This is excellent. 👌🏼

“Open source, the thing that drives the world, the thing Harvard says has an economic value of $8.8 trillion.
Most of it is one person.

And […] not one of those single person projects have the proper amount of resources they need. If you want to talk about possible risks to your supply chain, a single maintainer that’s grossly underpaid and overworked.”

Yuuup. Baffling how so many companies depend on open source software without funding it, ever.

https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/08-oss-one-person

Thank you Euro Truck Simulator for making me aware of the best border sign ever made ( photo source )

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A large blue sign cantilevered over a road, with text in Georgian followed by, in English, ‘Azerbaijan border / Good luck’

😍 GEEXY STUFF

#geexy #geek #lego

It gives me great pleasure to reject the silly American convention of putting punctuation in quotes, regardless of whether it’s part of the quote. (The practice comes from antiquated situations where an unsightly gap was caused by monospaced type, and it has no business surviving today: https://style.mla.org/punctuation-and-quotation-marks/.)

Just like the Oxford comma, I am all for the British quotation standard, even with American double quote marks.

Cat vs printer - which is reliable?

(by Lynn Miclea)

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A Venn diagram compares "CAT" and "INKJET PRINTER". The left circle is labeled "CAT" and is yellow. The right circle is labeled "INKJET PRINTER" and is purple. The overlapping orange section, representing shared characteristics, lists "MOODY", "SPEND A LOT OF TIME SELF-CLEANING", "UNRELIABLE", "DEMAND FEEDING WHEN CONTAINER IS FULL", and "IGNORE REQUESTS". A cat's head is visible in the bottom left corner, looking up at the diagram.

Windows 95 Nuclear Bio-Reactor Setup Wizard

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A Windows 95 driver installer. Bio-Reactor Setup Wizard This wizard helps you install the software needed to use your portable bio-reactor with Windows 95. You can install new drivers or update existing ones to ensure proper operation and containment. To continue, click Next.

(And this is one of the very few times I will side with Texas: the best chili has no beans.)

@grrlscientist My library requires that anyone challenging a book has to read it and discuss it with a panel. That stops almost all challenges.

I love The Pelican Brief (1993) because it's an amazing fantasy of justice, good journalism and "the good guys" winning and "the bad guys" getting what they deserve

Tip: If the pharmacist gives you trouble about giving you the COVID vaccine, just wink and tell them you have "unbalanced humours". They'll know what you mean.

Friend’s 8 yo is in hospital in Malaysia. This is how lunch comes. Different smiley face every time. Why aren’t we doing this?

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Spag Bol with vegetables made into a smiley face.

it has been zero days since a customer told us we're not allowed to handle their proprietary code on an internet-connected machine and then sent us a setup script that depends on the internet to bootstrap

“Contrary to government statements, Dr. Monarez has neither resigned nor yet been fired. She will not resign.” - Attorney Mark Zaid

The Infectious Diseases Society of America doesn't like the latest #FDA announcement about #COVID #vaccines

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Graphic reading, "By narrowing its approval, FDA has made a decision that completely contradicts the evidence base, severely undermines trust in science- driven policy and dangerously limits vaccine access, removing millions of Americans’ choice to be protected and increasing the risk of severe outcomes from COVID.” | ® IDSA President Tina Tan, MD, FIDSA, FPIDS, FACP -®IDSA

“Judge Rules Ohio’s Voucher System Unconstitutional”- That ruling found that using public funds to subsidize tuition at private religious schools violates the Ohio Constitution’s ban on directing “school funds” to religious or sectarian institutions. https://prospect.org/education/2025-08-22-judge-rules-ohios-voucher-system-unconstitutional/

Voting should be easier than buying guns.

if you are not happy single, you won't be happy in a relationship.

true happiness comes from chaining together obscure `sed` and `awk` commands to parse a log file, not from someone else.

Now this is real convenient, especially on machines where's it impossible to hit the right key fast enough to enter the UEFI BIOS settings.

On #OpenBSD/amd64, you can now type "machine fwsetup" at the boot> prompt in efiboot. ​

jmatthew@ modified src/sys/arch/amd64/stand/{efi,}boot/*: Add a 'mach fwsetup' command, which uses the EFI OsIndications feature to reboot the machine into the firmware setup interface, if supported.
This is an optional feature introduced in UEFI 2.4 (released 2013).

ok kn@

@Nonilex If the US government can nationalize defense contractors it can nationalize health insurance companies.

The first 100% effective HIV prevention drug is approved and going global

It's royalty free and there's already six, generic manufacturers lined up.

https://newatlas.com/infectious-diseases/hiv-prevention-fda-lenacapavir/

@davew We keep having these trends of trying to kill URLs. E.g.:

1. In the 90s, even as the Web started to really take off, services like Compuserve continued to push "GO Words" and other centralised, controlled keyword systems of addressing.

2. In the 00s, as search finally got good, advertisements experimented with "search for [X]" rather than printing an address (which lead to the obvious Googlebombs and squatting, because of course it did).

3. At various times, browsers have experimented with (and in Safari's case, even pushed ahead with) efforts to conceal the power of the URL, cutting the visible part down just the domain name or even replacing it with the name from the (EV) SSL certificate.

4. And nowadays, people's business cards show e.g. a Facebook, X, or Instagram logo followed by the "keyword" that'll find their services on that platform. There IS a URL, but people don't see it anymore. It's Compuserve all over again.

The NYT reports today that members of the Department of Government Efficiency uploaded a copy of a crucial Social Security database in June to a vulnerable cloud server, putting the personal information of hundreds of millions of Americans at risk of being leaked or hacked, according to a whistle-blower complaint filed by the Social Security Administration’s chief data officer.

From the story:

"Mr. Borges did not indicate that the database had been breached or used inappropriately."

"But his disclosure stated that as of late June, “no verified audit or oversight mechanisms” existed to monitor what DOGE was using the data for or whether it was being shared outside the agency. That kind of oversight would typically be provided by the agency’s career information security professionals, Mr. Borges said in his account."

'And his complaint cites an official agency security assessment that described the project as “high risk” and that warned of “catastrophic impact” to Social Security beneficiaries and programs if the database were to be compromised."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/us/politics/doge-social-security-data.html

Check out my new shirt! 👕

Destroy AI!

• Bad at Everything! 👎
• Kills the Planet! 🌍
• Brain Atrophy! 🧠

Artist: Phineas X. Jones
Order one too: Octophant

Thanks to @tante for the fantastic recommendation! https://tldr.nettime.org/@tante/114863463868788391

#NoAI #HumanArt #NewShirt

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Photo of a person wearing a black t-shirt with only the torso part showing. The t-shirt has an amazing illustration from artist Phineas X. Jones, showing a punk woman holding a chainsaw and kicking a robot in the face. Above her the words: "Destroy A.I." and below the design are three sentences: "Bad at Everything!", "Kills the Planet!", and "Brain Atrophy!"

Do you ever think about how the fine for peeing in public is substantially more than the fine for dumping tonnes of CO₂ in public?

doomscrolling fedi with this bad boy

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a computer mouse with two scroll wheels, the packaging says "Cruise the Net faster with 2 wheels"

@woe2you @thomholwerda Ah, yes, because when I ask “how is the weather outside" I desire for the response to be "well, water thinks it's very cold”.

See also:

The MIT research found that, of more than 300 organizations analyzed, 95% saw zero financial returns for their AI efforts, and even those which were actively using the technology had not seen major changes. https://www.semafor.com/article/08/22/2025/ai-fails-to-bring-businesses-returns-report-says

do trans db admins get on that postgresterone or?

#3132 - Coastline Similarity

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Three-panel black-and-white classroom comic. Panel 1: A teacher points with a stick to a wall map. On the world map, the east coast of South America and the west coast of Africa are traced in red. Text at top reads: “People had long noticed that South America and Africa had similarly-shaped coastlines.” Panel 2: Same classroom. Two students sit at desks facing the teacher, who stands by the map. Text at top: “In the 20th century, geologists finally found the explanation:” Panel 3: One of the students raises a hand and speaks; and the teacher interrupts. Dialogue: Student: “Plagiaris—” Teacher: “Continental drift.” Student: “Oh.” Hidden text: "Hey! A bunch of the early Cretaceous fossils on each coast seem to have been plagiarized, too!"

@liaizon @samhenrigold After some testing, we've determined that lobsters are surprisingly easy to disassemble using standard tools (the Jimmy was especially handy here). However, the disassembly was entirely destructive, which means a zero in terms of repairability.
It's not all bad, though! Unlike traditional tech, lobsters take very little resources to manufacture and are completely biodegradable. This makes replacement an acceptable alternative to repair in this crustacean's case.

#memes #humor #funny

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This is a popular meme presented as a screenshot of a tweet from the user "Taming Fred Savage" (@FredTaming). The meme uses a simple, two-line format to create a self-deprecating joke: **me: [donating body to science]** **science: [donates my body to goodwill]** **Explanation of the humor:** 1. **The Setup:** The first line, "me: [donating body to science]," describes a noble and altruistic act. Donating one's body to science is seen as a valuable contribution to medical research and education. 2. **The Punchline:** The second line subverts this expectation. "Science" is personified as an entity that receives the body, evaluates it, and finds it so lacking in value that it passes it on to Goodwill. 3. **The Joke:** Goodwill is a well-known chain of thrift stores that accepts donations of used goods (like clothing, furniture, and household items) to sell. The humor comes from the absurd and insulting idea that a human body would be treated like an unwanted piece of second-hand merchandise, implying the person is so worthless that even science has no use for them. In short, the meme is a humorous expression of low self-esteem, suggesting that the speaker is useless even after death.

Quokka eating a leaf timeline cleanse.

"Nom nom nom nom".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quokka

A 1914 Gay-Ola Soda Advertisement.
https://www.bhamwiki.com/w/Gay-Ola
.
#Soda #Advertisement #Retro #Vintage #softdrink

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Advertisement is black-and-white. The bottle of soda sits in a man’s hand. It says “keep it on hand“ it also mentions that it was produced in Alabama

Today I heard the phrase, "GPT endpoint". Sad to report it didn't mean what I first thought.

Meanwhile in Norway.... the taxation of the wealthy has become a key election issue, with the major parties responding to the 'exodus' of the mega rich (upset at a 1% wealth tax) over the last decade.

Even if the centre Left wins, it looks like the tax will be 'reviewed' at the very least.

Which once again poses the Q. of why the ultra-rich who would hardly notice a 1% levy on their wealth get so vexed about its imposition? A Q. of relevance well beyond Oslo.

#tax #Norway #politics
h/t FT

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Then, take action to support libraries at action.everylibrary.org

— "Can you believe how stupid and primitive the ancient Greeks were? When they didn't know something, they asked an oracle, and they believed whatever it said!"
— "That's nuts. Where was this oracle?"
— "No idea. Let's go ask ChatGPT."

Here’s a poem called ‘Roger’s Thesaurus’.

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Roger’s Thesaurus In order to grow, expand, widen his lexicological corpus, Roger bought, acquired, purchased
a synonymopedia, a thesaurus. Soon, presently, without delay, he no longer ran out of things to say, speak, utter, express, articulate, give voice to, pronounce, communicate. This was all very well, fine, great, wonderful, super, terrific but his friends, mates, pals found him boring, tedious, dull, soporific. So let this be a warning, an omen, a sign, a premonition, it’s all very well to show learning, education, knowledge, erudition, but here’s a top tip, a hint, a suggestion, some advice, don’t ever let it stop you from being concise

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brief, short, clear, pithy, succinct, compendious, to the point, compact, snappy, laconic. Breviloquent. Brian Bilston

MIT Backs Away From Paper Claiming Scientists Make More Discoveries with AI. After a review process, MIT stated that it “has no confidence in the provenance, reliability or validity of the data and has no confidence in the veracity of the research contained in the paper.” https://gizmodo.com/mit-backs-away-from-paper-claiming-scientists-make-more-discoveries-with-ai-2000603790

I wonder if the federal patrols descending on DC will be including white-collar crime in their crackdown. You know, like pulling over fancy cars and auditing their taxes.

That could have a real impact.

When Australian artificial intelligence expert Dr Kobi Leins declined a medical specialist’s request to use AI transcription software during her child’s upcoming appointment, the practice told her [she] was "welcome to seek an alternative" provider.

[...]

It was a system whose privacy and security capabilities Leins had previously reviewed as part of her work in AI governance — and one she said she would not want her child’s data “anywhere near”.

https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2025/kobi-refused-a-doctors-ai-she-was-told-to-go-elsewhere.html