@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

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

MichaelTBacon, to random
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

Karl Popper's Paradox of Tolerance gets people torn up in knots because Popper was kind of a shit philosopher.

Yeah, I said it.

His description of the scientific method is empirically incorrect and has been confusing people for decades and it needs to stop.

sue, to random
@sue@glasgow.social avatar

Folk using "algorithms" to refer to everything that's wrong with the web the way folk believed "miasma" caused the spread of disease pre sanitation

MichaelTBacon,
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

@sue

It's an ongoing frustration for me that federation is seen as the end goal, instead of something that opens other possibilities for improvement.

Federation could be a really good first step, but we need to follow it up with assemblages of federated instances that collectively make agreements on rules and norms that provide safety.

And we keep, you know, not doing that.

MichaelTBacon, to Meditation
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

Wondering about the experiences with and for other folks with , particularly "inattentive type" (or what we used to just call ) and particularly if you experience hyperfocus.

I had a very adverse experience with a therapist obsessed with mindfulness apps who wouldn't listen or engage with my bad responses to them, and as I've tried to reconstitute my own practices, I'm wondering if hyperfocus tendencies alter what methods one should use. 🧵

jonny, (edited ) to random
@jonny@neuromatch.social avatar

Dear computer friends - as information workers on strike at , im trying to think of some digital picketing strategies. Ways of incurring additional costs and disruptions to operation that are within the bounds of the law. One of the biggest levers we have is grading, and UCLA uses a fork (?) of Canvas (bruinlearn). Does anyone have any bright ideas for how to run up a cloud bill? Something along the lines of uploading enormous files to course pages, asking students to download a directory with millions of files as a .zip, that kinda thing. Something thats an arms length shy of CFAA but something that could let our students and remote colleagues help with the strike. Any ideas? Boosts welcome. (I do not speak for or represent UAW 4811 in any way as a rank and file member)

Edit: dm me for my signal if you are curious about such a topic and are not necessarily volunteering any information in the affirmative or negative

MichaelTBacon,
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

@jonny It depends on how their install is configured. Storage usually isn't that expensive and neither is networking. However, large numbers of instances running are. Thousands of simultaneous logins might do the trick.

MichaelTBacon,
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

@jonny Generally apps are scaled to handle average load, and the thing that has broken apps since time immemorial is sudden simultaneous use of by lots of users.

MichaelTBacon, to random
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

I am grateful for all the work done to realize just how much stress and injustice drive so many contemporary ills.

This is a gift link so no paywall. Please boost widely as I think this is a superb article that many would enjoy.

https://wapo.st/46zEIzq

MichaelTBacon, to random
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

There's a multitude of reasons to stop referring to reactionary politicians and their supporters as "crazy."

Let's even go beyond the ablest thing, although that's certainly relevant.

It's also a bit of a dodge for ourselves—that if these huge masses of people weren't somehow broken or jagged (original meaning of "crazy") they'd stop.

These are social phenomena, not some individual flaws. We need to understand that people are intentionally associating themselves with reactionary movements.

MichaelTBacon, to random
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

This is amazing. Rick Astley has taken it on himself to start covering The Smiths songs because Morrissey is such an unholy piece of shit, and not only is it not bad it's good and also wholesome.

This is great because Morrissey let a lot of people down. And Rick Astley, well, he would never . . .

https://www.pajiba.com/celebrities_are_better_than_you/rick-astley-is-out-here-purging-the-evil-spirit-of-morrisey.php

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, to random
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

Holy shit they flipped Sydney Powell.

MichaelTBacon, to random
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

Boy, United finding loose bolts on its aircraft only AFTER the door exploded just really makes you excited to take a plane trip, doesn’t it?

MichaelTBacon, to sts
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

Oh, man, it's happening. There was an @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.

MichaelTBacon, to random
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

Based on nothing but this thread and their "just asking questions" mission statement I would say that qoto dot org is an excellent candidate for and defederation.

https://social.coop/@volkris@qoto.org/110821090477474212

MichaelTBacon, to random
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

Israel just bombed a fucking hospital. Again.

MichaelTBacon, to random
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

As much as I love and treasure the ritual of dunking on Garret Hardin, it would be great if someone could just write some gigantic review article in a high level journal covering all the ways in which we are now 100% sure with no room for reasonable doubt that the Tragedy of the Commons is garbage written by a white supremacist who knew nothing about commons, and then we could all just cite that as definitive and move on.

MichaelTBacon, to random
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

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

GeePawHill, to random
@GeePawHill@mastodon.social avatar

People advise one not to use Chrome -- I don't -- but they also advise to use Firefox, instead -- I do -- but for the record, it is not clear to me that any of these browsers can be trusted.

It feels more like Chrome is just a chapter ahead, and the others will soon catch up.

MichaelTBacon,
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

@GeePawHill

It's never going to be a pure experience, but I find that Firefox with Privacy Badger installed and a generous use of account containers to segment your life a little bit is at least considerably better than many of the alternatives.

MichaelTBacon, to random
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

For those who study the internal structures of organized reactionaries in the US (and, well, anywhere) this should be an invaluable trove of resources. It's not only important to know who and what these folks are doing, but what their internal narratives and justifications are. This trove from SACR has it in spades.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/inside-a-secret-society-of-prominent-right-wing-christian-men-prepping-for-a-national-divorce

MichaelTBacon, to random
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

Our health insurance system is such a damn mess. I just had to call Large Private University With Own Health System's (LPUWOHS)'s HMO for why LPUWOHS billed me for $12k for emergency services at their own facility, a patently illegal "surprise bill."

After 45 minutes on the phone (which is a damn near record for how short it was) the bill is magically gone. Again, all between employer, insurance, and provider who couldn't be more tightly linked, and I still had to mediate to get it paid.

MichaelTBacon, to random
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

So there's something kind of bugging me about the "pyrocene" discourse.

I don't want to in any way diminish the catastrophic health effects of wildfire smoke for many folks or dismiss the severity of the climate crisis or its impact on wildfire.

But the current fire status comes as much from a century of fire suppression and poor choices in forest land management as it does from climate change. (to be clear it's BOTH.)

[brief 🧵)

MichaelTBacon, to random
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

I just double checked, and no, those aren't my monkeys and that's not my circus.

MichaelTBacon, to random
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

Speaking of Dune (LRT), saw the second installment yesterday, and yeah, I think it's safe to say that Villeneuve has done for Dune what Peter Jackson did for LotR. there will be room for re-envisioning in the future if someone wants to take it a new direction (which I'm 100% in favor of). But like Charlton Heston's Ben Hur, THE definitive version has now been made and folks can stop dreaming of being the one to do it.

Not the perfect movie. But very well worth the price of the popcorn bucket.

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

MichaelTBacon, to random
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

This is my regular nitpicky post that "walled garden" is really a terrible metaphor for "corporate controlled monolithic media environment."

People put up walls around gardens largely to keep things like deer and sheep out. In a lot of places, if you want flowers and vegetables, you have to have walls.

Mastodon is much more like a lot of walled gardens (IN A GOOD WAY!) than the big socials.

MichaelTBacon, to uk
@MichaelTBacon@social.coop avatar

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

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