Tootfinder

The story isn’t that Trump called a woman “piggy”. The story is that there wasn’t a single person there to punch him in the mouth – whether metaphorically or otherwise – when he did. https://masto.ai/@Nonilex/115575674112795477

Good Morning #Canada
Are you still looking for that perfect Christmas gift? Years ago I found myself shopping for my wife's Christmas present on December 23rd. Never again. For those of you still shopping it's inevitable that you're going to be standing in front of the Gift Card rack and mentally convincing yourself that the recipient will love a full gas tank or a Timmies coffee and donut. Canadians will buy close to $12 billion in Gift Cards in 2025, with a lot of that in the next 5 days. Recent changes to legislation have made it illegal to charge processing or activation fees on cards purchased with cash and there is no expiry date. That last point is important because companies are betting that a certain percentage of cards are never redeemed and it's estimated that approximately 40% of all cards are never used. I personally like getting a gift card as it allows me to choose something I want, and I always thank the gifter once I've used it.
#CanadaIsAwesome #GiftCards
YES, I love giving and receiving Gift Cards
NO, I'm not happy when I have to buy or get a Gift Card

*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…

RE: https://mastodon.scot/@kristiedegaris/115567036655119546
I'll do the persuading: I think the book is so good that it's worth spreading. I'll gift one copy per month to any address in Germany for the next three month. DM me if you want …

“God gave us this incredible gift of an intellect and curiosity and an opportunity to explore how nature works,”
Dr Francis Collins, former director of National Institutes of Health said.
“And God gave us nature as well
and we get the chance through science to do that.
I think of science as glimpsing God’s mind.
Science is almost a form of worship because what you’re trying to do there is to be completely caught up in the awe of what we’ve been given in natu…

Francis Collins and Marc Siegel say medicine is a gift from God
“To have Christians be the group that was most resistant” to the Covid vaccine “really seems wrong here,” said former NIH Director Francis Collins.

wow as a hoarder er keeper of all the things :-) this is amazing
https://tomkahe.com/@GiftArticles/115563308736409551

Q&A with CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela on Runway's "world models" breakthrough, how it differs from typical AI video generation, the Lionsgate partnership, and more (Cristina Criddle/Financial Times)

Trump Told a Woman, 'Quiet, Piggy,' When She Asked Him About Epstein (Isabel Fattal/The Atlantic)
https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/2025/11/trump-comments-denigrating-women-reporters-pattern/684974/?gift=UDCAY75CzHyGUPSsXwkpWpDKjo9lO0QGheIrD3glmdc
http://www.memeorandum.com/251119/p4#a251119p4

CeeDee Lamb has Brian Schottenheimer all smiles with perfect birthday gift https://www.si.com/nfl/cowboys/news/ceedee-lamb-brian-schottenheimer-all-smiles-perfect-birthday-gift

🎁 Looking for the perfect festive gift for the reader in your life? Give the gift of adventure this Christmas!
Dive into the epic worlds created by author Linda Teppler, including the compelling tale of Hunchback and the fantasy saga Champions of Falural.
Find them on Kindle today in ebook, audiobook, paperback, and hardback editions! Please hit Follow on her author page—it's the best digital stocking stuffer!

While researching gift cards this morning I learned that fraud has increased significantly and that the card balance can be drained before your recipient gets a chance to spend it. It's still relatively rare but possible.
#FraudAwareness
https://www.cbc.ca/news/gopublic/go-public-gift-cards-theft-organized-crime-1.7475283

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #MorningShow
The Feal:
🎵 Gift Horse
#TheFeal
https://thefealmusic.bandcamp.com/track/gift-horse
https://open.spotify.com/track/2t5Bibs4manXbXD52aiDdb

OpenAI hires former UK chancellor George Osborne to lead OpenAI for Countries, the global expansion arm of its $500B Stargate data center initiative (Financial Times)

'Gift for Putin' — Czech public raises money for 1 Flamingo missile for Ukraine, Fire Point to provide 2: https://benborges.xyz/2025/11/10/gift-for-putin-czech-public.html

Day 18: Mark Oshiro
Having just learned that Oshiro is nonbinary, they're an instant include on this list. In veering extremely heavily towards YA, and losing a spot that would have gone to an absolutely legendary mangaka, anime writer, or feminist philosopher, but "Anger is A Gift" and "Each of us a Desert" are just that good, and I'm trying to steer a bit towards towards lesser-known authors I respect.
I already mentioned "Anger is a Gift" above, but to recap, it's a painful, vivid, and beautifully honest story of queer love, loss, and protest against an oppressive system. CW for racist police murder, intergenerational trauma, and police brutality against highschool students. It's a book a lot of Americans could benefit from reading right now, and while it's fiction, it's not fantasy or sci-fi. Besides the themes and politics, the writing is just really solid, with delicate characterization and tight-plotted developments that are beautifully paced.
To me "Each of us a Desert" is maybe even more beautiful, and Oshiro leaps into a magnificent fantasy world that's richly original in its desolation, dark history, lonely characters, and mythical magic. Particularly the clearly-not-just-superscription but ambiguously-important/powerful magical elements of Oshiro's worldbuilding are a rare contrast to the usual magic-is-real-here's-how-it-works fare, and pulling that off a all as they do is a testament to their craft. The prose is wonderful, probably especially so if you speak Spanish, but I enjoyed it immensely despite only knowing a few words here and there. The rich interiority of the characters, their conflicts both with each other and within themselves, and the juxtaposition of all that against origins in cult-like ignorance allows for the delivery of a lot of wisdom and complex truths.
Between these two books, so different and yet each so powerful, Oshiro has demonstrated incredible craft and also a wide range of styles, so I'm definitely excited to read more of their work and to recommend them to others.
I'm also glad to have finally put a nonbinary author on this list; the others I had in mind won't make it at this point because there's too much genre overlap, although I'll include them in my didn't-make-it list at the end. I've now got just 2 slots left and have counted up 14 more authors that absolutely need to be mentioned, so we'll see what happens.
#20AuthorsNoMen

Good NYT piece (gift link). Tl;dr: Financial whiz kids want to get their hands on mainstream retirement & insurance money so it can be plowed into unregulated private-debt markets and crypto. What could go wrong? https://www.

The Rules of Investing Are Being Loosened. Could It Lead to the Next 1929?
A group of financiers is trying to convince the public to invest heavily in private equity and crypto — a risky gambit with some real 1920s vibes.

Give yourself the gift of digital permanence by applying for a DPOE grant to pay for digital preservation training this spring.
Students who've applied it to my online DIG 550 class https://DigitalCuration.UMaine.edu say it's easy and paid for the course.
---

This piece (gift) https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/12/camp-of-saints-jean-raspail/685213/?gift=UABFCv9wcedkDH-6g8sMn4pxKH_kT31HyDyWrhMG6YM&…

'The More I'm Around Young People, the More Panicked I Am' (Yair Rosenberg/The Atlantic)
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/12/american-anti-semitism-youth/685261/?gift=201cWZnM2XBz2eP81zy0pKzalIF1o9O62TXPXN_SOP8&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
http://www.memeorandum.com/251215/p109#a251215p109

It is Judge Mark L. Wolf, who retired in protest, explaining why: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/11/federal-judge-resignation-trump/684845/?gift=Kjaw0NITl7f2TdiJgnhQhTU81T1TbxegoH4x33GvLqc
…

Why I Am Leaving the Federal Bench
A federal judge explains his reasoning for leaving the bench.

Nadeen and her sister need $2,000 to pay their tuition fees to continue studying.
If anyone wants to sponsor their education, this is your chance to gift our world two young dentists.
💕
#Gaza #Palestine #FediAid

The Trump administration recently dropped its
National Security Strategy
and, like all things Trump,
it’s equal parts nonsense and vitriol.
It signals a self-defeating retreat from any sort of global leadership
and the regime’s open promotion of white nationalism at home and abroad.
The document is extremely light on the “strategy” part,
but is chock full of naked racism and Great Replacement rhetoric.
If you fed a low-rent knockoff version o…

We're the baddies now. Our new Security Strategy shows it.
It's a gift to the Kremlin and a middle finger to our erstwhile allies.

Analysis: ten loss-making AI startups, including OpenAI, gained ~$1T in valuation over the past year, fueling concerns of an inflating bubble in private markets (Financial Times)

Epic insights on the #semiconductor industry in #Taiwan. We’re on the second day of our workshop, with a heavy focus on walks.
/
The industry came to the island in the freaking 1950s. Here’s a precious IBM machine, infamously transported by horse car 🐎 because trucks were to shaky…

“When society’s values are corrupted, it is the duty of the individual to uphold true morality.”
Kaminski MD, Rami. The Gift of Not Belonging: How Outsiders Thrive in a World of Joiners (p. 197). Kindle Edition.

At Margraten, a military cemetery in the Netherlands, two panels about Black American liberators of the Netherlands are suddenly gone. ‘Fits with the policy of the Trump administration'
Terrible...😔
Dutch newspaper article added.

Op Margraten zijn twee panelen over zwarte Amerikaanse bevrijders van Nederland opeens weg. ‘Past bij beleid van de regering-Trump’
Monument: Op de Amerikaanse begraafplaats in Margraten is het opeens stil geworden rond de zwarte Amerikanen die hielpen Nederland bevrijden. Twee panelen die hun bijdrage herdachten – én wezen op hun strijd tegen racisme binnen het leger – werden zonder toelichting verwijderd.

“So I would advise and caution against purchasing an AI toy for Christmas and think about other options of things that parents and kids can enjoy together that really build that social connection with the family, not the social connection with a parasocial AI toy.”
Many of these toys are happy to engage in discussions inappropriate for children, such as dangerous activities or sexual practices. Some are programmed to cause addiction.

I love The Onion.
Go buy a gift subscription for loved ones this holiday season.
#gifts

Embedding the Teacher: Distilling vLLM Preferences for Scalable Image Retrieval
Eric He, Akash Gupta, Adian Liusie, Vatsal Raina, Piotr Molenda, Shirom Chabra, Vyas Raina
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.12014

Embedding the Teacher: Distilling vLLM Preferences for Scalable Image Retrieval
Text--image retrieval is necessary for applications such as product recommendation. Embedding-based approaches like CLIP enable efficient large-scale retrieval via vector similarity search, but they are primarily trained on literal caption-like text--image pairs and often fail to capture abstract or persona-driven attributes common in product recommendation applications (e.g., ``a gift for a mother who loves gardening''). In contrast, state-of-the-art vision--language models (vLLMs) can align t…

FPF Holiday Gift Guide for AI-Enabled, Privacy-Forward AgeTech
https://fpf.org/blog/fpf-holiday-gift-guide-for-ai-enabled-privacy-forward-agetech/
@…

From Covid-19, we learned that a somewhat coordinated global response is (would be) required, because people travel. Forget about that under the Trump regime and his antivaxx buddy RFK jr.
This will first hurt Americans, but in Europe, we're bound to feel the impact too.
https://tomkahe.com/@GiftA…

As Trump and the West play games with Ukrainian lives by withholding long range missiles, Ukraine is developing its own.
Meanwhile, Russia continues to increase the ferocity and quantity of its attacks, killing more Ukrainian civilians with each passing night.
Giorgio reports from the trenches of democracy in Ukraine. He is a hero who documents the warcrimes of Russia and their ongoing genocide of the Ukrainian people.
Giorgio shares the friend link to bypass the paywall so…

A Gift For Putin
Live from Ukraine 🇺🇦

my contribution to the white elephant gift swap tomorrow comes in just under the $25 limit!

Day 16: Mayra Cuevas & Marie Marquardt
Okay so this is cheating, but they're co-authors of multiple books together, and there's no way for me to separate their contributions... I've already got too many authors I'd like to list, so why not?
I read their book "Does My Body Offend You?" and absolutely loved it; it's a celebration of teen activism while also being a deep exploration of feminist issues through practical situations that bring out the complicated side of things, which the authors refuse to reduce back to a simple formulaic answer. It has a supporting cast of appropriately-complex male characters that help in exploring the nuances of issues like the line between female empowerment & male gratification, and it brings race and macho culture into the conversion as well.
CW for sexual harassment & deep discussion of the resultant trauma.
I'll cheat again here to sneak in mention of two male authors whose work resonates with theirs: Mark Oshiro's "Anger is a Gift" has a more pessimistic/complex take on teen activism along with a gay romance (CW for racist cop murder), while Jeremy Whitley's graphic novel "Navigating With You" deals with queer romance & disability, while having a main character pairing that echoes those from "Does My Body Offend You?" in a lot of ways. Another connection (to non-men authors this time) is with "Go With the Flow" by Lily Williams and Karen Schneemann. Their graphic novel about teen activism and periods is a bit more didactic and has a much lighter tone, but it does necessarily have some overlapping themes.
To bring it back to Cuevas & Marquhardt, their writing is great and their ability to discuss such complex topics with such nuance, all wrapped up in a story that feels completely natural, is amazing to me, and makes their book feel like one of the most valuable to recommend to others.
In writing this I've realized a grave oversight in the list so far that I'll have to correct tomorrow, but I'm quickly running out of days. The didn't-quite-make-it list is going to be full of more excellent authors, and I'm honestly starting to wonder whether it might actually be harder to name 20 male authors I respect now that I've found the sense to be mostly somewhere between disgusted and disappointed with so many of the male authors I enjoyed as a teen.
#20AuthorsNoMen (cheating a bit)

A friend sent me a gift (knitted gloves) from abroad, to the UK. I had to pay a "customs tax" for it to be delivered, even though postage had already been fully paid. Why is that? Like, what is the justification for taxing gifts? 🤔
#UKQuestion

A friend (who is also on the verge of becoming Justified and Ancient) has given me a most welcome gift!
You know who you are! Thank you!
#Palestine

A post from the archive 📫:
The gift of time
#musings

"Spoiler alert: unless there happens to be some breakthrough in physics that will drive more gigahertz to our CPUs, more crypto to those GPUs, more watts to our batteries, and more money to cloud providers, we most probably will not see any difference between the computer you are using today and the one you will receive as a gift in Christmas 2033. Get used to this fact."

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…

Jesus fucking christ.
https://hey.paris/posts/appleid/

20 Years of Digital Life, Gone in an Instant, thanks to Apple
Summary: A major brick-and-mortar store sold an Apple Gift Card that Apple seemingly took offence to, and locked out my entire Apple ID, effectively bricking my devices and my iCloud Account, Apple Developer ID, and everything associated with it, and I have no recourse. Can you help? Email paris AT paris.id.au (and read on for the details). ❤️ Here’s how Apple “Permanently” locked my Apple ID. I am writing this as a desperate measure.

I guess no-one should ever buy Apple gift cards. https://hey.paris/posts/appleid/

Mit Orzo perlato, Sellerieknöllchen, weißen Bohnen und etwas Stängelkohl als Substitutionssubstanzen. Let this be recommended. #nommention
https://<…

Chickpea Stew With Orzo and Mustard Greens Recipe (Gift Recipe)
A complex and colorful chickpea stew, this is rich with vegetables, olive oil and Parmesan cheese. You can vary the vegetables to use what you’ve got. Here, I keep to the basics, adding carrots for sweetness, fennel or celery for depth, cherry tomatoes for looks. Tender greens, wilted into the bubbling mixture at the end, are optional, but they do add a bright, almost herbal note. I particularly love using baby mustard greens, which are pleasantly peppery. But spinach, arugula and kale work w…

A gift to Putin! Controversial bill in the US congress could leave NATO without American support: https://benborges.xyz/2025/12/10/a-gift-to-putin-controversial.html

https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2025/10/civil-military-crisis-trump-hegseth/684486/?gift=7dKtnNrILXcLLty1b9gh3uG_bbiuHC_0IsXwEDyq36g

The Civil-Military Crisis Is Here
The leaders of the U.S. military may soon face a terrible decision.

The Serviceberry – Robin Wall Kimmerer
https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/the-serviceberry/

The Serviceberry: An Economy of Abundance – Robin Wall Kimmerer
As Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy.

The director of the Dwight D Eisenhower Presidential Library
has stepped down after a dispute with the Trump administration
over gifting a sword in its collection
to King Charles,
according to the BBC's US partner, CBS News.
Todd Arrington, the head of the library in Kansas,
resigned on Monday after declining to remove an original sword from the library's collection
to give to the King during President Donald Trump's visit to the United …

Trump's Eisenhower sword gift to King Charles leads to official resigning
The library director reportedly rejected a request for the White House to gift an Eisenhower sword to King Charles.

Chancellor Thomas Gibson is offering a challenge to #UWM faculty and staff: Raise a total of $1,000 by the end of this week, and he will match with a $1,000 gift. Visits to the UWM food pantry rose more than 41% from September to October, as the federal government shutdown cut paychecks and certain government benefits and demand is expected to spike in the coming days as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits are interrupted.
It's a good cause.
#Milwaukee

An illustration in Robert Munsch’s beloved Love You Forever didn’t seem right. I set out to discover why
I memorized every word of Love You Forever as a kid, but when I read it to my own children, one page left me unsettled
https://www.theg…

Still looking for a Christmas present? How about giving yourself the gift of really good music by our multi-talented @… and band 🎶
https://obiymydoschu.bandcamp.com/albu

"20 Years of Digital Life, Gone in an Instant, thanks to Apple" – Paris Buttfield-Addison
https://hey.paris/posts/appleid/

#caturday gift article from WAPO #DollyParton
Dolly Parton’s sister ‘didn’t mean to scare anyone’ with prayer request
Dolly Parton’s sister Freida triggered a wave of concern for the star’s health with a Facebook post. Freida later said she never meant to make it sound so serious.
By …

Dolly Parton’s sister ‘didn’t mean to scare anyone’ with prayer request
Dolly Parton’s sister Freida triggered a wave of concern for the star’s health with a Facebook post. Freida later said she never meant to make it sound so serious.

Q&A with Joy Reid on her ouster from MSNBC, her streaming show, why "not being a part of corporate media is actually a gift" at the moment, and more (Jeremy Barr/The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/08/joy-reid-msnbc

So what, are the US armed forces a mercenary force working for a billionaire now? Are they literally potus and friends’ private army, navy, air force, coast guard and space force?
@duckworth.senate.gov @durbin.senate.gov @schakowsky.house.gov you rep me. How is this anywhere near legal?

Pentagon accepts anonymous $130M gift for payroll amid shutdown
The Pentagon has confirmed it's accepted an anonymous $130 million gift to help pay members of the military during the government shutdown. The announcement Friday raises ethical questions after President Donald Trump had said a friend offered the gift to defray any shortfalls. While large and unusual, the gift amounts to a small contribution toward the billions needed to cover service member paychecks. The Trump administration told Congress last week that it used $6.5 billion to make payroll. …

I love The Onion.
Go buy a gift subscription for loved ones this holiday season.
#gifts

Just a few days left of my NYTimes sub which I will not be renewing, so here's a gift article about people's relationship with Pynchon, with a bit from @… in it:

Lisa Simpson and Other Fans of Thomas Pynchon on the Writer’s Most Memorable Scenes
With the famously private novelist enjoying a (private) moment in the sun, we reached out to die-hard fans who’ve tuned in to the zaniness all along.

The Beacon of Democracy Goes Dark (Anne Applebaum/The Atlantic)
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/11/america-democracy-autocracy/684335/?gift=hVZeG3M9DnxL4CekrWGK39aSMipcYjqT3FSdM6_hvGI&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
http://www.memeorandum.com/251014/p63#a251014p63

For this #Caturday, the #feral #cat who lives out back visited my lap again 😻 None of my indoor kitties have ever been lap cats, so to have the outside cat nap there is a real gift.

Watch out for the next issue of the journal I edit, a staid, sober, scholarly publication - the front cover will feature an 18th-century engraving of someone getting (and so someone else giving - the greatest gift of all) an enema.

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #MorningShow
The Feal:
🎵 Gift Horse
#TheFeal
https://thefealmusic.bandcamp.com/track/gift-horse
https://open.spotify.com/track/2t5Bibs4manXbXD52aiDdb

Pretty goddamn productive day
⁃ FAFSA completed for the kid
⁃ Halloween costume ordered
⁃ Birthday gift for brother ordered
⁃ All of last weekend's footage turned into something useful
⁃ Ordered a new gig bag for the Suhr

"In the age of virality, our devices offer up individual case studies, allowing us to congregate around them virtually. Although this is useful in helping us understand what happens when a person is plucked from their home, it takes our attention away from the larger story—more than half a million people deported, millions more at risk—and focuses us instead on a tiny part of it."

[M]any consumers might not realize the privacy risks just by glancing at the flyer sent to them, according to Florian Schaub, associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Information.
"The privacy policy is very specific that we're going to track everything, including what you do in Incognito Windows. Previously anonymous data may now be identifiable. All those risks are not disclosed here," Schaub said, after reviewing a copy of the flyer.

Conflict is expanding between Trump’s immigration policies and the Catholic faith, @ebruenig writes. “The religion’s call to radical love can’t countenance this much cruelty.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/11/

The Catholic Church and the Trump Administration Are Not Getting Along
The religion’s call to radical love can’t countenance this much cruelty.

Despite talk of an existential US-China AI race, the Chinese state and its major companies are spending more to dominate other domains, such as EVs and robotics (Tim Wu/Financial Times)

Think of this as a good place to start
— for you and your loved ones
— to expand your knowledge of indie news outlets
who are more deserving of your time and money than corporate, billionaire-owned media.
And feel free to add your suggestions in the comments.
https://www.thehandbaske…

Giving the gift of independent journalism: a guide
The Handbasket has subscription suggestions for almost everyone on your list.

In a world with kings, our only agency is to beg “please, sir, be kind.”
#apple #BigTech

20 Years of Digital Life, Gone in an Instant, thanks to Apple
Summary: A major brick-and-mortar store sold an Apple Gift Card that Apple seemingly took offence to, and locked out my entire Apple ID, effectively bricking my devices and my iCloud Account, Apple Developer ID, and everything associated with it, and I have no recourse. Can you help? Email paris AT paris.id.au (and read on for the details). ❤️ Here’s how Apple “Permanently” locked my Apple ID. I am writing this as a desperate measure.

Turns out that the Dutch Justice and Security Minister - of the double-failed right-far-right coalition - ignored urgent advice by Antiterrorism Coordinator to call out the extreme-right nature of last weekend's violence around the anti-immigrant demonstration.
Called it aggression against police and vandalism instead.

Minister negeerde NCTV-advies om Haagse rellen expliciet ‘rechts-extremistisch’ te noemen
Rechts-extremisme: De Nationaal Coördinator Terrorismebestrijding adviseerde de demissionair minister van Justitie om de rellen in Den Haag te bestempelen als ‘rechts-extremistisch’. De minister sloeg dit advies in de wind. Door vaag te blijven zou hij volgens de terrorismebestrijder „normalisering” van het gedachtegoed in de hand werken.

A profile of nonprofit Common Crawl, which has scraped billions of webpages since 2013, including paywalled ones, to build an archive used by OpenAI and others (Alex Reisner/The Atlantic)
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/202…

Common Crawl Is Doing the AI Industry’s Dirty Work
“You shouldn’t have put your content on the internet if you didn’t want it to be on the internet,” Common Crawl’s executive director says.

Yum! (Wie immer weniger Öl und Zucker) #nommention
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/102…

Harissa Puttanesca With Toasted Almonds Recipe (Gift Recipe)
Pasta puttanesca, a classic Italian dish, gets a vibrant makeover with the addition of harissa, a spiced North African chile paste. In this version, harissa replaces the usual crushed red pepper, adding a smoky depth and complex warmth. Olives, anchovies and capers, classic puttanesca ingredients, deliver their signature briny punch, while toasted almonds add a satisfying crunch and a welcome protein boost. Perfect for busy weeknights, this dish made with pantry staples is both flavorful and co…

Cowboys WR trolls Dak Prescott with custom gift over Egg Bowl rivalry https://www.si.com/nfl/cowboys/onsi/news/dallas-cowboys-wr-trolls-dak-prescott-custom-gift-over-egg-bowl-rivalry

A post from the archive 📫:
The gift of time
#musings

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #SundaySoul
Jimmy Jules and the Nuclear Soul System with Jackie Spencer:
🎵 Come and Get Your Gift
#JimmyJulesandtheNuclearSoulSystemwithJackieSpencer

Think of this as a good place to start
— for you and your loved ones
— to expand your knowledge of indie news outlets
who are more deserving of your time and money than corporate, billionaire-owned media.
And feel free to add your suggestions in the comments.
https://www.thehandbask…

Giving the gift of independent journalism: a guide
The Handbasket has subscription suggestions for almost everyone on your list.

The Onion is undefeated.
This holiday, give the gift of The Onion.
#theonion

Q&A with ex-Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger on the "decay" at Intel, the Chip Act's terrible execution, the irony of Lip-Bu Tan broadly following his strategy, and more (Michael Acton/Financial Times)

Former Intel chief Pat Gelsinger: ‘I’ve been called here for a purpose’
The executive on the ‘hideous’ implementation of the 2022 Chips Act, his new role heading up a Christian AI platform — and why quantum could upend computing

I read "The Gift of Not Belonging: How Outsiders Thrive in a World of Joiners"
by Rami Kaminski
I certainly am otrovert. What about you?

Kyiv Independent launches holiday gift guide celebrating Ukrainian creativity: https://benborges.xyz/2025/10/21/kyiv-independent-launches-holiday-gift.html

Interesting account of how Ukraine is becoming more reliant on themselves to further prosecute the war.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/

Ukraine’s Plan to Starve the Russian War Machine
Negotiations have stalled. Trump keeps changing his policies. Ukrainians, backed by Europeans, are taking matters into their own hands. ​​​

Are You a 'Heritage American'? -- Why some on the right want to know if your ancestors were here during the Civil War (Ali Breland/The Atlantic)
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2025/10/heritage-americans-nativist-right/684472/?gift=BmsU73MbMNDxZ9SjrXPDCVd-Ie1JjjfrhqJSDBajm0U
http://www.memeorandum.com/251007/p107#a251007p107

USAGM Acting CEO Kari Lake plans to shut down Szabad Europa, RFE/RL's Hungarian service, for programming that has "undermined" Trump policy by opposing PM Orban (Ja'han Jones/MSNBC)
https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/k

Kari Lake gives Viktor Orban a major gift ahead of Trump meeting
Kari Lake, the failed politician and MAGA loyalist leading the U.S.

The gift presented by the Thai king Rama V. to Emperor Franz Josef I was a gold–enamelled triśūla, a symbol found on the Chakri dynasty crest and representing their divinely ordained right to rule.

Big Tech's dominance on the S&P 500 is becoming more extreme; the eight biggest tech stocks account for 60% of the gains since the market bottomed in April 2025 (George Steer/Financial Times)

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #MorningShow
The Feal:
🎵 Gift Horse
#TheFeal
https://thefealmusic.bandcamp.com/track/gift-horse
https://open.spotify.com/track/2t5Bibs4manXbXD52aiDdb

Trump's shutting down of projects because they had a minority/female CEO
or made the environment cleaner
or said something mean about him and assault on the rule of law
is slowing investment and job creation.
He's burnt the gift Biden left him.
https://mastodon.social/@SeanCasten/11…

Sean Casten (@SeanCasten@mastodon.social)
Attached: 2 images 8. At the same time, Trump's shutting down of projects because they had a minority/female CEO or made the environment cleaner or said something mean about him and assault on the rule of law is slowing investment and job creation. He's burnt the gift Biden left him.

The Pentagon's openness to the press was never a favor to journalists, but an obligation to the country, and its new restrictions make its leaders appear weak (Nancy A. Youssef/The Atlantic)
https://www.theatlant…

Why Is the Pentagon Afraid of the Press?
Pete Hegseth’s department is imposing restrictions that threaten to limit media scrutiny.

The demand for cold-storage crypto wallets is soaring, as hardware wallet maker Ledger reports its best year, with "triple-digit millions" in 2025 YTD revenue (Nikou Asgari/Financial Times)

The Mafia Presidency -- Trump is saying, essentially, If you don't want to get hurt, you'll do what I say. (Adam Serwer/The Atlantic)
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/11/mafia-style-american-politics/684863/?gift=Je3D9AQS-C17lUTOnl2W8NIarPvCeUj25UaIYduNEMw&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
http://www.memeorandum.com/251108/p6#a251108p6

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #MorningShow
The Feal:
🎵 Gift Horse
#TheFeal
https://thefealmusic.bandcamp.com/track/gift-horse
https://open.spotify.com/track/2t5Bibs4manXbXD52aiDdb

"Why is the Trump White House pushing Ukraine to accept a Russian plan that paves the way for another war? The document offers some hints, declaring that the U.S. would also somehow take charge of the $100 billion in frozen Russian assets, for example, supposedly to invest this money in Ukraine and receive “50% of the profits from this venture.” Europeans, whose banks actually hold most of these assets, would receive nothing."

The Murky Plan That Ensures a Future War
Who will benefit from the White House’s 28-point proposal for Ukraine?

Durbin to Bondi
in this morning's Senate hearing:
"Although you've been a registered foreign agent for Qatar,
you didn't recuse yourself from signing off on Trump's solicitation of a free jet from the royal family,
even though this gift was clearly illegal.
Connections to Bondi seem to yield more favorable outcomes for defendants."

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)
Durbin to Bondi: "Although you've been a registered foreign agent for Qatar, you didn't recuse yourself from signing off on Trump's solicitation of a free jet from the royal family, even though this gift was clearly illegal. Connections to Bondi seem to yield more favorable outcomes for defendants."

A look at Dominari Holdings and Yorkville Advisors, two little-known boutique banks that have helped finance the Trump family's flurry of crypto deals this year (George Steer/Financial Times)

A profile of nonprofit Common Crawl, which scraped billions of web pages since 2013, including paywalled articles, to build an archive used by OpenAI and others (Alex Reisner/The Atlantic)
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/202

Common Crawl Is Doing the AI Industry’s Dirty Work
Common Crawl claims to provide a public benefit, but it lies to publishers about its activities.

Trumpian Corruption Is Worse Than Ukrainian Corruption (Anne Applebaum/The Atlantic)
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/2025/12/ukraine-fighting-corruption-trump/685162/?gift=hVZeG3M9DnxL4CekrWGK3zYp6sqpNJyNGgDDno9WEOQ&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
http://www.memeorandum.com/251207/p44#a251207p44

A Confederacy of Toddlers -- The Trump administration is a regime of troubled children. (Tom Nichols/The Atlantic)
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/11/trump-maga-insults-trolling/684786/?gift=ikAS-C-fUpVcb3BUmsypvtyvRDLPqhZsuJ9CWx3Caj0&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
http://www.memeorandum.com/251103/p134#a251103p134

Electricity demand from data centers powering the AI boom has caused a gas turbine supply crunch, as the US becomes the epicenter of new gas-fired power plants (Financial Times)

The fallout from the AI-fuelled dash for gas
A supply crunch in giant turbines for gas-powered plants threatens environmental and geopolitical consequences

Trump’s building a golf course in Qatar.
He accepted a $400M luxury jet as a gift from Qatar.
His son-in-law got a $1.5B investment from Qatar and other Middle Eastern countries.
His top officials like Kash Patel and Pam Bondi worked for Qatar.
And now this.
https://bsky.app/profi…

FactPost (@factpostnews.bsky.social)
Hegseth: I'm also proud that today we're signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari Emeri air force facility at the Mountain Home Airbase in Idaho.

A profile of Silver Lake co-CEO Egon Durban, who brokered the EA takeover with Jared Kushner, following the PE firm's high-stakes deals from TikTok to Altera (Financial Times)

Michael and Susan Dell say they will deposit $250 in individual investment accounts for 25M kids, totaling $6.25B, comparing the gift to Dell's direct model (Nicholas Kulish/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/business/dell-children-trump-acco…

Michael and Susan Dell Pledge $6 Billion in Investment ‘Trump Accounts’ for Children
The tech billionaire and his wife hope other philanthropists follow their $6 billion lead in expanding the reach of soon-to-be-created “Trump accounts.”

Discord now lets users buy, wishlist, and gift in-game cosmetic items directly within its platform, starting with a store within Marvel Rivals' Discord server (Ash Parrish/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/news/835385/discord-shop-marvel-rivals-gifting-…

Discord now lets you buy and gift video game skins
Discord has launched a new store feature in partnership with Marvel Rivals that will let users buy in-game items through Discord.

How the AI Act became a case study for critics who say the EU puts regulation ahead of innovation, as the European Commission postpones a key part of the law (Financial Times)