My phone is currently in the Apple Store to get the battery replaced. So for a good chunk of time, the only thing keeping me entertained is my MacBook Air and my Kindle.
It’s been nice. Occasionally, I entertain the notion of getting rid of smartphones and just going dumbphone.
But that would only annoy my wife—who already finds my approach to social media to be quixotic enough. She wants to message me, ensure I’m always in contact, and our one compromise is iMessage and Signal.
Taking advantage of today's snow with dram 14, Mortlach's 16-year-old expression. The Flora and Fauna bottling of Mortlach 16 was the bottle I brought home with me on my first trip to Scotland, and it remains a sentimental favorite. I don't think the distillery's version has quite the same punch, though.
Amazon Studios Announces Two New ‘Tomb Raider’ Games: ‘Legacy of Atlantis’ and ‘Catalyst’ ‘Legacy of Atlantis’ will be a reimagining of the beloved 1996 game, while ‘Catalyst’ is being billed as the “largest ‘Tomb Raider’ game” yet.
I haven't had enough time over the past two days to work on learning more about #chess and it's totally making me cranky!
I have still been able to grind on Duolingo to keep my top spot in the Diamond league tournament, but I dearly want to get to my chess set on my kitchen table to set up some games scenarios and play some more historic games. I can lose myself for hours this way, and I don't have those hours over the next three days. UGHH BEING A GROWNUP SUUUUCKS
I just got a whole new set of cards ("The Chess Deck" by Levy Rozman) that outline the openings of numerous famous gambits, and I'm itchy, itchy because I haven't had enough time to physically practice (that is, with an actual board and everything, not just on the phone or iPad).
I guess this means that I like it and I'm going to keep doing it?! Unless I lose steam and the DHD of my #AuDHD side wins. If I'm still loving this in three weeks, that will be a victory.
Right now, the autistic side is more in control, thank the gods, evidenced by the fact that I've been keeping all of my dishes washed as I go and keeping up on some other household tasks.
Guess what? Prices are up. Trump raised them with his tariffs. But mostly, they’re up because politicians, even presidents, don’t have the power to lower prices quickly and unilaterally.
Did they think he could fix things because he’s a businessman? You know, with six bankruptcies? trib.al/r4nRpHe
The president’s disastrous affordability rally merely reraises the question: How could anyone have fallen for his campaign promises in the first place?
#Utah has repealed its ban on collective bargaining for public employees, which had been one of the most restrictive in the US. theguardian.com/us-news/2025/d…
It's going to be wicked cold the next couple of days it'd be nice to get the rest of what I need or it gets colder, I still need $425 to obtain the rest of what I need right now, Please help this #disabled man existing in #poverty today. Every dollar matters. Every share matters. Every act of compassion matters. • CashApp: $woctxphotog • PayPal: paypal.com/donate?campaign_id=…
Stefani Matsuo, violin, Christian Colberg, viola, and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jane Glover play:
MOZART:
Overture to Lucio Silla.
Sinfonia Concertante.
Symphony No. 41, 'Jupiter'.
Recorded 18/19 October....
Flogging a thing. I intend to retire from my full time job in the spring. I have some work lined up, but am looking for ways to supplement my income. I am here to professionally digitize your old slides and negatives.
The only other coffee shop a quick drive from me that knew how to pull an espresso shot has, I've discovered, moved to a new location on the other side of town. Things are getting serious now. RE: bsky.app/profile/did:plc:x2xmi…
My favorite local coffee shop changed ownership and the new people don't know how to pull a good espresso shot. This is proving catastrophic for my quality of life.
How you can own an independent coffee shop and not know how to make espresso, comfortably letting your baristas pull sour, watery shots, is beyond me. But a remarkable number of coffee shops are bad. This is civilizational decline.
#Bondi My condolences to the 57 direct victims (15 dead, inc 10yo girl & 42 injured, 5 critical inc 2 police) and everyone affected. This was an act of hatred on an Australian community, a terrorist act. It endangers all. #Peace
I object to fugitive war criminals bagging our security personnel who performed their best with both gun men disarmed, further threat's identified, removed, disarmed and 2 in critical condition in hospital all within hours of the first shot. The Australian Jewish are Australian not Israeli. The man who disarmed a gunman was a Lebanese Australian, Israel is bombing Lebanon but he risked his life and was shot to protect Australian Jewish & ors at the beach. Our visa system questions membership of IDF and participation in War Crimes and does not accept expected war criminals. This was an attack on Australia. #Bondi #Peace
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Hong Kong - X5826, Extra 1959. 1 photograph : color transparency ; 35 mm (slide format)
Title: Toni Frissell's Hong Kong Photo Shoot (1959)
Description: This photograph from Toni Frissell's assignment for Sports Illustrated features iconic views of Hong Kong in the 1950s. The collection consists of black and white, as well as color images, showcasing various activities such as racing and skin diving.
Biography: Toni Frissell was an American photographer known for her work with Sports Illustrated, where she captured notable moments and assignments. She worked extensively on location around the world, producing a wide range of photographs that showcased human activity in diverse environments.
Location: Hong Kong, 1959
Keywords: Toni Frissell, Sports Illustrated, Hong Kong, Photography Collection
I am grateful for everything I have, but I can’t help but be a little sad that it’s Hanukkah and my spouse didn’t get me a little something (not even a jelly donut)
I actually had this #dream last night. A lot of people were gathered to see a play. It turned out that the play would include some people from the audience. Someone came and told me that I would be playing the part of #anxiety
Oh, one more SPS post (it's related to ones I posted earlier)... Note - be aware of pine moths and their larvae (read comments), and also I would use a knife to remove the pitch, and leave some behind on the "wound".
"Pine pitch glue is the Super Glue of wilderness survival. It can be used to help secure arrowheads, spear points, or knife blades, it can be used to water-proof the inside of a basket, it can be used to seal the seams of a bark container, or to water-proof the seams of a birch bark canoe.
Pine pitch glue is not hard to make because nature has already done most of the work for you. To make pine pitch glue you will need the following:
• some dried pine sap • some softwood charcoal • a round rock and a flat rock • a campfire • a pot or container to warm the pitch in • a stick to stir the mixture
Just about any walk in the woods can provide you with #PineSap. Keep your eyes open for a pine tree that has had the bark damaged. When a pine tree is injured it oozes pine sap to seal the wound. This pine sap will dry into a hard, amber colored substance that can be easily picked off of the tree."
Do also note that damage to pine bark is the primary access route for pine-bark moths to lay their eggs in trees. Pine-bark moth larva will live inside the wound until they pupate, feeding on the pine sap and excreting into the outflowing wound, which ruins the pine sap for adhesive use. These larva infested wounds are also a route of entry for the white molds you see growing on sap, and can kill the tree.
Wounds should be covered with something to allow them to heal.
"The research team recently developed an innovative system with low environmental impact for the production of semi-rigid panels for thermal and acoustic insulation, obtained from recycled sheep’s #wool, from Piemonte region (Cartonlana insulation panel). Starting from the previous work, a new semi-rigid panel has been produced, combining #SheepWool with #hemp technical fibers (Fitness insulation panel). The researches activities have been developed by a multidisciplinary group, which includes a textile company, Davifil (owner of the Cartonlana patent), the Biella CNR ISMAC (specialized in macromolecules and the textile fibres), the Department of Architecture and Design – Politecnico di Torino (expert in low-environmental-impact building components), and Assocanapa, which promotes the cultivation and valorisation of hemp.
"Both the sheep wool and the hemp used for the insulation panel production derive from agri-food systems and are wastes from already existing production chains. Wool comes from Piemonte region sheep breeding; it cannot be used in textile industry, due to its dark color and/or poor quality: fibers are too thick, and irregular length also. Sheep wool is usually washed and dried, but still contains plant debris trapped amongst fibers. As for hemp, treatments on the raw wool are reduced to a minimum, in order to minimize the energy consumption for the production of the panels."
This is a cool idea (to me) because builders wouldn't have to learn a whole new way to build, wouldn't have to develop sources for wool and hemp. The panel maker could just be a new supplier to more-or-less conventional homebuilders. The infrastructure to use the stuff already exists.
I saw a Tumblr post that was like "I hope the bubble bursts so hard that no one touches AI for a thousand years"
And I didn't want to directly reply to them but I don't think that's whatll happen. Instead we'll get like 20 years.
The tech industry never lets a failed idea stay dead for very long. It just gets tried again after enough people have cycled out of management, and the tech has improved somewhat.
But yeah. I expect soon this bubble will burst and that'll stop most of the AI push. It'll become venture funding poison instead of a plus, so it won't get funded, and if the major players exit the market, a lot of places using AI will simply stop, because they aren't doing any of this in-house, they're just using APIs from the big names. If those go, so does their AI
Some of the things currently under the umbrella of "AI" will keep being used, though. Local classification models for things like detecting NSFW images? That will continue to exist and continue to be a pain in everyone's backside.
moderation of internet content will not get any easier, so using these flawed models will continue being a tempting option for social media sites, yeah. Sorry.
image/video generation are also going to mostly die out, but will still remain in various communities that are using them locally. I imagine the problem of AI art in games will remain, because it's similarly too tempting to just have a model generate a bunch of "placeholder" assets.
(and the weird pervert community: people will keep making porn with AI image generation, including the least moral ways to use it)
then give it another 20 years of computers getting faster, ram getting bigger, GPUs getting more parallel, and some grad student AI project will get good enough for this whole thing to happen again.
depending on how bad AI craters this time, they may not even call it AI, but it'll be some technology that's a great-great-great-grandchild of current LLMs
so yeah. that's what I expect will happen, at least tech wise. (what this bubble burst is going to do to the US or SF bay economies is above my pay grade). Most AI will disappear, but some tech under the current AI umbrella will keep getting used in limited uses.
And to be clear, this isn't my "what I think SHOULD happen" manifesto, this is just how I expect this'll go having seen tech cycles before
also I don't think the AI bubble bursting will cool the privacy invasion that is the modern web: facebook and advertising was already trying to collect all your info before AI blew up, they're gonna want to keep doing that after AI stops being a good excuse for it
Si chiama Antonio Angelino ed è stato eletto il 25 novembre. Sui rapporti con il governo: «Siamo un’istituzione e lavoriamo con tutti: chiunque voglia darci una mano troverà le porte aperte»
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Good morning to you all from a sunny but chilly Tokyo. Hope you each had a great weekend. And that this week is starting well.
One of mine from my photowalk with Henrik on Saturday. His wife bought him a day out with me as a birthday present. To improve his eye and his photography.
***That Tesla driver is lucky. Apparently could not open the doors because power out. Saved from certain incineration by a passing Virginia State Trooper!
Per story:
"The Tesla’s doors were locked and would not open when Page tried them. He said in his interview that he could hear the driver, Kanu, inside the car. Henrico County home damaged after being hit by a car
Page proceeded to break open the window to get to Kanu. He then asked Kanu to sit back so he could cut the airbag. Once Page did so, he was able to reach Kanu and pull him out of the car."
Join us for a virtual Secret Santa gift exchange on Xmas day! Its all Virtual No Money No Malls No Mailing shopping so get creative!
To Enter; Like or Boost this post to be entered. On Xmas eve, I will send entrants the profile of another player to 'shop' for so think outside that wrapped box!
On Xmas day, we will share the image/video of what he got each other on Xmas day #SecretSanta so I hope to see you there!
Soo a friend is working with the #Black #Banjo Reclamation project. They tell the story how the banjo came from #africa and was spread in this country. They also talk about how the #african part of the story was erased. This erasure is happening again with the elimination of #blackfolk working in all manner of professions and fields. #antidei is #antiblack #blackmastodon #dei
The Wall Street Journal reports that 68% of CEOs "plan to spend even more on AI in 2026, according to an annual survey of more than 350 public-company CEOs from advisory firm Teneo.
A woman is facing felony charges in Evansville, Indiana over a DoorDash delivery in which she allegedly sprayed the food with a substance that made the customers vomit.
Ooof, Tesla driving at an extremely high rate of speed (100mph+) in rainy conditions rear ends some idiot driving without lights in this video from earlier this week. I guess they both got what they deserved?
Festive Fedizens, Merry Mastonauts, and Cynical Cinephiles! The votes are in, and you’ve chosen Sunday, 14 December at 7pm EST (Midnight UST) for our #TheLionInWinter watch-along.
Please remember to use the tag while we're watching so we're not flooding the timeline with the 1001 quotable sick clapbacks featured in this movie.
It is available free on Kanopy for most US folx with their library card, otherwise… other sources 🏴☠️ are often an option if you don’t have a physical copy. kanopy.com/en/product/11737711
Event Time Announcer shows time for #TheLionInWinter Watch-Along in locations all over the world. In New York it happens on dimanche 14 décembre 2025, 19 h 00 m 00.
i feel like the mitochondria being the powerhouse of the cell isn't just a meme because we all saw it, but also because we all stopped and said "wait what do you even mean by that" when we did.
The term "powerhouse" as a literal power station simply hasn't been used in many decades, and if you do look at it as analogous instead, then like, it's way too vague to convey meaningful information. In what way is it a powerhouse, what does it do that's so awesome?
I don't know whether the guy who wrote that part of the textbook was trying to sound cool, or was so old that he thought we still call power plants powerhouses, or what, but it's a clear early example of abrupt disconnect between the writer and the reader. That's what's so especially memorable, to me.
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My friend who has amazingly bad luck, like jaw dropping bad, threw her back out yesterday helping her kid (who is sick with flu) out of bed. And broke the bed. This afternoon, an Amazon driver took a wrong turn down her long, steep, twisty driveway, and then got stuck because the rear wheel electric van couldn’t get back up the snow covered drive, which was unplowed since her plow guy never showed up. Two tow truck drivers took one look and said nope. Driver, who is so getting fired
has been sitting in the truck all afternoon. My friend hobbles out every hour to bring him hot drinks and see if he’s ok, but he won’t come in (see flu sick kid). Dude must be losing their mind.
So, she doesn’t want any of us to come over and shovel. Amazon is apparently trying to find a plow guy. If not, they’ll abandon the truck and hopefully send someone for the driver and deal with it tomorrow. If your package didn’t get delivered in eastern Connecticut, at least it’s got a good story.
😱 Oh wow, and Amazon doesn't run the trucks (they specifically "contract out" the truck drivers to make it impossible for them to unionize), they're going to ding the heck out of the company contracting for them... will most certainly fire the driver.
@ai6yr I’ve been thinking of that truck driver who died in the truck because he was told to stay with the disabled vehicle and froze to death. My friend won’t let that happen to this guy but he also apparently was told to stay in the vehicle!
So the driver got rescued a few hours ago and they decided to abandon the truck for night and deal with it tomorrow. So my friend thought. A flatbed truck has arrived, negotiated the driveway, but can’t turn around at the bottom and is now stuck.
The insurance company for Amazon sent this latest flatbed tow truck. Now the owner of the towing company is on his way over. My friend, her neighbors , all our friends and y’all on Mastodon are all 🍿🍿🍿🍿totally invested.
Also 100% sure Amazon will refuse to ever again deliver anything (on purpose) to her house.
@ai6yr well the animal control officer is two doors down and she’s terrifying so if LE is needed, she’ll likely come over first on foot. Get this, our town is too small to have local police. The State Police man an outpost in the next town up, but only till 11pm (I think- I know it’s not all night).
@ai6yr My husband has a similar story about a pond, a tractor, a bunch of 4WD trucks, and his 1982 VW Rabbit and some thought (i.e., a long tow rope and NOT going into the mud) saved the day.
Latest news: the flatbed truck cannot get back up the driveway without the weight of the Amazon truck on the bed. But!!! Because when the driver was rescued, he took the keys and van is locked so there is some problem with getting the Amazon truck loaded. Waiting now for someone else to come out with keys, a Star Trek transporter, or a portable blast furnace to melt the snow.
And now my friend is worried that this flat bd driver who told her he was from the insurance company might just be a dude who has the means to steal an Amazon truck and saw her post on Facebook.
I told her she has no duty to protect Amazon’s property and they are ALL trespassing since she didn’t invite any of them. Let him take the truck. She’s not responsible. (Putting that law degree to work.)
Is there still potential for this to turn into a Hallmark Christmas movie?!? Driver and truck get rescued by a good looking Canadian tow truck driver? They leave the US and start a unionized holiday gift delivery co-op?
Saw an article called the Curious Notoriety of "Performative Reading" and was curious. This quote sounds like how many people probably saw me from 1985 to today. I would read in public. It was kind of a stim, a way of regulation. Waiting in line? Read. Eating alone at a restaurant? Read. Walking next to a busy street? Read. On an exercise bike?
Saw an article called the Curious Notoriety of “Performative Reading” and was curious. This quote sounds like how many people probably saw me from 1985 to today. I would read in public.…
sadly, I share an awful hypersensitivity to scents ( inherited from my Mother). I noticed that I tend to be more sensitive to cheap, petroleum based scents as opposed to higher end, attar based scents. Do you have a similar distinction?
Remember the boys who discovered fragrance in high school and you could smell them down the hall? Polo was a fav back in the '80s. Total headache for me.
Maybe alcohol based? I really don't know. I should probably be better at recognizing them just to make my life easier but honestly, I'm enough of a shut-in these days that I rarely run into a problem with it.*
* Of course this morning we went for breakfast and sat very near a table of young women who were from the "if a little perfume is good, more is obviously better" camp.
So a few months back I found a study that tried to do the "mirror test for consciousness" on ants. I remember not being very impressed with the journal where it was published, though I found the topic fascinating.
Anton Petrov has now mentioned this study in one of his videos, which means it's going to spread more.
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Maybe ant scientists are like “Are humans even conscious? Their collaborations are spotty and conditional, and they seem not even to notice their own scent, let alone recognize it. Incredibly, they must resort to simple heuristics, such as identifying as the source or ‘dealer’ of an odor the first individual to sense it. (They appear to react to reflected light but their primitive water-balloon eyes are clearly insufficient for true image capture)”
. I, for one, find it hilarious when people declare themselves to have, "consciousness." It's weird and meaningless and it's the latest meaningless reason for humans to feel special. . A critique, not having watched yet, is photons are not real ants and if you can't smell the other ant, they're not real or relevant (this, if they fail). Mostly humans are fascinated by things that look but aren't real, I'm not sure that's something to boast about. . Sorry. I'll watch in the morning. 💜
My (extremely limited) person observation of ants once lead me to conclude that they are blind, which I subsequently learned is not actually true, but if so then they wouldn’t know what a mirror is.
I started reading a book on the subject of animals doing mathematics but I had to stop because it annoyed me too much by asking what I felt were the wrong questions to ask of animals that are superbly adapted for their environments.
I’m generally unimpressed with the mirror test. I imagine that sapient dogs would be very unimpressed that humans can’t recognize the smell of their own urine.
@michaelgemar It's very contrived how we keep trying to get animals to do "tests" that are centered around things humans care about. People think it's significant to see "yourself" in a mirror.
I suspect that "ant ideas" don't have exactly parallel concepts. That is, I don't know what the test would prove if it worked.
Ants *do* care a lot about having the same pheromone profile as their colony.
Ants do some things we can't. No one likes to sit with that truth.
If more people would just spend sometime watching ants carefully you'd see them making decisions, being confused, getting frustrated, feeling panicked or scared, and being sleepy.
You'd see them struggle and fight each other over who gets to do a task and then stomp off and walk in circles when they don't win.
@michaelgemar I’ve noted more than once that there is as much going on in your backyard as there is on the African Serengeti. Mind you, it is at a smaller scale.
Ants have often tested humans for self awareness. They placed objects in our homes and were shocked we didn't cover them in sand.
"Although humans build interesting nests & show signs of cooperation, can they really have rich inner lives like ants? Unlikely."
They laid pheromone trails & we ignored them.
"Even a newly eclosed callow or a termite could have followed these trails! Human intelligence is perhaps similar to that of a lichen... or perhaps an aphid at best."
“The suspect🚨in the Brown Univ shooting is a 24-yr-old white man from Wisconsin who, acc to his LinkedIn, is a US Army cyber warfare off. He was armed with a revolver & a Glock equipped with a laser sight.” -S Watts
#Macron: In #Sydney, an antisemitic terrorist attack struck families gathered to celebrate #Hanukkah. #France extends its thoughts to the victims, the injured and their loved ones. /1
I don’t know Jun from Jun & Tonic, but we have the same taste in food.
Murukku is my favorite snack and I would LOVE this. To make it even more opulent, I would use only the butter murukku I love from Grand Sweets (I get them in Sunnyvale at Madras Grocery).
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. A Ferenghi businessman is haunted by three spirits who attempt to remind him of his honor. The Ferenghi should have simply slain the demons who attacked him. 3/5 Christmas Bat'leths. Glory to Tiny Tim!
The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry. Two pathetic humans attempt a mating ceremony in which they sell their most prized possessions in order to purchase gifts for each other. Incomprehensible. Why does the female not simply bite the male to show her affection. 1/5 Christmas Bat'leths.
The Nutcracker by E.T.A. Hoffman. A child's toy comes to life and defeats the evil Rat King in glorious hand-to-hand combat. Then the toy's honor is memorialized in dance and song. A true warrior's tale! 5/5 Christmas Bat'leths.
A Charlie Brown Christmas by Charles M. Shulz. A young warrior struggles with internal demons of self-doubt and depression. While selecting a Christmas tree, he symbolically chooses one which reflects how he views himself - a weak tree, unable to support even a single ornament. He lashes out at those he considers his closest friends, attempting to remind them of their honor, and eventually gives up, believing his efforts were ultimately meaningless. But he is mistaken. His words were spoken with the heart of a true Klingon warrior, and his friends wrap the tree in their most prized possessions, giving it the strength to stand on its own, holding the weight of ornaments many times its own weight over. They gather around and sing songs of bravery and courage, and remind the young Klingon that he too will be welcomed into Sto-vo-Kor. Because sometimes the greatest battle a warrior will ever fight is the one inside his own mind and heart. 6/5 Christmas Bat'leths. Glory to the House of Brown.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr Seuss. A cautionary tale. A Klingon from a lowly house is shunned by his peers and forced to live without honor on the outskirts of town. Instead of seeking honor and glory on his own like a true Klingon, he instead sneaks around under cover of darkness and steals the town's presents with the help of his faithful targ. As punishment, Kah'less removes his warrior spirit and he is doomed to stay in the small town facing his dishonor every day. If he had the heart of a warrior, he would have done battle against Whoville and claimed the glory of Christmas for his own. 4/5 Christmas Bat'leths.
The Nightmare Before Christmas by Tim Burton. The King of Halloween Town assigns three children to kidnap the demon Sandy Claws because he is a coward who refuses to fight his own battles. They too fail, because none of them possess the heart of a warrior. 0/5 Christmas Bat'leths. Tim Burton has no honor.
Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer by Robert L. May. A young warrior is shunned by his peers due to a physical deformity. He leaves his family and house to seek his own glory. He returns after defeating a dentist, a filthy gold-loving Ferenghi prospector, and an abominable snowman. Recognizing his fearless warrior spirit, he is given the place of honor at the front of Santa's sleigh. 5/5 Christmas Bat'leths. Glory upon the House of Rudolph!
The amount of slop on FB now is alarming. I go only to check a local grapevine and a weather account, and when I'm not specifically on those pages it's just firehose of AI-generated click bait make believe. #meta
#TheLionInWinter I love this scene of Eleanor’s barge pulling up and Henry scampering up the tower to watch her arrival so much. Like, it's their whole dynamic so neatly laid bare.
Tekniquelly correct
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