← Feed

Posts

• Post #4480458

  Gravitational wave astronomy is becoming a mature science. https://youtu.be/I07RBedXRYA

• Post #4289687

  It’s interesting to me that I’ve seen several British takes on the Revolutionary War/American War of Independence recently. Some of them are far more well-informed than others (and more informed than me). Some of them seem more interested in ax-grinding sessions because they’re sick of the US and many Americans (I sympathize). Some of the things I’ve learned (that is, stuff I didn’t know before): The Irish were inspired by the war to demand (and gain) more autonomy Many folks in Britain suppor...

• Post #4240202

  RE: https://mastodon.me.uk/@ChrisMayLA6/116998821865772601 Reminder: It is mathematically impossible to prevent “hallucinations” because the difference between “hallucinations” and factual output is only perceptible by humans. At root, with LLMs, everything is an “hallucination”.

• Post #4240201

  Interesting stuff. https://youtu.be/GqBzVuW2cnM

• Post #4240200

  RE: https://aus.social/@DenisCOVIDinfoguy/117006106638211765 "I know, lets cut the CDC program that tracks Cyclosporiasis!" Said fucking fuckwits elected by fuckwits. #trumporrhea

• Post #4240199

  I don’t remember having a waggly finger drug talk with our kids. I think we asked them to talk to us first? I think somehow our young millennials knew that we knew what we were talking about from experience. As best I can tell from their adult statements now and their behavior, they have never been interested in drugs. Quite the opposite. Was reminded of this when this clip came across my feed. https://youtube.com/shorts/ld1DLbbCpQs

• Post #4206033

  Vaccines are awesome. I try to get as many as are applicable to me. So this is pretty cool: In addition to its intended purpose, evidence has been growing that the shingles vaccine actually reduces the risk of dementia. Even more reason to be glad that my wife and I are vaccinated for shingles. #vaccines #shingles #shinglesvaccine #dementia https://youtu.be/tqnBeuWoOEk

• Post #4019765

  DuckDuckGo has settings to turn off the standard shove-ai-down-your-throat default. Which is... good? It would be better if shoving "ai" down your throat wasn't their default. But those settings? They reset every couple of days. Save them all you want. DuckDuckGo will reset your "ai" preferences to their intrusive shove-ai defaults. Because everyone wants and loves as much "ai" as they can get - right? All "ai" all the time no matter what? Obviously...

• Post #4019454

  I often wish that ignorance, bigotry, and cruelty weren't so popular in my country. I don't know what else to do about it but fuck - I'm sick of it.

• Post #3812090

  Widespread “AI” infatuation has tinged every encounter with tech to the degree that I can’t get excited about anything new. Which is new for me.

• Post #2384235

  When the price of gas goes down a bit, when it’s been awhile since the last white protestor was murdered - the conservative-esque vibe voters who all think of themselves as white (regardless of their family history) will forget that they were outraged. This is part of why our memory and awareness is so precious.

• Post #2346068

  Is it possible that purportedly progressive/liberal white people who only inconsistently vote to keep Republicans out of office will ever accept their responsibility and change the story of their own unique/heroic victimhood to the exclusion of anyone else that lives so persistently and narcissistically in their own minds? Is it possible for the relatively privileged to acknowledge the existence of those less privileged? Are they capable of perceiving the moral imperative to act in service of t...

• Post #2346064

  Every single time over the last 30 years that someone posted, wrote in an op ed, or otherwise told us all to vote blue: Because of SCOTUSTo protect our welfare institutions To protect our anti corruption institutions To protect our civil rights To protect our struggling democracy They were 100% right and everyone who mocked them for it was 100% wrong. THIS is the overwhelming lesson of last 100 years but it takes at least an ounce of wisdom to notice that.

• Post #2346063

  About 1/4 of white Americans never vote despite being able to. About 1/3 of white Americans only vote in POTUS elections despite being able to vote in all elections. 1/4 - 1/3 of white Americans vote in every election. About 3/5 of white Americans vote for white supremacy (intentionally or not) whenever they vote. These are now the people who still have any official electoral power.

• Post #2346062

  Don’t despair, organize! https://youtu.be/iGExgRL3w1k

• Post #2346060

  Gerrymandering We’re now trying to compensate for Republican gerrymandering with Democratic gerrymandering. Even the Voting Rights Act was a deviation from mathematically ideal districts (at least in principle) for the beneficial and just cause of making majority minority districts within a deeply racist context. These strategies are hard to maintain because, in the minds of people removed from their origins, the justification can be hard to follow. Why? Because they are strategies that make...

• Post #2057029

  Imagine a US national referendum like this: Shall US citizens retain any right to vote on candidates or legislation? Yes No How many fully enfranchised, eligible voters would bother to vote on the referendum?

• Post #1941461

  RE: https://mastodon.social/@mattsheffield/116501011263095065 This is well worth a read if you’re interested in philosophy of mind.

• Post #1472972

  There’s a myth that markets are smart. It’s the same myth that talks about the wisdom of crowds. Anyway, no. Markets and crowds are dumb. People just party while they can and pretend they’re geniuses. https://youtube.com/shorts/pR8_GuoyXyE

• Post #1032349

  Reminder: All of this shitstorm was easily avoidable if more of the enfranchised voters in the US had voted for Harris. Yes, elected and candidate Democrats and the DNC make loads of mistakes and terrible decisions. But eligible voters have to at least participate in pulling their own heads out of their own asses. Stop making excuses for bad behavior.

• Post #996119

  I accidentally misgendered someone. They snidely called me, “bro” and I snidely called them, “bro” right back. I hadn’t even looked at their username. Just automatically reflected the insult. I apologized once they pointed it out. I wouldn’t have responded that way if I’d stopped to even notice their name. (I notice names secondarily, regardless of gender.) I still would have responded snidely but it would have been correctly gendered snideness.

• Post #996117

  Yup. https://youtube.com/shorts/sIDPgQWboD8

• Post #996115

  “Someone should fix this” == I think the world is comprehensively administered by competent authorities. This is a form of authoritarianism. Or, at least, it is the acceptance of the basic premises of authoritarianism. It’s a comforting pov even when you’re enraged at the people you think are in control. Because at least someone is in control. It’s the same reason vast, diabolical conspiracy theories are comforting - at least some group of people is competent enough to be evil geniuses. Real...

• Post #979325

  One of the lessons I learned from going back to school for CS was to be suspicious of code that worked as intended the first time. Writing unit tests before or concurrently was critical to discovering ways the code might fail and in the process understand how the program was operating. The meta goal became to automatically distrust things that worked without anyone knowing why. Why? Because if you don’t know why it worked before you have no idea if it will continue working. All of the above...

• Post #609418

  Looking sideways at cloud storage and SSD. Very cool to see @adapalmer show up in my yt feed. https://youtube.com/shorts/eVqgRfRFsMc?si=HHX31rEK5bjiq9jb

• Post #589692

  RE: https://masto.ai/@GhostOnTheHalfShell/116167021976556965 This. There are Americans, usually in urban areas, who are blissfully ignorant of the cultish crazies in our country. They act and speak as if this group is a dwindling, ineffectual, minority. At most, one of those is true. Meanwhile, because of their ignorance, they consistently refuse to accept the danger. This has been going on for decades. And I’m tired of the negligent ignorance.

• Post #482277

  But at least we didn’t elect the Black lady who would never have done any of this shit! Phew! Dodged a bullet there, didn’t we? Plus, we totally taught Democrats a lesson. They’re like a completely different party. They definitely learned their lesson! The only down side is that it’s boring being so right so consistently. Oh well, time to start sabotaging any and all pragmatic efforts to combat fascism while at the same pretending to be the only real anti-fascists around. Our work is neve...

• Post #341368

  RE: https://mastodon.social/@tusk81/116098212895696058 When I told people in 2024 that you can’t be antifascist if you’re more interested in abstract political ideals than harms against the most vulnerable - this is what I was talking about.