futurebird

futurebird, 4 days ago (edited 4 days ago) to random

The bald eagle could have easily gone extinct. But we did all sorts of "woke" things protecting it legally, ran conservation and study programs, banned DDT (that was good for other reasons too) and in 2007 they were removed from the endangered species list.

Likewise pine forests could be dead from acid rain.

The ozone could have a huge hole.

We CAN take care of nature when we want to. And the successes have been worth it.

I feel like we forget this, you know?

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

Trump has said FOUR times that he will withhold federal funding from schools that require vaccines. Not just COVID. ALL.

This is most schools. This is hitting me where I work. This will lead to children dead from measles. It's obvious, inevitable.

Someone on here said they just couldn't bear to vote for Biden to keep Trump from office since at least under Trump there were better masking rules.

I hope that person sees this.

Worse is worse.

edit: because I don't know measles from smallpox

futurebird, 12 days ago to random

Someone said it's important say this publicly in the US: so I will. (And I think each of us should, online and to friends)

This November I will vote for Biden.

I would regard not voting for Biden, particularly in: PA, OH, MI, WI, IN, IL,VA, GA, FL, AZ, ME, NC, NH, etc. as a huge error. I'd be disappointed to find out anyone I knew didn't vote. It's one of a long list of things we need to do. We can't skip it.

And still? We deserve better choices, and in the future we shall have them.

futurebird, 24 days ago to random

A single-board command-line computer using the esp32. Look at it! It's cute. Can't buy it yet the creator is starting some kind of online commune for single-board computer freaks. I bet some of you are around here, go say hi at his forum it only has like two posts and its making me sad.

https://a.singleboard.computer/

futurebird, 3 days ago to random

E-bikes are very cool and I'm glad they are getting popular.

However.

There is a big difference between a crash at 12mph and one at 20mph.

Your ebike can give you injuries normally only found in motorcycle accidents. And there isn't enough advice on what constitutes sufficient maintenance for ebikes.

If you don't get balding tires fixed on a regular bike you could fall off and bruise or break a leg.

At ebike speeds that same fall will shatter your leg in dozens of pieces.

BE CAREFUL

futurebird, 13 days ago to random

Glen Kirshner is so fed up with 'judge' Cannon he's walking his viewers through how to file a judicial complaint. Click by click.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MXVfiTa3KM

futurebird, 8 days ago to random

yeah moss is great but how about a vascular plant that has basically ... gone back to the way of the moss...

Azorella compacta

It's... it's a carrot that has given up on having leaves...

Imagine a hostile planet with plants like this... could you tell that they once grew in less cold and arid climates? What if flora of the twilight days of a planet look like the earliest life... but when you look closer there are abilities, and structures that tell their history....

It looks exactly like a tuft of green moss.

futurebird, 12 days ago to random

Politicians and political commentators whine about young people not buying homes and starting families (not getting married) and then do NOTHING to help the young people (who do exist) who would love to do one or more of these things but can't because it's too damn expensive.

Build housing and coops where young people want to live. Protect their jobs with unions. Make health care not an issue.

Do not make some marriages impossible because you don't like the genders.

Not rocket science.

futurebird, 23 days ago to random

Over and over AI is being deployed as a way to avoid the high cost of human mental labor.

You'd rather have a bank of servers huffing clouds of carbon into the air than just paying some people to solve the design problem.

I know hiring programmers to work on UI isn't glamorous, and the work is slow, the results aren't flashy, but we just can't keep on skipping this step or wishing that some cocktail-shaker full of matrices and stolen data will paper over the issue.

futurebird, 5 days ago (edited 5 days ago) to random

I often brag on tumblr about how "on the fediverse I never have to ask people for image descriptions, why is tumblr so terrible at this?" etc.

But, I've made the mistake of re-sharing a few images without descriptions recently! I was lulled into thinking it was not a problem.

Just FYI I'm going to get strict again about not re-sharing undescribed images. (You should too, it keeps the feed readable.)

If you forget? If this is new? Don't feel bad, just stop doing that.

https://www.tumblr.com/aspirationatwork/750857131588304896

futurebird, 19 days ago to random

You might think this meme from the cat internet is about shaming the second cat for being lazy... but if you do? You don't really understand cats.

This is a celebration of cat progress. Posted as a brag mostly.

futurebird, 6 days ago to random

If it's a problem that a judges daughter works for Democrats it's a problem that a judge was appointed by the defendant.

futurebird, 19 days ago to random

"... averages 31 years, with the longest recorded lifespan reaching 51 years. This meter-sized beetle is native to Mexico and Central America, where it inhabits dry and arid environments...."

Meter sized?

METER SIZED?

I need to stop using google the first few results it shows for simple insect questions are always GPT garbage ... LORDY.

futurebird, 21 days ago to random

My current radical take that is driving the principal insane is the idea that to better educate our students about social media, online safety etc. we should have them set up and run their own social media on the school intranet.

And I get why. But, why do we just throw young people out into the wilds of the internet where they are surrounded by ads, creepy people, criminals etc.?

Part of why social media can be chaotic and destructive is because too many adults hope it just wont exist.

futurebird, 14 days ago to random

Its always remarkable to me to think about Descartes and Galileo being contemporaries: so we know how the former reacted when the latter was imprisoned:

“I inquired in Leiden and Amsterdam whether Galileo’s World System was available, … I was told that it had indeed been published but that all the copies had immediately been burnt at Rome, and that Galileo had been convicted and fined. I was so astonished at this that I almost decided to burn all my papers … .”

futurebird, 22 days ago to random

“Fluent Python” is an excellent example of a “good programming language book” — it’s not cluttered with “enterprise examples” it’s focused on how python works and goes into detail on edge cases. This lets one write code with real confidence that you know everything it’s doing. It is also written with the aim to justify why python is the way that it is. Which I need or I get irritated.

If you like python you should probably have a pdf or buy a copy.

Now which book on Java is analogous?

futurebird, 26 days ago to random

When people talk about the days of mass media in the form of the evening news, Dan Rather, everyone "on the same page" with wistful longing... I get why. The current landscape is chaotic.

But, that period of more centralized media left a lot of people out. It made certain perspectives impossible to contemplate.

Like during the early days of the Gulf War: the antiwar movement was invisible.

futurebird, 10 days ago to random

I've been reading some history books about Europe in the middle ages. The matter of the education of kings is incredibly interesting. It seemed nearly universally recognized that an excellent education is essential to a family holding on to power. And even in the controversies of the day (such as religion) children of the ruling class were exposed to a surprisingly wide range of ideas. Including those treated as heresy for the general population.

futurebird, 5 days ago to random

I don't know how my ancestors survived.

apex predator who could easily subdue and eat me in a tree

my brain: Kitty Cat! Little kitty cat! Let me hug it!

futurebird, 17 days ago (edited 17 days ago) to random

Tulip escaped again! She’s too smart! I caught her but she almost got taken by the house spider. She is home safe. I’m so glad she’s ok. This ant will be the death of me. Why do I have such bad sneaky little ants?? #namedAnts

futurebird, 20 days ago (edited 20 days ago) to random

Went to a bar called "The Penrose" the other day and was very annoyed and disappointed they didn't have non-repeating tiles in the bathroom. BOOOOO

(Why did I think they were pentagons? It's been awhile. )

futurebird, 24 days ago to random

I found this photo of a cat and it's one of the most cat cats I've ever seen and I wanted to show it to you.

Did you know that cats are real animals? Did you know you could live with a cat in your house and they really are like this:

https://www.tumblr.com/kaijuno/749103591667679232

futurebird, 26 days ago to random

It might be time for me to go on a news diet again. There are too many events that are beyond my control and influence and it's not effective to let such things be primary sources of worry.

Worrying about things you can't change.

Nothing I hear about the Supreme Court is calming or confidence inspiring. None of the news about the wars ... Where are the people in these events guided by something bigger than self interest, petty politics, where are the idealists?