lobster @Lobster@qoto.org

#Photomonday #Fotomontag Amazing shot ❤

I’m realizing that growing up as a wired magazine-reading cyberpunk believer— a kid who thought adbusters and the internet could save the world— and then watching as every technological miracle was turned not towards revolution or saving humanity but instead more pernicious and intractable methods of exploitation has made me uncomfortable with technological optimism. “assume all new technology will be used against you” —

I’d been thinking recently that I didn’t have much anger in me anymore…but of course that’s not true. It just turns out that my anger, instead of being directed at any particular person, is mostly buried, seething rage at the social injustices of society of which pandemic denial is just the tip of the iceberg. I just don’t let myself feel it very often, which is something for me to work through.

Intro post: I'm a professor of #Biology at the #UniversityOfWashington. My training is in #EvolutionaryBiology, #BehavioralEcology, #PopulationGenetics, and #Epidemiology. I did lots of work in #Bibliometrics and #NetworkTheory. I teach #DataLiteracy. These days I spend a lot of time thinking about the spread of #Misinformation, the #ScienceOfScience, and #PhilosophyOfScience. I do a lot of #BirdPhotography and love #ravens, #crows, and all #corvids.

For your trouble, here's a perfect crow.

"Here we show that stressed #plants emit airborne sounds […] We recorded ultrasonic sounds emitted by tomato and tobacco plants inside an acoustic chamber, and in a greenhouse, while monitoring the plant’s physiological parameters. We developed machine learning models that succeeded in identifying the condition of the plants, including dehydration level and injury, based solely on the emitted sounds. These informative #sounds may also be detectable by other organisms." https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(23)00262-3

Scientists discover how cancer cells evade immune system https://l.smartnews.com/p-SjePM/wXhGdR

#Buddhism #Theravada #Samyutta #Sutta #Sutra #Anger

From
SN 7.3 Asundarika Sutta
https://suttafriends.org/sutta/sn7-3

“The fool thinks he has won,
when speaking with harsh words.
However, patience is the true victory,
for those who praise patience.

“When you get angry at an angry person,
you just make things worse for yourself.
When you don’t get angry at an angry person,
you win a battle hard to win.

“When you know that the other person is angry,
if you’re patient, mindful and calm,
then you act for the good of both
for yourself and the other person.

“People unfamiliar with the Buddha’s teachings
consider that the person who acts
for the good of both oneself and the other
to be a fool.”

---

"Wealth should serve humanity, not vice versa" - Dalai Lama XIV

War isn't hell. War is war, and hell is hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse.

Outrageous

😂

I think it is fair to speculate that any alien race that has sufficiently advanced technology to cross the vast distances involved in interstellar travel, has technology massively more advanced then we mere earthlings possess.
I believe that it is also fair to speculate that any such aliens have passed successfully through the filter of internecine combat in order to develop such advanced technology whereas on our planet, such conflicts are, and seemingly always have been, commonplace and extremely destructive (see WWI, WWII and Ukraine for further details).
I suppose mankind should draw some comfort from the fact that some weapons of mass destruction; for example nerve gas and biological weapons, have been banned by international treaty even if some have been used fairly recently for example by Saddam Hussein and chemical Ali, in Iraq. I suppose it is also of some comfort that nuclear weapons have only been used in anger twice (Hiroshima and Nagasaki); their appalling destructive power having once been demonstrated, thankfully no country has found it acceptable to use them again; here I hope vehemently that I don't have to eat my words in the context of Ukraine.
In the light of the foregoing, I believe it is reasonable to speculate that an alien civilization that has developed the ability to travel interstellar distances, it is far more likely to be nurturing than extremely belligerent as the latter would most likely have destroyed their civilization before they reached the stage of developing interstellar travel.

https://www.cseinsider.com/2023/02/physicist-warns-that-contacting-aliens_20.html

She could be our first female president if she wanted it.

https://youtu.be/h8E8zxGztMQ

"While advanced language-generating systems and chatbots have dominated news headlines, private AI companies have quietly entrenched their power. Recent developments mean that a handful of individuals and corporations now control much of the resources and knowledge in the sector — and will ultimately shape its impact on our collective future."

https://www.ft.com/content/e9ebfb8d-428d-4802-8b27-a69314c421ce