@franktaber@mas.to avatar

franktaber

@franktaber@mas.to

Building community. Nym.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

skinnylatte, to BelieveInFilm
@skinnylatte@hachyderm.io avatar

Let's try a new format for photography / storytelling.

--

Lately, I've been thinking about what it means to have come from the equator. Imagine growing up with no seasons, except 'rain' and 'monsoon' and 'hot' and 'hotter'. Everything around you is green, all year round, never brown. Lush is not just the word they use in magazines about tropical travel, but it's the only world you know.

franktaber,
@franktaber@mas.to avatar

@skinnylatte This post is making me crave some boiling hot spicy soup.

seachanger, to random
@seachanger@alaskan.social avatar

if I were biden, I’d whip every single willing rep and senator into a full action plan to bring integrity to the supreme court, starting with the demand that judges whose households have documented partisan or ethics issues involving politicians must be recused from all decisions involving those leaders

https://www.theguardian.com/law/article/2024/may/18/samuel-alito-flag-supreme-court-ethics-election?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

franktaber,
@franktaber@mas.to avatar

@seachanger Senator Whitehouse has been banging this drum weekly in the senate as far as I know. He has used the senate's power to launch investigations and such. But with a razor thin majority I do not think there is support for anything further as they would need Senator Manchin to agree and good luck with that.

glennf, to random
@glennf@twit.social avatar

I don't admire Mike Johnson: he has terrible, regressive views, and given the power, he would make our country tremendously worse for most people who don't look like him and believe what he believes.

But, given his awful approach to the world, I am impressed that he has pursued necessary bipartisan action that approaches statespersonlike behavior in preventing government shutdown, deters Russian expansionism, and counters dysfunction.

franktaber,
@franktaber@mas.to avatar

@glennf I wonder when the next bible will drop.

TechConnectify, to random
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

Real thought:

What depresses me most about the state of the world at present is that we've stopped caring to live up to the spirit of our ideals.

When we fail them and are pressed, we can rationalize our terrible actions based on technicalities - and large swaths of our culture have normalized doing this very thing.

It is my most sincere hope that we can walk our way back from this. I see some signs of this, but would prefer to see many more.

franktaber,
@franktaber@mas.to avatar

@TechConnectify @glyph This is just what happens when the world no longer lives in the good feeling illusion of rectitude. It was what the British Empire was about and the early American Empire after WWII. For all their horrors they did have some virtues they expressed even if they were not applied universally. Things like the UN came out of that.

The 1960s and 1970s shattered it. And the internet reminded us that everyone everywhere has a point of view. That is reality now.

franktaber,
@franktaber@mas.to avatar

@TechConnectify @glyph I agree. The trouble is that the two were tied together in the old cultural mythology. They had the same roots in god and country. Everything and everyone was part of the hierarchy and had their place. Those on top had noblesse oblige.

We in the Anglosphere are very much in nihilism now or at least extreme relativism.

We need a new set of cultural virtues that do not require the hierarchy of old.

franktaber, to random
@franktaber@mas.to avatar
RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    franktaber,
    @franktaber@mas.to avatar

    @RickiTarr I thought there were studies that in most hunter gatherer societies there are plenty of people who live 70 or 80 years. It is just that child mortality rates are higher because of a lack of vaccines and antibiotics.

    franktaber,
    @franktaber@mas.to avatar

    @RickiTarr Here is one scholar's explanation.

    https://theconversation.com/hunter-gatherers-live-nearly-as-long-as-we-do-but-with-limited-access-to-healthcare-104157

    Adam_Cadmon1, to random
    @Adam_Cadmon1@mastodon.online avatar

    What if...what if there was a family or maybe a collection of families with members who have much longer than average lifespans

    franktaber,
    @franktaber@mas.to avatar

    @jennifersmith @Adam_Cadmon1 There are definitely large cities or regions with much longer lifespans. Madrid Spain for example has the highest and several other areas in Spain are high.

    https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20231106-1

    Though there is also some reason to believe the famous blue zones like in rural areas of Italy and Greece and Japan may be places with worse than average bookkeeping rather than actual longevity. The studies on this are mixed.

    franktaber, to random
    @franktaber@mas.to avatar

    Since I was discussing in another thread here are some articles backing up what I was saying that he is like a cross between Joe Rogan and Trump and worse than Biden on Gaza.

    "Robert F. Kennedy Jr. offered staunch support for Israel in a Reuters interview, calling it a “moral nation” that was justly responding to Hamas provocations with its attacks on Gaza and questioning the need for a six-week ceasefire backed by President Joe Biden." 1/

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/2024-dark-horse-rfk-jr-questions-gaza-ceasefire-defends-israeli-offensive/

    franktaber,
    @franktaber@mas.to avatar

    "A tweet from the account of ... Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Friday used language that many observers say evokes the known Nazi hate symbol “1488.”" 2/

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/robert-f-kennedy-jr-tweet_n_64c3fab7e4b021e2f29310ba

    franktaber,
    @franktaber@mas.to avatar

    I have particularly strong opinions about RFK Jr because of how much harm he has caused in the US and UK through his antivax garbage. The apple fell very far from the tree.

    QasimRashid, to random
    @QasimRashid@mastodon.social avatar

    It should outrage everyone that in response to Israel killing 14 children, the White House condemned the interfaith student orgs protesting such war crimes for antisemitism committed by unaffiliated bigots—while funding the actual war crimes being protested with another $26B.😳

    Israeli bombing kills 18, including 14 children in Rafah

    franktaber,
    @franktaber@mas.to avatar

    @QasimRashid I agree with almost all of this except with one bit that concerns me about your comments. If I understand right you were running for the US congress yet you describe it as the White House doing the funding. In the US it is congress that funds things so I am a bit confused why as someone running for congress you do not describe the hash of a law the divided congress produced as such.

    franktaber,
    @franktaber@mas.to avatar

    @QasimRashid I just expected someone running for the US congress to talk about what they see as the US congress's role in the process. I do not see it as splitting hairs nor am I someone who can vote or not vote for you so my feedback to you probably means nothing and that is fine.

    Adam_Cadmon1, to random
    @Adam_Cadmon1@mastodon.online avatar

    It's amazing how many American's game plan for domestic conflict. Amazing how many videos are on YouTube of these people game planning for Civil War.
    I guess that shows where our minds are?

    franktaber,
    @franktaber@mas.to avatar

    @Adam_Cadmon1 @starwall Though these billionaires are not as smart as they want us to think. This video gets into it.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCVXaqSEqmI

    ernie, to random
    @ernie@writing.exchange avatar

    The most dangerous subgenre of YouTube is marble machine YouTube. It is never-ending videos of people trying to do amazing feats with machines driven by marbles, and it threatens your sanity to watch them.

    franktaber,
    @franktaber@mas.to avatar

    @ernie Do you have any favorite videos among them?

    glennf, to random
    @glennf@twit.social avatar

    Absolutely, schools should be teaching students to enable revision tracking on their drafts. If a student is accused of AI plagiarism or other plagiarism, replaying the revision process should allay that. (Google Docs does this automatically.) https://apple.news/AyfDw_SGISCWh_Nf0LMUXZw

    franktaber,
    @franktaber@mas.to avatar

    @glennf 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.

    franktaber,
    @franktaber@mas.to avatar

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

    franktaber, to random
    @franktaber@mas.to avatar

    In geopolitics I see complaints that so and so just issued a statement with a bunch of words and words do not matter. Cynical takes follow.

    Diplomacy is exactly that. Words. It is better for international conflicts to be resolved with words.

    appassionato, to KindActions
    @appassionato@mastodon.social avatar

    World Central Kitchen founder's response

    “The air strikes on our convoy were not just some unfortunate mistake in the fog of war. It was a direct attack on clearly marked vehicles whose movements were known by the [Israeli military]. It was also the direct result of his [PM Netanyahu’s] government’s policy to squeeze humanitarian aid to desperate levels.”

    Jose Andres

    @palestine


    franktaber,
    @franktaber@mas.to avatar

    @MisuseCase @Paul_Friesen @entrepierneur @appassionato @palestine Thank you for pointing that out. Social media tends to flatten everything into clear cut simplistic stories. The world is so much messier and there is a lot of both credit and blame to go around.

    anildash, to random
    @anildash@me.dm avatar

    This is a milestone for the open web. https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/2/24119353/joe-biden-threads-mastodon-activitypub-fediverse

    franktaber,
    @franktaber@mas.to avatar

    @futurebird @danciruli @anildash I am hopeful that all governments will do so eventually. I imagine there is a political and legal thicket they have to navigate regarding moderation and federation and there would have to be funding set aside for it and security procedures created.

    franktaber,
    @franktaber@mas.to avatar

    @futurebird @danciruli @anildash I agree I think they have the technical ability. I think the political aspect is much harder. Who decides which servers to defederate with and which users and posts to block? Right now they can point at Meta or Twitter or whomever and say that the decision is out of their hands. On a government run server they have to make those choices and there are no easy answers.

    franktaber,
    @franktaber@mas.to avatar

    @futurebird @danciruli @anildash I like that idea. Maybe they can disable comments? I remember reading that some Mastodon or Fediverse server has support for that. I think Pixelfed can do it.

    Lazarou, to random
    @Lazarou@mastodon.social avatar

    Blinken upping the language, sure to infuriate the Beast Netanyahu.
    Just words though still, stop sending military Aid. It's as simple as that.

    franktaber,
    @franktaber@mas.to avatar

    @Alon @MisuseCase @hannu_ikonen @Lazarou Ben Gvir was quoted as of a few weeks ago by the Wall Street Journal saying he wants Trump elected so he has a free hand to wipe out Gaza complaining that Biden was helping Gaza too much.

    inquiline, to random
    @inquiline@union.place avatar

    I am once again begging Eric Topol to use the term "machine learning" or "pattern recognition" rather than "AI"

    franktaber,
    @franktaber@mas.to avatar

    @inquiline "big box o' numbers"

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