ABrockwell @aebrockwell@social.cleverlibre.org
Expert in probability, statistics, and data science, with some programming skills as well.
Former academic and current quant trader.
Joined Nov 2022
ABrockwell
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CW: Native genocide 🧵
Today is the anniversary of the largest mass shooting in American history, Wounded Knee, a massacre on December 29, 1890 that has been relegated to history as a "battle".
ABrockwell
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On another note, originally I thought my kids would be into it, and I would not. In fact I found #Minecraft really very addictive after a while :) , especially in multi-player mode with the kids.
I now happily mine for hours on end for coal, iron and diamonds, while my kids focus on farming, fishing, and construction. An occasional joint expedition to the nether also provides a good dose of fear, excitement, and general teamwork practice.
@Romaq @peterweyand I also learned assembly on the 6502, and recall being very excited when my parents got an IBM-clone with its Intel 8088 and its (relatively) huge 16-bit registers.
I understand why CS focuses on higher-level concepts now, but at the same time I think machine code/assembly programming gives people a lot of valuable insight into the way software and machines work. Not to mention an appreciation for the historical value of the concept of a #Turing machine.
ABrockwell
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ABrockwell
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He talked about electric cars. I don't know anything about cars, so when people said he was a genius I figured he must be a genius.
Then he talked about rockets. I don't know anything about rockets, so when people said he was a genius I figured he must be a genius.
Now he talks about software. I happen to know a lot about software and Elon Musk is saying the stupidest shit anyone's ever said, so when people say he's a genius I figured I should stay the hell away from his cars and rockets.
ABrockwell
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My understanding is that mastodon itself supports so-called "quote tweets," but they aren't implemented on most servers. They're implemented on the server I use, though, so this should appear to be quoted.
The debate about QTs is interesting because as far as I tell, all sides are correct. • QTs let you introduce a topic to your followers w/ tailored ...
ABrockwell
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Michael Wagner: The backlash against pro-democracy research and journalism is coming. “Democracy cannot thrive or survive without a media ecosystem willing to report verifiable truths about the core tenets of democracy — even if those truths currently favor one major political party over another.“ https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/12/the-backlash-against-pro-democracy-reporting-is-coming/
ABrockwell
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The Inigo Montoya method of greeting people.
Step 1: Polite greeting.
Step 2: Your name.
Step 3: Relevant personal link.
Step 4: Manage Expectations.
ABrockwell
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Washington Post will be creating their own instance. They will add #mastodon accounts to journalist profiles.
Institutional #journalism embracing the #fediverse is important.
ABrockwell
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ABrockwell
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All jokes aside, remember what Christmas is really about, people.
Rich people being terrorized by spectres until they agree to pay their employees a living wage.
ABrockwell
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Hello everyone. My name is Adam. I’m a citizen of Tvlvhase Wvkokiye and son of Bear clan. I was born and raised in Florida (St. Pete). Currently I live in Tulsa, Mvskoke Reservation. I’m a web developer. I’m learning Mvskoke and Yuchi in my free time. I hope to be a fluent speaker one day!
ABrockwell
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This is one of the hardest & most important warnings for us all.
Perpetrators were people who accepted and followed an ideology that made them believe that they are better than others and that rationalized and promoted hatred & evil. It became their everyday live.
They were not monsters. They were people who did horrible and monstrous things on the behalf of this ideology. And this is the scary part of the story.
#humanity #people #Auschwitz #genocide #history #monsters #ideology #warning
ABrockwell
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Growing up, Sesame Street taught me the importance of education, empathy, and kindness.
Bugs Bunny, on the other hand, taught me that revenge on my enemies should be quick, clever, and brutal.
ABrockwell
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“Trump demonstrated that spectacle is good for media profitability… media execs chose to prioritize profits over the protection of democracy & the pursuit of truth… journalism has a duty to stand up to power & to hold a lens up to society, not just broadcast the circus.
[Now they’re] enabling Musk to do exactly what Trump did. They’re trying to discern new rules when they should be focused on the bigger picture... standing up to the powerful in the public interest.”
https://time.com/6242268/twitter-elon-musk-media-coverage/
ABrockwell
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Some of you may have seen Elon Musk's endorsement of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s crazy antivax conspiracy theories today.
Over at post.news, I just posted a long-form piece about this, and about how science education needs to adapt to online disinformation.
Please a look. If you like it, boost it there or here or — if you dare — over on the birdsite.
There's an interesting (but paywalled) editorial board opinion piece discussing social media platform problems at
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/19/elon-musk-twitter-destroyed-fix/
I reference it because, buried in after all the back-story is the following statement, which I like, and I think is also relevant in the context of this thread.
"What matters is that they’re set up to get it right, in aggregate, according to the public commitments they’ve made.
That starts with something as simple as platforms committing to transparency, "
This lines up nicely with the intent of the UFoI.
ABrockwell
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ABrockwell
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I'm really glad you're here in Mastodon - yes, you, personally. You either helped build it early on and believed in it before the Twitter exodus, or you're part of that exodus and had to leave a platform that you cared about bc of your morals (or both?) but either way, you're here and I think that's really cool. Thanks for joining, contributing your thoughts, efforts, and time, and making this a great place to be. I appreciate it. ❤️
Expert in probability, statistics, and data science, with some programming skills as well.
Former academic and current quant trader.
Joined Nov 2022
