myrmepropagandist

pro-ant propaganda, building electronics, writing sci-fi teaching mathematics & CS. I live in NYC.

tumblr: https://futurebird.tumblr.com/
twitter: someone stole my username there
pronouns: she/her/lady/ma'am/That One/Mrs.
$: 1DS6Qg8UgDws3kJ5qWa24agrVvP8j7iuUU

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npub1ppewzys45ygvxrmaxs9hwwrtt706u2pgcwrllex9dpqyt7wpnthqjaqv2g

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nprofile1qqsqsuhpzg26zyxrpa7ngzmh8p44l8aw9q5v8pllunzkssz9l8qe4mspz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsef6yur

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relay.damus.io

nos.lol

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npub1ppewzys45ygvxrmaxs9hwwrtt706u2pgcwrllex9dpqyt7wpnthqjaqv2g

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Last Notes

2024-07-21 21:19:37

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But didn't he have it before?

2024-07-14 15:53:50

That time my dad said "wood doesn't grow on trees!" because I was wasting the scrap wood in the basement workshop.
It was over 20 years ago, but do I keep bringing it up?
You Bet!

2024-07-09 17:06:02

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I have never seen this man in my life.

2024-07-08 11:04:23

After visiting my folks in western PA, I think I will go canvass in August.
The information environment is totally broken out there. And really nearly everywhere.
They don't really know how bad it is at all.

2024-07-06 11:21:31

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When we talk about repeating the atrocities and mistakes of the past there is no more parallel way than any attempt to “purify the blood of the country” through a systematic removal of noncitizens. Such a project would also offer ample opportunities to disappear and subjugate inconvenient “citizens” — citizenship being a mailable thing, one that could be redefined to require loyalty to the overall cause.
But again the US depends on the labor of noncitizens to function— so could it happen? 2/2

2024-07-06 11:17:13

Under a Trump presidency how likely is mass deportation? Mass deportation is a form of mass violence— but it would also be highly disruptive and destructive to the economy and the fortunes and labor forces of quite a few millionaires and billionaires— because of that latter hard economic fact I’ve always considered it unlikely that a Trump administration would ever follow through on such a promise— no matter how much his base brays for it.
And yet it seems naive not to take seriously.
1/

2024-07-03 13:03:43

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For my husband it's ordering drinks. He told me about the sheer terror of:
1. Not being able to tell what gender drinks were.
2. Being attracted to drinks that were "for women"
3. Ordering whisky on ice because that was the one thing he knew wouldn't be "incorrect" and hating it.
Now he drinks boba and laughs about it.
But why did this world have to stress out this kind wonderful man over something so ... pointless? He was afraid to sip my martini. Why do we do this to each other??

2024-07-03 12:37:53

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I fully expected one of the more extroverted and popular girls to notice these tiny little hairs on my chin, and whip up her followers into a chorus of jeering that would never end.
I assumed that such an event would have no recourse from adults. No, it'd be deserved.
So, I spent hours with tweezers fighting the hairs.
It's almost funny... but really it's not something that should have happened, it was a sign of greater things that are broken.
3/

2024-07-03 12:35:01

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I'm speaking from some experience. Failing to be feminine correctly used to freak me out.
Just as an example: like most humans I have hairs on my chin, discovering these hairs as a teen filled me with fear and revulsion that had little to do with anything rational. That was because I'd experienced the way that kids could isolate and jeer at someone who didn't do gender correctly.
And I had no idea what might trigger that kind of bullying and ostracization. 2/

2024-07-03 12:30:22

Maybe we need to make some space to have conversations about the way that rigid gender expectations can hurt people. I'm not talking about trans people, exclusively (in fact the trans people I know are among the most sophisticated when it comes to processing these kinds of events and emotions)
No, where I see a lot of unprocessed trauma flailing around putting everyone in a bad way is from cis people who have unexamined psychological harm due to their failure to conform to some gender norm. 1/

2024-07-02 14:48:38

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I sometimes say "It's against my religion to view advertisements from people I do not know personally." And this is mostly a joke. Except, when I think about how important it is to me, and the positive impact it has had on my life... maybe it isn't a joke.

2024-07-01 13:38:31

I feel like I'm going crazy can anyone tell me if this is a real creature? I suspect this is an AI generated image as it's breaking my brain.
Curvature of the body segments suggest the head is on the right, but the shield like segment seems like it could be a head. There are 8 legs/ antennae on the upper side, but 10 on the lower side but ... isopods have 14 legs and two antennae.
WHAT IS THIS
feel like I'm having a stroke looking at this.
update: it's a water isopod
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asellus_aquaticus
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/112/711/027/307/588/809/original/1dd78b4fa90d66e5.png

2024-06-29 12:59:28

In Oklahoma they are passing a law to mandate a Bible be in every classroom.
I don't have as much of an issue with this as I do with hanging the (Protestant Evangelical) ten commandments on the wall. The Bible, like many other religious texts is an important book...
Just one little question:
Which Bible?
Ya'll say "The Bible" like you have a Pope and there is only one. That's not true. So... which one?
If you don't know then maybe you are not qualified to make such mandates.

2024-06-24 23:21:42

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I don't think it's lazy. It's a fundamental misunderstanding of what people are looking from a political party.
A friend had a big party to celebrate her US citizenship years back and I told her all about voting in NYC. "you should just register as a Democrat, the races that count are the primaries, if you want to have any impact."
"When are the meetings?"
"That ... what?"
"The meetings if you are in the Democratic party. To discuss things and plan."

2024-06-24 13:48:50

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Why not prove me wrong about this cynicism I have for Democrats. Unleash the beast!
Or, hope that we'll have just enough to get by without the wheels falling off ... why do I think it will be the latter?

2024-06-24 13:47:44

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Democrats have millions and millions of people who do not all love them, but who will probably vote for them in a state of high alarm but I have not seen much effort to harness that energy.
This was something that Obama did extremely well. Did.
Darkly, I think that was because the Democratic party, doesn't really want to unleash this kind of energy since it's very hard to control people once they are organized.
Because the point of organizing is that the people take back the control.

2024-06-24 13:44:50

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My personal project has been checking that people I know personally are registered to vote. Second to that reinforcing my involvement in local community groups since, if things get bad we will need those networks. In the early days of the pandemic we created some good networks to do things like distribute food, and assist older people who live alone. That's dropped off a bit, and it needs to be revived.
But shouldn't there be something coming from Democrats?

2024-06-24 13:42:25

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But, if you do follow all of this stuff you are probably, like me, on the verge of dissolving into a cloud of nervous particles.
How do we harness that nervous energy? The right has excelled at harnessing angry and fearful energy as of late. Their "well-informed" base is pouring their energy into two things:
1. Making the election close enough to fight over it.
2. Getting ready to fight over it.
They do not need to win, to 'win' just be close enough for doubt.

2024-06-24 13:38:16

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For example: If Trump is elected, then at least two Supreme court Justices in their 70s will feel free to retire.
If they retire under Trump they would be replaced by more conservative justices in their 40s.
If there are younger conservative justices on the court then, for the next 40 years, every attempt to address climate change, human rights, everything will be obstructed and dismantled.
You have to chain events together before it comes down to material consequences.

2024-06-24 13:33:31

At first it is hard to believe that most people don't pay much attention to politics. Most people don't know what "project 24" is or the significance of the phrase "obstructing an official procedure" (maybe you are such a person) --but, when I think about how tense, nervous and occasionally helpless political news makes me feel I totally get it. Also, a lot of this stuff is boring and kind of technical.

2024-06-24 11:13:07

"Trump could have saved lives by setting a better example during the early days of COVID."
This is true. But doing things like wearing a mask, being supportive of the public health education initiatives was not free for Trump it would have cost him politically. These actions would not win him acclaim with people like me (since to me it's "just doing your damn job") but they would have made him less popular with some of his base.
So he didn't do it.

2024-06-23 14:14:20

Trump's "Migrant Fight League"
Trump has repeated this story 3 times. The point: Migrants* are so dangerous and vicious they could beat everyone in the UFC. It is wildly dehumanizing.
(The word "Migrant" is used now instead of "illegals." "Migrant" describes the work people do, there are *documented* migrants. One step closer to it being *openly* about race and nothing else.)
I think his followers would have enjoyed it more, if he'd said the UFC fighters would win. They would have cheered.
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/112/665/857/396/604/343/original/ffb810ae6d3997f4.png

2024-06-23 13:22:51

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That's what makes reading all of the things people were saying about them so funny. You're scared of Quakers? Really? What are they going to do to you? Insist everyone sit in a circle and calmly debate the issue with equal talking time then reach a peaceable resolution?
Well, on second thought... maybe that's exactly what they were scared of.

2024-06-23 12:36:08

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There is a really funny account of Quakers showing up in NYC and everyone is terrified of them. The Quakers are coming on a boat and the great and good of NYC (New Amsterdaam) are particularly concerned they might show up and ... start quaking.
... And then to Governor's horror this is exactly what happens. (though the account might be something of a screed, it's pretty wild, so IDK if it happened like that)
But the quaking had power, hence I say bring it back.

2024-06-23 12:32:44

The Quakers don't quake anymore and maybe they should bring back the quaking I think.

2024-06-23 05:40:23

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I was really scared during those early days. Being in NYC. All the schools closed. Horrible zoom classes with my linear algebra class. I tried to make things feel normal for my students but I didn't feel normal at all.
I'd go for walks at 1am when the Bronx streets were empty and the ambulances kept passing with their lights on but sirens off since there were so many sirens from ambulances it was freaking everyone out.
I HATED it.

2024-06-23 04:21:26

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I mean what I really think it is... is this:
The things we had to do to stay safe before there was a vaccine sucked and it was scary and people resent being told what to do and feeling scared.
And resent that to survive they are reminded that we need to help each other, listen to nerds some of the time. Sit with uncertainty.
I guess there are a lot of people who wish we could have just ignored it and let far far far more people die. We are ignoring it now ... but post vaccine.

2024-06-23 04:18:30

I understand the alternate reality about the last election. But I don't understand the alternate reality about COVID. That's the most wild thing about it.
Is it that COVID isn't really a deadly infectious disease?
Or was it made in a lab?
Or is it deadly, but the vaccine isn't real?
Or did the vaccine cause the disease?
Or is the vaccine ... mind control? IDK?
There isn't really a cohesive story so it ought to be very awkward for any politician to claim to be a champion of this theory.

2024-06-22 10:37:07

I'm gettin a geode so I can take photos of ants exploring a geode. This will be a fun project.

2024-06-21 13:30:54

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If you want your youTube video to do numbers reframe it as a list. Especially a “top ten list” people love lists and the commandments are popular for this same reason. They tempt us with the idea that religion and morality can be distilled into something easy: Ten simple steps to be a good person. Top ten way to go right to hell. Five easy steps to know you have done what is right.
It is the sin of sloth that tempts us here. To cite another popular religious listicle

2024-06-21 13:01:43

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It’s disorienting and ominous, from this perspective to hear so many people “condemning the ten commandments” (of course that isn’t what’s happening— this is about religious liberty) but that isn’t how it’s being played. If you don’t want to hang the commandments in every classroom you must be against the values they represent. It’s all very 1990s— thing is those little towns have changed.
The churches have been replaced with prosperity gospel franchise operations. Mega churches.

2024-06-21 12:55:47

“they are attacking the ten commandments”
Listen I know this is hard to relate to if you live in a place where everyone isn’t going to the same 8 different Christian churches in a town with a population of less than 80,000 but this is what the little town where my mom grew up in PA was like. Churches are the social fabric— a “different religion” means someone is Catholic or goes to one of the three Black churches.
This commandments in the schools thing is supposed to stirred up an old wound.

2024-06-21 12:41:19

If he's "gone crazy" and is practically "giving these mattresses away" it seems wrong to me to take advantage of Mr. Eddie in his moment of disorientation just to get a deal... What do you think?

2024-06-19 23:57:31

Is this a creepy idea for a school assignment or a cool idea?
Make Your Own Doomsday Library
You are going to live in space, or in a bunker and you will only have the materials you can assemble on a 1GB hard drive. Make a list of the books and materials you would bring and assemble your emergency library.
Optional: Create a device for reading your library that will last as long as possible.
It's an interesting exercise and might even be useful.

2024-06-19 23:26:13

Sometimes I think about the interesting mineral formations & fossils human manufactured items will become. What will happen to concrete and rebar if it isn't tuned to soil? Will landfills form deposits of their own strange oils and gasses? Will plastic fossilize into amber like formations?
Even bricks could become interesting finds for the minds of the future ... if there is anyone there to admire them.
What if plastic amber was a luxury jewel?

2024-06-19 14:03:45

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I'm very unhappy that we don't have quote boots here. It makes threads more muddled and insular. I think the reasons often given for not having it feel like either calling a bug a feature-- or worse it feels like calling everyone who uses and likes them irresponsible, lazy.
I dislike that to discuss art or posts I admire I must either copy the material (with attribution of course, but that's not as effective) or I leave a comment that clutters *their* thread.

2024-06-19 12:10:52

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I don't agree with this. It's not the tools it's the people, and the degree to which people control their feeds.
You just can't stir up a big audience by being mean to people since there aren't a lot of people here who enjoy it.
I think quotes would only make things better, especially for attribution and splitting threads up. Right now everything ends up in one huge thread with forty people tagged.

2024-06-19 11:46:55

So of ya'll talk about "reply guys" on Mastodon. And yeah that exists, but it's like the least annoying of the gruesome menagerie I used to deal with every day on X social media.
There were:
- Stalker
- Mr. Race Science
- Always Wrong, Thinks He's Right
- Mr. I'm Making This About Politics
- Ms. Gender(ing everyone for no reason)
- Mr. Just Plain Racist
- Mr. I thought I blocked you?
- Mr. "I know where you work"
and on and on

2024-06-18 13:54:08

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Once a problem is solved we aren’t required to look back, to retread those steps, unless in pursuit of efficiency.
We create deterministic systems, seal them in black boxes and build ever more complex systems. And this is done with confidence that within a limited scope deterministic reasoning can work.
Another built-in value in computer science is the process of debugging. (ironically often because maybe we didn’t really understand what was in one of those black boxes)

2024-06-18 13:48:54

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There’s a joke about an engineer, physicist and mathematician who wake up to discover a fire in their wastebasket. The engineer quickly estimates the water needed to put it out, doubling the quantity for good measure and puts out the fire. The physicist calculates the amount needed and uses exactly that: putting out the fire. The mathematician looks at the fire realizing it is a “solved problem,” she falls back asleep.
This “mathematical laziness” is valued in Computer Science as well.

2024-06-18 13:42:48

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Given that computers are ubiquitous and powerful tools part of that education should enable students to understand these tools sufficiently to embark on their redesign— and to, of course, use these tools effectively and responsibly.
Tools are reflections of the aspirations and values of their creators— what values are embodied by the computer? what are its limitations and and advantages?

2024-06-18 13:37:14

The “Liberal Arts” education is a suite of skills, philosophical stances, and information that has been refined over hundreds of years. It includes both technical skills and problem solving techniques— it provides a foundation for more specialized study but also for philosophical reflection. It evolves over time, but isn’t subject whims of the market or fashion.
What is the role of Computer Science in the Platonic ideal of the liberal arts education?

2024-06-17 13:42:05

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I have a less ominous version of this tale. When studying for quals I put all of the theorems in analysis I might need to prove in a little hand-written booklet (about 5x8cm) so I could quiz myself on the subway. These theorems became my whole world. I was staring at a proof when a man, puzzled by my state of concentration, asked “are those… your prayers?”
I was disoriented by the interruption. But on a moment’s swift reflection I could only answer: “Yes.”

2024-06-16 23:00:46

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How could you ... discover anything new? Learn anything?
The whole point of research is when it surprises you. When they user keeps doing something you didn't expect and you don't know why.
How could AI ever ever ever produce this most rare but also most valuable of data?
All it can do is make results that ... look like other results, that say what you expect them to say. How do people keep missing the point of what LLMs can and CAN NOT do?

2024-06-16 14:59:57

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This is why I'm deeply suspicious of anyone who claims to be "planting X trees when you do Y"
These are just indulgences of our modern time.

2024-06-16 14:59:09

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Tree planting schemes have been used as green-washing more often than they have been sincere or effective means to care for the earth. Some "tree planting" operations are just logging companies who sell the rights of their monoculture fields to companies who want to claim they planted trees. The trees are harvested years later.
In NYC we planted millions of trees. But they just sent saplings and let amateurs spam them wherever. Years later they have all died.

2024-06-16 14:56:29

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I don't have a good feeling about this. "Planting trees" is almost a red flag for me at this point since very few people seem to understand how complex and the real investment needed to plant a tree.
You can't just spam saplings and expect a forest. A forest is a living complex system easier to preserve than it is to build.
"planting trees?" Really? What kind? Are they native species? Who will care for them in the critical first years? Who owns the land?

2024-06-16 14:01:52

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These fake pages ought to be blacklisted to oblivion. But I don't see any search engines taking this seriously at all.
Not really in their interest to do that. We need to make more noise about just how terrible these pages are. Fake experts? Fake people? Fake images? Fake facts?
Information pollution & fragmentation of natural networks of human learning. A rot on the body of human knowledge: any search engine that puts such pages at the top should be ashamed.

2024-06-16 13:55:12

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We are expected to take this kind of BS as "harmless gaming of the system." but I find it incredibly distrustful and hurtful. It's making it harder for people to find each other by putting all these fake people in the way. It's LIES the pages are full of half-true nonsense. It's making people know less and filling their heads with false facts.
And this kind of page is what you find FIRST. You won't find @npub1ucc…jxn6 or the formiculture forum.
You find these mendacious SEO ghosts.

2024-06-16 13:48:52

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As far as I can tell these people are phantoms. That's cruel on multiple levels. If I was not familiar with this SEO trick I'd spend time looking for them both (to politely tell them about the errors in their blog... which I would assume they would care about since they love insects.)
But I know what this is now. It's probably the exterminators. To get their page ranks up they need "legitimate" pages... like personal blogs by enthusiasts to link to them.
They are pretending to be *ME*😡😳😩
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/112/626/124/810/566/837/original/aecc61f823ad8d6e.png

2024-06-16 13:44:31

I decided to find out if any progress had been made on the science behind why some ants are attracted to electrical fields. After filtering out exterminators (it's so demoralizing to search for information on creatures you love and find nothing but people who know nothing about them boasting about how they will kill them all) I found what looked like a blog. But, who the heck is "James Brown"? Never heard of the dude. Maybe he could be my new friend if he likes ants enough to blog about them!
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/112/626/115/509/865/205/original/162d9144f985d212.png

2024-06-16 00:20:24

"CheeseBro" sounds like a goofy gangster name from batman.
"Cheesebro" "The Ice Man" and "Mr. Mumbles"

2024-06-14 16:15:54

:: When the ants first developed written language it was natural that they would use pheromones. But, recording scents on paper presents many challenges. Some pheromones are volatile and may dominate an entire page— others decay or change meaning over time. So the ants developed textured patches, little squares each designed to best absorb and preserve a particular pheromone— what was even better was that the specificity of these many textures made it possible to revive old volumes. 1/

2024-06-14 13:44:03

Someone here once told me of how Microsoft had these customers who pay $$$ so a real driving force in the development of Excel are these horrific, unspeakable, monstrosities of spreadsheets critical to the operations of some very serious companies, serious bookkeeping, serious material operations. The elderich horror spreadsheets are decades old, have 100,000s of rows, spaghetti code formulas— Microsoft always checks updates will not harm them. IDK. if it was true: but it *felt* true.

2024-06-14 12:53:23

A student asked me “If I really wanted to do something about climate change & all this injustice do you think I should just try to become a billionaire so I’d have real power? Or should I be a judge so I can make the big decisions? or president? Who has the most power? who can fix it?”
me: Listen if I knew the answer to all that I would tell you. I think it matters what you are good at? What you think you can do well.
student: whatever it is I need to do well I will learn it.

2024-06-14 12:29:49

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Bees are fuzzy sky ants.

2024-06-14 12:24:35

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The bumblebees adore this plant so I think we must have a colony of bumblebees in our courtyard— so many have gathered. They are so frisky and active— wrestling with each blossom— I do wonder if they make things more difficult for themselves with all the hymenopteran fussing.
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/112/614/475/383/852/309/original/a095f55ee21a8436.mp4

2024-06-13 18:40:21

If you see a flower covered in bees for the love of god SMELL IT. If you see this one, Hydrangea quercifolia— get a good huff it’s awesome.
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/112/610/296/677/075/215/original/831594db797a7ab7.png

2024-06-12 16:14:33

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He thought he was buying something that was making him safer from random violence— data don’t support this— but the lies are thick and it’s tempting to think of yourself as an action hero. This is sad. The gun industry and the cultural complex that supports it lied to him; got him killed.

2024-06-12 16:03:13

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Every person who carries a gun thinks this wouldn’t ever be them! (If they didn’t think that they wouldn’t carry the gun)
They will 2nd guess his every decision, from pulling the gun to how he held it, to probably not being willing to use it once the guy grabbed it. None of this matters. Everyone else on that damn bus is traumatized, could have been dead for this “right” —the guns are only as safe as the most clueless person who has one. Everyone must pay. How is that fair.

2024-06-12 15:47:35

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From the article:
Grier was “engaging with passengers” when he got into a fight with one of them, a male, who pulled a gun, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
“Grier took the gun from the passenger and began threatening passengers with it,”

2024-06-12 14:30:13

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Yay you’re here!

2024-06-11 13:37:28

Artists: if you are doing a commission how do you feel about getting a collage of images from your customer suggestive of the style and poses they want? I always worry about being too controlling or demanding. And I have ambitions of making completing the commission rewarding real creative work for any artists I work with. I’m taking about the world of small commissions in the $100-$300 range where you might get one revision— probably 4 hours of work tops.
What makes a commission enjoyable?

2024-06-10 14:07:05

Anyone have any HS level CS (python or java) project ideas that deal with the Johnson Solids (these are the extended universe fan fic on the Platonic Solids: convex polytopes where every face is a regular polygon— also there are rules to exclude just adding layers of repeated triangles)
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/112/592/236/385/045/477/original/803cafef971f42ce.png

2024-06-10 04:29:20

Story Concept: A secret society of paleontologists and archeologists who make a pact that when each of them dies the others will go to wild lengths to stage burial circumstances most likely to be preserved, even fossilized to confound the intelligent life of the far future. This includes weird burial objects, suggestive poses, etc.
They make the pact when young & silly, but as they grow old and carry it out it becomes a much more serious & momentous thing. About keeping promises & friendship.

2024-06-09 15:18:15

There is nothing a single person has ever ever ever ever done or will ever ever ever ever do in all of time and space that merits paying them 56 billion dollars—
Madness. Obscenity. Ludicracy

2024-06-08 14:49:51

Im off to the races!! Also? I met this moth. Apantesis phalerata.
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/112/581/076/979/111/143/original/9937483e7507f348.png
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/112/581/078/233/214/782/original/0d0c0db8ca8a5c9a.png

2024-06-08 12:22:04

“During Jim Crow, the Black family was together,” Donalds explained to the crowd.
Not worthy of freedom; he cannot handle it. Donalds believes this about himself. Without a boot on his neck he would be feral. I will take his word on that. But, he should not presume to speak for all black people.
In our history Black institutions, Black organizations were dismantled & burned. Churches burned. Neighborhoods burned. The less perceptive among us, like Donalds, roped in to cheer it on.

2024-06-08 01:59:55

Via toothedgoose on tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/futurebird/752672809471377408/image-description-two-pie-charts-divided-into?source=share
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/112/578/051/006/262/472/original/172b25ca738b5688.png

2024-06-06 04:49:57

I have never been more disappointed by a spelling error:
https://dp.la/item/9383481d7c3b1a327cbdf34ba6255d14

2024-06-05 13:13:47

I’m crying on the bus (again) because some middle school kids decided that for their “design challenge” they’d envision an emergency food delivery drone that could fly high enough and fast enough that no one could shoot it down. And no one asked why someone would want to shoot down a food delivery drone— or why you couldn’t just drive a truck.

2024-06-05 00:22:07

They don't have to nominate him.
They have a choice. There could be emergency meetings scrambling, an effort to save face.
This is a choice and it's a bad one except as a cynical and increasingly desperate play for power.

2024-06-03 12:36:20

Have you ever stopped listening to or trusting a person who posts information in media, or online because of a "red flag" ?
That is are there certain topics, habits, actions etc. that instantly decrease your trust in a person you might have otherwise listened to on a podcast, article, or video?
Are there any "green flags" that build trust?

2024-06-03 01:40:22

"There are people on a parallel way. We do not
see them often, or even think of them often,
but it is precious to us that they are sharing
the world."
- Smoke Signals by William Stafford
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/112/549/661/196/837/717/original/dc90cc5758f59475.png

2024-06-02 03:47:57

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This all reminds me of an excellent blog post I read about an army ant raid (Neivamyrmex nigrescens) passing a nest of the much larger Novomessor cockerelli-- Any army ant that got to close had to be killed, and quickly so she couldn't alert the column to the location of the nest.
There are a lot of amazing posts on this blog about ants with excellent photos:
https://tightloop.com/blog/2020/12/29/neivamyrmex-nigrescens-army-ant/
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/112/544/525/457/489/830/original/49eee99bf4b1558c.png

2024-06-02 03:38:32

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I guess that's another reason why ants are so daunting for their neighbors. You might meet a tiny one, a harmless one, but she thinks of herself as part of a much larger and more powerful organism and is scouting and making plans for you accordingly.

2024-06-02 03:37:08

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She is really really desperate to find a way in to where she knows simple herbivores (yummy, to her) giant bugs live.
I almost want to let her in to see what she'd do.
But instead I've returned her to her nest. She's running around getting all her sisters excited. I'd better freeze one of the "sauropods" and feed them... this is getting... chaotic.

2024-06-02 03:35:21

The sheer ambition of this tiny Camponotus discolor minor who I followed after she escaped... to the enclosure of the dubias. They are 30 times her size. She is alone, can't get back to her nest. Nonetheless she tries to chew her way into the the dubia enclosure, biting the metal screen. So she can "get" them.
I've said it would be like if a person hung around a cattle yard with a knife in one hand. a fork in the other licking their chops... but it's more like doing that for IDK some sauropods?

2024-06-01 14:28:38

I've largely dismissed the strain of AI alarmism based on the notion the a computer will be so smart that the danger it poses to humanity is outsmarting us.
There are real dangers in AI, most of them relate to people using these technologies in improper ways due to having a poor understanding of what they really are... and most important the exploitation & degradation of the human body of knowledge creativity represented by publicly available digital information. 1/

2024-05-31 21:11:58

When I bought this titanium teapot as a gift to myself for finding a new job years ago I really felt bad about how much it cost— but I’ve decided it’s, in a way the ideal sort of expensive treat: absurdly durable, timeless, utilitarian, strange.
This one is going in my will. I hope someone takes it with them to space someday. (that is my new heirloom benchmark: how likely is this to be in the 1 ton allowance for those moving to the dyson swarm never to set foot on earth again?)
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/112/537/280/833/254/352/original/ce6fe6c387ed490e.png

2024-05-31 15:39:16

I’m still not at all clear why “box and whisker” plots have nothing to do with cats.

2024-05-31 12:12:26

The verdict may not matter to Trump's base, but I do think there is a group of people it matters to who are being overlooked: the people who were already likely to vote for Biden.
A Trump acquittal would have sapped trust in legal systems and government further. It would fueled apathy. Hopelessness and apathy can reelect Trump.

2024-05-30 23:22:23

Someone in my building is BLASTING "New York New York"
Which is traditionally done after yankee games if they win in our building.
LOL.

2024-05-30 00:05:57

Is there a good resource or book for learning about some of the details of how webservers work?
For example if I want an IP address on a intranet to be a webpage that people on that intranet can go to... how would I set that up from scratch. Let's say I have a machine with a static IP on the local net... (but what I really also need to understand is how a static IP is established locally, a DNS?)
Maybe the dream book or resource doesn't exist. But I ask anyway.
(it's macs if that matters)

2024-05-29 23:55:00

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Oh. I'm shocked.

2024-05-29 23:45:14

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My grandmother had a sixth grade education. I suspect if you gave her an IQ test she wouldn’t have scored as high as I could— or my mother for that matter— each generation in our family having more education— in fact she was without a doubt more intelligent than I am accomplished things I can hardly imagine. IQ measures education and exposure to I Q tests. Unless my family is mysteriously growing smarter over the generations. (unlikely)

2024-05-29 14:12:12

It’s not that expensive to have your own labels made to replace those in your clothes so you have your own secret bespoke brand.
(it’s a remarkable how much this simple detail makes me happy.)
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/112/524/305/390/373/779/original/cb63963c9c3305db.png

2024-05-28 13:55:51

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Some day soon a child will ask “what is the smallest ant in the world?” and discover that, unless they want to become an expert they simply can’t know.
This is the death of polymaths— a hurdle for interdisciplinary learning— and a return to a kind of human gatekeeping for real information: you best ask someone qualified if you are not expert enough to tell on your own. (this was already true for contentious topics, but now it will be everything)

2024-05-28 13:51:55

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Once you could count on some things posted online probably being true because, well, why would anyone bother to put out misinformation about a topic so obscure or uncontroversial? now the simple fact that someone might want to know a bit of information makes it worth faking if it can get their eyeballs on an ad— or improve the search ranking for some company. The harmless act of *being curious* about the world causes misinformation to spring to life. We have made wanting to learn destructive.

2024-05-28 13:38:43

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The funny results: like the ones telling you to cook with glue hide the fact that some portion of these attempts at impersonating information are not easy to detect. For every obviously bad result there are others going unnoticed since they were plausible enough to pass.
And those flawed results are being regurgitated and reprocessed by further AIs spreading the rot and half truths deeper and deeper into the body of human knowledge. Like scratching an infected wound.
2/2

2024-05-28 13:33:30

These AI SEO spam operations have used lists of common searches to ensure that their pages come up first in searches in the “long fat tail” the kind of search where it used to be about 50/50 if you’d find a page addressing your needs. But, it used to be *if* you found something like “The top 15 smallest ants in the world” it wouldn’t be nonsense. It’d either exist and be the work of another person who cared OR you found nothing. Not so now! I can’t possibly over-stress how bad this is! 1/

2024-05-27 07:03:21

(via. Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/aww/comments/hnknnw/now_its_our_cone_of_shame/)
"Now it's OUR cone of shame."
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/112/511/294/472/708/865/original/1102b161407937d4.png

2024-05-26 22:00:59

"It's not just a bug, it's a creature."

2024-05-26 19:27:22

This timelapse of a fungus kept by leafcutter ants is remarkable. Thousands of ants monitoring humidity, the nutrition needs of the fungus, removing unwanted growths, keeping their brood and harvesting food. Inside: the queen. Totally inclosed in a living home. The walls are food, a place for her eggs, they slowly renew, tended by her daughters.
As every living organism maintains itself, but on a strange macro-scale. These are your cells shedding and being replaced.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3AZffDtOlw

2024-05-26 14:54:06

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Voting strategically does not make you a bad leftist, or a "shit lib" ... it does not mean you have given permission to the state to do anything.
Equally important don't think that voting is going to solve everything. (or even solve much) Don't see yourself as just a "voter" or a "consumer" there are other ways to shape the world around you.

2024-05-26 14:48:12

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This whole "voting for Biden is approving genocide" line is insidious since many Americans don't pay enough attention for foreign policy. They feel insecure about how little they know, if they are conscientious people willing to (rightly) question US military policy. They think: "Maybe the right move is to not be a part of it."
It would *feel* better to not be a part of it. But, that is all. It feels better.
Use every lever of power you can reach. Abdicate nothing.

2024-05-26 14:22:41

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No it's not an "approval of genocide" nor is it an approval of anything else any canidate represents since even if only a few thousand voted and everyone else did as you would: abstaining--
***the election would still be valid under the current laws***
We do not have a law that says that "if too few people vote the state is no longer valid"
You can say it feels like that *should* be true but it's just a feeling. It's literally not how it works.

2024-05-26 14:08:36

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I think it is weird how some people take see voting as reflection of who they are. As identity. Confusing voting (which I see as my opportunity to give the behemoth a kick that may or may not send it moving in a better direction or at least steer it away from me and my friends) with swearing allegiance. Pledging fealty.
They act as if voting for someone is saying you love them, agree with everything they do forever, will marry them & kiss them.
I don't get it.

2024-05-26 14:00:10

Who is the most morally compromised of our justices? If you think it is a tie you may vote for more than one.
If you think one or more of them has vastly outstripped the others in failing to live up to their office, limit your vote to the greatest failures.

2024-05-26 12:20:41

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"Anarchists"
Is a big umbrella of a word wherein you can find very different philosophies. At the moment the term seems to be used more by those who sincerely support the idea of popular distributed power. People skeptical of concentrations of power, especially the state, but not limited to the state.