TheBrett
@thebrett.bsky.social
There might be one "win" in this deal, and that's the SNAP funding extension to September. Cold comfort for the folks who might lose their health care, but something.
November 10, 2025 at 12:52 AM
There might be one "win" in this deal, and that's the SNAP funding extension to September. Cold comfort for the folks who might lose their health care, but something.
Looks like sufficient Democrats are caving on the shutdown fight, for not much in gains. www.axios.com/2025/11/09/s...
Deal to end government shutdown in reach
At least 10 Senate Democrats are expected to support a key procedural motion.
www.axios.com
November 9, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Looks like sufficient Democrats are caving on the shutdown fight, for not much in gains. www.axios.com/2025/11/09/s...
One downside of Congress being dysfunctional is that it's hard to get any new laws dealing with the legal issues around handling sensitive data when it comes to AI passed. There are some records where it is very legally dubious to send them outside of your organization's system to an LLM as of now
November 8, 2025 at 7:24 PM
One downside of Congress being dysfunctional is that it's hard to get any new laws dealing with the legal issues around handling sensitive data when it comes to AI passed. There are some records where it is very legally dubious to send them outside of your organization's system to an LLM as of now
I think it's funny how Zuckerberg is the Big Loser among the Tech Giants. His company is a cash cow that is highly profitable, but he's basically done little beyond maintaining that and wasting tens of billions of dollars on mismanaged Big New Things for the past ten years.
November 8, 2025 at 5:38 AM
I think it's funny how Zuckerberg is the Big Loser among the Tech Giants. His company is a cash cow that is highly profitable, but he's basically done little beyond maintaining that and wasting tens of billions of dollars on mismanaged Big New Things for the past ten years.
Quantian had a good comment on this a while back, but you underestimate the ability of companies to continue going on hype and investment for a long, long time at your own peril. And Musk has a LOT of people highly invested in Tesla, people who will dump more money in when shares are down
November 7, 2025 at 9:07 AM
Quantian had a good comment on this a while back, but you underestimate the ability of companies to continue going on hype and investment for a long, long time at your own peril. And Musk has a LOT of people highly invested in Tesla, people who will dump more money in when shares are down
So a couple things with Musk's trillion dollar pay package. I doubt he'll hit all those metrics, but he'll definitely hit some - and each is worth tens of billions of dollars in stock. My guess would be the market cap, # of robots/robotaxis deployed, and revenue targets. Easiest to manipulate.
November 7, 2025 at 8:57 AM
So a couple things with Musk's trillion dollar pay package. I doubt he'll hit all those metrics, but he'll definitely hit some - and each is worth tens of billions of dollars in stock. My guess would be the market cap, # of robots/robotaxis deployed, and revenue targets. Easiest to manipulate.
Texas Tech might be favored over BYU, but don't underestimate. I'm a Utah fan, but I've followed BYU and they have a habit of pulling off some thrilling upset games against other-favored top teams . . . only to then meltdown and lose by 50 points against some unranked team the next week.
November 5, 2025 at 5:22 AM
Texas Tech might be favored over BYU, but don't underestimate. I'm a Utah fan, but I've followed BYU and they have a habit of pulling off some thrilling upset games against other-favored top teams . . . only to then meltdown and lose by 50 points against some unranked team the next week.
Gates is taking a lot of flack for his comments about climate change, but the truth is that relentlessly hyping up the near term threat and need for immediate action has failed to work politically in the US. Not just at the federal level, but at the state and local level too. Need a new approach
November 1, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Gates is taking a lot of flack for his comments about climate change, but the truth is that relentlessly hyping up the near term threat and need for immediate action has failed to work politically in the US. Not just at the federal level, but at the state and local level too. Need a new approach
Starlink probably could create a distributed data center across thousands of satellites, but I don't see how it would be cost-effective unless you're already going to launch and use the satellites anyways. It's thousands of satellites just to give you the same as a medium-sized data center.
November 1, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Starlink probably could create a distributed data center across thousands of satellites, but I don't see how it would be cost-effective unless you're already going to launch and use the satellites anyways. It's thousands of satellites just to give you the same as a medium-sized data center.
Because red dwarf stars are described as red, depictions of habitable world skies always seem to treat the skies as being permanently at dusk with a red sun overhead. That's not how it would usually appear-
November 1, 2025 at 8:49 AM
Because red dwarf stars are described as red, depictions of habitable world skies always seem to treat the skies as being permanently at dusk with a red sun overhead. That's not how it would usually appear-
Tolkien struggled with the origin of the Orcs, but I always liked the idea that the "source" of Orcs changed over time in the storyline. The Orcs up through the First Age were once corrupted elves, and thus terrible but mighty beings - with their captains being maiar in Morgoth's service in orc form
November 1, 2025 at 5:51 AM
Tolkien struggled with the origin of the Orcs, but I always liked the idea that the "source" of Orcs changed over time in the storyline. The Orcs up through the First Age were once corrupted elves, and thus terrible but mighty beings - with their captains being maiar in Morgoth's service in orc form
I really do want people to get the health care subsidies, but I'll take "destruction of the filibuster" as a consolation prize and fight for a separate bill to restore the subsidies.
October 31, 2025 at 5:36 AM
I really do want people to get the health care subsidies, but I'll take "destruction of the filibuster" as a consolation prize and fight for a separate bill to restore the subsidies.
It's sort of become "known" that "you get two F-words" in a PG-13 movie before it draws an "R" rating, but apparently you can also show topless scenes as long as they're not in a sex scene and get PG-13. It's just not done because advertisers won't work with films that do it, especially franchise
October 31, 2025 at 2:05 AM
It's sort of become "known" that "you get two F-words" in a PG-13 movie before it draws an "R" rating, but apparently you can also show topless scenes as long as they're not in a sex scene and get PG-13. It's just not done because advertisers won't work with films that do it, especially franchise
Sean O'Brien is such a tool. A suck-up to Trump while the Trump people gut the NLRB and do their damnedest to destroy the labor movement, including showing up to plead (alongside JD Vance) for Democrats to agree to a clean CR.
October 30, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Sean O'Brien is such a tool. A suck-up to Trump while the Trump people gut the NLRB and do their damnedest to destroy the labor movement, including showing up to plead (alongside JD Vance) for Democrats to agree to a clean CR.
The biggest challenge in the Democratic Party balancing its progressive and moderate wings is the lack of trust. I'm sure the anti-choice folks weren't happy with Trump publicly moderating on the issue in 2024, but they put up w/ it b/c they knew he would put their folks in charge afterwards.
October 30, 2025 at 5:37 AM
The biggest challenge in the Democratic Party balancing its progressive and moderate wings is the lack of trust. I'm sure the anti-choice folks weren't happy with Trump publicly moderating on the issue in 2024, but they put up w/ it b/c they knew he would put their folks in charge afterwards.
There's a story about Utah's new big homeless campus, which leans hard on the "involuntary commitment" angle. That might be part of it, but there's some local political context that the piece missed-
October 30, 2025 at 5:30 AM
There's a story about Utah's new big homeless campus, which leans hard on the "involuntary commitment" angle. That might be part of it, but there's some local political context that the piece missed-
What's interesting about Tolkien is that he seems to have had ambiguity about even some of the good guys across unfinished works. In the Silmarillion, the early Numenoreans returning to MIddle Earth are kindly Sea Kings bearing gifts - but in Unfinished Tales, they are pillagers of trees.
October 30, 2025 at 4:07 AM
What's interesting about Tolkien is that he seems to have had ambiguity about even some of the good guys across unfinished works. In the Silmarillion, the early Numenoreans returning to MIddle Earth are kindly Sea Kings bearing gifts - but in Unfinished Tales, they are pillagers of trees.
I watched the Treehouse of Horror Simpsons episode in full this month. Thoughts:
October 26, 2025 at 2:41 AM
I watched the Treehouse of Horror Simpsons episode in full this month. Thoughts:
Given that it's probably going to get ripped down by the time they're done with Trump's ballroom, I'm glad I got to go do the White House tour through the East Wing before it happened. I even bought the cap you supposedly can only buy in the little White House gift stand
October 22, 2025 at 1:07 AM
Given that it's probably going to get ripped down by the time they're done with Trump's ballroom, I'm glad I got to go do the White House tour through the East Wing before it happened. I even bought the cap you supposedly can only buy in the little White House gift stand
I don't think all Star Wars shows/movies need to be Andor, but they should consider giving Tony Gilroy veto rights on script dialogue for Star Wars content. One nice thing about Andor is that the dialogue is just good - contrast that with Ahsoka, where it always seems so wooden and forced.
October 21, 2025 at 11:40 PM
I don't think all Star Wars shows/movies need to be Andor, but they should consider giving Tony Gilroy veto rights on script dialogue for Star Wars content. One nice thing about Andor is that the dialogue is just good - contrast that with Ahsoka, where it always seems so wooden and forced.
It genuinely is strange we haven't had a Star Wars movie in six years, even factoring in the pandemic and strike disruption. Rise of Skywalker was a billion dollar movie. Solo was a flop, but Rogue One was a billion dollar movie. They haven't had a single good pitch b/s "What if Mandalorian movie?"
October 21, 2025 at 11:37 PM
It genuinely is strange we haven't had a Star Wars movie in six years, even factoring in the pandemic and strike disruption. Rise of Skywalker was a billion dollar movie. Solo was a flop, but Rogue One was a billion dollar movie. They haven't had a single good pitch b/s "What if Mandalorian movie?"
Second biggest thing I'm happy about with the No Kings protests is that ICE hasn't tried to pull any thuggish shit against them. Stephen Miller is desperate for a violent protest incident to do a crackdown, and so far it hasn't happened yet - but I wouldn't put it past them to try and make it
October 18, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Second biggest thing I'm happy about with the No Kings protests is that ICE hasn't tried to pull any thuggish shit against them. Stephen Miller is desperate for a violent protest incident to do a crackdown, and so far it hasn't happened yet - but I wouldn't put it past them to try and make it
I don't usually post about consumer products, but I had to drag a busted exercise machine out of my basement this morning and got grease all over my hands. Some of it came off w/ soap and water, but the real miracle grease remover were the Wet Ones hand wipes. Genuinely surprising, but good.
October 18, 2025 at 6:23 PM
I don't usually post about consumer products, but I had to drag a busted exercise machine out of my basement this morning and got grease all over my hands. Some of it came off w/ soap and water, but the real miracle grease remover were the Wet Ones hand wipes. Genuinely surprising, but good.
I still enjoy reading stuff on Twitter and occasionally doing a reply, but posting anything that might anger conservatives seems increasingly dangerous there. Not just the doxxing gangs but the fact that Musk is openly tolerating them (and possibly giving them user PII details) in violation of TOS.
October 17, 2025 at 11:17 PM
I still enjoy reading stuff on Twitter and occasionally doing a reply, but posting anything that might anger conservatives seems increasingly dangerous there. Not just the doxxing gangs but the fact that Musk is openly tolerating them (and possibly giving them user PII details) in violation of TOS.
Rather than fully humanoid robots, I think you want something that rolls on wheels but can lift itself up stairs with "lifting legs" or something. Much more stable and safe around people, no accidental kicking and less likely to fall. Give it some arms and make it reasonably tall so it can reach
October 17, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Rather than fully humanoid robots, I think you want something that rolls on wheels but can lift itself up stairs with "lifting legs" or something. Much more stable and safe around people, no accidental kicking and less likely to fall. Give it some arms and make it reasonably tall so it can reach