The Em Dash Responds to the AI Allegations https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-em-dash-responds-to-the-ai-allegations

The Trump administration is closing NASA’s largest research library on Friday, a facility that houses tens of thousands of books, documents and journals — many of them not digitized or available anywhere else. Jacob Richmond, a NASA spokesman, said the agency would review the library holdings […]

OK, have another year-end @tedium award to give out—this time for Best Feature Story. Maybe it’s obvious, but I mean, the sheer farce of the Signal leak, where a White House official dropped the editor-in-chief of @TheAtlantic into the chat, is too much to ignore […]

Against her will, Martha Mitchell—the wife of the Attorney General of the United States—was forcibly injected with psychiatric medication to keep her quiet. She was held in that California hotel room in Newport Beach like a prisoner.

I’m down to one episode of Pluribus and I don’t wanna watch it because then it will be over!!

In a better society, my taxes would be going to food, medicine, education, and quality of life for my neighbors and compatriots instead of to ICE and war. But they're not, so happy charitable giving day, y'all. Here's to fighting the good fight in 2026.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@gwaldby/115814662768358033 This was extraordinary.

Wait, wait, the Scandinavian countries aren't socialist? They are merely (checks notes) capitalist high tax welfare states with universal healthcare? God bless capitalism, buddy. Let's do what they're doing. Good talk.

Folks interested in science should be interested in Retraction Watch, which is now 15 years old. Started by medical journalists Ivan Oransky & Adam Marcus, the site is the only one (that I know of, anyway) that uncovers and tracks scientific retratcions, errors, and other controversies. My best […]

Guys, you’ll never believe this. We had 6 inches of snow Friday night. Remember the last time it snowed and my friend with the really bad luck who had an Amazon van stuck in her driveway? Well guess what just happened??

Look, I'm just saying that if you had to pick exactly two role models, you could do a lot worse than Fred Rogers and the goose from Untitled Goose Game.

Visualized: Where Do Microplastics Come From Anyway? https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/where-do-microplastics-come-from/

#snowscape #silentsunday #sunset #Photomonday

Reasonably sure Mastodon peeps like libraries and might like a peek at this wowzer I stepped into today. #dascdmx

New release review: The Housemaid #wildthings #cinemastodon

Being aesthetically impaired I rarely post photos or art, but this… A Man Feeding Swans in the Snow, Poland | Marcin Ryczek

Finally got the shot that's been eluding me before the year's end!” u/akogcak869 (Reddit) #Moon #Photography

Made it to the top of Nounou and managed not to wake the giant. Relatively dry for Kauai so the mud wasn’t out of control, which was good because there are some decent scrambles especially at the top. 13 stars ⭐️

RE: https://federate.social/@jik/115300077222722755 In October I posted that the U.S. Digital Service employees illegally fired by DOGE had reached a settlement with the government and committed to donate 10% of the net proceeds of my share of the settlement to organizations fighting fascism […]

Mastodon, we got you this cat for the holidays. #CatsOfMastodon

I couldn’t manage decorating the house this year. Sweet hubs got us a live “Charlie Brown” tree and I’m so grateful I don’t have to take down a whole tree this weekend!

Well, this was an exciting thing to wake up to! I'm on a list of the best podcasts from women over 50 — alongside amazing women like Amy Poehler, Katie Couric, Michelle Obama, Kara Swisher, Gretchen Rubin, Mel Robbins, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and more! I'm also […] [Original post on zirk.us]

UNIX V4 tape successfully recovered: First ever version of UNIX written in C is running again https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/23/unix_v4_tape_successfully_recovered/ Crucial early evolutionary step found, imaged, and ... amazingly ... works <- by me on @theregister

Now that’s a golden hour #silentsunday

Last pot of the year! I made a second version of the terracotta amaryllis vase at the request of a neighbor. He and his wife are also craftspeople—she makes #pottery and he fashions highly polished wood lids to fit her vessels. This will be her Christmas gift […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Ice against a solid gray sky #BlackAndWhite

ACCIDENTALLY BOUGHT CHRISTMAS WRAITH. EVERYONE DEAD.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@kottke/115747242737226451 I would dominate this competition!

How do you summarize how unsafe orbit is? This is where I get to tell you about my new favourite forced astronomy acronym, which I spent quite a while thinking about. We needed a metric. I originally wanted to do something like "Kessler Countdown" or "Kessler Clock" but this isn't a countdown […]

A new study has found that eating 50 grams (1.76 ounces) or more of high-fat cheese a day correlates with a lower risk of developing dementia. That includes all cheeses with more than 20 percent fat content, like brie, gouda, cheddar, parmesan, gruyere, and mozzarella. The extensive, long-term […]

I wrote all about it at the start of the year, ICYMI:

Do you love #BlackCats? My company BlackCatsClub.com is giving away a FREE Black Cats Club box packed full of human and cat goodies inspired by black cats. Enter here (only open to US residents) and I’ll pick a name on Sunday! […] [Original post on c.im]

Feline Navidad Feline Navidad Feline Navidad No perro aquí y felicidad #petsholidaysongs #12daysofchristmas #hashtaggames

🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 PRINCE ROGERS NELSON CHOSE THE COLOR PURPLE AS HIS EMBLEMATIC COLOR BECAUSE OF THE BOOK HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON (this has been verified) which -- absolutely changes how imma hear Purple Rain from now on idk abt you (PS that is not a white child, fight me)

RE: https://toot.io/@MediaOnMastodon/115691147939633040 Everyone on open social web should be grateful for #flipboard and them being a good actor for the open social web.

When not in use, the Rubio is powered down and placed in a corner.

Here's a fun thing I just learned: If you're a magazine or catalog or other bulk mailer who is willing to add AI-generated content to your mailing, USPS will reward you with a 5% discount—potentially many thousands of dollars! How on earth does this benefit USPS? www.usps.com/business/pro...

I would watch the hell out of duck curling if that became an Winter Olympic sport. #duck #ducks #ice #humor #humour#humor#ice#ducks#duckescription: ducks landing on an icy pond, sliding into one another]

My friend who has amazingly bad luck, like jaw dropping bad, threw her back out yesterday helping her kid (who is sick with flu) out of bed. And broke the bed. This afternoon, an Amazon driver took a wrong turn down her long, steep, twisty driveway, and then got stuck because the real wheel […]

I don't know why I particularly thought of this photo set. Maybe because they seem so real and that's rarely how stars are presented. Candids of the cast arriving at CBS Television City where ALL IN THE FAMILY was taped.

#FDA considering whether 2 place #blackbox warning high #danger label only used 2 flag risk of death severe harm or incapacitation on #covid vaccines. Initiative 2 include warning part of range of efforts by #trump admin health officials to limit access public support for #Covid shots and other […]

Last July, Wilmer Chavarria, a naturalized U.S. citizen who lives in Vermont, was returning from Nicaragua, where he had visited his mother and other relatives, when he was detained by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston for no […]

Since we're discussing the two Brown Students who survived earlier school shootings, Mia Tretta and Zoe Weissman, remember that Kylie Ossege survived the Oxford School shooting and the MSU one, and Owen Robinson survived the MSU school shooting at the FSU one.

A 14-year-old boy has folded origami that can hold 10,000 times its weight. Miles Wu used the Miura-ori fold, which is known for collapsing and expanding with precision. He’d like to use his origami experiments to help improve pop-up emergency shelters, which currently are “sometimes strong,” […]

Jimmy and I decided not to put up a tree this holiday season. Instead, I'm sharing a photo of the magnificent pine tree that grows next to the “Old Barn” (1941) in the Valles Caldera National Preserve near Jemez, New Mexico. #photography #landscape #newmexico