Notices by Bodhipaksa (bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot)

Perhaps the strangest directorial decision in Tod Browning's Dracula (1931) is that the count has armadillos scuttling around in his Transylvanian castle.

@kims This more like "Age and OS yourself," surely?

RE: https://mastodon.social/@zackwhittaker/116621327185195576

‘A button gives the option to “text President Trump,” which, when clicked, opens a text message to a pre-selected number with the default text “Greatest President Ever!”’

RE: https://mastodon.world/@jeffowski/116619038437392628

A new Museum of American Treason.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@Tutanota/116521203382846336

This is insane. Google Chrome is now malware.

Theists look at the world and believe that such complexity and beauty can only come from some kind of intelligence.

Richard Dawkins looks at the words Claude produces and believes such complexity and beauty can only come from some kind of intelligence.

Dawkins is making exactly the same mistake as the theists he scorns.

https://www.dailygrail.com/2026/05/the-claude-delusion-richard-dawkins-believes-his-female-ai-chatbot-is-conscious/

Pete Hegseth, US Secretary of Defense, argues that the greatest enemy of the United States is not Russia, China, or Iran, but any elected representative who opposes Donald Trump.

“The biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans.”

This is what fascism looks like.

This criminal investigation smacks of Justice Department targeting its political enemies. I'm pretty sure that not many donors to the SPLC will be upset that funds were used to pay people to infiltrate and spy on far-right groups.

https://apnews.com/article/southern-poverty-law-center-criminal-investigation-db7fdcf9baa0d1b24b8f1e1f2cebc0be

Former attorney for the DoJ confirms my suspicions. This is warfare, conducted, though the DoJ, against a nonprofit that shows up the most hateful elements on the right for what they are.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vXk_GZWuojI

Orbán, who has just been sent packing, has been preventing the EU from sending funds to Ukraine. So the election really is a double-whammy for Putin and a double boost for democracy.

Up to 777 people have been held at an Arizona ICE facility designed for 157. There are no beds, no showers. People sleep on concrete floors and have been held there for up to 18 days — that we know of.

The treatment of these people is utterly inhumane. After we take power back from the fascists there's going to have to be a reckoning.

https://azmirror.com/2026/04/10/ice-overcrowding-like-sardines-congressional-oversight-arizona/

None of us are safe. The Trump administration does not accept that we have a firsdt amendment right to criticize them.

"The Trump administration has stepped up an effort to unmask a Reddit user who criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). After failing to obtain information through a summons issued to Reddit, the government reportedly issued a subpoena demanding that Reddit provide the information and appear before a grand jury in Washington, DC."

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/04/trump-admin-hounds-reddit-to-reveal-identity-of-user-who-criticized-ice/

"Behind closed doors [Trump] was talking about launching a preemptive strike against North Korea and of using a nuclear weapon against the country and blaming someone else for the strike."

I don't remember hearing in 2017 that Trump had to be talked out of nuking North Korea and blaming it on someone else.

Is this another instance of an NYT journalist sitting on a story of massive public interest for years so that they can write a book?

Lifted from an account that doesn't use alt text.

RE: https://infosec.exchange/@briankrebs/116280575943263005

This is insane...

@WarnerCrocker I didn't imagine you'd given up your faith in the rule of law. But if we stop talking about it, people start to forget its importance. Then Trump has won, because his behavior is accepted as normal.

And yes, the US has been terrible at imposing consequences on powerful people. What's happening now shows that that has to change.

@WarnerCrocker I disagree. Trump wants us to stop thinking in terms of legality and constitutionality, because he wants to have unchecked power and to face no legal consequences. The rest of us need to hew to the perspective that the law and constitution matter. One day we will take this country back and there will have to be consequences. That won't happen if we abandon our belief in the rule of law.

I've always been suspicious of Deepak Chopra. He's a businessman who presents himself as a spiritual teacher. A lot of what he says is quantum technobabble, designed to manipulate the unwary into thinking he has depths.

So OF COURSE he's in the Epstein files. And OF COURSE half the time he's emailing with Epstein he's repeating his mantra, "bring the girls."

May the news spread wide and far about this shyster. A fall from grace might make him a better person.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2026/02/23/deepak-chopra-jeffrey-epstein-emails/88821384007/

Has anyone ever applied the Bechdel test to opera? (Does the opera include two women singing to each other about something other than a man?)

I'll start:

Puccini's Tosca: Fail.
Delibes' Lakmé: Pass.

I discovered today that someone had set up an AI, based on me, to give teachings on meditation and Buddhism. Apparently it's based on Google's LLM, whatever that's called.

The motive wasn't to make me redundant. It was an attempt to persuade me to start using this AI as part of my teaching, so that I can "boost your content work" or "create new services with AI to upsale [sic] with your customer [sic]."

Being cloned is creepy.