Sign in

Alhadis

@alhadis.bsky.social
399 followers 120 following 4.6K posts

Cynical optimist. I'm just here to post shower-thoughts, weird facts I've just learned (but have nobody specific to share them with), and other irreverent bullcrap. 🇦🇺 Nature lover and tree-hugger proudly hailing from Melbourne, Australia.

PostsRepliesMedia
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The local magpie nestlings have fledged; there's now two (we think three in total) fledgelings awkwardly exploring the backyard as their parents stuff their loud, nagging gullets with food. They've even started grazing on their own accord, although that might just be young bird curiosity. 😊
000
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Right, so… Claude's "vinyl mode"… Does it, at the VERY least, recommend uses black vinyl instead of those inferior audio-quality splatter and picture-disc LPs?
000
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I smell fear among the tech elites… Good.
001
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
YouTube has been oddly inconsistent lately with the videos it recommends me after I finish watching one. There's always ONE video (and always the third thumbnail from the top-left corner) with less than 1k views, usually in the one- to two-digit range. And this happens. Every. Frikking. Time.
A screenshot of YouTube's video player showing the post-video recommendations, a 3-column grid of thumbnails with the title, view-count, and upload date displayed beneath each recommendation. Below the screenshot is a footer where the displayed view-counts of the 6 visible videos have been copied and pasted in a single row, then stretched and scaled up to draw attention to the odd one out. They read:
448 thousand views, 847 thousand views, 4 views, 116 thousand views, 714 thousand, 187 thousand views.
000
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Top 9 favourite anime: 1. The Sopranos 2. A Serbian Film (Sunday School edit) 3. Reacher vs Predator 4. Ge'ez language news on SBS 5. بطولة الإمام للقتال بالأيدي 6. That clip of Jake Paul getting KTFO by Anthony Joshua on an infinite loop 7. squewe 8. I don't watch anime 9. lol
000
Reposted by Alhadis
Grandiloquent Word of the Day @grandiloquentwords.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Laetificate (v.) - To make glad or joyful; to cheer or lift the spirits. Use: “After a fortnight of drizzle, chilblains, and matrimonial discord, Mrs. Wembles was laetificated beyond measure when the sudden appearance of the sun coincided with the equally sudden disappearance of Mr. Wembles.”
A "Grandiloquent Word of the Day" meme featuring “Laetificate,” a verb meaning “to make glad or joyful; to cheer or lift the spirits.” A black-and-white Victorian illustration depicts three exuberant gentlemen tipping their hats while a woman watches from a doorway. Beneath the definition, an example sentence reads: “After a fortnight of drizzle, chilblains, and matrimonial discord, Mrs. Wembles was laetificated beyond measure when the sudden appearance of the sun coincided with the equally sudden disappearance of Mr. Wembles.”
36318
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
There are 10 types of people: 1. Those who understand binary. 2. Those who understand octal. 3. Those who understand decimal. 4. Those who understand hexadecimal. 5. Those who understand all four. 6. Those who understand irony. 7. Those who don't understand irony. 8. Those who read in octal.
120
Reposted by Alhadis
kristofarian @kristofarian.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
"The Evidence of Corp- orate Concentration is Everywhere." 'Everywhere' BUT Where we NEED it MOST.
26714
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
If it weren't for this video's upload date being November 2022, I'd refuse to believe this footage was anything other than AI. The sight of a friendly plover—one that even accepts human contact—gets more and more surreal with every watch.
tiktok.com
#plover #swooping #notreally #niceplover
TikTok video by dayliabrown
100
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Pro tip: if you need to make skin contact with a metal surface you *know* is gonna zap you with static electricity, brush against it using the rough patch of your elbow. The skin there's thicker, and the shock will be greatly diluted compared to your fingers.
110
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Reposting this story because we need more stories of unexpected altruism, irrespective of whether it's human or bird. @krissy.bsky.social You'll absolutely love this article, assuming I haven't shown it to you already.
abc.net.au
Magpies outwit scientists by helping each other to remove tracking devices
When we attached tiny, backpack-like tracking devices to five Australian magpies, we didn't expect to discover an entirely new social behaviour rarely seen in birds, writes Dominique Potvin.
272
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Watching the newest season of Reacher has reminded me why I hate the "new episode once per week" release cycle that made sense for TV programmes, but not for streaming services that could easily release every new episode at once, but choose to blue-ball me with an unbearable cliffhanger. 😫
100
Reposted by Alhadis
Andy Fleming @slackbastard.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
R U OK?: A conversation could change a life!
R U OK?

Homer Simpson: 'I told you last year, no!'
47423
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
RS with your home river. As a Melburnian, this one's a no-brainer: The Yarra River. Contrary to popular belief, the name originates from a misinterpretation by European colonisers: "Yarra Yarra" was the Kulin people's name for the Yarra Falls,¹ not the river (which was called "Birrarung").²
A panoramic photo of the Yarra Valley in the inner suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, surrounded on both sides by parks and greenery. In the distance, skyscrapers from the nearby CBD (Central Business District) gradually turn their indoor lights on as a rosy sunset engulfs the sky.

Photographer: Roman Slavik (https://www.romanslavik.com)The Yarra River as seen from Kanes Bridge, close to the Studley Park boathouse in Yarra Bend Park (Melbourne, Australia). Both river embankments are covered in trees and scrub, and the water's colour is its typical murky brown, made darker from the reflection of gathering rain clouds above.

Photographer: User "pfctdayelise" at Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yarra_River_from_Kanes_Bridge.JPG)
100
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
For some reason, the word "brane" has been stuck in my head for the last couple of days, and it's been ages since I read about string theory. The idea of working in 𝑁-dimensional spaces is pretty cool, though it's a pity I can't visualise it.
110
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
"I just signed a petition: Australia's biggest ocean protection opportunity in 10 years. Sign here:" — Prefab text speaking on my behalf after I clicked "Share this partition" But in all seriousness, if you care about biodiversity and nature, help make some fucking noise.
saveourmarinelife.org.au
Australia's biggest ocean protection opportunity in 10 years - Save Our Marine Life
The Australian Government has listened to island communities, and just announced plans to massively expand marine sanctuary protection around the stunning Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island. But before it becomes a reality, the government wants to hear from YOU on the proposed expansions, AND on what other improvements are needed across Australia’s offshore marine parks.  […]
020
Reposted by Alhadis
S. K. Riley @skriley.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Save our Marine Life 🐟 🐙 🐬 I've just signed a petition to Environment Minister Murray Watt to support the expansion of marine sanctuaries in Australian waters. You can it sign too: www.saveourmarinelife.org.au/actions/prot... #Australia #Oceans #SeaLife #MarineSanctuaries #MarineParks #CoralSea
saveourmarinelife.org.au
Australia's biggest ocean protection opportunity in 10 years - Save Our Marine Life
The Australian Government has listened to island communities, and just announced plans to massively expand marine sanctuary protection around the stunning Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island. But before it becomes a reality, the government wants to hear from YOU on the proposed expansions, AND on what other improvements are needed across Australia’s offshore marine parks.  […]
116239
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Dark Sun: Shattered Lands (1993) Watching my dad play this on his MS-DOS PC as a little kid set the course for my future love of D&D, and by extension, the path that led me to Neverwinter Nights (the game that motivated me to learn 3D modelling AND coding).
Cropped box artwork for the 1993 role-playing game, "Dark Sun: Shattered Lands". The box-art features an absolutely stacked, bald, leather-clad gladiator holding a pair of cahulaks (an Athasian melee weapon resembling a pair of 4-pronged grappling hooks connected by a rope). In the background is the image of a burnt-out (but still flaming) sun.Gameplay screenshot of "Dark Sun: Shattered Lands", depicting turn-based combat (as per AD&D rules) with a top-down view of the player's party members and their combatants. The battle in question is against the final wave of the Drajian army in the desert at the game's climax, with black mastyrials (giant scorpion-like monsters), heavily-armoured guards, and numerous slain foes (plus a dead/unconscious party member).
020
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
As an Australian who's never been to the US (and even finds most US accents difficult to follow), I thought it'd be amusing to see what my results would be if I filled the quiz out myself. @krissy.bsky.social I told you New England accents are the closest in America to Aussie accents.
A heat map showing the results of an Australian filling out all 148 questions of the US Dialect Quiz (https://mydialect.us/quiz-extended.html). Most of the midwest and southern US are shaded "least similar", with the only region showing strong similarity being New England, and parts of New York:

Most similar:
1. Boston, Massachusetts (43%)
2. Portland, Maine (43%)
3. New York City, New York ((43%)

Least similar:
1. New Orleans (36%)
2. Nashville, Tennessee (37%)
3. Atlanta, Georgia (37%)
120
Reposted by Alhadis
QuoProQuid @quoproquid.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
techno-optimists befuddled by declining popular support for “the robot that tells you to kill yourself”, “the pervert glasses“, and “the camera network that stalks you”
3148011546
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Why can't pills be square-shaped, so that when you spill a bottle, they won't roll so friggin' far?
000
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Either an ornithopter or a Hornet (pictured) from Halo.
An isolated render of a manned aerospace vehicle from the Halo franchise, with two lateral wings that provide propulsion and buoyancy, and host the aircraft's twin missile pods. A smaller, automatic turret is located under the central pod, and two "side-seats" (precariously exposed to the air) provides a form of transport for two passengers.
010
Reposted by Alhadis
Basil 🌱 @basil-mage.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Dog and bunny
Drawing of a puppy with a pink bunny and the caption; "I hope you heal from the things you don't talk about"
5496052709
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Today I learned that Unicode has characters for Pacman that aren't emoji, but "symbols for legacy computing". 𜱰𜱲𜱳𜱫𜱭𜱮𜱬𜱎𜱌 (If these don't show up for you, see www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U...)
unicode.org
010
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Friendship ended with Urban Dictionary. Now sfisms.org is my best friend.
sfisms.org
sf-isms - a field guide to San Francisco slang
A living compendium of San Francisco tech slang. Part Wikipedia, part Urban Dictionary, part Know Your Meme.
110
Reposted by Alhadis
she is rin‽ for an amazing reason @rin.artificesoft.com · 25/08/2026
Claude-to-table is a better joke but meat proxy is more descriptive and more demeaning so idk which one is better
121
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Self-accountability level: Nuclear
010
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
"Scream, and I'll eat your second-canary" That's six words, hyphenation saves the day yet again.
000
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Rewatched "The Equaliser" trilogy yesterday and my mind is stuck on that one scene in Italy where a patron hands McCall a chinotto fruit for his tea, because as a diehard lover of that drink, I'd love to know what the actual fruit it's named after feels, tastes and smell like. I'm a bit embittered.
000
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
I AM BECOME MANIC PIXIE DREAM GIRL HEAR ME ROAR
000
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
What if, instead of destroying Flock cameras, you painted over their lenses or glued a circular (opaque) glassy disc to them, so they recorded no footage at all? What's easier to notice: a missing/destroyed camera, or one that's been silently recording useless footage for the past six weeks?
000
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Brilliant.
youtube.com
Honest Government Ad | Ai Data Centres
YouTube video by thejuicemedia
000
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Finally ❤️
010
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
New favourite Wikipedia page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of... The number of deserts named "Desert Desert" in various languages is kind of impressive.
en.wikipedia.org
List of tautological place names - Wikipedia
020
Reposted by Alhadis
John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 06/08/2026
Over on Whatever today, I'm talking about "AI" and creativity and how, when it comes to learning creative skills, Generative "AI" is rather like the old "Guitar Hero" game, i.e., a really fun way not to actually learn how to do a creative thing: whatever.scalzi.com/2026/08/06/g...
whatever.scalzi.com
Generative “AI”: The Guitar Hero of Creativity
So, you’re a person who has decided to embark on a creative journey of self-expression — to make art, in other words. First off, this is awesome! The universe needs more people making a…
43894183
Reposted by Alhadis
Stephen Uitti he/him/it/they/hey-you @suitti.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Iran Says it Will Reopen Strait if Trump Admits He Lost in 2020 open.substack.com/pub/borowitz...
open.substack.com
Iran Says it Will Reopen Strait if Trump Admits He Lost in 2020
“The whole world knows you lost, moron,” the official Iranian statement read.
2183
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
> searching Google Images for a high-res version of the BSD mascot > finds one on CleanPNG, filed under the "funny devil" category: www.cleanpng.com/free/funny-d... > sees the Happy Merchant with devil horns as one of the results > mega-yikes.png
cleanpng.com
Funny Devil PNG Images – Free Transparent PNG Download | CleanPNG - CleanPNG
Browse free Funny Devil PNG images with transparent backgrounds. Download high-quality Funny Devil illustrations, clipart, and graphics for websites, presentations, social media, and creative projects.
100
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Reading the Terms and Conditions of an app I'm installing because AI, telemetry-gathering, and other user-hostile corporate bullshit has given me enough incentive to actually do so.
200
Reposted by Alhadis
Internet Archive @archive.org · 05/08/2026
AI companies scraping websites at scale is a real problem. But a proposed NY law could make it harder for libraries, journalists & researchers to preserve the web and investigate the powerful. That's why we've joined @eff.org & others in a letter to Gov. Hochul. blog.archive.org/2026/08/04/i...
blog.archive.org
Internet Archive to New York: Don’t Kill the Good Bots in the Fight Against Bad Bots | Internet Archive Blogs
8357110
Reposted by Alhadis
tastewart 🦋 @tastewart.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Jeanne Gibson, beloved “Rosie the Riveter,” passed away on July 29, 2026 at 100. Gibson became a welder at Todd Pacific Shipyards in Seattle, helping build destroyers for the Allied war effort during WWII. Gibson helped pave the way for millions of women who stepped into critical wartime roles.
17978762160
Reposted by Alhadis
Grandiloquent Word of the Day @grandiloquentwords.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Roitelet [RAH-tuh-LAY] (n.) - A little or petty king; a royalet. Used in a sentence: “The superannuated despot was precisely the sort of roitelet who demanded trumpets at his entrance, lest anyone overlook the grand arrival of so negligible a personage.”
A "Grandiloquent Word of the Day" meme for “Roitelet”, defined as “a little or petty king; a royalet.” At right, a black-and-white caricature shows a small, pompous ruler in crown and ermine-trimmed robes holding a scepter marked “VETO,” while another man bows submissively before him. Below, the example sentence reads: “The superannuated despot was precisely the sort of roitelet who demanded trumpets at his entrance, lest anyone overlook the grand arrival of so negligible a personage.”
210033
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Did… did this motherfucker just quote *himself*? Unironically? Also, how the shit did he manage to add a closing quotation mark without an opening one? Was Grok unable to muster enough power to generate balanced punctuation when Elon sharted this out onto his timeline?
000
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Dimmu Borgir's "Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia" actually slaps and is what I'd call a "guilty listen" if I actually believed in that term. Yeah, the keyboards and synth are annoying, but the riffs and drumwork were still savage enough to call the music black metal instead of a Disney soundtrack.
010
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Yesterday I visited IMDB.com only to be greeted with a dialogue: "Migrate your account to Amazon. Set up your IMDb account with Amazon. [Get started]" I swear if Bezos forces me to merge my 22-year old IMDB account with an Amazon account I only registered reluctantly, I'm… just gonna whine loudly.
110
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Finally, a programming language whose output I'm *not supposed* to understand. (NGL though, I'd still love to hear @legaleagle.tv's take on its efficacy).
catala-lang.org
Catala — Law to Code
The official website of the Catala domain-specific programming language for translating law into code.
000
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
That's great and all, but… what the fuck is LinkedIn even used for, other than brand fart-sniffing and meretricious garbage about growth and office culture?
010
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
"some circuits are trickier than others" — An AI chatbot unable to pass a logic gate, never mind answer a question phrased as simple Boolean logic. ALAN TURING IS OFFICIALLY SPINNING IN HIS GRAVE, FOLKS
210
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Time to dip my toes into this R language every data scientist and statistician keeps Raving about. Maybe it'll Replace grap(1) for Routine graph generation in my daily workflow. (And maybe I'll take R seriously enough to stop capitalising the damn letter like the way I'm doing Right now).
010
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
phys.org
Humans can feel molecular differences between nearly identical surfaces
How sensitive is the human sense of touch? Sensitive enough to feel the difference between surfaces that differ by just a single layer of molecules, a team of researchers at the University of Californ...
010
Alhadis @alhadis.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
I knew someone that was frozen to absolute zero once. He was 0K.
010