Mike Agg has moved @countingquoll@qoto.org

"Clean" my shower? Then what? Give my car a ride into town? Grow up already.

Don’t tick the “next day delivery” box without really needing it. Urgent delivery means that delivery vehicles go out only partly full and travel further to get to delivery sites that are more spaced out. It basically chops off a large part of the energy, human and cost efficiency of mass parcel delivery, but it’s ooooh, soo seductive. Please don’t fall for it (it’s a marketing ploy), unless the sky is going to fall in if you don’t get widget A by tomorrow. #climate #Mail #Delivery

I’ve just finished “Children of Time” by Adrian Tchaikovsky. 600-odd pages flashed by as the story unfolded in front of me. I think I’ll be dreaming of hyper-evolved spiders for some time to come, but with them as the heroes of the story, not the monsters. How is that even possible? What a feat of imagination. An extraordinary story and a quite brilliant read.
#SciFi #Books

The best thing about Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning: Part 1 is that it cured me of any desire to see Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning: Part 2

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2023/07/15/mission-impossible-dead-reckoning-part-1-a-surfeit-of-colons/

#StarTrek
#Clint

Mastodon is really starting to build a solid #News #USPolitics and #Legal analysis sector. Some who've been missing for a while are back, and others who've been here the whole time are in full stride:

Good follows: @emptywheel, @Teri_Kanefield, @wendysiegelman, @GottaLaff, @pbump, @dangillmor, @taylorlorenz, @w7voa, @chrisgeidner, @QasimRashid, @heidilifeldman, @rbreich, @lawfare, @maxkennerly, @fulelo, @marcelias, @uspolitics, @ProPublica, @icymi_law

Feel free to add recommendations below...

Look at this frog, just look at it. It's glorious.

I'm launching a new social media app. It's called BIRB. This is the logo. It's the only app that demands you crochet, knit or embroider your posts.
Posts are called 'Yarns', editing a Yarn is called Darning, threads are called Tapestries, pile-ons are Shag Piles, blocking is called Black-Sheeping.
#BIRB

In case you're new to us, hello! Here's a quick #Introduction

We are a non-profit organisation based in Liverpool, dedicated to the promotion of scientific skepticism.

▶️ We run #SkepticsInThePub events (1st and 3rd Thursday every month).
▶️ We have produce podcasts - Skeptics with a K, Be Reasonable, and Inkredulous.
▶️ We run a magazine - @TheSkeptic
▶️ Some of us help organise an annual conference - @QEDcon

And you can support all of the above on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/merseyskeptics

Hello #Mastodon, this is the official Skeptics in the Pub account - follow us for updates about the skeptical community around the world!

Given the rattling death spiral of THE OTHER PLACE, QED now has its own profile right here in the Mastoverse.

If you're interested in skepticism with a compassionate edge, you should all check it out: @QEDcon

If you're thinking of using Facebook/Instagram's Twitter clone, here's a reminder of just how invasive it will be of your privacy:

SUBSTACK

Why the United Kingdom government cannot leave the ECHR without either breaching or re-negotiating the Good Friday Agreement.

The overlooked obstacle to the United Kingdom withdrawing from the ECHR.

https://emptycity.substack.com/p/why-the-united-kingdom-government

@mmasnick APIs were created as a more efficient way of getting to data versus web scraping. So when he killed API access, of course devs turned back to web scraping to get the data.

No doubt that created additional load on the servers, so he thinks limiting access to the data via requiring an account to view tweets and rate limiting web resources is a good solution.

But now he's just limited ad exposure. Aren't ads a large driver to revenue? So, yeah, this is tremendously stupid.

This is a fun game. It gets silly, fast… https://neal.fun/password-game/

In 100,000 years an alien ship enters our solar system. The earth has no remarkable intelligent life, but it's a beautiful biodiverse planet recovering from some bad extinctions. The aliens don't notice the traces left by humanity right away, this is just a survey trip and not much monumental remains.

But, they do pick up a signal, coming not from Earth, but from Mars. "How strange?" they think. Mars is obviously the inferior planet for life. Earth is incredible. But they go to investigate. 1/

TikTok: Look! I discovered hot water melts frozen food faster!

Twitter: Look at this TikTok video showing how to defrost your food faster!

Yahoo news: Millions of Twitter users view TikTok video showing new life hack for melting frozen food!

Mastodon: Please read my academic white paper describing the impacts of public school system underfunding