Today is Hugh Everett III’s birthday. At least in this neighborhood of the wave function.
#QuantumMechanics
Experian is a criminally negligient "credit bureau" that hoovers up personal information, sells it, and lets identity thieves easily steal "your" account.
There is absolutely no accountability because Congress doesn't give a damn -- and Experian blatantly doesn't give a damn.
Read this infuriating blog post by @briankrebs
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2023/11/its-still-easy-for-anyone-to-become-you-at-experian/
Hey @neilhimself , thank you for the repost on BSky, can I get the same here for Rainbow Passage? For those who don't know, they're a charity that are helping at-risk LGBTQ+ folks relocate from states that are actively attacking them. rainbowpassage.org
A locked account, “
@yuki2501 “ replied this to me:
“ CW us politics, please. “
No. I don’t CW actual news unless it’s gory or otherwise extremely disturbing.
This is why people leave Mastodon, (not me) folks.
I replied back that I don’t CW news and that they should mute me.
If I get kicked off my server for that, so be it. I’ll go to Threads or Bsky.
@tiamat271 @GottaLaff One of the things that I quickly realized when I got here was that 100% - literally 100% - of the unsolicited scolding advice about things I was doing "wrong" were ignorable bullshit. The only difference is that, over time, the demands have gone from plausible-but-prissy ("use content warnings on politics") to outlandishly entitled ("tag topics that I find personally boring so I can mute them").
Hey everyone, if you haven’t gotten your updated COVID-19 vaccine yet, right now is the perfect time!
It takes a couple of weeks to get full protection after being vaccinated, so it's advisable to get it a while before Thanksgiving. Also, the winter surge usually starts at Thanksgiving.
The vaccines are covered by insurance, or the CDC's bridge access program if you are uninsured.
You can find a place to get vaccinated near you here: https://www.vaccines.gov
The counter girl hopped right up when I walked in and was clocking in to help me.
Me: were you on break? I can wait until it's over I'm not in a hurry.
Her: no, we're supposed to clock out when there aren't customers
Me: oh no, honey, no. That's illegal.
Her: 😳
Me: not for you, for your manager or whoever told you to do that.
Her: it is?
Me: it's called wage theft when your boss doesn't pay you what you earned. when your boss requires you to stay here, he needs you pay you for your time.
Her: oh.
Me: here, this is the office number to an employment lawyer, call her and tell her you need to come in to talk about this
Her: I don't have any money
Me: we're gonna get your money, you already earned it sweetie.
Just 600 years ago, nine species of enormous, flightless birds called moas wandered around New Zealand. Some of these magnificent big birds grew up to 12 feet tall, which would tower over Sesame Street’s most famous resident.
Moas had thrived for millions of years. And suddenly - shortly after humans arrived on the islands - they went extinct.
Coincidence? #Science says no. https://www.science.org/content/article/why-did-new-zealands-moas-go-extinct #history
@mhoye Conspiracies certainly happen, but they are most often of the more banal variety. To me it seems like many popular conspiracy theories fail on other grounds, like
1. they require extraordinary competence of the supposed conspirators far beyond what is in evidence,
2. they don't really provide adequate motivation to justify the potential costs for the various conspirators, and
3. they overestimate how easy it is to keep a secret when many people are involved.
Well, there's also the more mundane reason, which is that they endeavor to explain something that has a much simpler and more straightforward explanation (but which is less interesting and emotionally satisfying).
Want to watch the magma crawling around under southwest Iceland? Check out https://vafri.is/quake/ - fool around with magnitude and time window. Looks like the earthquakes are easing off (which may not actually be good news) and that the magma may have bypassed Grindavik (would be good news).
Former Amazon VP Ben Smith on admitting he was wrong to push for workers to return to the office several days a week: “As someone once asked me, ‘Have you ever noticed the only people in favor of RTO are people with large admin staffs and grown children?’ I had not, because that was me. Touche.”
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7127027218362335232/
We haven’t had a COVID inquiry yet in the US, but take note, we would reach a similar conclusion.
Cover story for this week's Lancet: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)02504-7/fulltext
A bot that automatically does stock trades …
… by identifying trades being done by US politicians …
… who probably have inside (I.e. and thus basically illegal-to-act-upon) knowledge of market-moving government info …
… and doing the same trades
He’s up 20% since May 2022
https://www.threads.net/@quiverquantitative/post/CzcB-Gsgqow/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
New and big: There has been a quiet, major shift since 2020. Federal agencies, spooked by the GOP, have completely stopped their election information outreach to tech companies. CISA doesn't talk to Silicon Valley anymore. The FBI no longer briefs social media companies about foreign propaganda
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/gop-muzzled-quiet-coalition-fought-foreign-propaganda-rcna103373
It's weird when additional specifiers have the opposite effect on a term than it sounds like they should.
Like, 'mincemeat' usually refers to the kind of minced stuff that is not meat at all, while actual minced meat is usually just called 'mince'.
A 'facemask' is specifically the kind of mask that doesn't cover your whole face.
I bet there are more examples.
I submit that no concept more accurately captures the zeitgeist of 2023 regarding corporations, governments, climate, and life in general than @pluralistic 's *Enshittification*. It should be the Word of the Year for 2023!
Theoretical physicist by training (PhD in quantum open systems/quantum information), University lecturer for a bit, and currently paying the bills as an engineer working in optical communication (implementation) and quantum communication (concepts), though still pursuing a little science on the side. I'm interested in physics and math, of course, but I enjoy learning about really any area of science, philosophy, and many other academic areas as well. My biggest other interest is hiking and generally being out in nature.