Paul Sutton @zleap@qoto.org

The Fediverse is often referred to as a decentralized "social network", but I think that misses some of the bigger ways that ActivityPub can make the web more open and user friendly.

Today I talked to @pfefferle about his ActivityPub For WordPress plugin and the advantages of connecting your site to the #fediverse https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DhK8uSKIdE&list=PL6nDc7ACvovJMt8MEiebpsXnlBuKp158j&index=1 #ActivityPub #WordPress

I was on the Scientific American Science Quickly podcast, complaining (again) about SpaceX dropping space junk on my part of the world. If you're not tired of hearing this story over and over, here's another version: https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/science-quickly/

"A Close Encounter with SpaceX Debris Teaches an Astronomer about Space Junk"

@cnes 👆 The French space agency CNES has the official account @cnes Here on Mastodon. Not Blueskly, Threads, or elsewhere.

Can we help them grow and reach for the stars?

I've been enjoying Mastadon but have missed the academic side of things--I used to find so many resources for students and faculty on Twitter. I realized that I need to start doing them myself and maybe we'll build a community. So, here I go:
New book for grad students found on JSTOR: Grad School Life: Surviving and Thriving Beyond Coursework and Research, Kory-Westlund, Columbia University Press, https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.lib.vt.edu/stable/10.7312/kory20784

#academicchatter #gradschool #gradstudents #academiclife

4⭐ Mallyan Spout Waterfall
https://www.trailspotting.com/2024/08/mallyan-spout-north-york-moors-uk.html

Visit Goathland and the tallest waterfall in the North York Moors National Park flowing into a sheltered gully.

#Hiking #Waterfall #Nature #Trails #Yorkshire #NorthYorkshire #UK #England #Green #Water #Maps

"When generative artificial intelligence burst on to the market in late 2022, the technology seemed to be magic. Almost two years later, generative AI now resembles not-so-much a fairy godmother as a ravenous beast gorging on investments, energy and intellectual property, and creating little of value in return."
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-the-magic-act-of-generative-ai-is-fading-fast/

The scam that is AI becomes more obvious every day. AI is the new bitcoin, only worse.

Israel-Gaza war
Lawyers seeking arms export ban submit claims of Israeli war crimes to UK court

Case brought by NGOs is attempt to prevent the UK government continuing to grant arms export licences

#Israel #Gaza #ArmsExport #WarCrimes #HumanRights #HumanRightsWatch #Oxfam #AmnestyInternational @andrewstroehlein
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/19/lawyers-seeking-arms-export-ban-submit-claims-israeli-war-crimes-uk-court

I’m receiving 2 kinds of sentiment to recent posts about Mastodon. I’ll crudely characterise them as:

1. Mastodon is a refuge I like and I don’t want the masses here
2. We should (with suitable safeguards) welcome a mass exodus from Twitter

So here’s a poll…

A partnership of any kind between Trump and Musk could significantly shape the future of #space exploration and defense, as well as shift the balance of power between the public and private sectors in space

https://theconversation.com/spacexs-elon-musk-endorsed-donald-trump-for-president-what-this-could-mean-for-us-space-policy-235747
#News

On a related note, we are very much in danger of going back to a world where parts of the web only work in certain browsers. Google spent a lot of time and money making Chrome the gold standard. But the result is people build their website to Chrome rather than to general standards that will work everywhere. I went to back to using Firefox as my default a while back. It's mostly okay, but I'm back to a world where sometimes the website I want to use just doesn't work.
https://mastodon.social/@mcc/112985517287743690

@Gustodon @georgepenney the failure is that we didn't protest loud enough (anyone remember when gas stations had service?). It used to be that all those self-* things were done by staff - now you do them, for free, and the corporation saves a buck while rising prices and giving the CEO a bonus for the ingenuity of it all.

#Gaza #Palestine
#IsraelWarCrimes

The British civil servant who resigned over concerns that the government is complicit in Israeli war crimes in Gaza has said he was formerly the lead author of the central assessment governing the legality of UK arms sales in the Foreign Offices Middle East and North Africa Directorate.

Diplomat Mark Smith's resignation was first reported when prominent journalist Hind Hassan posted the contents of his resignation letter on X.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-civil-servant-who-resigned-formerly-assessed-arms-sales-legality-foreign-office

✡️ 🇵🇸 ☮️

Are we facing cataclysmic #insect decline?
"If the invertebrates were to disappear, the world’s ecosystems would collapse." - David Attenborough

Buglife are concerned as Jenny Rhodes reports

#environment #bees #Butterflies

https://eastangliabylines.co.uk/environment/where-are-all-the-insects/

I'm interested in meeting more people on fedi with an artistic practice that doesn't primarily depend upon computers, whether in its creation, appreciation, or participation. It feels a bit like climbing a tree looking for potatoes, but sometimes you do indeed find a potato up here, swaying in the breeze.

Hit me up. Boost if you like.

I like how “dead internet theory” started out as a joke and now over 50% of all web traffic is bots. Over ⅓ of all web traffic is a malicious bot with the intent of hacking a site or spreading misinfo.

As every social media platform becomes unusable, the Fediverse is the final frontier against bots.

In December 2022, Marrero found a toxicology lab in Quebec that was willing to test patients for four different types of pesticides,
including glyphosate, a herbicide that is regularly used as part of the forestry industry in New Brunswick.

He had noticed a pattern of new referrals peaking in the late summer and early fall, when pesticide use is at its highest,
and wondered if there could be a connection.

When the lab accepted a sample from one patient, Marrero quickly sent over a hundred more.
The results were astonishing.
Ninety percent of Marrero’s patients came back with elevated amounts of glyphosate in their blood,
in one case as high as 15,000 times the test’s lowest detectable concentration.

On their own, the results mean little.
Without a control group, it’s impossible to understand the results in context.
Perhaps everyone in New Brunswick has elevated levels of glyphosate because of spraying in the province.

The findings do, however, align with an increased push throughout Canada and the world to recognize the risks that chemicals like glyphosate pose to human health.
Part of the reason Marrero was able to get the tests done in Quebec was that in 2021 the province officially recognized the link between glyphosate and an increased risk for Parkinson’s disease.
Recent studies have shown that glyphosate crosses the blood-brain barrier and that chronic exposure can lead to neurological inflammation that can trigger Alzheimer’s disease.
“I am not concluding that this is the cause of what is happening,” Marrero said.
“But it is something that is telling me that something is wrong with the environment they live in.”

Marrero’s conviction notwithstanding, the fact remains that the situation in New Brunswick has raised far more questions than answers.
Was the epidemiological study blocked by political or corporate interests, as Marrero told me he suspected?
Or was he an overzealous physician who had rushed to stamp his name on a novel disease, as the province’s report implied?
And of course the answer to the most fundamental question of all
— what exactly is making New Brunswickers ill?
— remains elusive.

What does seem clear, however, is that the collision of politics and science unfolding there is unlikely to remain exclusive to the province.
As the evidence linking neurological disorders and environmental factors continues to grow, the way in which diseases manifest in the human body will undoubtedly be altered as well.
It’s not difficult to imagine the next puzzling disease cluster right around the corner.

It’s a concern that keeps Marrero up at night.
“This is a collective effort that is needed,” he said.
“Not only for the people here in New Brunswick, but because whatever is causing this might be happening elsewhere.”

He has already received referrals from a half-dozen other Canadian provinces.
When I asked how he thought the situation would play out over the long term, he was uncertain.
“I don’t pretend to have the answer,” he said. “I think science should be the answer.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/14/magazine/canada-brain-disease-dementia.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Seeing a report that 129 people who attended the 2024 Glasgow Worldcon have tested positive for COVID. Since not everyone who caught it reported it through the con's Discord channel, the actual number must be larger.

Everyone who attended should strongly consider getting at least an at-home test.

Linux Foundation Backs Open Source LLM Initiative: https://thenewstack.io/linux-foundation-backs-open-source-llm-initiative/ by @sjvn

The Open Model Initiative seeks to keep once open-sourced large language models open. #opensource #AI.

#Thiel, #Musk, and #Zuckerberg are part of a large (a very large) coterie of technocrats who find democratic processes inefficient and have placed all their faith in techno-solutions to solve complex social crises. These techno-faithfuls have existed in the past, but never in human history have they been so wealthy, sitting on troves of data. We are now closer than ever to a tech dystopia where those without access to technology will be condemned to invisibility and indignity.