Notices by Matt Blaze (mattblaze@federate.social)

@ai6yr @NilaJones @me_valentijn The risk is that the administration gets the message: Stop bothering people that the MAGA base likes (Europeans, (some) Asians, etc), and everyone will continue supporting you.

They only have a problem is when the draconian crackdown is implemented impartially.

Lincoln Tunnel Ventilation Tower, 491 11th Ave, NYC, 2025.

All the pixels, none of the carbon monoxide, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/54365775629

#photography

Battersea Power Station, London, UK, 2024.

All the pixels, but no food court, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/54079042655

#photography

You are probably having a better day than the captain of that tall ship that lost a fight with the Brooklyn bridge just now.

Trump seems to think that turning an existing production 747-800 into an AF1 plane is simply a matter of changing the seating layout and the paint scheme.

The AF1 747s are built with vastly different communications and avionics so they can serve as secure flying command posts during emergencies. They can be refueled in mid-air (a tanker plane follows it around when the president is on board, just in case).

They're also used in pairs, with the other plane on standby at a nearby airport.

Imagine you scheduled a group brainstorming session to get some important work done, and one of the attendees casually mentions that they took LSD for the first time right before the meeting.

That's how you should treat ChatGPT output.

For the record, my personal policy is generally to refuse gifts of widebody jet airplanes from foreign governments.

Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC, 2020.

All the pixels, but none of the civil war or assassination, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/50402933763

#photography

MOVE was, without doubt, guilty of being annoying. They had occasional confrontations with police. There were unsanitary conditions. Their neighbors complained about them. But the response was a case study in wildly disproportionate overreaction that should never be forgotten as a cautionary tale of where militarization of local police leads.

I think the MOVE bombing isn't as well remembered as it should be partly because it's so over-the-top crazy that people brush it off as something where "there must be more to it than that". But no. The police department literally used a helicopter to drop an incendiary bomb on a row house in order to evict the occupants, burning down two city blocks in the process. That's what happened.

40 years ago today, the Philadelphia Police Department used a helicopter to firebomb the headquarters of MOVE, a radical collective that was being evicted for what amounted to building code violations. Eleven people died (including five children). The fire eventually spread and completely burned down two city blocks.

Then the remains of those killed, were, for unclear reasons, turned over to the U. Penn Museum, where they sat for decades. https://share.inquirer.com/m7vjmf

"Bowl For Health", Treasure Island, San Francisco, CA, 2007

All the pixels, none of the rental shoes, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/2123765265/

#photography

This was captured with a BetterLight scanning digital back and Nikkor 90mm lens on a Sinar P 4x5 camera.

This now-demolished bowling alley was part of the Treasure Island Naval Station, closed about 15 years earlier and then just starting to be redeveloped (a process that's been slowed by serious environmental contamination).

The composition emphasizes the simple lines of the structure and the isolated, rather desolate setting.

San Francisco's Treasure Island is a weird place. An artificial island built adjacent to Yerba Buena Island in the middle of the Bay Bridge, it initially hosted the 1939 World's fair, with plans to then use it for the city's main airport. At the start of WW II, the US government appropriated it for use as a Naval station. After the Cold War, the government returned the island to the city. It was extensively contaminated by radioactive waste from decontamination training conducted on the island.

Just defeated the final boss in the world’s worst video game. Grades for the semester successfully submitted.

One World Trade Center (and Neighbors), NYC, 2019.

All the pixels, none of the traffic, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/49291055921

#photography

West Trenton (Ewing), NJ, 2015.

Enough pixels that you might miss your train if you try to count them at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/21010463488/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/21010463488/

#photography

Do popes leave a final letter for their successor the way presidents do? If so, I'll be this one says "whatever you do, don't meet with JD Vance."

Stupidly specific fact: The Vatican is one of four sovereign states located within the Schengen area without land border controls but not actually a party to the treaty. (The others are Andorra, Monaco, and San Marino).

The whole "tariffs on foreign film production" thing is so dumb and confusing that I'll bet that it's just that he doesn't like movies with subtitles.