Pablo SB @iPabloSB@qoto.org

"Ohhh we're losing all of our land to solar panel farms... "
No. We're not. This is a lie. And it's meant to deceive us into sticking with fossil fuels for longer.
Excellent data-driven, graphics-based story from the Australian ABC at..
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-18/survey-of-the-worlds-solar-shows-global-boom/104006096

The last 2 weeks shamefully exemplify the hierarchy of human life:
•1 CEO killed—national news for weeks, new security hired, people charged with terrorism
•488 mass shootings in 2024—no major legislation to stop future shootings
•200K+ Palestinians killed—send even more bombs to Netanyahu

This is unsustainable. This is unacceptable. This is indefensible. This must change.

With the polio vaccine in the news, I want to tell some of my mom's story:

My mom got polio when she was a kid living in southern California, pre-vaccine. She survived it, but it put her in a wheelchair for a while, then leg braces. She was actually a literal poster child for the Polio vaccine: they used her picture on some March of Dimes posters.

But this was not a thing that just affected her for a while, and then she was better. As a result of having Polio, her right leg is slightly shorter than her left. For her entire life, she's had to have special lifts put into her right shoe. When she drives, she uses her left foot for the brake pedal because she's concerned that her right leg might not be strong enough to stomp on the brake hard if needed. She has always been limited in how long and far she can walk: I remember many times on family vacations where the rest of us would go off to do something and she'd have to sit it out because she knew she just couldn't do that much walking.

Now that she's elderly, a lifetime of this is catching up: her bones, joints, ligaments, tendons are all messed up from having a weak leg and an unbalanced gait. Her mobility is declining much faster than it should be, even for someone of her age. She had to have her ankle fused because of the constant pain it was causing.

Polio didn't ruin her life, but it has stolen it in slices. Times she couldn't keep up with her kids, times she was just too tired to be able to stay on her feet, chronic pain, losing the ability to climb stairs in her own house as she ages.

Vaccination is the greatest public health success humanity has ever produced, and we forget this only at our own peril.

For all you cis folks. Feel free to boost.

#trans #transgender #FirstTheyCame #MartinNiemoller #Allies

We’ve gone from people idolising CEOs as heroes, to the public laughing when a VC/startup-oriented bank fails, to CEO assassins becoming spontaneous folk heroes in fairly short order

I think it’s a fair guess that the US is in for a wild ride over the next decade

If you name your product after the villain, maybe you are not the hero.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/12/05/tech-ceos-elites-home-security-silicon-valley/

I just can't stop thinking about how boring rich people are. I like having money, getting cool stuff, traveling, but mostly it would be nice not to have to stress about making it, but if you manage to achieve that, why would you possibly want more than that? Like you can do basically anything, and your plan is to make more money?! That is just baffling! And then you want people to like you for that?! When you could legitimately spend every single day making people's lives better, and it wouldn't even make you not rich, but you just don't, and you wonder why people don't like you.

I'm sorry, I'm on a rant tonight, but seriously, some people would rather buy a President than just do one thing that would make them likable and interesting.

south korea president: I DECLARE MARTIAL LAW

south korean youth on the streets at 3am: u wat m8

south korea president: I UNDECLARE MARTIAL LAW

This is great.

https://www.skeletonclaw.com/

People arguing that LLMs can create good summaries of texts don't seem to understand what a good summary is. Hint: It's not just a shorter version of the text.

This toot encapsulates everything wrong with $ in politics.

*80% of the public wants something, but nope, can’t have it.

*Donors (those with $$$) get the ultimate say.

*Pols do whatever the $$$ tells them because if they don’t, they lose their job.

*Those with the $$$ (corporations & corp owners) get to dictate the policies that govern them.

*This leads to monopolies that make our lives more expensive and much worse since there’s no regulation & no competition.
https://press.coop/@WIRED/113209298383884874

And now I officially hate this bubble more than the crypto bubble.
https://www.ivory.ai/home

Today is the autumn equinox 🍂

As autumn arrives in the northern hemisphere leaves will soon be turning shades of yellow, orange and red on their way to brown.

This graphic is an old favourite that looks at the colour chemistry involved: https://bit.ly/3Zx6Li6

Just seen something referring to academics as "unpaid content creators for Elsevier" and I am dead ⚰️.

@academicsunite @academicchatter
#Academia #Macademia #Science

Looks like Western media is already attempting to normalise Israel’s supply-chain-based terrorist attack from yesterday that indiscriminately and savagely wounded ~3,000 people (yes, they’re people, as hard as it might be for some white folks to understand), some 300 of them critically, and killed others, including a 10-year-old girl.

But don’t worry, it’s not like many USians/Europeans carry personal electronic devices made in foreign countries or anything… what’s the worst that could happen?

The Internet Archive losing its appeal means one thing: pirate stuff. Pirate brazenly. There’s no point trying to do it the nice way - you’ll get shut down anyway. Copy, share, and archive to your heart’s content. It’s the only way we’re keeping digital media and our cultural memory intact.

This is very sad, and an example of what happens when the collective public relies on dubious 2 minute shorts on TikTok and Youtube to get their "information" from, more and more, and lose the ability to absorb long form content by people who actually know what they're talking about.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/21542/end-of-the-road-an-anandtech-farewell

If it sounds like the composer might be a vampire, it's Bach.

If it sounds like the composer is trying to set the violins on fire, it's Vivaldi.

If it sounds like the composer is trying to sell you fancy mustard, it's Haydn

If it sounds like the composer is making fun of you, it's Mozart.

If it sounds like the composer is trying to make you as deaf as he is, it's Beethoven.

If it sounds like the composer is trying to shoot you, it's Tchaikovsky.

If it sounds like the composer is mansplaining to you, it's Wagner.

If it sounds like you bought Star Wars on Temu, it's Holst.

If it sounds like the composer is trying to incite a riot, it's Stravinsky.

If it sounds like there's 10 hands playing a single piano, it’s Liszt.

If it sounds like there's 10 hands playing a single piano and all of them are clinically depressed, it's Chopin.

If it sounds like two marching bands playing different songs meeting at the 0 yard line, it's Ives.

If it sounds like , it's Cage.