Andy Lowry @AndyLowry@qoto.org

Ok. I’m 51 years old. Love language. Love learning etymology.

I just learned that what I’ve always thought of as “craft paper” because it’s used for crafting (as many kids learn to use it) is in fact “kraft paper” so named because it is the resulting paper from the “Kraft” paper pulp process, which produces a stronger product than other methods.
Butcher’s paper, paper bags, & so forth, all kraft paper.

Leading me inexorably to some questions regarding the production of Kraft Dinner…🤔​

Terrific reporting by Rebecca Ellis at The Los Angeles Times on the scope of the card skimming fraud targeting people who receive state food and other financial assistance via debit cards (a.k.a Electronic Benefits Cards or EBTs).

The story makes clear again that the organized crime groups involved will wait until funds are deposited by the state onto these EBT cards. That happens early in the morning, and the fraudsters are hitting the ATMs with the cloned EBT cards just as soon as the funds are there.

From the story:

"Skyrocketing theft amounts
In 2019, Los Angeles County saw $25,227 in EBT benefits stolen, according to the Department of Public Social Services. In 2020, $340,891 was taken. In 2021, the number began to skyrocket: $914,003 was stolen, most of it in the last few months of the year."

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-02-08/ebt-fraud-la-county

I covered EBT skimming in a couple of recent posts:

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2022/10/how-card-skimming-disproportionally-affects-those-most-in-need/

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2022/11/lawsuit-seeks-food-benefits-stolen-by-skimmers/

People, many many people, right now cannot tweet on Twitter. I know this because I checked and talked with folks on Mastodon.

As twitter’s systems degrade, their behavior will become more erratic, inconsistent & unpredictable. It is sand.
#Twitter #TwitterMigration

I enter the Library of Books You Read As A Child.
"Do you have... er. It was green, and there was a girl and a dog, and..."
The librarian nods.
"Of course. Which version do you want?"
"Version?"
"The one you read, with all flaws you didn't notice, or the one you remember loving?"
#MicroFiction #SmallStories #TootFic

“Meeting expectations since 1994.”

True story: I was once invited on the board of directors of a feminist news outlet and I came to suspect that I wasnt there to be the "trans" voice but more to be the white voice against the black women. So I just shut up and voted with the black women. No one noticed me but it was my finest hour. For once in my life I managed to do good by being quiet. Shutting up is very hard for me, Im a chatterbox. But it can really pay off. I bet no one who was there remembers me at all. As Bilbo would say, thank goodness.

Sorry Twitter, I was deleting all my tweets and think I deleted a load-bearing one.
#TwitterDown

I keep seeing articles about Mastodon slumps, and journalists going back to Twitter. Is it fair to say, that maybe Mastodon isn't for journalists, or brands, or even people who want large accounts? Maybe Mastodon is true social media, for people who want to interact and discuss, not be influenced, sold to, or manipulated with cult style tactics and followings. There will always be groups who dislike the idea of the people controlling their own inputs, people who don't like the idea of accessible Administration, and people who don't like the idea that if we don't like a space that we can just move to another one, or even create our own. Individualism is scary to the kind of people who thrive on complacency, and not challenging the status quo.

It's hard to know how to help those suffering from the devastating #earthquake in #syria and #turkey. Many have their trusted charities. I worked in international public health in scores of countries over my thirty year career. From observing (and sometimes working with) various charities/humanitarian response outfits, my 'go to' charity is Medecins Sans Frontiers/ Doctors Without Borders. You can donate here: https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org/secure/donate?_gl=1*4w99x2*_ga*MTAzOTI2MjQ3LjE2NzU3MDU2OTk.*_ga_C7EW6Q0J9K*MTY3NTcwNTY5OS4xLjAuMTY3NTcwNTY5OS4wLjAuMA..&_ga=2.42982757.1950086691.1675705701-103926247.1675705699

#Mosstodon Icelandic homes built into hills and covered with moss.

Thought for the day: in addition to TLDR ("Too Long, Didn't Read") maybe we also need SLDR to denote "Should Like, Didn't Read"—for reading matter with insights recognize are valid and virtuous but AAARGHoutsidemycomfortzonerightnow.

Turkey and Syria: more than 1,700 people confirmed dead after two large earthquakes strike – latest updates https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/feb/06/turkey-earthquake-2023-live-updates-quake-tremor-latest-news?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other #earthquake #syria #turkey

It's tax season, where the toxicity of the US is summed up in having to figure out what you owe and pay to file with a government that already received reports of all your income and withheld all the money many of us owed. Why? Because doing taxes is an industry.

“The thing we understand, which is proven in international research, is that providing housing for homeless persons is always more cost-effective for society than keeping people homeless…We did a study that showed when a former homeless person gets housing, even with support, the cost savings for society are at least €15,000/person per year.”

Canadian city learning from Finland.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/london-wants-to-eradicate-homelessness-here-s-how-finland-is-doing-it-1.6728398

Genuinely have no idea how to turn the toxic cycle of discourse around.

Staying out of the way feels wrong.

Speaking up never seems to go well.

Trying to model less reactive behavior doesn’t seem to help anything.

Technology is turning all of us, myself included, into the most reactive versions of ourselves. We are not evolved to handle this much input.

I’m smart enough to know we need to step back from the brink, but not enough to know how to get there.

Humans don't act for reasons, we act and then produce reasons as required.

Paraphrasing Mercier and Sperber

#philosophy

Cunk on earth is an absurdly stupid, in an intellectually funny way, show.

If you're not already familiar, the "host" Philomena Cunk is a persona played by comedian Diane Morgan who interviews scholars like an ordinary documentary host but with very stupid questions.

The questions and narrations are stupid in a way like children asking things with logic half correct and half absurd.

And yet if you read between the lines, it's very clever.

Very British, I'd say.

#Cunk #CunkOnEarth #Netflix