Spotted briefly in the garden today: a pair of Warbling White-Eyes pecking around in the blossoms of the plum tree. Clear skies and intense sun today really brought out the luminescent green of their plumage. (No photo of my own, since they're skittish and I don't own a proper camera.) #japan […]

Almost every media outlet this side of Fox has reported @sollenbergerrc.bsky.social's discovery of missing Trump allegation 302s, but most are missing significance. Roger proved they existed by pointing to a discovery inventory Maxwell got. SHE KNOWS what they say. edition.cnn.com/2026/02/24/u...

The SOTU in under 10 minutes: https://youtu.be/93vRM0sR9SQ #uspol

“I heard the officer say ‘that ain’t shit’.” NASHVILLE — ICE shatter a car window in front of a newborn, refuse to look at man’s license & work visa… drag him out of his car, hit him, mock him for being Guatemalan (he’s from Mexico), laugh when he begs to say goodbye.

Apropos some discussion of chatbots and "AI slop" at the tail end of our recent Chubu Famichiki meet-up … this postgrad talk is worth the time. The best layman-accessible account of model collapse that I've come across: https://youtu.be/ShusuVq32hc

A civilized counterpart to "Libs of TikTok" would be "Disgusting Bastards of X". #uspol https://youtu.be/p7ZG_xWYLzI

“So, in conclusion, the Cybertruck is far more dangerous (by volume) than the historic poster child for corporate greed and grossly antagonistic design [the Ford Pinto].” “…I can’t recommend sitting in one.” #tesla #cybertruck fuelarc.com/news-and-fea...

Two of the citrus trees in the back garden will be lost to the カミキリムシ/Longhorn Beetle this year—the shiikuasa and the lime. A lemon may also be under threat. The lime, and if necessary the lemon, will be replaced, but I need to work on controls for this pest. First step is weed clearance under […]

I know we all know that this administration lies frequently and often, but I still think it's the case we in the media haven't quite yet reckoned with official agency spokespeople frequently, systematically and aggressively lying to reporters. DHS another example.

Gorsuch, Barrett, and Kavanaugh are in an ongoing war to be the next Scalia: the Conservative Justices’ Statutory Construction Guru (the CJSCG ©️™️). This position enables the holder to write as if values, including political and ethical ones, are not driving her decisions, nay do not even her […]

Thomas has his own dissent, which I am not dignifying with comment. /12

Feeling more energetic with the warming weather, I've put up a couple of further simple recipes on the blog. (If you're *only* interested in recipes, the targeted RSS feed is https://fgbjr.name/foodstuff/index.xml) #japan #cooking https://fgbjr.name/foodstuff/

Israel has been dumping herbicides throughout southern Lebanon as part of a concerted ecocide campaign to render the region uninhabitable. This has been going on for months with Lebanese journalists & environmentalists regularly reporting on it. The BBC: we don’t know why the Israelis are doing it

i still think the best way to understand what is happening to WaPo is “catch and kill” but instead of a threatening story it’s a threatening institution.

A new word for me: aborning https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aborning

Planning for a multimodal trip to Sado Island this Spring, there are two ferries to choose from: (1) Naoetsu -> Yashima at the southern tip of Sado; or (2) Niigata -> Lake Kamo on the eastern side of the Sado City basin. There are tradeoffs. (1) Is a shorter train trip from Nagoya, but maybe a […]

Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union on Tuesday. Each one of these appearances has been worse than the last. How long before he resorts to speaking in tongues, I wonder. #uspol https://thegodlessliberal.blogspot.com/2026/02/zzzzzz-watch-trump-fall-asleep-at-least.html

I'm unable to get photos, but with all the digging in the garden and the warming weather, birds have begun to take an interest. One visitor today has been persistent enough and cheeky enough to prompt bird-illiterate me to look him up: he's a Daurian Redstart (and definitely a "he," as the […]

Poor man's 衣替え (koromogae, seasonal clothing turnover). #japan #springtime

I'm gonna try to help sustain the herb plot this year with olla. #japan #gardening

Picked up another load of compost this morning. The house rests on a pad of mostly clay fill dirt behind a massive retaining wall. The little herb plot has been filtered, but would turn into a solid block of terracotta without assistance, and the wider plot […] [Original post on indieweb.social]

You know that “stop forcing AI into fucking everything” graphic that went around on here? I bought the t-shirt. I get a lot of compliments on it. The only negative response was from a friend who works for McKinsey. She read out the “everyone hates it” and said, “do they really, though?” as we […]

The garbage/recycle cages are next to the house. Maybe due to turnover in the neighborhood, habits have gotten pretty loose of late, and it's looking pretty ratty out there. We'll start with the basics, and escalate from there. 😀 #japan #garbage #分別ゴミ

Vibe Coding Is Killing Open Source Software, Researchers Argue https://www.404media.co/vibe-coding-is-killing-open-source-software-researchers-argue/

Let us hope that Donald Trump will show proper respect for the services rendered to him by Pam Bondi by burying her on one of his golf courses. #uspol

Another busy day in the end. Tilled and weeded the border along the retaining wall at the back of the property to ready it for transplant of a huge clump of narcissus. Took the cargo bike out to Miki Flower Center, our ginormous local nursery and garden goods […] [Original post on indieweb.social]

Yesterday was wild nonstop work: finished filtering gravel from the soon-to-be herb plot out back; moved the first of two compost containers to a better location away from direct view out the back; did some weeding and watering; did two loads of laundry; fed […] [Original post on indieweb.social]

In incredible news, the European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly for "The Full Recognition Of Trans Women As Women." Even the center-right European People's Party voted for the declaration. It will form a foundation for their position at the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Our latest.

When your teflon begins to fail, you can sneak by with PAM as a stopgap for a time, but in the end full replacement is the only proper solution. #uspol

[USpol, dirty-word humor] "The Dow is over fifty thousand" is the new "Fuck you". #uspol

This one is important. 1. Trump's FBI under Kash Patel scrubbed the names of The Great And The Good from the files before the Transparency Act was passed; 2. Trump's DOJ under Pam Bondi layered on additional slap-dash redactions; 3. The legislators' in-SCIF view of "unredacted" files was of […]

A reminder that the death of Jeffrey Epstein doesn't magically put "the Epstein scandal" in the rear view mirror. It's not about one bloody-minded pervert. It's about whether the population of the United States of America are serious about democracy, or are instead content with the cosplay […]

'237 facilities nationwide.' https://DetentionReports.com/ #uspol #fascism #ice screenshot: https://x.com/ackocher/status/2021619226591531449

I think I've gotten a handle on this one. C Freshly cut spinach fettuccine in white sauce seasoned with laurel, garlic, and consomme. Lunchtime! #cooking #japan

"2 cases of tuberculosis detected at El Paso ICE facility - The Texas Tribune" Concentration camps of earlier eras in both American history and world history killed their occupants with diseases, inadequate sanitation, and overcrowding.

'Disturbing': ICE's own background check investigator busted in sex sting - Raw Story https://www.rawstory.com/ice-minneapolis-2675257484/

A crew are assembling one of these instant modular houses across the street. Here's hoping the gigantic crane they're using for the job doesn't topple, and most especially that it doesn't topple in this direction. #japan #construction

TL:DR; The Salesforce CEO at a company's annual all hands gathering asked international employees to please rise in the audience, then made a "joke" that ICE agents were in the back of the room ready to nab them. Guillotines for billionaires is the moderate choice at this point

Back in my day if a chat service went to shit we'd just delete it and use one of the six other chat programs on our computers that all our mates were spread between, and it really *was* a "just" in that scenario because everyone we talked to also had at least two other chat programs to talk to […]

The lies, non-compliance, delays in compliance - all show the endless bad faith of the Trump regime, from its highest officers to rather low-level ones. It will take decades of reconstruction to return executive branch agencies to abiding by law.

Is it peculiar that Scott Galloway, who (sensibly) encourages hitting the authoritarian oligarchy where it hurts by cancelling subscriptions and purchasing elsewhere, runs his newsletter on Substack? I think it's peculiar. #uspol

Bezos' climate bank also strategically threatens to pull funding whenever recipients step out of line - the science based targets group didn't back down and it found out these threats aren't hollow. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

SpaceX shifts focus from something that it will never do on Mars to something it will never do on the Moon.

This was a first for me (after thirty years in the country): a squat-toilet WC fitted with a sit-down toilet conversion. Makes sense, but it hadn't occurred to me that such a thing would exist. #Toilets #japan

We've hit a low of -3⁰C today here in Nagoya, and I'm still squeaking by without turning on heat in the house; and with warming forecasts ahead it looks like I'll make it through 💪. I remember shivering terribly while dressing on cold days in the past, but that oddly isn't a feature this year […]

Is anyone/does anyone on the fedi know string instrument players ( #cello mainly, but also #violin ) in #london interested in joining a #stringquartet? Alternatively is any almost-quartet looking for a #viola player? Asking for partner :) #music #classicalmusic :boost_requested:

I really hate this fucking guy.

There are many craft materials in the house, and my wife would want them placed with people who will use them, if possible. There are many small things, and I've been struggling with how to proceed. So … I'm signing up for Merucari (https://jp.mercari.com), a flea market app that seems to have […]

' Munitions inventory leaked to me shows Border Patrol is stockpiling over 35,000 weapons in Minneapolis for crowd control.' article: https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/in-ices-war-the-public-is-winning tweet […] [Original post on todon.eu]

I can't wait for the AI bubble to implode. Because I'm desperately curious to know what's in Web 4.0.