So I see that while I was taking a break from the news and social media, freedom of speech died in the US at the hands of corporations preemptively complying with the perceived wishes of the Dear Leader. It was no doubt just a matter of time, but the <sarcasm>clever</sarcasm> assassin helped […]

Did Ben & Jerry seriously believe they could sell out to a massive, soulless corporation and still be allowed to speak up on social and political issues?

Breaking my social media silence to look for a #transgender #Japanese-to-English #translator who would be interested in #translating a rather famous #manga featuring transgender characters. I will help, but N1 or an equivalent level in #japanese#translator#translating#manga a must. Writing experience is a big plus […]

I think I need to take a break from both the news and Mastodon (my only social media account). It’s all just too much right now. I’ll be back in a few days.

Yikes. My ten-year-old daughter is suddenly into “L.O.L.” again. I don’t hate the dolls, but the movies promote the most shallow consumerism.😩

I’ve decided that the problem with American liberal cities’ and their approach to homelessness is, they decided homelessness isn’t the problem but homeless people are. Way to go.

Does anyone else feel angry when a site that you support gives you a “We see you are using an adblocker; please turn it off to support us” message, yet when you turn off the ad blocker, you get the same message, because it turns out what they really want is to let their advertisers track you […]

Check out the way Marco Rubio’s face has changed. It’s like he’s rotting from inside. Any principles he may have had in the past have evaporated and all he has left is a sad desire to cling to some scrap of power. He is hollow.

Did you ever look at a toot and think, “Something tells me there’s going to be some fun alt-text in this image”?

I'm missing a pen and my first thought was “oh, I'll just ctrl + f for it”

Setting aside obvious moral issues, as a matter of resistance strategy, assassination of fascist influencers who don’t actually pull any levers of power is incredibly stupid. It literally helps the fascists. Fucking moron can rot in prison for the rest of his life for all I care.

A friend learned in a shocking way that her ten year old son is dangerously allergic to dogs, and she has not immediately removed the dog from the house!? Oh, wait, literally as I was typing that, she messaged me that she was thinking she would have to separate the boy and the dog. (Yes!?) […]

I’m especially prickly about dimsum because I think that great dimsum is one of the most skillful, joyful experiences. There are different levels of dimsum and you’re allowed to enjoy it. But white people who pretend they know dimsum by claiming that only the fast food version of it is real […]

Very annoyed by people saying ‘take your family to wing lee for real Chinese food’ That’s like me saying I want to expose my parents to real American food at the Cheesecake Factory Well maybe that’s why

The American take on homelessness just confounds me. You don’t have a home, so let me do everything I can to make sure you won’t ever have a home.

Today I learned that there are anti drug vigilantes who are going around San Francisco spraying random homeless people with Narcan. Even if they’re not OD-ing. They’re just asleep. This is so unfashionably cruel. The dehumanization of entire groups of people occurs even among people who […]

A friend told me he felt an increased understanding of autism in India after Indian aunties started watching Extraordinary Attorney Woo dubbed in Hindi. I have some issues with some of it but I have to say it has contributed to a significant conversation about autism in Asia

The Secret Adversary is the worst book by Agatha Christie I have ever read, by a long shot. I figured out who the baddie was the very first time they spoke. The attempt to divert attention to a red herring was ham-fisted and entirely unconvincing, because so much of the book proved beyond the […]

I’ll keep posting this until I find a great person to come be my manager: the Monterey bay aquarium is looking for its next VP of Technology! […]

Are there any Oxford Reading Tree books below Level 6 that aren’t dull as ditchwater? These are almost as bad as Dick and Jane.

So I guess congratulations to the dude who killed Kirk and thereby turned him into a martyr whose despicable words and actions have been whitewashed to the point that Kirk’s praises are being sung throughout the land by Democrats and Republicans alike. Real great contribution to the Cause, you […]

There has been a rush among centrists like Gavin Newsom and Ezra Klein to brush over the hateful life of Charlie Kirk and valorize the man. Let me be clear, killing Charlie Kirk was wrong and abhorrent. We must condemn murder without sanitizing a man who built his empire on hate. My latest piece.

Not that I care deeply about the problem, but I will never understand the psychology of people who shoplift despite having more than enough money to just buy the damn thing. I understand desperate people shoplifting, and teens because teens, but a 70-year-old living comfortably shoplifting for […]

Kamala Harris was really put into an untenable position. The powers that be decided to let Biden run for reelection despite it being obvious early on that he would almost certainly lose. Then she was called in at the last minute to take his place, but since she was still VP, she couldn’t […]

Everything that is needed in the leadership of a serious opposition party in the U.S. right now is the very opposite of what the current leaders have believed for at 45 years is needed. It’s a goofy analogy, but it’s as if they’ve been driving a train on rails for half a century, but suddenly […]

On BS jobs: "My friends from university are scattered across London's glass towers, and virtually none of them believe their job title describes anything real. They're "Growth Hackers" who've never hacked anything, "Digital Transformation Leads" transforming nothing, "Innovation Managers" […]

Everyone wins! #alttext #accessibility

Is reverse image search broken? It seems like when I try to do a reverse image search these days, the results are all just solid colors in a certain shade. Some images return only green or blue solid colors, some return only red or brown, but none of them are actually images of things or people […]

So the U.K. under #starmer would rather put half the population behind bars than lift a finger to end #genocide, or even acknowledging genocide. #ukpol

I think centrists are often waiting for permission from someone they believe holds a position of authority before they do anything. So I sincerely hope Ezra Klein’s appeal to elected Dems today gives them the permission they need to actually start fighting back against Trump.

Finally, FINALLY watched Barbie last night. Even though my wife at first rolled her eyes at the choice. It was an absolute hoot. My fellow men: If you haven’t watched it yet, go fix that. It’s on Netflix.

Looking for Ph.D. programs in Japan, on behalf of a student, that include a focus on gender, and found a gender research center that seemed promising. Until I looked at the list of affiliated researchers. Full professors of course are listed first. Half are men, and none of those men have ever […]

#uspol Can you imagine how Republicans and Fox News would have reacted if Obama or Biden had pulled this “Apocalypse Now” stuff? They are far past the point of no return. Completely off the rails.

“Sinestral Snail” would be a good name for a band. https://apnews.com/article/ned-left-coiled-snail-new-zealand-5ffbac35db3bbab99966464b12ab39a8

I’ve started reading Agatha Christie’s The Secret Adversary and it’s hard to believe this is the same author who created Poirot and Miss Marple. She seems to have been aiming for something very lowbrow, which she presumably thought would sell well, but Tuppence and Tommy are just annoying and […]

Really basic #ubuntu #linux question: is it possible to do a clean reinstall of Ubuntu while leaving non-system files (documents) in place?

“Andor” sets such a high bar for a small-screen sci-fi series, everything else looks corny by contrast. #andor #starwars #scifi

I know this is the most boring thing to say, but it drives me crazy when people write “a person that” rather than “a person who.” To me it’s the simplest concept in the world: “who” for human beings, “that” for other things. I have given up on getting people to stop using “enormity” to mean […]

なんで日本人はヨーロッパお土産にリコリスを買ってくるんだろう。リコリス好きな日本人滅多にいないのに。ジョークのつもりかしら？買ってくる本人は数少ないリコリス好きな日本人だろうか？昨日久しぶりにイタリア在住の知り合いが京都に来て、私たちにGolia社のリコリスを買ってきてくれたけど、この家でリコリスを食べるのは私だけ。そんな私ですら、味が強くて苦いヨーロッパ風のリコリスをあまり好まない。 リコリスに対して免疫のない人が初めて食べた時の反応を見て面白がっているかもしれないけど、ほとんど捨てられてしまうリコリスが勿体無い。好きな人に食べさせようよ。

Would love to see both Trump and Clinton humiliated by the Epstein files. I hate them both.

I just got a follow request from an account that is literally nothing but memes that lack #alttext. Sorry, but regardless of your political opinions, we are not going to get along if you think meme activism is actually meaningful activism, and if you think Blind and other visually impaired […]

Surprisingly little chat on here about Baldur’s Gate 3. Do people on Mastodon just not talk much about specific games? I kind of thought #BG3 was the hottest game of the decade.

#BG3 Dame Aylin’s hairdo was all the rage among Faerun’s goths a century ago.

One thing I have always found striking, and it’s probably true of all dictators (wannabe or otherwise), is that it’s obvious that the people who are closest to Trump, his innermost circle, hate him more than you and I ever will. A possible exception is Steven Cheung, who is the most loyal Mini […]

OK, preaching to the choir here, but… Our brains and bodies are simply not wired to handle the 24/7 horrors going on in the world right now. I am not going to judge you based on how much you do or don’t talk about current events here. Because I do know that the folks I follow here - they care […]

There are currently a couple of astronomy flavoured job opportunities in my neck of the woods. Head of Programs at Australian Astronomical Optics (AAO), Macquarie University. This person will oversee our program of (mostly) astronomical instrumentation projects, & lead the project management […]

I know I’m not the only woman on the internet who second guesses herself or feels guilty about publicly calling out mansplaining by “nice guys,” but, dammit, I shouldn’t have to. It’s 2025, gentlemen. Surely you have gotten the memo by now. We are sick of it, yet a good many of you seem […]

Every time I see an even moderately popular post from a woman the replies include men providing recommended reading.. I think this just became a blockable offence for me tbh

One of the things I find most striking about COINTELPRO is that when these kinds of people are allowed to operate with fewer guardrails they just get really sloppy. They fall for magical thinking. They pursue impossibilities.

We are in a period in history that, if there is more history after the now, will provide future historians with a slow drip of COINTELPRO-like horrors to expose and discover for decades to come. For every disgusting policy out on the open there are dozens happening in secret. It will take […]