Mastodon Feed: Posts

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

Today in History: Aristotle dies of indigestion, 322 BC

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

Some brief thoughts on the Anthropic settlement, and why I think most authors should claim their share of the settlement if they can, inadequate though I think it is:

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/10/02/authors-time-to-get-that-bag/

Boosted by adam@social.lol ("Adam"):
jakelazaroff ("jake lazaroff") wrote:

show this to anyone else you know who also assumed DHH was just a normal conservative dude rather than a raging white supremacist lunatic

https://jakelazaroff.com/words/dhh-is-way-worse-than-i-thought/

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

It’s been a year since @keenan published this amazing piece. It’s still *so* good. https://social.lol/@keenan/113239491156824295

Boosted by adam@social.lol ("Adam"):
robb@social.lol ("Robb Knight") wrote:

St Jude 2025 Recap https://rknight.me/blog/st-jude-2025-recap/

We fell a bit short of our target but we still managed raise over $15k which is incredible. Thank you to everyone who shared or donated 💕

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your spooky 'net denizen"):
Unixbigot@aus.social ("Kit Bashir") wrote:

“Rise and shine, kiddo, we got a catch operation on runway 22. 1700pax onboard.”

“Second one this month. Heckin sloppy, boss.”

“You know, they used to just land airplanes on the belly if the landing gear got stuck”

“That’s wack. Surely it’d wreck the plane?”

“Pretty much yeah. They had the computing power to deploy a catch truck but apparently it just never occurred to them. They were catching these fuckoff huge primitive rockets, but if an airliner with 300 people on board had a gear issue it was ‘whelp let’s try a bellyflop, what could possibly go wrong?’ ”

“So what woke them up?”

“It was that AI bullshit in the twenties. When the bubble burst you could buy surplus vector processors by the skipload. All sorts of clever folk attacked previously intractable problems. That’s how we got tumourphages, catchtrucks, and dogvoices.”

“Wow but no cat translators, eh?”

“Oh they worked but nobody would pay to be told ‘fuck you feed me’ all day”

#Tootfic #MicroFiction #PowerOnStoryToot

Boosted by adele@social.pollux.casa ("Adële 🐁"):
urlyman ("Jonathan Schofield") wrote:

https://writes.casa from @adele is such a lovely idea. It’s been out there for just over 1 month. You can submit posts to a weekly theme that are <= 1,000 characters, in English, French, German, Spanish or Portuguese.

I hope more take up the invitation 😃

https://social.pollux.casa/@adele/statuses/01K429VH0XW3HF0R5HZM4ZFT2E

pzmyers@freethought.online ("pzmyers 🕷") wrote:

“Can the people who never took a chemistry class please stop ‘teaching’ us about chemistry?”

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/10/02/the-misinformation-economy/

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wCi-xe0gl5w

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your spooky 'net denizen"):
brianbilston@mastodon.online ("Brian Bilston") wrote:

Here’s another poem for National Poetry Day. This one is called ‘A Brief History of Modern Art in Poetry’.

Boosted by kornel ("Kornel"):
lina@vt.social ("Asahi Lina (朝日リナ) // nullptr::live") wrote:

I'm going to argue that basically every YUV conversion matrix used in gamma space is wrong!

BT.709 says Y = 0.2126R + 0.7152G + 0.0722B, but those coefficients are designed for linear light. They relatively overemphasize green and underemphasize blue in gamma space.

I think 0.299R + 0.518G + 0.183B or so would work better. For 2.2 gamma (simplifying the EOTF for the example), those give the 0.2126... *relative* intensities for pure R,G,B after linear conversion.

Saturated colors are always going to be too dark if you do grayscale conversion in gamma space, but at least with those coefficients all of R,G,B are *equally* too dark, instead of R and B getting way darker than G.

https://vt.social/users/lina/statuses/115297110422973447

db@social.lol ("David Bushell 👻") wrote:

hol' up, this is the long awaited record breaking Lego Death Star?

https://www.lego.com/en-gb/product/death-star-75419

what a disappointment!

db@social.lol ("David Bushell 👻") wrote:

blogged: Not My Cup of Tea

https://dbushell.com/2025/10/02/not-my-cup-of-tea/

— on that tweet, open source funding, Svelte, morality in tech, "AI" and stuff I'd rather not have to think about 😔

Boosted by jwz:
docpop ("Doctor M. Popular") wrote:

In other news, adding "is Trump showing signs of dementia" to your Google searches is an easy way to disable AI Overview in your results. https://www.theverge.com/news/789152/google-ai-searches-blocking-trump-dementia-biden

Boosted by jwz:
docpop ("Doctor M. Popular") wrote:

This is what happens when you try adding "is Trump showing signs of dementia" in to a Google search. It removes the AI Overview https://www.theverge.com/news/789152/google-ai-searches-blocking-trump-dementia-biden

Attachments:

• gifv: A video showing a Google search for "best 3.5mm headphones" results in an AI Overview result. Adding "... Trump showing" still adds the AI overview. But if you add "signs of dementia" to the search, then the AI Overview disappears. After testing that, the user then does a search for "best 3.5mm headphones is Kamala showing signs of dementia". The top result is an AI Overview saying "There is no credible, medically-supported evidence that Vice President Kamala Harris has dementia."

Boosted by jwz:
netblocks ("NetBlocks") wrote:

⚠️ Confirmed: Network data indicate a major power outage around Chernobyl and Slavutych, #Ukraine, amid reports that Russian shelling has cut power to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant confinement structure, presenting a safety threat at the mothballed Soviet disaster site

Boosted by jwz:
Taweret@timeloop.cafe ("4 8 15 16 23 42") wrote:

Werner Herzog’s Mastodon: A Descent into the Federated Abyss

(Footage of server error messages, ancient memes and a lone penguin trudging across ice)

Herzog voiceover: Mastodon is not a social network. it is a cruel experiment in decentralized yearning. Each server a fragile island in a sea of loneliness held together by spite and CSS

The people here: disillusioned scholars, artists, shitposters, furries,and someone named toadwitch69@haunt.penis
, speak in codes I cannot decipher

There is no algorithm. there is only what you choose to see.
and what you choose may destroy you

Boosted by adam@social.lol ("Adam"):
laurel@social.lol wrote:

Caught up on the latest Friendship Material episode last night and… woah. Not to be like overly sentimental about it or anything, but that was so relevant to what I’m currently navigating that I’d qualify it as straight up medicinal. Thank you so much for making things @cygnoir & @keenan 🫶🍋

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your spooky 'net denizen"):
ansate@social.coop ("Melissa Santos") wrote:

#pdx let’s have a moment to appreciate this Math-y theater/haunted house/escape room combo existing! https://us.patronbase.com/%5FMatheatre/Productions/FR25/Performances

It’s not for me because i don’t like being scared or really enjoy escape rooms. But i love everything about the idea of it.

Also that there exists an org to help fund weird math stuff like this https://www.mathhappens.org

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your spooky 'net denizen"):
Taweret@timeloop.cafe ("4 8 15 16 23 42") wrote:

Dear Clementine,

It has been four weeks since I crossed over. the migration was rough. I lost my entire mutual list in the switch.I tried to bring a few threads with me but the formatting did not survive the journey

Here, they call them toots, Clementine. they say it without shame

There is no algorithm. posts arrive like autumn leaves in a windstorm out of order, lightly cursed, and often tagged 'cw: egg' with no further explanation

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
VE2UWY@mastodon.radio ("Come On Giant Asteroid!") wrote:

If you are in the USA & planning to take an #amateurradio exam, understand that the #FCC has shut down most services. You can still get an FRN via the CORES website (apparently), which you will need if this is your first license.

You can still use that FRN when you take an exam, which are, in any case, administered by community volunteers, but you won't get your license until the FCC is back in operation.

If you are upgrading, have at it - the CSCE lets you use your new privileges.

#Congress

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social ("Kevin Beaumont") wrote:

LinkedIn is already a glorious trash fire but now I have people doing AI replies to my posts. 🫡

Boosted by adam@social.lol ("Adam"):
rmondello@hachyderm.io ("Ricky Mondello") wrote:

Anyone wanna come over and listen to the National Park theme from Pokémon Crystal for a few hours?

kevinevans@hachyderm.io ("Kevin") wrote:

Easy* dinner for tonight: slowcooked pork w/ chipotle and corn tortillas. Made on the carbon steel.

* Easy, as in minimal standing in the kitchen 😛

#cooking

Boosted by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
JustaJason007@beige.party wrote:

@fromjason listen, I'll do a lot of things for $20, but I'm not doing that.🤣

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

Fuck Ted Cruz.

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

Be the developer who appreciates the output, not the dudebro who fixates on the input.

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
lproven@vivaldi.net ("Liam Proven") wrote:

The great Dr Jane Goodall, ethologist and campaigner for great apes and much else, has died at the age of 91.

She loved this _Far Side_ cartoon, and wrote a foreword for a later Gary Larson collection.

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
Ulrich_the_elder@thecanadian.social ("Ulrich_the_Elder, 🇨🇦,🇺🇦") wrote:

Since the bible says not to charge interest on loans,I think the Dems should propose a bill that removes all interest on student loans and use this a justification. Make the GOP state out loud, repeatedly, that the bible can't be used to make policy.

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your spooky 'net denizen"):
djsundog@fedi.reclaim.technology ("DJ Sundog from the *new* toot-lab") wrote:

My friends!

@DoctorDeathray and Her Implements of Destruction are performing one of our rare daylight hours shows this coming Saturday at Croctoberfest, the first annual fall market at the Electric Crocodile in Chattanooga, TN!

We’ll be on the stage from 3-4pm for all your bluesy-punky groove needs, and we’ll have vinyl on hand if you’ve wanted to pick up one of our albums in person rather than via bandcamp.

If you’re in the area, come on by, check out all the cool stuff the Croc has available, catch some fun bands like us, and have a nice day out - hope to see some of y’all there!!

https://allevents.in/chattanooga/croctober-fest-electric-crocodile%E2%80%99s-1st-annual-fall-market/200028619466212

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your spooky 'net denizen"):
LauraJG@deacon.social ("Laura G, Sassy 70’s") wrote:

My October art history theme is, very loosely, Halloween. So, some dark, some surreal, some scary, some lighthearted works, not necessarily specific to the holiday.

Today I present, by Spanish-Mexican woman artist Remedios Varo (1908-1963), La llamada (The Call), 1961, oil on Masonite, 42 x 31 in., © 2023 Remedios Varo/Artists Rights Society, National Museum of Women in the Arts. More in ALT. #arthistory #womanartist #womenartists #surrealism

From Christie’s auction house: “She moved to Paris in 1937 and due to her political ties was banned from returning to Spain following the Spanish Civil War. When World War II neared Paris in 1940, Varo was imprisoned with her partner Benjamin Péret because of his political activities. Upon their release they caught one of the last ships allowed to depart the country and fled to Mexico…

Despite Surrealism’s insistence on cultural liberation, it was largely an all male affair. The 1924 Surrealist manifesto excluded female artists, and women were often relegated to the role of 'artist's muse.' The work of Varo together with that of other artists of her generation like Leonora Carrington, Leonor Fini and Dorothea Tanning, represented a vital antidote to this male-dominated narrative.

Varo was not only a leading female artist of the Surrealist movement, but she frequently used her art to assert the collective power of women and femininity. Likewise, her paintings often represent women as the central protagonists fully in control of the environs they inhabit. She frequently incorporated motifs like ‘the cage’ and ‘the tower’ into her work, representing the urge to break free from patriarchal structures, and her use of feminine tropes like ‘the boudoir’ in her work was just as revolutionary in the male-dominated world of Surrealist painting.”