🌸🌹2ck 🌱🐇 @2ck@qoto.org

Self Promo on Fedi, a Writer's Take

i meant to wait to do this until I was feeling better, but I'm actually feeling worse and the only thing I can do is spit out stream of conscious takes.

So I might as well.

I'm seeing a lot of posts about self promo, creatives being driven off by lack of self promo, etc.

Haven't seen anyone talk about ways to make self-promo work.

The rest will be unlisted and under a CW. Please boost.

#amwriting #mastotip

Missing the birds? Here is beautiful hand-made phylogeny of birds! No, not THAT bird.

by @albertonykus, more:
https://www.deviantart.com/albertonykus/art/Tree-of-Birds-923079880

Enjoy this short clip of the raccoon that is currently trying to catch snowflakes on my deck. 🦝 ❄️

#CatTax #CatsOfMastodon

BILLET BALLET

I saw an advert by Southeastern Railway featuring a dancer made from a train ticket. I was inspired to try making one myself. Here's a photo of my travelcard dancing at High St Ken station.

#dancer #dance #mastoart #photography #photo #potd #origami #underground #London #londonunderground #art #uk #ticket

Cool art I saw yesterday

Just fyi. #openinformation

John Carmack is leaving Meta (Oculus)

https://sea.ign.com/meta-quest/193680/news/john-carmack-is-leaving-meta

A partial list of our reporters you can follow on Masto:

•Caroline Chen @carolinechen

•Annie Waldman @AnnieWaldman

•Perla Trevizo @Perla_Trevizo

•Jeremy Schwartz @JeremySchwartz

•Emily Hopkins @emilyhopkins

•Ken Armstrong @bykenarmstrong

•Mariam Elba @mariamelba

•Jessica Lussenhop @lussenpop

•Ellis Simani @emsimani

•Justin Elliott @elliottjustin

•Max Blau @maxblau

•Andy Kroll @andykroll

•Kartikay Mehrotra @kartikay

•Jeremy Kohler @jeremykohler

•Neil Bedi @neilbedi

I guess an #introduction is in order. I am an astronomer & astrophysicist (same thing!) who works on galaxies, cosmology, and the missing mass problem. Here is a sketch I made a long time ago of what I call the dark matter tree. The empirical roots of the problem grow into the various branches of possible solutions. Our ambition as theorists is to invent the right solution; our goal as observes is to prune the tree until only the correct solution survives. #astrodon #darkmatter #MOND

Charge - Blender Open Movie https://video.blender.org/videos/watch/04da454b-9893-4184-98f3-248d00625efe

'Princess Joveta sends her grateful thanks to her friend the great Khan for his kind gift of her new pet Velociraptor, with whom she is delighted. Isambart now responds to his name, is taking well to training, and bids fair to becoming a very fine hunter.'

Joveta, by the way, is a Frankish princess.

Prints, etc available via Redbubble. Link in profile. 🙏

AI's aren't sentient. They can't "steal."

Programmers and institutions select the data with which to train the model. They take art and writing from artists and authors without credit or payment. The software then remixes and mimics what it is given.

Displacing agency by attributing intent to the AI is exactly how people and institutions erase human action in the creation of technology. It also leads to further perceptions of technology as acultural, unbiased, and, in essence, magical.