Monument @ Monument @lemmy.sdf.org

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2 yr. ago

Helpful Tip: in a pinch, other predators will do, but they should be spec’d up for lethality if facing larger prey.

Source: Fox that attacked congressman and others near Capitol had rabies, officials say

Oof. That hurts to hear.

This is my semi-lazy approach. I’m sure someone is going to tell me all the ways that I’m falling down on this front, but…

I switched over to iPhone in like 2019. I started getting ‘stealth’ ads in google maps while driving, and I just could not deal with it. It made me reconsider all of Google’s products, and I made an effort to get away from them. (The stealth ads were like “In a quarter mile, continue past the [name of store] on your right” on a perfectly straight road. At the time I was giving a lot of thought to dark patterns and how they influence our behavior, and I just could not see that occurrence as anything other than manipulation. Ironically, I’ve since learned it may have actually been due to GIS errors thinking the road curved when it didn’t, and Google not having a nearby street to use for reference, but like… I don’t know, and I don’t care.)
On my iPhone I set it up to never send advertising ID/opt out of ad personalization.
I don’t give apps permissions they don’t have a clear reason for needing - Your camera can give away your location because of photo geotagging. Network access can report on what devices you have on your network as well as your network information, which is something that’s trackable and geolocatable. In an extreme edge case, network access could be used to find file shares on your network and use those to gather information about you. Bluetooth for same reasons. There are advertising networks based on Bluetooth, since your hardware MAC is not changeable and is freely shared. It can be used to track your location within a store, or figure out where you’ve been. A device that connects your identity (email login or something) to your bluetooth MAC can be used to build profiles on where you’ve shop and what sections you loiter in stores. And obviously, location access. I semi-routinely audit which apps are on my phone, and remove ones I don’t use and restrict permissions that I may have granted for a good reason but no longer need the app to have.
I don’t use the same email for anything anymore. I use an email masking service to generate emails for different services.
I never give my last name to any site unless it’s for billing. And I often don’t give my real first name. I never give my real birthday to any site that isn’t engaged with money or the law. I’ve removed or made ambiguous my profile on almost all social media. I no longer post my face to the internet.
I have used (but am not currently using) a service to request to remove me from online marketing/info sites like spokeo or whatever.
I also use a network-wide advertising blocker on my home network, and while I do have smart devices, they are blocked from internet access, with an upcoming plan to completely put them on an offline and isolated network.
The other thing that I did (accidentally) was to buy a new car that does not share data with advertisers or insurance companies. (Yet/to the best of my knowledge.) I’ve also gone through and audited my old accounts and requested not just account deletions, but data deletions. This is especially important for services that may have health, financial, or purchasing data. When I move, I never file a change of address with USPS. First - I just know what’s important to me and update those addresses. But second, the USPS maintains a database of everyone in the U.S. called the National Change of Address (NCOA) Database, and that is more or less monitored by junk mail advertisers to track where people physically are and to send them junk mail. The only time I get junk mail that’s addressed to me is when my information is shared against my will from financial institutions under this stupid exception.

My next thing that I may wind up doing is seeing if I can start acquiring throwaway phone numbers to forward to my real number, so online services that require a phone number for delivery or whatever cannot use that piece of information consistently or well.

That all does sound like a lot, I guess. But it doesn’t feel like a lot. I just live my life and try not to leak my data.
Most of that (and the issue this article is about) would be moot if the U.S. would just pass consumer privacy protections, but noooo, we can’t have that. Instead they’re going to theatrically whine about other countries and pass laws to help Facebook and bolster U.S. controlled propaganda-outlets while not doing anything to actually solve the problem(s).

Yeah, I know. And I know there’s way more market demand for mirrorless, as well as simpler mechanicals, so they have less failure points, but do I ever love the sound and that subtle feeling of a mirror slapping up and the shutter flicking out of place.
The feedback that offers when you capture a photo feels like you’re doing something ‘real’ when you take a photo. Everyone knows that you captured that moment. Those photons are yours forever, trapped in your little art-making box.

It’s kind of romantic, in a way. I feel like modern tech is great, but tends to be inscrutable.

I have such fond memories of shooting on my old Canon DSLR.
It’s been 20 years since I bought my last DSLR (life, you know?) and I recently started thinking that maybe I should buy another before they close out the DSLR product line.

A huge disappointment to see this enshitification.

I’m sorry this is going to be such a shit comment, but I worked with a guy that had a fitness watch of some stripe.

He was a heavier guy and well, that plasticy band was pressed tight against his skin. One day he came in with this nasty looking ring of red and peeling skin around his wrist. Said he got a rash from the watch. (It’s very possible it was an allergic reaction to something in the band.)

This is a shit comment because I don’t know the brand, and I’m totally saying “trust me, bro.” But like, trust me, bro, it apparently happens?

She didn’t see it until after work started, but gave it a “Haha” response and then asked if both the dogs pooped this morning.

My wife saw him in concert awhile back, but the concert was on a Wednesday, so now I refer to him as “The Wednesday,” and have for years. She finds it funny and annoying and tells me to shut up while giggling.

I sent her this meme. She’s going to be so annoyed when she wakes up.

Care to comment on Alaska and it's Ranked-Choice Voting system?

Honestly, I was going to be a little snarky and say “No.” all petulant-like and leave my response as just the quote of your question and my dumb response but I did a quick skim of the headlines about it because I, well, forgot they passed ranked choice. I know, at a time of upheaval, pandemic, and highly mediocre personal depression, I should have been thinking of Jewel’s home state.

But it’s kind of interesting, right? A citizen-led ballot initiative passed in the 2020 “blue wave”, and using ranked choice in 2022, Alaskans elected their first Democrat state senator in over 50 years. And Republican aligned groups are now repeatedly bringing petitions forth to to to get it overturned - which have so far continued to fail.
That’s a solid counter to my “Americans are hostages” line of thought. Unfortunately, Alaska represents less than 2% of elected officials, and about 0.25% of the U.S. population.
But those ballot initiatives won’t stop. Talking points from the strategists trying to undermine ranked choice will be played, parroted, and drilled into people’s heads. Until enough folks rethink their decision to vote for ranked choice on one of the upcoming votes to repeal it. And then what happens. Is there a political party that will fund ballot initiatives until it gets passed again?
Nah. Just two parties, pretending to oppose each other while pocketing a paycheck. It’s pro wrestling. Scripted fights. Misdirection. Anything to turn a profit and keep the show going.
Fitting that Trump sits at the top.

It’s not necessarily that the U.S. is bad, or is choosing the worst option.

There are undoubtedly a lot of very intelligent and deep analysis on the topic, but here’s a pretty simplified explanation that I’m going to try to rush through because I should be doing something other than commenting a whole novel.

The American electoral system is completely fucked.
It was not designed for or implemented with the concept of political parties, and some of its fundamental assumptions are predicated on political parties not existing in order to function as a working democracy. However after the first election, political parties formed, and began working on codifying and entrenching their power. It’s like game theory run amok. The win condition is first past the pole, so there’s only one winner, and by default, if there’s more than 2 contenders, then the vote is split inefficiently, so naturally there can only be two major parties at a time. And the two parties must exist such a way that they do not dilute or share their power, so they do not modify the system to allow for the inclusion of other parties, or allow for the vote to be split. It’s unlikely the parties would pass laws that they know would dilute their own power, even if it also diluted the power of their opposition.
As a result, voters in the U.S. must either: Vote for the party that most closely aligns with their interests, vote against the party that aligns against their interests, or abstain from voting.
With only two options, it’s sometimes challenging to find a party or candidates that represent your interests. Many people in the U.S. feel that no party represents them, or that their vote simply does not matter. In 2024, a little more than 2/3 of eligible voters did not vote.

The process of financing and prosecuting elections in the U.S. is completely fucked.
Well before the 2011 Citizens United ruling, the U.S. had a lot of issues with voter suppression and voter turnout: Election Day is not a national holiday in the U.S. and many employers will simply tell their employees to figure out a time to vote that isn’t during work hours. Every state, and sometimes individual cities can execute elections differently, with different laws, however, so the experience is not consistent. Some places make voting more approachable, and some make it more difficult, but the federal government has limited authority over states when it comes to the election, so decisions about voting hours, whether to allow mail in voting, and the reasons for which mail in voting is allowable, are left up to various municipalities, creating a confusing patchwork that is a challenge to navigate by citizens. This lowers turnout to those who have the time and ability to navigate it all. Since 2011, unlimited corporate bribery has become the norm, and politicians are now nakedly bought and owned by corporate interests. Studies show that regardless of party or political belief, that most politicians align with donors way more than than the ‘rank and file’ voters, so the average person does not have the ability to impact the outcome of the laws that are passed.

The third leg of this, which I’m unfortunately out of time to really discuss, is the media, and the internet. But the U.S. isn’t shutting down TikTok over user data. It’s shutting it down because it could not influence the algorithm to viewpoints that were favorable to the political goals of the U.S. and its corporate sponsors. All the major platforms in the U.S. are somehow beholden to the U.S. government, save for, well, Lemmy.
And beyond that, you have corporate control of the media, and corporations that own vast swaths of the information that comes into the U.S.’s TV’s, newspapers, and inboxes. It’s impossible to get viewpoints that are not influenced or controlled by (again) the U.S. government or its corporate sponsors.

So if the public perception is controlled, the ability to vote is hampered, and the political parties have a noose braided out of dollars around their neck, then what does the average person do?

Go shoot a healthcare executive and watch major news networks freak the fuck out trying to villainize you while the government throws every possible law at you? Try to start your own political party and be drowned by the conspiracy of the two in power? Citizen-led voter initiatives, that are routinely challenged by monied interests and even the government themselves, when the citizenry don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars in lawyer fees to fight frivolous lawsuits? Try to start an armed insurrection against the U.S.? Psh.

The citizenry of the U.S. are hostages, whether they believe it or not.

Ooohhh.

I did not realize until this moment that I didn’t understand their relationship correctly.

That’s sort of a blanket statement, and I don’t think it really applies about Warren and Sanders.

My sense is that most folks feel that Bernie is too old. And I didn’t realize EW was 75, but in contrast to both Biden and Trump, I haven’t seen Sanders or Warren randomly zone out and have an ‘old person’ moment on camera.
They both still seem mentally sharp. Whether or not that’s a function of having less press exposure and a greater ability to choose when they appear before the cameras is an unknown.

Not advocating for them, mind you, because I do think they’re too old. Just adding that I think their perceived sharpness allows them to avoid those criticisms.

Frodalf is just Tom Bombadil

Gimlum is the wizened old meth head that steals your hubcaps and tries to sell them back to you.

To be fair, he’s a priest. He only knows about Chryslers and vehicles whose names end in –mobile.

So for $200 USD they’re selling an 80’s retro version of a GameboyPi case ($50 on amazon, includes battery) with a slightly larger screen and fewer buttons. For $10 more, they’ll add in a keyboard that they haven’t developed yet.

Seems like an overpriced stepping stone between a flipper and a steam deck.

God‘s Gonna Cut You Down, by Johnny Cash

I remember when Emma Watson turned 18, and there were websites that counted down to it. Same for Lindsay Lohan. It was so creepy, and also weirdly presented as ‘normal dude behavior’ back in the aughts. I’m glad that’s no longer acceptable. It always gave me the ick.

Obviously, when I was a teenager I would have found teenagers attractive. But I’m no longer a teenager. And as the years have progressed, so have my preferences.
I couldn’t pinpoint an exact time when it occurred, but now when I see someone younger than like, 30, I just am not attracted. Sure, I can appreciate someone aesthetically without being attracted to them, but really, that has a cut-off, too. Anyone younger than their mid 20’s just does not look good to me.
At a base, physical, level, they look wrong to my eyes. Their faces aren’t done being formed, and they don’t have adult bodies. (Younglings, if you’re reading this, rest assured, you look great, and I’m just an old twisted weirdo with specific tastes. My attraction is not worth your self-confidence.) Let alone all the maturity, social, and experience-related differences that occur as a result of those age gaps. (Younglings, again - this is something you cannot help, and is not something that you can change without becoming an old twisted weirdo yourself. So don’t worry about it. My approval is free, and not worth the paper it’s printed on, if I printed it on paper.)

My wife has a half-sister that is 24 years younger than her, and she’s not even the oldest in her family. I think the full age spread is about 31 years.

Sort of a similar deal. Her mom and dad split when she was young. Dad had a whoops/miracle baby with his new wife, who is only a year or two older than his eldest daughter. She was 26, I think, when they met and apparently pursued him despite his protests until he gave in and dated her. So it’s maybe weird, but not standard issue creepy. The baby happened around 7 years into their relationship.

I mean, look — If your kid can’t tell the difference between a merlot and a malbec by the time they’re ready to order from the adult menu, can you say you’ve succeeded in preparing them for adulthood?

I thought it was an Adidas reference, based on the logo.