From Pine View Farm

Nor Any Drop To Drink 0

Even as the Colorado shrinks, Big Tech drinks. From El Reg:

Datacenters in America used about 17 billion gallons of water during 2023, triple the amount they used a decade earlier in 2014, according to an estimate from US Congressional Research Service (CRS).

Share

Kleptocracy 0

Grung_e_Gene raises an interesting point: The Trump maladministration is interested, not in the public good, but only in the public’s goods

Share

Republican Thought Police 0

The Trump maladministration again exercises its freedom of repress.

Correspondent Lara Korte, editor-in-chief Erik Slavin, and publisher Max Lederer were all fired from their posts at Stars and Stripes on Friday, the latest attack on press freedom by President Donald Trump and members of his administration — this time targeting the paper that provides daily news to US servicemembers spread across the globe.

Details at the link.

Share

Devolution 0

WHYY. my old NPR/PBS station in Philly, explores why younger persons are turning to “social” media as a source of news. Methinks it a worthwhile read given the state of dis coarse discourse.

Here’s a tiny bit:

(Media strategist Rachel–ed.) Lobdell said social media, by design, has made it so that individuals no longer need to turn to large platforms to receive news.

“It’s a much less controlled top-down environment,” Lobdell said. “That also has its downsides. There can be a lot of confusion over what is true and what is not true.”

Share

Know Them by the Company They Keep 0

Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Il dancing down a hillside.  In the backgroud, Democratic Donkey says,

Via Job’s Anger.

Share

“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Another child.

A 3-year-old boy is hospitalized with serious injuries after being shot Sunday morning in what authorities are calling an apparent accident inside a Hartford home.

The shooting occurred while the child was in bed with his parents and a firearm placed under a pillow discharged, according to Geneva County Sheriff Tony Helms.

“Apparent accident.” Obvious neglignece is more like it.

So many guns. So much stupid.

Share

QOTD 0

Benjamin Whichcote:

Among politicians the esteem of religion is profitable; the principles of it are troublesome.

Share

A Tune for the Times 0

Share

Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Your BFF? At the Psychology Today website, F. Diane Barth reminds us that “(t)here is no capacity in AI bots for conflict or self-awareness.”

Share

The Sycophancier 0

Steve M. offers a theory as to Donald Trump’s fascination with Natalie Harp:

But Trump has always rejected information that contradicted his upbeat viewpoint. He’s always wallowed in happy talk. If Harp weren’t the one telling him what he wants to hear, it would be someone else.

Follow the link for his reasoning.

Share

The Welcome Zap 0

Caption:  Minority Outreach.  Image:  ICE agent wearing vest labeled

Click for the original image.

Somehow, I don’t think this is what Emma Lazurus had in mind when she wrote

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

Afterthought:

Metninks that the crucial item that our “news” media fears to address is this:

The core value that unites Trump with the Trumpeetes is racism.

Without that, they have nothing.

Share

The Crypto Con 0

Thom follows Donald Trump’s funny phoney money.

Share

Responsible Fiscals . . . 0

, , , seem incapable of remembering what they are responsible for.

Share

The Me Veneration 0

Writing at the Kansas City Star, Terry Albright offers an unlikely theory as to the origins of Donald Trump’s desire to slap his taint on everything.

I say “unlikely,” because I suspect Trump has no clue as the the precedent Allbright posits. See what you think.

Share

QOTD 0

Albert Camus:

A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.

Q. E. D.

Share

A Tune for the Times 0

Share

The Enablers 0

Title:  The Real Trump Derangement Syndrome.  Image:  Donald Trump dressed as Napoleon screaming out crazy things as the GOP Congress follows along saying,

Click for the original image.

Share

“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Yet another “responsible gun owner” demonstrates politeness on the pavement.

Musical NotesGuns and stupid, guns and stupid,
They go together like love and Cupid.
Let me tell you, brother,
You won’t find one without the other.

Share

Plastics People, You’re Such a Drag* 0

I find this worrying.

Microplastics were detected inside a third of insects across six streams within the Schuylkill River watershed, according to a new study by the Stroud Water Research Center.

Researchers at the nonprofit analyzed aquatic insects like mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies that were collected between 1998 and 2019. . . .

They’re everywhere, even inside our brains.

I doubt that’s healthy.

_______________________

*With apologies to Frank Zappa.

Share

The Disinformation Superhighway 0

B. C. character Thor reading the

Click for the original image.

Share
From Pine View Farm
Privacy Policy

This website does not track you.

It contains no private information. It does not drop persistent cookies, does not collect data other than incoming ip addresses and page views (the internet is a public place), and certainly does not collect and sell your information to others.

Some sites that I link to may try to track you, but that's between you and them, not you and me.

I do collect statistics, but I use a simple stand-alone Wordpress plugin, not third-party services such as Google Analitics over which I have no control.

Finally, this is website is a hobby. It's a hobby in which I am deeply invested, about which I care deeply, and which has enabled me to learn a lot about computers and computing, but it is still ultimately an avocation, not a vocation; it is certainly not a money-making enterprise (unless you click the "Donate" button--go ahead, you can be the first!).

I appreciate your visiting this site, and I desire not to violate your trust.