Stuff I See Around The old Interweb

Pros:

Doctors paying off their medical loans with prize money

Chronically ill people getting free testing (MRIs, CAT scans, X-Rays, bloodwork, etc) and possibly a diagnosis

You can ding points for 'anxiety' and 'you just need to lose some weight'

Doctors are incentivized to find an answer, not just find something billable

Cons:

HIPAA

Each doctor can order a limited number of tests. You win the most prize money if a test that you've ordered comes back positive for something that makes sense with the symptoms. (Additional checking is required for tests with a high rate of false positives.) Prize money is split if there are multiple winners.

If no one gets a positive test, there's a smaller prize for suggesting a treatment that the patient uses while measurably improving over the course of 3-6 months. And an even smaller fallback prize for subjective improvement.

I think a fun element would be "if a chronically ill person with no degree can identify what's wrong with the patient before you do, they get a cash prize (you are still in charge of actually doing the tests that confirm or disprove it)." So if you spend six weeks doing genetic tests and X-rays but some MCAS girlie listened to a five-minute description of symptoms and went 'yeah, you've got [thing]' before you officially considered it, their chunk of the cash comes out of your winnings

And for everyone saying "this is just the House MD tournament arc"...

HOWEVER

I can imagine a game changer episode where some contestants, probably youtuber guests like Dr. Mike or something, have to guess already-diagnosed chronic illnesses of audience volunteers.

Except in the hour of need, a binface stepped up.

Thirty-three states have banded together to sue Meta, alleging that the company was exploiting its young users on Instagram and Facebook for profit, including by collecting data from children without parental consent. Four of those states—California, New Jersey, Colorado and Kentucky—also claim that the company misled consumers about the addictive design features on the platforms, thereby causing mental health problems in children who got hooked from an early age. The damages requested by those four states add up to a whopping $1.4 trillion, Meta said in a recent court filing, a figure that would allegedly go even higher with the other penalties the attorneys general seek to add. The number is high by many standards but especially when compared to the company’s market capitalization, which is just above $1.5 trillion.

Duff also noted that the deletion of data in the midst of an ongoing investigation by the OIG was cause for increased concern. “Once you become aware that certain information is likely to be of interest to the public and you prevent access to that information and that information indeed disappears, I think inferences of irregularity are heightened, and I'm being charitable in the way I'm expressing that,” he says.

This may not have been the first time data was deleted from the NLRB system, according to Berulis’ complaint. “On or about March 6, 2025, at least one account’s naming structure suggested that it might have been created and later deleted for DOGE to use in the NLRB’s cloud systems,” wrote Berulis.

“In a functioning Congress that was performing its oversight function, this would be something that would result in a committee hearing and hard questions that weren’t covered in the GAO report,” says Moynihan. “Someone from the agency would need to go and testify under oath about what happened. My expectation is we're not gonna see anything like that between now and November.”

Federal Investigators Say Certain DOGE Records Were Deleted

The stash is full

The potential is limitless

I have these spindle-spun yarns - the blue is merino (easy to find), the natural white and browns are romeldale (irreplaceable - unavailable in this country, moderate sentimental value, approx 120g of each brown and just 60g of the white). Maths willing, I believe I have enough for three separate scarf warps in deflected doubleweave, of which I want at least one to be in natural fleece colours only.

Deflected doubleweave can make many wonderful and baffling shapes, but unfortunately drafting it also baffles me - I find it harder than usual to intuit how the finished cloth comes together. In DDW there are (at least) two separate layers of fabric that move through each other, the layers woven together as a whole but the individual threads only ever interacting with those in their own layer. So I am starting simple: one layer of the greyer brown, one layer of lighter brown + cream, linked together just in diagonals.

The way they move through each other will be a lot easier to demonstrate once the fabric is underway. I'd love to start with a cloth diagram and create a draft from that, but it's so easy to draw things that are unweavable. I might warp enough for two scarves and try more adventurous shapes in the second scarf based on vibes; drafting software just doesn't give me vibes feedback at all.

New warp new warp new warp! Many lessons learnt (possibly) (maybe) about winding skeins into balls or spools first. It takes time and effort but god it saves so much more. Definitely my jankiest winding but I have high hopes that beaming and threading may go more smoothly, even if some threads need to be tensioned separately during weaving. Low hopes that I got my arithmetic correct - the second scarf in this warp may end up quite colourful indeed if I run out of these yarns for the weft.

Beeeeeeaaaaaaammmmmmm ☀️

This yarn is SO soft. The commercial wools I buy on cones tend to feel quite harsh and thin - they haven't had the oil washed off and they are spun quite tight, though they soften up beautifully after washing. I haven't washed this yarn since spinning it, it still has the oils from my hands, yet it is soft springy lofty goodness all the way. Quite happy with my plying as I used to spin fine singles but ply them like wire.

And despite this one's lofty 2ply fragility and occasionally slubs/ knots/ repairs, no breaks! The earliest-wound edge (at left in second photo) is a bit looser than the rest, but I think it will be manageable.

Threaded and sleyed, extremely easy!

Anticipated to be difficult: tensioning during/ after tying on. This yarn is SO stretchy and springy that it won't stay at whatever length I put it at, unlike cotton/ linen/ less stretchy wools. As soon as I put any tension on it the length changes drastically and I think it's more likely to exaggerate problems than forgive them. It was already hard to get those overhand knots at even slightly consistent heights.

It's stupid conceptually, but do you know who proves it wrong?

Ukraine 🇺🇦

Since the turd got back in office aid to Ukraine has been slashed

And in the last few months Ukraine has made russia its bitch

Ukraine did not collapse as trump his cronies and putin bet it would, they adapted, they found new partners, relied on their own know how, embraced the fact that no US aid means less leverage and more freedom to strike russia as they please

A documentary just aired on public television that asserted repeatedly that the Spanish language was never an imposition, that it was embraced throughout because the “natives” recognised how useful and superior it was as an instrument for high culture and intelectual endeavours.

They believe that btw. Even as they prosecute the languages other than Spanish in Spain itself right now, today, as we speak.

You will have difficulty convincing a “normal” Spanish person that what happened in South America was not, on the whole, basically good for the people who lived there. It’s the mainstream understanding of the thing. And then there’s the right and the far right.

They’ve been asked to ask forgiveness for the genocide and they honestly believe that’s coming from a bunch of ignorant radicals who don’t know their own history. They will never apologise, ever.

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