Tootfinder

It's now been 16 years since the Special Edition remake of The Secret of Monkey Island shipped 19 years after the original game.

Indian Creek Village,
the “Billionaire Bunker” near Miami,
couldn’t get approval to discharge its waste into a neighboring town’s sewer lines.
So the village quietly persuaded state lawmakers to force the issue.
In a world where billionaires are increasingly exercising political clout,
the fight over sewage in Indian Creek suggests the degree to which their influence is extending not just to policy in the White House and Congress but to some of the most foundat…

A Billionaire Island Where Bezos and Kushner Live Is Fighting Over Sewage
Indian Creek Village, the “Billionaire Bunker” near Miami, couldn’t get approval to discharge its waste into a neighboring town’s sewer lines. So the village quietly persuaded state lawmakers to come to the rescue.

Sky and ITV renew their long-standing content partnership, ensuring major ITV shows remain on all Sky TV platforms in the UK, without disclosing financial terms (Lily Ford/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-ne

Sky and ITV Renew Long-Standing Content Deal
ITV's biggest shows, such as 'Love Island' and 'Trigger Point,' will remain available across all Sky TV platforms in Britain.

Voted in the Hottest 100 of Australian songs. Suspect my finished list was totally different to my first ten selections. #hottest100

Supporting SEN\'{C}OTEN Language Documentation Efforts with Automatic Speech Recognition
Mengzhe Geng, Patrick Littell, Aidan Pine, PEN\'A\'C, Marc Tessier, Roland Kuhn
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.10827

Supporting SENĆOTEN Language Documentation Efforts with Automatic Speech Recognition
The SENĆOTEN language, spoken on the Saanich peninsula of southern Vancouver Island, is in the midst of vigorous language revitalization efforts to turn the tide of language loss as a result of colonial language policies. To support these on-the-ground efforts, the community is turning to digital technology. Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology holds great promise for accelerating language documentation and the creation of educational resources. However, developing ASR systems for SEN…

At the Hiroshige exhibition, in the British Museum. It's so peaceful and cool here. And the colours are magnificent.
#art #japan

Green Therapy
(an impression from an early morning hike last July)
#ForestFriday #LandscapePhotography #NaturePhotography

Judge Blocks ICE Plans for Rikers Island Office Indefinitely - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/13/nyregion/ice-rikers-island-judge-mayor-adams.html

"Coral reefs and seagrass get new protections off Tanzania’s Pemba Island"
#Tanzania #Coral #CoralReef #Environment

Coral reefs and seagrass get new protections off Tanzania’s Pemba Island
Tanzania will establish two new marine protected areas off the eastern coast of Pemba Island in the semiautonomous region of Zanzibar, the fisheries minister for Zanzibar announced at the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, France, on June 10. Zanzibar’s minister for blue economy and fisheries, Shaaban Ali Othman, said at the conference that the […]

"""
"[…] Wanting a man got me into awful troubles more than once. But wanting to get married, never! No, no. None of that for me."
"Why not?" Tenar demanded.
Taken aback, Moss said simply, "Why, what man'd marry a witch?" And then, with a sidelong chewing motion of her jaw, like a sheep shifting its cud, “And what witch’d marry a man?"
They split rushes.
"What's wrong with men?" Tenar inquired cautiously.
As cautiously, lowering her voice, Moss replied, "I don't know, my dearie. I’ve thought on it. Often I’ve thought on it. The best I can say it is like this. A man’s in his skin, see, like a nut in its shell." She held up her long, bent, wet fingers as if holding a walnut. “It’s hard and strong, that shell, and it’s all full of him. Full of grand man-meat, man-self. And that’s all. That’s all there is. It’s all him and nothing else, inside."
Tenar pondered awhile and finally asked, "But if he's a wizard—"
"Then it's all his power, inside. His power’s himself, see. That’s how it is with him. And that’s all. When his power goes, he’s gone. Empty." She cracked the unseen walnut and tossed the shells away. “Nothing."
"And a woman, then?"
"Oh, well, dearie, a woman's a different thing entirely. Who knows where a woman begins and ends? Listen, mistress, I have roots, I have roots deeper than this island. Deeper than the sea, older than the raising of the lands. I go back into the dark." Moss’s eyes shone with a weird brightness in their red rims and her voice sang like an instrument. “I go back into the dark! Before the moon I was. No one knows, no one knows, no one can say what I am, what a woman is, a woman of power, a woman’s power, deeper than the roots of trees, deeper than the roots of islands, older than the Making, older than the moon. Who dares ask questions of the dark? Who’ll ask the dark its name?"
"""
(Ursula K. Le Guin, Tehanu)

"Rhode Island Freedom to Read Act is First in Nation with Special Guarantees to Writers and Readers Against Censorship"
https://pen.org/press-release/rhode-island-freedom-to-read-act…

Rhode Island Freedom to Read Act is First in Nation with Special Guarantees to Writers and Readers Against Censorship - PEN America
Joining a growing number of states that are passing laws to protect the right to read, Rhode Island’s newly signed Freedom to Read Act provides safeguards for both public and school libraries, protections for librarians and staff and is the first in the nation to guarantee writers and readers a special right of action against censorship.

Aunque parezca difícil de creer, hay un nuevo šlbum de King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, la banda que desde el 2012 ha publicado 27 discos de estudios ademšs otros tantos en vivo, compilaciones y remixes y EP.
«Phantom Island»
https://open.spotify.com/album/3koVdFrX…

The one good thing about the whole US interference in #Greenland thing is that I no longer have to explain to journalists and others that the island is part of the Kingdom of Denmark (for now). But there's so much more that people should know about Greenland.
Which is the thrust of this piece:
https://www.thearcticinstitute.org/who-expert-greenland/

Congratulations on the retirement of Bill Curry after 13 years as head of the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, following an already amazing, full career at Wood's Hole Oceanographic Insitution where he was a leader in marine geology, #climate and #carbon cycling research.

what if we kissed in the "fresh kills" estuary at staten island 👉👈

"Restoration, protection aim to save Belize’s coral reef from extreme heat and disease"
#Belize #Environment #CoralReef

Restoration, protection aim to save Belize’s coral reef from extreme heat and disease
PLACENCIA, Belize — After Hurricane Iris decimated the coral reef at Laughing Bird Caye National Park in 2001, many wrote off the UNESCO World Heritage site as a coral graveyard. But a small group from the coastal village of Placencia, Belize, about 18 kilometers (11 miles) from the island, saw hope. In 2006, the park […]

"Island of strangers" ~= "Citizens of nowhere."
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss...

If you're trying to do the trick that was shared for #nintendoswitch2 where you can use a USB HDMI capture dongle HDMI to USB-C cable to use your iPhone as a camera - don't use the True Visage app mentioned in the video
That will rely on screen sharing mirroring and you'll potentially get an aspect ratio mismatch and see the dynamic island floating in your view
I'd personally suggest the free "Blackmagic Camera" app instead, and then go to:
Settings->Monitor->HDMI Out
Switch from Mirror Display to Video Feed and it will cleanly output your camera. Works for a Lightning to HDMI out adapter for older phones, too
Then just tap on Lense and FPS and pick which combo you like.
Also, if you're not getting any output signal make sure the capture dongle you're using supports 1080p out - not sure the Switch 2 supports anything higher as camera input

Fallout: Spies On Norfolk Island
Great Australian Pods Podcast Directory: #GreatAusPods

China's Hainan province tests letting some corporate users bypass the Great Firewall and access the global internet, as it seeks to become a free-trade port (Ben Jiang/South China Morning Post)
https://www.scmp.com/tech/policy…

China will drop the Great Firewall for some users, but only in southern Hainan
Employees of companies operating in the island province can apply for the ‘Global Connect’ scheme, but some content will remain restricted.

lol that's quite the caption https://gothamist.com/news/staten-islands-lost-city-of-wild-beaches-is-a-spiritual-refuge-for-new-yorkers

Staten Island's 'lost city' of wild beaches is a spiritual refuge for New Yorkers
Many of the borough's beaches are secluded and lack lifeguards. For many visitors, that’s key to their appeal.

On the new BC Ferries being built in China.
Do we all remember the last time the BC NDP went down the road of “building a shipbuilding industry to build ferries”?
It has its own Wiki, of course.
"In addition to major delays and cost overruns, the ferries never fully met their original specifications, and only operated briefly in a reduced capacity, before being auctioned off at a substantial loss by the subsequently elected BC Liberal Party government.”
No, I'm not thrilled that China, an authoritarian state, is going to be building these ferries. But no BC or Canadian firms bid on the contract. And right now, the expertise in ship building is in China and Europe (the Island and Salish class vessels were built in Europe).
I don't blame the NDP for not repeating the same mistake 30 years later.
And the ferries will still be refit and maintained for their full service life within BC.
#BCPoli #BCNDP #FastFerry #Shipbuilding.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_ferry_scandal

I think the root of the “AI” evil is when AI researchers in the 1960s recognized that they outrageously underestimated the complexity of the human mind.
They became utterly humiliated by their self-congratulatory promises from the 1950s that AGI was just a few years away—and then went full goblin mode that’s lasting to this day, even if the original researchers (like Minsky*) died long ago.
*probably raped children on Epstein’s island

Up close, the aging visages of the moai are riddled with signs of erosion and staining.
They are gradually wearing away to dust.
Tuki, who works in Rapa Nui's tourism industry, is essentially watching these stunning figures slowly disappear.
"My father told me that the moai would go back into the ocean one day," she says.
Tuki's father, who died in 2020, was a famed contemporary moai sculptor.
The original statues, mostly carved between 110…

Is this the end for Easter Island's moai statues?
Easter Island's famous moai statues are crumbling into the sea, forcing locals to face urgent decisions about how best to protect their heritage.

Join us at DWeb Camp Cascadia this August on Salt Spring Island https://dwebyvr.org/camp/
You can follow the @… account or just use / follow …

DWeb Camp Cascadia, Aug 8-10th, Salt Spring Island, BC
DWeb Camp Cascadia takes place August 8th to 10th, 2025, at the Salt Spring Island Farmers' Institute in the Southern Gulf Islands, BC, Canada. Join us for an outdoor, camping-focused gathering of resilience, connection, and co-creation.

Sold to the Trump family: one of the last undeveloped islands in the Mediterranean;
Ivanka Trump & Jared Kushner have spent over $1bn on an Albanian island that will be a luxury resort – once unexploded ordnance has been removed
https://www.thegua…

A Corrective Frequency-Constrained Unit Commitment with Data-driven Estimation of Optimal UFLS in Island Power Systems
Miad Sarvarizadeh, Lukas Sigrist, Almudena Rouco, Mohammad Rajabdorri, Enrique Lobato
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.05062

A Corrective Frequency-Constrained Unit Commitment with Data-driven Estimation of Optimal UFLS in Island Power Systems
This paper presents a novel corrective \gls{fcuc} formulation for island power systems by implementing data-driven constraint learning to estimate the optimal \gls{ufls}. The Tobit model is presented to estimate the optimal amount of \gls{ufls} using the initial rate of change of frequency. The proposed formulation enables co-optimizing operation costs and \gls{ufls}. The aim is to account for optimal \gls{ufls} occurrences during operation planning, without increasing them. This would potentia…

stuff busta would enjoy

There’s a new museum on Naoshima Island! This NYT article also describes the many other museums and exhibits installed there.
This is the “art island” that Lynn and I visited a couple months ago. Looks like we’ll have to go back! This time we’ll know to book rooms way in advance (and to stay longer than two nights).
🎁 link

Japanese Islands’ 10th Tadao Ando Museum Caps a Billionaire’s Quest
Benesse Art Site Naoshima, a sprawling art constellation on three islands, adds a 10th museum by the star architect Tadao Ando that caps the cultural quest of Soichiro Fukutake.

There's a mysterious 'carbon sink' in the hinterlands of the South Island... absorbing more carbon than expected... I'm following this research with interest. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/564407…

All I know about Love Island season 2 is that the men are bunch of scrubs. I heard it on NPR.

"Maldives resort islands expand solar to meet half of power demand"
#Maldives #SolarPower #Energy #Renewables

Maldives resort islands expand solar to meet half of power demand
The Fari Islands in the Maldives are developing a mix of floating and ground-mounted solar installations expected to meet up to 50% of the archipelago’s electricity demand on sunny days. The systems form part of a broader plan to expand renewable energy use across the four-island resort development.

‘Swashbuckling and cheeky’: island festival celebrates Ireland’s ‘pirate queen’ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/29/grace-o-malley-pirate-queen-ireland-festival-achill-island?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other…

Good to see the other states have come on board with police officer decertification policies. Rhode Island needs to get with the program.
#JusticeReform
http…

Rhode Island resists efforts at policing reform embraced by every other state
In October, a Newport County jury found that former Jamestown Police Det. Derek Carlino was negligent in his involvement in the death by suicide of a teenager. But it won’t end Carlino’s career in policing. A report commissioned by the Portsmouth School Department found Carlino had worked with a football coach to pressure fifteen-year-old Nathan […]

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.17061 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_qu…

Against (unitary) interpretation (of quantum mechanics): removing the metaphysical load
On 6 June 1925 Heisenberg arrived at Helgoland/Heligoland island to escape a fit of hay fever. He returned with a sketch of a strange theory of the micro-world of atoms, which we now call quantum mechanics. This e-print of ours attempts to present a look on that theory which tries to return to the original insight of Heisenberg, on what should be the essence of a theory of atomic realm: it must be a theory of the observable events, in which fundamentally unobservable quantities have no place. N…

Disney and ITV agree a deal to stream hit shows like The Bear and Love Island on each other's platforms for the first time, starting July 16; both can sell ads (Daniel Thomas/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/97a2dea6-4639-45c1-8499-aa3eed935413

2 years later, my Freedom of Information Request shows a snapshot of Government ignoring Vancouver Islanders for 20 years.
On June 28, 2023 I submitted a Request for Information to the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure of British Columbia for documents related to the Island Railway on Vancouver Island. It took two years to receive the response.
#VancouverIsland #BC #BCPoli #transportation #FOiA #Canada #CdnPoli
https://chrisalemany.ca/b/2tp

Major food wholesaler says cyberattack impacting distribution systems https://therecord.media/major-food-wholesaler-cyberattack-impacting-distribution

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #VarietyMix
The Coup:
🎵 Long Island Iced Tea, Neat
#TheCoup
https://open.spotify.com/track/2dmZdwbc2oht3iwZ3BjIMy

“The Miyawaki forests aren’t going to solve all our problems,” she says. “It’s not a magic wand, but it will solve one of the thousands of problems we have. We need a system of solutions, and this is one of them.”
https://engl…

Miyawaki in Nezahualcóyotl: The Japanese method of creating forests comes to Mexico
The municipality, adjacent to Mexico City and surrounded by concrete, suffers from the heat island effect. The community came to the rescue with this accelerated tree planting method

Buzzword-First Strategy cartoon - Marketoonist | Tom Fishburne https://bit.ly/4koSqvW

Taiwan has issued a land warning as Typhoon Danas approaches from the southwest, bringing the threat of heavy rain and strong winds. The storm is expected to peak from Sunday afternoon through Monday morning, affecting 18 counties and cities across the island.
https://youtu.be/DmtZ4TGKqN0

This has the fingerprints of Dog-E sabotage.
What is also bothersome is the way that agency spokespeople have so quickly become the kind of sycophantic courtiers that Jonathan Swift described on the floating island of Laputa in his book Gulliver's Travels.
"Sudden loss of key US satellite data could send hurricane forecasting back ‘decades’"

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.03085 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_…

How probable is the Lyman-$α$ damping wing in the spectrum of the redshift z = 5.9896 quasar ULAS J0148+0600?
The shape of the Ly-$α$ transmission in the near zone of the redshift $z=5.9896$ quasar ULAS J0148$+$0600 (hereafter J0148) is consistent with a damping wing arising from an extended neutral hydrogen island in the diffuse intergalactic medium (IGM). Here we use simulations of late-ending reionisation from Sherwood-Relics to assess the expected incidence of quasars with Ly-$α$ and Ly-$β$ absorption similar to the observed J0148 spectrum. We find a late end to reionisation at $z=5.3$ is a nece…

The interaction of turbulence, magnetic islands and zonal fields in fluid plasma models with cubic non-linearities
Daniele Villa, Nicolas Dubuit, Olivier Agullo, Xavier Garbet
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.23593

The interaction of turbulence, magnetic islands and zonal fields in fluid plasma models with cubic non-linearities
It is shown that magnetic islands generated by pressure-gradient-driven turbulence are common across a wide range of conditions. The interaction among turbulence, magnetic island and other large scale structures (the zonal flow and the zonal current), largely determines the dynamics of the system. Turbulence takes a background role, providing energy to the large-scale structures, without influencing their evolution directly. The growth of the zonal current is linearly related to that of the mag…

Sold to the Trump family: one of the last undeveloped islands in the Mediterranean (Marzio Mian/The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/24/trump-family-kushner-undeveloped-island-mediterranean-sazan-albania
http://www.memeorandum.com/250624/p85#a250624p85

Australia introduces 'climate visa' for Tuvaluans as rising sea levels threaten the island nation. #climatechange #climatesolutions #climate

A Special ‘Climate’ Visa? People in Tuvalu Are Applying Fast.
Nearly half the citizens of the tiny Pacific Island nation have already applied in a lottery for Australian visas amid an existential threat from global warming and sea-level rise.

Disney and ITV agree a deal to stream hit shows like The Bear and Love Island on each other's platforms for the first time, starting July 16; both can sell ads (Daniel Thomas/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/97a2dea6-4639-45c1-8499-aa3eed935413
…

Them: "check out this asshole legislator getting heckled!"
Me: "Ooh that's a nice protected bike lane with.. is that a bus island? In-lane stops? Sweet!"
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile…

#Norway is ending #coal #mining

We just went to see "The Ballad of Wallis Island". It was really good. Anyone else seen it? Loved the unseen character, the cinematography, and the superb acting. A real treat.
#Film

"There was once a programming environment made by Microsoft called Visual J . It allowed one to write, debug, and run Java code on Windows. Visual J was the first serious, usable, complete IDE Java ever had, at least until IntelliJ IDEA appeared in 2001."
https://deprogrammaticaipsum.com/w…

Write Anywhere, Run Once
Back in the days when I had a day job in the .NET galaxy, I had a colleague who was a terrific C# developer… born in the island of Java. Given the looks I got from him, I think I was the first to point this fact to him. Or maybe I just pissed him off. In any case, here go some personal anecdotes around Java, stretching back 23 years.

Earlier this month, #TomPatterson released a free (public domain) print-quality physical map of maritime Southeast Asia. It could actually almost double as a map of SEA except the northern part of Myanmar is cut off. 🗺️
https://

Canary Island Daisy. LA Arboretum, Arcadia, California, USA. April, 2025. #laarboretum #daisy #flowers

Right now there's an ACM design technology conference happening with hundreds of people flying in to a conference facility on a remote island to discuss the conference theme of how to make their work more sustainable. In-person participation only.

Good time for Xi to create a crisis around Taiwan.
https://apnews.com/article/taiwan-china-planes-center-line-british-ship-b1618804e7a4bc66c411cb3cb171480a

China sends scores of planes across central line in Taiwan Strait
China has sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early Friday, 61 of which crossed the central line in the Taiwan Strait unofficially dividing the sides. China considers Taiwan its own territory and uses such deployments to advertise its threat to encircle and possibly invade the self-governing island. It wasn't clear why so many planes were scrambled between late Thursday and early Friday, as tabulated by Taiwan's Defense Ministry. The planes were sent in two separate tranch…

Shinichi Kobayashi has idyllic memories of growing up on Naoshima, one of the nearly 3,000 islands scattered across Japan's Seto Inland Sea.
"We would go clam digging," said the 75-year-old, who became the island's mayor in 2018.
"During the summer, I would spend entire days swimming in the sea, catching turban shells and fish, getting deeply tanned."
"I don't recall seeing any foreign visitors," he added.
Kobayashi's hom…

Setouchi Triennale 2025
The Setouchi Triennale is a contemporary art festival held every three years on the islands of the Seto Inland Sea.

Recently ran into some YouTube videos of a couple Greek guys running an Italian restaurant in (on the island of, at least) #Montreal.
That tracks as much as anything will track today.
(The way they blatantly praise the often-mediocre cheese megabrand they use for their pizza—like they've received a visit or two from the "sales enforcers" in the past—also tracks…)

On the orientation of historic Christian churches of Fuerteventura: conciliating tradition, winds and topography
Maria Florencia Muratore, Alejandro Gangui, Maitane Urrutia-Aparicio, Carmelo Cabrera, Juan Antonio Belmonte
https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.18161

On the orientation of historic Christian churches of Fuerteventura: conciliating tradition, winds and topography
We present the results of an analysis of the precise spatial orientation of colonial Christian churches located in the Canary Island of Fuerteventura (Spain). Our sample consists of 48 churches, most built during the period between the Castilian conquest led by the Norman Jean de Béthencourt in the 15th century and the end of the 19th century. We examine whether the standard tradition was followed regarding the orientation of the apses of historic churches eastwards. While most of the religiou…

My phone chose this as its lock screen background, so I just have to share it. On Jurmo island in the Gulf of Finland, May 2022.

"The places that need to worry are those that look vulnerable or unlikely to fight back. Greenland may fall into that category — which suggests that Denmark and the EU need to find ways of letting Trump know that there will be a price to pay if he makes a move on the island"
Trump always chickens out on foreign policy too - https://on.ft.com/458Z5FI v

Ramachandra Guha: Ignored by the ‘national’ media, a disaster is unfolding in Great Nicobar
https://scroll.in/article/1081027/ramachandra-guha-ignored-by-the-national-media-a-disaster-is-unfolding-in-great-n…

The User Perspective on Island-Ready 6G Communication: A Survey of Future Smartphone Usage in Crisis-Struck Areas with Local Cellular Connectivity
Leon Janzen, Florentin Putz, Marc-Andr\'e Kaufhold, Kolja Straub, Matthias Hollick
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.13466

The User Perspective on Island-Ready 6G Communication: A Survey of Future Smartphone Usage in Crisis-Struck Areas with Local Cellular Connectivity
Using smartphone apps during crises is well-established, proving critical for efficient crisis response. However, such apps become futile without an Internet connection, which is a common issue during crises. The ongoing 6G standardization explores the capability to provide local cellular connectivity for areas cut off from the Internet in crises. This paper introduces to the HCI community the concept of cellular island connectivity in isolated areas, promising a seamless transition from normal…

Seaweed farming as an eco-friendly alternative for Tanzanian fishing communities https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/06/seaweed-farming-as-an-eco-friendly-alternative-for-tanzanian-fishing-communities/

Seaweed farming as an eco-friendly alternative for Tanzanian fishing communities
Climate change, overfishing and habitat loss have caused a sharp decline in fish stocks around Pemba Island, off the coast of Tanzania. To find a new income from the sea, women from Pemba are turning to sustainable seaweed farming, Mongabay’s video team reported in May. Seaweed farming was introduced to the island in 1989. It […]

Grazing incidence X-ray scattering alignment using the area detector
Edward Tortorici, Charles T. Rogers
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.22970 https://

Grazing incidence X-ray scattering alignment using the area detector
Grazing incidence X-ray scattering experiments are designed to achieve strong scattering signals from materials, such as molecular monolayers, island films, or thin films that are localized to the surfaces of flat substrates. Optimal signals can be achieved with precise alignment of a substrate surface with the X-ray beam. Here, we outline a simple method that utilizes the area detector, generally available on such systems, to observe reflections from the sample to determine the sample-detector…

Does Rapunzel’s 👑 cover the cost?
https://www.thenational.scot/news/25258332.private-scottish-island-castle-sale-5-5m/

Private Scottish island with castle up for sale for £5.5m
A private Scottish island with a castle has been put on the market for more than £5 million

Good Morning #Canada
OTD in 1977, Tim Severin landed on Peckford Island, Newfoundland. Severin had set sail from Ireland on May 17th with a five-man crew in a boat built using only techniques and materials available in sixth-century Ireland. The arduous 7,300km journey was meant to prove that St. Brendon had discovered North America almost 1,000 years before Columbus. I'm sure we were polite and didn't smirk when we welcomed him to Canada.
#CanadaIsAwesome #Myth
https://lookingnorth.blog/2020/07/the-brendan-voyage/

En 1994 llega el disco con el que Pulp da el salto a la fama. His 'n' Hers, publicado bajo el sello Island Records. Ahí se incluye el temazo «Do You Remember the First Time».
https://open.spotify.com/track/0txLC5NA64M8siGn3mnET0

ever wanted to play lego island in your browser? well now you can (for some reason) https://isle.pizza/

LEGO® Island - Online Web Port
Play the classic 1997 PC game LEGO® Island directly in your web browser!

ever wanted to play lego island in your browser? well now you can (for some reason) https://isle.pizza/

LEGO® Island - Online Web Port
Play the classic 1997 PC game LEGO® Island directly in your web browser!

I grew up in Providence, Rhode Island, very close to where Roger Williams landed. Perhaps he is a person we ought to celebrate - a firm believe in individual rights, especially in faith; a firm believer in treating everyone (including the indigenous peoples) honestly and fairly.
"Boast not proud English, of thy birth & blood; Thy brother Indian is by birth as Good. Of one blood God made Him, and Thee and All, As wise, as fair, as strong, as personal."
"...…

I grew up in Providence, Rhode Island, very close to where Roger Williams landed. Perhaps he is a person we ought to celebrate - a firm believe in individual rights, especially in faith; a firm believer in treating everyone (including the indigenous peoples) honestly and fairly.
"Boast not proud English, of thy birth & blood; Thy brother Indian is by birth as Good. Of one blood God made Him, and Thee and All, As wise, as fair, as strong, as personal."
"...…

Superconducting bistability in floating Al islands of hybrid Al/InAs nanowires
E. V. Shpagina, E. S. Tikhonov, D. Ruhstorfer, G. Koblmueller, V. S. Khrapai
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.20408

Superconducting bistability in floating Al islands of hybrid Al/InAs nanowires
We investigate a non-equilibrium aspect of the current-driven superconducting-normal phase transition in floating Al islands of epitaxial full-shell Al/InAs nanowires. Within a transition region discontinuous voltage jumps and hysteretic behaviour of the I-V characteristics are observed, associated with the destruction and recovery of the superconducting order parameter in the island. The strength of the two features varies strongly in different devices in a mutually correlated way and can be s…

The new Albion Online update makes the tutorial more complete...just tested it with a new character on Albion Asia.
Now since the tutorial is over(it ended on a showroom island! They let you visit a "demo island" now!!!) I'm heading back to Albion EU to check up on my MastodonFedivers character.
#AlbionOnline

Crumpets, bacon, egg, tea and coffee. I suppose this could count as the first “May breakfast” (a Rhode Island tradition) here if you consider our house an organization!
Poetry slam tonight. #TogetherBreakfast https://photos.app.goo.gl/LhMRrgS3JnQcBCQK6

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #VarietyMix
The Cure:
🎵 Alone (Ex‐Easter Island Head remix)
#TheCure
https://schwerkraftrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-cure-alone
https://open.spotify.com/track/1FlKUh04wsO7Z2AFmzplCw

The Lonely Island is undefeated. 😜
▶️ Sushi Glory Hole (Official Uncensored Music Video)
#nsfw

Volcanic eruption in #Indonesia
"Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki erupted with giant ash and smoke plumes again Wednesday after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancellations, including to and from the resort island of #Bali."
| CBC News |

Volcanic eruption in Indonesia forces evacuations, cancelled flights to and from Bali | CBC News
Indonesia's Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki erupted with giant ash and smoke plumes again Wednesday after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancellations, including to and from the resort island of Bali.

While it is bad #grok is bad again, it is very good how obvious the chains are.
#ai

Investigating the 2024 swarm like activity offshore Kefalonia Island aided by Machine Learning algorithms
V. Anagnostou, E. Papadimitriou, V. Karakostas, T. Back
https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.17221

Investigating the 2024 swarm like activity offshore Kefalonia Island aided by Machine Learning algorithms
In March 2024, a swarm like seismic activity occurred north of Kefalonia Island, in the central Ionian Islands area. Following a machine-learning aided workflow, we compiled an enhanced seismic catalog of 2495 low to moderate magnitude earthquakes throughout a 2 month period. Spatiotemporal analysis reveals a narrow epicentral distribution of nearly E-W alignment, approximately 5km long, much longer than the length anticipated by common scaling laws for the aftershock area extension of the stro…

The small Island Class vessels (2019-2021) were built in Romania by Dutch firm Damen Shipbuilding: #BCPoli #BCNDP #FastFerry #Shipbuilding

Experts raise concerns that Malta's expedited MiCA licensing process may lack sufficient enforcement and oversight; OKX received a MiCA license in four days (CoinDesk)
https://www.coindesk.com/news-analysis/202

'Like Ordering McDonald's:' Malta's MiCA Fast-Track Draws Oversight Concerns
Some people think Malta is nimble and innovative when it comes to regulation. But others see a fast track to regulatory arbitrage.

"Indigenous divers on Chile’s island restore seabed to protect seafood sources"
#Chile #Environment

Indigenous divers on Chile’s island restore seabed to protect seafood sources
Daniel Caniullán has been diving in the cold waters of the Guaitecas Archipelago in northern Patagonia, Chile, for more than 30 years. “Just by looking at the seabed landscape, you can tell what species you are going to find,” he says. Just as it is possible to recognize the loss of a diverse forest on […]

Reading about an island, on an island. #vacation #PuertoRico 🇵🇷

The United States is moving B-2 bombers to the Pacific island of Guam,
as Donald Trump weighs whether the United States should take part in Israel’s strikes against Iran.
It was unclear whether the bomber deployment is tied to Middle East tensions.
The B-2 can be equipped to carry America’s 30,000lb GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator,
designed to destroy targets deep underground.
That is the weapon that experts say could be used to strike Iran’s nuclear program, i…

A Comparative Study on Frequency-Constrained Unit Commitment Approaches in Island Power Systems
Miad Sarvarizadeh, Mohammad Rajabdorri, Enrique Lobato, Lukas Sigrist
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.05079

A Comparative Study on Frequency-Constrained Unit Commitment Approaches in Island Power Systems
The increasing penetration of renewable energy sources reduces rotating inertia and even frequency control capacity, affecting frequency stability. This challenge is significant in \gls{ips} that already suffer from low inertia and frequency control capacity. This paper presents a comparative study on different \gls{fcuc} formulations applied to \gls{ips}. Then, by considering under-frequency load shedding as a significant measure of frequency stability in \gls{ips}, two indices are presented t…

HMS Endeavour confirmed found in Rhode Island!
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/06/discovery-of-hms-endeavor-wreck-confirmed/

Discovery of HMS Endeavour wreck confirmed
“The timbers are British timbers. The size of all the timber scantlings are almost identical to Endeavour.”…

I’m buying computer parts from Germany thanks to the peculiar political choices of the nearby island

"What birds can teach us about repurposing waste"
#Birds #Animals
https://phys.org/news/2025-06-birds-r…

What birds can teach us about repurposing waste
Modern cities are evolution engines. Urban snails in the Netherlands and lizards in Los Angeles have developed lighter shells and larger scales to cope with the heat island effect, where temperatures can be several degrees above the surrounding area.

Resonant Island Trapping in a Fourth-Generation Synchrotron Light Source
E. C. Cort\'es Garc\'ia, N. Carmignani, F. Ewald, S. A. Antipov, K. Scheidt, S. White, I. V. Agapov
https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.12469

Resonant Island Trapping in a Fourth-Generation Synchrotron Light Source
We report the first direct observation of nonlinear resonance island trapping in a fourth-generation light source with working points far from the excited resonance and examine the nonlinear dynamics and properties of the trapped beam. The discovered dynamics of island trapping may help understand bunch purity and halo formation issues, create additional experimental capabilities for photon science applications, and present means of nonlinear characterization of the machine optics.

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.19998 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arX…

Universal scaling of intra-urban climate fluctuations
Urban-induced changes in local microclimate, such as the urban heat island effect and air pollution, are known to vary with city size, leading to distinctive relations between average climate variables and city-scale quantities (e.g., total population or area). However, these approaches suffer from biases related to the choice of city boundaries and they neglect intra-urban variations of urban characteristics. Here we use high-resolution data of urban temperatures, air quality, population count…

Greece declares emergency on Chios over wildfires #Greece

Greece declares emergency on Chios over wildfires
Greece put the Mediterranean island of Chios under a state of emergency on Monday because of major fires that have raged since the weekend.

The number and breadth of extremely mainstream businesses who aren't afraid to participate in Rhode Island PrideFest is wonderful, given the way companies have been targeted just for acknowledging basic human rights. Nice to live here.

Investigation: healthcare exchanges in Nevada, Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island share sensitive data with Google, LinkedIn, and Snapchat via web trackers (The Markup)
https://themarkup.org/pixel-hunt/2025/06/17/w…

We caught 4 more states sharing personal health data with Big Tech – The Markup
Healthcare exchanges in Nevada, Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island shared users’ sensitive health data with companies like Google and LinkedIn

China’s president, Xi Jinping, has reportedly told his generals to be ready by 2027 to conquer the self-governing island of Taiwan,
which he regards as stolen sovereign territory.
US officials warned last week that China already has sufficient capability to invade now,
with amphibious landing craft,
D-day-style floating docks, paratroopers and expanded air combat and missile forces in a constant state of readiness.
Recent intimidating offshore military exercises…

Good Morning #Canada
On May 10, 1534, French navigator Jacques Cartier became the first European explorer to encounter the eastern coast of Canada, as he entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the present-day province of Quebec. On June 29th, 1534, he discovered Prince Edward Island as he sailed past the northern tip on his way to the St. Lawrence River. And now you know how McCain's French fries were invented.
#CanadaIsAwesome #Potatoes #PEI
https://parks.canada.ca/lhn-nhs/qc/cartierbrebeuf/culture/histoire-history/evenement-event/cartier/a

#EndFossilFuels #ClimateAction
Fact: Taking a BC Ferry from Metro Vancouver to Vancouver Island is a High CO2 experience, though if it's a full ferry, it's not terrible (~5kgCO2/passenger)
By 2031, BC Ferries will have replaced 18 ferries (big and small!) in 15 years, and nearly all will be 100% electric-ready.
They just announced they're doing the big ships next.
"Built with diesel-battery hybrid propulsion systems and designed with the capability to operate on full electric power in future, the NMVs are expected to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve fuel efficiency, and lower underwater radiated noise to better protect marine life. With greater capacity than the vessels they replace, the NMVs will offer more space for vehicles and passengers and upgraded amenities, supporting a more reliable and comfortable travel experience.”
The age of fossil fuels is ending. Any politician or lobbyist who says otherwise is either not paying attention, or bought.
#BCPoli #CanPoli #CdnPoli #ClimateEmergency #SalishSea #BCFerries
https://www.bcferries.com/news-releases/bc-ferries-selects-shipyard-to-construct-four-new-major-vessels

Hey Vancouver Island folks... thinking back to when the E&N railway court decision was made that had the Sna-naw-as First Nation take back the land after the Provincial and Federal governments did not commit to restoring rail service:
.... do you remember any reporting at the time that indicated whether the province or federal governments were in discussions on the issue?
Inquiring minds....
#Rail #Canada #BC #Rail #EN #IslandCorridor

🚂Coming to Vancouver Island this summer? Headed to Tofino!? Make a stop for a train ride in Port Alberni! 🚂
Every weekend will have rides using a restored diesel loco and heritage passenger cars on the waterfront.
4 weekends will feature the 95yr old No7 Steam Locomotive!
News article here: #SteamTrain #PortAlberni #VancouverIsland #Summer #Tourism