Erik Przekop @IAmErik@social.cleverlibre.org

As I have begun posting political posts more frequently here, this is an excellent time to remind folks that I have a “no strikes” mute/block policy, which means that if I decide you’re being a jerk in my replies, to me or others, that’s it, you’re out of the pool, no second chances. Note: disagreeing with me does not (automatically) qualify as being a jerk, but when in doubt of tone, I block or mute. Life is short and I’d just rather not deal with dickheads. Thanks in advance for understanding.

Trump is being arrested today. For the third time. So here’s a bold thought: Maybe he doesn’t belong in the White House. Like, ever again.

"The Tragedy of the Commons" was written by a eugenicist and was effectively debunked as ahistorical fantasy decades ago. More propaganda in the service of privatizing public space and resources. Pass it on. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/the-tragedy-of-the-tragedy-of-the-commons/

I’ve been reading some of the criticism of the BBC creating their own Mastodon instance. Those against fall mostly into “they promote Transphobia” or “they skewed Brexit coverage” Both seem fair.

BBC creating an instance is good for Fediverse. Period. Just because they are on your street doesn’t mean you have to invite them in for tea or read/boost their posts / support them at all

BUT - If BBC fails *no one* else you DO want to read will follow here.

#fediverse #Journalism #BBCBias #BBC

Dark Matter Experiment Fails to Turn Up the Mysterious Particle, but Narrows its Hiding Places

The search for dark matter continues in telescopes at the largest scales and particle detector experiments deep underground. The Super Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (SuperCDMS) collaboration has published a new analysis of experimental data captured by the detector. They searched for dark matter's interaction with regular matter using Bremsstrahlung radiation and the Migdal effect. Neither of these approaches turned up evidence for the mysterious particle but helped constrain the possible characteristics of dark matter for future searches.

https://www6.slac.stanford.edu/news/2023-07-28-new-analysis-supercdms-data-sets-tighter-detection-limits-dark-matter

This #xkcd comic is as relevant as always 👽 #ufo

➡️ https://xkcd.com/1235/

Just a little #Humor

Thank you Musk for adding more reasons to make the move.

#meme #memes #techmeme #techmemes

They deserve the Congressional Medal of Freedom.

They literally rescued the election by securing the box containing the election certifications from each state & getting it away from the insurrectionists.

I think of all the photos I've seen from that day this is one of the most powerful of all.

Thank you Ladies.

#Jan6thHeroes

Didn’t take long 😂

#tech #memes #heldesk #cloud #sysadmin #photos #funny #infosec #images

I suppose I’m in the minority but I always lick my knife when I’m done.
None of the other surgeons seem to do it.

It's July the 4th! The 247th anniversary of some of the North American colonies thanking parliament for defending them from a foreign Empire who wanted to invade by defaulting on their debts.

So: Happy Thanksgiving Day, as we in the UK call it!

Gravitational Waves Can Be Gravitationally Lensed, and This Could Provide Another Way to Measure the Expansion of the Universe

Astronomers can never have enough ways to measure the expansion in the Universe, from nearby stars to distant quasars. A new study suggests another method might come from the growing catalog of gravitational waves detected by LIGO and other observatories. As two black holes merge in a distant galaxy, the gravitational waves could pass close to a massive cluster that would create a gravitational lens. Some of the waves would take different paths around the gravitational lens, allowing astronomers to measure the expansion rate of the Universe. Gravitationally lensed gravitational waves.

https://www.news.ucsb.edu/2023/021110/astrophysicists-propose-new-way-measuring-cosmic-expansion-lensed-gravitational-waves

A reminder to anybody who's found me in the last week: I host a podcast at Meduza called The Naked Pravda. The latest episode, released yesterday, is devoted to Prigozhin's mutiny (duh).

More specifically: How did Prigozhin manage to convince his men to embark on this misadventure? What did we learn about the Russian political elite in this crisis? And what should we expect in Belarus, where at least some remnant of Wagner Group is said to be headed?

This one is about 40 minutes long.

https://meduza.io/en/episodes/2023/07/01/an-obituary-for-yevgeny-prigozhin-s-wagner-group

An infuriating story about how Musk’s changes to Twitter—restricting API access, gutting the engineering team + more—throttled disaster response in the #turkey #syria #earthquake. https://time.com/6254500/turkey-earthquake-twitter-musk-rescue/

Mastodon + fediverse need to expand beyond northern Europe and the Anglophone world, and consider what emergency response on this platform would look like; the lives of people in Asia, Africa, Latin America, etc. can’t be reliant on a billionaire’s whims