Edd0

I am dealing with a “thorny problem” right now, today. It is hard and scary because IT IS ALWAYS HARD AND SCARY. But it is also where you do your best work. It is where stories go from “meh” to “WOW”. When I fix it - because that is the job - I will be that much closer to something worth reading.

Ouch !

Get well!

An important (global) public service announcement from Ed Miliband on the day that renewables have over taken coal as the largest source of electricity.

"Clean energy, it's happening and it's the future."

Heseltine us now to the left of every mainstream party but the Greens through nothing more than staying still.

Hezza is that rare thing, a Tory who genuinely dislikes the far-right and has been pretty consistent about it; compare to Cameron the supposed liberal who was quickly licking Brexiter arses as soon as he fell out of favour

Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day?

Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚

[David Lynch looking awesome in sunglasses] i hope you all are having a lot of fun working on your favorite projects

(The answer is no, and neither will it cover government Ministers inciting violence against opposition MPs, or against public servants, or against parliament itself, all of which this bunch have done but we are meant to ignore)

There’s a massive knowledge gap in UK on how bad austerity was for Local authorities & civic society, & the impact in turn on citizens, - that is levered & exploited by Mr Farage etc. if we want to change things my guess is we have to be innovative in bridging that gap.

bsky.app/profile/levi...

nikolai vavilov out by a rock wall in a jacket, combing through a leafy plant

I'm sitting here, thinking about this weird onion from the mountains of Iran, wondering what we can learn from Vavilov and his team. In another era of anti-science, what's our take away?

One thing seems to be: believe in a better future, plan for it, & fight to make it happen, at any cost.

Mr. Judy turned the dial down. “This guy’s a customer of ours; he’s talking on one of our 900 lines, and he’s paying a buck per minute on his credit card.” Vanna examined another console. “It’s a VISA card. On a savings-and-loan from Colorado. Equifax checkout says it’s good.” “You’re running phone pornography?” Wolverine said, appalled. “Of course not,” Mr. Judy said. “You can’t really call it ‘pornography’ if there’s no oppression-of-women involved. Our 900 service is entirely cruelty- and exploitation-free!” Wolverine was skeptical. “What about that woman who’s talking on the phone, though? You can’t tell me she’s not being exploited.” “That’s the amazing beauty of it!” Mr. Judy declared. “There’s no real woman there at all! That voice is just a kind of Artificial Intelligence thing! It’s not ‘talking’ at all, really it’s just generating speech, using Marilyn Monroe’s voice mixed with Karen Carpenter’s. It’s all just digital, like on a CD.” “What?” said Wolverine. “I don’t understand.” Mr. Judy patted her console; the top was out of it, revealing a miniature urban high-rise of accelerator cards and plug-in modules. “This computer’s got a voice-recognition card. The software just picks words at random out of the customer’s own sick, pathetic rant! Whenever he stops for breath, it feeds a question back to him, using his own vocabulary. I mean, if he talks about shaved hamsters—or whatever his kink is—then it talks about shaved hamsters. The system knows how to construct sentences in English, but it doesn’t have to understand a single thing he says! All it does is claim to understand him.” “Every two or three minutes it stops and says really nice things to him off the hard disk,” Vanna said helpfully. “Kind of a flattery subroutine.” “And he doesn’t realize that?” “Nobody’s ever complained so far,” Vanna said. “We get men calling in steady, week after week!” “When it comes to men and sex, being human has never been part of the transaction,” Mr. Judy said.…

We don't read modern sci-fi to learn about the future right? We read sci-fi from the past to learn about right now.

(Also whatever happens to musicians blah blah...)

Photo of a business called Fermi Solutions. This joke relies on you knowing what the Fermi Paradox is.

Huge news for science fiction writers

@momatoes.com

Wow. I‘m not sure which part of this is weirder: that they think Starmer’s rep might be worse than theirs, or that they might be right.

i don't care how many interviews Christopher Luxon gets to bang on about how good and great he thinks he is. his actual actions as Prime Minister show he's inept, entitled, ignorant, racist, lazy and spineless. it's ridiculous he's paid as much as he is to know and do as little as he does.

#nzpol

Seven years ago today, the Saudi Crown Prince directed the murder of VA resident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

As we honor Jamal's memory, we are reminded that we must protect reporters around the world as they uncover the truth, inform the public, and promote accountability.

@wizardthieffighter.bsky.social isn’t that somewhere out in the UVG?

An adult female kākāpō in an underground nest next to three eggs. Credit: Andrew Digby

Sad to report that we've lost another #kakapo, and a particularly significant one. Solstice was the last kākāpō rediscovered, found on Rakiura in 1997. She died on the weekend as a result of complications from the #disease cloacitis. There are now 237 kākāpō left. #conservation #parrots #birds

What if we reinvented radio but worse

Ohhh my god do not privatize healthcare! Signed ~ a sane American.

"You're gonna need a bigger bookshelf"
The Very Hungry Great White Shark is available now!
www.lulu.com/shop/happy-t...

👁️

It is such a perfect table

The sloppy-school-lunch approach to policymaking… 🤮

This coalition government is cutting corners, skimping on safeguards, and serving up results that are cheap, nasty, and liable to burn us. #nzpol

My new book of science cartoons, PHYSICS FOR CATS is out in a week! Order a copy today from you local bookshop or at one of the links here: www.tomgauld.com/comic-books-v2

Windows 7 marketshare skyrocketed last month as users refuse to move to Windows 11 — Microsoft should be worried StatCounter reports that Windows 7 has gained almost 10% market share in the last month, just as Windows 10 support is coming to an end. It's clear people aren't ready to switch to Windows 11.

Hilarious. Also understandable as Windows 7 was the last decent version of the OS.

www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/wi...

I honestly can't believe that Cameron Slater was better at dirty politics than this lot! #NZPol

It’s understood other key ministers in this area - Energy Minister Simon Watts and Resources Minister Shane Jones were only given a heads up about Luxon’s letter to Hipkins 10 minutes before it was sent

Jane Goodall, renowned primatologist, has died at the age of 91.

But if you don’t live by your principles, they start to look less like principles, and more like self-interest. On Waatea, Seymour left no room for doubt: he believes meaningful election changes should be put to a public vote before they’re enacted. Surely what’s good for the lefty goose is good for the libertarian gander. The Electoral Amendment Bill will have its second reading in the coming months. There’s still time for the deputy prime minister – and the government – to have a change of heart, and show some consistency.

Was surprised to learn on Waatea News recently that the deputy PM doesn’t think politicians should change election rules without a public vote, and am expecting that Act will withdraw its support for restrictions on voter registration any day now thespinoff.co.nz/politics/01-...