LightNews LightNews
jpiterak.bsky.social
@jpiterak.bsky.social
880 followers 770 following 1.5K posts
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
—Voltaire

Guess that makes me part of the resistance.
Posts Replies Media Videos
jpiterak.bsky.social
Also:
o There was significant risk, even with mild cases.
o Vaccination reduced some more serious complications, but PASC (Long Covid) risk remained at nearly the same level.
October 1, 2025 at 11:26 AM
jpiterak.bsky.social
Screenshot of a highlighted section of the paper: “Our explanation is that typical workers’ bargaining power has been intentionally hamstrung by a portfolio of intentional policy decisions on behalf of those with the most income, wealth, and power. Bivens et al. (2014) detail the policy decisions that have sapped typical workers’ bargaining power: the abandonment of a policy commitment to full employment, the policy-induced erosion of labor standards like the minimum wages and institutions such as collective bargaining, and the pursuit of economic globalization in a way guaranteed to damage typical workers.”
September 2, 2025 at 12:24 AM
jpiterak.bsky.social
Yes.
Sunset on Cold Storage beach.
August 31, 2025 at 12:06 AM
jpiterak.bsky.social
Yup!
Screenshot of the pre-order page for Taylor Swift’s 12th album “The Life of a Showgirl.”
August 12, 2025 at 4:26 AM
jpiterak.bsky.social
Interesting…
First improvement of the shortest path algorithm in 41 years. May be most effective for large and sparse graphs.

arxiv.org/pdf/2504.17033
Chinese scientists have developed the best shortest-path algorithm in 41 years! A team from Tsinghua University has broken Dijkstra’s “sorting barrier” — the first improvement since 1984. The new algorithm runs in O(m \log^{2/3} n) time. Potential applications? Faster shorter waits for route calculations, fewer traffic jams, cheaper deliveries, and more efficient computer networks. And, of course, a need to update computer science curricula :)
August 12, 2025 at 1:25 AM
jpiterak.bsky.social
11 months, not close to restored mitochondrial function, especially for women.
What a cluster…
📌
July 27, 2025 at 2:39 PM
jpiterak.bsky.social
Indeed…
“If there is a great lesson to be learned from all of the Nazi trials that have taken place, then it can be found here: The line beyond what is morally right and what is not, is far from obvious early on, before the worst of the crimes are committed. It is easily overlooked when everybody else is making the same, wrong decision.”
July 21, 2025 at 2:32 AM
jpiterak.bsky.social
Another one that can easily be modified for a non-alcoholic version… you’d never think this could work, but it’s delicious!
This one is from the fantastic head bartender at Darfur in South Berwick ME. While her original likely calls for pre-made basil vodka and the blackberry pink peppercorn shrub, this one does a decent job of approximation as a made-to-order drink. Makes: 2 Lowball cocktails. Scale as desired😉 Ingredients: - 4-5 medium basil leaves - 2t pink peppercorns - 8-10 blackberries - 3oz coconut milk - 1/2 lime (juiced) - 1/2t white balsamic vinegar - 4t sugar (segmented) - 2oz coconut rum (Parrot Bay) - 4oz vodka (Tito’s) Directions: - Muddle basil and pink peppercorns with 2t sugar. - Separately, muddle blackberries with 2t sugar. - Strain blackberries through a strainer just narrow enough to capture the seeds. Combine into peppercorn and basil. - Add coconut milk, lime juice and white balsamic vinegar. - Add rum and vodka, adjust sweetness with simple syrup. Notes: - If making the blackberry peppercorn shrub ahead of time, you’ll likely need far less peppercorn. - You’ll also want to strain out the peppercorn bits… In this version the peppercorn stays in to get the right flavor, but some gets through the cocktail strainer. - I made this with light coconut milk, the original is likely made with the full-fat version, which may need a touch less coconut milk.
July 8, 2025 at 1:34 PM
jpiterak.bsky.social
Try this… can be made with coconut milk and a lemon zest for a non-alcoholic option.
Thai cocktail from the now-closed Cuchi-Cuchi restaurant in Cambridge, MA Thai Cocktail - 1/2 Lime - 4 tsp sugar - 6-8 Leaves Basil - 3/4" stalk of sliced lemongrass - 1 oz Malibu Rum (Coconut Rum) - 3 oz Citrus Vodka - Champagne or Seltzer floater Instructions: - Muddle Basil and lemongrass with sugar - Add 1/2 lime, and muddle - Add liquor and shake until sugar dissolved - Pour over ice - Top with Champagne or Seltzer
July 8, 2025 at 1:06 PM
jpiterak.bsky.social
There was apparently a spike in pizza deliveries to the Pentagon last night, too:
Screenshot of post from Pentagon Pizza Report showing spike in pizza deliveries to the Pentagon last night. There are 3 entries on their feed that imply something was going on there.
June 28, 2025 at 1:30 PM
jpiterak.bsky.social
🤷🏻‍♂️
BBC article with headline “SpaceX rocket explodes, raining debris from the sky for second time in a row.”
April 3, 2025 at 12:44 AM
jpiterak.bsky.social
Ugh - looks like she might have deleted the post.
If she re-posts, I’ll re-link…
March 30, 2025 at 3:33 PM
jpiterak.bsky.social
@hrblock.bsky.social

Hey guys - your software is being blocked as containing malware. Your website chat is down, and your phone support is completely untrained in escalating.
Probably false positives, but can you PLEASE scan your installer files through virustotal before publishing to the world?
March 10, 2025 at 3:49 PM
jpiterak.bsky.social
Right.
Screenshot of the upstream poster's comment: "Fun fact? Not a single authoritarian dictator that was elected peacefully was ever removed peacefully." Highlighting the section 'authoritarian dictator that was elected peacefully'. Meaning, of course, that because the Soviet Union did not elect a dictator peacefully, it does not count under this fun fact. That said, the dissolution of the Soviet Union was hardly peaceful. While some client countries had relatively bloodless transitions, others like Ceaușescu in Romania were far less so. Russia itself ended up with Putin and the oligarchs taking over the country through a series of false-flag terrorist attacks and mafia wars.
February 26, 2025 at 12:42 AM
jpiterak.bsky.social
It’d be interesting to see a geographic breakdown of Die Linke support vs. AfD. Opposite distribution?

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/e...
AfD support level map in the recent German elections. Shows ~10-15% in most areas except the former East Germany, where support was into the 30+% range. From The Independent.
February 24, 2025 at 7:51 PM
jpiterak.bsky.social
Love it! Reminds me of this one..
Woodcut image of an axe embedded in a stump, in a forest with many stumps - from Rick Frausto. Text above is a Turkish proverb: “The forest was shrinking but the trees kept voting for the axe, for the axe was clever and convinced the trees that because his handle was made of wood he was one of them.”
February 23, 2025 at 3:22 PM
jpiterak.bsky.social
Good references in the linked articles. Saving this for later!
📌

static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/...
Diagram that shows the complex interplay between genetics, hormones, and other biological functions — leading to sex.
February 21, 2025 at 1:07 PM
jpiterak.bsky.social
Tragic. Literally destroying lives to induce fear and stoke supporters into bloodlust.

The cruelty is the point.
George Orwell quote from the novel 1984: “If you want a picture of the future, imaging a boot stamping on a human face — for ever.
February 15, 2025 at 4:07 PM
jpiterak.bsky.social
Screenshot of the the 📌 ‘pinned’ feed, showing my response to poster’s post, because I used a pin icon in the post…
February 9, 2025 at 10:04 PM
jpiterak.bsky.social
Yes, totally normal 😳
Screenshot showing the ridiculous 408 tabs I currently have open in my phone browser. Here’s to hoping there are others with more…
February 2, 2025 at 8:57 PM
jpiterak.bsky.social
Looks like we’ve gone and crashed the site…
Screenshot of an error message for https://shopthehood.store, showing that their load balancing reverse proxy has likely been overloaded.
January 28, 2025 at 5:20 AM
jpiterak.bsky.social
LOL…
I’ll take it.
January 1, 2025 at 5:03 PM
jpiterak.bsky.social
Ah, so the Trump org owned one of these, eh?
That explains a LOT… 😉
A three-bottle Jaegermeister chilling tap, pouring the vile concoction into a frosted shot glass.
November 25, 2024 at 12:22 AM
jpiterak.bsky.social
My Commodore 64 setup looked a lot like this.
...Many 6th grade hours re-typing BASIC and assembler game code from Compute! magazine. Sigh.

Congratulations on the still running Mac (SE?)!
Commadore 64 computer, attached to a Commadore tape drive, joy stick controller, and a television.
November 18, 2024 at 11:40 PM