jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
I am slowly groping my way to some better analysis of why rigid Christianity can so easily become linked to rigid ‘Constitutional Originalism’
jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
“…the U.S. Constitution was fundamentally different from stories that denied their fictive nature and claimed divine origin, such as the Ten Commandments. Like the U.S. Constitution, the Ten Commandments endorsed slavery… unlike the U.S. Constitution, the Ten Commandments failed to provide any amendment mechanism…”
— Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari
jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
“History is often shaped not by deterministic power relations, but rather by tragic mistakes that result from believing in mesmerizing but harmful stories.”
— Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari
https://a.co/hhMfoIE
No planes and no 'spoilers.' How one man trekked from Egypt to Japan without flying
Omar Nok is at the finish line of a 28,000-mile zig-zag route that began in February. Here's how he approached the adventure, without setting foot on a plane.
Dune: Prophecy Crossed The One Line The Movies Never Did
Dune: Prophecy wasted relatively little time setting itself apart from the movies. In the season one premiere of the Dune prequel series, a war is violently declared by the killing of likely the youngest person ever murdered onscreen in director Denis Villeneuve’s Dune universe.
Apple’s Lightning-to-3.5mm headphone adapter may be going away
I haven’t been able to find mine for years. | Image: Apple
The Apple Lightning to 3.5mm Headphone Jack Adapter may have bitten the dust, as it’s sold out at Apple’s online store in the US and much of the world, MacRumors reports. The accessory is reportedly still available from Apple in some countries, including France, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.
If it’s truly gone, then this feels like the end of an era. Apple introduced the Lightning headphone adapter in 2016 alongside the iPhone 7, when it first courageously ditched the headphone jack. The company even included it with new iPhones for a couple of generations before it stopped doing that for 2018’s iPhone XS, leaving customers to buy one themselves, pick up Lightning EarPods, or get on the AirPods train (which many of us had started...
Bela Karolyi, legendary and controversial gymnastics coach, dies at 82
Bela Karolyi coached several renowned gymnasts, including Mary Lou Retton, Kerri Strug and Julianne McNamara. But he was known for harsh methods of training.
Senior Hezbollah official is killed in Israeli airstrike
In Lebanon, a senior Hezbollah official has been killed in an Israeli airstrike. The official was head of the militant group's media operations.
Author Patrick Radden Keefe talks about the making of the new series 'Say Nothing'
NPR's Scott Detrow talks to author and journalist Patrick Radden Keefe about turning his best selling book into the brand new limited series "Say Nothing," out now on Hulu.
An Ohio man guilty of Bitcoin laundering must forfeit over $400 million in assets
Image: The Verge
An Ohio man named Larry Dean Harmon will serve three years in prison and forfeit more than $400 million worth of cryptocurrency and other assets, the Department of Justice announced on Friday. Harmon was indicted in 2020 on money laundering conspiracy charges related to Helix, a darkweb cryptocurrency “mixer” service he ran.
Also known as crypto “tumbling,” services like Helix are designed to hide cryptocurrency transactions — often for illegal drugs — and the identity of people involved. From 2014 to 2017, Harmon processed more than 350,000 Bitcoin (about $311 million USD at the time) in such transactions, according to the DOJ’s announcement.
Harmon, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in August 2021, will be on...
Biden marks his climate legacy during Amazon visit, asserting 'nobody' can reverse it
"Some may seek to deny or delay the clean energy revolution that's underway in America, but nobody — nobody — can reverse it," Biden said. But Trump has vowed to roll back those plans.
From Trump opponent to Trump loyalist: The evolution of Marco Rubio
When compared to some of president-elect Trump's other cabinet picks, Senator Marco Rubio for Secretary of State is a pretty conventional choice.He's a veteran politician who served on the foreign relations and intelligence committees for over a decade, and he's been a loyal Trump backer throughout this year's campaign. But when you look back at Marco Rubio during his 2016 presidential campaign, there's a striking contrast. When he ran against Trump in 2016, Rubio called him a con artist, and described his style of leadership as dangerous. Now, he's going to work for him. Marco Rubio's political evolution is indicative of how the Republican Party has remade itself around Donald Trump, and it gives some clues about how he may operate as the nation's top diplomat.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
“some stories are able to create a third level of reality: intersubjective reality… intersubjective things… exist in the stories people tell one another. The information humans exchange about intersubjective things doesn’t represent anything that had already existed prior to the exchange of information; rather, the exchange of information creates these things.”
— Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari
https://a.co/f0lSJy5
jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
‘The two levels of reality that preceded storytelling are objective reality and subjective reality. Objective reality consists of things … that exist whether we are aware of them or not… Then there is subjective reality: things like pain, pleasure, and love that aren’t “out there” but rather “in here.” Subjective things exist in our awareness of them.’
pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
Wow. My boomer parents' house cost them less than $30K in 1976.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/11/17/another-day-of-probate-paperwork/
Attachments:
Trump’s Choice of Fracking CEO Chris Wright as Energy Secretary Heralds a Swamp Revival
Americans of a certain age tend to throw around the term “Orwellian” willy-nilly. But the expression really suits in describing the behavior of our felonious, twice-impeached president-elect. In George Orwell’s classic novel 1984, a dictatorship represented by the all-powerful “Big Brother” dictates the reality its citizens must adhere to, however topsy-turvy. Official slogans include “ignorance […]
Texas May Be Next State to Restrict Abortion Pills as “Controlled Substances”
Last month, Louisiana became the first state to begin classifying misoprostol and mifepristone—the two pills used in medication abortion—as schedule IV controlled substances. The move, driven by anti-abortion Republicans and unsupported by evidence, left the state’s doctors bracing for the worst—the pills also are used to manage miscarriages and treat postpartum hemorrhages, and the new law requires […]
In a first, Biden allows Ukraine to strike Russia with U.S. long-range weapons
The U.S. is allowing Ukraine to use the powerful long-range weapons to strike in and around Kursk — the same region where some 10,000 North Korean troops were recently deployed.
jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
“the naive view sees information as an attempt to represent reality… [says] Misinformation is an honest mistake, occurring when someone… gets it wrong. Disinformation is a deliberate lie, occurring when someone consciously intends to distort our view of reality… [and] the solution to the problems caused by misinformation and disinformation is more information.”
— Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari
https://a.co/i5oWzFn
Gaetz Ethics Report Should Stay Sealed Because He’s a “Private Citizen,” Says House Speaker Johnson
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has debuted a new—and implausible—reason that the House Ethics Committee’s report into allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use by former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) should not be released: Gaetz is now a private citizen. In an interview on CNN’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper on Sunday morning, […]
Play These Games After Metaphor: ReFantazio (And More Of This Week's Tips And Recs)
From the best decks in Pokémon TCG Pocket to a ludicrously expensive card in the original game—and a bunch of other updates, guides, and recommendations in between—here are the most helpful tips we published this week.
A study found that X’s algorithm now loves two things: Republicans and Elon Musk
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images
Elon Musk’s X may have tweaked its algorithm to boost his account, along with those of other conservative-leaning users, starting around the time he announced his support of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. That’s according to a new study published by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), which found that Musk’s posts in particular were suddenly much more popular.
The study’s authors — QUT associate professor in digital media Timothy Graham and Monash University communications and media studies professor Mark Andrejevic — first looked at Musk’s engagement before and after his July endorsement of Trump. They report that starting around July 13th, Musks’ posts received 138 percent more views and 238 percent more retweets than...
Reblogged by collinsworth@hachyderm.io ("Josh Collinsworth"):
lina@vt.social ("Asahi Lina (朝日リナ) // nullptr::live") wrote:
I swear that's how it works!!!
How did you get into programming? ✨
Attachments:
A rare Israeli strike on central Beirut kills Hezbollah's spokesman, official says
A rare Israeli airstrike on central Beirut killed Hezbollah's chief spokesman on Sunday, an official with the militant group said. Earlier, Israeli strikes killed at least 12 in the Gaza Strip.
Making human music in an AI world
Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge
Ge Wang doesn’t use computers to make music the way most people use computers make music. He uses computers to make... computer music. Wang works at Stanford, as an associate professor in the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. He also conducts the school’s famed Laptop Orchestra, was a co-founder of the music app maker Smule, and created a programming language called Chuck that turns code into sound. He understands how computers, music, and humans interact more deeply than most. He also has some ideas about where it’s all headed.
On this episode of The Vergecast, the third and last in our mini-series about the future of music, we chat with Wang about what’s next for computer music. He tells us about teaching his...
jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
given the current rightward shift in our political climate, today’s history reminder in my mailbox seems particularly appropriate
http://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/nov/17
we had better luck last time through this lesson, I think 🤔
Reblogged by cmiksche ("Christoph Miksche"):
Review of "Dove" (5 stars): One of the best sailing books
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Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
EmilySchnall@mastodon.art ("Emily Schnall✨Commissions Open") wrote:
The new Homotherium paper has me very excited and reminded me I made a whole life-size Smilodon sculpture out of paper mache. Here’s my boy #sciart #paleoart
Attachments:
- Sculpture of a saber-toothed cat, its coat is painted in warm grays with slight rosettes. View from the side with a black cat for scale (remote)
- Sculpture of a saber-toothed cat, its coat is painted in warm grays with slight rosettes. View from the front (remote)
- Sculpture of a saber-toothed cat, its coat is painted in warm grays with slight rosettes. Close up view of the head (remote)
- Sculpture of a saber-toothed cat, its coat is painted in warm grays with slight rosettes. View from the side (remote)
Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
foervraengd@mastodon.art ("Mirre :mastocheck:") wrote:
Vroom!! #art #mastoArt #creativeToots
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Sometimes you just need a straightforward, old-school RPG
Image: Square Enix
We’re in a pretty good moment for sprawling, complex role-playing games. New releases like Metaphor: ReFantazio and Dragon Age Absolution, along with older titles like Elden Ring (including this year’s expansion), Cyberpunk 2077, and Baldur’s Gate 3 have sucked millions of people into their expansive worlds. They can be all-consuming experiences, offering players all kinds of freedom to explore their worlds and characters. But honestly? Sometimes I don’t want to fuss with conversation wheels or make difficult, narrative-altering choices. I just want to go on a big adventure and slowly turn into an overpowered hero fighting monsters — and that’s where the excellent new remake of Dragon Quest 3 comes in.
The game originally came out way...
pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
NPR is middle-of-the-roading RFK Jr's appointment to run health and human services.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/11/17/et-tu-npr/
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Typhoon Man-yi lashes the Philippines, displacing hundreds of thousands
A powerful typhoon forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee to emergency shelters as it cut across the northern Philippines on Sunday.
Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
tom@tomstu.art ("Tom Stuart") wrote:
I’m happy to see that the GOV.UK Service Manual’s “Building a robust frontend using progressive enhancement” page was updated this week and made it to the top of Hacker News today. The technology industry would collectively save unimaginable quantities of time, money, energy and stress if this single page were required reading for everyone involved in building a web site. https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/technology/using-progressive-enhancement
pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
Who needs algebra to rationalize their relationships? Matt Gaetz does.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/11/17/what-do-you-call-an-innumerate-hebephile/
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In the Wake of Trump’s Win, a Top Climate Scientist Finds Strength in the Bible
This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. For people involved with research and advocacy about climate change, the results of last week’s presidential election sting. To get a sense of what’s to come and what’s needed to ensure domestic climate action continues, I spoke with Katharine […]
The USPS will honor Betty White with her own stamp in 2025
Having received hundreds to thousands of fan mail each week, it's only fitting to honor White with a postage stamp.
Local news is in crisis. This paper has a $150 million plan
Nearly two years ago, the owners of Atlanta's leading newspaper hired former CNN executive Andrew Morse to reverse its steep decline. He's laid out a grand vision.
Erykah Badu likes chasing unreachable goals. Here's why
Erykah Badu opens up on Wild Card about wanting to live in a space shuttle, how music is the undertone to her life, and whether there's more to reality than we can see or touch.
Some in the U.S. farm industry are alarmed by Trump's embrace of RFK Jr. and tariffs
President-elect Trump won landslide support in much of farm country, but his embrace of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his plan for a tariff fight with China alarms many farmers and agriculture experts.
Trump picks loyalists for top jobs, testing loyalty of Senate GOP
Nominees for several key Cabinet posts in the new administration of President-elect Trump caught officials in Washington off guard and ignited a firestorm of criticism — not all of it from Democrats.
Reblogged by keul@fosstodon.org ("Luca Fabbri"):
benzammour@infosec.exchange ("samir") wrote:
@jfkimmes this works via a new opengraph tag, "fediverse:creator"! Sauce: https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2024/07/highlighting-journalism-on-mastodon/
dangillmor ("Dan Gillmor") wrote:
Scientific American's editor -- who believes in, you know, science -- told some truth about the condition of America and the looming dark ages of the Trump regime. She used language that was inappropriate, and apologized. That should have been the end of it.
She "resigned" soon afterward.
@laurahelmuth's tenure at SciAm was honorable and important. She deserved better, but of course so do we all.
violetblue ("Violet Blue") wrote:
Exciting update! It's almost pre-order time.... !
Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/violetblue/the-covid-sanity-handbook/posts/4253909
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slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:
(trying this again because it was pointed out previously toot traced the old site)
Shot:
https://thenewstack.io/new-york-public-library-on-choosing-react-to-rebuild-website/
Chaser:
Main thread unresponsive until ~15 seconds in. The new version *paints* faster, but isn't usable any faster. We're celebrating this a progress?
It's malpractice to chose Next.js, or any other CSR-premised stack, for delivering public services.
/cc @ricmac
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Russia launches massive attack on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, Zelenskyy says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Russia launched 120 missiles and 90 drones in a large-scale attack across Ukraine, targeting its energy infrastructure.
nadim@infosec.exchange ("Nadim Kobeissi") wrote:
Took the instant camera out with us this Saturday night
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SomaFMrusty@defcon.social ("Rusty Hodge [SomaFM]") wrote:
@jwz Ooh ohh!!! Can I try!!! https://somafm.com/whoami/masto.html
Scientists find a 35,000-year-old saber-toothed kitten in the Siberian permafrost
The kitten, which was found in Russia's northeastern Sakha Republic, still had fur and whiskers when it was discovered.
Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
MikeTRose@saturation.social ("Mike Rose") wrote:
Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton think today is a great day to #ReleaseTheGaetzReport
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Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
bkeegan@hci.social ("Brian C. Keegan, Ph.D.") wrote:
The “free speech” party ejecting a journalist from a public meeting because leadership doesn’t like her reporting.
I stand with @fishnette and @coloradosun #copolitics
Attachments:
Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
bkeegan@hci.social ("Brian C. Keegan, Ph.D.") wrote:
More from @coloradosun on the Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams ejecting @fishnette from the party’s state assembly because he objects to her reporting. #journalism #copolitics
https://coloradosun.com/2024/04/06/colorado-republican-party-kicks-out-colorado-sun-reporter/
Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
fishnette@mastodon.online wrote:
Interesting how vaccinations appear to work.
Biden and Xi take a first step to limit AI and nuclear decisions at their last meeting
The leaders agreed that humans should control decisions to use nuclear weapons — not AI. And they talked about the importance of stability during the transition to a new U.S. administration.
Reblogged by isagalaev ("Ivan Sagalaev :flag_wbw:"):
paperdigits@mastodon.art ("mica") wrote:
Petapixel says Apple is going after the "regular person creative" market again, since Adobe is... Doing things. And everyone hates adobe the company.
But Apple's left you before and you had to painfully migrate to something else. You're just going to go back?
But guess who's been in it for the long run? FOSS creative apps. Been here doing and doing it mostly acceptably for a long ass time.
Sure maybe the UI/UX isn't "industry leading" or something else. But they've never left you for money.
isagalaev ("Ivan Sagalaev :flag_wbw:") wrote:
Now reading: the lost stories by Terry Pratchett, published very recently, in 2023. Discovered by chatting with an assistant in my local book store, Brick and Mortar books.
Attachments:
- Open page, reading: "And through all of these stories we watch young Terry Pratchett becoming Terry Pratchett. There will be familiar turns of phrase, familiar names, there will be many moments where we see the mind of the Terry Pratchett that was still to come at play."
- Colorful book, Terry Pratchett, A Stroke of the Pen, The Lost Stories, lying on a table beside a candle.
davetroy@toad.social ("Dave Troy :toad:") wrote:
1/There is nothing more embarrassing than watching hordes of liberals willingly herd themselves into a pen funded by Russian capital. Blue sky’s principal funder Blockchain Capital LLC is run in part by Kirill Dorofeev, who also works for VK, Russia’s state social network.
Attachments:
Reblogged by isagalaev ("Ivan Sagalaev :flag_wbw:"):
mastodonmigration@mastodon.online ("Mastodon Migration") wrote:
Big News
Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) has just launched its own dedicated Mastodon server, social.freedom.press: https://freedom.press/about/announcements/our-new-home-on-the-fediverse/
"The Fediverse is nonalgorithmic and community-driven, without the potential algorithmic distortions or content suppression imposed by centralized platforms."
All FPF-related activity on Mastodon is now accessible from a single Fediverse server: @securedrop @dangerzone @foiafeed
Hopefully this move will be an example to other organizations.
Netflix served the Tyson vs. Paul fight to 60 million households
Netflix had a very big night. | Photo: Al Bello / Getty Images for Netflix
Netflix peaked at “65 million concurrent streams” during the boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul last night, according to Most Valuable Promotions, the promoter for the fight. Those streams went out to 60 million households globally, the group said in a press release shared with The Verge via email. That’s more than twice the traffic Netflix could see for its Christmas Day NFL stream this year, if everyone who watched last year streamed it.
The crush of people trying to watch Tyson vs. Paul seemed to be more than Netflix’s servers could easily handle, as the social web was awash with complaints about the quality of the stream, which many found to be muddy, or plagued with buffering and dropped connections. Downdetector recorded...
Please enjoy some bar surface crop circles.
https://jwz.org/b/ykdQ
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Trump announces oil executive Chris Wright as his pick for energy secretary
Trump announced Chris Wright, the CEO of oil and natural gas fracking services company Liberty Energy, as his pick for energy secretary.
The FTC says spam call complaints are way down since 2021
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images
Complaints about unwanted telemarketing calls have dropped for the third straight year, the Federal Trade Commission announced yesterday. Reports of such calls have fallen by over 50 percent versus 2021, according to the FTC — a decline that could be thanks in no small part to stepped-up government efforts to fight irritating telemarketing and phone scams.
There were about 33,000 fewer unwanted call complaints during the 2024 fiscal year versus the year prior, writes the FTC. The drop affected all sorts of unwanted calls, although the agency writes that reports about debt reduction calls had jumped “more than 85 percent from last year.”
FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Sam Levine said that while illegal calls are still “a...
ricmac ("Richard MacManus") wrote:
We’re now in the “Guy on Substack saying Bluesky is a rejection of Big Tech” phase of the hype.
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pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
I have spent my day filling out all the paperwork to cash out 180 savings bonds. This seems like something that ought to be trivial but has been turned into an exercise in petty tedium.
A derogatory term for Native women will be removed from place names across California
The word "squaw" was declared derogatory by the Department of Interior in 2021. Since then, hundreds of geographic features have been renamed with input from local tribes and Indigenous communities.
Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
danpacheco@newsie.social wrote:
First time hearing about this. Hackers have been trying to take down the Internet Archive. If that's lost, how will I go back and find my janky hand-coded web pages on Washingtonpost.com from its first year after launch? But seriously, losing the Waybackmachine would mean literally losing history. Maybe it's time for a Gofundme to raise funds for the Internet Archive.
From: @gutenberg_org
https://mastodon.social/@gutenberg_org/113492506733243074
Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
UncleSpellbinder ("Dave") wrote:
"Police responding to reports of a racist flag being flown from a Wānaka property found the home was instead flying the colours of the Klingon Empire from Star Trek." 🖖 🤣
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/wanaka/racist-flag-w%C4%81naka-actually-klingon-insignia
Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io ("mekka okereke :verified:") wrote:
Valuable lessons were learned, but not the ones that the mother thought would be learned.🤷🏿♂️
* She learned that millions of Black people haven't been "making it all up" about police mistreatment
* She learned why US Black folk almost never call the police, for any reason
* Her son learned that his own mom is not safe. Her lack of understanding of US racism makes her dangerous
* She's probably going to learn that this does not meet the definition of police misconduct
Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
luckytran@med-mastodon.com ("Dr. Lucky Tran :verified:") wrote:
Some media outlets are already sane-washing Bhattacharya. To learn more about how he has spread disinformation that undermines public health, is widely discredit by real experts, and is funded by dark money, read this piece by Walker Bragman who has tracked him throughout the pandemic: https://www.importantcontext.news/p/everything-you-need-to-know-about
Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
trashheap@social.avoidbig.tech ("trashHeap") wrote:
Joan Armatrading has a new album dropping in like a week called "How Did This Happen And What Does It Now Mean?" and this is the best timed shit I can think of.
The best fitness trackers to buy right now
Photo illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
From simple fitness bands and rugged sports watches to rings, these are the best trackers you can get.
The best MagSafe and Qi2 chargers for your iPhone
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge
Thanks to Qi2, there are way more great chargers for your MagSafe phone than ever before.
james@social.howellcloud.org ("James Endres Howell") wrote:
Attachments:
- Meme: Kamala Harris, beaming from the podium at her concession speech: "IT'S GOING TO BE OKAY"; Neveah Crain and Josseli Barnica (both recently died in Texas from untreated miscarriage), Hanan Ashrawi (longtime Palestinian activist), Karine Jean-Pierre (White House Press Secretary), Rachel Levine (Surgeon General), all captioned "THE FUCK IT IS"; final panel, Liz Cheney, no caption (remote)
cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen") wrote:
I would like to propose a "whoosh" button that only appears on reply posts so that people can kindly notify me when I've missed the point of the original post.
Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
redoak@social.coop ("Red Oak") wrote:
Move slow and breakfast
danhon@dan.mastohon.com ("Dan Hon") wrote:
Dan, it's Sam Altman again and I'm in trouble.
In the race to build AGI for all, I'm falling behind.
I know you've supported me before, but I need to know if you're with me now.
Will you share at least 10 more gigabytes of personal training data?
With stakes this high, we have to win.
Narwal’s Freo X Ultra, the best mopping robot available, is on sale for a new low price
The Freo X Ultra packs a lot of features for the price, including the ability to automatically remop your floors when necessary. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
Hosting Thanksgiving dinner is fun and all, but the amount of cleaning you have to do afterward can be exhausting. The Narwal Freo X Ultra robot vacuum / mop hybrid can help speed things up, though, and it’s currently down to an all-time low of $849.99 (about $690 off) at Best Buy and Amazon (when you apply the on-page coupon).
The Narwal Freo X Ultra is one of our favorite robot vacuums for mopping. It features a commendable 8,200Pa of suction power and a host of welcome features, including a set of spinning triangular mops that allow it to clean hard surfaces exceptionally well. It can adjust the amount of pressure applied by its mop based on floor type, too, and can even make its own “cleaning decisions,” one of which will prompt it...
Gabe Newell says Half-Life 2: Episode 3 didn’t happen because he was ‘stumped’
Concept art for Half-Life 2: Episode 3_, from the_ Half-Life 2 20th Anniversary Documentary. | Screenshot: YouTube
Unsurprisingly, yesterday’s big Half-Life release wasn’t the sequel to Half-Life 2 or even the third Half-Life 2: Episode entry, but a 20th-anniversary update to Valve’s legendary 2004 game. And given what studio co-founder Gabe Newell has to say on the subject in a 2-hour documentary that the company released in tandem with the update, it seems less likely than ever that we’ll be seeing either follow-up anytime soon.
Newell explains what he calls his “personal failure” near the end of the video:
You can’t get lazy and say, “oh, we’re moving the story forward.” That’s copping out of your obligatiion to gamers, right? Yes, of course they love the story. They love many, many aspects of it. But sort of saying that your reason to do it is...
Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
mina@berlin.social ("Mina") wrote:
Just a reminder:
Attachments:
Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
petergleick@fediscience.org ("Peter Gleick") wrote:
We're not going to terraform Mars, but we're doing a good job of venusforming Earth.
Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
davidgerard@circumstances.run ("David Gerard") wrote:
after a failed laptop surgery, i have set up my writing laptop as my main laptop
except i can't log into twitter, it doesn't recognise my 2FA
i'm free?
EDIT: oh no i managed to log in to x the everything app
Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
TheDarkHorse@hackers.town ("Spidey") wrote:
Today I was part of the mass layoff at work.
If you're looking for someone that can do the following roles, I'd appreciate it:
- Security Threat Researcher
- Security Engineer
- Threat Detection Engineer
- Incident Response AnalystLocation: US
jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
yes, centralized is easier to grok at first than decentralized… you don’t have to make choices, pesky decisions… and centralized systems are waaaaay more fragile, both as technical & social information networks.
IMHO: understanding information networks & flow is critical to understanding what is happening to our body politics in this particular historical moment.
Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
oliphant@oliphant.social ("Oliphantom Menace") wrote:
Rather than require you to figure out which server to join, as Mastodon does, Bluesky initially centralized the user experience on one server so users could see one feed, just like on Twitter.
It's still basically one server, or one relay, anyway, which is where most people get the data from.
Like it's "less confusing" and "you don't have to pick a server" because it's not really decentralized.
And yes, centralized things are easier to use and understand than decentralized things.
Trumpworld Pushes Back Against Dueling Pete Hegseth Controversies
Weekend Fox News host Pete Hegseth has already been an exceedingly controversial choice as Donald Trump’s pick for his Secretary of Defense. Hegseth and the Trump camp have spent recent days push back against two simultaneous controversies: allegations that Hegseth has “extremist” tattoos, as some critics have charged, and news broken by Vanity Fair on […]
Sixth beach house collapses in North Carolina's Outer Banks in the past 6 months
The daily effects of strong winds, large waves, as well as rising sea levels — which are fueled by human-caused climate change — are causing beaches on the Outer Banks to wash away.
Reblogged by pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑"):
JuliusGoat ("A.R. Moxon, Verified Duck 🦆") wrote:
Christians of good intentions need to accept the fact that the signs and symbols of Christianity now represent a genuine menace and a credible threat of violence to all the kinds of people Jesus told followers to serve. The cross once again represents only a tool of authoritarian torture and death.
In France, a family reckons with World War II Allies' legacy of rape and murder
In 1944, as Allied troops celebrated D-Day victory, a French family experienced a trauma that would be felt for generations: a murder and sexual assault so traumatic they are only now coming to terms with it.
Alex Jones Is Trying to Halt the Sale of Infowars. Elon Musk’s X Just Got Involved in the Case
On Thursday afternoon, a federal bankruptcy judge in Texas ordered an evidentiary hearing to review the auction process that resulted in Infowars being sold to satire site the Onion, saying he wanted to ensure the “process and transparency” of the sale. Infowars’ founder, the conspiracy mega-entrepreneur Alex Jones, has unsurprisingly declared that the auction process […]
Two Of The Best Shooters Of All Time Are Now Free (And More Of The Week's Top Stories)
This week saw the classic shootersUnreal and Unreal Tournament, with publisher Epic’s blessing, made permanently free and accessible via the Internet Archive. Meanwhile, Blizzard held a stream celebrating the 30th anniversary of Warcraft, at which it revealed that the first two games in the RTS series have been…
NFL fans worry Netflix’s bad Tyson vs. Paul stream means it can’t handle football
Getty Images for Netflix © 2024
Netflix’s livestream of the Mike Tyson and Jake Paul boxing match was a mess. I’m not talking about the bout itself — although people had their qualms with that, too — it’s the livestream, which people across the internet complained was plagued by buffering, unstable, and unwatchable muddiness. That doesn’t bode well for Netflix’s live sports ambitions, especially its upcoming Christmas Day NFL games.
I had the same experience, having tuned in a few minutes before Paul showed up in the back of a lowrider truck. For the vast majority of the 8-round match, I had to lean heavily on my brain’s ability to construct a cohesive picture from very little information to have an idea of what was going on. The X post below was very much what the...
Here’s some cool stuff you can do with Bluesky
Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge
So, you’ve finally decided to give Bluesky a shot. The social network has come a long way since the early bare-bones days of invite-only signups and recently grew past the 15 million user mark. Along the way, it’s gathered a lot of familiar posting platform features, like direct messages, pinned posts, and the ability to post videos up to 60 seconds in length.
But there’s a lot more to it than that, and I’m not only talking about lore. (Yes, Bluesky has lore, and that’s probably the most classic Twitter thing about it.) It’s also got a number of features and settings you won’t find on X or Threads, like the ability to choose your own algorithm or moderation tools. These serve not just as a fast lane to getting the platform to feel...
Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
AverageDog ("Nils M Holm") wrote:
Here is my latest #book: "Write Your Own Programs" is a fun but no-nonsense introduction to #programming. It discusses programs of increasing size an complexity while inviting the reader to come up with their own solutions. The text starts with simple examples and then slowly picks up the pace until it arrives at a text mode video game and a WordStar-like text editor.
Want to start programming or get past the first steps? This might be the right book for you!
http://t3x.org/wyop/
Attachments:
- The cover of the book "Write Your Own Programs", showing a stylized computer screen and keyboard and a star with the text "100% AI-Free!"
- A cartoon of a small creature being examined under a looking glass. Below the drawing there is a caption saying "a closer look". This is the title page of a chapter in the book.
cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen") wrote:
Also, I admit it requires a bit of planning, which maybe not many people will be able to pull off for various reasons.
cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen") wrote:
When I first joined Mastodon flavored fediverse, I had already been gathering the account handles of people I might want to follow on here. People had been announcing their new handles in various ways. I guess I curated my own "starter pack" and growth hacked myself?
It wasn't a bunch of people, but it was enough. I'm much happier going slow with this sort of thing, but I understand other people have different needs or would find this difficult especially if they only use a mobile device.
Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
Kaya@photog.social ("Kaja") wrote:
Kontraste.
Attachments:
Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
And yet the sun rises.
The Mycena family of mushrooms are one of my favourites. They're prolific and common, and mostly vary only in colour, but they're consistently cute, and they have a charming love of mossy surfaces.
#fungiFriday #mushtodon #mushrooms #fungi #photography #nature #naturePhotography #macro #macrophotography #fediArt #fineArt #art #moss #mosstodon
