@zdl@mastodon.online
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

zdl

@zdl@mastodon.online

Half-German, Half-Chinese, Half-Canadian, all-bad at math, currently living to her consternation in the People's Republic of China.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

GrimmReality, (edited ) to random
@GrimmReality@beige.party avatar

GRADS, CONGRATS, and if you are the Indiana University student who put this on your mortar board for your ceremony, please DM me so that we may figure out a way for me to buy you every last beer or cocktail you would like to consume to properly celebrate your graduation.

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@ErgonWolf @GrimmReality I'm aware of this. This is what we call, in English, "a joke".

"In the place of a parent" becomes "in the place of abusive parents".

See how the joke unfolds? The university abused its students. Ergo they are now abusive parents.

mike, to fediverse
@mike@flipboard.social avatar

Today was a huge milestone in our quest to federate and tear down the walls around our own walled garden.

First, we launched a new version of Flipboard for iOS and Android which brings the promise of two way federation to life. Now when a federated Flipboard user curates, people in the fediverse can reply, favorite, boost or follow those Flipboard users who will in turn see that activity in their usual notifications tab. Even better, Flipboard users can directly reply to people in the fediverse -- and very soon they will also be able to follow each other.

Second, we federated some of our best curators today who are actively curating more than 10,000 magazines about everything from climate change to kale smoothie recipes. I'm grateful to our many curators and the service they provide to so many others who want to find the best content about a shared interest. I know our curators are excited to have millions more people who could potentially benefit from their curation. I also know that people in the fediverse will give a warm welcome to these curators. Especially now that everyone can hear and talk to each other over what was once two totally separate networks but now increasingly are in one and the same .

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@mike @ToSDR I'm not particularly dedicated to ToS. (That's more ToS;DR's schtick.) I'm just tired of the corporatization of the Internet and its attendant assumptions that people will cheerfully give up all their data (yet the intent to take it is well-concealed behind walls of legalese).

Be up-front and clear about what, SPECIFICALLY, the cost is for your service. ALL the costs. Including privacy. That's all I ask for. The only true consent is informed consent. Anything else is not.

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@mike Before too many in the Fediverse jump onto the bandwagon you might want to take a look at the summary of their terms of service: https://tosdr.org/en/service/3534

Chief problems for me are the fact they gather and store data of non-users, they gather location data, they sell that to third-parties for reasons not related to their service, they buy data about you from third-parties, they force binding arbitration, they limit liability to ludicrous levels.

Your mileage may vary, of course.

verge, to random
@verge@mastodon.social avatar

President Biden is now posting into the fediverse https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/2/24119353/joe-biden-threads-mastodon-activitypub-fediverse

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@verge No. He's posting onto the wannabe Fediverse colonizer: Meta.

Fuck Meta.

Amynearlyknowledgeable, to random
@Amynearlyknowledgeable@mastodon.social avatar

Both parts of my Debut folk horror audio drama are now available to listen to! Enter a world immersed in Shropshire Folklore, ruled by Devil Himself. There's something very strange afoot up the stiperstones!

https://www.buzzsprout.com/411730/12499890

https://www.buzzsprout.com/411730/12600423

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@Amynearlyknowledgeable I just want to weigh in (again!) to say LISTEN TO THIS! It's really good.

zdl, to generativeAI
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

Wow! SO just pointed me at this article.

It's almost scary how accurate this is!

https://softwarecrisis.dev/letters/llmentalist/

And now I have a framework to use when talking to a true believer.

zdl, to random
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar
fkamiah17, to random
@fkamiah17@toot.wales avatar

WEEK 31: Students outside Columbia university passing food and water through the gates to the protesters. Collective punishment going on in the middle of New York City.

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@angiebaby @fkamiah17 Well, Biden is responsible for one of the worst disenfranchisement generators (the crime bill of '94) in US history. He's a Democrat. Obama ramped up random drone strikes on non-white peoples the world over. He's Democrat and, ironically, black. Clinton voted for the war on Iraq, voted to increase domestic surveillance, and voted to deregulate Wall Street. She's a Democrat.

Like I said elsewhere: in any sane nation, the Democrats are centre-right, not left.

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@fkamiah17 OK, Wow. It seems that starving your opposition is a tactic Israel and the USA have in common.

Why is there no open revolution in the streets in the USA!?

Oh, right. Because Americans, by and large, are just fine with this, as long as they can have the latest gadget in their hands to violate their privacy and rot their mind.

Johnnephew, to random
@Johnnephew@dice.camp avatar

Streisand Effect Alert!

Gina Rinehart: Australia’s richest woman seeks removal of her portrait from exhibition | CNN
https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/16/style/gina-rinehart-namatjira-portrait-australia-intl-scli/index.html

zdl, (edited )
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@Johnnephew Wouldn't it be terrible if people got a photo of her portrait and shared it all over social media?

Absolutely terrible. Only a true miscreant would do such a thing, right?

zdl, to random
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna146799

It's time for countries around the world to start standing up to . Charge them. Try them in absentia if need be. Use treaties to hem in their movements. Go after their assets with great vigour.

The only good is a dead billionaire. A decent second place is a billionaire that's scared to move.

zdl, (edited ) to generativeAI
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

The picture generator has an interesting feature: it seems to be flatly impossible to generate a picture with both and in which Trump is in any way subservient to or even equal to Putin.

This is the closest I've come, which is not very close at all. It still has Trump slightly more in the foreground than Putin, despite the prompt stating they should be side by side.

🧵 (1/n)

zdl, to random
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

Isn't it amazing that the ten greatest love stories of, and I quote, "all time", happened to all fall within about a 200 year span and in the circle of European culture?

https://www.yourtango.com/love/greatest-love-stories-of-all-time

The parochial nature of this list hurts SO BADLY!

zdl, to vegan
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

"What are four words I never expected to see together, Alex?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoE8jLGE6R4

blogdiva, to random
@blogdiva@mastodon.social avatar

LMAO AND I WONDER WHY?!?!? 🤔

"U.S. Engagement Hits 11-Year Low"
https://www.gallup.com/workplace/643286/engagement-hits-11-year-low.aspx

i have side-eyed Gallup for some time with their "let's make capitalism awesomer" polls.

am not an expert statistician but i know 2 things:

(1) Gallup doesn't do polls for free; if someone isn't sponsoring, they're pulling the data from b2b services.

(2) always look for the questions & what's missing.

sure enough; here's the 12 (actually 13) questions:
https://www.gallup.com/q12/

see what's missing? 🧵

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@blogdiva Compare and contrast with how the authorities in Wuhan had a little "sit-down" with the major employers of the region and flatly told them that if they used the lockdown as an excuse for mass layoffs their firms would be nationalized.

Weirdly there were no mass layoffs in Wuhan...

garry, to internet
@garry@mstdn.social avatar

Studies Show We Have Better Well-Being With Internet Access

'We’ve been left to think that being on the Internet is a waste of time and not good for us overall. However, results of a recently-published survey shows that we have a better well-being with access to the Internet.'

https://www.maketecheasier.com/studies-on-internet-access-well-being/

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@garry The modern version of "it is written in scripture" is "studies show".

cyrus, to aiart
@cyrus@wetdry.world avatar

reminder that "AI Art" is not art but just a statistical model regurgitating stolen content to you whilst drawing the approximate power and water of a small city

(so that all of YOU out there see this too. Yes I am mad.)

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@thepoliticalcat @cyrus The worst part is that the yucks aren't even very good ones.

We could pay actual artists producing actual comedy as well.

BeefGriller, to dice
@BeefGriller@dice.camp avatar

You can never have enough . :d4: :d6: :d8: :d10: :d100: :d12: :d20:

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@BeefGriller I have an embarrassing amount of dice. I think the point of going too far was reached when I got my first set of literal gem dice.

First set, note.

This implies subsequent sets.

Note the plural there.

angiebaby, to random
@angiebaby@mas.to avatar

The Democratic Party is right-wing.

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@angiebaby I'm seriously getting to the point of thinking I need to block mastodon.social in its entirety. I get more fascist bootlickers posts from that domain than I'd get from JoeBobsRifleRangeAndRealGoodFreezePeachFediverseInstance.social just by the sheer numbers.

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@angiebaby Having a white, male American "leftist" talk down to two women, at least one of whom is non-white, and one of whom is not an American is so on-point for the American "left" it's sickening.

jemmesedi, to food
@jemmesedi@c.im avatar

Articles like this make me warm to a plant based diet.

Can You Eat Cicadas? | TIME

https://time.com/6968973/cicadas-food-how-to-catch-clean-cook-eat/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@jemmesedi Wuhan is "famous" for 热干面¹, 豆皮², 汤包³, 烧卖⁴, 面窝⁵, 武昌鲷鱼⁶ … and a host of more dishes including a signature spicy crayfish dry pot, spicy duck neck, cured duck intestine, duck blood doufu, etc. etc. etc. It's got about 2000 years of ornate culture behind it and it shows. 😅

--
¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_dry_noodles
² https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doupi
³ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangbao
⁴ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shumai
⁵ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mianwo
⁶ A steamed dish made from Wuchang bream.

jemmesedi, to Canada
@jemmesedi@c.im avatar

>>Is there an official, graspable Canadian identity? No. We are fraught with incomplete reconciliation, spats about carbon and immigration, and regional jealousy. Tims bears witness to it and makes bearing it easier. It’s where a tired refugee can land. It’s hockey cards and retro treats. Identity crisis? Here’s some quick-serve in a large red cup, brewed fresh every twenty minutes.<<

I'm always interested in reading about Canada, but am not well informed enough to judge the worth of this piece. Could a Canadian chip in here?

Tim Hortons Is Brewing an Idea of Canada That No Longer Exists | The Walrus

https://thewalrus.ca/tim-hortons-canada/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@jemmesedi I was somewhat prepared for that.

When I was in my late teens, I took a walk with my father in his old home (Mühlheim/Main). We spent hours walking through his memories, walking to the edge of Mühlheim and into Offenbach proper. And he was pointing me to where he and his friends would play there where a tall office building now stands, or talked about how these used to be farmer's fields.

At the end he turned to me with real pain in his eyes: "You can't ever go back home."

jemmesedi, to ai
@jemmesedi@c.im avatar

I've just wasted far too much time playing with AI art generators.

Why do they so often have problems with hands?

Look at this example from the Hotpot AI art generator:

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@jemmesedi Oh wow. Yeah, I'm unimpressed with Hotpot. (Like I am every other generative AI tool I've seen.) Here's one of my explorations. Critique in the alt text.

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@jemmesedi Of course it's still better than mage.space... Critique, again, in the alt text.

focusedoninfinity, to random
@focusedoninfinity@todon.eu avatar
zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@focusedoninfinity The most shameful example of this I can find was in the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami¹. The normal news cycle began: disaster porn, hand-wringing, side-stories as the main story lost steam (including a sickening "CHINA IS EVIL" side-story because Chinese food packaging uses different date labelling techniques...), then fading from the front page after two weeks. Over 180,000 dead got boring after two weeks.

Then...

(1/2)

¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_and_tsunami

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