Interesting Links for 29-08-2025
Aug. 29th, 2025 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
- 1. My Top Five Favorite Techno Songs and Why They're All the Mortal Kombat Theme Song
- (tags:music satire )
- 2. A historian reviews King & Conqueror (neither good nor accurate)
- (tags:history UK TV review )
- 3. Spineless fence-sitter thinks killing children is bad no matter who does it
- (tags:israel palestine satire politics murder children gaza )
Photo cross-post
Aug. 29th, 2025 01:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Little smiley chap wanted to take a photo with me this morning.
Original
is here on Pixelfed.scot.
Interesting Links for 28-08-2025
Aug. 28th, 2025 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
- 1. Scientist exposes anti-wind groups as oil-funded. Now they want to silence him.
- (tags:corruption oil globalwarming windpower propaganda usa )
- 2. Kpop Demon Hunters becomes Netflix's most viewed film ever
- (tags:movies korea music demon netflix )
- 3. Fraudsters are training AIs on a musician and then releasing songs in their name
- (tags:ai fraud music )
- 4. Bluesky now platform of choice for science community
- (tags:science socialmedia )
- 5. Liberty chief blasts Labour over ECHR tinkering
- (tags:rights Europe UK labour OhForFucksSake migration )
- 6. Dreamwidth is forced to block Mississipi
- (tags:dreamwidth mississippi OhForFucksSake )
- 7. Donald Trump state visit: Ed Davey to boycott banquet over Gaza
- (tags:USA Israel UK libdem Palestine gaza )
Interesting Links for 27-08-2025
Aug. 27th, 2025 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
- 1. Scotland's birth rate falls to lowest level since 1855
- (tags:scotland babies )
- 2. Local Restaurant Exhausted as Google AI Keeps Telling Customers About Daily Specials That Don't Exist
- (tags:ai google fraud restaurant viaPatrickHadfield )
- 3. Judge sides with trans-inclusive sorority: They can admit trans women if they want
- (tags:transgender women law USA GoodNews )
Interesting Links for 26-08-2025
Aug. 26th, 2025 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
- 1. Consultation opens on Edinburgh's proposed new tram line
- (tags:edinburgh trams consultation )
- 2. How to justify colonialism, Julius Caesar edition
- (tags:history comic morality )
- 3. Trump is turning into Liz Truss but with more dictatorial behaviour
- (tags:USA economics authoritarianism doom )
- 4. OpenAI Usage Plummets in the Summer, When Students Aren't Cheating on Homework
- (tags:ai students )
- 5. Fixing the voting system brings in more women representatives
- (tags:women politics voting reform )
Mississippi legal challenge: beginning 1 September, we will need to geoblock Mississippi IPs
Aug. 26th, 2025 12:24 am![[staff profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user_staff.png)
![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png)
I'll start with the tl;dr summary to make sure everyone sees it and then explain further: As of September 1, we will temporarily be forced to block access to Dreamwidth from all IP addresses that geolocate to Mississippi for legal reasons. This block will need to continue until we either win the legal case entirely, or the district court issues another injunction preventing Mississippi from enforcing their social media age verification and parental consent law against us.
Mississippi residents, we are so, so sorry. We really don't want to do this, but the legal fight we and Netchoice have been fighting for you had a temporary setback last week. We genuinely and honestly believe that we're going to win it in the end, but the Fifth Circuit appellate court said that the district judge was wrong to issue the preliminary injunction back in June that would have maintained the status quo and prevented the state from enforcing the law requiring any social media website (which is very broadly defined, and which we definitely qualify as) to deanonymize and age-verify all users and obtain parental permission from the parent of anyone under 18 who wants to open an account.
Netchoice took that appellate ruling up to the Supreme Court, who declined to overrule the Fifth Circuit with no explanation -- except for Justice Kavanaugh agreeing that we are likely to win the fight in the end, but saying that it's no big deal to let the state enforce the law in the meantime.
Needless to say, it's a big deal to let the state enforce the law in the meantime. The Mississippi law is a breathtaking state overreach: it forces us to verify the identity and age of every person who accesses Dreamwidth from the state of Mississippi and determine who's under the age of 18 by collecting identity documents, to save that highly personal and sensitive information, and then to obtain a permission slip from those users' parents to allow them to finish creating an account. It also forces us to change our moderation policies and stop anyone under 18 from accessing a wide variety of legal and beneficial speech because the state of Mississippi doesn't like it -- which, given the way Dreamwidth works, would mean blocking people from talking about those things at all. (And if you think you know exactly what kind of content the state of Mississippi doesn't like, you're absolutely right.)
Needless to say, we don't want to do that, either. Even if we wanted to, though, we can't: the resources it would take for us to build the systems that would let us do it are well beyond our capacity. You can read the sworn declaration I provided to the court for some examples of how unworkable these requirements are in practice. (That isn't even everything! The lawyers gave me a page limit!)
Unfortunately, the penalties for failing to comply with the Mississippi law are incredibly steep: fines of $10,000 per user from Mississippi who we don't have identity documents verifying age for, per incident -- which means every time someone from Mississippi loaded Dreamwidth, we'd potentially owe Mississippi $10,000. Even a single $10,000 fine would be rough for us, but the per-user, per-incident nature of the actual fine structure is an existential threat. And because we're part of the organization suing Mississippi over it, and were explicitly named in the now-overturned preliminary injunction, we think the risk of the state deciding to engage in retaliatory prosecution while the full legal challenge continues to work its way through the courts is a lot higher than we're comfortable with. Mississippi has been itching to issue those fines for a while, and while normally we wouldn't worry much because we're a small and obscure site, the fact that we've been yelling at them in court about the law being unconstitutional means the chance of them lumping us in with the big social media giants and trying to fine us is just too high for us to want to risk it. (The excellent lawyers we've been working with are Netchoice's lawyers, not ours!)
All of this means we've made the extremely painful decision that our only possible option for the time being is to block Mississippi IP addresses from accessing Dreamwidth, until we win the case. (And I repeat: I am absolutely incredibly confident we'll win the case. And apparently Justice Kavanaugh agrees!) I repeat: I am so, so sorry. This is the last thing we wanted to do, and I've been fighting my ass off for the last three years to prevent it. But, as everyone who follows the legal system knows, the Fifth Circuit is gonna do what it's gonna do, whether or not what they want to do has any relationship to the actual law.
We don't collect geolocation information ourselves, and we have no idea which of our users are residents of Mississippi. (We also don't want to know that, unless you choose to tell us.) Because of that, and because access to highly accurate geolocation databases is extremely expensive, our only option is to use our network provider's geolocation-based blocking to prevent connections from IP addresses they identify as being from Mississippi from even reaching Dreamwidth in the first place. I have no idea how accurate their geolocation is, and it's possible that some people not in Mississippi might also be affected by this block. (The inaccuracy of geolocation is only, like, the 27th most important reason on the list of "why this law is practically impossible for any site to comply with, much less a tiny site like us".)
If your IP address is identified as coming from Mississippi, beginning on September 1, you'll see a shorter, simpler version of this message and be unable to proceed to the site itself. If you would otherwise be affected, but you have a VPN or proxy service that masks your IP address and changes where your connection appears to come from, you won't get the block message, and you can keep using Dreamwidth the way you usually would.
On a completely unrelated note while I have you all here, have I mentioned lately that I really like ProtonVPN's service, privacy practices, and pricing? They also have a free tier available that, although limited to one device, has no ads or data caps and doesn't log your activity, unlike most of the free VPN services out there. VPNs are an excellent privacy and security tool that every user of the internet should be familiar with! We aren't affiliated with Proton and we don't get any kickbacks if you sign up with them, but I'm a satisfied customer and I wanted to take this chance to let you know that.
Again, we're so incredibly sorry to have to make this announcement, and I personally promise you that I will continue to fight this law, and all of the others like it that various states are passing, with every inch of the New Jersey-bred stubborn fightiness you've come to know and love over the last 16 years. The instant we think it's less legally risky for us to allow connections from Mississippi IP addresses, we'll undo the block and let you know.
Interesting Links for 25-08-2025
Aug. 25th, 2025 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
- 1. The Oldest Unopened Bottle of Wine in the World (Circa 350 AD)
- (tags:wine archeology rome Germany )
- 2. 26% of recent posts on Brexit and Scot independence are made by Iran
- (tags:iran disinformation internet UK Scotland Europe independence )
- 3. For some people, music doesn't connect with any of the brain's reward circuits
- (tags:music happiness psychology )
Musical interlude with a room full of children
Aug. 24th, 2025 07:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
As musical kids movies about demon-hunting go out was pretty darned good and I expect to be earwormed for weeks.
Interesting Links for 23-08-2025
Aug. 23rd, 2025 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
- 1. Elizabeth I and the 'Blackamoors': the Deportation that never was
- (tags:viaNancyLebov racism history uk )
- 2. The public reject the use of ChatGPT by politicians (60% - 25%)
- (tags:ai politics polls )
- 3. M&S insists bra fitting services are trans inclusive
- (tags:shopping women transgender UK LGBT )
- 4. How much of your history do you have to share with someone before sexual intimacy isn't considered a crime?
- (tags:assault transgender sex UK law )
- 5. Canada is getting new Covid vaccines. Place your bets on whether they reach the UK...
- (tags:canada pandemic vaccination )
Photo cross-post
Aug. 22nd, 2025 12:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Gluten free pie and a collection of badges to indicate my new age. I
think my family might like me!
Original
is here on Pixelfed.scot.
It's the little things
Aug. 22nd, 2025 06:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Interesting Links for 22-08-2025 (and the previous day)
Aug. 22nd, 2025 02:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
- 1. Trans Segregation in Practice (Experiences of trans segregation following the Supreme Court ruling)
- (tags:transgender bigotry LGBT UK OhForFucksSake )
- 2. How UK inheritance tax compares with other countries
- (tags:inheritance tax uk )
- 3. Google has released data on how much energy an AI prompt uses
- (tags:ai energy co2 water )
- 4. Nigel Farage lies about the real asylum story
- (tags:asylum uk migration OhForFucksSake )
- 5. Where Is the Political Leadership Against This Violent Far-Right Movement Terrorising Britain?
- (tags:racism politics UK OhForFucksSake )
- 6. Missing Texas woman found living among lost ‘African’ tribe in Scotland
- (tags:Scotland Africa history EpicWTF weird )
- 7. Ann Summers confirms trans women welcome at bra fittings
- (tags:clothing transgender LGBT shops )
- 8. New Fireworks Control Zones to be introduced in Edinburgh
- (tags:fireworks edinburgh scotland )
- 9. Moderate drinking is not good for you.
- (tags:cancer alcohol disease )
- 10. 4chan will refuse to pay daily UK fines, its lawyer tells BBC
- (tags:law uk usa censorship )
No idea why the autoposter didn't work yesterday/today. Will investigate tonight!
Mudlarking - 37 - Ginger beer and uranium glass
Aug. 21st, 2025 07:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I found a sherd that said “Hooper” on it. Possibly from “Hooper Struve” that made stoneware ginger beer bottles, late Victorian.
I found a sherd that has a speckled appearance, which looks like there are tinier sherds on the sherd.
But the most exciting thing I found that day - a piece of uranium glass! It glows when a UV light is shone on it!


(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)
An auspicious beginning
Aug. 21st, 2025 09:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
And Sophia hurt her wrist falling off of a swing yesterday and it still hurts this morning so we're off to the Sick Kids at 10am for her to get checked out.
Happy birthday to me!
Edit: No break. Possibly minor sprain. Just needs to take it easy and stay off the monkey bars for a few days.
Life with two kids: Less reassuring than you might expect
Aug. 20th, 2025 06:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Interesting Links for 20-08-2025
Aug. 20th, 2025 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
- 1. Study: Giving cash to mothers in Kenya cut infant deaths in half
- (tags:kenya money death babies )
- 2. Regina Valkenborgh's 8-Year-Long Photo Captures the Sun's Movement Through the Sky
- (tags:viaSwampers sun photography )
- 3. Spreadshirt to artists: We're taking your designs for AI
- (tags:clothes ai )
- 4. Map Of European Cultural Superiority
- (tags:maps Europe society )
- 5. Why scientists are rethinking the immune effects of SARS-CoV-2
- (tags:Pandemic immune_system doom )
Photo cross-post
Aug. 19th, 2025 03:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I've not been out this late since Gideon was born, but when my
music-obsessive photographer friend Kenny told me I had to come see
Fantastic Negrito at the Fringe I decided to make an exception.
The support band (Megan Black) was better than most support acts. The
main act, on the other hand, is just, well, fantastic. Maybe even
worth missing the kids bedtime for.
Original
is here on Pixelfed.scot.
Interesting Links for 19-08-2025
Aug. 19th, 2025 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
- 1. This story about how a parent's love grows for their child rang true for me, even if it was written about adoption
- (tags:love children parenting adoption )
- 2. An alternative to LASIK—without the lasers (melt your eyes, mould them into a new shape, let them resolidify)
- (tags:eyes eyesight )
- 3. Trump helped Netanyahu's cyber chief evade child sex crime charges
- (tags:Israel USA Child_abuse OhForFucksSake law )
- 4. On the recognition of Palestine - and its legality
- (tags:law palestine )
- 5. Tennessee woman denied prenatal care for being unmarried
- (tags:women healthcare USA OhForFucksSake marriage society )
- 6. Covid and Our Arteries
- (tags:pandemic blood health doom )
- 7. 97% of Edinburgh Airbnb-style flat plans refused
- (tags:edinburgh housing )
- 8. The Church Is Moving!
- (tags:church transport sweden )
Interesting Links for 18-08-2025
Aug. 18th, 2025 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
- 1. Harry Potter board game creators to donate profits to trans charities
- (tags:harrypotter transgender boardgames GoodNews LGBT viaPatrickHadfield )
- 2. Europe Divided Into Areas With An Economy Equal In Size To London (this would make everyone happy, of course)
- (tags:maps funny Europe viaSwampers )
- 3. What does a proper British diet look like?
- (tags:tea satire video funny )
- 4. Happy 20th anniversary to "They're taking the hobbits to Isengard!"
- (tags:history music funny lotr video )
- 5. Britain's first transgender judge takes UK to European court over Supreme Court ruling on biological sex
- (tags:law echr rights transgender uk lgbt )
- 6. Ranking AIs by how well they score in Only Connect
- (tags:tv ai quiz )
Mudlarking - 36 - A Wapping jar of marmalade
Aug. 17th, 2025 07:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
There seemed to be a group gathering outside the station. I often avoid going to Wapping as the Thames Explorer Trust organises tours there frequently, but I checked and one didn't seem to be happening today.
Then down to the foreshore, on a hot and sunny day. People had put out their deckchairs and were basking in the sun.
I walked to the right when I went down the New Crane Stairs. A man was peering into pools of water, and wearing gloves, so definitely mudlarking.
I walked onwards, towards Hermitage Moorings.
Canada Geese swam past.
Past the moorings, by where the police are, I came across a group who were mudlarking, so turned back the other way. I later looked up who they were and it seems they were the group who gathered outside the station - seems to be a Meetup group - “The London Cultureseekers Group”.
I watched swans pecking at algae on wooden posts.
Today’s finds were all pottery sherds and pieces of glass. The glass shimmered beautifully in the sun and I can never resist combware.
The large piece in the top left is likely to be part of a Victorian marmalade jar, made by Maling, who were based in Newcastle. I didn’t lick it to see if you could still taste the marmalade.
In the bottom left is a delicate elaborate handle, probably from a cup.

Photo cross-post
Aug. 17th, 2025 11:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
The Flying Bubble Show was great fun. Kids thoroughly entertained.
Original
is here on Pixelfed.scot.