volkris @volkris@qoto.org
I think the most pressing and fundamental problem of the day is that people lack a practically effective means of sorting out questions of fact in the larger world. We can hardly begin to discuss ways of addressing reality if we can't agree what reality even is, after all.
The institutions that have served this role in the past have dropped the ball, so the next best solution is talking to each other, particularly to those who disagree, to sort out conflicting claims.
Unfortunately, far too many actively oppose this, leaving all opposing claims untested. It's very regressive.
So that's my hobby, striving to understanding the arguments of all sides at least because it's interesting to see how mythologies are formed but also because maybe through that process we can all have our beliefs tested.
But if nothing else, social media platforms like this are chances to vent frustrations that on so many issues both sides are obviously wrong ;)
Joined Dec 2022
Contrary to news reports, according to the CRS status table, no, the #Senate hasn't passed its appropriations bills while the #House dilly-dallies.
It seems the story that #Musk disabled #Starlink to sabotage #Ukraine has been disputed by the author who was the original source for the whole thing.
This is why rushes to judgment based on sensational headlines are so unhealthy.
https://twitter.com/WalterIsaacson/status/1700342242290901361
volkris
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i'll never get over the intense special interest required for someone to post this on imdb
The paid option is intended to make money :)
But to be serious, blue checkmarks always had a vanity element to them, so they were offered for whatever purpose a users wanted them.
If users are interested in paying for blue checks for whatever reason the individual user may want one, Twitter is happy to take their money.
None of that has impact on other options for identity verification, though, if one wants to pursue it.
Tapper declaring that it sounds like the Secretary of State is engaging in drama doesn't make it true, but it does create plenty of clickbait in the press.
It should always be a red flag when a reporter or a reporter's actions or statements get more coverage than the actual officials or experts they're supposedly reporting on.
Sadly, reporters like this have found profit in doing that stuff, promoting drama where it doesn't exist, and generally misleading news consumers.
If it really sounds to Tapper that #Blinken doesn't want to risk offending #Musk over #Starlink then I'm thinking Tapper might be in the wrong job, because he seems to be projecting his own drama into the reporting.
volkris
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@AGHamilton29: "This is framed as if recusal would be expected in such circumstances, which is insane and ridiculous.
If Judges had to recuse just because they had interactions with lawyers involved in cases before them, you would run out of eligible judges rather quickly.
https://twitter.com/AGHamilton29/status/1700190430451699806
(H/T @mkhammer RT )
volkris
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Techbros: self driving cars are inevitable!
Also techbros: prove you are human by performing a task that computers can’t do, like identifying traffic lights.
For people interested in #USPolitics this episode of #Cato Daily Podcast is pretty short and informative.
Briefly, it looks at the evolving divide among #conservatives / #Republican party members and notably how the more #Trump aligned side has come to focus on politics primarily as a tool for attacking enemies, not building anything up.
This is important for a few reasons, both to understand them so as to figure out how to react to them AND as a way of predicting how things will work out, since that approach has little traction in the broader public.
Trump was elected by a coalition of different groups with vastly different, often contradictory interests. This evolution utterly breaks the coalition, though.
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-daily-podcast/natcons-vs-freecons
volkris
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Maybe someone can send @Ryan Barrett some data on #Zot to add that to the comparison.
Ryan Barrett wrote the following post Tue, 05 Sep 2023 10:28:02 +0200 Threw together a comparison of the four decentralized social protocols I know best: IndieWeb, ActivityPub, ATProto, Nostr. Obviously oversimplified, hopefully still useful! Preview below, click through for full table with links.
I tried to focus on how these protocols are currently deployed and used in the real world. For example, identity in ActivityPub is technically URL-based, but in practice the fediverse uses WebFinger
Feedback is welcome!
Ryan Barrett wrote the following post Tue, 05 Sep 2023 10:28:02 +0200 Threw together a comparison of the four decentralized social protocols I know best: IndieWeb, ActivityPub, ATProto, Nostr. Obviously oversimplified, hopefully still useful! Preview below, click through for full table with links.
I tried to focus on how these protocols are currently deployed and used in the real world. For example, identity in ActivityPub is technically URL-based, but in practice the fediverse uses WebFinger
user@domain identifiers more or less universally, so the table reflects that.Feedback is welcome!
volkris
boosted
Every so often I take a serious look at the code running my #Mastodon instance and I start to get a headache so I stop looking at it.
There's an old idea of fairness that when cutting a cake between two people one person cuts and the other picks the piece they want.
This method aligns the interests of both parties, no matter how corruptible and *human* they may be.
I think it's underappreciated how often the US government design has a similar method in its checks and balances: one group can reject an official, but they don't get to choose the replacement.
See, for example, impeachment proceedings.
After all: "This policy of supplying, by opposite and rival interests, the defect of better motives, might be traced through the whole system of human affairs, private as well as public."
--Hamilton (maybe)
While The Guardian and ProPublica put out their increasingly dramatic stories about webs of associates surrounding #SCOTUS sometimes I end up wondering if those reporters have undisclosed investments in red yarn and thumbtack suppliers.
It's like, their bulletin boards still have some extra room, so let's grab more yarn and add the cashier who served the driver who drove the... and on and on.
It comes across as a bit nutty.
A Scanner Darkly vibes to this one
volkris
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apparently i passed a phishing awareness test last week by correctly ignoring a fake linkedin email
nobody tell my boss that i ignored it entirely on the assumption that it was a real linkedin email
volkris
boosted
Not sure if it's a great data point, but after running my #Mastodon instance since November last year and never clearing its media cache (except for once or twice in the first few weeks as I learned how things worked), my cache is a little under 40GiB.
3GiB is post attachments. The rest is profile headers and avatars.
To understand the state of #USPolitics, and US society more broadly, a person has to realize that the process against #Trump isn't merely two camps who want the guy found innocent or guilty after a weighing of the evidence.
No, it is as if there was a murder trial where one side believed they were having beers with the purported victim as the trial was going on.
It's not a matter of legal technicality or weighing preponderances of evidence or reasonable doubt; it's a matter of the country being divided over fundamental fact, here whether a person is alive or not.
It's not a political division. Sadly it's a reality division.
volkris
boosted
I once owned a comedy shop. It was next to a hair salon.
I would often practice my pantomime skills by pretending to be a hair stylist.
But then I was told by the owner to mime my own business.
Cute, from an older article
>But it’s the International Astronomical Union, not the International Geophysical Union. And the people who voted on the new planet classification were overwhelmingly astronomers, even if some proportion (most?) were planetary astronomers.
[Pluto is a Planet](https://www.sciencefocus.com/comment/pluto-is-a-planet}
I always get a kick out of people who ask the exact right question, rhetorically, when the literal answer is squarely the one needed to counter their stance.
Case in point, a clip of #Trump stumping with, "How can [they] put me on trial during an election campaign[..]?"
Well, sure, sir, let's walk you through how the judicial process works in the US, since it sounds like you could use a review, and then cover how your own choices opened you up to that process.
That should be a pretty complete answer to "How?" ... thanks for asking.
But mainly, I think I've heard lawyers say to never ask a witness a question when you're not positive the answer would support your case.
It's good advice in general.
I think the most pressing and fundamental problem of the day is that people lack a practically effective means of sorting out questions of fact in the larger world. We can hardly begin to discuss ways of addressing reality if we can't agree what reality even is, after all.
The institutions that have served this role in the past have dropped the ball, so the next best solution is talking to each other, particularly to those who disagree, to sort out conflicting claims.
Unfortunately, far too many actively oppose this, leaving all opposing claims untested. It's very regressive.
So that's my hobby, striving to understanding the arguments of all sides at least because it's interesting to see how mythologies are formed but also because maybe through that process we can all have our beliefs tested.
But if nothing else, social media platforms like this are chances to vent frustrations that on so many issues both sides are obviously wrong ;)
Joined Dec 2022
