AmberWavesoFlame @AmberWavesofFlame@qoto.org

Isn’t this interesting?

Some shots you can’t plan for.
I was waiting to shoot the rise of a supermoon when the clouds rolled in a ruined the spectacle. Instead of the moon crowning the tip of the Bay Bridge, a flock of pelicans passed over it, in perfect formation mimicking the shape of the bridge.
#sanfrancisco #baybridge #pelican #photography #urbanwildlife #wildlife #wildlifephotography

Winter morning with hoar frost
#photography

This is significant ...

The German office for data protection and freedom of information hosts the official #Mastodon server for government departments

They are now calling for all ministries on the server to put their focus on Mastodon

They are also asking ministries which are not yet on Mastodon to join as soon as possible

Just before the invasion, #Ukraine made a deal with #Amazon #AWS to create a data warehouse for its government information and infrastructure: tax and property records, bank statements, and the like. Things that an invaded and occupied Ukraine might lose if Russia got their hands on the only copies.

They literally snuck Pelican crates full of SSDs into the country and spirited them back offshore after backing up 10 petabytes of important historic and legal records.

This paragraph, second from the end, really put a fine point on why Amazon did this: They were not beholden to, nor being held hostage by, any Russian operations...because they never had any:

Amazon didn’t have to worry about its relationship with Russia on the Snowball project. It doesn’t have one. “We didn’t have anything to turn off there,” Maxwell said. “We had never invested there. It’s a point of principle.”

Truly an amazing story from the #LATimes.

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-12-15/amazon-ukraine-war-cloud-data

Remember: Twitter is Elon's company, he has the free speech and free association right to run it pretty much however he wants and to ban people for petty narcissistic reasons.

And we have the right to laugh and point at his ridiculousness and at the free-speech pretenses of his gullible fans.

amazing

Extremely cold air from Siberia will send US into deep freeze days before Christmas

A bitter blast of cold air will challenge records that have stood since the 1980s from the northern Rockies to the Southeast, as well as stress energy grids, in the run up to the Christmas holiday.

By Bill Deger, AccuWeather senior meteorologist

https://www.accuweather.com/en/winter-weather/polar-vortex-christmas-weather-cold-forecast/1385381 #weather #polarvortex #science #accuweather

AMEN.

It was WAY too long in coming but freakin finally:

"Congress has approved the removal of a statue of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney, who crafted the infamous Dred Scott pro-slavery decision."

It will be replaced by one of Thurgood Marshall, the first Black person to serve on the nation's highest court.

https://www.politico.com/minutes/congress/12-14-2022/taney-statue-removal-congress-dred-scott/

Don't seize the day.

The day is easily startled and will get quite upset. It might cry.

Gently ask the day if it would like a hug. Respect the day's boundaries.