Very cool, if true

Photo cross-post

2026-04-29T21:29:27Z

Can you guess how old she is?
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

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Interesting Links for 29-04-2026

2026-04-29T11:00:10Z

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Photo cross-post

2026-04-28T17:30:35Z

Shortcut home through the cherry blossom
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

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Interesting Links for 28-04-2026

2026-04-28T11:00:06Z

1. Two more Women's Institute branches vote to close over trans ban: (tags:LGBT transgender women UK OhForFucksSake )
2. Trans children have a suicide rate 7x the UK average, with the complete lack of care and worsening treatment by the NHS called out by coroners repeatedly: (tags:lgbt suicide children bigotry transgender OhForFucksSake uk )
3. AMA for the team captain for the recent winning University Challenge team: (tags:university quiz UK TV )

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Interesting Links for 27-04-2026

2026-04-27T11:00:13Z

1. For billionaires the basic mechanism by which humans learn that other people are real goes dark: (tags:inequality morality wealth psychology society )
2. The "Connectivome Theory": A New Model to Understand Autism Spectrum Disorders: (tags:autism bodies )
3. Paracetamol/acetaminophen is almost certainly safer to take than ibuprofen (nurofen): (tags:drugs safety )
4. Meet The Mushroom That Makes People Have The Exact Same Hallucination: (tags:hallucinogenics )

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Interesting Links for 26-04-2026

2026-04-26T11:00:45Z

1. The classic stories of Tumblr: (tags:tumblr fiction short_story )

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Interesting Links for 25-04-2026

2026-04-25T11:00:09Z

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At the head of the river. At the source of the sea.

2026-04-25T08:17:44Z

I've been working my way back through some albums I haven't listened to in decades, to see how they hold up.

I just started a shower with Sisters of Mercy: Floodland, and sang along with the whole first song, despite not having heard it in 30 years.

Brought back a lot of university memories too.

Funny thing, memory.

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Interesting Links for 24-04-2026

2026-04-24T11:00:18Z

1. EU approves €90B loan to Ukraine: (tags:Europe Ukraine GoodNews )
2. Parkrun and other sporting bodies face legal action because they're trans inclusive: (tags:sports law UK bigotry LGBT transgender OhForFucksSake )
3. Jane Austen's Seven Horrid Novels: A Tale of Literary Sleuthing: (tags:history writing janeausten viaSwampers )

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Life with two kids: For the love of the mother

2026-04-23T18:53:49Z

New behaviour from Gideon.

Every so often he'll see a small trinket he can spend some pocket money on. A waddle-dee or a Yoshi toy.

And he'll buy one, take it home, and carefully place it on Jane's bedside table, for her to enjoy.

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Interesting Links for 23-04-2026

2026-04-23T11:00:10Z

1. Why clotting happens occasionally after a Covid vaccine: (tags:blood immune_system pandemic genetics viaKenny )
2. Top MAGA influencer Emily Hart revealed to be AI — created by a guy in India: (tags:ai fraud politics USA )

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Interesting Links for 22-04-2026

2026-04-22T11:00:08Z

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Interesting Links for 21-04-2026

2026-04-21T11:00:05Z

1. The Types of Board Game: (tags:games boardgames funny ontology )

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It's amazing how high a number you can get to with a deck of cards!

2026-04-20T14:59:24Z

Would you like your mind blown?

To imagine the number of ways a standard pack of playing cards can be uniquely shuffled, follow these simple instructions:

Go to the equator with a deck of cards and start shuffling them. Shuffle them so that every second you produce a new and unique ordering of cards. Keep shuffling them over and over, a new ordering, every second, for a billion years.

At the end of a billion years take a single step forward.

Keep shuffling.

Every billion years keep taking a single step forward.

Once you have circumnavigated the Earth, take a single drop of water out of the Pacific Ocean. Keep shuffling. Keep taking a single step every billion years. Keep taking a single drop of water out of the Pacific Ocean each time you walk around the Earth.

Once the Pacific Ocean is dry, refill it and place a single piece of paper on the ground.

Keep shuffling.

Keep taking billion year steps. Keep taking a drop out of the Pacific Ocean with each return to your start point. Keep refilling the Pacific Ocean once dry. Keep building your tower of paper one sheet at a time.

Once your tower of paper is as tall as Mount Everest, throw it away and place a single grain of sand on a weighing scale.

Don't stop shuffling.

Don't stop taking a step every billion years.

Don't stop emptying the Pacific Ocean and refilling it to build an Everest of paper.

Don't stop throwing your paper tower away to place another grain of sand on your weighing scales.

On the other side of your scale is a bull elephant. When it raises off the ground you will be half way done.

To see the maths behind this, click here.

(With thanks to my brother Mike, who saw a version of this which wasn't as good, rewrote chunks of it and did the maths.)

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Interesting Links for 20-04-2026

2026-04-20T11:01:08Z

1. Looks like later kids get sick from their older siblings giving them diseases, decreasing their achievements in later life: (tags:family disease achievement )
2. Putin has sailed 121 tankers off Britain's coastline. None of them were seized: (tags:UK Russia shipping )
3. The seven programming ur-languages: (tags:language programming history )
4. Plans for huge new Edinburgh neighbourhood south of the Royal Infirmary: (tags:Edinburgh housing )

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Frieren: Beyond Journey's End: A review

2026-04-19T14:39:23Z

I'd been hearing talk about how good Frieren was for a while. It seemed to have come out of nowhere to instant acclaim, and to actually be about things. So a month ago, when I was looking for something to watch during the occasional 20 minutes when I get lunch alone, I thought I'd give the first episode a go. And while it didn't make me cry it came very close, and it had an atmosphere I hadn't encountered anywhere else, so I was completely grabbed from the beginning, and now that I've finished the first season I feel somewhat bereft.

It is, in background, a bunch of totally standard fantasy tropes. But it does something interesting with them, which is to base itself after the point most stories end. This is the story of what happens to Frieren, an immortal* elven mage, after her adventuring party defeat The Demon King. And how she lives in a world where the friends she makes live much shorter lives than her, how she connects with the people around her, and what she does when she realises that this matters to her.

There is plot, and action**, but mostly not that much of it. The point is the people, and watching them orbit each other, learn from each other, or completely fail to. The characters are interesting, and I love feeling that there is much more to most of them than is obvious on the surface. I particularly loved the first few episodes, which set everything up, but even once we get past past these in to the ongoing arc*** I have found myself looking forward to the next episode more than in almost any TV I've seen in the last decade.

I suspect some people will get put off by some of the tropes, both the ones taken straight from fantasy/roleplaying and the ones that are stock anime conventions. But I could happily look past those and enjoy the meat of the show, which was excellent. I eagerly await season 2. The only nervousness I have is that the original manga has been on hiatus since October, and the creators have clearly struggled with the production schedule, so I don't know whether it will ever be completed. But, frankly, it's not (at this point) the kind of show where I need an ending, I'm delighted just to be along for the ride.

* It is not clear how long elves live. But it is clearly at least thousands of years.
** And when it happens it is gorgeously animated
*** I'm not sure it's a plot, as such. Things are happening, but I'm not convinced that it's going somewhere in particular more than it is just following characters around to see what they get up to.

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