Notices by Brian Vastag (brianvastag@mas.to)

Oh, World Octopus Day almost went by without me posting this cutie that flashed me.

#WorldOctopusDay

Little anole on a hibiscus branch.

#lizard #herpetology #Hawaii

Jim Bakker was still alive? Who knew. Not me.

He outlived his nemesis, Frank Zappa, by over 30 years: Proof there is no god.

The ICECUBE experiment is so sci-fi, it deserved the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Francis Halzen was all, Hey, let's drill 2500-meter holes in the ice at the literal South Pole and put neutrino detectors down there.

The experiment fills an entire cubic kilometer. That deep ice is so pure that there's nothing for the neutrinos to hit except water molecules, and such collisions produce other particles that then move faster than light speed in ice so produce a flash of Cherenkov radiation, which is what the detectors see. Seeing high-energy neutrinos for the first time is helping with a bunch of outstanding astrophysics questions.

Funded by US tax dollars...yeah, we used to build cool stuff.

(Illustration from the Nobel Prize website.)

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2026/press-release/

#physics #astrophysics #science

Airlines are expanding the first-class sections on airliners because they know us plebes enjoy walking past even more smug assholes on the way to the torture seats.

Just toured the North American Bigfoot Center in Boring, Oregon. Wasn't boring at all! Can't say my skepticism has diminished but I was impressed by some of the evidence, such as the Sasquatch Pheromone Chip (phewwwweeeeee). 🫈

Eight bucks and an hour well spent. Five big toes up.

#Oregon #cryptids

Just some other hopeful points to note:

- The county waived fees for green waste and opened a large, new green waste dump as everyone deals with the tropical rain forest that got knocked around.

- The #scuba community came together and yesterday made a ton of progress clearing the boulders, trees & muck from everyone's favorite shore-diving spot.

- National Guard were pre-positioned and have been busy with food and water distribution.

- The hospital, port & airport are all up and running.

It's only been a week.

Hating on governments is fashionable (often for good reason) but I am so, so, so pleased and impressed with the County of Kaua'i's response to Hurricane Lowell.

The twice-daily updates are full of important and useful information. The county has knocked down pervasive and malicious rumors. They have kept everyone posted on restoration of power and water. They've clearly stated what is and isn't open.

Our mayor, Derek Kawakami, will soon be Hawaii's Lt. Governor and will be in line to run for governor after that if he wants to. He's been fantastic, just as he was throughout the early pandemic.

Community response has been great too. I rode the east side bike path yesterday for the first time since the storm and all 5 miles had already been cleared of downed trees.

#Lowell #Hawaii #Kauai

The day after Hurricane Lowell hit Kaua'i, a fire broke out in the main county office building and service center. The DMV, planning office, property tax office and a whole bunch of other services were affected.

The county IT staff are working to restore services. Thank you to them...some of whom may be living without grid power and inside damaged homes.

'The fire destroyed critical information technology infrastructure that supports County operations islandwide. Systems used to process transactions, access records, and connect County phone lines were housed in the building. That infrastructure has to be restored before counter services can resume. Crews from the Information Technology Division are working on recovery and standing up temporary systems.' - County statement today.

I sure hope it wasn't arson.

#lowell #Hawaii #Kauai #IT

Just wanted to note that the National Weather Service/National Hurricane Center forecast for Hurricane Lowell was pretty much spot-on. For my area they projected 3-6" of rain and 60-70mph wind gusts - we got 4" of rain and 64 mph gusts. I'm impressed. The state & county did a good job warning people to prepare for 4-5 days before it hit.

#weather #Lowell #Kauai

Lele is completely plussed about the lack of electricity; she lives a simple life and only needs electricity for her water fountain. Somehow she is making do.

#Lowell #cats

Welp, shit is getting re(ish) with Lowell. Power is out all over Kauai it sounds like. Winds getting a little gusty. Closest approach still 5 hours off. Cell towers are still up so that's good.

#Hawaii #Lowell

USPS out here treating my package like it's a ballot in a blue district.

😐

Webcam in Hilo if you weather-chasing degenerates want to watch as Tropical Storm Lala approaches Big Island of Hawai‘i.

#Hawaii #weather #Lala #webcam

https://honolii.org/

DOJ drops reflecting pool criminal case against Olympic athlete. So does Hearn now sue DOJ?

#USpol #news

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-administration-drops-reflecting-pool-case-blaming-damage-botched-rcna590303

I think (and hope) Gianni Infantino is going to get booted from FIFA.

Quick recap: The guy who just led the FIFA's men's World Cup to record attendance, revenue & Trump ass-licking, recently sprang a proposal to sell off the men's & women's World Cup to the Trump-Kushner crime family.

FIFA is a non-profit with 211 member nations (more than the UN, as some FIFA nations, e.g. New Caledonia, are not nation-nations). It's a trust of sorts that distributes funds earned from the tournaments to its members for developing soccer/futbol programs around the world.

#sports #soccer #FIFA #Trump

1/

With no warning, Infantino sprang a plan to start a new private company to control the men's & women's World Cups & he said Thrive Capital, led by Jared Kushner's brother, would by the lead investor.

Now it looks like he consulted with *no one* inside FIFA before doing this.

The European confederation of 55 nations pushed back hard yesterday and said Europe will boycott all FIFA competitions until this proposal is shelved forever. Removing Europe from the men's & women's World Cups would make the events laughable, as many soccer powers are European. The North/Central American confederation also pushed back, but not as hard.

And today we learn Infantino's top advisor, Carlos Cordeiro, resigned. Cordeiro is from the US, a former Goldman Sachs banker who represented the football body on the White House Task Force for the World Cup, who attended Trump-Infantino meetings. So his resignation is huge.

2/

@lain furries are mostly earthlings

I remember in 1999 I installed SETI@home on my work computer and the IT guy was like WHAT ARE YOU DOING and I'm like, Findin' aliens ya loser, and then he uninstalled it and we never found aliens.

@kims With enough purity tests, no one would have anyone left in their life. Does ANYONE live a pure life? Never shops at an evil corporation, never listens to anything by someone with wonky opinions, never clicks on a site that does harm? Purity tests divide people.