@Mikal@sfba.social
@Mikal@sfba.social avatar

Mikal

@Mikal@sfba.social

Interested in All Of The Things, which is probably why I follow you.

Things I do: #LandscapePhotography and #Protest #Photography, #paragliding, #StormChasing, #border and #HumanRights #activism.

Intellectual hobbies I watch from the sidelines: science, security/privacy, online sociality and general internet theorizing. My camera shoots fascists. Photos my own unless noted. Direct sharing photos: yay! Scraping: no.

You can write to me via my website, though Signal gets the quickest response.

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

thepoliticalcat, to random
@thepoliticalcat@mastodon.social avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    Mikal,
    @Mikal@sfba.social avatar

    @thepoliticalcat

    jaw-drop emoji

    One mentally ill person standing on a street corner in Berkeley yelling at cars about vaccines in heads of lettuce is a failure of our mental health system; the same person elected into political office by tens or hundreds of thousands of followers is a crisis of civilization itself.

    Mikal, to random
    @Mikal@sfba.social avatar


    Parque San Antonio, Calí, Colombia.

    Mikal, to colombia
    @Mikal@sfba.social avatar

    "Sabotage surveillance", Calí, Colombia. I approve this message.


    A poster glued to a wall showing a surveillance video camera being smashed by a ball peen hammer held in an outstretch hand.

    Mikal, to superbowl
    @Mikal@sfba.social avatar


    Another one of my favorites from my owl photo trip several years ago. Salton Sea area. Burrow owls are such characters.

    Mikal, to superbowl
    @Mikal@sfba.social avatar


    This from an owl photographing trip I did near Salton Sea a few years back. Burrow owl is not amused.

    Mikal, to random
    @Mikal@sfba.social avatar

    Hundreds of asylum seekers have been coming across the border in a remote part of Arizona. When I was last there a couple weeks ago, border patrol was picking people up, bringing them to the station and processing them fairly quickly.

    Now, with rain, snow, cold and the serious risk of hypothermia for hundreds of people, Border Patrol has left humanitarian aid to volunteers. The group No More Deaths has been out there day after day for months and months providing life-saving aid to people. Their number is in the press release. If you're looking for a good group to donate to.

    Mikal,
    @Mikal@sfba.social avatar

    No More Deaths is asking people to call the Border Patrol and demand they allocate adequate resources for asylum seekers.

    Border Patrol: 520-748-3000
    They have been receiving a lot of calls, apparently! Call and politely tell them that you understand that asylum seekers are being left exposed to snow and cold and you want them to allocate adequate resources instead of leaving it to civilian volunteers.

    Mikal, to skateboarding
    @Mikal@sfba.social avatar

    Edit: added a photo from earlier this afternoon at the same spot.

    I'm at a small plaza in Bogatá this evening watching a crowd of young skaters doing tricks. All of the benches here are either stone or very solid cement so aren't hurt by the skateboards. A young girl sitting on a skateboard just went cruising by about 2 feet in front of a couple cops, who barely noticed.

    Skaters are having fun and the world is not coming to an end, as it turns out.

    Mikal, to art
    @Mikal@sfba.social avatar

    Bogotá, Colombia is known for its street art, particularly the Candelaria district where I'm now staying. But there is a whole hidden dimension to it that you only see if you go out at night. Most shops have steel rollup security doors that are, of course, open during the day.

    But once the shops close, the doors go down to reveal a city-sized gallery of amazing art painted on them. It's like a secret hidden art museum. Some of the work is absolutely stunning. It may have to wait a couple weeks till I get home, but I will make a gallery on my website. For now here are a few examples.

    I brought my 24 mm tilt-shift lens specifically to take pictures of things like this, but I don't really feel comfortable walking around with a fancy camera alone at night, so these are just phone snaps.

    A series of street art paintings on closed corrugated metal rollup doors. The two closest ones are faces of indigenous people of Colombia.
    Street art painted on closed metal corrugated rollup security doors. A painting of an indigenous man wearing a large jaguar mask.
    Street art painted on a corrugated metal security door. Picture of a young woman's face surrounded by brightly colored tropical birds with purple roses in the background

    Mikal, to art
    @Mikal@sfba.social avatar

    I giggled for half a block after seeing this tonight.

    Mikal, to random
    @Mikal@sfba.social avatar

    First contribution to
    An old door and window in Bogotá's Candelaria district.

    Mikal, to random
    @Mikal@sfba.social avatar

    Museo Botero today. It's a lovely museum dedicated to the artwork of Fernando Botero. The museum contains multiple rooms on two levels, wrapped around a beautiful courtyard.

    I find his work extremely entertaining and engaging. I spent a couple hours with it, which is a lot for me for a small art museum. The store sells posters, but none of the two paintings I would actually like to look at in my house.

    Here are a couple shots typical of his work. (Note alt text in second photo.)

    https://colecciones.banrepcultural.org/page/coleccin-de-arte/6357aa7ae27d753f221c618d?ubicacinActual%5B0%5D=Museo%20Botero

    A painting of a nun, titled "mother superior", though in Spanish. The woman is rendered as being unnaturally chubby in the style of this artist. She is holding a lime with a bite taken out. Her expression is a puckered scowl, either from biting the sour lime, or because her sexless life in a convent has left her a mean, miserable person with a sour disposition. I think maybe Botero was making this a dig: she'd probably look like that without the lime.

    Mikal,
    @Mikal@sfba.social avatar

    Here is one of the two Boteros I was hoping they'd have as posters in the shop, but, alas, no. "El Ladrone" (The Thief).

    Mikal,
    @Mikal@sfba.social avatar

    Here's the other I would have bought a poster of, if they sold them.
    "Terremoto en Popayán" (Earthquake in Popayán)

    Neither this nor the previous are particularly typical of the work he is most famous for.
    But I have weird tastes, so 🤷‍♂️

    Mikal, to colombia
    @Mikal@sfba.social avatar

    Left my hotel room in Bogotá, walked a few blocks, saw a long line of motorcycle cops and, of course, followed them. Led me to a demonstration. I still haven't figured out exactly whom is protesting what. Anyone know details? It's pretty chill, but really loud.

    Mikal, to HashtagGames
    @Mikal@sfba.social avatar

    Sunny and warm, but dry, as the drought continues.

    Mer__edith, to random
    @Mer__edith@mastodon.world avatar

    When I talk to people outside the US, they're rarely aware of how bad it's gotten. In part because state-level authoritarianism is rarely reported in int'l media.

    E.g. there's now a proposal to jail teachers/librarians who possess 'banned books' !!!

    When faced w/well-meaning legislation to scan for 'harmful content,' undermine e2ee in the name of child safety etc., we are derelict/naive if we don't contend with the reality of who will use theses laws, how.

    https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2024/01/31/utah-teachers-could-be-criminally/

    Mikal,
    @Mikal@sfba.social avatar

    @Mer__edith
    When people try to tell me that it's not really that bad and these extreme proposals won't pass or will be struck down, or won't really be enforced, etc. I point out that even then, they're trial balloons, boundary tests, ways to shift the conversation and Overton Window. Push extreme ideas enough and they infiltrate the narrative and become normalized. I ask these same people "Okay then, at what point DO we freak the hell out?"

    seachanger, to random
    @seachanger@alaskan.social avatar

    convert 👏🏼 McMansions 👏🏼 to 👏🏼 co-op 👏🏼 condos 👏🏼

    Mikal,
    @Mikal@sfba.social avatar

    @seachanger
    Next, do mega yachts.

    Mikal, to random
    @Mikal@sfba.social avatar

    Some developments with my business in NorCal means I have to be back from the desert by March 1 instead of May 1 as usual.

    Which also means I'll be in the East Bay much more than I have been lately. I think it would be cool to meet some of my fedi mutuals if you're all into it.

    Is there a practice yet of doing the fedi version of tweetups, like in the early days of birdsite? Seems like there should be!

    skykiss, to america
    @skykiss@sfba.social avatar

    Joe Biden's announcement he'll shut down the border if the MAGA House approve the deal will confirm they would rather install a dictator than stop the immigration crisis.

    can then blame the GOP for the crisis to blunt republicans only strategy for November.

    President Biden is calling their hand and their predictable slavish obedience to Trump will set the up to be rightfully blamed for the crisis that Republicans created. -t.h.

    Mikal,
    @Mikal@sfba.social avatar

    @skykiss

    I always find this sort of rhetoric so weird. As someone who spends a lot of time along the US – Mexico border in Arizona, the idea that it could be shut down is kind of a joke. You can't stop people from coming in, but I guess you could aggressively deport everyone in violation of US and international law, not to mention in violation of basic human decency.

    Mikal, to Signal
    @Mikal@sfba.social avatar

    So, are you convinced to start using end to end encrypted messaging yet?
    #FuckGoogle

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2024/01/27/new-details-free-ai-upgrade-for-google-and-samsung-android-users-leaks/

    exchgr, to random
    @exchgr@mastodon.world avatar

    keep dreaming

    Mikal,
    @Mikal@sfba.social avatar

    @exchgr
    I said "fuck that and fuck you" aloud when I first saw that yesterday.

    maxleibman, to SEO
    @maxleibman@mastodon.social avatar

    Your skill as a writer is inversely proportional to the number of words you have added to an article for SEO purposes.

    #SEO #PaddingIsntWriting #LongerIsntBetter #enshittification

    Mikal,
    @Mikal@sfba.social avatar

    @maxleibman

    My site is photo-heavy, but I only use alt text to describe images for people using screen readers, not for SEO. Something I learned to do here on Mastodon 👍
    Also, no keyword clutter, invisible footer text or any other crap like that. I just don't have time for it.

    This is why it's important that if you like someone's blog or story or photo or artwork you share it widely. Those of us who refuse to get down on our knees and lick Google's boots need that kind of person to person amplification.

    Mikal, to random
    @Mikal@sfba.social avatar

    Is there an Excel genius on here for hire?

    I run a small business. Our POS/Inventory software platform just announced that they're broke and closing down. Being SaaS, we don't even have a copy to keep using until we find something better. Luckily, this is our down season but, still 😡

    We're thinking we can do what we need with a basic spreadsheet with a simple GUI of some sort.

    Here's our set up: We sell one product with 30 variations, all the same price (occasionally two products with same-price variations). We need to figure taxes in this for retail sales and we have a different price structure for commercial/wholesale sales. Sales volume is fairly low, so we already write receipts by hand. The minimum we need is for the inventory to be updated in real time and then easily compile end-of-day totals.

    We've got a few other needs (products that get rejected and why), but virtually all POS systems are way overbuilt (and expensive) for our operation.

    You can DM me here if you'd be interested.

    Mikal, to random
    @Mikal@sfba.social avatar

    I spent last night and this morning at the border fence and migrant support camp east of Sasabe, Arizona. No one came through last night, maybe because the cartels don't like to work in the rain? This morning once the rain quit for a while, 23 people came through, including lots of families with kids. Border Patrol didn't show up all day to take people to the station and process their asylum claims, so they're spending the night at the support camp.

    Without that camp, entirely run by local humanitarian volunteers, those people would be out in the rain without shelter or walking the 25KM up and down insanely steep hills to the Sasabe station on their own.

    The effort being put in by volunteers is amazing. People come out pretty much every day to provide food, water, first aid and shelter for migrants seeking asylum.

    If you want to help, the main group is https://nomoredeaths.org

    Tucson Samaritans and Green Valley Samaritans are regulars there as well.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • JUstTest
  • mdbf
  • everett
  • tacticalgear
  • magazineikmin
  • thenastyranch
  • rosin
  • tester
  • Youngstown
  • khanakhh
  • slotface
  • ngwrru68w68
  • kavyap
  • DreamBathrooms
  • megavids
  • InstantRegret
  • osvaldo12
  • GTA5RPClips
  • ethstaker
  • normalnudes
  • Durango
  • cisconetworking
  • anitta
  • modclub
  • cubers
  • Leos
  • provamag3
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •