2026-04-17 11:40:16
The Belgian Party of Labour shows how to successfully build a left-wing political movement. By Jürgen Klute.
https://europa.blog/en/the-belgian-party-of-labour-shows-how-to-successfully-build-a-left-wing-political-movement/
The Belgian Party of Labour shows how to successfully build a left-wing political movement. By Jürgen Klute.
https://europa.blog/en/the-belgian-party-of-labour-shows-how-to-successfully-build-a-left-wing-political-movement/
The "Squad" left suffers complete wipeout in Illinois (Andrew Solender/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/2026/03/18/the-squad-left-suffers-complete-wipeout-in-illinois
http://www.memeorandum.com/260318/p12#a260318p12
The Avant-Garde Never Left: Robert Hughes Described the Revolution and Then Declared It Over
Robert Hughes wanted it both ways. In the final moments of "The Shock of the New," his landmark 1980 BBC series on modern art, he declared the avant-garde dead and then, in the same breath, described its beating heart. He told us that the radical project of art was finished, that the market had swallowed it whole, that the institutions had filed its teeth down to nothing.
Why (and how) UPS trucks (almost) never turn left.
The policy started in the 1970s and is implemented by a dedicated software since 2004.
Its impact on workers’ political opinions remains unknown. ☺️
https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/16/world/ups-trucks-no-left-turns
I've noticed how people who are 'left' in their politics are happy to identify themselves that way. People on the 'right', however, seldom identify themselves that way, as it tends to reflect poorly on them - 'right' connotes selfish, bigoted, greedy, mean, cold, ignorant, religious, pragmatic rather than principled... I propose we adopt new terms for the political spectrum rather than 'left'<->'right', namely 'noble'<->'ign…
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #VarietyMix
Tornado Wallace:
🎵 Left at Sunset
#TornadoWallace
https://tornadowallace.bandcamp.com/album/left-at-sunset
https://open.spotify.com/track/7igsV6G1m9raV4mY1UqlEy
After reading the article from The Ditch in relation to the Greens’ Galway West by-election candidate Niall Murphy and due to my own loose affiliation through a Vote Left Transfer Left campaign that he is also involved in, I felt a statement must be made.
The Ditch have highlighted the shares he purchased in his employer, Cisco, a company that is directly partnered with the Israeli government and assists Israeli military operations in Gaza.
1/3
Added Power Grips (pedal straps) to my wife's #Brompton. Not going to say it's my nicest work, but I'm hopeful that it'll hold. I only drilled holes through the plastic reflectors; the metal is all intact. I can change that later if needed. #BikeTooter
"World Cup tickets are crazy expensive, so this airline built a campaign around it"
https://www.famouscampaigns.com/2026/05/world-cup-tickets-are-crazy-expensive-so-this-airline-built-a-campaign-around-it/
Investigation: Jeffrey Epstein spent hundreds of thousands on a campaign to manipulate Google search results and sanitize his Wikipedia, after his 2009 release (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/business/media/jeffrey-epstein-online.html
@… can I offer you a rotated left arrow key in these trying times
It’s Monday morning. Three days left to work this week. Then a long weekend off. Going to be busy though. Final garage clearout on Thursday, and then waste collection coming on Friday. It will be good to have a cleared-out garage, and front yard too! The only thing left will be how to get rid of all the old paint.
A delicious treat to sweeten this #Monday: the bum of Perseus, sculpted by Benvenuto Cellini ca. 1545–1554 CE.
#BumDayMonday
#RenaissanceArt
To some extent, Mohamed Hussein knew he was preparing to enter the lion’s den.
But he made the decision to attend the Republican Party of Texas Convention
to confirm for himself that he had a place in the GOP,
even as members of the party have railed for months about the urgency of ending Sharia Law and the so-called “Islamification” of Texas.
What he found was a party that didn’t want him.
He arrived with hope but left in tears after being told explicitly that …
Der Duft von Sonnenuntergang und Blüten
Das auf dem Foto war heute einer der „schlimmeren“ Radwege - einmal quer durch Montpellier, vom Süden in den Norden und weiter bis Jacou. Wir sind fast durchgängig wie in Kopenhagen auf geschützten Radwegen inklusive geschützter Kreisverkehre geradelt, haben ein bisschen navigiert, und unterhalten, die Aussichten genossen und einen genossen hier und jetzt zu radeln.
Schon stark was Montpellier, Copenhagenize und 3M hier geschaffen haben und …
What's left from SCOTUS, and when to expect it
https://www.lawdork.com/p/whats-left-from-scotus
So much has happened in cyberworld since Friday, so don't miss today's Metacurity for the most critical infosec developments you might have missed over the weekend, including
--Leaders warn that AI bug hunting outpaces humanity’s ability to defend systems,
--Malware strain Fast16 sabotaged nuclear weapons development years before Stuxnet surfaced,
--Grafana Labs rejected hackers' extortion demand,
--DeFi protocol Verus lost nearly $12m in ongoing exploit,
A #waymo in front of me just signaled right then changed lanes to the left.
Sooo safe! Robots never make mistakes! 🫠
Sources: Ramtin Arablouei, co-host and cofounder of NPR podcast Throughline, left the network after it opened an investigation into his workplace conduct (Benjamin Mullin/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/15/business/media/npr-pod…
Magic Moment (when the view finally opens up)
(On the way to Drachensee, October 2023)
#SilentSunday #LandscapePhotography #Alps
In this key by-election, it is essential to defeat Reform Ltd. That means putting aside reservations about Burnham.
Other left parties, in this case, must stand aside
Andy Burnham faces perilous race to win Makerfield byelection, allies say | Labour | The Guardian
htt…
<heart breaking heart breaking heart breaking> 😢
▶️ No One Could Get Near Her…Then Someone Left This Comment
https://youtube.com/watch?v=oSQu58vw4jQ&si=RJe-jiaRoiLL22mN
Have some money left for a good cause this month?
The team behind the landmine clearing hero rats are currently running a fundraiser with a 50% donation match possibility:
https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/support-apopos-herorats-life-saving-miss…
Barney Frank's Second Coming Out (James Kirchick/The Atlantic)
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/05/barney-frank-book-left-trans-rights/687192/
http://www.memeorandum.com/260517/p35#a260517p35
Are you planning flying in the coming months? Consider train...
"The executive director of the International Energy Agency, said there would be flight cancellations “soon” if oil supplies from the Middle East were not restored within the coming weeks.
KLM, part of the Air France-KLM group, said on Thursday it would cut 160 flights in the coming month because of high kerosene jet fuel prices."
Propaganda of the deed generally does the opposite of what it's supposed to do: it alienates rather than activates, destroying the movement it comes from. Until it doesn't. Until it actually sparks a revolution.
But there is a prerequisite for a successful revolution. That is an alternative system to pivot into as the old one collapses. That alternative is *far more dangerous* than any one-off action, up to and including literally killing a king or an emperor.
People will eventually rise up. That's just a matter of time. The question is what's left after everything gets burned down. That's a far more important question than, "is it happening?" It's happening (sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly), what's next?
Hierarchy manifests complexity beyond its ability to manage. We're seeing that now, we will see it more. Distributed authority is more stable. Build a distributed society within the burned out warehouse of the hierarchical one.
Now streaming on Knowledge:ORIGINALS
E.J.Hughes only wanted to be left alone to paint. He made hundreds of paintings in his 70 year career and lived long enough to hear on the telephone that one of his paintings fetched over $1m in his lifetime. Not many humans have that experience!
#BCArtist
This article has the merit of showing that academics don’t have to adopt genAI uncritically, but it treats the uncritical adoption as the default, portraying those that take a more reflective approach as “refusing to use generative AI.”
Shouldn’t the burden of proof be on the AI advocates? And shouldn’t academics’ arguments go beyond regurgitating the companies’ advertising and trite claims of “it’s the future, use it or you’ll get left behind”?
This article has the merit of showing that academics don’t have to adopt genAI uncritically, but it treats the uncritical adoption as the default, portraying those that take a more reflective approach as “refusing to use generative AI.”
Shouldn’t the burden of proof be on the AI advocates? And shouldn’t academics’ arguments go beyond regurgitating the companies’ advertising and trite claims of “it’s the future, use it or you’ll get left behind”?
This article has the merit of showing that academics don’t have to adopt genAI uncritically, but it treats the uncritical adoption as the default, portraying those that take a more reflective approach as “refusing to use generative AI.”
Shouldn’t the burden of proof be on the AI advocates? And shouldn’t academics’ arguments go beyond regurgitating the companies’ advertising and trite claims of “it’s the future, use it or you’ll get left behind”?
Still don't know what's happening with the wee one. There was a MEETING today but we haven't heard the results yet. I am leaving for Civic in an hour, and husband was planning to drop my friend and me off at the nearest Rapid bus stop before making his way north to pick up the wee one from preschool. Left a message at CYF explaining our movements and that we need to know what's been decided (if anything) but haven't heard anything yet. Interesting times.
(LinkedIn) In a review of 55 cases of cortical blindness, vivid imagery was repeatedly preserved despite complete or near-complete bilateral V1 damage. When imagery was impaired, lesions extended beyond V1, often into ventral temporal cortex. https://www.
Me, trying to fit in with the Gen Ys by cursing out a thoughtless driver
#Shitpost #Shitposting #ShamelesslyStolenFromSomewhereElseOnTheInternetHonestlyICantKeepTrackOfThisStuffAnymore
IMPRS doctoral researcher Meghna Dutta and her colleagues happily presenting their posters with possible Master thesis projects at the CIDAS market place on Göttingen Campus today. Meghna made a great poster, and the group is thrilled by all the exciting discussions they are having with students!
#GWDG #CIDAS
And it is a bloated, hard to use product. We moved to Adobe PDF from Foxit. Every boot it launches its crap to ensure you have a license. Multiple popups. Scanning the indexes stalls for 30 to sixty seconds just about every click. When I rebuild the documentation indexes after a release now takes several days where Foxit did it in an hour. And that is on a gigabit network. When on VPN it takes a full five days.
Finally, Volkswagen is launching a V2G tariff in Germany. It is now scheduled for launch in Q4 2026.
Although Volkswagen was the first German car manufacturer to release bidirectional charging functionality in their vehicles, they are now behind BMW, Mercedes and Ford (whose EVs use VW technology) in terms of announcing an actual charger and tariff bundle.
Wonderfully grown-up from Ken Loach about Your Party https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/may/17/ken-loach-your-party-infighting-jeremy-corbyn-zarah-sultana but the @…
It's funny to me how yes I was like "Tomorrow I need to do X and then Y and afterwards I should do Z, if there is any spare time left" and today I just stare into the void while trying to remember what I wanted to do.
(It's actually not funny, it's hella annoying 🫠)
Kinda related to #Gentoo, so cool" or "they stopped using it, so sad". And I'm like, "why should we care?"
Do they donate money to Gentoo? They don't. And if they did, it would probably come with obligations making this not worth it.
Do they contribute back? Rarely, and if they do, they are unreliable. They benefit more than we do. They just want to dump the packages they need, quickly duct taped together, so that we would maintain them going forward. Their employees rarely reveal that they're paid to do this, and if they do, it's not so they'd be held to higher standards, but to emphasize their importance: "you must placate us."
Well, sometimes they hire Gentoo developers. It's nice that these developers get some gratification for their work, especially if they're able to continue contributing on work time. But in the end, company priorities win. We are either left with loads of new packages with no maintainer and unclear significance, or a Google employee who appeared every once in a while to dump a bunch of ChromeOS patches and never bothered handling the fallout.
So, sorry, but I'd rather care for volunteers who want to make Gentoo better, than companies who see some profit incentive in it.
PS. I'm probably focusing too much on the negative aspects, and we likely had some positive interactions that are far less known and usually don't meet with such fanfare.
#FreeSoftware
🇺🇦 Auf radioeins läuft...
The Avalanches:
🎵 Since I Left You
#NowPlaying #TheAvalanches
https://open.spotify.com/track/2DgFCys3XMrWZDngu1CrRy
Worried about the "violent rhetoric of the left", while the US government releases an image of what it would look like if they nuked Ireland, presumably to convey a threat.
"President #Trump lost. The war he waged against Iran promises to conclude in a humbling whimper with the signing of a cease-fire agreement later this week. The United States is left weaker—diminished militarily, strategically, economically, and perhaps morally." THE ATLANTIC
We are fucked.
#AMOC #ClimateChange
Regulators in Europe were largely left out of the loop as Anthropic limited the release of its latest model Mythos to select companies and organizations (Politico)
https://www.politico.eu/article/anthropic-apple-microsoft-europe-left-in-the-…
Cowboys $96 Million Star Makes Feelings Clear on Position Change https://heavy.com/sports/nfl/dallas-cowboys/tyler-smith-left-tackle-guyton/
#LeftWordle fans:
I have a page up at https://left-wordle.com/retire-words.html that contains my approximation of the current NYT Wordle's answer list.
If you're interested in …
Quartet 👁️🗨️
四重奏 👁️🗨️
📷 Nikon F4E
🎞️ Ilford Pan 400
If you like my work, Support by buying me a coffee or a roll of film from
PayPal https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/ydcdingsite
Wise
crime: Rosenfeld crime network (1991)
A network of associations among suspects, victims, and/or witnesses involved in crimes in St. Louis in the 1990s. Data are derived from police records, via snowball sampling from five initial homicides. Left nodes are people, right nodes are crime events, and edges connect people to particular crimes events they were associated with. Metadata includes names, genders, and roles (suspects, victims, and/or witnesses).
This network has 1380 nodes…
"DB will let you down. It will also, more often than the internet would have you believe, deliver you eight hours of clean uninterrupted thinking time at 250 km/h across a country, drop you within walking distance of your next meeting, and occasionally reroute you down the left bank of the Rhine at golden hour as an apology. The trick is to plan for the first and enjoy the second.'
The most useful hints I've ever seen for our summer holiday planning...
https://blog.hofstede.it/a-field-manual-for-three-years-on-deutsche-bahn/
"I want to establish a wide range and play all kinds of parts. It's that sort of acting career I really respect. I like to turn a sharp left from whatever I've done before because that keeps me awake. That's why I want to be an actor - I don't want to play endless variations on one character."
—Tim Curry
#acting
Cleveland Browns 2026 NFL Draft odds: Clear priorities at wide receiver, left tackle at No. 6 pick
https://www.cbssports.com/betting/news/cle
If you are a middle aged man and need to feel better about your mid-life dad bod, just pull out some Super8mm film of you as a rolly-polly baby. lol
Checking some 8mm film I was given recently by my dad (left). A full viewing and eventual recording/digitizing will be required at some point soon!
This would be from spring or summer 1978.
#Family #8mm #film
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #VarietyMix
Thundercat:
🎵 What Is Left to Say
#Thundercat
https://thundercat.bandcamp.com/track/what-is-left-to-say-feat-the-lemon-twigs
https://open.spotify.com/track/3enDijqNJTZuAQpj1Jm6q6
Donna Miller comes out on top of crowded Illinois 2nd Congressional District race
-- defeating Jessie Jackson Jr.
Miller will likely replace U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly in the heavily Democratic district.
The only Republican candidate on the primary ballot was Mike Noack.
http…
RE: https://mastodon.social/@404mediaco/116755666523818234
I went to see it last night with my son. I left the movie thinking that this might have worked 10-20 years ago, but not today. It was a good movie, I guess. Nothing I'd want to see again.
Joey Ramone passed away on this day (April 15) in 2001. Joey no longer walks Earth (and Dee Dee and Johnny are no longer with us either), but the unreal music he and they left behind is immortal, and it will fucking blast and rip forever. It still blows my mind I was briefly on Earth at the same time as this man, this legend, Jeffrey Hyman.
Here's a writeup Ultimate Classic Rock put up today on Joey and the Ramones for the 25th anniversary of his passing:
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on #BBC6Music's #RadcliffeAndMaconie
Pet Shop Boys:
🎵 Left to My Own Devices (Introspective Extended Version)
#PetShopBoys
https://djsonixx.bandcamp.com/track/pet-shop-boys-left-to-my-own-devices-ext-intro-orig-remix-v-2-127-bpm
https://open.spotify.com/track/4bwXQApS6ZupSiwUa4otmQ
Habt ihr eure Ferien schon (um)geplant?
Europe has 'maybe 6 weeks of jet fuel left,' energy agency head tells the AP https://apnews.com/article/iran-war-europe-jet-fuel-flight-cancellations-birol-6e67fafd493861b3858de554…
»Align to page«. And then the object snaps on either 0.07cm or -0.02cm off the left page border. Microsoft Office, enterprise grade software. #uxfromhell
I got quite a few photos Tuesday for which I didn't give somebody a token but I am prioritizing portraits for processing since I know people are waiting for them; here is a wide angle of the four season garden in the ILR courtyard with a class discussing outdoors
#photo #photography
Ray drops a VERY sobering look at Xbox's business. In 2018, Xbox acquired dozens of studios to create compelling games to drive Xbox & Xbox Game Pass.
After 8yrs, what have they got to show for it?
Now you know why they're cutting game studios left & right.
▶️ What is going on at Xbox today?? - Xbox Ready
After EV maker Fisker's collapse, ~4,000 car owners formed a nonprofit to keep their cars working by reverse-engineering software and building open-source tools (Fred Lambert/Electrek)
https://electrek.co/2026/05/16/fisker-ocean-open-source-ev-story-aft…
Trump Calls Xi a 'Friend.' But He Left China Without Any Breakthroughs. (Anton Troianovski/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/16/world/europe/trump-xi-china-summit.html
http://www.memeorandum.com/260516/p38#a260516p38
I remember speaking to someone who, maybe a decade ago, worked at a ride share app company.
They left shortly after a meeting in which the company was looking at ways to slow cities from investing in their public transport.
On its face a business or technology might not be objectionable, but there's an inevitability to the direction that investment demands.
The Substance IV 🧪
某种物质 IV 🧪
📷 Nikon F4E
🎞️ Harman Switch Azure (FF)
If you like my work, Support by buying me a coffee or a roll of film from PayPal https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/ydcdingsite
Nate Thomas opens up about Cowboys' open competition at left tackle https://www.dallascowboys.com/news/nate-thomas-opens-up-about-cowboys-open-competition-at-left-tackle
Noam Shazeer leaves Google to join OpenAI as lead for architecture research; he rejoined Google in 2024 as part of the Character.AI deal and was Gemini co-lead (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/star-google-ai-researcher-shazeer-j…
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #SeekAndDestroy
Left Cross:
🎵 The Blood of Mars
#LeftCross
https://open.spotify.com/track/1i6d9KAcg7EA60bWIwJlk9
AP Exclusive: Europe has 'maybe 6 weeks of jet fuel left,' energy agency head warns (John Leicester/Associated Press)
https://apnews.com/article/iran-war-europe-jet-fuel-flight-cancellations-birol-6e67fafd493861b3858de5548aa77703
http://www.memeorandum.com/260416/p93#a260416p93
My Sakura strategy this year was to look for people who were taking pictures and ask "would you like a group portrait?"
#photo #photography #flowers
Bad news from Kerala.
But it's happened before and the left will be back.
India loses its last left-wing government after five decades | Politics News | Al Jazeera
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/4/in…
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on #BBC6Music's #Afrodeutsche
Murkage Dave & KONOPINKSY:
🎵 Generation Left on Read
#MurkageDave #KONOPINKSY
https://murkagedave.bandcamp.com/album/generation-left-on-read
https://open.spotify.com/track/4fZWZkdfQoI2T5tCzGFOla
Nate Thomas opens up about Cowboys' open competition at left tackle https://www.dallascowboys.com/news/nate-thomas-opens-up-about-cowboys-open-competition-at-left-tackle
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #VarietyMix
Woods:
🎵 Moving to the Left
#Woods
https://open.spotify.com/track/74NCGV3sWtLtub4p4b1BRe
Quartet ♾️
四重奏 ♾️
📷 Nikon F4E
🎞️ Ilford Pan 400
If you like my work, Support by buying me a coffee or a roll of film from
PayPal https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/ydcdingsite
Wise
Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell’s abrupt exit from the race for California governor
— then his announcement he would leave Congress
— left his rivals scrambling to lock down his former supporters in a crowded contest with no clear leader,
injecting more turmoil into the campaign to lead the nation’s most populous state.
Swalwell’s decision to suspend his campaign Sunday followed allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman twice,
including when she worked for him…
Sources: 50 researchers and engineers have left xAI since the SpaceX acquisition via layoffs, firings, and voluntary departures; many have joined Meta and TML (Theo Wayt/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/spacex…
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #VarietyMix
Fred again..:
🎵 Last 1s Left
#Fredagain
One of my favorite cherry trees on campus next to the A.D. White House garden with a student and family -- taken with the Laowa 9mm
#photo #photography #flowers
Jacob Rodriguez Gushes Over Christian Parker, Dallas Cowboys Staff Ahead Of NFL Draft https://www.si.com/nfl/cowboys/onsi/jacob-rodriguez-gushes-over-christian-parker-dallas-cowboys-staff-nfl-draft
Europe has “maybe six weeks or so” of remaining jet fuel supplies,
the head of the International Energy Agency said Thursday in a wide-ranging interview,
warning of possible flight cancellations “soon” if oil supplies remain blocked by the Iran war.
IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol painted a sobering picture of the global repercussions of what he called
“the largest energy crisis we have ever faced,”
stemming from the pinch-off of oil, gas and other vital suppl…
Nearly a million passports and photo IDs were left unprotected on the public internet
They were all sitting unprotected at public URLs, with no password or access control of any sort.
If I sent you a link, you could have looked at someone’s passport.
“We have to do something about it as fast as possible, because people will find this and resell it.
It will do damage,”
Sammy Azdoufal told me in May.
Azdoufal is the security researcher who used Claude Code…
A Muslim Texan sought to find his place in the party at the state GOP convention. He left in tears. (Renzo Downey/The Texas Tribune)
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/06/15/texas-republican-party-convention-muslims-sharia-law/
http://www.memeorandum.com/260615/p90#a260615p90
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #VarietyMix
Thundercat:
🎵 You Left Without Saying Goodbye
#Thundercat
https://thundercat.bandcamp.com/track/you-left-without-saying-goodbye
https://open.spotify.com/track/52EW9hDF3NLRRlrDziCmrG
Sources: Jensen Huang was left out of President Trump's China trip to avoid unwanted scrutiny and awkward conversations about the sale of Nvidia chips to China (Semafor)
https://www.semafor.com/article/05/12/2026/nvidia-snubb…
Rep. Harriet Hageman insists that there is no racism on the right
and that the Aryan Nation, Nazis, and KKK are all "far-left groups"
https://www.peoplefor.org/rightwingwatch/rep-harriet-hageman-insists-there-no-racism-right…
Sundar Pichai faced a walkout at his Stanford commencement speech, as 100 students left amid chants of "Free, free Palestine" over Google's ties with Israel (Zain Khan/New York Post)
https://nypost.com/2026/06/14/us-ne…