Mastodon Feed: Posts

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
b0rk@jvns.ca ("Julia Evans") wrote:

working on this drawing for the “secret rules of the terminal" zine

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art ("Michael Whelan") wrote:

Cover illustration for FOUR-DAY PLANET AND FOUR STAR PLANET by H. Beam Piper (Ace) 3/3

https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/four-day-planet/

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
jeff@newsie.social ("Jeff (of the internet)") wrote:

Feels very 2007

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art ("Michael Whelan") wrote:

FOUR DAY PLANET (1978)
Acrylic on Masonite - 30" x 20"

With science fiction covers, I’m more interested in having a painting be about the figures in the composition, so the technology almost always takes a back seat to whatever else is going on. 1/3

#sciencefiction #scifi #scifiart #sff #illustration #hbeampiper

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
wdlindsy@toad.social ("William Lindsey :toad:") wrote:

"Callers to my radio show—as well as when I posed this question [of why Trump is crashing the economy] online—overwhelmingly responded that Trump is doing this because he is a 'Russian asset.' His goal is to 'Make Russia Great Again' at the expense of the United States."

#Trump #tariffs #StockMarket #economy #crash #SmootHawley #recession #inflation #stupidity #incompetence #destruction #Putin #PutinsPoodle
/6

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
wdlindsy@toad.social ("William Lindsey :toad:") wrote:

"CNBC’s Jim Cramer warned two weeks ago that Donald Trump was 'manufacturing' a recession with his potential massive tariffs. As Cramer correctly explained, history books tell us that the massive tariffs imposed in 1930 known as 'Smoot Hawley' by GOP President Herbert Hoover 'was a direct cause of the of the Depression.'”

~ Dean Obeidallah

#Trump #tariffs #StockMarket #economy #crash #SmootHawley #recession #inflation #stupidity #incompetence #destruction
/5

https://deanobeidallah.substack.com/p/trump-is-following-herbert-hoovers

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
wdlindsy@toad.social ("William Lindsey :toad:") wrote:

Brian Stelter points to an AP article in March drawing attention to these words of Trump last August:

"If Harris wins this election, the result will be a Kamala economic crash, a 1929-style depression. 1929. When I win the election, we will immediately begin a brand new Trump economic boom."

#Trump #tariffs #StockMarket #economy #crash #recession #inflation #MobBoss #stupidity #incompetence #destruction
/3

https://view.newsletters.cnn.com/messages/17437726770173f149ef9ebf8/raw

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

My career.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/04/04/the-real-secret/

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

Well, let's see what the stupid people have in store for us today shall we

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

Please, Jeremy Boreing, go away. Your movies and media are bad, and you are bad.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/04/04/the-end-of-the-daily-wire/

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