I am once again begging people to realize that AI checker doesn’t work. it’s never worked. it’s notoriously known to have flagged human-made works as AI and AI-generated works as human-made. and by feeding it people’s works, you are feeding more works to AI, because apparently the machine itself is AI.
the only thing AI checker does is harm genuine artists and people in general too.
someone fired a bullet through our bathroom wall the other day when we were gone, which is scary (but probably accidental), but the weirdest part is that we can’t actually find the place where it entered from outside... the wall inside is fucked up and you can see the hole where it came through, but there is no corresponding entrance hole on the exterior of the house. somehow the outer paneling was undamaged.
I think the exterior of the house is asbestos siding which apparently hides bullet holes really well.
There’s also a dent on the opposite wall where the bullet bounced off, and it looks like it had a really bizarre trajectory. Anyway, the neighbors say it was from a car chase where bullets went flying everywhere, so I’m not actually worried beyond “wow hope that doesn’t happen near me again”.
Shit is bad, but today, I learned that California's kelp forests have made a major comeback with the help of scientists, fishermen, and hammer wielding volunteers.
It's a win for habitat restoration. It's a win for marine life. It's a win for all of the people who helped make it happen.
It's a fucking win and it makes me happier than words can describe.
Pollution, warm oceans and hungry urchins devastated Pacific kelp. Now, thanks to divers with hammers, one of the world’s most successful re
As water soaks into the pores, it permits evaporation to carry the heat of the vessel's immediate surroundings out and away.
"In India, a 3,000-year-old technology is hitting the shelves—and flying off them—as South Asians struggle with rising summer temperatures.
Terracotta’s porous surface makes it a uniquely timeless passive cooling system. As water soaks into the pores, it permits evaporation to carry the heat of the vessel’s immediate surroundings out and away.
This principle has been cooling Indian homes since the Harappan Civilization that lived in the Indus Valley from ancient times. Yet it still has a role to play in the India of today, where companies are leveraging terracotta’s passive cooling to chill everything from buildings to food.
MittiCool is a company that manufactures terracotta refrigerators—capable of keeping items cool and preserved for 3 to 5 days in optimal conditions—all without power or ice. Currently sold out, it works by placing a tray of water in an upper chamber that seeps through the pores in the terracotta and cools the 50 liter interior space.
Another way that terracotta can replace electric cooling systems is through something called the Venturi effect. It states that as air moves from a large space into and through a narrow space, it must not only cool, but also speed up.
For this reason, Indian homes and verandah have been shaded by terracotta screens known as jaali for centuries. If air is to pass through the jaali it must necessarily speed up, leaving its moisture content behind in the pores of the terracotta. That moisture can then evaporate, repelling heat and cooling the area behind the jaali.
CoolAnt is a design studio that’s using terracotta materials and designs to skin buildings and homes to mitigate the effects of the harsh summer sun. The same principles at work in a jaali could be applied at scale to a whole building facade.
Pictured: A closeup of one of CoolAnt's terracotta cooling facades. Photo from CoolAnt.
“We’ve harnessed its hydrophilic properties and observed average temperature drops of 7 or 8°C [14°F] across more than 30 sites,” in India, CoolAnt studio founder Monish Siripurapu told Scientific American.
Scientific American had reported that just 20% of Indian households can afford to run an air conditioner, while just 35% can afford to run a refrigerator. That’s a substantial home-life challenge when summer temperatures routinely climb above 100°F in most of the country...
Civilizations have dealt with extreme temperatures for millennia, and their best methods shouldn’t be overlooked in urban and suburban planning today."
Scientists in weather and climate are live streaming for 100 hours to make their case to the American public.
They are live streaming, but engagement is necessary for it to work. SHARE THIS WITH PEOPLE, RECORD THE STREAM, POST CLIPS OF IT THAT ARE FUNNY, if you can tune in, PLEASE DO!
This is something that has to be heard by as many people as possible. Put it on in the background! See if you can get other people to watch it! Do whatever you can do support those who are trying to be supported! Anything and everything helps!
That’s Patrick! A wombat raised since he was a joey on a wildlife park in Victoria, Aussie, he’s known as both the oldest and biggest wombat we know of!
Most wombats average around 30 to 40 inches, so fat Pat is definitely an outlier. For comparison here’s a more ‘regular’ wombat.
Mayor’s wife accuses government of targeting her husband as video shows him being placed in handcuffs by officials
The mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, was arrested for alleged trespass at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention center in New Jersey on Friday and released after several hours.
Baraka was released shortly after 8pm and, after stepping out of an SUV with flashing emergency lights, told waiting supporters: “The reality is this: I didn’t do anything wrong.”
News of Baraka’s arrest at Delaney Hall was reported on X by Alina Habba, the acting US attorney for the district of New Jersey, and a former personal attorney and adviser to Donald Trump.
Newark’s Mayor Arrested Outside ICE Detention Center | The New York Times (May 9, 2025)
Notice how the "No Trespassing" sign is facing Baraka? That means he was standing in a public space at the time of his arrest.
Trump's fascist regime in action.
Delaney Hall is owned by the GEO Group. It is a PRIVATE immigration detention center--not a federal one.
According to the New Jersey Alliance for Criminal Justice:
"New Jersey state law AB5207... prohibits state and local entities and private companies from entering into agreements with ICE for immigration detention."
On May 6 (three days before Baraka's arrest), "Newark City Mayor Ras Baraka and the Newark Fire Department requested entrance to the facility. Once their requests were denied, the city issued a notice of fire code violations."
According to a statement by Baraka, the GEO Group "ignored court direction to apply for a Certificate of Occupancy (CO) at Delaney Hall."
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