Step 1: Get magic rocks.

Step 2: Now design the rest of the nuclear reactor.

And then there’s Lemmy, where you can always count on some helpful stranger who’s completely missed the point chiming in to tell you why you’re wrong.

That’s not how it was as of yesterday when I signed up just to see what all the fuss was about. (I don’t think I’ll be participating.)

Bluesky: You are immediately and automatically welcomed into the warm embrace of an algorithm that entices you into a parasocial relationship with the synthetic community it has created.

Mastodon: If you’re lucky you’ll stumble across a warm welcome for new users explaining how posts are called toots here, likes are called florps, and our version of Grok is called Garfiald.

It’s the culture of an instance that makes the difference, not which software it runs, but there is often a correlation. Misskey tends to get more people who appreciate cute emoji and comfy vibes.

I thought maybe it was just my imagination that it’s been really slow since Wednesday, but you can see it clearly on the charts at the bottom of the page there.

Maximum rationalisation mode: Maybe Conservatives will now be so confident that they’ve already won the next election that those of them who are just feigning the hate for trans people, gays, immigrants, refugees, socialists, liberals, opponents of fascism, and whatever other scapegoats they can find in order to win popular support will feel that they can safely tone it down a little and just coast to victory without needing to stir up even more fear and anger.

Get yourself a good nicotine vape rig. The kind that has a big tank so it’ll last all day and you can use whichever flavoured vape liquid you like best. Switch to that 100% of the time, right away, no exceptions. Don’t worry about how to quit vaping until you’ve gone without smoking for at least a few months.

It’ll be hard, but not nearly as bad as it is if you try to quit both smoking and nicotine at the same time.

Freedom of expression is very important, so I propose a compromise. Display as much advertising and other propaganda as you like, but no actual burning of fossil fuels is allowed anywhere within city limits. Temporary exceptions to be made for fire trucks, construction equipment, and essential freight deliveries so long as it can be show that there is no current alternative and there’s a credible plan to create one within five years.

I don’t think that kind of anti-labour attitude is likely to be prevalent among people who play daily NYT word games. A more mainstream response is probably more like “whatever, nerds.”

the large amounts of energy they use make them the c

… ountry’s largest source of greenhouse gases. Not the c-word I was expecting.

Having apps that do what users want but try to hide it from reviewers really highlights the absurdity of letting Apple decide what software you’re allowed to run.

Cross-country skiing is fun! I think so, anyway. Take it easy, don’t expect to be super good at it right away, et cetera, but maybe try out whichever winter sports appeal to you. What everyone else said, but also don’t forget to go outside and enjoy yourself sometimes.

The Featured Snippet quoted an article from the Mayo Clinic, highlighting the words “Caffeine may cause a short, but dramatic increase in your blood pressure.” But when she looked up “no link between coffee and hypertension”, the Featured Snippet cited a contradictory line from the very same Mayo Clinic article: “Caffeine doesn’t have a long-term effect on blood pressure and is not linked with a higher risk of high blood pressure”.

On the one hand, Google sucks. On the other hand, if people are unable to a) understand how those two snippets are not contradictory, and b) read at least one very short simplified-for-laymen Mayo Clinic article about the topic before thinking they’ve learned anything at all about medicine, it’s hard to see the problem as being primarily due to Google. There is something deeper, and worse, going wrong when people habitually take that kind of extreme shortcut to thinking that they know the right answer about almost anything, and it has little to do with whether any one-sentence snippets they’re given are biased or accurate.

Overclocking

… and people calling themselves communist still leaping to its defence, for some inexplicable reason.

Any talk of communism is a “red” herring when it comes to this topic. Russia isn’t in any way officially, notionally, or superficially communist.

Is there any truth to the allegations? Beats me, but seeing the possibility dismissed as as a preposterous notion that can only be part of a “New Red Scare” does not decrease my estimation of the chances of it.

This was just last month.

Just think of all the juicy benefits of replacing journalists with machines. They’ll never stumble or cough while presenting the news, they’ll never call in sick, never age, never get mad as hell and decide to not take it any more, never resign from the editorial board in protest no matter what garbage you tell them is the news. Machines are just better suited to the job, it’s inevitable.

They’re Canadian politicians. Their entire careers have been built in a world where everyone who matters believes that party loyalty is super important, or at least acts as if they believe it. They’re trying to do what they think is best for the Liberal party.