Parrot ftw!

@janl You give a good argument there :)

Infrared contact lenses enable vision in the dark and through closed eyelids https://www.nanowerk.com/nanotechnology-news3/newsid=66886.php

#science #physics

It's really cool to see people playing Oquonie more than 10 years after its first release date. The game has changed a lot, for the better.

Thank you to everyone who has purchased the game on Playdate! Hope you enjoy your time in the labyrinthine world @neauoire & I created.

https://100r.co/site/oquonie.html

My pub has a stronger CoC than a lot of mastodon instances.

Jesus fuck, this hit like a tonne of bricks.

from https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-era-of-the-business-idiot/

🇧🇷 Russian "spy factory" operating out of #Brazil has been dismantled by counterintelligence agents who unmasked at least nine operatives living in the country for years under false identities—using it as a launchpad to train novice spies who would then infiltrate the West and elsewhere.

https://www.newsweek.com/russian-spy-factory-brazil-exposed-2075619

#Russia

Great day for fans of stuck boats, as a Cypriot cargo ship has parked itself in somebody's garden in Norway - AND THERE'S LIVE FOOTAGE!

It's actually really relaxing to watch unless, presumably, you're one of the crew...

https://play.adressa.no/video/3018234/direkte-containserskip-pa-grunn-utenfor-byneset

🇪🇺⛔️ A group of MEPs is calling for the full suspension of EU funding to Hungary, reports LRT.

They argue it's unacceptable to support PM Orbán’s “corrupt, pro-Russian regime” that openly undermines EU values — urging an immediate halt to all payments using all available legal tools.

Reposting with alt.

Because I’m quite dim, I didn’t realise exactly what they had done and how extremely clever these women had been. #TransLivesMattter 👏👏👏

The government (and everyone else, frankly) need to stay out of trans people’s underwear. 🏳️‍⚧️

*edit to add the link to the Pink News article: https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/05/17/scottish-parliament-holyrood-trans-protest-supreme-court/

*edit 2 to add a link to an interview with Sugar, who organised and took part in the protest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbA0q0eqYnM (thanks to @anni for sharing this)

GROND (in Amsterdam) is looking for more members! If you want to be part of an interdisciplinary DIY artist collective and space, this might be for you! https://grond.community/join-grond/

More Teri Kanefield:

“People who are pro-democracy should not try to out-fascist the fascists. The fascists will always do fascism better.

“The only way to save democracy is with more democracy. This requires a population that can adhere to facts.”

Oh, hell: you should read the whole article. And the whole series. And definitely, all of what Teri writes.

The Misinformation-Outrage Cycle, Part 1: "There are no Yankees here!" - Teri Kanefield https://terikanefield.com/can-democracy-work-in-america-part-1-there-are-no-yankees-here/

In case you needed a playbook for responding to would-be dictators. From the NYT:

"The funny thing is that there’s a playbook for overturning autocrats. It was written here in America, by a rumpled political scientist I knew named Gene Sharp. While little known in the United States before his death in 2018, he was celebrated abroad, and his tool kit was used by activists in Eastern Europe, in the Middle East and across Asia. His books, emphasizing nonviolent protests that become contagious, have been translated into at least 34 languages."

“I would rather have this book than the nuclear bomb,” a former Lithuanian defense minister once said of Sharp’s writing."

"A soft-spoken scholar working from his Boston apartment, Sharp recommended 198 actions that were often performative, ranging from hunger strikes to sex boycotts to mock funerals."

“Dictators are never as strong as they tell you they are,” he once said, “and people are never as weak as they think they are.”

"The Democrats’ message last year revolved in part around earnest appeals to democratic values, but one of the lessons from anti-authoritarian movements around the world is that such abstract arguments aren’t terribly effective. Rather, three other approaches, drawing on Sharp’s work, seem to work better."

"The first is mockery and humor — preferably salacious."

"Wang Dan, a leader of China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy demonstrations, told me that in China, puns often “resonate more than solemn political slogans.”

"The Chinese internet for a time delighted in grass-mud horses — which may puzzle future zoologists exploring Chinese archives, for there is no such animal. It’s all a bawdy joke: In Chinese, “grass-mud horse” sounds very much like a curse, one so vulgar it would make your screen blush. But on its face it is an innocent homonym about an animal and thus is used to mock China’s censors."

"Shops in China peddled dolls of grass-mud horses (resembling alpacas), and a faux nature documentary described their habits. One Chinese song recounted the epic conflict between grass-mud horses and river crabs — because “river crab” is a play on the Chinese term for censorship. It optimistically declared the horses triumphant."

http://nytimes.com/2025/05/21/opinion/authoritarianism-democracy-protest.html

@kingcons

"The enjoyment of one's tools is an essential ingredient of successful work."

Donald Knuth in "The Art of Computer Programming"

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Donald_Knuth

due to a typo, I have outstanding medical balls

Time for a new variation on a classic.

Alright Fediverse! I’m ready for my next career opportunity and I’m looking to you.

#GetFediHired, you want me on your team.

My background is marketing, PR, and Communications but I’m looking for something new.

My email marketing campaigns tend to generate $10,000–$20,000 in a week. I know how to write damn good copy when I have the right opportunities.

1/4

*sigh* This article essentially boils down to "Which antisocial trait should your product target?" It's a symptom of the state of the tech industry. https://www.aetheronlab.com/post/the-7-deadly-sins-framework-for-startup-and-product-building

#product