Show newer
ABrockwell boosted
Robert Reich

Raising the debt ceiling does not increase spending or the federal debt. It simply allows the government to pay bills it has already taken on. Know the truth.

1+
ABrockwell boosted
Adi Robertson

It’s very funny to me that the dominant Twentieth Century conception of AI was a slightly awkward nerd with an inhuman mastery of facts and logic, when what we actually got is smooth-talking bullshit artists who can’t do eighth-grade math.

1+
ABrockwell boosted
Greta Thunberg

Yesterday I was part of a group that peacefully protested the expansion of a coal mine in Germany. We were kettled by police and then detained but were let go later that evening.

Climate protection is not a crime.
#LuetziBleibt #LuetziLebt #KeepItInTheGround #ClimateJustice

1+
ABrockwell boosted
Brian Klaas

The crackpots have come to Congress. I wrote about how conspiracy theories have taken over the Republican party, in ways that are distinct from other peer democracies. The battle for American democracy is a battle over reality. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/

1+
ABrockwell boosted
Margaret L Ruwoldt

Loving this response from Nick Cave to AI-generated song lyrics:

"Writing a good song is not mimicry, or replication, or pastiche, it is the opposite... It is those dangerous, heart-stopping departures that catapult the artist beyond the limits of what he or she recognises as their known self... it is the redemptive artistic act that stirs the heart of the listener..."

#ChatGPT #creativity #art #music #redemption #songs #NickCave

theredhandfiles.com/chat-gpt-w

1
ABrockwell boosted
Zhi Zhu 🕸️

How Finland Is Teaching a Generation to Spot Misinformation

The Nordic country is testing new ways to teach students about propaganda. Here’s what other countries can learn from its success.

#GiftLink
nytimes.com/2023/01/10/world/e

#WorldNews #Education #Finland #Misinformation #Disinformation

0
ABrockwell boosted
Dr. Robert Rohde

If it is not literally the warmest year ever, someone will complain that global warming has stopped.

Year-to-year fluctuations are a normal part of the ongoing global warming trend. Don't be distracted by the noise.

#GlobalWarming #ClimateChange

1+
ABrockwell boosted
Dаn̈ıel Раršlow 🥧

It's commonly held by well-meaning people that we must respect the beliefs of others.

This presupposes that any and all beliefs are respectable. No one thinks this; and if you think you do, I can establish with a very small number of questions that in fact you don't.

0
ABrockwell

@hasmis @freemo There's an excellent (1976) essay by a guy named Carlo Cipolla on the general topic of stupidity. You may already have seen it. If not, it's worth checking out.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_M.

See in particular, his 1st law: "Always and inevitably, everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation."

There's also a nice two-factor classification scheme in there (see the figure in the wikipedia article).

1+
ABrockwell boosted
muffins

AI has won. It's too late for us. #AIart

1+
ABrockwell boosted
Nomz :archlinux: 🇵🇱

If you still have a Twitter account, disable it and never go back. Instead invite your friends to a Mastodon, Pleroma or other Fediverse instance you trust.

You really don't need Twitter.

1
ABrockwell boosted
Catherine Clase

It's taken me a while to figure out how to write an . Here goes:

I’d appreciate a boost to help meet like-minded here.

I’m a professor of medicine at McMaster University ,

Clinically, I work as a ()

I’m an associate member of () at

I’m a member of the Centre of Excellence in Protective Equipment and Materials (, , ) at

My is in (, , ) and

I’m editor-in-chief of (@CanJKHD on the birdsite, not here yet) an kidney journal with :

(, ) journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/
theconversation.com/peer-revie

(was your hard work rejected by a journal with IF>=4? Submit clean, redline, point-by-point response-to-reviews, and tell us which journal and undertake that you responded to all reviews received)
us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/canad

I’m editor-in-chief of maskevidence.org/ which curates evidence on and

For the pandemic, we need because and .

I’d like to see as the tag to find others with interest in and .

Also trying to be ally, working on , interested in .

Treaty 3|Dish with One Spoon, Turtle Island; Hamilton ON Canada. She/her

1+
ABrockwell boosted
IXI

:blobcataww:

"I build little people out of acorns and sticks, then photograph them in the wild with real animals.
Join me as I share my process of building and photographing.
Learn more and buy prints at www.davidmbird.com."

youtube.com/channel/UC6q7I1DD2

#birds #wildlife #critters

1+
ABrockwell

@Romaq That's a great Feynman quote: "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."

The scope could probably be expanded. In the modern era, as far as I can tell, reality appears to have taken a back seat to much more than just public relations.

1
ABrockwell boosted
Dаn̈ıel Раršlow 🥧

Sitting at a traffic light an hour ago, I saw a transfer-style sticker in the rear window of the SUV in front of me, that read

WHY ARE YOU WEARING A MASK IN YOUR CAR??

Two things came to mind:
1) Why are you so concerned about what other people do to protect themselves and others that you not only obsess over it but actually went to the trouble to obtain and apply this message to the back window of your car?
2. I often don't bother to pull my mask off right away when I get into the car. Sometimes I don't get around to taking it off at all between stops. Because unlike you, I don't like to imagine that my mask is hurting me, and I genuinely forget about it sometimes.

1+
ABrockwell boosted
jacqueline

i put up a shelf above my bed. i thought i could put plänt there, and maybe store some things. it may end up remaining empty however, as i’ve discovered that waking up and seeing this first thing is good for my mental health

1+
ABrockwell boosted
EileenKiffin
1+
ABrockwell

@eqyo This is definitely a difficult thing to come to grips with. For me, it helps to separate cultural components from belief/faith components. For example, I enjoy Christmas with family as a cultural thing, but don't buy into the beliefs that go along with a full-blown embrace of Christianity.

For centuries people have deliberately tangled up morality and decency with religion, asserting that you need to be religious to be a decent person. This is not at all true. I think that given a little time and a critical mind, people can often start to pick apart all these threads for themselves.

1
ABrockwell

@freemo @hasmis Apart from the pragmatic reasons, there's another good reason to avoid excessive instance-level blocking, although it is perhaps not so visible.

An admin's choice to let users decide for themselves what they want to block is fundamentally a sign of respect. It says "I trust you to decide for yourself what you want to see."

And respect is a mutual thing. Users tend to respect admins (e.g. @freemo) who do this.

The end result is a better atmosphere on the instance.

1
ABrockwell boosted
🎓 Dr. Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

I mentioned this in a private message to someone recently about why a small handful of servers block qoto. I wanted to reiterate it here for the new comers on QOTO who dont know the history:

So there are some servers out there that demand every server int he network block every instance they do, and if a server doesnt block an instance they block then they block you in rettatliation.

Their reason for this is quite flawed but it goes like this.. If we federate with a bad actor instance and we boost one of their posts then their users will see it and defeat the purpose of the block. The problem is, this isnt how it actually works. If they block a server and we boost it, they wont see the boost, thats how blocks work.

The issue becomes even more complicated when you consider the fact that these servers, by virtue of their policy, have huge block lists where they block tons of major servers. So in order to satisfy them we too would have to block a huge number of servers.

This means you have a choice, you either join a server that isnt blocked, but has a huge block list themselves, or, you join a server that doesnt block and be blocked by a small handful of servers. Obviously that means on QOTO you will have bigger view of the world than you would on any of these others servers. In fact QOTO has onne of the largest federation footprints of any server in the network.

I want to also explain why we choose the decision we did. Years ago when this controversy started and servers across the fediverse started blocking there was a divide of people taking sides. WOTO was one of the few servers that didnt take sides and allowed people read content from any server (but with strict hate speech rules). This caused a huge influx of people,s pecifically from the LGBTQ community, onto our server. It turns out many people relied on us not-blocking for their physical safety. There were big name biggots (like milo yanappolus) who were on the network. They used their accounts here to watch his account for doxing so they could warn themselves and their community and protect themselves accordingly. In fact we added a feature just for them called subscriptions which allowed them to monitor accounts without following them so they could do so anonymously.

In tthe end for the safety of the LGBTQ community here we refused to engage in mass server blocking and instead encouraged our users to block servers on an individual basis and provided access to block lists for them to do so. But some really misguided servers blocked us anyway.

Thankfully the servers blocking us are few and far between and are limited to only the most excessive and aggressive block lists. As I said, QOTO has one of the largest federation footprints on the fediverse,

1+
Show older
CleverLibre Social

CleverLibre Social is an inclusive social instance for open discussion, learning, and community.
All cultures welcome.
Hate speech and harassment strictly forbidden.

Trending now

Resources

Developers

What is Mastodon?

social.cleverlibre.org

More…

v3.5.19-qoto · Privacy policy