Tootfinder

Human Traces VIII ⛩️
人类踪迹 VIII ⛩️
📷 Pentax MX and Nikon F4E
🎞️ Ilfors FP4 Plus 125 and ERA 100, expired 1993
If you like my work, Support by buying me a coffee or a roll of film from PayPal https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/ydcdingsite

'Blick von oben' #fotovorschlag 'view from above'
When I saw the topic, I wasn't sure wether I should post a mountin photo or not. But as I have seen so many others doing so, I decided to also post this "view from above" from ~3 months ago when I went to this mountain and enjoyed not only the silence but also the view.
Enjoy!

The battle to be the absolute worst Trump henchman can feel so closely fought.
But in the end, it’s always JD Vance, isn’t it?
You would say Stephen Miller,
but Miller’s too hidden to qualify as a front-of-house henchman among the US president’s court of grotesques.
Stephen’s clearly been judged so wantonly horrifying that the administration must keep him out of public view.
If you enter the store, Miller is the only-for-the-initiated entity alluded to in a …

The Guardian view on #DonaldTrump and the climate crisis: the US is in reverse while China ploughs ahead
Let's hope the #EU will plough ahead in stead of coming to a standstill caused by pressure from fossil fuel, chemical sector and automotive. Otherwise Chinese companies will destroy our export markets before taking over European markets https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/15/the-guardian-view-on-donald-trump-and-the-climate-crisis-the-us-is-in-reverse-while-china-ploughs-ahead

Just went through a code file and replaced "target" with "recipient" in a bunch of docs and variable names, because I had had two senses of "target" and because I want to encourage less-combat-focused thinking among potential devs (which at the moment and for the foreseeable future is just me). Zero changes to code functionality (unless I messed up) and took maybe 30 minutes. Got me thinking about the goal of software development and who would view that time as "wasted".
From a short-sighted "measure user-facing functionality" standpoint there was basically zero progress made. From a "cultivating-code-understanding-entities" perspective, there are both immediate and long-term gains. I got a chance to review the entire file at a high level which improves my understanding of things even if no changes had been made. The changes increase clarity of a lot of documentation, as well as variable naming clarity in code which deals with both senses of "target" which now has clear separation between variables that refer to targets and recipients. If there are any other devs in the future, this will help them a lot. Even if not, by increasing my own development efficacy, the expected values for project-gets-shipped and overall-project-impact just went up. I've also helped myself not introduce the same ambiguity in all my future projects, because I'll remember this time investment, and I've bent the ideological flavor of the protect towards neutral/beneficial interactions between "initiators and recipients" instead of hostile interactions between "initiators and targets".
Overall, well worth the time investment if we consider all the subtler benefits, and not just a very crude measure of user-facing behavior. (Secretly, this is also a post about LLMs.)
#programming

Why not dwell in The Stone Chamber Where One Writes Exquisite Things or stay a while in The Pavilion for Prolonging Spring? Perhaps you might visit the Hall of Ancient Echoes, delight in The Bountiful and Joyful Pavilion, take in the view from The Tower Surrounded by Green or breathe deeply in Purified Fragrance Studio?
https:…

The Pavilion for Prolonging Spring
Just Seeing: Chinese ink tablets inviting travels of the mind

Welcome to San Francisco, where Oceanview has no ocean view, Golden Gate Avenue doesn't go to Golden Gate Bridge or Park, Front Street doesn't front anything, Main Street isn't a main street, and the Sunset is too foggy to see the sunset.
https://mastodon.social/@jef/116078846

One of the biggest current myths is that if democrats win coming midterms and presidential elections everything will be allright and we can return to business as usual with the USA. In my view that is not the case, the political system and society is too broken to be healed that quickly after Trump's destructive presidency. It will take many more more years maybe even a decade to heal and reform.
#Trump

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

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

For my #silentSunday I FINALLY printed of my photos. It's been a while since a printed. Now there's a new gem on my desk 🥰
My wife said that we should have it also as a big print on the wall.
Anyways, enjoy!
I also put it online for sale:
International:

#Shitpost #Shitposting #ShamelesslyStolenFromSomewhereElseOnTheInternetHonestlyICantKeepTrackOfThisStuffAnymore

Lebanese government: 107 children were killed by the Israeli attacks so far, 331 children were wounded. https://www.moph.gov.lb/en/Media/view/83171/1/daily-report-on-the-aggression-death-toll-rises-to-850

Daily Report on the Aggression: Death Toll Rises to 850

Entering the canyon
(Half an hour earlier we were sitting and basking in the sun at the top of those cliffs on the left...)
#SilentSunday #LandscapePhotography #NaturePhotography

Wow, that was some serious nor'west sunrise here in Ōtautahi!

Peter “Antichrist” #Thiel holds his “Antichrist” seminars in #Rome, where he will likely once again, as he did in 2025 in San Francisco, denounce Greta Thunberg as his symbol.
He doesn’t actually believe the talk about the #Antichrist

Peter Thiel Fears the Antichrist Is Coming. In Rome, Some Call His View Heresy.
The right-wing tech investor is giving lectures near the Catholic church’s administrative heart. Commentators there are rejecting his apocalyptic vision.

Google schedules I/O 2026 for May 19 to 20 in Mountain View, teasing the "latest AI breakthroughs and updates" in Gemini, Android, and more (Abner Li/9to5Google)
https://9to5google.com/2026/02/17/google-io-2026-date/

Google I/O 2026 set for May 19-20
Following the interactive puzzle this morning, Google has announced that I/O 2026 is taking place May 19-20...

I never thought I'd be asking this but does anyone have a USB "microscope" to suggest that has a decently long working distance and really small head?
I'm thinking about how I'm going to record/livestream my reworkctf v2 playthrough and the microscope I have on the mill is not set up to record video, and I have no easy path to change that.
So I'm wondering about just adding a second macro/closeup view off to one side looking at the work area and hopefull…

Aldi Suisse has inaugurated 🇨🇭 Switzerland's largest rooftop solar installation, with a capacity of 10 MWp / 8 GWh, at its distribution centre in Domdidier.
https://www.aldi-suisse.ch/de/unternehmen/med…

"The film offers an unfiltered view inside a system where overcrowding, untreated addiction, and violence are routine, and where official oversight is almost nonexistent."
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2025/10/11/alabama-solution-prisons…

How ‘The Alabama Solution’ Documents the ‘Horrors’ Inside Prisons
The directors of ‘The Alabama Solution’ discuss their piercing new documentary and what they hope people will take away from the film.

#RLSSocial upgraded to #mastodon v4.5.9
https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/releases/tag/v4.…

Cryogenics and the use of superfluid helium in high-energy particle accelerators (1980-2000)
Philippe Lebrun
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.14298 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2602.14298 https://arxiv.org/html/2602.14298
arXiv:2602.14298v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: The period 1980-2000 saw the impressive development of applied superconductivity in high-energy particle accelerators, from single components to long strings of superconducting magnets and high-frequency acceleration cavities. Large and powerful cryogenic systems were designed ancillary to superconducting devices operating generally close to the normal boiling point of helium, but also above 4.2 K in supercritical and below 2 K in superfluid. Low-temperature operation in accelerators also involves considerations of ultra-high vacuum, limited stored energy and beam stability. We recall the rationale for cryogenics in high-energy particle accelerators and review its development over the period of interest, with reference to the main engineering domains of cryostat design and heat loads, cooling schemes, efficient power refrigeration and cryogenic fluid management. In view of its importance and novelty, a specific section is devoted to the developments that led to the LHC at CERN.
toXiv_bot_toot

Largest UK study to date uncovers hidden chemical risks in waste-to-energy residues #UnitedKingdom

Largest UK study to date uncovers hidden chemical risks in waste-to-energy residues
Energy-from-waste facilities are often positioned as a cleaner alternative to landfill, transforming rubbish into electricity and reducing the UK's waste burden. But new research suggests that there may be a hidden cost to this process: potentially hazardous chemical residues that remain largely out of public view. A study from the University of East London (UEL) has uncovered new evidence about the risks posed by air pollution control residues (APCr)—a fine, highly alkaline powder produced w…

One of my metrics of how well the US economy is doing is the number of freight railcars that are parked on sidings.
The greater the number of parked freight cars, the worse the economy is doing.
A lot of these sidings are not easy to view, such as the line near Garlock, California on the line out to Trona. Watsonville, California is also often used as a freight car parking lot.
By this metric, the US appears to be on an economic downslide.

Nuke bug of the day: Nuke's color pipeline breaks with completely nonsensical errors whenever you add the keyword "default_view_transform:" to your OCIO configuration. That's really weird because it doesn't really do anything color-related except define which value the viewer should be set to initially.
#Nuke

Whether or not Trump is considering the precise recommendations the Post describes,
the recent story is only the latest indication that he and the people around him view the declaration of a national emergency
—related to national security
—as a possible way to exert more control over elections.
And while the contours of such a ploy remain unclear,
there’s enough information available today to get a sense of what authorities the White House might invoke to try to…

In Case of Emergency: The Dubious Legality of Trump Allies' Draft EO
Conservative activists say that declaring a national emergency would allow Trump to assert sweeping authority over elections. They're wrong.

#Rant
Rob Shaw is solidifying his position as the new Dean of Right Wing, anti-Worker Legislative Reporters in British Columbia.
With these gems, it's incredible that he has an education or goes to a doctor at all…
"The BCTF is typically one of the most militant unions, and quickly prone to job action.”
BCTF Strikes since 2000:
2005
2014
phew! almost got to three!
Remember that this was at the time of a union-busting BC Liberal government that had to go to the Supreme Court of Canada to get told that they ripped up union contracts unconstitutionally and were *forced* to compensate many years later.
"The ratification is a win for a New Democrat government. And extraordinarily expensive for taxpayers, too."
“extraordinarily expensive. Really? How is a wage increase that is *barely* in line with inflation after literally decades of below-inflation increases, “extraordinary”? I'll wait.
"Teachers can thank the BCGEU for turning what was an initial 3.5 per cent wage offer over two years by government, into a more than 12 per cent increase over four that is now forming the baseline for all other union deals."
Indeed! For those who can do math, that means 3% each of 4 years instead of 3.5 over two. But thanks Rob for making it seem like 4 times more!
Thanks BCGEU members for your solidarity and perceverence! I have been on strike. It sucks HARD. But it was worth it and it works.
"The ratification by the BCTF means roughly half of the 450,000 public sector employees now have deals of some sort with the province. Two majors left on the table are nurses and doctors.”
Oh no! Let’s not pay doctors and nurses! Surely they'll stay regardless in our incredibly overworked and under resourced healthcare system!
Like how does Mr Shaw believe we are to stay competitive or attract people. Or is he just not worried about getting sick….
"The skyrocketing deficit has the NDP government inking sweetheart deals with organized labour on the one hand, while pledging to cut public sector jobs with the other.”
Ya, we could have kept those public sector jobs if it weren't for fools like you who demanded governments cut taxes over the past 20 years instead of reasonable rises to... again…keep up with inflation and retain service!
It is a crappy balancing act that the NDP is doing and I do not like a lot of it. At the same time as Mr. Shaw complains about "sweetheart deals" for people in post-secondary, I am seeing historic cuts in that same sector. It's a blood bath actually. So the potential wage increases are going to be welcome, but feel pretty hollow as so many collegues have left.
Rob Shaw would have had us all lose our jobs and take a pay cut at the next one for good measure.
Thanks but no thanks Rob, your world view sucks.
https://www.nsnews.com/economy-law-politics/rob-shaw-ndp-deal-with-bc-teachers-sets-another-costly-precedent-for-public-sector-talks-11966874

The fight over transgender rights in America has entered a new phase (Rachel Cohen Booth/Vox)
https://www.vox.com/policy/482762/transgender-lgbtq-trans-rights-kansas-health-care-bathroom-bans-sports?view_token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpZCI6IjVjaWJuUFdpZHEiLCJwIjoiL3BvbGljeS80ODI3NjIvdHJhbnNnZW5kZXItbGdidHEtdHJhbnMtcmlnaHRzLWthbnNhcy1oZWFsdGgtY2FyZS1iYXRocm9vbS1iYW5zLXNwb3J0cyIsImV4cCI6MTc3NDk1NjU5NiwiaWF0IjoxNzczNzQ2OTk2fQ.GR4VUR2vmfs_ZngkPiAVR5pozs4Js9L1VPquDkoB_Dk&utm_medium=gift-link
http://www.memeorandum.com/260317/p43#a260317p43

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
With the safe return of NASA's Artemis II, it is time to talk about plankton space #science 🛰. PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) is the latest advanced observing satellite launched Feb 2024 which carries the OCI Ocean Colour Instrument measuring hyp…

For today's #silentsunday I am thinking about wether I want to go to this place and take a similar photo (just now in winter) ... OR go to the place seen in the photo. 🤔
I might also have to check the nature & wildlife protection zones first.
Anyways - enjoy the rest of your sunday.
Oh, I even wrote a blog post about it:

The Guardian view on changes to copyright laws: authors should be protected over big tech
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/13/the-guardian-view-on…

RE: https://social.growyourown.services/@FediGarden/116082350446529495
Here's a wishlist item for Fediverse clients: it should be a one-click path to view the Local Feed page of an OP's server (where public) and if it is really niche, to subscribe to the feed like a hashtag.

Well, some congressional hopefuls: "But only Chan and Chakrabarti agreed to participate in this interview, which focuses on AI, regulating Silicon Valley giants, cryptocurrency, and San Francisco’s own tech policies." Where's Wiener?
How S.F. congressional hopefuls view AI, crypto and tech

They want to represent S.F. in Congress. Here’s how they’d tackle AI, crypto and tech.
The job will involve a good deal of tech policy chops, and Mission Local decided to ask the hopefuls how they would approach Silicon Valley.

Well, some congressional hopefuls: "But only Chan and Chakrabarti agreed to participate in this interview, which focuses on AI, regulating Silicon Valley giants, cryptocurrency, and San Francisco’s own tech policies." Where's Wiener?
How S.F. congressional hopefuls view AI, crypto and tech

They want to represent S.F. in Congress. Here’s how they’d tackle AI, crypto and tech.
The job will involve a good deal of tech policy chops, and Mission Local decided to ask the hopefuls how they would approach Silicon Valley.

Series A, Episode 08 - Duel
BLAKE: Deactivate.
AVON: Bank five is finished. Drawing on six.
BLAKE: Zen: power reserves?
ZEN: At the present level of discharge, reserves will be exhausted in two point three hours.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/108/142 B7B2

On a whim, I went to the Royal Festival Hall to see Bruce Liu playing Ravel. Pretty cool. He makes the fiendishly difficult appear entirely effortless.
I think last time I went there, I was a callow youth. It's bigger than I remember!
#music #classical

From a military point of view, as German Defence Minister Pistorius has noted, the US doesn't need european ships as escorts in Hormuz, if you think about the size of the US Navy. So it is probably just to get Europe involved in Trump's/Netanyahu war on Iran. I hope we will pass.
#Iran #USA

RE: https://hachyderm.io/@cyberlyra/116074966881545815
There is so much in this posts that explains lots about how the US are.
It's kind of the Canadian viewpoint (from the inside), but it also works from my European view from the outside.

This looks like an interesting take on the whole “AI" (IMHO its not AI and its not leading directly to AGI).
I've only watched this preview but it looks like it covers things from many points of view. The creator of the film
The AI Documentary: Or How I Becamean APOCALOPTIMIST.
#AIHype

Borderlands (2026)
Geographically, geologically, biologically, politically... The sudden onset of the northern Alps and the German-Austrian border (Bavaria/Tirol, near Füssen/Reutte) running along the wooded ridge in mid-distance...
#LandscapePhotography #NaturePhotography

Thinking about using this to upgrade my system. Anyone using it ?
python3-dnf-plugin-torproxy - Fedora Packages
https://packages.fedoraproject.org/pkgs/dnf-plugins-extras/python3-dnf-plugin-torproxy/

"A More Troubling Picture of Sea Level Rise Is Coming into View"
#Oceans #Environment
https://e360.y…

A More Troubling Picture of Sea Level Rise Is Coming into View
Scientists have uncovered a "blind spot" in the research on rising seas, revealing that tens of millions of people thought safe from coastal flooding are at risk of inundation. Across much of the world, sea levels are higher than previously assumed and land is sinking faster.

Amplify Utah - Voices: I built my life in Utah. Now the government wants me gone. https://amplifyutah.org/point-of-view/voices-i-built-my-life-in-utah-now-the-government-wants-me-gone

Voices: I built my life in Utah. Now the government wants me gone.
Utah benefits every day from immigrants like me who work, study and contribute.

@… indeed.
My screenshot pokes fun at the contrast between the numbers (not at the seriousness of the underlying issues) with GitHub automatically – necessarily – hiding hundreds of points of view, and unfortunately doing so above the number "2".
There's probably scope for GitHub to more intelligently automate the placement of its '…

lol fun news day https://www.techmeme.com/260415/p43#a260415p43

Sources: Apple plans to send ~200 people from its Siri team, a group internally known as a laggard, to an AI coding bootcamp
From The Information. View the full context on Techmeme.

"So the next time that you see a spectacular image of the #nightsky from the #ISS, remember that, although it is a better view (maybe a lot better, if you live in NYC or another light polluted area), the show that the #astronauts

RE: https://fediscience.org/@MichaelEMann/116075635730592895
I don’t think that’s a fringe view in the billionaire class. There’s a bloody-minded rationale that recognizes the absurdity of infinite growth and the need to downsize humanity from its cur…

https://bayerwald.social now on
https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/releases/tag/v4.5.9

Release v4.5.9 · mastodon/mastodon
Upgrade overview This release contains upgrade notes that deviate from the norm: ℹ️ Requires assets recompilation For more information, view the complete release notes and scroll down to the upgrad...

View from my living room window at two different times this late afternoon respectively evening.
#Sunset #Sonnenuntergang #Zürich

Trump has become so politically toxic in Europe that even his closest ideological allies increasingly view him as a liability.
“We need to keep our distance,”
France’s Marine Le Pen told her fellow far-right National Rally lawmakers at a meeting Tuesday, according to a senior party official in attendance.
Europe’s right-wing populists had been pulling away from the U.S. president even before Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbšn suffered a bruising loss in Sunday’s parliame…

Trump turns totally toxic for Europe’s far right
“Proximity with the United States in the current context did not go down well with Hungarian voters,” said a senior official from France’s National Rally party.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@Kristian_Kiehling/116238768404930225
An alternative European view on things. Also it seems Macron was the first to suggest it (see comments).

Another statue of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein has appeared on the National Mall, this one styled after Jack and Rose from Titanic.
#Titanic #JeffreyEpstein #DonaldTrump

Interviews with young teenage girls. TL;DR, despite all the very real problems they face, the kids are all right.
BBC News - The surprising reality of how teenage girls still define themselves - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62je1g000eo

#ThermalWave: A wearable thermal-to-audio sensory substitution device https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3772363.3798941 CHI EA '26
The vOICe for Android too can sound a live thermal view, …

i'm playing records that don't spark joy tonight, thanking them for their service before i trade them in at the record store down the street
#vinyl #jazz #harryjames

Cross To The Other Side ❎
去向另一边 ❎
📷 Nikon FE
🎞️ Lucky C200

If you like my work, buy me a coffee from PayPal #filmphotography

Took the day off to head up to Natural Bridge State Park with my wife. Pictures don’t really do justice to how massive it is.
Then there are the Blue Ridge Mountains, always gorgeous. Will return to Skyline Trail later this summer, as it’s an official International Dark Sky viewing location. Perhaps in August for the Perseid meteor shower season.

It's all true...
https://mastodon.social/@RichqrddeNooy/116204373373144034
RichqrddeNooy@mastodon.social - This lunch includes all five of the main Dutch food groups: cheese, cucumber, geometry, boredom and sorrow, with most of the vitamin content provided by the soul-destroying view of endless flatness spilling off the far-flung horizon.

NASA just dropped a hi-res image from the beginning of the eclipse #ArtemisII experienced at https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/55197506830/ - it's dominated by a broad corona streamer bundle sitting on top of the zodiacal light pyramid. (In https://skyweek.wordpress.com/2026/04/09/allgemeines-live-blog-ab-dem-9-april-2026/#Apr09 I have rotated it so that it matches the SOHO LASCO C2 view which in https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10164990866429808 is matched to the well-known eclipse end picture.) But south of the streamers sits something bright at the lunar limb that baffles me: what can be so bright - and even colorful - at this location when the Sun is already well behind the Moon? Is this astrophysics or rather selenophysics? Ideas?

Viewfinder: completed!
World four turned out to be quite long and complex, and the overall tone of the game turned much darker. Many of the level foundations became purple and grey, which could not be destroyed by laying photographs or photographed themselves. What seemed to be a restriction actually quickly became another puzzle, where (for example) a photo of a battery inside a purple cage could be placed as just the battery.

Just returned from a wonderful 11km Friday afternoon walk along the boundary between the seasons...
#FootpathFriday #LandscapePhotography #NaturePhotography

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Orientale_on_Display.jpg

They had to hack the traffic cameras? We buy the cameras ourselves and hang them on our doors in the West. @… https://m.ai6yr.org/@ai6yr/116168854186551062

Peter Thiel Fears the Antichrist Is Coming. In Rome, Some Call His View Heresy. (Elisabetta Povoledo/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/17/world/europe/peter-thiel-rome-antichrist-catholics.html
http://www.memeorandum.com/260317/p55#a260317p55

These photos!!!
#LeMonde:
"Artemis-2 : la NASA dévoile des ph…

X launches Cashtags, a feature that lets users view real-time financial data on stocks and crypto directly in their timelines, in the US and Canada (Timmy Shen/The Block)
https://www.theblock.co/post/397470/x-rolls-out-cashtags

I NEED this to be a real weather app omg 🥹
https://dribbble.com/shots/7119800-Foxy-weather

Register for our 4/8 #DefendResearch webinar with information studies researcher Dr. George Cooper to learn about findings from his extensive research on China and #censorship complicity in scholarly publishing.

Uh oh.
One woman said she was able to see the accounts of six different users on the Bank of Scotland app, including some National Insurance numbers, over a 20-minute period.
Lloyds, Bank of Scotland and Halifax apps showed customers other users' transactions
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g23npx…

Lloyds, Bank of Scotland and Halifax apps showed customers other users' transactions
The Lloyds Banking Group customers reported being able to view payments and charges from other sources.

Heinberg:
"The current sharp spike in diesel fuel prices is likely to be a significant drag on the construction and installation of renewables—as well as to increase the cost of food and most other things. People tend to forget that, despite all the solar panels and wind turbines, the heavy work of the global economy is still mostly being done by diesel fuel."
20 Years after «The Oil Depletion Protocol».

20 Years after «The Oil Depletion Protocol». An interview with Richard Heinberg
A conversation about the current state of oil geopolitics, from the protocol point of view, and about its present day validity.

NFL Writer Doesn’t Hold Back on Maxx Crosby’s Raiders Future https://heavy.com/sports/nfl/las-vegas-raiders/nfl-writer-on-maxx-crosby-future/

Steven High, a historian of labour and de-industrialization, knows a thing or two. Here he offers his take on Lewis, contextualizing the positions he's taken in a very (very, very) brief potted history of the NDP and a reflection on the party as it stands at the moment. Worth a couple of minutes.
https://

Avi Lewis will make the NDP think big again
The road ahead will not be an easy one for Lewis and the New Democrats. And while his vision may ultimately resonate more with the party’s urban progressives than its working-class base, it is exciting to think that the NDP might once again be the source of bold new ideas. Canadian politics will be better for it.

Rare Colours Blues IV🔷🔷
稀有的色彩蓝 IV🔷🔷
📷 Pentax MX
🎞️ Harman Phoenix 200 II (FF)
#filmphotography #Photography #Art

For #MountainMonday I share this view from a recent hike.
The 300mm zoom lens zoomed me into this area. It would be a blast to walk there. Yet this is a protection zone that noone should enter in winter to give wildlife some peace.
Well, I was happy to see that scene with the soft snow ... just beautiful (to me at least)

wait what? https://www.techmeme.com/260415/p24#a260415p24

Shoe company Allbirds, which sold last week for $39M after its valuation fell from $4B+ in 2021, says it aims to become an AI compute provider; BIRD jumps 800%+
By Bryce Elder / Financial Times. View the full context on Techmeme.

Some Places with Snow II ❄️
一些有雪的地方 II ❄️
📷 Nikon F4E
🎞️ Ilford FP4 Plus 125, expired 1993
If you like my work, buy me a coffee from PayPal #filmphotography

Latest 8x6" toned kallitype print, fresh from the tray (well, from the drying line)... 🤩
(Kallitype is quite challenging in terms of balancing achieving deep blacks vs detail, so this scene took quite some tweaking to retain the details in the band of dark shadowy forest, but I'm happy how it turned out...)
#AltProcess

Try The vOICe for Android's AI depth view feature, toggled via the menu Options | AI depth view https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=vOICe.vOICe and locate a chair without eyesight, using "louder = nearer";

Back from a very wet (local weather history says 1.76 inches or 45 mm of rain yesterday) SAR training weekend.
Lots of good land navigation drills both on trail and bushwhacking through heavy brush. Everyone's rain gear got a good workout and there were definitely a few hard lessons learned about underperforming gear.
Wrapped the weekend up with a mock search, finding our "missing person" with a "head injury", plus her friend who had gone for help but &quo…

Amplify Utah - My dumb friend just got a gun, and now he can bring it to campus https://amplifyutah.org/point-of-view/my-dumb-friend-just-got-a-gun-and-now-he-can-bring-it-to-campus

My dumb friend just got a gun, and now he can bring it to campus
Amplify Utah helps facilitate the connection between student work and traditional media outlets to encourage more diversity of voices.

When you post things on Instagram, Facebook, and X, this is what they look like to people who don’t use those platforms.

The uncertain brightness and tail(s) development of #Kreutz #comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) is one thing - see the curves in https://astro.vanbuitenen.nl/comet/2026A1 and https://aerith.net/comet/catalog/2026A1/2026A1.html for guesses and https://cobs.si/obs_list?id=2688 for the current value which is ~8.5 mag. - but the viewing geometry is the other: here it is for 51.5° North (my place Bochum) and 22.5° South (Windhoek) as the view is much better from the southern hemisphere.
The table first gives the elongation (angle between comet and Sun in the sky) and the phase angle (the angle Sun - comet - Earth) which nearing 180° can lead to significant boost of brightness by forward scattering on dust.
And this is followed by the altitude of the comet at the solar depressions given in the top line, for Bochum and Windhoek: sunset and end of civilian twilight and for the latter also the end of nautical and astronomical twilight, i.e. the onset of night. Also of importance is the angle of a hypothetical dust tail (simulated in https://hdr-astrophotography.com) after perihelion, also much better in the South: https://britastro.org/section_news_item/c-2026-a1-maps-a-kreutz-group-sungrazer - but first MAPS has to survive the latter *and* release a lot of dust at the right time ...

In The Lechtal Alps (2024)
Previously (same valley):
#MountainMonday

My #silentsunday.. I only had a chat with two guys at the summit and one guy a bit below.
Besides that... 4-5h silence. If we don't count the minutes I was following the activities of a woodpecker a couple of meters away from me 😊
It took me really efforts to get out. But - as usual - it was worth it.

Human Traces V ⛩️
人类踪迹 V ⛩️
📷 Pentax MX
🎞️ Harman Red 125 （FF）
If you like my work, Support by buying me a coffee or a roll of film from PayPal https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/ydcdingsite

Internal memo: Microsoft's gaming chief Asha Sharma says "Game Pass has become too expensive for players" and that Microsoft needs "a better value equation" (Tom Warren/The Verge)

Xbox Game Pass ‘has become too expensive,’ says Microsoft’s new gaming chief in leaked memo
Microsoft’s new Xbox chief is getting ready to improve Game Pass pricing. A leaked memo suggests that a “better value equation” is coming soon.

The conflation of Jews and Israel is dangerous antisemitism.
And yet it’s harder to fight back as the mainstream Jewish establishment insists that Zionism is nearly as integral to Jewish identity as circumcision.
Increasingly, though, many Jews are searching for another point of view:
Feelings about Israel are wobbling within the community
— and disapproval is rising among the young;
pro-Palestinian Jewish groups are growing, and more and more Jews view “Zionis…

Book Review: ‘Here Where We Live Is Our Country,’ by Molly Crabapple
In “Here Where We Live Is Our Country,” Molly Crabapple tells the story of a Jewish labor movement that fought antisemitism and nationalism with equal fervor.

bad time for my NAS to be 87% full https://www.techmeme.com/260215/p6#a260215p6

Western Digital said on its Q2 earnings call it had “pretty much sold out” its 2026 HDD capacity, and that the consumer sector accounted for 5% of total revenue
By Muhammad Zuhair / Wccftech. View the full context on Techmeme.

Life Treats 🥇
生活奖励 🥇
📷 Nikon FE
🎞️ Ilford HP5 Plus 400, expired 1993
If you like my work, buy me a coffee from PayPal #filmphotography

OpenAI updates ChatGPT's deep research tool with GPT-5.2, a full-screen report view, and an option to focus research on specific websites (Matthias Bastian/The Decoder)
https://the-decoder.com/openais-deep-research-now-runs-on-gp…

OpenAI's Deep Research now runs on GPT-5.2 and lets users search specific websites
OpenAI now powers Deep Research in ChatGPT with GPT-5.2, adding features like targeted website search and real-time tracking. But that doesn't necessarily make AI research more reliable.

Some Places with Snow ❄️
一些有雪的地方 ❄️
📷 Nikon F4E
🎞️ Ilford FP4 Plus 125, expired 1993
If you like my work, buy me a coffee from PayPal #filmphotography

Cross To The Other Side V ❎
去向另一边 V ❎
📷 Nikon FE
🎞️ Lucky C200

If you like my work, buy me a coffee from PayPal #filmphotography

How college students who study war view Trump’s Iran taunts
For Politics 226: "Introduction to Peace Studies"
this was a week when treaties, rules and theories slammed into the reality of a U.S. president who says he
“doesn’t need” international law,
doesn’t ask God for forgiveness
and is limited solely by his own ideas about morality.
Even for Trump, his Tuesday post casually threatening to level Iran,
in a way that seemed to suggest the …

How college students who study war view Trump’s Iran taunts
On campuses around the country, thoughtful debates about “just war” theory and morality collided with President Trump’s erratic approach to combat.

Some photos from today's hike in the mountains. To escape the fog.
It was very very icy at the bottom. And I was super happy to have my micro spikes.
The way up was pretty calm. Right the #silentsunday I had desired. At the summit there were a bit too many people and I didn't see proper motives. So I just enjoyed the view and the really warm temperature.
On the wa…

Shot ...and chaser (and it's only Tuesday): Two new 8x6" prints done over the weekend, from one of my fave repeat hikes in the Allgäuer Alps...
Alpsee and view into the Lechtal Alps (November 2021)
Himmeleck mountain pass with Großer Wilder (October 2023)
I find the aesthetics of the Kallitype process are so nicely complementing the timelessness of these places...
For some of the next prints I will be switching to Rochelle salt as developer for supposedly even…

Donald Trump is set to hold a press conference in the White House briefing room today at 1pm ET
on the US-Israel war on Iran.
He’s expected to provide an update on the weekend rescue mission to retrieve a crew member after a US F-15 jet was downed on Friday over Iran.
This also comes after the president issued a profanity-laden ultimatum to the Iranian regime on social media to reopen the strait of Hormuz, or face further strikes on energy sites and bridges across the count…

Bird View 🐦
鸟瞰 🐦
📷 Nikon FE
🎞️ Ilford HP5 Plus 400, expired 1993
If you like my work, buy me a coffee from PayPal #filmphotography

Uhh #mountainMonday again? Okay, this is a view from one of my recent walks.
As usual it was just nice to escape the fog in the valley. It's always the same - when you're below or in the clouds for a couple of days ... it's all just grey and dimm.
And by the minute when I break through into the sunshine, I immediately feel the impact to my mood.

Shortly after the war in Gaza began in 2023,
Bellingcat introduced a free tool authored by University College London lecturer and Bellingcat contributor, Ollie Ballinger,
that was able to estimate the number of damaged buildings in a given area.
This helped monitor and map the scale of destruction across the territory as Israel’s military operation progressed. 
Bellingcat is now introducing an updated version of the open source tool
— called the Iran Conflict D…

Different Corners VII ▶️
不同的角落 VII ▶️
📷 Nikon F4E
🎞️ Fujifilm NEOPAN SS, expired 1993
#filmphotography #Photography #blackandwhite