Day: May 10, 2025, 11:17 PM
Excess Success
If you know what you’re doing, you can achieve many things that people believe cannot or should not be done. And be perfectly fine.
Then they get angry at you for succeeding. And I love that for them.
Forwardness
Linux kernel is leaving 486 CPUs behind, only 18 years after the last one made.
Now that’s extended support; I used my first 486 in 1991 or so. At the time, they seemed wicked fast. I remember those days of waiting expectantly for every upgrade, hardware or software, as it always offered real improvement. Now every update is dreaded as yet more will be taken away for fake security1, to show you more ads or to steal your data left and right.
Much was far worse then, but we had a lot to look forward to. Or so we thought.
Next-level Clownishness
MAGA clowns are so stupid. Fundamentally, they are just dumbasses.
No Energy Star: I want my refrigerator rollin’ coal!
No NSF or NIH: I want to be sick with everything all the time forever while living in a cave! I love the smell of pustules and buboes in the morning!
No NOAA: Durrr, I think weather is the same as climate and both are evil!
No trade with other countries: Elves will surely make all this shit by magic! I saw it on Joe Rogan!
No EPA: I love nothing more than burning rivers and my kids dying of lead poisoning at six years old. That is, if the measles or rubella or whooping cough don’t get ’em first!
Come on, these are not serious people. Though they are seriously harmful. They are idiots and absolutely deserve to be made fun of.
Series
They are selling some interesting stuff on Etsy these days.
It’s amazing that hasn’t been taken down yet, but I think Etsy just does not give a crap anymore.
Grates on Me
Yet another example of fucking moronic worthless clownery. Our enemies really are in charge now.
We probably should have immigrated elsewhere.
Evil Seas
I am so glad the evil season of winter has departed.
May it stay gone forever. Though I know it won’t.
Thorax
You can tell I’ve read too damn many medical books because there’s a scene in The Pitt where one of the over-confident trainee doctors orders a BiPap for a pneumothorax in the ER and I was like, “Wait, what the hell is she doing? That’s gonna make it worse!”
And sure enough the patient crashes out because pneuomothorax pressure goes through the roof and collapses his lung.
I’m not a doctor, but I do know some of the shit they do. What happens when you read a skrillion books about everything.
Divided
NSF faces radical shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions.
This will harm the United States and its position in the world for the next 100 years. It’ll be devastating to science, to America, and to everyone everywhere who has benefited and would benefit in the future from advancements funded by the NSF.
I do believe the enemies of the US substantially run the country now. No other explanation makes sense. You’d only destroy the NSF if you wanted to hobble America in the future.
McDooooo
McDonald’s dining area (1984).
Back then the design of each McDonald’s varied a lot from city to city, but many of them did have live plants and felt quite friendly compared to the soulless gray don’t-stay-here boxes extant now.
I remember there was one near the mall in Gainesville, Florida, that was particularly nice — better than many of the fancier restaurants around. I’m sure these days it’s like walking into the Greek version of hell if it’s still there at all.
In this country we like ugly. And claim that’s all that there can be. But I remember a different time and a different way to be, even for something so pedestrian as a McDonald’s.
Inside the Bloodbath at the NIH. We and the world will be paying for that with additional needless death and suffering for a long, long time.
Empty shelves, for-lease signs and job layoffs point to recession by summer And depression by fall.
Europe launches program to lure scientists away from the US. I think I just became a scientist!
The Chinese-made jet bringing down Indian fighters in Pakistan.
ALICE detects the conversion of lead into gold at the LHC.
Resilience isn’t grit alone. It’s liquidity, community, patience, and grace.