@hikingdude@mastodon.socialWe are not always discovering high mountains - sometimes we also go below earth. 😄
Here we went ~55m below the surface to see what the world below our feet looks like. And yes, the stairs were as steep as they appear on the #photo! The whole walk took us about an hour.
more about it:
@tiotasram@kolektiva.socialTL;DR: what if instead of denying the harms of fascism, we denied its suppressive threats of punishment
Many of us have really sharpened our denial skills since the advent of the ongoing pandemic (perhaps you even hesitated at the word "ongoing" there and thought "maybe I won't read this one, it seems like it'll be tiresome"). I don't say this as a preface to a fiery condemnation or a plea to "sanity" or a bunch of evidence of how bad things are, because I too have honed my denial skills in these recent years, and I feel like talking about that development.
Denial comes in many forms, including strategic information avoidance ("I don't have time to look that up right now", "I keep forgetting to look into that", "well this author made a tiny mistake, so I'll click away and read something else", "I'm so tired of hearing about this, let me scroll farther", etc.) strategic dismissal ("look, there's a bit of uncertainty here, I should ignore this", "this doesn't line up perfectly with my anecdotal experience, it must be completely wrong", etc.) and strategic forgetting ("I don't remember what that one study said exactly; it was painful to think about", "I forgot exactly what my friend was saying when we got into that argument", etc.). It's in fact a kind of skill that you can get better at, along with the complementary skill of compartmentalization. It can of course be incredibly harmful, and a huge genre of fables exists precisely to highlight its harms, but it also has some short-term psychological benefits, chiefly in the form of muting anxiety. This is not an endorsement of denial (the harms can be catastrophic), but I want to acknowledge that there *are* short-term benefits. Via compartmentalization, it's even possible to be honest with ourselves about some of our own denials without giving them up immediately.
But as I said earlier, I'm not here to talk you out of your denials. Instead, given that we are so good at denial now, I'm here to ask you to be strategic about it. In particular, we live in a world awash with propaganda/advertising that serves both political and commercial ends. Why not use some of our denial skills to counteract that?
For example, I know quite a few people in complete denial of our current political situation, but those who aren't (including myself) often express consternation about just how many people in the country are supporting literal fascism. Of course, logically that appearance of widespread support is going to be partly a lie, given how much our public media is beholden to the fascists or outright in their side. Finding better facts on the true level of support is hard, but in the meantime, why not be in denial about the "fact" that Trump has widespread popular support?
To give another example: advertisers constantly barrage us with messages about our bodies and weight, trying to keep us insecure (and thus in the mood to spend money to "fix" the problem). For sure cutting through that bullshit by reading about body positivity etc. is a better solution, but in the meantime, why not be in denial about there being anything wrong with your body?
This kind of intentional denial certainly has its own risks (our bodies do actually need regular maintenance, for example, so complete denial on that front is risky) but there's definitely a whole lot of misinformation out there that it would be better to ignore. To the extent such denial expands to a more general denial of underlying problems, this idea of intentional denial is probably just bad. But I sure wish that in a world where people (including myself) routinely deny significant widespread dangers like COVID-19's long-term risks or the ongoing harms of escalating fascism, they'd at least also deny some of the propaganda keeping them unhappy and passive. Instead of being in denial about US-run concentration camps, why not be in denial that the state will be able to punish you for resisting them?
@hex@kolektiva.socialAs we continue down this path of escalating nihilistic meme violence, it can feel like the worst things have become viral. We are drowning in the memetic effluent of a capitalist media that profits by maximizing engagement. But I wonder if anyone remembers "Pay it Forward?"
A movie came out in 2000 about a kid who started a viral kindness campaign. The idea was that you do something nice for someone else with the expectation that they do the same in the future. I never really saw the movie, but I do remember the time. There were a few weeks, maybe a few months, where people started doing it. People would just be randomly nice, and everything actually just started feeling better.
Over time, the world caught up. Capitalism consumed the whole thing, and life went back to normal. 9/11 happened the next year, and the US started down the path of becoming the most twisted and evil version of itself. But there was a short time that doing nice stuff was a viral meme, a thing that people just started doing.
Gun violence doesn't have to be the only viral meme we have. We can make good things happen too.
@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
@arXiv_csRO_bot@mastoxiv.pageMLM: Learning Multi-task Loco-Manipulation Whole-Body Control for Quadruped Robot with Arm
Xin Liu, Bida Ma, Chenkun Qi, Yan Ding, Zhaxizhuoma, Guorong Zhang, Pengan Chen, Kehui Liu, Zhongjie Jia, Chuyue Guan, Yule Mo, Jiaqi Liu, Feng Gao, Jiangwei Zhong, Bin Zhao, Xuelong Li
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.10538…
@luana@wetdry.worldI really hope I don’t get into problems for saying this but fedi admins desperately need to learn that being angry at someone isn’t enough reason to defederate them or their entire instance
This is not about any particular admin or instance, I’ve had to migrate instances due to shit like this once already and at this point I’m considering just self hosting my own already even tho I know how that’ll be an awful time
If you have a single user instance then sure do whatever tf you want, and if you’re on an instance for you and like 5 close friends who all agree to do something then go on.
But at the minute you have an instance with more people and for a more general public you have a responsibility at your hands. Modding is no easy job, but this doesn’t mean you can just go around defedding people you don’t like from your whole instance.
Y’all know you can block accounts from your account like normal users too right? You know you don’t need to make decisions for everyone in your instance in order to do this right?
@gwire@mastodon.socialOhhh, those unaccountable payment processors again.
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/valve-explain-why-using-paypal-for-steam-purchases-isnt-currently-an-option-in-a-whole-bunch-of-countries…
@mgorny@social.treehouse.systems"""
If lepers were socially excluded and removed from the community of the visible church, their existence still made God manifest, as they showed both his anger and his bounty: ‘Dearly beloved’, says a ritual from a church in Vienne in the south of France, ‘it has pleased God to afflict you with this disease, and the Lord is gracious for bringing punishment upon you for the evil that you have done in this world.’ The leper was then dragged out of the church by the priest and his acolytes gressu retrogrado but he was assured that he was God’s witness: ‘however removed from the church and the company of the saints, you are never separated from the grace of God’. Brueghel’s lepers watch from afar, but forever, as Christ climbs Mount Calvary accompanied by a whole people. Hieratic witnesses of evil, their salvation is assured by their exclusion: in a strange reversal quite opposed to merit and prayers, they are saved by the hand that is not offered. The sinner who abandons the leper to his fate thereby opens the door to his salvation. ‘Thus be patient in your sickness, for the Lord does not underestimate your ills, nor separate you from his company. If you have patience, so shall you be saved, like the leper who died outside the door of the rich man, and was carried straight up to Heaven.’ Abandonment is his salvation, and exclusion offers an unusual form of communion.
"""
(Michel Foucault, History of Madness, transl. Jonathan Murphy and Jean Khalfa)
@muz4now@mastodon.world
@pre@boing.worldTWENTY SEVEN series! Man. South Park continues to be pretty cool too.
Still both fresh and yet familiar. I remain in awe of the consistency of the show over more than half my whole life now.
Stupid cock and fart jokes with an absurd setup which on a second level is mentioning and mocking the true absurdity and violence of real life.
Satan being Trump's lover in a rehash of the Sadam Hussain skit is lovely.
They seem determined to try and get cancelled, but haven't managed that in 27 years. Maybe it's a small-dick joke that'll finally do them in?
Still got half of this season to watch. Seems like it's mostly bi-weekly now? Or every episode is delayed.
#watching #tv #southPark
@mariyadelano@hachyderm.ioThis is bizarre - I made a typo and accidentally ran a #Google search for a comma. Not the word, the punctuation mark.
And yet, somehow, Google thinks that is:
1. A valid enough search to be showing a bazillion results
2. A search that needs short-form vertical videos at the top from a bunch of white women (who are they? Why them? What in the world is relevant to a singular punctuation mark that makes them pull up these videos?)
3. A search with enough inferred intent to show me a whole Q&A interface?
I know we complain about the state of #search online a lot these days and I've been part of the #SEO industry for years but something like this is so blatantly ridiculous it's hard not to stop and wonder.... what the actual fuck?
@bobmueller@mastodon.worldA whole month in jail? Meanwhile, Hayden Edwards is still dead, and this couple's children are likely still at risk. And I get it: #ReligiousFreedom is a thing. But where's the line? #religion
@chrisnelder@mastodon.energyFascinating observations on EVs from David Fickling:
- High adoption rates in developing countries
- EVs pencil out unsubsidized
- Oil & gas are ~1/3 of all imports to In India and Pakistan
- Switching half of India’s car fleet to EVs could eliminate its current account deficit
- Rich countries are sabotaging their own energy transitions
@inthehands@hachyderm.ioWhy for all of us to take to heart?
Because we all need to remember that there are people in our circles for whom existence is resistance, which makes every single day a fight.
And we need to remember that it •matters• when we forcefully speak up for the humanity of others — or simply treat somebody who is vulnerable with basic decency and steadfast respect, in spite of the whole damned world.
And some days some little instance of one of those things — speaking up, decency, respect — that just feels like almost nothing in the moment might be the most important thing we do all day, and we won’t even know it.
@Sustainable2050@mastodon.energy🌞 Solar power capacity additions in China doubled year-on-year to 212 gigawatts, with total capacity at the end of H1 increasing a whopping 54% year on year
[Post by @laurimyllyvirta on Bluesky]
That's more than the whole world installed in the full year 2021.
@cdarwin@c.imPresident Lai Ching-te of Taiwan had planned to make brief stops in New York and Dallas next month, en route to and from Latin America,
hoping to demonstrate the island’s strong ties with the United States in defiance of China.
But the Trump administration,
which is focused on talks with Beijing over trade and a possible summit,
told Mr. Lai to cancel his proposed stopover in New York,
Mr. Lai canceled his whole trip.
The hints of tension between Taipei and …
@tiotasram@kolektiva.socialJust read this post by @… on an optimistic AGI future, and while it had some interesting and worthwhile ideas, it's also in my opinion dangerously misguided, and plays into the current AGI hype in a harmful way.
https://social.coop/@eloquence/114940607434005478
My criticisms include:
- Current LLM technology has many layers, but the biggest most capable models are all tied to corporate datacenters and require inordinate amounts of every and water use to run. Trying to use these tools to bring about a post-scarcity economy will burn up the planet. We urgently need more-capable but also vastly more efficient AI technologies if we want to use AI for a post-scarcity economy, and we are *not* nearly on the verge of this despite what the big companies pushing LLMs want us to think.
- I can see that permacommons.org claims a small level of expenses on AI equates to low climate impact. However, given current deep subsidies on place by the big companies to attract users, that isn't a great assumption. The fact that their FAQ dodges the question about which AI systems they use isn't a great look.
- These systems are not free in the same way that Wikipedia or open-source software is. To run your own model you need a data harvesting & cleaning operation that costs millions of dollars minimum, and then you need millions of dollars worth of storage & compute to train & host the models. Right now, big corporations are trying to compete for market share by heavily subsidizing these things, but it you go along with that, you become dependent on them, and you'll be screwed when they jack up the price to a profitable level later. I'd love to see open dataset initiatives SBD the like, and there are some of these things, but not enough yet, and many of the initiatives focus on one problem while ignoring others (fine for research but not the basis for a society yet).
- Between the environmental impacts, the horrible labor conditions and undercompensation of data workers who filter the big datasets, and the impacts of both AI scrapers and AI commons pollution, the developers of the most popular & effective LLMs have a lot of answer for. This project only really mentions environmental impacts, which makes me think that they're not serious about ethics, which in turn makes me distrustful of the whole enterprise.
- Their language also ends up encouraging AI use broadly while totally ignoring several entire classes of harm, so they're effectively contributing to AI hype, especially with such casual talk of AGI and robotics as if embodied AGI were just around the corner. To be clear about this point: we are several breakthroughs away from AGI under the most optimistic assumptions, and giving the impression that those will happen soon plays directly into the hands of the Sam Altmans of the world who are trying to make money off the impression of impending huge advances in AI capabilities. Adding to the AI hype is irresponsible.
- I've got a more philosophical criticism that I'll post about separately.
I do think that the idea of using AI & other software tools, possibly along with robotics and funded by many local cooperatives, in order to make businesses obsolete before they can do the same to all workers, is a good one. Get your local library to buy a knitting machine alongside their 3D printer.
Lately I've felt too busy criticizing AI to really sit down and think about what I do want the future to look like, even though I'm a big proponent of positive visions for the future as a force multiplier for criticism, and this article is inspiring to me in that regard, even if the specific project doesn't seem like a good one.
@joxean@mastodon.socialThe world's leading genocide scholars' association, The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), has passed a resolution saying that the legal criteria have been met to establish Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Here is the whole resolution:
https://
@seeingwithsound@mas.toThe natural-born posthuman: applying extended mind to post- and transhumanist discourse https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11229-025-05202-4 "Newer discussions have expanded upon this idea through sensory substitution devices, such as The vOICe system which use…
@Caerfinon@mastodon.socialLost wandering in the desert
#Sims4 #TheSims4 #Comicstrip
@tydalforce@mastodon.worldA short whiles back I decided to watch randoms of Star Trek TNG randomly, so I asked ChatGPT to pick one, and keep a list of unwatched episodes.
With as often as it messed up, it would have been faster and easier for me to write myself a little Python app for this.
- It's constantly suggesting episodes i've already watched
- Occasionally it suggests an episode from another Trek series like DS9
-= Somehow a whole bunch of episodes got dropped from the list
@mgorny@social.treehouse.systemsTime for another "review". This one's hard. While the book was quite interesting, it required me to be quite open-minded. Still, I think it's worth mentioning:
Robert Wright — Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny
The book basically focused on a thesis that both biological evolution and cultural evolution are a thing, they are directional and this directionality can be explained together using game theory — as eventually leading to more non-zero sum games.
It consists of three chapters. The first one is is focused on the history of civilization. It features many examples from different parts of the world, which makes it quite interesting. The author argues that the culture inevitably is evolving as information processing techniques improve — from writing to the Internet.
The second chapter is focused on biological evolution. Now, the argument is that it's not quite random, but actually directed towards greater complexity — eventually leading to the development of highly intelligent species, and a civilization.
The third chapter is quite speculative and metaphysical, and I'm just going to skip it.
The book is full of optimism. Capitalism creates freedom — because people are more productive when they're working for their own gain, so the free market eliminates slavery. Globalisation creates networks of interdependence that make wars uneconomic. Increased contacts between different cultures makes people more tolerant. And eventually, the humanity may be able to unite facing a common "external" enemy — the climate change.
What can I say? The examples are quite interesting, the whole theory seems self-consistent. Still, I repeatedly looked at the publication date (it's 1999), and wondered if author would write the same thing today (yes, I know I can search for his current opinions).
#books #bookstodon @…
@thomasfuchs@hachyderm.ioThis whole opinion, while well-meaning and bringing up generally good points (we humans can decide what technology we research and how we use it)—misses the point: there will not be an “AGI” that derives from current “AI” technology.
What the “AI” companies are proposing and the media is accepting at face value is like saying ever more realistic graphics in computer games will suddenly reach some threshold and the graphics will become the real world.
It’s nonsense.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/ng-interactive/2025/jul/21/human-level-artificial-intelligence
@muz4now@mastodon.worldBuilding Empathy Through the Sounds of 'a World in Motion'
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/crossing-borders-music/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=muz4now/magazine%2…
@unchartedworlds@scicomm.xyz47's government being a menace to the whole world again. Tuberculosis in prisons means tuberculosis everywhere.
"Detainees have tested positive for tuberculosis at the Anchorage Correctional Complex in Alaska and Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California, according to news reports. ...
"Tuberculosis thrives in carceral settings of all kinds. It spreads through the air when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or spits, and it only takes a few droplets to sicken someone. ...
"Almost everyone who contracts it needs treatment to survive, and those who do may live with lungs so damaged they struggle to breathe. ...
"Anyone in ICE custody with symptoms suggestive of tuberculosis is supposed to be placed into an airborne infection isolation room with negative pressure ventilation ...
"But ICE detention facilities don’t necessarily have such rooms ... The typical solitary cell does not use negative pressure, detention and medical researchers said. ...
"Experts expect the situation to get much worse in the months ahead. That’s because Trump’s drive to deport one million people hasn’t yet coincided with the height of flu season, or the GOP’s recent cuts to the health care system, or its exclusion of undocumented immigrants from several social programs."
- Whitney Curry Wimbish, The American Prospect
#tuberculosis #USA #USPol
@arXiv_csRO_bot@mastoxiv.pageHumanoidExo: Scalable Whole-Body Humanoid Manipulation via Wearable Exoskeleton
Rui Zhong, Yizhe Sun, Junjie Wen, Jinming Li, Chuang Cheng, Wei Dai, Zhiwen Zeng, Huimin Lu, Yichen Zhu, Yi Xu
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.03022
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot"'What really concerns me is the whole atmosphere of intimidation.'
Farley, who had attended a number of peaceful demonstrations in the past, pointed out on the day he was arrested, 32 Palestinians were shot by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza while queuing for aid, a subject referenced on his placard."
#GazaGenocide
@grumpybozo@toad.socialAnother way of reading that story:
Even if you are fighting a doomed asymmetric battle, if you can get your tormentors obsessed with beating you, you can make them harm themselves badly as they "win."
https://infosec.exchange/@JessTheUnstill/114972393515946976
@losttourist@social.chatty.monsterSometimes when I go to the swimming pool it's fun to jump in the deep end, sink to the bottom (a whole 2 metres down) and hold my breath for 15-20 seconds or so. It's so quiet and peaceful that for a moment you can forget everything.
But this, this is completely unimaginable. A new world record has been set for free diving - Alexey Molchanov has swum down to 126 metres (and back up again!) and held his breath for over 4½ minutes.
My mind is completely and utterly boggled. Not to mention my lungs.
#freediving
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/c4gvw7zmwgko
@rocksongoftheweek@mastodon.worldOur spotlight this week falls on a song from #metalcore act Fit For a King, and be pre-warned it's catchy.
Give it a listen, then check out our thoughts on the song, the band, metalcore as a whole, and whatever tangents we stumbled onto along the way.
Follow us for more curated picks from across the world of
@burningbecks@social.tchncs.deThe mouth of destruction, it reaches to gnaw
On the heads of the people misremembering their own laws
With purged opposition the player has won
Now the mills of justicia run in favor of the one
A whole land is dying, it's head is outworn
The wise men are lying while their new world's to be born
To turn ones perspective as history's shown
Is no more than child's play, so your garden of ashes can grow
@arXiv_csCL_bot@mastoxiv.pageAdaptive Federated Distillation for Multi-Domain Non-IID Textual Data
Jiahao Xiao, Jiangming Liu
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.20557 https://arxiv.org/pdf/250…
@inthehands@hachyderm.ioMy reaction to the little snippets I caught is similar to @…’s, and of course this is the whole point:
Fascist movements have always, always rested on insecure, mediocre men who feel like the world owes them something and it’s slipping away, who will do •anything• and believe •anything• as an alternative to the nagging feeling that actually they just kind of suck.
1/ https://climatejustice.social/@Brad_Rosenheim/115293541723826815
@HeidiSeibold@fosstodon.orgFriends of computational reproducibility: do any of you have experience with Guix?
#reproducibleresearch
@luana@wetdry.worldWhat the fuck, I need to create a Xiaomi account in order to unlock the bootloader?
Fuck off mate, the whole point of unlocking the bootloader is getting away from your bullshit
@midtsveen@social.linux.pizzaWhat is happening right now in Gaza and across Palestine is nothing less than genocide, and watching it unfold in real time is unbearable. Entire neighborhoods are being reduced to rubble, families are wiped out within seconds, hospitals and schools are bombed without shame, and a whole population is being deliberately starved under blockade. This is not some abstract “conflict” or “defense,” it is the systematic destruction of a people carried out while the world looks away.
For me, t…
@arXiv_csCV_bot@mastoxiv.pageWISE-FUSE: Efficient Whole Slide Image Encoding via Coarse-to-Fine Patch Selection with VLM and LLM Knowledge Fusion
Yonghan Shin, SeungKyu Kim, Won-Ki Jeong
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.14537
@arXiv_csRO_bot@mastoxiv.pagePolySim: Bridging the Sim-to-Real Gap for Humanoid Control via Multi-Simulator Dynamics Randomization
Zixing Lei, Zibo Zhou, Sheng Yin, Yueru Chen, Qingyao Xu, Weixin Li, Yunhong Wang, Bowei Tang, Wei Jing, Siheng Chen
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.01708
@cdarwin@c.imU.S. automakers are choosing the path to extinction by sticking with fossil fuels & hybrids.
And U.S. policies that prop up internal combustion engines & attempt to discourage EV adoption will hasten their demise.
The world is going electric while they cling to bygone days.
https://b…
@pre@boing.worldRead the first of Martha Well's Murderbot books, "All Systems Red" in which a security drone rescues it's crew from violence and death on the planet they're exploring.
The robot seems barely distinguished from the cyborgs and the humans really. Certainly organic parts, autonomy, inner life. Seems to not particularly like the humans but also seems to be pretty much like one.
Seemed short, like the first episode of a show rather than the whole series. Which I suppose I should have expected if I'd noticed it was a novella. There is indeed a whole series of them. Given I bought 'em in a bundle expect I'll read more.
#reading #murderBot #marthaWells #allSystemsRed
@Sustainable2050@mastodon.energyChina to start reducing its CO2 emissions within a decade!
Wind and solar to reach 3.6 TW by 2035; that's just a little below what the whole world has installed so far.
https://bsky.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did…
@arXiv_csHC_bot@mastoxiv.pageEmphasizing Deliberation and Critical Thinking in an AI Hype World
Katja Rogers
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.14961 https://arxiv.org/pd…
@mgorny@social.treehouse.systemsWhen another coach capitalist philosopher starts telling you how people wouldn't work at all if they weren't coerced to, and the whole world would fall apart then, you should remind them that practically the whole Internet — yes, the same they're using to spread their capitalistic bullshit and the one capitalism is repeatedly trying to turn into complete useless shit — is founded on the work of volunteers, who for many years tirelessly work to keep it working while usually not expecting anything in return.
#AntiCapitalism
@servelan@newsie.social"Forget cards, Zelenskyy's bringing the whole deck to Washington"
'Pathetic and humiliating': MAGA fury erupts as world leaders unite to thwart Trump 'trap' - Raw Story
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-pathetic-maga-outrage-ukraine/
@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
@muz4now@mastodon.worldModal toccata
- the pipe organ is like a whole orchestra under your hands ... and feet -
#PipeOrgan #NowPlaying
https://
@JSkier@social.linux.pizzaOne highlight of 4 runs this week. My goal was 5 runs of at least 5 miles; I just got in 4, though (definitely not going out at night tonight, lol).
These were in rural western Wisconsin. Health has been a bit all over the map this week, and things have been hectic with family stuff. Yet, it was good to take time off work for vacation 😎
Note, this is running on beta blockers; a whole new world to me, and I don't know if I like it.
@cdarwin@c.imPutin played Trump like a fiddle
And the whole world knows it
@pre@boing.worldA lot of media today excited that US companies are "investing" in the UK with announcements timed with the visit from that wanker they elected over there.
But "investment" here means US companies buying UK land and staff and companies, right?
The whole press is celebrating more of the UK being sold to American owners. Like its a really great thing that UK workers will have American bosses and American companies will own and manage sites here.
Seems an odd thing to celebrate. I'd be happier if UK companies were repossessing US assets in this country and the country's wealth was expected to remain with UK owners.
Oh well. Expect "investment" has already meant those media companies are owned by Americans eh?
#ukpol #uspol #investment #thatWankerTheyElected
@arXiv_csRO_bot@mastoxiv.pageSwitch4EAI: Leveraging Console Game Platform for Benchmarking Robotic Athletics
Tianyu Li, Jeonghwan Kim, Wontaek Kim, Donghoon Baek, Seungeun Rho, Sehoon Ha
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.13444
@BBC6MusicBot@mastodonapp.uk🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on #BBC6Music's #DreamTime
Kevin Ayers & The Whole World:
🎵 May I?
#KevinAyers #TheWholeWorld
