futurebird

futurebird, 10 months ago (edited 9 months ago) to random

1/5 black people in Florida have been convicted of "a felony"-- (we should talk about how this alone is absurd.)

At one time having a felony on your record would make you ineligible to vote.

The people of Florida passed a law saying that felons who served their time could vote.

Ron DeSantis decided if there were any unpaid fines, they could be sent to prison for voting. It's hard to find out if you have any unpaid fines.

This is just Jim Crow all over again.

futurebird, 1 month ago to random

(via: https://www.tumblr.com/dont-fuckle-with-the-shuckle/747014658588917760?source=share)

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, 8 months ago to math

I don't understand how lace is made, but looking at the #bobbins and pins and patterns ... listen buddy I know math when I see it. This is A #Math Thing. Obviously.

Right away I want to know: Can I encode information in lace?

How much of an expert must one be to make your own patterns?

What about the creation of surfaces?

#Knitting is more accessible, and people have been exploring math with knitting forever.

But what possibilities does lace offer?

What is the theory of lace?

tatted lace spheres, the threads are starched, these delicate baubles have been used as Christmas ornaments.
More lace ribbons, a simple pattern that contains periodic distortions to the regular grid.
An excerpt from Mathematics Magazine Vol. 91, No. 4 (October 2018), pp. 307-309 Shows I'm hardly the first person to muse about this. Need to get my hands on the rest of this article, obviously. Q: When did it first occur to you that there might be some interesting math behind the lace-making process? VI: It really started when I discovered bobbin lace in my mid-20s. Bobbin lace is complicated, but very logical. It is kind of like doing a Sudoku puzzle. Here, the puzzle is to figure out what threads to braid together and in what order, to find a successful path through the pattern. Q: What does success mean in this context? Does it mean producing a piece that’s aesthetically pleasing or something else? VI: Unlike a pattern for knitting or crochet, a bobbin lace pattern is not expressed as a linear sequence of written steps. A bobbin lace pattern is typically a diagram. There are many possible ways different threads can come together and most of those are not successful, meaning you could end up with too many threads in one area and not Math. Mag. 91 (2018) 307-309. doi : 10. 1080/0025570X . 2018. 1503465 © Mathematical Association of America MSC: Primary 01A70 Allison Henrich (MR Author ID: 900050) Color versionsof one ormore of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/umma.

futurebird, 5 months ago to random

Dare. To. Dream. Big.

(Via thecuriousurbanist and amtrak Official tumblr https://www.tumblr.com/futurebird/735017224980594688/image-description-this-would-literally-destroy?source=share)

futurebird, 1 year ago to random

Something came in the mail today. I can only draw one conclusion.

it is very sharp
pica

futurebird, 9 months ago to random

In many parts of the US there is no where teens can hang out without spending money. My South Bronx neighborhood probably beats many cities, suburbs and small towns. (we have a skate park, and a larger park with benches-- though could use more options, for example a nicer library for kids who don't like noise)

In some towns libraries ban "teens congregating" playgrounds are out of bounds & groups of teens get the cops called on them.

This is the real reason young people don't go out anymore.

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 month ago to random

Trump is upset he may miss his son's graduation because he's on trial.

Yeah, we do treat people in the criminal justice system harshly. People you have never thought about, people who have kids, and graduations, and moments missed forever.

But it's different now. He cries. It's happening to ME. To Me!

Nothing, no one, exists beyond the tip of some people's noses. They cannot see pain unless they feel it. Cannot recognize suffering unless it's their own.

What a stunted perspective.

futurebird, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to random

Those who keep the peace often go unrecognized for their wisdom, their patience, even in the face of...

"whop b't't't't'rooo whoo! nyh nyh nyh nyh nyh"

I cannot stress this enough: sound on

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drZb5oi7xuQ

A dove taunts a sleeping cat, who wakes up and play bites the dove from time to time, but the torture continues.

futurebird, 7 months ago to random

The most unfair thing in the world is that I can't just hug him.

He doesn't even sting. He's just... too tiny to hug.

futurebird, 11 months ago to random

"cis is a slur" is some next level, roided-up ultra-erasure.

It's also very Newspeak. Double plus Newspeak. Delete the language that describes the concept to delete the concept.

It's funny, but it's also very very bad. Pure eliminationism.

futurebird, 6 months ago to random

Tell-tale droppings that are a sign of EE or CS infestation.

futurebird, 7 months ago to random

Elon’s tweet disparaging the need to support the Wikipedia has stuck with me. How could anyone, even a creepy libertarian who hates government find fault with wikipedia? The wikipedia is an independent not for profit corporation. It’s the way the libertarians always assure us public goods can still exist even in their fantasy futures. And in this limited area the wikipedia largely works. A backbone for the web of human knowledge. But somehow even this is still objectionable.

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, 7 months ago to random

October 4, 2023 - Celtic fans unfurl an enormous antifascist banner while singing a variation of Bella Ciao at the start of the game against SS Lazio in Glasgow.

And to think in the US we let the phrase "antifa" ride a current of ambiguity and menace.

With the literal "fa" right in our faces.

(https://www.tumblr.com/blackcat-brazil/730474494583537664?source=share)

A closer view.

futurebird, 11 months ago to random

The idea that LLM fiction could suffice for entertainment or that LLM written news articles (which would require much more guidance than the fiction, assuming we want to produce, well, mostly true news) could make do for your daily check in on what’s happening in the world— is disturbing since it assumes nothing will ever be created or happen that goes beyond the basic established categories for stories as we know them. It’s fundamentally conservative.

futurebird, 3 months ago to random

What is Tucker talking about? No one in NYC is "scared to ride the subway"

The worst thing about the subway is the ADA wasn't funded so there aren't elevators at every station.

Do people not in NYC really think it's still the early 80s in NYC? WTF.

futurebird, 8 months ago (edited 8 months ago) to random

They let New Zealand and Hawaii design the view of earth for the official flag.

(But also I look at this a lot and think about my ambition to sail across it. Radar, satellite phone, all the tech or not... that is a lot of big angry water.)

(But also... can you really claim to know the earth if you don't know anything about all of this?)

futurebird, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to random

American life expectancy is lower than that of Cuba, Lebanon, and Czechia (edited as I confused Czechia with Chechnya, beat me with a sack of holtmash dumplings I guess)

The gap is drawn starkly along lines of class, wealth, race. The second graph is so stark and horrifying I thought it was fake at first, but I found the source and I'm starting to think it's real.

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/accounting-for-the-widening-mortality-gap-between-american-adults-with-and-without-a-ba/

https://alaskapublic.org/2023/03/27/live-free-and-die-the-sad-state-of-u-s-life-expectancy/

futurebird, 6 months ago to random

Do not argue with someone online who says stuff like "I don't think I can vote for Biden because of ..." left wing thing.

1. They aren't saying it for you.

2. If they know enough to be informed about a particular left wing issue they know the bigger stuff too.

3. If they really are so turned off they don't want to vote dem ... yelling won't budge them.

Instead look up that cousin you have not called for years, call & ask if they are registered. Are they doing any drives in their area?

futurebird, 8 months ago to random

No. No I can't explain why I need it ... or what I want to do with it. But... why do you care anyways!?

I need this!
I don't need to explain!

futurebird, 4 months ago to random

A 12 percent drop in the US murder rate is wild. And I say that as someone who has been spitting stats and rolling my eyes at people who say "crime has gotten so bad..."

It hasn't been "bad" by any real metric since the late 90s and even when it was "bad" if you're middle class (and not at risk of domestic violence*) you have zero things to worry about even in 1989.

*domestic violence improved for a few decades but then stalled. But, when people fret about crime this isn't what they mean.

futurebird, 4 months ago to random

It used to be if racists wanted to blame something on black people they'd need at least... you know a particular black person, a scapegoat, or whatever. Like "This is Janet the black lady who put the plane door on backwards." Or whatever... And then they'd go off.

But now it's just ... the possibility of black people that has them in a tizzy.

Theoretical abstract black people who literally aren't even there.

wtf.

futurebird, 8 months ago to random

pea frogs in a pod

pea frogs hop
pea frogs hold
green pea frogs in a leaf
tucked into a fold

American Green Tree Frogs (Dryophytes cinereus), family Hylidae, New Orleans, LA, USA

photograph via: Harold's Plants