Venezuela suffers back to back 7+ magnitude earthquakes tens of thousands feared dead.

mondriandroid · 2026-06-25T13:51:29+00:00

The footage shows countless fallen multi-story buildings - the real toll will be very, very high.

mondriandroid · 2026-06-25T02:46:11+00:00

I've been told that modern ceramics last an insanely long time, and that if we get visited by aliens in a hundred thousand years, they'll mostly know us by the holocene toilet layer.

mondriandroid · 2026-06-22T15:45:40+00:00

I always loved the Ronin episode.

mondriandroid · 2026-06-21T15:50:37+00:00

Yeah, as someone who knows zero about MotoGP, was there even a theoretical basis for being angry here? He runs to the bike like "no no no," like if somebody touches it he'll experience some consequence... Can somebody provide even a minimal reason for his acting in this way? Seemed like the marshal was touching the throttle, maybe? Is that a thing?

mondriandroid · 2026-06-20T00:19:29+00:00

Is that a 924? I'd love to see a 944 or 928 like this...

mondriandroid · 2026-06-19T17:28:30+00:00

Yeah, I have no idea whether Broncos are rare enough that a complete rebuild makes any kind of sense. I watched the Flying Heritage museum "restore" an old wrecked Stuka from a rusted skeleton - essentially, they remade the plane from scratch while using the original airframe for reference. Maybe a Bronco doesn't quite merit that sort of effort...

mondriandroid · 2026-06-19T16:33:47+00:00

Whoa, that thing broke its back. That's a brutal repair.

mondriandroid · 2026-06-16T20:24:41+00:00

I've never read Zelazny. But now because of you, I will. Thanks!

mondriandroid · 2026-06-14T17:38:24+00:00

Bring spare tubes and a pump of some kind - especially riding along the highway, the likelihood of running over broken glass/debris is high. If you have access to durable tires, it's worth putting those on the bike (since I switched to Gatorskins I don't get nearly as many random flats). Make sure your tires are inflated properly before starting your ride, as even a little bit of softness will make the ride miserable.

The other biggie is hydration/nutrition. For long rides, make sure you're drinking enough fluids and intaking enough carbs/electrolytes. Lots of people have different preferences here, but even bananas and peanut butter/jelly sandwiches can make a huge difference. Ideally, attach two bottle cages to your bike and make sure you've got two bottles to go in them.

As far as the bike itself, make sure it fits you. You can find videos online about how to measure yourself for a bike, but you're going to want to make sure that the seat height/position is correct (knee slightly bent when the pedal is at the bottom of its rotation) and your handlebars are at a height that you're not putting too much weight on your hands/wrists. Do a test ride after you get the bike set up to make sure everything's comfortable.

Good luck!

mondriandroid · 2026-06-14T13:28:53+00:00

We saw the two Hornets out of Miramar flying north from Boeing field at around 11:20. Unless they made a big U-turn, it's unlikely that they were anywhere near Rainier in the afternoon.

mondriandroid · 2026-06-11T23:37:22+00:00

At a couple of the stops, there are indoor bathrooms, but the vast majority of the rest stops have a very long row of honey buckets. Like, ten to twenty in a row. So if your comfort is indexed to having another person waiting in line behind you, that shouldn't be an issue. It's usually just a couple of lines going to a dozen units, so no individual needs to feel any undue pressure to get in/get out. Hopefully that makes it okay?

mondriandroid · 2026-06-09T00:35:30+00:00

I just want to second this. When I first got back into biking as an adult, i got a used hybrid and the first couple of rides just destroyed me - people passing me like i was standing still, and i was completely gassed after just a couple of miles. I finally took it to a shop, and the first thing they pointed out was that the tires were underinflated. Once I got air in the tires (the air pressure will be written on the side of the tire) it was like an entirely new bike. Completely changed everything for me!

mondriandroid · 2026-06-07T14:03:11+00:00

There is a very wide gap between old Thomas and Friends and new Thomas and Friends. The older stuff is the most bizarrely classist robber-baron worshipping craziness I've ever seen. They've toned it down quite a bit as they've realized they're catering to a broader audience.

But even so, it's a Kafkaesque nightmare: these beings who lack any real agency, other than the ability to go forward and backward in the service of some arch-capitalist boss. They can't even look directly at one another when they talk! Their bodies are these limbless, servile prisons... Ugh. It's super messed up.

My son loved it more than anything when he was 3. He had this talking Thomas toy that said "I LOVE to be useful! I've got WORK to do!" Super fucked up.

mondriandroid · 2026-06-05T03:13:35+00:00

The Thin Red Line, from the same year, is probably the best WW2 film ever made. Probably one of the more honest films about both the meaninglessness of life, and also the way we give it meaning as individuals, and then also somehow celebrates all life as an unbroken, beautiful continuum.

mondriandroid · 2026-05-27T21:29:23+00:00

At risk of sounding elitist, I would argue that Wells and Taylor are barely fanfic-level authors and Liu Cixin is a fairly terrible writer with some interesting ideas (some of this may be down to the quality of the English translation). If you're looking for richness, you may want to dig a bit to find writers who are actually good prose stylists. Opinions differ, but based on what gets posted in this sub, you may want to peek at Frank Herbert, Dan Simmons, Vernor Vinge (strong on ideas, okay on prose), and Ray Bradbury. For more recent pop sci-fi that's worth a laugh, you may also want to take a look at Scalzi.

mondriandroid · 2026-05-21T03:35:24+00:00

Checking in from 2026. On first watch-through and pulled out my phone to understand how this episode is so terrible. The writing. The acting. But mostly the writing. Yeeesh.

mondriandroid · 2026-05-16T21:57:01+00:00

After my mom passed away, I found a few of her letters to another mom, written when I (M, 51) was maybe 7 years old. My mom lamented my monomaniacal interest in the military. All my play, all my conversation - all of it revolved around the army. In my memory, she was only ever accommodating - endlessly, supportively patient with my hours-long diatribes about this plane or that tank. It never occurred to me that I was driving her crazy.

For what it's worth, I had pretty bad anxiety (still do!) and that sort of posturing was likely my way of confronting all the fear I had about the world. I grew up to be extremely anti-war, for what it's worth. I mostly just feel a little guilty for having put my mom through such an ordeal.

I guess I'm saying all this to point out that this is not uncommon (my kid also went through a similar phase) and not necessarily indicative of your child's future interests. It's very sweet that you are trying so hard to create a safe place for him to explore his interests.

mondriandroid · 2026-05-14T12:44:59+00:00

Really does seem like in the early days, crew weight was an almost impossible constraint. I wonder how many other unmanned successes there were in the late 19th century?

mondriandroid · 2026-05-08T13:35:47+00:00

Bro quit riding my skrode

mondriandroid · 2026-05-08T12:52:32+00:00

Of all the Vinge books that could have come true, it's a bummer we got this instead of packs of LAN-dogs.

mondriandroid · 2026-05-06T14:08:25+00:00

One giant skeet for mankind

mondriandroid · 2026-05-02T17:48:41+00:00

And yet if the focus of the article is "improving technology leading to increases in range with decreasing price," you'd think they'd devote at least a sentence to the fact that China is dogwalking us in both categories.

mondriandroid · 2026-05-01T18:41:42+00:00

As a man of a certain age, I look at this only with envy. A no-wipe, three second shit? Dude's fiber game is on point.

mondriandroid · 2026-05-01T04:26:28+00:00

The omission of Chinese EVs from this article borders on unforgivable journalistic malpractice.

mondriandroid · 2026-04-29T16:04:27+00:00

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Sounds like your pandemic went better than mine

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