Mastodon Feed
pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
So sleek, so plump, so shiny.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/01/08/stunningly-beautiful/
Mastodon Feed
Mastodon FeedReblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
Lovely start to the new year, but whatever, just the way the world’s going. Not like I could run it for ever, so fine, let’s sadly end it now: https://traintimes.org.uk/map/tube/
Mastodon FeedReblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
fraying@xoxo.zone ("Derek Powazek 🐐") wrote:
Now that's a good headline.
"Zuckerberg Announces New Measures to Increase Hate Speech on Facebook"
https://futurism.com/zuckerberg-meta-announcement-hate-speech
Mastodon Feedslightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:
TIL that Geekbench now excludes a whole swath of Samsung and Huawei devices from their leaderboards for cheating:
Mastodon Feedpzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
All of Ken Ham's arguments against giving Bill Nye the Medal of Freedom reinforce why he deserved it.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/01/08/ken-ham-is-greatly-annoyed/
Mastodon FeedReblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:
This week on the excellent Trashfuture podcast, the regulars - joined by 404 Media's Jason Koebler - have a hilarious - wheezing with laughter! - riff on this year's CES, where companies are demoing home appliances with LLMs built in:
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-hgi6c-179b908
Why would you need a chatbot in your dishwasher? As it turns out, there's a credulous, Poe's-law-grade *Forbes* article that lays out the (incredibly stupid) case for this (incredibly stupid) idea:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2024/03/29/generative-ai-is-coming-to-your-home-appliances/
3/
Mastodon Feedpzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
After hearing the man-child's ramblings, I had to look up the 25th Amendment. It offers no comfort.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/01/08/the-25th-amendment-wont-save-us-now/
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Mastodon Feedjsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
piece is worth worth reading, multiple views on this election. I agree with Podhorzer:
“Americans are fed up. This election wasn’t just a vote of no confidence in Democrats; it was yet another vote of no confidence in our entire political system. We cannot mistake this result for an active embrace of Trump or MAGA fascism.”
Mastodon Feedjsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
good piece
Mastodon Feedjsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
strongly agree, missed opportunities
“… the U.S. had the chance to shape a new system with its leadership. I think Trump may be the final nail in the coffin for any American-led effort to bring rising powers into a fairer and more equitable rules-based order. The dangers are profound for a weaker United States in a more Balkanized, multipolar system in which it is merely one of many players grubbing for influence.”
Mastodon Feedjsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
biting, and I am afraid true as well
Mastodon FeedRadicalGraffiti@todon.eu ("Radical Graffiti") wrote:
"Live, Laugh, Luigi"
Seen in Chicago, Illinois
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Mastodon Feedandreu@andreubotella.com ("Andreu Botella :verified_enby:") wrote:
I just got a job offer from an AI and crypto company who's building a Chromium browser whose tagline is "The First Browser Built for Web3 & Crypto".
Let me put this plainly:
Fuck off.
Mastodon FeedHey, remember when the panopticon was going to be good actually?
It is perhaps not sporting to be poking fun at moldering techno-optimism from 1996, from WiReD no less, but I'm going to do it anyway, because I suspect that Brin's article curdled as many brains as Barlow's asinine "declaration" did.
The Internet was a mistake....
https://jwz.org/b/ykf5
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Mastodon Feeddansinker@omfg.town ("Dan Sinker") wrote:
Hope the LA Times is being sure to print the fire’s point of view too.
Mastodon FeedReblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
annaleen@wandering.shop ("Annalee Newitz 🍜") wrote:
You may not remember this poll I did back in November, but you voted for me to tell the tale of an obscure futurist with good ideas. At last, the article you voted for is outside the paywall! It's my latest for New Scientist, about low-key civil engineering legend John "Bud" Wilbur. In 1952, he predicted that we could avert nuclear war with good infrastructure. https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26435192-400-the-forgotten-civil-engineer-with-a-vision-we-could-all-learn-from/
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- This is a headline for the story from New Scientist magazine. It reads: "The forgotten civil engineer with a vision we could all learn from. John "Bud" Benson Wilbur isn't often remembered today, but his ideas about what the distant-future world of 1977 would look like are inspirational, says Annalee Newitz." Below the text is a black-and-white photo of Wilbur, when he was a young man. He is a white man with slicked-back pale hair, sitting on a stool and looking at a large computing machine that he invented. Called a simultaneous calculator, it is a wall-mounted apparatus resembling a set of long, low bookshelves filled with tilting metal plates on pulley systems. According to the MIT Museum, "The calculator has 13,000 parts, including more than 600 feet of steel tape and nearly 1,000 ballbearing pulleys." (remote)
- This a text card, with black-on-white text. It reads: You have probably never heard of John “Bud” Benson Wilbur, but he is a low-key civil engineering legend. In the mid-20th century, he was chair of the civil and sanitary engineering department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He built some major bridges in Massachusetts and helped prototype the first wind power systems in Vermont. But I first encountered his work in a silly-but-serious essay from 1952 ... he claimed he and his colleagues had invented a crystal ball for seeing the future. (By Annalee Newitz, in New Scientist magazine) (remote)
Mastodon Feedgrantbrookesnz@mastodon.nz ("Grant Brookes") wrote:
https://theshovel.com.au/2020/05/28/mark-zuckerberg-dead-at-36-says-social-media-fact-check/
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Mastodon Feedvioletblue ("Violet Blue") wrote:
"For those of us observing this spectacle in a sort-of state of self-aware, displaced horror reserved for those moments when life and sci-fi dystopia cross shadows, it has never been more clear that Facebook's ideas about organizing society are wholly broken." Me, 2014: https://www.zdnet.com/article/facebook-unethical-untrustworthy-and-now-downright-harmful/
Mastodon Feedeloquence@social.coop ("Erik Moeller") wrote:
The Meta developments make it even clearer why so many of us are wary of #bluesky, while welcoming the migration off X in principle.
It's very much born from the same Silicon Valley soup as Facebook and Twitter, with some decentralization cosplay masking that they are absolutely in charge of who can speak and who can't.
Early test cases include Jesse Singal (see https://glaad.org/gap/jesse-singal/ - still not banned on Bluesky), Vagina Museum (forced "adult content" labeling), and probably more.
Mastodon FeedBald eagle dies of bird flu. Once again, this season's writers are a bit on the nose.
https://jwz.org/b/ykf3
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Mastodon FeedReblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
meg@fediscience.org ("Megan ⚘") wrote:
I am so pleased to see Deerlady on KEXP today. I have posted about the music of Mali Obomsawin and Magdalena Abrego before. Their album Greatest Hits was one of my favorites of 2024. For those who may not know, their new band name comes from the episode of the same name from the series Reservation Dogs where the song "There There" was first featured. Mali is from Odanak First Nation.
Mastodon FeedReblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
timnitGebru@dair-community.social ("Timnit Gebru (she/her)") wrote:
We're hoping to organize a hopeful virtual event to get us to think our possible technological futures, and have a creative workshop. Maybe in the spring. Stay tuned. In the mean time, read our Possible Futures Series. If you have thoughts on what you'd like to see from the event, comment below.
▶️ Nobody Owns Our Techno-Future: https://www.dair-institute.org/blog/technofuture/
▶️ A Bus Model For Global, Human-Centered Education: https://www.dair-institute.org/blog/education/
▶️ An Internet for Our Elders: https://www.dair-institute.org/blog/elders/
(continued)
Mastodon FeedReblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:
Zuck: we call our interoperable ecosystem the #Metaverse now
#Fediverse: oh hey twinsies
Zuck: we launched a text based app connected to #ActivityPub
#Mastodon: yay we do that
Zuck: we believe in openness now
Openness.org: neato! This is completely out of character but we're convinced
Zuck: we copy platforms so that eventually, they die under the pressure of our competition because this has been our entire business model for a decade
Guy who invented the at sign: fascinating
Mastodon FeedParasite@kolektiva.social ("Auntie Oedipus 🏳️⚧️🌱🏴") wrote:
Here’s a summary of events of Germany in early 1933 for no reason whatsoever:
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Mastodon FeedReblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
glencoe@jorts.horse ("St Woke of Pronouns") wrote:
aggggh
Mastodon FeedReblogged by kornel ("Kornel"):
rysiek@mstdn.social ("Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦") wrote:
Mark Zuckerberg, Recipient of World's First Rat Penis Transplant, Announces Meta Will Stop Fact Checking
https://thehardtimes.net/culture/mark-zuckerberg-recipient-of-worlds-first-rat-penis-transplant-announces-meta-will-stop-fact-checking/
Mastodon Feeddnalounge@sfba.social ("DNA Lounge") wrote:
Me, last night, to @hubba_hubba_revue while watching them shoot video of the show and upload it -- "Why are you still only posting these videos to Instagram? Why don't you post them to Mastodon too?"
"Because we have like no followers on Mastodon."
"Well maybe that's because you never post videos there!"
Anyway, give them a follow, try to break them out of their doom loop.
Mastodon Feedlinear@nya.social ("linear cannon") wrote:
here is your semi-irregular reminder that the bulk of material making up "microplastics" comes from car tires wearing themselves down on roads, and changing your personal purchasing, consumption and/or recycling habits will have no appreciable effect on your or anyone else's exposure to microplastics.
fixing the microplastics issue requires getting rid of cars, or finding a replacement for tires that does not wear down (which tire companies will not do because then they can't sell you new tires over and over)
Mastodon FeedSince Greenland is in the news again, let's check in on Camp Century.
A top-secret US military project and the toxic waste it conceals, thought to have been buried forever beneath the Greenland icecap, are likely to be uncovered by rising temperatures...
https://jwz.org/b/ykf1
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Mastodon FeedReblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
anildash@threads.net ("Anil Dash") wrote:
The key thing to understand about Meta without guard rails is that, when they allowed their platform to exist without any content controls in Myanmar under an extremist leader, it was used to directly enable a genocide. Zuckerberg knows this, knows the threat, and has never acknowledged or apologized. He is going in eyes wide open to this level of threat. https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/asia-and-the-pacific/south-east-asia-and-the-pacific/myanmar/report-myanmar/