@fgraver@hcommons.socialAt least two different people on this train car are watching stuff on their phones — without headsets; thus forcing the rest of us to listen to whatever they’re interested in…
Perhaps I should play some music out loud? My iPad is louder than their phones… Some Gangstagrass, perhaps?
@tiotasram@kolektiva.socialDay 5: Robin Wall Kimmerer
I'm taking these liberty of changing my hashtag and expanding the intent of this list to include all non-men, although Kimerer is a woman so I'll get to more gender diversity later... I've also started planning this out more and realized that I may continue a bit beyond 20...
In any case, Robin Wall Kimmerer is an Indigenous academic biologist and excellent non-fiction author whose work touches on Potawotomi philosophy, colonialism (including in academic spaces), and ideas for a better future. Anyone interested in ecology, conservation, or decolonization in North America will probably be impressed by her work and the rich connections she weaves between academic ecology and Indigenous knowledge offer a critical opportunity to expand your understanding of the world if like me you were raised deeply enmeshed in "Western" scientific tradition. I suppose a little background in skepticism helped prepare me to respect her writing, but I don't think that's essential.
I've only read "Braiding Sweetgrass," but "Gathering Moss" and her more recent "The Serviceberry" are high on my to-read list, despite my predilection for fiction. Kimmerer incorporates a backbone of fascinating anecdotes into "Braiding Sweetgrass" that makes it surprisingly easy reading for a work that's philosophical at its core. She also pulls off an impressive braided organization to the whole thing, weaving together disparate knowledges in a way that lets you see both their contradictions and their connections.
The one criticism I've seen of her work is that it's not sufficiently connected to other Indigenous philosophers & writers, and that it's perhaps too comfortable of a read for colonizers, and that seems valid to me, even though (perhaps because I am a colonizer) I still find her book important.
An excellent author in any case, and one doing concrete ideological work towards a better world.
#20AuthorsNoMen
@cdarwin@c.imTrump’s plan to rig the 2026 midterm election
by pressuring states to create more Republican congressional seats
will face a major test in a federal courtroom in El Paso, Texas
starting Wednesday,
as a panel of judges considers whether to block the state’s new gerrymandered map.
At stake in the hearing,
scheduled for ten days,
are as many as five congressional seats
— perhaps enough to determine control of Congress in next year’s midterms
@jake4480@c.imAnother #LastFourWatched for #LetterboxdFriday. Dug all these. I mean.. for what they are. Horror and sci-fi of varying and perhaps questionable quality (often my favorite kind). 😂
#horror
@hex@kolektiva.socialRobert Childs, the sex offender who the FBI also paid to infiltrate a group of clowns... so... pedophile that the FBI paid to dress as a clown, was sentenced to life in prison for raping a 12 year old girl. Perhaps the fact that he destroyed evidence (text messages) during his time working for the FBI could, I don't know, have been a clue here that something was wrong.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/former-fbi-informant-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-2006-rape-of-12-year-old-girl-in-seattle/
@philip@mastodon.mallegolhansen.com@… Sometimes, perhaps even often times, rowing in the direction you believe in is all that can be done.
Will it work? Will we prevail? None of our ancestors ever knew that when they set out on the journey, and we can’t either.
But that doesn’t mean the attempt is any lesser. Keep up the work, that’s how we will, imperfectly, slowly, eventua…
@marsianica@social.linux.pizzaLast day of CoRDI in Aachen today. I've heard a lot of interesting ideas and been part of some important discussions about the future of the NFDI in the last few days.
And, perhaps most importantly, I have been able to nearly complete my sticker collection. (By my counting, only 3 consortia are still missing.)
#CoRDI2025
@paulbusch@mstdn.caGood Morning #Canada
Finally, arriving at our our 10th province, Manitoba, and putting this series to rest means no more nightmares. Friendly Manitoba, it says so right on their license plates, also has hundreds of abandoned towns, but today we'll focus on Scarf. Named for William Scarf, not for winter clothing or the more recent term for eating quickly, the settlement began in the 1880s, started to flourish after train service arrived in 1907, and died slowly after train service stopped, with the last residents leaving in the 1980s. But in 2013, the regional mayor decided to sell parcels of land in the ghost town for $10. I wasn't able to find out if this plan to bring Scarf back from the dead was successful, but perhaps the area is cursed. In 2020, a tornado touched down near Scarf, killing two teenagers when their vehicle was swept off the road.
#CanadaIsAwesome #CanadianGhostTowns
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-rm-looks-to-sell-ghost-town-lots-for-10-1.2086700
@cowboys@darktundra.xyzPerhaps the Dallas Cowboys aren’t as great in the draft as we thought https://www.si.com/nfl/cowboys/draft/perhaps-dallas-cowboys-arent-as-great-in-nfl-draft-as-we-thought
@thesaigoneer@social.linux.pizzaOkay. Greetd is misbehaving. Ventoy disk is unrecognizable upon insertion. Niri from cli doesn't start. Should I even update my dwm and KDE? Tomorrow perhaps, they work right now 😆
@thomasfuchs@hachyderm.ioThe whole thing is optimized for scams, deception and other criminal behavior:
- user interface that deceptively pretends it's a human you're talking to
- claims from companies highly exaggerate capabilities
companies and "experts" constantly hype "AGI" which they (funnily enough) do to both make investors greedier and spread fear and as a distraction because these algorithms can't actually do what they keep promising
- large-scale accounting and financial fraud (e.g. what Nvidia is doing with circular selling)
- biggest case of copyright infringement in history
Note: I think the underlying technology is really cool, and definitely has use cases and can be used for actually good things. But: some technology just has more downsides than upsides, and some should only be used by experts in controlled environments. Leaded gasoline, asbestos and chlorofluorocarbon are also all really cool technology.
In this case perhaps the techology itself doesn't do anything inherently bad, however the people making it are lying about what it can do, the people selling it are motivated purely by greed and the people using it (often forced to do so) are being deceived.
@AimeeMaroux@mastodon.socialIt's the #DayOfHelios / Sol's Day / #Sunday! ☀️
"Never does resplendent Helios look on this people with his beams, neither when he climbs towards the stars of heaven nor when once more he comes earthwards from the sky; dismal night overhands these wretches always."
Ho…
@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
@sauer_lauwarm@mastodon.social"pubic engagement" (as in "his perhaps limited capacity for pubic engagement")
@drgeraint@glasgow.socialSo while Russian warplanes are violating NATO airspace, the Russian ambassador to France warns that NATO shooting down Russian planes would lead to war.
Perhaps he doesn't remember what happened in NATO member Turkiye 10 years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Rus
@Tupp_ed@mastodon.ieNew Gist: No Contest
"There are, perhaps, alternative worlds where lots of things are different. Fianna Fšil maybe decide to run an MEP instead of a MIA. Or one where a fleet of no-hopers got nominated and we spent the whole campaign having to listen to the media asking candidates their opinions on the Latin mass and if cocaine bloat is a positive feature in a President. "
Also, I explain exactly what kind of idiot I have recently been.
@arXiv_astrophHE_bot@mastoxiv.pageProbing Evolution of Long Gamma-Ray Burst Properties through Their Cosmic Formation History
Nikita S. Khatiya, Maria Giovanna Dainotti, Aditya Narendra, Dhruv S. Bal, Aleksander {\L}. Lenart, Dieter H. Hartmann
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.20093
@arXiv_physicssocph_bot@mastoxiv.pageHierarchy and ranking in pairwise sports contests
Bogd\'an Asztalos, Boldizs\'ar Bal\'azs, Gergely Palla, Tam\'as Vicsek
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.19848 https:/…
@kctipton@mas.toGen Zers have taken on their governments. From around the world, they tell us why. - CSMonitor.com https://www.csmonitor.com/World/2025/1124/Gen-Zers-have-taken-on-their-governments.-From-around-the-world-they-tell-us-why
@ruth_mottram@fediscience.orgA similar trend is reported in Italy. Is violent crime becoming more violent and international? Is "someone" (a state actor perhaps?) flooding the black market with weapons?
Overall violent crime has been falling for decades pretty much everywhere in Europe so it's interesting to see these trends
@karlauerbach@sfba.socialThere is a word for this ... and that word is "Viet Nam".
'President Donald Trump said that Hamas “is going to disarm” but if they don’t the US would act to disarm them “quickly and perhaps violently.”'
https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsf…
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.netSeries D, Episode 12 - Warlord
VILA: Which is a pretty big if.
AVON: Perhaps we could reverse the process on the neutron bombarder and use it as a neutralizing filter. Is that feasible, do you think?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/412/476 B7B2
@arXiv_hepth_bot@mastoxiv.pageNon-Commutative Gauge Theory at the Beach
Roland Bittleston, Simon Heuveline, Surya Raghavendran, David Skinner
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.20643 https://ar…
@thomasfuchs@hachyderm.ioLike there's no leak or anything, I think the pump just stopped working?
Wonder why that's failure point, perhaps over time there is some out-diffusion liquid and eventually it starts to cavitate?
@edintone@mastodon.greenGenealogists may be familiar with the FANs technique (friends, associates and neighbours) for expanding research or perhaps breaking down a 'brick wall'. Has anyone found or used specific software for documenting this type of research? @… #genealogy
@nelson@tech.lgbtRIP Udo Kier. I loved him in many things but he's particularly great opposite River Phoenix in My Own Private Idaho. Later he appeared again with Keanu Reeves in Johnny Mnemonic.
Perhaps it is time to watch Spermula in honor of his divers oeuvre. I think he had a lot of fun in his career.
@chris@mstdn.chrisalemany.caAbsolutely insane. Perhaps someone should show this to the US Ambassador so he can understand perhaps who is “anti” whom.
“NEVER COME TO THE US AGAIN”
Yells a US Customs Border Agent while overtaking an Ontario driver on the interstate just south of the border in NY.
#usa #canada #border #canpoli #cdnpoli https://mstdn.ca/@chad/115269544279217138
@hippyjo@c.imIn a world which has become quite insane, it is perhaps most shocking to witness how society moves on with business as usual while monsters are destroying our cities, killing our children, eating our future and all the potential for greatness we once had.
We have become accustomed to entirely too much cruelty and fuckery. Like frogs in a pot of water being slowly brought to boil.
Glory to the heroes who fight, glory to the heroes who dare to venture into warzones and report the t…
@raiders@darktundra.xyz
@markhburton@mstdn.social"[Yaxley Lennon] was invited and welcomed to Israel because his brand of populist, racist, Islamophobic, extreme-right politics is now a natural fit. Perhaps not in the minds of all Israelis, but certainly a sufficient number to make possible an accommodation that would have been considered almost unimaginable a few decades back."
Tommy Robinson’s red carpet welcome speaks volumes about today’s Israel | The National
@tiotasram@kolektiva.socialJust finished "Twice as Perfect" by Louise Onomé. This is now the third novel I've read by her about a teenage Nigerian-Canadian second-generation immigrant, two of whom deal with some form of family estrangement ("Like Home" and "The Melancholy of Summer" are the other two). I checked it out because I liked her other novels and was not disappointed; in fact I feel like this is her best novel of the three. Dealing with cultural appropriation, both implicitly and explicitly, along with deep family trauma and a bit of romance, "Twice as Perfect" is suspenseful, wise, and heartfelt. It's got a thread of Nigerian Pidgin in it, which I thoroughly enjoyed although I didn't 100% understand, similar in some ways to the sprinkling of Spanish in "Each of Us a Desert", but with even less of an attempt to subtly explain each instance in English, which I don't mind at all.
The 2nd generation immigrant authors writing YA ~romances I've read recently have all been great, including Adiba Jaigirdar, Samira Ahmed, Sabina Khan, and Randa Abdel-Fattah (a slightly different era), and to a lesser extent Romina Garber (I didn't like "Lobizona" quite as much as stuff by these others). It's been super interesting to contrast their stories with those of people like Mark Oshiro, Angie Thomas, Randi Pink, and Angela Velez who talk about American racism from a non-immigrant perspective (perhaps Ahmed is in between the two groups).
#AmReading #ReadingNow
@mgorny@social.treehouse.systemsI was supposed to go home via Wrocław.
But then, I thought: perhaps I could change trains in Legnica, Głogów and Leszno? Turns out, I can do that.
And then, I thought: I've got a long ait in Głogów, perhaps I should add a change in Rudna? Well, I can do that as well.
Of course, there's an increased risk that I'll end up being stuck somewhere along the way.
#rail
@lilmikesf@c.im#MelonHusk's creepy #SouthAfrican father faces increased media scrutiny in #NYTimes for bizarre predilections and some additional angry accusations from those in know that he perhaps parasitically preyed sexually on his own…
@andres4ny@social.ridetrans.itWow. I've dealt with various toxic personalities in software development, but a good portion of the time those toxic personalities were at least extremely knowledgeable in their (often, very limited) domain.
AI, however, seems to be enabling toxic personalities *who are completely clueless*. Impressive!
https://github…
@gray17@mastodon.socialRigby keeps trying to invent money, but he doesn't have a coherent model of interest rate policy in response to tariff shocks, so I'm not convinced.
@Sustainable2050@mastodon.energyA century of glaciers melting, condensed into a few seconds. Impressive video: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQWfDRejcPw/?igsh=Zm51d2Qzb2xtNHM4
@karlauerbach@sfba.socialWell, apparently the thug party is very upset that California has enacted, signed, and put into force the following law:
"California passes law banning ICE agents from wearing masks to hide their identities"
The ice-thugs are complaining that if they reveal their identities that the public may ostracize or send them upsetting emails or texts. Aw, the poor widdle ice-thugs, poor things. Perhaps they should think of the terror they bring to those they "detain"…
@thomasfuchs@hachyderm.ioThis is compounded by confusing the message with the messenger.
“I hate what you’re telling me, therefore obviously you must hate me” is a fallacy itself.
I hope people going down this path will eventually recognize what they’re doing and perhaps learn something and improve themselves.
@ELLIOTTCABLE@functional.cafe… then what the fuck is the point, Ubisoft?
I despise when corporations participate in the security theatre of having "2FA", but then *requiring* some sort of strictly-less-restrictive "backup" login option.
1. if 2FA can be added … but account-recovery-via-a-simple-e-mail cannot be disabled (pointless.)
2. OATH/FIDO 2FA available, but cannot be enabled unless you add your cell number as a fallback (SIM swap, anyone? pointless.)
3. and, perhaps mos…
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.netSeries A, Episode 01 - The Way Back
VARON: Perhaps they should have.
MAJA: What do you mean?
VARON: I don't know. Perhaps Blake is guilty. Even so it's... too perfect.
MAJA: Where're you going?
VARON: The Public Records computer.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/101/259…
@detondev@social.linux.pizzaPerhaps there's someone there? Under the water. Waiting for you.
@izzychambers@vivaldi.net@… I've used Talon, but before I retired I used Dragon Professional on Windows, which I greatly preferred. Now that I'm retired, I don't need speech to text that much. I've only used the free version of Talon, not the "beta", which costs something like $25/month. I found Talon very hard to use, perhaps because I was used to the Dragon way of …
@frankel@mastodon.topI recently learned about a new way to leak your #privacy, and it’s a scary one. Before going further, know that I’m not a network engineer: perhaps if you work in this field, you’ve known it for your whole career, but it’s quite new to me. Let me share my findings, and you can judge for yourself.
Since the original post was quite lengthy, I have broken it down into two installments: the probl…
@cowboys@darktundra.xyzCowboys Get Final Injury Decision On All-Pro Cornerback – Report https://heavy.com/sports/nfl/dallas-cowboys/daron-bland-for-sure-play-report/?adt_ei=[email]
@steve@s.yelvington.comPerhaps it's because their numbers are thinning, but the magats seem to be even crazier these days. Total denial of reality. Everyone arrested by ICE is guilty. Immigrants have no rights whatsoever. Black is white, up is down. 2 2=5.
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nzHazzah & yikes! Just saw the matriarch skink in our garden - we call her 3-Legs, because she's missing her left front leg. This is my first time seeing her since last fall. She's looking rather worse for the wear. From my quick glimpse, seems she's lost most of her tail and appears to have a mostly healed wound on her side. Here's hoping she's able to recover - and perhaps even parent another brood of skinklets - this summer! It's a pretty harsh world for skinks o…
@andycarolan@social.lolI did plan to go work from a coffee shop this week, but given the type of illustration work I am doing at the moment, I need to be at my desk.
Perhaps next week I can take my iPad out with me and work elsewhere.
As a compromise, I am watching a Barista/Working in a coffee shop video on YouTube 😅
@tezoatlipoca@mas.to"daily struggle" - a tad understated perhaps given its nothing but rubble?
https://flipboard.com/@associatedpress/international-news-miluvhmaz/-/a-BfFN493NTfyNBnTVhjAryg:a:3199720-/0
@kcase@mastodon.socialI've seen many reasonable criticisms of Liquid Glass online, but whenever I show Liquid Glass to someone in person they seem to really enjoy the new design.
I think part of this is that it's hard to show a dynamic design that responds to you in a screenshot or video that isn't actually responding to you.
But another part is that it _does_ require careful design work, and this early in it's easy to find examples where the design (perhaps of the system, perhaps of t…
@theodric@social.linux.pizzaAmazing how many people are really convinced that "following the news" is a real thing that has impact. What have you done with that information? Voted once every four years in a state that gives all its electoral votes to the other party, perhaps? Put the phone down and go outside
@grifferz@social.bitfolk.com"Federal police are still investigating whether the aircraft was involved in drug trafficking"
I'm sure there is a plausible alternative explanation that covers how a plane can have 180kg of cocaine on it but not be involved in drug trafficking.
Perhaps Mr Yaxley-Lennon has gone off on his hols now and needed an UberSpaceX top-up?
@blackknight95857669@social.linux.pizzaEasy Delivery Co (PC)
Get in your Kei truck and chill out, literally, making deliveries to mountain towns in the middle of winter. Can you figure out what's going on around here?
This game performed extremely well on my Garuda Linux PC, without having to use any compatibility tools. In fact the only "complaint" I might have is the achievements never popped. I don't care about those, so it's not a big deal, but something to note perhaps.
I li…
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot"Genocide is a process, not an event. When genocide happens, its roots, and the conditions that allowed it, often become visible only in retrospect. If those conditions remain unchanged and there is no accountability, there’s every reason to believe the violence will return, perhaps even worse, especially if it was never fully halted. This is exactly what we are seeing in the case of Gaza"
#GazaGenocide
@aardrian@toot.cafeHoly shit, it’s @… !
You might remember him from such hits as co-founding evolt•org at the end of the last century. Or perhaps for tracking Ontario and Toronto history. Or maybe the Doomsday Algorithm. Or possibly tracking Torontohenge.
@axbom@axbom.me
@ncoca@social.coopMy partner noticed how rarely we see mixed-race groups, even in groups of friends, in #KL #Malaysia, while at a local Kopitiam that seemed to be all Chinese-Malaysian (besides us). A day after she got to be the only non-Indian at an Indian restaurant.
It's perhaps a bit sad, but that was one of my fir…
@raiders@darktundra.xyz @AimeeMaroux@mastodon.socialA late Day of Hermes and #BumDayMonday post 🐏
"Zeus made Hermes his personal herald and messenger of the gods beneath the earth."
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.112-115
🏛 #Hermes Chthonios, Roman copy (1st century CE) after a Greek original by Praxiteles (ca. 350-32…
@NFL@darktundra.xyzHow Packers' Micah Parsons, Browns' Myles Garrett forged an elite edge rusher bond https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6645470/2025/09/20/micah-parsons-myles-garrett-packers-browns/
@UP8@mastodon.social🎨 New catalyst could make mixed plastic recycling a reality
#chemistry
@davidaugust@mastodon.online
@mlawton@mstdn.socialI REALLY like putting Kerkez on, if for nothing more than the psychological boost. Perhaps a lesson learned from the way Quansah was handled?
#LFC
@simoncox@seocommunity.socialThis looks interesting!
Duda putting on a mega webinar about conversions. And perhaps this will wake up some people who are still measuring their marketing efforts, the old way and not taking into account all the ways AI is changing the landscape!
https://www.duda.co/webinars/conversions-o
@burger_jaap@mastodon.social @sauer_lauwarm@mastodon.socialperhaps no other modern composition has had a more resonant healing effect
@david@boles.xyzThe Application of Imagination: Where Thought Becomes Matter
Imagination without application remains a private theater, brilliant perhaps, but ultimately sterile. The history of human achievement suggests that genius resides not in the capacity to imagine alone, but in the peculiar ability to transform mental constructs into material reality. This transformation requires something more demanding than pure creativity: it requires the discipline to translate vision into…
@hex@kolektiva.socialThe universal icon for LLMs have become sparkles, as in "magic," which is, perhaps apt because it's ultimately mostly illusion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKcBYI82_28
I think, perhaps, it should instead be a reverse ouroboros. I can't think of a more apt iconography for LLMs than a snake infinitely shoving it's head further and further up it's own ass.
@pre@boing.worldA panel of people from a few different countries.
The UK, where the event is, and the US currently have money which perhaps is good enough that the people there don't see much need to replace the money. Running global reserve currency helps exploit other poorer countries. The problems are fairly invisible.
But in other countries, poorer countries with even worse money, countries more exploited by debasement of the global reserve currencies, the problems with government money are more evident. They see the need for an alternative more strongly.
Adoption is important though. Money is only money if it's widely accepted. So given the choice of more users or higher price, the panel would all pick more users.
#bitfest #bitcoin
@paulbusch@mstdn.caGood Morning #Canada
The list of abandoned towns in PEI is apparently so short that no one has produced any really scary histories. It makes sense being a small island that there isn't enough distance to truly "abandon" a settlement. Maybe a house here or there, perhaps a short street. But that means you are more likely to be living next door to a haunted location. So today, we have a list of ghostly tales from around the island that may, or may not, be myth. Remember, don't go into the old shed with all the sharp farm tools....
#CanadaIsAwesome #CanadianGhostTowns
https://pointseastcoastaldrive.com/scary-stories-of-points-east-coastal-drive/
@lilmikesf@c.im @cdarwin@c.imCitizens United is the court decision that essentially ended meaningful campaign finance law in the United States.
Billionaires and centi-millionaires started gaining publicity and critical reactions to the scale of their spending and the impact it had on elections.
Political giving at scale by the extremely wealthy wasn’t new.
Perhaps the difference was the internet.
Whatever it was, the years after 2010 spawned the idea that the very wealthy and the extremely powe…
@cowboys@darktundra.xyzCowboys former 1st-round pick named Top-10 trade candidate for Bills, Colts https://cowboyswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/cowboys/2025/09/25/could-cowboys-trade-mazi-smith-to-one-of-these-afc-teams/86342…
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.netSeries C, Episode 03 - Volcano
CALLY: Well, Perhaps he'd like some help.
VILA: His trusty battle computers never sleep.
CALLY: Avon, confirm contact, confirm contact. [She turns up gain on communication equipment.]
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/303/236 B7B6
@chris@mstdn.chrisalemany.caWaiting for the announcment and press conference, the CBC live blog has this nugget:
"Alberta's deficit was initially $1.3B in the February budget, then grew to $6.5B by summer and has likely swelled even further with weak oil and natural gas prices."
Is there an Albertan leader of any party willing to utter the words:
"Maybe the vagaries of Oil and Gas prices is not what we should base our provincial budget on. Perhaps it is time to look at something else.”
#ABPoli #Oil #Gas #LNG #OilPipeline #NorthernGateway #HaidaGwaii #BCPoli
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/livestory/alberta-ottawa-memorandum-of-understanding-energy-deal-pipeline-bc-9.6993431
@AimeeMaroux@mastodon.socialIt's the Day of Selene / Luna's Day / #Monday! 🌛
"Against Mene the moon I [Helios the Sun] move my rolling ball, the sparkling nourisher of sheaf-producing growth, and pass on my endless circuit about the turning-point of the Zodiac, creating the measures of time."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 38.244
🏛️
@philip@mastodon.mallegolhansen.com@… #2 As it relates to something like Shintoism, or Buddhism. For whatever reason I can’t quite articulate, it feels different. Perhaps because of that same entanglement with culture.
I would have no problem with visiting a shrine.
I would absolutely observe any customs around footwear, loudness, photography, and whatnot. Those seem as a matter of respect, not…
@hex@kolektiva.socialAnd you don't need to accept the trap of authoritarian masculinity on logic alone, the proof is right there in male influencers like Andrew Tate and their followers. These dipshits get so obsessed with gatekeeping they don't realize that the gates they're tending keep them in, that the more walls they put up to protect their privilege, the smaller their identity can be. They huddle in tiny pens, terrified of crossing imaginary bounds that they imposed *on themselves.*
They have built their own torture chambers and locked themselves inside, and for what? They turn themselves into dragons, hoarding what they see as valuable while repressing every emotion including joy. And if they let themselves experience joy, they would, perhaps, realize that all these privileges are inconsistent with it. They might, perhaps, recognize that they have built up these privileges so they don't have to admit that their suffering and fear are not, in fact, admirable. They might have to face the fact that they have lived lives that are deeply pathetic, might have to face the fact that only empathy can give one access to deep satisfaction, might have to face the fact that they have lived their whole lives on a treadmill, going nowhere.
But I assume that they won't ever do that, because to do so would force them to face the enormity of the emotional debt, the pain and suffering they have inflicted on the world, and those are big feelings. It's far easier to hide in a hole, forever alone, making up silly rules to keep everyone inside scared and keep everyone outside from seeing in.
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nzACT and their Atlas Network operative leader, David Seymour, are the tail wagging the National ACT NZF coalition. Luxon conceded pretty much everything ACT required from National. Perhaps he is more right wing than National is, but also wanted the reins of power, so he was happy for ACT to lead it... but I wonder how National supporters feel about our domestic policy being set by an overseas oligarch-funded 'tail' wagging the National dog?
@izzychambers@vivaldi.net@… I saw something about this flyover in advance, but can't remember where. But I still don't like them, perhaps for the same reasons as you.
And now I worry that the helicopters are from ICE.
@jake4480@c.imI can't see how anything could possibly go wrong with this #MentalHealth
@axbom@axbom.me @kctipton@mas.toWhat You’ll Miss When It’s Gone #PBS
@theodric@social.linux.pizzaI would like to get a Kinematica Polytron™ PT 10/35 GT Homogenizer for making soup and soup-like homogenates, and also perhaps smoothies. Only $8,390.00 / Each of 1. Hereby requesting mutual aid, pls boost, thx ☭
@cowboys@darktundra.xyzMailbag: Pressure on Overshown to return? https://www.dallascowboys.com/news/mailbag-pressure-on-overshown-to-return
@pre@boing.worldPanel talking about dark markets on nostr.
Nostr can be quite anonymous and encrypted and connected to payment via bitcoin. Can it therefore do Silk Road? Allow anonymous markets?
Nobody wants to publicly advocate for selling illegal drugs, but yeah, sure, people could do that. There's even protocol types for market places.
Relay owners might get into legal issues if they are forwarding illegal market listings. But this is true in general, there are also illegal images and even illegal text.
Nostr relays and Devs might find themselves in legal trouble anyway, due to the general legal crackdowns on internet requiring age proof and id on websites obstensively to protect kids. These are freedoms we all need to fight for. Perhaps brains will drain to more free jurisdictions? Devs move to where open development is legal? Not the panel at least. They want to say at home.
#nostr #nostrshire #darkMarkets
@hex@kolektiva.socialThought Slime posted a video on Liberals and Charlie Kirk (linked in my post). It touched on a few ideas I've been wanting to explore more.
Why is it that, even though we talk "memes" going "viral" we are still talking about "Free Market of Ideas" as though ideas were inanimate objects we could handle and observe objectively? Perhaps that idea is it's own infection.
https://hexmhell.writeas.com/memetic-effluent-and-the-wet-market-of-ideas
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.netSeries C, Episode 02 - Powerplay
VILA: Oh.
BARR: Are you hungry?
VILA: Well now you mention it, my last meal was interrupted.
BARR: I'll get you something.
ZEE: What's the matter with your arm?
VILA: Broken, nothing really.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/302/242
@cdarwin@c.imThe “Debate Me Bro” Grift: How Trolls Weaponized The Marketplace Of Ideas
Among the attempts to create hagiographic eulogies of Charlie Kirk, I’ve seen more than a few people suggest that Kirk should be respected for being willing to talk to “those who disagree with him” as a sign that he was engaging in good faith.
Perhaps the perfect example of this is Ezra Klein’s silly eulogy claiming that Kirk was “practicing politics the right way” because he would debate students who disa…
@tiotasram@kolektiva.socialJust finished "Beasts Made of Night" by Tochi Onyebuchi...
Indirect CW for fantasy police state violence.
So I very much enjoyed Onyebuchi's "Riot Baby," and when I grabbed this at the library, I was certain it would be excellent. But having finished it, I'm not sure I like it that much overall?
The first maybe third is excellent, including the world-building, which is fascinating. I feel like Onyebuchi must have played "Shadow of the Colossus" at some point. Onyebuchi certainly does know how to make me care for his characters.
Some spoilers from here on out...
.
.
.
I felt like it stumbles towards the middle, with Bo's reactions neither making sense in the immediate context, nor in retrospect by the end when we've learned more. Things are a bit floaty in the middle with an unclear picture of what exactly is going on politics-wise and what the motivations are. Here I think there were some nuances that didn't make it to the page, or perhaps I'm just a bit thick and not getting stuff I should be? More is of course revealed by the end, but I still wasn't satisfied with the explanations of things. For example, (spoilers) I don't feel I understand clearly what kind of power the army of aki was supposed to represent within the city? Perhaps necessary to wield the threat of offensive inisisia use? In that case, a single scene somewhere of Izu's faction deploying that tactic would have been helpful I think.
Then towards the end, for me things really started to jumble, with unclear motivations, revelations that didn't feel well-paced or -structured, and a finale where both the action & collapsing concerns felt stilted and disjointed. Particularly the mechanics/ethics of the most important death that set the finale in motion bothered me, and the unexplained mechanism by which that led to what came next? I can read a couple of possible interesting morals into the whole denouement, but didn't feel that any of them were sufficiently explored. Especially if we're supposed to see some personal failing in the protagonist's actions, I don't think it's made clear enough what that is, since I feel his reasons to reject each faction are pretty solid, and if we're meant to either pity or abjure his indecision, I don't think the message lands clearly enough.
There *is* a sequel, which honestly I wasn't sure of after the last page, and which I now very interested in. Beasts is Onyebuchi's debut, which maybe makes sense of me feeling that Riot Baby didn't have the same plotting issues. It also maybe means that Onyebuchi couldn't be sure a sequel would make it to publication in terms of setting up the ending.
Overall I really enjoyed at least 80% of this, but was expecting even better (especially politically) given Onyebuchi's other work, and I didn't feel like I found it.
#AmReading
@sauer_lauwarm@mastodon.socialWin book and drink vouchers, small beers, fame and glory and perhaps even new knowledge!
@chris@mstdn.chrisalemany.caPerhaps if folks took matters into their own hands and captured these old fools and put them in prison….
https://glasgow.social/@Nachtflug/115181507001248283
@cowboys@darktundra.xyzStephen A. Smith Makes Bold Cowboys’ Dak Prescott Claim https://heavy.com/sports/nfl/dallas-cowboys/stephen-a-smith-dak-prescott-claim/?adt_ei=[email]
@axbom@axbom.meIf you're unclear on why you have to load the video before you can play it it's because the first load only loads the image, title and channel name to make the page itself load much faster.
The person viewing is then allowed to make a more considered choice before activating the video. Perhaps you want to open the link an incognito window instead for example.
One great bonus to this embed is that it shows way less ads, if any.
@hex@kolektiva.socialThe implications are interesting enough when we apply this to systems like capitalism or national governments, but there are other very interesting implications when applied to systems like race or gender.
Like, as a cis man the only way I can be free to express and explore my own masculinity is if the masculinity I participate in is one which allows anyone the freedom to leave. Then I have an obligation to recognize the validity of nom-masculine trans identity as a necessary component of my own. If I fail to do this, then I trap myself in masculinity and allow the system to control me rather than me to be a free participant in the system.
But if it's OK to escape but not enter, that's it's own restriction that constrains the freedom to leave. It creates a barrier that keeps people in by the fear that they cannot return. So in order for me to be free in my cis masculine identity, I must accept non-masculine trans identities as they are and accept detransitioning as also valid.
But I also need to accept trans-masc identities because restricting entry to my masculinity means non-consensually constraining other identities. If every group imposes an exclusion against others coming in, that, by default, makes it impossible to leave every other group. This is just a description of how national borders work to trap people within systems, even if a nation itself allows people to "freely" leave.
So then, a free masculinity is one which recognizes all configurations of trans identities as valid and welcomes, if not celebrates, people who transition as affirmations of the freedom of their own identity (even for those who never feel a reason to exercise that same freedom).
The most irritating type of white person may look at this and say, "oh, so then why can't I be <not white>?" Except that the critique of transratial identities has never been "that's not allowed" and has always been "this person didn't do the work." If that person did the work, they would understand that the question doesn't make sense based on how race is constructed. That person might understand that race, especially whiteness, is more fluid than they at first understood. They might realize that whiteness is often chosen at the exclusion of other racialized identities. They would, perhaps, realize that to actually align with any racialized identity, they would first have to understand the boot of whiteness on their neck, have to recognize the need to destroy this oppressive identity for their own future liberation. The best, perhaps only, way to do this would be to use the privilege afforded by that identity to destroy it, and in doing so would either destroy their own privilege or destroy the system of privilege. The must either become themselves completely ratialized or destroy the system of race itself such being "transracial" wouldn't really make sense anymore.
But that most annoying of white person would, of course, not do any such work. Nevertheless, one hopes that they may recognize the paradox that they are trapped by their white identity, forced forever by it to do the work of maintaining it. And such is true for all privileged identities, where privilege is only maintained through restrictions where these restrictions ultimately become walls that imprison both the privileged and the marginalized in a mutually reinforcing hell that can only be escaped by destroying the system of privilege itself.
@cdarwin@c.imThe last few years have seen a veritable onslaught of the Supreme Court overturning major precedent
—precedent that concerned hot-button issues,
spawned huge bodies of law on which lower courts now rely,
stood for 50 years,
and had been reaffirmed multiple times by previous Courts.
And perhaps most gallingly,
the Supreme Court has claimed that these overturnings were justified by the “correct” readings of history
— expressly paving the way for Trump…
@hex@kolektiva.socialAny sufficiently advanced disaster preparedness is indistinguishable from revolutionary dual power. This essay is a bit of a transition between the theory I've written earlier, and more concrete plans.
Even though I only touched on my life on the commune, it was hard not to write more. These are such weird spaces, with so much invisible opportunity. But they're also just so unique and special. For all the stress and uncertainty of making sure you stayed on Lorean's (the head priestess), there were also those long summer nights with the whole community (except the old lady) gathered around a fire, talking and drinking. There was almost a child-like play to the whole time.
There were so Fridays I'd come home with a couple of gallons of beer from the real world, folks would bring things from the garden, someone would grill a steak, everyone who didn't cook would clean up, and we'd just hang out and have fun. So many evenings I'd go over to Miles place with a guitar, or with his guitar, and we'd pass it around over a few beers, talking about philosophy, Star Wars, or some book or other. It's hard not to write about the strange magic of that space.
My partner and I bonded over similar experiences, mine on a weird little religious commune in California and theirs as a temporary worker at Omega Institute. Both had exploitation, people on weird power trips, frustrating dynamics, but also a strange magic and freedom. Both were sort of fantasy worlds, but places that let us see through this one, let us imagine something that something else is possible behind the veil.
There are many such veils.
Perhaps it's fitting that this is more meandering, as a good wander can help the transition between lots of hard thinking and lots of hard working.
https://anarchoccultism.org/building-zion/evaluating-options
Editing feedback (especially typos, spelling, grammar) is always welcome, as are questions and even wider structural advice. I've been adding the handles of folks who provide feedback to the intro in a "thank you" section. If you do help and wouldn't like to be added, please let me know.
@cowboys@darktundra.xyzJerry Jones Faces Serious Backlash After ‘Special’ Player Trade Comments https://heavy.com/sports/nfl/dallas-cowboys/jerry-jones-backlash-trade-packers-picks/?adt_ei=[email]
@cdarwin@c.imTrump said Tuesday that the United States could step in to disarm Hamas
— “quickly and perhaps violently”
— if the organization did not do so itself,
a potential vulnerability in a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement
that has tentatively brought an end to two years of war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Hamas, which has controlled Gaza for nearly two decades,
has not yet publicly agreed to or signed anything that specifies how it will disarm,
though …
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.netSeries C, Episode 06 - City at the Edge of the World
DAYNA: They boobytrapped the box. Simple enough to do.
CALLY: They're a simple people, according to Tarrant.
AVON: And completely unaggressive. A slight exaggeration perhaps.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/306/92 B7B4
@hex@kolektiva.socialPerhaps the most interesting thing about the Nacirema people is their insistence that they do not participate in practices of which they clearly do. Equally unusual is the fact that, unlike other sacrificial cultures who raid neighboring tribes for victims, both slaves and victims for human sacrifice are only taken from within the society. In fact, there is a very strong cultural taboo against sacrificing or enslaving those from other tribes.
They are aware of the rituals of human sacrifice in other tribes, but claim such rituals to be inconsistent with their society. Yet their human sacrifice rituals are some of the most elaborate in the world. These rituals are so important that there is a whole part of Nacirema society dedicated specifically to arguing about who should and should not be sacrificed, restraining and feeding the potential victims for the years during which these arguments take place, and ultimately preparing and administering the ritual poison.
This is strangely similar to their approach to slavery. Both human sacrifice and slavery were once a much larger part of Nacirema society. Their human sacrifice rituals now take far longer and happen far less often, but at no point have they ever recognized these ritual sacrifices as such. Meanwhile, the Nacirema do acknowledge that slavery was part of their culture once. During the time when they did recognize their practice of slavery, they did raid other tribes for slaves. Now they follow the same complex ritual for slavery as they do for human sacrifice.
It is strange that, by following this ritual and only choosing victims from within their society, they seem to become incapable of seeing their behavior for what it is.
