@hex@kolektiva.social2026-03-16 10:22:41
On the first day of the #PTSD intensive, we talked about the shooting. I had felt like I was done with that, that it didn't have anything left for me. But there was something still that filled me with rage... that is still confusing and enraging.
It wasn't actually being shot. I wasn't even the possibility of death. I had been prepared to die. I always knew that was possible. It was something else.
I remember Marc Hokoana's face as he pepper sprayed pacifists, smiling and taunting, joyfully hurting people who he knew were refusing to respond. I remember their flags, the kek flag, literally a Nazi battle flag replaced in 4chan colors with the clover 4chan logo instead of the swastika. How many people have been tortured, have died? How much suffering, that these people not only welcomed but celebrated, joyfully participated in.
The cruelty was the point. It was the plan, the plan he posted to Facebook, the same plan as they have always had, of torturing people until someone responds and then murdering them. Inflicting trauma, responding with overwhelming force, showing how "big and strong" they are because they can always escalate.
Try to stop someone from peppers praying people, they shoot you. Shoot back, like Michael Reinoehl, and they send a death squad for you. But we keep standing up, so they keep escalating to the slightest imagined infraction. Now they just murder you for being in a car, for filming at a protest, for existing.
The bar for what justifies murder or torture will continue to move lower until there is no one left, or until they can no longer escalate.
The feeling of helplessness is still not the biggest thing though. It's the joy with which they inflict this on us. That's it. That's the thing.
CW: gun violence, abuse dynamics
https://hexmhell.writeas.com/the-creature-ptss-5-day-1
@cdarwin@c.im2026-03-16 16:23:15
A Swiss canton has suspended its pilot of electronic voting after failing to count 2,048 votes cast in national referendums held on March 8.
Basel-Stadt announced the problem with its e-voting pilot, open to about 10,300 locals living abroad and 30 people with disabilities, last Friday afternoon.
It encouraged participants to deliver a paper vote to the town hall or use a polling station but admitted this would not be possible for many.
By the close of polling on Sunday, its …
@shriramk@mastodon.social2026-04-18 00:51:56
Man, old universities are weird places. Went to attend a talk (featuring linguists and computer scientists debating language models) in a room I hadn't been in before, and it turns out they have a full-ass Flemish tapestry just hanging from the wall.
@Techmeme@techhub.social2026-04-17 19:20:58
In disclosures due to Broadcom CEO Hock Tan's presence on the Meta board, Meta says it paid Broadcom $2.3B in 2025; Tan is leaving the board (Martin Peers/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/briefings/meta-paid-broadcom-2-3-billion-2025…
@ruth_mottram@fediscience.org2026-05-16 05:57:44
The incredible analytical work of John Burn Murdoch @… along with some other colleagues is one of the main reasons I subscribe to the FT. It's rather expensive but absolutely worth it.
https://fediscience.org/@Ruth_Mottram/116582689708855765
Ruth_Mottram - This is a fascinating and beautifully illustrated analysis, exploring convincingly why birth rates are crashing basically everywhere and while there are certain many factors, the smoking gun is actually a smartphone.
So what to do about it? I think I agree with the conclusions, housing and financial support is one element, equality between sexes in household tasks certainly another, but finally, perhaps our job as parents is to inculcate the habit of socialising with others into our kids, especially when they get to the teenage years.
Why birth rates are falling everywhere all at once - a limited 🎁 https://giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/redeem/8bf630d4-6e20-42c7-bb33-e98dd6a01571
@hikingdude@mastodon.social2026-05-16 16:26:36
Here's one more photo from last weekend's hike.
I'm just SOOOO happy that I was out and about last weekend. Today it's rainy and cold and the snow line dropped again. It could indeed be that this photo would now be covered in snow.
But last week, it was just a nice walk up there.
#hiking
@newsie@darktundra.xyz2026-04-17 15:51:23
FAA Scraps Civil and Criminal Penalties for Flying Drones Near ICE Vehicles https://www.404media.co/faa-scraps-civil-and-criminal-penalties-for-flying-drones-near-ice-vehicles/
@cdarwin@c.im2026-03-16 01:54:12
The entire machinery of online discourse around building and creating has been so thoroughly captured by entrepreneurial "logic"
that we've lost the language to describe what it feels like to simply make a thing that helps someone,
give it away, and move on with your life.
I've been feeling this for a while now, and I suspect a lot of folks who have the itch to build feel it too, even if they haven't articulated it.
@ruth_mottram@fediscience.org2026-05-16 05:51:10
This is a fascinating and beautifully illustrated analysis, exploring convincingly why birth rates are crashing basically everywhere and while there are certain many factors, the smoking gun is actually a smartphone.
So what to do about it? I think I agree with the conclusions, housing and financial support is one element, equality between sexes in household tasks certainly another, but finally, perhaps our job as parents is to inculcate the habit of socialising with others into our kids, especially when they get to the teenage years.
Why birth rates are falling everywhere all at once - a limited 🎁 https://giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/redeem/8bf630d4-6e20-42c7-bb33-e98dd6a01571
@cdarwin@c.im2026-03-16 15:49:53
In his first term, Trump appointed a record-setting 54 federal appellate judges.
Circuit judges are nominated by presidents and, if confirmed by the Senate, serve lifetime appointments.
This analysis provides an early look at how those appointments will likely reverberate nationwide in terms of dismantling or failing to uphold environmental laws and policy, legal scholars said.
“Long term, it’s going to set a lot of precedent that pushes the law away from environmental pr…
