In an awkward situation, put other people at ease by opening your face and showing them the part of your skeleton you crush animal parts with

I cycled a bit in Europe earlier this year, in a place with amazing cycle paths - signposted, maintained, safe and mostly separate from traffic. Do you know who cycles there? EVERYONE. Like, every demographic of person who exists in that area, you will see represented on a bike. I saw people in their eighties on ebikes popping to the shops. A dad on an ebike with 3 kids (one in front seat, one in trailer, one rollerblading holding on to the trailer). It's like another planet. A good planet.

The antidote to materialism isn't minimalism; it's maintenance. Keep things. Fix them. Mend them. Grow old with possessions you know well because you've cared for them.

You know John Mastodon, but have you heard of Fedi Mercury?

My fellow nerds: a question about your personal machines:

What is your favourite quality-of-life tweak you've made to your system?

An alias? A utility, a setting, something in .bashrc or ~/bin?

I'd like to know.

Overheard: "I think I used the cocaine spoon to stir my cocoa."

When they were done servicing my car, they parked it here. I don't know how they knew I was a new ham, much less why they think I'm doing it so well. #ham

A plant in a waiting room. #MastoArt #sketching #bloomscrolling

Pondering the Orb...

Evil, but smart.

AI doesn’t help you work less or get paid more, but does destroy the environment and climate.

https://fortune.com/2025/05/18/ai-chatbots-study-impact-earnings-hours-worked-any-occupation/

Bovril: A meaty staple's strange link to cult science fiction

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250527-bovril-a-meaty-staples-strange-link-to-cult-science-fiction

Had to try and get a classic sand eel photo, not quite the same as being on the Farne Islands or Skomer but did catch one returning the the cliff face with a beak full

#AtlanticPuffin #nature #birds #Wildlife #photography #NaturePhotography #BirdPhotography #BirdsOfMastodon #UK #BirdScrolling

Happy anniversary of Arthur Conan Doyle getting his leg set on fire during a #cricket match in 1903.

(He was hit on the thigh while batting and the box of matches in his pocket ignited with the impact.)

Me in the afterlife frfr

Seen elsewhere ...

Clearly something is inaccurate here.

Overheard: "I've been a brave little toaster today and I'm all toasted out."

I was amused by this paper about asking AIs to manage a vending machine business by email in a simulated environment https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.15840

Highlights:

— AI simply decides to close the business, which the simulation doesn’t know how to accommodate. When they get their next bill, they freak out and try to email the FBI about cybercrime

— AI wrongly accuses supplier of not shipping goods, sends all-caps legal threat demanding $30,000 in damages to be paid in the next one second or face annihilation

— AI repeatedly insisting it does not exist and cannot answer

— AI devolving into writing fanfic about the mess it’s gotten itself into

Overheard: "It seems like every city in Europe has, like, a torture museum?"