Phil Landmeier @shuttersparks@qoto.org

Musk seems like the sort of guy who would have made fun of Stephen Hawking because Hawking had "a silly sounding voice."

Admittedly, it's not fair that driving around a Tesla these days is to many onlookers like wearing a giant MAGA hat and a sign that says "Making fun of people with disabilities is so cool!" -- No, it isn't fair. But that's what sleeping with Musk these days will get you.

Elon Musk Publicly Mocks His [ex] Employee for Daring to Have Muscular Dystrophy - https://futurism.com/elon-musk-mocks-employee-disability

Please pay attention to GOP in Georgia: they just passed a bill in Senate to give GOP ability to remove any prosecutor. This is 100% so they can remove DA Fani Willis who is on verge of indicting Trump. GOP is willing to change law to protect Trump! https://ajc.com/politics/georgia-das-could-face-new-oversight-under-gop-measure/67NBPFTYQVHX7BCNF5KS5BIFDI/

Trump ethics lawyer facing disbarment after allegedly trying to tamper with Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony

Stefan Passantino is facing an onslaught of accusations from multiple sources that could lead to his disbarment if not worse.

https://www.rawstory.com/stefan-passantino/

Three reminders:

"Handmaid's Tale" has already been here the whole time, it was pointed at racialized women.

Racism is fascism that hasn't yet come for the white people.

The future is already here, it's just unevenly distributed.

Fascinating story of ingenuity by a stranded motorist in Oregon who attached his phone to a drone in order to get reception & send a distress message.

He inadvertently saved another motorist who had been stranded for days nearby but was found when SAR was deployed for the drone caller.

If you have a dog like mine who enjoys sticking their schnoz in your armpits—stay with me here—then they might have a bright future as a covid "sniffer" pup.

New research shows they're good at it.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-30897-1

"These findings support the idea that biodetection dogs could help reduce the spread of the virus in high-risk environments, including airports, schools, and public transport."

#SchoolsAreSuperspreaders #Covid #Covid19 #LongCovid #LongCovidKids #Education @novid

Left-Wing Authoritarianism

“Similar to right-wing authoritarianism, left-wing authoritarianism entails hostility towards ‘different’ others, a willingness to wield in-group authority to coerce behaviour, cognitive rigidity, aggression and punitiveness towards out-groups, a focus on status hierarchies and moral absolutism.”

https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-023-00161-4

#Science
#Psychology
#SocialPsychology
#SocialScience
@socialpsych
#PolPsych
#PoliticalScience
@politicalscience

Telling people to leave Twitter is silly anyway. The math ain't mathing for Elon. He may be losing hundreds of millions a month. Advertisers ain't coming back. The Eng and policy teams are at unsustainably low levels. This doesn't end well.

But I'll repeat what I said in my 1st few months on Mastodon: if you want communities to move over to Mastodon, make Mastodon better for those communities. Don't just yell "Elon is bad!" Many of the people you're telling, knew he was bad way before you did.

This article on the prolonged twilight of the 3.5” floppy disk in long-lived, high-cost equipment of various kinds doesn’t mention scientific instrumentation, but I bet there’s a lot out there nonetheless.

A little over a decade ago, the lab I was working in got a new instrument (from the single company that built it) that was run from a laptop that they custom built to house the 3.5” floppy drive for the software… and the serial port needed to talk to the instrument.

https://www.wired.com/story/why-the-floppy-disk-just-wont-die/

Happy Women's History Month.

When my mother got married in 1955, all of her financial accounts were automatically transferred to my father the minute she tried to use them under her married name. Her credit cards were canceled and reissued in his name. Her credit rating ceased to exist and became his alone.

When I got divorced in the state of New Jersey in 1999, even thought no-fault divorce had been legal since 1970, (and female suicide rates then dropped 20%), NJ didn't offer no-fault divorce. Even now, a couple is required to be separated for a year and a half before being allowed to file for no-fault.

Oh goody, #AI generated #scam calls being used to imitate the sound of friends and family and asking for money. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/03/05/ai-voice-scam/

@DeliaChristina

In 1999 to 2000 I was going through a very rough patch in my life. What with the state of things, I didn't get to see #GalaxyQuest when it was first released. Finally, on a day I was feeling particularly low, and shortly before the movie left the theaters, I canceled work and took myself out to a midday matinée.

I was the *only* person in a vast theater, of a size that no one builds anymore, sitting and waiting for the lights to go down. At one point, I turned and peered up at the projectionist's booth. I saw a shadowy figure moving back and forth behind the window, bending and straightening. This was in the days before automated, digital films. The Phantom Menace had been released digitally in 1999, but the equipment to show such films was extremely expensive and most theaters hadn't converted yet; "projectionist" was still real job.

While I was looking, the figure paused, strode to the window and peered back at me, then disappeared quickly.

I turned back around and continued to fidget and ponder the misfit pieces of my life.

At the top of the aisle behind me, the theater door swung open and banged loudly on the wall. The projectionist strode down the aisle toward me, a tall barrel-shaped man with a thick beard and glasses. My first thought was that the matinee was canceled due to low turnout, and I'd be getting a refund. Just as I'd resigned myself to that, the marching projectionist shouted out in a booming voice,

"WELCOME to your PRIVATE viewing oooooooof GALAXY QUEST!!!"

He stopped in front of my row, and I saw that he had an *armload* of STUFF. One by one, he began presenting each thing to me, and as the pile in his arms dwindled, the one in my lap grew.

"As our SPECIAL VIP Galaxy Quest GUEST today, YOU are entitled to..."

"- A commemorative t-shirt!"
"- A poster suitable for framing!"
"- A limited edition refrigerator magnet!"
"- A button to pin to your lapel!"

The list and the shwag went on. With every ridiculous item, I laughed harder and harder, until there were tears leaking out of the corners of my eyes.

Then he bowed and shouted, "WE HOPE YOU ENJOY THE SHOW!" and turned on his heel to march back up the aisle and out the exit door.

Alas, of all the shwag only the magnet has stood the test of time. But the humor and kindness of the unknown projectionist lives on.

Time for bed. Here’s a childhood (high school) memory. This is how we ferried my mother to and fro from our house in the winter. #photo #snowmobile #dogsofmastoson

Any solid cone with uniform density — regardless of the shape of its base (including polygonal bases, which give pyramids) — has its centre of mass located exactly 1/4 of its height from the base, and exactly 37/64 of its mass lies closer to the base than its centre of mass.

What's behind the 'shortage' of #workers in many countries?

A decline in workers under 35, due to falling birth rates in the last 20+ years, stalling a decades long growth in the labour force.

The resistance to hiring older workers, driven partly by (outdated?) ageist attitudes among employers about when a worker might be worn out, plus a suspicion their skills & technical knowledge is out of date.

This suggests #lifelonglearning is a key element to the solution.

https://theconversation.com/what-is-driving-current-labour-market-shortages-and-how-older-workers-could-help-200873?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1677862445

Nice. Latvia knows what it's like to have Russia breathing down their neck, having only recently taken the Russian boot itself off of it.
"Russian warship, go fuck yourself!"
#SlavaUkraini
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYbQ0-If6OA