Pinned toot

I made the transition to the day Elon closed his deal. Looking back, the difference is surreal.

On Twitter, my feed was full of political trolls pushing my buttons and pissing me off and making me question my faith in humanity.

On Mastodon, I get to read opinions from many of the same people I respected over there... but also I get brief, random windows into subcommunities like , which is a delightful group of nature weirdoes and scientists posting pictures of moss they see out in the wild. It's so wholesome and positive that it restores my faith in humanity.

Pinned toot

A good way to start a feed on a new social media site is doggo pictures, right?

NPR :press:  
The U.S. has vetoed a Gaza cease-fire resolution in the U.N. Security Council The United States was the only country to vote against a resolution c...

Senior Principle Software Architect Level 10:

I’m pleased to report we have successfully merged the two codebases after the acquisition and everything works.

Great piece on the Cybertruck’s design

… which distills every malign trend in US trucks: Massive weight, jacked-up height designed to lethally throw accident victims beneath it, noise baffling so perfect you can’t hear the outside world

Cars are rolling buckets of externalities: They greatly improve the life of their riders, while making the lives of everyone *outside* them worse

The Cybertruck is a tone poem to this impulse: usa.streetsblog.org/2023/12/02

Thank fuck. We need to figure out a system that prevents one jackass from crippling our military.
QT: press.coop/@NPR/11152922715898

NPR :press:  
Sen. Tuberville drops his months-long hold on military promotions Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., says he is dropping his hold on hundreds of milita...

I really don't understand this. Is it because I'm not on the flagship instance?

I've seen, like, three nazis in more than a year of being on the fediverse and I blocked their *entire server* and then never saw any ever again.

The power of Mastodon's server banhammer, mixed with the good-natured volunteer work of our admins and moderators means that's not a problem here.

But why is it failing for others? I don't want to be on a whites-only social media. How do we make this space more inclusive to people of color when we can't even see the problems they describe?
QT: hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/111

mekka okereke :verified:  
@jerry I'm cursed to keep explaining this. Black users: There is more anti-Black racism on the Fediverse than on Twitter. I did not expect that. ...

Very much looking forward to my first cybertruck sighting in the wild so I can openly laugh at its owner.
QT: mastodon.online/@spocko/111524

Spocko  
The sadness of a #CyberTruck owner. "Days after launch, you sit at a red light. The novelty is gone, you aren't any happier. Maybe it's your imagi...

That's a fascinating ghost in the machine.
QT: techhub.social/@Techmeme/11152

Techmeme  
Asking ChatGPT to repeat words "forever" is now against OpenAI's terms of service, after Google researchers showed that doing so led it to reveal t...

You can't make this shit up. #Texas GOP refuses to disassociate from nazis and antisemitic 💩like Nick Fuentes, who was recently caught visiting a key #GOP operative. Great analysis from @justinmiller @TexasObserver:
texasobserver.org/texas-gop-ex

Ugh, the lights are not on my side. 4 separate strands of LED christmas lights failed while putting them up. I thought that wasn't supposed to happen with these new LED bulbs?

Quitting the use of Google products is *so much easier* than quitting the use of the word "google" as a verb.

Funny how corporations only "rightsize" line jobs, not CEO pay.
If they overhired that grossly, then maybe they need new management.
QT: press.coop/@NPR/11152250995706

NPR :press:  
Spotify to cut 17% of staff in latest round of tech layoffs In a memo addressed to staff, CEO Daniel Ek said it was necessary for the company to "r...

I will never understand how reporting on important events that determine the very fate of our species is the same job as reporting which celebrity has a crush on who.

Show thread

Modern headlines:
"WAR in the Middle East!"
"WAR in Europe!"
"Americans: Beware Dictatorship!"
"The Planet is Boiling!"
"Will Taylor Swift like Kansas City?"

Just spent $75 on magnets, so I'm having a good Saturday.

Rules to help journalists avoid the mistakes of 2016 in 2024:

- Ban repeat liars from live interviews

- Never put a lie in the headline

- Use a truth sandwich when reporting on lies

- Don’t take the bait (stop rewarding drama with visibility)

- Abandon the social media algorithm (don’t let Xitter dictate the news cycle)

Any others?

framelab.substack.com/p/trump-

Everything I know about I learned in Raising Hope S4E2.

Show more
Qoto Mastodon

QOTO: Question Others to Teach Ourselves
An inclusive, Academic Freedom, instance
All cultures welcome.
Hate speech and harassment strictly forbidden.