Joe Terranova @joeterranova@leftist.network

Petition to move pride month to August in the northern hemisphere and February in the southern one.

That way,

pride comes before Fall

When I was
A salesman
I slept in
My bed and the next morning
I turned into a bug

Just your daily reminder that @elk is a beautiful web interface for Mastodon, and that if you are new to the #Fediverse, there is so much to learn and explore, and you should try asking questions if you are confused, and feel free to tag me and others, & follow me & people like @mmasnick & @feditips who frequently share useful things to help you get started around here.

There are nearly infinite resources; they aren't all easy to find, but they are here.

Roses are red, coding is pain
git push --force origin main

The Luddites were a labor movement.

"The Luddites themselves 'were totally fine with machines,' says Kevin Binfield, editor of the 2004 collection Writings of the Luddites. They confined their attacks to manufacturers who used machines in what they called 'a fraudulent and deceitful manner' to get around standard labor practices.

'They just wanted machines that made high-quality goods,' says Binfield, 'and they wanted these machines to be run by workers who had gone through an apprenticeship and got paid decent wages. Those were their only concerns.'"

Also the men wore dresses and called themselves brides of Ludd.

#luddite

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-the-luddites-really-fought-against-264412/

I had a disturbing encounter in a #Toronto retail store yesterday. A masked sales associate approached me with friendly greeting & then dissolved into tears.

Me: Are you OK?
SA: Just tears of relief; I approached you because you were wearing a #mask, so I knew you wouldn't say anything nasty to me about wearing mine. I can't afford to get #Covid, I just finished my cancer treatment.

Everyday she receives jaw-dropping, stomach-turning anti-mask comments. 🥺​

#WeAreLost
#HumanityIsDoomed

My tech philosophy:

Use #FOSS for any situation in which viable FOSS exists. Only use proprietary if no viable FOSS exists.

Local (in country) is better than off-shore, though this is somewhat price-sensitive.

Social media:

Open and decentralised (#Fediverse) first. Closed and centralised second, if at all.

I think governments around the world (especially in my corner of it) should adopt this philosophy with extreme prejudice.

@StillIRise1963 When I was 9, my father explained it this way: “You know those bullies at school who beat you up? When they grow up, they become one of two things: muggers or cops. It’s the same people with the same desire to use physical power to control others.”
This was the man who carried me on his shoulders in 1960s protests for racial justice and in marches against the war, and said as white guys, we had the responsibility to fight oppression. He was far from perfect, but he did his best.

Sometimes when I'm playtesting (running) a brand new rpg system I've designed, a player will make a mistake and then say, "Sorry, I'm still wrapping my head around the new mechanics." My reply is pretty much always, "No worries. It's brand new to me too."

The point being, it's valuable to not be a definitive authority on a developing set of rules because you might accidentally make yourself believe that something is suddenly set in stone that isn't actually ready to be.

Say person A pointed a gun at person B and pulled the trigger, but the gun jammed. Person A then gave a half-hearted apology.

Should person B accept the apology? Should they trust person A ever again?

What if person A starts visibly trying to clear the jam but assures person B that it's all fine?

Asking for a friend.

@jeffjarvis

Republican John Boehner described the modern GOP in his memoir:

"What they're really interested in is chaos… They want to throw sand in the gears of the hated federal government until it fails and they've finally proved that it's beyond saving.”

What many GOP pols (the sand-throwers) want to accomplish is obstructionism, NOT governance.

The GOP has built its brand on being obstructive, using chaos to block governance.

See thread 👀🧵: https://newsie.social/@ZhiZhu/109635671807761846

#USPolitics #GOP

Been seeing a lot about #ChatGPT lately and got my first question at the library this week from someone who was looking for a book that the bot had recommended. They couldn't find it in our catalog. Turns out that ALL the books that ChatGPT had recommended for their topic were non-existent. Just real authors and fake titles cobbled together. And apparently this is known behavior. 😮