Brian Beach @bwbeach@social.cleverlibre.org

Happy #Solstice 🌞

This animation shows how the sun’s light shines on Earth at the same time of day throughout the year, as seen by NOAA’s GOES-East geostationary satellite. Image processing by @simon_sat / NCEO.

If voting did not matter there would not be voter suppression laws or gerrymandering or anti voting propaganda. The fact that we have all three of these things makes it quite clear that voting matters. VOTE LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT!!!

When someone says Merry Christmas, I say Merry Christmas back, otherwise I say Happy Holidays.

Why?

There are 29 holidays between November 1st and January 15th celebrated by the 7 major world religions and I am not so arrogant that I think only the ones I celebrate matter.

There is no such thing as a "war on Christmas", there is only kind people being considerate of other people.

#NFDI and many consortia are stepping away from #Twitter / #X in favour of platforms that are currently more aligned with our values.
That's why we happy to happy our own Mastodon instance.

👋 We welcome all who have followed us from Twitter/X to Mastodon!

ℹ More about our reasons: https://www.nfdi.de/the-nfdi-association-and-many-nfdi-consortia-are-leaving-twitter-x/?lang=en

ℹ Do you already know our LinkedIn account? https://www.linkedin.com/company/nfdi-de/

ℹ Here are the consortia that are currently represented on Mastodon: https://nfdi.social/@NFDI/111092417530239023

@nlowell I picked a word to represent a value I want to focus on: listen. I had it engraved on a small silver ring, and wear it to remind me to slow down, be patient, stop giving advice. Just settle, look into the speaker’s eyes, and absorb what they’re saying. Be humble, don’t formulate your answer but instead respond to their thoughts. Ask questions. Really listen. And listen to the birds, the wind, the traffic, the neighborhood dogs. Take it all in.

You know what? I think it’s working. I feel more connected to my world. I don’t know if I’ll choose a different word for next year. I’ll be working on listening for forever.

Everything is fine.

Google makes technical changes to moot #geofence requests from law enforcement, basically deleting the data that allows for dragnet #location searches so they don't have it anymore. https://www.forbes.com/sites/cyrusfarivar/2023/12/14/google-just-killed-geofence-warrants-police-location-data/?sh=4d60a8392c86&s=03

Harvard University graduate student Yue Sun won an award from the American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics for her video on the hydrodynamics of marbled paper. https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/12/marbled-paper-frosty-fireworks-among-2023-gallery-of-fluid-motion-winners/ via @Researchbuzz

LAWSUIT UPDATE: Earlier today, we filed our opening appellate brief in Hachette v. Internet Archive, reaffirming our commitment to preserving knowledge and defending the digital rights of all libraries. Join the fight: https://blog.archive.org/2023/12/15/internet-archive-defends-digital-rights-for-libraries/

This is cool: we kicked off a new Network Stats blog series today with a post explaining how #Backblaze is connected to the Internet, and how we joined the #Equinix Silicon Valley (SV1) Internet Exchange, bringing us closer to thousands of our customers. https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-network-stats/

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/14/climate/california-water-crisis-drought.html?unlocked_article_code=1.F00.yTX-.mcgbVjemAraS&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare Contrary to the lede, it wasn’t who got there first who got the water rights, it was who murdered and enslaved and terrorized First Nations Californians off their land, denied them standing in courts, and hunted them down for bounties paid by State and Federal funds, who claimed the water rights. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/14/climate/california-water-crisis-drought.html?unlocked_article_code=1.F00.yTX-.mcgbVjemAraS&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare Tell the actual history, every time. #Water #California

I would like to see a law which makes companies responsible for any errors their AI makes. Since their key appeal is for passing accountability to a black hole, I think it ought to transfer to them instead.

If they had to manage that risk I think we would see more responsible use.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/12/humana-also-using-ai-tool-with-90-error-rate-to-deny-care-lawsuit-claims/

The first library I looked at gave, as its first argument for why you should use it, "because it is 2017" and I did not find this argument convincing

Graph the parabola \(y = x^{2}\) on a floor with an infinite square grid. If we stand on the \(y\)-axis below the origin where we can see the entire parabola, it looks like an ellipse tangent to the horizon or -- from just the right vantage point -- a perfect circle.

This is likely either surprising or obvious, or perhaps one followed by the other.

https://diffgeom.com/products/parabolic-ascent-wall-art-poster

#mathematics #mathart

I’m in the process of moving all of a parent’s credit, banking, online ordering, and medical accounts over to my phone number bc they (my parent) can no longer deal with five-step logins and mandatory SMS codes across wildly inconsistent patterns and hoooooo boy are the tech companies and systems unprepared for what is about to hit them, generationally.

It took five phone calls, three codes, and two emails to change just one account over.

As an occasional journalist, I just love the way Ed Yong closes his latest OpEd at NYTs & couldn’t agree more. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/11/opinion/long-covid-reporting-lessons.html?unlocked_article_code=1.FE0.aHg1.KLP-3qDCnjtp&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare #GiftArticle #writing #journalism

“Journalists can act as a care-taking profession that soothes & nurtures. We are among the only professions that can do so at a scale commensurate with the scope of the crises before us. We can make people who feel invisible feel seen. We can make everyone else look.”

This blew up. Great ideas and comments in thread.

To clarify some points - a lot of traditionally “women’s” clothes and accessories pose an industrial safety hazard that isn’t discussed much. Spandex can melt to your skin in a fire or electrical accident. Metal hairpins and ties can conduct electricity and heat up. Even hair spray can be flammable. So having the conversations is really important, as well as alternatives for stuff, including underwear, pants, and shoes that fit a wide range of shapes and sizes properly (fit without loose or dangling clothes can be important for safety too).

The worst industrial injury I ever got was due to a lack of discussion or communication of hazards. I worked on aircraft components doing constant soldering back in the day of much more toxic stuff. I wore gas permeable contacts at the time and even though I wore eye protection, I ended up with severe burns to my eyes. I would hate to see someone require skin grafts or worse because suppliers don’t stock clothes that fit safely or discussions are not had about the risks of typical undergarments, etc.