Matthew's Journal

https://www.daemonology.net/hn-daily/2026-05-25.html

The 10 highest-rated articles on Hacker News on May 25, 2026 which have not appeared on any previous Hacker News Daily are:

• Didgeridoo playing as alternative treatment for obstructive sleep apnoea (2006)
  (comments)
• Scammers are abusing an internal Microsoft account to send spam links
  (comments)
• Show HN: Audiomass – a free, open-source multitrack audio editor for the web
  (comments)
• Memory has grown to nearly two-thirds of AI chip component costs
  (comments)
• Migrating from Go to Rust
  (comments)
• The Eternal Sloptember
  (comments)
• Magnifica Humanitas
  (comments)
• Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore
  (comments)
• Pope Leo XIV says AI must serve humanity, not the powerful few
  (comments)
• California moves to exempt Linux from its age-verification law after backlash
  (comments)

https://www.daemonology.net/hn-daily/2026-05-25.html

Night of the Lepus (1972)





WHY does the ad keep saying "WHAT could it be?" without ANswerING?

Because it's these guys





Me I would walk joyfully into the nibbling jaws of death

§rf§

Pirate King of Star Patrol by John C. Wright

Starquest book seven. Spoilers ahead for the earlier volumes

( Read more... )

Those of you who are very active in MFU fandom already know this, but for those who don't know about this and might find it interesting: the winner of the 2026 Preakness Stakes on May 16th was a horse named "Napoleon Solo". Furthermore, there is fic referencing this: A Horse Named Napoleon Solo by st_crispins.

(If you read the fic and leave comments, feel free to comment "here on a rec from ride_4ever".)

For the second time in a row, Hestia has evinced great interest not in the bruised leaves of catmint I have brought home, but the smell of it on my hands which fires up an instantaneous purr and much excited butting of the head. It took me a season to identify the purple-flowered ground cover in my parents' front yard as Nepeta × faassenii, after which I have started to see it everywhere around my neighborhood, e.g. this afternoon while out walking with a_reasonable_man and the encyclopedia of plants on his phone which also named for me the wind-shaken white frou-frou of a Chinese fringe tree. Last year when it was already on the far side of fall, I picked up May Theilgaard Watts' Tree Finder: Identifying Trees by Their Leaves in Eastern North America (1939/2025) which the season has now leafed out enough for me to experiment with. For Memorial Day the sun has come lazily out and the temperature fogged up to the point where stepping outside in even a washer-worn overshirt was a miscalculation. nineweaving has sent me a pair of folk albums that went majority-missing in the crash of Bertie Owen. I am re-reading Kay Chronister's The Bog Wife (2024) to keep in with the zeitgeist. Two sprigs of the lilac in the back yard remain.

May 25th is celebrated annually as Towel Day to honor the memory of Douglas Adams by carrying a towel in reference to his The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy where it says "A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have."

May 25th is also the annual Wear the Lilac Day to honor the memory of Terry Pratchett by wearing a lilac in reference to his Discworld where characters wear a sprig of lilac to commemorate the fallen revolutionaries of "The Glorious Revolution" in Ankh-Morpork.

GNU Terry Pratchett. GNU Douglas Adams.

It's Memorial Day in the US. I'd wish folks a happy one? But it's Memorial Day? The day that we remember the dead, specifically those who died in multiple Wars throughout the centuries. Not exactly something to celebrate? I used to visit my Grandmother in Liberty, Missouri, on Memorial Day. I was in my mid-twenties and we'd wander about decorating the graves with her handpicked roses and peonies from her garden. There were three grave sites that we visited. And some of the grave stones were so weathered by time - you could barely read the names let alone the dates on them. (This was long before I moved to NYC and while my parents were in Australia.) Then we'd have pie. And watch action flicks on her big television set. Not as big as my television set now, but it was the 1990s. Now my mother's cousin does it - although she's in her 80s now and lives in Seattle, so maybe not?

I think graves are more about the living than the dead. The dead have passed on for the most part, leaving maybe a residual amount of energy behind depending on how, when and where they died. They aren't here any more. But the living need some way to memorialize and commemorate them, if only as a means of dealing with the constant and never-ending cognitive dissonance of their actual loss (ie. the fact that their loved ones, friends, and/or family members are no longer here and incomprehensibility of that.).

***

I've gotten into the British dark comedy Rivals adapted from Jilly Coopers Rutshire Chronicles novels - the series, which is set in the fictional county of Rutshire, England, follows an intense rivalry between David Tennant's legendary head of a television network, Tony Baddingham, and Alex Hass, an ex-Olympian show jumper turned Tory politician. It takes place in 1980s Britain, and does what the Brits do best, dark sex comedy.
It's on Hulu, and it's adult. Not much violence to speak of? But a lot of graphic sex, and full frontal nudity. Kind of gives HBO a run for its money in that department.

I'm enjoying it. The characters are engaging, and its fun. Also it's nice to see British 1980s hairstyles and clothes for a change of pace.

Also stars Aidan Quinn. He gets full frontal nudity scenes, but Tennant doesn't. The series tends to only give the full front nudity scenes to the good looking guys and gals, although the woman get less nudity then the men, which I thought was interesting and a nice switch.

**

I took a walk - since the sun actually peeked out for a bit and it has stopped drizzling. Stopped by the book store and picked up two art books - one is Quiet Moments - a guided sketchbook (in the hopes that it will jump start my muse), and the other is Sketching Outside - an illstrated guide to making art on the go. I have a traveling water color and sketch kit and I want to make the most of them.

Looked for the highly touted book - Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid but couldn't find it. Odd that. It's a best seller. The independent book store, Lofty Pigeons, has an eclectic book selection to say the least. Making me wonder how books are distributed among bookstores in the US now? Do they stack based on word of mouth? Because the Matt Dinimian series - Dugeon Crawler Carl is visible, but you can barely find Illona Andrews or Jim Butcher. Sarah J Maas - has an entire shelf now, but I couldn't locate books by Anne McCaffrey or many by RF Kuang. William Gibson? Only Neuromancer was shelved.

See? This is why folks buy from Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and not from the indies?

On the way to the book store, an older woman (around my age) greeted me in Spanish, I understood roughly half of it? Possibly by osmosis? I hear Spanish a lot. That and a variety of Eastern European dialects. I can tell the latin ones apart, but not the Eastern European. I waved and greeted her in English. I didn't even attempt Spanish. All the flowers were in bloom, the trees heavy with green leaves - it looked like June, felt like early May.

Fandom: Mo Dao Zu Shi
Pairings/Characters: M/M; Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 57 words; 26:47
Content Notes: No AO3 Warnings Apply; winter weather as relentless atmosphere and adversary; public transportation as a liminal zone; possible unreality—the situation is open to interpretation.
Creator Tags:
Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Podfic, Podfic Length: 20-30 Minutes, Audio Format: MP3, Audio Format: Streaming, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending
Creator Links: (AO3) flamingwell, (Tumblr) flamingwell
Theme: Journey & Travel, Hurt/Comfort, Modern AU, Non-Fic Recs: Fanart, Non-Fic Recs: Podfics



(Image description (Cut for length): ( Continue. )

Summary: When he came to, the bus was on the freeway. The windows were dewed with drops of melted snow that shone with captured light. Outside, traffic was at a standstill. Dingy slush covered the roads, gradually accumulating as snow drifted down from the woolen sky, the flakes picked out in sharp contrast where they plunged into the light of streetlamps and headlights. Wei WuXian laughed softly to see it. When he turned away from the window, he saw that the beautiful man from earlier was still sitting next to him, watching him with an expression that might, optimistically, be called inquisitive.

“The snow,” Wei WuXian said, gesturing outside. “It looks like champagne bubbles, only going the wrong way.” He laughed again, and rubbed his head. “Have you ever felt drunk, but been pretty sure you weren't drinking? Haha, no, never mind me. I'm just tired.” He rubbed a hand over his face, wanting desperately to sleep.

Podfic of Night Bus by Suspicious_Popsicle.

Author’s Notes: (Cut for length): ( Continue. )

Reccer's Notes: Suspicious_Popsicle’s tale of an encounter between a sore-pressed traveler and a mysterious benefactor in an isolated and enveloping environment, with the ambiguity of possible supernature in play and a twist ending that leaves room for continuing speculation, has many of the elements of a classic Old-Time Radio drama, in the fashion of Quiet, Please or Lights Out!

flamingwell understood the assignment. Her delicate and hushed narrative voice is a perfect vehicle for the subject, animated by Wei Wuxian’s nervous chatter—gradually devolving from restless to febrile to fading—and punctuated by Lan Wangji’s dark temple-bell solemnity.

Fanwork Links: [Podfic] Night Bus, by flamingwell: https://archiveofourown.org/works/77059901
Collections:
Mic-bearing Podtriarchs
Voiceteam Mystery Box 2025

⌈ Secret Post #7080 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.



( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 25 secrets from Secret Submission Post #1011.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

I finished working my way through Terra Nil, and replayed various areas to get more achievements; I still need to go back and finish the last few I don't have yet.

But then I got distracted by Librarian: Tidy Up the Arcane Library!, which is an extremely silly game that is extraordinarily my jam; you work in a magical library, an evil fairy has thrown all the books on the floor, and you can't leave until you've reshelved everything correctly. I found it intensely soothing, have completed five playthroughs and all the achievements, and may well go back again for more later. It also went very well with audiobooks, and I have listened to three audiobooks since I started playing it (not entirely while playing it, but mostly!).

Then I bought a Humble Bundle of puzzle games and started working my way through Proverbs and now also Mega Mosaic, which are a sort of Minesweeper / picross hybrid where you fill in a giant picture by identifying light vs dark spaces using minesweeper-style number clues for each 3x3 area. It's not as satisfying as the library, but also went well with audiobooks and is quite enjoyable.

I think I may actually be swinging back into a phase where I play some real story-heavy games, but we shall see.

Today D and I went over to play board games with his girlfriend, P, and her other partner, J. We played Ticket to Ride, which went better for me than it had before because I thought to take a photo of the board before we started, to make it easier to scrutinize privately when my knowledge of European geography or history (Petrograd! Constantinople! big Germany!) let me down and I needed to make sure I was building the route I wanted.

The best part, in a way, was leaning that J has been having the same kind of issues I have: having "only" one other partner, having less of a support network outside the polycule, struggling with feeling lonely when the two of them are together and then feeling bad about the struggle because of course we want our beloveds to be happy...

It's like they read my mind! I was totally fine and then I totally wasn't by their date night last Thursday.

It helped to know that it's not just me, but it also helped that even though it wouldn't really be extending their support network, I'd be happy to go swimming with them which is one of the things they said they'd like to do more.

So we're going to try that this Thursday. (This does require me to not be out of spoons once I get back from a work thing in Leeds on Thursday, but I'm hopeful about that.)

Just realised that I didn't blog about rewatching this the other week, 20 years after original broadcast. I haven't got much to say, except that I think it's one of the very best episodes ever, and it totally holds up on rewatch. It was my late Dad's favourite Doctor Who story, and he'd been watching since 1978. It's a little self knowing in places, but that's very Steven Moffat. But it's so very good. And I think it would be a good introductory episode for a new watcher, to see if they might like the programme.

This is the shipwreck I went to see yesterday morning. It is the EDRO III

Honor and Ambivalence

Memorial Day is the unofficial first day of summer.

Memorial Day is a day off, if you're lucky,

Memorial Day is a day for grilling steaks and drinking beer with your family and friends.

Memorial Day is a day you visit the cemetery where your loved ones are buried, to clean their graves and put flowers down upon the ground in which they lie.

Memorial Day is a day to remember your aunt, who was a nurse in Vietnam, and who was never the same after she returned stateside; your great-uncle who died in the Korean War. And his dad, who died on Omaha Beach on D Day, in the only war in the past 85 years that was a necessary war.

It's a time to remember that your great-great grandfather fell at Bellau Wood in the First World War. And, if you know of an ancestor who died in the Civil War, perhaps someone who died serving the Union at Gettysburg, it's a time to remember them. 

It's a time to remember your big brother, whose ticket was punched in the Persian Gulf War; your best friend, who's still dealing with PTSD after serving in Afghanistan. 

Memorial Day is a time to remember all the people you don't know, who served and who died in every war that wasn't called a war, in every war that was a coldly calculated geopolitical move, in every war built to boost a failing administration, every damn war that should never have been fought. 

Memorial Day is a time to remember those who served and who still breathe, but who wake up with nightmares, those who struggle with a lost leg, a lost arm, a lost eye, a lost job, a lost home, and all because they served.

Memorial Day is a time to honor all of these people, both the heroes and the ones who war brought the worst out in. They all deserve to be remembered and, to whatever extent possible, honored. 

Memorial Day is a day to remember them, and to loathe war.

The sun is shining. I'm going to go to Rosehill Cemetery here in Chicago, where there are Civil War veterans buried. 

Hey all, if you'd like to join the crafting hangout, it is tonight from 6-8pm ET!