Careful not to mention trans folks…

😮‍💨 🚁 ☢️ 🫢

The Guardian claims that there are some redacted documents that can un-redacted by copying the text and pasting it into another window. Also, in other documents, photoshop can be used to enhance features of the redacted portions of text to reveal potential characters being covered.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/23/epstein-unredacted-files-social-media

Back when usb was first appearing on boards, some cases had their usb port cables broken out into individual pins that you needed to place in the correct order.

The entity is absolutely, deliberately manipulating Carol through social isolation. The collective knows what social isolation does to people; there’s a million or so therapists it can draw that info from. There are also many ways to perhaps combat it that they could be offering to Carol, but they aren’t doing that. The entity has its own agenda, likely a set of Asimov-esque rules of robotics, serving a primary goal of propagation (with most of the human race out building satellites and radio antennas powered by solar to blast the signal further).

Traveling logistics. For the entity to be able to deliver items to Carol while she is on the road so quickly, I imagine there’s a fleet of cargo trucks following her around, just a few miles behind her (beyond her view), with delivery drones ready to fetch and deliver whatever she asks for.

You think this show is slow? There is a big difference between a series that is paced with deliberation to cultivate a tone and establish character motivation… and a series that is just insufferably drawn out. I remember Serial Experiments Lain. Pluribus is fine.

As a reminder:

Angel, previously Angel Studios, previously VidAngel, was founded by Latter-Day Saint family (Mormon) members to produce content that was suitable to show their kids. They later made a business out of editing Hollywood films to allow viewers to skip or mute scenes they found objectionable (without the consent of the rights-holders), and got their pants sued off for it.

After a series of mergers, it’s now a publicly traded company worth over $1.5 billion and continues to produce content that aligns heavily with religious and faith-based causes.

Inflation is real. Revenue milestones mean nothing.

For fuck’s sake people…

Here’s the ad: https://www.adforum.com/creative-work/ad/player/34728882/its-the-most-terrible-time-of-the-year/mcdonalds

It was the migration from cooking demonstrations to celebrity presence content (Babsih tries every X, Babish ranks every Y).

Cooking demos keep the focus on the food; techniques, presentation, and results. Plus having an entertaining and charismatic host.

Now those videos lean on the now-recognizable host being entertaining and charismatic, and doing… whatever. And it kind of makes sense in a marketplace-y sort of way. I can watch anybody cook, but Babish has the corner on Babish content, so why not lean into that? Also I’m sure the guy gets tired of making the same content over and over again, so he’s trying to find something interesting that catches on.

I see Nat from Nats What I Reckon doing the same thing. And good on them for trying new stuff.

Let me be as clear as I can be.

Trump, a figure visibly and egregiously unfit for the role of leading the nation, was elected by Americans, twice, fair and square by the rules we’ve set for ourselves. But he’s just a figurehead.

Press “freedom” has been hacked by monied interests to capture the minds of a vast margin of the American voting public and brainwash them into distrusting any media but their own, which has taught them to believe lies, parrot talking points and armed them with thought-collapsing rhetoric to disrupt anyone who might help unfuck their poisoned brains. All this has been going on for decades, but the internet really just helped tie it all together, providing the perfect echo chamber that no one ever has to leave.

The net result is a captured government focused on destroying their greatest weakness: agents and sources of truth. Massive media consolidation destroys the national news-gathering apparatus and controls the entertainment diet to restrict subversive content, and the implosion of the department of education ensures more and more future adults will grow up never having had the benefit of a robust education.

So are we fucked? Maybe. But bumping off politicians isn’t the answer.

Yeah, I can think of a hundred reasons why that would be a bad idea. Then again, I’m really tired of these 2.5+ hr movies with no break.

The intermission during The Brutalist was such a treat.

Theaters can survive… but they’ll need to change.

1. Fuck off with the pre-roll ads. Abusing a captive audience that literally paid to be there was a shitty move in the first place, but now that people have the easy option of staying home, it’s not something that can be afforded any longer.

2. Fewer screens. The multiplex isn’t the future. Movie houses with 1-3 screens will be the ones to survive.

3. Accommodate breaks. Construct auditoriums that allow people to get a toilet break without missing the show – integrate bathrooms into auditoriums, innovate with quiet/silent plumbing & ventilation, and pump the movie audio into the bathrooms. Controversial take: experiment with inserting intermissions.

4. Lean heavily into multi-use. Theater owners should strive to integrate live sports, television premieres & finales and live performances (drama, music, etc) into their venue’s event calendar.

It certainly is driving me crazy that Carol isn’t asking for them to shorten their voice mail message when she’s clearly annoyed by it.

For context on the remarkableness of this outcome…

Solomon “Sol” Wachtler (born April 29, 1930) is an American former jurist, Republican politician, attorney, and author from the state of New York. He served as Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals from 1985 to 1992. Wachtler’s most famous quote, made shortly after his appointment as Chief Judge, is that district attorneys could get grand juries to “indict a ham sandwich”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_Wachtler

• Speed Racer (2008)
• Gravity (2013)
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1969)
• The Fall (2006)
• Akira (1988)
• The Last Circus (2010)
• Children of the Sea (2019)
• The Holy Mountain (1973)
• Sorcerer (1977)
• Shoot 'Em Up (2007)
• Dark City (1998)
• Oklahoma! (1955, the ToddAO version)
• Fall (2022)
• What Dreams May Come (1998)

This is a legit issue of national digital sovereignty.

Likewise, it’s been similar to the idea I’ve had of having every US state run its own official mastodon instance: host data and provide updates/messages, be a reliable data source, but offer minimal services of your own. Be as read-only as possible architecturally. Ensure that you control your platform’s data source.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Washington,_D.C.,_National_Guard_shooting

On November 26, 2025, two members of the West Virginia National Guard who were participating in the deployment of federal law enforcement and National Guard forces were shot near the Farragut West metro station in Washington, D.C., United States, two blocks away from the White House. One of the service members was killed, and a male suspect was critically wounded.

The suspect was later identified as an Afghan national who had previously received paramilitary training and support from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Afghanistan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Washington,_D.C.,_National_Guard_shooting

On November 26, 2025, two members of the West Virginia National Guard who were participating in the deployment of federal law enforcement and National Guard forces were shot near the Farragut West metro station in Washington, D.C., United States, two blocks away from the White House. One of the service members was killed, and a male suspect was critically wounded.

The suspect was later identified as an Afghan national who had previously received paramilitary training and support from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Afghanistan.

Don’t threaten me with a good time.

Season 2, episode 1, Be Right Back.