DecaturNature @DecaturNature@social.cleverlibre.org

#Russia 's best known opposition punk band #Pussyriot has released a song protesting against the #war in #Ukraine - with English subtitles, recommended
https://youtu.be/W4IsdnlbOr8
Some quotes:
'The howls of Mariupol...
Z means swastika...
Finished school, take a rifle...
Routine of sadism...
Mama, i am a POW, don't watch tv...
Mama, there are no Nazis here...'

For the holiday, a thread on how to befriend crows.

--

Befriending crows is a wonderful thing.

I have many crow friends at home and at work. They bring joy at unexpected moments and can rescue a miserable day even without shaking down the dust of snow that Robert Frost described.

This thread is an updated version of one I posted at the bird site in July 2019.

#birding #birdwatching #birds #urbanbirding #crows #corvids #crow #corvid #crowfriends

A map of the approximate situation on the ground in Ukraine as of 00:00 UTC 25/12/22.

--Image 2--

Updates:

🇷🇺 have taken control of the settlements of Yakovlivka (North of Bakhmut) and Kurdyumivka (South of Bakhmut).

--Image 3--

A close-up map of the approximate situation around the city of Bakhmut.

🇺🇦 forces have continued their advance within Opytne and regained part of the settlement.

#ukraine #russia #ukrainewar #conflict #map #europe #nato #warinukraine #mapping #news #breaking

I've been walking on eggshells all my life and I'm good at it. I can dance over eggshells like Nipsey Russel on speed and not a one will break.

It's always kinda wild to listen to some conservative dude talking about how "you just can't say anything anymore"

As if I've been able to say anything ever. "anymore" Learn some grace, my dude.

I've literally taught grad level seminars on selection bias and yet spent a non-trivial amount of time this evening wondering "why are conspiracy theorists so bad at doing their research?"

My conversation this week with Prof Linsey Marr, a civil engineer and leading authority on air quality, viruses, and the impact of masks. She's a remarkable explainer and my go-to expert on this topic
Follow her:
@linseymarr
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/984232 #COVIDIsAirborne

There's a map going around that shows counts of venomous species by country. In addition to being interesting to look at, it highlights the problems that arise when you use political boundaries for geospatial data. Country size and range obscures biogeographical pattern. We see this with Russia, but the silliest example is the coloration of Alaska.

Just something worth keeping in mind when thinking about geographic data.

https://brilliantmaps.com/venomous-animals/

ByteDance used TikTok to track my location — and the locations of two of my colleagues — to try to find our sources. We reported on this back in October, but kept things vague to protect sources. Today ByteDance admitted it, so we can say much more:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilybaker-white/2022/12/22/tiktok-tracks-forbes-journalists-bytedance/

Imagine you are a Black man with a wife and 2 kids living in the Bronx. You and your wife both earn minimum wage. You've never been arrested, never committed a crime, don't do drugs, never been in a gang.

One day, you're arrested and falsely accused of a crime. You're sent to Rikers. There is definitive proof that you were somewhere else at the time of the crime. DA says they're going to charge you. You can't afford bail, or an attorney.

You'll be in jail for up to *2 years* prior to trial.

A tech company source used to make me turn off my phone before meetings because of concern that his employer would check to see if our phones were near each other. This was not a crazy concern it turns out! TikTok tried something like this to hunt down leakers: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/22/technology/byte-dance-tik-tok-internal-investigation.html

Donate to support internet privacy & free speech by December 31, and you’ll help EFF unlock seven Year-End Challenge grants.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/12/2022-year-end-challenge

#eff #privacy #freedom

It is perplexing how so many people are excited for Artificial Intelligence yet seemingly do not care much about the very intelligent beings all around them. Spending just 30min learning about how we treat animals or what the state of biodiversity is, will shock & change anyone.

In Alaska, wood frogs freeze for seven months, thaw and hop away.

https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-alaskan-frozen-frogs-20140723-story.html

#naturephotography #nature #frogs #alaska

Those who follow me on The Bad Place have heard me repeat this a thousand times, But once more won't hurt.

Election security is incredibly complex, full of seemingly impossible tradeoffs. But disinformation about supposed "rigged" elections is perhaps the most serious threat to election integrity today,

The best defense is to learn how elections actualy work! Becoming a poll worker is a great way to do that

Also, this National Academies study is a terrific resource:

https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/25120/securing-the-vote-protecting-american-democracy

Journalist profiles on the Washington Post can now include Mastodon links. Here's what it looks like: https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/drew-harwell/

FYI white people like to talk about racism as ‘offensive’ or that our reactions to it are ‘being offended’ so that it becomes solely subjective and doesn’t calculate the very real harm it causes.

It’s also about framing it as interpersonal rather than systemic.

I'm about to make saying "build a community not an audience" a blockable offense. Some people need an audience to keep a roof over their head and food on the table, and it's the only option for many marginalized people who aren't able to be gainfully employed in society due to bigotry or lack of support. What do you want them to do, just starve because a fascist burned down their only means of generating income?

And why the hell are you letting brands own the word "audience" anyway, and pretending it's some dirty thing now? The arts have used that word respectfully for centuries, long before brands came around

I'm sorry I keep posting about this but as a working slash often starving artist the mastodon interaction purity police is really starting to get to me

NEW, from me: Video evidence appears to show right-wing streamer Tomas Morales illegally entering the Capitol on Jan 6. Finally explains the mysterious 16-hour gap in Morales's Twitter on that day. #Jan6 #January6 https://newsletter.extremism.io/archive/video-appears-to-show-right-wing-streamer-tomas/

Oh. my. god.

Madison Square Garden used facial recognition to identify and stop a mom from attending a Christmas show with her kid because she's an attorney at a firm who is engaged in litigation with them.

This is why it's not enough to just ban government and law enforcement use of #facialrecognition. There are so many ways private companies and even individuals can abuse #biometric #surveillance tech.

#BanFacialRecognition entirely. Yesterday.

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/msgs-facial-recognition-stops-mom-from-attending-christmas-show-with-child/4004471/