futurebird

futurebird, 9 months ago to random

This is the 3rd time I've seen someone who makes YouTube videos go mad trying to second guess "the algorithm."

YouTube provides creators with a firehose of data: How long people watch, when they stop watching, the distribution of views.

YouTube also sometimes selects videos using a secret, unknowable algorithm to be "promoted." For small and medium creators this is a huge deal and the difference between 500 views and 500,000.

For self-critical analytical minds it's a toxic combination. 1/

futurebird, 9 months ago to random

USPS just dropped some sick new stamps I know all you nerds will love. (They are forever stamps so you can put them on your bills and cards and mean letters to Clarence Thomas for the next six years or whatever. )

"Life Magnified" features wonders of the microscopic world. (Sorry for the $14 hit to your bank account.)

https://store.usps.com/store/product/buy-stamps/life-magnified-stamps-S_484004

futurebird, 7 months ago to random

Do you ever think about abandoned tech trees? Like how no one is working to design better drafting compasses or vellum? No one is perfecting vacuum tubes. No one is laser focused on methods to speed paint and accurate portrait by hand to send out for marriage proposals.

Technological leaps make entire areas of research pointless— but

What if just a bit further down the line on the old tech tree there was some bigger breakthrough we’ll never see? I think about this A LOT.

futurebird, 3 months ago to random

Pools.

Public pools.

Because you need to undress to swim, because you and your family are there ... in less clothing. They've always been used as cultural flash points by right wingers. Their playbook is so old and there is never anything new.

What if black people... in THE POOL.
What if trans gender in THE POOL.

(Tim Pool, probably also.)

I'm so tired of the same nonsense in a different swimsuit. OMG get new material you absolute HACKS.

futurebird, 10 months ago to random

"so ahh- ha ha-- yeah. I know I have a bit of a bad reputation among you insect-folk but um... I kinda need a little help with pollination now? So. If some of you bees, or flies... or even ants could just stop by, help out..."

👉🏿 👈🏿 🥺

futurebird, 9 months ago to twitter

"By all objective metrics X is a much healthier and safer platform than it was a year ago."
-Linda Yaccarino, CEO of the Company Formerly Known as Twitter

She didn't even crack a hint of a smile. Just... said this like it was real.

Babe, I hope you are getting your pay upfront for this gig because it might be hard to find work after telling lies like this with a dead-serious face. #twitter #yaccarino #ElonMusk

futurebird, 2 months ago to random

A “children’s book” about a cop who points his gun at everything because that’s the only thing he knows how to do.

“Hello” said the hungry caterpillar. The police man pointed his gun at the caterpillar. The caterpillar squeaked and ran away. “I guess he won’t be my friend either” said the policeman sadly. He holstered his gun and walked further down the road still feeling so very alone.

futurebird, 4 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, 2 months ago to random

Bullying isn't a "normal part of growing up" if a child is being bullied physically that is a failure of the school to protect them and a failure to create a safe learning environment.

Psychological bullying is equally as serious but can be harder to identify. But if a child/teen comes home from school upset repeatedly. If they say they don't want to go to school. If they alter their behavior to avoid persecution this is also a failure.

This feels obvious and basic but I'm saying it anyway.

futurebird, 6 months ago to random

It can be frustrating to read the way that people who are unaware of all of the things that “police presence” will do to a neighborhood write about police abolition— even when they are making an effort to understand they still regard police as something that, if removed, would need to be replaced. After all? who will stop the criminals? Who will keep the neighborhood from descending into chaos?

What they fail to understand is that the police are the chaos. 1/

futurebird, 6 months ago to random

So uh... is YouTube really gonna start tagging videos that use AI so I can block 'em all somehow? The experience of seeing a video on an obscure topic that I care about then two sentences in realizing it's a computer voice reading GPT garble-warble is getting old.

Much like with art... part of what I'm interested in isn't just the content, it's the person who cared about it enough to make a video. I want to hear their voice and see how they see the topic. That's the whole point.

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

It's happened again. Ajike Owens was shot through the closed locked door when she went to ask about an ipad that her neighbor, a 58 year-old white woman named Susan, refused to return.

Susan has not be arrested or charged as the police wonder if "stand your ground" applies.

The local sherif described the neighbors as "in a feud." Ajike's family were taken aback by this and they are very frustrated and hurt.

When Ajike was shot her son was standing right beside her.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/06/florida-black-mother-fatally-shot-ajike-aj-owens

futurebird, 5 months ago to random

You may have heard about the hate crime where three Palestinian students were shot in Burlington, Vt., last week.

Hisham Awartani has been paralyzed from the chest down.

Here is a fund for his care:
https://gofund.me/d2d08c99

And an article that also links to the fund and explains what happened:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/palestinian-american-student-shot-vermont-paralyzed-chest-rcna127803

futurebird, 5 months ago to random

Ever wonder what ants sound like? Like many other arthropods ants use their exoskeleton as a resonant instrument. Ant sounds are used to communicate along with pheromones and antennae taps. This album by Kauai Shen is all ant sounds! (I really want to meet Kauai, anyone know him?) he is excited about parallels between vinyl records & stridulating exoskeletons.

https://kuaishen.bandcamp.com/album/stridulation-amplified-compositions-with-the-stridulatory-organ-of-atta-cephalotes

futurebird, 4 months ago to random

What is it like for people who are migrating to the fedi today ?

Are there still tools that help link old accounts and find followers?

I'm helping a friend move over, and it occurs to me that if the "find followers" tools are mostly hard to use or broken it might be very hard to get ensconced.

If you have a decent sized account here I think it helps to introduce new people, if you know them and have some overlap with their social circle.

futurebird, 3 months ago to random

They are coming for IVF too. Always were.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/02/20/alabama-supreme-court-frozen-embryos-ruling-ivf/72662533007/

futurebird, 6 months ago to random

(via: https://www.tumblr.com/corner-moth/734495374626177024 )

She is perfect.

futurebird, 7 months ago to random

One more thing about the NYC flooding. It's all over now. It's been over for hours. The water drains away. There is somewhere for it to go it just can't get there fast enough and gets backed up in bad places.

This is why the answer is simple:

1. Reduce hard surfaces, have more green spaces that drain slowly.
2. Surface some of the natural brooks and streams. Then they can expand massively in heavy rain fall.
3. Seriously get rid of some of the parking lots, green more roofs.

We can do this.

futurebird, 1 year ago to random

The #MTA is off twitter! If you live in NYC or use the service

(including metroNorth, CT friends!)

Please contact the MTA and let them know they would be more than welcome on the fediverse. They could probably have their own instance "@mta.info" just the way it ought to be.

I hope they come here. #nyc #transit #metronorth #lirr

futurebird, 8 months ago to random

I don't know what point the cartoonist was trying to make with this one. But whatever it was.

We Stan the Solidarity Pixie.

(Don't forget to update the shared spreadsheet with everyone's salary and put it under your pillow tonight that you may wake to additional paid sick days.)

futurebird, 10 months ago to random

On tumblr everyone was livid about this fake photo of a "baby peacock" -- it captured many of the things that worry people about AI art-- the tendency to fill in what people expect, not what is true. The stereotyping, and reversion to archetype. The lost nuance.

But, because of this photo I got to learn that real baby male peacocks "practice" with little tufts of display feathers. Look at these lil boys!

Real baby peacocks "practice" their struts. They have brown feathers and are very small and drab but also cute and doing their best.
image/png

futurebird, 2 months ago to random

Thomas Hawley Tuberville clearly had no idea what IVF was in an interview. Assumed it was some kind of birth control (IUD) or abortion. He just doesn't care about these issues enough to follow them. He doesn't have a womb, and his wife did all that woman stuff so he could have two sons. Why should he know?

Some of you might want to try to tell me he couldn't possibly be in the SENATE & be this uninformed & uninterested.

I want to think that too. But let's be honest about what we are seeing.

futurebird, 2 months ago to random

"This species is renowned for its large size... up to 15 millimeters in length."

Lies. These ants are known as "mini rubies" because they are small for carpenter ants.

"striking coloration, with a combination of black and metallic blue or green hues,"

WTF utter nonsense!

"prefer nesting in..rainforests and mangroves"

NO.

I just encountered a "species description"and I think it's AI generated. I think they did this so they'd have one for every species.

I'm so LIVID. This is GARBAGE.

futurebird, 2 months ago to random

The police showed up and pointed a gun at the man on fire.

futurebird, 1 month ago to random

The same people who want "parents rights" that let some random mom get books pulled from a library her homeschooled kid never even visits also want to roll back laws that require parents to be notified if teens are working in a chicken plant.

It's never about saving the kids. Not even a little.