sam ✅🇬🇪
@sam@chven.us
What is the best option to host a #Mastodon instance with its own domain name? Max four users, most possibly only me.
Debian 13 "trixie" is released with Ceratopsian by Elise Couper as its default theme, featured across wallpapers, installer, and login screens. https://wiki.debian.org/DebianArt/Themes/Ceratopsian #debian #debian13 #trixie #ReleasingDebianTrixie
Age verification is here, and now UK Redditors can’t access their favorite LGBTQ+, political, or public health communities without destroying their anonymity. Help us fight to avoid this future. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/08/americans-be-warned-lessons-reddits-chaotic-uk-age-verification-rollout
can someone tell me why people with the surname smith are more common than others like cook or baker or fletcher
@mynameistillian my guess? the craft of smithing was very important prior to the advent of the industrial revolution, especially to the ruling class due to their need to outfit troops for war and their need to fabricate construction supplies like nails.
@LexYeen @mynameistillian Smithing was also a rarer profession, so "John the son of the Smith" was less ambiguous than "John the son of the Baker".
@maxthefox @LexYeen this doesn't explain why they fucked more
@mynameistillian @LexYeen They didn't (or maybe they did, blacksmiths tend to be quite hunky), but more smiths got that surname than bakers did.
@mynameistillian I guess every village needed a smith for ploughs and other farm tools, but families did their own baking
Is Miller also a more common name than Baker? Flour milling there's also similar need for specialist buildings, though there was also taxes at various times (UK) of "you must use the local parish mill, not grind at home"
@patterfloof me flourmaxxing and grinding at home
@mynameistillian From Corn Laws to Porn Laws - a potted history of England & the perennially colonising governments who made it
i sometimes has thoughts of making a guitar strap out of an old seatbelt or old belt that i no longer wear
idk how to do that and also to make it sturdy so my guitar doesn't fall though
i really like the seatbelt idea because i think it speaks to me a lot. a lot of music i listen to saved me in my lowest moments
@mynameistillian look at how manufactured guitar straps work, then do that.
i made one using some kind of canvas cargo strap a long time ago.
Donald forgot what happens on the internet when you hold up a sign like this. Could say anything now, really.
@georgetakei this is a graph of unemployment claims of people the government still bothers to track, after people have been looking for too long it stops counting: that number has been rigged for decades
#UnemploymentReportingUndercounted
This #Chart shows the #Efficiency of his new #Viagra - #Therapy. #Happy #Donald. Everything is #ascending....
😂
@georgetakei Trump: As you can see, people really are getting sick of my shit...All new numbers. Amazing chart.
@georgetakei
And nobody told him that this is about the average temperature and climate change.
Each big leader seems to have problems that nobody tells them anything, one will say afterwards.
@georgetakei He's now acting like a magician mentalist drawing what you had in your mind.
He wants to be a showman, but seems to always be weird or illegal about it.
11 years ago, the most explosive #political controversy erupted in the #USA:
President #Obama wore a tan suit
A #Republican said then:
"There's no way, I don't think, any of us can excuse what the president did yesterday. I mean, you have the world watching"
2 things:
1. the heaven of: that's our "big problem"
2. how the fuck did morons whining about a tan suit come to prevail, when they are such a fucking joke?
how did deranged lying outrage kill this country?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_tan_suit_controversy
@benroyce 'there's no excuse, you have the world watching and seeing a man with more fashion sense than our entire party'
and yet, instead of mocking laughter, as they deserved, they leaned into this derangement
and won
what the fuck?
@benroyce Lips are sealed when convicted felon perpetrates another abominable thing
@benroyce The Barack Obama Tan Suit Controversy has the same vibes to it as the Great 1969 Tea Trolley Collision from British comic strip Bristow, about an office clerk dealing with a life of boredom.
Just saying.
@benroyce It's typical Conservative values. All about appearance and nothing of substance. A political dogma of go faster stripes and no engine.
@benroyce to say nothing of the outrage over his using Dijon mustard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-WnoZbjdh4
Meanwhile Trump does McDonalds and well done steaks with ketchup.
@benroyce
The world watching at the time: say what?
nothing to watch
great drama manufactured whole cloth out of absolutely nothing
the extreme privilege and abject stupidity of so many that any of this should occupy any amount of their brain cavity and have any meaning whatsoever
and here we are today
drowning in this shit
drowning in millions of morons for which this fake fluff should hold cognitive weight over our real problems
of course, it's also a dog whistle
they don't care, they just like the flimsiest excuse to hate
@benroyce
Although I do need to point out that the current president wears most offensive headwear with the whole world watching.
@Kierkegaanks
And even in Britain which used to be overly formal, an "important" man wearing a tan suit causes absolutely 0 drama - were it not for the military folk he tends to congregate with as part of his job, and big dudes with earpieces shadowing him for security, the King these days just looks like any other old man you might see in the streets of England..
@benroyce The right used precisely the same tactics here on Jeremy Corbyn. Endless headlines about his attire, which was always either too scruffy, too smart, or inappropriate in some other imaginary way. One whole news cycle was dominated by his poppy being too small, as this was supposedly disrespectful to those who died fighting in the World Wars. Another time it was his cheap coat that attracted the ire of the tabloids.
The right wing are deranged and preposterous.
@ApostateEnglishman @benroyce You forgot to add "prosperous"; the right wing is prosperous because being a sniveling liar is the new fashion, and people are stupid enough to pay them. Unlike the left, they get what they pay for.
@Ponygirl @benroyce Yeah, it's a gravy train for sure. A lot of the criticism of Corbyn by his own MPs came from those disgruntled at being disempowered by his member-led movement, which he had almost single-handedly grown to be the largest social-democratic party in Europe. Since Labour under Corbyn was receiving subs from more than 600,000 members, the party no longer needed corporate donations, so career politicians were seeing their gravy train grinding to a halt.
@ApostateEnglishman @benroyce Here in the states, the Democratic party hates it's social democratic base, which has grown exponentially since 11/24. Even the lofty Obama won't be able to stop it this time.
@ApostateEnglishman @benroyce Precisely. All surface and no substance. The Right's politics in a nutshell.
Remember the stupid russian hat thing
@Geri @benroyce Yes! With the Kremlin in the background - despite the fact that it was actually the Tories who were up to their necks in Russian money, just like the Republicans today in the USA.
Every accusation (or in this case, tacit implication) is really a confession. Accuse the other side of what you're doing yourself.
@Geri @ApostateEnglishman @benroyce
One UK adult, a teacher, informed me she wouldn't be voting for Corbin because he 'looked like a Goblin'.
I assumed she was influenced by some very primitive tabloid media.
If this is how low @bbcnewsnight has stooped to keep Corbyn out, you can imagine the crap in the trash tabloids.
@Deixis9 @ApostateEnglishman @benroyce @bbcnewsnight@bird.makeup
Tony Blair got what a lot of what was known as 'the housewives' vote because of his "crushing good looks"
is that Obama?
who is that?
the great "hero" of the #plutocracy for the "trickle down #economics" lie?
@benroyce @FrancoisPrague
In countries which survived the decades of Soviet occupation there are plenty of people who believe, to say it simply, that "USSR collapsed because of Reagan", or to say it jokingly, because "Reagan nuked Moscow".
@koteisaev @benroyce @FrancoisPrague I detested Margaret Thatcher, but credit where it's due.
@Nazani @koteisaev @FrancoisPrague
i disagree with both of you
i think it was #yeltsin's impromptu random visit to a humble #texas supermarket:
"shit, we can't compete with this, we need to change"
but of course the #USSR could not change like that, so it died instead
someone made the event into an opera 😆 :
"The story could’ve ended there — simply a fun moment of cultures colliding. But, later in life, Yeltsin admitted the visit made a profound impression on him."
@benroyce And as I recall, Gorbachev also got exposed to a US grocery store just prior to the USSR imploding. Sadly authoritarianism appears to have more brutal strength from the start than democracy among human beings, because of its nature, authoritarianism is ruthless, and true democracy by its nature is more humane, and the abundant sheep are herded. Yet WWII proved that with the will, and a struggle, good can overcome evil, because evil is inherently corrupt.
@benroyce @Nazani @FrancoisPrague
Yes, this was a factor of its own, but I was laughing about misconception about imaginary primary impact of Reagan into collapse of USSR that happened due what it was, basically.
Even that visit of Yeltsin into Texas supermarket was just a "feather that broke spine of the horse", but without it something other "feather" could happen eventually.
I would watch that opera, BTW.... Doubt that there any full recording of it.
@koteisaev @Nazani @FrancoisPrague
ამ ამერიკელს იუმორის გრძნობა აკლია. 😅
@benroyce @Nazani @FrancoisPrague
BTW, Reagan had so good sense of humor that he was able to understand where to laugh at soviet jokes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN3z3eSVG7A
One of my favorites is about car and plumber arrival times in 10 years.
@koteisaev @Nazani @FrancoisPrague
ah the 1980s. much horror in the world, as today. but at least my country was a beacon rather than {gestures broadly}
@benroyce @Nazani @FrancoisPrague
I did not watch the movie, but totally agree about dynamic of worsened USA reputation you told about.
Only single good thing in all this is transition to less centralized system of world security formed in these days, even in pain of this change.
@koteisaev @Nazani @FrancoisPrague
it's funny how we both grew up in this world with these two titans, fighting a strict ideological struggle. it was honest
and now the two titans have decayed into some demented atavistic state
russia acting like it's 1825, thinking hardcore land imperialism and the cruelty of a tsar is going to work for it
and the usa, decaying to the more strident racism and bigotry of its past, gilded age plutocracy, and corruption of democracy
it's china's world now
@benroyce @Nazani @FrancoisPrague
I would not say that "it is China world now".
China tactics is not about now, it is about slowly inject enemy with dependencies on China resources and eventually use it as lever against other countries, ideally without blatant blackmail like what ruzzia did via gazprom and faliled, so it is more about subtle tactics, "digesting enemy via dependency injection" as I would describe it.
But I see how EU seems to noticed this problem.
@koteisaev @Nazani @FrancoisPrague
more accurately then: the new world is china v eu. russia/ussr v usa is now the dead struggle
and as russia is now china's proxy in that struggle, the eu has to turn the usa into its client 😆
@benroyce @Nazani @FrancoisPrague
You still think in "GIANT POWERS" ™️ brands.
In reality, smaller unions like Turkey & Azerbaijan or Poland & Baltic states are actual main players, as big players are paralyzed either with baseless fear of nuclear escalation or due complicated/buggy decision making process (as happened with EU & NATO).
BTW, brexit allows Britain to muscle here and there, that would not be possible before brexit.
@koteisaev @Nazani @FrancoisPrague
it's a tension: forces pushing together, forces ripping apart
over the larger arc of human history, it seems to be larger and larger agglomerations of peoples, but the smaller entities never go away in importance
@benroyce @Nazani @FrancoisPrague
The most dangerous direction to boldly go into is absolute centralization. E. g. by making UN a powerful bureaucracy and transforming it into a sort of worldwide USSR-like centralized dictatorship without some place for dissent where to run out.
@koteisaev @Nazani @FrancoisPrague
i don't believe you have to worry about it
humanity is too contentious
i don't believe in the sci fi notion (framed dystopian or utopian) of one world order
@benroyce @Nazani @FrancoisPrague
This notion comes as absolute peak of tendency you mentioned ("over the larger arc of human history, it seems to be larger and larger"). And I am not worry in sense "this will surely happen", as some claim, speaking either about strong China control over WOH or in context some vague "pandemic treaty", I just wondered once deeply what in general could happen if UN would get more power, like some super-state authority, not a coordination platform.
@koteisaev @Nazani @FrancoisPrague
not the UN as currently framed. it's impotent. it's just for nations to get together and talk. ever since the soviets abstained and thus UN bought forces to the korean war, it is controlled, it does not control
but the UN is antiquated. it doesn't have a seat of power for india, brazil, indonesia, nigeria/ south africa, etc. and just as the league of nations died because of wwii, the UN could die someday and what replaces it may be your worry (hq in beijing)
@benroyce @Nazani @FrancoisPrague
I would say I don't "worry" about that. I say I think and analyze, in some abstract "zero-emotional observer", like Spock or even Data from StarTrek.
I took this approach just to not spend too much on stuff that is beyond my personally sphere of control.
I agree that UN is paralyzed and useless. And this happens with everything where decision should be made unanimously and incompatible worldviews collide.
@benroyce @koteisaev @FrancoisPrague Here's how I envision a one world order, although humans would be much less cute:
@benroyce @koteisaev @Nazani @FrancoisPrague Relevant 13-second video clip. Jon Lovitz, playing a rival wedding singer in The Wedding Singer remarks on Robby's breakdown. "He's losing his mind. And *I'm* reaping all the benefits." Then, a creepy behind-the-curtain vanish. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aK8vVk4_n2Q
@benroyce @FrancoisPrague Somehow today's GOP missed one of Reagan's best propaganda moves: Welcoming refugees from commie & other 'hostile' nations like Iran, Venezuela, & China.
@benroyce @FrancoisPrague ah, the guy who did what every patriot should do prevent Americans from having universal health care, let the sick pay... 😞
@benroyce
Billionaires own our media.
That is the root of the problem.
There used to be rules that prevented the consolidation of media ownership. Those rules were removed by Republicans, fascist billionaires bought up the media and for 40+ years, American have been force fed a steady diet of Nazi lies.
It's not just Fox. It's all of them. ABCNNBCBS and all of the major newspapers and radio.
Our media is not informative, it's pure propaganda.
THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS.
This is the message. This is they key thing that's killing EVERY democracy.
Paid speech is not free speech, and billionaire ownership of all the ways people get their information is paid speech.
But the only permanent solution is to make billionaires not exist anymore.
Even before they owned all the information sources, they played them with layers of think tanks and what not.
@benroyce And remember the outrage over the latte salute? He wasn't even saluting, wasn't supposed to, wasn't expected to, and should not salute (he was the president after all -- the commander in chief who actually was actually doing his job unlike someone I won't name.) It was just a friendly greeting. He was just being friendly.
But wow did the right turn it into a whole thing.
Meanwhile on the flip side, Trump openly breaks laws and acts like we're crazy for expecting him to go to jail.
Hey @kagihq , when sharing text to kagi in android there are 4 options, with duplicate "Assistant" option. I think the first one is actually standard search, but displayed incorrectly. A fix would be appriciated :)
@yoavzack Hello, you're right! Can also replicate this. Do you mind reporting it as a bug on our feedback forums so our developers get notified? This way you will get the status of the fix as well! https://kagifeedback.org/
Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention.
"Around the World in 80 trees"
Jonathan Drori & Lucille Clerk
You may not know that you are interested in trees - or that you need this book in your life. But you do.
I bought this on a whim as a present for partner and it has been my morning coffee lecture for the last weeks. (I'm trying to read something instead of doomscrolling for a better start of the day). A few trees are just the perfect length for a cup. I learned so much & the illustrations are so beautiful 💚
@vicgrinberg Oh, this is going straight on my list ❤
@vicgrinberg ok the roommate needs this
@venite I hope he likes it as much as I did 💚
@vicgrinberg ordered the one about plants because it has a Dutch edition!
@venite I hope it is also great - it's definitely on my wishlist (though I bought so many books recently that it will take a bit until I will actually buy it...)
@vicgrinberg you might like this book. Bought it years ago and loved the tranquility and gentleness of it.
@vicgrinberg What a great idea!
@jromanowska it helps me a ton - especially if I bike to work afterwards, fhistway I end up thinking about what I read (I usually try to keep it to things that are not related to current events) instead of well, current events and they generally sad state of the world.
#Texas #Democrats on Monday prevented their state’s #House of Representatives from moving forward, at least for now, with a redrawn congressional map sought by #Trump to shore up #Republicans’ 2026 midterm prospects as his political standing falters.
#law #ElectionLaw #redistricting #gerrymandering #rigged #elections
https://apnews.com/article/us-election-2026-texas-redistricting-136cfeddc717f9fc69337bd3d39b1819?utm_source=onesignal&utm_medium=push&utm_campaign=2025-08-04-Breaking+News
The #Republican dominated #House issued civil #ArrestWarrants intended to compel the return of absent members, but it was not immediately clearly whether those can or will be enforced beyond #Texas borders.
House Speaker Rep. Dustin Burrows urged #Democrats to return to “fulfill your duty.”
“If you continue to go down this road, there will be consequences,” he said.
#law #ElectionLaw #redistricting #gerrymandering #rigged #elections #Trump #GregAbbott
Speaking Monday on FauxNews, #GregAbbott essentially admitted to the partisan power play, noting that #SCOTUS has determined “there is nothing illegal” about shaping districts to a majority party’s advantage. He even openly acknowledged it as “#gerrymandering” before correcting himself to say #Texas is “drawing lines.”
#GregAbbott insisted ahead of the scheduled session that lawmakers have “absconded” in violation of their sworn duties to the state.
“I believe they have forfeited their seats in the state Legislature because they are not doing the job they were elected to do,” he said in the FauxNews interview, invoking his state’s hallmark machismo to call the lawmakers “un-Texan.”
“Texans don’t run from a fight,” he said.
#law #ElectionLaw #redistricting #gerrymandering #rigged #elections #Trump
#Democrats said they had no plans to heed the governor’s demands to return.
“He has no legal mechanism,” said #Texas Rep. Jolanda Jones, one of the lawmakers who was in New York on Monday. “Subpoenas from #Texas don’t work in #NewYork, so he can’t come & get us. Subpoenas in Texas don’t work in #Chicago. ... He’s putting up smoke & mirrors.”
#law #ElectionLaw #redistricting #gerrymandering #rigged #elections #Trump #GregAbbott
A refusal by #Texas lawmakers to show up is a civil violation of legislative rules. As for his threat to remove the lawmakers, #GregAbbott cited a nonbinding legal opinion issued by #Republican TX #KenPaxton amid a partisan quorum dispute in 2021. Paxton suggested a court could determine that a legislator had forfeited their office.
Paxton, who is running for US #Senate, said… #Democrats who “try & run away like cowards should be found, arrested, & brought back to the Capitol immediately.”
#law
The #Texas Supreme Court held in 2021 that #House leaders had the authority to “physically compel the attendance” of missing members, but no #Democrats were forcibly brought back to the state after warrants were served. #Republicans answered by adopting $500 daily fines for lawmakers who don’t show up for work as punishment.
#GregAbbott, meanwhile, continues to make unsubstantiated claims that some lawmakers have committed felonies by soliciting money to pay for the fines…
@Nonilex you're telling me that fraudster who cheated his way into making millions, is lying about this shitshow? I am blabbergasted.
@Nonilex “Texans don’t run from a fight" but US House members do. Let's remove them from their offices for leaving Washington early.
🆕 blog! “Why don't smart watches use USB-C to recharge?”
It looks like the new Google's Pixel 4 watch comes with yet another incompatible change in charging technology. This is a ridiculous situation.
The original Pixel Watch used one type of wireless charging. Then the Pixel Watch 2 & 3 removed wireless charging and swapped to a different charging mechanism. And…
👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/08/why-dont-smart-watches-use-usb-c-to-recharge/
⸻
#gadget #usb-c #watch
@Edent Have you seen the new Pebbles? They have contact points on the back with a little magnetic USB-C adaptor for it.
Small portable third-party charging adaptors with an USB-C port offset the issue.
Having to carry such a device is still more inconvenient than if the watch just had a USB-C port, but it is better than carrying the entire proprietary charger with a cable.
I have an Apple Watch and I use a no-name charger from China (see attached pic), which is way more convenient to carry around than a full cable.
I don’t get why Huawei watches and even AirPods can have Qi-compatible wireless charging, but most watches are supposedly too small for Qi.
@stek29 that's exactly the opposite of what I want.
Ending up with a dozen different adapters for each device, easily losable or breakable, is *not* the future I deserve.
@Edent Its so they can sell us a charger. Sensible Govt should insist on standardisation of such devices, but they won’t.
@johnelalamo the law exists.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Equipment_Directive_(2022)
It doesn't cover very small devices like watches though.
Got a USB-C powered smartwatch for £16 and it is… good actually?
Heart-rate and SpO2 are broadly accurate. Can make & receive phone calls via Bluetooth. Step counter is adequate. Even has a couple of games - and a wooden fish (which I don't understand).
Full review coming later. Happy to answer any questions about it.
Has a large gallery of watch faces - decided this spoke to my mood best.
@Edent any idea what it runs in the background?
@smallsolar you mean the OS?
Whatever they could cobble together in Shenzhen I expect.
Definitely not Android or anything like that.
@Edent yeah I suspected not android, just wondered how hackable these sort of devices are. Wonder if it's got something like FreeRTOS, I've even seen esp32s slipping into AliExpress devices
@smallsolar It doesn't expose anything over USB. The app claims to be able to do firmware updates - and can certainly transmit data to and from.
I suspect the answer is "pay a lot of money to the OEM" if you want to write something custom.
@Edent
Much appreciated.
HRV?
(heart rate variability)
@skua It will track heart rate, either manually or automatically. You can get it to alert you if your BPMs spike over a certain level.
Is that what you meant?
@Edent
Thanks.
HRV is a derivative (?) of heart rate - it provides a measure of how variable/"irregular" the heart beats are.
To some extent increased HRV is claimed to correlate with better health, more relaxation.
The watch "features" are probably going to boast about HRV if it is available.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_rate_variability
The sleep tracking on this £16 smart watch works. The UI isn't the easiest thing to understand - either on device or in-app - but broadly matches how I felt.
Obviously the UI is poor compared to a watch costing 20x as much - but I think this is pretty impressive.
Here's a rough and ready video review.
https://tube.tchncs.de/w/vYTnG6eKghnicdNj5nkhVx
Full blog post later this week.
Not sure how many days battery life you get on an Apple watch, but this el-cheapo unit is still at 75% after a day-and-a-half of use.
That's not bad!
Obviously, it isn't doing half the stuff of a more expensive device. But it is counting my steps, tracking my heart-rate, taking calls, and showing the time.
I'm curious - what's your favourite smartwatch function?
@Edent
> Not sure how many days battery life you get on an Apple watch [...]
Advertised run time is: 0.75 days.
@Edent if it could do NFC payments, it would replace apple and android watches for me.
@Edent Being able to see chat messages, and reply (from a selection of pre-written messages - eg "Yes", "No", "Thanks!", thumbs-up emoji etc...)
@Edent
Phone alerts while I'm driving or similar. Countdown timer. Extended info (moon phase and similar).
Funny enough most important thing I missed when my Garmin sacrificed itself for me, before in the long run getting Garmin after trying others:
Easily add alarms or start a countdown timer. I use those in my everyday all day long.
But sadly none of the normal watches can do that, those fitness bands sadly neither and all the normal smartwatches are dependent on touchscreen which I hate. I want buttons that I can use w/o thinking or looking, thru habits I acquire just by use.
@Edent
My favorite feature is automatically unlocking macOS and substituting double-clicking a button in the watch for using the fingerprint reader for unlocking my password manager and other security stuff.
@Edent NFC payments, recording bike rides with Strava, walking turn-by-turn directions, Siri for starting timers and performing unit conversion. (Apple Watch – up to 15 hours of battery life, much less if working out)
I find I don't use most of the health stuff: Sleep tracking, Heartrate, step count, etc.
Today's task - try to connect this to #GadgetBridge.
It is a Colmi rebranded MoYoung so I think it should work, but I need to figure out how.
If you've added a new device to @gadgetbridge before, give me a shout 😃
The journey of a thousand miles starts with opening an issue.
https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge/issues/5193
If you've ever set up a new device on #GadgetBridge - I'll take any and all advice 😃
@Edent Holy crap, Colmi makes smartwatches now?!?
I have a smart ring. I recommend downloading the nightly version as it is likely to have the latest devices and updates
@ernie yup! And only £16.
Scroll up the thread for a video review. Blog post in a few days.
@Edent I did a review of my ring here:
https://tedium.co/2024/11/08/colmi-r02-hacker-ring-review/
So nice that a company like this exists and is making cheap hackable electronics
@ernie nice!
I got this one (which is now US$75) because it does MFA.
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/02/giving-the-finger-to-mfa-a-review-of-the-z1-encrypter-ring-from-cybernetic/
No tracking, but useful for logging in to things.
Holy shit! It worked 😁
I used #GadgetBridge nightly, I turned on the debug stuff, and added the unsupported P80 as the V89.
And it looks like most of the stuff works. I can track battery, change watch face, measure heart rate, see steps etc!
@Edent GB FTW!
I have a Bangle.JS 2 via GB and it's belting. The best bit is the battery life - with heart rate monitoring, step counting and notifications I've got over 11 days out of it on the last charge, and it's making the last 2% last for ages!
@tuxicoman @greem
Scroll up. The watch I'm reviewing is £16. That's pretty affordable.
And it works on a reasonably open protocol so it can work with open source apps.
@Edent @tuxicoman yep, that.
I've had Pebbles, the PineTime and now the Bangle and the data only goes where I let it go. I'm willing to forego some fancy functionality like tap to pay for a device which does what I need it to, and I control the data flows.
If I can also write apps for it, so much the better!
cool tell me when you get notifications from SMS, EMAIL, XMPP app.
Usually Gadgetbriges forwards all notifications
One limitation of the Pinetime for example was that non ASCII letter were not supported. :(
For example 'é' char widely used in French would not be displayed or could be replaced by gadgetbridge by a 'e' but that is not a good solution.
Oh, and even if you can't do deep coding - you can always improve the documentation.
https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge/pulls/5192
Open source is about helping others in *any* way that you can.
Nice! Even without modification, #GadgetBridge can read this sub-£20 smartwatch's data.
Gets sleep, steps, and heart rate without issue. Seems pretty accurate - picked up my exercising just now.
Few missing bits like notifications (which I'll try to diagnose today) and some of the more esoteric settings.
Video: https://tube.tchncs.de/w/vYTnG6eKghnicdNj5nkhVx
Link to buy: https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_oCwt0hW
Full review tomorrow 😃
@Edent you've caused me to order one of these. I don't want an expensive smartwatch but messing around something cheap is another matter.
Ended up writing 2,400 words on this watch 🫢
You can get my latest posts by subscribing to the Atom feed https://shkspr.mobi/blog/feed/atom/
Or via email at https://shkspr.mobi/newsletter/
Here's the full blog post about this ridiculously cheap smartwatch.
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/08/i-bought-a-16-smartwatch-just-because-it-used-usb-c/
@pikesley That's the million dollar question.
In *theory* there's some OSS for updating the watch faces, but I haven't got that working yet.
Notifications can be sent by GadgetBridge, which offers some possibilities.
I'll contact the OEM and see if there's an SDK.
But, yeah, buying a few hundred of these could be cool 🙂
@Edent I wouldn't say I *like* my Mi Band 6, but the battery lasts 2 weeks and it's adequately waterproof. Not sure a USB C with a plug would cope with my life.
@Edent "Based on the three that I tried, PD chargers will not negotiate down to 1W levels."
It's not the chargers. The watch is simply missing the two 5.1k resistors connecting the CC1 and CC2 pins of the USB-C connector to ground that are required to indicate to whatever is plugged in that it wants 5v power.
USB-A to USB-C cables work because they provide 5v unconditionally. Anything that needs to care about which end provides the power (eg. a USB-C cable to a laptop) won't work.
@Edent Just ordered one
I believe there's an app to display various QR codes - can I add those without using the phone app?
@jackeric nope, that requires the companion app.
But you can deny the app Internet access, block contact and GPS etc. As long as it can connect to BLE, it should be fine.
@Edent occurred to me 0.2 seconds later, how would one load a QR code onto a device without a camera otherwise... d'oh! looking forward to putting my supermarket loyalty cards on there
@Edent
Thank you very much, I hope you are happy now. I've ordered the P80 smartwatch and also the P81 (no USB-C, but only 11€ 🤯, and slightly larger 300mAh battery). Will report if it works with #GadgetBride equally well.
@Edent
Notifications for me too, particularly alarms, ideally with the ability to cancel from the watch.
I like being able to personalise the watch face, although tend to only do that in bursts.
Everything else just wastes battery for me.
@Edent my favorite features of my Pine64 PineTime are that it:
- tells the time
- provides a light when I'm walking in the dark
- doesn't spy on me
- stays out of my way, doesn't bother me with notifications or calls
- lasts about a week between charges
- only cost $35
@Edent favourite function? I spend a significant portion of my working day acknowledging MFA prompts. Having them on my wrist rather than my phone is perfect, and I feel like a caveman on the rare occasion I'm not wearing my watch at work nowadays
@Edent Notifications top (phone is always silent), payments, health and workout tracking, not needing a phone when out for a run, and bluetooth presence so Home Assistant knows when I'm at home.
@Edent The reason I bought a smart watch is so I don’t need to carry my phone while out for a run, yet my favourite feature is probably that it acts like a HUD, meaning I don’t need to get my phone out to read a message, see where to go at a junction, skip the ads on a podcast, or even check the time…
@Edent My favorite smartwatch funcion is being able to set recurring alarms with reminder text right on my watch, without needing my phone. I loved this option on my first Casio DBA-800 and have picked databank and smart watches just for this option ever since.
Currently a daily user of Alarms++ on a Pebble Time Steel (still working). https://github.com/reini1305/alarmsplusplus
@dat just tried. It was discovered and connects - but doesn't do anything.
Do you know how I get started with it?
@Edent I had presumed water getting in would be the issue - but you've answered that already!
My Huawei GT2e uses wireless charging. And was a bargain when I got it! (About £70, I think.)
@Edent with the same usbc to mag cable adapter as all my other usbc & micro-usb devices. The only problem is they attract magnetic swarf.
@jbond yeah, I've been using those for a while.
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/07/gadget-review-magnetic-charging-cables/
I've found that the cable ends fail a bit too often. I think the charging pin wears down.
But, yeah, magnetic USB-C is the (impossible) dream!
@Edent Read your article, but chose NetDot. I've only had one bad cable. I have probably 20 widgets installed, and 3, 4 cables used every day.
@Edent Google have no excuse.. they could have stuck with the same charger for all their watches.
And the same watch straps..
@Edent I was sceptical about smart watches when they came out, and none of this is encouraging me to change my mind.
I suspect it's the same thinness-at-all-costs drive that led to generations of MacBooks that got too hot to touch if you compiled a moderately-sized codebase, and glued-together phones with non-user-serviceable batteries.
@threedaymonk yeah, my last one wasn't a success.
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2014/07/smart-watch-wearable-technology-failure/
But I'm enjoying this one so far. Will see if it lasts 😄
@Edent I've had a Citizen Eco-Drive watch for over a decade (quartz mechanism, but the screen is a solar panel, so it never needs winding or a new battery) and I recognise that I'm too curmudgeonly for this target market, but I wonder if they'll ever get smart watch power consumption down to the point that they could harvest ambient power from light, movement, etc.
@Edent Threw this on lemmy. https://piefed.social/post/1117153
Having a universal charger/data would be a dream. I would like wireless but I have no idea what that would entail.
@michaelch good to see that no-one on Lemmy reads the article before commenting 😆
@Edent heh. It's the universal constant of the interwebs. Why read when you can comment ;)
Bug fan of your articles (and RSS). Some interesting takes in the comments.
"Is the future of the open social web one dominant protocol or bridges and duct tape?" @atomicpoet at #Fedicon
The future of the open social web is people connecting with people no matter what technology they happen to choose. And if bridges and duct tape is what's necessary, then we'll continue building bridges, because it's connections and community over everything.
I never get tired of watching vehicles crash into and getting stuck under bridges.
“Camper gets stuck at the 11foot8+8 bridge” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1fq3hxp_9k
Who organised fedicon and who's culpable so I can block them from .art
Ahh it's @reiver . Why were you platforming a transphobic abusive racist? :) https://mastodon.art/@Curator/114960749075873409
@welshpixie Thanks for sharing this. May I ask what prompted the thread? (Did something, um, bad happen at fedicon?) Not trolling; I have just seen occasional toots from some attendees and was curious about the event.
@welshpixie I saw posts about it not being accessible either (due to lack of covid mitigation measures)
Jonathan Capehart explains why he has now left Jeff Bezos' Washington Post, siphoning yet more brilliance and truth from that cesspool of a journalistic enterprise:
"We’re supposed to ignore [what's happening to the country under Trump]? Leave it to others to wrestle with on their news pages and websites? No, no, no, no, no, said in 'Get Out.'”
@wdlindsy We got tired of the paper’s decline and ended our 30 year subscription last year. Alienating your core customers is a page from the Tesla business model. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Washington Post is out of business in five years.
@Patrickoldhiker A good decision, seems to me — and tragic, that we're now forced to repudiate journalistic outlets that once did courageous things to serve democracy, but which have now decided to trash their noteworthy heritage.
@wdlindsy better link to Capehart’s Substack instead https://jcapehart.substack.com/p/goodbye-washington-post
There’s so much noise in political media, but every now and then I come across something that helps me zoom out, connect the dots, and understand what’s really going on. Those are the pieces I hold onto. https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/
https://social.growyourown.services/@FediTips/114943373164656841
@welshpixie 😟 Who do you mean?
@welshpixie Oh wow, that's unexpected and hard to believe for me. But I know that you're usually referring to actually happened statements or actions. Are there sources to back this up?
#Substack is hosting, monetising and promoting Nazi blogs (https://mastodon.social/@taylorlorenz/114939115888742842). Substack's CEO admitted this back in 2023 (https://techcrunch.com/2024/01/09/substack-nazi-content-policies-controversy/).
If you are still using Substack, it is time to leave.
You might want to try #Ghost, a free open source self-hostable alternative to Substack (more info: https://ghost.org/vs/substack/). If you don't self-host, you can sign up at https://ghost.org
Ghost has Fediverse support in testing, Ghost users can sign up at https://activitypub.ghost.org
@FediTips From the Ghost webpage, there are no longer any free options. Minimum is $15 month for ≤1000 subscribers.
You're paying for the hosting costs, not the software. Paying for hosting is a good thing, it provides a sustainable way of funding a service.
Free open source software doesn't mean you get free hosting, it means you're free to host it yourself if you want to (and also free to alter it, distribute it etc).
Hypocrisy ALERT!!
I find it maddening that someone ON substack is posting the latest nazi issue on a blog using substack.
Lets not send more traffic to substack, even if it is to view a blog about their nazi problem. Two years is long enough to get off that platform.
p.s. People thinking the word "Nazi" must be some kind of hyperbole, it isn't.
These are actual Nazi blogs. They call themselves "National Socialists" (i.e. the same as Hitler's party). They have 1930s-style swastikas in a white circle on a red background as their artwork. They post racist lies and promote white supremacy.
There is no other word for them except Nazi.
Also, Substack's CEO himself used the word "Nazis" in 2023 when explaining he would not suspend or demonetise Nazis.
@FediTips
Everyone I don't like is literally Hitler
Literally Hitler, literally Hitler
Everyone I don’t like is literally Hitler
Let's have a look and see
You got Donald Trump, PewDiePie, and Pepe The Frog
Hand signs, free speech, follow Godwin's law
Pro-life conservatives, grammar police
White men, YouTubers, people who eat meat
Yeah, everyone I don’t like is literally Hitler
Everyone except for me
Everyone I hate is a literal Nazi
Literal Nazi, literal Nazi
Everyone I hate is a literal Nazi
Let's have a look and see
Jordan Peterson, Nazi!
Gamergate, Nazi!
Feminists, Nazi!
Shakespeare plays, Nazi!
Barack Obama, Nazi!
George W. Bush, Nazi!
Bill Clinton, Nazi!
Ronald Regan, Nazi!
Yeah, everyone I hate is a literal Nazi
Everyone except for me
[Chorus 3]
Everything I don't like is literally Hitler
Literally Hitler, literally Hitler
Everything I don't like is literally Hitler
Let's have a look and see
Comic books, Hitler!
Comedians, Hitler!
Capitalism, Hitler!
Socialism, Hitler!
Criticism, Hitler!
Men's Rights activism, Hitler!
Sexual dimorphism, Hitler!
Facts, Hitler!
Donald Duck, Hitler!
Manspreading, Hitler!
Babies, Hitler!
4chan, Hitler!
Science, Hitler!
Gun control, Hitler!
Statistics, Hitler!
Milk, Hitler!
Yeah, everyone I don't like is literally Hitler
Everyone except for me
Everyone except for me
@FediTips Ghost isn't free. It's pretty expensive actually, starting at USD 15/month.
You are paying for the hosting, not the software. Paying for hosting is a good idea, because it provides a sustainable way of keeping a service going.
"Free open source software" means you are free to self-host it, free to modify it, free to distribute it etc. You don't have to use ghost.org to use Ghost.
FOSS doesn't mean you get free hosting, because someone somewhere has to pay for the servers, electricity etc.
@FediTips I see your point, I still think it's a misleading claim to make.
The software is free in every sense of the word. I'm not claiming that you can get free hosting, because such a thing doesn't really exist (there's always some way you are paying for it).
If someone said "here's a free knitting pattern", that doesn't mean you're going to get free wool to knit it with.
@FediTips The software is free but it's not free to use and you don't get to self-host.
I think we'll just have to agree to disagree here.
@FediTips fuck medium, substack and all that bullshit. just get a static site generator like zola and a VPS.
I'm using Ghost atm for my personal blog, and I really like it.
It's not as fully-featured as a 'fully decked out with plugins' WordPress install, but on the plus side, it's also not WordPress.
@FediTips I saw a promotion for a newsletter from @TheConversationUS , a site I really like and want to support. But it was on Substack, so I wrote to them and declined because of Nazi support.
They seemed to understand but felt they need to go where the people are.
I understand the sentiment for IG or FB, but I don't understand it for a newsletter. It would be delivered to my email and I'd rarely if ever use the platform itself. Am I wrong?
(Personally, I'd rather read a newsletter right here in my Mastodon feed.)
@FediTips As a user, I understand, but how do I convey this to authors who write their own articles and are unlikely to lose a large proportion of paid subscribers?
I would send them the link to the Nazi problem article, another link to the CEO saying they won't even demonetise Nazis article and a third link to Ghost's substack comparison as an alternative. (Links are all in original post.)
Even if they feel compelled to be on Substack, at the very least it should encourage them to offer alternatives for those who don't feel comfortable with Substack?
And even if they do nothing now, if someone else later says the same thing too, they may act.
@FediTips
> If you are still using Substack, it is time to leave.
Give me information I can use. Don't tell me what to do. I'm an adult, who can make their own decisions. Please don't make me block you. 🦜
@FediTips Here's how it started for me https://www.antiracismnewsletter.com/p/trolled-on-substack-notes
Then I signed up to this open letter https://www.antiracismnewsletter.com/p/substackers-against-nazis
Then @rootschange and I wrote this https://www.rootschangemedia.com/ghost-beehive/
The Substack founders have never been inclined to deal with their Nazi garden.
@FediTips sadly Substack is still the only real option for non-monitised blogs (oh, and Ghost has just put their base price up, significantly).
I'm not sure how you see it as the only option? There are many, many blogging platforms out there, especially if you're not monetised anyway.
About the base price, that's only if you're using Ghost's own hosting. You can host it yourself or have an indie hosting company host it. The software is free open source so it can be offered by any hosting company.
@FediTips As the time I posted that I saw it as the *only* free option (that I don't have to self host).
I have now discovered Beehiiv so that makes two, but even with that you're limited to under 2,500 subscribers to it may become a problem for me one day (unlike Substack).
Everyone else requires you to pay and my blog doesn't have an income stream.
Substack didn't really stick a lot to me, aside from just following an Animation magazine and few board games substacks that looked pretty good and tried once to open one to narrate my solo board game sessions but didn't work out.
Ii'm deeply uncomfortable about Substack's open support to Nazism! Ridiculous! I want to keep following that one tabletop substack journal but i don't think it'd be easy to follow outside Substack since after all they're Substack exclusive profiles...
@FediTips I might consider trying Ghost.org to open up some blog of mine in the future, although! I want to share something about my hobbies, but is it free?
The software that runs the blog is free, but you need a hosting company to host it.
Ghost offers its own hosting service (which costs money) and there are also independent hosting providers (which also cost money).
All blogs cost money to host, so if a blog service is "free" then it is probably going to be doing something bad either now or in the future.
I know a #Georgian guy in #Tbilisi who plays #backgammon with his bud every week. The winner gets to force the loser to do some difficult, pointless, and hilarious task. My friend lost this time. The task? Memorize in fifty #languages:
"It wasn't my fault.
I was young.
I needed the money."
PBS and NPR have been defunded by law passed by Congress, not just an executive order. The government agency that funds them will wind down in a few weeks.
It’s crazy all of this was mapped out in Project 2025 and is being executed like clockwork. A well oiled machine of economic and intellectual sabotage.
This is bound to bring some joy to your day. Everything about it is delightful.
(And the engineering is amazing.)
#Joy #Happy #Laughter #Play #Engineering #DIY #RollerCoaster
The Silencing of Science: Why Publicly Funded Science Still Deserves Our Support
https://lowell.edu/the-silencing-of-science-why-publicly-funded-science-still-deserves-our-support/
The current administration in the US has, through various funding agencies such as the NSF and NIH, has recently suspended virtually all federal grants to my home university, UCLA (including my own personal grant, although that is far from the most serious impact of this decision), on the grounds that UCLA was “failing to promote a research environment free of antisemitism and bias”. One can certainly debate whether these grounds were justified, or whether they merit the extremely draconian damage to the very research environment that this decision is claiming to protect, but if nothing else this unprecedented decision does not appear to have followed the usual standards of due process for actions of this nature; for instance, there appears to have been no good faith effort by the administration to receive a response from UCLA to its allegations before implementing its decision.
The suspension of my personal grant has a non-trivial impact on myself (in particular, my summer salary, which I had already deferred in order to allow the previously released NSF funds to support several of my graduate students over this period, is now in limbo), and now gives me almost no resources to support my graduate students going forward; but this is only a fraction of a percent of the entire amount being suspended. A far greater concern is the impact on the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM) https://www.ipam.ucla.edu/, which despite receiving preliminary approval earlier this year for a new five-year round of funding (albeit at significantly reduced levels) from the NSF, now only has enough emergency funding for a few months of further operation at best if the suspension is not lifted. (1/4)
@tao That's so sad, what a crazy world. Perhaps it is time to look for moving out of that country and find another university to work in. How about UMons in Belgium? :)
IPAM (pictured here in a photo I took today), as one of the six NSF-funded math institutes, has been a great success since its founding in 2000. Its specialty is creating three-month programs where participants (both junior and senior) from two or more fields of mathematics, science, or industry interact through workshops, participant-driven seminars, and informal interactions, centered around a theme that had been identified as particularly fertile for bringing together two or more otherwise disparate communities.
One well-known example that I was involved many years ago was the 2004 program https://www.ipam.ucla.edu/programs/long-programs/multiscale-geometry-and-analysis-in-high-dimensions/ on Multiscale geometry and analysis in high dimensions, where the organizers had identified the potential for bringing together pure mathematicians whose work involved geometry at multiple scales with scientists interested in such applied topics as signal processing or the accurate modeling of materials. I participated extensively in this program, and in particular interacted quite a bit with one of the organizers (Emmanuel Candes) as well as Justin Romberg, leading to several foundational papers in the field now known as "compressed sensing", which permits (in certain circumstances) the rapid acquisition of high-resolution images or other information from a relatively small number of measurements. (Perhaps the most well known applications of the compressed sensing algorithms that came out of the work of Emmanuel, myself, Justin, David Donoho, and others was the ability to speed up the time required for a medical-grade MRI scan by up to an order of magnitude.) (2/4)
Some accounts claim that Emmanuel and I actually started collaborating at the preschool that both of our children attended at the time, but the truth is that our main collaboration actually started at IPAM; the fact that we met on a near-daily basis at the preschool was very useful to continue the collaboration, but it was not exactly an ideal environment to initiate it.
I have been involved in several other very interesting IPAM programs since then; for instance, in 2023 I was the lead organizer in an IPAM-hosted workshop on Machine Assisted Proof https://www.ipam.ucla.edu/programs/workshops/machine-assisted-proofs/, which turned out to be a very well-timed event (occurring a few months after the launch of ChatGPT, for instance), bringing together pure mathematicians, computer scientists, and several people from industry and opening important channels of communication between researchers in such topics as proof formalization, machine learning, large language models, computer algebra solvers, and satisfiability solvers. (I previously posted on my experiences at that workshop at https://mathstodon.xyz/@tao/109858184238417737 .) My experiences at that workshop, as well as the connections made, permitted me to get up to speed on the latest developments in all of these areas, which now encompass a large portion of my current research interests. (3/4)
But perhaps the biggest positive contributions of institutes such as IPAM is not on senior faculty such as myself (who often have other resources and connections to draw upon), but on early career researchers, especially those from less well known institutions who might not otherwise have many opportunities to interact with the researchers at the emerging interface between two or more fields that were just beginning to become interconnected. When I was a postdoc, I experienced that opportunity myself in 1997 at a different NSF-funded institute (MSRI, now known as SLMath) in a program https://www.slmath.org/programs/60 on harmonic analysis, which was instrumental in setting up several extremely productive collaborations in my early career. Many of my colleagues and collaborators can also testify to positive early-career experiences in such institute programs as similarly unlocking their own research potential. Losing one of these institutes would have major negative impacts on the next generation of mathematical scientists.
(Disclosure: I am scheduled this year to become Director of Special Projects at IPAM, taking over from Stanley Osher.) (4/4)
@tao I'm sympathetic, but I'm surprised that you haven't called a spade a spade here. The administration is cracking down on universities where students spoke out about Palestine, and you didn't say the word Palestine once. You're playing their game. Disappointing.
For those wondering about this, you can read about Project Esther https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/18/us/project-esther-heritage-foundation-palestine.html
@tao
This is terrible, and deeply damaging to our fields at a time when mathematical research is more impactful than ever. I believe a wide majority of the American populace disapprove of these measures.
All we need is for the legislature to see that this research is vital to our nation's scientific lead and standing. Perhaps if it were framed as a national security issue, it would be taken more seriously? Congress is reversing the NASA budget cuts. The NSF cuts can be reversed, too.
@tao it is sad that funding has been pulled.
But many, many faculty and academics stood silent while a "Jew exclusion zone" was erected at UCLA. For months the university dithered while Jewish students were harassed and intimidated
The harassment was not unlike what early times in Nazi Germany looked like.
Many academics believe they can just put their heads down and "do science". But why not speak up? Because of fear?
Palestine viewpoints should not be suppressed, but neither should Jewish students. Moral courage would have compelled academics to take a stand that said, we support free speech, but we do not condone harassment.
If academics don't speak out against what this really is - then the system will be emboldened, not chastised.
So what is this really about?
It is about Israel's interests being placed before the USA's interests.
It is about protecting Israel's genocide and 75 years of crimes against international law and human rights.
It is about equating anti-genocide with antisemitism.
It is about AIPAC.
I realise this is uncomfortable for some academics to read. But they know this is the truth. And if they don't break the tradition of academics always rolling over to pressure, they will see further attacks on their institutions, the discipline itself, and their own career prospects.
In summary - you don't appease this rabid supremacist force - you fight it.
All the best.
(I am a fan of your work, your outreach, your online lectures, your two books Analysis I and II, and your work with Lean)
@tao Given your outsized standing in the mathematics community, it would be great if you would clearly call out the facism and extortion for what it is, rather than pretending that there is anything to debate here.
Perhaps you can take advantage of your opportunity to address a national meeting of mathematicians next week to correct this.
@tao the paper you, Candes and Romberg wrote played a big role in my PhD journey.
Very sorry to read that you are now personally affected. However, I don't get why you try so hard to downplay what is happening as something "debatable". Scholars and researchers from all over the globe call it by its name: fascism. They will burn down faculties because they just hate it. There is no debate, no negotiation. Just a fight that can't be avoided
@tao I received Chancellor Frenk's message about the massive funding cuts to UCLA. I am so sorry this is happening to my colleagues and their trainees. Such bullish&t and such a waste.
@tao Citing "antisemitism" as motivation for wrecking funding for higher education and research nationwide is sickening to me as a Jew, amounts to blaming Jewry for the ongoing sabotage of America's greatest institutions and programs, and is itself an entirely antisemitic act.
@tao
This has more to do with anti-intellectualism characteristic of authoritarian populist movements intended to weaken Western democracy than antisemitism.
Looks like they are violating The Impoundment Control Act.
https://www.statnews.com/2025/08/05/gao-says-nih-cuts-violated-impoundment-control-act/
@tao The assault on higher education is part of the Project 2025 plan. Antisemitism - conflated with anti-Judaism, anti-Zionism and opposition to Israel's actions - is an excuse.
@tao I can empathize with the loss to science that this directive is causing. You are here debating its merits—or lack thereof, to be precise.
There is one point in your post that I question: you state that antisemitism at UCLA is debatable. But the real question is whether it should be debated at all. Perhaps we should start with this: is antisemitism a moral wrong that also damages the very institution you are trying to protect—potentially with an even greater impact than this funding suspension? And if you agree with that premise, why should we not examine whether it is being practiced at UCLA?
It cannot be dismissed out of hand, especially since a court has found such conduct to have occurred. That said, why should it fall on a professor to investigate such behavior? You are not an administrator, nor are you personally affected to the degree that would seem to warrant such a significant investment of your time and effort—unlike the funding cuts, which are directly affecting you and your colleagues.
This post is intended as a challenge, not a criticism. Antisemitism could have been used by the administration as a pretext for cutting funding, but the UCLA community does not strengthen its position by either actively engaging in antisemitism or remaining indifferent to it. Do two wrongs make a right? No—but confronting one does not preclude confronting the other.
Eradicating antisemitism at UCLA is both achievable and a worthwhile cause. Even a simple pledge could serve as a meaningful first step.
Hello RSS fans 👋
There is an undocumented feature on Mastodon that lets you follow a profile's public posts through your RSS feed reader:
The RSS feed address of a public Mastodon profile is the profile's web address with .rss added to the end of it. For example the RSS address of my account is https://social.growyourown.services/@FediTips.rss
This feed will only show public posts though, it will not show any replies or non-public posts.
@FediTips well this gave me an idea to declutter my feed, I'll just use news accounts through rss and everything else on mastodon like I usually browse
Another approach for decluttering is to use Lists, which let you keep the interactive side of things: https://fedi.tips/how-to-use-the-lists-feature-on-mastodon/
@FediTips @introvertcatto lists are a worthless feature until they can include hashtags. I don't know who is going to be posting on #caturday and I probably don't care about their non cat posts. I just want to see the cat posts
@FediTips I loooove RSS. I use the Feed Bro extension on FireFox. It lets you set rules/filters like on email.
@FediTips That's a good tip, used this function before joining. Also use lists, which work ok. What is missing to me is the option to automatically hide viewed posts, especially from boosts. I don't want to see the same post over and over again, when I already put that person or organization on a list, so I only see it if I choose to. I wish this would work like RSS can, so I can choose to mark it for further reference or never see it again.
There is already a feature which hides boosts you have seen before. However, it is hard coded to allow a boost to be visible again after 40 other posts have passed through your Home timeline. More info at https://fedi.tips/how-do-i-stop-seeing-the-same-boosted-post-again-and-again-in-mastodon/
So the #BureauofLaborStatistics released a #JobsReport that was not good
#Trump's solution?
Fire Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics
This is how the #USA really dies
We're well beyond difference of opinion in #politics
We've moved into holding lies as more valuable than truth
If businesses, domestic or foreign, can't trust govt #data, they abandon #business in the USA
And they don't come back for a long time
#Trust is hard won, easily lost
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/01/trump-erika-mcentarfer-jobs-report-fired.html
@benroyce Its the same stupid mindset he had during the covid pandemic.
If you don't measure covid levels, they can't go up.
yes
and these are but two data points in an entire culture change
"reality hurts my fee fees, so i prefer lies"
ok
for a demented, ignorant, bigoted segment of the country
but now that demented segment is running the country
destroying the country
the #USA is very sick. it's going to pay a heavy, heavy price before it ever comes back. if it ever does
i for one am for my state new york joining canada
but of course, canada won't have us, you can't absorb something that big without it warping your own country
i feel like our current desolation is nothing but a long overdue bill for not properly subjugating the ignorance and bigotry of the south after the civil war
@gedvondur @benroyce Incoming governments always have had to deal with unseen messes perpetrated by the outgoing one, which slows down their own agendas, but, holy Hannah with regards to the change in this regime. The whole term (and subsequent ones) will need to centre around undoing all the overt damage being caused by this one.
@tk @gedvondur @benroyce Yeah. I really do hope system backups were stored in a safe place and I feel so bad for the Americans who fought against this, knowing it would be bad, who now have a lot of personal info compromised by people called Big Balls, and who are having pensions threatened.
yup
and we need to keep track of all the #racist alterations to govt sites erasing contributions made to the #USA by #PoC
because "#DEI"
because "#woke"
really?
plain simple historical fact is some sort of manipulation you have to fight, you #MAGA morons?
they're the manipulators. reality hurts their feelings
#history hurts their precious precious #bigotry and #racism, so they have to erase history
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5223544-trump-executive-order-revises-american-history/
@benroyce @tk @gedvondur Yeah, it’s infuriating. History is history. And the more sides represented, the more true it is. I was really disheartened to hear an institution like the Smithsonian capitulated to remove info about the orange rapist’s impeachment. I suspect some folk have it ready to go back on display, along with why it was removed, after the orange ass is kicked to the curb. I do imagine real threats were made, but, still…
@benroyce @CStamp @gedvondur
It is immensely easier to destroy rather than build.
Even a moron can destroy things but to build one need brain, motivation, knowledge, humility and decency, all things no magat share.
I suggest McSweeneys, which has been maintaining a rolling list of the abuses, excuses, inhumanities and overall shittiness of the Trump administration, the most recently posted (for June) being here.
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/june-2025-atrocities-273-313
@benroyce @CStamp @gedvondur
But they'll never be able to hire back the years of experience that have been dissolved or fired.
@CStamp @gedvondur @benroyce My fear is that voters will give democrats a single term chance to fix it, but then get all upset because some stuff is a generational fix voters don’t have patience for (eg foreign investments and business going elsewhere) and instead turn right back to the next fascist promising to make things great.
@mwyman @CStamp @gedvondur @benroyce
EXACTLY what happened in 2020 & 2024!
@cynblogger @mwyman @CStamp @gedvondur @benroyce That's what I was going to say. Biden got insurance for about 10 million people, reduced hunger drastically, had the best job numbers in 60 years, the largest increase in wages for the bottom half in 60 years, first increase in manufacturing jobs in 50 years, and the largest action to reduce climate change in the history of the planet. But he didn't fix everything, so the fascist won.
@CurtAdams @cynblogger @CStamp @gedvondur @benroyce IF democrats get the chance, they need to go for big structural changes both to government power and for the economy, and I’m very worried most of the democrats currently making up the congressional caucuses won’t be ready to meet the moment.
@cynblogger @mwyman @CStamp @gedvondur @benroyce
This is all true, but it is also incumbent upon politicians to sell their programs and their accomplishments. It is not sufficient to simply implement good policy. In this era of instant communications politicians need to be front line influencers as well. If they cede the information space to their rivals they will get demolished no matter what good works they achieve.
@mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur @benroyce It is incumbent on voters to act like grownass adults. No one can be surprised at this outcome. The media seemed disinclined to promote government successes & coverage of the clown gave more ratings. But it was never difficult to learn where politicians stood on issues. Anyone who needs to be wooed by a politician instead of actively participating, deserves this.
@CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
True and I say this all the time
But the Dems need to reach more people by moving further left and getting downright nasty with #MAGA
This is a knife fight and the #Democrats act like it's a lounge party while triangulating and pushing ideological positions maximally designed to piss off the left and somehow appeal to braindead MAGA ghouls captured by Faux News who will never vote #Democrat
It's a really stupid out of touch strategy
@benroyce @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur The D-party seems to be wide open to a left flank attack, the mirror image of how Trump took over the R-party.
Why hasn't anyone seriously tried? Bernie looked like he might have, but he didn't?
@benroyce @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur Yes. I agree with that. They need to stop trying to meet the GOP in the middle, which keeps moving farther right, and stand up for things.
@CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
My fear is the spineless out-of-touch octogenarians in the #Democrats go "ok, we'll move a little left" and expect massive applause for their milquetoast bullshit
The left will stay unimpressed and Faux News will use such a move to go "SEE? THEY'RE COMMUNISTS! WHARGARBBL" and nothing changes
The only move to play is a full hard move left
They won't do it
So it will be imposed on them
Take over the #Democrats
The only way forward
@benroyce @CStamp @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
We need a Zelenskyy. The time is ripe for a popular hero.
LULA
❝ President Lula’s defiance pays off as Trump blinks on Brazil tariffs
https://www.cnbctv18.com/world/brazil-president-luiz-inacio-lula-da-silva-trump-tariffs-19646368.htm
❝ Brazil's Lula says Trump tariffs 'unacceptable blackmail'
https://www.dw.com/en/brazils-lula-says-trump-tariffs-unacceptable-blackmail/a-73318638
❝ The Life and Career of Lula
Worker, prisoner, president: what the Left can learn from Lula's rise from humble childhood to becoming one of the world's most popular politicians.
https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-life-and-career-of-lula
@mastodonmigration @benroyce @CStamp @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
@blogdiva @mastodonmigration @CStamp @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
How do you defeat #MAGA and #Trump?
You face them dead on and full-throated nuke bomb their #bigotry and #ignorance
#Democrats: "well firm words are scary and what about the MAGA person we might win over by being as weak as possible?"
Doesn't exist, you spineless turds
Lula and the sindicalistas literally went to war against the enemy within: the USA-backed dictatorship that branded them as terrorists and threw him in jail several times.
Zelensky was already a celebrity when he went into politics. politics happened to Lula as a steelworker & union organizer during one of the most brutal dictatorships in the world.
sindicalismo brasileiro paved the way to fight USA backed fascism
@benroyce @mastodonmigration @CStamp @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
🐔 won by offering the voters nothing but racism. It is all he has, but it was all he needed.
How do we nuke the racism out of 77 million Trump voters?
@benroyce @blogdiva @mastodonmigration @CStamp @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
@andytiedye @blogdiva @mastodonmigration @CStamp @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
we don't
we ignore that third
We take the dem base third and we draw upon enough of the nonvoting third by something genuinely compelling and further left. not a teensy bit left, hardcore lurch left
@blogdiva @mastodonmigration @benroyce @CStamp @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur You see? Stand UP to this yankee tyrant. You plan a coup you go to jail -- very straight forward from my perspective.
If you can find the time, see also the life and achievements of Lech Walesa of Poland.
It took Solidarity about a decade, but they won.
@blogdiva @mastodonmigration @benroyce @CStamp @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
@benroyce @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur Yeah, this whole Dems need to be perfect but the GOP can be literal criminals needs to be addressed as well. “You’re not perfect, so let’s burn down the country/world to teach you a lesson!”
@benroyce
The Democrats need to forget about the US house and senate in 26 and focus as much as possible on down-ballot races at the state, county, and city levels. As long as Chump is president, taking the US house and senate is wasted effort.
Once Democrats hold a majority of state offices, then, and only then will they be able to take the US house, senate, and presidency back and actually wield them effectively.
@benroyce @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur Agreed right up until those last two lines.
If you win their primary, they will put their resources against you as an independent. Despite all their "vote blue no matter who" rhetoric, we've seen this many times.
If you take the party at a state level they will gut the place, move to the next town over, and build a NEW state democrat party. We've seen this too.
If you took them over nationally, they'd become the fresh new party with a multi-billion dollar budget while you get stuck with the baggage of all of their past mistakes.
The only thing you'll ever be able to "take over" is the name alone, and the name ain't worth shit. We do not win by pretending to be them.
@admin @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
So we live in an #FPTP voting system
Are you familiar with #DuvergersLaw?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger%27s_law
We should have a better voting system, but we don't
So 3rd party just divides the left and guarantees more #MAGA wins
Therefore, taking over the #Democrats is the only path forward, acknowledging all of your concerns and many more you didn't write: they don't change the equation
And they are extremely weak now
Now is the time
@benroyce @admin @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur You can't take over the RNC or the DNC from below. You can only control them from above - from the level of the donors. That's how Trump, and Elon, did it.
Right now, 90M eligible voters don't vote, and neither party gives a shit - if they wanted voters, they'd run on widely popular policies like Medicare for All, or Green New Deal. But they don't - because widely popular policies are unacceptable to the money people.
So good luck trying to sway the DNC into better policies. You will fail, but perhaps you will learn.
Eventually, you will take the Dune approach:
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing."
Fuck the DNC - fuck the lesser evil - burn it to the ground.
Then build a new populist party for social justice.
@grumble209 @admin @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
3rd party dooms the left to be divided and therefore decades of maga control
we are not a parliamentary democracy nor do we have ranked choice voting
so your approach is a hard fail
i acknowledge all of your criticisms with the idea of taking over the democratic party
it is still the only valid path
did you see mamdani in new york city?
if we listen to your cynicism, that was impossible
and yet it happened
LOOK AT IT THIS WAY: take over the party so you can burn it to the ground. to build an antifa movement, start with obliterating all the fascists-lite hiding behind lies of centrism. it will be from dancing on their ashes that a real antifa movement will rise.
@benroyce @grumble209 @admin @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
@blogdiva @grumble209 @admin @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
LISTEN TO YOUR AUNTIFA
liza knows best
burning things to the ground is fun, and even more fun from within
@benroyce @grumble209 @admin @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur Mamdani won a ranked choice voting primary.
@david42 @grumble209 @admin @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
And he's going to win the mayorship
Have you seen the polls?
@benroyce @david42 @grumble209 @admin @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur polls only count if people actually vote.
@CStamp @david42 @grumble209 @admin @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
Well yeah but what I'm saying is #Mamdani is way ahead in the polls. I'm not nullifying your point, I'm saying it's looking really good
When people show up and #vote, good things happen
@benroyce I hope he does. He seems to show a real promise of a politician who will actually care about the people. @david42 @grumble209 @admin @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
@grumble209 @admin @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
@benroyce wrote:
"...nor do we have ranked choice voting
...
did you see mamdani in new york city?
if we listen to your cynicism, that was impossible
and yet it happened"
For the bulk of the country that lacks RCV, Mamdani-style leftist candidates probably *are* impossible to elect.
One needs a different example to support the thesis that actual leftists can be electorally viable in the US.
@david42 @grumble209 @admin @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
the idea is we show the fuck up in the primaries and the general, and get RCV when we control the govt
it's a statement against the whiny weak cynicism "life's not fair, everything sucks, i'm not going to do anything, waah, wahh" which merely creates the situation the fucking losers are complaining about
you miss 100% of the shots you don't take
@benroyce @grumble209 @admin @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur oh absolutely
@benroyce @david42 @admin @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur Show up in the primaries is a good start - that might send a message to the corporate Dems that the times they are a changin'.
But you have to show up in the streets when the protests happen, even if they get spikey. Nothing like a huge mob of pissed off people for the corporate types to start having bad dreams.
@benroyce @admin @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
Yes, so long as FPTP dominates for either legislative or executive positions, two parties will dominate.
Many states and cities have added ranked choice voting for many positions.
Proportional voting addresses legislative representation.
Still, you have politicians like Sanders or Memdani who have a very solid argument either drawing huge crowds or winning elections.
@benroyce @admin @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
But I want to point out how anti-left wing, which is to say equal decision-making power advocating, the two party system is.
That system two parties is anti-democratic in the sense that it does not let other people freely form political parties in order to advance their particular interests.
Party structure itself does not have to be democratic, and both political parties by the way are very right wing internally.
@benroyce @admin @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
This is because the leadership the few dictate who will receive party support and who will be blacklisted if they are defied.
This is the essence of right wing political structure.
@GhostOnTheHalfShell @admin @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
Well we have to take over govt to change the voting system. So we are married to the putrid Democrats until we can Trojan horse them then destroy them
@CStamp @cynblogger @GhostOnTheHalfShell @benroyce @admin @mwyman @gedvondur @mastodonmigration Perhaps it is wise to differentiate Congress members from the President. An ‘independent’ (i.e. non-duopoly) candidate is as least potentially as effective as a conventional red/blue Representative. The problem is that the US President has way too much power.
@benroyce @admin @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
But here’s a question I’ve always had, it’s up to the states to determine how their government is elected. I think at least Maine and several other states have deployed ranked choice for instance.
State and local politicians feed into federal politicians. They will also shape party politics at the state level.
aggressive state level program of proportional representation and ranked choice voting is the pathway
@GhostOnTheHalfShell @benroyce @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur Yeah you DEFINITELY don't start at the president, that's a guaranteed loss. But state level is a whole different story.
We gotta start with states like mine -- Rhode Island. There is no "spoiler effect", we're a one party state. It's only Democrats...Democrats who are cutting healthcare, cutting transit, cutting taxes on banks while raising them for the middle class, seizing low-income housing to build police complexes...the Democrats act like Republicans, and the Republicans don't exist. Plenty of room for another party to jump into the race.
And I've got personal friends who were elected as "progressive" Democrats in this state, who served one term before getting pushed out by the party, who can talk for hours about the corruption and underhanded tactics they use to subvert democracy and keep the wealthy donors in charge.
And yes, Zohran managed a win in NYC as a Dem...but that was in spite of the party, not because of it. His campaign wasn't managed by the Democratic party, it was run by the Democratic Socialists of America. And now that he won the primary, what happened? The party establishment, the "vote blue no matter who" crowd...suddenly they want us to vote independent. Suddenly they're lining up behind Cuomo. Meanwhile, Zohran's putting DNC staffers into his campaign and now he's walking back his messaging on Palestine, walking back his messaging about fixing the criminal gangs we call "law enforcement"...we need a party that can actually hold the candidate to their positions, that has a platform and values beyond just winning at all costs and courting wealthy donors.
@admin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
Mamdani ran as a Democrat
These 3rd party clueless toxic idealist dreams need to fucking end
It's either ignorance of Duverger's Law or outright agent provocateur trolling to help MAGA win
Take over the Democrats
They're weak
And thanks for the attacks on Mamdani as a centrist already 🤣🤣🤣
You fucking trolls, so easy to spot, with the same fucking moronic games
@benroyce @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur Duverger's law states that you will have two strong parties. Here in RI, we have one strong party. Therefore, by Duverger's law, there is room for another.
@admin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
Can you try living in reality
Please?
We need ranked choice
Push dem candidates that support it
Show up in the primaries
Then the general
Help Rhode Island become the next Maine
Or, go 3rd party, and all that will happen is that you're working hard for a republican to win in RI
That's what you're advocating for with your current rationale
Please realize that
@benroyce @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur Dems will never be allowed to support it and still be Dems! They've had unilateral control over the state for decades; the party is going to do everything they can to block anything that would change that. The people have voted in "progressive" after "progressive", and all those promises start to evaporate the minute they get into office and start getting bribes, threats, and pressure from the rest of their party. People here have been trying to do what you are suggesting since before I was born. It does not work.
@admin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
and how did we get ranked choice voting at all in the places where it exists?
do you understand you're not describing reality, you're describing your own rationale for helplessness?
do you want more ranked choice voting in more parts of the country?
i think you do
but if anyone listens to you, we never will get it
because you're creating the problem you dislike with your cynicism
cynicism is acceptance
@benroyce @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur It all depends on local conditions. Either party might think ranked choice will go in their favor if the two are a bit more balanced, and then yes a strong popular campaign might tip the scales.
But ultimately we do need new parties. Or at least one new party. One structured in a way that is actually responsive to the people, not an authoritarian hierachy that only responds to their donors and those at the top. One that is actually part of the community, not just showing up once every for years to demand your vote.
To be clear, I'm not saying go run third party in swing states. That'd be a terrible call. But there *are* places where it is an option, and the time to start doing that was ages ago. Otherwise, sure we'll maybe get a few good people in, with immense effort, riding on the Trump backlash...but they'll be out as soon as things start to change. As soon as people stop feeling the need to continue that immense effort the money will regain control. We cannot create lasting change under the existing party structures, and we cannot change those structures at a national level fast enough.
I am not the cynic. You are the one insisting that the two parties cannot change. Despite the fact that they have changed before.
@admin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
"But ultimately we do need new parties"
so you work in our debilitating bullshit FPTP system and get candidates that support that and mob the primaries and get RCV
then with RCV you are finally free of dreary strategy and can freely vote your conscience and have all the parties you want
but
if you go for 3rd party *first*
while we're still FPTP
you divide the left and help MAGA win
@benroyce @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur if you can get a Democrat elected that the Democrats oppose, then you can get an independent elected too.
@admin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
like mamdani
who ran as a *democrat*
this is the only way:
take over the dem party from within
if you throw up an independent vs a democrat, they divide each other's votes, and then GOP swoops in and wins
why do you not understand this?
@benroyce @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur What part of starting this in places where there are no Republicans to win do you not understand?
@admin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
you made this post:
https://mastodon.social/@admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com/114957211683269362
so take the two 50-60% areas
so the other % was mostly GOP correct?
do you understand?
let's break it down for you if you don't:
let's assume a light blue area was 60% harris, 40% trump
harris wins
but no, you want a new left party
ok
so now the vote is 30% harris, 30% new person, 40% trump
in our stupid FPTP system, trump wins
do you understand?
@benroyce @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur Sure. What about a district that's 63-32? It ain't gonna split 50-50. Or one that's 98-2?? We have those here.
Look man, I spend my weekends going door-to-door talking to people here about this shit. We get high-fives, we get "I've been waiting for someone to do this!", and we get a hell of a lot of "I don't vote"s that turn into "where can I learn more?" I can probably count on one hand the number of people who were absolutely against it. The majority of Americans don't even bother to show up on election day because they don't see anyone running that actually represents their interests. They're used to both parties promising the world and never delivering. You knock on that door as just another Dem making promises and asking for a vote, you aren't gonna get very far. People want to see something different, something they can actually be a part of. It's time we make that happen.
@admin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
look, it's very simple:
you divide the left, GOP wins, in our stupid FPTP system
all that your hard work amounts to is helping MAGA, because of our stupid FPTP voting system
that's the reality
be mad at that all you want, but that is the hard cold reality, and there is no choice for you except to accept it
@benroyce @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur If RCV is so important...that doesn't come from the President, that doesn't come from the federal congress. You're looking at the wrong races. The districts we need to change for that are the ones that are voting 98% for some corporate shill Democrat. Giving them an opponent on their left isn't gonna make things any worse.
@admin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
if you can guarantee it's 98%
which is how many districts?
or work in the party and get more good candidates, who are the same as the magic independents you want, just with a dem label, taking over the party
and they can win more broadly, more districts. rather than the one independent who has no chance to prevail
do it *like mamdani did*
but you called mamdani a centrist which is a fucking ignorant lie
@benroyce @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur I never called Mamdani a centrist; I was pointing out that his own party is actively working against him. Time will tell how effective they will be with those efforts, but I think he could do a lot better if he had a party that actually supported him. I also think the fact that he has national media attention is probably helping him stay strong and giving him support that others would never have. (Although on that last point, runnnig outside the party might help. Sawant gets a hell of a lot of attention for a city council member!)
The problem with "just elect better Democrats" is their policies typically start to change once they get into office. Especially in "safe" districts. You keep the party happy, you've got a secure seat as long as you want it. You piss them off, suddenly you've got no party support and a well-funded opponent running against you in your next primary. Then you tell yourself you can't make things better if you get voted out, so you cut some deals and you take what's offered and you do what the establishment tells you to do. We've seen this play out over and over with Democrats that we endorsed in the past. You build a coalition that puts in thousands of hours helping them get elected and then the party gets their ear and they never talk to you again.
@admin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
"but I think he could do a lot better if he had a party that actually supported him"
1. he would never get elected with another party
2. we can change the dems if we get more mamdanis
the centrists are not omnipotent alien beings
in fact, they're fucking weak
now is the time to take them over
and as i said to you, time and time again:
3rd party, before we get RCV, only divides the left and helps GOP win
@admin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
"their policies typically start to change once they get into office"
tell that to bernie
@benroyce @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur Yeah, Bernie is a great example. He's been holding office as an independent for like fifty years now. But he needs a broader organization behind him and more politicians actually working for the people to work with him. And he ain't gonna be around much longer. Someone's gotta pick up that torch.
If you keep telling politicians that they are nothing without the Democratic party, then they will keep bending over backwards to keep the favor of the party establishment. Elect them as an independent and there's nobody to serve but the people of their district.
@admin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
"If you keep telling politicians that they are nothing without the Democratic party"
I said to take over the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is not a magical demon device that corrupts souls. It's an empty vessel. Fill it with whatever we want
And I am only proposing this because its the only way with our stupid FPTP system. I don't like it. But I accept it because it is our unfortunate reality
@benroyce @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur Yeah, it's not a magical entity, it's a private club of billionaires. Leftists did take over the entire state party in Nevada not too long ago, it lasted two years before the national managed to boot them all out again. The only way to do that effectively would be to take over the entire national org in one go. If we have the power to do that, we have the power to skip the middle-man and just put a damn socialist in the White House directly!
There's not even any mechanism to do that really. It's not a democratic organization. The only people who get a vote in party leadership at the national level are the members of the existing party leadership!
@admin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
And what is Mamdani doing?
Smh
We can listen to you, and just give the fuck up
No wait worse: go 3rd party and divide the left to guarantee MAGA wins
Or we could take the party over
No wait: we can't do that because magic billionaire vampires of infinite power
Da fuq
Do you understand the problem is *your* self-defeatist cynical attitude?
Maybe I'm wrong
But I'm taking the shot
You already gave up
@benroyce @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur What am I doing? Talking to people who tried your way, learning what stopped them, and building solutions. Knocking doors, writing code, hosting community events..for two years so far. Walking picket lines and helping to keep striking workers fed and housed and in good spirits, mobilizing against ICE deportations, organizing a movement that got 30% of the city to vote against Genocide Joe in the primary even though he was the only motherfucker running. Educating people how to unionize and organize, then bringing those unions together to talk about class solidality. Holding events to teach everything from Marxist organizing to the class dynamics of the AI boom to the failures of the American "healthcare" system. Most days I put a few hours into this shit, and have been for a couple years now. I am FAR from defeatist, and couldn't be further from giving up. I am working within my community to make change starting in my community. What is your plan and what are you doing to change the entire nation?
@admin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
If you're doing all that for a 3rd party candidate all that you are achieving is helping MAGA win
Your heart is in the right place
Now you gotta think about the unfortunate reality of our broken system
Heart and mind
Mind without heart is savvy but weak
Heart without mind is strong but lost
@benroyce @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur MAGA didn't win because of a third party, MAGA won because the Dems installed, without a vote, a candidate that couldn't even win their own primary.
But more importantly...MAGA only exists in the first place because we have no community, no class consciousness, no organized labor...And if you're gonna run an independent candidate that serves the people, you gotta fix that first. So that's all a huge part of what we're trying to do too.
@benroyce @admin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur You have the patience of a saint explaining, over and over, the sad reality to the willfully ignorant.
@pmonks @admin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
mastodon is a hangout
sometimes it's just nice to chat
even though you already know the radioactively obvious, and you are completely aware of the stubborn foolish self-selection for impotency before you
@benroyce
(Then end of dreary strategy is proportional, not RCV. But either is better)
@admin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
@benroyce @admin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur ALASKA got ranked choice voting.
@mls14 @admin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
yes Alaska got RCV with GOP support
and guess what happened?
GOP leadership noticed
the GOP knows they win by voter suppression, not by giving voters more choices
and so:
https://www.npr.org/2024/06/05/nx-s1-4969563/ranked-choice-voting-bans
RCV in Alaska with GOP help was a one-and-done
the only way forward for RCV now is through the democrats
mob the primaries
get in dem candidates that support RCV, and then hold them to it
@benroyce @mls14 @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur Alaska is also more politically diverse than, say, Rhode Island.
@admin @mls14 @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
if you throw another party from the left into RI, some of that light blue will fade into red
before we get RCV, all another party on the left will do is help MAGA win
please realize this
we take over the dems
it's the only way forward
@benroyce @admin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur My point was that it can be done ANYWHERE.
It is much more doable than the pipe dream of “we need new parties” …
Which, as you said… can realistically ONLY happen after RCV.
Voters really like RCV. It’s the incumbents (mainly GOP) that dislike it.
@mls14 @admin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
💪 😤
well said and agreed
and apologies, i wasn't arguing in opposition to your words, i was more using them as a jumping off point to riff on your words
@admin @benroyce @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur If RI decided federal elections, you'd have a point.
If you'd prefer your little dot of a state be wiped off the map, there's a party that's currently in power that would be happy to do so.
@janisf @admin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
careful, i'm from connecticut
we love the li'l rhodie
we need a buddy to hate massholes together 🤭
@benroyce @admin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
Have you driven by that house that the road had to go around in Shrewsbury? I clipped it with my passenger's side mirror....
How's Hampton Beach these days?
BTW, if RISDI wasn't a collection of actual elitist assholes that have had no small hand in driving up tuition prices, I might disown my Worcester (OK Auburn) HS diploma. Might anyway--it hasn't served me well.
@janisf @admin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
🤣 🤣 🤣
you just gave me a flashback
i roomed with a RISDI grad in brooklyn for a bit. she was annoying af
@benroyce @admin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur I'm really pretty convinced the old trope of rich, educated Democrats who tend to support arts orgs is supported knowingly by Republicans, and unwittingly by RISDI snobs. it's really sad that people are sucking that up over actually reading policy/legislation.
Sorry about the roomate. I hope the flashback was better!
@admin @benroyce @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur I think Americans read too much into Duverger's law. It doesn't require there to only be two parties on the national level. There are a lot of countries with FPTP that elect more than two parties to the legislature on a regular basis.
@BernieDoesIt @admin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
because we can judge the fight for the nation by the weird rare districts?
if you want to self-select for obscurity go right ahead
but don't assert that has any domain over the real path to meaningful change
@benroyce @BernieDoesIt @admin @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
I think it is useful at this point to recall that George Washington warned that political parties defeated the system of checks and balances written into the constitution.
He recognized by the time he left office that members of a political party would surrender themselves to party objectives, and that would mean that the party objectives could drive multiple branches of government.
@GhostOnTheHalfShell @BernieDoesIt @admin @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
yes he saw the future well
and that didn't change anything
the change has to be us
@benroyce @BernieDoesIt @admin @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
Nobody else will save us.
@CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur @benroyce But those who don't deserve this are still getting shafted by this.
@david42 @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur if they voted, exactly
If they didn't vote, they can go fuck themselves, they helped create this
@benroyce @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur Even the people who voted against this hellscape are suffering in it.
That suffering is a collective punishment. Collective punishment is prohibited under the Geneva Convention. And yet it happens daily.
@david42 @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
And?
You have problems, you fix them
What is the point of resignation except weak spineless acceptance
@benroyce @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
"Anyone who needs to be wooed by a politician instead of actively participating, deserves this."
My point is that many people don't deserve what is happening to them. Yes there is plenty of work to be done.
@david42 @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
1/3 of the country is ignorant bigots: MAGA
1/3 of the country is stressed normal individuals: they show up and hold their noses and vote democrat
and 1/3 of the country does not give a fuck if we slide into fascism
they don't vote
if a small fraction of these indolent assholes showed the fuck up, we'd avoid a huge chunk of our problems
you can't fix MAGA
so we need to focus on the inanimate fucking objects who don't vote
@benroyce @david42 @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur Except the nonvoters are selfish and uninformed, and therefore might vote fascist if pressed.
@msbellows @david42 @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur
your theoretical problem is valid, but more pressing is our actual problem. which gave us a fascist
@benroyce @david42 @CStamp @mastodonmigration @cynblogger @mwyman @gedvondur I'm trying to retain hope in Democratic processes, but I'm afraid we're not going to get off so easily. https://c.im/@msbellows/114079098487442358
@CStamp @gedvondur @benroyce The Elephant in the room? Capitalism will, is devouring us, is there any real debate about this? The real problem here is that a lot of us admire ‘The rich guys’, want to be them and can’t see the forest for the trees. We’re on the menu.
@Huntn00 @gedvondur @benroyce Well, then, just roll over and keep whining. The people who care to fight and resist won’t care about your opinion because it means nothing.
@CStamp @gedvondur @benroyce Wow, that’s awful advise. 😚
@Huntn00 @gedvondur @benroyce Ben & others have given great advice & thoughts and if folk want to argue about how they think voting is pointless, well, I am just too exhausted by people giving excuses to just shrug their shoulders.
Stalin cancelled a whole census (it reported a Soviet population decrease after the famines of the 1920s and the 1930s).
I don't recall if he sent the top people responsible for the census to prison.
@benroyce This reminds way too much of what Joseph Stalin (may he suffer in hell forever) did when got some negative statistics from the soviet statistics bureau. He ordered to execute that chief of bureau as a foreign spy and saboteur.
The next bureau chief learned the lesson well and soviet official statistics were shiny since as polished five-point stars on the Kremlin towers.
As a teen in the 50s, my Chinese father in law read a Party newspaper story about a model farmer who had achieved a great areal corn yield. The boy did some calculations and found that the cobs would have to be about seven metres long. And he realised that the Party was lying to him. In his old age now though, he watches their propaganda TV every day.
@mrundkvist @koteisaev it's a serious human sickness the world over. It's a greater threat to civilization than nuclear bombs, the disinfo and the fools who buy it
Social media could kill us all
@benroyce You have Ukraine as a flag in your profile.. does that mean you are from Ukraine and like talking crap about America ? Or are you just talking for the likes and retweets or whatever they call them here ?
@benroyce Trump is running the country like his failed front businesses. His primary source of income was and still is money laundering.
Just shove the truth under the carpet, like the underperforming geopolitics, the nonfunctional tariffs, the impeachments done, the Epstein files… look its somebody else’s fault…
Truth has no relation to truth, only to his megalomaniac narcissistic ego.
What could possibly go wrong…
@benroyce reposting this here as it’s relevant
@grammasaurus @benroyce Even now I’m still seeing memes that say variations of can’t we just agree to disagree or can’t we all just get along or sentiments to that effect. We’re way, way past that now. As this sign says, this is not about a difference of opinion or policy. We are absolutely in good or evil territory now, and if you still back the orange man I need to question your overarching priorities, at the very least.
@Thumper1964 @grammasaurus @benroyce I cannot "agree to disagree" with people who are trying to kill my friends.
Prior month revisions have been negative ever since Trump took office. All these negative revisions point to an eroding #economy. We are heading inevitably into a #recession caused by Trump’s foolish and destructive policies. July #employment figures will probably be revised down like prior months.
@benroyce
So it turns out that the Convicted-Felon-in-Chief runs the government like a criminal operation, eh? Who knew? #McEntarfer #bls #BureauOfLaborStatistics #GOPFail #FuckTrump
@benroyce Classic Kill The Messenger or anyone who tells the truth when it “interferes with my bankrupt schemes of self grandeur.” 🧟♂️
@benroyce
I'll have you know that this was headline news in the Netherlands.
Don't know how US media treated it, but here it was pretty big.
With the comment of course that it undermines trust....
The US doesn't really produce bananas, so banana republic doesn't really fit, but y'all are well underway.
*Edited for autocorrupt mishap.
@benroyce
This article was most viewed yesterday, on the Dutch news site nu.nl
Trump ontslaat hoofd statistiekbureau en zegt dat cijfers 'gemanipuleerd' zijn https://www.nu.nl/buitenland/6364451/trump-ontslaat-hoofd-statistiekbureau-en-zegt-dat-cijfers-gemanipuleerd-zijn.html
of all the bullshit, this firing of the head of the labor statistics bureau could be the one that breaks the camel's back
in terms of business reputation
and without that...
@benroyce
Dunno. I've heard that argument a while bunch of times ago. Tarifs, talking down the dollar, trying to fire Powell, etc
By now that camel is carrying a whole extra bale of hay and no real sign of it actually breaking.
This will never get normal.
Elect a felon, expect a crime...
Grim times ahead. How much will the people be able to take. The incompetence and the authoritarian tendencies of this christo-fascist bunch should be fully clear by now, even for those blind to it.
The mid-terms will be a watershed moment...
Come visit @anjan and me at the #postmarketOS table at @FOSSY today through Sunday, it'll be fun 🥳
Jonathan V. Last asks a very important question:
"What is the moral weight of responsibility for the men who carried out DOGE’s work?"
He zeroes in on 23-year-old Luke Farritor, "one of Elon Musk’s 23-year-old DOGE bros who helped dismantle key parts of the federal government, including USAID."
Last says,
"What struck me most reading the account of his life is the extent of his privilege."
#ElonMusk #LukeFarritor #DOGE #USAID
/1
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/the-boy-genius-who-killed-14-million-luke-farritor-doge-elon-musk-trump
White, Midwestern, affluent, afforded the best education, father a professor: and Farritor chose to use all of those advantages to dismantle an international aid organization providing food and medicine to people in desperate need:
"USAID provided life-saving food and medicine for poor people across the globe. Before January 2025 there had been no—zero, zilch—interest in killing off the agency. It wasn’t something Trump ran on."
"It wasn’t envisioned in Project 2025. It was only once Elon Musk decided that USAID was evil that destroying the agency became a policy goal for the Republican party.
Now that USAID is gone, people are dying who otherwise would not have. This is a simple fact. How many? Who knows. …
So what are we supposed to do with a man like Luke Farritor?
He is not the product of a broken home or an uncaring system."
"He is not one of MAGA’s Forgotten Men. He was not discriminated against by DEI.
Last's commentary is referencing a deep-dive article by Bloomberg about Farritor and what he did to USAID — to hungry and sick people in desperate need. The article is linked below.
Should we ask moral questions here, ask about Farritor's accountability? If not, why not?
Some sociopaths are born that way. We have a right and responsibility to protectg ourselves from them. But we don’t...
"So what are we supposed to do with a man like Luke Farritor?
"He is not the product of a broken home or an uncaring system.”
@wdlindsy I would say that he *is* the result of an uncaring system. Not in the sense that it neglected Farritor’s needs, but in the sense that it does not care that it brings forth people like Farritor. Neglecting the needs of society, in a way.
@wdlindsy
Astute observation there — the insularity of privilege does not create empathy (which musk regards as a human failure in any event).
My corollary: Insularity destroys the social contract and creates desire for more insularity — e.g., build walls, erect borders, show little care for those less fortunate, etc.
@wdlindsy they bear the same weight as the men who were "just following orders," and must suffer the same consequences.
@rootwyrm Well-stated. I agree. If we think Holocaust perpetrators and Nazi collaborators need to be held accountable, then we'd be inconsistent to say Luke Farritor shouldn't be held accountable.
@wdlindsy Unfortunately, this will get get passed over on the basis that a single death is a tragedy, while 14 million is a statistic.
These were all preventable deaths, though. And we not only have receipts, we have a chain of command.
One of the things I'm deeply missing is the instagram food community - the fun of just clicking through the photos (pixelfed does not have that many and is cluncky, sorry...) the little conversations with friends in comments, cooking someone's recipe, looking back at my own old photos to get inspired for cooking ..
But I guess the only way to deal with it is to do something about this, so expect more food photos here.
Maybe today. 😊
I found here at Mastodon, some interesting recipes and food Pictures.
But you are right, it's not so often.
@vicgrinberg There is the Southeast Asian hashtag #makanApaToday if you're interested in food photos from this side of the world.
I'm not sure if there are other regional food hashtags, but maybe they are out there.
@ubi oh, it sounds lovely, thanks! But it's not quiet as much of a flood as a lot of instagram was and possibly still is - and sometimes I want to just dive into something long!
@vicgrinberg
Bilder von tollen Essen sind immer eine willkommene Unterbrechung
Ich mag sehr den hastag "sourdough" oder "Sauerteig".
Und eine zeitlang gab es mal die Aktion "EineZutatVieleGerichte". Der hastag ruht wohl gerade, aber vielleicht kann der ja reaktiviert werden oder etwas ähnliches ins Leben gerufen werden.
@Rohrspatz klingt nach einer sehr coolen Aktion! Ich fand es vor allem toll, einfach rumzusurfen und mich inspirieren zu lassen, viele spannende Rezepte so gefunden...
Ich werde auf jeden Fall posten!
@vicgrinberg
Ja, die Aktion war richtig schön. Es gab zu den jeweiligen Zutaten zwar oft auch Klassiker, aber auch immer wieder Gerichte, die man nicht auf dem Schirm hatte.
@vicgrinberg Unfortunately, I don't think the Fediverse will be particularly good for such things until it grows significantly.
People here often say it's fine for the Fediverse to stay small, and I don't have any objection to that in principle, but in practice scale is required to build bustling, thriving communities around many diverse interests. For social networks, being big is a fairly integral part of being good for the purposes of the average user, which is a reality that I feel that a lot of Fedi folks have yet to truly recon with.
@internic @vicgrinberg what is small and what is big. Like twitter is small compared to facebook or instagram
@hiphopheaven Functionally, that probably depends on the interests of the user, because it's really a matter of whether the people or content they want is here. For plenty of people with the right interests or in the right demographics, Twitter is big enough, but that's less true, say, for people from many countries that are not well represented. Facebook and Instragram are probably big enough for most people to find what they're looking for.
For me the Fediverse works okay, but that's because the main things I'm looking for are recreational discussion of STEM and open source software, which happen to be some of the most well-represented niches. But for most people Fedi feels very small, and I've seen a great many people I follow leave or fade away for that reason.
Presumably it's not a deal breaker for someone like @vicgrinberg, who, again, largely fits into the niches well represented, but even the OP is a good example of the shortcomings.
@internic @hiphopheaven actually, the fediverse feels really small for me - I'm missing any of the discussionsaand inputs I was truly interested in on twitter (professional research/academia, professional astrophysics, bits of German politics from professionals journalists and just professionals). I'm here because I want to be a part of something that is not commercial, but the discussion is mostly happening on bluesky and elsewhere.
@vicgrinberg @hiphopheaven Yeah, I actually specifically added "recreational" in front of STEM, because I know I've heard the same thing from many academics. It works for me because I'm not looking for professional discussions, just general intellectual stimulation.
But, even for me, I would dearly love it if more friends and colleagues were on here. However, I don't expect that could really happen until the Fediverse grows significantly and becomes more diverse. I spend time here because I really do like some of the folks here quite a bit and for the same sort of ethical reasons you mention.
I am a bit more surprised about the German politics, because it seemed like there was disproportional interest in the Fediverse from Germany (at least early on), and I do see German content (which I have set to show as a way to try to brush up on my very limited German). But I guess I have not been paying close enough attention.
@internic @hiphopheaven there are quiet a number of opinionated people & a few professionals voices, but very little in terms of actual politicians, journalists, political scientists, etc. As fun as it is sometimes to read a thread by random leftist person, I want to hear more from professor who has recently publish a book on the topic or a journalist who did/is doing a major investigative article on it. There are proportionally more Germans than on other sm, but the total numbers are small!
@vicgrinberg @hiphopheaven Yes, that makes complete sense.
I thought that some portions of the German government were setting up Fediverse instances (I'm not sure if it was federal, regional, or local). Am I remembering incorrectly, did that effort fail, or is it just that it was only government agency accounts but the politicians' accounts didn't follow?
@internic @hiphopheaven the government/ministry accounts are here, but they post and don't interact - and not all ministries are around (plus the current government is a rather conservative one). Very few politicians, very few (almost nobody) of "public intellectuals" or similar voices, @afelia is perhaps the only big one and even she seems more active on bluesky.
@vicgrinberg @internic @hiphopheaven @afelia Indeed. Some communities seem well represented, but many others are a bit subcritical. Growth will be essential to make this a place that matters to society and not just to a small cozy bubble. However, I still think the potential is there and when the next wave is happening Mastodon will be better prepared (but it may still take a year or so). There is a lot of frustration on the other networks as well.
@hfalcke @internic @hiphopheaven I really hope you are right with tbe better prepared part! I'm still sad to see so many accounts that stopped posting either after a few posts or once they encountered the typical mastodonian reaction to their posts... But yep still here, still hoping, still working on it!
@vicgrinberg @hfalcke
I still hope we will get interoperability and portability in SM regulation in Europe. Always working on this.
@internic @hiphopheaven
@vicgrinberg @internic But again how big the userbase and active userbase should be for those mainstream people to come ? Would 100 millions be enough when Instagram have for example several billions to bring them to the fediverse? Wouldn't LinkedIn be a better place for scientists and journalists ?
I personally wouldn't want to see politicians here too
@hiphopheaven @internic see, the last sentence is part of the problem for me.
@vicgrinberg @hiphopheaven Right. Unfortunately there seems to be a significant portion of the Fedi userbase that is pretty committed to gatekeeping all sort of folks out, and given the aforementioned reality that a larger and more diverse userbase increases utility for the typical user, I think that means that the Fedi will remain a relatively inconsequential niche (albeit a pleasant one for some of us) unless that attitude changes.
And, to be clear, I don't think there's one specific tipping point of "big enough"; I think there are various tipping points for different demographics. But regardless, it will at all points (until you have most people on Earth) be true that bigger is, on average, better.
@vicgrinberg @internic the real problem is that politicians is doing a terrible job of showing that they care about people especially younger people. The situation in Gaza show very well how terrible those politicians are
@hiphopheaven @internic and now this totally moved away from the topic of the discussion. Please leave.
@vicgrinberg @internic it's you who brought politicians to the topic
@hiphopheaven @internic because I've been explicitly asked. You turned it into your opinions about politicians that are not the topic here.
And since you did not react to "please leave", this is a block.
@internic @vicgrinberg I think POSSE is the answer to everything:
For all y the answer to "Should I be on y?" is almost always yes unless y = X
People need tools to make it easy to have a presence that spans multiple places
@UP8 @internic posse has the problem that the discussions get scattered and also not everyone has the time to maintain an own site (I don't and it's not easy with the German "Impressumspflicht") and not everything is a post that should be linked. A short joke, a quick conversation, a passing observation... For larger pieces and things with permanence, it's certainly a good thing, for both the reader and the writer. But it's not the same and what I'm missing here.
@vicgrinberg @internic the formality in Germany is something; when I spent a year there I was really sure that if I'd overstayed my visa by a day 𝑑𝑖𝑒 𝑃𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑧𝑒𝑖 would have knocked on my door immediately -- here in the US they didn't try to do anything if you overstayed a visa until very recently
@vicgrinberg @internic I think getting a visa is similar in the US or Germany but we don't have Anmeldung in the US; circa 1999 I lived in Dresden and traveled to pre-Schengen Česko a lot; on the Hřensko side I got my passport checked 4 times walking into Germany but on the other side of the Elbe there was a path from the last town in Česko to the first train stop in Germany and was never pestered -- loved walking to Děčín and looping back by train on the other side
@UP8 true, that one does not exist in the USA. But in Germany, they'll let you into a bar without an ID as long as you don't look like 15. In Boston, we had people in their 40ies be refused entey because they did not carry their passport with then... And there is the rule to carry your i-94 form with you all the time as a foreigner on a J1.
And yeah, crossing the border on foot is a thing. Happens a ton when hiking in the Alps 😅
OK, mirabelle jam:
Mirabelle fruit
Gelling sugar (2:1)
Boil fruit once, not too high heat. Pass through sieve or "Flotte Lotte". Add sugar, bring to boil, boil for 3-4 min. Fill into sterilized glasses (I sterilize them in the oven, upside down with boiling water underneath at 140°C, lids in a pot with some boiling water).
(I know, this is like the simple-most recipe. But for me it was the workflow of jam-making that improved over the years. I made 16 glasses of jam yesterday within probably 90min total.)
@knud oooh, this totally reminds me of making tona of jam and other preserves with my mothet and grandmother as a kid... 😁
If our garden would actually produce useful quantities of veggies, then I would love to try making preserves. But I don't fully see the point buying veggies for this. So only experiments with apples, plums, figs, and neighbors mirabelles.
@knud when I was a kid this was a necessity to have stuff in winter 😅 I agree that making them is not worth it today - though some of the stuff did, at least in my memory, taste a lot better than the bought version, esp. pickles!
@vicgrinberg
I’m here for it! Thanks to your photo, I’ve added Ethiopian cabbage, potato, and carrots (ataklit wat) to my meal rotation
@jsdodge awww yeah, it's auch a good recipe! Thanks for the reminder that mastodon and posting here does matter, will repeat...
@vicgrinberg
I miss instagram historical clothing and history bounding people. Pixelfed is not large enough. Yet. 🤞
I'd like to see more posts like that too and I'd also like to go on one of those train trips!
If the propagate_local_purge
configuration variable is set to true
in server.json
, purged local posts generate a Delete
activity that is sent everywhere, instead of only deleted from the filesystem.
Included a small tweak to avoid being confused by implementations that return valid webfinger queries for non-account URLs (like i.e. the Wordpress ActivityPub plugin in some configurations). This helps in searching by URL.
Added Ukrainian translation (contributed by wincentbalin).
New command-line option muted
, to list all MUTEd actors.
Mastodon API: Fixed metadata and follower approval flag when editing the account.
If you find #snac useful, please consider buying grunfink a coffee or contributing via LiberaPay.
@grunfink compiled and running on a Raspberry Pi B 1st gen, with 256Mb of Ram running FreeBSD 13 :D
By the way, my #snac instance now runs on #DockerSwarm along with
#Traefik, the reverse proxy which I've used since the start of this server. If you think it could be helpful, I’d be happy to submit a pull request with an example file like
examples/docker-swarm_stack_traefik.yml
.
I’ve also pushed the container image I built to Codeberg. Additionally, I could share a
script that automates this setup.
meta
tag with the generator attribute, with the snac version.I submitted a Pull Request to update MacPorts' snac to 2.81 here:
https://github.com/macports/macports-ports/pull/29032
GitHub Actions' Continuous Integration checks has passed OK, which hopefully is a good sign?
It's up to someone else with commit access to merge it.
(As a total aside, given the comam.es .es TLD; I'm guessin you're in Spain? I have tentative plans to attend the MIRA Festival [mostly to see Amnesia Scanner] in November. Albeit, that's in Barcelona and I vaguely understand there are linguistic, cultural and socio-political differences? I've never visited before; but thought I would mention it as a possibility to meet up AFK maybe!)
#snac #MacPorts #OpenSource #ActivityPub #Mastodon #NoDatabaseNeeded
#NoJavaScript #NoCookiesEither #NotMuchBullShit
It seems both options delete the post from my view. I only don't know whats the difference beside that.
The only difference is informing other parties about the delete if it was written by me, or am I overlooking something?
Edit: I asking because I'm thinking maybe one of the buttons could go away to make room, or change its behavior. Like "hide" could be instead "mute" to only not inform anymore on the conversation, but don't delete it (like mastodon does)
#snac #snac2
MUTE: silences an author forever. You'll never read anything from this poster anymore. Like block in Mastodon and other implementations, but without sending a Block
activity.
Hide: hides a post and everything hyerarchically below (i.e. the full tree). The conversation won't be shown to you forever, and any incoming post in any of the levels will be dropped. No other part is informed about it, it's just a local operation.
Delete: deletes a post from your timeline. If it's part of a conversation, the branches below are left dangling, but are still shown in you timeline. Also, if you are the author of the post, a Delete
activity is sent to everyone involved, so your post (hopefully) disappears everywhere.
This phrase appears in the "under the hood" section of my blog.
Just now I was reading a post by an "influencer" on a well-known social media platform. The post was biased, lacking in content, useless. Digital waste. A waste of bits and energy. Shortly after, I read a fantastic post written by a user of a #snac instance, and I know it's running on a Raspberry Pi, at their home.
And that phrase immediately came to mind.
Goodnight, world.
Interesting, I never noticed #snac completely renders federated WordPress posts.
Another small marvel from truly excellent software.
Choose:
Favorite: | 28 |
Boost: | 18 |
Favorite AND Boost: | 78 |
Accidentally Favorite 2 Times Because You're Old: | 80 |
@sam Another missing option is 'Wrote same reply twice because I saved the first version as a draft and then couldn't find it."
🆕 blog! “Interrailing round Europe while Vegan / Vegetarian - with lots of photos”
We recently spent 30 days criss-crossing Europe. One of my concerns was how to feed myself. I know Amsterdam is full of weirdo hippies like me who avoid meat and dairy - but what about Frankfurt? What about Prague? What about…
👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/07/interrailing-round-europe-while-vegan-vegetarian-with-lots-of-photos/
⸻
#interrail #restaurant #travel #vegan #vegetarian
great post and the dishes look great. Reminds me of a post by @z3ntu@fosstodon.org at https://lucaweiss.eu/post/2024-11-17-amsterdam-tbilisi/
Astrobin foto van de dag: The Ring Nebula, Now with Argon!. Fotoinfo: https://www.astrobin.com/jk9lev/C/ Copyright: nebulaphotos #astronomie #sterrenkunde #sterrenkijken #astrofotografie #astrobin
aight everyone.
i fell ill and i need some money to go to the pharmacy and get some medicine. i would rather not spend my rent money though.
can someone send me 25 bucks? this cold is kicking my ass and i need some hot soup and lemon lozenges and a spray
thank you in advance
https://www.paypal.me/tillianthefoxxo
https://ko-fi.com/tillianthefoxxo
GOAL METT
The Dead Month
So we've reached the last day of July, and tomorrow is 1st August which is the modern date of the ancient festival of Lughnasadh, although we have to wait until next Monday (4th0 for the corresponding Bank Holiday. Lughnasadh can be thought of as marking the onset of he harvest season, and is the pagan forerunner of the Christian harvest festivals I remember from when I was a kid.
🆕 blog! “I'm never going back to Matrix”
I should love Matrix. It is a decentralised, privacy preserving, multi-platform chat tool. Goodbye Slack and your ridiculous free limits. Adiós Discord and your weird gamification. Suck it IRC with your obscure syntax and faint stench of BO. WhatsApp and Telegram can stick their heads in a bucket of lukewarm sick and sing sea …
👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/07/im-never-going-back-to-matrix/
⸻
#foss #Matrix #OpenSource #rant
My nephew’s fourth birthday was yesterday, but when he came to see me I didn't recognize him.
I'd never seen him be 4.
It's not political to think people shouldn't be starved to death.
@godpod
It *is* political.
Why is that such a bad word? Why is everyone so afraid of something being "political?"
The very concept of having a weekend is political. Having kids spend their childhoods learning and playing instead of toiling in a mine is political. Not having a goddamn feudal lord who owns you and the land you live and work on is political.
Rich, malicious assholes have spent an unfathomable amount of money and resources to poison the word "politics." That is also political.
people hate #politics
so there is a gateway to a word game:
smearing issues by calling them "#political"
playing on emotional association
a manipulation
example:
#mikeJohnson shut down #congress early. he feared a revolt in the #GOP over the #Trump #Epstein drama
did he admit that motivation?
"We're not going to play political games with this"
...Johnson said, playing a game
now we see what the word "political" is for:
deflection
@benroyce
Politics is a dirty game . Have you ever in your life been inspired to become a politicians?
"We're not going to play political games with this"
THE MAN IS LITERALLY A POLITICIAN
ANY GAME HE PLAYS IS BY DEFINITION POLITICAL
THESE ARE NOT SERIOUS PEOPLE
AAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH
@benroyce @godpod
A key component of fascism is the destruction of language as a means to communicate and understand each other. They assault words and phrases until they don't mean anything and then use them as weapons.
What does he mean by "political?" "Things I don't like."
Remember "fake news," which used to refer to stories that were literally made up and passed off as real news? What does that mean now? "Things I don't like."
In a more recent, particularly grotesque example, this is what they're doing with the word "anti-semite." There is a very important meaning to that word, but we can see in real-time how they're trying to strip it of any useful meaning. They're trying to change the meaning to "things I don't like."
The only thing a fascist values in a word is its capability as a blunt instrument.
Rolling out our most recent OS release has been cancelled prior to it reaching our Beta channel due to a couple reports of app crashes. We've found the likely causes of the issues and can hopefully fix those and make another release with the fixes today.
@GrapheneOS i have high battery drain since update to the latest alpha. But here it seems to run stable.... Waiting for next release
@andree4live No known reason there should be any battery drain. It's far more likely to be caused by your apps or network than the OS.
@GrapheneOS no the device is in stable place and network here in my office. Its a device wich is 2 weeks old (9a) only a few apps and no other changes... Only the update is the difference ..... Almost 40% in 30 minutes.... Maybe some other hickup
There was a recent forum post where someone else was having this issue.
edit: https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/24209-simplex-battery-drain-in-2025
CC: @GrapheneOS@grapheneos.social
My used device is a Test-Device... Only a few apps and only one place in my office.... Directly after update it became hot and i can see the battery going to the ground. Now i do a second reboot and put the phone to the charger.... This is an alpha release so it's okay..... I'm just testing and write down what i see
@GrapheneOS and after restart a second time battery seem back to normal.... Kind oft Software hickup i think. don't know what happend ☕
Thanks to our testers helping to avoid these kinds of issues reaching our Stable channel and in this case even the Beta channel. We think the issues are caused by the 2 improvements we made to VPN lockdown mode which we should be able to fix today while keeping both improvements.
@GrapheneOS is testing open to everyone? (And are the changes for the testing builds pushed to the 16 branch?)
@ssdrive Alpha and Beta testing is available to everyone. The 16 branch is our development branch so all changes are present there prior to a release being tagged. Releases are tagged on the current 16 branch at the time of release. Development then continues in the 16 branch. If you want to build a release from source, you should use the tags rather than the current state of the 16 branch which will usually have more changes which are not yet released.
@GrapheneOS what is vpn lockdown mode? 🤔