Brian Beach has moved @bwbeach@qoto.org

‘When Denisha Mitchell was asked why she filled out paperwork to serve as an Arizona elector for the independent presidential candidate Cornel West, her first response was “What?!” Her second: What’s an elector?

'“I was shocked and surprised by it all. I didn’t even know what an elector was. […] The crazy thing is it was all forged. None of it was my handwriting. It was definitely not my signature. My email was wrong, my address was wrong.” (1/2)

HEY FUN FACT: this was used as part of an Alexa/google home type thing! this is the "cloud" half, as in the part sitting in a warehouse somewhere.
It turns out every time the customer asked for something from the smart assistant, the WAV file was sent to the cloud box

where it is still stored. and I now have eleven thousand wave files

I'm in New York City! <3

Met with a friend and walked from Brooklyn Bridge to Upper Manhattan. A long stretch of Park Avenue was made car-free yesterday, to be enjoyed by pedestrians and bicyclists (and I also saw a unicycle!).

And can't it please always be like this?

Graphic by virgoakahater

#mask #masking #MaskBan #disability #covid #NoNYMaskBan #CovidIsNotOver

Um, we can just do that? Slap water fountains on the top of hydrants? Why aren’t our streets filled with public water fountains??

It’s funny that the Republicans are freaking out over who’s a Real Man. Growing up in Springfield Illinois in the ‘60s and ‘70s, it was obvious the defining characteristic of a real man is: good with tools. As I’m not good with physical tools, I have some insecurity about that. I displaced that into being good with programmer tools.

And an important component of being good with tools is improvisation, being good with balky, uncooperative tools. That is:

Real Men Use Emacs.

One of the greatest failures of the United States in the 20th century is without a doubt our refusal to adopt a civilized approach to mass transportation and instead build roads and freeways everywhere, forcing people to rely on cars at an unsustainable level.

Contra Google
https://x.com/Standplaats_KRK/status/1824792083435024683?t=grR-9mRtb1qjEGK1C9kafw&s=19

My employer added a clause in my last NDA stating that I was prohibited from saying anything "disparaging" about the company. Now when anyone asks about job postings I tell them, "I'm contractually obligated not to say anything disparaging about them." None have ever applied.

On top of achieving energy security for all:

"A further advantage, its backers say, is that the lowest tariff could be directly linked to the rollout of renewable energy. In this scenario cheap wind and solar power would determine the size of the lowest tariff, which would then be split between all consumers, giving the public a direct stake in the transition to a low-carbon energy system."

https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2024/08/energy-pricing-block-teriffs-national-energy-guarantee-power-bills/

"Inciting rioters in Britain was a test run for Elon Musk. Just see what he plans for America."

For a min. after 2016 -an attempt to understand how these tech platforms had been used to spread lies & falsehoods -or mis/disinfo. -as we came to know them & to try to prevent it. Yrs-long effort by R operatives to politicize the entire subject of misinfo. has won. CMTE: run by J Jordan, convinced that big tech was silencing conservative voices, went on the warpath...
#USPol https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/18/inciting-rioters-in-britain-was-a-test-run-for-elon-musk-just-see-what-he-plans-for-america?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1723970062

#Maui Residents Have Been Forced From Their Homes to Make Room for #Wildfire Survivors. Property Owners Are Profiting.
==

High prices offered by emergency #housing programs have encouraged property owners to chase the money.

Housing advocates say state officials haven’t moved aggressively enough to crack down on predatory behavior.

#News #Hawaii #Wildfires #Home #Government #RealEstate #climate

https://www.propublica.org/article/maui-wildifre-evictions-fema

Her: "Oh you're cute, can you send me some more pics?"
Me: "What kind of pics?"
Her: "You know... the ones you get sent at 3am ;)"
Me: "Oh... those pics"
<Sends a picture of a server crash incident log>

U.S. friends, today is a great day to check if you are registered to vote.

I just did it, and it took less than two minutes. Super easy!

https://www.vote.org/

Okay, I continue to stay tuned in, because I feel we all need to. What I see, #media , #journalists , #journalism , #news , is that you are:
(a) trying to cover #Trump like a normal politician; and
(b) trying to cover #Harris like an unusual political aberration who needs to be watched because she will try to trick us.
Do you see the absurdity in this?

How about you streamline the coverage? How about you hit them both hard on policy and fact check the hell out of both of them? When a press performance is called by Trump, don't go, and certainly do not promote his ramblings as some sort of coherent policy message by trying to pick out secret possibilities from his word salad. If you get Trump away from his staged events, go at him for specific policy statements. When he refuses to answer those questions (which he will by calling you rude, nasty, and stupid), report his refusal to answer. When a press conference or tarmac call out has Harris available, go at her asking for specifics on HER record with Biden and how HER policies will be similar or different.

#politics #USPolitics #Election2024 #Harris2024 #HarrisWalz2024 #Harris_Walz2024

STUDY: ‘Dual-mode households’ (cars & ebikes) can reduce their car use by 19% compared to those solely reliant on cars, particularly affecting shorter trips. This supports households moving to one car and adopting a ‘car light’ lifestyle. Via @MomentumMag https://momentummag.com/study-shows-how-e-bikes-are-shifting-the-transportation-landscape/

When I rewrote the "Enterprise Software" class at UofT, most of my inspiration came from the all the colleges and universities that put together this kind of "Missing Semester" curriculum but limited it to "oh btw: debuggers" and "here's the shell", and never "running a meeting", "how you manage yourself and your project", "getting stuff done in a world where office politics is real", etc. They're basically all just bonus day to day tooling stuff and we can do better.

https://missing.csail.mit.edu/

Discovering that you're wrong & then changing is an underrated superpower. 💪

"The last time carbon dioxide levels were this high, causing the atmosphere and oceans to heat up, was about 3m years ago. Prior to about 800,000 years ago the atmospheric concentration of CO2 was never more than 300 parts per million – that rate has now sailed well beyond 400ppm.

All of this should compel urgent action, say experts.

“This is within our control. It’s a bit like if you are hitting yourself in the face with a hammer – you can choose to stop doing that.”"

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/14/how-does-today-extreme-heat-compare-with-earth-past-climate