@DrEleanorJanega Yay, welcome to our digital peasant commune! We are but poor simple folk but we have no overlord and never will!

The Trump administration's efforts to criminalize opposition to fascism are taking effect overseas. Two banks are shutting down the accounts belonging to Rote Hilfe—a German legal aid organization over a century old—because of Trump designating so-called "Antifa Ost" as a "foreign terrorist organization."

The designation has no equivalent in German law. It's based on a single case with extremely questionable evidence. The German government has not adopted the designation, repeatedly emphasizing that the purely legal construct "Antifa East" poses no significant threat.

Nonetheless, these cowardly German banks are permitting Donald Trump to determine who they work with—despite the fact that the Trump administration has made it clear that not only do they oppose anti-fascism in general, they explicitly consider those who resisted the rise of Hitler to be "terrorists."

https://rote-hilfe.de/meldungen/kontokuendigung-wegen-antifa-banken-vollstrecken-us-politik-deutschland

70s Sci-Fi Art: Ed Emshwiller's Four-Armed Santa Claus
https://70s-sci-fi-art.ghost.io/ed-emshwillers-four-armed-santa-claus/

@nyquildotorg I liked both. I can't really compare them fairly as I've got too much nostalgia for Predator. Make sure you see "Predator: Badlands" if you haven't already, it's great!

Aristotle on Democracy
https://existentialcomics.com/comic/633

Apparenly everyone is doing Spotify Listening Age. Mine is 79.

Sometimes there is no why, only do

Did Regency Women Actually Wear Wet Dresses? Bernadette Banner investigates. Damply.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WP7grAB7C8

Has Starbucks changed their size name thing? I asked for a Tall Cappuccino and she asked me if I wanted Medium or Large in a confused voice. The menu still has Grande and Venti on it. Maybe people only want giant buckets now?

Empire Wreckers: What's the deal with droids? 30 minutes. My mind is blown, but it all makes sense! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTFzGyyVd8U

#ukpol This is really disturbing, judge mysteriously removed from Palestine Action case. It's like Putin and similar regimes: declare dissidents to be terrorists and get tame judges to confirm it.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/nov/25/removal-judge-palestine-action-ban-legal-challenge-justice-chamberlain
https://www.thecanary.co/skwawkbox/2025/11/26/palestine-action-legal-challenge-2/

Today's XKCD and I think I have something in my eye https://xkcd.com/3172/

Recent discussion about the perils of doors in gamedev reminded me of a bug caused by a door in a game you may have heard of called "Half Life 2". Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin.

@Gargron Thank you so much for all you've done! Without Mastodon I would have almost no hope for what's become of the Internet. Best of luck to you in anything you do!

Long Ago, Far Away: The Iliad and the So-Called Epic Cycle After the Canon
https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2025/11/16/long-ago-far-away-the-iliad-and-the-so-called-epic-cycle-after-the-canon/
Interesting article meaningfully comparing the Epic Cycle to Star Wars. (Though I feel classical literature is more like the Transformers universe with its openness to reboots and changes of character and tone)

The work that went into old MGM #musicals was insane: watch as they move whole floors and pianos live to get a oner of Eleanor Powell in "Lady Be Good"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z5FVU34JMI

#ukpol Ian Dunt: The populist assault on the #BBC
https://iandunt.substack.com/p/extra-edition-the-populist-assault

Urgh, this morning. I wish Emma Stone would pop the soap bubble already.

And now, a (very old) hidden message. While examining a Spanish MSX game from 1990 called "Power Magic" I found something interesting.

The loading screen looks "normal" (typical pixel-art originally made on a ZX Spectrum and ported to the MSX).

However, if you remove the colour attribute and show the pixels only, there is a hidden message dedicated to publisher Dinamic.

For non-Spanish speakers, the translated text reads: "BASTARD DINAMIC. THEY DO NOT PAY THEIR FREELANCERS".

A bit late..

Some interesting research from USA - among 13-17 years olds there’s a notable decline in use of corporate social networks such as FB, TikTok etc. Instead they hang around on private Discord groups etc, just like we did on IRC or FidoNet in 1990’s 😄

Burn, Meta, burn…

https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/the-internet-wants-to-be-fragmented-6b5?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=35345&post_id=178230973&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=ih3q6&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email