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POGtastic

@pogtastic.bsky.social

Pictured: An entire classroom of winners, pointing at a particularly big W in their history

Albert Bettannier's "La Tache Noire," depicting a French schoolteacher pointing to the formerly-French province of Alsace-Lorraine, ceded to the Prussians in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War.

The term "revanchism" comes from this war, which is why the painting is the image depiction of revanchism on its Wikipedia page

December 3, 2025 at 10:42 PM

POGtastic

@pogtastic.bsky.social

Teal: Rob Lowe wearing an NFL hat to the NFC Championship
Gray: Not knowing that the game is on in the first place

Rob Lowe wearing an NFL ref hat at the NFC Championship Game, showing that... he wants both sides to have fun and play fairly?

December 2, 2025 at 6:45 PM

POGtastic

@pogtastic.bsky.social

Nah he ran a serious campaign. He lost, but it definitely wasn't one of those "well I got a few of my friends to vote for me and you can see 'em for yourself in the 'other candidates' section" campaigns that you see everywhere in local politics

Screenshot of Ballotpedia's entry of the Democratic primary election for the Minnesota House of Representatives District 61A

Verbatim text follows:

Katie Jones defeated Will Stancil and Isabel Rolfes in the Democratic primary for Minnesota House of Representatives District 61A on August 13, 2024

(Table of Candidate, Percent, and Votes)

Katie Jones 43.2 3,956
Will Stancil 36.4 3,340
Isabel Rolfes 20.4 1,872

November 24, 2025 at 6:32 PM

POGtastic

@pogtastic.bsky.social

Ostensibly: There was no authentication built into the card, so the merchant was expected to examine the signature on the back of the card and compare it to your signature on the receipt. Note the "NOT VALID UNLESS SIGNED" line.

A diagram from WikiHow of the back of a bank card, showing the magnetic stripe and a blank white rectangle labeled with "AUTHORIZED SIGNATURE."

Below the signature field, a label says "Not Valid Unless Signed."

November 5, 2025 at 5:11 PM

POGtastic

@pogtastic.bsky.social

We can replace a few words and this essay is really about Dunkies instead of Popeyes

No, the food is then rearranged into the proper order for you by the AlTron 4800, and beamed back to the restaurant for packaging. You ordered a two-piece spicy with red beans and rice? No, you got a three piece mild with green beans. There are two biscuits in the bag. Why? Because the AlTron 4800 knew you were a little weak in terms of gut flora, and that you needed some easy chicken work to go with that necessary vegetable matter. The lack of red beans and rice is to teach you humility; the extra biscuit is to remind you that blessings, while random and surprising, are real. God might not respond, but he doesn’t cheat you. Neither does Popeyes.

November 5, 2025 at 12:26 AM

POGtastic

@pogtastic.bsky.social

me filling out the ballot on my local county's property tax levy questions

Simpsons screenshot of "The Last Registered Democrat"

October 21, 2025 at 3:40 PM

POGtastic

@pogtastic.bsky.social

I told him to get the F out of the kitchen and now he's pouting

A border collie mix pouts from the top of the stairs

October 21, 2025 at 2:13 AM

POGtastic

@pogtastic.bsky.social

I didn't want to burden everyone with yet another language, but I was really trying to do this in ReScript, and your approach worked just fine there too. Now to apply this example to the much more complicated thing I have in mind...

Thanks again!

$type my_record<'a> = {internal: 'a, show: 'a => string} type rec any_record = Any(my_record<'a>) : any_record let show = (Any({internal:internal, show:show})) => show(internal) let xs = [ Any({internal:"foo", show:(s) => s}), Any({internal:42, show: (n) => Int.toString(n)}) ] let s = Array.map(xs, show)->Array.join(",") Console.log(s) // produces "foo,42"$

October 10, 2025 at 1:11 AM

POGtastic

@pogtastic.bsky.social

I can hear the handshake process now

A Windows 95-era window showing the "Dialing Process" of a modem to Al Gore's Internet

October 9, 2025 at 9:15 PM

POGtastic

@pogtastic.bsky.social

This looks extremely promising!

Testing it on a concrete type like a string, OCaml complains "This field value has type string my_record, which is less general than 'a. 'a my_record." Do I need to somehow cast the record to make it more general?

$utop # type 'a my_record = { internal: 'a; show: 'a -> string } type any_record = { my_record: 'a. 'a my_record } let show { my_record } = my_record.show my_record.internal;; type 'a my_record = { internal : 'a; show : 'a -> string; } type any_record = { my_record : 'a. 'a my_record; } val show : any_record -> string = <fun> utop # show {my_record={internal="foo"; show=Fun.id}};; Error: This field value has type string my_record which is less general than 'a. 'a my_record$

October 9, 2025 at 4:52 PM

POGtastic

@pogtastic.bsky.social

So say that I have the following:

module type SHOWABLE =
sig
type t
val show : t -> string
end

module StringShowable: SHOWABLE =
struct
type t = string
let show: t -> string = Fun.id
end

module IntShowable: SHOWABLE =
struct
type t = int
let show: t -> string = string_of_int
end

October 8, 2025 at 5:54 PM

POGtastic

@pogtastic.bsky.social

Okay, lemme try that. I got the OOP model working, which is a lot closer to my usual conception of how this stuff works. I need to do some more digging on how module signatures work.

$class virtual showable = object (self) method virtual show: string end type 'a my_record = { internal: 'a; show: 'a -> string } class ['a] showable_record r = object (self) inherit showable val record: 'a my_record = r method show: string = record.show record.internal end$ $utop # #use "test.ml";; class virtual showable : object method virtual show : string end type 'a my_record = { internal : 'a; show : 'a -> string; } class ['a] showable_record : 'a my_record -> object val record : 'a my_record method show : string end utop # let xs: showable list = [ new showable_record {internal="foo"; show=Fun.id}; new showable_record {internal=1; show=string_of_int} ];; val xs : showable list = [<obj>; <obj>] utop # List.map (fun x -> x#show) xs;; - : string list = ["foo"; "1"]$