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Think of #steampunk, a subculture that wove together artists, makers, costumers, fiction writers, and tinkerers in endlessly creative ways. My old pal #RogerWood was the world's most improbable steampunk: he was a gay ex-navy gunner who grew up in a small town in the maritimes but moved to Toronto where he became the world's most accomplished steampunk clockmaker.
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I was Roger's neighbour for a decade. He died last year, and I miss him all the time. I was in Toronto in December and saw a few of his last pieces being sold in galleries and I was just *skewered* on the knowledge that I'd never see him again, never visit his workshop:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/16/klockwerks/#craphound
A reader just sent this five-year-old mini documentary about Roger, shot in his *wonderful* workshop. Watching it made me happy and sad and then happy again:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqMGomM8yF8
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The old, good internet was so great. It was a place where every kind of passion could live. It was a real testament to the power of geeking out together, no matter how often the suits demand that we "stop talking to each other and start buying things":
https://catvalente.substack.com/p/stop-talking-to-each-other-and-start
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The world is full of people with weird passions and I love them all, mostly. Learning about #DonBolles's collection of decades' worth of lost pet posters was a moment of pure joy (I just wish more of it was online):
https://ameliatait.substack.com/p/the-man-who-collects-lost-pet-posters
That's the future I was promised: one where every kind of freak can find every other kind of freak.
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Despite the nipple-deep botshit we wade through online, and the relentless cheapening of words like "innovation" and "future," there are still occasional gleams of the future I want to live in.
Like the researchers who spliced a photosynthesis gene into brewer's yeast (a fungus) and got it to photosynthesize, and to display enhanced fitness:
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(23)01744-X
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As #DougMuir writes on #CrookedTimber, this is pretty kooky! Fungi - the coolest of the kingdoms! - can't photosynthesize. The idea that you can just add the photosynthesis gene to a thing that can't photosynthesize and have it just kind of *work* is wild!
https://crookedtimber.org/2024/01/19/occasional-paper-purple-sun-yeast/
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As Muir writes: "Animals have no evolutionary history of photosynthesis and aren’t designed for it, but the same is true for yeast. So… no reason this shouldn’t be possible. A photosynthesizing cat? Sure, why not."
Why not indeed?!
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OK, that's this week's linkdump done and dusted. It only remains for me to share the news with you that the #TrolleyProblem has been finally and comprehensively solved, by @sidereal, of the #IWW IU 520 (railroad workers):
> Slip the switch by flipping it while the trolley's front wheels have passed through, but before the back wheels do. This will cause a controlled derailment bringing the trolley to a safe halt.
https://kolektiva.social/@sidereal/111779015415697244
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I'm Kickstarting the audiobook for *The Bezzle*, sequel to *Red Team Blues*, narrated by #WilWheaton! Pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover. There's also bundles with *Red Team Blues* in ebook, audio or paperback:
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