Mastodon Feed: Posts

fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:

What if you could quantify misery in a way that could forecast the consumer behavior phenomenon of the little treats meme?

If there was a correlation between Trump saying on the news things that made Americans anxious, and the amount of twenty dollar smoothies sold that day, you could create a misery index; a misery index of little treats.

And if you can quantify misery, then you could assist the driving engine of that consumer behavior. 

Good night. 

#littletreats

bcantrill ("Bryan Cantrill") wrote:

Recently, @shanselman gave a stirring TEDx talk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVG8W-0p6vg

The talk tacks into many of the themes that @ahl and I have discussed over the years,; on the next episode of Oxide an d Friends, Scott is going to join us to elaborate on the talk, and to reflect on the promises of tech -- both where it has delivered (not insignificant!) and where it has fallen short. Join us, Monday, 5p Pacific:

https://discord.gg/QrcKGTTPrF?event=1402457889830080563

jscalzi@threads.net ("John Scalzi") wrote:

An "AI" as awful as its owner

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/08/grok-generates-fake-taylor-swift-nudes-without-being-asked/

Boosted by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
lucas@post.lurk.org ("Lucas ✦") wrote:

#Macrowave, our native macOS & iOS app that makes it easy and fun to share system audio with friends to listen to music together will be available for everyone on August 7th.

https://apps.apple.com/app/macrowave/id6746954963?ct=mastodon

adam@social.lol ("Adam") wrote:

With apologies to XKCD.

Boosted by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
TechDesk@flipboard.social ("Flipboard Tech Desk") wrote:

Yesterday, Jim Acosta, formerly the CNN White House correspondent, "interviewed" Joaquin Oliver, one of 17 people murdered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018. Or, to be more accurate, he asked questions of an AI avatar of Oliver, with the permission of the late teenager's family, and then streamed it on Substack and YouTube. For her The Present Age newsletter, @parkermolloy.com breaks down the myriad problems with the "interview." "This wasn't journalism," she writes. "Whether it was his intention or not, this was Jim Acosta turning a murdered child into content."

https://flip.it/opvuf5

#Technology #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #USNews #JimAcosta #Journalism

jscalzi@threads.net ("John Scalzi") wrote:

Your reminder that RFK, jr would really rather prefer it if you'd just fuckin' die, already

https://apnews.com/article/kennedy-vaccines-mrna-pfizer-moderna-1fb5b9436f2957075064c18a6cbbe3c9?utm%5Fsource=onesignal&utm%5Fmedium=push&utm%5Fcampaign=2025-08-05-Breaking+News

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
dogzilla@masto.deluma.biz wrote:

chipotle@mstdn.social ("Watts Martin") wrote:

New post: "It's the heat and the humidity; also, the fascism" https://coyotetracks.org/blog/heat-humidity/

Boosted by ChrisWere@toot.wales ("Chris Were ⁂🐧🌱☕"):
mcp@lgbtqia.space ("Master Control Program") wrote:

Hello, users in the UK.

We have geoblocked media in the UK on our CDN because the “Online Safety Act” creates unacceptable levels of risk and requires us to violate our users’ privacy and safety.

We recommend that you, like our users in China or Russia, use a VPN.

Our condolences on the loss of freedom of opinion.

Boosted by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
micefearboggis@fediscience.org ("John Kennedy") wrote:

Nothing ever changes but the climate

Some initial notes on the DOE Critical Review of Impact of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the US Climate

And a 🧵 of other responses I'm aware of (let me know if you know of others)

https://diagrammonkey.wordpress.com/2025/08/01/nothing-every-changes-except-the-climate/

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
clive@saturation.social ("Clive Thompson") wrote:

I built this tool a year ago but I feel like Mastodon folks would like it

The "Weird Old Book Finder"

Type in a search query, and it'll find one randomly-chosen public-domain book that matches the query -- and present it for immediate reading: https://www.weirdoldbookfinder.net/

Why only one book? To prevent the paradox of choice! Just *start readin'*

Can't promise every book will be weird, but most are

A longer essay on how/why I developed it: https://debugger.medium.com/a-search-engine-that-finds-you-weird-old-books-3a74fbb5f3d4

This was a search for "mastodon"

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
DemocracyMattersALot@mstdn.social ("Democracy Matters :verified:") wrote:

A really brilliant summation of how got into this place.

Over everything
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2025/08/over-everything

#TrumpDidThis #RepublicansDidThis #GOPKakistocracy #Project2025 #NoRepublicansEverAgain #USPol

adam@social.lol ("Adam") wrote:

And it's fixed now! Still not sure what happened, but huge thanks to @nileane for sharing the magic "clobber" command that ultimately fixed it!

Boosted by isagalaev ("Ivan Sagalaev :flag_wbw:"):
nedbat@hachyderm.io ("Ned Batchelder") wrote:

There are more hydrogen atoms in a molecule of water than there are stars in the entire solar system!

(unknown origin...)

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
g7izu@universeodon.com ("𝑮7𝑰𝙕𝑼 𝑹𝙍𝑫") wrote:

Radio Propagation

Sporadic-E: strong FM from Chaine 3 Algeria on 87.6 MHz.

#radiopropagation
#amateurradio
#g7izu

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
george@a2mi.social ("George Hotelling") wrote:

We are excited to be expanding our classic game "Is it allergies or COVID?" with an exciting new third option "or wildfire smoke."

Have fun everybody, participation is mandatory!

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

“zoo people aren’t necessarily pet people”

https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/@lauren/114977568417081338

jscalzi@threads.net ("John Scalzi") wrote:

Good.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/us/politics/mike-flood-town-hall.html?unlocked%5Farticle%5Fcode=1.b08.-m6Y.HFZStwHiWkhi&smid=url-share

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
VirLutro@eldritch.cafe ("VirLutro 🌈") wrote:

It's money well spent :blob_think_smart:

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
aram@aoir.social ("Aram Sinnreich") wrote:

Thank you @TheGuardian for showing US news outlets how actual journalism is done.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/04/texas-democrats-republicans-maps

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
HaldeCraft@mastodon.art ("Lorena H") wrote:

Legit the only kind of news I wish we'd all see for at least the next week.

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange ("abadidea") wrote:

one time I was on vacation and a Microsoft employee contacted me personally with an emergency request to get ahold of my coworkers and tell them to knock off whatever they were doing because it was overwhelming a certain chunk of Microsoft infrastructure.

This has always been how the internet has stayed online — direct interpersonal manners and the understanding that being a “you can’t MAKE me show restraint” dick about it will have dire long term consequences for everyone. The AI upstarts who think they’re too special to show manners to their peers are fucking up the common good for everyone.

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
SmudgeTheInsultCat@mas.to ("Smudge The Insult Cat 🐀") wrote:

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
mgifford ("Mike Gifford, CPWA") wrote:

How many organizations? How many people? Still cling to their Twitter / X accounts because they fear giving up the followers they struggled to gain?

How many are there simply because it takes energy to do anything else?

How do we change that?

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
bert_hubert@eupolicy.social ("bert hubert 🇺🇦🇪🇺🇺🇦") wrote:

Map of a bacterial chromosome: genes on one side of the DNA, genes on the other side. RNA infrastructure (like the ribosome). And these FASCINATING blank spots which I can guarantee you have an important function (bacteria do not waste ANYTHING). But apparently we don't know which! This is Escherichia coli str. K-12 substr. W3110. #why2025

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
bert_hubert@eupolicy.social ("bert hubert 🇺🇦🇪🇺🇺🇦") wrote:

This is quite a stunning visual. Many bacteria feature the CRISPR viral immunity mechanism. This consists of pieces of remembered viral DNA, interspersed (the "I" in CRISPR) between repetitive elements. This viral DNA is then recognized & neutralized. I ran the UNIX 'less' command on E. Coli DNA and searched for the CRISPR repetitive element, and behold: #why2025

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
davatron5000 ("Dave Rupert") wrote:

Ah! I see the Democrats’ plan for saving democracy and avoiding the slide into authoritarianism is… texting a bunch. 😔

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
neurovagrant@masto.deoan.org ("Ian Campbell") wrote:

Lawfare podcast on private-sector offensive cyber operations (hackback!).

Wheeee.

#infosec #cybersecurity

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/lawfare-daily--sezaneh-seymour-and-brandon-wales-on-private-sector-cyber-operations

adam@social.lol ("Adam") wrote:

Working on an issue with the social.lol web client. The instance is running fine, but the web front-end broke after attempting to upgrade to 4.4.3. Yikes! Will hopefully have it restored shortly.