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Robert S boosted

BIG NEWS: I am introducing a bill to require candidates to disclose under oath their employment, educational, & military history so we can punish candidates who lie to voters about their qualifications.

It will be called the Stop Another Non-Truthful Office Seeker (SANTOS) ACT.

Robert S boosted

Mask in indoor public spaces.

Limit the size and frequency of your social gatherings.

Think about ventilation.

Stay home when sick.

It's important.

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Robert S boosted

This post from Tumblr's Ghostonly is the best social media advice I've ever read:

How to have a good internet experience in 8 easy steps

tumblr.com/ghostonly/667966959

Robert S boosted
Robert S boosted

There are those who look at President Zelensky and the Ukrainians as if the aid request is merely self-serving—as if they don’t grasp that the fight with Putin and Russia is not only for their sovereignty but for NATO and all those who believe in and are dedicated to democracy and justice.

@johncarlosbaez @Danpiker
Do different ways of dividing the square always give different proportions for the rectangles?

More formally: say two ways to divide the square are equivalent, if I can get from one to the other by taking some subset of the similar rectangles, that itself forms a rectangle (not necessarily of the same proportion), and reflecting it vertically or horizontally. Two ways of dividing the square are “different” if they are in separate equivalence classes.

Are there two different divisions of the square, each into the same number of subrectangles, such that all the subrectangles in both squares are similar?

Robert S boosted

In today's New York Times a Homeowner Association tried to force a Maryland couple with a native garden to change to a tidy lawn. The complaint was that their garden was "attracting rodents, deer, snakes and bats, and that they were planting shrubs and bushes in no particular order." Yes, in no particular order!

Legal proceedings ensued and there's now a state law forbidding homeowner associations from banning eco-friendly gardens.

nytimes.com/2022/12/14/climate

#biodiversity #gardens #urban #nature

@mhoye In Edmund’s defense: there was a war on. I’ve been told that’s how the English ended up with canned peas.

Robert S boosted

Having run my own test mastodon server, I can tell you that boosting is REALLY important. That's how posts propagate between servers that are not federated together.

I may get a bit technical, and it can be hard to describe but it's something like this:

Let's say that you have 2 servers, A and B that are not connected. They have their own federated timelines that is vastly different.

let's assume they have their users @a@A and @b@B that are mutuals. If user @a@A sees something interesting on theirs federated timeline and boosts it, user @b@B will see that on their own home page. But more importantly server B will now know about and download that post, and everyone else on B server will be able to see that post on their own federated timeline!

And that's why you boost, guys! It helps posts to spread.

#FediTips

Robert S boosted

The first black child ever allowed to attend a white school is only 68 years old now.
White parents pulled their children from school. White teachers refused to teach her.
Ruby Bridges now works as an activist & public speaker
This wasn’t a million years ago. /1

Robert S boosted

The problem, of course — the one everyone knows — is that once providers become big enough, they turn the tables on regulators and users. The Chicago city council may once have had the telephone exchange by the throat, but now massive telecomm and tech companies are dominant forces in federal government and strangle their users through lock-in, as @pluralistic details brilliantly. <web.archive.org/web/2021062205> 16/

Robert S boosted

It's perfectly reasonable and possible for *both* of these statements to be true:

* it is better here than on Twitter
* this better *isn't good enough*

Federation and decentralization *as currently and inconsistently and idiosyncratically practiced* while better, are not good enough.

Digging in and saying that decentralization and federation *is* good enough is really, really unhelpful.

Also, the potential for better does not mean the practical experience is better.

@mathlover @freemo My (no-longer-)secret fear is that this sort of nonsense will be weaponized, again and again, to ostracize one instance after another

Robert S boosted

Some quick notes on how we might build some of the essential infrastructure and governance processes that will be needed if #Mastodon is really going to be sustainable and viable as a mass-adoption social network (1/n):

@louiscouture The alleged shooter *claims* to be non-binary, via his attorney. I’m not aware of any evidence that he identified that way before the shooting. This strikes me as a legal ploy.

And even if true, it should not make it impossible to charge a hate crime: far from it. There are plenty of self-haters out there.

Robert S boosted

After hearing some feedback,a nd wanting to be fair in my representation, I have change the title of the article. It is now:

# Eugen Rochko, CEO of Mastodon, Caves to Nazi's Agenda

I think we can all agree thats a more faithful title.

jeffreyfreeman.me/eugen-rochko

🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱  
Sp I wrote a pretty lengthy blog post entitled: Eugen Rochko, CEO of Mastodon, Found to Support Nazi’s Agenda Sadly I wish it was clickbait. You ...
Robert S boosted

the kid in omelas was a content moderator

Robert S boosted
Robert S boosted

The hardest problem in computer science is to make a social network without nazis

@davidgerard The birdsite Ukraine list I use is curated by Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo (@joshtpm):

mobile.twitter.com/i/lists/149

I also recommend the coverage on dailykos.com, by kos and other contributors.

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QOTO: Question Others to Teach Ourselves
An inclusive, Academic Freedom, instance
All cultures welcome.
Hate speech and harassment strictly forbidden.