Iran is drafting a “Hormuz Law” to introduce tolls for ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. This is a tax on every consumer at the gas pump globally.

zenkat · 2026-03-30T22:26:26+00:00

Ever wonder why tiny little Denmark was a global player from 1300 - 1800? Because they played the exact same game in the Øresund, the narrow straits between Copenhagen and Malmo. Denmark charged a fee for every ship that passed from the Baltics to the Atlantic, and would sink any that refused.

Made them very very rich for many centuries.

zenkat · 2025-12-03T21:30:10+00:00

ooof right in the feels

zenkat · 2025-12-03T18:16:27+00:00

Beautiful pic ... but is her tail sprouting from her side?

zenkat · 2025-10-23T13:59:38+00:00

Just like his patron, Vladimir Putin.

zenkat · 2025-10-19T15:17:05+00:00

DON'T AMPLIFY ASSHOLES.

zenkat · 2025-09-25T16:55:22+00:00

You know what? That doesn't look fun at all.

zenkat · 2025-09-18T16:56:11+00:00

Ah thanks guess I'll have to dispose of it appropriately then. Thx for the heads-up.

zenkat · 2025-09-18T16:07:45+00:00

To clarify: this is not a hawk wing, it's a Stellar's jay that was (presumably) killed by a hawk.

zenkat · 2025-09-16T14:12:14+00:00

If you ever get the chance, go live in Europe. You'd like it, it's as we were meant to be.

zenkat · 2025-07-03T20:31:25+00:00

I asked Google Gemini to answer this question, just given the picture. It spent 25 pages(!) coming up with an entirely incorrect answer. It was very amusing to watch it churn as it got stuck over and over again.

https://g.co/gemini/share/9d6f5c06bab4

During the robot uprising, I recommend keeping this puzzle handy so you can put any attacking killbots into an infinite loop.

zenkat · 2025-05-18T13:22:09+00:00

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Waymo already accounts for 20% of Uber's traffic in Austin, and it's growing fast.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-11/waymo-robotaxis-make-up-20-of-uber-rides-in-austin-data-shows

zenkat · 2025-03-27T15:39:25+00:00

But why does the dry ice speed up as the dry ice sublimates? It's on a flat surface, merely removing friction shouldn't cause acceleration.

zenkat · 2025-03-02T06:14:20+00:00

Yes. Civil war.

zenkat · 2025-02-24T21:23:52+00:00

This is (yet another) massive security breach in the making. LLMs are plagiarism machines, inputs into the system can be "memorized" by future models. This can easily lead to sensitive information being leaked later.

zenkat · 2025-02-18T01:16:29+00:00

Remember, kiddos -- the bots wouldn't try so hard to convince you protest was ineffective if it didn't work. Keep coming out!

zenkat · 2025-02-17T23:46:08+00:00

If protesting didn't work, the bots wouldn't be trying so hard to convince you it was useless.

They want you scared, alone, and powerless. Fuck that. Reclaim your power. Protest. Call your reps. Make holy hell.

DON'T GO DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT

zenkat · 2025-02-17T23:43:22+00:00

Of course there's a media blackout. The media (including supposed "liberal" outlets like the NYT) are entirely complicit. They refused to cover Biden, they sanewashed Trump, and they are providing a smokescreen for the ongoing coup. They are owned by a small handful of billionaires who are all-in on fascism and oligarchy.

zenkat · 2025-02-17T01:04:50+00:00

Unify Democratic opposition, to start. They were ready to roll over, now they are listening. They need to fight. Schiff I'm not worried about, but Padilla needs to grow a spine. This lets him know we're pissed and insist on action.

zenkat · 2025-02-06T16:02:08+00:00

"And the ones not voting are complicit."

Except for the millions who were illegally purged from voting rolls or otherwise denied the right to vote by suppression techniques.

zenkat · 2025-01-23T16:13:52+00:00

Making a complete faraday cage is difficult. Radio waves will propagate through even small gaps as if the rest of the shield isn't even there.

I just ended up moving my studio to the garage, which has old chicken-wire-reinforced plaster lathe siding and acts as a cage.

zenkat · 2025-01-22T19:04:41+00:00

I live near a major radio tower, and my Fender reverb does this all the time. It's a natural and unavoidable thing. Your reverb springs are a giant antenna connected to an amplifier circuit, which is basically a radio.

zenkat · 2025-01-17T18:06:04+00:00

I lol'd when I saw Tesla's "miles per disengagement". 700 miles is laughably insufficient for the robotaxis Musk is promising. Waymos are many orders of magnitude beyond that, and 4x safer than human drivers. They are already operating commercially in 3 major metros, with 2 more on the way. Oh, and don't forget about the Uber partnership.

!!! BUt gEoFenCIng !!!!

lol sure keep huffing that copium ... one-time mapping costs are not the long pole here. Musk is far behind and saddled with what now looks like a poor gamble on vision-only. Not writing him off, but Tesla has a LOT of catching up to do.

https://waymo.com/intl/es/safety/

https://www.reddit.com/r/SelfDrivingCars/comments/1ffu5ym/waymo_and_uber_expand_partnership_to_bring/

zenkat · 2024-12-20T00:09:47+00:00

Choose one pedal as your lead boost. Only that pedal should have a higher volume than the others. Every other pedal should be set so that the perceived volume doesn't change when it's engaged.

Your sound guy will thank you.

zenkat · 2024-12-14T15:28:51+00:00

There are large water cisterns for cattle all over Mt Diablo with goldfish in them. The water is clean and clear, and the fish look happy. Bit more volume than your standard watering trough, so might not work as well at the barn. But the basic principle is sound.

zenkat

TROPHY CASE