@zeruch@mastodon.social
@zeruch@mastodon.social avatar

zeruch

@zeruch@mastodon.social

Silicon Valley native, tech, artist, wonk, raconteur. I'll veer from topic to topic, and change stylistically on a whim. Curious about stuff and things.

UCD alum (PoliSci/IR & Tech Policy). Strong interests in the arts, actual political science, cliodynamics, systems theory, and seeking a bit of adventure at even the smallest scale.

I own more albums than you have had changes of underpants since birth.

josepharruda.com

For art commissions and/or licensing, joseph.arruda@gmail.com

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

ronanmcd, to random
@ronanmcd@mastodon.green avatar

This is everything that's wrong with YouTube and how it influences the world. It's the home screen for an unsigned in user, showing on my TV. Among 6 visible recommended videos are one on Elon, one on Joe Rogan, one about some group of British nationalists who may not exist and one on Andrew Tate.
Remember: not signed in, this is what the network generically recommends

zeruch,
@zeruch@mastodon.social avatar

@ronanmcd even if you are signed in, it recommends mostly total dreck. I watch almost 100% three things: music (videos, concerts), documentaries/C-Span style news, and Portuguese & UK TV (e.g. stuff from RTP, Antenna 3, BBC and ITV).

My ads are all for content farms or cheap product/knockoff garbage and recommendations for political content that is almost exclusively alt-right or adjacent. Once in a blue moon I get stupid shite from the left too, but its nearly non-existent. No in between.

heidilifeldman, to random
@heidilifeldman@mastodon.social avatar

“We had the luxury of deriving humor from Hitler and Nazi comparisons when doing so was almost always hyperbole. It’s not a luxury we can afford anymore.” — Mike Godwin, of Godwin’s Law

Gift access to his op-ed in Washington Post: https://wapo.st/3tgkjBa

zeruch,
@zeruch@mastodon.social avatar

@heidilifeldman ok? It's required, if for its accuracy alone, let alone it's tenor.

annaleen, to random
@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar

Handcrafted pumpkin spice, made with real sand worm excretions!

zeruch,
@zeruch@mastodon.social avatar

@annaleen now that's a latte I'd go for (I've always wondered what having blue eyes and prescience would be like).

zeruch, to random
@zeruch@mastodon.social avatar

RIP Shane McGowan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4FQQ-9r2d4

mxtthxw, to random
@mxtthxw@mxtthxw.art avatar

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    zeruch,
    @zeruch@mastodon.social avatar

    @mxtthxw mo3?

    zeruch,
    @zeruch@mastodon.social avatar

    @mxtthxw Ok, I wasn't sure as Mo3 was also a deceased American rapper so....confused.

    zeruch, to random
    @zeruch@mastodon.social avatar

    Before they became club-hit darlings, Everything But the Girl carved out a slice of post-punk-pop experimentation that was far more interesting than they often got credit for (e.g. their slickest cuts made it to "quiet storm" radio, but there was so much more to it), including live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NljK-sXaMtk

    zeruch,
    @zeruch@mastodon.social avatar

    @airwhale I was sincerely shocked when they put out an album this year, after two decades loafing about. They are sorely ignored in the US except for quiet storm radio for their mid period, and "Miss You" for the dance club kids. There is so much more to them.

    I keep meaning to see if the library has either Watt or Thornes autobiographies.

    arstechnica, to random
    @arstechnica@mastodon.social avatar

    Google Podcasts dies April 2024; YouTube Music migration tool goes live

    Does this mean YouTube Podcasts is ready for prime time?

    https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/12/google-podcasts-dies-april-2024-youtube-music-migration-tool-goes-live/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

    zeruch,
    @zeruch@mastodon.social avatar

    @arstechnica no, it just means that Google is pivoting to its latest affectation in the hopes that the result is different than the last 356,000 attempts of roughly the same thing in slightly different packaging re-engineered differently to the whims of whoever was running that line of business for the next two quarters.

    zeruch, to Anime
    @zeruch@mastodon.social avatar

    I do not watch a lot of . It's just something I get quite finicky on. But one that I strongly like, and have liked since it's release quite some time ago, is Paprika: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCU7U5y6Yh0

    zeruch, to random
    @zeruch@mastodon.social avatar

    It's almost reassuring to know that other faiths have the same problem with absolute knobheaded imbeciles saying colorectally extracted nonsense on behalf of their preferred mythology as do the conventionally insane dorks US evangelicals crank out like concussed rabbits.

    It's like an admission that humanity really is doomed no matter how you present it.

    We, are a species of truly moronic scale.

    lawfare, to random
    @lawfare@mastodon.social avatar

    Chinmayi Sharma, Eugenia Lostri, and Alan Rozenshtein look at what the firing and rehiring of OpenAI’s Sam Altman says about current AI governance and what lessons would-be regulators can learn from it. https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-chaos-at-openai-is-a-death-knell-for-ai-self-regulation

    zeruch,
    @zeruch@mastodon.social avatar

    @lawfare I suspect what they will learn is next to nothing, given how little has been done to deal with industry largesse, and the insulation around clown shoe cults of personality that have become endemic to this industry. There's too much money to be had, damn the consequences. At least until some actual consequences blow up in everyone's faces, at which point they'll seek intercession, albeit still on their terms.

    lzg, to random
    @lzg@mastodon.social avatar

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    zeruch,
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    @lzg For the life of me, having read Rand in my teens, and never buying into it, (but liking some tenets of libertarianism at the time, for....reasons that may be non-obvious) as literature or political philosophy due to its staggeringly pessimistic view of humanity, and its generally stupid tone...but goddamn why do so many folks all fumble their gonads to dumb dumb dumb AF Galt-cosplay.

    If Gore Vidal and William Buckley think you suck, you absolutely full-spectrum suck.

    cloudguy, to random

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    zeruch,
    @zeruch@mastodon.social avatar

    @cloudguy you live in the UK, your weather is almost always some variation of wetshite.

    zeruch, to random
    @zeruch@mastodon.social avatar

    "I found a used copy of Michael Gordon‘s "Weather" in a bargain bin some time near the end of the 90s, and it stuck with me.

    Gordon is co-founder of the musical collective and attendant festival, and his work is often pretty interesting for it’s weird mix of accessible orchestral motifs, drenched in minimalism (think ) and adventurous stretching (think ) but it’s really his own thing."

    https://zeruch.wordpress.com/2023/11/21/sounds-that-have-been-made-ep-89-manchester-collective-performs-weather-from-michael-gordon/

    kevbob, to random
    @kevbob@xoxo.zone avatar

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    zeruch,
    @zeruch@mastodon.social avatar

    @kevbob I saw her live a few years back. Very different feel than a lot of fadistas, but a great player. Her take on "Barco Negro" was a banger.

    zeruch,
    @zeruch@mastodon.social avatar

    @kevbob it's even incorporated into in Portugal to actually useful effect https://youtu.be/v7A1pmlePDA?si=qyYMrHkVmdkY2SYP

    futurism, to random

    Elon Musk Was Staggeringly Wrong About Sam Bankman-Fried https://t.co/E5dDR00eBq

    zeruch,
    @zeruch@mastodon.social avatar

    @futurism if only that was the only thing he's been wrong about, as the list has become quite long.

    mxtthxw, to random
    @mxtthxw@mxtthxw.art avatar

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    zeruch,
    @zeruch@mastodon.social avatar

    @mxtthxw now do it while driving an SUV the size of Peckham.

    mattblaze, to random
    @mattblaze@federate.social avatar

    "Mastodon is great because it gives you tools to curate your own experience without depending on any centralized authority. Also, everyone here needs to follow these 5000 rules I made for what and how they should post."

    zeruch,
    @zeruch@mastodon.social avatar

    @mattblaze @TechConnectify "an eager self-appointed scold force." while sadly not just limited to here, this seems to be a growing problem.

    I find the irony all the more distinct. because one can readily see its largely driven by an undercurrent of preventing what Twitter has become, but sadly with all the diplomatic/civil courtesy and aplomb of Khrushchev at a shoe store.

    mxtthxw, to random
    @mxtthxw@mxtthxw.art avatar

    I'm closing my account with Lockheed Martin. I need to find a more ethical weapons dealer.

    zeruch,
    @zeruch@mastodon.social avatar

    @mxtthxw I recommend Weyland-Yutani.

    zeruch, to random
    @zeruch@mastodon.social avatar

    A 1980 live performance of the band, doing the fusion (with occasionally questionable vocal, thankfully only sparingly) thing. Features a young but already percussively unhinged Simon Phillips (later of Who/Pete Townsend, Toto and Hiromi fame) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Avjy167G0Ag

    futurism, to random

    Americans Are Buying So Many Laxatives That It’s Creating a Shortage https://t.co/mXkpTuYviF

    zeruch,
    @zeruch@mastodon.social avatar

    @futurism all the more ironic given the general penchant for (not just online) that we aim for.

    zeruch, to Rush
    @zeruch@mastodon.social avatar

    "A Conversation Between () And 's , Patron Saints Of Heady Hard Rock"

    http://www.2112.net/powerwindows/transcripts/19961200request.htm

    arstechnica, to random
    @arstechnica@mastodon.social avatar

    Elon Musk wants your “entire financial life” on X by 2024

    X's success as an everything app will "exceed" China's WeChat, Musk says.

    https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/10/elon-musk-wants-your-entire-financial-life-on-x-by-2024/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

    zeruch, (edited )
    @zeruch@mastodon.social avatar

    @arstechnica "Elon Musk wants your “entire financial life” on X by 2024" Elon can go catch a brick.

    The man is about as trustworthy as Caligula's taint is sanitary.

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