Tootfinder

1. Plan going to Opole, via Kościan.
2. When you enter the train to Kościan, you discover that the change to Opole is delayed 15 minutes already. Consider changing in Leszno instead; if the delay increases, you'd have more options there.
3. Discover that there aren't any more options in Leszno today. Your change is delayed 30 minutes already. Return the reservations, and take one the other way, to Poznań instead.
4. Train station in Kościan. The displays aren't showing any delays, trains are announced normally. Tell people about the delays, so they won't stand in the -10°C waiting for the train to arrive.
5. Take the train to Poznań, and try to figure out what to do next.
6. Discover that the only reasonable choice going forward is Inowrocław: no delays and good return connection. It's the same train, so take another reservation. Your current seat is already taken there, so move elsewhere.
7. Your train should be followed by another one in the same direction, that departs from Poznań 6 minutes later. However, your train ends up waiting for another delayed train, so the other train goes first. The delay further increases as your train needs to slow down after the other train.
8. Reach Inowrocław 10 minutes later. That's not a problem, since you didn't have enough to see for all the time there anyway.
9. Discover that the town is more interesting than you thought, and you'd use more time.
10. When you almost get to the station, discover that your train is 10 minutes late. Not that you have any use for that time at this point.
11. When you're at the station, the train keeps increasing delay while waiting at the previous station, in Bydgoszcz. The station displays are completely useless, as they show only a random subset of regional trains, for no apparent reason. The announcements include all trains, but are rarely given.
12. The delay keeps increasing. Start thinking about getting a reservation for the next train to Poznań, in case it arrived first. You can't return the reservation after the planned departure time, and you can't have two reservations simultaneously, so reserve the seat from Mogilno, the next station.
13. The next train arrives first. While on board, you discover that you're not going to have any train home for 1.5 hr. Take another seat reservation to Leszno, where you can change into a suburban train and get home 15 minutes earlier than from Poznań. This time, your seat is still free.
14. The train departs 15 minutes delayed from Poznań. After all, you're changing trains in Kościan.
So I was going to go south, to Opole, via Kościan. Instead, I've ended up slingshotting north to Inowrocław, and getting back home via the same train as if I were in Opole.
#rail

The #roundhouse, now, at last, with electric lights (from its own solar panels).

And not one of them in the UK.
The 30 Most Bike-Friendly Cities in the World, the 2025 Copenhagenize Index Arrives | Momentum Mag
https://momentummag.com/the-30-most-bike-friendly-cities-in-the-world-the-2025-copenhagenize-inde…

The 30 Most Bike-Friendly Cities in the World, the 2025 Copenhagenize Index Arrives
The Copenhagenize Index, the most comprehensive ranking of urban cycling friendliness, evaluates 100 cities on how far they’ve gone to make cycling safe, convenient, and appealing.

Moody Urbanity - Metro Consistency 📌
情绪化城市 - 都市质地 📌
📷 Pentax MX
🎞️ Orwo Wolfen P400
#filmphotography #Photography #blackandwhite

The 2025 Chiefs May Be the Most Complete Team in the NFL https://insidethestar.com/the-2025-chiefs-may-be-the-most-complete-team-in-the-nfl

These are the photos for my 2026 calendar. Got the proofs today. Should have the hard copies in 2 weeks. Always agonizing to pick 13 of my photos for the next one. The last few years I’ve had to use older ones too. I don’t get out to shoot as much anymore. I’m hoping that will improve. I’ve volunteered to be a photographer for the city park dept. I’ll take pics of people engaged in the parks and activities, and whatever else I see.

Hey everyone,
@…’s mom needs your help:
“My mother has been suffering from chronic diabetes, and some time ago, one of her toes had to be amputated. During the war, her condition has worsened, and she now relies on a walker to move. 💔
Today, she fell inside our tent, and her foot got injured again – it’s swollen and bruised badly…

Help Bara'a and her elderly parents in Gaza
My name is Bara'a El-Mughraby. Me and my older brother are the sole breadwinners for my family of five in Al-Shati refugee camp in North Gaza. Me, my elderly parents, my sister and my brother. For months, we have endured the unimaginable and did everything we can to survive, but now our situation worsened a lot and has become a matter of life or death. The constant bombardment and the recent evacuation orders from the IDF mean we have to leave our home—but we don't have the capabilities nor t…

The first seems underspiced/undercheesed but the second one looks interesting. I am suspicious of any Mac & Cheese recipe that does not require the creation of a proper bechamel-based cheese sauce. The 2 methods here (both basically creating the sauce as part of the bake) make me very nervous.
OTOH, I do like the concept of not fretting over a sauce. I am intrigued by the concept of saucing uncooked pasta before baking… @…

Leah McElrath (@leahmcelrath.bsky.social)
Two of the best macaroni and cheese recipes I’ve ever tried came from a 2006 NYT Food article called “the Winter Cook.” One is a classic mac and cheese casserole with crispy edges. The other is a more unusual creamy mac and cheese casserole that includes cottage cheese and a hint of nutmeg.

Really nice interview:
https://github.blog/open-source/maintainers/building-beyond-the-browser-keeley-hammond-on-electron-open-source-and-the-future-of-maintainership/
I chose Ele…

Building beyond the browser: Keeley Hammond on Electron, open source, and the future of maintainership
Learn what it really takes to sustain one of the web’s most widely used frameworks on this episode of the GitHub Podcast.

Series B, Episode 04 - Horizon
AVON: The magnetic barrier must have triggered automatically. The freighter was impervious to it, therefore its fuselage must've been demagnetized. Ours hasn't. If it hadn't been for the force wall, we would be a cloud of agitated atoms.
VILA: I wish I was a cloud of agitated atoms!
https://

One of Russia's largest oil refineries reportedly suspends operations after Ukrainian attack: https://benborges.xyz/2025/10/25/one-of-russias-largest-oil.html

I found this charming: https://petapixel.com/2025/11/24/pope-francis-one-of-a-kind-leica-sold-for-nearly-100x-its-estimated-value/

Pope Francis' One-of-a-Kind Leica Sold for Nearly 100x Its Estimated Value
The camera and lens sold for about $7 million, one of the highest charitable results ever achieved by a Leica camera.

❝Healthy digital spaces need the same foundations as physical ones (roads, rules, records, etc) so we can build the flourishing fun bits on top. If the web’s first generation gave us villages, and the second gave us gross, unliveable megacities, the next one should give us great neighbourhoods — small, knowable, human-scaled spaces where we can actually live together online.❞

(please don't) add me to the group
We talk a lot about how broken the internet is for all of us as individuals. Doomscrolling, algorithmic feeds, overall exhaustion at The Horrors. But this...

How many enemies dreamt of destroying the White House. How many soldiers wished they could flatten it. How many generals fantasized about razing the American People’s house.
This one man beat them all. Same man brought the confederate flag into the Capitol, same man presides over the largest tax hike in history (tariffs are import taxes), signed off on the ending of nutrition for the hungry and end healthcare since it will now be unaffordable.
This. One. Man.

AP photos show White House East Wing demolished
Associated Press photos show the entire White House East Wing has been demolished as President Donald Trump moves ahead with building a ballroom. The two-story structure of drawing rooms and offices, including a walkway to the White House, has been turned into rubble. The wing has been demolished as part of the Republican president’s plan to build a ballroom nearly twice the size of the White House itself that he now says will cost $300 million. Trump said Wednesday that keeping the East Wing…

Huh, think I might've figured out why one (but only one) of my NextCloud instances loses contact with the OnlyOffice instance on the same host... Figured out it *might* be because of frequent polling that's resulted in the Mailcow instance (also on the host, as I'm trying to economise) is seeing it as making too many connections and is temporarily fail2banning it nightly. I've added the host's IP(v4&6) to the Fail2Ban whitelist... 🤞 it's still connected tomorrow!<…

'Eisige Zeiten' #FotoVorschlag 'icy times'
Oh I have a couple of frosty photos, but this might be one of my best. I spent quite a while there to capture the cold feeling.
Packed in multiple layers, I really spent quite a while around that spot in order to really see the right motives.
It just reminds me that I could post more of my winter photos! :)
…

i have a dozen or so xmas records on continuous loop for the next couple days, including three by johnny mathis!
this one is a 1967 reissue of the 1958 classic. i picked it up at the used record store up the street for seven bucks.
#nowplaying #OldVinyl

New Gist: No Contest
"There are, perhaps, alternative worlds where lots of things are different. Fianna Fšil maybe decide to run an MEP instead of a MIA. Or one where a fleet of no-hopers got nominated and we spent the whole campaign having to listen to the media asking candidates their opinions on the Latin mass and if cocaine bloat is a positive feature in a President. "
Also, I explain exactly what kind of idiot I have recently been.

The Midlife Glowup
Join us as we explore personal growth, relationships, family and big life pivots – one book, one breakthrough, one bold step at a time...
Great Australian Pods Podcast Directory: https://www.greataustralianpods.com/the-midlife-glowup/

“The case for upzoning is relatively solid but deeply underwhelming as a standalone position. The upshot is that everyone is at least partly right: Upzoning can address the shortfall in supply. But it won’t come close to solving the housing crisis alone. Re-enter: public housing.”
https://

The Solution to the Affordable Housing Problem That No One Wants to Discuss
There are new ideas for fixing this. And one very old one.

When a user doesn't understand your product, they can't use it. But when the team doesn't understand their own product, then NO ONE can.
We neglected the conceptual layer of software development, and products have devolved from a coherent experience into Proper Noun soup. To unwind this self-inflicted problem, we must stop "optimizing" for just one part of the job.
Here's how.
(this is a much deeper problem than "just UX vs UI")

When teams don't understand their own product
A usable product starts with the conceptual model, but designers have "optimized" that work out of the profession. It's time to bring it back.

Heads up Mastodon! I am doing a small European tour with Peter Gordon (Love of Life Orchestra) at the end of November. We'll play Glasgow, London, Cologne, and Brussels. These shows will be great fun, and a very rare chance to catch me playing live music outside the US.
If we know each other here, let me know if there's a possibility to meet up in person at one of these shows?!
Tickets and info here:

One of our fave local places to go to for a walk in autumn. This year the colors were especially exquisite...
(Beech forests like these covered two thirds of Germany, but by now they've been dramatically reduced, not just due to logging. Also rising temperatures have been increasing their mortality and general vulnerability...)
#SilentSunday

"The secret to tackling the climate crisis could be right under our feet. Here’s why"
#Climate #ClimateChange

How soil could be the secret weapon to meet climate targets
Despite being one of the largest natural carbon sinks, most nations exclude soil from their climate plans.

Hmm, except for the space-invaders rain effects, I'm kind of OK with the new Metoffice page design. The top panel is meh, but the 'detailed forecast' is OK, and the weather map is higher up than the old one, and frankly that's the only bit I trust.

This is a tragic but also very touching story about life and how people deal with conventions and tradition in a way you would probably not expect:
after my dad died, we found the #love letters
https://www.je…

Starting to set up the framing of the north wall of the new workshop. Two interesting problems here:
1. Am I going to want a large door in this wall? I think I can't have one, because I want either the east or the west wall to be removable to allow more light and space in summer; but I really need to think about this!
2. The shape of the foundation is very squint. Consequently, although the north and south walls will be parallel, the east and west won't. I have some int…

karate: Zachary Karate Club
Network of friendships among members of a university karate club. Includes metadata for faction membership after a social partition. Note: there are two versions of this network, one with 77 edges and one with 78, due to an ambiguous typo in the original study. (The most commonly used is the one with 78 edges.).
This network has 34 nodes and 78 edges.
Tags: Social, Offline, Unweighted

from my link log —
How UC Davis medical school became remarkably diverse.
https://www.statnews.com/2023/03/07/how-one-medical-school-became-remarkably-diverse-without-considering-race/
saved 2023-03-07

How one medical school became remarkably diverse — without considering race in admissions
The UC-Davis medical school's class of 1972 was mostly white and male. The class of 2026 is among the most diverse in the nation — without race-based admissions.

The American Journalism Project, known mostly for providing grants to US local news outlets, is offering a "field guide" to AI tools for local reporting (Andrew Deck/Nieman Lab)
https://www.niemanlab.org/2025/10/the-amer

The American Journalism Project’s new “field guide” vets AI vendors for local newsrooms
For many newsrooms, figuring out whether or not they want to bring generative AI tools into their editorial work is only the beginning of a conversation. For those that do, there are a litany of follow-up questions. One of those is: Which tool exactly should we use? AI products targeting journal…

He’s going to purge anyone black and / or female and / or who can’t hold a Roman salute.
https://apnews.com/article/pentagon-hegseth-meeting-military-commanders-4ceb8026bff7c652b08c08e8afb1df99

Hegseth abruptly summons top military commanders to meeting next week
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has summoned hundreds of generals and admirals to a base in northern Virginia for a sudden meeting next week. The directive doesn't offer a reason for the gathering Tuesday of senior commanders of the one-star rank or higher and their top advisers. Confirmation comes from three people familiar with the matter who weren't authorized to publicly discuss the sensitive plans and spoke on condition of anonymity. The Pentagon’s top spokesman confirms that Hegseth “w…

Effects of eye closure on the spiking activity of human lateral geniculate neurons #LGN

Effects of eye closure on the spiking activity of human lateral geniculate neurons - Nature Communications
The LGN is a critical stage between the retina and visual cortex, but the properties of human LGN neurons are not fully understood. Here the authors report that they closely resemble those in monkeys and that closure of one eye increases the activity of putative inhibitory neurons connected to that eye.

Embrace true happiness, and become one with the socks 🧦

Dutch answer to the removal of the boards at #Margraten US military cemetery, honoring black US soldiers who died while liberating the Netherlands in WWII. This grave injustice went counterproductive for the US government, as shown.
Courtesy to Dutch TV show ‘Even tot hier’ BNNVARA
#willyfjamesjr

A US judge temporarily blocks the Trump administration from detaining CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed, one of the Europeans the US barred on claims of promoting censorship (Aishvarya Kavi/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/us/politics/imran-ahmed-judge-order.…

Judge Blocks Detention of British Researcher Who Scrutinizes Online Hate
Imran Ahmed, who runs an organization that chronicles disinformation, was among five Europeans the State Department had barred, claiming they promote censorship.

The elusive chase for the first RR Lyr star in a binary system: the case of KIC 2831097
Ennio Poretti (INAF, FGG, GEOS), Jean-Francois Le Borgne (IRAP, LAM, GEOS), Mercedes Correa (AAS, GEOS), Adam Sodor (Konkoly Obs.), Monica Rainer (INAF), Maurice Audejean (GEOS), Eric Denoux (GEOS), Nicolas Esseiva (Obs. St. Martin), Joan Faine' (AAS, GEOS), Francesco Fumagalli (GEOS), Ramon Naves (AAS), Alain Klotz (IRAP, GEOS)

The elusive chase for the first RR Lyr star in a binary system: the case of KIC 2831097
The lack of RR Lyr stars in binary systems is an atypical fact when we compared it to other classes of variables. Therefore, it has become a challenge for observers to detect an RR Lyr variable in a binary system. The RR Lyr variable KIC 2831097 was one of the most promising candidates. The phases of maximum brightness in the Kepler photometry showed a regular variation superimposed on a parabolic trend. These variations in the times of maximum brightness (Tmax ) were interpreted as a possible …

Atrium of New Computing and Information Science Building With Workers Still Finishing Up
#photo #photography #buildings

Broncos use fourth-down bluff, clutch TD to down Chiefs in yet another one-possession win https://www.nfl.com/news/broncos-use-fourth-down-bluff-clutch-td-to-down-chiefs-in-yet-another-one-possession-win

Foggy fog 🌫️
雾雾的雾 🌫️
📷 Pentax MX
🎞️ Ilford HP5 Plus, expired 1993
#filmphotography #Photography #blackandwhite

I had my very first away day with my Tons a month or two ago and it was one of the best days of my life. Had to wake up early as hell to get the train from Reading back to London to get the coach up to Cambridge and it was absolutely immense. Can't wait to be back ❤️🤍 #fedifc #ccfc

Football Heritage (@footballheritage.bsky.social)
✍️New Article: Away Days Next week, we go again. This is the rallying cry of the away day, a weekly ritual undertaken by football supporters up and down the country. Words: @jonee13.bsky.social Read here ⬇️ www.footballheritage.co.uk/away-days

New Banksy dropped in London.
I thought immediately of Oscar Wilde's "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
Perhaps it is a Christmas reference, to that star that was followed in the famous story.

Omg, patently wrong. To begin with, I am the one using the GTX 1650, and my video shows that it's working great even with DLSS, as opposed to the viewer with the AMD problem. And that parrotting nincompoop of an AI wants me to - what? - save time, give technical advice, make some small talk? What a big, smoking hot, pointless pile of b this technology turns out to be.
And I guess Google lets the same fucking stupid LM to determine how to recommend my video to other viewers? Great!<…

"The old world is dying,” Antonio Gramsci once wrote.
“And the new world struggles to be born.”
In such interregnums, the Italian Marxist philosopher suggested, “every act, even the smallest,
may acquire decisive weight”.
In 2025, western leaders appeared convinced they – and we – were living through one such transitional period, as the world of international relations established after the second world war crashed to a halt.
During such eras, Gramsci more f…

"Outrage as #Ireland picks ex-Meta lobbyist as new data protection chief
Niamh #Sweeney was announced in September as the pick for third commissioner for Ireland's already highly-controversial Data Protection Commission (DPC), rounding out its three-person leadership team.
Howev…

In Ukraine, a reporter is working on the front lines when the troops he is interviewing are suddenly overwhelmed by Russian troops.
Escaping from one hideout to another just moments before they explode, the reporter dives into a freshly dug ditch at a cemetery, dug for the many new coffins that are coming.
Somehow, the reporter escapes death and rises from the cemetery to share this report with you.
This is Giorgio, he is a true hero and journalist, reporting from the trenc…

One night, many years ago, I was sitting in this pub when suddenly there was a bang and a bullethole appeared high in the window (picture right). Wild times.
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/20…

Loving the light: Colm Keena on why November is his favourite month
I was obviously not the first person to think like this

Today's bike ride to work had two interesting interaction.
First one, I arrived at a 4 way stop, small sedan to the right of me waved me on, even though it was their turn.
Second one, giant-ass white pickup truck ignored me going through intersection where I had no stop sign and they did, and just make their left turn as I was in the middle of the intersection.
Like, dude, you couldn't have made a full stop and waited like 10 seconds?

Fast and length-independnt transport time supported by topological edge states in finite-size Su-Schieffer-Heeger chains
Yu-Han Chang, Nadia Daniela Rivera Torres, Santiago Figueroa Manrique, Raul A. Robles Robles, Vanna Chrismas Silalahi, Cen-Shawn Wu, Gang Wang, Giulia Marcucci, Laura Pilozzi, Claudio Conti, Ray-Kuang Lee, Watson Kuo
https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.19237 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2511.19237 https://arxiv.org/html/2511.19237
arXiv:2511.19237v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: In order to transport information with topological protection, we explore experimentally the fast transport time using edge states in one-dimensional Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) chains. The transport time is investigated in both one- and two-dimensional models with topological non-trivial band structures. The fast transport is inherited with the wavefunction localization, giving a stronger effective coupling strength between the mode and the measurement leads. Also the transport time in one-dimension is independent of the system size. To verify the asertion, we implement a chain of split-ring resonators and their complementary ones with controllable hopping strengths. By performing the measurements on the group delay of non-trivially topological edge states with pulse excitations, the transport time between two edge states is directly observed with the chain length up to $20$. Along the route to harness topology to protect optical information, our experimental demonstrations provide a crucial guideline for utilizing photonic topological devices.
toXiv_bot_toot

"Do you want to polish slides no one will remember, or tackle the problems no one can forget?"

How our brightest minds get trapped in the City - https://on.ft.com/48L7oJD via @FT

On the Onsager-Machlup functional of the $\Phi^4$-measure
Ioannis Gasteratos, Zachary Selk
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.20471 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.2047…

On the Onsager-Machlup functional of the $Φ^4$-measure
We investigate the existence of generalised densities for the $Φ^4_d$ $(d=1,2,3)$ measures, in finite volume, through the lens of Onsager-Machlup (OM) functionals. The latter are rigorously defined for measures on metric spaces as limiting ratios of small ball probabilities. In one dimension, we show that the standard OM functional of the $Φ^4_1$ measure coincides with the $Φ^4$ action as expected. In two dimensions, we show that OM functionals of the $P(Φ)_2$ measures agree with the corres…

This. 100% this: «…the economy itself is driving us into the ditch. It’s based on the creed of cancer — steady growth — and you can’t have endless growth in a finite world. The global economy is far too big, it’s got to shrink, and it’s got to be distributed more equitably around the world.»
The problem is that even the politicians who understand this are helpless to do anything about it. We have surrendered our future to global corporations and the mega-rich and their hand-picked poli…

I've been playing a few of those Lego games (Lego Star Wars etc.) with my little one. It's fun though navigating 3D space while handling the camera is a lot for him (it _is_ not easy).
Sometimes I try to tell him where to go when he gets lost but it's really challenging to stay patient at times (because it's hard for him to translate the words into the complex actions necessary and because I don't want to do things for him while he's trying things). But it's…

“As we consider these three risks, we don’t have to speculate about how AI data centers might affect Massachusetts. Consider Ireland, a country with a similar population size, where AI has driven a data center boom. Warehouses full of servers are on pace to use one-third of Ireland’s electricity, drawing from fossil-fuel power plants and wind farms alike. That keeps old, dirty plants on the grid, sucks up renewable energy that otherwise would help replace fossil fuels, and drives up costs fo…

This is pretty cool. Not often somebody gets to announce the discovery of a whole new branch of life. The cells contain mitochondria unlike any known before. Features support the #endosymbiont theory of #mitochondria origins, that they were originally separate animals but one got swallowed by so…

Newly Discovered Organism Could Represent a Whole New Branch in The Tree of Life
It's not every day that biologists announce an entirely new branch of life, and this one has been hiding under their noses for years.

#Blakes7 Series C, Episode 01 - Aftermath
AVON: So you have very little to fear from Servalan. There is no real Federation anymore. It's unlikely that anyone will come looking for you. You won't have to hide any longer.
MELLANBY: It's odd. For the last twenty years that's all I've dreamed of, freedom to do what I want, go where I want. Now that I've got it,…

Representative Robert Garcia accused the administration of shielding powerful figures who abused women and girls.
"The White House is openly engaged in a cover-up protecting Epstein's co-conspirators and the powerful men who abused women and girls", he said,
noting it was "outrageous that the DOJ has illegally withheld over 1 million documents from the public".
Notably, under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, there was a December 19 deadline for …

Trump's DOJ 'receives' one million new Epstein files. When can we expect another document drop?
When will the next Epstein files be released? The DOJ says it has received over 1 million new Epstein-related records, but when will we see them? All we know.

Moody Urbanity - Old & New 🔆
情绪化城市 - 新与旧 🔆
📷 Nikon FE
🎞️ Ilford HP5 Plus 400, expired 1993
#filmphotography #Photography #blackandwhite

💫 Today we all share one dream, and this wish we make as one for everyone, — Zelenskyy #shorts: https://benborges.xyz/2025/12/24/today-we-all-share-one.html

Cowboys inability to stop run is one of 3 reasons to hate playing Broncos in Week 8. https://cowboyswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/cowboys/2025/10/25/3-reasons-for-the-dallas-c…

"Denmark announces one of the world’s most ambitious climate targets, while the rest of the EU looks away"
#Denmark #Climate #ClimateChange

add_health: Adolescent health (ADD HEALTH) (1994)
A directed network of friendships obtained through a social survey of high school students in 1994. The ADD HEALTH data are constructed from the in-school questionnaire; 90,118 students representing 84 communities took this survey in 1994-95. Some communities had only one school; others had two. Where there are two schools in a community students from one school were allowed to name friends in the other, the "sister school".

Capitalism is just one witty ad campaign after another until we suddenly find ourselves extinct due to self-inflicted habitat loss. https://mastodon.online/@pluszysta/115428982968522861

REMINDER: Influenza has everything needed to kill people every year and produce a global pandemic every few decades forever. What keeps it at a low “just the flu” level is vaccination. One thing that kept the most recent surges from being more like 1918 is the CDC. What is left of the CDC is inadequate to that task. https://m…

xmas brunch is the always popular smoked salmon on brown bread
not on the bucks fizz yet this year because we had a bit of a sesh yesterday when watching die hard and knives out (the original one to remind ourselves what fun it is before watching the new one)

i went to campus today (free lunch friday!) and i was so excited when one of my favorite profs sat next to me at the faculty meeting. i admire him SO MUCH, my heart was a-flutter! omg and we chatted about the transformer paper! <swoon>
later in the day, he was installed as the arthur w. burks professor of etc. and i nearly burst bc in this entire room full of our most (and less heh) distinguished faculty, i was the ONLY ONE who had studied with burks!

Panthers safety Tre'von Moehrig suspended one game for unsportsmanlike conduct vs. 49ers https://www.nfl.com/news/panthers-safety-trevon-moehrig-suspended-one-game-49ers-jauan-jennings

"A high acuity is trivially obtained at the expense of field of view through suitable enlarging optics, so whenever a high acuity is claimed for a visual prosthesis one must also check if the corresponding field of view is better than tunnel vision." https://www.artificialvision.com/neuralink

Joe Eskenazi's @… column today speculates that Connie Chan and allies will run a doomed prop to close Sunset Dunes park, just to turn out voters for Chan.
But a good chunk of No on K voters are in congressional district 15, outlined, and can't vote for Chan. #sfpol<…

That's how our hike at the #mummelsee started ... and how it was when we were up there. - But the walk was quite okay.
We checked the rain radar and decided to go back down rather quickly. We leveraged our rain gear and it did not disappoint us! 🙂
So we didn't see the area atop - the so called

🏗️ One startup’s paper-thin stainless steel could change how bridges are built
https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/07/one-startups-paper-thin-stainless-steel-could-change-how-bridges-are-built/

Exclusive: One startup’s paper-thin stainless steel could change how bridges are built | TechCrunch
By coating regular rebar with a thin layer of stainless steel, Allium Engineering could reduce the amount of concrete needed to build a bridge while also prolonging its life.

A US judge temporarily blocks the Trump administration from detaining CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed, one of the Europeans the US barred on claims of promoting censorship (Aishvarya Kavi/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/us/politics/imran-ahmed-judge-order.…

Judge Blocks Detention of British Researcher Who Scrutinizes Online Hate
Imran Ahmed, who runs an organization that chronicles disinformation, was among five Europeans the State Department had barred, claiming they promote censorship.

Urban Spots ✴️
城市噪点 ✴️
📷 Nikon F4E
🎞️ Ilford HP5 Plus 400, expired 1993
#filmphotography #Photography #blackandwhite

Series A, Episode 04 - Time Squad
JENNA: All right. [walks toward the passage off Liberator flight deck, then stops]
BLAKE: Problem?
JENNA: Putting out a false distress signal. It's a trick used by space pirates.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/104/60 B7B4

Rumors flew in the hours after a shooting at Brown University killed two students on Dec. 13.
One falsehood had it that one of the victims, a leader of the college Republican Club, was “targeted for her conservative beliefs, hunted, and killed in cold blood.”
Another was that it had been a terrorist attack, a claim that made the rounds when a Palestinian student was identified as a possible suspect two days later and hounded on the internet.
⭐️A churn of disinformation after…

Prominent Leaders Amplify Disinformation About Brown University Shooting
Prominent business and government figures spread rumors about the attack on Brown University’s campus this month, reigniting questions about accountability in online discourse.

Russian overnight strike on Kyiv kills one, injures at least nine as fires hit three districts: https://benborges.xyz/2025/10/25/russian-overnight-strike-on-kyiv.html

amazon_copurchases: Amazon co-purchasing network (2003)
Network of items for sale on amazon.com in 2003 and the items they "recommend" (via the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" feature). If one item is frequently co-purchased with another, then the first item recommends the second.
This network has 400727 nodes and 3200440 edges.
Tags: Economic, Commerce, Unweighted

Stephen A. Smith Makes Bold Cowboys’ Dak Prescott Claim https://heavy.com/sports/nfl/dallas-cowboys/stephen-a-smith-dak-prescott-claim/?adt_ei=[email]

After he dropped off his sons on the morning of September 12,
two Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers approached the 38-year-old in his car.
He put the vehicle in reverse and attempted to flee.
One officer continued to chase him on foot and eventually fired his weapon,
striking Villegas-Gonzalez, who crashed into a delivery truck
and was pronounced dead an hour later.
Officials of the Department of Homeland Security would later say that Villegas…

Trump’s Immigration Nightmare: It Is Happening Here
With astonishing speed, the administration has toppled the most cherished pillars of a free society. And the experts agree: It’s all going to get much, much worse.

Entirely true.
However, it is important from a strategic standpoint to maintain the argument that today's GOP is an aberrant degenerate personality cult rather than a real political organization with a rational view of the world.
The GOP is a zombie political party disconnected from its past and reduced to a mechanism for blocking sound government which might impede one man's lust for power.

Series A, Episode 06 - Seek-Locate-Destroy
AVON: As soon as I get this linked into our communications set-up, we should be able to read every message that the Federation puts out.
JENNA: Any sign of the interceptors?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/106/131 B7B4

City Spot ⭕️
城市点阵 ⭕️
📷 Zeiss Ikon Super Ikonta 533/16
🎞️ Lucky SHD 400
#filmphotography #Photography #blackandwhite

Analysis: After two oil refinery blasts, Russian propaganda reports a fake one — then blames Ukraine: https://benborges.xyz/2025/10/24/analysis-after-two-oil-refinery.html

amazon_copurchases: Amazon co-purchasing network (2003)
Network of items for sale on amazon.com in 2003 and the items they "recommend" (via the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" feature). If one item is frequently co-purchased with another, then the first item recommends the second.
This network has 403394 nodes and 3387388 edges.
Tags: Economic, Commerce, Unweighted

Amid the Trump administration’s military escalations against Venezuela,
one Florida Republican is salivating at the prospect of a full-scale military invasion,
arguing that a U.S. military invasion would be “very good news for the American economy.”
“Venezuela, for those Americans who do not understand why we need to go in, basically [it’s] for three reasons,”
said Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), speaking with Fox’s David Asman.
Those three reasons, Salazar exp…

‘We need to go in!’ GOP lawmaker salivates over oil company 'field day' invasion promises
Amid the Trump administration’s military escalations against Venezuela, one Florida Republican is salivating at the prospect of a full-scale military invasion, arguing that a U.S. military invasion would be “very good news for the American economy.”“Venezuela, for those Americans who do not understa...

One stat shows how improbable Cowboys' comeback win over Eagles was https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl/dallas-cowboys/news/one-stat-shows-improbable-cowboys-comeback-win-over-eagles/cb2b69274e4c5af3f53…

“I love A.I.”
For Donald Trump, there is no risk, only reward, posed by the dawning and disruptive new age of computing.
Over the past year, the president and his top aides have fully embraced A.I.,
and showered its leading corporate backers with money and regulatory support,
as the administration looks to supercharge one of the primary areas of growth in an otherwise precarious U.S. economy.
That optimism was on display on Tuesday, after the federal government …

Trump Administration Downplays A.I. Risks, Ignoring Economists’ Concerns
The administration has downplayed concerns — from mass job losses, to a potential financial bubble — as President Trump cheers soaring stock prices and faster growth.

Series B, Episode 04 - Horizon
[Teleport section. Avon is seated at the console]
BLAKE: Have you got the coordinates yet?
AVON: It takes time.
BLAKE: There may not BE much time.
AVON: Then stop distracting me.
[Rack room]
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/204/602 B7B2…

I haven’t seen anyone talk about how Jane Doe
- an Epstein survivor
- just sued the Bank of New York Mellon
for funding Epstein and failing to file a Suspicious Activity Report
A Mellon heir is the one who gave $130M to pay the troops.
Seems bribey to me.
https://bsky.app/pro…

Mueller, She Wrote (@muellershewrote.com)
I haven’t seen anyone talk about how Jane Doe - an Epstein survivor - just sued the Bank of New York Mellon for funding Epstein and failing to file a Suspicious Activity Report. A Mellon heir is the one who gave $130M to pay the troops. Seems bribey to me.

Chile's new Cape Froward national park is a wild expanse of wind-torn coastline and forested valleys that harbours unrivalled biodiversity and has played host to millennia of human history.
“I have been to many exceptional places, and I can tell you that the Cape Froward project is the wildest place I have walked through,”
said Kristine Tompkins, the renowned US conservationist at the heart of the project.
“It’s one of the few truly wild forest and peak territories lef…

Series B, Episode 02 - Shadow
JENNA: Destroy rather than dump, surely.
BEK: I'll do it. [Rises]
AVON: It isn't necessary.
BLAKE: Will it work?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/202/618 B7B4

In one of his wildest moves to date, Trump is now offering companies access to plutonium from America’s arsenal of cold war nuclear missiles.
On Tuesday, the US Department of Energy (DOE) launched an application for interested parties to apply for access to a maximum of 19 metric tonnes
— a little under 42,000 pounds
— of weapons-grade plutonium, which has long been a key resource undergirding the US nuclear arsenal.
One of the companies anticipated to receive shipmen…

Trump Administration Providing Weapons Grade Plutonium to Sam Altman
The White House is providing plutonium to Sam Altman's Oklo, one of four US companies chosen to test experimental reactor designs.

Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles announced a flash flood warning for the region beginning on Tuesday
and is urging people to use caution while traveling for the upcoming holiday.
The city is also deploying staff with the Los Angeles homeless services authority (Lahsa) to get supplies and hotel vouchers to those living outside.

MIT researchers have developed a new method for designing 3D structures that can be transformed from a flat configuration into their curved, fully formed shape with only a single pull of a string.
This technique could enable the rapid deployment of a temporary field hospital at the site of a disaster such as a devastating tsunami
— a situation where quick medical action is essential to save lives.
The researchers’ approach converts a user-specified 3D structure into a flat s…

One pull of a string is all it takes to deploy these complex structures
MIT researchers developed a method that converts a user’s design into a flat series of interconnected tiles that can be converted to a 3D structure with one pull of a single string.

Angered by the Democratic leadership’s fecklessness and lack of a bold vision for the future,
a group of senators including Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts
has formed an alliance to push back on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the party’s campaign arm ahead of next year’s critical midterm elections.
The “Fight Club” is pressing the Democratic Party to
“embrace candidates willing to challenge entrenched corporate interests,

Sanders, Warren Help Form Senate Democratic ‘Fight Club’ Challenging Schumer’s Leadership | Common Dreams
"So glad there are some Senate Dems willing to fight back," said one progressive strategist.

No one wants to work anymore
https://bsky.app/profile/carlquintanilla.bsky.social/post/3m6f5seanmc2a

Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social)
PUNCHBOWL: “.. GOP members messaged us over the weekend saying that they, too, are considering retiring in the middle of the term. Here’s one particularly exercised senior House Republican: @punchbowlnews.bsky.social

If you:
🔸create an entangled pair of particles,
🔸and then separate them by a very large distance,
🔸and then measure the quantum state of one of them,
🔹the quantum state of the other one is all-of-a-sudden determined,
-- not at the speed of light, but rather instantaneously.
This has now been demonstrated across distances of hundreds of kilometers over time intervals of under 100 nanoseconds.
If information is being transmitted between these two entangled…

Quantum entanglement wins 2022's Nobel Prize in physics
They say that nobody understands quantum mechanics. But thanks to these three pioneers in quantum entanglement, perhaps we do.

The Colorado River is on the verge of crisis.
No one has a solution.
Once again, the Colorado River is heading toward a crisis. This time, the way out appears murkier than ever.

For months, the seven states of the Colorado River basin have failed to reach an agreement on new rules to share the river’s dwindling supply of water.
The current rules that divvy up water among 40 million people in the West, including Los Angeles, Phoenix and farming regions that provide most o…

The Colorado River is on the verge of crisis. No one has a solution.
The Colorado River faces a crisis as seven states struggle to agree on water-sharing rules.

Chats on Air Force One,
prior to this presidency,
were mostly off-the-record
and almost never on camera.
Administrations, prior to Trump’s, engaged in some level of message discipline,
planning what the president would say, how and when.
There is no such coherent planning in this White House.
In summary, Trump’s problem with the press are primarily of his own making.

When the President Hates the Press — and Has the Espionage Act
From license-stripping threats to sedition talk, Trump’s media crusade isn’t just bluster — it fits a troubling American pattern