futurebird

futurebird, 8 months ago to random

futurebird, 8 months ago to random

This whole book banning thing, Moms of 'Liberty' the pulling of school libraries, turning school libraries into detention centers.

It's obviously all connected & 'concerns' about trans people and CRT are just excuses to make the policy go down more smoothly with the public. To make the debate a mess, emotionally charged & awkward.

The real goal is obvious: Limit the exposure of young people to libraries. It's a war on libraries.

And I've been too shocked to really process what that means.

futurebird, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago) to random

I just bought fancy new bluetooth earbuds and this time I hunted down a brand with physical buttons but also noise cancellation and everything else— best decision ever.

airpods have that “squeeze” thing— sony WHXM4 had touch controls… but now I have a vol+ and vol- button! I’m mad with power. The only thing even better would be an actual potentiometer volume knob.

What kind earbuds do you use?

futurebird, 11 months ago to random

I think a genie should grant the wish of every "Return to Tradition" guy posting on the internet, and they should all awake tomorrow in the time-period of their choice, in the nation or city they romanticize most from the past.

--as a servant, woman, or indentured laborer.

futurebird, 8 months ago to random

Capitalism is a lot more than people making mutually beneficial trades in a market. It has to be, otherwise capitalism would be 10,000 years old. Markets have been around since people have formed cities. They are older than capitalism.

1/

futurebird, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to random

Attention people of The West:

I think they are crumbling under the pressure. Maybe skip the fireworks? If only to save the Washington State Dept. of Natural Resources from losing the last shreds of their sanity.

futurebird, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago) to random

No one who claims that not voting is radical has ever given me an explanation of how it's supposed work.

The only benefit of not voting is that talking about it makes centrist liberals super annoyed, and although this is very amusing, it's still not really doing anything.

Worse? Whoever posted this meme isn't throwing any bricks at cop cars. (There is a good chance they aren't even leftists but rather right wingers who would find you having a criminal record very convenient.)

futurebird, 10 months ago to random

Have you ever encountered a shop run in such a chaotic, incompetent manner that it stops being annoying & instead starts to fascinate you? they have missed deadlines, mixed up orders, promised X will happen, it never does, instead Y happens but that’s also late— hours open are essentially random—service? random. You should just not go there but it’s like a slow motion train wreck! that is my pharmacy. At this point I think I’m their only customer and can’t bear to move and deal the death blow.

futurebird, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago) to random

In grade school did you learn the multiplication table through 10 or through 12?

I once had a student from Senegal who said his school made them learn through 15... I was a little jealous.

(I only learned through 10, but have picked up most of 11 and 12 slowly over time...I resent that I'll never know those as easily as the single digits. I wish I'd been forced to learn all the way to 20 tbh.)

futurebird, 7 months ago to random

What is the point even anymore? If it's not ad free why pay? (I guess they will have ad free if you pay more??)

Well I waste too much time watching stuff anyways. I got rid of youTube for this and others will follow. Not paying OR watching unless I can avoid ads.

Ads are a huge and harmful force on my quality of life. I will go to great ends to avoid them. I also use blockers, naturally, but blockers aren't perfect. (YouTube still has "mid roll" ads even with the best.)

futurebird, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to random

People trying to train AIs are now complaining that all of the AI data on the internet are making it hard for them to get quality training sets of natural language and images.

bitter snickering

futurebird, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago) to random

In the carpark near the beach in CT I discovered a group of isopods up to no good.

The pill bugs had formed a pentagram of beach trash, mostly delicate bones of birds & fish. It was about the size of a quarter. They kept adjusting it and adding to it as I watched, horrified, yet fascinated.

I was so engrossed in the mysterious antics of the little woodlice that I didn't even notice the man who'd joined me watching, until he spoke.

"Amazing aren't they?" He said, his voice deep, but warm. 1/18

futurebird, 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago) to random

This thread is a microcosm of everything annoying about reddit.

Guy posts photo of a spider wondering if it is a "brown recluse" gets a bunch of different answers many repeats, several people calling him stupid for not 'just googling it' a few calls to burn down the house and move.

It's not a brown recluse. Even if it were they aren't aggressive. With a recluse it's fine to move them to a remote location with care.

This spider I would simply escort out the back door.

https://www.reddit.com/r/whatbugisthis/comments/13x2zgh/wife_thinks_all_spiders_are_brown_recluses_but_i/

futurebird, 8 months ago to random

I don't know who started it, but I keep hearing the word "cult" to describe Trump's most devoted followers. I think there are two issues with this:

1. It muddies the concept of what a real cult is. There are several cult-like features of MAGA. It could even be called a "cult of personality" -- but actual cults are a more narrow thing.

2. It might be a useful form of counterattack -- but "Christian Nationalist" is still more accurate, though probably less likely to land with general audiences.

futurebird, 9 months ago (edited 29 days ago) to random

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to remember an ant, a colony member, a sister and a worker: Daffodil the Eastern Black Carpenter Ant. Daffodil loved to explore, she loved to escape and that's how we first got to know her, and suspecting that the same ant was escaping over and over she was given her yellow colors and her name. #namedAnts

1/

futurebird, 8 months ago to random

Has anyone designed a "Gerrymander It!" board game or mobile game?

Although more people now recognize what a powerful force districting can be in politics, to really get viscerally angry about it helps if you've tried doing it.

It might work best as a mobile game where you'd draw the map with a time limit then an election would run (with some random variation) and you'd see if you won.

futurebird, 10 months ago to random

I don’t want to subscribe to music— because I really really need my music— and in a dark hour when the bills can’t be paid I can’t bear to think there will be no music— a poverty so severe it snatches joy from the air.

That’s all your offer of a “subscription to music” is to me —in this precarious hellscape. I have savings yeah, but even better? I have mp3s and cassette tapes and my voice for what it’s worth. I’m hoarding songs for the coming drought.

futurebird, 11 months ago to random

When these physics people say "and then we just sent out one particle at a time through the slits..."

How do they know that they did that and how did they do it?

futurebird, 6 months ago (edited 6 months ago) to random

To you what is boundary of "obscene wealth" ? This is wealth, value of real estate, stocks and bank balances total.

futurebird, 3 months ago to random

The books of the Bible(s) would be extremely challenging ancient texts in the best of circumstances— without complications, or such high stakes they would be very hard to read, even for serious scholars— So, this idea that you can just “go read the Bible” and find wisdom is frankly buck wild and dangerous. I was brought up constantly being told that I should “study the Bible” but of course I didn’t. I don’t think the people who tell you “read the Bible” really expect you to do it. 1/

futurebird, 8 months ago to random

PragerU has "Evolution Skeptical" content now? Hooo boy.

Thus far, PragerU, which is not a university but rather a propaganda producer, has steered clear of evolution -- not because they don't want to, I'd suspect, it's just it's still considered more "out there" than saying Fredrick Douglas was an incrementalist or that slavery had benefits...

But, we all have known this is where they have been going.

And this is approved for use in FL public schools?

1/

futurebird, 10 months ago to random

There was a secret feature of the bed of Odysseus & Penelope. Penelope used it to guard against random men who kept showing up pretending to be her long absent husband.

One bedpost was a living olive tree. So, Penelope would make some remark about 'moving the bed to a new room--' and when the latest rando who had shown up didn't act surprised she knew he was phoney.

This idea of a bed with a "living bed post" haunts me daily.

How did it interface with the tesserae of their bedroom floor?

futurebird, 10 months ago to random

Reddit has many subs where people post photos and users rate them 1-10 on attractiveness. Pretty shallow but whatever. r/TrueRateMe takes this to the next level, if you don't follow their "objective" rules about beauty and "over-rate" more than 2 women you get permabanned.

That's correct, you must conform your ideas to the formula!

What the point of all this is? Beyond me.

Yeah... reddit didn't need this attention at this moment. Being in my 40s I can find this amusing HOWEVER--

Screen cap of users rating the red-head One says 7.7 and is banned for "over rating" another says 9 and is also banned OMG... I guess her elbows were too pointy.

futurebird, 7 months ago to random

Corrections posted to social media never have quite the same reach as the original.

A correction isn't likely to be shocking, or salacious. Who cares if "He didn't have an affair" or "common trusted thing isn't secretly plotting to kill you." ?

What if on the fedi we can be different? Make "correction boost" part of the culture here?

A tag the original post. Make a new post with the correction. And we make an effort to make corrections go big?

#correctionBoost

futurebird, 1 year ago to random

During the lockdown days one of my happy discoveries were old natural history books filled with nonsense. Sometimes well-meaning factual errors, at other times sensationalism. ("The army ants of South America can clean the bones of a living calf to a polish in but a few hours!")

I ran in to this book plate being sold on etsy and it has the feeling of "old natural history book nonsense."

But it could also be a displaced colony, perhaps by flood waters, with the callow workers in the center?