@slowenough@mastodon.social avatar

slowenough

@slowenough@mastodon.social

Lover of #life, #wiki, #commons, #community, #nonviolence, #anarchy, #abolition, #accountability, #conversation, co-intelligence, #WholeSystems #Design, various people & groups, & cookies. He/they. Parts of my heart can still be found in #NewEngland, #SFBayArea, & #SriLanka, but now I'm NW of Normal in #Eugene, #KalapuyaCounty (#LaneCounty), #Oregon. #PNW #Earth Sol System, Milky Way, Local Group, Virgo Supercluster, Laniakea Supercluster, Pisces Cetus Supercluster Complex #fedi23 #WaterIsLife

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mcc, to random
@mcc@mastodon.social avatar

I wonder if there's a way to apply for tech jobs while screening so you only apply to companies where Github Copilot is banned

slowenough,
@slowenough@mastodon.social avatar

@mcc ...and government agencies, such as NARA. https://federalnewsnetwork.com/artificial-intelligence/2024/05/nara-bans-use-of-chatgpt-on-agency-networks/

lauren, to random
@lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org avatar

So in the famous opening sequence of "Alien" (1979) as we survey the poorly lit interior of the ship, there's a shot that always has bothered me. At one point, we see one of the "bobbing duck" toys happily bobbing away. There's a problem with that. Those only work as long as the container they're bobbing from (in this case, a glass of water apparently) still has water in it for the duck to wet its beak. So, with the crew in long hibernation -- hmm -- who has been refilling the glass, which otherwise would have been devoid of water through evaporation in short order.

slowenough,
@slowenough@mastodon.social avatar

@lauren Nice catch. Perhaps it's not water, but some other liquid which does not evaporate quickly enough to matter?

QasimRashid, to random
@QasimRashid@mastodon.social avatar

Today my team experienced rabid bigotry.

One of our canvassers was knocking doors in Batavia, IL. A car drove by with a man who yelled out, "Hey Ni**er you're in the wrong place!"

Our canvasser responded perfectly by getting to their car & leaving the area ASAP. They were shaken, as anyone would be, but they are safe and secure, thankfully.

1/

slowenough,
@slowenough@mastodon.social avatar

@alcinoe @QasimRashid "America's leadership" consists of not one, but a great many people.

If you took a photo of all of Congress together, would it look like a random sampling of Americans? Or would it be skewed in terms of gender, and race? Skewed, toward male and white.

Is Congress representative of Americans' religious distribution? No, it skews Christian.

Is Congress representative of Americans' class distribution? No, it skews to wealthier people.

We could have a stronger democracy.

lzg, to random
@lzg@mastodon.social avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    slowenough,
    @slowenough@mastodon.social avatar

    @lzg We see you.

    "I'm invisible!"

    Always reminds me of Soap, the phantasmic 70s sitcom send-up of soap operas. Burt Campbell (played by Richard Mulligan) was convinced that he could render himself invisible, snapping his fingers and saying, "I'm invisible!"

    It was a magnet for controversy from right-wing Christians, a bit desperate to gain influence in the context of Carter's presidency. Under pressure from them (indirectly via show sponsors), ABC canceled the show. https://web.archive.org/web/20140111003425/http://www.museum.tv/eotv/soap.htm

    skaly, to random
    @skaly@mastodon.social avatar

    Today I was taken care of by a Palestinian Arab Israeli dentist in Tel Aviv - as almost always.
    I find it madness that people think Palestinians in Israel are unequal. I was taken care of mainly by Palestinian doctors throughout my life to whom I'm grateful. I'm Israeli Jewish, Moroccan Iraqi.
    When you criticise Israel remember 2.2 million Arab Israelis live here in prosperity, with equal rights to women and queers that don't exist in Palestinian territories. All we want is peace and equality.

    slowenough,
    @slowenough@mastodon.social avatar

    @skaly From that perspective, which country are Gaza and the West Bank territories of?

    slowenough,
    @slowenough@mastodon.social avatar

    @skaly Gaza - Even before October 7 this was arguable. Since then, Israel has reoccupied it, at great cost.

    West Bank Area A is not completely under the control of the Palestinian Authority. Israel controls tax income and internal & external borders, restricts travel, regularly sends troops in, etc.

    You personally considering Area C not part of Israel seems to be greatly outweighed by the 100s of thousands (millions?) of Israelis who live or visit there - as settlers, as part of the IDF, etc.

    slowenough,
    @slowenough@mastodon.social avatar

    @skaly Taxes are collected by Israel. Israel can, and has, withheld them. So the PA does not have complete control in this regard, among others.

    Most settlers in Area C are not 'technically' Jewish, they are regular Israeli citizens like any other. Some don't even have a political reason to be there, they just enjoy the location. IDF is there. Whatever other Israelis think, and any other complexities there are to it, none of that change the fact that in practice, Area C is part of Israel.

    slowenough,
    @slowenough@mastodon.social avatar

    @skaly I'll take your non-response re Gaza as an acknowledgement that it is now occupied by Israel. (Unless you say otherwise.)

    As for Palestinian (or any non-Jewish) citizens of Israel, they had fewer rights than Jewish citizens even before the 2018 nation-state law.

    I had thought the very public controversy around that law (and its approval in the Knesset) had made it impossible to be unaware of the legal tilt in Israel which gives more rights to Jewish citizens. https://www.972mag.com/the-redundancy-of-israels-jewish-nation-state-law/

    slowenough,
    @slowenough@mastodon.social avatar

    @skaly 1) https://www.timesofisrael.com/ministers-slap-sanctions-on-palestinian-authority-over-efforts-against-israel-at-un/ (January 2023)

    1. Here are some people living in settlements who talk about it as if they were living in just another part of Israel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6L9mS9ti6o

    2. I was responding to your assertion that Gaza is 'independent.' Currently, at least many parts of it are not, they are under direct IDF control. You acknowledge there is a war there. Would it be fair to say that control of the territory today is mixed?

    augieray, to random
    @augieray@mastodon.social avatar

    My spreadsheet of studies showing serious, longer-term impacts has grown to 450. New additions:
    ▫️ 2.42x higher risk of any cardiovascular disease
    ▫️ COVID patients have a 2.66x risk of multiple sclerosis and a 1.72x higher risk of pernicious anemia
    ▫️ COVID associated with deteriorated mental health related symptoms
    ▫️ Neurological complications are common in pediatric COVID
    ▫️ Long COVID more prevalent when subjects had reinfections and less frequent when vaccinated
    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12VbMkvqUF9eSggJsdsFEjKs5x0ABxQJi5tvfzJIDd3U/edit?usp=sharing

    slowenough,
    @slowenough@mastodon.social avatar

    @augieray This is great! Are the ones which attempt to replicate any of the earlier results marked in any way? (I couldn't see anything like that.)

    ninokadic, to philosophy
    @ninokadic@mastodon.social avatar

    Am I the only one who unequivocally thinks that philosophy has made progress? Perhaps I have a different definition of what progress means, but surely I can't be the only one?

    The number of theories and arguments that philosophers uncovered, as well as the clarity and breadth of their analyses, is certainly progress.

    @philosophy @academicchatter

    slowenough,
    @slowenough@mastodon.social avatar

    @PhilSciProf @ivanrmanuel @ninokadic @DominikDammer @philosophy @academicchatter The weaker one's grasp of epistemology (whether one knows the word or not), the less skillfully one will be able to pick what scale or scope to consider, what questions are worth one's time (I loved discovering that Buddha had a list of questions he would not spend time on), which problems to prioritize, which assets to nurture, capacities to develop, etc.

    slowenough,
    @slowenough@mastodon.social avatar

    @PhilSciProf @ivanrmanuel @ninokadic @DominikDammer @philosophy @academicchatter Turned this into a blog post, with some additional thoughts. (Most notable, the value of epistemology in working with narratives/story!) https://eqpa.wordpress.com/2024/02/18/the-value-of-epistemology/

    slowenough,
    @slowenough@mastodon.social avatar

    @ninokadic @DominikDammer @philosophy @academicchatter Philosophy as a whole has included progress in many areas and times, stagnation in others, and even regress in some. (This is at least arguably true even in the little corner of philosophy made up of the conversations your initial post sparked!) Not sure how to add all of that together into one overall result.

    Perhaps it is too early to say?

    Or as my friend & colleague Tom Atlee puts it, "There’s more to it than that…"

    slowenough,
    @slowenough@mastodon.social avatar

    @ninokadic @DominikDammer @philosophy @academicchatter Any favorite examples?

    The more I reflected, the more immense I realize All of Philosophy is.

    Most philosophy is never written down. And so much of what has been written down has been lost.

    Eras of open exploration followed by dogmatic clamp-downs & book burnings, followed by new periods of active inquiry. Ask the question in 1930s Germany and negative answers would not be surprising.

    Future book burnings might change even your answer.

    slowenough,
    @slowenough@mastodon.social avatar

    @ninokadic @DominikDammer @philosophy @academicchatter Sounds like you may be talking about Western philosophy in particular? Other philosophies have included many if not all of the elements you listed in their ethics/political philosophy.

    I studied cognitive science as an undergraduate, and appreciate its inquiries into consciousness' relationship to the nitty gritty of how brains/minds work. Such inquiries in general at least have been a thing in some non-Western philosophies going way back.

    slowenough,
    @slowenough@mastodon.social avatar

    @ninokadic @DominikDammer @philosophy @academicchatter I do have the sense that Western philosophy has advanced, and I certainly hope it advances in any case, as there is a lot of progress to be made. (As with any lineage rooted so deeply in Empire.)

    I developed these lists some time ago, attempting to capture the tipping point I hope we are moving toward, if we can, through many creative efforts, flip enough of these assumptions at the same time. https://johnabbe.wagn.org/assumptions_of_power_with_culture

    slowenough,
    @slowenough@mastodon.social avatar

    @ninokadic @DominikDammer @philosophy @academicchatter From 2027 to 2036, Western science and philosophy will have a number of centenaries to celebrate, each with multiple opportunities to work toward flipping some of those switches: https://eqpa.wordpress.com/2023/05/10/the-potential-in-a-century-of-uncertainty/

    slowenough,
    @slowenough@mastodon.social avatar

    @ninokadic @DominikDammer @philosophy @academicchatter I'd have to dig into "functionalism, computationalism, multiple realisability thesis" to say more, but thanks for leaving the breadcrumbs for me to follow!

    Semi-recently dug into academic philosophy a bit and came away with interest to learn more about phenomenology at some point. Curious if that is an area where you see Western philosophy as having made progress?

    (The one philosophy class I took, people were just playing word games. :-/ )

    slowenough, to Medicine
    @slowenough@mastodon.social avatar

    Did you know that the first paramedics were Black Pittsburghers? The wildly successful program they were in became a model across the USA, but in Pittsburgh itself they were canned and replaced by all-white crews.

    There's a whole book about it, American Sirens. https://time.com/6215072/first-paramedics-black-men-history/

    slowenough, to photography
    @slowenough@mastodon.social avatar

    Photographer Chris Jordan just released his updated website. Very much worth a look, especially if you need a nature break but can't get outside right now.

    This photo is from the Patagonia collection.
    https://www.chrisjordan.com/

    remixtures, to ai Portuguese
    @remixtures@tldr.nettime.org avatar

    : "Meta is working to detect and label AI-generated images on Facebook, Instagram and Threads as the company pushes to call out “people and organisations that actively want to deceive people”.

    Photorealistic images created using Meta’s AI imaging tool are already labelled as AI, but the company’s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, announced in a blog post on Tuesday that the company would work to begin labelling AI-generated images developed on rival services.

    Meta’s AI images already contain metadata and invisible watermarks that can tell other organisations that the image was developed by AI, and the company is developing tools to identify these types of markers when used by other companies, such as Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, Adobe, Midjourney and Shutterstock in their AI image generators, Clegg said."
    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/feb/06/meta-ai-images-instagram-facebook-label-crackdown

    slowenough,
    @slowenough@mastodon.social avatar

    @remixtures Explicit metadata can obviously be edited, and isn't watermarking another ongoing cat & mouse game? Vague memory of reading articles about how easily at least some watermarks can be removed.

    pikesley, to random
    @pikesley@mastodon.me.uk avatar

    Universal Serial Bus

    slowenough,
    @slowenough@mastodon.social avatar

    @dragonsidedd @mcc @pikesley Starting from microUSB, the next three per SI would be nanoUSB, picoUSB, and femtoUSB.

    Is there already a photonic USB?

    slowenough,
    @slowenough@mastodon.social avatar

    @mcc @dragonsidedd @pikesley Different category, but now I'm wondering, what would quantumUSB be? Some kind of ansible peripheral? ;-)

    StillIRise1963, to random
    @StillIRise1963@mastodon.world avatar

    Black people accused of plagiarism should plagiarize white plagiarism "error" apologies. 🙄

    slowenough,
    @slowenough@mastodon.social avatar

    @StillIRise1963 Here's Bill Ackman's wife's apology: https://twitter.com/NeriOxman/status/1742993073078947843

    mcc, to random
    @mcc@mastodon.social avatar

    Hey what television program is this

    slowenough,
    @slowenough@mastodon.social avatar

    @mcc Bargain: https://neonmusic.co.uk/dive-into-the-dark-depths-of-korean-drama-with-bargain/

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