David Hand

@ptolemar.ch

512 Followers 229 Following

Little teapot. Ex-programmer? Unabashed user of Gentoo. Acceded to #NAFO on 2023 Apr 25. He/him/etc.

The flag of Juneteenth. Blazoned per fess arched azure gules in fess point a mullet argent a mullet of 12 argent voided.
A parody of the title card for an episode of Star Trek. Title is: "The Supremacy Enigma"
Cover of a novel by qntm, There Is No Antimemetics Division
Page 187 of The Most Awful Responsibility, by Alex Wellerstein. Highlighted text reads, "Truman very much wanted to believe that the Soviets had the bomb". The latter half of the page reads as follows: It makes for a curious episode. From the beginning, Truman's attitude toward the detection of the first Soviet atomic bomb test is bizarre, ranging from an apparent lack of concern to a total denialism. It is clear that his advisers were similarly perplexed, and that they orchestrated opportunity after opportunity to "force" Truman into coming to the (to them obvious) conclusion that he needed to announce that the A merican atomic monopoly was over. His objections to the announcement made little sense to them then, and even less sense in hindsight. And his denialism is patently bizarre, and perhaps only at all sustainable because the Soviets did not, in the end, make any grand announcement about their atomic capabilities, apparently preferring to let the Americans speculate and worry in the dark. One might conclude then that this is some kind of psychological reaction, some kind of defense mechanism, some kind of attempt (like much denialism is) to assert control, consciously or not. But why? Clearly, Truman very much wanted to believe that the Soviets had the bomb, despite being genuinely aware that the American monopoly would not exist forever, and even after being told that it would likely end on his watch.
Poster for the director's cut of Das Boot, by Wolfgang Petersen.
Opening video of Ultima VI: The False Prophet, a 1990 computer game.
Preliminary election results for the Republican primary for US House, Ohio's 9th District. Derek Merrin has 43.7% and is the projected winner. Josh Williams has 26.1%. Madison Sheahan has 18.9%. Anthony Bruce Campbell has 5.9%. Alea Nadeem has 5.5%.
Three protestors. One wears an axolotl costume, one wears a penguin costume, and one wears a hooded coat. The axolotl carries a sign saying, "I was pretty sure my great grandparents had beaten this part. Why am I still fighting nazis". The penguin wears a button saying, "No war with Iran". The third protestor carries a sign saying, "Read the Constitution: No Dictator, No Oligarch, No King".
A view of traffic, passing by protestors, from the inside of an inflatable penguin suit.
"Marked Safe" meme. A triangular blue flag rises flies above the words, "Marked Safe From".
Meme generated from Dune poster art. Muad'Dib and Chani stand at bottom. The former is holding his dagger in the "may you knife chip and shatter" salute. Above is text, in two columns, each corresponding to a Sator Square, though the left column is in Rotas form. Left column reads: "ROTAS OPERA TENET AREPO SATOR". Right column has the same words, in opposite order.
Meme generated from Dune poster art. Muad'Dib and Chani stand at bottom. The former is holding his dagger in the "may you knife chip and shatter" salute. Text above reads, "It's Mine: says so right there".
Language selection list for Kagi translator. At the bottom of the list, after "Zhuang" and "Zulu", is "Larry Wall".
An excerpt from the linked article. It reads: "There is no role for the city of Toledo to obstruct or hinder the enforcement of those laws, and members of the council should know that. "Last Thursday, a group called the Toledo Chapter of American Muslims for Palestine went so far as to urge council [sic] to pass legislation stating that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would not be allowed into spaces like schools, hospitals, and shelters."
Cover art of the novel, A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine. Art shows a supplicant approaches an emperor, seated in a massive throne styled as a sunburst.
Detail of a medieval depiction of Charles the Bald. Under his crown, brown hair is depicted, such that his ear peeks out of it.
Radio Shack 74HCT00 Quad 2-Input NAND Gate in a 14-pin dual-line package. Enclosed in a hanging bubble-type display container. Catalog number 276-2801. Priced at $0.89.
Clip from Ghostbusters. Bill Murray says, "Yes, it's true. This man has no dick."
A five-year-old boy stands in a driveway wearing a blocky costume made from cardboard and copper paint.
My phone's home screen. Widgets and app icons litter the screen. Near the bottom, a row of six most-used icons: Phone, Signal, Bluesky, Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Firefox, and Camera. The M-W Dictionary icon is circled in cyan.
A clip from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Ford Prefect reaches for a pint as Arthur Dent says, "It must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays."
Screenshot from Minecraft on Android. The player has just gone to bed, and a message reads, "Sleeping through the night."
In a comic drawing (from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal), two priests discuss. The first says: "Weren't the Sodomites destroyed for being gay?" The second priest replies: "Uh no? They were destroyed for trying to force sex on genderless spirits temporarily inhabiting male bodies. It's practically unrelated." In the next panel, he continues: "In fact, their main sin is considered to be inhospitality! And you know what's a nice, hospitable thing you can do for a male visitor?"
The state of Michigan is shown with the label: "Hand injury".
A still from Starship Troopers (1997). Sgt Zim indicates the hand of Private Ace Levy, which has been transfixed by a knife.
Your humble narrator, grinning under his moustache, wearing an "Ohio Voted" sticker.
Clip from Star Trek VI. Klingon General Chang spins in his captain's chair while cackling: "Cry havoc! And let slip the dogs of war."
A protestor, laughing, carrying a sign that says, "So bad that the introverts are here".
A 1976 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, black, trimmed in gold, with a gold firebird painted on its hood.
A poor, possibly AI-enhanced, shot of the moon in total eclipse. Taken with a phone.
Das Rheingold: 2 hours, 19 minutes, 26 seconds. Die Walküre: 3 hours, 39 minutes, 51 seconds. Siegfried: 3 hours, 51 minutes, 40 seconds. Götterdämmerung: 4 hours, 14 minutes, 32 seconds. Total across Der Ring des Nibelungen: 14 hours, 5 minutes, 29 seconds.