"Because there is no better partner for an oxygen-rich atmosphere than a naked flame!" (Apollo 1 used 100% oxygen, which was ... bad. Reduced to 60% in subsequent missions.)

Sure. Now they're in our backyard we care. When they were in Venezuela where people were drinking salt water, or Chile which is experiencing a megadrought... If AI really does give us a $200bn productivity boost, the Global South will be paying for it. Again. Data is the new colonialism!

Sure. Here's a pair

Fun fact: it is believed that pressures in excess of 400Gpa (~4 million times atmospheric pressure) are required to create metallic hydrogen. Attempts to do it have used diamond anvil cells, but the diamonds don't survive and claimed "successes" have not been reproduced. Go, Jupiter!🎉

Former Patent Examiner Takes IP Australia to Federal Court Over Alleged ‘Abusive Management Practices’ Former IP Australia examiner seeks Federal Court review of Fair Work decisions, alleging quality assurance procedures violated his authority.

Former #patent #examiner sues IP Australia over "abusive management practices", claiming quality control violated his decision-making authority. Now heading to Federal Court after Fair Work dismissal. 🏛️⚖️ #auslaw #IPAustralia #fairwork blog.patentology.com.au/2025/06/form...

Fake ICE agents kidnapping undocumented people for organ harvesting was literally the plot of a recent episode of FBI: Most Wanted. I was surprised that the storyline was so current. Don't they have to write the scripts and film scenes months in advance?

Uh-huh uh-huh

OK, but odd that the hotel isn't named, and that the story is illustrated with a photo of Shinjuku, Tokyo.

Baba O'Riley

Yes, Biden Spent Millions on Transgender Animal Experiments Last night, President Donald J. Trump highlighted many of the egregious examples of waste, fraud, and abuse funded by American taxpayers, including $8

The entire administration is like this, e.g. "The Fake News losers at CNN immediately tried to fact check it, but President Trump was right (as usual)" from the official White House site: www.whitehouse.gov/articles/202.... The US is being run by children.

Well, by most measures 15% is a pretty big margin. Unless, of course, it's actually down from 37% less than six months ago. But 🍊🤡 isn't going to want to talk about that.

I've been updating claude.ai (3.7 Sonnet) on what's been happening in the US since its knowledge cutoff (October 2024). I had to tell it to assume that what I am telling it is true, but it seems pretty concerned!

I think he believes that if humans can drive using just eyes and a brain then an autonomous car should need only visual sensors and AI. Presumably if we were bats it would've been OK to keep the ultrasonic sonar as well!

That was an early indication that the mask was slipping. The final straw for me was when he insisted that all non-visual sensors be removed from Tesla vehicles. That is a terrible engineering 'solution' that proves once and for all that musk does not understand engineering.

DeepSeek's Pro-China Bias is Superficial: Revealing the Power of Local AI Deployment Discover how easily DeepSeek's pro-China bias can be bypassed through local deployment and simple prompt engineering.

Just published: #DeepSeek #AI's pro-China bias? Easily bypassed! 🧠 I ran DeepSeek-14B locally and found its political restrictions are just superficial guardrails.
With the right system prompt, it delivers balanced responses on Tiananmen Square and Xinjiang! blog.patentology.com.au/2025/02/deep...

Unless you count "not wanting to feel like worthless shit all the time" as an "addiction". If it were up to me, I'd send all of those annoying people who are "high on life" to some sort of rehab.

Screen shot from Google Maps showing body of water named "Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)"

This is what Australian (all non-US?) users now see in Google Maps #GulfOfMexico

Hello Kitty Shinkansen: The Cutest Bullet Train (2025 Update) | JRailPass The Hello Kitty-themed bullet train is included with the JR Pass! Check its route, 2025 timetable and adorable features and ride the cutest Shinkansen!

Ooh, fun! I love Japan (and its trains), though tourists (including Australians) have kind of ruined Kyoto in recent years. Are you going to be travelling on the Hello Kitty Shinkansen as well? www.jrailpass.com/blog/hello-k...

Yes, and they're excellent with maple syrup.

Don't forget that SCOTUS has ruled that the President has immunity from criminal prosecution for acts conducted under his core constitutional authority as president and presumptive immunity for all official acts. Makes you wonder - *so what* if all this is illegal? What's the consequence?

Patent Applicants 2024– China Outfiles Australian Residents While LG Maintains Individual Lead China surpasses Australia in 2024 patent filings, LG Electronics leads companies, as healthcare sector shows strongest growth.

Australian patent filings 2024: China surpasses Australia! Healthcare innovation booming 🏥, LG Electronics dominates filings 📱, and tobacco companies still trying to look innovative 🤔. Full analysis here: blog.patentology.com.au/2025/02/pate... #patents #IP #innovation #auslaw

First they came for USAID, and we did nothing because it wasn't a hill we were prepared to die on.
Then they came for the FBI, and we did nothing because it wasn't a hill we were prepared to die on.
Then they came for Congress, and we did nothing because we were in handcuffs and under armed guard.

Can you also smell napalm?

I have been telling people since the US election that the world has more to fear from Musk than Trump this time around. Sometimes I hate being right.

A new Mastercard design is meant to make life easier for visually impaired users Mastercard is distributing a new bank card next year that aims to help customers with vision impairments. The card has notches cut into the sides to help customers find the right card by touch alone.

Not mine. It's a Mastercard, and it's exactly as you would expect as described here: www.npr.org/2021/11/02/1... Are different card providers doing different things with notches? Now *that's* insane!

Fair enough. My wallet kept making holes in my back pocket! And I'm pretty good at ignoring my phone. There are a few physical and virtual places I can't access without it, so it's best to be in the habit of carrying it.

My card has a notch for that. And a braille 'C' to help vision impaired people identify it as a credit, rather than debit ('D') card.

I stopped carrying a wallet last year. Everything I need is on my phone. Except if I need to withdraw cash; then I have to remember to take a card! My card details were recently used in attempted fraudulent purchase. Bank called to confirm, cancelled/issued new card, phone copy updated in real time.

There are babies born on 19 January 2025 who are old enough for that...

Membership of the Human Rights Council for the 19th cycle (1 January - 31 December 2025) by regional groupsby year

Just to be clear here... THE UNITED STATES IS *NOT* CURRENTLY A MEMBER OF THE UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL, so that part is just the 🍊🤡 performing for his audience. This is mostly about cutting humanitarian funding to Gaza via the UNRWA. www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies...