ceoln @ceoln@social.cleverlibre.org

The London Thirteen Club, founded by William Harnett Blanch, first met on the 13th of January with tables of 13, waiters that smashed mirrors and members that performed other 'superstitious' acts like spilling salt and walking under ladders. They called themselves an antidote to superstition and made light of disobeying certain 'superstitious' rules with risk of death.

These types of clubs and secret societies were popular all around the world, including one made in 1882 by Captain William Fowler in New York. They had similar parties with groups of 13 and ate under a banner of "Morituri te Salutamus" meaning "Those who are about to die salute you!"

Not all were in good fun though. In 1919, the Yorkshire Evening Post published an article about the Thirteen Club in Bridgeport, Connecticut. One member committed suicide after the first meeting and eleven other members had mysterious deaths.

Despite this, they continued to gain popularity and overtime they boasted of hosting presidents, journalists and politicians.

One famous author they could not convince to join was Oscar Wilde. In his rejection letter to W.H Blanch, he wrote:

"But I love superstitions. They are the colour element of thought and imagination. They are the opponents of common sense. Common sense is the enemy of romance.

The aim of your society seems to be dreadful. Leave us some unreality. Don’t make us too offensively sane."

📰 1: Dundee Evening Telegraph, 1930

📰 2: The Sphere, 1930
#dark #history #OTD

I see reports of slowing growth on #Mastodon. Good. Don’t tell anyone else. Everyone here is awesome.

Except the artists. Tell them. And the scientists. And the musicians. Tell them too. And the chefs. And the space nerds. And the mountain climbers and surfers. And the farmers. Tell them. And the horticulturists. And the photographers. And the software developers. And the poets. And the astronauts. And the dancers. And..

Tell interesting people, the fediverse is where you want to be.

RT abacci@someone.elses.computer

🚨 JOB VACANCY 🚨
@HRW
new tech division is hiring a senior researcher on surveillance tech and human rights. Global remit, would suit someone with a tech journalism background. Location flexible. Closes 22 Jan. Please share!

https://boards.greenhouse.io/humanrightswatch/jobs/6547790002

a visitor!

BTW if you like underwater adventure, there is a brand new game, a city building/management game, Aquatico by @Overseer_Games@twitter.com

https://www.pcgamer.com/aquatico-review/

Any idea what this is?
#funghi #mushroom #lichen ?

Hello #Mastodon, if you know a Black woman student (HS/College/Grad School) or early career, I am going need you to lend me your ears.

The Sadie Collective, a nonprofit for Black women in quant and social science fields, is hosting their first in-person conference since #COVID from February 16 - 19, 2023.

Sponsor a student you know to go: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2023-sadie-tm-alexander-conference-for-economics-and-related-fields-tickets-445153565297?aff=Website.

Please share widely!

#econtwitter #economics #sociology #science #academia #academic #BlackMastodon #Blacktwitter

Street scene at the onsens

#photography
#Japan

Buck Rogers Sunday page from Jan 17, 1960 by George Tuska.

#Comics #comicstrip #GeorgeTuska #SF #BuckRogers

The house is run by the same people who accepted they won their election on the SAME ticket they said Biden didn’t. (#GOP) The house is run by the same people who ACCEPT govt loans & a govt salary, but want to DESTROY the govt. They believe in conspiracy over fact. Religion over science. Hate speech is acceptable. Gun laws aren’t. Fascism > anti fascism. Their agenda is to agitate, not govern. They put our country at risk. They win bc of gerrymandering. We must #resist

@cjbooker
I don’t want to see future generations lose bootstrapping functions, like forgetting how to make fire with sticks or how to make friends IRL. How to focus the mind without a fidget spinner. Mental math has infinite applications, I’m not ready to give up on that one either. I willingly sacrifice cursive handwriting and manual transmissions to the God of Abacus and Mud Tablets if we can shore up critical thinking, social and emotional intelligence skills.

@wendynather It is an absolute lifesaver when it comes to writer's block. Every afternoon it seems like my brain goes into "shutdown mode", but often that's when I need to put out some work. So I'll go into #ChatGPT and say: "Hey, I need some tips for Virtual Assistants," and it'll give me a half-dozen BAD tips - but one of them will jog my brain and go "Oooh, we should write about that!" So then: "Okay, what are some things about a webpage that might make a potential employer click away?" etc.

Well, I’m getting new followers from #AI land, so I’ve got a naïve question for you:

Has anyone talked about the dangers of “regression to the mean” with output like that from ChatGPT, where it only creates what it’s been trained on and then consumes more of its own output in future trainings? Or the danger of people using that output as authoritative and baking it into templates?

When I refresh old @tedium pieces I try to emphasize ones I think didn’t get a fair shake the first time, and this piece about the history of scratching definitely fits the bill. So much interesting information to scratch off here. https://tedium.co/2023/01/14/how-do-scratch-offs-work-other-scratching-facts/

@anxiousrage Have you seen that there's a graphic novel about her now?

https://www.bookdepository.com/Queenie-Godmother-Harlem-Aurelie-Levy/9781419757747

Photo of Madam Stephanie St. Clair (aka Queenie) who amassed a fortune as the head banker of an underground numbers operation in 1920s & 30s Harlem.

She was also a race woman who established an aid society for new immigrants from the Caribbean, took out newspaper ads to educate Black people about their legal rights, and encouraged the community to buy from Black business owners.

(Inspired by a post by @prisonculture)

#BlackMastodon #BlackFriday #BlackHistory

This Japanese print shows a woman combing a cat on her lap while two others play at her feet. It is titled 'Gold Beetle' (which can be seen in the inset) from the series 'Selected Insects' (ca. 1843). The artist is Utagawa Kuniyoshi, who was an avid cat-lover.
#Caturday #ukiyoe #JapaneseArt #Japan #japodon #cats #catlovers

My favorite fact in this is that the guy who invented the scratch-off lottery ticket is a leading advocate for the National Popular Vote. https://tedium.co/2023/01/14/how-do-scratch-offs-work-other-scratching-facts/