Vert

Map snapshot depicting the predicted relative anomalousness of surface temperatures from the ECMWF ensemble over the Western U.S. in about a week from now. A a huge region of bright orange and red colors (depicting extremely high warm temperature anomalies) is centered right in the middle of the map, and covers essentially the entire region.

Lots of buzz online about an upcoming major March heatwave for the American SW & California. And in this case, it does indeed appear increasingly likely than an extremely anomalous and even record-breaking heatwave may envelop much of the SW about a week from now.

@pebble.bsky.social!

Feet

A third copper rose! This is a further iteration of the process, this time ensuring that the copper itself was very well cleaned before heating for the patina. I’m incredibly satisfied with the color on this one. Guest appearances by roses 1 and 2.

It’s clearly an intervention for a pool toy that has a stuck shed. After an entire season sitting in the sun, the outer skin of vinyl can be somewhat sun-bleached or damaged, and for well-loved toys that never had a chance to deflate, last year’s layer can, rarely, need careful intervention to shed.

The only version of this song I will honor

Nah, gonna go with a brewing yeast that’s treated me well for fruity flavors, and has a brewing tolerance of up to ~18% ABV. Not trying to go that high, but I want to get it to at least self-sterile levels of alcohol. Not willing to fuss around with bacterial infection, like botulism.

I’ve got about 8.5 pounds of fresh ginger peeled and minced, which I plan to brew with hibiscus… but I can’t decide if I want to make two gallons of ginger hibiscus mead, or one each of a mead and a cider. Maybe just the mead now, and later a cider?

*digs through the box of Medicine-Stuff under the sink for the neti pot*

Not gonna say I’m rolling 1’s across the board today, but I’m sure as hell losing skill checks and saving throws today, and I haven’t even been awake for two hours, jeez.

We won’t, unless shaming is something you *want*, in which case it shall be dispensed with discretion.

Need a little chaotic gift? Stealth one of these at a friend’s place. Find a random metal surface, stick it on, and wait patiently for the confused “WTF?” message months later.

♫ These boots stomped Stephen Hawking
And trampled Kanye too
Now be a pet
And lay on down
So I can walk on you ♫

The alternatives in the rhyming scheme were “Gaga” or “Gandhi” instead of “Kanye”, or maybe just “And Pocahontas too”, but there comes a point where it’s already silly enough.

The next time I decide to pick up a brand-new skill, say for example video editing, on unknown software, and kludge together Baby’s First Video Slideshow at 10pm the night before it’s due, please remind me that technically accomplishing the task is not the same as doing so well, or wisely.

Just gonna leave this specifically-timed video link here for a no reason, wholly unrelated, total non-sequitur:

youtube.com/watch?v=tlqC...

Big this.
In fact, given that we know dear leader feeds off of ratings, one of the small things we can do tonight within each of our own control is to take back our attention and focus on other things.
If you don’t need to be watching it, you can read about it afterwards, that’s my plan.

Do either of them export to a video format?

Oops, I need to make a quick slideshow video documenting the construction process of one of my pendants. Any recommendations for easy-to-use programs? Ideally, taking some jpegs, setting time on screen, and basic transitions to the next slide.

The political effects of X’s feed algorithm - Nature Among users initially on a chronological feed, 7 weeks of exposure to X’s algorithmic feed in 2023 shifted political attitudes and account-following behaviour in a more conservative direction compared...

Brainwashing, 2026 edition. This paper shows how X's algorithmic feed shifts people's views rightwards. It's a sophisticated, highly effective form of reorientation. And it is utterly chilling.
If you're still on that platform, unhook yourself now.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Pebble: “Pretty sure I have a 70 Felching level on RuneScape.”
Vert: “Um….”

Thank you! It’s neat to learn more about this material, and to improve these roses

I made a second copper rose! This one was a change in process, with each row of petals starting as a circle cut into five petals and joined in the center. Took a couple attempts, but I patinated it in pink using the borax Niiro method. Rose 1 on the left; newest, pink copper rose on right.

The political effects of X's feed algorithm https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10098-2 Received: 16 December 2024 Accepted: 4 January 2026 Published online: 18 February 2026 Open access • Check for updates Germain Gauthier,5, Roland Hodler?5, Philine Widmer35 & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya3,4,5 m Feed algorithms are widely suspected to influence political attitudes. However, previous evidence from switching off the algorithm on Meta platforms found no political effects'. Here we present results from a 2023 field experiment on Elon Musk's platform X shedding light on this puzzle. We assigned active US-based users randomly to either an algorithmic or a chronological feed for 7 weeks, measuring political attitudes and online behaviour. Switching from a chronological to an algorithmic feed increased engagement and shifted political opinion towards more conservative positions, particularly regarding policy priorities, perceptions of criminal investigations into Donald Trump and views on the war in Ukraine. In contrast, switching from the algorithmic to the chronological feed had no comparable effects. Neither switching the algorithm on nor switching it off significantly affected affective polarization or self-reported partisanship. To investigate the mechanism, we analysed users' feed content and behaviour. We found that the algorithm promotes conservative content and demotes posts by traditional media. Exposure to algorithmic content leads users to follow conservative political activist accounts, which they continue to follow even after switching off the algorithm, helping explain the asymmetry in effects. These results suggest that initial exposure to X's algorithm has persistent effects on users' current political attitudes and account-following behaviour, even in the absence of a detectable effect on partisanship.

A new paper shows that less than 2 months of exposure to Twitter’s algorithmic feed significantly shifts people’s political views to the right.

Moving from chronological feed to the algorithmic feed also increases engagement.

This is one of the most concerning papers I’ve read in awhile.

A rollercoaster of a ride:

*reading the post*
“…and I’m resisting the urge to-“ (oh god is Freeze gonna put it down his ure-) “-put it up my butt-“ (oh phew-WAIT NO those are SHARP!) “-and see the temperature gradient of my insides.” (ok but that’d be interesting-NO! BAD! SHARP!)

Let us duet while we learn our scales

I think it starts by blowing raspberries into the mouthpiece…?

Our institutions are not hollow. If they were hollow we could crawl inside them, fill them with life - change their direction - call them our own. But our institutions are not hollow. Our institutions are not hollow. Yet.

A crab walks in