Crabs give pedicure. || Deaf man and his cat. || Not quite what I imagined. || Calling International Rescue. || The calculator drawer. || Random Street Views. || City living scenes. || A.I. attempts to make sign-language manual. (h/t, Dicentra) || At last, music generated from text. || Smart slime and throbbing bloblets. || Bruising of the soft tissue. || You had one bloody job. || But only when it rains. || Back passage of note. (h/t, Damian) || Ancient Earth Globe. || Theirs is considerably bigger than yours. || Gently does it. || A decision was made. || Thriller, Indian version. || Chain reaction. || ChronoPhoto, a photographical history game. (h/t, Things) || Coffee can do anything. || And finally, don’t worry, it’s a weight-saving measure.

Or, How This Place Is Still Here After Sixteen Bloody Years.

Yes, it’s time to remind patrons that this rickety barge, on whose seating your arses rest, is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant a while longer, and remain ad-free, there are shiny buttons below with which to monetise any love. Debit and credit cards are accepted. If one-click haste is called for, there’s a QR code in the sidebar, and my PayPal.Me page can be found here. As requested, I’ve added SubscribeStar and Ko-Fi accounts, via which love may also be monetised, whether as one-off donations or monthly subscriptions.

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For newcomers wishing to know more about what’s been going on here for the last decade and a half, in over 3,000 posts and 150,000 comments, the reheated series is a pretty good place to start – in particular, the end-of-year summaries, which convey the fullest flavour of what it is we do. A sort of blog concentrate. If you like what you find there… well, there’s lots more of that. Do take a moment to poke through the discussion threads too. The posts are intended as starting points, not full stops, and the comments are where much of the good stuff is waiting to be found. And do please join in.

As always, thanks for the support, the comments, and the company.

Oh yes. The buttons.

Perhaps there’s a word for this new dance-move sensation. || Big-ass paper plane. || A brief history of topiary. (h/t, Things) || Answers on a postcard, please. || ChatGPT does physics, with partial success. || Jupiter. (h/t, Dicentra) || Volcanic eruption seen from space. || Remember, always respect the media. || The progressive retail experience, parts 453 and 454. || Is your smartwatch powered by slime mould? || Nommy nommy nom. || Historical con-women of note. || You may clench when ready. || Why, yes, there will be a test. || When you’ve been severely educated. || Drag for kiddies. || “That’s the goal.” || Glass viruses and bacteria. || Fifty-tonne crystals. || Unsolid footing. || And finally, for those unfamiliar with the world of Japanese music sirens.

Should you wish, you can follow me on Twitter.

I stumbled across this tweet by American Conservative editor Helen Andrews, in which she remarks on pausing her commute at the local Metro, in Washington, DC, and counting the number of fare-dodgers that could be spotted within a five-minute period. An exercise she repeated, with an average of 22 fare-dodgers and a peak of 40. In five minutes.

What stood out, however, were the tweeted replies, often from blue-ticked progressives and self-styled creatives with many flags in their bios, and ostentatious pronouns, and which conveyed a kind of pre-emptive disapproval of any thoughts along such lines.

“Do you literally have nothing better to do?” asked one film and TV director, adding, “Why don’t you stand outside a bank and interview business owners who steal wages from hourly employees?” Some insisted that an escalation of fare-dodging has no victims or unhappy social effects, and that fares are a “classist, racist” assault on “poor and BIPOC folks.” Others, including lecturers and lawyers, added “who cares?” or deployed the terms “narc” and “snitch,” again suggesting that certain observations are not to be aired. One “Oscar-nominated screenwriter” expressed his “exhausted rage” at such things being noticed at all.

The general theme of the replies, and the air of annoyance, reminded me of Ms Claudia Balducci, a woman responsible for Seattle’s public transport network. Faced with evidence that up to 70% of passengers are now freeloading with impunity, Ms Balducci replied:

Which is progress, apparently. An achievement unlocked.

Update, via the comments:

In other news:

The lady quoted above is referring to this ongoing adventure in sensitivity and tolerance:

Quite how the lack of risk was determined has not been made clear by the police. And as one might imagine, many parents, and schoolgirls, aren’t entirely thrilled to find said gentleman on the bus used by the girls to get to and from school, and loitering near their school, repeatedly, while wearing their school’s uniform, complete with stockings, a pleated skirt, and what appears to be a wig.

Consider this an open thread.