Mastodon Feed: Posts

Boosted by adam@social.lol ("Adam Newbold"):
rickenharp@social.lol ("Alex") wrote:

@adam ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ TAKE MY ENERGY ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ

mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

Obsolete secret infrastructure like CARTWHEEL tower, only revealed decades later, intrigues me not just for its scale and design, but also for the obvious question it gives rise to. If this stuff effectively managed to stay unnoticed for decades, what newer secrets are hiding under our noses today?

mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

Despite CARTWHEEL being located in the middle of a residential neighborhood in a busy city and staffed by military personnel, officials went to great lengths to conceal the true purpose of these towers. They hid in plain sight, appearing to be silos or water towers (they even used civilian water trucks to send crews to some of the towers).

It was only after the cold war ended that the details of the network were declassified.

mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

The upper white section of the tower is actually a plexiglass radome, concealing various microwave and UHF radio antennas.

CARTWHEEL and its cousins were decommissioned around 1990. Most of the towers, mainly atop mountains in remote areas, were demolished or left to rot. However, CARTWHEEL and CORKSCREW (on a mountain near the Appalachian trail in central Maryland) have been maintained in good condition, now repurposed by the FAA.

mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

Captured with the Rodenstock 23mm/5.6 HR Digaron-S lens (@ f/6,3), Phase One IQ4-150 back (@ ISO 50), Phase One XT camera (1/25 sec exposure).

This unassuming cylindrical tower, at first glance perhaps a grain silo or water tower, was part of a secret "continuity of government" microwave communications network. Built in the early 1960's, a network of similar towers located around the capital region linked the White House with critical sites such as Camp David, Raven Rock, and Mount Weather.

mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

"CARTWHEEL" Tower, Fort Reno, Washington, DC, 2020.

All the pixels, none of the continuity of government, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/49576247768

#photography

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

some days I love working with mongodb... and today ain't one of them

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
WeatherGoddess@journa.host ("Athena Masson, PhD") wrote:

Colorado State University released their first 2025 #hurricane season forecast. Calling for an above-average season with 17 named storms. Nine of which could become hurricanes and four which will strengthen into major hurricanes (Category 3 or higher). https://tropical.colostate.edu/forecasting.html

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
Bella@pixelfed.social ("B.ella") wrote:

Hidden treasure.
#Leer #SchlossEvenburg #castle #Ostfriesland #EastFrisia #magnolia #BloomScrolling #florespondence #spring

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
vmaderna@mastodon.art ("Victoria Maderna") wrote:

It's #KidLitArtPostcard day! For once I remembered early and made something especially for it (& de-rusted my inking muscles a bit) 😊

I'm Victoria, illustrator working in gouache/ink and analog media. Looking for new projects (PB, MG, covers & +)!

🖥️ https://victoriamaderna.com
✉️ hi@victoriamaderna.com

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

morning bath

jscalzi@threads.net ("John Scalzi") wrote:

I don't know why I'm snickering, I'm heavily invested in the market

adam@social.lol ("Adam Newbold") wrote:

🪧 Will be mostly offline over the next few days as I hunker down and focus on wrapping some things up. (Support emails will still get attention!)

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
eyeling@mastodon.art ("Eyeling") wrote:

This year more desaturated colours in editing, looking softer.

#BloomScrolling #hanami #CherryBlossom #Kirschbluete

pzmyers@freethought.online ("pzmyers 🕷") wrote:

Delete your 23andMe data before Charles Murray can get his slimy hands on it!

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/04/03/delete-your-data-now/

Boosted by adam@social.lol ("Adam Newbold"):
sophie@social.lol ("Sophie") wrote:

why do people hate underlining links so much? it doesn't even look bad, it just looks... clickable?

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

“…fast approaching temperature levels where insurers will no longer be able to offer cover for many climate risks”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/03/climate-crisis-on-track-to-destroy-capitalism-warns-allianz-insurer

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
afewbugs@social.coop ("Jules") wrote:

In response to the police raid on #WestminsterMeetingHouse, #Quakers are organising a #MeetingForWorship outside New Scotland Yard on Thursday. People of all faiths and none welcome.

https://mailchi.mp/d312ad2f1001/quaker-faith-in-action-october-16511620?e=6ffe430c3f

#Quaker #NonViolent #DirectAction #YouthDemand #RightToProtest #London

rust@social.rust-lang.org ("Rust Language") wrote:

Rust 1.86.0 has been released! ✨🎊 🦀

This release adds trait upcasting, get_disjoint_mut on slices and hashmaps, #[target_feature] for safe functions, debug assertions for null pointers, Vec::pop_if, and more!

Check out the blog post and release notes for all the details: https://blog.rust-lang.org/2025/04/03/Rust-1.86.0.html

jscalzi@threads.net ("John Scalzi") wrote:

We didn't have to be here, but the fact is we're a racist and sexist country, and more of us wanted a bellowing criminal white male dimwit to be president than a competent woman of color. We'll be paying for that racism and sexism for decades.

jwz wrote:

XScreenSaver ffmpeg version skew.

Dear Lazyweb,

One of you could save me a whole lot of swearing if you would send me a patch that makes XScreenSaver 6.09 configured "--with-record-animation" compile without warning when linked against the ffmpeg 7.1 libraries rather than 4.x. (sample_fmts, supported_samplerates, ch_layouts are now deprecated and if there's a porting guide, I have not found it.)

Future generations thank you in advance.
https://jwz.org/b/yklt

Boosted by isagalaev ("Ivan Sagalaev :flag_wbw:"):
dansinker@omfg.town ("Dan Sinker") wrote:

Guess where they got their weird trade deficit math from?

keul@fosstodon.org ("Luca Fabbri") wrote:

A post-apocalyptic world, after a nuclear meltdown disaster originated by nuclear plants build to sustain AI image generators requests #MicroFiction

Boosted by jwz:
gilduran@journa.host ("Gil Duran") wrote:

Tech Fascists: We shall weaken the nation, destroy the economy, replace the dollar with crypto, replace people with AI, and create new Network State cities everywhere.

Normie Journalists: Folks, this is total chaos and incompetence with no structure or plan.

Boosted by jwz:
gwensnyder.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy ("Gwen Snyder is uncivil") wrote:

I mean, hell. It's not clear the steering wheel is going to be attached to a vehicle for much longer. The car is being stripped for parts and is also on fire. Oh, and it's a Tesla now, so let's hope they sell the doors for scrap before the fire reaches the cabin.

Boosted by jwz:
gwensnyder.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy ("Gwen Snyder is uncivil") wrote:

Their model is still course correction, but at this point we're not off-course, we're off-map. Even if they get the steering wheel back, they can't just re-enter the old destination into the GPS. We can't orient ourselves to that old vision of the future at this stage. It is no longer feasible.

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
politico@flipboard.com ("POLITICO") wrote:

‘Sloppy, reckless’: Waltz use of Signal, Gmail revives concerns about White House communications
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/02/sloppy-reckless-waltz-use-of-signal-gmail-revives-concerns-about-white-house-communications-00268016?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into Politics @politics-politico

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
faraiwe@mstdn.social ("Faraiwe") wrote:

This is all a stark reminder that government is serious business, that should be left to serious people.

#TurdReich #dumbasses #tRumpTariffs #doge #RFKJr #ClownCarCabinet #USPol

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

hilarious

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/emollick%5Fuploaded-a-paper-and-got-a-video-podcast-activity-7313279758421676032-dIg7?utm%5Fsource=social%5Fshare%5Fsend&utm%5Fmedium=member%5Fdesktop%5Fweb&rcm=ACoAAAB7JkEBQCk8SY-mmP6rvpKfocI7TzIpqK4

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

"shutting down adversarial drone swarms" is hard to do

'ARM can be a cost-effective countermeasure for drones ranging from microdrones to pizza box-sized devices. Costing pennies per use, it is portable with a viable range. Cohen adds: “ARM is designed to disable drones. And drones only. This is not a system for crowd or animal control...” [on] the battlefield, ARM can be attached to an attack drone or aerial support to help shut down adversarial drone swarms.'

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250327832606/en/Sound-Based-Drone-Disabling-Breakthrough-Announced-by-Fractal-Antenna-Systems