Roses are red
And can go on for miles
Wikipedia has a

I'm like "why am I writing about 'gauge'?" and it's cuz I used it in the previous post right next to another word with a nonce spelling.

"People", where /i/ is spelled "eo", is (again, I think) the only word featuring that pairing.

The word "gauge" is one of those words in English which is (I think) the only example of its peculiar spelling (eɪ spelled "au" with lengthening final "e").

It also turns out to have a mysterious etymology, as yet untraced beyond the previous millennium:

https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1059195627

https://www.etymonline.com/word/gauge

I guess I don't think the Reich will strip Ilhan Omar of her citizenship this year. I think this is (a) an attempt to fire up the base for the mid-terms, (b) an attempt to gauge people's reaction, or (c) both.

But they might do it in a few years. And if they deport her, they will seek to drone her to death within weeks if she doesn't make her way to a country USA can't realistically drone (Russia/China).

He's actually pretty skilled at physical comedy.

So yeah he looks enough like Brad Pitt to us that we've taken to calling him "Dad Pitt".

When tv gets bad we sometimes fall back on "M*A*S*H". There's a recurring character played by an actor who bears an uncanny resemblance to one of today's most famous thespians. His name is Edward Winter. See if it strikes you the same way. Spoiler in next toot.

https://noai.duckduckgo.com/?q=edward+winter+mash&ia=images&iax=images

Excerpt: "When small American communities say no to big data centers, they often find tech companies won’t take no for an answer.

"That’s what happened in the tiny #Michigan #farming community of #SalineTownship last year, when the township board chose not to make 575 acres of #farmland available for industrial use. The developer responded with a lawsuit.

"Faced with an expensive legal battle and uncertain odds in court, civic leaders in the community of fewer than 3,000 residents felt they had little choice but to settle the lawsuit and make way for a $43 billion project by Oracle and OpenAI.

" 'None of us up here wanted this thing,' township Trustee Dean Marion said at the time. 'We still hate it.'

"Many residents were furious, concerned the project would change Saline’s rural character and distressed about the loss of the township’s control over its own future. But their elected representatives said they saw little recourse.

“ 'We were read the facts of what could happen. This township does not have the money to fight these big companies,' Marion said. 'We were dealt the cards we were dealt, and we felt our hands were tied.'

"Similar battles have played out in various ways across the country as #datacenters have proliferated and #ArtificialIntelligence has boomed. Because data centers need lots of land and electricity, and the new hyperscale AI data centers need much more of each, they often target #rural communities. Local officials are often overwhelmed and outmatched.

"Reporters in newsrooms across five states teamed up to examine the tactics developers are using to overcome growing local opposition in small-town America.

"We found:

• Soft targets. Increasingly, data centers find themselves unwelcome in small communities. But they have found ways to capitalize on zoning rules that date back decades or move into places like rural #Alabama, where there are no zoning rules at all and no mechanism for local residents to constrain the industry.

• Tempting payouts. Developers are experimenting with new and bolder tactics to win support in small towns. One developer offered $10,000 to every household in a #Pennsylvania township to overcome local opposition.

• Legal pressure. When blocked, developers will use #LegalThreats and lawsuits to try to force the door open. That’s what happened in at least four communities in #NewJersey, where developers are suing after local governments moved to exclude them.

• Unusual secrecy. Data center developers rely on #secrecy to hide their intention, leaving local officials in places like rural Michigan’s #LenoxTownship to bear the brunt of public outrage and anger. Elsewhere in Michigan, officials say nondisclosure agreements are preventing them from telling their own citizens what data centers have planned in their communities. In another case, a small city sued The Oregonian newspaper in an unsuccessful effort to keep details of #Google ’s water use secret.

" 'It doesn’t have to be this way. The companies could come in a very straightforward way, build in as much as they can to alleviate the public concerns,' said Janet McCabe, an Indiana University professor and former environmental regulator at state and federal agencies.

"Unlike traditional development deals, which residents often embrace, she said tech companies seem to prioritize their own interests over those of the places where they operate.

" 'It’s often not the case that business comes in,' McCabe said, 'and wants to approach communities that way.' "

Read more:
https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/business/2026/10/outmaneuvered-outmatched-and-outspent-how-data-centers-are-overwhelming-small-town-america.html

#SmallTowns #AISucks #AIDatacenters #Farmland #AIDatacenters #NoDatacentres #NoAI #NoisePollution #WaterIsLife #AirPollution #LightPollution #Hyperscale #LandIsLife #EnergyWaste #TechBros #Lies

@enfys I visited it by rav4 on my Welsh castlebagging trip and stopped at the train station to get the requisite photos of me pointing at the station name plaque before heading up to Biwmares. Would like to get to Wales again soon for some more castles, which reminds me that my Cadw membership is up for renewal soon.

For those interested in the pronunciation, here is your stupid human trick of the day.

https://youtu.be/fHxO0UdpoxM?is=87y3MPlgLE7WQ7Oa

One of my favourite things about trains in wales:
The ticket machines have a dedicated "LLAN" button on the destination input

TODAY @xankarn @tante @mhoye have contributed 3 threads that are important to the development of an #antifa praxis for not just #FLOSS but the whole #tech industry:

xankarn on how Jim Crow and Hitler ―and the #STEM ways USA inspired the development of #fascism
https://mastodon.online/@xankarn/117445036973859973

tante on how #AIslop is used to build separate and unequal wall around the #Linux #kernel
https://tldr.nettime.org/@tante/117444990857312231

mhoye on the way out of separate & unequal in tech
https://cosocial.ca/@mhoye/117439272746491687

thanks to them all.

a tumblr post for you

Golden-crowned kinglets!! Making their sweet, high-pitched calls in the trees outside my bedroom window. #birdcallout

RE: https://mastodon.online/@xankarn/117445036973859973

boosted this whole thread because it’s an aspect of WW2 that is NOT taught in USA; nor mentioned in pop culture “wartainment”.

also, no coincidence we know little about FDR’s #VPOTUS, Henry Wallace. he was from the midwestern landed gentry, not the capitalist Four Hundred like FDR. Wallace had a vantage point, like no other, on who was funding & supporting Eu fascists when he called them out.

Henry Wallace is still the only #antifa VPOTUS; and why he was muscled out for Harry Truman.

The vivid memory of gripping the chunky pencil in the whole fist & forming uncertain but big letters answering “EXASPERATING” to the second time I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up.

RE: https://infosec.exchange/@ScottHelme/117438540873635533

I’ve read the rebuttal and I think passkeys are a trap because my experience with them, not because of any of the arguments here. It’s really simple. I have my passkeys in 1Password because they need to be on 3 computers and 3 mobile devices.

Recently 1Password went fash so I’d like to leave. Exporting passkeys turns out to be the worst kind of impossible. It can’t be done, AND realising that was a two-day research hole.

THAT’S the trap I’m concerned with.

If you’re Black in the Americas and tried to trace down your ancestry, you eventually hit the slavery wall, where it becomes impossible to go back any further. This release is going to useful for a lot of people, and me directly.

https://mastodon.social/@audubonballroon/117434378397137445

🧻 OpenAI engineer charged after boardroom bug found wrapped in toilet paper

｢ He is accused of installing, on or around September 28, 2026, a Seeed XIAO ESP32-S3 Sense recording device via a USB port in a TV located in OpenAI's executive conference room.

According to the complaint, staff discovered the device concealed in toilet paper on September 30 ｣

https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/10/14/openai-engineer-charged-after-boardroom-bug-found-wrapped-in-toilet-paper/5303000

#openai #ai #espionage

I mean it's reasonable to assume Thiel's henchman is lying about this, but to what end?

Wut level of Schadenfreude is one... um...

https://www.theregister.com/ai-and-ml/2026/10/14/researchers-cig-nal-their-faith-in-ai-by-taking-up-smoking/5303118