@cellfourteen@social.petertoushkov.eu2026-02-12 10:08:27
These books are currently on sale at the Readino Independent eBook shop for £0.99 each. Which is nice, right?
[The store caught my attention because I noticed that the FBReader guy(s) are running it, and that they've recently implemented Readium LCP DRM support in the FBReader app.]
Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition
@v_i_o_l_a@openbiblio.social2026-03-11 11:06:40
"Science Ltd. – Research Enterprise in the Age of Machines"
https://www.routledge.com/Science-Ltd-Research-Enterprise-in-the-Age-of-Machines/Borghini-Severini/p/book/9781041131069
[erscheint (wen…
@PaulWermer@sfba.social2026-03-06 00:08:05
While I mostly agree, it's worth noting that, while "Eighty-five percent of San Francisco is zoned so that it’s illegal to build apartments.", developers are not building them where they are not only allowed, but also approved - because it "doesn't pencil out."
The arguments about homelessness ignore the problem of expecting the market to solve a problem of profit margins.
Urban Truth Collective: Straight Talk About The Joy Of Cities In An Age Of Disi…
@paulwermer@sfba.social2026-03-06 00:08:05
While I mostly agree, it's worth noting that, while "Eighty-five percent of San Francisco is zoned so that it’s illegal to build apartments.", developers are not building them where they are not only allowed, but also approved - because it "doesn't pencil out."
The arguments about homelessness ignore the problem of expecting the market to solve a problem of profit margins.
Urban Truth Collective: Straight Talk About The Joy Of Cities In An Age Of Disi…
@cdarwin@c.im2026-02-01 21:42:03
Alexander Venner,
currently studying at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy,
picked his way by hand through the data collected by a now-retired NASA space-based telescope called Kepler,
which was used to examine the sky for exoplanets during a survey of 500,000 stars that ended 8 years ago.
Datasets like these are huge, and often combed through with search algorithms,
but the PhD student managed what others did not by rolling up his sleeves, so to speak.
@hikingdude@mastodon.social2026-04-05 12:58:37
We've been out a bit. We hiked up the #wallberg near #tegernsee.
First half was without snow, second half was snowy. But as it is a very frequented route, it wasn't a problem at all. Near the top there were really a lot of people (thanks to the rope way 🚡).
Together with brig…
@ebinger@bildung.social2026-01-28 05:54:11
Ich würde es mir anschauen, das Rhinozeros im Raum von Itamar Gov in #Magdeburg
Ist leider nur ein bisschen weit weg.
https://www.itamargov.com/projects/the-rhi
@hex@kolektiva.social2026-01-25 19:39:35
I explained something for a friend in a simple way, and I think it's worth paraphrasing again here.
You cannot create a system that constrains itself. Any constraint on a system must be external to the system, or that constraint can be ignored or removed. That's just how systems work. Every constitution for every country claims to do this impossible thing, a thing proven is impossible almost 100 years ago now. Gödel's loophole has been known to exist since 1947.
Every constitution in the world, every "separation of powers" and set of "checks and balances," attempts to do something which is categorically impossible. Every government is always, at best, a few steps away from authoritarianism. From this, we would then expect that governments trand towards authoritarianism. Which, of course, is what we see historically.
Constraints on power are a formality, because no real controls can possibly exist. So then democratic processes become sort of collective classifiers that try to select only people who won't plunge the country into a dictatorship. Again, because this claim of restrictions on powers is a lie (willful or ignorant, a lie reguardless) that classifier has to be correct 100% of the time (even assuming a best case scenario). That's statistically unlikely.
So as long as you have a system of concentrated power, you will have the worst people attracted to it, and you will inevitably have that power fall into the hands of one of the worst possible person.
Fortunately, there is an alternative. The alternative is to not centralize power. In the security world we try to design systems that assume compromise and minimize impact, rather than just assuming that we will be right 100% of the time. If you build systems that maximially distribute power, then you minimize the impact of one horrible person.
Now, I didn't mention this because we're both already under enough stress, but...
Almost 90% of the nuclear weapons deployed around the world are in the hands of ghoulish dictators. Only two of the countries with nuclear weapons not straight up authoritarian, but they're not far off. We're one crashout away from steralizing the surface of the Earth with nuclear hellfire. Maybe countries shouldn't exist, and *definitely* multiple thousands of nuclear weapons shouldn't exist and shouldn't all be wired together to launch as soon as one of these assholes goes a bit too far sideways.
@cdarwin@c.im2026-02-01 18:06:52
From an unusual Air Force One tour with Donald Trump
to an explanation of how that photo with his now ex-wife Kimberly Guilfoyle came to be,
here is a collection of the standout moments in “Young Man in a Hurry,” which will come out later this month:
https:…
@hikingdude@mastodon.social2026-03-28 15:40:02
Friends! Finally! I got my day of #snowshoeing!! 😀
I didn't even plan to go very far but the snow and the weather were just wonderful and I felt confident to ascend further.
I didn't go to the summit. I just returned at a point where I admitted that I wouldn't do it for the fun but only for being there. So I returned and had an amazing snow day.
I also met a cou…
