Just checked, and my commercial rates location data research project for the UK is responsible for over 4,000 #foi requests. All public at https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/user/gavin_chait

Had a short nightmare where I read they're rebooting Highlander as Highlander 2036. Woke up sweating & screaming. 'Cos you know how that's gonna go. Some Peter Thiel-type technofascist tortures MacLeod for his quickening, succeeds, becomes immortal, & is beheaded 10 minutes later by The Kurgan […]

RE: https://masto.ai/@cybeardjm/115860992408453697 The US government continues to love them some Tuskegee-style "clinical research" so they can murder Africans through barbaric malpractice.

RE: https://indieweb.social/@blogamf/115861322536961625 One of my all-time favourites.

RE: https://amicale.net/@afpfr/115835909140641263 « L'État de droit » imprimé sur le tapis est une touche comique hilarante.

There's an old Soviet joke from during the Stalin era about a chap who visits a local news stand every day, gives the headlines a cursory glance, sighs, and heads off. One day the vendor stops him and says, "Comrade, what are you looking for? You never buy a paper, and you're always […]

RE: https://mas.to/@carnage4life/115821047857168589 "Many people who got into literature because they like writing stories will need to find a new source of satisfaction from their work." Nope. A computer cannot enjoy literature, therefore it cannot create literature. Until computers can […]

RE: https://mas.to/@carnage4life/115803074773268184 Can we stop with this "tricked" bullshit? It is possible for a person to be in a targeted group while supporting policies that subject that group to hatred & violence. To treat them as "tricked" takes away their agency & responsibility for […]

True Barrydale (short) story. About 25 years ago, my 1st major economic development consulting project was for the Western Cape Government to support tourism in the region. It was an amazing project during which there was some political "direction" to consider places "because the minister grew […]

As #authors, we often talk about the creative process but not how we try earn a living from what we make. I joined with fellow African SFF authors Cheryl S Ntumy from Ghana & @dilmandila from Uganda, with @Jeremiah from Interledger, to talk writing, getting paid as African creators, & our hopes […]

This is why I have no respect for The Guardian. Can you imagine the utter carnage if this headline was about Jewish rather than trans rights? If a vulnerable minority is targeted for oppression & their government won't protect them, it is not a "debate". It is […] [Original post on wandering.shop]

#elsevier finally (after 25 years) retracted the primary study concluding that #glyphosate is safe for humans. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in #roundup herbicide and manufactured by #Monsanto. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0273230099913715 h/t @civodul […]

RE: https://xoxo.zone/@Ashedryden/115663472156365750 That's OK Microsoft, I'm quietly abandoning your products and moving to Linux for good.

Chernobyl Fungus Appears to Have Evolved an Incredible Ability https://www.sciencealert.com/chernobyl-fungus-appears-to-have-evolved-an-incredible-ability That fungus is called Cladosporium sphaerospermum, and some scientists think its dark pigment – melanin – may allow it to harness ionizing […]

Good morning

If it's Starbucks, probably the safest option. https://mastodon.scot/@kim_harding/115468358601563480

Instead of milk, I just poured grapefruit juice into my tea. It's that sort of day.

For all the bravery & strength of the Sumud Flotilla participants, I keep thinking of Seun Kuti's demand that civil rights activists focus on their own countries first. After all, it's striking that the EU still hasn't declared a full embargo & boycott of Israel, which would have a significant […]

Every day, I discover something weird https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mull_Air_Mystery

Macron devant l'Assemblée générale de l'ONU "Je déclare que la France reconnaît aujourd'hui l'État de Palestine". Historique. #politique #palestine #israel #guerre #macron #france #diplomatie #onu

France right now as billionaires express horror at being expected to pay tax like us peasants https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5O2rZeM8fk

Fascinating how the technerati seem to want us to hold two contradictory things as true. That LLMs are "sentient thinking machines", but it's totally normal for "AI" owners to take old models out into the woods, shoot them in the back of the head & leave them in a ditch after every "upgrade" […]

Rogatons Rediffusions - 16/06/2023 - "Petit Papier" Source: https://www.bouletcorp.com/rogatons/2023/06/16

My bank emailed me asking for information, but providing no way for me to send it to them. So I tried their help chat in the app. But it's an "AI" which gives me wrong answers only. When I complain, it says "Transferring you to an agent", but doesn't transfer me anywhere.

Insisting that everyone should have a clear, recognizable and unchangeable gender only makes sense if you want to treat people of different genders differently. Which you clearly shouldn't.

This is the stranger's case https://youtu.be/ffCl8jPTgmQ

Quick! It's trying to escape!

Jongosi by Johnny Clegg #amlistening https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7I3UncJIzc

South Africa threw off Apartheid and white-supremacy. Trump and Musk can never forgive this. Cry the beloved country.

I'd like to propose **The Godwin Betteridge Corollary**: the probability that any headline that ends in a question mark that should be answered by the word ***yes ***is only left in doubt because the journalists, editors and other privileged proclaimants are […] [Original post on wandering.shop]

Haïti has entered the chat. https://pubeurope.com/@europesays/114134235972542569

Another giant falls. The man is dead, the man is dead. #atholfugard https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/mar/09/athol-fugard-south-african-political-dissident-playwright-dies-aged-92

“The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy, the empathy exploit,” Musk said. “There it’s they’re exploiting a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response.” -Elon Musk, March 6, 2025 “In my work with the defendants (at the Nuremberg Trials 1945-1949) I was […]

This is where I really disagree. Musk isn't doing *anything* strategically. He tore Twitter to bits by firing everyone and smashing servers, and somehow it kept going because ... woohoo ... redundancy, dedicated staff, and the fact that no-one really gives a shit if Twitter is unreliable […]

Marseille is awesome. Come join us. https://mastodon.social/@claesdevreese/114111179034371425

Emel Mathlouthi once again raising her voice with an epic inspiring song for the revolution: Massive Will https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STQsAv7_34w #amlistening

🆕 blog! “Towards a test-suite for TOTP codes” Because I'm a massive nerd, I actually try to read specification documents. As I've ranted ad nauseam about the current TOTP spec being irresponsibly obsolete. The three major implementations of the spec - Google, Apple, and Yubico - all subtly […]

Onón Mweng (Rainbird) - Oliver Shanti & Friends - Seven Times Seven #amlistening https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTkYc_EgFzE