Untied States

@mnent.bsky.social

The best lack all conviction While the worst Are full of passionate intensity. ... Trying not to sound completely nuts while explaining only a fraction of what's happening to not-terminally-online friends and family. Currently not succeeding.

The Trump administration is trying to gut one of the strongest laws protecting tribal sacred sites, burial grounds, and ancestral lands. Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act has worked since 1966. Now a handpicked Council voted to rewrite it..in one week. Here's what at stake.👇

Furthermore, the people I follow include enough authors that I can buy their books, always have a book to read and know they will be fascinating. To create that from scratch would be near impossible. That it has evolved now at least twice, gives me hope.

What I love about Bluesky is what I loved about old Twitter: if I want to find out about something (however recondite) there will be someone here (often with a PhD in it) and the time and patience to share their knowledge. /1

Parked by the tidal basin with some free time, I decided to see what the Jefferson Memorial has to say about his having owned human beings. Ans: nothing, and the place is a reminder that the sanitizing didn’t begin with DT and needs constant correction. 1/7

1770 plaque

So, I really hope I get to tell this story in longer form in the near future, but it it’s burning a hole inside me. Most of it comes from an interview with Bob Hirst this weekend. Bob has been Exec Editor of the Mark Twain Project for 47 years, before which he was part of its staff for ~15. 1/16

Our radar as seen through glass. The local airbase radar, via a Polaroid, in low sun, and with extra lenses and glass prisms stuck over the Polaroid lens with BluTac. Some extra technical details in the alt text.

Polaroid of a large military radar dish atop a concrete pillar. The sky is and odd bruise of a colour.

This is just a normal Polaroid, shot on automatic, through with the f-stop dialed down about 2 stops to take some of the brightness out of the sky.

This is too many stops, I can now see. I have started to dial down the f-stop when I have extra glass in front of the Polaroid camera’s lens, as that extra glass seems to throw light around and muck up the exposure, so I let less light in at the source. Polaroid of the radar dish atop- only with a semi-fish eye lens stuck over the Polaroid lens. Just stuck over with BluTac. Because of this lens the claustrophobic nature of  a Polaroid frame is thrown wide open - we can see the radar building roof, and so much more sky. It all bends in distortion, which is very pleasing.

Very very pleased with this. Here the extra 2 f-stops down has worked a treat. I must remember this. Again, a Polaroid of the radar. Only it is shattered in the frame, with sky above and below it.

This is because a glass decanter - a complex prism of glass - was stuck over the  Polaroid lens. I had no idea if this would work.

Again, an f-stop up here would have helped the final image pop a bit more.And lastly, the radar through just the Polaroid lens, though with a better exposure level. It looks very pleasing. Like a watermark.

Gave an absolutely, heart-rending, house-down, rain of bouquets, bravura karaoke performance of Say Hello, Wave Goodbye to an audience of precisely one small, old, disgusted cat

On some level, I would like AI to be Pinocchio, an artificial creation that transcends its origins. But so far it's Frankenstein all the way down: unethical scientists that unleash a creation upon the world with no thought of the consequences, and which are ultimately consumed by their own creation.

I cannot rest from discourse. I will see that film again tomorrow. I will drink life to the lees. Again I will enjoy greatly, will suffer greatly, both with those that love me, and in Pleasantville NY. I am become a meme. Film showing: burnsfilmcenter.org/booking/the-...

The Odyssey : Jacob Burns Film Center

The Odyssey, Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Christopher Nolan, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Odysseus, Greek, Classic, Antiquity

burnsfilmcenter.org

When my wife did chemo and radiation, she would go outside once or twice a day and shed the hair as it all fell out. Today, seven months later, we just found a nest a bird (likely a wren) made out of her hair.

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Absolutely heartbreaking letter from the mother of Alex Pretti, six months after his murder by ICE agents. How is it possible that we still haven’t seen even a hint of justice for such a heinous crime?

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...until an unholy alliance between the French state & the Catholic church, the first Crusade, destroyed this brief Renaissance with astonishing fervour, burning & murdering the inhabitants, up to a million dead. The phrase "Kill 'em all & let God sort 'em out' originated there via a Catholic priest

Back in 1988 John Healy published his memoir The Grass Arena about his life as a wino turned chessmaster. This August the sequel, The Glass Cage, is published. To coincide with this @irishfilminstitute.bsky.social screen my 2011 documentary about Healy. Please share if you can ifi.ie/film/from-th...

FROM THE VAULTS: BARBARIC GENIUS + Q&A - Irish Film Institute

SCREENING MONDAY 17th AUGUST Paul Duane’s intimate portrait charts the unpredictable life of John Healy – award-winning author, internationally distinguished chess player and erstwhile alcoholic vagra...

ifi.ie

So OP is 100% right. Kids need someplace where they can go and be kids, where they can hang with their friends in a safe place, without judgement. It’s really a very simple solution except for the fact that no politician is willing to try it.

Sub Pop is sending our love to L7's bassist, Jennifer Finch, who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer. If you are financially able, please consider donating to her GoFundMe to help cover urgent medical and rehabilitation costs, and in-home care expenses.

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And it quietly scaled back the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network, also known as FoodNet, shrinking the required surveillance to just two pathogens: salmonella and a common type of E. coli. One of the pathogens they made optional for states to report: Cyclospora.

And it quietly scaled back the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network, also known as FoodNet, shrinking the required surveillance to just two pathogens: salmonella and a common type of E. coli.

One of the pathogens they made optional for states to report: Cyclospora.

These investigations are challenging, and federal regulators are surely working around the clock to figure out the source of this current outbreak. However, the administration made some changes over the past year that may be impacting critical regulatory work...