I haven't told anyone about this yet, so let's go: Last fall, attorney's working for a certain social media company we will call "Schmeta" reached out to me asking for help with a copyright suit specifically because I was an academic who is also an 'expert' with Blender. 🧵
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They wanted an expert who would state that 3D models aren't worth anything because they are so easy to make. Evidently Shmeta and an ivy league school we will call "Schmarvard" had scraped data illegally from a certain company's online library and used it to to train their AI...
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These attorney's wanted me to show that I could make textured 3D models quickly and and easily in Blender to exhibit how easy they are to make and that the lawsuit against them for stealing hundreds of thousands of 3D models was worthless. They were willing to pay me significantly to do this.
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I said I was happy to exhibit how long it takes to make these models, but that it might not be what they want as it is still a time-intensive craft that takes years to learn how to do creatively and competently. They said they didn't want me to lie, but that was not what they were looking for.
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After several phone calls they eventually told me that they would not need my services. But I was left with the distinct impression that mega rich institutions like Schmeta and and Schmarvard are gleefully stealing every aspect of our culture to position themselves to resell it back to us.
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I also got the impression that our legal systems are in no way fast enough to stem the damage they will do to our creative classes and they know this and are working as fast they can to grab as much as they can before laws catch up to their crimes. https://www.wired.com/story/new-documents-unredacted-meta-copyright-ai-lawsuit/
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@brentpatterson "They also allege that internal discussions about using LibGen data were escalated to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg (referred to as "MZ" in the memo handed over during discovery) and that Meta's AI team was "approved to use" the pirated material."
If there ever was any doubt about corporations' lack of respect for copyright of others, surely this is the end of it.
@brentpatterson
This exactly what’s happening before our very eyes.
We have to PAY for necessities like healthcare & they profit. MSM. Agriculture. Water. They’re taking everything.
I feel like their vision is all of us living 100% in servitude to them in horrible conditions.
#Furiosa
#MadMax
@brentpatterson Schmarvard sounds like a big place, do you recall what part in particular? Just curious.
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@overholt I was never told which unit of "Schmarvard" was involved. However, there were evidently competitions promoted by Schmeta to use the stolen dataset to train AI to either recognize or create 3D models of furniture.
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@brentpatterson Hmm, that kind of sounds like a hypothetical Schmaduate Schmool of Schmesign.
@brentpatterson curious, did you get the sense that they did not need your services because you were not giving them what they wanted? Do you think they went to find someone that would?
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@technotion most definitely, yes
@brentpatterson It's not the amount of time or effort that determines if something is a work of art or otherwise copyrightable. It can take far longer to paint the halls of an office building beige than it takes an someone to paint an impressionistic painting, but the first isn't art while the second is.
@brentpatterson as a complete noob I ask: what would be the consequences of accepting the proposition and later just tell the truth during the exposition? Or this was not for a deposition in front of a jury or similar?
@brentpatterson "you're an expert so you know it takes no time at all" what
What fucking logic.
Garbage people.
@brentpatterson wonder if @LeslieBurns has seen this thread…
🌨️🏔️SNOW MUSINGS❄️☃️
In the traditional calendar January starts with a period known as 'lesser cold' (小寒 'shōkan'), soon to be followed by 'greater cold' (大寒 'daikan')...
"Parsley flourishes" (芹乃栄 January 5th-9th), "springs thaw" (水泉動 10th-14th), and "pheasants start to call" (雉始雊 15th-19th).
#Kyoto #traditionalcalendar #京都 #Japan #snowday #snow #zen #Myoshinji
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There is always something magical about the teahouse in the snow🥰
#Kyoto #Japan #CamelliaTeaCeremony #GardenTeahouse #snow #snowday #teahouse #winter
We’ve been watching the Watch Duty team do absolutely *unbelievable* technical work all week (they’re members of the Fast Forward open source program that my team at Fastly works on), handling a surge of millions of people trying to see where the LA fires are in real time. Amidst the hopelessness of the fires causing so much destruction, there’s hope in seeing people taking care of each other in this way. There are still people who do such good on the internet. https://gizmodo.com/watch-duty-hits-1-on-apple-app-store-as-wildfires-rage-in-california-2000547740
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@anildash if you know the folks there, might be worth giving them a nudge that their app isn't available on (at least) the Play Store in Canada. Maybe they have a reason, but I can't imagine what that is!
Looks like a really amazing app (and having lived through 3 1/2 weeks of wildfire evacuation this summer, I know how useful this would be!)
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The inside of a Dove candy wrapper that reads: "You're eating this while hiding from your kids, aren't you?"
As a trained firefighter I'm astounded/horrified at the number of reporters not wearing masks while reporting on the fires in LA.
A good story isn't worth sacrificing your life and health to hydrocarbons and burning plastic. The average home in 2025 is so toxic while burning that it's hard to watch; far more toxic than homes historically have ever been throughout history. This is something they drilled into us deeply while training.
The cause and effect can be long term and utterly devastating. A mask is gonna save your life in the coming years, be it pandemic or flames.
Wear a mask, shower often. Wash your hands before you eat. A lot of firefighters died before we figured out those basics.
PS- if you have a paint respirator with VOC cartridges even better.
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My feeling is that anything short of chemical filters is reporters being reckless.
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@lispi314 this is the second time you've responded to something we reshared to, effectively, tell people to despair about masks on the false theory that masks are useless, which is not an empowering thing to do even though it's framed as concern
we do not appreciate it
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@lispi314 if this is going to be a pattern, we may eventually need to block you so that you can no longer use our reshares as a means of discovering threads to use in spreading what amount to anti-mask talking points. we don't know whether that is your intent, but it is what you are doing. we don't want to block you, but if you test us, we will.
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@lispi314 we view you as a friend, but we recognize that we and you have very different communication styles. we are being blunt in order to make sure we don't miscommunicate.
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@lispi314 if you want to talk about your complaints around masks in your own space, feel free. we object to being an intermediary who helps you to reach a larger audience with this stuff.
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@lispi314 thanks for understanding.
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The fact is that this is also a chemical hazard and people should make sure to use the appropriate filters for it too.
Most reusable/elastomeric respirators that aren't of the absolute cheapest kind allow for various kinds of filter cartridges including ones for chemical safety. Reporters should be leading by example, since people will see them.
Filtering out the ash and particles still necessarily helps, but why not do even better when it's possible?
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@lispi314 we agree that people who have the time and resources to take more robust precautions, should strongly consider doing so. however, the effect of raising the topic in the way you did is to discourage people, not encourage them, by characterizing any realistic effort as useless.
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@lispi314 we realize that we normally are very willing to help you understand the implications of the thing you say, which very frequently seem as if they're coming from some sort of alternate reality. we're not up for doing that right now, we're just setting a boundary. if you contemplate this topic on your own and come back to us with any questions you still have, we're willing to discuss it some other time.
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@lispi314 thanks 💜
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I'm gonna butt in as a stranger and say thank you both so much for practicing clear communication and de-escalation / conflict resolution strats so openly. It's really nice to see, especially these days.
</thankful rubber-necking,I guess?>
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@MxVerda we're glad it came off that way, we worried about it, it's more intense than we usually are
It's still early but the doomscrolling opportunities for 2025 so far have been top notch.
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The doomscrolling opportunities keep coming.
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@dangoodin Welcome to 2025.
@dangoodin the future’s so dark, I gotta wear PPE
@dangoodin
If ever you need a break, I love that Mastodon also allows me #BloomScrolling. 😉
It's not okay to force other instance admins to block everything you also block (as admin or user)
The point of the Fediverse is to have a lot of different instances with each their own guidelines
Ofc we need to be on the same line but that doesn't mean everything has to be 1-to-1
Personally I don't agree with: "I'll block you if you don't block what I block'
Stop that
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Shalien@stux This. Thank you.
@stux Fediblock, while intended for honest comm, has morphed into a mechanism of laziness where (some) instance admins are more than happy to block instances without receipts. Very high school.
I don't have a better answer or solution other than to recommend those on such instances move to a better place and financially support that place if happy with their admin/mod team. The easiest way to fight shit-tier admining/modding is to starve such instances of users and finances.
To those that work hard to provide a positive, drama-free (as much as possible) environment for its users, I salute you.
One does not dictate rules on another's server I think!
If you don't like decisions made by your admin there are always thousands of other instances to move to that perhaps do fit your view ❤️
If that's also not the case, you can always setup your own Fedi server and block all you want, no hard feelings
All we can do is suggest things to each other to make it better, not forcing it
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@stux Who's being forced here?
"You should block [X] because [reason, e.g. they federate with Threads]. We block anyone federated with Threads" is no more dictatorial than saying "Don't tell other servers who to block, don't warn them you block servers that federate with Threads".
People can run servers as they please, federate and block as they please, develop policies and red lines between themselves. Defederation cuts both ways.
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@jackeric You're missing the point 😉
Everyone can run their server as they see fit but do not force it on others by repeating calling them out etc
Just block and be done with it if thats your way
@stux
At least I have not a friggin clue what year saying except we don't wanna end up a twin of Meta/X.
@stux You'll talk to me
Come to my live video chat profile it's free now check I am in your area now check my profile
@stux you're forgetting that "I block you if you don't block what I block" is a legit policy too. Stop it.
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Fedi meta [SENSITIVE CONTENT]
@stux @GolfNovemberUniform no one is forcing you to do this. If you count their posts saying that admins should do something as them forcing you to do something, that would mean your post is also forcing them to adopt different policies than the ones they want. You're doing the same thing! Either it's okay to tell people they're admining wrong, or it's not. But that's exacyly what you're doing too, and it's definitely not just okay for You And Only You.
@stux I disagree. If your friend is a bad person and you help them do bad things, then you are a bad person too, and I want nothing to do with you OR your friend.
It's a spectrum. It depends how bad your friend is.
But as a general rule, I have no problem at all with people shunning those who refuse to shun bad people.
Also, this has nothing to do with "force". It's not "force". It's exercising my right to associate with whomever I choose. You have the same right. But if you have bad friends, I may not choose you. Or you may not choose me. Those calls are ours to make.
@stux Fediverse users seem to have little tolerance. I was used to getting daily reports pointing at spam, scams, and harassment. On the fediverse, I'm getting reports about opinions (even with scientific references) that people don't like. Pictures of food and people's faces not having been marked as sensitive. Makes me wonder if these are people living in a place without grocery stores and where everyone is required to wear sunglasses. There must be a more suitable instance for these folks.
@stux I do have some minimal requirements there though.
If you don't block Nazis for example as that is a legal risk for me - my instance falls under German law. The same with child porn and obv hate speech.
How Fábio Gomes Turns Trees into Hair: Stunning Murals in Trindade
In Trindade, Brazil, artist Fábio Gomes creates beautiful murals that inspire people all over the world. He mixes his detailed portraits with real trees […]
https://streetartutopia.com/2025/01/09/how-fabio-gomes-turns-trees-into-hair-stunning-murals-in-trindade/
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A stunning mural by Fábio Gomes Trindade in Goiás, Brazil, depicting the face of a young Black girl with a radiant smile, her resting hand supporting her chin. The girl's afro is seamlessly integrated with vibrant, blooming magenta bougainvillea flowers from a nearby tree, creating a breathtaking blend of natural and painted elements. The backdrop features warm orange and yellow tones, enhancing the contrast and warmth of the artwork.
How Facebook's new moderation guidelines read
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Frame of animal farm movie, with three pigs standing in front of a barn with the words "all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others" written on it
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Facebook's new moderation guidelines. Insults are prohibited, unless you're insulting queer people
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@sophieschmieg is that authentic? "we don't allow insulting anyone in any respect, but bashing queer and trans people is okay"!? I can hardly believe it! But then I've always stayed off Facebook.
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Jupp. I had to check myself, too. You don't get more explicit. https://transparency.meta.com/policies/community-standards/hateful-conduct/
@sophieschmieg i take issue with "non-serious usage of weird" because there sure are a ton of weirdos in the incoming administration, what should we call them if not weird? sociopaths? psychos? weird seems polite to me.
@sophieschmieg So no insulting Trump - almost like they used him as the poster child for the list eh?
Sunrise in Los Angeles this morning
(Video: Andrew Kimmel)
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@luckytran @briankrebs Well, THAT’S a movie poster.
@luckytran
Muss das so? Könnte auch glatt ein Ausschnitt aus nem Katastrophenfilm sein 🫣
@DerKlimablog
@luckytran literally...
@luckytran Reminded me of a "Get shorty" quote:
(Ray Bones) They say the fucking smog is the fucking reason you have such beautiful fucking sunsets.
Still awful, though.
@luckytran there are at least 5 dystopian movies made in the 20th Century that this reminds me off 😔
And it's not like we weren't warned about this, the people who profited off Climate Change knew what would happen before most of us were even born!
To me this is the greatest crime against Humanity, not only against the whole planet, but generations of that planet, perhaps even terminal for the Human species....
@luckytran wow. so smoky you can't even see the Tyrell Corporation pyramid
@luckytran Horrible things should NOT be allowed to look so beautiful!
The fossil fuel dollars that brought about sunrises like that deserves a phase out.
It's earned it many times over.
https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/petroleum-phaseout-plan-california
https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/18/california-can-ban-new-gas-cars-starting-in-2035-epa-says/
@luckytran "And so, kids, the situation that we now have everywhere arose." (Narrator in a documentary in Bladerunner 2049)
What shocks mean is the level of smoke doesn’t even come close to the fog if you will of smoke a few we expressed a few years ago in the Bay Area in the lake of all the massive grass fires going on north of us. I woke up at 8:30 in the morning and thought it was midnight and I kept my physical activity to an absolute minimum but every alveoli complained about the air quality.
@luckytran stay safe. I feel for anyone with lung issues.
@luckytran insane, this is just like a 90s movie
@luckytran
Oh wow 😳
@luckytran
Drill, baby drill.
@luckytran
Drill, babz drill.
@luckytran
Where's the Blade Runner soundtrack?
@luckytran this is so sad. My heart is broken for everyone affected, directly or indirectly.
@luckytran looks straight out of a cyberpunk dystopian movie
@luckytran did all the bokoblins respawn?
@luckytran I guess it's Night of The Comet?
https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/18462-night-of-the-comet
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Frame from the 1984 movie Night of The Comet, with a red sky looking very similar to today's pictures from LA.
@luckytran @KevinFreitas This reminds me of a description of the sunrise in the book "Dhalgren" by Samuel R Delany. I read it when I was in my teens and it really stuck with me.
@luckytran 🎶 This is what you want. This is what you get. 🎶
@luckytran Just needs a little background music...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slSNjzVzxWs
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DOOM Eternal - Hell On Earth
(Cover image is Doom x Animal Crossing with Isabelle on Doom Guy's shoulder saying "Rip and tear, until it is done.")
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@catsalad And a trailer voice
"In the distant future of 2025
In a broken world
One man stands against the impression and must save humanity"
@luckytran Just wow. Thanks for showing us, stay safe.
@luckytran A new life awaits you in the Off-world colonies. The chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure.
⏚
Technicians have successfully integrated NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s payload—the telescope, instrument carrier, and two instruments—to the spacecraft that will deliver the observatory to its place in space and enable it to function while there.
https://www.nasa.gov/universe/nasa-joins-telescope-instruments-to-roman-spacecraft/
i've decided i'm gonna get even sillier with the fedipact account now
i mean it was already pretty silly before. like posting nudes with "fedipact" written across my tits and boosting them on here levels of silly
but i mean EVEN SILLIER
as in... lyric and music posting mainly i guess
funny how that's a step up for me lol
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The TV guy interviewing the Jokeman in the Joker movie The Joker: "Let me get this straight. You think your data is safer in the hands of some transgender furry than with the richest most powerful corporations in the world"
The Joker from The Joker starring The Joker: "it is, and I'm tired of pretending it's not"
If you're an Apple user and I spoof your phone number in a call to the legitimate Apple Customer Support line (800-275-2273), I can force Apple to send you a system level "Apple Account Confirmation" prompt to all of your signed-in devices.
This approach is commonly used by a prolific voice phishing group to convince targets they really are in a support call with an Apple representative.
Today's deep dive into this weird world was made possible in part by a series of live phishing videos, tutorials and other secrets shared by an insider that show in unprecedented detail how these voice phishing scams can be so convincing.
Please share this story widely, because I learned a ton reporting this and frankly the various methods used by these groups to dox and target people are really slick.
From the story: "Besieged by scammers seeking to phish user accounts over the telephone, Apple and Google frequently caution that they will never reach out unbidden to users this way. However, new details about the internal operations of a prolific voice phishing gang show the group routinely abuses legitimate services at Apple and Google to force a variety of outbound communications to their users, including emails, automated phone calls and system-level messages sent to all signed-in devices."
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/01/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-prolific-voice-phishing-crew/
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An Apple Account Confirmation message lists the recipient email address and says: Would you like to confirm your Apple Account and allow Apple to access your device serial numbers to expedite your interaction? If you did not contact Apple, do not confirm this request." Below that are two choices: Confirm, don't confirm.
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@briankrebs how does this affect users who have advanced protection on for their iCloud accounts?
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@gh0sti @briankrebs They don’t have access to any iCloud e2e data unless they phish the iPhone passcode as well
@briankrebs Your website link doesn;t open - 403 it says
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@joeturner how are you trying to access the site? Google Shield hasn't been terribly friendly to visitors from Tor recently, according to reports from other readers. But I don't have any control over that.
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@briankrebs I'm on ProtonVPN (Wireguard) on macOS and Firefox.
For some reason, it opens in a clean all borwser history/data deleted Safari.
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@briankrebs Your website has always opened before - today was surprising to me so thought I'd let you know.
Doesn't open in Brave either, FYI.
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@joeturner I am shocked, shocked, that an ad company doesn't like VPNs. /s Will investigate. Thanks.
A lot people stop reading these stories when they realize that most of the targets are cryptocurrency holders. But the truth is these voice phishing techniques would be even more successful on lower-stakes, run-of-the-mill user accounts. It just so happens that phishing crypto users is way more lucrative.
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@briankrebs I carry on reading because I get to see shitcoin holders be miserable *and* learn interesting broadly-applicable threat model stuff
@briankrebs do they at least rate limit it, eg once in a while? One a day? One an hour?
If you use #Apple products, you should be aware of this scam technique.
One can imagine how much worse this could get if Meta gets the access to Apple data they are seeking.
@briankrebs but also worth knowing Apple has a policy of NEVER calling you unless you’ve specifically requested a call. If “Apple” calls you, assume its a scam.
It’s part of why they’ll never return lost devices back to their owners if they’ve been turned into an Apple Store (even tho they know who owns them).
@briankrebs In other words, don't take seriously any digital warnings.
Nah, I would always ask for their name, extension, & employee number and call on the phone line of a company to confirm that they work for that company.
I even did that to the local police when they called to talk to me about my property that I had reported was stolen.
@briankrebs it seems to me that all this could be remediated by forcing telcos to stop allowing spoofing to occur. Feels like telcos are so far behind the curve with no real incentive to innovate, just proliferate.
@briankrebs
Question: At one point in the video, the scammer asks the victim to switch from cellular to wi-fi. Is this because wi-fi somehow made the scam easier, or is it unrelated to the scam itself?
@briankrebs The box should have buttons labelled "I called Apple" and "Apple called me". The text should put the most important thing first. "Did you contact Apple, and do you want to allow Apple to access your device serial numbers?"
@briankrebs kudos to Apple, for making the prompt very clear - if you did not initiate the call do NOT confirm
@briankrebs I’ve opted out of every possible search service that I can, including the white pages. The only calls I get are from Florida asking me if I want to sell my house.
I don’t live in Florida and I don’t own a house there.
But, this is disturbing.
@briankrebs was showing this to my wife and she said this happened to a friend of hers who definitely has nothing to do with crypto
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@scotts Is she famous or semi-famous for some reason? it seems like some of these voice phishing groups go after celebrities, in addition to bitcoin.
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@briankrebs no i believe she’s the school teacher friend
As I wrote last week: "As other information sources fall, Wikipedia’s stubborn independence becomes more vital than ever. The attacks from [the right] aren't just about an online encyclopedia — they're part of a broader assault on any information source that refuses to be controlled."
https://forward.com/news/686797/heritage-foundation-wikipedia-antisemitism/
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Donating to the Wikimedia Foundation is great. Becoming a volunteer editor is even better.
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Here is a resource for maintaining your personal security as an editor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Personal_security_practices
I publicly connect my Wikipedia account to my IRL identity, but this is NOT required.
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@molly0xfff Given that @annaleen was inspired to write "The Future of Another Timeline by the often-sexist edit wars on Wikipedia as it was over five years ago, I shudder to think about the next stage of brotastic shittiness that will be deployed in the name of their dear leaders Trump and Musk.
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@LinuxAndYarn @molly0xfff Ooof yes. We've already been through one round of this, when Trump became president in 2017 and the government scrubbed a bunch of climate data off its websites.
#AlbumOfTheDay 736: Live From The Good Music Club - Roll the Bones b/w The Waters by Shakey Graves
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6nIzMTBUSweuT-WRokyD7vyozlAawffs&feature=shared
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Vinyl record of Live From The Good Music Club - Roll the Bones b/w The Waters by Shakey Graves resting on a wall mount.
An unfortunate downside of using solid state storage with ancient computers... these machines used to seize up all the time, but often you could tell it was thinking hard because of the hard drive grinding, so knew to just leave it for a bit. But without those thinking noises it's hard to tell whether you should leave it or restart it. 🙃
#RetroComputing
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@billgoats matters less if you do, though
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@ieatfog Nobody wants to think too hard.
@billgoats I was thinking about this the other day while playing a game - it was taking a lot of storage space, so I'd moved most of it to the physical hard disk in this PC (it's quite old) to save space on the SSD, and it was churning the HDD quite a bit.
@billgoats some have made addons to bring back these sounds! like this hdd clicker that lgr blerbs looked at
https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=IZKttBr2Y8g
@billgoats the sane ones had an HDD activity LED…
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@mmu_man Both is where it's at! :D
I just got an email from someone (who has long been reading my posts in various venues) who is not a hardcore techie, but wants to start using Mastodon. He obviously spent considerable time trying to figure out how but ended up completely confused, as would be expected. What is the current recommended place to point him to get a tutorial for getting onto a public Mastodon site in the most straightforward way possible? He noted that if he wanted to get onto X or Threads or any of the others, it's so simple, but for Mastodon he was led completely astray by what he found when searching, and was asking me for an "invite" for an instance I have absolutely nothing to do with. So ... again, where should I point him? Or is the Mastodon philosophy still that users like him aren't welcome? Thanks.
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@sgnj151 I just need a single URL to send him that can get him started.
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@lauren @sgnj151 the Vivaldi social is a single url
https://social.vivaldi.net/explore
@lauren OK, I could get in trouble for this, as Admin of a relatively small instance that is topic based...
I think it might be fine to start out on mastodon.social. Yes, even though we have to periodically Limit the instance because of spam waves from them.
But, isn't it ok to try it out there, and then find your better home instance?
How else are folks going to figure out how things work here?
If mastodon.social were better moderated, that would be so much better.
@lauren Even the big servers are a fine place to set out from, if that helps, and changing later is straightforward.
I’m trying to choose an email service and it’s making my head spin so I’m really sympathetic to the feeling that the first step is both difficult and deal breaking. I hope your friend feels welcome here.
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@kate He's not my friend, he's just someone who has asked for help and has been confused by what he's found so far. Compared with the other platforms, Mastodon is still an onboarding train wreck.
@lauren@laurenweinstein.org If handhold them till entire process is complete. Once they’re in, they’re in.
Ask them to help others in return.
Mastodon onboarding is shitty but hey, you only do it once.
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@nonlinear I'm not in a position to handhold him. He wants to know where he can sign up, like he can in two minutes on every other social media platform. And I don't blame him one bit.
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@lauren Pass them on to me? I can guide them. I wouldn’t mind, if we plan.
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@lauren I mean. Mastodon onboarding sucks, but it’s a one in a lifetime event.
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@lauren I am a UX designer and I can spend DAAAYS criticizing mastodon approach…
An identifier that is read @username@domain that is NOT an email? A follow that you need to jump hoops? A search that can’t search even your own posts? Yeah.
But it’s still no ads, no algo, no nazis. And that counts for something.
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@nonlinear Unreliable replies. No identity portability, etc., etc., etc. Still as social media collapses around the world, Mastodon remains a niche of value, despite its numerous faults. And it's certainly lower pressure than the others, for sure.
I don't remember if it's a special feature, but at least on my instance I can use "from:me" and it searches my own posts.
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@TyrionTargaryen @lauren Oh I’ll try.
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@nonlinear @TyrionTargaryen AFAIK that's an add-on, not part of the normal stack.
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@lauren @TyrionTargaryen Hmmmm. I myself have an instance and I’m afraid to make changes ha.
Hopefully the changes happen retroactively. One day I’ll fix it.
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@nonlinear @TyrionTargaryen I don't blame you in the least. Touching the stack is always to be avoided.
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@lauren @TyrionTargaryen I wish mastodon had a plug-in system for instances.
I also wish instances themselves got together to agree on what they want, and influence mastodon admins effectively.
I wish I wish I wish… 🤷🏽
@lauren I would suggest having him look up some YouTube tutorials to familiarize him with the lingo and how Mastodon works. I signed up in 2017, had two posts, and forgot about Mastodon. Fast forward to December 2024, I decided to try it again. I decided on my own instance. I have read tons regarding Mastodon, and understand it much better now.
@lauren here’s something I wrote a while back that might help
https://katecarruthers.com/2022/12/18/im-on-mastodon-what-now/
@lauren theoretically, this is your moment : you have an excited new user, and you are a mastodon domain admin (perhaps not a willing one to support users)
but you could just as well point them to a domain like sfba.social or something specific to interests or location and explain that the choice of "sites" is the choice of ultimately, moderators, and less ultimately, real people who are going to run the thing you call your social media
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@orloff I just run my one person instance -- me. I'm not in a position to act as a guide to signing up on public instances. I tried to help with this for a time a couple of years ago when I started on Mastodon, but I got little help from admins on other sites. Often I got "if they can't figure it out, we don't want them" responses. Seriously.
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@lauren I get that. My point was that people who don't understand where to start often fail to have understood the simpler user-facing aspects of the choice of a third party hosted site - there's gonna be someone to moderate if moderation becomes necessary, and there's people NOT named Lauren Weinstein who will be doing the actual work of running the magical cloud for you and who do you want that to be ? Optional rant about John Mastodon for effect, to taste.
@lauren single URL that worked for me https://joinmastodon.org/ - suppose I should move servers but don't really care.
I went ahead and sent him the invite to ohai.social that was offered. Hopefully that will at least get him started. Thanks all! -L
@lauren I just typed "how to join mastodon" in three LLMs and they returned decent answers.
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@hananc You know how I feel about trusting anything that spews from LLMs. I would never suggest anyone use them for any purpose of importance, and given how often they mix fact and fancy, using them for any reason is a crap shoot. And I don't gamble.
https://joinmastodon.org/ let's you join mastodon.social in 3 steps and has a server directory. If your friend is already aware of a server sign up by invite, he needs someone who invites him.
(in my own example i started reading mastodon, found someone i interacted in old times and asked by email for an invite)
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@lobingera I really didn't want to point him at a server directory. That's just another point of confusion to a beginner. They need a GO HERE URL, like there is for every major social media platform. Anyway, he has the invite, and that should get him started now.
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@lauren I see. The default to mastodon.social on the webpage and (afaik) the basic App has raised some controversy, as many fediverse instances don't want them to be the next "major social media platform".
(and i didn't need to answer, there's many better replies in the thread)
@lauren
Is there any way you could ask your friend how he searched for information, what he found etc.?
I mean, did he google for "how to join Mastodon" or what exactly? And when he did, what did he find that was so confusing about the results?
🍵🎊A CUP OF KINDNESS🐇🙏
Wishing you all a Happy New Year!🙇♂️🎉
あけましたおめでとうございます!
May the 'year god' bring you health, happiness and good fortune.
another year
hanging the New Year's rope...
wrinkled face
又ことし七五三かける也顔の皺
-Kobayashi Issa, 1819.
Trans. David Lanoue.
#newyear #Kyoto #京都 #Japan #newyearcelebrations #happynewyear
#wagashi #sweets #和菓子
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Maruni Dakigashiwa's sumptuous sweet 'oimatsu' (老松) mimics snow on pine branches, a celebratory symbol at New Year.
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Kemari at Shimogamo-jinja. The ancient game is played at the beginning of the year at the shrine to entertain the gods (and ask for their blessing for the year ahead).
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Nao-san feeds the 'sacred horse' at Kamigamo-jinja.
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Young pine saplings are hung at gateways as New Year decorations. One sapling is a black pine and the other a red pine.
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Tooth-hardening...an important way to start the year🦷💪🤔
Hanabiramochi (葩餅), one of the first sweets to be consumed in the New Year, evolved from the Hagatame-gishiki (歯固め儀式) 'Tooth Hardening Ceremony' held at the palace.
It was a prayer for good health and long life.
#wagashi #hanabiramochi #葩餅 #NewYear #Kyoto #Japan #京都
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Hanabiramochi are one of the first sweets consumed in the new year. Typically they feature a disc of mochi folded over pink sweet bean paste and a sliver of burdock.
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Hanabiramochi are one of the first sweets consumed in the new year. Typically they feature a disc of mochi folded over pink sweet bean paste and a sliver of burdock.
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Hanabiramochi are one of the first sweets consumed in the new year. Typically they feature a disc of mochi folded over pink sweet bean paste and a sliver of burdock.
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Hanabiramochi are one of the first sweets consumed in the new year. Typically they feature a disc of mochi folded over pink sweet bean paste and a sliver of burdock.
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@camelliakyoto Actually delicious, I'd never had sweet gobo before. Say hello to our host Norie, we had a lovely afternoon session at Ryoanji with her.
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Two small plates side by side, hanabiramochi as described in the original post on the left, napkin on the right.
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@oya3un I will absolutely pass on your best wishes.
Sweet burdock is a first for a lot of people, and there are many that prefer to gently leave it to one side!
Thank you for visiting us, and we hope you have a wonderful time in Kyoto!
Anyone out there still buy or use CDs? I was going to release this album as a digital-only, but I’m second guessing my first guess. Please boost to reach as many music consumers as possible! And feel free to explain your answer in a comment.
| Yes!: | 6 |
| No!: | 4 |
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@adammoe2022 If there's an artist I like, I hunt down their label and buy their music directly (most recently: @shannoncurtis, JD McPherson, & Juliana Hatfield). If that means getting a CD, that's fine. Colored vinyl + downloads is ideal; more money for them, and pre-ripped songs and a nifty LP for me.
Congratulations to Bill Nye for being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Thank you for joining us over the years at many marches and rallies to stand up for science. More than ever, scientists need to keep speaking up for truth and organizing for justice. Onward!
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Bill Nye receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom
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Photo of Lucky Tran and Bill Nye attending the People's Climate March
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Photo of Lucky Tran and Bill Nye attending the March for Science
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@luckytran The sad thing is that the orange menace will probably award some of the most vile people in north America the medal too, just to spite Biden.
@luckytran From his #Seattle days -a treasured gift from friends. He's a great science communicator.
I think it was from a fundraiser for Public Television.
#BillNye #Science #PNW #ScienceCommunication
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A light blue lab coat signed: Science Rules! Bill Nye the Science Guy, dating to the 1980's Seattte
At the end of last month stopped using Chrome because Google blocked me from running an adblocker. Switched to Firefox. Today tried to order an item online and pay for it with Google Pay.
I guess Google literally doesn't want my money anymore.
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Google Pay
To make this purchase using Google Pay, open this website in a browser app, such as Chrome or Safari
OK
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Firefox: It's Not Even A Web Browser (Source: Google)™
@mcc If you give in and need to install Chromium just for stuff like this, you might try "Ungoogled Chromium."
Not sure if you even want to deal with it or not though. I certainly wouldn't blame you for not doing it.
@mcc Google never really wanted your money i think. i'm sure they take their cut of course, but i think the hardware side, Google Pay percentage, that sort of consumer-facing stuff itself...it doesn't mean anything as far as the money to them. it's about keeping data in the ecosystem flowing at this point, as that's seemingly where their money is coming from?*
*i haven't looked at any Google profit margins today or any day in a lot of years, i could be blowing smoke...
@mcc "A browser app" indeed.
@mcc according to https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1933884 this only happens on some sites and they couldn't reproduce it on firefox 133, fwiw
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@mcc why not to use Chromium instead?
@mcc I previously switched from Chrome to Firefox also. Did you look at any browsers other than Chrome? I’ve been looking into Vivaldi as Firefox feels uncomfortably close to starting enshitification and I just don’t know how Mozilla is going to keep funding their budget. But then Vivaldi feels somewhat unknown. 🤷♂️
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@hermes Firefox is what I use on Linux, so as long as I was switching it seemed easiest to go all the way to Firefox. I am curious about Vivaldi. I tried some other stuff like Arc and Floorp but it seemed like they were trying to "improve" the browser and honestly I just want Chrome from 2023, Google already tried improving it past that point and they made me like it less.
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@mcc @hermes
As mentioned, Ungoogled Chromium is a good option.
As is Cromite:
https://github.com/uazo/cromite
There are releases for Win/Linux/Android
@mcc Vivaldi is Chromium-based, but hellbent on privacy. I love it, and it would probably work.
Yeah, Alphabet dosen't care about proletariat commerce. They do care about getting hacked with software they don't understand. They don't care about avoiding being proprietary to ensure security anymore. Thier products are ubiquious enough they no longer need to absorb the risk.
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@janisf When I used Chromium on Linux last, I hit some bugs. Maybe some of them have been fixed by now.
@mcc If only there was meaningful antitrust enforcement to prevent that kind of thing.
@mcc it's another reason why we should support browser engine diversity
So IT monopolies will not be able lock users to browsers controlled by them
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@ujeenator did u know the Servo project takes donations, they are making very fast progress and it's cool
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@mcc I saw recent talk recoding on YouTube from one of developers, and I feel motivated to contribute by coding
@mcc also I extremely happy with firefox capabilities on Android, it support browser extension
And I can configure it in any way I like
@mcc It seems like they want you using a mobile browser app. I don't think this has to do specifically with using Firefox.
try the Firefox phone app, and see if that changes anything,
@mcc What the fucking hell
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@GreenSkyOverMe there is a second post
@mcc Vivaldi browser?
@mcc
Hello @EUCommission something to note for the already heavy "google" dossier. Tome to act.
And @firefox isn't the problem there. Google abuses clearly of it's dominant position.
@mcc the free market at work, gotta spread those deets somehow
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A black, short-haired cat on a wood floor, laying in front of a gas fireplace with a red brick facade.
Privacy Good News 🔒✨
People who reside in the United States in one of these states:
Delaware
Iowa
Nebraska
New Hampshire
New Jersey
Know that your state now
has a new data privacy legislation effective as of January 1st (or soon will on January 15th for New Jersey)!
I strongly encourage you to learn what your new privacy rights are, and to use them.
If you own a business collecting personal information from people based in these states, you must make sure you are compliant with these new laws if your business fits the criteria, in addition to other privacy laws you might be subjected to.
Here's some more information for each:
Delaware (Delaware Personal Data Privacy Act): https://attorneygeneral.delaware.gov/fraud/personal-data-privacy-portal/consumer/
Iowa (Iowa Consumer Data Protection Act): https://natlawreview.com/article/just-around-corner-iowas-consumer-privacy-law-taking-effect
Nebraska (Nebraska Data Privacy Act): https://protectthegoodlife.nebraska.gov/data-privacy-homepage
New Hampshire (New Hampshire Data Privacy Act): https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2024/03/12/a-guide-to-new-hampshires-new-data-privacy-rights/
New Jersey (New Jersey Data Protection Act): https://natlawreview.com/article/new-jersey-becomes-14th-state-enact-comprehensive-state-privacy-law
Know your rights, and congratulations!🔒🎉
#DigitalRights #Privacy #PrivacyLaws #USpol #Delaware #Iowa #Nebraska #NewHampshire #NewJersey
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@Em0nM4stodon Meanwhile in #texas we got a whole $5 US dollars from Ken Paxton and Abbot and Co for a privacy settlement (meta).
Politics [SENSITIVE CONTENT]
@Em0nM4stodon Now if only NY, a state that has a Democratic trifecta, would pass something similar...
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re: Politics [SENSITIVE CONTENT]
@cameronbosch Indeed. A federal law would have been fantastic too...
@Em0nM4stodon I live in #NewJersey and was unaware this was a law going into effect this month. Thank you for the head’s up!
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@PamelaBarroway Very happy this information was helpful! Enjoy your new data privacy protections!😊🎉
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@Em0nM4stodon It’s really quite lovely when local electeds and government does something helpful … tho it should be the norm, and not a surprise.
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@PamelaBarroway Agreed, and indeed it should be the norm.
The voice at the center of my heart: Computers have the ability to touch every part of a person's life. You should use your ability with computers to create something that truly helps people
Also the voice at the center of my heart: You should make a bot that posts the "It is Wednesday, my dudes" meme image every week on Tuesday
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@mcc you severely overestimate my competency on a computer.
@mcc Yes, I just saw it-- this (whatever) generation) fears being discovered
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@patcanfield Is that true
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@mcc It was true when I said it
we just got a CAPTCHA which was quite worrying in that it presented photorealistic images of bridges, and also photorealistic images which had all the elements of a bridge but lacked spatial coherence
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we marked the incoherent ones as not-bridges and it let us in. was that the intent, are we training it on spatial coherence now? or does it just accept that silly humans are wrong sometimes?
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it's not going to be much longer before we are personally unable to pass these. it's really hard to visually parse the fucking things, and the fact some of them are intentionally nonsensical while others are only accidentally so is not helping.
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@ireneista I hate that when a tiny part of an object is in a square, and I click on it, I often fail the test.
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A captcha-type image with pictures of apples, motorcycles, cars, a camera, and a shark with an abstract background. It says: “click the image most related to the object in the sample image”. The “sample image” appears to be apples and motorcycles.
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@brian Maybe it’s a double bluff; if you can solve it, you must be an AI since no human will be able to and no AI can resist confidently answering a question…
More about Hum on:
#musicbrainz: https://musicbrainz.org/artist/04c5ca8a-4afa-4031-aced-6357440dbc25
allmusic: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mn0000166658
bandcamp: https://humband.bandcamp.com/
fanpage: http://h-u-m.net/
This album turns 30 this year... and I feel old.
“As an editorial cartoonist, my job is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable. For the first time, my editor prevented me from doing that critical job. So I have decided to leave the Post.”
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This actually bothers me more than spiking the presidential endorsement did. At least that had the fig leaf justification that they were getting out of the endorsement business. But here they’re not pretending they don’t want an editorial cartoonist, they just want one tame enough to be happy on a very short leash.
Shame on the Post and everyone there who made this happen.
One of the enjoyable things about hosting and producing a modern classical radio program is that when I email composers and performers whose music I'm featuring on my programs they almost always answer any questions I may have and are thrilled to hear their music is getting airplay.
Welcome to the post-information age! Search engines are no longer useful because AI-generated slop is misplacing any genuine information in search results.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-opBifFfsMY
We'll be back to hand-made personal websites (like unfa.xyz) and links between them like in pre-Google times. I'm looking forward to that :)
Let the AI models slurp their own fake information sewage and become completely useless so this bubble can pop and we can start de-pollution of the web.
Wrote a blog post about a small ActivityPub project I'm working on that bridges my Steam screenshots to the social web
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It was -35C (-40 with windchill, apparently) this morning in my part of Saskatchewan.
Since tomorrow is perihelion (Earth's closest approach to the Sun), it's a great time to remind everyone that seasons are caused by Earth's tilted spin axis, not by proximity to the sun!
Happy Perihelion Day, to those who celebrate (I personally am celebrating the fact that the December solstice is currently close to perihelion - otherwise it could be EVEN COLDER)
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A close-up view of feather-like ice crystals on a window, with an orange sky from the sunrise visible out of focus in the background
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A close-up view of snowflake-like ice crystals on a window, with an orange sky from the sunrise visible out of focus in the background
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An interesting consequence of this alignment between solstice and perihelion is that right now our sunrise times are almost the same every day, while the sunset times are getting later.
Why isn't the change in day length symmetric? It's because of Kepler's 2nd Law: we're moving faster around the sun here at perihelion, but Earth's rotation is still the same.
(screenshot from https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/)
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screenshot of sunrise and sunset times over the next few days - the sunrise times only vary by 2 min, while the sunset times vary by 9 minutes
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This is also why the analemma exists (there's your word of the day). If you take a picture of the Sun in the sky at the exact same clock time every day, it will trace out a figure-8 pattern over the course of a year.
If you want to play more, this is my favourite sun motion simulator that I use in all my classes: https://astro.unl.edu/naap/motion3/animations/sunmotions.html
Always nice to start your day with a bit of orbital dynamics (which I guess is literally how days start)
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@sundogplanets “Always nice to start your day with a bit of orbital dynamics (which I guess is literally how days start)”
I also started the day with a laugh, thanks to that!
@sundogplanets What other effects are known of the perihelion?
Something on the tides, I presume?
Anything else?
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@newstik Tides are indeed slightly stronger at perihelion, but I think the moon's perigee and apogee are a bigger effect on tides.
Not sure what else is affected... the sun is a little bigger in the sky? Probably some other subtle things too but that's the only ones I'm coming up
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@sundogplanets Could effects of solar winds on electric/electronic systems be stronger, everything else being equal? Or is the delta of 5 mio km just too small to make a difference there?
I guess solar winds would get here a bit faster, up to ~5.5 hours compared to aphelion (5 mio km at 250 km/s).
@sundogplanets
🥥 Sure, blame it on the perihelion, Prof Lawler. 🥥
@sundogplanets wild to think about.
@sundogplanets My God. It's bothered me for _years_ that day length change isn't symmetric! You're the first to explain it.
Thank you!
@sundogplanets but as we said when we lived in Edmonton, it’s a dry and sunny cold!
@sundogplanets @Binder Anytime people here in Toronto complain about how cold it gets/is, I mention whatever it’s been lately in the prairies. They tend to shut up quickly.
It's only -20 (-25 with wind) in Winnipeg. I just got back from a walk on the rivers.
They have a skating area cleared by The Forks and have started prepping the skating trail up the Assiniboine.
I love these temperatures. Crunchy snow, good traction, clear skies and sunny. Once you get into the -30s and below, it's a bit more serious though.
@sundogplanets
so the perihelion occurs independent of the solstice? my faulty intuition would have guessed that the perihelion occurs at generally the same time every year?
#stupidquestions
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@goatrodeo It does, but both perihelion and the solstices precess over thousands of years. So, on the short term, they happen on the same days.
@sundogplanets it's going to be 37°C here in Melbourne, Aus, today, so hopefully that gives you some warm thoughts 😄
@sundogplanets 7% more summer sun here in the southern half 👌
@sundogplanets
Summer in Southern hemisphere while nearest approach ...
@sundogplanets
Delighted to note you omitted C or F on -40⁰ as uneccesary ! 😉👍
More about Cautious Clay on:
#musicbrainz: https://musicbrainz.org/artist/8451cfa0-b39c-4ad1-8aba-a19d47598a67
allmusic: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mn0003544899
discogs: https://www.discogs.com/artist/5590214
official homepage: https://www.cautiousclay.com/
Joshua Karpeh, known professionally as "Cautious Clay", is an American singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist. I've enjoyed everything I've heard from him.
New: A popular U.S.-based online gift card store exposed the government-issued IDs of hundreds of thousands of people, thanks to an inadvertently public cloud storage server that wasn't protected with a password.
Security researcher @JayeLTee found the exposed server and contacted the company months ago, but heard nothing back.
Happy #FossilFriday, check out these beautiful semionotid fossils! These particular individuals would have made their home in a massive lake that covered most of southwestern North America 200 million years ago, and they may have found themselves as prey of theropod dinosaurs. (1/3)
#paleontology
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A semionotid fossil in profile facing right. The orange-brown fossil is impressed into green mudstone, and it has a halo of dark red around it. The fish itself is wide from top to bottom, has a slightly crushed face, and its tail curves below it. Diamond-shaped scales encrust nearly its whole body.
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A close and abstract view of a semionotid's smashed pectoral fin and side. The fossil is a rich orange-brown, and small, diamond-shaped scales bear little evidence of harm despite being crushed.
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Today, the closest relatives of semionotids are gars, like these two sweethearts, Garfield (lighter) and Garfunkel (darker). Both groups of fish have tough, diamond-shaped scales that act like a suit of armor. Garfunkel shows why it's a great predator in its own right in the second image. (2/3)
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Two gar fish swim in a tank as they face left. The gar fish above is a light tan with a small smattering of dark spots, while the gar fish below is a dark brown and has a greater amount of dark spots.
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A dark brown gar fish opens its mouth, showing off several rows of needle-like teeth. The gar's eye is also noticeably camouflaged with an dark brown eye bar.
Album artwork I made for Swiss sludge/black metal band Wizards of Wiznan! Releases on the 30th.
#art #mastoart #illustration #printmaking
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Landscape etching. Mountain river.
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@inkenart Greina during a bad Thunderstorm?
Someone dropped off a massive food rescue haul to our free fridge and community pantry today.
They're not part of my program and we're not sure who's doing it. This is awesome. It means there are others outside of our volunteer group that does maintenance on the fridges and outside of the group that I'm working with to build out our formal food rescue program.
This is huge.
This means we have successfully built post-scarcity *infrastructure*!!!
Folks are using our fridges both to contribute and to utilize. Folks that have nothing to do directly with the core group of maintainers. Wow.
We need to build more free fridges. This one is running out of room.
#freeFridge #foodSecurity #postScarcity #mutualAid #solarPunk #foodRescue
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A neighbor looks through the food in the free fridge. The fridge, feezer, and all shelves in the pantry are packed with food.
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A closeup of the fridge and freezer. Bread, bagels, salads, whole frozen hams, jars of gravy and other foods are shown.
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A community pantry stuffed to the brim with bread, bagels, cans of veggies and beans, and pastas are shown
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@tinker Amazing. Any idea how many people this effort has served / is serving?
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@Nonya_Bidniss - No. I know through anecdotes... We have two cleaning/maintenance "shifts" (usually only takes ten minutes) per day. So we compare notes on how much food we see and how much is contributed etc. The fridges are usually empties out a couple times a day.
I encounter multiple families, individuals, and kids whenever Im there - either for my shift or whenever I'm contributing or grabbing food.
Soooooo lots. Just a lot. But we dont track it formally.
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@tinker Emptying out a couple times a day means people are definitely making use of it. Wow.
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@Nonya_Bidniss - Yup. And we are just getting started.
Richmond VA has 14 fridges!!!! They're a much bigger city, but talk about goals!!!
You have done something that matters. We need more of this.
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@johntimaeus - Cheers, John.
@tinker This is a wonderful thing, but it is absolutely not "post-scarcity" in any meaningful way. It's just people being kind and generous.
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. @kechpaja - Au contraire, my friend!!!
Prepare yourself for a lengthy rebuttal! (And thank you for the opportunity to info-dump on you!)
So this *is* an example of post-scarcity infrastructure. But how and why?
High Level Definition of Post-Scarcity Food (so that we may agree on terms): Post Scarcity is where we produce more food than is consumed and distribute that food out. It can be universal or local - so unevenly distributed post-scarcity or the fact that one area has it and another doesn't, does not imply that post-scarcity in the place that has it does not exist.
Great.
In the *pragmatic* sense: Post Scarcity Food needs inputs and outputs. Contributions and Distributions.
Overview:
*Current* Contributions / Inputs (read: not ideal, not what is being built or hoped for, but how it is right now):
- Charity (which you reduced food rescue and free fridges down into)
- Food Rescue (not charity... not even mutual aid)
- Mutual Aid
Current Distributions / Outputs
- Centralized
- Decentralized
- Peer-to-peer
Detail:
Contributions / Inputs
- Charity: Examples of this include food drives, food banks, church food pantries. Charities are not ideal and often have conditions tied to them ("Means Testing" and the like). They rely on "people being kind and generous" as you put it. If all we had was charity, we would not be in post-scarcity. While charity is often a cover for artificial-scarcity (our current over-arching economic model), it CAN be used as an input into post-scarcity. You just can't rely on it and need to build it further infrastructure. I use it because its there, but it's more of a transition thing.
- Food Rescue: Food Rescue is not Charity. Food Rescue is not Mutual Aid. Current Food Rescue relies on a capitalistic model. A for-profit store/restaurant/bakery/etc makes food to sell. Cannot sell all of it. Instead of throwing it away, it "donates" the left over good food to be consumed elsewhere. Food Rescue is NOT out of the goodness of a corporation's heart. Corporations do not have hearts. They cannot be kind or generous. Instead, Food Rescue is applied to the bottom line / profit margin and is justified by things such as "lowering the fees for trash" and "having a tax-writeoff to a non-profit (again within a capitalistic system). But! While Food Rescue is not charity and relies on the current capitalist system, it absolutely shows that we produce MORE than is consumed. Ironically, an example that we have the MEANS for post-scarcity. I use it because its there and is a ready source of feeding people. While I push for post-scarcity, I care about feeding people *now*.
- Mutual Aid: This is the ideal and the model for a full post-scarcity economy, and we're already building this out. Community Farms / Ranches (Centralized), Community Gardens / Local Small Scale Ranches (Decentralized), and Home Gardens / Home Ranches of various forms (peer-to-peer) are ways that we produce for ourselves, our neighbors, and our towns. This is post-scarcity mutual aid and does not rely on the people being kind and generous. It relies on us taking care of our neighbors AND ourselves (call it selfish if you like). Mutual means mutual.
Detail:
Distributions / Outputs
- Centralized: The charity model uses food pantries / churches / mobile pantries to distribute out food from a food bank. We can utilize that now, but we are absolutely not (nor should we be) limited by it. Instead, Free Stores are the Centralized model of post-scarcity mutual aid.
- Decentralized: Free Fridges & Community Pantries - This is where my fridge above fits in. It's not charity by any means. It's a node in a distribution network.
- Peer-to-peer: The simplest form of this is one person handing it to another. A neighbor asking for sugar. Handing off your extra squash on your street corner. You can scale this up using things like mobile apps such as Olio to coordinate this across larger areas.
Great, so we laid out inputs and outputs for post-scarcity food.
To give a specific example, see this post: https://infosec.exchange/@tinker/112582425833711424
There I show how I used the Input of a Mutual Aid Home Garden and the Output of a Decentralized Free Fridge.
None of that was charity. None of it was "kind and generous". Instead it was building the infrastructure for post-scarcity mutual aid that I use myself.
I take from the free fridge all the time. I drop off at the free fridge all the time. I produce for the community. I consume from the community.
We have the tech & the means. We have built infrastructure already (see the original post). We are now scaling it out.
#solarPunk #postScarcity #foodSecurity #mutualAid #freeFridge
@tinker wow, amazing! 🤩
Is there a summary of the process to set this up?
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@Benhm3 - There are, yes.
Right now, we're still building ours out, but let me leave you with a couple resources:
Freedge: Start a community fridge in your neighborhood: https://freedge.org/freedge-yourself/
Quick guide: https://lifehacker.com/start-a-friendly-fridge-to-feed-your-neighbors-1844489776
I plan on documenting this all on https://hacker.solar - I just need to sit down and do it :P
Hey where is this?
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@joeturner - Virginia!
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Damn. I mean, good for people there - was hoping to have something like this in the Toronto area.
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@joeturner - Y'all have a great Free Fridge system in Toronto!!!
Community Fridges of Toronto: https://communityfridgesto.org/
Let's Go
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5-panel comic by War and Peas. Panel 1: The Grim Reaper is sitting at a dinner table with a woman. He says, "Well, yes, the job has some perks." Panel 2: The woman leans forward and asks, "So, if I had - say - an evil ex… you could take care of him?" Panel 3: The Grim Reaper chuckles and replies, "Haha, it doesn't work that way. I can't just—" Panel4: The woman interjects, "He was mean to my dog." Panel 5: The Grim Reaper rises from the table, holding his scythe, and says, "Let's go."
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@warandpeas Discworld Death would definitely be doing that with Cats.
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A long-haired, tuxedo (black and white) cat sitting on a window sill, looking up at the camera. It's sunny outside and a small shrub can be seen out the window. Sly (the cat) is very tall, long, and lanky.
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@brian Of course! English is the language of vague expression anyway, lol.
