Brian Beach has moved @bwbeach@qoto.org

Puh-lease conference organizers. Don’t send these email where you tell me you already have all these <list names> men and you are now realizing you need women too. It’s not that I wouldn’t know I’m asked for my content but do you have to rub it in how women are an afterthought in your bubble…. Fix the problem not the appearance.

Licklider's Aliens

"How the potential of a 'Close Encounter' in outerspace shaped the way the Internet works here on earth"

https://mamund.substack.com/p/lickliders-aliens

I already boosted, but once again, go check out “Choosing Algorithms : We Live in a Society” by @maya at https://maya.land/responses/2022/11/28/we-live-in-a-society.html - it’s a response to my “Protect Me From What I Want”.

It highlights big issues in algorithm choice, e.g.: “Show me what I want vs what I’d like to want vs what’s good for me.” and worry that sophisticated algorithms will be gamed (will be *built to be gamed*) by the wrong people. Nicely written.

Also includes tasty bread and adorable typography.

1. The nation's 100K+ rail workers get ZERO paid sick days

They want FOUR

And are threatening to strike December 9

In response, corporate America is demanding Congress intervene and force them to continue working without any paid sick days

https://popular.info/p/railroading-workers

Interesting summary paper on the history of airborne transmission of disease. Illustrates how rejecting a theory (the miasma theory of infection) that was sometimes right, but for the wrong reason, makes the replacement theory (infection only by contact or close proximity) much stickier than it deserved to be.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ina.13070

I wrote an editorial about the #AntimicrobialResistance crisis. It covers the need for a #Global #Equitable approach, #resistance in neglected #fungi & #parasites, the promise of new #antibiotics, sharing of #sequence data, idiotic policies that risk antibiotic stewardship & more

Please share it far and wide - this #WorldAntimicrobialAwarenessWeek we've not been as loud as others, or as loud as we need to

The antimicrobial resistance crisis needs action now
#WAAW2022 https://plos.io/3U2OoeJ

This is for white people: The point is not telling a target of #racism to block report and defederate so that they (and you) no longer need to see it and you can stay comfortable. The point is supporting them when they call it out and then YOU end it, or at least make it have consequences, by your own actions and within yourself. When racism is pointed out, don’t make it the observer’s fault. Go after the perp. It’s a white people problem.

#introduction The mission of the #Auschwitz Memorial is to preserve the site and all remains of the German Nazi concentration & extermination camp.

We commemorate the victims & educate about this part of human #history.

Tragedy of Auschwitz shows where hatred, #antisemitism and contempt for a fellow man led people in the past. Yet, it is a place where we should reflect on our individual and collective #responsibility for the world we live in.

Support our mission online. Amplify our voice.

Let’s try this again. Where you at #fediverse? Boosts welcome so we can get the best sample size.

"Mastodon Is 'Antiviral' Design"

My essay on this: https://clivethompson.medium.com/mastodon-is-antiviral-design-42f090ab8d51

Twitter (and most big social media) is laser-focused on creating virality -- i.e. training the joint attention of millions of people on one hot post/meme/story/event happening *right this instant* ... and doing it over and over and over again

Mastodon really isn't -- for lots of rich and interesting reasons

It's why some emigres from Twitter find Mastodon so baffling

This place embraces slowness and useful friction

Because I'm on a German server my trending topics are #keinVergessen and #niemalsVergessen. This is because 9 November is the anniversary of Kristallnacht.

These brass plates in the pavements memorialise Jewish people at what were their addresses. I saw this one in Berlin in the spring. #NeverForget

Timely paper on #Mastodon and 'innovations in #platform
governance that go beyond the corporate/alt-right platform dichotomy' by @robertwgehl & Diana Zulli

https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:49433/

The fall of Twitter and the work of creating democratic social spaces https://b.mamund.com/3TmZpXH

social media sites are "...more like a government than a company. And governments that are unaccountable to people are autocracies."

#FEdiverse #Mastodon #Twitter