Phil Landmeier @shuttersparks@qoto.org

I'm pretty sure Mastodon is the first social network I've been on that didn't immediately ask me to betray all of the people in my address book.

Meta is incredibly evil—and they are actively destabilizing the world!

Here's just one more case of Meta receiving dirty money that sparked an uprising. This time in Moldova.

https://www.businessinsider.in/international/news/meta-allowed-a-kremlin-linked-oligarch-to-run-facebook-ads-calling-for-uprisings-against-pro-western-government-in-moldova/articleshow/98021350.cms

Something real and different seems to be going on in new user metrics.

In the past we've had sharp surges whenever something ridiculous happens over on Twitter. Brief spikes above 2000 new users per hour, even some topping 5000, but this last week is different.

The rate had fallen below 500, but for the last week has been climbing in a sustained fashion, and is now rolling along around 1000.

Plenty of new Twitter crazy to point to, but this feels more like a solid trend.

#twittermigration

@SrRochardBunson I stand with Florida students. Schools have no business releasing health records to the FL Government! Walk out now. Shut it all down!

#foxnews #Ingraham #Hannity #trump #maga #lies

You know what’s amazing? When a new Mastodon user with no followers says hello into the void and gets several welcoming replies. Try doing that on Twitter.

@malwaretech
This is how I see those billionaire stans.

Fry: Yeah! That'll show those poor!

Leela: Why are you cheering, fry? You're not rich.

Fry: True, but someday I might be rich and then people like me better watch their step

Award-winning NASA mathematician and computer programmer Melba Mouton is being honored with the naming of a mountain at the Moon’s South Pole. Mouton joined NASA in 1959, just a year after the space agency was established. She was the leader of a team that coded computer programs to calculate spacecraft trajectories and locations. Her contributions were instrumental to landing the first humans on the Moon.

She also led the group of "human computers," who tracked the Echo satellites. (tumblr)

The robots aren't taking over. They're not falling in love. They're not feeling. They don't want to be alive. They're not evil masterminds. They create word patterns based off text on the internet. Is what journalists should be saying, not gee-whiz sci-fi LARPing about fancy autocorrect.

Queen size

Florida toddler fatally shoots himself with father's gun - NBC News https://apple.news/AybGcrI9kS2-sdf4jwLnI0Q

I am white, and was raised in small mostly white communities when I was young, but moved to a larger city as a young teenager. Like a lot of white kids, I didn't understand how much of a thing casual everyday racism was, until I met my future best friend Cameron. I'd never been pulled over by the cops before, and now suddenly I was getting pulled over frequently, for no reason at all, the only difference was now there was a black man in the car. I remember the first time getting pulled over, and the cop asking for all of our ID's with no explanation at all, Cam saw me about to mouth off, and the look of terror on his face made me shut up immediately. Later, he told me when it happened again to just comply, don't ask questions, don't get angry. I had never had to view cops with fear before, in my mind, you only needed to be afraid if you were a criminal, but Cam was afraid, just for existing as black. If people try to tell you that black people are dramatizing their struggle, they are lying!

Accidently moved an item into the self checkout bagging area and red lights strobed overhead while the instruction screen split into a view of my face and a shot of me from behind and security confronted me but go ahead and defy a subpoena Mike Pence we’re all equal under the law.

Breaking Hardline News™

The News They Want You to Think They Don't Want You to Hear

Today's Headlights

Florida governor censors school teachers in order to promote free speech, and then lies freely about it.
2354th train-wreck-induced hazardous spill this year is newsworthy, but the rest are just business as usual. Incidentally, isn't it great that Trump repealed those nasssty profit-reducing freight train safety regs, and then Biden forced the workers to keep working when they tried to strike over insanely bad safety practices? I mean, that would have been terrible for the economy if they'd gone on strike and made the train company run a safer option. Stocks might have gone down some, or maybe even more than some, and that would be bad. 📉 😭 [This has been an editorial comment by me and does not reflect the opinion of my actual self.]
Liar capable of appearing marginally competent throws hat in ring to run against former liar President who lost two elections for being obviously incompetent but somehow got to be President anyway because of an outdated elitist institution designed to prevent too much democracy from happening, and somehow this... matters? I guess? (See our special report coming up soon: When Will America Stop Hitting Itself By Voting for Obvious Liars?)
Media gets very excited about thing which happens routinely (several candidates here) while downplaying stuff that people should be paying attention to.
Fascists consolidate power in multiple states; media describes one of them as a "maverick" who is "bucking the system".
Lawmakers in North Carolina, concerned about the growing number of daily gun massacres, submit legislation to further loosen gun regulations.
Mainstream media outlet which the Right loves to describe as "liberal" receives a letter containing lucid and detailed criticism of their repeated slandering trans people, from a group of sensible people who understand that this is bad. Said outlet has responded to this criticism by doing it some more.
The climate continues to deteriorate due to rampant profit-seeking, but it's okay 🔥 because some companies are finally putting a small fraction of their investments into technology which could have prevented this if they'd been serious about it half a century ago.
Right-wing media continues to increase use of words and phrases they don't understand.
Brilliant genius entrepreneur continues to wreck company he gave himself for $40B. Scientists remain unsure as to whether this is deliberate or if he really is, to put it in technical terms, "just that clueless".

...and that's our edition for tonight! We hope each of you can survive another day without dying, having a mental break, being unable to stop crying, or otherwise having too much of a bad day.

(My diligent side wants to research each of these and provide links and get the details right, but that doesn't seem to be fashionable these days and anyway I have no budget.)

Doctor appearing on CNN compares Sen. Fetterman's health problems with Rep. George Santos -- says they both shouldn't be in Congress. Seriously, he compared health issues with Santos' stream of lies! You should be ashamed CNN!

When your guests arrive early but they’re special friends so you’re ok with it.