@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.socialWeekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
The poles are cold and dark half the year, so you might think these areas were low productivity. Nope. These are some of the highest productivity and efficient food webs on the planet, which is why whales will travel half the globe to feed here. When sunlight returns in spring, long days and nutrients drive intense blooms. There was a question of nutrient sources…
@pre@boing.worldNot sure what the difference between a panel and a"fireside chat" is. There is no fire.
But here's a fireside chat on what nostr is.
Nostr is freedom for Identity. Accounts without hosts. Publishing without publidhers. Censorship resistance without platforms deciding who gets to say what.
It's not a silo in which you can be tapped as the service enshitifies, since it's a protocol with accounts you control, you can't switch clients or relays without loosing social graph or contacts.
Nostr is notes and Other Stuff, what other stuff? the panel is working on an audiobook publishing system with perhaps a required payment and affiliate revenue share. E-commerce, video publishing, zap stream for live video with zap payments.
Onboarding can be tricky with private key management needing to be understood and such a range of options of clients and what relays are. Can we make it easier?
Perhaps by abstracting away the fact it's nostr at all. Devine users don't even know they are using nostr. But this robs users of the understanding they may need to move clients or use the same account for video and notes, say.
Perhaps by making a private messagnger, the panel thinks people are used to using multiple messenger apps. Though I find they hate that, and that's why they refuse to install signal. They feel they don't need it since they already have WhatsApp with a bigger network.
In the end it's education. We have to teach literacy so people can read and write, we have to teach public keys encryption so people can do so securely.
#bitfest #nostr
@jake4480@c.imFinally working a bit more on the post about old Mac Performa games. I started it around this time last year. Takes a bunch of research, etc, is why, I wanna have emulation links, etc. And of course I play each a little. It's a blast, really. If you want me to tag you when I post it, lmk here.. I still have the older post where I'd talked about it and those folks are in, too- but just to be sure I don't miss you. Hope I finish it soon (eventually)😂
@tiotasram@kolektiva.socialRe: discourse about #FediSoWhite
I'm a white man. Was on Twitter throughout #BLM and gained an awful lot of free education from Black folks on there. That was the start of me consciously following diverse folks which is a strategy that's improved my life immensely.
Back on Twitter before the Muskening, there was a lot of diversity. Black Twitter was a thing, and not just first-world (anyone else remember "O jewa ke eng?"). When I went looking for people to follow to diversify my feed, I found them in abundance.
That's why it's so clearly false to me when people claim that the fediverse is secretly diverse, and why anyone making that claim sounds suspect to me. Sure there are a ton of great Black and other POC folks you can find on here, if you look hard. But it's nowhere near the levels of diversity and community that were on Twitter. Which you would know had you been following those people before, so now I have to assume you weren't, and wonder why you feel qualified to make statements about diversity even though you haven't made an effort to engage with diverse voices before?
Also, if you were actually following some of the excellent POC voices on here, you'd know that across different servers and interest groups, almost every group has had a discussion of #FediSoWhite at some point. If all the Black people you follow are independently talking about the lack of community and diversity here, you've either got to believe them or start putting on your clown makeup, and the later is absolutely a choice.
@cdarwin@c.imThere's a reason why most of the people who talk about AI the most are Combat Posters:
Anyone who does not thrive on conflict simply stops bothering to post at some point
-- SE Gyges
https://bsky.app/profile/jmiers230.bsky.social/post/3majnqn2ujk2r
@cowboys@darktundra.xyzWhy the Cowboys' matchup with Commanders is more important than you think https://insidethestar.com/why-the-cowboys-matchup-with-commanders-is-more-important-than-you-think
@hex@kolektiva.socialYou ever go to a party at a house you don't know, then someone talks to you and you're like, "oh hey, who are you?" And they're like, "I live here, you're in my house."
That's the way energy liberals bring to antifascism. Like, we're all super glad you're here. Most of us understand why you're late, and we're just glad you finally made it. But like, you're kind of in our house. You didn't invent this shit, but we've been here for a while.
#USPol
@a_j_millar@fediscience.orgIf you are planning for a ride on the Eurostar trains, 👇 here's why planning is either futile or needs a lot more information than I have... 🤷♂️
👀 Both pictures are the check-in/borders area at Gare du Nord in Paris, October and December this year.
@brewsterkahle@mastodon.archive.orgWhy SUV when you can LSV? (Low Speed Vehicles)
25mph max car! street legal in San Francisco.
Can drive on almost all roads in the city.
This one is not that great, imho (but try it at gocar). I want to see more LSVs. Amsterdam has many, and many types.
all roads w/ 35mph limits or less are ok, almost all roads in SF. Here are all limits on all roads in SF:
@memeorandum@universeodon.comAre You a 'Heritage American'? -- Why some on the right want to know if your ancestors were here during the Civil War (Ali Breland/The Atlantic)
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2025/10/heritage-americans-nativist-right/684472/?gift=BmsU73MbMNDxZ9SjrXPDCVd-Ie1JjjfrhqJSDBajm0U
http://www.memeorandum.com/251007/p107#a251007p107
@mariyadelano@hachyderm.ioI keep thinking what would be an appropriate search results page for a single punctuation mark - and I think I'd expect a dictionary definition? Maybe articles on where and how to use it?
But honestly I kinda just wish Google would tell me "hey, did you search this by mistake?” and not show me any results at all.
There's no search intent here, folks. Why are we pretending that there is?
@PwnieFan@infosec.exchange“the book's thesis: that the AI bubble is driven by monopolists who've conquered their markets and have no more growth potential, who are desperate to convince investors that they can continue to grow by moving into some other sector,”
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/115277162069992407…
@karlauerbach@sfba.socialMy grandmother would always ask every German the question "You knew what was happening, why did you not do something?" The question was about the Nazi concentration and death camps. And it was a valid question.
Today we know about what ICE and DHS are doing, we know our country is going fascist and is trying to create Gulags and concentration camps and the kind of social fear that would be the pride of the East German STASI.
Here's a prime example - California Cit…
@wraithe@mastodon.socialThis is a really good assessment (why people are complaining BlueSky is “mean”), IMO.
It’s also true of Mastodon, for very similar reasons.
If I may mangle a line from “Grosse Pointe Blank”:
“if people are hot in your mentions, you did something to bring them there”
OTOH, BS and Masto have tools to manage that. (though they need improvement)
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.netSeries C, Episode 11 - Moloch
AVON: He liked to think so.
GROSE: [O.O.V.] And why did you come here?
AVON: I wish I knew. [Tarrant, Vila, Chesil, and Doran burst through the door.]
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/311/526 B7B3
@shoppingtonz@mastodon.socialMindustry is fun when *I* play it on my desktop computer and not on my Steam Deck.
I can do so much more...I mean...it's about speed mostly, like just point the mouse here and there and then press a few buttons...you are limited on a handheld if the game is not designed for it.
Mindustry ain't designed for it...
...and then Factorio is?
Why's the world upside down?
#Mindustry
@tiotasram@kolektiva.socialDay 8 (a bit late): Timnit Gebru
Academic authors are authors too, and there are a bunch of people I deeply respect both in my fields and adjacent.
Gebru is someone I have huge respect for because she stood up for her (mild, completely reasonable) principles to the point of losing her job on Google's AI ethics team (since disbanded entirely), and then went ahead and founded an independent research institute to continue doing AI ethics research.
Why was she fired? Because she insisted on publishing her "Stochastic Parrots" paper after it passed Google internal review only to have extra nonstandard scrutiny applied at the last minute. Why did Google want to suppress her paper (which included an academic co-author)? Because it expressed valid criticisms of the large language models fad, and Google was planning to make money off that fad. Personally, I don't think I'd hire an "AI ethics" team only to then try to suppress their publications, and Google seems to now agree, having scrapped the team (during the initial furor, Timnit's boss also effectively quit to support her).
That "Stochastic Parrots" paper? Indeed, it predicts the core underlying problems with large language models that lead to so many of their user-side harms today. You can read it here: #20AuthorsNoMen
@cdarwin@c.imSouth Carolina already ranks 8th nationally in highest maternal mortality rate,
and MAGA extremists are vying to become #1.
Now, for the third time since 2023, MAGA Republicans in South Carolina have introduced
S 323, also known as
The Unborn Child Protection Act.
South Carolina Senate Bill 323 is one of the most extreme pieces of legislation we’ve seen.
It proposes changing the legal definition of the word “person” to include an unborn fetus.
Th…
@tiotasram@kolektiva.socialDay 9: Eniko Fox
Edit: added a store link for Kitsune Tails.
We're back to videogames, and with another author who's on the fediverse: @…
Fox has developed a few games, but the one that I've played and love is Kitsune Tails. It's a sapphic romance take on Super Mario Bros. 3, and (critically for a platformer) it's got very crisp controls and runs smoothly. I think one thing a lot of indie platforms devs struggle with is getting those fundamentals right, because on the technical side they require very challenging things like optimization of your code and extremely careful input handling that go beyond the basic skills necessary to put together a game. From following her on Twitter and now the Fediverse, it's clear that Fox is a deeply competent programmer, and her games reflect that. Beyond the fundamentals, Kitsune Tails has a very sweet plot with a very cool twist in the middle, and without spoilers, that twist made both the levels and gameplay very difficult to design, but Fox rose to that challenge and put together a wonderful game. Particularly past the plot twist (but in subtle ways before it) Fox is able to build beyond SMB3 mechanics in ways that gracefully complement the original, and the movement in the game ends up being difficult but extremely satisfying, with an excellent skill/speed response allowing for both slower, easier approaches that work for a range of players and high-skill extremely-fast options for those who want to push themselves.
There have been plenty of people I follow with indie game projects that are kinda meh in the end, and I'll still boost them without much comment if they're decent. Fox' work is actually amazing, which is why if you've followed me for a while you'll know I tend to mention it periodically, and which is why she makes this list of authors I respect.
You can buy Kitsune Tails here: #20AuthorsNoMen
