shnuboops @shnuboops@qoto.org

I like that the #RedditBlackout is happening. Because it demonstrates how dependent many people have become on only this 1 website controlled by a few rich people.

I hope this is a wake-up call for people and it will lead for some communities to seek independence.

The Internet is !!!NOT!!! just 5 large websites.

I believe in a decentralized Internet; huge central websites with the goal to be a "community of everything" are missing the point of the #Internet.

#Reddit

Brother Day wages war to cling to power in Foundation S2 trailer https://arstechnica.com/?p=1947347

@clarkesworld, which publishes some of the absolute best short fiction year after year, is taking a huge hit from Amazon abruptly ending the Kindle magazine subscription program (while AI-generated slurry is simultaneously overwhelming their staff readers).

Their monthly subscription costs less than many Substacks. If you can, this would be a PERFECT time to subscribe and get the word out.

https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/clarke_03_23/

It seems odd to me - watching the shift towards video as the default medium in news stories online.

99% of the time, I don't want to watch a video. I want to read the story. I want the information.

Video is okay in support of the text of the report - but I generally want the text first & foremost. The facts, the data.

When I click a news link - and turns out it is just a video link & no text - I generally bail before the video plays.

#News #Internet #Media #trends #demographics

Twitter: "Hi, we're run by a cryptofascist who reinstates the accounts of literal nazis while suspending those of press. We'll keep randomly taking away features with no notice and limiting your visibility until you pay us a monthly fee, which you can only do in a handful of countries. Vaccines are bad, the election was rigged, and we love Putin!"

Mastodon: "Hi! You need to choose a server and our DM UX is a little iffy."

Users: "NEVER BEFORE HAVE I FACED A CHOICE THIS HARD"

This recent wave of #racism against #subsaharans in #Tunisia is yet another example on how #social_media companies (mainly #Facebook) are enabling a minority of extreme right wing fascists to spread their hatred among the population. #Hate_speech is being amplified by the #algorithm and content moderation is inexistent. #Meta doesn't even care about the harm they're causing outside of Western countries.

Minnesota State Senator John Jasinski arguing against marijuana legalization:

"The police dog discussion and all that. What's it gonna cost the local law enforcement agencies who've done these dogs-- who've spent thousands and thousand of dollars on these dogs to get these dogs drug trained. And now they're gonna have to be retired?"

https://twitter.com/HeartlandSignal/status/1626283181287653376

Any context-free (prompt-less) chat-AI screenshot should be assumed to be fake, or entirely manipulated with very explicit prompts.

Unless it's funny, of course. Then we assume it is true.

#ai #chatgpt

The #Taku #River #Tlingit #First #Nation (#Atlin, northwest #BC) has declared 1.8 million hectares of the Taku River watershed to be an #Indigenous #Protected and #Conserved #Area. 60% of that is to be off-limits to #mining or other development.

The BC government needs to rapidly work toward #respecting and supporting the Tlingit Nation’s #stewardship of their land.

#IPCA #conservation #biodiversity

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/taku-river-tlingit-protected-area-1.6723444

It has been repeated many times, but the idea that cis het men would go to any bother whatsoever pretending to be trans women in order to sexually assault someone when they do so all the time already and are rarely and barely punished for it is patently absurd, and yet we are constantly forced to address this nonexistent, made-up problem by people who just want trans people to disappear and die.

I found a box of drink coasters in the shape of a save icon!

How cool is that?

I guess I'll end with my usual plea: don't buy Starlink internet. Or if you do, please tell them that you, a paying customer, care about the night sky. They need to make it a priority to make their satellites fainter and use fewer of them - this is a very doable engineering problem that they don't care about right now. There are many other ways to provide internet around the world that don't ruin the night sky and destroy low-Earth orbit.

#SaveTheNightSky

Investigation: Oil giants in Canada who ‘make more money than God’ lobbied the federal government and got $2.6 billion in taxpayer dollars
"Because there are numerous loopholes, the numbers pulled from the federal lobbying registry may only be the tip of the iceberg."

Read more here:
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2023/01/09/investigations/lobbyists-pushed-feds-funnel-billions-taxpayer-money
#cdnpoli #CorporateWelfare #ClimateEmergency #StopSubsidizingTheProblem

A Dutch supermarket chain introduced slow checkouts for people who enjoy chatting, helping many people, especially the elderly, deal with #loneliness.
The move has proven so successful that they installed the slow checkouts in 200 stores...

Iran Says Face Recognition Will ID Women Breaking Hijab Laws https://www.wired.com/story/iran-says-face-recognition-will-id-women-breaking-hijab-laws/?utm_brand=wired&utm_social-type=owned&mbid=social_twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

When Sonya Savage and Danielle Smith say that Alberta has climate and clean energy policy, they're not lying, they just don't know what they're talking about.
#CanadaNews #CanadaPolitics #Alberta
https://youtu.be/1S3w1zPZ7G4

Listen, if you are feeling like it’s too late to follow your dreams or to change things, recall that the very first LIFE ON EARTH film by David Attenborough came out in the 70s when David was 53. Think of every amazing thing he has done since to change the world and promote the environment; these happened in his 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and now at 96 he is working on a new documentary in Scotland. I’m 45. It’s like I haven’t been born yet in David years. #nature #environment #aging #hope

For #ThrowBackThursday: 200 years ago #caribou fences (Tanacross #Dene "tthek") were an ancient and ubiquitous Dene technology found throughout Interior #Alaska. Maintaining many miles of fences like this one was a time consuming task and driving caribou was a multi-family endeavor. Tthek largely went out of use in eastern Interior Alaska once rifles became comparatively widely availability in the late 19th century.

As B.C. sees rising health care privatization, Pat Armstrong and Marjorie Griffin Cohen debunk the calls for for-profit health care to fix our crisis. 🩺

https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2023/01/05/Bury-Private-Health-Care-Zombie/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_content=010523-m&utm_campaign=editorial

Happy new year! Another year means another year-long keogram! Every 15 seconds throughout 2022, my trusty all-sky camera took a picture of the sky above the Netherlands. Combining these 2.1 million images into a year-long keogram reveals this picture, which shows the length of the night change throughout the year (the hourglass shape), when the Moon was visible at night (diagonal bands), and the Sun higher in the sky during summer, as well as lots and lots of clouds passing overhead.