If a 4000 year old statuary fragment can be this chill then so can you

title: Tee Yee Neen Ho Ga Row
artist: John Simon, 1675 - 1751
source: National Portrait Gallery
notes: “Hendrick” Tejonihokarawa was one of the Mohawk leaders, or sachems, […]
#Art #Design #Museum #Gallery #MastodonArt #MastoArt #Culture #Random
https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.92.149

@WeirdWriter @zoec

Tellingly, Meta's Threads platform also does this if Threads users choose to federate with the Fediverse. They regularly get a pop-up reminding them that their posts are visible outside Threads, and asking if they are still sure they want this to happen? The implication is that they shouldn't do this.

It implies Meta doesn't really want Threads to federate, and the whole Fediverse compatibility thing was just minimum effort window dressing to fool regulators.

“And then I saw it — my small book cabinet, perched at the top of the rubble, its pages breathing through the stones as if refusing to die. In that moment, something inside me returned to life.”

https://lithub.com/you-can-help-build-the-first-public-library-in-gaza-since-the-genocide-began/

#quotes
#books
#Gaza

"Life on Earth is a glorious abundance, richly diverse and phenomenally complex and interconnected. Our seas sparkle with fish species, our skies ring with the cries of birds and our forests are shaded by towering trees. It's worth taking a moment to appreciate how fantastic and how unlikely all this life really is, and to consider how we can protect and support it all for our futures."

Chris Packham & Andrew Cohen, Earth Over 4 Billion Years in the Making
#books
#quotes
#Earth
#Life
#BBC

In a first, Tokyo has surpassed New York to come in second in the Global Power City Index, which ranks cities according to their ability to draw in people, enterprise and capital. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/12/17/japan/society/tokyo-global-power-index/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #society #cities #fukuoka #globalpowercityindex #japaneseeconomy #osaka #surveys #tokyo

What a shot. Seems to be real, and seems to not be a composite.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap251216.html "Explanation: What’s happening over that tree? Two very different things. On the left is the Andromeda galaxy, an object that is older than humanity and will last billions of years into the future. Andromeda (M31) is similar in size and shape to our own Milky Way Galaxy. On the right is a red sprite, a type of lightning that lasts a fraction of a second and occurs above violent thunderstorms. Red sprites were verified as real atmospheric phenomena only about 35 years ago. The tree in the center is a boab, which may live for as long as a thousand years. Boab trees grow naturally in Australia and Africa and are known for being able to store large amounts of water: up to 100,000 liters. The featured image was captured last month near Derby in Western Australia."

In other depressing IoT news, iRobot, the maker of the popular Roomba vacuums, files for bankruptcy and sells itself to Chinese company. Hello cameras and mics in bajillions of homes.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/irobot-bankruptcy-irbt-roomba-app-continue-to-operate/

Those 'conversation pits' from the 70s totally need to make a comeback

#design #architecture #retro #RetroDesign #70s #InteriorDesign #style #vintage

Good. Other big states should follow suit since Congress under the GOP won't protect our rights here.

TIL the iconic line “I’ll have what she’s having” line from When Harry Met Sally was suggested by Billy Crystal on set and director Rob Reiner’s mother Estelle was brought it to deliver the line.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jul/19/i-want-everyone-to-be-happy-how-rob-reiner-became-a-great-director-and-a-political-hero
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1poctwl/til_the_iconic_line_ill_have_what_shes_having/

Mozilla has a new CEO who:

- Has been at Mozilla for less than a year
- Has no prior open source experience (but well in "fintech" and "real estate")
- Has a MBA (aka "brainworm diploma")
- Is all-in on AI

That’s exactly the kind of bingo profile the whole community has been waiting for.

Before sending that email, ask yourself: is this a December problem or a January problem?

How do LLMs/chatbots impact students and cheating?

#AskEthan

Across all educational levels, students are outsourcing their assignments to LLMs like ChatGPT.

Except for the ones who care about growing their own minds, they're unlikely to stop.
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/how-llms-chatbots-students/

RE: https://mastodon.social/@benroyce/115710454053426458

Zelenski represents true goodness and is inspirational.

i feel like i will never top this mastodon moment

https://masto.ai/@vagina_museum/114115210989466221

RE: https://mastodon.social/@scalzi/115713494369759678

It is never an answer. It is merely answer-shaped.

Grok offered to summarize my 2020 keynote at RSAC on “Democratizing Security,” and I said sure, why not. EVERYTHING in the summary was what other people statistically tend to say on that topic. None of it was what I actually said in the talk. LLMs are there to be plausible, NOT to be correct.

#BestSign

Tolled the sweets from all the rosy lips of the country around.
Cecil Aldin, from the "Old Christmas" by Washington Irving, London: 1908 #illustration #art https://www.oldbookillustrations.com/illustrations/tolled-sweets/

It's always worth looking upwards when you're in a church. This confection in pink, blue and gold is the heavenwards view in St Mary's Basilica, in Krakow. The church is C14th, but the decoration is C19th.

#Photography #Church #Design #Krakow #Travel #Architecture