Aelyce's Wonderland

Carolina Milanesi, an independent technology analyst, said Google is trying to make its cash cow business — search — richer and more personalized, and it will make shopping easier. But there is a risk that users may have fewer choices about what to click. "Right now it's: I ask a question, I get a bunch of answers and I feel that I'm in control as to which answer I take, or if I'm looking for something, which product I'm going to end up buying. That is going to be less so going forward," she said. Milanesi envisions AI-enabled search and agents proposing products to consumers — perhaps even those they have requested — but with less clarity or choice around where it's coming from. "If you're going to say: 'I want a pair of Jordans, go find them,' you're not necessarily sure what steps have been taken and whether the AI has used a source or a store that was paid for and therefore came up in the search results," she said, "or if AI actually went and did their due diligence and picked the best for me as a customer."

And here's one from Time magazine (May 20, 2026):

While Google already has “AI Mode,” the company will now power the whole search bar through its new Gemini 3.5 Flash model.  Instead of the classic list of blue links, Google Search will now also generate a custom page with an AI-generated summary of what you’re searching about, which will then trigger a conversation with AI Mode on the main page, allowing users to ask follow-up questions—similar to the kind of layout you would see when opening ChatGPT.

And a little more from Time's article on how this may affect the websites that we are trying to search for:

It also has a lot of different kinds of stitches you can do that make different densities of fabric.

I was surprised that I’d never heard of it though. It’s older than knitting and crocheting and even though it’s been done all over the world it’s super relevant to Nordic culture and my grandmother and I are both into keeping in touch with our roots a bit so I’m surprised I’ve never heard of it.

It’s also a lot easier to freehand and adjust as you go than crochet or knitting and you mostly go by inches instead of rows and number of stitches so a large number of accessories like stitch markers or whatever isn’t really necessary.

The downside as a beginner is that undoing mistakes is more time consuming than with knitting or crochet. You’ve gotta like sew your mistakes out backwards. Disadvantages of making a really sturdy fabric I guess.

I like the feel of this bone needle though and don’t think I’ll be trying the wooden or metal ones.

Also I think I’m gonna have to get good at doing Russian joining if I decide to get good at nalbinding because I don’t have wool yarn and the ends won’t felt together if it’s not at least 50% wool. A small price to pay for using big bone needle though.

@chocolatemicenwhiskey

@origami-trust

I took a screenshot of your tags before you fixed them >:D

@jovialjuggernaut @stephalupagous @untilfurthern0tice HERE.

From there it's not actually difficult to get the other soldiers onboard with covering up the fact that poor Ping took one for the team and got afflicted by the vagina curse, especially since it would have been all of them if they hadn't gotten the warning ahead of time. So they agree to help him cover it up, because obviously the army's not going to understand.

Mulan: Uh, what boobs? Huh? Where did these come from?

Mushu: *facepalms and thinks quickly* (speaks from the shadows) I AM THE SPIRIT OF THE LAKE! BEWARE MY CURSED WATERS FOR THEY WILL TURN MEN INTO WOMEN!

Mulan: Look-

Ling, Yao, and Chien Po: WE CAN EXPLAIN!!

[One convoluted, chaotic explanation later]

Shang: ...is this why you've all been insisting we don't camp anywhere that doesn't have a lake.

Shang: and then none of you actually swim in it.

Shang: and you all keep jumping at shadows.

Shang: wait a second Ping did this happen before or after you became insanely good at fighting?

Shang: did you get better at fighting after you became a woman.

Shang: are women better at fighting than us.

Mulan: ....uh. well. maybe? no one's ever tried to find out.

Yao: [thinking very fast] y'know Captain it's just so hard to find recruits these days.

Chien Po: Real shortage of men.

Ling: Lots of women, though.

Mulan: [catching on] Without marriage prospects.

Shang: You're right, men. The spirits must have done this in order to show us that we should be recruiting women as fighters.

Mushu [from the shadows, seeing an opportunity to do the funniest thing]: EXACTLY, LI SHANG. I HAVE TRANSFORMED PING INTO A WOMAN BECAUSE YOU HAVE TOO LONG OVERLOOKED THE TRUE WAY TO WIN THE WAR.

Mulan [seeing an opportunity to get all the stories straight]: O Great Spirit, is it reversible?

Mushu: WHY WOULD YOU WISH TO REJECT MY GIFT? I HAVE SEEN YOUR HEART, CHILD, AND HAVE ALREADY ALTERED THE MEMORIES OF EVERYONE WHO KNEW YOU BEFORE YOU LEFT FOR THE ARMY. YOU HAVE ALWAYS BEEN THEIR DAUGHTER.

Li Shang: Welp, the spirits have spoken. Ping - wait is your name still Ping if you're a woman now?

Mulan: Uh. Actually, I was thinking of renaming myself. How do you feel about Mulan?

BONUS:

Mulan [climbing out of the eleventh lake the men have arranged for her to swim in]: Yeah no, it didn't work. Still got boobs. [tries to appear dejected].

Chien Po: If it makes you feel better, they're very nice boobs.

Drinking horn with gilded copper mounts, Europe, 15th century

Not because the system is obviously unfair and terrible; that's completely fine. People deal with unfair and terrible systems all the time and there's no reason why going to an afterlife that sucks on a cosmic level means that the afterlife is fake -- maybe the universe just isn't fair. No, anyone who was a fraction less self-absorbed than the four humans would've figured it out by the party.

Because Michael does the little orientation video, where he explains the system. He explains that they, the very BEST people, who did the most good in the world, made it to heaven. And everybody else? "Don't worry about it." He says this to a guy who apparently died after donating his kidneys to a stranger on a bus. He says this to a guy who apparently spent half his life fighting for women's rights and the other half for gay rights in oppressive environments. He says this to a woman who apparently arranged, against the government, a volunteer organisation to personally go out there and clear out minefields around areas frequented by children. And then they all go to a big party...

and they don't give a shit.

At that point it should be blatantly obvious that the good place is fake. Because if you gather a bunch of people together based on the criteria that they selflessly gave their lives to help others, often "bad" people, and you tell them "oh, the vast majority of those people you helped will be tortured forever, don't worry about them, you get to relax in paradise, let's have a party", you would have a riot right there at the orientation. "Good" people, by the criteria Michael proposes, the kind of people who do the things that the actors are claiming they do, would simply not accept that; it goes against everything they are and everything they do. They would do exactly what they did for their whole lives, they would exhibit the priorities and personalities that got them into the good place in the first place.

I'd sit through the presentation thinking "okay, everyone's got their brave faces on, they don't want to attack an angel without preparation, this rebellion will require work, fine," and put on a fake smile, but when they gather at the party and there's not a hint of rebellion, of rage, of righteous fury against heaven? At that point, most people would know immediately that the people around them are lying. It just doesn't make sense for 322 people to change so radically in such a situation.

They probably were furious when they arrived. They probably fought and pleaded against their keepers for years. And their keepers had meetings where they talked about how unhappy the humans were and what they could add to make the afterlife more fun, like unicorns and giant mini donuts (not the same as regular donuts -- Dave will explain).

There is no unified Jewish concept of what happens after death.

Some Jews say that's it. You die, you're done. Some believe in reincarnation (don't be surprised--Judaism is technically an eastern religion). Some hew closer to the Christian idea of heaven. Others say when you're dead you're done until the Messiah comes and then we'll all come back to life. Some of us believe more than one of these things at a time. And these are only some of the possibilities.

Re: addressing the problem, presumably the humans in the real Good Place would have tried to raise their concerns regarding morality, the Bad Place, and the problem with eternal stimulation - Hypatia is aware, even in her addled state, of the problem and likely would have raised it earlier and, I imagine, is not the only person who would have raised it. The implication is that the “good” immortals are constrained to work within their lotus machine-style rewards because that’s all they can do, but it’s not clear what constrains them to do so. The show seems to imply that there was a capital G god who set it all up and then took off, but it’s never stated.

This is the real actual ending of The Martian.

Mostly true but, as a small point of correction, Adrian is named after Adrian Pennino.

SHE NEVER QUITS!!!!

> Elisabeth Bik is on patreon <