CharlieMcHenry

CharlieMcHenry, 1 year ago to random

Oregon bill would decriminalize homeless encampments and propose penalties if unhoused people are harassed or ordered to leave | This makes me very happy, as it puts the onus of dealing with the #unhoused population exactly where it should be - on society in general and local municipalities specifically. If you don’t want the #homeless in your downtown, provide them a safe space elsewhere. It’s our responsibility as a society to care for our homeless citizens, it is society that has failed them in most cases. So instead of NIMBY vigilantes at all levels punting the population from one place or another, it’s long past time to deal with the crisis head on and provide the space for their tents, tiny houses and warming centers during harsh winters, cooling centers during blazing summers, and access to service at all times. Proud of my state: #oregon and proud of our Governor, Tina Kotek, who with her first lady constitute our first same sex first couple. #LGBTQIA #LGBTQ #Governance https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/28/us/oregon-homeless-camp-bill/index.html

CharlieMcHenry, 10 months ago to threads

So let me get this straight… #Threads collects massive amounts of data, the platform is full of brands and celebrities, AND it uses an algorithm-driven feed. It tracks users, serves ads, and has quickly filled up, according to reports, with trolls, Nazis and the far right. Oh, and the site makes a shadow account for everyone with an Instagram profile, whether they want to participate or not. But still new users are flocking to the platform?? It’s a case of FOMO, and I don’t think it will last. F*ck Zuck and the corporate trojan horse he rode in on. Very disappointed in those I know who have bought the BS. That’s all I have to say on the matter. #TwitterMigration #TwitterMigrants #SocialMedia #Meta #Zuckerberg

CharlieMcHenry, 1 year ago to gaming

For my #RetroGaming mutuals… who can identify this grand and amazing room? Whose infamous mansion is it from? And what can it mean? [a clue to this puzzle in my bio] #gaming #games #gamer #FMV #anticipation #retrogamers #retrogames

CharlieMcHenry, 9 months ago to PetBirds

A third of North America’s birds have vanished - an astounding third of the adult birds that not long ago filled North America but now are gone. #Extinction #Birds #Wildlife #Zoology #environment https://nautil.us/a-third-of-north-americas-birds-have-vanished-340007/

CharlieMcHenry, 1 year ago to ai

I wrote a thing about #AI for a local newsletter with a few thousand subscribers. So I kept it as non-technical as possible for that audience. I should say, after 35 years in the technology sector, I am a tech journalist/writer - not an AI scientist or programmer. Companies have hired me in the past to ‘explain’ complex tech, so let me know if I got this right. There’s a second, more technical post coming that explores the evolution of AI through neural networks to machine learning & intelligence. Hey, it’s the topic of the day, how could I not write about it? That’s kinda what I do. #artificialintelligence #essay 1/2

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NUNjn10PP0zArCQN2XVA--oMYd8-WCNwHcv_NGaALhI/edit

CharlieMcHenry, 11 months ago to random

Now this is interesting, turns out “Bees can learn, remember, think and make decisions” #Bees #entomology #nature https://worldsensorium.com/bees-can-learn-remember-think-and-make-decisions/

CharlieMcHenry, 9 months ago to Football

And… The #EnglishPremierLeague is back, so don’t expect a lot of toots from this account on match days. Imma one sport guy, and the #EPL is my favorite #Football league - though I follow Spanish, German, French and Italian leagues as well. Regrettably, I’m a #Coys fan and thus never see my team holding trophies at the end of the season, but that’s part of the game. Now that #HarryKane has gone to Bayern Munich, I’m not sure what we’re going to do. #Soccer #Futbol #sport

CharlieMcHenry, 11 months ago to Futurology

The Pentagon Is Freaking Out About a Potential War With China - a very long and comprehensive look at just how screwed we’d be if China decided to retake Taiwan in the next few years. TL;dr we’re not ready, nowhere near prepared and would suffer significant losses in our defense of the island. #war #Taiwan #defendingdemocracy #pacificrim #globalconflict #defense #navy #combat https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/06/09/america-weapons-china-00100373

CharlieMcHenry, 11 months ago to reddit

I’m a long-time #Reddit user with the karma to prove it. I love the site, but have been absent now for several days. PLEASE, stay off of Reddit for at least the next few days, we’ve got a point to make - that our community is mightier than the greedy corporation. The CEO says it will “…all blow over soon…” Let’s prove him wrong. It’s hard, but we need to stay off the site until management gets the point. It’s ok to explore profit-making moves, but it’s not ok to attack the community and valued third party app devs. #redditblackout #redditapi #redditstrike #redditapiprotest

CharlieMcHenry, 6 months ago to ai

Google to invest up to $2B in Anthropic - and… the race is on between, on one side, Microsoft and OpenAI; and on the other side, Google and Anthropic. My $$ is on MS & OpenAI at the moment - and I don’t expect that to change. OpenAI is the clear leader in AI, with a considerable head start and a top-shelf team. Anthropic will have a lot of catching up to do unless they’ve got some kind of killer, breakthrough tech they’re hiding until launch. #AI #Microsoft #Google #OpenAI #Anthropic https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-agrees-invest-up-2-bln-openai-rival-anthropic-wsj-2023-10-27/

CharlieMcHenry, 11 months ago to music

I love finding new music, especially ethnic roots music, and learning the stories and performers behind the tunes. As mentioned in my bio, I’m an amateur ethnomusicologist, and I collect music videos and have them organized into 19 playlists on my YouTube channel. The channel is over a decade old & my collection of tunes has been years in the making. In some cases, I have published articles about the various genres on my Medium page. Here’s a link to my Afrobeat/Afropop playlist - almost 130 music vids of the best the continent has to offer IMO. Especially fond of West African Griots and guitarists. Also the standout female African vocalists and instrumentalists like Kidjo, Diawara, Nneka, ASA and Jobarteh. #music #afrobeat #AfricanMusic #Africa #YouTube #MusicVideo #playlist https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE6DB27B73B588787

CharlieMcHenry, 8 months ago to Starlink

"The U.S. Government Can’t Allow Elon Musk the Power to Intervene in Wars" - Musk is a national security risk who has committed treason by intervening for a US enemy over a US ally. He should be detained and tried. #Starlink should be seized and removed from #ElonMusk control. What will he do next? Sell our secrets to China? #Ukraine #UkraineWar https://www.thedailybeast.com/us-government-cant-allow-elon-musk-the-power-to-intervene-in-wars?via=ios

CharlieMcHenry, 11 months ago to random

#GlobalWarming to bring record-breaking heat waves sooner than we think. The planet is heating catastrophically and we’re running out of time to reverse the trend. #ClimateCrisis #climatechange #ClimateEmergency #environment #heatwave https://www.juancole.com/2023/05/breaking-probably-threshold.html

CharlieMcHenry, 9 months ago to random

I know this is petty, but has anyone else noticed that no one, and I mean nobody including well educated professionals, on-air personalities, even teachers appears to know how to use “I” and “me” anymore? “Me” appears to be going away for good, as everybody now substitutes “I” in instances, both written and spoken, when “me” should be used. Don’t come at me, I’m a wordsmith, a story teller, and these small details are part of my DNA. #EnglishGrammar #GrammarNerds

CharlieMcHenry, 6 months ago to random

Damn, if you’re in Acapulco, LEAVE NOW. Make that if you’re anywhere on the south Mexican Pacific coast. Damn big storm headed your way. It will kill, mark my words. Just another extreme weather event. A real eye-opener that the big hurricanes that hit this year hit on the West Coast of the hemisphere.

CharlieMcHenry, 1 year ago to internet

Elon Musk Concedes Humiliating Defeat - He got it wrong, way wrong. But will a new CEO who his core users already hate save the sinking birdsite? Personally, I don’t think so. My best scenario is that #ElonMusk gets so frustrated with the platform and politics in general he decides to stick to innovation, space and EVs. If he is to survive his own hubris, that’s where he belongs. But narcissists rarely might the correct choice. #twitter https://www.thestreet.com/social-media/elon-musk-concedes-humiliating-defeat

CharlieMcHenry, 11 months ago to random

@johnvenr Hey John, having trouble loading images and vids today, also character limit appears to have shrunk. Everything ok?

CharlieMcHenry, 6 months ago to climate

"It appears we may have lost control". #ClimateChange #ClimateEmergency #ClimateCrisis #GlobalWarming #SeaLevelRise #Antarctic #AntarticIceSheet #Doom https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/cop/meltdown-west-antarctic-ice-sheet-unavoidable-study-says-2023-10-23/

CharlieMcHenry, 11 months ago to ai

For my non-technical mutuals who are struggling to understand how #ArtificialIntelligence can pose an existential threat; for those who wonder how a ‘program’ and algorithms might ultimately threaten their very lives, this video provides a simplistic, but plausible explanation scenario I’m sure you’ll find useful. It’s based on, of all things, ‘stamp collecting’ and that actual story starts about 3 minutes in, so stick with it. #AI #explanation #existentialrisk #aiethics #singularity
https://youtube.com/watch?v=tcdVC4e6EV4&feature=share

CharlieMcHenry, 10 months ago to Russia

This can’t be good… Russian generals accused the Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin of attempting a coup, as a feud between between him and the military escalated. Mr. Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenary force has proved pivotal to the Russian war effort in Ukraine, but in recent months, he repeatedly chastised Russia’s top brass for alleged corruption and indifference to regular soldiers’ lives. On Friday night, he called for retaliation against the Russian Defense Ministry after he accused the military of attacking his forces. They responded by ordering his arrest. Makes one wonder who’s in charge? Get out the popcorn, this could be interesting. #Russia #RussianArmy #Russians #war #UkraineRussiaWar #Military

CharlieMcHenry, 9 months ago to threads

Threads Has Lost More Than 80% of Its Daily Active Users - Number of daily users has ‘tanked’ #Threads #SocialMedia #Meta https://gizmodo.com/threads-has-lost-more-than-80-of-daily-active-users-1850707329

CharlieMcHenry, 8 months ago to climate

Damn. My “Watch Duty” app is going nuts with notifications today. There are like 50 or more #Wildfires burning around us on almost all sides. Still well away from the populated #RogueValley center along the I-5, but filling the air with smoke and keeping the tankers flying continuous loops (until the visibility stops them). Tanker base is just ten minutes from me, so we hear them overhead. I hope we get some significant moisture (and no more lightening) from the remnants of TS Hillary. Some of these fires gonna burn til October rains. #Drought #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming #WatchDuty

CharlieMcHenry, 8 months ago to twitter

I’m finding that, for me, the loss of Reddit is hitting a lot harder than the demise of Twitter ever did. I did enjoy Twitter, pre-Musk, especially for getting the latest news and tuning in to the many high-level conversations that USED TO happen there - gone now. But for me #Twitter was also kinda like shouting in the wind, too vast, too impersonal. But the many sub-reddits I subscribe to were community, and in some cases, even like family to me. Reddit has changed now, in so many ways, and is just a shadow of its former self. It’s a damn shame. A lot of my favorite subs are gone, or have new moderators who are clueless. The content on the site is miserable when compared to the past. I’m seeing so much junk, inane junk at that, in my feed. I’d been so comfortable on Reddit, an entirely enjoyable daily habit. Now, more often than not, the platform is a frustrating disappointment. End of rant. #Reddit #SocialMedia #SocialMediaPlatforms

CharlieMcHenry, 1 month ago to Flowers

#SpringFlowers #Flowers #FlowersOfMastodon It’s Spring time and the Crab Apple is blooming 1/

Pictured: Aging Crab Apple tree covered in pink and white blooms against a blue sky.

CharlieMcHenry, 15 days ago to Israel

Look… I’m as furious with Joe Biden’s support for Israeli genocide as any proper progressive leftist. I feel personally betrayed by our current policies. That said, we can work on that and have momentum in our favor. Just look at what’s happening on our college campuses, surely a positive harbinger of things to come. I also understand the existential threat to democracy and all we hold dear that DJ Trump and his remade fascist #Republican party represent to us all. There is absolutely no comparison between the two, they are NOT the same. I will hold my nose and VOTE FOR Biden - while continuing to work for a #PalestinianState and justice for Israeli #WarCrimes. I trust you will do the same. #Israel #Gaza #GazaGenocie #Politics