CIRCLE WITH A DOT

@timb_machine Hah! Just barely made it in before the deadline!

Writing productively is about recognizing rabbit holes and stepping around them to keep going. Most recent example from my WIP: I had a character requesting spikes made of cold iron within a matter of hours. Stopping to think whether that was possible in a medieval setting, I started on research and asking people about it; quickly came up with enough answers in the negative/ really complicated column that I stopped digging and said, fuck it, take out "cold iron", replace with "steel", and moved on. Writing achieved. Frustration bypassed. Happy writer. #writing #WritingLife #research

I mostly use DuckDuckGo for online searches, without AI, but this list of Google search tricks from Hana Lee Goldin works on other search engines too and includes a list of alternatives to Google. You will want to bookmark this:https://cardcatalogforlife.substack.com/p/google-has-a-secret-reference-desk?#Research

@minds #llm #opendata #researchinvestigation https://scribe.disroot.org/post/scribe.disroot.org/7675318

@ProPublica @ProPublica https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TsSthawE6g

Do you think digital piracy is important? Would we be in trouble without it? Why?#piracy #copyright #trade #research #academia #openaccess #foss #education #intellectualproperty #law #tech #ip #poll #internet #digitalrights

🦠🪐 New #research from Johns Hopkins University suggests that the boundary between #planets might be a lot leakier than we thought.By sandwiching the hardy bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans between steel plates and shooting them at nearly 500 km/h (~300 mph), scientists demonstrated they can survive 30,000 times atmospheric pressure. https://www.sciencealert.com/extreme-microbes-can-survive-the-journey-between-planets-experiments-show#science #space #biology #astronomy #mars #panspermia #extremophiles

@jimthewhyguy #PostOfTheWeek (season 3):It's a database that allows users to explore potential conflicts of interest for President Donald Trump and his team.Content: The documents in this database disclose the financial positions, assets, and debts of President Trump and his appointees.Search Functionality: There's a search bar where you can look for specific individuals or financial holdings. Examples given include "Bitcoin," "Palantir," "Hegseth," "Fox News," and "Heritage."

We often think of flocking #birds as a group that follows the leader, but new #research shows that individual zebra finches can be quite stubborn. Some birds will choose their favorite nesting materials even if every other bird is doing something different, a trait that researchers say helps the species survive if the rest of the group makes a mistake. https://theconversation.com/strong-opinions-matter-why-some-birds-refuse-to-follow-the-flock-275905‍️ Starling murmuration, an enthralling 5 minutes in the Netherlands https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/starling-murmuration-an-enthralling-five-minutes-in-the-netherlands #biology #psychology #science #nature #animals #wildlife #evolution #learning #stem #ornithology

Researchers found that Alcon blue #caterpillars can mimic the specific acoustic pulses of a queen ant.By sounding like royalty, they convince worker #ants to carry them home and protect them from predators. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/baby-butterflies-use-rhythm-to-fool-ants-into-taking-care-of-them/#research #biology #nature #butterflies #science #evolution #wildlife #insects

@26pglt Yikes, how did you guess their dad was this way? I would have thought since I raised them that they would see what I daily or at least weekly cleaned. But, nope. I do think that common issues has their first point: they really are oblivious and then: they don’t feel it’s that important to clean. And I’m not known for being a super picky cleaner. I just get enraged that bending over to pick up an errant potato peel would just not happen unless I pointed it out and asked them to pick it up.

“Seeing some of these emails — and peering behind the curtains of the rooms that we were never invited into, I think has really laid bare, I don’t know, just truly how broken and corrupt the system is.” https://19thnews.org/2026/02/epstein-files-academic-research-women-scientists/ #epstein #academia #science #research #STEM #women #misogyny #discrimination

Interesting Git repos of the week:Strategy:* https://github.com/jacobdjwilson/awesome-annual-security-reports - all you can eat annual reports, thanks @jacobdjwilsonDetection:* https://github.com/EFForg/rayhunter - hunting cell site simulators with @effExploitation:* https://github.com/wietze/lnk-it-up - make your own malicious links* https://github.com/dievus/ADPulse - more fun with the AD identity graph* https://github.com/trustedsec/Titanis - build your own Microsoft RPC clients* https://github.com/RantaSec/golinhound - graphing Linux trust paths* https://github.com/praetorian-inc/nerva - fingerprint that service* https://github.com/cisco-ai-defense/skill-scanner - check whether an agentic skill is malicious* https://github.com/Logisek/EvilMist - red team tools for the cloud* https://github.com/praetorian-inc/GitPhish - phish with GitHub* https://github.com/Antonlovesdnb/TTPRunner - automate your BAS with @Antonlovesdnb's LLM generated TTPs* https://github.com/praetorian-inc/augustus - TTPs for testing LLMs* https://github.com/ricardojoserf/AutoPtT - another way to automated ticket-passing attacks* https://github.com/0xsh3llf1r3/ColdWer - enough BOF to send your EDR to sleep* https://github.com/sliverarmory/malasada - convert your .so to shell code* https://github.com/subat0mik/Misconfiguration-Manager - abusing SCCM misconfigurations* https://github.com/dazzyddos/lsawhisper-bof - BOF to chat with LSAHard hacks:* https://github.com/dmaynor/airdrop-observatory - spy on AirDrop with @DmaynorData:* https://github.com/Siguza/tld - @siguza helps you understand who owns that TLD?Nerd:* https://github.com/rbanffy/fun-with-old-mainframes - @rbanffy's tips on messing with big green screen* https://github.com/mitchellh/vouch - building community trust#security, #research, #code

@PonderStibbonsThank you