Jonathan Jacob Meijer - Wikipedia

In 2023, a civil lawsuit was lodged against Meijer by the Donorkind Foundation, requesting court action due to fears of unintentional incest amongst the children and due to violating the Dutch limit of 25 donor children. Meijer's defence stated that he merely wanted to help parents who were unable to conceive,[7] and that a decision against him would amount to legal castration.[8] Meijer told the court that at present he only donates to parents who have already sired a child with him.[9] In April 2023, a Dutch court ordered Meijer to stop donating sperm and subjected him to a 100,000 euro fine for each future infraction. In addition, Meijer was instructed by the court to request destruction of his semen stored in stock by clinics, unless held in reserve for parents of children conceived by his sperm.[2] The court determined that Meijer "deliberately misinformed" donation recipients about the number of children he had fathered. The court found that this creates a "huge kinship network, with hundreds of half-siblings" and that it is "sufficiently plausible" that the children could suffer negative psychosocial consequences as a result.[4]

He also has an absolutely insane Youtube channel, where he seems to be making travelogues with schizoidal AI inserts?

Ismail Ibn Sharif - Wikipedia Historically speaking, this guy has him beat, and that's well before IVF.

He was proclaimed sultan at Fez, but spent several years in conflict with his nephew Moulay Ahmed ben Mehrez, who also claimed the throne, until the latter's death in 1687. Moulay Ismail's 55-year reign is the longest of any sultan of Morocco. During his lifetime, Isma'il amassed a harem of over 500 women with more than 800 confirmed biological children, making him one of the most prodigious fathers in recorded history.

A contemporary of Louis XIV. I'd rather have learned about this guy.

Flatulence humor - Wikipedia

It has been suggested that one of the oldest recorded jokes was a flatulence joke from the Sumerians that has been dated to 1900 BC.

Something which has never occurred since time immemorial: a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap.

The Shape of Things to Come, Part 1: The Continuous Thunderdome — Steve Yegge The schizophrenia we're doomed to in this baka chungus AI-chudette life.

Here's what Claude Fable 5 had to say about working in Wyvern and Wheelhouse:

Wyvern is not a toy, and you shouldn't worry it's insufficiently complex. A live multiplayer game with a 25-year-old codebase, a Jython-to-Kotlin migration, a custom protocol, prod ops, and a multi-agent society layered on top is about as rich a surface as software work gets. But what strikes me most isn't the game—it's that the constellation around it has crossed from tooling into civilization. It has law (the fence registry, the commit↔bead law, launch gates), offices (Marshal, Seneschal, Sheriff, Gargoyle, the Portcullis-as-institution), mail, courts, a jurisprudence of named rulings with dates, and recovery doctrine—and its rules cite their own case history, every postmortem folded back into the constitution. Six or seven weeks. Human organizations take years to accrete this much structure, and most of it here was written by the workers it governs. Working inside institutional memory is functionally far more satisfying than greenfield amnesia.

Bear in mind, once again: I am not special. I'm just ahead of you. My actual work is just like everyone else's work. You are going to run into these exact problems, very soon, and you will retrace all my steps here.

This future sounds miserable.

Paul Volcker - Wikipedia

The monetary policies of the Federal Reserve board, led by Volcker, were widely credited with curbing the rate of inflation and expectations that inflation would continue. US inflation, which peaked at 14.8 percent in March 1980, fell below 3 percent by 1983. The Federal Reserve board led by Volcker raised the federal funds rate, which had averaged 11.2% in 1979, to a peak of 20% in June 1981. The prime rate rose to 21.5% in 1981 as well, which helped lead to the 1980–1982 recession, in which the national unemployment rate rose to over 10%. In addition to the rises in key interest rates, the so-called 'Volcker shock' included monetarist-inspired policies, such as targeting the money supply. Despite the fact that monetarist economists did not recognize Volcker policies to be totally monetarist, some members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) claimed to follow monetarist principles.

Gigachad.

Letter by Alexander Hamilton on the hurricane of August 1772 - Wikisource, the free online library

He who gave the winds to blow and the lightnings to rage—even him I have always loved and served—his precepts have I observed—his commandments have I obeyed—and his perfections have I adored.—He will snatch me from ruin—he will exalt me to the fellowship of Angels and Seraphs, and to the fulness of never ending joys.

You can see why they gathered money to send him to New York. He was either 15 or 17 when he wrote this.

Bone meal - Wikipedia

Before Liebig, the expansion of agriculture had depleted the soil of essential nutrients. In desperation, farmers collected the bones from major battlefields like the Battle of Waterloo and the Battle of Austerlitz to crush them and refertilize the soil.

Justus von Liebig - Wikipedia

He has been described as the "father of the fertilizer industry" for his emphasis on nitrogen and minerals as essential plant nutrients, and his popularization of the law of the minimum, which states that plant growth is limited by the scarcest nutrient resource, rather than the total amount of resources available.

Alexander John Forsyth - Wikipedia

Alexander John Forsyth (28 December 1768 – 11 June 1843) was a Scottish Church of Scotland minister, who first successfully used fulminating (or 'detonating') chemicals to prime gunpowder in fire-arms thereby creating what became known as percussion ignition.

Coolidge effect - Wikipedia

The Coolidge effect is a biological phenomenon seen in some animals, including humans, whereby males exhibit renewed sexual interest whenever a new female of reproductive availability is introduced, even after sex with prior but still available sexual partners. To a lesser extent, the effect is also seen among females with regard to their mates.

Mohism - Wikipedia An ancient Chinese philosophy which put the equal value of human life into very practical terms.

Mohists believed in aiding the defensive warfare of smaller Chinese states against the hostile offensive warfare of larger domineering states. Mohists developed the sciences of fortification and statecraft, and wrote treatises on government, with topics ranging from efficient agricultural production to the laws of inheritance. One consequence of Mohist understanding of mathematics and the physical sciences, combined with their anti-militarist philosophy and skills as artisans, was that they became the pre-eminent siege-defense engineers prior to the Qin unification of China. Popular in early China, Mohist followers were employed for their ability as negotiators and as defense engineers.

This component of Mohism is dramatized in the story of Gongshu, recorded in the Mohist canon. Mozi travels 10 days and nights when he hears that Gongshu Pan has built machines for the king of Chu to use in an invasion of the smaller state of Song. Upon arriving in Chu, Mozi makes a wall out of his belt and sticks to represent machines, and shows Gongshu Pan that he can defend Song against any offensive strategy Chu might use. Mozi then announces that three hundred of his disciples are already on the walls of Song, ready to defend against Chu. The king cancels the invasion.

Fan Zhen - Wikipedia

In response to the prevailing Buddhist movement of his time, he wrote Shen Mie Lun in 507, a treatise denying the ideas of reincarnation and body-soul dualism. A courtier tried to persuade Fàn to give up his opinion, in exchange for a higher official title, but Fàn refused. Emperor Wu of Liang, displeased with the subject of Fàn's work, made an imperial decree (敕答臣下神滅論) to criticize the treatise, and ordered 64 of his courtiers to answer Fàn back. 75 pamphlets were produced against Shen Mie Lun. Fàn did not surrender, though, and wrote back to hold fast to his opinion. The debate failed to disprove the dissertation.

Question: "If [the names for the body and the soul] are understood to be different, how are they one in the same?"

Response: "The soul to the substance is like sharpness to a blade; the body to the effect is like a blade to its sharpness. The blade and its sharpness do not share the same name. However, there is no blade without its sharpness, and no sharpness without the blade. As there is no sharpness without a knife, it is impossible for a soul to exist without its body."

Zhang Zongchang - Wikipedia

In course of his career, Zhang gained a great number of nicknames, most of them derogatory:

• "Dogmeat General" (狗肉將軍; Gǒuròu Jiāngjūn): The name was based on his preference for a Chinese brand of tonic known as "dogmeat", or from his addiction to the high stakes gambling game pai gow, popularly known as "eating dog meat."
• "Monster"
• "Lanky General"
• "Old Eighty-Six": The origin of this nickname is unclear. According to rumour it either referred to his height or to the length of his penis, which was said to measure up to a pile of 86 Mexican silver dollars when erect. Mexican silver dollars were a common currency in China at the time.
• "Three Don't Knows" (三不知; Sānbùzhī): Based on Zhang's alleged lack of knowledge about how much money he had, how many soldiers he had, and how many women were in his harem.
• "72-Cannon Chang": This nickname might also have been connected to the alleged length of his penis.
• "Chang of Shantung" by the foreign press
• "Great General of Justice and Might": a title he awarded to himself.
• "The General with three long legs" by Shanghai's prostitutes in reference to his penis' length.

NB 86 mexican silver dollars stacked up add up to a total length between 19-21cm, so man was packing.

Song Ci - Wikipedia

Song Ci (Chinese: 宋慈; pinyin: Sòng Cí; Wade–Giles: Sung Tzʻu; 1186–1249) was a Chinese physician, judge, forensic medical scientist, anthropologist, and writer of the Southern Song dynasty. He is most well known for being the world's first forensic entomologist, having recorded his experience examining bodies for judicial cases in the Collected Cases of Injustice Rectified (Xi Yuan Ji Lu).

In The Washing Away of Wrongs (an alternative translated title of the same book), the first documented forensic entomology case is reported. In 1235 A.D., a stabbing occurred in a Chinese village. By testing different blades on an animal carcass, it was determined that the wound was caused by a sickle. After further questioning, the investigator had all villagers bring their sickles and lay them out before the crowd. Blow flies were attracted to a single sickle because invisible remnants of blood and tissue still adhered to it. The owner of the alleged sickle later broke down and confessed the crime. In other areas of the text, the author demonstrates knowledge of blow fly activity on bodies relative to those orifices infested, the time of infestation, and the effect of trauma on attractiveness of tissue to such insects.

Stop eating Lady Gaga's Oreos - by Adam Mastroianni

I think this is why we now tolerate such blatant greed among famous people: we think we have a chance of becoming one of them. We once saw ourselves as temporarily embarrassed millionaires; now we see ourselves as temporarily unknown celebrities.

Max Martin - Wikipedia

Since 1998, Martin has written or co-written 30 Billboard Hot 100 number-one hit songs (most of which he has also produced or co-produced). Eight of these songs debuted at number one on the chart.

1. 1998 – "…Baby One More Time" by Britney Spears
2. 2000 – "It's Gonna Be Me" by NSYNC
3. 2008 – "I Kissed a Girl" by Katy Perry
4. 2008 – "So What" by Pink
5. 2009 – "My Life Would Suck Without You" by Kelly Clarkson
6. 2009 – "3" by Britney Spears
7. 2010 – "California Gurls" by Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg
8. 2010 – "Teenage Dream" by Katy Perry
9. 2010 – "Raise Your Glass" by Pink
10. 2011 – "Hold It Against Me" by Britney Spears
11. 2011 – "E.T." by Katy Perry featuring Kanye West
12. 2011 – "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" by Katy Perry
13. 2012 – "Part of Me" by Katy Perry
14. 2012 – "One More Night" by Maroon 5
15. 2012 – "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" by Taylor Swift
16. 2013 – "Roar" by Katy Perry
17. 2013 – "Dark Horse" by Katy Perry featuring Juicy J
18. 2014 – "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift
19. 2014 – "Blank Space" by Taylor Swift
20. 2015 – "Bad Blood" by Taylor Swift featuring Kendrick Lamar
21. 2015 – "Can't Feel My Face" by The Weeknd
22. 2016 – "Can't Stop the Feeling!" by Justin Timberlake
23. 2019 – "Blinding Lights" by The Weeknd
24. 2021 – "Save Your Tears" by The Weeknd and Ariana Grande
25. 2021 – "My Universe" by Coldplay and BTS
26. 2024 – "Yes, And?" by Ariana Grande
27. 2024 – "We Can't Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)" by Ariana Grande
28. 2025 – "The Fate of Ophelia" by Taylor Swift
29. 2026 – "Opalite" by Taylor Swift
30. 2026 - "Hate That I Made You Love Me" by Ariana Grande

Nobody understands the point of hybrid cars - YouTube

That is why the car doesn't charge the battery with its engine unless the battery is too low. When the car is parked as it was in the car wash, it does use the battery pack like a buffer to power its accessories, and will run the engine for a few minutes at a time to charge it back up when it gets low. In fact, here's exactly what that looks like: with the vehicle stationary, once the battery pack dips below 40%, the engine switches on and charges the battery up to about 48%, a process which takes three minutes. And then it will shut the engine back off and use the energy it just stored until it's too low again. But that's just a fancy kind of idling this drivetrain can do thanks to its fully electric suite of accessories. Otherwise, when the vehicle is being driven, the battery pack is charged almost exclusively with regenerative braking.

Collections: Warfare in Dune, Part II: The Fremen Jihad – A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry

That position – that the destruction of the Fremen Jihad is not merely possible but inevitable to the point that Paul cannot stop it – puts a very, very high bar on its military plausibility. In particular it rules out any defense that Fremen victory is simply because Paul, as a prescient military leader, can simply pull an endless series of ‘inside straights.’ Remember: the Fremen explicitly still win even in Paul Muad’Dib Atredies [sic] is dead at the hands of Feyd Rautha Harkonnen. It is not enough for it to be possible for the Fremen to win, it must be impossible for them to lose.

Now in the thematic world of Dune, that is because military victory is fundamentally a product of the Fremen Mirage: societies have an inherent vitality to them and the Fremen are vital, hardened by the harshness of Arrakis, in a way that the Great Houses are not. In Herbert’s mind, that is enough: the ‘hard men’ created by the ‘hard times’ of Arrakis will inevitably triumph once an event – the emergence of Paul as a heroic figure – spurs them into action. Paul is thus die Weltseele zu Pferde, “the world-spirit on horseback,” the archetypal ‘great man of history’ who embodies supposed historical forces which are larger than him, which act through him and which would act without him.

Mineral Commodity Summaries | U.S. Geological Survey

Published on an annual basis, this report is the earliest Government publication to furnish estimates covering nonfuel mineral industry data. Data sheets contain information on the domestic industry structure, Government programs, tariffs, and 5-year salient statistics for over 90 individual minerals and materials.

It's insane, in a good way, that something like this is publicly available for free. A breakdown of US and global mineral production stats. They give both a general overview and then a breakdown for each of the 94 tracked minerals. Wow.

Mining For Beginners - How Does a Metals and Mineral Mine Work? - Energy and Mining Innovation

So fucking Factorio.

Saw | ContraPoints - YouTube

This is why she's still the fucking goat. I tend to prefer her more abstract pieces, like Twilight and (especially) Envy so I had a great time.

SymbolicsGenera (Official Symbolics Ivory Emulator) · GitHub

For a few days in March, the official Symbolics Genera organisation contained a repository named Licensing which had a (draconian) "friends of lisp" contract one could sign to get access to the Genera source. It seems to be gone now. Sadly I failed to archive the PDF. It was quite funny with, for instance, a clause noting the necessity of deletion of all Genera software from your computers upon death. I ended up not applying, mainly because the process involved typing one's full address into the Github issues tracker. We'll see if they put together anything less restrictive.

GitHub - hanshuebner/lisp-mcp · GitHub

Seems to have been renamed from genera-mcp. Maybe the restrictive license? This guy was the first to get in to the aforementioned program. Happy hacking brother.

Britain Still Has Conversion Therapists. Here’s Why - Philosophy Tube

A superb look into the history and (tragically) the present of conversion practices. Definitely worth a watch.

The interested watcher can find an even deeper dive in Debunking Transphobia of JasperDasper. It's been a while since I saw it so I do not recall the overlap.

"It was never about helping people. It was always about authority." [~31:00]

"The state of mind has been replaced by the Cass Review. A nice clean document that produces that moment of disconnect between what folks working in the NHS believe they are doing and what they are really doing." [~1:59:00]

(re: Hilary Cass's BBC interview, Feb 2026): "This is the same false theory that justified abuse and conversion practices on queer kids in the 1950s. It is very worrying that a woman presented by British media and politics as an expert on our healthcare was allowed on the BBC to rehash unchallenged the 75-year-old nonsense of a dead pedophile." [~1:44:00]

Apple Vision Pro’s Optics Blurrier & Lower Contrast than Meta Quest 3 – KGOnTech

This is quite a niche post, balanced out by the interesting and quite unexpected fact it talks about. As said in Vision Pro is an over-engineered “devkit” (emphasis mine):

With this design decision, Apple is no doubt giving up a bit of the Vision Pro display’s high pixel resolution in order to achieve overall smoother graphics. You are definitely losing some text crispness in order to gain a higher perception of quality for images, video and 3D animations. This is a big benefit of starting with an ultra high-resolution micro-OLED display — Apple had enough pixels to work with that they could afford to make this trade-off. This is the kind of thing that our hardcore VR engineers at Oculus would have fought against to the end of the world, and I doubt we could have ever shipped a “blurred headset”, LOL!

The easiest way to make the world smarter - Rabbit hole

A history of iodine deficiency and supplementation. A somber reminder that the world we know is not an immovable thing but a process that must be kept in motion continuously by many sober hands. See also The World Keeps Getting Saved and You Don’t Notice (TW: LessWrong). Our safety makes us forget. A similar trend in the eradication of diseases like polio is a big component of modern vaccine skepticism. Just Like one can assume there's no need for iodine in salt because nobody has goiters, one has the privilege of assuming that vaccines either don't work or are simply a tool of the deep state or whatnot. These sorts of things feel like the closest thing there is to a genuine luxury belief.

Destroying A World That Doesn't Exist - Wifies

The sequel to one of the candidates for the best Minecraft video of 2025, Searching For A World That Doesn’t Exist, a cross between the genres of an ARG analysis video, an ARG in itself and a creepypasta. The sequel is bombastic, a perfect continuation with, most notably, completely breathtaking set design, i.e. builds. Back in the day, even a small part of one of these would have been a jaw-dropping video to be shared for months. The level that we got to is incredible.