Lizzy (@mousebumples) @Mousebumples@social.cleverlibre.org

BREAKING: Oregon Gov. Kate Brown commutes the state’s entire death row. There are 17 people on death row currently. She is commuting all of their sentences to life without the possibility of parole.

COVID vaccines prevented 3 million deaths in U.S., according to new study - STAT https://apple.news/A7nAxwgTtRAucNMOo6aawpQ

Truth

I’ve been experimenting with following back everyone who follows me as best as I can. The experiment has been a huge success—and is no longer an experiment: I’ve had a richer feed and more diverse experience because of it. I’m now going to try to follow anyone who favorites or boosts too; it’s clear this place depends on cross-connection for discovery in a way that Twitter and other platforms only hint at. There’s no easy way to find content on Mastodon other than to be exposed to it by people.

In honor of today’s signing of the #RespectForMarriage Act, here’s a photo of my family. My husband and I have been together for 31 years (we met long before same-sex marriage was legal in the USA), and we live with our beloved 13-year-old Bichon Frise. We are also an interracial couple. I’m glad that the text of this law mentions the “love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family” that is at the heart of our relationship. 🏳️‍🌈

Today’s #PostcardsToVoters for the Aaron Rouse special election for Virginia Senate.

#PostcardsToVoters ✈️ NV>VA to ask Dems to elect #AaronRouseVaBch to VA Senate on Jan 10. Every Election Matters! To volunteer with us, text JOIN to 484-275-2229 #TeamRouse #VoteBlue #DemocratWit #TonyTheDemocrat Website PostcardsToVoters.org

First ten #PostcardsToVoters off to Virginia for Aaron Rouse.

Yesterday - "All you dirty leftist hippies are being hysterical, they're not going to outlaw birth control."

Today:
A notorious Trump judge just fired the first shot against birth control

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/12/13/23505459/supreme-court-birth-control-contraception-constitution-matthew-kacsmaryk-deanda-becerra

#birthcontrol #contracption #abortion #womenshealth

So I am new to the etiquette but will attempt an introduction. I’m the medical director of transplant ID at Wake Forest and an attending intensivist. I spent 22 years in the Navy and got to work with cool people like @Pwhickey and @mount_md. I later had the honor of chairing the CHEST COVID-19 Task Force alongside some giants like @ChrisCarrollMD and @drdangayach. Interests include endemic fungi, severe viral disease, and disaster medicine. #IDMastodon #CriticalCare #ICU #infectiousdisease

I love this one about #FreeSpeech from https://xkcd.com/1357/

That.

*** Four aspects of old TV series that are noticeably different from newer TV series ***

Greetings. When you watch classic (or even not so classic) older TV series (say from the 60s into the 70s), there are several aspects that stand out as very different from the manner in which series are produced today. Some are obvious, some less so. All are interesting. Let's begin.

The most obvious difference is commercials. Older shows had fewer commercial breaks (often just on the quarter hours) and fewer overall commercial minutes, sometimes vastly fewer. For many years this was somewhat less obvious, because when aired as reruns on commercial TV (or even today on ad-heavy streaming services) the episodes may have been mutilated by editing to create slots for more ads. But on ad-free streaming services the episodes are more likely intact, and the difference can be quite startling.

The musical score (technically, the background music "underscore") is another difference. Modern series tend to run virtually continuous (usually synthesized) underscores throughout episodes, with only relatively rare times dialogue is spoken without music -- often making the dialogue difficult to hear clearly and understand. But dialogue is less important now overall it seems -- more on that shortly. But watch an old episode of say, "Columbo" from the 70s, and notice how relatively sparingly the underscore is used. And when it is present, the scores and underscores by Billy Goldenberg in particular (who only died around two years ago) are just absolutely wonderful!

Editing. An obvious difference is how shows are edited now. Almost continuous rapid cutting, unnecessary point of view shots and angle changes and bizarre effects -- obviously designed for an audience with far shorter attention spans than years ago. Again, watch early Columbo, and see the drama that a far more leisurely editing pace can provide.

And finally we come to dialogue. Just as editing seems to now target short attention spans, modern TV dialogue seems to have been dialed down through ever more vocabulary grade levels as the decades went by, presumably tracking a significant educational decline. For example, here is what an alien "game master" tells two abducted humans being forced to "fight for Earth" in the original "The Outer Limits" episode "Fun and Games" (1964):

"Mr. Benson makes a pertinent point. I suppose it is a vaguely valid analogy."

No, it's not Shakespeare, but how often do you hear dialogue like that today, and in a sci-fi show at that? By the way, I'll have much more to say about this series in the future. This particular classic episode is based on the uber-classic 1944 short story "Arena" by Fredric Brown, which has been adopted for TV and film many times (sometimes uncredited). It was for example the basis for the original "Star Trek" (ST:TOS) episode of the same name (1967).

Of course, times change, and there's no holding back the clock. But it is fascinating to note how these fundamental aspects of television production have changed over the years, and thanks to the technology now at hand we have the opportunity to enjoy older shows at our leisure anytime day or night. Very cool. Best, -L

I'm seeing a lot of people with no profile, almost no bio, and no intro. Hoping this reaches some folks to help them get going.

*Bios: If you want people to follow you, tell them who you are. Use a real name, add a profile pic, put real info in your bio. You're not limited to one line here.

*Intros: Search for #Introduction and you'll see what others have done. Do your own, with hashtags showing your interests, and pin it so people going to your profile will see it.
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Continuing for those who think the Fediverse will come to them. Not how it works here!

* Follow people. Don't agonize, just start following.
*Follow hashtags, then people using those hashtags will show up in your timeline.
*Boost boost boost: Boost posts and comments that are worth sharing.
*Like things you like. Key point: you like something because you LIKE it, not to increase your visibility.

Spend a little time on this and you'll have lots of conversations.
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The 8 year olds photo of his snowman ☃️ today.

One thing I appreciate about @popehat 's writeup on exiting Twitter is that it captures something most articles in this genre only indirectly allude to:

It's not just that these platforms (and other things in our lives) are transitory, or that they can change. It's that we change, too. And maybe we don't always realize how much of a mismatch there is between who we are 𝘯𝘰𝘸 and what we once enjoyed, until the latter suddenly becomes something fundamentally different.

https://popehat.substack.com/p/goodbye-twitter

Please, please, for the love of god, use the hastags #GetFediHired and #FediHired when you are posting jobs.