@futurebird@sauropods.win
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

futurebird

@futurebird@sauropods.win

pro-ant propaganda, building electronics, writing sci-fi teaching mathematics & CS. I live in NYC.

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inquiline, to random
@inquiline@union.place avatar

"“Smart streetlights” — a network of pole-mounted artificial intelligence-powered cameras and microphones — are not just a tool. They do not even provide light. They comprise an infrastructure that, once in place, makes pervasive and dystopian surveillance just a system upgrade away."

Nice op-ed, @gleemie!

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/community-voices-project/story/2023-04-27/opinion-smart-streetlights-are-not-a-tool-they-lay-the-groundwork-for-automated-mass-surveillance-cvp-irani

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@inquiline @gleemie

I made a video about a similar development here in NYC:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIQQGL0qS3U

amagire, to random

look at my cat

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@amagire

Precious long-faced dofus. I love this kind.

siegeavecvue, to random
@siegeavecvue@rail.chat avatar

The International to has lovely comfy seats in the @diningcar. I celebrated my final journey on a train with a proper plates with an extravagant proper glass of wine. I wanted sparkling, but they didn't have any so the nice lady gave me a bottle of white and a bottle of sparkling water as a compromise. Can recommend vegan chili sin carne. Also got (think she fancied the puppet)

Puppet, chili sin carne, wine, dining car.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@siegeavecvue @diningcar

Now that's what I call some civilization.

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

OK here is the die that I'd like to see: A D100...

But weighed to be normally distributed around 50.

I wonder if that's even possible?

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@derwinmcgeary

I need to think about this. You can get a normal distribution (roughly) by rolling more dice depending on what the most common sum would be.

Would that be 25D4?

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@derwinmcgeary

There are D10s with 0 on them so maybe 10D10 is the best bet for a roughly normal distribution at 50... using "normal" dice

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I'm mad. Someone showed me this link:

https://www.mathartfun.com/

And now I'm broke. 😡

But, I have to do some research (playing with toys) to figure out this lesson idea I have that involves various weighted dice-- and they have a lot of really fun dice. Well, if I like this lesson idea I'll make the school buy me the next batch. Purchase orders are such a drag.

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Can we please just have a week. A single seven day week in this country without anyone going out and shooting a bunch of people? Please. Just seven days. Just so we can all ... process.

Can we just have a goddamed break?

I feel like its "too much" to ask for it to just stop forever. It shouldn't be. But... what about just one week?

futurebird, (edited ) to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

29: Achilles heel

Alex is an activist, a revolutionary, a human champion of the rights of robots. Formidable, organized, and determined, but terrible at accepting help. Ironic for a man at the heart of so many mutual aid networks, a man who believes in the power of cooperation.

When a risk must be taken he is too quick to be the hero, to keep the people he loves safe from harm.

There is little he fears more than failing them by letting such harm ever happen.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Mrs. Madeline is a hacker, a teacher and a tinker. In another age, in another time she would have been the local witch or wizard. Capable with electronics and at home in her lab she makes magic happen. She is excited by challenging and dangerous problems (often a little oblivious to the 'dangerous' part) trusting in her knowledge of science she is cavalier about altering her body, and the bodies of others. The failed experiments do not linger as much as they ought on her conscience.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Kira is an archeologist, eternal grad student and explorer of the many lost buildings of old New York buried under the sands. She is drawn to that dead old world of optimism and domed cities under a more friendly sun. She is aware that she is lucky to be a scholar, privileged to work in the exclusive and deadly over-world. But she romanticizes the powerful more than is wise, leading her to feel needlessly unworthy and out of place among the callous, wealthy immortals who dominate her world.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Ian just wants to be a real boy. He knows he has a problem, an obsession with becoming more human that isn't a fitting for a robot (and that irritates his husband to no end.) He has spent fortunes on upgrades, heated silicone skin, cultured hair (that really grows!) natural motion classes- anything to make him feel more... real.

He's very lucky to have found someone he really loves and who loves him back, but runs the risk of his obsession getting in the way of the most human thing about him.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Tanisha is the younger of Alex's two daughters. At 11 she is intellectually precocious and very similar to her father. Ever since he was imprisoned by the government in a secret location somewhere in the city she feels like she's the only one who is trying to save him, (with the help of Mrs. Madeline) -- Tanisha has no reservations about breaking rules or doing whatever it might take to get her father back, but she may be too young to fully understand just how dangerous her mission might be.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Gabriel is Tanisha's older sister, the child from her mom's first marriage. Her biological father left mom to become a pastor at one of the new churches attended increasingly by the robots. She hates religion, and never really thought of Alex as her real dad. This was not for want of Alex trying. It was just that his attempts to get Gabriel to like him came across as overly flashy and pushy. Buying her things, taking her places.

Gabriel only really cares about one thing: and that's Japan. 1/2

futurebird, (edited )
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Gabriel reads everything she can about Japan, she styles her NYC school uniform to be more like a Japanese school uniform. To Gabby America in general (and NYC in particular) is hopelessly ugly and inelegant. Even the little things, like the design of milk cartons irritate her. Alex made the mistake of making fun of her obsession (it is a bit odd for a little black girl from deepest brooklyn level 4 to be so caught up in a place she will probably never see)

2/

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Gabby has a talent with machines -- a kind of natural mechanical insight that has made Mrs. Madeline obsessed with recruiting her into her hacker's collective. Gabby wants nothing to do with revolutions, or robot rights, or collectives... she just wants to find a way to escape into the world she sees in the manga and old TV shows from that place called "Japan." 3/3

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I know it's hard to believe but I mostly keep this account to try to get people to watch my ant videos. (why I want people to watch ant videos is a question I can't really fathom...) I made a really good new video today with a time lapse that shows how heat sensitive Camponotus discolor are. They move their pupae constantly to maintain ideal development conditions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNwqwxhai_4

#antvideo #withnarration #camponotusdiscolor #camponotus #insects #entomology #ants #antsOfMastodon

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@edraac

foranto's formicaria are top notch.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@sinvega

https://sauropods.win/tags/antvideo

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@kctipton

Yes I have ants on hand at all times.

(they are my pets)

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@kctipton

I mean don't you? Doesn't everyone?

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@kctipton

Show her this. It can be very romantic.

https://sauropods.win/@futurebird/110272172054945841

Gotterdammerung, to random
@Gotterdammerung@glitch.social avatar

4/29
In the universe of Pantheon, Kaeli is not without her flaws. Her Achilles hell, the singular vulnerability that often trips her up, is her struggle with amnesia.

Amnesia not only deprives Kaeli of her memories, but it also disconnects her from her past, making her feel isolated & uncertain about her identity. This often causes her to question her purpose, her allegiances, and her role in the grand scheme of things.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@Gotterdammerung

divine exploitation... is that exploitation by the gods... or is it exploitation of the gods?

flexghost, to random
@flexghost@mastodon.social avatar

At least 5 or dead in Texas from another mass shooting

Another man with an A.R. 15 style rifle

He shot the victims execution style. Victims range from 8 to 40 years of age

Why?

Someone asked the murderer to be quiet because a baby was sleeping

So far in 2023
There have been 13,716 gun violence deaths
174 mass shootings
568 children under 18 murdered

It’s the guns.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@flexghost

I can't keep up anymore. I just can't keep up. I want to open my heart and reflect when these things happen. I want to process it like I think we all do. But I feel like I'm being pelted by rain and then pelted by hail. I can't keep up anymore.

😢

futurebird, (edited ) to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Caution. Very violent video. A vicious yellow hoard of baby dinosaurs mob a kitten. Then some sort of round mammals join in. Watch with caution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyfx9FwmHMY

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@josephwelch

It's so cute I think it might not even be legal for something to be THIS cute. It's out of control.

twizzt, to random
@twizzt@sauropods.win avatar

Its still right? I've gotten pics of some less common flies recently, but this Picture window fly (Delphinia picta) turned out nicely.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@twizzt

I keep thinking this is a photo of an ant... then I have flashbacks to that Dr. Who episode where the gas masks come out of people's faces...😱

(but seriously, excellent photo!)

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