Nick @internic@social.cleverlibre.org

@dangoodin Biden needs to win 2024 so there is a 2028 election.

I'd personally prefer not risking deportation of my family and friends who are non-European immigrants. "We're not fascists" seems like a good reason not to risk the very bad alternatives Trump is threatening.

Vote for Biden and as many down ballot progressives as you can.

#Twitter hashtag for those who mute.

Reiterating this important point:

These were so-called "financial insecurity" voters.

They could afford to take off work for this trip. Could afford travel costs, lodging, dining, and drinks. Could afford specially printed T-shirts and flags. Could afford cameras, military cosplay accessories, weapons, and ammunition.

Their votes were not about financial insecurity to begin with.

Quite a story.

Lots of people use hard drugs but not those with security clearances and billions in federal contracts, which he would now lose if our laws applied to very wealthy people. #elonmusk

https://www.wsj.com/business/elon-musk-illegal-drugs-e826a9e1?st=t5vmw7mfa3nzc73&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

It is essential to stop using Chrome.

Under the pretense of saving users from third-party spyware, Google is creating an ecosystem in which Chrome itself is the spyware.

Given Google's overwhelming presence in the browser market, this is unconscionable.

We should all despise the ad-tech business, and have no sympathy for the companies getting whacked by Google's actions. But we should not permit one monopolist to replace them all.

I had an "ah ha" moment when thinking about the angry responses to yesterday's blog post.

(This one, if you missed it.) https://terikanefield.com/section-3-and-the-spirit-of-liberty/

First, I'll share a positive response. (Screenshot #1)

The angry responses tended to accuse me of advising that people do nothing. #2 was typical of the angry responses.)

About 5 years ago, I took the tact of responding to "there are never any consequences" by listing hte consequences.

I figured, you know, facts. For example, see #3

1/

#NIST Tool Will Make Math-Heavy Research Papers Easier to View Online
A tool developed by a NIST scientist will help #arXiv preprints become more accessible.
January 03, 2024
https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2024/01/nist-tool-will-make-math-heavy-research-papers-easier-view-online
@rdviii

@plexus Here in Portland we have a long-running non-profit called Free Geek (https://www.freegeek.org/) which:

accepts donations of not only cables but any electronics;
trains people to disassemble, test, and reassemble computers;
handles e-waste recycling for anything that isn't reusable;
distributes usable equipment to individuals and non-profits who need it;
and runs a little thrift store too.

It's fantastic and I would love to see more places clone the idea.

Far too many on the Left spend most of their time blaming Democrats for the actions of Republicans instead of doing anything constructive to make progress on the issues they claim to care about

Neoliberal critics: Neoliberalism and bipartisan politics are so fucked that I'm willing to risk Trump retaking the White House and following through on pledges to:

1) establish internment camps for undocumented immigrants

2) abuse his power as retribution against anybody who has previously challenged him

3) appoint more judges and justices who think there should be no Constitutional protection for abortion and specifically appoint judges in the mold of Clarence Thomas

4) require federal employees to take a patriotism exam and be terminated if they refuse or fail

5) take legal action to have local district attorneys and their staff removed from office if they don't perform to his satisfaction

6) fire staff and disband college accreditation boards and pursue civil rights cases against schools that have affirmative action policies in place

6) withhold US aid to Ukraine to pressure Zelenskyy to make a deal with Putin

7) require that school principals be elected by parents each year

8) push for legislation that sentences any person convicted of selling drugs to be executed

9) pardon all defendants charged with participation in the Jan. 6, 2021 riots

10) investigate Comcast, NBC and MSNBC for treason

I could go on, but I won't.

Assuming Trump wins the Republican nomination, we have a binary choice: Either Trump retakes the White House and he attempts to fulfill as many of these promises as possible or Biden wins and doesn't attempt to do any of these things.

By all means, criticize Democrats and liberals. Heaven knows criticism is warranted. But please don't forget what's at stake if left-leaning folks provide the tipping point that makes Trump our next president.

Be wary, be wary, on Sixth January,
for nooses, and zip-ties, and rage;
I see no reason why red-hatted treason
should ever be given a stage.

We’re entering the biggest Covid surge since the start of the pandemic. In 2020 Italy was a reliable early indicator for North America and their hospitals are absolutely collapsing with Covid again. Maybe stick close to home in January and mask-up 😷 when indoors in public places. If you haven’t gotten your latest booster, now is the time.

It’s no wonder that social media made it easier for Trump to incite violence, as in the case of the #Jan6Insurrection. But even with the availability of social media, networked social movements still need mainstream media coverage to legitimize their cause.

A new analysis by disinformation scholar Joan Donovan looks at how the mob was mobilized:

https://theconversation.com/jan-6-was-an-example-of-networked-incitement-a-media-and-disinformation-expert-explains-the-danger-of-political-violence-orchestrated-over-social-media-220501

#socialmedia #USPolitics #politics #Trump

You’ve probably heard about The New York Times lawsuit against OpenAI. But the details are impressive: The NY Times provided 100 exhibits of ChatGPT completing articles almost word for word, and the suit seeks the deletion of all GPT models.

Could it succeed, and what would be the consequences? I spoke with general counsel Cecilia Ziniti and Techdirt editor @mmasnick about its chances.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/chatgpt-new-york-times

#openai #nytimes #ai #chatgpt

Thank you TODAY for covering the current COVID surge. I really appreciate that so many are sharing the COVID wastewater charts! It shows that, contrary to the cynical narrative of "pandemic fatigue," many still care and want to know the data so they can protect their communities.

https://twitter.com/TODAYshow/status/1743412080894513247

Also BTW I found the "AI" in colab to be pretty useless at generating useful code snippets. I ended up using ChatGPT which gave me perfect code (for simple audio sample manipulation) each time.

The 1st image, taken by XRISM’s Xtend X-ray CCD camera, is that of Galaxy cluster Abell 2319, a system where 2 clusters of galaxies are colliding about 770 million light-years away. The image is a superposition of optical and X-ray observations (shown in purple).

The purple hues signify the distribution of high-temp. plasma emitting X-rays.

The image shows Xtend’s wider field of view compared to Chandra and other X-ray telescopes.

global.jaxa.jp/press/2024/01/20240105-1_e.html
#XRISM
2/n

Yes, in the absence of the corporate structures that take advantage of us to make profit, the internet is just regular ass people who don't owe us anything and can go away at any time.

I'm also frustrated by this sort of thing. But admonishing private citizens because they didn't wanna do free labor anymore is not the answer. To me this feels like the world we asked for. (Not me. I didn't ask for this.)
https://strangeobject.space/@esther/111708391434233210