DecaturNature @DecaturNature@social.cleverlibre.org

This makes me very angry.

These are anti-homeless benches designed to look pleasing. It’s called hostile architecture. They’re meant to be uncomfortable to discourage sleeping on.

The people who designed these are assholes. They’re decorators, not designers.

A designer makes things to improve the world for everyone. A decorator takes otherwise unpalatable injustices and disguises them with aesthetics in an attempt to make them inoffensive or even desirable.

Be a designer, not a decorator.

Dell from WIRED. If you're a #tech worker who has some experience w/ GIFCT, I'd be very interested in a brief chat. Anonymity offered.

You can reach me by email: dell_cameron@wired.com or on Signal: 202-854-8401

#MastodonNews Jan 13, 2023

Very positive piece on the Medium Mastodon instance.

TechCrunch: Medium embraces Twitter alternative Mastodon with launch of its own community >>> https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/12/medium-embraces-twitter-alternative-mastodon-with-launch-of-its-own-community/

...as an additional perk of Medium membership, creating a place for discussions around Medium’s content.

...will create a “sign up with Medium”...to address some users’ complaints about the difficulties in getting started on Mastodon.

Archive: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1d5Q6oyzrlfXBEhHsLI9cxltdFV_XPrZWQj1mj8Ivc7Q/edit?usp=sharing

#twittermigration

Abortion is healthcare.

Period.

With great power comes zero responsibility.

Hamline University: sometimes, it IS cancel culture.

https://popehat.substack.com/p/hamline-university-and-cancel-culture

Wow...legit Disney licensed masks. SaveWo is really knocking it out of the park, along with breathable material. My only complaint would be a longer nose wire on them. Family-Masks is starting carrying them and has a 15% discount for Lunar New Year-->"LUNAR15"

As someone involved in media literacy, my strong props to https://youcanknowthings.com/ for its science/health clarity and debunking of BS.

There's still time to enter our #PublicDomain Remix Contest! Make a 2-3min film repurposing works that entered the public domain in 2023 and you could win up to $1,500! http://blog.archive.org/2022/11/30/public-domain-day-2023-remix-contest-the-internet-archive-is-looking-for-creative-short-films-made-by-you/

Native Americans are asking The Apache Software Foundation, "…to take the necessary steps needed to express the ally-ship they promote so deeply on their website, to act in accordance with their own code of conduct, to “be careful in the words that [they] choose”, and change their name."

It'll be a big change, but IMO one that's necessary and overdue.

https://blog.nativesintech.org/apache-appropriation/

#OpenSource

Study shows Russian influence campaign on Twitter in 2016 did not affect election results as it was concentrated on a small number of users, this was overshadowed by US media and exposure to candidates, and the campaign was concentrated on Republicans who were already very unlikely to consider voting for Clinton.

The one thing Russia was successful at was in getting people to believe they were far more successful than they actually were.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35576-9

Asking for help from the #OSINT community here on #Mastodon!

We in #Brazil need urgently to gather all the #tweets being posted by the #terrorists attacking our #democracy, particularly those containing #geotag.

Relevant coordinates: -15.8005489,-47.8618812

The main staircase in the administration building of the abandoned Bethlehem Steel plant in Lackawanna NY

More at https://www.abandonedamerica.us/lackawanna-steel

I keep seeing articles, about people trying to violently overturn election results, that use phrases like “motivated by election lies”.

They aren’t motivated by lies, they are motivated by not liking the result. Repeating the lies just makes them feel powerful because it makes them part of the grift. They think they’re fooling people.

Blaming the lies lulls us into thinking that this is an education/disinformation problem which, if addressed, will eliminate the violence.

These folks aren’t deluded. They’ve learned from their leaders that violence and lying are the route to power.

For most of my life I thought these problems could be solved by education. I no longer do. As far as I can tell, about 30% of the population believes that getting away with grifts and bullying people is proof of power and leadership that should be respected, worshiped, and emulated.

We can’t educate these folks. We can only build a society that ensures that they cannot gain control. Unfortunately, the entire human race has largely failed to do so, and we’re suffering the consequences on a planetary scale.

Every day we act as though they don’t *know* that the elections were valid, is a day we risk losing the fight for democracy, equality, and a stable environment.

#brazil #JAN6

Listen, if you are feeling like it’s too late to follow your dreams or to change things, recall that the very first LIFE ON EARTH film by David Attenborough came out in the 70s when David was 53. Think of every amazing thing he has done since to change the world and promote the environment; these happened in his 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and now at 96 he is working on a new documentary in Scotland. I’m 45. It’s like I haven’t been born yet in David years. #nature #environment #aging #hope

We are almost 3 years into this and I am still (positively) surprised by Covid culture in Mexico City. I kind of knew that some public health messaging would feed into the cultural obsession with cleanliness, and it sure did with contraptions like the “hygienic doormat” and increased cleaning cycles in public spaces.

But to see people primarily masked indoors, with no mask mandate left in place, leaves me in awe and gratitude.

@jeff I think Mastodon instance owners and operators should encourage their users to contribute directly to Mastodon gGmbH in addition to giving whatever they can. It should not be thought of like franchise fees or tithing. I feel strongly that everyone who uses the Fediverse should be aware and occasionally reminded that this is all possible because of the open-source community who contribute code and volunteers who keep things running by investing their time and/or money.