Neekerbreeker 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @Neekerbreeker@qoto.org
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- United States
Chemist, science defender, medical writer. Tolkien & LeGuin fangirl but will read cereal boxes and ketchup bottle labels in absence of other material. ❤️ Classic rock, words, mythology, clouds, maps, paleoanthropology, and the history of timekeeping 🕰️ (Profile banner, Irina Irbis, ArtStation)
Joined Nov 2022
Neekerbreeker 🇺🇸🇺🇦
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Neekerbreeker 🇺🇸🇺🇦
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Algorithmic social media feeds are deliberately designed to make you stupider, because stupider content gets more engagement.
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc know what they are doing.
Sometimes they recalibrate the idiocy force-feeder, however. https://tecunningham.github.io/2023-04-28-ranking-by-engagement.html
Neekerbreeker 🇺🇸🇺🇦
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That part about creating a plethora of one-off accounts is very accurate. We don't need an app for everything nor an account. All these are is data harvesting and each is a point-of-failure for online security.
And right after sending that toot, I got a notification from my employer's worksite that it's time to change my password. Lol
Aren't forced password changes obsolete? Hasn't this been known for a while? (See link dated 2016.) If I know and even the government knows...why do business IT providers still force this? To look good? That won't help.
@briankrebs Yikes! About personal security online, we have to do better with security. Mastodon users likely have better stats but too few people use a password manager or 2FA.
At the risk of sounding like a Luddite I also think we need to stop requiring people to make so many accounts. If I'm going to deal with your firm once, I probably don't need an account.
It's starting to feel that breaches are just an inevitable part of life.
Neekerbreeker 🇺🇸🇺🇦
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Just another day in America...
Weeks after a cyberattack crippled the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department computer systems, county officials confirmed that the hackers had been paid a $1.1-million ransom.
The ransomware attack, discovered in early April, forced the department to temporarily shut down some of its computer systems, including email, in-car computers and some law enforcement databases, including a system that deputies use for background checks.
After negotiating with the hackers, San Bernardino County paid slightly less than half the total — $511,852 — and its insurance carrier covered the rest, said county spokesman David Wert.
The Rolling Stones - Child of the Moon
Great song, newly released vid ❤️
"Filmed in 1968, this surrealist promotional film features all five original band members and Emmy Award-winning actress Dame Eileen June Atkins. Shot on a farm near Enfield, outside north London, the eerie music video for “Child of the Moon” is an early example of the narrative approach, when the format was in its infancy, over a decade before the advent of MTV."
Neekerbreeker 🇺🇸🇺🇦
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But in the end, the algorithms alone aren't going to save us. We, the users of the platforms, also have a role to play in challenging dangerous speech by calling out fear-based incitement through what is called "counterspeech." https://dangerousspeech.org/counterspeech/
Fighting fear is not going to be easy. But it is possibly the most important work we can do to prevent online outrage from begetting real-life violence.
Neekerbreeker 🇺🇸🇺🇦
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Every single city in the US should offer a free domain name in the city.state.us domain name to every person and business who wants one.
ie.frasiercrane.seattle.wa.us
Damn. A tremendous loss. RIP, sir. We were lucky to have you.
"Somewhere in between there stands a dream
The sweetest dream that we have ever seen"
Gordon Lightfoot - Dream Street Rose
Neekerbreeker 🇺🇸🇺🇦
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There seems to be much rejoicing every few days when a Republican is flummoxed after being asked to define 'woke.'
This is the time for woke liberals to claim the term.
Because sure as sunrise, some Republican will provide a pejorative definition. One that will stick. After leaving the questioner dumb-struck.
"The belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them" is a good one. Might as well adopt it before a Republican butchers it.
Neekerbreeker 🇺🇸🇺🇦
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Alan Turing is widely recognized as a hero and a genius. He’s considered the father of theoretical computer science and AI.
But he was also a gay man whom the British government chemically castrated.
Turing killed himself because of the way his government treated him.
What more might he have done had he lived?
As this wave of hatred sweeps the US, I wonder how many gay and trans Alan Turings we’ve already lost, and how many we’ll continue to lose.
I'm watching Talk Heathen, hosted today by Armin Navabi of Atheist Republic; and Secular Rarity, general all-around skeptic! Looks to be a good show.
Theists, atheists, agnostics and everyone in between, please feel free to call in with questions and comments 😊
CoolSculpting medical failure
@glennf Thanks. The deception is alarming. “[Allergan] calculated [the adverse effect frequency] based not on treatments performed, but on treatments sold…”
Aside from the appeal of the dollar, I wonder how on earth Allergan execs justified that to themselves. If something is never used, it’s generally hard for it to cause any harm.
Neekerbreeker 🇺🇸🇺🇦
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CoolSculpting medical failure
Don't let your friends and family get CoolSculpting based on the medical data: allegedly far more likely to have negative outcomes than promised. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/16/health/coolsculpting-side-effect-risks.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Neekerbreeker 🇺🇸🇺🇦
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Bacteria and cancer.
First we didn't believe that bacteria were present or had a role in tumor progression.
Now there's the potential of engineering bacteria to treat cancer.
https://erictopol.substack.com/p/the-fascinating-and-evolving-story
Neekerbreeker 🇺🇸🇺🇦
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Biochemist Marie Maynard Daly, who studied correlations between heart attacks and cholesterol, and between smoking and lung disease, was born #OTD in 1921. Daly was also part of the team that established the primary nucleic acid bases.
She was the first Black woman to receive a chemistry PhD in the US.
Image: National Institutes of Health
Aside from the content, those comments from Weyrich (made in 1980) are important because they show how long some on the right have been planning and working for what they're doing today. Longterm vision has been a key strategy for them.
From now until forever in this fight, we should recall Harry Potter's professor Alastor Moody: "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"
Pew has good info on this: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/03/10/the-polarization-in-todays-congress-has-roots-that-go-back-decades/
Neekerbreeker 🇺🇸🇺🇦
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Firearms are now the leading cause of death for Americans ages 24 years and under. It really, truly, genuinely, does not have to be this way.
Neekerbreeker 🇺🇸🇺🇦
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I used to mix metaphors but that ship has flown.
- Country
- United States
Chemist, science defender, medical writer. Tolkien & LeGuin fangirl but will read cereal boxes and ketchup bottle labels in absence of other material. ❤️ Classic rock, words, mythology, clouds, maps, paleoanthropology, and the history of timekeeping 🕰️ (Profile banner, Irina Irbis, ArtStation)
Joined Nov 2022
