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In “stopped clock right twice a day” news, it appears that the incoming US kakistocracy is going to cancel the white elephant Space Launch System.
in reply to Sion [main]

@Sion [main] Musk was profiting from SLS either way because he had the contract to provide the lander.

But he isn’t really competition. SLS was never a viable launch system; more a way to endlessly launder money to corporate donors.

in reply to Sarah Brown

Competition for which corporate to launder money to, then. (If they rejig Artemis to not use SLS, rather than just scrap the whole thing -- guess what it's going to come down to is is it close enough to be a vanity project for the next presidential term)


Starting to think either a civil war or military coup and “interim administration to restore order” in the US in the next decade is now more likely than not. 😞

Shouty person reshared this.

in reply to Shouty person

@clacksee The place is clearly due some sort of hard reset. I had hope it could avoid it - at least within my lifetime, now I'm not so sure.

The first US civil war wasn't, really, civil. Because there was a foreign occupying power to fight. Maybe every nation has to go through a 'proper' one. It certainly feels like the nation is irreperably split. Maybe that will keep them occupied for the next 4 years.

1/2

in reply to Sarah Brown

Six years ago I was sat next to a US academic at the Oxford Union and asked if he shared my feeling back then that the country had the ingredients for another civil war. The man did his best to reassure me that there was no prospect of that, even after two years of 45. I often think of him and whether he ever thinks back to that conversation with the limey granny who was there to speak for a motion about drama’s impact on politics.



Dear Apple, when the device is localised (see that S there?) into British English, "chips" does NOT go under "confectionary" in the shopping list.

Goddam fuckmuppet seppo nonsense.

in reply to Adam

@pseudomonas
oh, the US is VERY invested in deep-frying confectionery
@Adam


A prediction:

The EU is going to decide that it needs to protect itself against Putin’s aggression.

Trump will abandon Europe to Putin.

Starmer will be like, “I’ll align with the second guy”.

reshared this

in reply to Sarah Brown

I hope Europe gets it's act together. Election result in The Netherlands and upcoming elections in Germany are bit worrying


Western progressive parties stop doing this challenge 2024:

“The other guys are right. Don’t vote for them!”

The obvious thing happens.

“The other guys are REALLY right. Don’t vote for them”

Why are you like this?

MJ Ray reshared this.

in reply to Sarah Brown

“The other guys are REALLY REALLY far right. Maybe we can convince some of them to vote for us.”


Just been reading about a horrible bully who stabbed and brutally killed a critically endangered animal that was just minding its own business by a tumtum tree.

Disgusting




youtube.com/watch?v=jN7bQ0MnP3…

This is Porterbrook's protoype hydrogen train. It's kind of nice but to me it begs the question: why not just electrify the lines in the conventional way? Producing and transporting the hydrogen for these things is surely going to consume many times more energy than conventional electric traction.

in reply to Cyberspice

@Cyberspice Reopened Varsity line. The bit between Bedford and Cambridge is going to be on a different route and will be new build.
in reply to Alexandra Lanes

Ah yes, the south, where they spend three times as much per capita on transport infrastructure than the north!


I have nobody to shout this at right now but it seems like a shame for it to go unrecorded. So I offer this as a free piece of clichéd rage to anyone with occasion to use it.

Breathe my incinerated dick dust!

Sion [main] reshared this.

in reply to Alexandra Lanes

There are more refined ways of saying it. youtu.be/17rOl7i55ag


Dear Oort Cloud. We are ready. Please put us out of our misery, preferably before we develop proper space travel. It’s for the best.

Bernie Disobeys Tyrants reshared this.

in reply to Sarah Brown

> “The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us.”
—Bill Watterson


The day after the Brexit vote, I was stuck in bed having panic attacks on repeat.

It shoved me out of my comfort zone and now my life, in Portugal, is better for it (immigrant stress is real though), but it was a profoundly shitty thing to go through, and my heart utterly goes out to the millions of Americans, especially the young women, the LGBT people, and the terrified immigrants, and others now experiencing the same thing.

in reply to Sarah Brown

Anyway, by this time next year, I will have submitted my paperwork saying that I have no criminal record in the UK, along with proof of 5 years residency, Portuguese language proficiency, and a copy of my (post gender recognition) birth certificate.

And when it is approved, I will be registered as a Portuguese citizen born overseas (female).

And as far as the state will be concerned, I’m a cis woman.

That’s going to be a useful insurance policy.

in reply to Sarah Brown

honestly that sounds great. Massive respect for people who managed this given what was happening in 2020/2021
in reply to will-h

@will-h it was logistically very very difficult. Yeah.

And then in 2021 my mum got a terminal cancer diagnosis.

Spent a lot of time being one of only half a dozen passengers on a 737.

in reply to Sarah Brown

Hope everything goes well. It's a huge weight off your the shoulders, to have the magic legal status that wont ever expire or go away.

I assume by now you feel perfectly at home, but let me know if you need anything. I've finally made up my mind and I'm back (and fucking hell, that was stressful AF… somehow I managed to pull it off).



Day made less good by the (male) cleaner who shouted at me in the ladies’ at St Pancras. “This is… woman!” he shouted. I calmly replied “indeed, and so am I” and shut the door of the cubicle. Gave him a cheery wave in his cleaning cupboard on my way out.

But.





A lot of people, probably the majority, see things in irredeemable scum bags, like Trump, like Boris Johnson, like LePen, and going back, like Hitler, which they like.

And I just don’t get it.

reshared this

in reply to Sarah Brown

no, they’re not the majority. But anger gets people to the polls more effectively than anything else. That coupled with the gerrymandering the US system is plagued with means that a minority can grab majority power.
in reply to Sarah Brown

Because they remember their countries when they were bigoted as hell and the only people they saw were people like them and they want that back. They want the bigotry, discrimination etc. They don’t want to have to think about non white people, LGBT people, non christian people and so on. If you look at the UK the most right wing places are the whitest straightest places. They are worried that will change!


So glad I got my nervous breakdown response to this shit out of the way after the Brexit referendum.

My deepest, most profound sympathies for anyone going through anything similar today. It’s fucking horrible.

reshared this

in reply to Sarah Brown

Thanks Sarah. Let's sit with this. Madison said this morning she didn't want to talk.

Unknown parent



Bridge carrying the N125 road over the Rio Arade near Portimão, Algarve. iPhone 16 pro, pro raw, 10 second exposure. Seeing it like this always puts me in mind of the massive atmosphere processor in Aliens.

Walter Nissen reshared this.



Rising feeling of dread about Trump winning tomorrow.
in reply to Sarah Brown

@Sarah Brown Same. It feels like any kind of hope is me trying to con myself. And there's really really nothing I can do about it (unlike UK elections where there's merely mostly nothing I can do about it)


Flight back from NTE to FAO used an honest to god jetway at the FAO end, like it’s fucking Emirates or some shit.


Big fan of Bernie Collins on Sky F1. Whereas usually a lot of the presenting team is drawn from former drivers, she used to be a strategy engineer for several teams in the paddock, so she brings a lot of insight from the "behind the scenes" part of the sport. Also unlike some of her counterparts she doesn't feel the need to chip in when she has nothing useful to contribute!
in reply to Alexandra Lanes

Leena Gade is similarly good in the Le Mans commentary (which we're about four hours into watching).


Advantage of intelligence: being able to catch up an OU unit and a Portuguese language unit in an evening

Disadvantages of procrastination: having to



Today's law study amusement. "Even taking into account that the bird had travelled from Leicester in a box on British Rail its condition was rough"

(Partridge v Crittenden [1968] 1 WLR 1204)



So I know it’s all very funny, ha ha, but here’s why the orcas don’t go after the boats of the ultra rich.

Two photos. One a multi million euro luxury yacht. Notice it has two props. They steer by vectoring the thrust. There is no rudder.

The other, my boat. It costs what a new car costs (like if you were buying a low end Tesla. Expensive, but not stupid money). It has a rudder because it’s a sailboat. It can’t rely on thrust being present.

No rudder - no orca attack. People who can afford sailboats, which the orcas are attacking, cannot afford luxury motor yachts, which they aren’t.

A sailboat is like a mouldy caravan, but floating, and slower.

in reply to Mike J👹🐀 🤘🏻

@Mike J👹🐀 🤘🏻 same. I run the gauntlet next summer. Somewhat worried. I have a life raft and a phone that can do satellite distress, and I don’t taste like tuna.


New theory: the orcas are trying to get high. This shit is neurotoxic. Got quite a headache from spending 2 hours painting the hull with it.

reshared this

in reply to Sarah Brown

@IncHulk and yet the barnacles prevail. (Got to do the same job on a friend's boat in a few weeks)




Something happen to make you offer this generous discount, did it?

How about you fuck off 500 miles, and then fuck off 500 more, WaPo?



Day 2 in Oxford for medical trial fun and games. Today was the infusion, 50% chance of ketamine vs placebo. After doing a variety of questionnaires and having blood and urine samples taken it was time to be infused. It was fairly relaxing. Maybe a bit boring. I idly let my mind wander. I think I either didn’t get ketamine or I did and it had nearly no effect on me. I felt maybe slightly lightheaded at one point, and now feel a bit weird, but nothing especially noteworthy.

After that there were more questionnaires and computer tasks. Rather cruelly one of these asked me to remember things from another task, which they hadn’t warned me about. Testing memory when you’ve not been asked to remember stuff is a valuable thing to do.

Tomorrow afternoon is an MRI session where I remember various things while in the machine and they look at what bits of my head light up.


in reply to Sarah Brown

@transworld There’s evidence on Twitter that they actually added more ketchup to their shirt for the photo they put online.

Also, if they actually had any guts they would have tried that stunt in the Rutland Arms, and not the Benjamin Huntsman ‘Spoons.

in reply to Katie Fenn

@transworld Hmm, the article says it was a London pub, but I’m fairly sure they were in Sheffield.


Just cleaning the orca chew toy

reshared this


friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

I’m always a bit apprehensive about doing this, but it’s also kinda cool
in reply to Sarah Brown

Presumably, checking out the antifouling, sacrificial anode, prop and rudder?


Anyway, while I’m in France, in a marina, stuck for the next week, have a photo. iPhone 16 pro, pro raw.
in reply to Sarah Brown

they are remarkable. I couldn’t see that comet the other day but I took a photo just in case and there it was.


Go to sleep. Wake up with clocks having gone back. Get on plane to France. Clocks go forward again.

So basically my return from daylight saving is delayed a week.

in reply to Sarah Brown

In England now, clocks went back last night. Return home to Washington State on Wednesday, clocks go back next weekend. So I get 2 hours more this year!


I am begging heterosexual men to stop watching stupid YouTube videos that are convincing you that women give a shit about your height.

I assure you that plenty, if not most, of us do not.

reshared this

in reply to Sarah Brown

I hope you are right. However, I have been interested for a long time in this question, and on searching the Internet I am always directed to several academic studies that claim that most women have a preference for men taller than themselves, but I have not (yet) found sufficient time to read through the details of this alleged heightism.
in reply to coyets

@coyets Honestly, were I attracted towards men, I would be much more interested in whether they clean their arse properly and don’t piss on the floor.

Low bar there, boys. Wanna wow the girls? Actually quite easy.



This from Wikipedia made me giggle. "[New Zealand] Inland Revenue continues to spell its Māori name Te Tari Taake instead of Te Tari Tāke, mainly to reduce the resemblance of tāke to the English word 'take'"


Clocks go back tonight in case anyone still has clocks to go back.

(In Europe, at least. No idea what other bits of the northern hemisphere do.)



I understand Michael O’Leary “dog foods”. When he wants to travel, he buys a ticket using the RyanAir app on his phone and experiences it as a normal passenger. As a result, the app is bloody excellent.

It is profoundly obvious that the CEO of Volotea does not do this. Dear god, it’s terrible!




Curious about just how good the quad bayer "48 megapixel" pro raw camera in the iPhone 16 Pro is, I put it head to head against my 26 megapixel Fuji XE4 with a 16mm lens (stopped down to f/5.6) to closely match field of view. I photographed the same scene on both. Here are 100% crops from both, scaled to the same size.

Notably, the phone, despite having more pixels, simply does not capture the amount of fine detail that the Fuji captures with only half as many pixels.

As good as camera phones have got, you simply cannot compete against large photosensors fed by a nice expensive quality piece of glass.

reshared this

in reply to Sarah Brown

Here’s the full image (from the Fuji), by the way. It’s gonna be butchered by making it a low quality JPEG for sharing here, but this is the image.
in reply to Sarah Brown

Sensitive content

in reply to Nile

...Camera recommended by Sarah Thompson, who gives useful advice on photography, among other things.