@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

SpeakerToManagers

@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop

Retired software engineer. Progressive lefty from trade-union socialist communist family. Neurodivergent (ADD, OCD) & physically disabled. Interested in a lot of things including photography, computing, art, SFF, experimental video, astrobiology, complex adaptive systems, poetry, visual mathematics …
#Fractals, #ReactionDiffusion, #GenerativeArt, #CellularAutomata.
Allergic to libertarianism, AI hype, trans-humanism, crypto currency & web3.

𝐋𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬.

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lilithsaintcrow, to random
@lilithsaintcrow@raggedfeathers.com avatar

I don’t know how that squirrel got on the neighbor’s roof but I hope it has some kind of escape plan.

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@mcpinson @lilithsaintcrow
I’m ambivalent about squirrels. I like watching them climb in the trees in my yard, and walk around the deck, but …
Once I was outside of work eating lunch with colleagues. A crow landed nearby to scavenge a piece of a sandwich, and sounded off to declare ownership. Then 4 squirrels marched in line abreast towards the crow clearly intending to take the food. Crows are usually pretty aggressive, but this one crunched the numbers and retreated, leaving the food.

sbdivya, to random
@sbdivya@wandering.shop avatar

The release of LOKA is just 3 months away! If you’d like to get an early sneak peek, there’s a giveaway on Goodreads from today through May 31.

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/389579

“LOKA’s fascinating speculations about the future of technology, the evolution of consciousness, and the ethics of coexistence blend perfectly with its smart and empathetic coming of age “around-the-world-in-80-days” journey.”

  • Kate Elliott, author of UNCONQUERABLE SUN

Also, yes, I made an arc of ARCs for the image. :D

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@sbdivya
Also preordered.

lilithsaintcrow, to random
@lilithsaintcrow@raggedfeathers.com avatar

Oh hey, CLOUD WATCHER (fourth book in THE WATCHERS series) is $.99USD in ebook from now until the end of May. https://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Watcher-Watchers-Book-4-ebook/dp/B004P8JKHC

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@lilithsaintcrow
Good deal on the whole series too. Gonna start as soon as I’m done reading my current book.

annaleen, to random
@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar

Hey Portland friends! I'll be Powells Books on 6/4 at 7pm, talking about my new book "Stories Are Weapons" with the one and only Dave Miller, host of OPR's "Think Out Loud." Hope to see you there!!

https://www.powells.com/book/stories-are-weapons-9780393881516/1-3

This is a flyer with red and cream lettering on a blue background. It says "Stories Are Weapons," and then has a quote from Astra Taylor, author of "The Age of Insecurity." The quote reads: "Illuminating and energizing ... shows how we can come together to tell different stories -- stories to shed light in the darkness, make sense amid chaos, and forge hope and community instead of fear and isolation."

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@annaleen
Oh well, don’t think I’ll be mobile by then, so I’ll have to miss it. Have a nice time in Portland!

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar
  • Looks out window at: three bus stops, 2-5 pubs, a row of restaurants, and a busy shopping street at ground level *

Reader, those things were all there before I moved here. They're a big chunk of the reason WHY I moved here. 17 years ago …

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross
We moved to our current house 20 years ago in part because we are across the street from a bus stop, a 5 minute walk from a neighborhood center with a public library, a market, a bakery/coffee shop, 5 restaurants, a brewpub, assorted other shops, and 3 more bus lines. On top of which we have lots of trees around us.

clacksee, to KindActions
@clacksee@wandering.shop avatar

A different kind of request…

Are you in, the , , or the ? I need some assistance from one reader in each of those countries, please.

What do you get out of this? A free book! An actual physical book! You can take your pick between the Starship Teapot books or the Vigilauntie Justice books.

What do I get out of this? To test my new website and fulfilment system!

Comment below or DM me and I'll send you instructions and a link.

@bookstodon

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@clacksee @bookstodon
Sure, I’d like to read a starship teapot book. Sounds trippy, especially if there’s a dormouse inside.

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

REMINDER FOR AMERICANS:

The US Constitution and common law are rooted in pre-18th century English legal jurisprudence and traditions.

And the "presidential immunity" bullshit is an attempt to rewind the clock to before 1649, when Parliament got fed up with the King's bullshit, put him on trial, and beheaded him.

Y'all: Trump wants to revive the divine right of kings.

You know who pulled the German equivalent of that stunt? Hitler.

(I will summarily block anyone who raises Godwin's law.)

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross
As I’m sure you are aware, though others may not, Godwin has turned off the Law for the duration, though nobody knows how long that will be.

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

Coming next year: Trump Supreme Court brings back Bills of Attainder (POTUS promptly levels charges of treason against every billionaire whose fortune he feels like pwning).
https://noc.social/@freezenet/112334038009854117

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross
And he won’t share that with other billionaires (he’s a greedy git) so there’s no point in kissing his ass, it won’t help you.

SFRuminations, to scifi
@SFRuminations@wandering.shop avatar

Fletcher Pratt (1897-1956) was born on this day. Bibliography: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?532

L, Hannes Bok, 1953; R, Richard Powers, 1953
#scifi #sciencefiction #books #history

image/jpeg

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@SFRuminations
I love Hannes Bok’ illustrations. His colors, his textures, his compositions, I could go on all day.

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

Today's writing: what if Doctor Phibes murdered and impersonated Max, owner of the KitKatKlub, in order to run an elaborate sting against Doctor Mabuse—film recap, starring Vincent Price, Diana Rigg, Charlotte Rampling, and Peter Cushing.

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross
I like it! Definitely the Price/Rigg interactions should Have similar chemistry their work In Theatre of Blood, one of my favorite Vincent Price movies.

RL_Dane, to random
@RL_Dane@fosstodon.org avatar

(Zilog's parent company) needs to release all the specs, schematics, and documentation with an open license. (If they aren't already)

😢

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@RL_Dane @Flux
Making the tapeout and the fab masks opensource would be nice. It would give designers a head start on replicating the chip, possibly as multiple cores on an SOC. That would be fun to play with.

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

It’s a SpaceX World (Everyone Else is Playing Catch-up)

SpaceX was not just dominant in 2023, it humiliated its competitors. We see this in launch services, in spacecraft operations (and, logically, manufacturing), and the tremendous mass its rockets lifted to orbit:

https://www.astralytical.com/insights/its-a-spacex-world-everyone-else-is-playing-catch-up

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross
That’s assuming profit from Falcon launches and the Big Dummy (when it’s reusable) can overcome Musk’s need to throw money at Mars.

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross
I don’t have much good to say about StarLink, what with Musk’s playing Cold War politics with it, and its deleterious effect on astronomical light pollution, but you’re probably right that the military will love dumping a thousand birds into orbit at once.

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

Shit. (Unsurprising due to age, but still saddening.)
https://sigmoid.social/@cigitalgem/112298644295903849

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross @cigitalgem
Damn. Reading Dennett was what got me interested in Philosophy again, after Plato’s bullshit, Kant’s opacity, and everybody trying to ignore Leibniz.

annaleen, to random
@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar

A science fiction obsession led me to psychological war. I spent the past three years researching and writing a book about the history of psychological warfare in the United States, and it's coming out in early June. Not all the gems I discovered could be crammed into the final manuscript, and I've been dying to share what I found in the archives ... check out my latest newsletter to see some amazing treasures from a history that's rarely told.
https://buttondown.email/thehypothesis/archive/how-a-science-fiction-obsession-led-me-to/

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@annaleen

  1. Preordered.
  2. My 1st Cordwainer Smith was “Mark Elf”; the manshonyagger stuck with me a long time. What haunts me is “No, No, Not Rogov!” I was watching Olympic Figure Skating then, and I empathized with the performer.
  3. Interesting the writers who were were in Intelligence during WWII: Linebarger, John D. McDonald, Eric Russell, Alice Sheldon. And shoutout to Christopher Lee, an assassin in WWII, who said: “No, that’s not the sound a knife makes cutting the throat of a guard.”
SpeakerToManagers, to photography
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

This artist's wild optical illusion photos just brightened up my day - Creative Bloq

#photography #illusion https://apple.news/A_2djyKR_SiyTdt2uSsJsyQ

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

Pssst: the PR people pushing the Whisp ring—a pile of AI-infested garbage—are jerks.

(Pass it on.)

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross
“No wake word”? Hahahaha, Google Alexa calling the police by mistake, for instance. Your ring could SWAT you.

SpeakerToManagers, to random
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

Air Canada claims chatbot, not company, is legally responsible for false information. Court disagrees.

Air Canada must honor refund policy invented by airline’s chatbot - Ars Technica https://apple.news/AHHtGvJdHS4-N7lZIaldLVw

SpeakerToManagers, to random
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

Key takeaways from the largest survey of trans people in U.S. history - NBC News https://apple.news/AzwtdmBdCSgei2PRKqrsEDQ

SpeakerToManagers, to random
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

Against pseudanthropy - TechCrunch https://apple.news/A5OApiWb0SL-xhVMeOo8Hkw

SpeakerToManagers, to random
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

Some of these are brilliant. 12 and 24 are especially great. The elevator floor buttons are a godsend to delivery people
These People All Had Really Simple, But REALLY Genius Ideas, And I Love Them For That - BuzzFeed https://apple.news/AfcT7VAVjRruZhTbduEUibA

SpeakerToManagers, to random
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

What Happens to a Werewolf on the Moon? - Scientific American https://apple.news/AD3_XBQzQR8-Pxzwa6keL8g

SpeakerToManagers, to random
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

How about returning them to their communities?

Top New York museum to remove all human remains from display - The Guardian https://apple.news/AwkseV0dQRqWDM-c5rOygvA

SpeakerToManagers, to random
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

Bad news. I’m experiencing low blood pressure and dizziness; my PCP wants me to go into the ER, so Eva’s going to call 911 in a few minutes while I get ready. Have no idea how serious this really is and I’ve experienced day-long visits to the ER with no result. So …

SpeakerToManagers, to random
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

“This viewpoint — the focus only on ‘existential risk’, i.e., scenarios where all humans die — is threaded through a very bizarre ideology called ‘Longtermism’ which holds that humanity’s destined future is to live as computer simulations uploaded onto computers running in planets across the galaxy. Proponents of this ideology (who have obviously never worked in IT support) …”

https://dair-community.social/@emilymbender/110663365751051291

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