Jim Parkin @ParkinJim@qoto.org

OK, so this is interesting. Some major organizations have now set up their own Mastodon instances:

European Union: EU Voice >>> https://social.network.europa.eu/explore
German gov: Explore social.bund.de >>> https://social.bund.de/explore
Internet Archive: Explore Internet Archive >>> https://mastodon.archive.org/explore

#twittermigration #mastodon #fediverse #governmentInstance

Pine martens - aren’t they just beautiful?
A departure from my mountain photography today. I have spent the last six summers photographing pine martens from my tiny hide in the woods near #Inverness in the #ScottishHighlands.
This animal on the right is only 5 months old, leaning up against her mum and having a look around. A magical moment, and one I am privileged to have seen.
#PineMarten #WildlifePhotography #Scotland #Inverness #ScottishWildlife

Misty morning over the river today

This NYT article, "The Exceptionally American Problem of Rising Roadway Deaths," compares our terrible results to other high-income nations. And identifies design as a root cause. Which is good! https://www-nytimes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.nytimes.com/2022/11/27/upshot/road-deaths-pedestrians-cyclists.amp.html

(but road "accidents"? c'mon)

So Bankman-Fried, being a genius, recognized the incredible waste and corruption in the financial sector. He knew that the best way to help humanity is to downsize the financial sector. The gains would dwarf the impact of anything he could hope to do with the money he could accumulate in his business dealings.

https://cepr.net/sam-bankman-frieds-truly-effective-philanthropy-teaching/

@davidgerard it would be truly ironic if it did trigger broader regulation and the scaling back of the financial sector.

"[...] perhaps unbeknownst to it's libertarian supporters, the political economics of Bitcoin are in fact deeply right-wing."

JOURNAL OF CULTURAL ECONOMY, 2017
VOL. 10, NO. 5, 474–484

Every time I talk to journalists about how ridiculous the effective altruism, longtermism, rationality cults are, I also make a point of letting them know how much I resent having to spend energy explaining why these cults are harmful. Wouldn't have had to do spend all this energy explaining their ridiculous ideologies if they didn't amass so much $$ and influence.

#RealNames

Let me be really clear about this. Any social media platform that is toying with the idea of requiring public "real names" use by users is playing with a ticking hydrogen bomb.

It should have been obvious enough how complicated this is given all the problems #Facebook caused when other sites started to require real names Facebook logins for access to comments and other features on those other sites.

I worked with some of these issues at Google, where originally Google Plus was using real names, though this was later wisely changed.

There is a long list of issues associated with forcing people to publicly use real names. Some people are just fine with using their real names on some sites, but on other sites dealing with other topics there's simply no good reason why they should be required to use their real names. An obvious example is someone being forced to use their real name to ask questions about a medical or other personal issue for which they could face discrimination in employment or elsewhere.

There is a controversial argument to be made, that I am frankly somewhat sympathetic toward (though I very much wish we had not come to this point), that in *some* situations where individuals are going to be posting to very large audiences, some way to identify those individuals in cases of extreme abuse may be necessary. I suspect that regulatory changes are headed in that direction.

BUT, and this is crucial, this should not mean that even those individuals would have to use their real names on posts, and their identities would need to be carefully protected, probably by a third party.

In practice, though it's easy to say all this in theory, I have doubts that it would work in the real world. Disadvantaged individuals and groups, whistleblowers, etc. are at special risk. Data leaks might reveal identity associations. It's all so very complicated. Perhaps -- even likely -- it's completely impossible to accomplish in a safe manner.

We're going to be seeing ever more calls for real names having some sort of role on the Internet. Some movement in this direction may be inevitable. But it is crucial that we don't fall hook, line, and sinker for social media firms trying to force individuals to use their real names publicly in the course of regular social media activities. That, is a trap. -L

So I just got locked out of the bird place saying suspicious activity. It then asked me for a bunch of details I’ve never provided including my phone number. Noping out on that.

I see that the sea lions that want to try to tie up your resources by asking you to "prove" things which are easily Googleable have shown up on Mastodon. #NotTodaySatan

Nationalism: Being proud of things you haven't done & hating people you've never met.

Here’s a belter of a jobby splatter I found recently. These calcium phosphate splodges are actually the fossilised regurgitative remains (or diarrhoea!) from a 330 million year old fish! This is a type of trace fossil, commonly known as regurgitalites or bromalites 💩

When I turned 70, I thought, “Well, that’s it. I’ve had a great career, but it’s winding down.”
Boy, was I wrong. I found social media, and then a second wind at my sails in my 70s! I made my Broadway debut at 78, and I’ll make my London debut at 85.
Life is truly wonderful and magical.

If you’re in London, come see me in Allegiance starting in January. Tix here: https://allegiancemusical.com