories of the day, OpenAI's deal with the Pentagon, and the cyber activity surrounding the Iran war?
Don't miss today's monster Metacurity that summarizes all the developments in these two arenas and more, including
--OpenAI, Pentagon revise AI deal's surveillance limits, but commitments may be hollow,
--Israel spent years hacking Tehran's traffic cameras and …

OpenAI, Pentagon revise AI deal's surveillance limits, but commitments may be hollow
Israel spent years hacking Tehran's traffic cameras and phone networks, Iranian hacking groups' efforts have been negligible and opportunistic, Internet collapse in Iran has cut off hackers, Gulf ships bombarded with GPS attacks, Starlink has sustained Iran's Handala hackers, much more

Wow, I sure am glad we have such diversity in the CSS world and that AIs consider all of the options fairly, instead of hypothetically being hyper focused on any specific library.

We've had snow on the ground since early November. The daily high has been lower than -10°C for the past week or three.
The “questioning why we even live here" has come very early this year.
(But the days are getting longer, and the coldest days are often the brightest/sunniest…)
It's normally not cool to tell people how to medicate, but polite reminder: take your Vitamin D, friends. I'm at 3x the RDA and last time I tested, I was *still* way below optimal.…

But sir, the Shackle Maker 2000™ by Shackle Corp® is open source. You could, theoretically, use it to make more than shackles.
#CorporateOpenSource #openSource #openAsInOpenForBusiness

I've been away for some time now but today I'm back. My NUC has a new install of #popos and I think I like it (so far). Not everything works as I would like, but it works good enough to work on.
So I'm back in the saddle working away reading student work for wednesdays seminars.
What do you do this cold (-14 degrees celsius) evening?

I find it fascinating how some bands have long, creatively successful careers, but only have *one* utterly perfect album where everything clicks into place. It must be incredibly difficult to do. (Some bands have several, but those are outliers, I think)
What is your favorite one-perfect-album from a band with multiple releases?
#music

I've got initial `av1an` support into the Sisyphus encoding system. Updated the Dockerfile for `av1an`, added `svt-av1-psyex` with HDR10 and Dolby Vision support, and even installed the `lsmash` Vapoursynth plugin for fast scene detection/chunking. I still need to get `ffmpeg` compiled with support for `svt-av1-psyex`, but I'll deal with that in the future once I get encodes running and working.
Repo:

"Today, Venezuela; tomorrow ze vorld!"
We've seen this movie before...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/04/us-running-venezuela-now-seems-less-likely-but-second-intervention-possible<…

Just finished "Dawnrunner" written by Ram V, illustrated by Evan Cagle, with colors by Dave Stewart & Francesco Segala and lettering by Aditya Bidikar. It's a graphic novel that's heavily Evangelion-inspired, and while the artwork is *fantastic*, I felt that the story was kinda meh. The overall plot setup and big points were predictable, which I don't mind, but several of the details got lost or didn't bind into a coherent message, and the final philosophical conclusion doesn't stand up to the setting or even really make much sense. These days I'm finding myself with much less patience for sci-fi stuff that doesn't tackle social problems, presenting a society where they're driving forces but then not bothering to even try to ponder how they might get resolved. The art is as mentioned excellent though, so I won't say I disliked it overall...
#AmReading #ReadingNow

If Jordan Meredith returns for Raiders vs Broncos at what position? https://raiderswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/raiders/2025/12/05/jordan-meredith-to-return-for-raiders-vs-broncos-but-at-w…

A case, as @… Carli observes, for passive homes that are grid connected but also energy independent… battery storage, solar, geothermal, wind, smart panels, dc generator, dc appliances & lighting. (Our house isn’t passive, but it is PV battery. So…)

Why Your Electric Bill is a Bank Bailout
THE WAR ON ILLUSION: EPISODE 4 - THE VAMPIRE GRID

Tired but your housemate is in the way? No problem!
Just use them as a pillow.

Hive mind: is there a non-profit that helps Open Source projects get their builds notarized by Apple? The technical part can be tricky, but it is possible to set this up with a bit of elbow grease, but getting a legal entity approved by Apple takes a lot of paperwork. I would hope that there would be a (European) foundation or sth that has done this, and would be willing to lend their credentials to a well-known project that currently cannot publish ready-to-run macOS binaries...

I still think Wirtz was offside and hearing the commentators say that the semi-automated offsides technology is not in the same room as VAR and that they have to relay back and forth the assisting player and scoring player's numbers... is bananas!
Different company because of partnership constraints, but the SAOT at other major tournaments is instantaneous. Now we eventually get an image, but not vision of the ball at the moment the image purports to represent. PGMOL incompetence👏 …

If you once had coherent opinions but you have completely shifted to basically only posting about how great AI is, know that that is the number one symptom of LLMitis
See some grass today and touch it

About 300 Washington Post journalists were fired today. You only do this when truth is your enemy. „Democracy Dies in Darkness” was seen by Bezos not as a warning but a mission statement, I guess.

I mean, spam sucks obviously, but occasionally one leaks through the filters that makes me smile.
There’s a URL in the signature which I whimsically followed, the headline there is: “The place where you can build and buy a whole qubit.”
#xml

I managed to get my Quest 2 to work on my CachyOS with Index controllers and Tundra trackers and it's so cursed but I love that it just works. It drifts a little but I'll get this fine-tuned eventually.

Sonnet 014 - XIV
Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck;
And yet methinks I have Astronomy,
But not to tell of good or evil luck,
Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons' quality;
Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,
Pointing to each his thunder, rain and wind,
Or say with princes if it shall go well
By oft predict that I in heaven find:
But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,
And, constant stars, in them I read such art <…

PMs used to be the crowd that could get away with a light laptop, but now that they are vibecoding, they are all shopping for some beefy dudes.

The war on Iran was never a choice -- Trump was left with no option but to defend America and all Western civilization (Michael Goodwin/New York Post)
https://nypost.com/2026/03/03/opinion/trump-was-left-with-no-choice-but-to-launch-an-attack-on-the-iranian-regime/
http://www.memeorandum.com/260304/p16#a260304p16

The question is not whether you can create software using LLMs - you can (most software is just boring CRUD shit).
But you do pay a hefty price: In lowering quality (security issues, less maintainable), in skill decay in the people "guiding" the stochastic parrots, etc.
It's not "can 'AI's create software" but "are we willing to accept worse software running more and more of our lives?"

The US-Israeli war on Iran created a massive hole in global airspace
Airlines are using long-readied contingency plans but bottlenecks have formed that no amount of planning can fix
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar…

Bears back their way into No. 2 seed, but are playing like a playoff 1-and-done https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6940977/2026/01/04/bears-lions-nfl-playoffs-no-2-seed/

So I'm wondering if long term it might make sense to move the VM server from a 2U to a 4U form factor.
I'd need to move the storage cluster and core router each down 2U into a currently vacant spot to free up another 2U next to where the VM server is, but that would let me fit a much taller (and less noisy) heatsink/fan on the CPU and also enable use of full height GPUs.
Not a "now" thing but if I'm targeting a many-year service lifetime for the platform it…

"If complaining worked, we would have won the culture war already."
- @…
Yeah well, right!
https://daverupert.com/2026/02/futures

Alphabet reports YouTube's Q4 ad revenue rose 9% YoY to $11.38B, vs. $11.84B est., and YouTube's annual revenue surpassed $60B across ads and subscriptions (Todd Spangler/Variety)
https://variety.com/2026/digital/news/youtube-q4-2…

YouTube Ad Revenue Hits Record $11.38 Billion in Q4, but Falls Short of Expectations
YouTube had its biggest-ever ad sales to date for Q4 2025, but revenue of $11.38 billion came in under Wall Street forecasts.

Sam Altman says the Anthropic Super Bowl ads are funny but "dishonest", and Anthropic serves a "product to rich people" while OpenAI is committed to free access (Sam Altman/@sama)
https://x.com/sama/status/2019139174339928189

Sam Altman (@sama) on X
First, the good part of the Anthropic ads: they are funny, and I laughed. But I wonder why Anthropic would go for something so clearly dishonest. Our most important principle for ads says that we won’t do exactly this; we would obviously never run ads in the way Anthropic

As salty as I am about it, there's also another way to think about this. For anyone who still has connections to folks on the right (which is perhaps unlikely for anyone on this server, I digress), the cult that has consumed them thrives on isolation and grievance.
The words "you were right" have the potential to cut through the programming and open up an opportunity for reconnection. The modern conspiratorial cult of the Right has been built partially around people who were told they were wrong or were crazy. In the vast majority of cases, they were wrong and even when they were right they completely misunderstood why, but we'll skip that for now. Liberals making fun of them (even the times when they definitely earned it) has pushed them further and further into their ideological hole.
The thing about those words, "you were right," in this context is that the way they offer reconnection also requires them to take one little step of betraying their ideology to accept them. So they must choose between maintaining allegiance to a pedophile or finally getting to feel superior after years of living in an illusion of persecution.
Under the ideology of the Right, admitting one is wrong is a weakness. It is admitting defeat. They have to "own the libs" by saying things, things that they know aren't true, in order to feel dominant. But these things are often so absurd that they end up being made fun of, feeling even more weak and pathetic, reinforcing their fear and alienation.
Offering what they're looking for can offer a way out, but only if they're willing to start to recognize the thing they've supported for what it is.
And they were right about some things. They were right that Bill Gates was a terrible person. I've had plenty of liberals defend him based on his philanthropy washing, but he's awful and always has been. The Epstein links make that blatant. They intuitively recognized him and didn't trust him, even if they were wildly off base about *how and why* he shouldn't be trusted... Even if their correct mistrust was leveraged into one of the most destructive conspiracy theories ever (vaccine denial and COVID vaccine avoidance).
They were right about Bill Clinton. He was always shady as fuck. Sure, the people who attacked him at the time turned out to be even more shady but that's not the point right now. He was connected to Epstein and that was always creepy as fuck.
And the Epstein thing was an open secret that liberals ignored for a long time. It was seen as some weird thing that right wing nutjobs believed about the Clintons. But it was true. Not all of it, and there has always been an antisemitic element to the right wing interpretation or Epstein stuff, but his whole pedophile conspiracy was always kind of real.
The whole "Illuminati"/deep state thing is a vast oversimplification, an attempt to make comprehensible an incredibly complex set of interlocking and emergent behaviors. But Epstein did very much want to remake the world, to create a new world order, and he absolutely played a part in it.
The Right wing nutjobs talked about global authoritarianism, Blackhawks flying over American cities, masked men with guns disarming and executing legal gun owners in the streets. That's all happening right now.
The "FEMA concentration camps" are not actually that far off. ICE and FEMA are sister agencies, both under DHS. I'd be more than happy to call that one "close enough" in order to hear some MAGA admit that ICE is, in fact, building concentration camps.
There was always a huge millennialist element to these things. They tended to be connected to "the antichrist." It was absurd, especially for me as someone who no longer identifies as a Christian. But I'll even acquiess that to a degree. The "the number of the Beast" is 666. That's just the sum of the Hebrew spelling of "Nero." Revelations focuses a lot on Nero coming back to life after his death. His death that involved a head wound, thus the line from Revelation 13:3:
> And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast.
The parallels between Trump and Nero are easy to draw, and Trump's ear wound feels pretty on-the-nose for this. I don't believe in "prophecy" in this way. I think that there are patterns, and useful patterns can become encoded in beleif systems. But I will, again, happily call this one "close enough" for anyone on that side willing to also acknowledge it. I'm happy to meet on that common ground, because anyone who accepts it must recognize that their duty is to fight against it.
A lot of these correct nuggets are embedded in a framework of religious extremism and antisemitism. The vast majority of the beliefs holding these together are wildly wrong and incredibly toxic. But by giving some room to feel validated, listened to, understood, can give some room to admit things that were wrong.
Cult de-programming starts with an opening. People have to talk through their own thoughts, hear their own inconsistencies. Guiding questions can help them untangle these things for themselves. And it all starts by having enough room to feel safe, to not feel cornered, to not feel stupid. Admitting mistakes means being vulnerable, and the MAGA cult is built on fear. It's built on exploiting vulnerability and locking it away.
De-programming takes a long time. It's not easy. It takes patience. But every person who comes out does so with a powerful perspective, a deep understanding, that can be turned back against it. The best people at getting people out of cults are former members. Some of the most dedicated antifa are former fascists who understood their mistakes and dedicate their lives to fixing them.

Mailbag: New DC still needs more talent? https://www.dallascowboys.com/news/mailbag-new-dc-still-needs-more-talent

The Metropolitan Opera is Dying Because It Wants to Die
The pinnacle of the Performing Arts in America is collapsing not from the weight of its chandelier, but from the brittleness of its imagination. The Metropolitan Opera has chosen extinction over evolution, and the evidence is no longer circumstantial.

The Metropolitan Opera is Dying Because It Wants to Die | David Boles, Blogs
The pinnacle of the Performing Arts in America is collapsing not from the weight of its chandelier, but from the brittleness of its imagination. The Metropolitan Opera has chosen extinction over ev…

Like global search and replace but don’t like surprises?
Check out serpl – a handy little command-line app that gives you a visual preview of the changes you are about to make. You can even go in and remove the replacements you don’t want from the source previews. The regex support appears to be basic, however (I couldn’t get a negative lookbehind to work).

It has no mouth, but it must scream

The general election will likely pit Talarico, a seminarian, against Ken Paxton, a philandering crook.
In Texas-adjusted terms, I like Talarico’s odds.
But a known scumbag has no reputation to maintain,
whereas the shine can come off a golden boy in one news cycle.
This is a risk that polling can’t capture.
By contrast, if Crockett’s defining quality is partisanship, what really matters is Trump’s popularity,
and the trajectory of his polling.
T…

Jasmine Crockett's Partisanship Was Not The Problem
Her liabilities were real, but by November, anti-Trump partisanship might be a winning play across all Senate battlegrounds.

Packers enter playoffs losing 4 straight, but Matt LaFleur emphasizes 'clean slate' https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6940242/2026/01/04/packers-playoffs-matt-lafleur-vikings/

Sending emails about updates can be great!
But:
1. Do not send incomprehensible emails to cold lists
2. If possible, remove people from your email list when they haven’t interacted with you in years
3. Unless you’re Coca-Cola, in any email you send there should be a one-liner to describe what your app or business does

🛑 Hesitation is costly in sports but essential to life – neuroscientists identified its brain circuitry
https://theconversation.com/hesitation-is-costly-in-sports-but-essential-to-life-neuroscientists-iden…

Hesitation is costly in sports but essential to life – neuroscientists identified its brain circuitry
There are specific parts of the brain that trigger hesitation in times of uncertainty.

Plaud launches the $179 Plaud NotePin S AI recorder, similar to the $159 NotePin but with a button, alongside a new desktop app for recording meeting audio (Dominic Preston/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/tech/851393/plaud-notepin-s-desktop-app-ces

Plaud updates the NotePin with a button
The new Plaud NotePin S is much like the original, but with a new button and more included accessories.

It's also probably worth bumping this post again:
https://infosec.exchange/@tinker/115832532498655940
I boosted the parent yesterday, but it's worth visiting again.
We are not powerless. There are things we can do. We don't have to shut down the whole thing all at once right now to make a positive change, but we do have to shut the whole thing down soon if we're going to survive.
Every act of resistance is important, no matter how small. We have lots of strategies, and we should support as many of them as possible.

Mailbag: New DC still needs more talent? https://www.dallascowboys.com/news/mailbag-new-dc-still-needs-more-talent

The oldest known pyre, located in Alaska, dates back 11,500 years and contains the created remains of a 3-year-old child.
But HOR-1 in Malawi is the oldest example of adult cremated remains found in a pyre.
We will likely never know the identity of this woman, or why her death inspired such a carefully coordinated ritual. But it seems safe to assume that the cremation was a significant event for the community that expended so much forethought and labor to perform it. 

Scientists Discover One of the World’s Oldest Cremations
Hunter-gatherers cremated a small woman in Malawi 9,500 years ago, revealing a glimpse of their capabilities and practices.

Alphabet reports YouTube's Q4 ad revenue rose 9% YoY to $11.38B, vs. $11.84B est., and YouTube's annual revenue surpassed $60B across ads and subscriptions (Todd Spangler/Variety)
https://variety.com/2026/digital/news/youtube-q4-2…

YouTube Ad Revenue Hits Record $11.38 Billion in Q4, but Falls Short of Expectations
YouTube had its biggest-ever ad sales to date for Q4 2025, but revenue of $11.38 billion came in under Wall Street forecasts.

Small nit-pick but especially if your argument is about the unreliability of US tech in light of the US' (and its tech sector's) turn towards fascism publishing on motherfucking Substack, a service actively platforming and supporting literal Nazis, defeats the point.

“Rewrite this function to be 50,000 lines long and looking extremely complicated but it does the same thing”
They’re calling this prompt “lambo-hacking” at Meta

Trump hit Iran -- but he's really got China in his crosshairs (Steven W. Mosher/New York Post)
https://nypost.com/2026/03/02/opinion/trump-hit-iran-but-hes-really-got-china-in-his-crosshairs/
http://www.memeorandum.com/260303/p34#a260303p34

Close the cover on the CIA World Factbook:
The spy agency announced Wednesday that after more than 60 years,
it is shuttering the popular reference manual.
The announcement posted to the CIA’s website offered no reason for the decision to end the Factbook,
but it follows a vow from Director John Ratcliffe to end programs that don’t advance the agency’s core missions.

The CIA World Factbook is no more
The CIA is ending the publication of its popular World Factbook reference manual. The agency announced the decision Wednesday but gave no reason for it. It comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has promised to return the agency's focus to its core missions. First launched more than 60 years ago as a classified reference manual for CIA officers, the Factbook went on to be a reference manual cited by journalists, trivia experts and college essayists alike. A message seeking comment from the CIA ab…

Eagles want a massive return to trade A.J. Brown, but will any team actually pay it?

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/aj-brown-trade-rumors-eagles-asking-price/

Trump has begun to address affordability a bit more
—rhetorically, that is.
He’s never fully acknowledged that the affordability problem has continued into his administration,
nor how his own policies
—from tariffs raising prices on myriad goods to the chaotic interruptions in crucial benefits like food stamps
—have contributed to Americans’ economic sufferings.
But he has been making more claims about what he’s supposedly doing to bring down the cost of livi…

Trump Is Bored to Death by the Affordability Crisis
He’s finally started to acknowledge the struggles of ordinary Americans, but he’s incapable of staying focused on them.

Bills' Josh Allen typically doesn't watch the Super Bowl, but there's a reason why he'll be watching this year

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/bills-josh-allen-watch-super-bowl/…

Within tumors in the human body, there are #immune #cells ( #macrophages ) capable of fighting cancer,
but they have been unable to perform their roles properly due to suppression by the tumor.
KAIST researchers have over…

New therapeutic approach converts immune cells inside tumors into anticancer cell therapies
Within tumors in the human body, there are immune cells (macrophages) capable of fighting cancer, but they have been unable to perform their roles properly due to suppression by the tumor.

Aaron Rodgers hasn't decided on playing in 2026 but remains in contact with Steelers ahead of free agency

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/aaron-rodgers-retirement-2026-stee…

The Athletics won't close door on Kyler Murray. But is MLB really an option for free-agent QB? https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7088698/2026/03/04/kyler-murray-athletics-baseball-nfl-free-agency/

Philip Rivers says NFL coaching jobs not on his radar, but he's open to the possibility https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6942995/2026/01/05/philip-rivers-nfl-coaching-opportunities/

Rob Hunt could be big boost for Panthers in playoffs, but has to prove he's ready https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6942905/2026/01/05/panthers-playoffs-rams-injury-update-rob-hunt/

Philip Rivers downplays NFL coaching interest but asserts capability: 'I can coach at this level'

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/philip-r…

New OC says Fins to add competition at QB spot https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/47829369/slowik-praises-tagovailoa-divulge-dolphins-qb-plans

Rivers says he believes he can coach at NFL level https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/47515399/philip-rivers-believes-coach-nfl-not-pursuing-jobs