Flutterby™! (short)

People are noticing the decline of Google: Xenotime, Librarian of Æther :trans_fedi: @xeno@hexokina.se

In 1970, Scientific American's legendary publication The Amateur Scientist ran an article on homemade transistors.

Not MOSFETs, but thin-film transistors made by Roger Baker with a DIY spray pyrolysis system. With handmade drawings like this.

In 2026, Google could not find this. I only found this from a StackExchange post which linked to a 2009 blog post that mentioned it. Then to see the actual article I had to go to JSTOR, sign in with my institution, re-sign-in to EZProxy, wait for the 2FA prompt, wait like a minute for their stupid website to load, click download, agree to not share it amongst the other terms and conditions, then download it.

I have no desire to go back to the world of 1970s, but I somehow feel the way that tech megacorps and licensing bs runs the world of 2026 is a scourge on human creativity and experimentation.

In another message, they link to FET Transistor Homemade From Cadmium Sulfide Photocell by Nyle Steiner K7NSM and https://sliceofpie.eu, but it's very clear that Google's search results are coalescing around selling YouTube ads and AI summaries, and not actually linking to real information.

‮Furbland's Very Backwards Account™ @GroupNebula563@mastodon.social

FUN FACT: the Greek god of knowledge was named Thoth, spelled in the Greek alphabet as θωθ. This means that it is entirely plausible that one, or perhaps several ancient Greeks have asked "θωθ, what's this?"

This is real. Look it up.

(According to Wikipedia, it's Θώθ, but close enough...)

I initially wasn't going to link to Conservatives Want To Ban Pornography. Without It, I'd Probably Be Dead, Ariel Anderssen's commentary on the resurgence of the death cult's attempts at anti-pornography legislation.

Nor to news that Reagan appointee Judge David Hittner has struck down Texas's drag show ban NBC News, Texas Tribune.

But The Devil's Panties this morning reminds me that promoting pornography and drag shows is life affirming, and we need to be pushing back on the death cult in every single way.

Brain activity inhibition during Short Video Viewing: neurochemical insights

By integrating fMRI with ¹H-MRS, our study provides novel evidence that immersive viewing of preferred short videos deactivates the cognitive control network and that individual differences in this deactivation are linked to glutamate metabolism. These findings enhance our understanding of how digital media consumption interacts with neurochemical processes to influence self-regulation. Our study offers new insights into the neural mechanisms underlying short-video engagement and has implications for understanding excessive digital media use.

Via.

Always worth a read, but ResearchBuzz for August 22nd has a whole lot of "AI" related stupidity.

This is making the rounds, and it's well worth watching, or at least (as I did) listening: DefCon 34 - Stalking the Wily Hacker: 40 years later - Cliff Stoll (YouTube video). His chaos energy is completely infectious.

Among other sources, Via.

Ruth — of systems & design @RuthMalan@mastodon.social:

Given her recent death, with its reminder the Merrelyn Emery was in her 80’s, comes the realization that she did this study of Agile in her 80’s:

A Patchwork of Contradictions and Confusions: Inside the Software Industry by Merrelyn Emery, January 2023

After over 20 years of agile, this study shows that agile has failed to produce a coherent industry or sustainable organizations as the critical factors of high intrinsic motivation and organizational performance are in short supply. Highly desirable personal and organizational outcomes are few and far between. In a comparison with other organizations with DP1 structures and in danger of failing, the software industry came off second best.

I'm going to have to learn more about her!

In honor of Dolly's passing, may I again strongly recommend the "Dolly Parton's America" podcast? https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/dolly-partons-america

Well shit. Dolly Parton, dead at 80.

I have a whole bunch of Blüskî and Fediverse links saved up, from Target's extremely racist halloween costume (via) to Richard Berger: The False Affiant behind ICE in Minnesota’s fabricated cases, to Business Insider proposing that you raise your kids in an AI augmented throuple (1, 2, and in linking to her short story Wire Mother, Isabel J. Kim notes "IM RIGHT IM LITERALLY ALWAYS RIGHT" and Hypervisible notes "A consistent pitch by the makers of ai wearables is that they solve the problem of getting to know your child."), but...

...I just can't even this morning.