Don Thompson @guardeddon@social.cleverlibre.org

Few local newspapers employ #science and #health reporters anymore.

But The Conversation has stepped up as a news source that helps fill the gap by helping scientists and researchers share their knowledge in fact-based articles, and giving it away for free.

Our Executive Editor and GM Beth Daley recently spoke to the Reynolds Journalism Institute about our work – and our expansion into investigative #journalism, another area where more journalism is needed.

https://rjionline.org/news/reviving-expertise-that-once-existed-at-many-news-outlets/?xxxxx

Privacy Badger 2023.10.31 has been released for all supported browsers.

The new version blocks embedded Tweets by default, replacing them with click-to-activate placeholders.

This opt-in approach to loading external but potentially desirable widgets protects privacy while giving you control over when the widgets get to load.

To install Privacy Badger, visit https://privacybadger.org/.

One of the more limiting things about Signal is you have to give out your mobile number to everyone. Even if it is a burner, I still don't want to advertise to the world that it's mine.

Was happy to read today that Signal is now beta testing a new username feature.

https://community.signalusers.org/t/public-username-testing-staging-environment/56866

Remember when browsers used to display an RSS icon in the URL bar when feeds were available on that website?

After the lost decade in social media, can we please bringt that back now?

#Firefox #Browser #IndieWeb #RSS

Big fan of this being a trend in modern USB-C cables.

I could give two shits about the USB-IF's numbering scheme. I can't even remember it and I'm the kind of person who cares about that kind of thing.

Just labeling cables by their capabilities takes a lot of the confusion and pain out of the process for users.

A little coffee shop. Bury.

Canon AE-1 Program
Kodak UltraMax 400
Canon FD 50mm/1.8

#BelieveInFilm #FilmPhotography #AnalogPhotography #35mm

Openreach Prep Alternative UK Analogue Style Phone Product https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2023/11/openreach-prep-alternative-uk-analogue-style-phone-product.html

Just made a complaint to BBC to ask them to stop giving Twitter/ X free publicity by constantly printing “X, formerly known as Twitter” in every single article.

The press response to Apple results today is everything wrong with capitalism in microcosm. One of the biggest companies in the world, making billions in profit, is beleaguered and in a rough patch because it cannot maintain endless massive growth and has ups and downs.

Parts of the world are on fire. We should be prizing sustainability. But no. And we are never going to learn this lesson.

My wife bought my son a TMNT costume for Halloween, this year.

But he didn't want to wear it. So he is wearing his costume from last year.

A cowboy. Well, a cowboy that rides dinosaurs. I think there is a cartoon behind it that I am not familiar with.

Last year that costume was too big for him. This year the costume is a bit tight.

🎃

Half tempted to stay up until midnight to get a head-start on #NaNoWriMo 🙂

Anyone else doing it this year?

My aim is to write a short sci-fi story of about 1,700 words every single day. They'll be published on my blog and - eventually - become a New York Times bestseller, with several of them optioned as major motion pictures.

Hey, dream big, right?

Six different stakeholder groups share the same vision for academic #publishing open infrastructures need to replace parasitic corporations.

1. EU Science ministers:
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2023/05/23/council-calls-for-transparent-equitable-and-open-access-to-scholarly-publications/
2. Research Organizations:
https://www.coalition-s.org/towards-responsible-publishing/
3. Researchers:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.230206
4. Modern publishers:
https://blog.pensoft.net/2023/08/21/pensofts-statement-on-the-european-unions-conclusions-on-oa-scholarly-publishing/
5. Repositories:
https://www.coar-repositories.org/news-updates/coar-welcomes-the-council-of-eu-conclusions-on-high-quality-transparent-open-trustworthy-and-equitable-scholarly-publishing/
6. Funders:
https://www.coalition-s.org/towards-responsible-publishing/
OK, we all agree, now let's get to work on #openaccess and #openscience !

#israel #IsraelPalestineconflict #hamas #disinformation #misinformation #zelensky #myanmar #ethics #images #digital
A human rights scholar explains how social media users can take charge of what content comes into their feed and reduce the risk of receiving misinformation.

One simple protocol, promoted by educators and public health groups, is known by the acronym SIFT: stop, investigate, find, trace.
https://theconversation.com/how-to-deal-with-visual-misinformation-circulating-in-the-israel-hamas-war-and-other-conflicts-216059?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20October%2030%202023%20-%202781128127&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20October%2030%202023%20-%202781128127+CID_38c041e1eed862e31ae1706d8b4948d4&utm_source=campaign_monitor_global&utm_term=How%20to%20deal%20with%20visual%20misinformation%20circulating%20in%20the%20Israel-Hamas%20war%20and%20other%20conflicts

The things you miss when you take the plane to travel from Cologne to Helsinki, instead of using train and ferry:

– Copenhagen, Malmö and Stockholm
– Breathtaking views of Northern Europe
– Incredibly delicious food and super friendly staff onboard the swedish high speed train
– Sleeping onboard a ship while crossing the baltic sea
– Europe‘s longest railway bridge

Thanks for the inspiration, @sebwilken and @jon!

#CrossBorderRail #SlowTravel #StayGrounded #Finland #Helsinki

Seven Years On Mastodon
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/10/seven-years-on-mastodon/

I remember seeing the original "A new decentralized microblogging platform" on HackerNews back in October 2016. A few weeks later, I joined - becoming the 7,112th user. As the years went on, my use of it waxed and waned. I started cross-posting to both Mastodon and Twitter. Gradually, I started spending more time on the Fediverse.

Once Elon shat the bed on Twitter, I moved over completely. And, you know what, I don't regret it for a second.

I've found a lovely community of people. I get my parasocial fix without being inundated by cryptogrifters shilling shitcoins, nor by thought-leaders posting inflammatory takes for clout. There are no disingenuous politicians and remarkably few celebrities trying to sell me their bathwater. There's no advertising. There's a great API for bots. And - for now - people are generous with their time and expertise.

But, just to be contrary, let's list some of the bad points about it.

There are fewer people about

That does mean there are fewer arseholes1. But it doesn't yet feel as magical as Twitter did - when you could suddenly be in a conversation with a goat farmer from the other side of the planet and a world-famous astrophysicist.

The people who are about tend to be on the techy side of things. Which does mean putting up with some annoying pedantry and plenty of "jUSt InsTaLl LinUx aNd delETE facEbOoK."

There's a bit more ✨drama✨

Small, insular communities are fractious. A perceived insult or slight can rapidly descend into childish taunts of "well I'll defederate you first!"

There was drama on Twitter - and even more since Elon's full on conversion to the dark side - but because the community is smaller here, the drama feels bigger.

Fewer official accounts

This is a mixed bag. Frankly, Twitter should never have been a customer support channel. But businesses wanted to promote their goods and services, and customers took the opportunity to upbraid them in public. That led to all sorts of weird behaviours.

Nevertheless, I'd like to be able to see what's going on in local politics, and transport, and a dozen little services I used Twitter for.

Search (is getting better)

I've posted some thoughts on Mastodon search. It's now pretty good. But the federated nature of Mastodon means it'll never be as comprehensive as Twitter.

Perhaps momentum is slowing down?

I've seen plenty of waves of users over the years. But I think that the majority of people who wanted to leave Twitter have done so.

And... I think that's OK. I still use Facebook, I'm signed into a dozen different forums, I'm not particularly loyal to anything.

The Fediverse is about diversity. It would be nice if Twitter and Threads and BlueSky all federated with each other. But I think that Mastodon now has enough users to be self-sustaining. It doesn't need to become a giant killer. It mustn't become a de-facto monopoly.

I'm looking forward to the next 7 years here.

Not zero, just fewer. ↩

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/10/seven-years-on-mastodon/

#mastodon #twitter

This photo is incredible.

@bloomingonion #QGIS server + #QWC2 could be a good choice, depending on your global GIS architecture and needs. See examples on project page : https://github.com/qgis/qwc2-demo-app

Fun connections.

"Stereotype" is a printer's term. Moveable type is expensive. You don't want to keep it tied up longer than needed, so you make a mould from the set type and cast a plate from that.

The "stereotype" is the mould.

A "cliché" is what the French called plate made from that mould, it's onomatopoeia from the sound of removing the plate from the mould.

"Boilerplate" is widely repeated text from the round stereotype castings of newspaper columns ready to throw on a drum press.