@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

MichaelTBacon

@MichaelTBacon@social.coop

Day job: #geospatial #datascience
Academic research: #LandReform #STS #Scotland #Ecology #Landscape #CommunityOwnership

STS, planning geography, ecology, geospatial data, stuff.

I live and raise a fuss in #Durham #NC

MA Geography
Ph.D. Constructed Environment

He/him http://git.io/vxjC7

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MichaelTBacon, to random
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

A periodic boost to Anera, an organization that does an immense amount of aid in the occupied Palestine territories and has been confirmed by my friends who used to live in the West Bank as a very effective organization.

(I have a monthly donation to them.)

https://www.anera.org/

MichaelTBacon, to sts
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

Oh, man, it's happening. There was an #STS @sts article (or book?) that I really thought was Maria Kaika but very apparently isn't about three phases of modernist water management—something like ascendant, triumphant, and chastened, or some such.

I went to look it up tonight in the old references and I cannot find it.

irizoris, to random
@irizoris@hcommons.social avatar

@futurebird Brood XIX cicada and ants at my Nashville bus stop this morning

Cicada and ants

MichaelTBacon,
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

@futurebird @irizoris I don't know of any rigorous work on it, but I assume the basic eco-evolutionary theory on why the broods come out so rarely and in such numbers is the same as trees masting—that the sheer abundance of a prey species all at once and not that often just overwhelms the predator ability to consume, so that even though it's a feeding bonanza more cicadas get to mate and reproduce than get eaten?

MichaelTBacon, to uk
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

To all the folks in the , does anyone know of an STS treatment of the Horizon scandal?

MichaelTBacon, to random
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

I realize that the Fedi at this point, at least my network, skews pretty anti-religious, and fine. But please realize how much this means to so many people and how much it will mean to people in the future. You don't have to agree with an institution's theology to celebrate people no longer feeling hurt and hated and excluded.

https://www.theassemblync.com/culture/religion/united-methodist-church-charlotte-gay-marriage

MichaelTBacon,
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

“This is a day of rejoicing. But, my God, this is a day of lament,” Ryde told the circle. “There are so many who weren’t here for this moment because they had to go somewhere else to care for themselves. … I am so grateful right now. But I can’t rejoice without naming that.”

Parker stood beside Ryde and, for the first time during the conference, he let himself cry happy tears. “This is a space of trauma and pain,” he later told me. “This moment was the first time I could let that go.”

MichaelTBacon,
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar
MichaelTBacon,
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

Side rant: You know what's really stupid about "microblogging" the way it evolved under the bird site and continues under many Fedi instances, including @social.coop? I can only post 500 characters of text, which is literally smaller than the minimum file size on most operating systems. But I can post a damn screenshot and put 1500 characters in the alt-text, which even with low res and grayscale is probably 100k.

Just let me write actual text!!!

MichaelTBacon, to random
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

Anyone know WTF is happening at UNC or why we just went to critical emergency response?

MichaelTBacon,
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

Apparently negotiations broke down between the admin and the student protestors. So we go to critical status or something.

And in response someone shared this, which is just ****ing perfect.

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/a-message-from-the-chancellor-on-the-recent-student-protest

MichaelTBacon,
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar
MichaelTBacon, to random
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

"Schedule send" is such a great email feature for those of us who actually get stuff done in the middle of the night.

MichaelTBacon, to random
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

Someone saying what's been slowly but increasingly apparent to me for a few years now: recycling plastic is just greenwashing. It's time to quit wasting our time doing it.

https://wapo.st/49O46lM

inquiline, to random
@inquiline@union.place avatar

Hats off:

"Billionaire Elon Musk, found dead in his home last night, says it is not the role of social media networks to determine what is true or not.

The Tesla and X owner, who is believed to have died from a heroin overdose while watching animal porn, said he would fight any attempts to stop the spread of misinformation on his platform"

https://theshovel.com.au/2024/04/23/elon-musk-dead-at-52-misinformation-laws/

MichaelTBacon,
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

@inquiline

Bill Murray, in a tux, gives a standing ovation

MichaelTBacon, to random
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

I'm seeing a thing on my feed about the GOP now turning against polio vaccines, and look, please at some point start listening to folks when we say that scientific facts not only require work in order to be made, but require work in order to keep extant.

The point of this isn't to undermine science, it's to save it. At some point after you've watched enough "indisputable facts" get pulled into dispute, maybe stop writing us off as the problem?

MichaelTBacon, to random
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

So @molly0xfff wrote about LLMs and it doesn't disappoint in the least.

And yes I absolutely LOLed loudly at this bit.

https://www.citationneeded.news/ai-isnt-useless/

inquiline, to random
@inquiline@union.place avatar

Got called "unseemly and childishly ridiculous" by a man in my mentions today, how's your Mastodon going

MichaelTBacon,
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

@inquiline

Given that my profile photo marks me pretty clearly as a white dude, I've been 'splained to in the replies an absurd amount lately. (By other white dudes, naturally, but anyway.)

I mean I'm all for egalitarianism, but that wasn't what I had in mind.

luis_in_brief, to random
@luis_in_brief@social.coop avatar

Gotta admit I found it pretty irritating, in the xz discussion of the last two weeks, that some people declared confidently "you can't pay maintainers". (cc @ehashman)

It isn't easy to pay maintainers, but it can be done: at Tidelift, we've been doing it for years. So I figured I'd write up how we do it and what we've learned. And yes, it's a HOWTO. Be glad I also avoided an FAQ ;)

https://blog.tidelift.com/paying-maintainers-the-howto

MichaelTBacon,
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

@luis_in_brief @ehashman

Right, now I'm going to go around throwing this Shannon Mattern rticle at everyone again. (This is specifically about the built physical environment but the lessons from it are extremely relevant and the parallels obvious IMO.)

https://placesjournal.org/article/maintenance-and-care/

MichaelTBacon, to random
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

To whatever reactionary shithead called in a bomb threat to the main Durham County Library today, both interrupting planned LGBTQ+ events and keeping my kids from going to their favorite library: Eat shit.

carnage4life, to random
@carnage4life@mas.to avatar

Seattle Times has a new report on how Boeing's current challenges can be traced to prioritizing shareholders over everything for 25 years, slashing costs and outsourcing key work, weakening unions, and pressuring suppliers, leading to loss of its core competency.

This is a great example of how the stock market rewards short term thinking leading to companies sabotaging themselves. Intel is in the same boat.
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/boeings-long-fall-and-how-it-might-recover/

MichaelTBacon,
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

@carnage4life

It's insane -- these companies basically have license to print money for decades on end just by doing the same basic job over and over again. But the stock market gets antsy and wants higher returns. And it all comes crashing down. (Literally, in Boeing's case.)

DataDrivenMD, to random
@DataDrivenMD@fedified.com avatar

Maybe it's because I'm a naturalized U.S. citizen, but when people threaten to withhold their vote in protest I can't help but wonder what the actual fuck they think they're accomplishing by a) demoting themselves into non-citizen status and b) announcing their asinine decision

MichaelTBacon,
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

@yaldi @DataDrivenMD

There has never been a US President who was not in some ways repellent.

Voting is if nothing else harm reduction. There's an obvious choice here.

mekkaokereke, to random
@mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io avatar

Honest question for white people that don't consider themselves racist:

White nationalists have been vocal about their attacks on DEI. These are literally the same people that talk about Charlottesville, Jan 6th, and ethnic cleansing.

They've laid out exactly how they plan to destroy DEI.

  1. Make false claims that DEI is about giving unqualified Black people an unfair advantage

  2. Work with racist politicians to use this as a pretext to make all DEI programs illegal.

1/n

MichaelTBacon,
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

@mekkaokereke

I have not said it one-on-one would feel a bit like the dad in Get Out saying he voted for Obama twice. Like I was asking for an anti-racist cookie.

Beyond that I have not spoken about it in employee forums except obliquely, and to mention supporting our existing DEI efforts. (As a state employee in NC, we may soon have to figure out how to do DEI without calling it DEI because of our idiotic legilsature.)

weilawei, to random
@weilawei@mastodon.online avatar

MichaelTBacon,
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

@violetmadder @weilawei

I am no fan of Buttigieg from his campaign days but all my transpo advocacy friends have been pleasantly surprised with his USDOT. Actually doing shit we should have been doing for a long time but haven't, across modes.

MichaelTBacon, to random
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

For all sysadmins and security types out there, if you haven't seen this, you'll want to. I haven't groked the exploit enough to know exactly what the vulnerability is, but "looks bad" seems like a pretty big understatement here.

https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/03/29/4

inquiline, to random
@inquiline@union.place avatar

Are we allowed to be glad Lieberman is dead on here

(affirmations only)

MichaelTBacon,
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

@adamgreenfield @inquiline

To me he was 5x worse than Harris. I was generally a Gore fan but the Lieberman decision was absolutely horrible. Dick Cheney is a snarling, charisma-less asshole and Lieberman flat lost a debate to him, badly, then decided he did awesome and needed to run for President himself.

As far as being glad, I keep a high bar for celebrating deaths but the fucker was still heavily involved in "No Labels." There's actual tangible good in him exiting the political scene.

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