Brinens and Things

Comments on my own posts:

[cw: illness] The one about sore throats and impending doom [two comments]


[cw: government bullshit] ""Fun"" fact of the day (March 1, 2024)


[fairly mild cw: illness] 2020s music, part 3

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Comments on other people's posts:

[cw: corporate bullshit] [Thoughts of Mine; Wayback] (OP by Mabel Schaefer) Fun with cell-phone-plan loopholes. [two or three comments, depending on how you count]


[cw: what it says on the tin] [WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by slavicafire) Food-disgust test.


[cw: food (with picture)] [WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by lnthefade) This is a thing that is now, unfortunately, not being offered at Disney World.


[fairly mild cw: discourse] [Dreamwidth; Wayback] (OP by mindstalk) A modest proposal for affordable food/housing.


[cw: illness] [Dreamwidth; Wayback] (OP by siderea) Changing mask tech for a changing world.

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Links:

[cw: death, (arguably) discourse] [New York Times - Wayback] (by Helen Ouyang; h/t swimmer) The race to reinvent CPR.


[Crystalverse; Wayback] (by Chase) How to grow pyramid salt crystals.

Comments on my own posts:

The one about Recoll

[cw: what it says on the tin] The one about plague nightmares [one comment, not counting the postscript]

[fairly mild cw: war, amnesia] The one about remembrance poppies

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Comments on other people's posts:

[Substack; Wayback] (OP by Evan Þ) If you enjoy my posts in which I express wildly alien intuitions about things, you may enjoy me dipping my toes into a (very polite) discussion of free will. (At least, I assume these intuitions are wildly alien from how often I see people say things that only make sense under different intuition sets. In any case, we are pleased to offer the finest autoxenoanthropology here at Brinens and Things.) [two comments]

[cw: poverty, venting] [WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by catchymemes) In which I have a lot of psychological baggage around museums.

[cw: death, aging, apocalypse] [WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by treadwells) Cottagecore and a broader view of danger.

[Dreamwidth; Wayback] (OP by mindstalk) The hole in comparative social-media discussions left by ignorance of Tumblr.

[cw: food, poison, illness, (arguably) death] [WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by ultraviolet-divergence) Dealing with the latest big listeria outbreak.

[cw: (strong) illness, (strong) apocalypse, bugs] [Dreamwidth; Wayback] (OP by siderea; in response to ewt) The wonders of PPE, climate-catastrophe edition.

[fairly mild cw: corporate bullshit] [WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by rustingbridges; in response to bulbous-oar) How to selectively prevent Android apps from accessing the Internet.

[Scribble Hub; Wayback] (OP by wingedcatgirl) Isekais and the importance of caution when carrying irreplaceable otherworldly technology.

[WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by headspace-hotel) Poetic meter and artistic instincts.

[WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by reptile-ruler) Fighting Tumblr's slippage down the slope towards Internet silos.

[cw: illness, apocalypse, (arguably) amnesia] [WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by eightyonekilograms; partly in response to sigmaleph) In the future, "zoonosis" will be a word everyone knows; knowing *where* they learned it is another matter. [two comments, sort of]

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Links:

[Imgur; Wayback] Live wire-sculpture (not to be confused with live-wire sculpture).

[arguably cw: injury, embarrassment squick] [Hackaday; Wayback] (by Lewin Day) False positives on Apple's automatic car-crash 911 calling.

[CBS; Wayback] (by Phil Galewitz) Over-the-counter hearing aids now available in the United States.

(Although I am also having feelings about this sentence:

A pair of prescription devices typically sells for {{USD}}$2,000 to $8,000.

Only if you're getting ripped off, dude. Go to Costco. *So* glad we told the non-chain hearing-aid centre to go fuck themselves when they wanted six grand: the perfectly fine Costco hearing aids were CAD$1,800 *before* the $1,000 government subsidy. (that's not even *counting* the refundable tax credits I might be able to wring out of it))

[Kiwix; Wayback] What is the size of Wikipedia? (Also, your regular reminder that Kiwix is amazing and you should check it out. (And it gets even *better* than amazing after you figure out how to make your own ZIM files.))

[AO3; Wayback] (by Edonohana; h/t Ozy Brennan) The intricacies of tardigrade literature.

[cw: what it says on the tin] [Dreamwidth; Wayback] (by siderea) Stop relying on Twitter for third-party authentication.

[cw: what it says on the tin] [Science; Wayback] (by Arevalo et al; h/t KelseyTUOC) A 20-valent influenza vaccine, containing examples of every known flu subtype. Works well in mice and ferrets, soon to be tested in primates and--hopefully--humans. In addition to the obvious benefits, it shows promise of providing cross-protection against novel influenza strains.


Three laugh-rule entries:
[cw: corporate bullshit] [Twitter; Wayback] (by rahaeli) Sporking the Cohost terms of service.

[Youtube; Wayback] (by Lauren Lopez and Robert Manion; h/t Blazing Darkness) Bella Swan is sixteen, going on seventeen...

[cw: scopophobia, (arguably) corporate bullshit] [Reddit; Wayback] (h/t trivialagent) It's not paranoia if they're really out to get you.

Comments on my own posts:

A major overhaul of the respirator guide, integrating new things I've learned.

The one about vacations from prioritising

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Comments on other people's posts:

[WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by magnetictapedatastorage) How to analog-hole. [two comments, sort of]

[arguably cw: war, discourse] [WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by Anonymous; in response to mitigatedchaos) How to set up a society with the network power and carlessness of large cities but not the sensory overload or vulnerability to bombs; probably not actually feasible from here, but great to steal for worldbuilding purposes.

[arguably cw: scrupulosity] [WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by worldoptimization) Effective altruism and its compatibility with self-interest.

[cw: medical, discussion (but not inclusion) of infohazards] [WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by garmbreak1; in response to the-dao-of-the-zerg) Why not to play music in public.

[cw: aging, medical, (fairly mild) illness, (fairly mild) injury, (arguably) venting] [WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by paradigm_adrift) Not all health changes are negative.

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Links:

[University of New South Wales; Wayback] (by Neil Martin) A proof-of-concept of infrared solar panels. The headline calls it "night-time solar", but the real killer app here might be devices (particularly medical implants) that run on body heat.

[Pompeii in Colour; Wayback] Virtual museum exhibit: "A Roman Home".

Comments on my own posts:

Comment and Link Roundup: November 17, 2021

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Comments on other people's posts:

[arguably cw: nsfw text, rape] [AO3; Wayback] (OP by Ysabetwordsmith; in response to Lurker2) Five and a half years ago, I got Ysabet to add a content warning on her story "Touching Moments", which at one point attempts to hypnotise the reader (yes, I was pretty upset to have that sprung on me). Recently someone came through, found my comments on this, and went "wait, what? that's a thing? how concerned should I be about this being a thing?". I gave them some safe-sex lessons. [five comments, three of which are new]

[cw: (artwork of) blood and injuries, (arguably) drugs] [WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by inz0913; in response to maryellencarter) Sleep deprivation may cause higher reblog rates of fanart depicting sleepy cuddling: further research needed.

[cw: death, apocalypse, unreality] [WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by quasi-normalcy) In which I consider a creepypasta as a thought experiment.

[WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by rustingbridges) Hand-moisturising techniques. [three comments]

[cw: Christmas, venting] [WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by itsbenedict) Some Christmas-music radio stations, it turns out, are much worse than others.

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Links:

[Matt Blaze's Exhaustive Search; Wayback] (by Matt Blaze; h/t Bruce Schneier) Testing phone-scale Faraday cages.

[Foreign Policy; Wayback] (by Paul Musgrave; h/t Bret Devereaux) The history of Pepsi's relationship with the Soviet Union.

Laugh rule:
[cw: amnesia, corporate bullshit] [Forkast; Wayback] (by Angie Lau, Marta Belcher, and Brewster Kahle)

And whenever we sort of stand around and go and shout and get angry at something, it's like maybe we should be a little bit more Canadian and look and say, I think I'm going to listen to the other side this time.

There is a blanket [cw: illness] on the rest of this post.

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I wanted to title this "And hoped by stretching tall that they might keep their land/Their home, their hearth, their flesh and soul", but it doesn't quite fit in the title box.

[cw: illness]

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Comments on my own posts:

Ask me about my special interests [six comments, two of which are new]

Blog formatting skills [three comments, two of which are new]

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Comments on other people's posts:

[WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by rustingbridges) How to keep Firefox browsing history indefinitely.

[WordPress; Wayback] (OP by theredsheep) WordPress posts are harder to take back than you might think.

[WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by baption0 of Reddit) How many "chuggas" are you supposed to say before "choo choo"?

[Dreamwidth; Wayback] (OP by contrarianarchon) Automated receipt transcription.

[WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by rustingbridges) Problems with reCAPTCHA. [four comments, two of which are new]

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Links:

[CNET; Wayback] (by Jackson Ryan; h/t ilzo-misc) Living radiation-shielding.

[cw: violence, arson, death] [Bloomberg; Wayback] (by Jeff Maysh; h/t Matt Levine) The story of a Pepsi bottle-cap contest gone horribly wrong.



There is a blanket [cw: illness] on the rest of this post.

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Comments on my own posts:

The one about rotated stockpiles [two comments]

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Comments on other people's posts:

[Dreamwidth; Wayback] (OP by wolffyluna) Six degrees of Scientific Kevin Bacon.

[Dreamwidth; Wayback] (OP by ilzolende; in response to contrarianarchon) How to back up webcomics; browser choice. [five comments, two of which are new]

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Links:

[GQ; Wayback] (by Josh Dean) The story of a particularly clever bank heist.

[Tumblr; Wayback] (by muge_niu; h/t ilzo-misc) AO3 has been banned by the Great Firewall of China. (official AO3 confirmation of inaccessibility, though not outright stating that it's because of censorship) I am saddened but not surprised (if anything, I'm surprised this didn't happen sooner).

Comments on my own posts:

Casual game rec: GeoGuessr

The one about expanding Internet access

Not a comment exactly, but I did add another paragraph to How to Backup Your Dreamwidth after getting a little more experience with the method.

Question of the Day: January 21, 2019 (the one about clones) [two comments]

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Comments on other people's posts:

[Tumblr; Wayback] (OP by cptsdcarlosdevil) Is porn a thing you *read* or a thing you *watch*?

[Dreamwidth; Wayback] (OP by ilzolende) Dreamwidth seems like a perfectly reasonable place to blog about gender and sexuality.

[Dreamwidth; Wayback] (OP by contrarianarchon) Archiving tips. [two comments]

[cw: illness] [Dreamwidth; Wayback] (OP by somnulencelogencia) Nudism and sanitation.

[Dreamwidth; Wayback] (OP by contrarianarchon) Insert that Shalom Sesame song about how hot it is here. (oh, hey, looks like somebody uploaded "Sing Around the Seasons" to Youtube since the last time I wanted to link that episode; the recording's pretty low quality, but a lot better than nothing)

[cw: nsfw text] [Tumblr; Wayback] (OP by oligopsony; response is to cptsdcarlosdevil) There's a difference between "not into anything on a list of eleven common fetishes" and "vanilla".

[Dreamwidth; Wayback] (OP by youarenotthewalrus) Just because Tumblr isn't deserted doesn't mean nothing's changed.

[Dreamwidth; Wayback] (OP by thedarlingone) I linked this in the last roundup (the one about ask-meme responses), but there's been more conversation since then.

[Dreamwidth; Wayback] (OP by glacialtimeframe) The best X in Y, whatever that means.

[Dreamwidth; Wayback] (OP by ilzolende) ""Extreme male brain"". (it occurs to me that the post I linked has a followup post that I did not link; here it is)

[I'm not sure what content warning to put on this, maybe "unsanitary"] [Tumblr; Wayback] (OP is an anonymous submission to rationalists-out-of-context) Does sexual arousal interfere with urination?

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Links:

[Smithsonian Magazine; Wayback] (by Brigit Katz) For a short time, there was a living cotton plant in a tiny greenhouse on the Moon (as part of the Chang'e mission).

Laugh rule:
[Youtube] (by Matt Parker; h/t Mom) A stand-up routine about how unironically great spreadsheets are.

[Youtube] (by Weird Al Yankovic) I was vaguely aware of the existence of the song "I Think I'm a Clone Now", but since we've been talking about clones around here it seemed like an appropriate time to go listen to it.

[Atlantic; Wayback] (by Ed Yong) Apparently that "sonic weapon" American diplomats in Cuba experienced turned out to be crickets. Cuban crickets can sound pretty unnerving if you don't know what to expect.

[Tumblr; Wayback] (by ilzolende) More Dreamwidth-friendly versions of expanding-brain images. (example)

[Vice; Wayback] (by Joseph Cox) North Korea has its own operating system, and it is very North Korean.