Eric J. Korpela @SETIEric@qoto.org
- https://flipboard.com/@ekorpela
- berkeley.edu
- https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/~korpela
I'm an astronomer specializing in #SETI, #UV #Instrumentation. #RadioAstronomy, #InterstellarMatter (#ISM), #VolunteerComputing, #BOINC, #SETIatHome, #retroComputing #retroGaming ...Wait a minute... That's not specializing!
Joined Oct 2019
Eric J. Korpela
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Buckley got the ball rolling and it continued through Reagan’s “Morning in America” and Limbaugh’s “The Way Things Ought to Be” and the Tea Party’s “Take America Back” and Trump’s “Make America Great Again.”
It’s all about stopping The Other in the service of an idealized past.
Eric J. Korpela
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Eric J. Korpela
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When Jeff Bezos says he doesn't know where to spend his fortune, and MacKenzie Scott says she's having difficulty giving away hers, they're both saying that they can't give their money directly to poor people because they believe that poor people can't be trusted.
I can't imagine how anyone couldn't give away 10's of billions of dollars in a year.
Look around. There's about 4 billion people living in or near poverty; 1 billion in extreme poverty.
Start with them, "Effective" Altruism , et. al
Eric J. Korpela
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Yes, this is the real RedTRaccoon.
Remember this profile picture? That was me when I was anonymous on Twitter.
If you followed me then, I would love for you to follow me again.
Eric J. Korpela
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After diverting millions in TANF welfare funds to sports celebrities like Brett Favre and Ted DiBiase, Mississippi left $47 million in federal assistance for low-income families with children unspent in 2020.
Missisisppi has a 19.4% poverty rate.
https://www.mississippifreepress.org/29742/mississippi-left-47-million-in-aid-to-poor-families-unspent-prompting-calls-for-reform
Eric J. Korpela
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You should have smelled his diaper when I showed the boss the Dark Brandon trading cards.
Eric J. Korpela
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Please help me get my followers up, folks.
Eric J. Korpela
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Elon Musk and Autism/Aspergers
I certainly don't speak for all autistic people or for the autism community in general, but as an autistic person and someone who knows many autistic people who are kind, compassionate, honest, and decent human beings, I feel compelled to make this statement:
Elon Musk is an egotistical narcissistic megalomaniac who is out of touch with reality, power hungry, entitled, privileged, corrupt little man but nothing he does or thinks or says is because of autism.
If anyone is writing about him, or reporting on him, or making any attempt to analyze what is going on in that head of his, please keep autism out of the equation.
Does he actually have Aspergers, like he claims? Who knows. He says he does but clearly he lies. A lot. I don't know him well enough nor am I qualified to make that assessment.
Ultimately though, it doesn't matter. Autistic people can be evil too. It just means that autism isn't the reason.
So please do myself and all of the autistic people I know and any who agree with this statement a favour and leave autism out of the discussion.
Eric J. Korpela
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RT @washingtonpost@twitter.com
Economists estimate that “two years of lost immigration” is responsible for close to half of the 3.5 million workers missing from the labor force. https://wapo.st/3HVGguf
🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1603801165623427073
Some unsolicited advice for those seeking shelter from the angry #birdsite. Don't feel wed to your initial choice of server. It might not be what you're looking for. Shop around.
Mastodon is not immune to autocrats, but its design mostly limits their authority to one, or a few servers. If you feel your concerns aren't taken seriously, you might want to move.
New members are overstressing some servers. If your server is having trouble handling the influx, moving to a smaller server may help.
But beyond that, if you find a server dedicated to subject matter that you like, or with features that you want (quote-toots, posts larger than 512 characters, latex math editing) feel free to move.
Of course, the earlier you move the easier it will be on your followers.
Mastodon is very much a self curated experience. What you see is only from who or what you follow and who they boost. There's nothing showing you what you might like.
Eric J. Korpela
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Just signed up for Mastodon. Hope it doesn’t become a dumpster fire like twitter. This feels like that movie where the humans have to go find another planet suitable for life after messing things up on earth.
Eric J. Korpela
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RT @PanZ2021
@LevineJonathan @CNN @washingtonpost @nytimes Add Linette Lopez @lopezlinette to the list.
Banned for recapping the times Elon had his enemies tracked.
It happened right while I was reading her latest tweets.
She did NOT post Elon's location, she just posted about the times HE looked for other peoples' locations.
Eric J. Korpela
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Today for #FollowFriday, we'll start by shouting out @TucsonSentinel and @restofworld, two other publications that created their own Mastodon instances. We think this is a great model for other outlets (and also #nonprofit orgs) to follow, creating authenticity and allowing full control over what we post.
Eric J. Korpela
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Every news outlet should stand up a Mastondon instance for their reporters & staff.
It’ll be great to see GivennameFamilyname@mastodon.famousnewspaper.com or whatever domain they want to use.
Built in verification. Every reporter for the Washington Post on a washpo domain. Every reporter for the New York Times on an NYTimes domain. Etc, etc.
Plus the “local” feed for each instance becomes a feed of all the posts from that institution mixed together — providing extra discovery.
Eric J. Korpela
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Things just seem so crazy today.
I mean, can you imagine say in the 1930s if the richest automobile executive in America was also a media owner who used his platform to encourage anti-Semitism and allied himself with a foreign dictator waging a territory-expansion war in Europe?
Eric J. Korpela
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There are many legitimate reasons to track Elon Musk's flight coordinates, for example to offer him ads more relevant to his interests
Eric J. Korpela
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Elon
The dude that knows the location of every user of his products, is upset people know his location.
It’s almost like his companies do bad things with that data… talk about telling on yourself.
Eric J. Korpela
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"Georgia election officials, supported by the Republican Party, tried to prevent 70,050 citizens from voting [on Saturday, Nov. 26]...while Republicans didn’t get away with it, the fact that they tried should be a national outrage."
https://www.democracydocket.com/opinion/what-georgia-teaches-us-about-voter-suppression/
Eric J. Korpela
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Cover story on Time on this day in 2006.
They had it totally wrong.
Because FB, Twitter and wing-nut billionarires came to own your information age.
Prove them wrong. You're on Mastodon and the Fediverse now. Do it right, and you can make this cover real.
- https://flipboard.com/@ekorpela
- berkeley.edu
- https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/~korpela
I'm an astronomer specializing in #SETI, #UV #Instrumentation. #RadioAstronomy, #InterstellarMatter (#ISM), #VolunteerComputing, #BOINC, #SETIatHome, #retroComputing #retroGaming ...Wait a minute... That's not specializing!
Joined Oct 2019
