@TomSwirly@toot.community
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TomSwirly

@TomSwirly@toot.community

.uk ➡️ .at ➡️.ca ➡️ .nyc ➡️ .nl

Check out my silly little bot here: https://botsin.space/@fortune

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TomSwirly, to random
@TomSwirly@toot.community avatar

@w7voa I just read this article: https://www.steveherman.press/p/unraveling-threads and it's extremely strong, though a bit depressing (often the case with factually correct articles).

I wish I could disagree with your claim that Mastodon will remain marginal because it's not owned by a large company, but I can't.

But there is one line that's... more formulaic than the rest and it's this one: "but Mastodon can be technically overwhelming for novices."

1/

TomSwirly,
@TomSwirly@toot.community avatar

@w7voa Something like this appears in almost every mainstream article on Mastodon, but no one ever explains it, and the adjective balloons with each retelling, with "overwhelming" being pretty far out there.

You aren't doing your readers any favor with such vague warnings, and you're clearly able to use the service, so it can't really be overwhelming.

I don't believe in making a complaint without providing a remedy, of course.

2/

TomSwirly,
@TomSwirly@toot.community avatar

@w7voa

There are just two issues beginners face using Mastodon:

  • The empty account
  • Why can't I follow?

The empty account is easily explained and fixed.

But the "follow" issue requires users to understand "Federation" at a basic simple concept level. Teaching even one concept is hard when almost all of us are subject to a fire hose of information and a lot of people "can't really function, you're so full of fear" as Lennon sang.

3/

TomSwirly,
@TomSwirly@toot.community avatar

@w7voa

Explaining to a beginner that accounts start off empty like an new notebook or text document really isn't hard at all.

"There is no algorithm, there are no ads, you only see the things you follow": I think people immediately grasp this idea. Get someone to follow a few tags, immediate fun, following people from those tags is exactly like following from Facebook or Twitter.

But this issue seems to sink people all the time: "Following sometimes doesn't work."

4/

TomSwirly,
@TomSwirly@toot.community avatar

@w7voa More, peoples' attempts to rectify this often end up in going in stressful directions for them: "I was unable to log in!" and that sort of thing.

Using a computer gets very stressful when you are blocked by errors you cannot understand.

What's happening exactly? Can we get around this?

As we survivors have all understood by now, there are two ways to visit a post or person: "within your instance" and "not logged in".

5/

JamesGleick, to random
@JamesGleick@zirk.us avatar

Trump right now:

  1. I don’t have enough money left to disgorge my ill-gotten gains, as ordered by the Court.

  2. Have mercy on me.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/18/nyregion/trump-bond-civil-fraud-case.html?unlocked_article_code=1.dk0.HQdz.WEY-5wb9mU_q&smid=url-share

TomSwirly,
@TomSwirly@toot.community avatar

@JamesGleick

This seems like very good news, but in my heart, I fear that Elon Musk or some similar rich psychopath will just step in and pay the fines, in exchange for "undisclosed considerations".

(Paywall-free link: https://archive.is/TPmvM
I haven't given the NYT a penny since the Iraq War.)

losttourist, to politics
@losttourist@social.chatty.monster avatar

It's still 9 months or something away, but already the US Election is causing me to bounce up & down on my mute button like Zebedee from the Magic Roundabout.

people: I have copious filters to hide your stuff from my timeline, so if it gets through you're probably not following Mastodon/Fediverse best practices.

Put stuff behind CWs. Use hashtags. Don't deliberately mis-spell names.

I know you might feel this is the most interesting, vitally important election ever, but many of us don't have the mental space or desire to process a constant stream of fear and fury.

Play nice, please. 😄

TomSwirly,
@TomSwirly@toot.community avatar

@losttourist If you want the Seppos to understand you, Magic Roundabout metaphors aren't going to help! 😀

I have been performatively blocked by a large number of people here on Mastodon, and almost all of them were US Democrats

The weird part is that my wife and I are so opposed to Trump that we left the country on Dec 1, 2016: but saying things like, "It's a shame that the DNC has sandbagged all its progressive candidates" will get Democrats screaming at you.

(Luckily, no Rs here, yet.)

sandlapper37, to random
@sandlapper37@mstdn.social avatar
TomSwirly,
@TomSwirly@toot.community avatar

@maddad @hosford42 @sandlapper37 Man, if we could bottle this good attitude and force everyone to take it, the world would be a much better place.

jramskov, to random
@jramskov@helvede.net avatar

@freakazoid @InternetEh Because you think climate change is a hoax?

TomSwirly,
@TomSwirly@toot.community avatar

@freakazoid @jramskov @InternetEh

Hear, hear.

Unbounded exponential growth of consumption and waste are impossible on a finite planet.

#degrowth is the only solution but humans will resist voluntary degrowth, even incremental, until the laws of physics impose involuntary and dramatic degrowth upon us.

HeavenlyPossum, to random
@HeavenlyPossum@kolektiva.social avatar

The funniest thing about Donald Trump is that he is so routinely honest in public—“I will be a dictator,” “there will be violence if I lose”—and yet the majority of people are so concerned about decorum, so terrified of appearing to overreact, that the American political system just plods along as if he hadn’t said what he said.

TomSwirly,
@TomSwirly@toot.community avatar

@HeavenlyPossum 9/11 is another story just like that. All the announcements told people to stay in the buildings...

TomSwirly,
@TomSwirly@toot.community avatar

@HeavenlyPossum In the James Bond book "You Only Live Twice", a character tells an anecdote, apparently true, about people showing up at a bank saying they were from the Minister of Health, lining all the workers and management up to drink a "vaccinating" drink, and they all keeled over and died, and the thieves looted the bank.

quixoticgeek, to random
@quixoticgeek@v.st avatar

Ok. Now do cars. Go on.

I wonder how those accident stats look if we take out everything where a car is involved.

Our blindness to the harm of cars, while happily targeting any and all micromobility devices is disgusting.

https://nltimes.nl/2024/03/12/amsterdam-testing-system-can-remotely-slow-e-bikes

TomSwirly,
@TomSwirly@toot.community avatar

@quixoticgeek Disagree strongly.

I was living and biking in Amsterdam when ebikes became common, and those things are shit scary, because they ride on the bike path, they make almost no noise, and they are traveling much, much faster than the speed limit for powered vehicles on the bike path, 25km/hr.

(Except in the center, there is no speed limit on conventional bicycles. 😁 )

High speed powered vehicles have no place on the bike paths, and I strongly applaud this move.

TomSwirly,
@TomSwirly@toot.community avatar

@quixoticgeek Oh, and these things aren't "micromobility devices" - the Amsterdam bike paths are friendly to microcars because they stick to the speed limits and driven by rational people, whereas the "fat" ebikes particularly are nearly all owned by aggro young males with a need for speed, and illegally modded to go faster than their supposed maximum speed limit.

TomSwirly,
@TomSwirly@toot.community avatar

@quixoticgeek

Oh, I think any modified bike should be immediate confiscated and never returned, and the drivers should have to bicycle around Prinsengracht naked, ringing their bell and shouting, "Shame!"

The Gemeente is significantly more car hostile than its citizens are, which is better than you could expect. All my neighbors owned cars, often two.

It's in my past now, anyway, but I was just grateful for being treated as a first-class citizen as a cyclist for the first time ever.

mekkaokereke, to random
@mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io avatar

The state of the Union address is how people think elections work.

The state of voter turnout is how they actually work.

Today didn't change voter turnout, in swing districts, in swing states. So it changed nothing.

Sick burns tho.

TomSwirly,
@TomSwirly@toot.community avatar

@mekkaokereke You have a higher opinion of Americans than I do.

I think "sick burns" will get people out to the polls more than policy will.

AnarchoCatgirlism, to Astronomy

Don’t fuck with moon dust. No seriously, do not fuck with moon dust.

Absent any moisture or atmosphere, millennia of asteroid impacts have turned lunar regolith (soil) into a fine powder of razor sharp, glass-like particles. What’s more, the solar wind imparts an electric charge on the dust, causing it to cling to any and every surface it touches through static electricity. On earth, sand tends to get smoother over time as wind and water tumble the grains about, eroding their sharpness. Not so on the moon – lunar dust is sharp and deadly. This is Not A Good Time if you’re an explorer looking to visit our celestial neighbor.

During Apollo, the astronauts faced a plethora of unexpected issues caused by dust. It clung to spacesuits and darkened them enough that exposure to sunlight overheated the life support systems. Dust got in suit joints and on suit visors, damaging them. It ate away layers of boot lining. It covered cameras. Upon returning to the cabin, astronauts attempting to brush it off damaged their suit fabric and sent the dust airborne, where it remained suspended in the air due to low gravity.

Inhaling moon dust causes mucus membranes to swell; every Apollo astronaut who stepped foot on the moon reported symptoms of “Lunar Hay Fever.” Sneezing, congestion, and a “smell of burnt gunpowder” took days to subside. Later Apollo missions even sent a special dust brush with the team to help clean each other and equipment. We don’t know exactly how dangerous the stuff is, but lunar regolith simulants suggest it might destroy lung and brain cells with long-term exposure. 1

In fact the dust is so nasty that it destroyed the vacuum seals of sample return containers. We no longer have any accurate samples of lunar dust, “Every sample brought back from the moon has been contaminated by Earth’s air and humidity […] The chemical and electrostatic properties of the soil no longer match what future astronauts will encounter on the moon.” 2

Whats worse, the solar-charged dust gets thrown up off the moon’s surface via electrostatic forces. The moon doesn’t technically have an atmosphere, but it does have a thin cloud of sharp dust itching to cling to anything it can find.

And it probably isn’t just the moon. “A 2005 NASA study listed 20 risks that required further study before humans should commit to a human Mars expedition, and ranked "dust" as the number one challenge.” 3

The coolest solution I’ve heard about in next-gen spacesuit design is a mesh of woven wires layered into the suit. When activated, the wire mesh would form an anti-static electric field that repels dust. Quite literally a force field. 4
#astronomy #apollo #moon #lunardust

TomSwirly,
@TomSwirly@toot.community avatar

@isomeme @AnarchoCatgirlism @inthehands Hear, hear!

I have had discussions with people who treated space colonization as if it were already a done deal and we were just working out the details and soon almost everyone will live offworld.

When I point out facts like the above, or that only 600 people have ever gone to space ever, and there are 75 million new people each year, I get mocked like I'm a slow child.

ajsadauskas, (edited ) to climate
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

If you care about the planet, please make sure you sit down before you start reading this post about ExxonMobil.

So.

The CEO of ExxonMobil just said this in an interview: "We’ve waited too long to open the aperture on the solution sets in terms of what we need, as a society, to start reducing emissions."

https://fortune.com/2024/02/27/exxon-ceo-darren-woods-interview-pay-the-price-for-net-zero/

Who's the most influential voice on climate change? Who's to blame for inaction on climate change?

According to the CEO of ExxonMobil, it's environmental activists.

No, really:

"Frankly, society, and the activist—the dominant voice in this discussion—has tried to exclude the industry that has the most capacity and the highest potential for helping with some of the technologies."

Oh, and the CEO of ExxonMobil also apparently thinks consumers are to blame for climate inaction:

"Today we have opportunities to make fuels with lower carbon, but people aren’t willing to spend the money to do that."

Gets better.

He thinks unnamed 'people who generate emissions' should pay for it. (Rather than, say, major transnational oil companies.)

"People who are generating the emissions need to be aware of [it] and pay the price. That’s ultimately how you solve the problem."

https://fortune.com/2024/02/27/exxon-ceo-darren-woods-interview-pay-the-price-for-net-zero/

Worth including a quick reminder here that Exxon-Mobil made a US$36 billion profit in 2023: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/exxon-beats-estimates-ends-2023-with-36-billion-profit-2024-02-02/#:~:text=HOUSTON%2C%20Feb%202%20(Reuters),higher%20oil%20and%20gas%20production.

Not gross revenue.

Profit.

So, remind me again. Who knew about climate change before most of the public?

"Exxon was aware of climate change, as early as 1977, 11 years before it became a public issue... This knowledge did not prevent the company (now ExxonMobil and the world’s largest oil and gas company) from spending decades refusing to publicly acknowledge climate change and even promoting climate misinformation."

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/exxon-knew-about-climate-change-almost-40-years-ago/

And just who, exactly, stood in the way reducing emissions all these years?

"ExxonMobil executives privately sought to undermine climate science even after the oil and gas giant publicly acknowledged the link between fossil fuel emissions and climate change, according to previously unreported documents...

"The new revelations are based on previously unreported documents subpoenaed by New York’s attorney general as part of an investigation into the company announced in 2015. They add to a slew of documents that record a decades-long misinformation campaign waged by Exxon, which are cited in a growing number of state and municipal lawsuits against big oil."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/14/exxonmobil-documents-wall-street-journal-climate-science

@fuck_cars

TomSwirly,
@TomSwirly@toot.community avatar

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars What penalty is appropriate for someone who dooms all of our descendants to a destroyed ecosystem, and then blames the very people who tried desperately to stop him for his own crimes?

Until truly, truly terrible things happen to these people, they will continue to escalate their attacks on all of our grandchildren, while mocking us, like they are doing in this quote.

markwalker, (edited ) to python
@markwalker@fosstodon.org avatar

If you have a project that uses multiple pyproject.toml files, will tools ever look for multiple of them? I'd imagine not.
We've got a root file that defines black line length, then a sub module which defines mypy, pytest & coverage, but not black.

From github action output, it looks like it finds the nearest file, then uses black defaults on code in that sub module.

TomSwirly,
@TomSwirly@toot.community avatar

@markwalker

> will python ever look for multiple of them?

It's mainly other tools and not Python, but I am morally certain that no well-written program would look for multiple configurations automatically.

Suppose you have two configurations, and they have the same key: who wins? The first, the second, or do you try to merge dictionaries?

There's no obvious best answer, so any decision is risky and unobvious.

What's the reason for having two pyproject.toml files? Seems gnarly! 😀

TomSwirly,
@TomSwirly@toot.community avatar

@markwalker So this single project is in fact two projects in a raincoat? 😀

It would be nice if there were a way to support container projects containing other projects, but it seems like a hard problem, and Python packaging is already a pain point, so I think people would be resistant to adding complexity there.

Geri, to random
@Geri@mastodon.online avatar

on still unable to pronounce Kyiv correctly

TomSwirly,
@TomSwirly@toot.community avatar

@Geri Question: how do you pronounce "Paris" and "Mexico"?

microtones, to random
@microtones@mastodon.social avatar

Steve Reich, John Adams and Louis Andriessen

photo Jennifer Bilfield

Steve has no hat!

TomSwirly,
@TomSwirly@toot.community avatar

@microtones Wear a... yarmulke?

hllizi, to random German
@hllizi@hespere.de avatar

I am re-reading Dune. This quote by the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam is remarkable:

“Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.”

It's not about a Terminator-style AI-apocalypse where the machines want to kill us all dead. It's just an accurate prediction of what actually appears to be happening.

TomSwirly,
@TomSwirly@toot.community avatar

@_RyekDarkener_ @hllizi The Butlerian Jihad happens 10,000 years before the events depicted in Dune, so it's a little hard to point to cause and effect there.

pvonhellermannn, to random
@pvonhellermannn@mastodon.green avatar

Half thinking of starting an hashtag here, about the dire, dire state of UK (global?) higher education. Sharing nuggets of senior management decisions, neoliberal language, and overall slow collapse.

Won’t work of course because most of us can’t risk honesty, but honestly: the everyday reality of what is happening deserves recording in all its depressing and damning detail.

TomSwirly,
@TomSwirly@toot.community avatar

@pvonhellermannn Just a travesty. The whole fscking point of civilization is so that we can study things that not everyone is interested in to advance knowledge and humanity in general. I might add that ethnobotany should be even more important today than before as we are (supposedly) attempting to shift humanity to a sustainable future, but even if there were no uses, studying it would be a good thing in and of itself.

wincing, to random
@wincing@c.im avatar

@lillyfinch @feyter @TomSwirly @phaedral @captainrob @TonyStark You must have a very narrow set of issues you care about if you think there hasn’t been any progress in last 50 years. Bottom line is the choice is between hanging on, maybe edge forward a few inches, or fall to the bottom. There is much farther to fall than cliff left to climb.

TomSwirly,
@TomSwirly@toot.community avatar

@CivilityFan @phaedral @wincing @lillyfinch @feyter @captainrob @TonyStark I only lived in America for 32 years, but during that time, there wasn't one moment when my ideas, very boring and normal by the standards of the rest of the world, weren't considered childish and ludicrous - ideas like "socialized medicine", or "stopping the endless foreign wars of choice".

The Republicans cherish their far right wing: the Democrats mock their left wing.

1/

TomSwirly,
@TomSwirly@toot.community avatar

@CivilityFan @phaedral @wincing @lillyfinch @feyter @captainrob @TonyStark Worse, each and every election, progressives get the second highest turnout rate of any demographic for the Ds, just a bit short of seniors (also the highest turnout for the Rs).

And yet, every time the Ds lose, they blame the progressives, when objectively, the people who are inconsistent are in fact politically uninterested people with lower salaries and education...

2/

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