Mastodon Feed: Posts

Boosted by jwz:
NewtonMark@eigenmagic.net ("Mark Newton") wrote:

@franksting @ianb Selling a house on the north shore for $3 million yields enough cash to pay for $250 per night hotel rooms for 33 years. Maybe 25 years if you get a room service meal every night.

If you’re in your 70s you probably won’t live longer than that.

So you can live in four-to-five-star luxury with a concierge and silver service chef-prepared meals for the rest of your life.

I first made this observation when the SMH published a story about some old people complaining about how their sprawling Victorian-architecture house was decaying into ruin because they couldn’t afford to maintain it, and had to seal off all of it except for a bedroom, a sitting room, bathroom and kitchen because they couldn’t afford to heat it, because they were eking out a meagre existence on the full pension and didn’t want to sell their house because then they wouldn’t qualify.

And all I could think is that one simple transaction would relieve all that suffering, financial stress and self-imposed artificial poverty, and immeasurably improve their quality of life.

So easy.

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

FYI, the time to fix your Nazi tattoo AND be open about the stupid shit you did and said in the past that you now regret and pledge to spend the rest of your life working to atone for and fix is FUCKING WELL BEFORE you decide to run for public office

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your spooky 'net denizen"):
gilduran.com@bsky.brid.gy ("Gil Durán") wrote:

1/ A longtime Wired editor just wrote a mush-brained essay about how he totally missed the political rot of Silicon Valley (& still doesn't get it). But in the late 1990s, a Wired journalist warned of a toxic ideology bubbling up from tech. Paulina Borsook has largely been erased. Let's change that

Boosted by db@social.lol ("David Bushell 🎮"):
tylersticka@social.lol ("Tyler Sticka") wrote:

All these AI web browsers are making me salty https://tylersticka.com/journal/ai-browsers-ad-nauseam/

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your spooky 'net denizen"):
vkc@linuxmom.net ("Veronica Explains") wrote:

In a world where an algorithm is working on programming **you**, right now, to accept complacency, it feels real good to assert control over something minor like "dumping your own ROM" or "ripping your own media".

If someone's pumped about that, don't harsh their buzz by telling them they can get it from a piracy website.

Your snark might make you feel good but if it's diminishing someone else's light, knock that shit off.

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

First Amendment? First Amendment!

https://www.npr.org/2025/10/21/nx-s1-5580738/judge-banned-books-returned-to-military-school-libraries

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your spooky 'net denizen"):
ElleGray@mstdn.social ("elle") wrote:

I'm not sure you can get more marie antoinette than taking away food stamps before thanksgiving while you build a gold and marble dance hall so the other crooks can bribe you over a badly-cooked (argentinian) steak

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your spooky 'net denizen"):
rose_alibi@post.lurk.org ("a libi rose from the dead") wrote:

if you, like me, are in the US and relatively stably employed, consider giving (or giving more) to your local food pantry/rescue/bank on your next paycheck. the shutdown means SNAP benefits won't go out and those places are already stretched thin. give money if you can, they know how to stretch a dollar 10x as far as you do.

Boosted by ChrisWere@toot.wales ("Chris Werewolf ⁂🐧🌱☕ 🎃💀🕸🐺"):
rosie_108@toot.wales wrote:

I am fully 36 years old and almost 20 years into a professional career and a man at work just sent me an email beginning with "Afternoon young lady" 😐

baldur@toot.cafe ("Baldur Bjarnason") wrote:

So this interview with Paulina Borsook, who wrote the book Cyberselfish 25 years ago, is quite interesting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL-kwZdkiOA

If she gets her book into print again then it's definitely going on my to-read list.

Mastodon wrote:

The Return of the #Plushtodon! (at the end of November, anyway...)

https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/10/plushtodon-mini/

Mastodon wrote:

RE: https://mastodon.social/@mellifluousbox/115417851503228073

Public communications (via platforms like Mastodon) are much too important to be in the hands of a handful of commercial Big Tech companies. Our team continues to engage in active discussions on these topics. We aim to help media associations to diversify their distribution by encouraging them to join the Fediverse.

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
MikeDunnAuthor@kolektiva.social wrote:

Today in Labor History October 22, 1790: Chief Little Turtle led the Miami and Chief Blue Jacket led the Shawnee in the defeat of the US in the Harmar Campaign, a punitive expedition of the Northwest Indian War. It was the US’s worst defeat to date, surpassed only by the Battle of Little Bighorn. As a result, Little Turtle became an Indigenous hero. The campaign had come in response to increasing conflicts between the indigenous Shawnee and Miami people in modern Kentucky and Indiana, and European-American settlers who were stealing their land. In the previous 5 years, 1,500 of those settlers had been killed in these conflicts. The goal of the campaign was to destroy indigenous villages and settlements. The campaign failed.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #indigenous #nativeamerican #shawnee #littlebighorn #genocide #racism #landback #miami

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

Today in History: US forces decisively defeated in Battle of Kekionga by Northwestern Confederacy ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwestern%5FConfederacy ) near Maumee River, 1790

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmar%5Fcampaign#Battle%5Fof%5FKekionga

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
joshuapsteele ("Joshua P. Steele") wrote:

What are your #TrumpDemands? Mine are: release Epstein files, abolish ICE, no military on streets, quit murdering ppl, uphold Constitution (due process, power of purse, birthright citiznshp, no 3rd term), quit enriching yourself at our expense, resign if you have dementia. #NoKings @indivisibleteam

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

"With the firing of the Export-Import Bank’s inspector general, the president has sidelined around two dozen of the watchdogs who seek out fraud and mismanagement in federal agencies."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/us/politics/trump-inspectors-general.html

ChrisWere@toot.wales ("Chris Werewolf ⁂🐧🌱☕ 🎃💀🕸🐺") wrote:

Playing some Divinity: Original Sin with @uoou
https://youtube.com/live/fFB0mpaC1nQ

Boosted by bendingoutward:
StefanThinks@beige.party ("Stefantom! of the Opera") wrote:

It was the smurf of times. It was the smurf of times.

bendingoutward wrote:

Well, today we launched a thing at the side hustle. It involves what the world is currently calling "AI," but it also involves something closer to classic AI.

Either way, I promise that we're doing our honest best to not be THAT kind of AI company.

Go chat and have some fun.

https://hoomans.chat

Boosted by taral ("JP Sugarbroad"):
cstross@wandering.shop ("Charlie Stross") wrote:

Well, THIS isn't ominous or anything:

"Bank of England chief warns of ‘worrying echoes’ of 2008 financial crisis"

"Andrew Bailey says a close look is needed at the private credit market after collapse of two big US firms"

(The BoE is about as staid and dull as they can possibly be: this is the equivalent of them setting their beard on fire and running screaming through the marketplace.)

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/oct/21/bank-of-england-chief-warns-worrying-echoes-2008-financial-crisis-tricolor-first-brands

Boosted by taral ("JP Sugarbroad"):
interfluidity@zirk.us ("Steve Randy Waldman") wrote:

“When someone threatens to burn down your house unless you do as you're told, and then they burn your house down anyway, you don't have to keep doing what they told you.” @pluralistic https://pluralistic.net/2025/10/20/post-american-internet/#huawei-with-american-characteristics

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

We already know how to inhibit bias in hiring at our universities. Greg Abbott is doing the opposite.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/10/22/fire-greg-abbott-for-pushing-right-wing-ideologies-instead-of-education/

Boosted by taral ("JP Sugarbroad"):
Andii@mas.to ("Andii אַנדִֽי") wrote:

@yoginho @pluralistic
This bit is worth repeating:
"Any government thinking about the future of geopolitics in an era of Trump's mad king fascism should be thinking about how to flash those tractors – and phones, and games consoles, and medical implants, and ventilators – with free and open software that is under its owner's control. The problem is that every country in the world has signed up to America's ban on jailbreaking."

Boosted by taral ("JP Sugarbroad"):
Andii@mas.to ("Andii אַנדִֽי") wrote:

@pluralistic
#PostAmericanInternet is a hashtag worth circulating.
"A post-American internet starts with abandoning the laws that give US companies – and therefore Trump – a veto over how your technology works"
https://pluralistic.net/2025/10/20/post-american-internet/#huawei-with-american-characteristics
#FOSS #politics

Gargron ("Eugen Rochko") wrote:

Shore at Tarn Hows.

📷 Pentax KX
🎞️ Kodak Portra 400
🔭 Pentax M 50mm/1.7
⚗️ Come Through Lab

#BelieveInFilm #FilmPhotography #AnalogPhotography #35mm #LakeDistrict #TheLakes #Cumbria

baldur@toot.cafe ("Baldur Bjarnason") wrote:

In general, any time you find yourself asking "why does this group of workers in this or that country keep striking, they're already getting a fairer deal than many others?" you're missing a key reason why equitable pay and fair treatment happens in the first place.

Boosted by adam@social.lol ("Adam :prami:"):
simondh@social.lol ("Simon :uss_enterprise: :prami:") wrote:

Hobokense Polders

baldur@toot.cafe ("Baldur Bjarnason") wrote:

Every time there is a planned Women's Strike here in Iceland (see: https://kvennaar.is/english/), the commentary runs along predictably offensive lines

"Women stop working and nothing happens to the economy. Shows you how useless they are, hur hur hur".

No, things pretty much grind to a halt

"Why do women in the Nordic countries strike? These societies are probably the most equal in the world? They must be demanding special treatment"

You're missing a key element of cause and effect there buddy

jwz wrote:

"Sure, I'll watch a movie about some rich dipshits getting eaten by coyotes."

The coyotes are "AI" generated.

We can't even have nice trash.

baldur@toot.cafe ("Baldur Bjarnason") wrote:

I don’t know what it says about me, but I think using Hey for a newsletter is more of a red flag than substack. You can sort of understand why desperate creatives would grasp at substack’s promises, but Hey offers nothing but association with white nationalist hypocrites who don’t follow their own advice on management

(Also, their shit is vastly overrated)