@jeridansky@sfba.social
@jeridansky@sfba.social avatar

jeridansky

@jeridansky@sfba.social

Retired professional organizer (the clutter-clearing type); retired editor. Feminist. Cat owner. Jewish atheist. Yimby. Pro-union. Pro-vaccination, masking and ventilation/filtration. Owner/moderator of my local freecycle group.

Header photo: A large black Maine Coon cat looks at a computer screen.

#nobridge

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jeridansky, to Cats
@jeridansky@sfba.social avatar

Not great news for pet owners (or vets):
https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/vets-fret-private-equity-snaps-clinics-pet-care-companies

h/t @cybeardjm @nomdeb @xerophile

jeridansky, to random
@jeridansky@sfba.social avatar

@ai6yr Did you see this WaPo article on bees? https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/03/29/bees-boom-colony-collapse/ or
https://archive.fo/xEcJm

jeridansky, to climate
@jeridansky@sfba.social avatar

A fascinating look at a recent report detailing just how the water from the Colorado River gets used — and what needs to change.

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2024-03-28/alfalfa-hay-beef-water-colorado-river or https://archive.fo/GR61L

Reported by @ianjames

jeridansky, to ai
@jeridansky@sfba.social avatar

As someone who is extremely skeptical about most uses of AI — especially generative AI — I was glad to see this thoughtful approach to its potential use from @skinnylatte.

https://publicsectorai.netlify.app/about/

jeridansky, to ai
@jeridansky@sfba.social avatar

In yet another really bad suggested use of generative AI:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/boston-university-suggests-replacing-striking-grad-students-with-ai

h/t https://sfba.social/@inquiline@union.place @xerophile @dougiec3

jeridansky, to journalism
@jeridansky@sfba.social avatar

A big thanks to the Cleveland Plain Dealer and editor Chris Quinn:

"The facts involving Trump are crystal clear, and as news people, we cannot pretend otherwise, as unpopular as that might be with a segment of our readers. There aren’t two sides to facts. People who say the earth is flat don’t get space on our platforms. If that offends them, so be it."

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2024/03/our-trump-reporting-upsets-some-readers-but-there-arent-two-sides-to-facts-letter-from-the-editor.html

h/t @BenCisco
@msbellows

jeridansky, to LGBTQ
@jeridansky@sfba.social avatar

"Almost half of those who indicated that they are now religiously unaffiliated — nearly a fifth of the country — say their former religion’s hostility to LGBTQ+ Americans played a role."

Gift article:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/27/religion-polling-lgbtq-views/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzExNTk4NDAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzEyOTgwNzk5LCJpYXQiOjE3MTE1OTg0MDAsImp0aSI6ImU0Y2NhNTFmLTMzNWQtNDFlYS04YmQyLTMwOTQyNjhhY2RiNyIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9wb2xpdGljcy8yMDI0LzAzLzI3L3JlbGlnaW9uLXBvbGxpbmctbGdidHEtdmlld3MvIn0.OubvJ399iQd1e7tPTVncgm_Lb5DxGNHNvucNQfzR0s4

h/t @wdlindsy

jeridansky, to journalism
@jeridansky@sfba.social avatar

The sorry state of news reporting in Richmond, California:

"Chevron is the city's largest employer, largest taxpayer and largest polluter. Yet when it comes to writing about Chevron, The Richmond Standard consistently toes the company line.

"And there's a reason for that: Chevron owns The Richmond Standard."

https://www.npr.org/2024/03/28/1239650727/chevron-fossil-fuel-richmond-standard-california-news

h/t @verdantsquare

jeridansky, to california
@jeridansky@sfba.social avatar

Every vote matters!

I'm in California's Congressional District 16. From the primary, the two candidates in contention for the second spot on the general election ballot are only 5 votes apart: 30, 238 to 30, 233.

As of yesterday, there were 1,225 challenged ballots, per @draNgNon. As @dsacer wrote back on March 16, "This one is likely to come down to which campaign can convince voters with signature mismatches to cure their ballots."

https://pp.electionresults.sos.ca.gov/returns/us-rep/district/16

jeridansky, to random
@jeridansky@sfba.social avatar

Went to Youtube to watch a video, and the combination of ad and video title seemed perfect to me.

Video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xWXRk3yaSw
(h/t Today in Tabs from @fka_tabs for getting me to watch the review.)

jeridansky,
@jeridansky@sfba.social avatar

@ai6yr Oh yeah — this video was published mid-February, before Fisker's recent horrible financial news. https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/fisker-stock-price-implodes-delisted-from-nyse-after-ev-failures-2024-3

jeridansky, to ethelcain
@jeridansky@sfba.social avatar

Some good, encouraging election news out of Alabama. Unsurprisingly, running on “protecting abortion and IVF access” seems to be a winning strategy.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/democrat-marilyn-lands-wins-alabama-special-election-ivf-abortion-righ-rcna145210

h/t @steter @joeinwynnewood

gulovsen, to random
@gulovsen@mastodon.social avatar

I had to violate my self-imposed refusal to play with any LLMs so I could understand what one of my client's issues was (re prompt injections) and I swear to god it was like talking to Jon Lovitz as Tommy Flanagan. It just makes shit up and then when you point it out it apologizes and makes more shit up. Why is this supposed to be good exactly?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV85E2S-Idw

jeridansky,
@jeridansky@sfba.social avatar

@gulovsen My sympathies. I have yet to violate my own self-imposed refusal to have anything to do with any generative AI. And I fail to understand why folks are so taken with this stuff.

jeridansky, to ai
@jeridansky@sfba.social avatar

So many people in my timeline recommended Ed Zitron’s extremely skeptical look at AI — and they were right. It’s a terrific piece!

Lots of good bits to quote, but I'll pick this one: "Sam Altman desperately needs you to believe that generative AI will be essential, inevitable & intractable, because if you don't, you'll suddenly realize that trillions of dollars of market capitalization & revenue are being blown on something remarkably mediocre."

https://www.wheresyoured.at/peakai/

jeridansky, to animals
@jeridansky@sfba.social avatar

For here's Pixie, the cocker spaniel I had as a little kid. (I didn't get into cats until college.) Photo is from 1957!

jeridansky, to random
@jeridansky@sfba.social avatar

Happy Nowruz (Iranian New Year) to all who celebrate! This display was at my periodontist's office today.

jeridansky, to animals
@jeridansky@sfba.social avatar

Tennessee looking a bit startled on this .

jeridansky, to mastodon
@jeridansky@sfba.social avatar

Fellow members of sfba.social: I’m thrilled to see we’re in the top 50 instances for use of alt text!

However, we're just at 37% — can we please all work to get that number up, as a courtesy to those who are visually impaired? If you don’t have the spoons to add alt text yourself, just include in your post and someone is likely to help.

https://mastodon.social/@AltTextHealthCheck/112116636537896313

jeridansky,
@jeridansky@sfba.social avatar

@sysop408 @deirdrebeth

A few top sites & their active users:
unfafadoo.net: 99
dresden.network: 707
tech.lgbt: 3.6K
chaos.social: 6.2K

Looking at reporting on multiple days:

Those smaller ones don't show at all some days; they may not have posted enough images to be included in the rankings, or their alt text performance just varies a lot.

But tech.lgbt & chaos.social always rank well; they do seem to have established a norm. Chaos.social has a rule about providing image descriptions.

jeridansky, to california
@jeridansky@sfba.social avatar

Californians: Did you know we still have language from 2008’s Prop 8 in our constitution, defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman? This could come back to bite us if Obergefell is ever overturned by the Supreme Court.

Let’s vote in November to get this out of our constitution!
https://ballotpedia.org/California_Right_to_Marry_and_Repeal_Proposition_8_Amendment_(2024)

h/t @yazad3 @xerophile @lakelady @dougiec3 @gretared @mcnado @fraying @stevesilberman @Barbramon1 @ewen @lisamelton

jeridansky, to ai
@jeridansky@sfba.social avatar

Dear Apple: I don’t want any generative AI features on my iPhone. If you insist in going down this path, at least give me an option to turn all this junk off.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/apple-talks-let-googles-gemini-power-iphone-ai-features-bloomberg-news-says-2024-03-18/

ai6yr, (edited ) to random

Thinking the next big climate resilience project at the house (once I get it put back together) is installing heat reflecting film on the windows that were not replaced. Not sure why I didn't do this earlier. 🤔

jeridansky,
@jeridansky@sfba.social avatar

@ai6yr What product are you planning to use for this? It's something I'm considering for the windows that get intense afternoon sun. I currently put up Reflectix on the hottest days but a more permanent answer might be nice.

lisamelton, to random
@lisamelton@mastodon.social avatar

I always use the advanced Web interface for Mastodon to do my "boosting thang" efficiently.

Normally I don't comment on the software. But a sudden change to the Notifications tab in the v4.3.0-nightly.2024-03-18 build is really pissing me off.

I can now only choose between viewing "All" and "Mentions." Gone is the ability to easily filter by notification type in the column header.

WTF?!? This is a hostile UI simplification. Please revert this. Thank you.

/cc @Gargron

jeridansky,
@jeridansky@sfba.social avatar

@renchap Making this an option in settings seems like a great way to meet the needs of both the majority and those who need something more.

jeridansky,
@jeridansky@sfba.social avatar

@expert @lisamelton Lisa already explained why Elk doesn't work for her specific needs.
https://mastodon.social/@lisamelton/112141728182346628

(And this isn't my issue; I don't even use the advanced web interface. I just want things to work for Lisa and any others who need the same functionality.)

jeridansky, to vancouver
@jeridansky@sfba.social avatar

Cool story about high-rise apartment buildings being built in Vancouver on land owned by the Squamish First Nation — a project spearheaded by the Squamish Nation itself.

"Predictably, not everyone has been happy about it." And that's partly because some people have an attitude that "can cast Indigenous people in the role of glorified park rangers."

https://macleans.ca/society/sen̓aḵw-vancouver/
h/t @rechelon

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