Techrights

Gemini Links 11/11/2025: Kentucky, Bluesky, and Slop

Posted by Roy Schestowitz on Nov 11, 2025

GNOME bluefish

Contents

• Gemini* and GopherPersonal/OpinionsTechnology and Free Software

* ### Gemini* and Gopher

Personal/Opinions

🖼️ xkcd — Big and Little Spoons #3166

Good evening.

I've been around on the smol internet for quite some months and finally found my way into this little pub.I'd like one IPA, please. And tell me, what's that piece playing in the background?

🔤SpellBinding — ADGIJNU Wordo: COUNT

The future circular economy in Kentucky

Capital, energy (as in zheng nengliang), physical (electricity), and financial investment, are all being sucked into the AI bubble. But almost five million Kentuckians live in the real economy, with expensive electricity, a refrigerator that's about to go, a brand-new this year phone with an already broken screen, and a snowblower it turns out they didn't actually need.Thus there's a thriving secondary market for durable consumer goods. You can buy used children's clothes and toys at shops in every town, including the incomperable Once Upon a Child in Paducah.Junkyards sell parts out of cars. There are a few in most counties. "Auto recycler" used parts stores strip cars for parts, shelve them, and inventory them, to make it easier to find what you're looking for in person, by phone, or online.

Technology and Free Software

Chicken Caesars: they're messing with your Bluesky feed

It seems there's some underhanded algorithmic fuckery happening in the ATmosphere. My best guess, based on the available information, is that the Bluesky team is running some sort of LLM-based social experiment affecting reply visibility. There's a fair bit of confusion as to what's actually happening, and a lack of clear communication (perhaps combined with attempts at outright obfuscation) hasn't helped.I've tried to be as careful and methodical as I can while, as a non-expert, digging into the odd behaviour of the platform that I've observed first-hand. I wrote a short bsky thread [1] about it, but figured it would be good to do this longer blog post and have all the info in one place. If you have good reason to believe I've gotten something wrong here, feel free to message me on the fediverse or on bluesky and I'll correct the record in a transparent way.

* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.