Dave T-W @davoloid@qoto.org

The thing most people don't remember about Prometheus is that humans already had fire, but then Zeus locked it up behind a paywall, because Zeus was a petty little bitch. Prometheus stole it *back*. In this essay about DRM I will

@ChrisMayLA6 I imagine someone has done a cost benefit analysis on the expense of changing monarch (again) and the cost of keeping him alive and found that it will help the NHS if he queue jumps.

“Just as the German army did, Republicans bet on what they thought was a malleable figurehead who would shower money on the plutocracy, shovel resources to the military and bust the unions. In both cases, they mostly got what they wanted. But in both cases, they also failed to foresee that their intended stooge would not only break free of their control but exert such total domination as to reduce them to cringing toadies forever protesting their loyalty.”

How Donald Trump reduced the GOP to groveling sycophants | Salon.com

https://www.salon.com/2024/02/04/how-donald-reduced-the-to-groveling-sycophants/

The idea in this paper is that wings could have evolved to flush camouflaged or otherwise-concealed insects into flying up and revealing their presence. Some modern birds do this.

(Images from Macaulay Library, via Park et al 2024)

Earlier this week at @cwts we launched the #OpenEdition of our #LeidenRanking https://open.leidenranking.com/.

The Open Edition is the first fully transparent university ranking. All data is openly available. The source code of the software used to process the data and to calculate the indicators is openly available as well.

https://www.leidenmadtrics.nl/articles/introducing-the-leiden-ranking-open-edition

https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2024/01/algorithms-and-data-behind-leiden-ranking-in-public-domain

Umberto Eco has a cogent essay about how to spot the signs of what he calls "Ur-Fascism", or the essential components of fascism.

I turned it into an infographic, because, well, you know why...

Original article here in PDF: https://www.pegc.us/archive/Articles/eco_ur-fascism.pdf

#fascism #authoritarianism #elections #infographic #democracy

Absolutely. Do not use, do not support BetterHelp.

They took patients’ intake questionnaires and sold them to Facebook.

BetterHelp itself is not a ‘covered provider’ under HIPAA. But they heavily implied any data you gave them was HIPAA covered, and would not be shared.

They have been slapped with a $8 million fine by the FTC.

(I think they should be a HIPAA-covered provider, and they should be prosecuted.)

BetterHelp *cannot be trusted*. Stay away!

https://weirder.earth/@dessertgeek/111854230732895093

My book is available now on Amazon and elsewhere for pre-ordering.

Date it will come out is May 2024.

Um... reposts really appreciated.
Sorry to do 'advertising' though (ahh I don't enjoy this part lol)

Over and out. Thank you 😊

In the UK, it's possible to apply for up to 7 years of full time funding to do fundamental research without any academic affiliation, via the future leader fellowships scheme. Most with recent experience of UK academia will see the advantages of doing research hosted by a small non-profit rather than a massive, deeply hierarchical institution.

I'm lucky to have one of these fellowships with @thentrythis , and will be talking about it as part of this 'webinar' https://iuk.ktn-uk.org/events/future-leaders-fellowships-round-9-business-competition-support-webinar/

TBH it'd be really hard to navigate the application process without academic experience, but it's possible, and I have the feeling that success rates are higher than academic applicants.

Also @amberfirefly wrote about the experience from an organisational perspective here: https://thentrythis.org/notes/2022/08/25/research-funding-for-small-organisations-our-future-leaders-fellowship-experiences/
#ukriflf

Please choose from the two contemporary design styles for your wifi hardware: “rounded soft box with white light” and “satanic death cult blood sacrifice altar”

In case you're not aware, one of the primary issues with what3words is addresses containing words that are indistinguishable from others when spoken: https://w3w.me.ss

Whoa.

https://explorersweb.com/lichen-survives-space

Type C / Type B / Type A

Me: I need new shoelaces.

Wife: There’s a shoe store on 68th where a cranky-ass old man has hundreds of different shoelaces…

Me: Do I want to go to a shop run by a cranky-ass old man?

Wife: He might be a cranky-ass old man because online retailers have destroyed the local business he’s been running for 40 years…

Me: I’ll go there this week.

On a regular basis, someone (usually a straight, cis, white man) says that we can solve the problem of people being nasty online by using real names. It doesn't work, and it hurts people who can't risk using their real name..

"Results show that in the context of online firestorms, non-anonymous individuals are more aggressive compared to anonymous individuals. This effect is reinforced if selective incentives are present and if aggressors are intrinsically motivated."

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0155923