Lunatech @Lunatech@social.cleverlibre.org

So the new #Mac Mini #M2 has all the power of a $15,000 Mac Pro, for just $2,300.

This is kinda expected, given the switch from #Intel to #AppleSilicon, and from third-party to in-company graphics hardware. But:

"What's so shocking about these results is that, honestly, Apple knew in 2019 when it was selling the Mac Pro that Apple Silicon was just around the bend."

https://www.techradar.com/opinion/the-new-mac-mini-destroys-the-mac-pro-and-apple-fans-should-be-furious

A groundbreaking decision!

Denmark and Sweden’s move to offer women and girls from Afghanistan automatic recognition as refugees should serve as a model for other refugee-receiving countries.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/02/09/denmark-sweden-offer-protection-all-women-girls-afghanistan

Corporations have worked tirelessly for years to create the illusion of public support for shitty regulatory policy (again, see: net neutrality) and nobody much cares. AI will make it exponentially worse:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/millions-of-people-post-comments-on-federal-regulations-many-are-fake-1513099188

President Biden plans to make deficit reduction a centerpiece of his 2024 budget and aims to pressure Republicans to focus on government revenue — not just spending.

https://t.co/gxySjRFkfW

Latest deep dive into Twitter's increasingly rancid corporate culture, by @zoeschiffer and @caseynewton https://www.platformer.news/p/elon-musk-fires-a-top-twitter-engineer

Yet as long as top journalists and others continue to pour their work into an increasingly rancid platform, Musk has a real chance of coming out ahead.

If people who keep supporting the birdsite had any sense of self-interest beyond right now, they'd be planning their departure. Almost no sign of that, sadly.

All female doctors and health workers in Kabul have been ordered to wear the full hijab and cover their faces with black masks while working by the Taliban Ministry of Public Health.

“We female doctors have studied for a lifetime and gained the expertise to what, perform operations under the burqa?”

“If the order is not removed, no female doctor will be able to continue working.”

'Muqtaba'
Female Doctor,
Afghanistan.

#Afghanistan
#LetAfghanWomenWork

https://rukhshana.com/en/taliban-orders-female-staff-in-kabul-hospitals-to-cover-their-faces-and-wear-all-black-hijabs?s=09

A new #exhibition of anti-war posters in st. petersburg by the veteran russian #artist and activist Yelena Osipova has been closed the day after it opened after police confiscated all the works.

Speaking to RFE/RL, she said her protests against russia's invasion of Ukraine would continue.

(4 Minute) YouTube📽️ 🔗 https://youtu.be/JJ-uJ-LS1SI

#Ukraine 🇺🇦 #SlavaUkraine #RussiaIsATerroristState
#СлаваУкраїні! #StandWithUkraine

Covid-19 infection rates are increasing in England again.

But don't worry, folks, I'm sure that herd immunity that the covid minimisers promised us back in the summer of 2020 will kick in any day now.

#covid19 #CovidIsNotOver

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19infectionsurveypilot/10february2023

#GeorgeSantos has taken his fraud on the road: from Brazil to Amish Country to the US Capitol.

Yet Kevin #McCarthy wants him to have access to classified #China briefings.

I'm so violently bored by the overwhelming swarm of pseudo-intellectual trolls that make millions of dollars talking completely out of their ass

https://www.readtpa.com/p/free-speech-enthusiast-matt-yglesias?sd=pf

Sometimes people come to me with concerns about the fact they feel they are in the wrong body. That they should be in a male or female body instead.

As a therapist who can be psychic and is empathic -

Sometimes as I am interacting with them I am seeing and feeling one or more of their past lives and how they had the body they are currently longing for in those lives.

If the realities of reincarnation were discussed more openly in the social narrative of discourse in society people might have a wider perspective on the things they are dealing with in life.

#Reincarnation #PastLives #Identity #Gender #GenderIssues #Life #Incarnation

#RaiseTheNarrative #SocialDiscourse #Freedom

Adding cheaply-produced AI-generated propaganda to a media and political environment where the signal to noise ratio is already absolute trash is also going to be a doozy:

https://www.garbageday.email/p/imagining-the-qanon-of-the-ai-era

So this is interesting...

Washington Post report Taylor Lorenz @taylorlorenz, who is famous in these circles for being banned from Twitter, then reinstated after much outcry, has conducted an experiment to determine if view counts on Twitter are legitimate.

Surprise, she presents proof that they are not, as shown in the Tweet screenshot below.

Many stay on Twitter because they believe that their "engagement" is higher, but now it seems like they can not trust the numbers.

#twittermigration

I keep thinking about how AI will revolutionize corporate lobbying astroturf, like the plague of fake comments that bombard regulators to create the illusion of broad support for shitty policy.

Imagine combining AI in a political environment where this is already the norm:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/3aqq7b/big-telecom-used-fake-and-dead-people-to-fight-net-neutrality-ny-ag-says

Am I the only person bothered by the fact that a single company, #microsoft, basically controls access to almost every desktop computer? And they can watch everything you do and cut you off from the computer you bought for any reason? And the only reasonable alternatives are a luxury computer brand (#apple) that in many ways is just as bad and what's basically a server and hobbyist OS (#linux) that while perfectly adequate for most basic tasks, still has multiple hurdles to widespread adoption?

A librarian was terminated after promoting programs for LGBTQ teens. The state says the district violated civil rights protections.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjk7zq/colorado-librarian-fired-lgbtq-books
#Censorship #BookBans #Libraries #COLORADO #CivilRights #LGBTQ

To many city-dwellers, a "15-minute city" with everything you need within walking distance is a dream. Conspiracy theorists are seeing it differently.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7g898/walkable-15-minute-cities-con
#Technews #worldnews #walkablecities #15minutecity #Cambridge #Edmonton #uk #Canada #conspiracy