samuelwa

@samuelwa

Knows changes aren't permanent, but change is. Will stand on the ocean until I start sinking.

1,094 Following2,932 Followers4,151 Posts

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samuelwa@samuelwa· 24d

idk, "Account for sale 🤝 DM w/ offers" seems maybe 85% punk rock, max

samuelwa@samuelwa· 25d

Oh, boy, Fortune, have I got a bridge for you.

"Xi offers AI olive branch to the world, calling for ‘symphony of global cooperation’"

samuelwa@samuelwa· 26d

The title essay is online here www.chinafile.com/library/nyrb... and is a core reading for understanding how censorship in China actually works.

In sum, the Chinese government’s censorial authority in recent times has resembled not so much a man-eating tiger or fire-snorting dragon as a giant anaconda coiled in an overhead chandelier. Normally the great snake doesn’t move. It doesn’t have to. It feels no need to be clear about its prohibitions. Its constant silent message is “You yourself decide,” after which, more often than not, everyone in its shadow makes his or her large and small adjustments—all quite “naturally.” The Soviet Union, where Stalin’s notion of “engineering the soul” was first pursued, in practice fell far short of what the Chinese Communists have achieved in psychological engineering.

samuelwa@samuelwa· 29d

From Anathem, by Neal Stephenson: "'I am fascinated,' I insisted. 'That’s the problem. I am suffering from fascination burnout. Of all the things that are fascinating, I have to choose just one or two.'"

samuelwa@samuelwa· 29d

Yes, if only Europe's militaries still learned from regular encounters between the best adult teams?

Learning also happens in regular encounters between Europe’s best adult teams. Tuesday’s semi-final will be the third France-Spain game since the semis of Euro 2024, when Spain’s dominance pushed France’s coach Didier Deschamps to remake his team.

Europe excels at football. If only its system worked as well in fields such as tech, academia or the military.

samuelwa@samuelwa· Jul 9

Found some from 2008 on an old hard drive. Most of them are terrible (I vastly overestimated the low-light capability of my Sony compact digital), but I quite like this one from Qingdao.

Several incomplete overpass sections tower over a Qingdao street. Heavy building construction in the background. Signage for the 2008 Beijing Olympics wraps one of the giants' legs.

samuelwa@samuelwa· Jul 8

The planetary ecologist agrees.

Liet-Kynes LEGO minifig scaling a monstera support pole using maker hooks

samuelwa@samuelwa· Jul 4

One Star Amazon review by Bridgett Clark, headlined “Monkeys”

Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2026

This author believes we came from monkeys. I immediately quit reading it and returned it.

samuelwa@samuelwa· Jun 29

lol

"crazy the authoritarian state is better at punishing the rich than the US" posted in response to the news story "Chinese exile Miles Guo given 30 years in prison for $550mn fraud." (Guo was prosecuted in the US.)

samuelwa@samuelwa· Jun 28

I mean, if there isn't an ambush waiting at the top of those stairs, I'll eat my controller.

Forking staircase in brutalist concrete campus building. Seating area to one side, recessed lighting, potted plants, obvious ambush by invaders from parallel dimension right upstairs

samuelwa@samuelwa· Jun 27

You'd think even a small plane flying into Beijing's tallest building might warrant *some* front-page space amid all the Xi.

samuelwa@samuelwa· Jun 20

Nice find at @pfbvan.bsky.social, set in the lost civilisation of Ammer-ka. It's a 1986 edition, so speaking of lost civilisations, the back cover describes Lem as "Born in Lvov, Poland (now part of the Soviet Union)"

Front cover: Stanislaw Lem, Memoirs Found In A Bathtub

Back cover:

>>$4.95
Science Fiction
STANISLAW LEM
MEMOIRS FOUND IN A BATHTUB
Translated by Michael Kandel & Christine Rose The year is 3149. A vast paper-destroying blight-pap-ralysis—has obliterated much of the planet's written his-tory, but these rare memoirs, preserved for centuries in volcanic rock, record the strange life of a man trapped in a hermetically sealed underground community. Entrusted with a mission whose purpose remains a mystery to him, the memoirist portrays a world of orders, tactics, codes, spies, counterspies and counter-counterspies; and his diary reflects the despair of guarding secrets from an enemy who may, in fact, no longer exist.
Lem's overly complex and infinitely absurd espionage society is an entertaining but disquieting satire of paranoia and overzealous bureaucracy-two monstrosities with which 20th-century readers are, unfortunately, already familiar.
Born in Lvov, Poland (now part of the Soviet Union), Stanislaw Lem is an internationally acclaimed master of speculative science fantasy whose worldwide book sales number in the millions. His works have earned him a spe-cial, honorary Nebula Award. He lives in Vienna.
Cover design by Vaughn Andrews
Cover illustration by John Alfred Dorn I!!
A Harvest/HBJ Book
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers
1250 Sixth Avenue, San Diego, CA 92101
111 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10003
ISBN 0-15-658585-5

samuelwa@samuelwa· Jun 18

Though it deserves it for the back wall alone. Magnificent.

Metal lockers, filing cabinets, index drawers etc in muted greens, greys, blues etc, stacked to form a neat but irregular screen behind the counter of a shop

samuelwa@samuelwa· Jun 16

That's just how I roll.

You have been blocked from The New York Times because we suspect that you're a robot.

Why am I seeing this? There are a few possibilities:
• You are browsing and clicking much faster than is typical of a human being

samuelwa@samuelwa· Jun 12

samuelwa@samuelwa· Jun 10

Covering some impressive range here.

Guardian MORE OPINION section:

Owen Jones: There are no guardrails now on the right of UK politics: where Restore Britain goes, others will follow

  Polly Hudson: Want to be my friend? There is one dining rule you must adhere to

  Linas Kojala: A drone alert blasted on my phone – we had to take shelter. This is the new reality on Nato’s eastern flank

  Adrian Chiles: Pump-action soap dispensers are a disgrace – and I won’t put up with them any longer

samuelwa@samuelwa· Jun 8

On the bright side, we did get this part of the cyberpunk dystopia.

Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash: “… a scattering of schizophrenic first worlders who have long ago burned their brains to ash in the radiant heat of their own imaginings.”

samuelwa@samuelwa· Jun 6

Every day is Bad WW2 Take Day.

samuelwa@samuelwa· Jun 4

pick a selfie from your gallery and turn it black & white

A charcoal void with tasteful vertical gradient

samuelwa@samuelwa· May 31

I enjoy this quote every time it cycles round in my Readwise highlights.

Tracers in the Dark

Andy Greenberg

“The privacy is not there,” he said. “You know like, you’re buying an ice cream cone, and then it turns out not to be an ice cream cone but the exact opposite of an ice cream cone? That’s how I think about Bitcoin.”

samuelwa@samuelwa· May 28

SO GOOD. I do not take food photos lightly.

samuelwa@samuelwa· May 26

I mean, come on. When they empty it out, they'll find customers who've been lost in there since the 90s.

Convoluted three-tiered floorplan for the Tokyu Hands flagship store in Shibuya. From bottom to top: B2, B2C, B1A, B1B, B1C, 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A, 2B, 2C, and so on up to HINT7 [7A] and 7B.

samuelwa@samuelwa· May 22

Guys, a little decorum, please. This isn't LinkedIn.

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!

samuelwa@samuelwa· May 21

Topless Homer Simpson on rooftop, roasting a bird on a spit over the chimney and covered in filth in a battered chef's hat: WELLITY WELLITY WELLITY

samuelwa@samuelwa· May 11

Probably need to move this guy, huh. I do (and should) feel bad, for the record.

A battered monstera leaf overhanging a cymbal on an electronic drum kit.

samuelwa@samuelwa· May 9

many genuine. much organic. wow

Many identical replies saying “These false statements cannot change the reality of China's steady development, nor can they shake the international community's objective perception of China.”

Many identical replies saying: “The truth cannot be covered up by lies. China's institutional advantages and development achievements are obvious to all. Any means of smearing and suppressing will only become a laughing stock in the international community.”

samuelwa@samuelwa· May 7

Amazon accidentally sent me 5.12TB of micro SD cards a few years ago after I ordered 512GB. I returned the extra ones, but now half-wish I hadn’t. Can you RAID those things? 🤔

samuelwa@samuelwa· May 1

“Turns out that hostile foreign forces are pretty dull. Their nefarious plots are the same lame, boring things I get up to.” Love this one:

POI_KakuSAMA: "Lying flat" [躺平, tǎngpíng] clearly impinges on the sacred name of the current Emperor. Such a taboo word must be sanctioned. The Emperor must always stand firm, and never lie down. [The second character (平, píng, meaning “flat,” “even,” “level”), is also the last character in Xi Jinping’s name (习近平, Xí Jìnpíng). In Chinese imperial culture, using the characters in the ruling Emperor’s given name in certain contexts was considered taboo.]

samuelwa@samuelwa· Apr 21

wait

samuelwa@samuelwa· Apr 14

YESSSSSSS