@Techmeme@techhub.socialA section of the Pope's encyclical describing AI's unpredictability suggests influence from Anthropic, whose co-founder Christopher Olah attended the unveiling (Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/
@primonatura@mstdn.social"Does climate change lead to more migration? Here's why researchers can't agree on the evidence"
#Climate #ClimateChange
@Sustainable2050@mastodon.energyThe Trump regime's select group of allies in the fight against climate: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Israel, Yemen, Liberia and Belarus.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/may/21/un-vote-support-icj-world-court-climate-ch…
@cdarwin@c.imThe Olympics made viral stars out of Paul and Gary O’Donovan in 2016, the rowing brothers from Ireland best known for their colourful post-race assessments,
and again in 2024 with Yusuf Dikec, the shooter from Turkey who pitched up in Paris for the Olympics with no equipment beyond his pistol.
That both of those stories ended with a silver medal, rather than gold, was lost in the fun.
@Dragofix@veganism.socialScientists warn that the world’s rivers are running out of oxygen #environment
@newsie@darktundra.xyz‘Corpse Point’ In the Arctic Is Melting, Disturbing Centuries-Old Bodies https://www.404media.co/corpse-point-in-the-arctic-is-melting-disturbing-centuries-old-bodies/
@aredridel@kolektiva.socialFor those that don't know, I help run a large women in technology chat group on Slack. It's been going for 11 years now! (ask me for an invite if you want one and that's appropriate!)
It has deeply shaped how I think about technology, especially the social side. There is so much embodied knowledge in that community, it's amazing. And it's also such a window into how much the mainstream of technology writing is dominated by men. We talk about it differently! We're much more likely to be critical, and to be critical of the _structures_ in tech. Sometimes that comes off as kneejerk "Ugh BRIAN!" to some of the bullshit men to do women in the workplace, but also embedded underneath is an understanding of rarely-mapped power structures in the field. So much advice out there is written assuming that there is no dissent, no silent frustration, no quiet abandoning the job when the pressures are unresolved. And so much of the tech world, press and on social media alike, has no insight that this attrition even happens.
Women, collectively, though, understand it. We notice the patterns of promotions. We understand the way that if we're in our 40s, we're rather likely to have a manager who is a decade younger than we are, with no particular experience. We notice when men are lauded for spending time with their family instead of work on occasion, but women are expected to be present at all times and rarely seen positively for doing the exact same things.
And yet, any given instance is always shrouded in deniability. The pattern generally holds, but is this one my fault? Do I not measure up? Or is it sexism?
That's what these structures rob from us: we never have the clarity in feedback that it is accurate, that is us that must change. When we stick to our guns, are we being obstinate, or are we correct? That information is denied to us by sexism. It only becomes clear in aggregate, and even then it is very hard to find action to take on it except to acknowledge it and move on.
I don't think people talk about that ambiguity enough: we're always looking for the clear sexism, the man speaking over the women, the trading sexual favors for advancement, the clear pattern of pet-to-threat that so many women experience as they age or gain skill in the field. But the bulk of sexism that we experience is in the structural poisoning of feedback.
@tiotasram@kolektiva.socialSince it was relevant to a discussion I just had on here and is something most people probably haven't thought about much (unless you've taken one of a handful of philosophy classes), I thought I'd try to lay out a key piece of Descartes' Meditations (#philosophy
@NFL@darktundra.xyzNFL stars push to ditch artificial turf after World Cup proves natural grass is feasible
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/nfl-natural-grass-artificial-turf-world-cup-play…
@hex@kolektiva.socialI tried to write something up to talk about an idea, but it didn't quite work. I have a lot more I need to put into it. But I want to get an idea out, and, after talking with a person who pointed out some of the flaws in what I wrote, I think I can maybe write down the kernel of the idea here.
An acquaintance of mine did a deep dive on Operational Art and wrote his thesis (which prompted an earlier set of posts and an article I wrote for my professional-ish blog) on the intersection of the OODA loop and critical philosophy. I've been spending a lot of time thinking about Kilcullen's Three Pillars model (after watching Andrewism's wonderful video) and Beer's VSM. The TL;DR of it is that there's a much better insurgency model. Of course, the insurgency model also works for a bunch of other things, because cybernetics lets you do all kinds of cool abstraction like that.
So as I was reading the essay of a comrade the other day, that model popped back into my head and I'm going to try to share what I can of it.
When colonizers came to the Salish region, they saw what they believed to be an untouched wilderness. They failed to see the ways in which Salish people tended the land. Indigenous fire practices were common on the northwest coast, and the suppression of those practices remains a problem. There is an interrelationship between an environment and the systems within it. Systems, like people, animals, and cultures, adapt to the environment. In doing so, those systems will also change the environment.
Social technology was invisible, so colonizers defaulted to either some kind of Rousseauvian or Malthusian model of these people. They were not, for the colonizers, people who had developed advanced social technologies to live in harmony with their world. They were, rather, people in "a state of nature."
The European influenced left continues to draw this Rousseauvian model, which continues through a lot of Anarchist revolutionary thought. European anarchists were heavily influenced by observations and theories around the behavior of indigenous people. The remnants of this thought still exist in the idea that the system must only be destroyed for us to be free.
This is the same obliviousness to social technology, that social technology actually exists, often informs both early colonizers and modern radicals.
It is through this obliviousness that we fail to recognize how capitalism is a social technology that is managed into existence and maintained, and how changes in the environment can threaten institutions that have become over-adapted to a specific version of that environment.
We can extend Kilcullen's metaphor of a "conflict ecosystem" through cybernetics into a much more rich model, populated by viable systems. The ecosystem itself has a fitness function, which drives adaptation within the environment. But all actors in the environment also affect it. Some try to manage the environment. Revolutions are often over who manages a social ecosystem, over who controls the social technology and what it does.
Once we see this dynamic at play, calls of "riot" and "revolution" make a whole lot less sense. Rather, the question becomes, "how do we change the ecosystem in such a way that it cannot be 'managed' at all?"
Graeber/Wengrow talked about Turtle Island indigenous social technologies in Dawn of Everything, such as the system of moieties and clans described in the book. So I have a good reading list as I think through this model, but I hope the "ecosystem" model is helpful (if not completely fleshed out).
I'd be interested in any critiques or thoughts to help develop this idea more.
@cowboys@darktundra.xyzFIFA just forced Jerry Jones to change the one $1.3B Cowboys stadium feature he loves most https://www.sportingnews.com/ca/nfl/dallas-cowboys/news/fifa-forces-jerry-jones-att-stadium-curtains/722a2dcd00eacb790cb5f7c0
@seeingwithsound@mas.toIntracortical BCI performance is robust to changes in attentional load during dual-tasking #NeuroPort
@burger_jaap@mastodon.social"It's actually that men tend to decrease their concern about climate change as countries become wealthier," Clayton said. "The growing gender gap is actually men's growing skepticism."
https://www.dw.com/en/who-says-caring-abou
@markhburton@mstdn.socialMichael Roberts responds to the Piketty et al. Global Justice Report. Doesn't change the system, just redistributes unequal accumulation.
Solving the ‘economic problem’ – Michael Roberts Blog https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2026/06/09/solving-the-e…
@brichapman@mastodon.socialWant the world to change? That's easy from the couch.
But do you actually enjoy the changing part when it shows up in your own life?
The uncertainty we fight against is the same thing as the possibility we want. They're not separate. They're one thing felt from both sides.
What if the falling apart is the doorway?
Read more
@ncoca@social.coopMy #creditunion just sent a notification about a big change - once that I am against. But the only way to vote against it - show up to an in-person meeting in a week on the other side of the world.
I've already moved most of my money to another credit union, time to close that account. #coop
@joxean@mastodon.socialSuch a long article that can be summarised in "Venezuela is a US's banana republic and there won't be elections any time soon because Trump & friends only care about its natural resources".
Honestly, the article is a shame.
https://…
@kexpmusicbot@mastodonapp.uk🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #MorningShow
Charles Bradley:
🎵 Change for the World
#CharlesBradley
https://charlesbradley.bandcamp.com/track/change-for-the-world
https://open.spotify.com/track/1BpHsHXTHKKabAvaAHL0q4
@sofia@chaos.social#gameIdea: a game world with where the player is assigned different goals that give them a very different perspective on the world and what should be done in there.
the game mechanics do not change, just the interpretation by the goal tracker. but the player shapes the world around them.
@davidaugust@mastodon.online"Actors are agents of change. A film, a piece of theatre, a piece of music or a book can make a difference. It can change the world."
—Alan Rickman
#acting #coaching #inspiration
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scotWe live in a world in which we face several separate genuinely existential problems, at least one of which, the #ClimateEmergency, is so critical that unless we make radical change this decade there is no future for life on this planet. And our media have spent the week discussing gossip about a useless crew of politicians not one of whom has the courage even to discuss possible ways to a…
@hex@kolektiva.socialThe whole #LLM ROI thing reveals something interesting. It's basically impossible to figure out the ROI of an LLM. That makes it impossible for bean counters to make a comparison between human work and LLM work, or human work without an LLM and LLM-assisted work, to determine if the incredibly high price is worth it. But it's also impossible because you can't measure the ROI of a human, especially for skilled labor.
You can't measure the ROI of a human, because managers have no idea what people do. There's an eternally expanding amount of work designed to address this problem. But no matter how closely people are surveilled, interrogated, analyzed, there's never any real answer.
I've talked in the past about in relation to medical care. One of the dirty secrets of hospitals is that they have no way to figure out how much individual treatment costs. It's easy to understand at scale. You can know exactly how much something costs society. You can even identify patterns, using public health models, and decrease costs for society by trying to get people to avoid risky behavior (stop smoking, use protection during sex, etc). But it is absolutely not possible, at all, in any way, to figure out how much a single visit costs. This is similar to the problem of predicting climate change vs predicting the weather tomorrow in Amsterdam at 15:00. One is possible, the other is simply not.
But what is becoming painfully clear now is that this is true *everywhere*. It's trivial to know how much an industry costs. It's possible to figure out it's ROI for society. It is not possible to figure out how much value any individual worker provides. LLM ROI and cost comparison is an instance of this larger problem.
This is a problem for capitalism because it shows that the fundamental assumptions behind capitalism, that product value and labor value are quantifiable, that people can actually make comparisons between competing products, etc, are completely bullshit. The capitalist apologetics that makes up so much of economics, the lies that are told that hold this system together, are crumbling before our eyes.
If you make a lot of money, it's because you've been lucky. You have the right social networks, you have become good at convincing people to give you money. There is absolutely no way to connect that to actually providing value to society. If you make a lot of money, internalize that. Understand that you are not special, and things can change. If you don't make a lot of money, it's not because you don't provide value. Don't forget that. The system is a lie built to destroy you. Don't let it.
The ideology is sick, something something time of monsters and all that, we are together in this dying machine. We need to understand the lies. Your value can never be quantified. The way we have always figured out how to do the right thing for each other is through each other. Social connection has always guided us. But now the most socially disconnected people on the planet have hijacked the system. They direct the resources of the world, and game the system to avoid personal responsibility.
We have to build a system where everyone is accountable. We can't use abstract numbers and lies to figure things out for us. We have to build systems around people and accountability. There is no other solution.
@bici@mastodon.socialDon't Cry for Me Argentina
It won't be easy, you'll think it strange
When I try to explain how I feel
That I still need your love after all goals scored
You won't believe me, all you will see is a Messi you once knew
Although he dressed up to the nines
He failed to score a goal for you
I had to let it happen, I had to change
Couldn't stay all my life a scorer
@cdarwin@c.imAs the world swelters in ever more dangerous heat,
⭐️why are oil companies being allowed to turn up the gas instead of paying for the consequences of their greed?
That ought to be the question on everyone’s minds amid baking heat domes over much of the northern hemisphere,
temperature records being smashed day after day,
children dying in locked cars,
hospitals filling with heatstroke victims
and emergency services tackling wildfires.
There is no dou…
@pre@boing.worldMy pitch if I ran a TV production company would be something like:
Twelve episodes a year of 3-episode serials: That keeps the number of sets you have to construct down. It gives each story the complexity of a movie and time to breath without the frantic pace. You can have one every season of the year.
You gotta remember to focus on the companion. This isn't really a story about The Doctor, it's about the companions asking the question, Doctor Who?
Episodes should generally start with a companion's face or escapade coz they're the ones we're identifying with as we figure out who the doctor is.
At some point in 2027 you'll cast and announce a new doctor.
This is when you call Billie Piper in to film and release a webisode which is just the regeneration into Billie so far: her going "Oh, hello?" Then shaking her head and saying "oh hell no" and shaking harder until she shakes the face off into the new man or woman you picked who says "Oh, that was close".
That change into the Bad Wolf Doctor was just bad without a capstone xmas episode. So a one minute tik-tokable short to announce the newbie frees you of it.
Then you can start ep1 filming and released nearly a year later on the 65th anniversary with a story that focuses on the companion getting into trouble and meeting The Doctor.
Cast nobody famous. The production is about making stars not finding them I don't want anyone having preconceived notions about the character from seeing the actor in that other show even it it was a really good one and they're great.
Earthbound cross-time time-travel story for serial one to pick up new companion, intervene in an aliens vs aliens space-war in serial two, go screw up history and fix it for the third and aliens endangering companion's family for the fourth.
When they're 3-episode serials you only need four a year. Different writer for each.
Cliff-hangers between episodes in each serial of course, with stories about the nature of time and space and getting along with other cultures and running up and down corridors and scary monsters and of course the question "who is The Doctor and how can they fix this without guns or violence with just a screwdriver and two hearts worth of compassion".
The Doctor is some weird looking older dude, more importantly vivid and strange and scholarly than handsome. He has a big coat and no question marks. Then he can change clothes but with the same coat always have the same look. He needs to be able to do a good arrogant rant at himself while he thinks.
The companion is curious and brave and young enough to be naive and surprised and energetic. Doesn't do what she's told. Wonders off against orders. Maybe sometimes bombs things.
Obviously you keep the blue box and the tune and make a new style screwdriver.
You need to do the behind the scenes shows too. Not sure if they make or cost money but they are brilliant for the geeky fandom. That may be why it came back last time.
Anyway. Sadly I don't own a production company.
I cancelled the TV license in the mean time. Give the money to Big Finish instead. These audio things are expensive. I've bought bundles before. Anyone have favorites? I lose track of which one's I've heard.
#doctorWho
@aral@mastodon.ar.alIt’s ok, it’s not like we’re all going to die or anything (only billions, not everyone). @… https://slrpnk.net/post/39707961
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.socialWeekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
Recent news has documented warming in polar regions reducing upwelling of cold nutrient rich water and thus algae production. Researchers investigated the change in carbon to chlorophyll ratio to determine nutrient stress.
The genus is Prochlorococcus, a cyanobacteria found across the world's oceans. Because it is so tiny (0.6 micron) it passes through…
@markhburton@mstdn.socialThe last time I looked at the data, most of the UK's peatlands are net carbon emitters due to their dégradation.
Programmes for their restoration, largely by re-wetting, are vital to protect their vast carbon stores and to reverse the carbon flow, so they return to sequestering it.
World Peatland Day honors a crucial ecosystem in the fight against climate change
@Dragofix@veganism.socialFuel on the fire: why oil companies are profiting as the world gets dangerously hot https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/07/big-oil-companies-profiting-fossil-fuel-global-climate-change
@vague@social.linux.pizzaDream Theater's A Change of Seasons - Another World, is a favorite, https://youtu.be/6krMopB_35I
Below is the best bit but I urge you to listen to the whole 23 minutes of A change of Seasons :)
@servelan@newsie.socialTrump boasted of his ability to buy ‘good maple trees’ in early days of Iran war, book claims | The Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-maple-trees-regime-change-book-b3001192.html
@cosmos4u@scicomm.xyz"Isaacman’s actions to date have [...] destabilized #NASA, damaged its most valued relationships, and jeopardized its future. As Isaacman speaks of NASA’s power to inspire the world, he has led the agency to strike out on its own, cancelling programs and advocating for historic budget cuts. If Isaacman wants to achieve lasting, positive change at NASA, his next step must be a major course correction": https://www.spacescout.info/2026/05/op-ed-isaacmans-actions-threaten-trust-and-stability-at-nasa/
@yetiinabox@todon.nlWomen's work songs as a record of environmental change - research by Reetika Revathy Subramanium.
https://theconversation.com/what-womens-work-songs-reveal-about-the-changing-climate-280964
Wonderfully wide comparison - all ac…
@rocksongoftheweek@mastodon.worldFresh off the press this week ... and we mean that almost literally, as our spotlight falls on Colorado doom merchants #Khemmis. New album, new era, same crushing heaviness. Some things, thankfully, never change.
Follow us on our mission to shine a light on one awesome track from across the epic universe of #metal
@bobmueller@mastodon.worldThis makes me think of the way Scientology goes after its critics.
https://slate.com/life/2026/05/mormon-stories-church-lds-lawsuit-trademark.html
@brichapman@mastodon.socialCheck out my latest article - "if you want to change the world, you gotta learn to love change [?]"
https://www.brichapman.com/p/if-you-want-to-change-the-world-you?utm_source=bri-mastodon&utm_medium=so…
@thomasfuchs@hachyderm.io1983: “Do you want to sell sugar water forever, or come with me and change the world?"
—Steve Jobs to John Sculley (PepsiCo president)
2026:
@arXiv_csPL_bot@mastoxiv.pageVirtualSet: Typed Ontology Worlds as an LLM Generation Target for Grounded Queries and Guarded Decisions
Qunhui Zhang
https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.18821 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2607.18821 https://arxiv.org/html/2607.18821
arXiv:2607.18821v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Large language models increasingly read and act on enterprise data, but SQL gives a late error signal: hallucinated fields or relations can execute and return plausible wrong answers, while incorrect writes cannot be safely assessed after execution. We present VirtualSet, a live, receiver-typed ontology-world interface and generation target for LLMs. Instead of SQL, the model emits set expressions over entity-edge worlds. Generic Constraint Projection (GCP) checks expressions before execution, while future this preserves concrete receiver types through collection chains, turning invalid fields, edges, receivers, and actions into token-anchored type errors. Type-clean reads use a SQL fast path or bounded stream interpretation, with a parity oracle checking both paths over the exercised operator space. The same substrate supports guarded decisions: actions run first in a simulated world, and world-change events require external approval before actualization. On BIRD, we lift relational schemas into typed worlds and compare VirtualSet with direct SQL while holding the model, evidence, values, zero-shot setting, timeout, glossary, repair/voting, and grader constant where possible. On a frozen 1,072-question split, VirtualSet achieves 67.5% accuracy versus 63.5% for glossary-matched direct SQL with repair and voting ( 4.0 points; McNemar exact p = 0.00117) using deepseek-reasoner. Full-corpus analysis finds no engine mis-computation of a type-clean expression; remaining errors arise from model semantics or gold defects. In a 30-body guard corpus, the write chain intercepts 20/20 hallucinated action bodies with zero false positives. VirtualSet thus remains competitive on SQL's home benchmark while providing pre-execution semantics for guarded decisions.
toXiv_bot_toot
@hippyjo@c.imWhen life and the world starts to resemble a poorly written James Bond novel, remember to seize the opportunity to redefine your life in glorious fashion.
As the US is bringing back legal piracy, consider what other opportunities await the heroes of tomorrow.
Notions of normalcy are quaint artifacts of the past - this is a time of upheaval and great change.
Are you going to keep being the timid little factotum the billionaires want you to be?
@bici@mastodon.socialPunk is the way.
"...stop wasting time, energy, and emotions inside the gigantic, vacant '80s malls all social networks have become."
https://brilliantcrank.com/punk-is-the-way/?ref=brilliantcrank-newsletter
@lpryszcz@genomic.socialGuardrails be damned: they want to accelerate at full speed towards that future – speeding up the climate crisis with resource-hungry datacentres – even if it means the end of the world as we know it.
What a stupid, but perhaps fitting, way for humanity to end. An asteroid took the dinosaurs out. Now it’s looking increasingly likely we’re going to be wiped out because a cohort of rich losers keep being told “You’re absolutely right!” by ChatGPT.
@hex@kolektiva.socialNow, I have a lot of reasons to hate vibe coding, but one of them is that I just think more easily in code. I reason by writing the code. It's not something I can easily disentangle.
Architectures tend to live in my head as pictures that change as I write. The words are code. There's no intermediate. So the offer of being able to skip the poc phase is just not interesting. "Oh, cool, I can skip the part where I preemptively identify problems? Great. That's gonna work out well." Vibe coding can give you working proof of concepts that self destruct when you try to grow them (much like any poc code you just try to use without actually engineering).
I don't know that this problem will ever get fixed. Even if it does, I don't know that this fix will ever rival human engineering. I don't think it's actually possible to know that yet, there are too many factors at play. It's definitely lowered the bar for writing proof of concepts. Now a business idiot can make a proof of concept, which even further distorts their understanding of what engineering actually looks like.
In order to go back to work, I'm basically expected to be ramped up on LLM stuff. But it all keeps reminding me of the feeling of powerlessness when we organized against Trump, when we organized against the rally at UW, when I tried to stop someone from pepperspraying people and I got shot. It's all the same ideology of rapists and pedophiles forcing their entire world on us against our will, thinking they can dangle "the Epstein files" in front of everyone and then yank them away like nothing ever happened... Like no one knows they implicate the entire power structure.
@avalon@jazztodon.comInitiation stones, buried recordings, and Ringo Starr’s drumkit: inside the visionary world of reggae master Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry | Lee 'Scratch' Perry | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/jun/26/lee-scratch…
@Kingu@sakurajima.moeOn their way to change the world!
@pre@boing.worldBurnham has been made leader of the Labour party then. No other candidates got the required number of nominations so it's a coronation.
He has a few things to say.
He's proud. The party is united, he says, and now they'll put that power of unity to give people hope back. And he is ready to build on Kier's foundation. Thanks Kier, for all the NHS work and renters rights and rebuilding the nation's reputation (??).
He does like to name-check all the various towns and unions of the country. Just listing them. They made Labour, apparently.
We must recognize that this generation of politicians, including Burnham himself, have failed. Four decades of neoliberalism have not been kind to all those places he listed.
He pledges to be better, and will do five things.
1) Work relentlessly to build a culture of one Labour team. No infighting. Wants to eradicate the split. End factional politics.
I guess end Starmer's war on the left then? 🤨
2) Work to build a new politics. This is the last chance for change, and we must take it together. Tell people what Labour will do, not just pick fights with other parties. Seek consensus with those other parties instead, to improve the political discourse.
3) Change political direction: know exactly where he stands and set a direction that is distinctively Labour. No out-greening greens or out-reforming reform or wearing tory clothes. Boldly confidently authentically Labour.
Housing, water, energy, transport, all broken due to privatization and concentration of wealth and power.
Four decades of political power draining from regions to corporations and central government ends now.
Take back the slogan "take back control" from the right, who gave away power to corps and quangos.
Life should be more affordable.
4) Be a leader for the north, south, east and west, for Scotland and Northern Ireland (aw, shame for the midlanders 🤣 ).
Gonna do to everywhere what he done for Manchester he reckons.
Kids shouldn't have to leave their home towns to prosper.
5) Take power back from westminster and give it to the place where you live.
More power for regions, to run trains for passengers not shareholders. Improve high-streets, and back shops and pubs, and education, and reindustrialization.
He's gonna be pro-business.
Add all that together and he reckons we'll bring back hope.
Thanks a few people in particular.
He says he knows what he believes and what he wants to do, he has a plan. He wants change, to be close to the people.
He wants it to be Andy 4 us. Labour 4 us. Bring back hope.
#ukpol #burnham #labourParty
@ubuntourist@mastodon.socialEli Lilly is preparing a phase 2 trial for VERVE-102, a one-time gene editor acquired from Verve Therapeutics. The highest dose cut LDL cholesterol by 62% in patients, a reduction sustained for up to 18 months across 35 participants.
The treatment permanently switches off PCSK9, a cholesterol-producing gene, using base editing that flips a single DNA letter without breaking the double helix.
#news
@BBC3MusicBot@mastodonapp.uk🔊 #NowPlaying on #BBCRadio3:
#TheEssay
- The Other Shostakoviches
Chris Addison unravels the story of composer and radical Nikolai Roslavets, who created his own new musical system to change the world - but fell foul of political change.
Relisten now 👇
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ww2x
@cdarwin@c.imHow has Kyiv figured out how to navigate Trump?
The strategy is “to placate, make offers, accept what Trump offers to you,”
says Dmytro Kuleba, who served as Ukraine’s foreign minister during the first two years of the war.
But Kyiv must do this “while quietly continuing the strategy of decoupling” from Washington, he adds.
@bencurthoys@mastodon.social @davidaugust@mastodon.online"Actors are agents of change. A film, a piece of theatre, a piece of music or a book can make a difference. It can change the world."
—Alan Rickman
#acting #coaching #inspiration
@davej@dice.camp @Dragofix@veganism.socialWorld's oceans break June heat record: EU monitor #ocean
@bobmueller@mastodon.worldOpponents of the Question spent something close to $4 million on ads and social media, claiming that such a change would damage the state’s economy.
Read the full article: More Voting Frustration
▸ #Oklahoma
@primonatura@mstdn.social"Revealed: the internal BHP memo that slammed the brakes on world’s biggest miner’s climate push"
#BHP #Climate #ClimateChange
@cdarwin@c.imTokyo’s trendy Shimokitazawa district has long attracted young Japanese
drawn by its narrow winding streets populated by stores peddling used clothing, records and quirky memorabilia,
as well as small live music venues and eateries aplenty.
In the last decade or so, the number of overseas visitors coming to the district has grown exponentially,
with many dining there after a hard day’s shopping.
But the izakaya of Shimokita (as the locals call it) tend towards…
@NFL@darktundra.xyzWhy some of the best athletes in the world pretend to be someone else https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7240581/2026/04/30/kobe-bryant-alter-ego-shai-gilgeous-alexander/
@luana@wetdry.worldSoo what do y’all use to self-host contacts and calendar? Nextcloud or what?
I want something that I can self-host and that lets me sync with like native apps like KDE’s and iOS’s
The e-mail provider I use doesn’t seem to support calendar, and I might change providers someday too so I’d rather something separate
@davidaugust@mastodon.online"Actors are agents of change. A film, a piece of theatre, a piece of music or a book can make a difference. It can change the world."
—Alan Rickman
#acting #coaching #inspiration
@pre@boing.worldBurnham's team have a plan of some sort coming in a book #ukpol #burnham #manchesterism #productiveState
@hex@kolektiva.socialWhen they say "we are entering a new industrial revolution" what they want you to hear is "things that were once expensive will now be cheap," but what they mean is "we will be using the massive economic disruption, that we are creating, to change the world against your will and further shape it towards the interests of a small and powerful minority."
#LLM #AI
@Dragofix@veganism.socialWildfire-driven deforestation rates in California among highest in world #California
@ubuntourist@mastodon.socialVeritasium: This equation will change how you see the world (the logistic map)
#science
@cdarwin@c.imExtreme heat is “pushing infrastructure beyond its design limits”, the EEA says.
Going forward, European governments need to carry out dramatic upgrades to create climate resilient infrastructure at a much faster pace.
This month’s heatwave has laid bare the urgency of this, scientists say.
“Roads, railways, energy systems, and buildings must be redesigned or retrofitted to withstand higher temperatures,” the EEA said.
Climate considerations must be at the centre of ur…
@primonatura@mstdn.social @pre@boing.worldWhat is it Burnham is even offering to change? He talks a talk about public control over water companies and rail and power or whatever.
But does he even mean actual public ownership? Or just the kind of franchise systems he's so proud of running the local Manchester busses under.
He'll stick to the austerity, the fiscal rules, these artificial limits on government investment.
And if he loses the seat? Someone else in the party will surely stand up and say basically that. Raynor maybe, Milliband.
There is nothing to gain from standing back and helping Labour put their most popular candidate in place when their most popular candidate is still very shit.
Look, here's Richard Murphy on it:
#green #makerField #ukpol
@cdarwin@c.imFrom early on in the renewable revolution,
batteries were envisaged as a critical part of the puzzle.
Homes would be able to install panels on their roofs to capture and convert solar energy,
and batteries in their homes to store the energy and use it when they needed it.
But while solar panel prices fell rapidly a few years ago, it is only in recent years that batteries have become similarly available and affordable.
The US-Iran war and subsequent rise in en…
@brichapman@mastodon.socialLakes around the world are under threat, but now there's a powerful new tool to help protect them.
The Global Lakes Explorer is an interactive map that reveals how pollution and climate change are impacting freshwater ecosystems worldwide. Users can explore nutrient inputs like phosphorus and nitrogen, and even see projections for future pollution trends.
@bobmueller@mastodon.worldBrilliant, Nebraska. Just freaking brilliant.
https://ij.org/press-release/omaha-speakeasy-forced-to-change-its-name-to-censored-shop-after-nebraska-barber-board-claims-ownership-of-the-…
@inthehands@hachyderm.ioStill, for all that, there’s a part of SmallTalk — maybe the most important part — that’s kind of lost to time. Part of the original vision was to make every computer something that •the user of the computer could reshape•. Thus SmallTalk’s bizarre-to-us world where there’s no distinction between programming environment and runtime environment: every window on the screen is an object you can modify; every behavior of the system is open to tinkering; every part of the system you’re using a thing you can change.
That vision of the computer as moldable clay looks pretty distant at this point.
4/
@davidaugust@mastodon.online"Actors are agents of change. A film, a piece of theatre, a piece of music or a book can make a difference. It can change the world."
—Alan Rickman
#acting #coaching #inspiration
@primonatura@mstdn.social"A lot of 'recycled' plastic is being burned overseas—and causing widespread pollution linked to health problems"
#Plastic #Plastics #Recycling
@pre@boing.worldDon't get me wrong, I certainly think y'all should abandon those ten apps and come join me on the free internet, away from corporate ownership in free unowned spaces where no big money players can control the playing-field. Take away from big money that feed that they use to point your kids and you at whatever scape-goat target they want, from migrants to trans people, from the disabled on benefits to kids using mobile phones.
But you're talking about installing a gateway on the entire internet and giving the government the power to decide who is allowed to use it or not.
That isn't going to get you away from those monopoly capitalists, it's going to entrench them and give them a cosy relationship with an authoritarian government that's about to change to being both authoritarian and also racist and sexist and nativist and far-right-wing.
We want to break up these monopolies and decentralize the power they have and destroy all advertising.
This will do the opposite of that. It is an attempt to enclose the internet commons for corporate interests. It will do that.
It can not be done in a way that protects privacy and anyone saying it can probably has shares in Palantir or similar who will expect to be paid to run these government gateways on internet publishing and who will then leak all your data that they lied about collecting.
#ukpol #internet #socialMediaBan
@joe@toot.worksAfter reading ...
"Chancellor Katherine Frank says the name change was long overdue. She adds the ABCs of Polytechnic are applied learning, business and industry partnership and career-focused."
... I am still not completely sure what the difference is between a university and a polytechnic university.
In a world were high schoolers aren't sure if college is right for them, I dig experimentation, though.
#Wisconsin #Stout #UW #Polytechnic
@cdarwin@c.imAs parts of Europe continue to experience an unprecedented heat wave,
French health officials said Sunday there had been around 1,000 more deaths in the country than expected.
"Since June 24, approximately 1,000 additional deaths (unconsolidated figures) have been observed
compared to the deaths recorded in previous months,"
Public Health France said in a statement
@buercher@tooting.chStarmes priorities at the end of his mandate: Keir Starmer intervened through diplomatic channels to oppose Fifa’s plan to bring forward England’s World Cup game against Mexico, amid concerns the change would hand the hosts an unfair advantage, it is understood.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jul/06/keir-starmer-intervened-oppose-fifa-plan-move-england-kick-off-time?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
@pre@boing.worldBurnham is on the radio doing a launch speech.
He thinks the people of Makerfield are going to write the script for the whole UK.
Namechecks every local borough.
There's been forty years of policies that leave people struggling, that took away jobs, can't afford homes. [yep]
Namechecks some local companies and football teams and schools in a story about a football game. He lived here a long time and likes it.
It's unjust what Westminster has done to this place which makes him very angry.
So the election is a call for change, for these local people in particular, to the economy, education, transport, care, and politics.
More tech schools not concentrating only on university degrees.
He wants to get to the point where the council is building more homes than its losing. New cheap council homes.
Imagine some local person suddenly called to a job interview in the city, they have to pay 364 quid to get to the city. Re-nationalize rail to make rail fares sane.
His dad is in a care home. A local one. Its run for profit. Which needs to change so that it's provided on NHS terms with a social care system that supports the NHS.
We won't get those things without changing politics.
Manchester is the fastest growing city because of how he worked with business. He loves working with business too. Public "control" working with business over busses has been good in Manchester he recons [I think people generally agree, but I dunno]
Note, he says, how he's not been dissing the other parties. He doesn't want that. [Good actually]
He wants his own party to change too.
A vote for him is a vote to change Labour. To change it back to the one the people used to know. On the side of working class people and communities.
This is not a new journey, he has always been working to make the lives of local people better. Ever since his first day walking into the Labour club when the manager said "You're on, between the bingo and the turn, keep it short".
His three word slogan: I'm For Us.
Its a very good speech. He is very personable. Sounds like a normal person not remotely like a robot the way ministers tend to.
It does sounds a lot like what Starmer was saying when he was running for selection four years ago. He hasn't explained how he can do all that given the constraints Starmer thinks he is under. Which of those constraints are wrong.
That Andy Burnham will win this contest.
#UkPol #labour #makerField #andyBurnham
@hex@kolektiva.socialI had a weird dream where I was talking to someone at some kind of ceremony, I think a funeral, where I had timidly painted my face with clay as part of some ritual. This person was talking about how far society has come while our brains have not caught up.
Imagine if your ancient cave dwelling ancestors were dropped into this world of cars, office hours, budgets, climate change, and AI. They would be absolutely freaking out and struggling to understand things all the time... Just like you are now.
Society teaches us to suppress these emotions. You're supposed to be OK with giant metal boxes flying around you in rumbling stampedes, but you feel it in unexplained anxiety. You're supposed to just fit your life into tight little bounds that ignore weather and season, but you feel it in more unexplained anxiety and depression. We are all part of something so big and complicated we can't make sense of it, we cannot possibly comprehend it all, it is simply too much to fully grasp the implications of our individual actions within global capitalism. Should we be surprised by our urge to simply destroy it, by the anger and desire to simply "smash" something far more complex than can be met with simple violence?
Some part of my brain was trying to remind me to be compassionate to myself. Perhaps that reminder can be useful to you as well.
@cdarwin@c.imUnease deepens in Russia
as Ukraine steps up long-range strikes
The Kremlin is scrambling to respond to an intensifying campaign of Ukrainian drone attacks
reaching ever deeper into Russia,
hitting key arms production facilities,
destroying an ever-greater share of oil-refining capacity,
and causing fuel shortages across the country.
This week alone, swarms of Ukrainian drones hit oil facilities across Russia
as well as the VZPP-S semiconduct…
@PaulWermer@sfba.social @paulwermer@sfba.social @pre@boing.worldStarmer is doing a thing about election results. Is he resigning? 
He says the elections were tough, he lost brilliant representatives. He feels the hurt and takes responsibility. Not just for the results, but also for explaining how they'll do better in the years ahead.
Times are dangerous, opponents are very dangerous, if we don't get it right the country will be on a very dark path.
He takes responsibility for navigation in this dangerous world and for not walking away.
Oh right, he's not resigning then. 😦
He says he'll prove his doubters wrong. He's learned a lot! And realizes now we need a bigger response to this unordinary times.
Times demand serious progressive leadership he says, and Zack or Nigel can't provide that. [Citation needed] Only Labour can [Really, come on, citation needed]
He's pleased to be reducing NHS waiting lists and crime, and for some reason is pleased migration is coming down too.
He says he realizes that people don't think Labour cares about them. So that's something.
So his plan to fix things after this election is to talk more about why he's doing things instead of just saying what he's doing.
Right. Sure. That'll help.
He admits millions of people, like his sister, don't get respect or help and are held back because the status quo doesn't work.
He says he's fighting for them but, eh, perhaps he should be doing that thing where he says more about why and how?
He says we need a complete break to take control of energy and defense and fairness (he isn't resigning though, not THAT complete a break)
"Strength Through Fairness, Hope and Urgency" is his plan.
Three concrete examples of the plan:
Sure, about time, not like the Greens are against that.
Doesn't sound like he wants a re-join though, so not really sure what this means. The EU don't allow partial memberships or cherry picking benefits. Some kind of external heart I guess, an outside-body heart pump?
No. He's going to guarantee training or work placements to school leavers.
So in response to likely being unelected next time, he'll nationalize steel (now he's failed to find a corporate buyer anyway), is going to renegotiate with Europe (again, they have no better offers to give), and offer apprenticeships to education-leavers (who are still going to be mostly in debt by then).
Right.
Oh, and he's going to ban more marches too. Almost forgot that.
What a cock.
He did sound a bit passionate at least for a change.
#ukpol #starmer
@primonatura@mstdn.social"Experts issue climate warning ahead of expanded FIFA World Cup"
#FIFA #Football #Climate #ClimateChange
@inthehands@hachyderm.ioA great recommendation, a deeply formative book for me:
https://hachyderm.io/@sleepyfox/116844499048310797
IMO, George Lakoff increasingly went off the rails[1] (or at least stood on shakier ground[2]) in his later work, but Metaphors We Live By is a short, fantastic book that will change how you inhabit the world. Once you see[3] it, you can’t un-see it.
[1] The “THINKING IS MOVING” metaphor
[2] The “IDEAS ARE BUILDINGS” metaphor
[3] The “SEEING IS UNDERSTANDING” metaphor
@pre@boing.worldRE: https://mastodon.social/@h4ckernews/116889732321089577
If at first you don't succeed, and then you also don't succed another time and another time, then just call it an urgent emergency, change the rules, and do it anyway in the face of democratic opposition.
The EU parliament has no power to stop awful things it seems. A farce of a democracy. A joke and the punchline all in one.
@servelan@newsie.socialVirginia governor faces calls to change bill that includes ‘“poverty penalty’ for marijuana use in public | The Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/virginia-governor-marijuana-use-fine-b3004404.html
@chris@mstdn.chrisalemany.caJudith Curry is possibly the most confusing and infuriating scientist in the entire climatological arena. She contributed to major understandings around the changes in the jet stream, the Arctic, and other processes that helped explain the impact climate change has already had on our day to day weather.
But then she left academia and essentially became a mouthpiece for Neo-denialism, claiming others were being “alarmist” and that while CO2 was the main cause, we really shouldn’t be spending money on reducing emissions.
Her final blog announcing its retirement is an interesting combination of declaring victory, mostly thanks to Trump and his acolytes (like Carney) who have pivoted fully into the arms of the fossil fuel industry, and declaring she was tired of it all and just wants to be in her garden and stop the flow of now $16,000 (!!) to maintain her Wordpress blog for the past 15 years.
She has done real damage to efforts to stop CO2 emissions. But another part of me wonders if this is an admission of guilt. Very often people come to a point, even subconsciously, where they realize they’re in with the wrong crowd.
I wonder if she has had that moment with Trump. She probably thinks it’s all irrelevant and out of her hands now. Other players, namely the oil industry, Trump, Putin, etc. will decide what happens and scientists like her will have no impact.
I am glad she is tapping out, as so many deniers inevitably do, but it is clear she is doing it because she thinks she’s won, and that is very very bad for the world.
#climateChange #carney #cdnpoli #canpoli #climateEmergency #climateDenial #science #JudithCurry #theAmericanFascist
@primonatura@mstdn.social"Rice feeds billions of people—but its role in fueling climate change is growing"
#Rice #Food #Climate #ClimateChange
@pre@boing.worldJames O'Brien is on the radio asking if the government ought to leave Twitter.
He seems to have finally understood that there is no level playing field there, that the algorithm can't be used for good. That if it started to do good, the owners would just change it.
He left when he understood that the place is overrun with trolls and moderated only to keep the woke in check.
James blocked me ages ago, and I'd not ring in, but the key thing he's missing is this:
Elon musk has his own shitposting troll site that he owns.
Trump has his own shtposting troll site that he owns.
Mark Zuckerberg has his own shitposting troll site that he owns. He's got like four.
The blockchain people have their own shitposting troll site that they own (that's the one O'Brian uses).
If the government wants to use a shitposting troll site, they should also use one that they own.
Likewise LBC radio presenters really. If they want to use a shitposting troll site, they should probably use one that they own and moderate themselves.
And then, consensually, with no obligation, if they want, each of the shitposting troll sites can federate together with the others in a mesh, so that they can talk to each other and the conversation can flow between them but ownership and control is distributed to individual organisations.
Then we could decentralize ownership of the means of communication and avoid this argument about whether the government should be on twitter so we can instead argue whether UK Social should block or federate with Musk's Nazi Troll site or not.
And this system exists of course. LBC could have their own shitposting troll site by the end of next week and moderate it as they see fit.
#fediverse #mastodon #twitter #socialMedia
