This is a really important point: From a business perspective, the goal of a Google AI is to make sure you never view primary sources on other web pages, only the chopped-and-processed information on Google's own site. #AI#Google
cnn is removed from my newsfeeds and becomes "just another website owned by a billionaire who has a political agenda and keeps literally the worst company"
There are very few ways to send cable news networks the message to go fuck themselves, but I think I found one: I just opened Apple News and gave a thumbs down 👎 to CNN "fact-checking" Trump's bullshit at the Town Hall they hosted— and then proceeded to block the CNN Politics channel
One of the things that made Twitter so powerful was its ability to amplify calls for grassroots activism— it's time to see if Mastodon can deliver the goods, too: if you want to help send the message that fascists should not be given a national platform to spew their hateful rhetoric: open Apple News (or your Android equivalent) and block the CNN Politics channel
I've been frustrated with all the Bluesky hubbub lately, but had a really hard time getting my thoughts together on it. I wrote this piece mostly to work through my feelings, and ended up better understanding the platform. I'm not as angsty about it as I was a couple of weeks ago, but I'm now even more skeptical that Bluesky will retain the "fun factor".
Truly astounding to me how many people there are out there worried about being punched just because folks are talking about punching nazis.
Let me clue you in on a little history? Pretty much every waking moment between about 1941 and up until roughly the late 80's, everyone thought it was okay to punch nazis. It was so okay, running them over was a joke in the Blues Brothers movies. Guess what didn't happen? A chaotic mess of people punching folks who aren't nazis.
Is a cliché to call this one of the best albums ever made? Yes. But it's also kind of undeniable.
This is not a punk album, and the Clash wasn't really a punk band. Putting a finger on what they were is hard, because they straddled many genres, from ska to reggae to R&B to pop to straight-up rock. And it's all here.
This is my original from 1979 - the US version. It cost something like $7 because the band insisted it be cheap.
On the 62nd anniversary of the first American human spaceflight on Mercury Redstone 3 "Freedom 7", here's a thread on the weird history of the Redstone rocket.
Assigning a default server to new Mastodon sign-ups makes sense. I’ve been baffled by people being flummoxed by having to choose, but clearly having to choose is off-putting to many people who it would be great to have on board. People will learn about decentralization and other servers once they are here and some will move from the default. I welcome as many new voices as possible, with plenty of moderation for hate and large-scale commercial posts. https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2023/05/a-new-onboarding-experience-on-mastodon/@Gargron
Going through my notes on There Are No Accidents by Jessie Singer (@JessieSinger), and I figured I'd share them here as I process them.
This is a book about how our systemic decisions make America a dangerous place to live. It really made clear to me that Covid is nothing new. We've always been needlessly cavalier with each other's lives - especially the lives of the poorest and most marginalized among us.
I have a friend who is... very unique. You know the type - the guy who always brings the out of genre movie that is just extra. Or he'll come to the meetup typing on his phone and you find out he's researching some obscure subject.
I love him, he's brilliant. His children are amazing, his wife is way hotter than him. This guy has a great life, be glad for him.
So he sent me this link... and I've been staring at it since yesterday and it just keeps delivering.
She was referred to as the "Empress of the Blues", but it seems like she has been lost to modern consciousness. That makes me sad. Will you check out this amazing woman?
Trends popping up and fading away at an exponential rate. Each second your connection to the zeitgeist weakens. Glowing esoteric teens pelt you with insults and objects you can not parse.
“The winds will change the ocean, the ocean will melt #Antarctica—and the water is coming to visit you.” If the #ThwaitesGlacier collapses, it could bring much of the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet with it and raise sea levels by over three meters. The potential collapse of Thwaites is among the largest environmental threats to global civilization—and we’ve barely begun to understand it. What took us so long?
Oracle, how can I live forever?
Be difficult to forget.
How?
Should I create art?
Should I be famous?
Or powerful?
You should be kind.
Written by James Miller of @asmallfiction
Illustrated by @oatmeal
Check out our paper on the vast expanses discovered and charted by our Cosmicflows research program, published recently in the Cosmo of ’69 Cosmology Blog. Many thanks to Jenny Wagner and her team for their invitation to write in this new venue.
