@arensb@mastodon.social

A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Jul 29, 2026

Oatmeal Raisin in the Sun
(probably too obvious)
#CookiesAMovieOrPlay
#HashtagGames

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Jul 28, 2026

That supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way? Ticketmaster can fuck all the way off to its singularity.

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Jul 14, 2026

Happy Bastille Day to all who celebrate!

Allons enfants de la république, le jour de gloire est arrivé!

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Jul 13, 2026

#ListenBrainz thinks I'm old.
#Music

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Jul 06, 2026

An underreported bit of mediocrity for the DC Fourth of July celebrations: the cheap-looking projections on the Washington Monument (photo from https://wjla.com/news/local/washington-monument-illumination-returns-for-fourth-of-july-celebrations-freedom-250-independence-day-projection-mapping-250th-anniversary-national-mall-patriotism).

This looks like a cheap neon store sign, not a tribute to America's anniversary.

#Freedom250 #July4th #corruption

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Jul 06, 2026

When you're so delusional, you think your speech, not the fireworks, is the big draw.

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Jul 05, 2026

@aadmaa2@mathstodon.xyz I guess paragraphs breaks are in short supply in Freedom250land?

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Jul 03, 2026

Voluntary Charity

There's a trope I've run across a couple of times in conservative fora, that of voluntary charity, the idea that charitable giving should be a personal decision, not something forced by the state. To quote the Encyclopediat of Conservatism: Charity is voluntary and personal; state welfare is compulsory and bureaucratic. Conservatives argue the two differ in kind, not merely in scale.

http://ooblick.com/2026/07/voluntary-charity/

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · May 10, 2026

Replying to @davefischer@hachyderm.io

@davefischer@hachyderm.io @NanoRaptor@bitbang.social @BernardSheppard@mastodon.au Oh, that's right! To act as a disk controller and coordinate the I/O for all those disks.

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · May 10, 2026

Replying to @NanoRaptor@bitbang.social

@NanoRaptor@bitbang.social @BernardSheppard@mastodon.au I had a coworker who took one home to serve as a bar, when ours was decommissioned. IIRC it originally held something like 64 multi-megabyte disks. I don’t know how many bottles of tequila it now holds.

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Apr 28, 2026

Replying to @snowy@suya.place

@snowy Another possibility is that there used to be a whole _forest_ of wisdom, but people chopped down all the trees of wisdom until only one remained, protected by a royal conservation decree.

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Apr 26, 2026

Good on AP for not sanewashing (some of) Trump's more blatant bullshit:
https://apnews.com/article/trump-fake-math-drug-price-reductions-1c89714a4b60ead1485d1de31b27da92
#news

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Apr 24, 2026

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/waas
#enshittification #comics #SMBC

www.smbc-comics.com

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - WaaS

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Apr 24, 2026

Replying to @iFixit@mastodon.social

@iFixit I can justify several of these in the name of making the product smaller, lighter, or more elegant (at the expense of repairability). But there’s no reason for stickers, especially if they’re lying or illegal.

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Apr 22, 2026

If rock bands were named the same way as law firms, we might have groups called Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr; or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Apr 20, 2026

I feel seen.

https://theonion.com/man-finally-good-enough-at-new-hobby-to-understand-how-bad-he-is-at-it/

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Apr 17, 2026

Replying to @pzmyers@freethought.online

@pzmyers Is it "go be poor somewhere else"? That seems to be the Republican plan for homelessness everywhere.

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Apr 17, 2026

From an article about electing the president by popular vote:

"The upside to the swing state system is that it forces national campaigns to focus on the diverse regional interests of places like Pennsylvania, Michigan and New Mexico instead of simply trying to appeal to the entire nation all at once."

So it's a *feature* of the current system that some states matter more than others?! Are you fucking kidding me?

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/david-marcus-democrats-harebrained-popular-vote-scheme-
#NPVIC #Elections #uspol

Fox News

DAVID MARCUS: Why Democrats' harebrained popular vote scheme might backfire

Democrats push to replace the Electoral College with a national popular vote compact as Virginia becomes the 18th state to sign on to the agreement.

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Apr 15, 2026

Tiens, j'avais jamais remarqué, dans "Les Aventures de Gérard Lambert" de Renaud:

"Alors, pendant une demi-heure
Dans son moteur il tripatouille
Il est crevé, il est en sueur
Il a du cambouis jusqu'aux coudes
Dans le lointain le jour se lève comme d'habitude"

"coudes" rime pas avec "tripatouille".
#musique

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Apr 14, 2026

Joyeuse journée Gérard Lambert à tous!
https://youtu.be/dkCxWZhP6pc
#Renaud #musique

YouTube

Les aventures de Gerard Lambert - Renaud

cazeneuve david

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Apr 14, 2026

Replying to @jpsim@hachyderm.io

@jpsim @kim She Otto be!

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Apr 14, 2026

Replying to @exocomics@mastodon.world

@exocomics@mastodon.world I had a cat who'd jump up on the counter, then onto the fridge, onto the cabinet, and then onto the cabinets on the opposite wall. He nearly gave me a heart attack the first time he did that.

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Apr 13, 2026

Looks like #trump fucked up so bad with his Jesus cosplay that even BillDo won't defend it: https://www.catholicleague.org/pope-and-president-clash/
"Trump does not help his case by posing as Jesus blessing a bedridden man; he released this Truth Social picture after he criticized Leo. It is offensive and immature."

And that's the paragraph after the one where he praises mass deportations.

mastodon.social

Mastodon

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Apr 13, 2026

I hate it when life imitates #Bioshock Infinite.
#uspol

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Apr 13, 2026

Replying to @cmconseils@mastodon.social

@cmconseils@mastodon.social Looks like the artist has a whole series of #fountains that use water as sculpture elements: https://www.skulptur-chodakowska.de/en/fountains/

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Apr 13, 2026

Replying to @Tuckerkiste97@mastodon.social

@Tuckerkiste97@mastodon.social @cmconseils@mastodon.social Looks like Kościuszko Square in Poddębice, Poland: https://www.whitemad.pl/en/prima-ballerina-in-poddebice-is-this-the-most-beautiful-fountain-in-poland/

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Apr 12, 2026

Shrimp yoga.
#CatsOfMastodon #cats #Mango

mastodon.social

Mastodon

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Mar 28, 2026

Replying to @Computeforloot@twit.social

@Computeforloot@twit.social @quasirealsmiths@beige.party In this case, I could eat a one-dollar gas station burrito and shit out a better president.

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Mar 28, 2026

Replying to @quasirealsmiths@beige.party

@quasirealsmiths@beige.party Also Baltimore

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Mar 28, 2026

Replying to @quasirealsmiths@beige.party

@quasirealsmiths@beige.party Baltimore has attitude.

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Mar 25, 2026

Replying to @robparsons@mastodon.social

@robparsons @dramypsyd From what I've seen, it seems pretty good at summarizing long texts. I'd also love to see the AI learning phase followed by an optimization phase, where a trained model is cleaned up and made more efficient, so that it takes fewer resources to run it. Especially for any model that will be used by many people.

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Mar 25, 2026

Replying to @robparsons@mastodon.social

@robparsons @dramypsyd It won't, any more than the Internet went away when the Internet bubble burst. Generative AI will spend some time as a punchline, and then it'll come back, somewhat tamed by the bubble, so people will be more likely to use it where it makes sense, and not try to shove it into everything.

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Mar 23, 2026

Replying to @aparrish@friend.camp

@aparrish@friend.camp I'm old enough to remember when Apple prided itself on ease of use and intuitive GUI.

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Mar 23, 2026

Replying to @MaryClark@mastodon.social

@MaryClark @401matthall @paninid @ytscorp @gknauss Plus, doesn't ICE have a bigger budget than Canada's entire military? They could probably pay for all of TSA out of their Friday pizza lunch budget.

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Mar 23, 2026

Replying to @su_liam@mas.to

@su_liam @paninid @ytscorp I think there are a lot of underground bars where ICE aren't welcome.

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Mar 23, 2026

Replying to @401matthall@mastodon.xyz

@401matthall @paninid @ytscorp @gknauss I've been wondering the same thing. The hypothesis that makes the most sense to me is that they want to say "See? It's the evil Democrats causing long lines in airports!"

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Mar 23, 2026

Replying to @paninid@mastodon.world

@paninid @ytscorp @gknauss 'Murkah!

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Mar 23, 2026

Replying to @arensb@mastodon.social

@ytscorp @gknauss I just hope they manage not to assault or kill anyone.

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Mar 23, 2026

Replying to @ytscorp@mstdn.social

@ytscorp @gknauss My understanding is that ICE are supposed to do unskilled jobs like guarding exits, to free up TSA agents to do skilled work like reading X-rays. I've also heard that there aren't actually that many jobs that don't require TSA training, so ICE won't be able to do much.

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Mar 23, 2026

Replying to @pomarede@mastodon.social

@pomarede@mastodon.social When 4800 sols old you reach, look as good you will not.

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Mar 19, 2026

Replying to @arensb@mastodon.social

@fatboy@fosstodon.org @pluralistic@mamot.fr Ah, looks like the commission invited him to give a talk on enshittification. Nice to know someone’s listening.

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Mar 19, 2026

Replying to @fatboy@fosstodon.org

@fatboy@fosstodon.org @pluralistic@mamot.fr I don't know about the ad, but I see his face on the commission report page: https://www.forbrukerradet.no/siste-nytt/digital/seminar-og-lansering-av-rapport-om-enshittification/

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Feb 18, 2026

Replying to @phooky@hexa.club

@phooky This will be a boon to Maryland’s economy.

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Feb 18, 2026

Replying to @Nymnympseudonymm@mstdn.science

@Nymnympseudonymm@mstdn.science @itgrrl@infosec.exchange @dazfuller@mstdn.social I was thinking “cdesign proponentsists” myself.

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Jan 17, 2026

Replying to @ajcain@mathstodon.xyz

@ajcain @onpaperwings That makes sense. Thanks!

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Jan 17, 2026

Replying to @onpaperwings@typo.social

@onpaperwings I didn’t see any mention of Donald Knuth. Did I miss it?

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Jan 16, 2026

Replying to @cstross__dup_483@wandering.shop

@cstross@wandering.shop It always was. Did someone gaslight you into thinking that it was for porn?

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Jan 13, 2026

Replying to @scalzi@mastodon.social

@scalzi You know we’re all going to be scrutinizing the displays in future SF movies and TV shows to see if we can spot one of these, right?

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Jan 13, 2026

Replying to @scalzi@mastodon.social

@scalzi You know we’re all going to be scrutinizing the displays in future SF movies and TV shows to see if we can spot one of these, right?

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A Republic, while we kept it @arensb@mastodon.social · Jan 12, 2026

Replying to @scalzi@mastodon.social

@scalzi On the other hand, hard drives are bigger than ever.

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A Republic, while we kept it

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Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - WaaS

DAVID MARCUS: Why Democrats' harebrained popular vote scheme might backfire

Les aventures de Gerard Lambert - Renaud

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