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fribbledom ("muesli") wrote:

The three Philips Hue bulbs I bought 12 years ago and use daily? All still working fine after many thousands of hours.

The three Philips Hue bulbs I bought 3 years ago? All flickering or dead.

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

I know a lot of gov tech folks. There are big, true critiques that would have been as (or more) effective for Klein and Thomson. And yeah, they're wonks, but not wonks about everything. We all have limits, and they needed more depth. A single article shouldn't be able to dismantle them, and yet:

https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/01/jon-stewart-and-ezra-klein-help-gop-paint-infrastructure-bill-broadband-grants-as-a-useless-boondoggle/

Boosted by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
fatuus@mstdn.fr wrote:

#humor

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

There's an easy, cheap, and sort of glib critique going around, most easily captured in the "Abundance" debate, in which I find myself loathing both sides.

Yes, *obviously* we must find a way to push past sclerotic letter-of-the-law legalism to build more and better in ways that improve the material circumstances of folks. But the avatars of that argument aren't covering themselves in humility re: how to get what we need more of.

Liberalism must be a learning organism.

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

This is not a reason to give up on a politics of doing more for most, even if the most incompetent in society come to see the problem clearly too. How we do what we should, and how we protect the weakest, is the hallmark of strength.

And these people are weak, cowardly, and risible. Despise them, but keep the goal of doing better for liberal democracies.

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

I strongly suspect that everyone who has payed even passing attention to WTO/MFN drama over CN imports and IP-theft-as-policy feels deeply crossperssured over the worst people we can imagine finally taking some form of action, and angry over D's failure to do jack or shit (see also: Ukraine constipation).

A liberalism that won't do the work is the surest opening for a fascism that doesn't.

Boosted by jwz:
Some_Emo_Chick ("Frankie ✅") wrote:

Just a friendly reminder that the actress Ann Magnuson, who played Admiral Clancy in Picard, was also the lead singer of the 80s metal band Vulcan Death Grip.

#startrek #picard #music #metal #actor #funny

Boosted by jwz:
phire@phire.place ("jenny (phire)") wrote:

one of my core beliefs about the conventions of the web is that not including the date in the URL for sites where the time of publication matters (99.9% of all writing) is deeply antisocial behaviour and this is not the primary reason I hate substack but it is definitely one of them

Boosted by jwz:
papakipos ("Matt Papakipos") wrote:

The tarrifs today are about soliciting bribes. Every ceo is on notice to kiss the ring for tarrif exemptions. This is banana republic nonsense. Watch the parade of supplicants... and learn who the Vichy traitors are. Here we go.

jwz wrote:

The "Notes" app keeps hypnowheeling. The "Notes" app.

jwz wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKtxMxJI1TM

Boosted by mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze"):
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?

Boosted by mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze"):
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.

Boosted by mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze"):
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.

Boosted by mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze"):
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.

Boosted by mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze"):
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

Boosted by kornel ("Kornel"):
debcha@saturation.social ("Deb Chachra") wrote:

I’ve been repeatedly pointing people at this over the past few weeks, so putting it here: https://how.complexsystems.fail

Boosted by jwz:
VeryBadLlama@mas.to ("Janel Comeau") wrote:

I have tariffed
the penguins
that are on
Heard Island

and which
you were probably
assuming
did not export goods

forgive me
they were taking advantage of us
so cunning
and so cold

Boosted by jwz:
chockenberry ("Craig Hockenberry") wrote:

About 10% of Apple's $3T market cap got wiped out today.

That $1M inauguration investment currently has a return of -$300B.

Boosted by jwz:
inthehands@hachyderm.io ("Paul Cantrell") wrote:

I know the headline-based gut reaction is “destroy capitalism, oh no, please continue,” but what the guy’s actually saying is wild and truly terrifying:

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

Boosted by jwz:
violetblue ("Violet Blue") wrote:

New, please share this underreported info: US measles cases up 360% (over 500, 22 states), TX measles vax clinics shut, CDC gutted, FDA delayed Novavax, FDA bird flu response team fired, new #Covid variant + cases rising, and more.

Hope IS a warrior emotion.

And about the daily evil and violence we're trying to survive right now, our work is "to build a life and a world that is not just strong enough to resist it but dedicated to its opposite."

Please join and support: https://www.patreon.com/posts/covid-april-3-125822133

Boosted by jwz:
Lana@beige.party ("𝐿𝒶𝓃𝒶 "not yet begun to fight"") wrote:

Ok. I'm a teacher. So let me break this down for you into very very simple ideas and numbers.

Let's say you run a sandwich shop. You sell $10 sandwiches. It's a very good sandwich shop. You sell a lot of sandwiches. In fact, I buy a sandwich from you every single day. In a week, I have spent $70 buying sandwiches from you.

Now let's say I am selling my car. You, the owner of the sandwich shop, need a car. I decide to sell you my car for the very very reasonable price of $700.

So here's the situation at the end of a week. You have sold me $70 worth of goods. I have received $70 worth of sandwiches. In return, I have sold you $700 worth of goods, and you have received $700 worth of car.

Any reasonable, rational person would look at that situation and say "that's a fair exchange". Both parties paid an amount of money equal to the value of the goods they now own.

But Trump is not a rational person. What he has decided this means is that you have somehow cheated me out of $630, because $700-$70=$630. Does this make sense? Fuck no. If anything, I got the better part of that deal. I now have $630, plus a belly full of sandwiches.

But it gets even worse. Then, because Trump's a-brain is filled with maggots, he further declares that since $70 divided by $700 is .10, that MUST mean you, the owner of the sandwich shop, have been imposing a 10% sandwich tariff on me the whole time. Does THIS make a lick of sense either? Also fuck no.

But wait, you're going to love this. Trump's "solution" to this is to decree that going forward, all cars I sell you will be marked up a "reciprocal' 10% to $770. He says this will be good for sandwich sales. Does THIS make any goddamn sense either? Jesus fucking Christ on a pogo stick no it fucking does not.

This entire idea is complete horseshit for what I hope you can now see are a whole raft of very very obvious reasons. Among them:

1. There never was a "sandwich tariff" to reciprocate
2. There is no rational reason for you to buy a car from me ever again
3. This will not affect sandwich sales at all
4. That's not how numbers work
5. That's not how any of this works

Now replace the car seller with America, and the sandwich shop with an island inhabited only by penguins. I wish I was joking.

Boosted by jwz:
davidho@mastodon.world ("David Ho") wrote:

Happy Liberation Day to all who celebrate the release of money from your retirement accounts into thin air.

Boosted by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
AnarchoNinaAnalyzes@treehouse.systems wrote:

"Fascist education works by strategically erasing accounts of history and current events that include a diversity of perspectives, narrowing the scope of what can be taught until students are presented with a single viewpoint, which is formulated specifically to justify and perpetuate a hierarchy of value between groups. This narrowing is inconsistent with multi-racial democracy, antithetical to egalitarianism, and carries the possibility of conjuring mass violence.

But this is not the only means by which authoritarian movements attempt to manipulate populations into accepting the supremacy of a single dominant group. They also sometimes employ an even more scorched-earth strategy, destroying any common reality that could serve as the basis for a broad alliance between citizens against power. They seek to accomplish this by destroying the institution of public education itself."

- Jsason Stanely, "Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future"

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

This is British for "these people are fucking morons":

on.ft.com/4ce0MTM

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

Sure would suck to work for a computering company is all I'm saying:

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=File:F4bEU%5Fintermediate%5Fservices%5Fby%5FBEC%5Fitems,%5Fpartner%5Fextra-EU,%5Fimports,%5F2023%5F%28%25%29.png

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

Anyway, it's probably going to be a couple of days before Europe can build enough consensus on how to respond. I wonder what they might possibly do? Truly a mystery for the ages.

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=International%5Ftrade%5Fin%5Fservices%5Fby%5Fpartner

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

And I say all of this from the perspective of someone who thinks we f'd up by giving China MFN status and who is still upset that we failed to make our manufacturing base more competitive, instead allowing our business "leaders" to just screw over the American worker whenever an analyst in Jersey City decided the stonks weren't stonking enough.

Even from that perspective, this is the most pudding-brained, corruption-enabling way to cosplay at solving the problem.

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

These people suck. They get hired by telling lies to people who want to hear lies, and everyone else pays the price. Maximally supine, minimally intelligent on any timeline longer than a gnat's lifetime. No wonder so many SV folks fit in.

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

Just how incompetent are these people?

This audition (nee "whitepaper") took it on faith that the 2018-2019 trade kerfuffle had some positive impacts, particularly for the treasury.

Meanwhile in reality...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump%5Fadministration%5Ffarmer%5Fbailouts

And the paper seemingly ignored all employment impacts, while positing there wouldn't be any the second time around. Again:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93United%5FStates%5Ftrade%5Fwar#Job%5Flosses