blindsight @ blindsight @beehaw.org

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6

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758

Joined

2 yr. ago

Obligatory alt text:

"Do you feel like the answer depends on whether you're currently in the hole, versus when you refer to the events later after you get out? Assuming you get out."

XKCD should always include the alt text, imho. It's often the better punchline (as in this case, imho.)

I think this 8000+ word article's length is indicative of the "real" answer: it's complicated.

I read the whole thing. Lots of great personalities and examples spanning from AltaVista to Large Language models and everything in between.

I think the quote that resonated with me the most, to summarize this article's main thesis in a sound bite, was this:

You can’t just be the most powerful observer in the world for two decades and not deeply warp what you are looking at

In essence, it's the fault of having a dominant algorithm dictating what the Internet "is". Google is the tool most people use for most of their information seeking. Thus, getting a high ranking from Google is the difference between success and failure.

imho, the only real solution is decentralization. Federated services, local newspapers, new search engines, idk.

And yet, Google is still my default search engine. So I'm part of the problem.

The highlighted story is rather telling, too, with power tools cutting metal right next to her neck without any PPE.

Granted, the protestor locked herself with the bike lock around her neck deliberately, presumably to make arresting her more difficult, but the police still have a duty to reasonably protect citizens.

I can't really imagine a situation where it would warrant rushing that arrest and putting the protestor at risk... Maybe if it was blocking a road for an ambulance and someone was going to die if they didn't get to the hospital in time?

But this is a logging road in the middle of nowhere, so my charitable reading is that it was just too inconvenient to take a few minutes to get some protection in place. More likely, it was just a casual disregard for her humanity and they didn't care about risking serious harm.

I can't, unfortunately. I need pretty tight Google integration for work. I tried it initially, but it was far too janky for me.

Bibliotik, apparently, but I don't have a membership to check. It's basically impossible to get an invite, from what I've heard.

MAM is one of the better ones for ebooks, too, isn't it? I should probably look into getting on it.

The "best" tracker for ebooks is, apparently, impossible to get an invite for.

Edit: lol, I should have clicked the link first. Self-described, but "You have found your way to arguably the best private tracker for ebooks..."

Audiobookbay.nl is the best public audiobook tracker.

From the article, someone called 911. Presumably personnel from the US consulate, but they should have used their discretion when a professional photographer explained they were waiting for the correct lighting for their photo. That's perfectly reasonable.

He wasn't taking pictures in the windows of the consulate or loitering, which explicitly requires there to be "no purpose" to being there, which he clearly demonstrated.

I'm not a lawyer, but I don't believe the police have the right to demand ID when you're not suspected of breaking any laws, either.

I tried to take a stab at it, but I'm coming up empty.

Go And Get Totally Gang Fucked
Get A Grip To Get Fucked
Give A Gummer Then Get Fucked

This is the goal of developed nations around the world ratcheting up interest rates; they wanted to shift the demand curve to the left. And, of course, discretionary spending will be the most affected, which includes most technology.

Also, one of the examples cited was York University, and universities are provincially regulated and funded.

Archive link

Infant mortality rate is one of the key statistics that measures general health in a population. Anyone paying attention won't be surprised that nutrition and health are in decline in the US.

The scary part might be that this will potentially drive more people to conservatism due to the Golden Age fallacy, encouraging more to believe that the solution to society's problems is regression.

I wish I could be more hopeful about this, but it's overwhelming. I'm worried that other countries are backsliding into social regression, too.

Two Canadian provinces are putting policies in place to out trans kids to their parents and we have a right-wing radical group called "Million March 4 Children" that's pushing QAnon conspiracies that the world is run by pedophiles trying to scale up child sexual abuse through the education system.

I'm getting off-topic, sorry. Except it's not really, is it? It's all interconnected, and those holding the levers of power don't care about infant mortality rates.

I need to charge my Pixel 7a 2-3 times/day. I'm at 21%. My phone was at 100% 12 hours ago. Only 1h37m screen-on time.

This is the worst battery life I've ever had from a phone. So, I'm not surprised the Pixel 8 is also bad.

I'm going to sell this phone and get something else. This will be my first time ever selling a phone before running it into the ground; my last phone was a Pixel 3a I got 4 years from.

Yeah, same. I just watched a static .PNG a streamer put up for a 3-minute ad break a few days ago.

I think it's TTV LOL PRO that does it?

Logseq is the best, imho.

There are lots of good options if you're okay with closed/proprietary software, but Logseq is open source, fully featured, in active development, and really smooth to use.

Their business model is to charge $5 USD/mo for using their cloud sync solution, but you can use any other syncing service instead just as easily. It's a small team that only gets under $50K/yr so far, though, so please subscribe if it's useful for you.

Edit: Oh, and Logseq files are plaintext using mostly standard Markdown, so it's easy to port your data away at any time if you ever decide to migrate to something else.

That number is just based on my napkin math of their reported subscriber numbers, with some assumptions about distribution of tiers skewing heavily to the low end.

Same, almost.

I use Logseq for all my notes, but Keep cloud sync for shared notes with my wife, which we mostly just use for shipping lists.

I like Logseq so much I donate $5 USD/month. It's the first open-source project I've actively funded with recurring donations.

I read the whole thread and didn't find anyone saying they read digital exclusively for functionality reasons.

First, I'll say that kids' books are the exception. We have hundreds of children's books, and regularly borrow heaps from the library and buy used (for both environmental and financial reasons).

But for my reading, I exclusively read digital books, mostly with text-to-speech. As someone working more than full time with kids and family responsibilities, my reading time is driving, doing chores, or right before sleep. Right before sleep, I like to read with my eyes along with reading with my ears, but I shift to ear reading pretty soon so it's completely dark. I fall asleep with a book playing (on a timer) almost exclusively.

I have a few textbooks and course notes packages from university (half a small box), photo books, and unread physical books that were given to me (I read digital versions instead). That's the full list.

Even if I want to take notes on a book, live links to page references and embedded text in Logseq is so much better. I get the quote, its context, and direct links to the other idea/thought that I connected ideas with in my Logseq "Second Brain".

"Reading" is the correct verb for consuming books regardless of medium. It's ableist gatekeeping to say otherwise, just like deaf people can talk, people in wheelchairs can go for a walk, and blind people can say they're "seeing a friend later."

I'd love to read more about that! Normally, I'd just do my own searching, but since you have actual expertise in the area, is there someone in particular I should search for who explains this?

I also want to clarify that I'm not skeptical; on the contrary, I can think of three reasons off the top of my head, as a layman who knows virtually nothing about Esperanto, just based on you identifying colonialism as an issue, but I was hoping to get an educated take on it.

I'm glad this has happened, but also sad and surprised that this wasn't already illegal.

I'll need to add another category of privilege to my spiel about recognizing my privileges that I give to students before addressing topics related to prejudice.

I've known about caste for decades, too, but I hadn't connected the dots to oppression in Canada today. Should have been obvious, in retrospect. But I suppose it's hard to know about prejudices that don't target us directly.