Bonsai Coding · weblog.masukomi.org:

Writing code is a lot like maintaining a Bonsai Tree. If you stop pruning it it’ll stop being a Bonsai and turn into a bush. Little tweaks, frequently aesthetic ones, will help to keep it beautiful and under control. It will still grow in unexpected directions, as other developers make changes, but careful pruning will keep it balanced, and healthy.

Minnesota Senator: “I’m not a historian of Minnesota, but I do understand that the genocides between white people and Indians included several genocides each way.” | Boing Boing:

His attempt at rewriting history involves blocking SF 2442, a bill that aims to teach middle and high school students about the Holocaust and genocides. Drazkowski doesn't let his self-processed ignorance get in the way of spouting ahistorical "both-sides" nonsense about white settlers dying in genocidal slaughters perpetrated by Native Americans.

"You know — and I grew up in Wisconsin, so I'm not a historian of Minnesota," he said on the senate floor, "but I do understand that the genocides between the white people and the Indians going back included, kind of several genocides each way."

J.K. Rowling Compares Trans People to ‘Harry Potter’ Death Eaters, Spectacularly Misunderstands Own Creation | The Mary Sue:

She went on to say she knew that those speaking against her “believed they were fighting for underdogs and difference and fairness,” but then, in a move that’s simultaneously shocking and not surprising at all, she compared trans people to Death Eaters, the fascist and murderous group of “purebloods” Harry Potter and his friends go up against in her books. When Rowling was asked what she would say to people who claimed she had become just like the villains she wrote about, she answered:

I have no interest in ever revisiting the Harry Potter books, but I’m pretty sure I remember why the Death Eaters were living in secret. It wasn’t because they were part of an oppressed group. It was because they chose to hate and hurt people who they saw as “lesser” and were rightfully punished for it. I definitely remember the Death Eaters’ philosophy wasn’t “you disagree with us, you must die.” It was more along the lines of, “You were born a certain way and because of that we want to terrorize you, cast you out of society and ultimately kill you.”

– via Boing Boing

Sony Group Portal - Gallery | Sony Design | History of Sony Design:

On this page you can see a wide range of products and services created by Sony designers. Please take a look at the history of Sony Design.

One item I’d never seen before is the HB-101, which was actually a pretty sexy looking MSX1 Compatible home computer that never went anywhere.

– via Daring Fireball

Woody Guthrie posthumously teams up with Dropkick Murphys for an anti-Tory anthem | Boing Boing:

The Murphys released their first Guthrie-penned album, This Machine Still Kills Fascists, back in September 2022, with another follow-up, Okemah Rising, due in May. That first collection of songs includes a rollicking union anthem called "All You Fonies." But on the band's recent European tour, the song took on a new life as an anti-Tory anthem. So they just released a new, live recording of the song, reworked as "All You Tories" — once again proving that Woody Guthrie's songs remain painfully relevant.

Solidarity

Ron DeSantis' “Stop Woke” act is stopped by Florida judge: “Positively dystopian” | Boing Boing:

"Our professors are critical to a healthy democracy, and the State of Florida's decision to choose which viewpoints are worthy of illumination and which must remain in the shadows has implications for us all," said Walker. "If our 'priests of democracy' are not allowed to shed light on challenging ideas, then democracy will die in darkness."

As part of Walker’s ruling, he used part of a George Orwell quote from the dystopian classic, 1984, to illustrate Dictator DeSantis’s version of Oceania: “‘It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen,’ and the powers in charge of Florida’s public university system have declared the State has unfettered authority to muzzle its professors in the name of ‘freedom.'"

Ben Stein is sick of “colored” people complaining: they have “every chance at a good life” | Boing Boing:

Stein is a sad reminder that there are still plenty of people in this country who think that racism is a thing of the past, or that it's not really that big of a deal, or that Black people should just "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" if they want to succeed. And they're more than happy to spout off about it in public, because the MAGA party has opened the Overton Window to this kind of willfully ignorant rhetoric.

Sigh.

Anti-woke author struggles to define woke on TV appearance | Boing Boing:

Bethany Mandel, co-author of a book decrying "the current woke indoctrination happening in politics, education, medicine, mental health, entertainment, and culture" struggled to define "woke" when asked to on a recent television appearance to promote her book.

Trump’s Truth Social under investigation for laundering loans connected to Putin | Boing Boing:

"Truth Social," the media venture launched by the notorious Trump family, is being investigated for possible money laundering violations. The company received $8 million in loans from two Caribbean entities suspected to be linked to an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Surprised? I’m certainly not.

Why Is There an Empty Picture Frame in Joe Biden’s Oval Office?:

Fascinating - but the real tidbit I didn’t realize was that President Biden has a bust of Caesar Chavez in the Oval Office…

Daring Fireball: Noam Chomsky: ‘The False Promise of ChatGPT’:

Donald Trump says the Capitol attack is Mike Pence’s fault | Boing Boing:

Donald Trump blamed the Jan. 6 riots on former vice president Mike Pence, saying that the Capitol insurrection could have been avoided if his sidekick would have just helped him overturn the election.

Does it actually surprise anyone Lord Dampnut would blame a victim for not just going along with things? That actually seems pretty on-brand.

Daring Fireball: Reddit Post Seemingly Proves That Samsung’s Galaxy S-Series ‘Moon Photos’ Are Fake, and They’ve Been Blatantly Lying About Them:

Anything Samsung ever claims that seems too good to be true should be assumed to be a blatant lie.

Let me fix that: Anything Samsung ever claims should be assumed to be a blatant lie.

Daring Fireball: Facebook Is Working on a Twitter Competitor Codenamed ‘P92’ That Will Be Interoperable With Mastodon:

No sarcasm intended: I love this idea. Federate with Mastodon via ActivityPub and let people do it using their existing Instagram IDs. Keep it clean and simple and destroy what’s left of Twitter.

I agree - I love this idea. I just hope it holds out longer than facebook messenger federating with XMPP, which I think was the last time I remember a Meta platform interoperating with open protocols.

Meet the ‘Ghost’ Woman Fox Relied on for Voter Fraud Claims:

But the strangest revelation so far from the Dominion Voting Systems case against the cable channel may be the alleged source of the voter-fraud claims that sparked the lawsuit: a single email from a previously unknown woman who was convinced, among other things, that late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was murdered while being hunted for sport.

Wow. Have to read the whole thing to really grasp the crazy.

Topol, star of “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Flash Gordon,” RIP | Boing Boing:

Topol—the mononymous Israeli actor who played Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof" (1971), Dr. Hans Zarkov in "Flash Gordon" (1980), and countless other roles—has died at age 87.

Daring Fireball: ‘Finally’ Indeed:

I hope you’re well-stocked with popcorn, because you’re going to need a lot of it. Dominion Voting Systems, opening its reply brief in support of its motion for a summary judgment against Fox “News” (PDF):

Eddie Izzard announces new name:

“I’m Eddie. There’s another name I’m going to add in as well, which is Suzy, which is what I wanted to be since I was 10,” The Independent quoted Izzard as saying, “I’m going to be Suzy Eddie Izzard.”

• via boingboing

It’s time to take back control of what we read on the internet - The Atlantic:

Crapwalled article, but TL;dr - Use RSS to subscribe to feeds of sites instead of relying on reblogs on social media.

Bad Projection Is Ruining the Movie Theater Experience:

But the picture problems predated COVID-19. Many can be traced to 2009, when theaters swapped their film projectors for digital ones, made primarily by Sony, to show the original Avatar. Studios were excited about the switch because it meant they could save money by distributing movies over the internet instead of mailing around heavy film prints. Theater owners were excited because digital projectors could be programmed to run on their own without human projectionists to start them up and switch reels.

Those projectionists, though, were highly skilled engineers and troubleshooters. Now that multiplexes use automated projection, problems fall to house managers, who, in this age of austerity, may be the same overworked employees ripping tickets and selling popcorn. If an error is serious or demands more than a wiped lens or system reboot, it might have to wait a couple weeks for a visit from a technician — or even longer if nobody complains.

Daring Fireball: CPAC Speaker Michael Knowles Calls for Transgender People to Be ‘Eradicated From Public Life Entirely’:

Keith Olbermann, in a reply to Knowles’s tweet:

You should get the fuck off the stage and apologize, asshole. This statement is your life from here on in.

Shove your hatred and bias and Nazi dreams up your ass, Motherfucker.

Olbermann took the words right out of my mouth. It’s sophistry to argue that transgenerism can be “eradicated from public life entirely” without eradicating transgender people. Eradicate is a Nazi word — one step away from exterminate — and totally means completely, absolutely, entirely. Watch the video. This is Nazism, and the only proper response to Nazis is to punch them.

Daring Fireball: Josh Marshall: ‘The Deep Archeology of Fox News’:

In a broad sense it all comes back to Stephen Colbert’s iconic line from his Colbert Report alter ego: “It is a well known fact that reality has a liberal bias.” U.S. conservatives couldn’t/can’t see that, or refuse to see it, and instead operate on the assumption that all journalism — and science — that points toward liberal conclusions is ideological.

J.K. Rowling’s transphobia: A history - Vox:

J.K. Rowling’s supporters frequently claim the author has never actually said or done anything transphobic. It’s a position you can see on social media, in the pages of the New York Times, and even on a new podcast with Rowling herself.

It’s also an easily debunked lie.

Daring Fireball: Tweetbot and Twitterrific Face the Cliff:

You surely recall that last month, in a fit of pique, Elon Musk spitefully pulled the plug on third-party Twitter clients with no notice whatsoever, in the most chickenshit way imaginable. Twitter didn’t even make it official that third-party clients had been banned until a week of confusion and dread had passed.

I went the route of stopping my Twitterific subscription and deleted the app - I had plenty of value when Twitter allowed it to work, so I felt no need to punish the devs. Linked article covers more detail of what you might want to do and why.

Report: US Pedestrian Death Rate Increased 9x Faster Than Population During COVID – Streetsblog USA:

U.S. drivers killed 3,434 people on foot in the first six months of 2022, an increase of 5 percent over the same period the prior year — and a staggering 18 percent increase over the number of walkers who died in early 2019, the last year before the pandemic, according to the latest fatality estimates from the Governors Highway Safety Association.