Frank T

Building community. Nym.

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npub1ntl9pvq747vsmtct4m0q34l6p0wuulwr6at2jkcpvaxux0hc0hgq5taksl

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franktaber_at_mas.to@mostr.pub

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nprofile1qqsf4ljskq02lxgd4u96ahsg6laqhhww0hpaw44ftvqkwnwr8mu8m5qpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0wd68ytnsw43qrj9hlj

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relay.mostr.pub

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npub1ntl9pvq747vsmtct4m0q34l6p0wuulwr6at2jkcpvaxux0hc0hgq5taksl

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Last Notes

2024-09-03 19:22:34

I did not think it was possible for JD Vance to become a worse candidate for Vice President of the US.
"J.D. Vance tied to ultra-right project that called hunger 'great motivator' for unemployed"
https://www.rawstory.com/jd-vance-2669119663/

2024-08-03 23:43:12

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@npub1mdk…aptk I have avoided watching it because of the reviews that said it was nihilistic. Is it not?

2024-08-02 18:58:07

Elon Musk is running a fake voter registration website that tricks US voters into thinking they have registered to vote.
I think if anywhere there are #infosec security experts here on Mastodon who know how to confuse and overwhelm Musk's website trickery.
https://www.popsci.com/technology/elon-musk-voter-registration/

2024-08-02 15:00:26

Harris and Biden meeting WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich last night after he was freed from Russia.
Tagging @npub1v2s…mqq5
https://media.mas.to/media_attachments/files/112/892/963/263/099/308/original/4d34547dd80474b1.mp4

2024-07-31 16:40:35

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@npub1sp6…mkch As Trump says she would be easily pushed around by other world leaders. So that is why he is afraid to debate her. Wait a second.

2024-07-24 22:38:07

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@npub153s…cvd9 What does it show?

2024-07-23 03:44:24

The AI bots have been reprogrammed to attack Harris.
https://media.mas.to/media_attachments/files/112/833/738/582/172/064/original/db941f0ba909cfb3.png

2024-07-22 00:57:49

https://media.mas.to/media_attachments/files/112/827/422/472/981/510/original/2f9a5106ff0af1ec.png

2024-07-20 12:56:11

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@npub1nfl…7t3d You just made up that last bit. And if Biden resigns the presidency Harris still would not get his delegates. The primary process has nothing to do with the presidency.

2024-07-20 12:31:34

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@npub1nfl…7t3d At this point there is no proceess that is "democratic" other than Biden being the nominee. That was voted on. It is settled. Anything else would not be democratic.

2024-07-17 13:43:35

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@npub1tra…npqw Where was Pence? Bush? The Cheneys? Romney? The McCains? Unity?

2024-07-11 22:08:50

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@npub1lzz…jhl3 And it does not appear it was even a headline on their main web page. It was on the side and not prominent. I doubt they keep it up for even more than another day.

2024-07-11 21:24:29

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@npub17ha…t8va Will someone explain these kinds of stories to me? Is there any interview except for a live interview that is not edited?

2024-07-10 03:23:51

https://media.mas.to/media_attachments/files/112/760/049/223/672/303/original/e82522c12ecc6ec0.png

2024-07-06 21:13:29

I see people who are saying Biden needs to step down claiming "Harris does not get his delegates".
Just as expected there is no way that a consensus can be reached for a replacement candidate by the people who want Biden to step aside. But yet they demand that he step aside for nobody. And no matter who would replace him there will be many who are unhappy because no primary happened.
Those who demanded Biden step aside will wash their hands of the mess as holier than thou. And we all lose.

2024-06-22 13:24:37

I just realized the recipe for becoming a popular account on social media. Just post a news story and express simultaneous outrage and despair that nothing will change or that some nefarious other people in positions of power will stop any change.
It was the recipe before Mastodon and is still alive here today.

2024-06-21 12:47:38

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@npub1scr…teus Did everyone travel to Oxford for the conference?

2024-06-18 17:24:01

I have been trying to understand why the most vocal members of the US left dislike Biden so much despite him to my surprise being the furthest left in actual actions of any president in the last 50 years if not more.
I think a big part is that Biden does not make people emotionally feel connected to him.
Other US presidents did. Trump intimidated. Obama inspired. Bush commanded. Clinton empathized. Their bases connected with that.
1/

2024-06-17 13:27:57

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@npub1hx9…lyhl It could be the Indian government threatened them for publishing something unflattering. That is common these days.

2024-06-12 20:49:48

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@npub1437…ranm At this point rumors from people who apparently are in the industry that I read third hand. But there must be first hand sources.

2024-06-12 20:47:43

I have read rumors that Silicon Valley VCs have a ton of #bitcoin and other #crypto that they need to dump this year that has been tied up in their investment agreements. So supposedly they are going to try to engineer a fake rally in crypto prices later this summer and dump it on greater fools.
Anyone in the know about whether they have agreements that force them to hold crypto until later this year? Someone needs to be a whistleblower about market manipulation.

2024-06-06 14:47:26

The same word use problem happens on the left.
Instead of writing "Immigrants are not dangerous. Conservatives are wrong."
People should write "Immigrants strengthen our country. Conservatives don't want you to know that."

2024-06-04 15:09:59

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@npub186j…8z6r A lot of mastodon apps support them so I sometimes wonder if it needs to be built into mastodon or not.

2024-05-31 15:14:00

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@npub1vcl…k6t3 What does it do that the original one does not?

2024-05-25 19:55:13

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@npub19fc…ay3c It would be amusing to see Biden ignore them. But I know why he does not since the idea is to not further the collapse of institutions.

2024-05-24 22:21:10

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@npub19fc…ay3c When I made the chart yesterday I took an average of numbers I found. But the sheer scale of killing is just something else.

2024-05-24 02:07:56

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This chart is a useful piece of information for those who are thinking about and care about US foreign policy and the choices made over the years in each presidential administration. And the consequences that this has for people all over the world.

2024-05-24 01:51:59

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As I mentioned in another post in many of these instances the UK and other countries were directly or indirectly involved as well. A similar chart could be made for UK prime ministers and for many other countries as well.

2024-05-24 01:43:42

This is a chart of direct and indirect deaths that happened during each US presidency since WW2 due to combat. The data is approximate as any data of this sort must be and comes from the best sources I can find online. The list of countries in which these deaths occurred is a very long list.
Direct deaths are those with direct US involvement. Indirect deaths are those with US arms or logistics.
https://media.mas.to/media_attachments/files/112/493/544/632/082/220/original/b7ba986cbe82ce81.png

2024-05-21 23:06:10

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@npub19fc…ay3c As the saying goes we might be done with the viruses but they are not done with us.

2024-05-21 13:55:15

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@npub19fc…ay3c Maybe so. Scary to think that half the US population could be driven to open malevolence in such a short time. Which means it was always in their hearts waiting to be tapped into.

2024-05-20 17:53:22

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@npub19fc…ay3c I am keeping my eye on this as well. What makes you think a tipping point has been reached? I have not noticed anything in particular recently but I must have missed something.

2024-05-18 01:32:26

"When you've lived in a cage, you can't bear not to run, even if what you're running toward is an illusion."

2024-05-09 02:43:53

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@npub1hvd…9sq9 I wonder when the next bible will drop.

2024-04-30 13:25:22

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@npub19fc…ay3c Cosplay street anarchists who do not consider the lived reality of others.

2024-04-30 01:43:40

https://media.mas.to/media_attachments/files/112/357/629/362/358/369/original/f93ae489bd3dae78.png

2024-04-29 15:11:27

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@npub19fc…ay3c The media kneels to a specific kind of right wing power. I cannot remember the last time the media did so as a whole to center left or left wing public figures.

2024-04-28 01:42:58

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@npub19fc…ay3c A few actors come to mind. Idris Elba?

2024-04-26 16:41:07

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@npub19fc…ay3c H5N1 at least has been studied and vaccinated against in the past. So we know what we are dealing with there.
But a hybrid coronavirus between COVID and MERS would be devastating.

2024-04-25 00:13:38

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This may change but it will take the retirement of a whole generation of US elected officials in congress before there is no longer bipartisan consensus on it.

2024-04-25 00:11:39

Given the recent discussion of US funding for Israel it is worth looking at hard numbers as for better or worse this is longstanding US foreign policy at work.
The funding allocated by the US congress to Israel has remained virtually constant in inflation adjusted terms through the presidencies of Reagan Bush Clinton Bush Obama Trump Biden.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/total-u-s-foreign-aid-to-israel-1949-present

2024-04-14 18:35:27

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@npub19fc…ay3c Sea-b-gone. For when your pants are inexplicably soaked from ocean water flooding your neighborhood.

2024-04-10 02:52:04

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@npub19fc…ay3c I agree. I do wonder then why the class settled. Did their lawyers want a quick win rather than fighting it out for years in court?

2024-04-10 02:41:11

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@npub19fc…ay3c I may have misunderstood but this is only the class action suit. There may be individual suits and US state and national penalties.

2024-04-06 15:16:08

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@npub1hvd…9sq9 Only if students are forced to do 100% of their writing in a specific app like google docs.

2024-04-06 15:05:01

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@npub1hvd…9sq9 Students adapt quickly. They can write offline in a word processor and paste into the doc which looks the same in history as pasting in AI text.

2024-04-02 19:18:40

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@npub19fc…ay3c There are a few of them like LibreTaxi and a few others but I do not know if people are using them.

2024-03-24 15:17:27

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@npub1lzz…jhl3 And in both cases they do so by diverting attention through killing civilians.

2024-03-24 15:05:58

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@npub1lzz…jhl3 Which also explains why he must spin a story of how it connects to his imperialist war. Without that supposed link people would start to ask themselves why he left the country vulnerable.

2024-03-19 13:36:29

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@npub19fc…ay3c @npub1ggl…fzlt @npub1k0f…zlnk Online edgelord culture bleeding into real life. The ambiguity of intent and the anger or outrage in response is all part of the goal.

2024-03-19 12:16:01

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@npub1zdp…vqv8 I agree. It is time for his opponents to push him to be more ridiculous but also to mock him as a whining loser who still is complaining at 2am that he lost the last election like he is going to lose again. He has no response to that.

2024-03-18 13:59:25

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@npub19fc…ay3c @npub19j0…jq2x It is the paradox of tolerance. Because democratic governments are tolerant they struggle to react to the intolerance of authoritarianism without becoming intolerant. Only when the authoritarians go way over the line and too fast is there enough of a public will to stop them.

2024-03-17 00:05:43

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@npub1tq4…dklr @npub19fc…ay3c @npub13wm…ugad There has to be big money to be made by consultants from New Zealand to come to US cities and tell them how to completely rebuild their police departments from scratch starting from hiring completely different types of people like @npub12p6…77s3 says and rebalancing the forces towards detective work as @npub14uk…2erc has said.
Maybe US states could also pass laws requiring each police force to be 50% detectives and requiring certain kinds of recruitment.

2024-03-16 23:53:26

One thing we all should remember about authoritarians like Trump and Orban. Violence and norm breaking is a source of power for them. Not weakness. For every thoughtful center right person who gets turned off another two on the far right get excited. Attacking them for promoting violence just amplifies their message.
On the other hand attacking them where they are out of step with the mainstream can work. Marriage equality and reproductive rights and drug laws are some of where they stumble.

2024-03-15 14:46:37

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@npub1wcu…9j6s I cannot tell if this is a rhetorical question so apologies if it is.
I would not use the word fascist because it has lost meaning but comparing a country to some of the worst dictatorships in the world is not a great argument.
Both can be true. Israel is at best a state like apartheid South Africa which has democracy for some but not all the people it controls and has been governed by a far right coalition for too long. Hamas is slightly worse but that is not saying much.

2024-03-15 13:11:11

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@npub19fc…ay3c One excellent part of @npub12p6…77s3 's book Corruptible is comparisons of policing recruitment around the world. You are exactly right that who is recruited matters and there are ways to do it well to recruit those who see it as community service and not top down authority.

2024-03-12 14:46:03

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@npub19fc…ay3c "The wage theft here is pretty bad and the local police chief was embezzling funds...oh you meant a different kind of crime."

2024-03-06 16:52:50

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@npub1mdk…aptk I know this is a joke but I am curious. What does acupuncture actually help for? I have seen it claimed to help for almost everything so I do not know.

2024-02-25 14:37:54

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@npub19fc…ay3c Tried and true far right governance everywhere in the world. Shout loudly but do nothing to solve problems. Even try to make the problems worse. When the problems get bad enough shout that democratic government does not work and a strong leader is needed.

2024-02-25 14:25:13

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@npub19fc…ay3c Worse still Putin considers 2014 the start of that particular war and the war to recreate the USSR to him goes back even further. He sees this as a lifetime struggle for his glory since he is the personification of the state.

2024-02-23 18:58:57

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@npub1mdk…aptk Spatial AI for smart contracts.
"Pivot" to fediverse promotion and making mastodon servers cheap and easy to run.

2024-02-13 12:57:56

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@npub1k6r…k747 @npub1k4q…3lsq Rabin was the closest chance at peace in modern times and that was ended by a killer inspired by Netanyahu.

2024-02-13 12:36:07

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@npub1k4q…3lsq My understanding of the history is that Hamas has not held elections that could remove themselves from power since they took power almost two decades ago. Similarly Netanyahu is holding onto power through loopholes in the law to avoid going to jail for corruption.

2024-02-13 12:28:01

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@npub1k4q…3lsq Maybe so but maybe it is better to describe it as Likud and Hamas as the opposing parties. Just as most would not consider Palestine to be one way or another I think the same can be said about Israel. Both peoples are being ruled by undemocratic far right violent patriarchal religious extremists. The sooner they both oust their leaders and adopt nonreligious pluralism the better.

2024-02-06 18:09:49

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@npub1yln…0gym @npub19fc…ay3c @npub12kp…439z The funny thing is the batteries are not even Tesla's technology. They have a deal with Panasonic who actually designed and makes the batteries.

2024-02-06 15:30:19

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@npub19fc…ay3c It is interesting we still have a Sumerian and Babylonian influence with base 60.

2024-02-04 21:43:46

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@npub1zdp…vqv8 Reminds me of this.
https://xkcd.com/988/

2024-01-29 02:31:58

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@npub1a24…etnp I think I agree but I do not quite know what you mean by material wellbeing.

2024-01-08 18:55:39

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@npub19fc…ay3c They are doing smash and grab but it is borne of fear that their power is waning. When they were more secure and knew the hierarchy would stay put they felt they could afford to be more generous or at least to pretend.

2023-12-19 18:03:14

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@npub17wa…tl0j I worry that while these are important studies it makes basic income seem like another dole or welfare rather than something that everyone would receive regardless of income or wealth. That may undermine political support.

2023-12-18 23:46:50

I have been wondering whether bloodletting with leeches was actually effective as a treatment of vascular postviral illnesses and that is why they continued doing it for thousands of years all over the world. Sometimes ancient practices worked even if they did not understand why they worked.
Does anyone know whether there were #LongCovid like illnesses that bloodletting was used for?

2023-11-22 02:36:46

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@npub1f6a…pnql I wonder if the style of speech or word choice in the quotes from anonymous sources would be enough to give it away with context.

2023-11-22 02:26:49

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@npub1f6a…pnql My first guess was that you would have asked an AI model to read between the lines of the news stories to explain the subtext. I wonder what would happen.

2023-11-20 21:29:00

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@npub19fc…ay3c I hope the US led negotiations that apparently have been going on for a few weeks for a ceasefire are successful but what I am reading is that both Hamas and Likud like the current situation because it stokes anger and angry people give them the power they want. Politically they both gain from more violence.

2023-11-10 14:14:20

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@npub19fc…ay3c Oh he will hold on if he can and has an incentive to have neverendimg war because the current consensus is he will be asked to step down when the war ends however that is defined.

2023-11-10 14:08:53

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@npub19fc…ay3c Except he is unlikely to be in charge to make that decision for long given how unpopular he is now. He has been avoiding his domestic press because they will ask him when he will step down.

2023-11-02 01:54:38

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@npub1mmf…eknq It might be better not to make comparisons. That is not at all what has happened in Ukraine. Literally millions of children are tens of millions of adults have either lived in cities as they are destroyed from the air piece by piece or kidnapped by Russia which is hardly a way to escape a war zone. Only a part of the population managed to escape to other countries.

2023-10-29 14:28:55

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@npub19fc…ay3c It is disturbing to me that both Hamas and Likud want innocent people to die. It is as many have said like the two need each other to play their roles in a bloody pact to keep hatred alive for yet another generation. Those who want peace on both sides have little voice and no power.

2023-09-04 23:54:53

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@npub1lrv…tth9 Dan I hope you are posting this elsewhere that you have a megaphone as well. I think journalists may listen to you but the ones who need to hear it are not here.

2023-08-07 15:10:02

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@npub1mdk…aptk @npub1rp8…5fqa Pinker has been a glibertarian for a long time and the distance between glibertarianism and neo authoritarians is remarkably small.

2023-08-05 14:09:53

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@npub16u7…uend It is curious how most new supposed innovation is nothing more than a dressed up version of enclosure from centuries ago. Take something that people did fine by themselves or did not pay money for and stick a business on top and charge toll. It is a reminder that most new economic activity is just rent seeking on the wider population.

2023-08-04 23:17:34

I did not know that officials in China decided to divert the floodwaters to save Beijing but flood a different city instead. The kind of real life no win choices we all will be facing in this uncertain planetary future.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-66391331

2023-08-04 21:49:30

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@npub1cme…w4rh Thank you for sharing. Disappointing but entirely unsurprising to read in there that NYT has published him.

2023-07-18 15:46:06

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@npub19fc…ay3c Oh yeah. It is disturbing how the richest person in the world is trending towards being a cartoonish movie villain while daily headlines are like the opening five minutes of an apocalypse film and we are wondering if everything is fine.

2023-07-18 15:42:31

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@npub19fc…ay3c Oy what did he do this time?

2023-07-16 21:37:24

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@npub1mdk…aptk @npub1hcc…4xws Co-op structure is good as long as everyone has read Jo Freeman and understands what she was saying all those years ago. Otherwise it can be a recipe for incessant dysfunction.
Maybe it is that the word co-op that attracts people's assumptions.

2023-07-16 16:45:40

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@npub1u4f…fk9k @npub1mdk…aptk Often once you add up the cost of multiple mini splits it is worth it to just get a heat pump.

2023-07-14 05:54:07

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@npub1vqm…ccpx I wonder if @npub125n…ft8e or @npub1kfa…6hg0 or @npub1nqz…838y might amplify this perspective.

2023-07-11 22:14:26

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@npub1hpc…hjn3 I remember that some publications like The Economist do not or at least in the past did not put bylines on their articles. Does that help journalists have the fortitude to write about such topics?

2023-07-10 01:50:31

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@npub1fh4…44wz Cannot be quoted enough "I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS. People just submitted it. I don't know why. They "trust me". Dumb fucks." - Mark Zuckerberg
I was also going to pick a story or quote about how Peter Thiel was his mentor for over a decade but there were too many that I was not able to pick just one.

2023-07-09 14:55:35

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@npub1grx…uxfe Perhaps I misunderstand your point but is that not already what is happening except that we are collectively donating rather than relying solely upon a few people to fund everything?

2023-07-08 20:53:44

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@npub1yr2…68y0 @npub1t5m…9guy @npub1src…fms4 I would also recommend the short story The Machine Stops by EM Forster.

2023-07-06 14:23:04

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@npub1mdk…aptk @npub15h2…mmzc Ivory is nice. If Elk could be an app it would be nice too.

2023-06-25 02:27:44

I just realized that there is so much noise about #Meta and very little about creating template legal policies that instances can adopt that prohibit commercial use of user data.
Whatever you think of defederation there are easy ways to do that. Legal policies on the other hand are complex and require expertise and often money.
Maybe #LawFedi can help crowdsource templates of strict noncommercial legal policies for the #Fediverse so instance admins do not have to figure it out themselves?

2023-05-23 22:54:04

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@npub1xf5…v5mn NYT does a terrible job on the 20% of their reporting that is largely on nonsense political framings that influences 80% of the rest of the media and does a good job on 80% of their reporting that have 20% of the attention and influence.

2023-05-02 02:59:59

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@npub1yk6…4zz4 I use the mute button here frequently because it is so easy and because I know that there will be no algorithm indirectly feeding me drama and trolling from people who are addicted to drama and trolling. The 7 day feature is useful for a first time someone is making noise and after that I use indefinite.
Edit I meant to say that I use the mute button and somehow forgot the I

2023-04-14 13:58:02

Every day I see people trying to catch Musk in his own hypocrisy or fact check some authoritarian conservative politician. But they do not care about hypocrisy. It is about power. They are happy to wield power unfairly.
As the old authoritarian saying goes "For my friends everything, for my enemies the law."