Brian Beach has moved @bwbeach@qoto.org

Between Dolly Parton’s quiet COVID research fund, BLM support, and her sending generations of children books through the USPS, she continues to be one of the most relevant and wonderful people of every era. — Dolly represents the best of America, while Trump represents the worst.

A delight, right down to the final drawing and the final page and the endpapers. It adds to my delight to know that it was Astrid Lindgren who asked Tove Jansson to illustrate the book.

The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again.

Hobbitten: Eller Ud og hjem igen. Danish translator Jakob Levinsen.

#Books #Bookstodon #NameTheTranslator

Speaking of D-Day, Eisenhower’s message to given if the invasion failed needs to be glued to the morning mirror of every self-identified leader or visionary: (1/2)

Is there a hashtag you follow, and it's something you're not associated with in any way, but you just enjoy what gets posted? E.g., some particular hobby or community? For me, it's quilting. I don't quilt, have no idea how to do it, don't particularly feel like doing it, but I really enjoy seeing people's quilts and their amazing work.

@eff "by 2030, more than 95% of new passenger cars will contain some form of internet-connected service and surveillance." I hope someone tells us exactly where to find the remainder because that's the only car I want.

“Not voting is not a protest. It is a surrender.”

- Keith Ellison, attorney general of Minnesota

ChatGPT is awesome for drafting blog posts and newsletters. First, I give it all my bullet points and ask it for a draft. Then, I hate what it wrote _so much_ that I get off my ass and write the thing myself, like I should have done in the first place.

🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2024-06-02-11h17m10s/

Improv would be better if it had an "e" at the end.

Signal strongly opposes the newest #ChatControl proposal in Europe.

Let there be no doubt: we will leave the EU market rather than undermine our privacy guarantees.

This proposal--if passed and enforced against us--would require us to make this choice.

It's surveillance wine in safety bottles.

See more: https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/majority-for-chat-control-possible-users-who-refuse-scanning-to-be-prevented-from-sharing-photos-and-links/ @echo_pbreyer

"Once more let me remind you what fascism is. It need not wear a brown shirt or a green shirt. It may even wear a dress shirt. Fascism begins the moment a ruling class, fearing the people may use their political democracy to gain economic democracy, begins to destroy political democracy in order to retain its power and special privilege."

- Tommy Douglas.

A journalist *almost* takes responsibility for the misinformed public: "Many commentators...blame the media for the public’s economic illiteracy." But then she turns the blame on us: "If the media has a bad-news bias, that’s because our audiences have a bad-news bias, too." Journalists are incapable of meaningful self-reflection, incapable of taking responsibility.
Nearly everything Americans believe about the economy is wrong https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/28/economy-gloom-voters-inflation/

Two things I despise about Biden's policy stances: his consistent support of the Israeli govt and of cops, regardless of the endless crimes against humanity of both.

Trump, a fascist cult leader & Russian asset, will be a million times worse in those areas.

Meanwhile, Biden has signed a long list of progressive executive orders & enacted hugely, positively impactful laws. Trump would do the opposite of all of that and openly promises to harm millions of people. Think about it. #VoteBlue

It was always exciting and important when as a child I’d pepper some adult with questions and (at last) they would say “you know what? I don’t know. Let’s ask this other person or let’s look it up!”

LLMs are like the kind of adult who just makes up some plausible BS rather than say “I don’t know” those kinds of adults didn’t really think my questions mattered they didn’t think I remember or notice that they’d lied to me. I *always* noticed. I think these systems trigger me because of it LMAO.

Once you could count on some things posted online probably being true because, well, why would anyone bother to put out misinformation about a topic so obscure or uncontroversial? now the simple fact that someone might want to know a bit of information makes it worth faking if it can get their eyeballs on an ad— or improve the search ranking for some company. The harmless act of *being curious* about the world causes misinformation to spring to life. We have made wanting to learn destructive.

Some pretty incredible writing here.

"I’ve been in this position so many times that it exhausts me just to write about it. Sometimes, it’s not that I’m afraid of men; I’m just really, really tired."

https://bikepacking.com/plog/man-or-bear-debate/

Seeing people toot that they're bummed about how little coverage there was of the Voyager 1 fix, and I want to reply WE'RE HAVING A KEYNOTE TALK AT @bangbangcon ABOUT IT!!!!!!! but they're strangers and that might be rude

I’m just gonna say it — this “Genocide Joe” thing is the dumbest fucking liberal shit I have seen in years.

Joe Biden can do more to *try* to rein in Israel, but Biden doesn’t run Israel. He isn’t CIC for IDF. He isn’t deciding what hospital to bomb. He isn’t deciding what border crossings to close.

You know who is pushing the Genocide Joe narrative? The fucking Russians and the Israelis. Why is that? Well, it’s an election year, and Trump is a hard right, pro-Israel puppet.