ceoln @ceoln@social.cleverlibre.org

#introduction#introduction I covered Central Asia at eurasia.net from 2006-2012; the war in Ukraine intensively from 2013-2018 at interpretermag.com and then the Eurasia region byline-free at rferl.org (3rd of 3 stints), Moscow Times, etc. I run 14 Second Life servers, have one ginger cat, and a rare autoimmune disease.

#introduction I'm an American Russian-language translator living in NYC, single parent in HUD housing. semi-retired. I spent 40 years in the international human rights movement with a focus on Russia, supporting independent voices there. Verdict: my work was *entirely* wasted, I should have studied French. I have also spent 18 years in the virtual world of Second Life as a Metaverse innkeeper, experimenting to see if alternative civil society can be built there. Verdict: no. Yet I live in hope.

TIL there's a technical name for why ideas happen in the shower: the "default mode network" is a pattern of brain activity, measurable using fMRI, that happens when we're unfocussed. When the brain goes into idle mode (reduced activity), this part of the brain actually becomes *more* active. What does the default mode network do? Research is ongoing, but part of it definitely seems to be making connections, which is associated with curiosity and creativity.

More here: https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/history-and-civilisation/2022/08/the-science-of-why-you-have-great-ideas-in-the-shower

the Great Walkway at night is a place of contemplation. the traffic lights count off red green red green into the horizon. they cannot stave off the darkness that remains between. the Pacific Ocean looms eternal, its power evident as waves breathe in and out. on the other side, the sleepy neighborhood—a temporary foothold in the sand—waits to be reclaimed

#photography #SanFrancisco

@knf100 @futurebird truth is stranger than fiction! what a wonderful world we live in.

The Leafcutter Ants: Civilization By Instinct is a really fun book I read to learn lots about leafcutter ants. does a super job of being accessible to a general audience but still being substantive and informative if you know a thing or two

This is a portrait by an artist and poet called Radical Rhymes. The portrait is of my beloved cat, Whiskers, who passed away. I will always love him and I miss him. All my rescue cats are like my kids. I hope all you #cat lovers enjoy the portrait.

Whenever they tell you a change is impossible, show them Utrecht.

An urban freeway with many lanes can become a green park with a beautiful canal. Instead of a car sewer, the water flows.

Catharijnesingel, Utrecht. Winner European Urban Public Space Award 2022 by OKRA landschapsarchitecten

https://www.archdaily.com/992550/okra-receives-the-european-urban-public-space-award-2022

Generational Poll. Please boost for more responses.
The system only allows me 4 options (sorry!).
Just let me say, all generations are great! 😀
This is just for fun and curiosity.

#SilentGeneration
#Boomer
#BabyBoomer
#GenX
#Millenial
#GenZ
#GenAlpha

Things they didn't teach you about Software Engineering

https://vadimkravcenko.com/shorts/things-they-didnt-teach-you/

Interesting Twitter thread account of an experiment using #GPT3 to assist with providing mental health support to 4,000 people.

TLDR it improved quality of supportive messages… until people learned that the messages were AI-generated.

https://twitter.com/robertrmorris/status/1611450197707464706

•ART will never serve you ads, track you, sell your data, or charge you to use our site. But there are still costs related to running one of the largest artistic communities on Mastodon, and we rely on the generous support of our users to keep the lights on.

If you have the means and inclination, you can support us here:

https://www.patreon.com/mastodonart

https://liberapay.com/Curator/

https://ko-fi.com/mastoart

Otherwise, just keep on inspiring the with your amazing art! Thank you!

This is actually my 2nd Mastodon acct. I was never able to regain access to it or figure out migration so I'm starting over w/ a new #introduction

I am a #Freshwater #Algae ecologist! I study algae and their macromolecules (mainly #FattyAcids) as a way to learn how human actions affect #Biodiversity and #FoodWebs. I work at a #PUI #SLAC where in between all the teaching, I mentor #Undergraduate #Research students on freshwater and other ecology projects!

Apparently, a sign that I'm drunk is when I whip out my phone to share pictures of algae and wax poetic about how wonderful they are to random people

Scientists discovered why Roman buildings have survived so long. It's because they included an ingredient in their concrete – once thought to be from shoddy mixing – that helps the concrete self-heal as it cracks over time. The discovery may help future concrete mixes become self-healing and last longer.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.add1602

#Science #History #Architecture

Matt Muellenweg re-comits #Tumblr to support #ActivityPub & to join the #Fediverse:

"Tumblr is...not open source yet. But we’ve said it’s going to be & we’ve tried to make the data super open. So the API’s, you can put your Tumblr into WordPress very easily, you can export all your Tumblr content... then longer term, we want to support these new protocols like activity pub on top of… We’re gonna support #RSS so things are easy to get in and out."

https://hallwaychats.com/episodes/episode-161-a-chat-with-matt-mullenweg/

When I complained that Irvington Township was blowing off my public records requests, Irvington’s Clerk — Harold Wiener — questioned whether I should be prosecuted. https://reason.com/2023/01/06/new-jersey-town-that-sued-a-woman-for-public-records-requests-now-wants-lawyer-prosecuted-for-same-thing/

A few DOS games that turn 30 years old this year:
----
DOOM
Space Quest 5
Sam & Max
Betrayal at Krondor
Day of the Tentacle
The Lost Vikings
Fury of the Furries
Simon the Sorcerer
The 7th Guest
The Incredible Machine
Gabriel Knight
X-Wing
SimCity 2000
Quest for Glory 4
Privateer
Syndicate

#DOSGaming #MSDOS #PCGaming #VideogameHistory #GettingOlderByTheDay #RetroGaming