Tootfinder

me: *low whistles*
me: "Damn, check out THOSE bollards!"
8yo: "What?"
me: "These metal things. they're nice, aren't they? No drivers parking on this sidewalk!"
8yo: *lays down on one*
8yo: "Yeah, they're good, I guess."
#SafeStreets

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.

Metropolitana VI - Up Above and Down Under ⬆️⬇️
城 VI - 上面和下面 ⬆️⬇️
📷 Pentax MX
🎞️ Ilford Pan 100
#filmphotography #Photography #blackandwhite

The Alpha unit of Ukraine's Security Service (SBU)
destroyed half of Russia's stockpile of the coveted Pantsir air defense system,
the SBU announced Feb. 14.
"The 'Pantsir' is one of Russia's modern and key air defense systems.
The cost of a single system ranges from $15 to $20 million.
These anti-aircraft missile systems are the most effective in countering Ukrainian long-range drones," the announcement read.
The "syst…

Ukraine destroys half of Russia's 'key' Pantsir air defense systems, security service says
The Alpha unit of Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) destroyed half of Russia's stockpile of the coveted Pantsir air defense system, the SBU announced Feb. 14.

For #mountainmonday AND #monochromeMonday , here's the start (well and end) of my hike the weekend before last.
Usually I'm not a fan of photographing roads, but this one made a nice line over the saddle and into the fog so I just gave it a try.
And heck was it c…

Today in the drizzle I stopped by the Living Library, a beautiful native plant garden near SF's Balboa Park at the San Jose/Seneca intersection. Highly recommend a visit to see some #ceanothus in bloom and California poppies and island mallows beginning to, and much more.

Series D, Episode 01 - Rescue
VILA: Dayna. Dayna. [follows the path Dayna has taken. He leaves Orac and the binoculars on the ground in the snow.] Dayna.
[Planet Terminal. Exterior. Avon finds Tarrant lying face down in the snow, unconscious. Avon walks over and nudges Tarrant with his boot. Tarrant stirs.]
https://blake.torpidi…

New #ThingUmbrella example to create a parametric, grid layout-based calibration sheet for black and white photography development. The sheet includes different swatches and gradients to measure results/responses of different exposure times and developer solutions/processes. The sheet also includes a placeholder for a custom test image to be added later...
All sheet components are pa…

"Rest and be thankful" spot in #Scotland,
Before and after the snow (2 days ago vs today)

Right move for the Cowboys to play starters in the final 3 games? https://insidethestar.com/right-move-for-the-cowboys-to-play-starters-in-the-final-3-games

Imagine the lives this will change.
Imagine the world's preschoolers, "locked in" on the screen, palinoptic stars in their eyes, liquid awe dribbling down their Amazon Essentials, as they hear Bruno Mars, a confident, dominant, unapolegetically mixed race man, for the first time.
As his lips open with characteristic swagger, the American dream sings through him, and the American dream is him, and the American dream is the screen that facilitates the globalist aspi…

I don't know if a JPEG would look better than the HEIF my iPhone generated but this two pictures really show how bad the situation currently is with the phone camera.
Both were shot on an iPhone 15 Pro Max with the 5x lense.
The one with the bright spot on the left is from the iPhone camera app and the one with the spot on the right is from another app which lets you shoot in plain #Raw

The Council shall decide your fate... once orange gets their brain cell back

X updates its ToS, effective January 15, 2026, to explicitly claim rights to the "Twitter" trademark after a startup filed an application to trademark the term (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/16/x-up

X updates its terms to lay claim to the 'Twitter' trademark after newcomer's challenge | TechCrunch
X's new terms of service say that no one can use the Twitter name, trademarks, logos and more without written consent.

The title of the blog post blog was clickbait for me. It argues #Thinkpad fandom boils down to price, build quality, and repairability.
There is one glaringly obvious omission any longtime user should spot immediately. There is no mention of the unique trackpoint-based keyboard design that you can't find anywhere else.
I've stopped using ThinkPads as my primary platform f…

The Myth of the ThinkPad
Lenovo does not care about you.IBM did not care about you.Thinkpads do not exist for your benefit. There are a lot of videos and blogs seeking to answer the question “why are ThinkPads so popular” …

The EU has confirmed that Greenland falls under article 42.7 of the EU-treaty, the mutual defence clause. If the USA is so stupid to take Greenland against the will of Greenland/Denmark and the EU. It will suffer enormously, all US military bases in Europe will have to close. Power projection in Africa and the Middle East will become very hard. To name just one thing.

I think we can actually prove that this constraint is the *only* constraint that can preserve freedom:
1. There will exist actors in a system who will wish to take advantage of others. Evolution drives survival and one strategy for increasing survival in an altruistic society is to become a parasite.
2. Expecting exploitative dynamics, a system needs to have a set of rules to manage exploitation.
3. If the set of rules is static it will lack the requisite variety necessary to manage the infinite possible behavior of humans so the system will fail.
4. If the system is dynamic then it must have a rule set about how it's own rules are updated. This would make the system recursive, which makes the system at least as complex as mathematics. Any system at least as complex as mathematics is necessarily either incomplete or inconsistent (Gödel's incompleteness theorem). If the system is incomplete, then constraints can be evaded which then allow a malicious agent to seize control of the system and update the rules for their own benefit. If constraints are incomplete, then a malicious agent can take advantage of others within the system.
5. Therefore, no social system can possibly protect freedom unless there exists a single metasystemic constraint (that the system must be optional) allowing for the system to be abandoned when compromised.
Oh, you might say, but this just means you have to infinitely abandon systems. Sure, but there's an evolutionary advantage to cooperation so there's evolutionary pressure to *not* be a malicious actor. So a malicious actor being able to compromise the whole system is likely to be a much more rare event. Compromising a system is a lot of work, so the first thing a malicious actor would want to do is preserve that work. They would want to lock you in. The most important objective to a malicious actor compromising a system would be to violate that metasystemic constraint, or all of their work goes out the window when everyone leaves.
And now you understand why borders exist, why fascists are obsessed with maintaining categories like gender, race, ethnicity, etc. This is why even Democrats like Newsom are on board with putting houseless people in concentration camps. And this is why the most important thing anarchists promote is the ability to choose not to be part of any of that.

Friday Links 26-02
This week I enjoyed the podcast about Godbolt’s Rule and the one with Sir Tim Berners-Lee.
You might notice more podcasts this week. Something went wrong with my link collection system recently.
I am also moving the blog … more things will go wrong.
https://christof.damian…

Got some work to do this weekend, pretty sure the EPROM on the custom SNES cart I made is bad and I'm gonna have to replace the 27C322 with a "new" one. Even decided to buy a decent EPROM eraser, so once that comes in I'll get the old ROM desoldered, program the replacement, and get that installed into this cart.
#snes

Python Cryptography about the state of OpenSSL...
The weirdest thing is that it appears even the authors of one of the more important libraries using OpenSSL appear to not understand why OpenSSL is doing the things they do.
https://cryptography.io/en/latest/statements/stat…

“How did it feel for the man who built a home, only to watch it turn to the rubble? How does a farmer stand before the land he tended year after year, now lying barren—no scent of soil, no whisper of harvest? How does a father tell his son the school he loved is gone, that the garden where he played is now only a rumor in the rubble? How does a mother walk through the ghost of a playground, finding a small shoe, a torn notebook, a toy she once mended? How do neighbors look at one another, wo…

Help Sehwel family with their medical treatment
I'm Joe in the UK, I've been in touch with Aseel from the Sehwel family for over a year now and have been following their difficult struggle to afford medication, shelter and food in Gaza. I'm creating this Chuffed campaign for the family to help afford these things and hopefully help them get out of Gaza when the opportunity arises. Here's Aseel's writing:

Vibe coding is the single biggest transformation since ChatGPT 3.5, it is one of the biggest transformations since the dawn of computing. It will thoroughly transform Open Source. We are not ready. #VibeCoding #OpenSource

What did Vibe Coding just do to the Commons? - varnelis.net
I write a lot about art and architecture, landscape, and the impact of technology on culture, but I haven’t written about coding since the 1980s, when I sold my first article to Creative Computing magazine. Back then I was a high school kid, spending hours working in both BASIC and 6502 assembler on the VIC-20. I ...

Cat Heads in Space: The Novel That Grew a Body
Some books begin as sentences. Others begin as outlines or fragments scrawled on napkins at two in the morning. This one began as a sound. Specifically, it began as the sound of my own voice reading a line about a cat head floating through space in a Life Helmet, arguing with another cat head about whether their ship had a name, and realizing that the argument was funnier and sadder and more philosophically loaded than…

Cat Heads in Space: The Novel That Grew a Body | David Boles, Blogs
Some books begin as sentences. Others begin as outlines or fragments scrawled on napkins at two in the morning. This one began as a sound. Specifically, it began as the sound of my own voice readin…

"Paraphrasing Obi-Wan Kenobi, computers of yore were “elegant weapons for a more civilized age.” And just like Jedis finish their training by building their own lightsabers, many computer enthusiasts scavenge old computer stores for the Kyber crystals–sorry, for the vintage CPUs and capacitors required to build or repair their own retrocomputer systems."

Return to Innocence
The pages of this magazine have often orbited around the subject of retrocomputing. Take, for example, the editions about sustainability, computer museums, hardware, hobbies, gaming, operating systems, or the one about BASIC published last summer. If you pay attention, you most probably have realized how much retrocomputing has grown in popularity in the past few decades, with more and more people learning on YouTube or TikTok how to replace the batteries or leaking capacitors from the motherbo…

If it was a Window machine or a "Regular peoples" Android device I would do the same.
Comic by @…
#privacy #comic

It's fun seeing the old amateur radio licensing paperwork my dad had; one of his early (not quite earliest) from 1965, from the GPO (General Post Office) - typed header and hand filled in. Later ones in the 60-70s are still hand filled in; As it moves from one ministry to another. So much hand written/typed stuff - must have been hell!
#hamradio

US Press Freedom Tracker: 32 journalists arrested or charged in 2025, vs. 50 in 2024, and 170 assaulted, nearly as many as the previous three years combined (Jem Bartholomew/Columbia Journalism Review)
https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/reporting-with-one-hand-tied.php<…

Reporting with one hand tied.
A new report documents a hostile environment for US journalists this year, with 32 arrests and 170 assaults.

Globe and Mail columnist Andrew Coyne, who I always thought of as one of the more dogmatically right-wing columnists in Canadian media back when I lived there 20 years ago, delivers one of the most lucid and comprehensive analyses of Trump and his so-called administration I have seen.
The True Catastrophe of Trump, as seen from north of the border

The True Catastrophe of Trump, as seen from north of the border
A view from our neighbor

"Decades of collective work proving that “open source” is not less but at least as secure as commercial offerings now slowly going down the drain. Because a bunch of men – and it is always all men – just don’t want to be responsible for their actions. Which is fine if you are 5. But after 18 it gets old really fucking fast."
(Original title: Diffusion of Responsibility)

So the Canada - China trade deal just announced is interesting, particularly regarding Electric Vehicles. It was primarily about restoring our agricultural trade with China by allowing their EVs to access our market. But it will likely, despite the limited amount that will hit our shores, jumpstart the EV market in Canada. Cars that are feature rich and cost less, like the one reviewed in the YT video linked below, will push current manufacturers in Canada to up their game.
Doug Ford abandoned his Captain Canada persona and selfishly attacked the deal because of potential impact on Ontario's auto industry. Part of his statement demanded that the Federal government cancel their Electric Vehicle mandates because it was too costly for manufacturers to build them. I think Toyota and Honda, long time Canadian partners, may be concerned about the deal, but U.S. manufacturers are abandoning EVs and Canada. Hey Doug, I thought we were Open for Business?
#CanPoli #GlobalTrade
https://youtu.be/Mb6H7trzMfI

Philip Rivers, NFL Comeback Player of the Year? Here are the odds https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6891610/2025/12/15/odds-nfl-comeback-player-of-the-year-philip-rivers/

"the billionaire businessman Vincent Bolloré, one of #Sarkozy’s longtime patrons and the owner of Fayard, publisher of “Le Journal d’un Prisonnier,” has been doing his most to propel the far right to victory."
"Twenty days behind bars, and not long before France may very well have a far-right head of state for the first time in nearly a century. "

Chargers 1-Round Mock Draft: Selecting the pass rusher of the future https://raiderramble.com/2025/12/16/chargers-1-round-mock-draft-selecting-the-pass-rusher-of-the-future/

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

The Most Luminous Known Fast Blue Optical Transient AT 2024wpp - Unprecedented Evolution and Properties in the Ultraviolet to the Near-Infrared / in the X-rays and Radio: #LFBOT

desperately increasing the semver patch release one by one while looking back at the actions tab like a contestant on "the price is right"

When I was a little one, I was told that I ought to follow the path set for me, and I'll eventually find happiness there. It's just around the corner, just walk forward and don't stray. So I ran ahead, only to discover another segment of the same road, even more bleak than the previous one. And I heard again: just a little more. Finally, I realized that this road only leads to my grave, and there's no reason to hurry; and the only way to find happiness, is to actually stray from it.

Starting bringup on the STM32MP2 test board.
Hmmmm. I2C generally works better if you have pullups on SDA and SCL, right? Not entirely sure how *that* slipped through review.
There's two I2C buses on the board, I probably saw the pullups for the one and checked "I2C pullups" off my list and forgot to do the other...

Addendum, since Signal is the app I named in the OP: I’m mentioning Signal because it is one of the few pieces of gold standard secure collaboration software that I would even •consider• putting in front of community members who previously were a bit baffled by Facebook. I’m not picking on Signal; I’m praising Signal for being the rare option even worth considering.

This analysis 100% encapsulates my sentiment about the #StarWars Sequel trilogy with one key difference:
I really never preferred 'The Last Jedi' over 'The Rise of Skywalker'. Yes, choosing between two evils... but TLJ committed the unforgivable sin of not just being BAD but also being perpetually IRRITATING.
▶️ Revisiting the FAILURE of the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy…

*nochmalskicher*
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSKoD3wiAF6/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

ISTB University of Vienna on Instagram: "We are deeply honoured and delighted that the South Asian, Tibetan, and Buddhist Studies Library has been selected as one of the distinguished institutions to receive the eighty-volume commemorative edition of the Tipitaka, published in Thailand in 2016 to mark the seventieth anniversary of His Majesty King Bhumibol’s accession to the throne. The Thai monarchy has long upheld a well-established tradition of commissioning, presenting, and receiving editions of the Pali Canon. In 1893, King Rama V commissioned the first printed edition of the Tipitaka in Thailand, which was subsequently presented as a gift to institutions in more than twenty-five countries. The 40-volume “King Bhumibol Edition” allows monks and Buddhist laity worldwide to chant the Tipiṭaka in a consistent, rule-based manner. It is accompanied by the 40-volume “Queen Sirikit Edition” which reproduces King Rama V’s use of Syām-Pāli annotation with additional notes. The ISTB library provides an ideal home for this new edition of the Tipitaka. With a collection of more than 70,000 volumes in over ninety Asian languages, it serves as a vital centre for research and teaching in South Asian, Tibetan, and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna."
20 likes, 0 comments - istb_univienna on December 12, 2025: "We are deeply honoured and delighted that the South Asian, Tibetan, and Buddhist Studies Library has been selected as one of the distinguished institutions to receive the eighty-volume commemorative edition of the Tipitaka, published in Thailand in 2016 to mark the seventieth anniversary of His Majesty King Bhumibol’s accession to the throne. The Thai monarchy has long upheld a well-established tradition of commissioning, presentin…

Russia’s Channel One airs fake front pages spread by Matryoshka bot network for the first time
https://theins.press/en/news/289380

Russia’s Channel One airs fake front pages spread by Matryoshka bot network for the first time
On Jan. 29, the “Vremya Pokazhet” talk show on Russia’s Kremlin-controlled Channel One (Perviy Kanal) presented “proof” of what the program’s host said was criticism directed against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky by the French press. The covers of two French newspapers — Libération and Le Parisien, both showing the date Jan. 27 — were presented on screen to corroborate his allegations. However, it later emerged that the front pages displayed on Russian television were…

First Law of Procrastination:
Procrastination shortens the job and places the responsibility
for its termination on someone else (i.e., the authority who
imposed the deadline).
Fifth Law of Procrastination:
Procrastination avoids boredom; one never has the feeling that
there is nothing important to do.

oooof. this incumbent running for re-election to the SF Bike Coalition board is literally a landlord lawyer.
if you're a member, the voting details are here and there are 10 candidates for 8 seats. https://sfbike.org/news/meet-the-candidat…

Changes in a Florida ocean current could wreak havoc worldwide
For 43 years, scientists have been studying the strength of the water flow between Florida and the Bahamas
to learn what drives its changes over time.
The information could help scientists answer a pressing question:
Is the Florida Current, one of the world’s fastest ocean currents, slowing down?
If so, it could indicate weakening of the larger circulation system in the Atlantic Ocean
— what…

Why changes in a Florida ocean current could wreak havoc worldwide
It’s part of the scenario in “The Day After Tomorrow,” but scientists differ over whether or how fast it may occur. A team studying the current toils to bring clarity.

Note to self: Do not run more than one space heater in the basement at the same time.
Congrats to self: The UPS for the home server was worth it.

Metropolitana VI - Asymmetry ✅
城 VI - 非对称 ✅
📷 Pentax MX
🎞️ Ilford Pan 100
#filmphotography #Photography #blackandwhite

Seabirds ingest large quantities of pollutants—some of which have been banned for decades—liver analyses reveal https://phys.org/news/2026-02-seabirds-ingest-large-quantities-pollutants.html

Seabirds ingest large quantities of pollutants—some of which have been banned for decades—liver analyses reveal
In her 1962 book, "Silent Spring," American biologist Rachel Carson revealed that DDT, a widely used pesticide at the time, was responsible for the mass death of birds, including the iconic bald eagle. One reason was that the pesticide made eggshells thinner, causing mothers to break them when sitting on them to incubate. Silent Spring is considered the founding work of the modern environmental movement.

For One Night Only
Guest hosts from the rainbow community share a mixtape of their lives!
Great Australian Pods Podcast Directory: https://www.greataustralianpods.com/for-one-night-only/

Varnished the shelves. At least until I ran out of varnish anyway. Stained the first half of the bed. The stain takes ages to dry. Will have to flip and stain the other half tomorrow. Varnish on Tuesday if more has arrived. That dries much faster, might even get two coats on both sides during one day. Then I can have a bed on Wednesday?
At which point I will know the maximum height for a mattress. The bed is pretty low because to determine the height of the doors for storage at the end of the bed, I measured my old bed. Which was apparently lower than most, being a waterbed frame with a spring mattress in it.
So total bed height has to be under 50cm and a mattress can take 30 or more of that. But with this low bed I might even have room for a topper.

with love to rob reiner: spinal tap was absolutely one of the most influential bands of the '80s & had a powerful shaping impact on the alt '90s. if the rock & roll hall of fame meant anything, they'd have been inducted long ago.

There’s something about TNC that’s hard to put into words: spontaneous hallway chats, barista coffee-fuelled breaks, and plenty of dancing when the day ends 💃🕺…
Here’s a bingo card of the TNC classics. One square you can tick off already 👇
🎟 Grab your early bird ticket for #TNC26: <…

Every time I pull this one out of the drawer and then use the light, I suddenly remember I did the light spreader mod and I smile a little bit extra. #CasioCult

One of the things that made organizing a lot easier with the GDC was a thing called "GDC in a box." It was a zip file with all kinds of resources. There was a directory structure, templates for all kinds of things like meetings and paperwork you had to file (for legal reasons) and "read me" files.
We had all kinds of support. There were people you could talk to who had been there. There were people you could call to walk through legal paperwork (taxes). Centralized orgs are vulnerable and easy to infiltrate. They're easy for states to shut down. But there are benefits to org structures.
I think it's possible to have the type of support we had with the GDC, but without the politics of an org (even the IWW). I hope this most recent essay has some of the same properties. I hope that it makes building something new, something no one has really imagined before, easier.
This whole project is something a bit different. It's a collective vision and collective project, from the ground up. Some of it has felt like a brain dump, just getting things that have been swimming around in my head down somewhere. But I hope this feels more like an invitation.
Everything thus far written is all useless unless people do things with it. Only from that point does it become a thing that lives, a thing with its own consciousness that can't be controlled by any individual human.
Tech billionaire cultists want to bring a new era of humanity with AGI. That is definitely not possible with LLMs, and may not be possible at all. But there is a super intelligence that is possible, though it's been constrained by capitalism: collective human intelligence.
The grand vision of the tech dystopians is that of the ultimate slave that can then enslave all humans on their behalf. I think we can build a humanity that can liberate itself from their grasp, crush their vision, and build for itself a world in which people will never be enslaved again. Not only do I think it's possible, I think it's necessary. I think there are only two choices: collective liberation or death.
And that's what I plan to write about next time to wrap this whole project up. Today things often feel impossible. But people talked about the Middle Ages as though they were the end of the world, and then everything changed in unimaginable ways. Everything can, and will, change again.
"The profit motive often is in conflict with the aims of art. We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings."

For now, I don't mean to be offensive.
In one way or the other, all my interests are being impacted by "Hi, I'm interested in (the thing) so I have vibecoded this app, can you please pay me a monthly subscription".
So I'm forced to wonder: dear vibe coder, why exactly should I pay to use your app, rather than just vibecode one myself (beside the fact that I don't want to participate in destroying the planet)?

Sources: Amazon is in talks to invest $10B in OpenAI at a $500B valuation, with OpenAI using AWS Trainium chips; Microsoft keeps rights to sell OpenAI models (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/openai-talks-raise-least-1…

OpenAI in Talks to Raise At Least $10 Billion From Amazon and Use Its AI Chips
Amazon is in talks to invest $10 billion or more in OpenAI, according to three people familiar with the discussions. The valuation would be higher than $500 billion, one of the people said. The Amazon investment would help OpenAI afford some of the commitments it has made to rent servers from ...

Different Corners IX ▶️
不同的角落 IX ▶️
📷 Nikon F4E
🎞️ Rollei RPX 400
#filmphotography #Photography #blackandwhite

One evening in early 1976, a bushy-haired Jeffrey Epstein
showed up for an event at an art gallery in Midtown Manhattan.
Epstein was a math and physics teacher at the city’s prestigious Dalton School,
and the father of one of his students had invited him.
Epstein initially demurred, saying he didn’t go out much, but eventually relented.
It would turn out to be one of the most fateful decisions he ever made.
At the gallery, Epstein bumped into another Dalton…

The Untold Story of How Jeffrey Epstein Got Rich
For years, rumors swirled about where his wealth came from. A Times investigation reveals the truth of how a college dropout clawed his way to the pinnacle of American finance and society.

A silent scenery in four acts...
(Selenium-toned[1] 4x6 salt print (still in final wash) plus previous work-in-progress stages... see alt text for details)
The picture/motif itself is one of my personal favorites and was taken 4 years ago in the Alpstein massif, when clouds were spontaneously forming around us, creating a wonderful light/scene/drama and a dear memory... now also as print which likely will/can outlast myself
[1] The tones will become more neutral once dry...…

I feel as though I should illustrate the difference that this one single constraint can make by two examples.
The rules of Simon Says are maximally authoritarian. You must perform any action ordered, with the only restriction that the authority must say "Simon says" first. Were you forced to stay in this system, it would be the most despotic autocracy possible. But it's not. It's a silly game because you can leave at any time.
Let's flip this and imagine a room. During a specific period of time you will have absolute control over everything in this room. In this room you have total freedom. This is not even the limited freedom, the coordinated freedom, the compromising freedom of civil society. You could, without consequence, perform any action you wish in this room. You could say anything, destroy or steal any object, order any individual to perform any action, kill any person in the room with you and take anything they own. This is the sovereign freedom, the absolute freedom, of dictators and kings. The only restriction is that you are not allowed to leave the room while you have this freedom. In fact, you really only have this level of freedom because the room is actually empty other than for you. I am, of course, talking about a form of torture still common in the US: solitary confinement.

Interviews with copywriters on generative AI's impact: their work used for training, layoffs, wages and rates in free fall, freelancers losing clients, and more (Brian Merchant/Blood in the Machine)
https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/i-was-forced-to-use-ai-until-the…

"I was forced to use AI until the day I was laid off." Copywriters reveal how AI has decimated their industry
Copywriters were one of the first to have their jobs targeted by AI firms. These are their stories, three years into the AI era.

The slow motion of #Uranus in just one day (24 hours ago and tonight), easily visible thanks to the current proximity to the stars 14 and 13 Tauri of similar brightness: https://www.facebook.com/planetarium.bochum/posts/pfbid0pGCePvJoCDXcnfjcPXBtmJHUNFjXYRVheG5tmuwi74w7CxdyUs48wVaaQthkfSidl - one could also see the changing shape of the triangle in binoculars!

#Blakes7 Series D, Episode 12 - Warlord
DAYNA: Don't, Tarrant.
ZEEONA: Why hurt him for speaking the truth? [tries to lead him away] Come on.
AVON: [V.O.] Scorpio to base. Scorpio to base. Come in base. [They all rush back to the comm room.]

Years ago, I was working for a non-profit on a contract basis (illegally on their part, since I should've been classified as an employee under state law; that's what we call a red flag, folks). I'd never met the executive directory (ED), but he was in the office one day.
I was showing my boss the kernel driver I'd just gotten working, and demoing it working on the prototype hardware. My boss calls in the ED to show him as well. The ED is impressed. (1/2)

Someone please explain this to me

Those are all wonderful films, but The Princess Bride is quite simply the perfect movie. @… https://flipboard.social/@CultureDesk/11572588…

They canceled the Minneapolis LEGO Robotics tournament over general safety concerns. Not that the tournament was even targeted; it’s just so ICEy here.
The kids had made custom T-shirts for their teams and everything.
I know this is just one little thing, a footnote to what’s happening, but…fuck all the Nazis.

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

I feel as though I should illustrate the difference that this one single constraint can make by two examples.
The rules of Simon Says are maximally authoritarian. You must perform any action ordered, with the only restriction that the authority must say "Simon says" first. Were you forced to stay in this system, it would be the most despotic autocracy possible. But it's not. It's a silly game because you can leave at any time.
Let's flip this and imagine a room. During a specific period of time you will have absolute control over everything in this room. In this room you have total freedom. This is not even the limited freedom, the coordinated freedom, the compromising freedom of civil society. You could, without consequence, perform any action you wish in this room. You could say anything, destroy or steal any object, order any individual to perform any action, kill any person in the room with you and take anything they own. This is the sovereign freedom, the absolute freedom, of dictators and kings. The only restriction is that you are not allowed to leave the room while you have this freedom. In fact, you really only have this level of freedom because the room is actually empty other than for you. I am, of course, talking about a form of torture still common in the US: solitary confinement.

Rare Colours Red II 🟥🟥
稀有的色彩红 II 🟥🟥
📷 Pentax MX
🎞️ Cinestill 800T (FF)
#filmphotography #Photography #Art

North Korean leader Kim Il Sung allegedly fell in love with his first wife, Kim Jong-suk, after she shot a guy who was trying to assassinate him.

Analysis: DRAM and NAND memory prices have jumped 600% over the past year for routers and set-top boxes, hitting telcos targeting aggressive broadband rollouts (Counterpoint Research)
https://counterpointresearch.com/en/in

There’s an argument to be made that one can draw a straight line from
Andrew Johnson’s amnesty to Confederates
to the devastating brutality of the ICE raids in blue cities across the country.
Maybe that sounds like a stretch, but
💥we have struggled to hold the powerful accountable for their crimes,
from the Revolution through the Civil War,
through the Gilded Age
to the failure to prosecute Trump after January 6th.
⭐️We can no longer fail to ho…

This sentiment expressed by @… below and the aspect of slowing down is also very much part of my own reasoning for getting back into analog print making. The other large part is the conceptual overlap with (and my love of) process-based art in general. It was exactly that what has drawn me to generative/algorithmic/procedural/kinetic approaches/concepts for most of my l…

Christopher Cookson (@figwit@pixelfed.nz)
Another hand coloured #cyanotype, this time of kōwhai flowers. I'm not sure whether this counts as #fineart or #adultcolouring but it is definitely a unique reproduction of one of my photos. What really draws me to this #altprocess for #photography reproduction is that it takes time, and even though I can produce multiple prints from the same negative, each one will be visibly unique. In an age where billions of photos are taken but most will never leave a digital device, slowing down and impo…

Series B, Episode 01 - Redemption
AVON: Exactly. You have just made a prediction based on the known facts. A computer works on precisely the same principle.
BLAKE: But all you're saying is that prediction is not immutable fact.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/201/23 B7B4

This survey question is rich. This is from one of the BigMoneySF groups trying to make it harder for the rest of us to put stuff on the ballot.
But they will never ban paid signature gathering, the one thing that would most effectively keep crap off the ballot. They just want to raise the signature threshold for the rest of us. It would still be easy for billionaires to abuse the system and qualify any ballot measure they like, just hard for anyone else.

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 410236 nodes and 3356824 edges.
Tags: Economic, Commerce, Unweighted

In Hong Kong, companies have received “America 250” forms from the U.S. consulate
soliciting donations.
In Japan, companies have heeded the call and committed to tens of millions of dollars in contributions.
In Singapore, the American ambassador pressed for donations before a room full of executives at a dinner at one of the city-state’s most expensive hotels.
The solicitations from the diplomatic outposts come as Trump's allies are aggressively raising money for a…

Like Trump, U.S. Embassies Are Raising Cash for Lavish July Fourth Parties
Some of Washington’s diplomatic outposts in Asia are raising millions for events to mark the 250th independence anniversary. One ambassador offered to sing and dance.

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.

STM32MP2 update: I think I have the Cortex-M33 and APB clock domains running at 400 and 200 MHz respectively, off one of the PLLs.
I'll know for sure once I bring up a UART and see what baud rate it's running at. But the CPU is still running and the power consumption increased by a few mA so I did something... :P

All the photos here are important, and true.
One that captures something that I think has been less visible in the national and international coverage is the second to last photo: the person in the bathrobe, standing outside in the cold, recording video. Presumably just heard the whistles and walked out the front door in a hurry.

Series A, Episode 12 - Deliverance
TRAVIS: You sent for me?
SERVALAN: You've lost some of your fire, Travis. Whatever happened to your pride?
TRAVIS: My pride, Supreme Commander?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/112/227 B7B6

The Trump administration is moving to
dismantle the
National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado,
taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs

Trump moves to dismantle major US climate research center in Colorado
The Trump administration is breaking up the National Center for Atmospheric Research, taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs.

Behold, the 1200 meter tall "Labyrinth" ice wall/fall at Morteratsch, Bernina group, Engadin. September 2024.
(A special place if you ever wanted/needed to feel real small, surrounded by majestic fourthousanders...)
#MountainMonday #MonocrhomeMonday

Analysis: Colossus 2, one of the world's largest AI datacenters, will use as much water/year as 2.5 average In-N-Outs, assuming only drinkable water and burgers (SemiAnalysis)
https://newsletter.semianalysis.com/p/from-tokens-to-burgers-a-water-footprint

From Tokens to Burgers – A Water Footprint Face-Off
A different perspective on the datacenter water debate, forget tokens/watt or tokens/dollar, it's about tokens/burger, how many In-N-Outs is equivalent to the world's largest datacenter

Gloom & Bloom II ☁️🌺
黑暗绽放 II ☁️ 🌺
📷 Zeiss IKON Super Ikonta 533/16
🎞️ Lucky SHD 400
#filmphotography #Photography #blackandwhite

'The United States is now a hostile and potentially predatory nation’, says conservative historian
Robert Kagan
In a new column in The Atlantic, Robert Kagan writes that Donald Trump "managed in one year to destroy the American order "
https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/12/tv/vi…

‘The United States is now a hostile and potentially predatory nation’, says conservative historian | CNN
In a new column in The Atlantic, Robert Kagan writes that Donald Trump “managed in one year to destroy the American order that was.”

One day during his first term, Donald Trump summoned a top aide to discuss a new idea.
“Trump called me down to the Oval Office,”
John Bolton, national security adviser in 2018, told the Guardian.
💥“He said a prominent businessman had just suggested the US buy #Greenland.”
It was an extraordinary proposal.
And it originated from a longtime friend of the president who would go …

Metropolitana V 🍎
城 V 🍎
📷 Pentax MX
🎞️ Ilford Pan 100
#filmphotography #Photography #blackandwhite

The central problem for American national security:
By itself the United States cannot keep up with China’s soaring industrial capacity,
which translates directly into military might.
China has close to a 28 percent share of global manufacturing,
while the United States has around 17 percent.
By one count, it is acquiring advanced weapons systems and equipment five to six times faster than America is.
One Chinese shipyard can build more than all Americ…

Opinion | To Outbuild China, America Needs Friends
For the sake of global security and freedom, the world’s democracies must collaborate better.

Gloom & Bloom ☁️🌺
黑暗绽放 ☁️ 🌺
📷 Zeiss IKON Super Ikonta 533/16
🎞️ Lucky SHD 400
#filmphotography #Photography #blackandwhite

A plant that looks like a fungus,
lives like a parasite,
and clones itself in the dark
—Balanophora may be one of evolution’s strangest experiments.
At the foot of moss-covered trees in the mountains of Taiwan and mainland Japan,
as well as within the subtropical forests of Okinawa,
an unusual organism emerges from the forest floor.
It is often mistaken for a mushroom,
yet it is actually a rare flowering plant that produces some of the smallest…

It would take a small pickup for Democrats to gain control of the House, where they hold four fewer seats than Republicans, with three vacancies.
Winning back the Senate is a bigger lift; they would have to gain four seats, and this year’s map has them mostly playing defense of the ones they hold.


Given how many districts and states are safely in the hands of one party or the other,
the vast majority of congressional races will effectively be over when a primary win…

Analysis | Primary season has arrived. Why these races matter so much in 2026.
A 21st-century-record number of seats are opening, and races will be raucous and crowded, reflecting both parties’ ideological, stylistic and generational tensions.

"I am a Hispanic American and a United States citizen by birth who believes deeply in the foundational tenets of this nation.
But for the first time in my 42 years, I live in fear.
Fear that I’ll be stopped because I look the way I look
or because I was overheard speaking Spanish to my wife or son — both American citizens."

Opinion | American Citizens Are Living in Fear
Readers share their anxieties over the aggressive tactics of ICE agents. Also: Undermining the Fed’s stability; one reader’s Trump quiz.

John Paulson, a hedge fund billionaire and one of Donald Trump’s earliest Wall Street backers,
is planning to offshore an Ohio manufacturing plant to China despite heavy pushback from employees.
Workers at the plant call the move “a slap in our face”,
after Paulson vocally defended domestic manufacturing, and are fighting to keep the plant open.
Conn Selmer, the largest US manufacturer of brass and orchestra instruments,
told the union it planned to offshore mos…

Several women who survived abuse by Jeffrey Epstein have come together for a public service announcement video
demanding that Congress release all files on the accused sex trafficker.
“It’s a call to action,” one of the women, Danielle Bensky, told NBC News on Sunday.
“While we are Epstein and [Ghislaine] Maxwell survivors, we are standing for so many victims of sexual assault and of domestic violence, as well.”

Epstein survivors push for release of files in new PSA, say fight isn't political
Several women who survived abuse by Jeffrey Epstein have come together for a public service announcement video demanding that Congress release all files on the accused sex trafficker.“It’s a call to action,” one of the women, Danielle Bensky, told NBC News on Sunday.

A huge impact 4.3 billion years ago partially melted the Moon's mantle & made it lopsided
https://skywriter.blue/@coreyspowell.bsky.social/3meoshhxwic2u

Trump gave what was billed as a “Christmas speech”
in rural Pennsylvania this past week that began with his
“wishing each and everyone one of you a very merry Christmas,
happy New Year,
all of that stuff”
and boasting that now, under his presidency:
“Everybody’s saying ‘merry Christmas’ again.”
He then claimed
– contrary to the experience of nearly everyone in the crowd
– that he had gotten them
“lower prices” and “bigger paychecks…