It’s been exactly one year since I joined to the Fediverse. Let me tell you my Fediverse story. It does not fit in 500 characters, but glad I have 10000 here.
It first started with Musk tweeting about the sink. I had already given up on Twitter couple of years prior this, but that was the final straw. I saw people talking about Mastodon and I was skeptical. First I looked at mastodon.social, but quickly noticed the username rolle is taken. "That’s it, then", I angrily tweeted that I do not want to join with another nickname, I’m rolle eveywhere AND THE NICK IS TAKEN. Someone immediately pointed out that I should join another instance. An instance, what's that, huh? I then joined to a Finnish instance mastodontti.fi and quickly learned no English is allowed. A moderator pointed out that I should remove my post. Again, I angrily tweeted THAT'S IT THEN, MASTODON SUCKS, STUPID RULES. Another user politely explained that each instance has their own rules, why don't you create another account. An instance, huh?
I quickly learned about the nature of the service. I vaguely remember favoriting tootsuite/mastodon back in 2017 and thought it was just a forum-kinda software back then, for one small community. I consider myself quite witty but I didn't realize Mastodon servers are interconnected. So I joined mstdn.social. And how fun was that! I was elated! My head exploded when I realized how active it was and how amazing the community is.
But then the sudden influx of users made mstdn.social slow and unresponsive. I was thinking about building my own instance, after all I'm a server guy. During 5th of November, 2022, I got my instance up and running, #MementoMoriSocial was born: https://mementomori.social/@rolle/109293139965069879
I wanted my instance to be well federated and active from the start. I followed everyone, I still do. I use a dozen active relays. I managed to finance the instance through my company and get a bit more powerful hardware than necessary. I was alone on my instance first, then invited my wife, colleague and my company.
What I liked in the Fediverse is that I can build my own tools, I own my data and I can help making things better. I have contributed to things via form of:
and some other things that have been affecting in the general development of Mastodon.
I'm very pleased I can have fun and make my own things while other people like it as well. I first thought all this would be a huge cause of mental stress but it's been on the contrary.
After a couple of months of successful running I opened my instance to the world. Now there's about 150 active users from companies to regular folk and everything has been running smoothly. I have been able to moderate because I require a reason for joining to my instance, so I really do know who the people are. I also welcome each user personally. I know my shit thoroughly and completely. This is why it has been easy to moderate. I've been able to be mostly absent during regular week days from 8am to 6pm, but still be aware of what's happening via effective monitoring, good apps and infrastructure.
For me the key thing is to optimize everything to the tooth. I also regulate my own social media usage, because I get too easily hooked. Mastodon and all its tools have taken an enormous amount of time, but it's been really fun, didn't even notice a full year has passed.
As for the Finnish community, there were thousands of active users, I kept a list. However, for some reason lately the narrative everywhere about Mastodon is that it is difficult and it has no future and people have mostly left to Bluesky. I kinda get that, because even for me starting last year was messy. But things get better, I wish more people would see that.
Mastodon is special. The Fediverse is special. Here's to another year! 🎉 :neon_skull:
This may be a silly question, but with the understanding that virus genetics are contained within our own genome, is it possible for new viral genetics to be read/expressed as the original virus, causing the body to attack itself during early development? For example, a woman today has a viral infection, it affects one of her eggs, she becomes pregnant, and the fetus' immune system attacks the affected proteins causing it to fail to construct some vital organ. I would love to understand this more. #biology#virus#dna#rna#mutation#genetics#gene#protein#genome
Another reminder that any surveillance technology, no matter how benign, consumer-oriented, or otherwise well-intentioned, will eventually be used for surveillance by agents of the State.
This goes for any tech that breaks encryption, scans your devices, does visual pattern recognition…whatever. State agencies will look at all of these technologies and find ways to integrate them into their panopticon.
The only way to prevent State abuse of surveillance tech is not to build them. The second best way is to not centralize data or control.
“Feds Stalked Suspects With an Apple AirTag, Report Says”
@drahardja According to @kfet , there are methods to detect some methods of surveillance. Consumers need current information regarding state surveillance methods.
More broadly, your post is alarmist if not dated.
This technology has been in active use for decades. It would be helpful for the average reader to understand these risks.
The heartbreaking, disgusting, and brutally tragic story of how we got to where we are today…
"Why action on the climate crisis is all hot air"
How did we reach this point of abject failure: where the greater the scientific consensus and real-world evidence, the smaller the impact that consensus has on decision-making?
The astonishing disjunct between threat and response is possible only because the oil lobby has historically shaped, and continues to shape, popular understanding of the gravity of what lies ahead.
Cognitive dissonance reigns.
It is true that the establishment media has, very belatedly, started to diagnose more unpredictable and extreme weather patterns as symptoms of a wider climate crisis. It is hard to deny reality when reality keeps slapping you in the face.
But otherwise, the media has been, and continues to be, the core of the problem. It still plays cover both for the oil lobby and for the global corporations whose bottom line depends on a continuing addiction to over-consumption and “economic growth.”
That should be no surprise, because media corporations, whose job it is to frame our understanding of the world, are themselves deeply embedded in corporate profiteering at the planet’s expense.
Under the capitalist system, the primary duty of oil corporations – like other corporations – is to maintain profitability and guarantee value for investors and stockholders. Ethics never got a look-in.
So the fossil-fuel industry spent part of its vast profits pursuing a twin-track: first, muddying the waters about the climate science, then channeling attention towards largely meaningless, small-scale fixes that fell to the public to implement.
For the critical years when urgent, state-backed action was needed on a massive scale, climate denial, funded by dark money from Big Business, was given regular airtime on influential media channels like the BBC. Ordinary people were left, as they were supposed to be, confused and unsure.
We are still encouraged through advertising to consume as much as possible and throw away items of new technology – from personal computers to phones – every few years through planned obsolescence.
But this individualised, competitive, wasteful way of life is being given a makeover. Cars are now hybrid or electric. Holidays are “carbon offset” somehow. Plastic on our food is described as recyclable. Advertising now explains to us how all the stuff we buy is saving the planet.
Living ever more of our lives online supposedly helps too, because it reduces our carbon footprint. It is a green revolution in which everything stays pretty much the same – including the ability of giant corporations to make massive profits.
Armed with warnings – decades in advance – from their own scientists, the oil industry had enough of a head-start to invent a self-serving narrative. It's one in which ordinary people are encouraged to consume as much as before, while being persuaded either that they are making a difference or that the damage they are causing will be reversed by imminent technologies.
The new watchword is “net zero”. But in truth, it is a giant psy-op, as climate scientists have gradually started to appreciate.
In 2021 a group of three leading academics admitted that for years they had been duped into championing the promises of the Green New Deal. Technological fixes, such as carbon capture, offsetting and geoengineering, were “no more than fairy tales”, they warned. Net zero policies “were and still are driven by a need to protect business as usual, not the climate”.
James Dyke, an expert in global systems at Exeter University, observed: “It’s astonishing how the continual absence of any credible carbon removal technology seems to never affect net zero policies. I've now realised that we have all been subject to a form of gaslighting.”
There's much more in this brilliant piece by Jonathon Cook, and I hope you will read the whole thing.
@breadandcircuses Regarding your most recent post, I appreciate your concern.
More realistically, we are entering a new era of human adaptability. Change can be scary but we now are in the mitigation phase, whether we want to be here or not.
Brazilian President Lula has withdrawn his statement that no one will arrest Putin upon his arrival in Brazil. Now Lula said that he "doesn’t know whether Brazilian justice will arrest Putin."
He added that decisions are made not by the government, but by the judiciary.
@DemocracySpot@BlippyTheWonderSlug Just as important, those calling this “shithole” home, realize we live in the richest and most powerful country on the planet.
NEW WORD: Dumbderful. It quite specifically replaces "wonderful" in any common-ish context, like say the delightful xmas ditty that now becomes "It's the most dumbderful time of the year."
Start using this in the course of normal conversation, please.
Elon Musk is a sorry shit, but I’m kinda grateful to him for reminding everyone that critical infrastructure has to be managed by states rather than private companies.
@mastodonmigration@arstechnica I agree that the FCC has granted these licenses. Regarding #starlink , I have to consider the prior US presidential administration. It will take some digging to confirm. For example, if the contract is with DOD, are the prior contracts accessible?
@mastodonmigration@arstechnica What is important in this conversation is understanding that the US DOD, can at anytime, seize assets of #starlink and #spacex , in the interest of US national security.
@fraying@shoq This post is not dissimilar from your earlier post. The storytellers are important for our past, present and future understanding of our world.
@w7voa I appreciate this news story. May all of our elected leaders around the world take precautions including vaccinations and available treatments for current viral illnesses prevalent in our communities.
Except for the lack of cell phones, and modern CGI, the 44 year old Alien & Aliens franchise films could have been made yesterday with almost no modification of the script or dialog.
That’s how little modern society is now changing (despite exceptions of some tech/ biotech).
Consolidation and bigness have fucked the world and everyone in it. And we’ve all let it happen, while taking what they offered without much pause or conscience. We got what we paid for. And keep paying for. Our bad
@shoq With your comment, you acknowledge the importance of film and television (theater arts) in our modern society, not unlike in historical times.
Also, with the important role they play in current culture, you recognize changes in narrative over time that has been more influenced by the profitability of the big businesses that now control the artistic talent current society relies on for entertainment.
"Only the Old and Sick will Die": reproducing 'eugenic visuality' in covid 19 data visualization
COVID-19 illness and death has disproportionately impacted marginalized groups the world over. In the United States, Black and Indigenous people have endured the largest risk of death. Disabled and chronically ill people have continued to isolate as their peers “return to normal”, bearing sole liability for their own safety in a society that deems their lives not worth the “sacrifice” of public health measures. While public and institutional policy makers bare personal responsibility for “survival of the fittest” approaches to public health, data science and visualization has contributed to and legitimized many of these eugenic policy decisions through design tropes I characterize as ‘eugenic visuality’. In this paper, I explore how inadequacies and obscurities in COVID-19 data visualization have contributed to and sustained public narratives that devalue marginalized lives for the comfort of white-supremacist and capitalist social norms. While I focus on visualizations and statements provided by the CDC, the implications extend beyond any individual or institution to our collective preconceptions and values. Namely, unexamined biases and unquestioned norms are embedded in data science and visualization, constraining how data is represented and interpreted. These assumptions limit how data can be leveraged in the pursuit of just social policy. Therefore, I propose guiding principles for a Just Visuality in data science and representation, supported by the work of disabled activists and scholars of color.
@FractalEcho I appreciate your comment. I disagree that you give it a label of “eugenics”.
When a human pathogen, such as the novel Covid-19 virus, is found to be a threat to mortality, like other viruses and bacterial infections before it, it is likely that those with weaker health including the elderly, disabled and immunocompromised are more likely to die.
This is not news but verifiable, scientific evidence.
@FractalEcho Thanks for the follow up comment, it lets me know this issue is important to you. I will take a closer look at the research article you cited for support of eugenics in its content.