CIRCLE WITH A DOT

@coreyspowell Reasons for skepticism:
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/04/23/im-not-the-only-one-easily-seduced-by-giant-cretaceous-octopuses/

@molly0xfff ummmmmm

@zzt Strangely, no government wants to pass a law that says an OS has the *option* of offering an age attestation prompt at account creation, that websites and apps have the *option* of requesting an age-bracket signal, and that in any suit involving alleged harms to a minor, it is an affirmative defense on the part of the app/site that they received a signal indicating the user to be an adult. I mean, I can still see ways that could be bad, but it would push the whole deal a lot closer to workable and constitutional. (Like how we do movie ratings. They're not required by law and can't be.)

@xgranade @pathunstrom Spam, the meat product:

1. Full of fat, cholesterol, salt and sodium nitrite
2. Made in a factory that has indulged in union-busting, exploited immigrant labor, and given people autoimmune diseases from inhaling aerosolized pig brains (https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/06/hormel-spam-pig-brains-disease/)
3. Foisted on the people because of racism (Spam dominated the Hawaiian diet in WWII because the US barred people of Japanese descent from fishing)

Maybe the canned meat product is an even better analogy than the unwanted email....

@johnzajac The fact that people accept the idea of "good school districts" without even blinking is a sign of just how deep our social failures go. IT'S OUR CHILDREN'S FUTURE. HOW DID WE LET THERE BE ANY BAD ONES?!

@jalefkowit "Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose pickleball."

@blogdiva Oh, my. Scott is actually, seriously doing "first they came for the AI bros".

@blogdiva "lukewarm to politics" is an observation that is amazing in its nonspecificity and uselessness