Mastodon Feed: Posts

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

CatsOfYore@varmint.town ("Cats of Yore") wrote:

“Paris, black wall with cat” 1954. https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-5562038

Attachments:

• Black and white photo of a portion of a very dark grey and black urban landscape. A white cat is walking along a wall in front of a building, the contrast between its smooth white fur and the gritty, textured darkness of the surroundings is striking. (remote)

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

CatsOfYore@varmint.town ("Cats of Yore") wrote:

Happy Pride Month! 🌈 ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🏳️‍🌈 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/smithsonian-books/2023/12/14/five-ay-o-rainbow-works-to-brighten-your-day/

Attachments:

• Image of a cat in loaf position, giving a wide yawn, but the cat is rendered entirely in slim, flowing rainbow stripes on a white background. (remote)

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

CatsOfYore@varmint.town ("Cats of Yore") wrote:

Just trying to enjoy her bucket in peace. Photo from my collection, ca. 1950s.

Attachments:

• Black and white photo of a shorthaired tabby cat sitting in a metal bucket, looking awkwardly at the camera. It seems to be in a bathroom and a towel with a monogram that reads “VHE”. (remote)

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

StephenRamirez@universeodon.com ("Today's Top Quotes ✅") wrote:

NATO has never attacked a country. Its Article 5, mutual defense clause has been activated once. After 9/11 to protect America. In the last decade, #Russia invaded Georgia, invaded Ukraine twice in largest ground war in Europe since WW2, bombed Syrian civilian targets, successfully worked to pass BREXIT, helped elect an American president, murdered British citizens in Britain, shot down civilian airliner murdering 289, including Americans. So yes, anyone not under Russian influence could see that NATO is the definition of defensive alliance — Stuart Stevens #quotes #quote #NATO #DefensiveAlliance #RussianAggression #Deterrence #CollectiveSecurity #CollectiveDefense

pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:

The wheel turns again.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/06/17/the-social-media-cycle/

Attachments:

• Cartoon: people sitting in a hole. Someone says, "hey look! someone made a new hole!" The mob runs to the new hole. One says, "This feels like the old hole used to feel." (remote)

pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:

Familiar story: pastor who makes it big is a world-class creep. Megachurches are festering pits of evil.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/06/17/isnt-it-always-this-way/

Attachments:

• Robert Morris, pastor at Gateway Church (remote)

Reblogged by pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑"):

nasa@social.beachcom.org ("NASA") wrote:

Ou4: The Giant Squid Nebula https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240617.html #APOD

Attachments:

• 645961c9b8e57a38.jpeg (remote)

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

tarheel@mstdn.io ("John Lusk") wrote:

@jsonstein Yep. Link, for others tuning in: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/05/religious-right-real-origins-107133/

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

tarheel@mstdn.io ("John Lusk") wrote:

@jsonstein It's my belief that the forces of the "conservative" right have really been after civil rights, really shifting into gear when they could no longer shelter their children in religious schools tax-free. Everything after that is a smokescreen. A lot of that "smoke" is stuff people care deeply about like abortion and divorce and IVF (more of an option for rich white folks) and LGBTQ issues (which I believe is really about sex in most people's minds).

1/

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

tarheel@mstdn.io ("John Lusk") wrote:

@jsonstein ...and restored the (white) right to choose, in its various guises, we'll have no energy to fight for the rest of the rights that don't (directly) affect us. Brown v. Board. The Voting Rights Act. Districting. Ranked-choice voting. And all the thousands of little things that help entrench white power in this country, frankly (why do cities need "at large" council members?). Issues with lending, leasing. Etc.

Which is the function of the smokescreen.

3/

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

marching towards theocracy. Washington, Jefferson, etc… this country’s Founders would be horrified at codifying religion into law

https://www.vox.com/today-explained-newsletter/354635/divorce-no-fault-states-marriage-republicans

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

worth a look

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/06/40-acres-and-a-lie/

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

I love D3

https://www.d3indepth.com/geographic/

Reblogged by andreu@andreubotella.com ("Andreu Botella"):

webhackfest@floss.social ("Web Engines Hackfest") wrote:

The Web Engines Hackfest 2024 talks have been published in YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4sEzdAGvRgBVK-g6z4-YGt8uv3Dni6ag 🎞️

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

This is a semblance of the tech press reporting on what the student experience of computing is like worldwide:

https://youtu.be/RaBdEp1Wec8?si=cmXcgR2hwEpSbJgX

Not pretty.

Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):

20002ist@thepit.social ("Mark Eckenwiler") wrote:

@TwoClownsEating @Vonskinnback @courtcan @strypey

“I like to pay taxes. With them I buy civilization.”
- Oliver Wendell Holmes

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

I've had my differences with Fil over the years; sometimes in ways that were visible from space with low-resolution sensors. But this is the kind of work I can get behind, and I wish him nothing but luck in making it a success:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR8y7swDkPU

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

trisweb@m.trisweb.com ("Tristan Harward") wrote:

I'm scared how misunderstood LLMs and GenAI truly are; they are so far from a genuine intelligence it's not even funny. They are statistical models for language, trained on a lot of words and sentences, representing the statistical likelihood of words following other words, sentences following other sentences, just with a lot of data and samples to pull from. That's it. There's no intelligence, there's no path to intelligence; it's simply statistics chaining words and symbols together.

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

Flamenco Sketches (feat. John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley & Bill Evans) by Miles Davis

https://pandora.app.link/vUORWq3luKb

Attachments:

• 256a6bcbd0e1790f.png (remote)

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

It's Easy To Remember (Take 6) by John Coltrane

https://pandora.app.link/aLENituluKb

Attachments:

• e3d0e84b3e6ec1e2.png (remote)

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

Back to Earth by The Dave Brubeck Quartet

https://pandora.app.link/q90asFVkuKb

Attachments:

• b96e5b5c1465f9f7.png (remote)

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

Le petit bal (Take 1 - Bande originale du film "Ascenseur pour l'échafaud") by Miles Davis

https://pandora.app.link/JYa8jlHkuKb

Attachments:

• 76efdd8562668c98.png (remote)

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

Violets For Your Furs (Rudy Van Gelder Remaster) by John Coltrane

https://pandora.app.link/tUZfZDPjuKb

Attachments:

• aaf0faf4a7a556ea.png (remote)

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

ahhhhhhh… I See Your Face Before Me (RVG Remaster) by Miles Davis

https://pandora.app.link/jTIyRI8iuKb

Attachments:

• ef3f1caea18c4665.png (remote)

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

stilgherrian@eigenmagic.net ("Stilgherrian") wrote:

ICYMI Friday, I kicked off this season’s crowdfunder. We’re already 15% of the way to Target One, which is fantastic, but that’s no reason not to click through.

-----

LAUNCHING A NEW CROWDFUNDER: If you’d like more special-guest episodes of my terrible podcast for grown-ups “The 9pm Edict” then please click through and consider pledging your support to The 9pm Winter Series 2024. It’s all the usual deals. https://the9pmedict.com/winter2024

Attachments:

• Photo of a late middle-aged man (Stilgherrian) with short hair, glasses, and a grey sweater, standing against a background of bare winter trees and bug ted that "9pm". The main text reads "The 9pm Winter Series 2024". (remote)

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

‘“I meant,” said Ipslore, bitterly, “what is there in this world that makes living worthwhile?”
Death thought about it.
CATS, he said eventually, CATS ARE NICE.
“Curse you!”’

- from Sourcery, by Terry Pratchett

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

seems like a sensible framework: “… safe, secure, and trustworthy AI innovation to harness the opportunities of AI while mitigating its risks.”

https://ai.gov/

collinsworth@hachyderm.io ("Josh Collinsworth") wrote:

Absolute banger from @JuliusGoat this week. Too many highlighted quotes to pick from.

The Case For Shunning - by A.R. Moxon - The Reframe
https://www.the-reframe.com/the-case-for-shunning/

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

doing some trimming today

Attachments:

• a red rose from my garden (remote)

cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen") wrote:

In case JOMO is unfamiliar: https://sfba.social/@jeridansky/112617449834025940