"The most important part of the pardons isn’t specifically who is released from prison, but the meaning of Trump’s gesture: Radical militias are free to act with impunity—as long as they’re loyal to Trump. Should an extremist on the right break the law, he can reasonably hope for Trump to pluck them out of the justice system." This is exactly the intended point of those Jan. 6 pardons Piece:
The Atlantic
Trump’s Pardons Are Sending a Crystal-Clear Message
After the January 6 attacks, right-wing militias went underground. Now they have permission to come out of hiding.
 unpaywalled: https://archive.is/lZebr
A wonderful essay by @npub1f3d8...yk3x about the joys of the early phase of personal computer ... ... i.e. when computers were indeed "personal" ... ... which is to say, under our own control, serving us, and not being tweaked/juked on a daily basis by remote megacorps
VC&G | » The PC is Dead: It’s Time to Bring Back Personal Computing
Adventures in vintage computers and retrogaming. Includes articles on classic games and obsolete computers.
I'm listening to a friend doing a Zoom table read of King Lear with his theater company one of the actors said "sirrah" ... ... and my Iphone woke up, thinking someone had said "siri" 😂
Behold the AI slop that google served up when these folks asked it "does corn get digested" I just checked that query, and it now serves up this story itself, bien sur but overall I agree with the deck to the headline "slopaggedon cometh"
Futurism
Behold the AI Slop Dominating Google Image Results for "Does Corn Get Digested"
Another Google Image results page — this one for the question of "does corn get digested" —  is run amuck with AI-generated slop.
Back last spring I visited Denver ... ... where the city was two years into a fascinating experiment: Subsidizing residents who wanted to buy an e-bike Turns out the program was exceptionally successful People rode 'em 26 miles a week on average, rode them year-round ... ... removing 6 million miles of car-driving each year. Cleaner air, healthier residents getting exercise And: *way* cheaper than subsidizing electric cars My piece on it for Mother Jones:
The Secret to a Better City Is a Two-Wheeler – Mother Jones
Some reading 📖 for today, fellow mastodonians 🐘 🦠 "methanotropes": https://archive.is/2BMKo 🤖 synesthesiac AI:
An AI started 'tasting' colours and shapes. That is more human than you might think
The brain often blurs the senses – a fact that marketers often use in the design of food packaging. And AIs appear to do the same.
 ✏️ how Tom Stoppard script-doctored "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade":
Creative Screenwriting
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 All culled from my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, plenty more there:
Linkfest #29: "Methanotropes", Sign-Language Poetry, and Why Saturn's About To Lose Its Rings
Why hey there, fellow prisoners of the Internet. It’s time for "the opposite of doomscrolling” — or, my latest “Linkfest”, in which I pan...
A good interview by Charlie Warzel of @npub1zgqh...9vw8 -- talking about her research into how online indie creators build trust and credibility with their audiences ... ... and what regular ol' media could learn from their experiences it's damn interesting much of it rings true from my own experiences in 25 years of blogging A small sample of the conversation in the screenshot here The story:
The Atlantic
The End of News
Legacy media has a trust problem, but it’s not too late to solve it.
 Unpaywalled: https://archive.is/9E8Xd image
Not long ago, NASA was in trouble they'd flown a space probe all the way to the asteroid Bennu -- to land on it and gather a sample the problem? Bennu's terrain was so rocky they couldn't figure out a safe place to land to save the mission, they had to call in their secret weapon: Brian May, guitarist for Queen Item #3 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free to read and subscribe here:
Linkfest #29: "Methanotropes", Sign-Language Poetry, and Why Saturn's About To Lose Its Rings
Why hey there, fellow prisoners of the Internet. It’s time for "the opposite of doomscrolling” — or, my latest “Linkfest”, in which I pan...
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Behold the "sci fi tarot" a deck in which each card is done in the style of a golden-age pulp sci-fi novel the ingenious creation of the designer Todd Alcott, who sells 'em online Item #4 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free to read and subscribe right here:
Linkfest #29: "Methanotropes", Sign-Language Poetry, and Why Saturn's About To Lose Its Rings
Why hey there, fellow prisoners of the Internet. It’s time for "the opposite of doomscrolling” — or, my latest “Linkfest”, in which I pan...
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You know about disposable vapes? many brands are powered by the same lithium-ion cells that are used to make huge battery packs for electric cars or ebikes but with vapes, they're just ... thrown out Chris Doel got 130 dead vapes, took the batteries out, and used them to create a new rechargeable battery pack for his ebike It worked *great* His question: "Why they hell are they being thrown away after one use?" Item #6 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter:
Linkfest #28: Neolithic Octopuses, Weeping Trees, and a Forty-Year-Old Snowman
Hello! It’s time for "the opposite of doomscrolling” — or, my latest “Linkfest”, in which I painstakingly debone the entire Internet to e...
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