Author | Lightnews

Catherine Berry @isomeme.bsky.social · 5h

😲🎶💜👍

Catherine Berry @isomeme.bsky.social · 5h

Get kinky. Explain the Mk 14 *while* boning.

Catherine Berry @isomeme.bsky.social · 3d

You know what? They're not wrong.

Reposted by Catherine Berry

McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 3d

"A month after you get a rejection from a prestigious magazine, you see an article on the same topic you pitched, using the same sources, written by an in-house writer. The article wins awards. Describe the hex you place on the magazine."

Horrifying Writing Prompts

You inadvertently send your My Little Pony/The West Wing fan fiction to the New Yorker. If your reaction was a New Yorker cartoon, what would it lo...

buff.ly

18 62

Reposted by Catherine Berry

Catherine Berry @isomeme.bsky.social · 6d

One of the many pleasures of coding is running across evocative comments in other people's code. Even the big software companies occasionally let a little bit of a programmer's personality slip through. This example is from a class holding constants representing all versions of Android. 1/3

Screenshot of a portion of a computer program. It reads:

| S.
public static final int S = 31;

| S V2. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.
public static final int S_V2 = 32;

2 1 3

Catherine Berry @isomeme.bsky.social · 4d

I lack depth perception and am not especially nimble. My thought before attempting any of these would be "Well, it was a good run." 🙃

3

Catherine Berry @isomeme.bsky.social · 4d

There's a Great Horned Owl somewhere out there in the darkness. That "hoo-huhHOO-hoo-hoo" call is unmistakable. I haven't previously heard them around here. It's nice to hear one right now. I should be doing various things, but for the moment I'm just sitting here, quietly entranced.

3

Catherine Berry @isomeme.bsky.social · 4d

This essay by @cstross.bsky.social is the best big-picture analysis I've ever seen of where we are and where we might be heading. Despite being forthright about the immense dangers we face, he manages to retain a glimmer of hope. Give it a read.

www.antipope.org/charlie/blog...

The pivot - Charlie's Diary

I'm calling this the pivotal year of our times, just as 1968 was the pivotal year of the post-1945 system, for a number of reasons.

www.antipope.org

1 1 2

Catherine Berry @isomeme.bsky.social · 6d

Nice! Is that stored in a repository where you can share it with us? As I said, I'm a great fan of such things.

1

Catherine Berry @isomeme.bsky.social · 6d

I feel a deep kinship with this programmer. I too have been on projects that felt like the siege of Harfleur. I hope that fortune smiled on them as it did on valiant King Henry. 3/3

3

Catherine Berry @isomeme.bsky.social · 6d

Apparently whatever problem required the unusual sub-version release S_V2 was a doozy; the full quote from Shakespeare's "Henry V" is

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead."

2/3

1 2

Catherine Berry @isomeme.bsky.social · 6d

One of the many pleasures of coding is running across evocative comments in other people's code. Even the big software companies occasionally let a little bit of a programmer's personality slip through. This example is from a class holding constants representing all versions of Android. 1/3

2 1 3

Reposted by Catherine Berry

Catherine Berry @isomeme.bsky.social · 10d

I am rather surprised to realize that I'm glad Trump is desecrating the White House with his trashy-Albert-Speer ballroom. This building was a symbol of a civic ideal which we have failed to nurture and defend, so its loss is dramatically coherent. 1/2

2 1 3

Catherine Berry @isomeme.bsky.social · 9d

They can't even manage competent fascism.

2

Reposted by Catherine Berry

Science Magazine @science.org · 10d

Talk about an in-flight meal.

For the first time, researchers have captured rats hunting bats by grabbing them from the sky. Learn more: https://scim.ag/3Jqldmn

29 190 660

Catherine Berry @isomeme.bsky.social · 10d

Tell them it's a gerund and see what happens...?

1

Catherine Berry @isomeme.bsky.social · 10d

Further, the scar left by this vandalism may help us remember to do better next time. 2/2

2

Catherine Berry @isomeme.bsky.social · 10d

I am rather surprised to realize that I'm glad Trump is desecrating the White House with his trashy-Albert-Speer ballroom. This building was a symbol of a civic ideal which we have failed to nurture and defend, so its loss is dramatically coherent. 1/2

2 1 3

Catherine Berry @isomeme.bsky.social · 10d

And the very same to you! 🎑

1

Catherine Berry @isomeme.bsky.social · 10d

Sap of the World-Ash!! 🙃

theonion.com/trump-defend...

Trump Defends Demolition Of Yggdrasil, Ancient Tree Of Life

WASHINGTON—Claiming that the sacred ash tree had outlived its usefulness and needed to be updated, President Donald Trump made remarks Monday defending his demolition of Yggdrasil, the ancient tree of...

theonion.com

2 1

Reposted by Catherine Berry

Catherine Berry @isomeme.bsky.social · 11d

I think it would be rather interesting to talk to a sentient computer. On the other hand, it is decidedly uninteresting to talk to a sycophantic autocomplete tool.

1

Catherine Berry @isomeme.bsky.social · 10d

I like Cory Doctorow's term for LLMs -- "spicy autocomplete". 🙃

1 3

Catherine Berry @isomeme.bsky.social · 11d

I have monocular vision, so I feel like I dodged a bullet there. 🙂

Catherine Berry @isomeme.bsky.social · 11d

I think it would be rather interesting to talk to a sentient computer. On the other hand, it is decidedly uninteresting to talk to a sycophantic autocomplete tool.

1

Catherine Berry @isomeme.bsky.social · 11d

Nice! I almost went for physics instead of chemistry.

2