shadowhive | Network

https://phys.org/news/2026-02-algorithmic-shifting-political-views-conservatism.html

Turning on the "For You" algorithm on X (formerly Twitter) may shift users' political opinions toward more conservative views, suggests research involving nearly 5,000 X users. These effects are shown to persist even after users return to a chronological feed, according to a new paper published in Nature.

https://phys.org/news/2026-02-algorithmic-shifting-political-views-conservatism.html

jadelennox

I take a lot of pictures of three classes of things:

Cats: This pictures are good on any camera, including my agéd single-lens SE.
Birds: These pics are shit on the aforementioned handheld phone.
Moss and lichens and bugs: These pics are fine on the phone, but could be much better.

My real constraint is my hands and arms. I can't hold my arms above my head, I can't hold a phone still very long, the non-ergonomic controls and shape of a phone are shit, I realistically can't carry a tripod on a hike, and I can't bear weight on my shoulders or the back of my neck for any length of time. (I recognize that this collection of constraints means my pictures will never be great, and that's okay.)

So, questions:

Are there any cameras that have particularly good ergonomics, are particularly light, or have a good reputation for accessibility?
I believe I could get a remote shutter trigger & a remote focus, so I could prop the camera somewhere and get a good pic from a less painful angle; do you know how to choose a hand-friendly one? (Not finger-fiddly, easy to attach & detach, easy to click buttons.)
On a modern camera, is it possible to get lenses good enough for bird pics that are not, you know, heavy? Last time I had an SLR I was taking pictures on film, so that tells you how out of date my knowledge is.
What's the lightest tripod that works well for people with shit fine motor control and no finger strength? I can sort by weight on hiking sites, but hikers put up with a lot of fiddly controls that I can't handle.

(I'm only looking for advice from your experience or from the experience of people you trust. Please don't GoogleKagiGoPT it for me!)

rivulet027

Title: Acquisition
Fandom: Leverage
Characters/Pairings: Alec/Parker/Eliot
Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with Leverage. It's not my toy box and I'm merely playing.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: A kitten adopts Eliot.
A/N: Written for Butterfly for the 2024

holly_poly.

( Acquisition )

merricatb

Challenge #4

Today's challenge is all about favorite ships! Most of these are Sense8 of course, and I could probably include the cluster itself as one big happy found family but I broke it up and did some specifics.

1) Rajan/Kala/Wolfgang from Sense8. This is my OT3 and I cannot get enough of them. Love triangle? No thanks, give us a triangle in love instead. It's messy but somehow just WORKS, and honestly, it cemented all three of them as fave characters once they got together more than they ever were separately.

2) Wolfgang & Felix from Sense8. My idiot German babiesssssss. They love each other so much. Best Friends FOREVER. I love a loyal bestie, and basically include Felix with all my OT3 fics since he is absolutely part of Wolfgang's life and Wolfgang's relationships. And this gives me a good excuse to use this amazing gif

maevedarcy made for me of my German/Indian quartet clasping hands.

Rajan, Kala, Wolfgang and Felix from sense8 holding hands

3) Sun/Mun from Sense8. They're named Sun and Moon for heaven's sake, how cute is that? And he loves being kicked in the head by her. What a man.

4) Lito & Wolfgang from Sense8. Before Lito shows up, Wolfgang has had very little interaction with other members of the cluster (apart from Kala obviously, and the orgy). He's about to get himself shot in the face because his pride won't let him lie to save his own stupid life, and Lito shows up and basically gets his permission to intervene and lkjasdfkljadslkjfadsflk;. Then Wolfgang shows up to help Lito win a fight he was very much losing, and later slides in like an angry German fair godmother to protect him again. Lito sees himself as nothing more than a liar, and Wolfgang sees himself as nothing more than a fighter, and that's exactly what they need from each other. GAH it makes me crazy.

5) Lito/Hernando/Dani from Sense8. I love that this relationship went from the beard that wouldn't leave to a family unit that supported each other through everything. A beautiful example of what family can actually mean.

6) Will/Hannibal from Hannibal (NBC). The original Murder Husbands and my first truly toxic ship. It's so good y'all.

7) Eve/Villanelle from Killing Eve. The yuri version of Hannigram with a soundtrack that doesn't sound like dropping a silverware drawer down a flight of stairs.

8) Claudia/Madeleine from Interview with the Vampire - There are so many ships in this series but they're all so bad for each other it was hard to decide, so I went with the one where they're actually great for each other and don't cause nonstop destruction to everyone and everything around them by being in love. Changing the dynamic from mother & daughter in the book to not yet romantic lovers in the series was yet another stroke of genius on the part of the showrunners.

9) The crew of the Revenge from Our Flag Means Death. This show was so much fun. Every couple/throuple/fwb/whatever they had is worth shipping.

10) I'm going to embarrass myself thoroughly with this last one, but I think it says a lot about me that this was the first het ship ship so that's why I'm including it. Full disclaimer, I have not seen this movie since I was a literal child and do not remember much about it, but I'm going off the vibes that appealed to me and still do. April O'Neil/Casey Jones from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the original 1990 movie. I know. I know. I'm stunned to even be typing that. But here's the thing: Intelligent independent woman/sarcastic badass guy who is actually a wimp IS MY JAM. It's why I loved Buffy/Pike in the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie. It's why I love Lenny/Mace in Strange Days. Make her tough, make him pathetic. I will eat that shit up.

This was so much fun to do post Snowflake Challenge and somehow February is already OVER??? Thank you to

dreamersdare for putting on this event and giving me something to squee about each week.

torino10154 posting in

firewhiskeyfic

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Valentine round of

firewhiskeyfic! We had a quiet round but there was a clear winner in each category!

Without further ado, here are the winner's banners, such as they are, but as ever, we're all winners here! ♥

( Winners and Banners )

enchanted_jae

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: jubilant
Current Music: "Keep It Comin' Love" ~ KC and the Sunshine Band

settiai

My debit card was compromised late last week, and I'm waiting for the bank to get all of the charges reversed. I've been able to cover my most urgent bills (the hotel and my storage unit), but I have a few others that are due that I'm still worried about paying. If I can come up with another $100 or so, it would make a huge difference while I wait for the bank to get everything taken care of.

So I'm going to try to sell a few things and hope for the best. 🤞🏻

First, I have a few Nintendo Switch games for sale:

Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! (example on Amazon)
Spyro Reignited Trilogy (example on Amazon)
TemTem (example on Amazon)

And then a few TTRPGs that were Christmas presents so they're still in basically like new shape:

Candela Obscura Core Rulebook (example on Amazon)
Daggerheart Core Set (example on Amazon)

If you're not interested but know someone who might be, please point them my way. It would help a lot if I could manage to sell at least one or two things from this list.

For payment, I have CashApp ($Settiai), PayPal, Venmo, or Zelle (nancy.lynn.foster@gmail.com).

Current Mood: hopeful

prisca posting in

sweetandshort

It's bingo time again. Let's have some fun with the following table:

sunshine	green
homesick	magic

To complete the challenge, grab all the prompts and blackout the card. You can do single works or combine the four prompts in one work.
No one will blame you when you decide to do only one or two prompts, though.

Allowed are fics up to 500 words, small poems like haiku or similar, icons (100x100 px), and small graphics up to 500 px width x height. Please stay to the maximum, even if you decide to use all prompts in one work.

All fandoms, genres, and ratings are welcome, as are original work and real-person work.

Please tag your work with all relevant tags.

This challenge runs until February 28, at midnight in your time zone.

:::

Challenge Reminder:
10 out of 20
Rare Words

case posting in

fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #6988 ⌋

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

01.

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 30 secrets from Secret Submission Post #998.
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.

autumninpluto

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Current Mood: accomplished

veronyxk84 posting in

drabble_zone

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casemod posting in

caseficexchange

If you need a little help in fine-tuning your gift, this is the post to find the Watson to your Holmes (or the Holmes to your Watson—who wouldn't want to be Lucy Liu?)!

Those interested in providing support can pin their details to our metaphorical noticeboard. Support can include brainstorming, offering critique, canon-checking, fact-checking, tips on structure, language issues, looking for specialised knowledge of various kinds, sense checking that something makes sense, visual effects for comics, audio effects for podfic, and some casefic solving.

Participants and non-participants are welcome to volunteer to beta for the 2026 round.

Quick links: Tagset · AO3 app · Sign-up summary of requested fandoms

I've provided an optional template to fill out below, which you're welcome to add and subtract details from:

AO3 name:
Best contact method(s): Please only include details that you are happy to have public.

Fandoms:

Specific topics of expertise:

Mediums: We allow comics, fic, and podfic in this exchange, so please specify which medium(s) you're comfortable working with.

What can you beta?: This is a good opportunity to include content (smut, graphic violence, etc.), length (the minimum is 3k for fic, 10 panels for comics, and various lengths of time for podfic).

What will you not beta?:

Preferred file formats: Would you prefer to beta in Google docs or PDFs? How would you like audio files to be sent, if you have any preference?

Availability: This is a good place to mention if you're okay with being contacted five days out from the assignment deadline, your turnaround times, i.e. will it take you a week to review? Is it dependent on the size?

AO3 name: Best contact method(s): Fandoms: Specific topics of expertise: Mediums: What can you beta?: What will you not beta?: Preferred file formats: Availability:

If you're interested in contacting someone offering to beta, please do so at their contact methods to preserve anonymity. Please email gumshoeagency@gmail.com if you need to get in touch with me to ask any questions.

I stole the base of this from

fffx and

yuletide ♥.

goddess47 posting in

sweetandshort

Title: Color Palette
Author:

goddess47
Fandom: 9-1-1
Challenge: 10 out of 20
Length: 440
Warnings: None

Notes:

For

sweetandshort February 2026 10 out of 20 challenge - white

For Fire Family Conflagration prompt #207 - ivory

For Writer's Choice #156 - only

Summary:

"I love the layout but, well, what's with the off-white walls everywhere?" Buck waved a hand.

Color Palette on AO3

brithistorian

I was reading this morning's edition of Dan Rather's Substack newsletter, where he was writing about the song "Stand By Me". (Apparently he writes about a song or musician every Sunday.)

Anyway, he mentioned that "Stand By Me" was "numbered among the Recording Industry Association of America’s 25 Songs of the Century." This naturally got me curious: A ranked list of things? That's like catnip to me!

So I went to look for it. Turns out that there's no such things as the RIAA "25 Songs of the Century." What there is is the "Song of the Century" list, produced by the RIAA in conjunction with the NEA and Scholastic Inc. It's a list of 365 songs. So where did Rather get this idea of "25 Songs of the Century"? Because "Stand by Me" is #25 on the list, and the Wikipedia entry for "Songs of the Century" only includes the top 25 songs on the list. Apparently Rather (or, more likely, one of his research assistants) looked at the Wikipedia entry, didn't read the text carefully, and based on the table of songs assumed that it was a list of 25 songs.

If you read the text carefully, not only do you get the correct number of songs. You also start to question the RIAA's methodology for creating the list. According to the entry, "[h]undreds of voters, who included elected officials, people from the music industry and from the media, teachers, and students" were asked to select the songs. These voters were selected by the RIAA (and one is forced to ask "how many students does the RIAA know?"), and of the 1300 voters selected, only 200 responded. Seems kind of sloppy and haphazard.

Then, if you read the list, you see that the voters were rather sloppy and haphazard in their definition of a song: #7 on the list is the entire album of West Side Story, which is not "a song." Altogether there are 18 albums on the list: 11 Broadway shows, 6 jazz albums, and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Obviously I don't have a copy of the instructions that the RIAA sent to the voters, but I think we can all agree that (with the exception of Thick as a Brick and possibly a few others) an album is not a song.

Also, just as an aside, I think 2001 (when this survey was conducted) was a bit premature to be choosing the most impactful songs of the 20th century.

All that being said, I think any other such list would be just as subject to being haphazard and subjective, and on skimming over the list I do think it would be an enjoyable and/or interesting list to listen to. Plus, unless you were born on February 29, you can figure out what day of the year you were born on and then look at the complete list and see what song your birthday corresponds to. (Mine is "Fight the Power" by Public Enemy.)

olivermoss

This was not the outcome I wanted, Canada

Silver lining - the big stories out of the gold medal game are about the Hughes bothers and Hellebuyck.

goddess47 posting in

romancingmcshep

Title: LOUD
Author:

goddess47
Character(s): John Sheppard, Rodney McKay
Pairing(s): John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Rating: PG
Length: 100 words
Warnings: none

Notes:

For

mcsheplets prompt #137 - silence

For

romancingmcshep 2026

For Fluffbruary 2026 prompt day 22 - sound

Summary:

John decided they needed new mission equipment.

LOUD on AO3

mekare

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merrileemakes posting in

everykindofcraft

It's 3 months out from the Canberra Spinners and Weavers annual exhibition and sale and I'm focusing on making stock to sell. I thought I'd include some of my design thoughts and process as I do, not to show off or promote stuff to sell, but to show that I'm just doing dumb stuff until it works. Anyone can do what I do, and more importantly everyone should be out there doing dumb stuff with their hands and their brains. The world is now not only on fire, but filled with creations that can make things but they cannot make at. Because art requires intention, and that's something Al doesn't have (yet). So use your hands and your brains and make things our techno overlords cent replicate.
( I, for one, do not welcome our new overlords )
( Making stuff 2: Electric Boogaloo )

badly_knitted posting in

get_knitted

Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.

Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?

There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.

This Week's Question: What is your favourite thing to make?

If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!

Current Mood: tired

phys_social_feed

https://phys.org/news/2026-02-language-barriers-international-diffusion-knowledge.html

Rapid technological and scientific advances have fueled a huge wave of innovation over the past decades. The speed of global innovation is known to be dependent on the exchange of knowledge and skills between different nations worldwide.

https://phys.org/news/2026-02-language-barriers-international-diffusion-knowledge.html