Tootfinder

The universal icon for LLMs have become sparkles, as in "magic," which is, perhaps apt because it's ultimately mostly illusion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKcBYI82_28
I think, perhaps, it should instead be a reverse ouroboros. I can't think of a more apt iconography for LLMs than a snake infinitely shoving it's head further and further up it's own ass.

There is a word for this ... and that word is "Viet Nam".
'President Donald Trump said that Hamas “is going to disarm” but if they don’t the US would act to disarm them “quickly and perhaps violently.”'
https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsf…

I was supposed to go home via Wrocław.
But then, I thought: perhaps I could change trains in Legnica, Głogów and Leszno? Turns out, I can do that.
And then, I thought: I've got a long ait in Głogów, perhaps I should add a change in Rudna? Well, I can do that as well.
Of course, there's an increased risk that I'll end up being stuck somewhere along the way.
#rail

I wrote a blog post that could be seen as depressing, but I think it's full of hope and perhaps you'll agree.
I'd like to hear what you think.
https://rasterweb.net/raster/2025/12/16/the-book-of-pete/

Holy shit, it’s @… !
You might remember him from such hits as co-founding evolt•org at the end of the last century. Or perhaps for tracking Ontario and Toronto history. Or maybe the Doomsday Algorithm. Or possibly tracking Torontohenge.

@… I may have missed it but are you not using the youtube-nocookie domain? I know it’s only partially useful but are you just not bothering with it on purpose perhaps?

"daily struggle" - a tad understated perhaps given its nothing but rubble?
https://flipboard.com/@associatedpress/international-news-miluvhmaz/-/a-BfFN493NTfyNBnTVhjAryg:a:3199720-/0

The last few years have seen a veritable onslaught of the Supreme Court overturning major precedent
—precedent that concerned hot-button issues,
spawned huge bodies of law on which lower courts now rely,
stood for 50 years,
and had been reaffirmed multiple times by previous Courts.
And perhaps most gallingly,
the Supreme Court has claimed that these overturnings were justified by the “correct” readings of history
— expressly paving the way for Trump…

This looks interesting!
Duda putting on a mega webinar about conversions. And perhaps this will wake up some people who are still measuring their marketing efforts, the old way and not taking into account all the ways AI is changing the landscape!
https://www.duda.co/webinars/conversions-o

I can't see how anything could possibly go wrong with this #MentalHealth

Reducing (some of) the #EV benefits is never a popular measure. Perhaps that is why it is being introduced now, after the recent elections.
At the same time, the incentive remains in place, because the purchase tax on fossil fuel engines is also increasing, as are fuel taxes.

Not exactly “racing” the darkness, but perhaps more “pursued” by way of anguished plodding.
They’re doing construction on the school track I like to run on after dark, so now I have to be more intentional about when and where I run. 🏃‍♂️ 🌙
#Running

And you don't need to accept the trap of authoritarian masculinity on logic alone, the proof is right there in male influencers like Andrew Tate and their followers. These dipshits get so obsessed with gatekeeping they don't realize that the gates they're tending keep them in, that the more walls they put up to protect their privilege, the smaller their identity can be. They huddle in tiny pens, terrified of crossing imaginary bounds that they imposed *on themselves.*
They have built their own torture chambers and locked themselves inside, and for what? They turn themselves into dragons, hoarding what they see as valuable while repressing every emotion including joy. And if they let themselves experience joy, they would, perhaps, realize that all these privileges are inconsistent with it. They might, perhaps, recognize that they have built up these privileges so they don't have to admit that their suffering and fear are not, in fact, admirable. They might have to face the fact that they have lived lives that are deeply pathetic, might have to face the fact that only empathy can give one access to deep satisfaction, might have to face the fact that they have lived their whole lives on a treadmill, going nowhere.
But I assume that they won't ever do that, because to do so would force them to face the enormity of the emotional debt, the pain and suffering they have inflicted on the world, and those are big feelings. It's far easier to hide in a hole, forever alone, making up silly rules to keep everyone inside scared and keep everyone outside from seeing in.

I installed v26 of #Apple's OS updates about 24h ago, and it's not been catastrophic. A couple of very minor UI glitches, perhaps, that’ll be fixed in the next patch.
I think of Windows users out there, stoically enduring what's basically a malware distribution platform, and by comparison, I find Apple users’ months-long orgy of entitled diaper-shitting—LONG preceding this major releas…

The Talos Principle 2 (Multi, XPd on a Linux OS PC) As 1k, the newest (and perhaps last) member of the reborn humanity, you set off on an expedition to explore a Mega Structure on a remote island. What you find could alter humanity's course forever.
So, (spoilers) as a direct sequel to the now 11yr old 1st game, you play as a new "human" that has left the Simulation and been incorporated into a body in the Real World. As human number 1000, you are the culmination of "…

“She also appears to have made another astonishing error, Judge Fitzpatrick said. In his ruling, he pointed out that she told grand jurors that they did not have to rely solely “on the record before them” to return an indictment against Mr. Comey, but instead “could be assured the government had more evidence — perhaps better evidence — that would be presented at trial.”
Wow. I’ve served as a grand juror. That’s misconduct.

If you're unclear on why you have to load the video before you can play it it's because the first load only loads the image, title and channel name to make the page itself load much faster.

The person viewing is then allowed to make a more considered choice before activating the video. Perhaps you want to open the link an incognito window instead for example.

One great bonus to this embed is that it shows way less ads, if any.

The implications are interesting enough when we apply this to systems like capitalism or national governments, but there are other very interesting implications when applied to systems like race or gender.
Like, as a cis man the only way I can be free to express and explore my own masculinity is if the masculinity I participate in is one which allows anyone the freedom to leave. Then I have an obligation to recognize the validity of nom-masculine trans identity as a necessary component of my own. If I fail to do this, then I trap myself in masculinity and allow the system to control me rather than me to be a free participant in the system.
But if it's OK to escape but not enter, that's it's own restriction that constrains the freedom to leave. It creates a barrier that keeps people in by the fear that they cannot return. So in order for me to be free in my cis masculine identity, I must accept non-masculine trans identities as they are and accept detransitioning as also valid.
But I also need to accept trans-masc identities because restricting entry to my masculinity means non-consensually constraining other identities. If every group imposes an exclusion against others coming in, that, by default, makes it impossible to leave every other group. This is just a description of how national borders work to trap people within systems, even if a nation itself allows people to "freely" leave.
So then, a free masculinity is one which recognizes all configurations of trans identities as valid and welcomes, if not celebrates, people who transition as affirmations of the freedom of their own identity (even for those who never feel a reason to exercise that same freedom).
The most irritating type of white person may look at this and say, "oh, so then why can't I be <not white>?" Except that the critique of transratial identities has never been "that's not allowed" and has always been "this person didn't do the work." If that person did the work, they would understand that the question doesn't make sense based on how race is constructed. That person might understand that race, especially whiteness, is more fluid than they at first understood. They might realize that whiteness is often chosen at the exclusion of other racialized identities. They would, perhaps, realize that to actually align with any racialized identity, they would first have to understand the boot of whiteness on their neck, have to recognize the need to destroy this oppressive identity for their own future liberation. The best, perhaps only, way to do this would be to use the privilege afforded by that identity to destroy it, and in doing so would either destroy their own privilege or destroy the system of privilege. The must either become themselves completely ratialized or destroy the system of race itself such being "transracial" wouldn't really make sense anymore.
But that most annoying of white person would, of course, not do any such work. Nevertheless, one hopes that they may recognize the paradox that they are trapped by their white identity, forced forever by it to do the work of maintaining it. And such is true for all privileged identities, where privilege is only maintained through restrictions where these restrictions ultimately become walls that imprison both the privileged and the marginalized in a mutually reinforcing hell that can only be escaped by destroying the system of privilege itself.

If Switzerland has to invest $200B in the US, perhaps they could turn Nevada into a Cocoa plantation and bring down the price of chocolate.

Is it just me? Perhaps because I often have only one or two tabs open - I'm a compulsive tab closer. But the new UI in macOS Safari for handling tabs wastes space, is hard to use, and confuses me constantly about where the URL box is and such. I am unsure why it passed muster at product review time.
Perhaps it works well for others. But even if you always have more than one tab open, it still wastes vertical space.

Worried about turning 60? Science says that’s when many of us actually peak https://theconversation.com/worried-about-turning-60-science-says-thats-when-many-of-us-actually-peak-267215
Well, this is fucking go…

The nature and evolution of a-C(:H) nanoparticle substructures and speculations on the origin of the 3-4$\mu$m emission bands
Ant Jones
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.13119 https://…

The Second (or perhaps 3rd) Most Important Technology by Hank Green
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4dYGdjgsz8

Just finished "Beasts Made of Night" by Tochi Onyebuchi...
Indirect CW for fantasy police state violence.
So I very much enjoyed Onyebuchi's "Riot Baby," and when I grabbed this at the library, I was certain it would be excellent. But having finished it, I'm not sure I like it that much overall?
The first maybe third is excellent, including the world-building, which is fascinating. I feel like Onyebuchi must have played "Shadow of the Colossus" at some point. Onyebuchi certainly does know how to make me care for his characters.
Some spoilers from here on out...
.
.
.
I felt like it stumbles towards the middle, with Bo's reactions neither making sense in the immediate context, nor in retrospect by the end when we've learned more. Things are a bit floaty in the middle with an unclear picture of what exactly is going on politics-wise and what the motivations are. Here I think there were some nuances that didn't make it to the page, or perhaps I'm just a bit thick and not getting stuff I should be? More is of course revealed by the end, but I still wasn't satisfied with the explanations of things. For example, (spoilers) I don't feel I understand clearly what kind of power the army of aki was supposed to represent within the city? Perhaps necessary to wield the threat of offensive inisisia use? In that case, a single scene somewhere of Izu's faction deploying that tactic would have been helpful I think.
Then towards the end, for me things really started to jumble, with unclear motivations, revelations that didn't feel well-paced or -structured, and a finale where both the action & collapsing concerns felt stilted and disjointed. Particularly the mechanics/ethics of the most important death that set the finale in motion bothered me, and the unexplained mechanism by which that led to what came next? I can read a couple of possible interesting morals into the whole denouement, but didn't feel that any of them were sufficiently explored. Especially if we're supposed to see some personal failing in the protagonist's actions, I don't think it's made clear enough what that is, since I feel his reasons to reject each faction are pretty solid, and if we're meant to either pity or abjure his indecision, I don't think the message lands clearly enough.
There *is* a sequel, which honestly I wasn't sure of after the last page, and which I now very interested in. Beasts is Onyebuchi's debut, which maybe makes sense of me feeling that Riot Baby didn't have the same plotting issues. It also maybe means that Onyebuchi couldn't be sure a sequel would make it to publication in terms of setting up the ending.
Overall I really enjoyed at least 80% of this, but was expecting even better (especially politically) given Onyebuchi's other work, and I didn't feel like I found it.
#AmReading

#ShamelesslyStolenFromTumblr #Shitpost #Shitposting

Can you even imagine, if #Carlin was still alive, under #Trump ?: https://blog.rmendes.net/2025/10/14/ca

Listening to the Drilled podcast this morning, I am reminded that we who think of ourselves as climate activists do not bear the responsibility for saving the planet -- and should not bear the guilt of passing the point of no return -- on our own.
It is everyone's responsibility -- and perhaps especially, it's those who see themselves as national or world leaders' responsibility.
Yes, we've failed the big test. But we're not alone.

comes off as perhaps too comfortable marching to the beat of his own drum.

Cowboys Cut Ties With 3rd-Year WR Amid CeeDee Lamb Chatter https://heavy.com/sports/nfl/dallas-cowboys/jalen-cropper-wr-amid-ceedee-lamb-chatter/?adt_ei=[email]

Trump said Tuesday that the United States could step in to disarm Hamas
— “quickly and perhaps violently”
— if the organization did not do so itself,
a potential vulnerability in a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement
that has tentatively brought an end to two years of war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Hamas, which has controlled Gaza for nearly two decades,
has not yet publicly agreed to or signed anything that specifies how it will disarm,
though …

Well that was festively fantastic (or perhaps festively frightful). Anyway, till the next time poppers. #TOTP

Perhaps the silver lining to the UK no longer being in the European Union is that it offers the opportunity to look at developments that are progressing at a different pace in the EU.
Here:
how clean consumer flexibility - EVs, heat pumps - can support the local grid, if allow it to.

Really feeling the slowness of #fsharp compilation process. I am surprised they haven't made more progress in this area but I am sure I am not understanding the full complexities involved - or perhaps it's not a big enough issue to warrant too much attention. Either way. The only thing that's missing for this beautiful ecosystem of f#/.net world in my book.

Finished Altered States (1980) and it's a cool movie, but I can't get over how ridiculous it is to suggest tripping and using a sensory deprivation tank would cause genetic changes 😂 Definitely has the feel of some almost paranormal type stuff. The worst part might be how badly he treats his wife 😒
https://boxd.it/1TBi

Hello there! Sorry I’ve been dumping annoying news things the last while here instead of chit chatting.
I really like it here and enjoy it, perhaps, most of any online text box.
But, regrettably, circumstances have conspired to require me to make a living. This takes up an inordinate amount of time. So, the best I have been able to manage is to drop newsy bits or Gist links.
I hope, like all of my vintage, that next month will quieten down a bit.

Fun observation: The CONFIG and CALIB registers on the PIC12F683 contain 12 documented bits each.
The physical die layout, however, contains 25 fuse cell instances not 24. So there is one undocumented bit, perhaps a chicken bit for something or an extra calibration setting, or maybe a parity check over some or all of the other fuses.
If it's an actual config bit my money is on bit 5 of CALIB which is documented as unimplemented/RAZ.
Maybe it's not? Or maybe it's…

"Perhaps, having lost so many [cultural] battles at home, it is easier on the ego to look abroad for societies to redeem. The attack on Europe is a disguised self-reproach"?
Maga’s strange rage against Europe - https://giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/redeem/3e97fb8e-4b48-41f0-b193-ed599f3f60b3 via @FT

Actually, I do want to come back to masculinity under patriarchy and whiteness under white supremacy because I think it's worth talking more about. The "man" under patriarchy (at least "Western" patriarchy) is represented as power and independence. The man needs nothing and thus owes nothing to anyone. The man controls and is not controlled, which is intimately related to independence as dependence can make someone vulnerable to control. The image of "man" projects power and invulnerability. At the same time "man" is a bumbling fool who can't be held accountable for his inability to control his sexual urges. He must be fed and cared for, as though another child. His worst behaviors must be dismissed with phrases such as "boys will be boys" and "locker room talk." The absurdity of the concept of human "independence" is impossible to understate.
Even if you go all Ted Kaczynski, you have still been raised and taught. This is, perhaps, why it is so much more useful to think in terms of obligations than rights. Rights can be claimed and protected with violence alone, but obligations reveal the true interdependence that sustains us. A "man" may assert his rights. Yet, on some level, we all know that the "man" of patriarchy acts as a child who is not mature enough to recognize his obligations.
White violence and white fragility reflect the same dichotomy. "The master race" somehow always needs brown folks to make all their shit and do all the reproductive labor for them. For those who fully embrace whiteness, the "safe space" is a joke. DEI shows weakness. Yet, when presented with an honest history adults become children who are incapable of differentiating between criticism and simple facts. *They* become the ones who must be kept safe. The expectation to be responsible for one's own words and actions, one of the very core definitions of being an adult, is far too much to expect. Their guilt needs room, needs tending, needs caring. White people cannot simply "grow the fuck up" or, as they may say of slavery, "fucking get over it."
And again, interestingly, it is *rights* that they reference: "Mah Freeze PEACH!" I find it hard to distinguish between such and my own child's assertion that anything she doesn't like is "not fair!" No, these assertions fail to recognize the fundamental fabric of adult society: the obligations we hold to each other.
At the intersection of all privilege is the sovereign, the ultimate god-man-baby. Again, referencing the essay (https://hexmhell.writeas.com/observations-on-domination-and-trump)
> This is where it becomes important to consider the ideology behind the sovereign ritual. Participation within the sovereign ritual denotes to the participants elements of the sovereign. That is, all agents of the sovereign are, essentially, micro dictators. By carrying out the will of the sovereign, these micro dictators can, by extension, act outside of the law.
While law enforcement is the ultimate representative of sovereign violence, privileges allow a gradated approximation of the sovereign. Those who are "closer" in privilege to the sovereign may, for example, be permitted to carry out violence against those who are father away. The gradation of privilege turns the whole society, except for the least privileged, into a cult that protects the privilege system on behalf of the most privileged. (And immediately Malcolm X pops to mind as having already talked about part of this relationship in 1963 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf7rsCAfQCo.)

A new puzzle: normally in #XOrg I can blank the screen with "xset dpms force off" and with KDE/Plasma I could bind this to a hot key, but in Gnome #Ubuntu 25.10 using #XFCE4 it will work from inside a terminal, but as a hotkey it blanks, pauses, then refreshes the screens. Why would this be? Or perhaps, is there a prefered method to instantly blank all screens in XFCE-4? Not to lock, just to turn them off.

#ChatGPT is killing me a little bit with the way it loads Projects. It doesn't seem to cache them on the client so every time you try to view your projects it loads them bit by bit...and it's painful.
Is anyone aware of a ChatGPT client that downloads projects and perhaps has other functionality I'd be interested in? 🙂
#question #ai #openai

When you say "we don't need user research, I already know what users want" this is what you look like
#ux #UXDesign #userresearch

A US Federal person would be sanctioned for the costs and perhaps prosecuted if he were to check out a motor-pool car and then proceed to give it to a junkyard to be dismantled.
So why is the US not being sanctioned for the cost of converting US Federal property - the East Wing - to his personal use and sending it to the wrecker?
I do hope that if we ever get past the maga era that our government goes after to ill doers to recoup at least part of the vast damage that they have do…

50 years ago tonight, the jerry garcia band in #berkeley, the 1st of 2 fun shows featuring muscle shoals session player tim henson on 2nd keyboards, perhaps in town to contribute to garcia’s in-progress “reflections” sessions. also the 1st full soundboard of the new garcia band:

Perhaps they'll have to change their brand name to Beyond Dead Animals now?
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/10/08/when-is-a-sausage-no-longer-a-sausage-european-parliament-answers-a…

The Application of Imagination: Where Thought Becomes Matter
Imagination without application remains a private theater, brilliant perhaps, but ultimately sterile. The history of human achievement suggests that genius resides not in the capacity to imagine alone, but in the peculiar ability to transform mental constructs into material reality. This transformation requires something more demanding than pure creativity: it requires the discipline to translate vision into…

Australia never disappoints - crocodiles that climbed trees
"Some were also apparently at least partly semi-arboreal 'drop crocs,'"
"They were perhaps hunting like leopards—dropping out of trees on any unsuspecting thing they fancied for dinner." #straya

There's a word at the beginning and end of Dawn of Everything that feels self-referential right now: Kairos.
> We began this book with a quote which refers to the Greek notion of kairos as one of those occasional moments in a society’s history when its frames of reference undergo a shift – a metamorphosis of the fundamental principles and symbols, when the lines between myth and history, science and magic become blurred – and, therefore, real change is possible. Philosophers sometimes like to speak of ‘the Event’ – a political revolution, a scientific discovery, an artistic masterpiece – that is, a breakthrough which reveals aspects of reality that had previously been unimaginable but, once seen, can never be unseen. If so, kairos is the kind of time in which Events are prone to happen.
> Societies around the world appear to be cascading towards such a point. This is particularly true of those which, since the First World War, have been in the habit of calling themselves ‘Western’. On the one hand, fundamental breakthroughs in the physical sciences, or even artistic expression, no longer seem to occur with anything like the regularity people came to expect in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Yet at the same time, our scientific means of understanding the past, not just our species’ past but that of our planet, has been advancing with dizzying speed. Scientists in 2020 are not (as readers of mid-twentieth-century science fiction might have hoped) encountering alien civilizations in distant star systems; but they are encountering radically different forms of society under their own feet, some forgotten and newly rediscovered, others more familiar, but now understood in entirely new ways.
Reading this as I write something very inspired by this work feels especially serendipitous, especially at this time. When they wrote the book, I think that kairos felt more serendipitous itself. But as the frequency of opportunity increases, the veil between realities feels more malleable... that perhaps we can poke a finger through and open a portal to a completely different future than the one we've felt locked into for such a long time.
https://anarchoccultism.org/building-zion/the-coordinated-swarm-lyhr

Every now and then I open my junk drawers (yes, plural) and look at what I have there. While it’s mostly old cables and chargers, there’s enough other stuff that I think «I should go through all that stuff. Someday.» And then I put things back and close it up again…

In YouTube TV-ESPN impasse, perhaps the Eagles and Packers can bring sides together https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6782284/2025/11/06/youtubetv-espn-disney-alphabet-google-nfl/

RE: https://hachyderm.io/@thomasfuchs/115510783495155340
One thing that, to my surprise, sells really quickly is old computer books from the 1980s (stuff like "Machine Programs for the Apple II").
I guess perhaps they're cheap to ship (in the US, the post office has a special low rate for packages with books or music) and nice small treats for people?
Regardless, it's a nice win, I free up space and get some pocket money, the books go to someone who will love and care for them. :)

I've been reminded how completely terrible some people are this week and I don't like it one bit.
I guess I am just amazed (though maybe I shouldn't be?) at how much people do not give one shit about other human beings.
Perhaps it's not surprise the world is in the state it is in right now...
But! I can't give up and I won't give in... I know there are good people out there, people who care about others, and want to build a better world... and that&…

@… I realised that's perhaps not something you want to disclose. Best of luck though and you're always welcome to ask me anything. 😊

Now perhaps might be a good time for the reminder of a truth always obscured:
Black People (not Black "women" -- ALL BLACK PEOPLE - you have to watch how they do black men dirty here) are the practical always-voting correctly BASE of the Democratic party -- which in turn makes them the moral center of voting in America.
#uspol

Earth-Like Planets Are More Common Than We Thought, Study Says https://www.404media.co/earth-like-planets-are-more-common-than-we-thought-study-says/

What’s Where?
In this blog, I mostly post things on which I have an opinion, or perhaps a discussion that I want to start or continue. I also have a blog at where I'll post more of the daily activity type of stuff, although I certainly do not post to it daily! I also have a micro.blog account at the contents of which get federated around very platforms, such as Mastadon, BlueSky and Threads. I'm currently building a photography website at So, have a wander around, and,…

🫘 Caffeine blocks adenosine, the same pathway used by fast-acting depression treatments
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11-caffeine-blocks-adenosine-pathway-fast.html

Series C, Episode 03 - Volcano
AVON: If they have been picked up, perhaps I won't be. [Stands in teleport bay.]
VILA: I'd rather be picked up than burned up.
CALLY: Ready?
AVON: Yes. Put me down.
[Obsidian surface, near volcano]
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/303/221

If Lingua Franca had survived, we would be much better off. Perhaps we would not even have Trump, or at least Trump 2.

@… The Wikipedia page for it perhaps? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma
That’s about the only result I would expect.

I'm spending a lot of time looking at #SanFrancisco's proposed #FamilyZoningPlan. Perhaps that's why reading about Pope Leo XIV's just released Dilexi Te (

I'm spending a lot of time looking at #SanFrancisco's proposed #FamilyZoningPlan. Perhaps that's why reading about Pope Leo XIV's just released Dilexi Te (

Perfect cartoon from @…
#Humour #Politics #AusPol

Just finished "Endgames" by Ru Xu, sequel to "Newsprints." I was happy to see the characters from the first book get their endings, but Xu feels incredibly out of her depth writing about the politics of empire and the power/complicity of the press, which completely dampened my enjoyment.
As just one example, there's a ton of interesting nuance to explore behind the idea of a disabled imperial ruler and how disadvantage/persecution (from which you have been effectively shielded) does not justify harming others. This book explores none of that.
I think it does serve as a great example of how severely one limits one's own imagination when one buys into the myth of nationhood as natural/inevitable/good. It's not that Xu's politics are especially authoritarian, I think, but that she's just (been kept?) resoundingly naïve, and so her plot resolution feels childish (or perhaps that's an insult to children).
#AmReading #ReadingNow

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the Nacirema people is their insistence that they do not participate in practices of which they clearly do. Equally unusual is the fact that, unlike other sacrificial cultures who raid neighboring tribes for victims, both slaves and victims for human sacrifice are only taken from within the society. In fact, there is a very strong cultural taboo against sacrificing or enslaving those from other tribes.
They are aware of the rituals of human sacrifice in other tribes, but claim such rituals to be inconsistent with their society. Yet their human sacrifice rituals are some of the most elaborate in the world. These rituals are so important that there is a whole part of Nacirema society dedicated specifically to arguing about who should and should not be sacrificed, restraining and feeding the potential victims for the years during which these arguments take place, and ultimately preparing and administering the ritual poison.
This is strangely similar to their approach to slavery. Both human sacrifice and slavery were once a much larger part of Nacirema society. Their human sacrifice rituals now take far longer and happen far less often, but at no point have they ever recognized these ritual sacrifices as such. Meanwhile, the Nacirema do acknowledge that slavery was part of their culture once. During the time when they did recognize their practice of slavery, they did raid other tribes for slaves. Now they follow the same complex ritual for slavery as they do for human sacrifice.
It is strange that, by following this ritual and only choosing victims from within their society, they seem to become incapable of seeing their behavior for what it is.

Perhaps I will give FreeBSD another shot (after 30 years). Looks like it may better align with my philosophy than Linux does these days.

@… Good question. It doesn’t seem to mess with display scaling, but I think perhaps they’re using fonts now that require a Retina/HiDPI display to look usable

If a weapon is fired at a wedding, the authorities can seize it and levy a $100 fine.
If the gun is not handed over, a relative of the groom — his father or an uncle, perhaps — can be detained until the firearm is turned in.
“We don’t take the groom,” Mr. Dandar said, offering up a concession.

The Perverse Beauty of Regex: A Love Letter to the World’s Most Efficient Torture Device
— by @…
🔣 https://www.<…

Sora 2 is scary, but I don't disapprove of its existence. The technology is coming one way or another. Might as well showcase how it can be used for good, which the TikTok-like format does effectively.
However, I do disapprove of the lack of transparency. This is not a raw text-to-video model. If other companies' services are any guide, it's probably using LLMs to enhance the prompt, generate the script, perhaps much more. But that’s all hidden from the user, who only …

Bummed I could not see this wonderful sight in person today (reasons) though I was nearby all day. Perhaps a solace that I happened to work on this Bhagavad Gita verse (11.11) today:
दिव्यमालयांबरधरं दिव्यगन्धानुलेपनम् ।
सर्वाश्चर्यमयं देवं अनन्तं विश्वतोमुखम् ॥
Wearing divine garlands and clothes, anointed with divine scents;
Lord, filled with all wonders, the unending, facing all universe [all seeing].
#Udupi #Krishna #India #travel #art #gold #solace #gita #Sanskrit

"PR firms are spreading climate misinformation on behalf of fossil fuel companies. Could Australia stop them?"
#Australia #FossilFuels #Energy

I'm so tired that I guess I'm going to get up late tomorrow. Perhaps even at 6:30!

Sometimes it is handy to use archives formats that do not confuse our windows friends. Or perhaps you want a quick listing, or to update files without reading and writing the entire thing (i.e. non-solid archives).
Zip or 7z can be handy. The problem is that with their Windows hertitage they do not (reliably) retain certain UNIX-y 'things'. Be that permissions or symlinks.
Here is an example symlink workaround. Permissions left as an exercise for the reader:

Finished the first section of the first paper for #FediWriMo, #AcWriMo25 , so here, have a nice #FieldPhoto to celebrate.
Perhaps I should post one every day when I manage to write something? This one is for @…

#Enshitification alert. Youtube has blocked speeding up playback of videos unless you pay a premium.
That means if you make videos where you speak in a slow drawl, I int gonna be a watching y'all.
Hmm - only seems to beon some video's. Perhaps thats a creator setting.

"Labour has also won every time the Senedd has been contested, as it will be again in May. Yet, if the most recent Wales-wide poll holds good, that is set to change. Plaid will instead be the largest party, just ahead of Reform UK, with Labour third. Though still a minority, Plaid would be in government. In Welsh terms, that would be a political earthquake. Perhaps in Britain-wide terms too"
#UKPol

Any user interface element in any app should, by law, have to disclose if your data goes anywhere that's not directly in said app, in minimum font size and contrast; perhaps with some standardized icons.
We list ingredients on food and composition on clothing; why don't we do this for data?

I think that if we use fraud, stock manipulation, money laundering, and other financially related crimes - and perhaps brew in sex related crimes - measured on a per-capita basis, my guess is that Palm Beach, Florida will come out near the top of the list of most criminal cities in the US of A.
So send in ICE? I know of a Slovakian who lives there who snuck in the the US on false visa claims, worked as a nude model (too skinny to be interesting), and has been associated with known int…

Ireland’s Minister for justice, (who is about to spend the next year or so constantly saying things for media attention as he jockeys to remain top of mind in FF member’s heads) has also said he wants to break encryption (as soon as he finds out what it is. A kind of cupboard? A vase of some sort? A nut, perhaps, of Asian origin?)

The conservative majority on the Supreme Court has repeatedly signaled that it plans to adopt the
“unitary executive theory,”
which says the original understanding of the Constitution demands letting the president remove executive branch officials as he sees fit.
But a new article, from a leading originalist law professor, has complicated and perhaps upended the conventional wisdom.
The legal academy treated the development like breaking news.
“Bombshell!” Willi…

Perhaps the Dallas Cowboys aren’t as great in the draft as we thought https://www.si.com/nfl/cowboys/draft/perhaps-dallas-cowboys-arent-as-great-in-nfl-draft-as-we-thought

Reading this article as I listen to Joan Baez (coincidentally): https://archive.is/pky5Q And I think: is it a bad thing that it's almost impossible for AI companies to license music for training their models…? I don't think it is, actually. Perhaps they should look for business models that don’t in…

🎲 Randomness reveals hidden order in the plant world
#plants

Series D, Episode 02 - Power
TARRANT: Well, that's what your Seska friend did with the hatches. Perhaps she can show us how it's done.
DAYNA: Tarrant, it's serious.
TARRANT: I'm being serious.
[Control room. Tarrant enters, followed by the other two.]
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/402/252

Did the cram in too many features over time?
Perhaps, but that didn’t really affect the basic functionality.
Calling it “bloatware” is funny when in our current era of personal computing everyone and their dog ships Electron apps.

Picture the human body. Zoom in on a single cell. It lives for a while, then splits or dies, as part of a community of cells that make up a particular tissue. This community lives together for many many cell-lifetimes, each performing their own favorite function and reproducing as much as necessary to maintain their community, consuming the essential resources they need and contributing back what they can so that the whole body can live for decades. Each community of cells is interdependent on the whole body, but also stable and sustainable over long periods of time.
Now imagine a cancer cell. It has lost its ability to harmonize with the whole and prioritize balance, instead consuming and reproducing as quickly as it can. As neighboring tissues start to die from its excess, it metastasizes, always spreading to new territory to fuel its unbalanced appetite. The inevitable result is death of the whole body, although through birth, that body can create a new fresh branch of tissues that may continue their stable existence free of cancer. Alternatively, radiation or chemotherapy might be able to kill off the cancer, at great cost to the other tissues, but permitting long-term survival.
To the cancer cell, the idea of decades-long survival of a tissue community is unbelievable. When your natural state is unbounded consumption, growth, and competition, the idea of interdependent cooperation (with tissues all around the body you're not even touching, no less) seems impossible, and the idea that a tissue might survive in a stable form for decades is ludicrous.
"Perhaps if conditions were bleak enough to perfectly balance incessant unrestrained growth against the depredations of a hostile environment it might be possible? I guess the past must have been horribly brutal, so that despite each tissue trying to grow as much as possible they each barely survived? Yes, a stable and sustainable population is probably only possible under conditions of perfectly extreme hardship, and in our current era of unfettered growth, we should rejoice that we live in much easier times!"
You can probably already see where I'm going with this metaphor, but did you know that there are human communities, alive today, that have been living sustainably for *tens, if not hundreds of thousands of years*?
#anarchy #colonialism #civilization
P.S. if you're someone who likes to think about past populations and historical population growth, I cannot recommend the (short, free) game Opera Omnia by Stephen Lavelle enough: https://www.increpare.com/2009/02/opera-omnia/

Before I go writing my own, is anyone aware of a python package for solving employee scheduling type problems? Perhaps backed by Google's OR-Tools?
They have all the math covered, but the interface is a bit unwieldy. So I'd like to use or write something that is written with the domain in mind, not abstract optimization.
#LazyWeb

On Monday, Trump said
neither bidding party
“are friends of mine.”
He added that he had not spoken to his son- in-law Jared Kushner about the Paramount bid.
Netflix’s bid has already drawn sharp criticism from bipartisan lawmakers and Hollywood unions
over concerns that it could lead to job cuts as well as higher prices for consumers.
“While it is perhaps a sad commentary on the US that Paramount thinks its closeness to the occupant of the Oval Office wil…

Today, the culturally set goal (via capitalism) for every human is to maximize their accumulation of capital. This goal is killing us all. If you could, somehow, set a different goal, what would it be?
This is perhaps a bit of a #SolarPunk question.

WTF with an anthill on the top!!!!
I just got off a Zoom call - and zoom sent me an AI generated summary of our conversation.
WTF? I did not ask for that.
Making that is perhaps a violation of California's laws about two party consent and wiretapping.
Grrrrr.

One day, I might sit in my local cafe,
caught up in angst,
trying to find euphemisms to explain to my children the wherefores and whys of it all.
Perhaps, one day, to sit in silence and think of nothing will no longer be ease but an act of defiance
— of remembering what it means to belong to a world once rooted in continuity again.
What kind of world allows a family to sit in a parlour and think of nothing?
What kind of world might let them look through …

Such a peaceful man, so peaceful, more peaceful than Jesus or Ghandi.
Did I mention that this peaceful man is in charge of the world's most powerful military and has nuclear launch codes?
So why is Norway in a panic about the retribution that this peaceful many may inflict if he does not get the Nobel Peace Prize?
Perhaps he is not really a peaceful man? (I wonder if he is a man at all.)
"Norway braces for Trump’s reaction if he does not win Nobel peace prize…

Day 13: Patricia C. Wrede
If you know me you know I'm not exactly a fan of monarchy-praise, even (or perhaps especially) in "fairy tales" and adjacent writing, but even though Wrede's Princess Cimorene doesn't quite completely get away from that, I still love the character and her adventures in "Dealing With Dragons" and the sequels. It's honestly pretty cool that Wrede started out writing a trope-flipping fairy-tale adventure-comedy with a male teen prince protagonist, and then decided it was much more fun to focus on a princess who takes the trope-flipping to the next level and completely abandons most of the trappings of a fairy tale in order to both have fun with what's left of the genre and develop a story centered on wholesome friendship (with a dragon) and practical solutions to improbable problems.
I read these books as a kid, and then again as an adult, and then again out loud with my wife, and I'll be reading them again before long with our kids. I'm still on the lookout for more kids books with even better politics, but Wrede's work is definitely part of a solid childhood reading foundation from my perspective.
#20AuthorsNoMen

Just a reminder:
Each of you ought to take a look at your state's "unclaimed property" website. You may find something owed to you or to someone you know.
The amounts can be trivial or they can be large - and you won't know until you check.
Usually getting the funds owed to you is as simple as filling out a government form on a web page (and perhaps submitting something that proves you are who you say you are.)
Here is the link for California:

Stephen Miller has a theory about this political moment.
As President Trump expands his lawbreaking and dictatorial rule,
the powerful MAGA disinformation apparatus
—at Miller’s direction
—is supercharging public attention to the debate over Trump’s conduct in a way that’s designed to deeply polarize it.
That will force Americans to take a side in that standoff, Miller clearly believes,
driving them to embrace authoritarian rule,
though perhaps witho…

My eyes are suggesting that El Cheato may not have long before either a stroke or other disabling failure.
Should such an event occur, I do not wish for his death. Rather I would prefer that he and JD get into a 25th Amendment match that results in the effective immobilization of the R-party.
But should Cheato die in office, I am wondering what would be an appropriate way to honor his passage into the underworld.
Given his NYC history, perhaps a parade of garbage scows in …

I'm listening to the music track of the yet to be released Netflix "Train Dreams" by Dessner. (He also did the interesting music for the "Manhunt" series.)
It seems to me that some of the better compositions and performances are in sound tracks and credits of movies and series.
(Such as the "Strange Game" tune by Mick Jagger in the Slow Horses series. But perhaps the greatest are some older things, like the B. Hermann music from Hitchock's …