@BillySmith@social.coop cover
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

BillySmith

@BillySmith@social.coop

I'm an engineer/musician/artist/designer/bricoleur/womble. :D

Now blogging at https://write.as/billysmith/

Currently working on #OSHW for the primary industry sectors; #Agriculture, #Aquaculture, #Energy, #PowerGeneration, #PowerStorage, #Sustainability, #Regeneration, #Resilience, #TerraForming.

You can't solve a #SocialProblem via TechnicalMeans, so i've focused on creating solutions that people can choose to build themselves. :D

#ADHD #TeamADHD #Womble :D

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

When I consider the billions that will be spent on presidential campaigns against the tens of thousands of votes that will ultimately decide it, the project seems absurd. Naively? it ought to be easy to simply find those people who would vote for your candidate but did not since they didn’t have a ride to the polls, or child care, or they simply forgot.

Of course were it simple we’d not all be so concerned. 1/

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@futurebird

In Oz the way that they get around that is to make not voting illegal.

Yes, you can turn in a spoiled ballot, but you still have to turn the ballot in.

futurebird , (edited ) to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Without looking it up what is closest to 8oz?

(Curious how well the relation between oz and metric is generally known.)

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@futurebird

Fluid ounces or weight ounces?

USA ounces or UK ounces?

futurebird , (edited ) to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

The bald eagle could have easily gone extinct. But we did all sorts of "woke" things protecting it legally, ran conservation and study programs, banned DDT (that was good for other reasons too) and in 2007 they were removed from the endangered species list.

Likewise pine forests could be dead from acid rain.

The ozone could have a huge hole.

We CAN take care of nature when we want to. And the successes have been worth it.

I feel like we forget this, you know?

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@futurebird

Almost all of the current problems are fixable with our current level of technology.

And this includes the ones with solutions that are just out of our current reach, with some focused research.

We need to choose knowledge. :D

KitMuse , to ActuallyAutistic group
@KitMuse@eponaauthor.social avatar

Thoughts about writing action scenes. I feel like I don't have the brain power to wrap my mind around all the action, who goes where, who does what?

I'm wondering if this is related to my extra spicy neurodivergence.

Does anyone have any tips or tools they use? Wonder if I need to dig out my D&D miniatures?

Thoughts my fellow neurodivergent authors?

#bookstodon @bookstodon @actuallyautistic #ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #Neurodivergent @neurodiversity

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@KitMuse @bookstodon @actuallyautistic @neurodiversity

Take a look at some of the dance choreography techniques used in improvising physical theatre.

Looking at fight choreography gives a better idea about the sense of space that your characters are operating within.

Also worth looking at Tempo from Chess:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo_(chess)

Some of the Shaw Bros. films have some really good examples of applying the principles of Tai Chi to whole battlefields. :D

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@KitMuse @bookstodon @actuallyautistic @neurodiversity

Also worth looking at some examples from Theatre.

I saw some of Annouchka Bayley's early directing work, where she transformed Medea as a single-person performance, to a duo performance, all the way up to a full opera troupe.

Same story, same timeline of events, but completely different flavours of expression when working on a different scales. :D

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@KitMuse @bookstodon @actuallyautistic @neurodiversity

Another approach is to use a specific piece of music as the notional soundtrack, which will define the rhythm of the action.

There's some really nice examples to be found with Kill Six Billion Demons, where the author mentions the pieces of music in the hover-text attached to the pictures. :D

https://killsixbilliondemons.com/ :D

vampiress , to random
@vampiress@eigenmagic.net avatar

[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

    •
    BillySmith ,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @vampiress @cubeofcheese

    It's profitable.

    futurebird , (edited ) to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    What was was a bigger blow for the long-term prospects of complex, large, diverse, life on earth? Which one was closer to the brink of planet sterilization, or a planet with few prospects for anything like complex life?

    BillySmith ,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @futurebird

    All disasters and changes become the new normal for the descendants of the few species that survive.

    vampiress , to random
    @vampiress@eigenmagic.net avatar

    I want a custom mechanical keyboard for a modern USB-C/bluetooth system that's designed like this. Complete with the dials and gauges up top, that have to actually work.
    https://mastodon.social/@keyboards/112234070586039169

    BillySmith ,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @vampiress

    What do you want the dials and gauges to do? :D

    BillySmith ,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @vampiress

    Also, i've seen similar systems* used in modular recording desks, that were designed to control a wider range of external machinery, so maybe the question should be "What do you want them to do?" :D

    *They were the quiet keyboards, not the full clacky's. :D

    CommonMugwort , to bookstodon group
    @CommonMugwort@social.coop avatar

    @bookstodon Can anyone recommend an entry point to Wuxia for a middle-aged European steeped in Western Historical Fantasy - a great story, well-translated and easily available?

    BillySmith ,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @CommonMugwort @bookstodon

    It depends upon the translation you find.

    Some of the translations come across like radio plays without the incidental background noise, so always feel a little incomplete.

    That said:

    "Cultivation Chat Group" is a cultivation-based story set in contemporary times.

    "Martial Peak" is a great tale that would suit a fan of Western fantasy.

    "I Shall Seal The Heavens" is also very good. :D

    "Top Tier Providence, Secretly Cultivate For a Thousand Years"

    BillySmith ,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @CommonMugwort @bookstodon

    They're all web-novels with manga/cartoon versions.

    "Martial Peak", "I shall seal the heavens", and, "Top Tier providence" are all complete.

    "Cultivation Chat Group" is still in progress.

    The web-novels fit really well with the format created by Charles Dickens. :D

    BillySmith ,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @CommonMugwort @bookstodon

    It's the same as Oliver Twist was originally a weekly release, published chapter by chapter. :D

    But using a website instead. :D

    BillySmith , to random
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    Interesting analysis, though i don't know enough about the USA legal system to say whether it's accurate.

    Trump doesn't have enough ready cash, and, can't borrow enough money, to post the full bond for his appeal in NY.

    If he's had to pay for an insurance contract to get the deposit for the appeal, but is only able to offer ~20% of the requested amount, his liquidity must be screwed.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehxwg3BBukQ

    gregggonsalves , to random
    @gregggonsalves@med-mastodon.com avatar

    Donald Moynihan at Georgetown has talked about how you bring down the administrative state--it is also a template for how to destroy public health in America. Delegitimize. Deconstruct. Control. 3 horsemen of our slow motion public health catastrophe in the US. https://www.thenation.com/article/society/undermining-public-health/

    BillySmith ,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @gregggonsalves

    The UK's current PM, when he was Chancellor in Johnson's Cabinet, was meeting with exec's and C-suite staff of healthcare companies in the USA.

    They were explicitly talking about the "opportunities" within the UK's NHS.

    The pattern described has been used over here as well.

    There's an excellent fictional description of the techniques to be found in "The Delirium Brief" by @cstross

    vampiress , to random
    @vampiress@eigenmagic.net avatar

    [Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

    •
    BillySmith ,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @vampiress

    Aramex are listed on NASDAQ.

    Buy some stock and sue the C-suite.

    KitMuse , to bookstodon group
    @KitMuse@eponaauthor.social avatar

    I need your help #bookstodon. One of the classes I'm taking at the graduate level this semester is Religion & Science Fiction. I read more fantasy, and would like to do my research paper on something that's not obvious (like ST/BS5/Matrix/etc.) & I'd love to use more modern sf rather than the golden age classics.

    Anyone have any interesting ideas for my research paper on regarding the intersection of religion and science fiction?

    @bookstodon #sciencefiction #scifi #ReligiousStudies #academia

    BillySmith ,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @KitMuse @bookstodon

    In Richard Morgan's "Woken Furies", the third of the Takeshi Kovacs stories, there's a chapter-size vignette of Kovacs visiting a data-storage-facility for uploaded humans that is based on a Buddhist monastery run by a sect known as "The Renouncers".

    And in the "Altered Carbon" book, there's the Roman Catholic Church's attitude towards uploading.

    "Can you upload the soul?" :D

    BillySmith ,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @KitMuse @bookstodon

    Ghibli's "Spirited Away" is a really nice version of a shamanic initiation.

    Look at the background characters in the crowd-scenes in the bath-house, and you'll see ancient and modern versions of the Tulpa's. :D

    BillySmith ,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @KitMuse @bookstodon

    Neil Gaiman's "American Gods".

    The book is great, but only Season 1 and 2 of the series, as season 3 was heavily interfered with, as in designed to crash'n'burn.

    BillySmith ,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @punklawyer @mozz @bookstodon @KitMuse

    The Golden Age of Sci-Fi is 11-14 years old. :D

    sarahf , to random
    @sarahf@mastodon.social avatar

    "People say they want real justice... so we fob them off with a slightly less unjust system of justice. Workers howl that they're being flayed like donkeys... so we arrange for the flaying to be a little less severe and slash their howling entitlement, but the exploitation goes on. The workforce would rather not have fatal accidents in the factory... so we make it a teeny bit safer and increase compensation payments to widows.

    ... (1/2)

    BillySmith ,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @sarahf @bookstodon

    Half-face photo of Frank Zappa with his quote, "The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre."
    ALT
  • Reply
    • oceaniceternity , to bookstodon group
    @oceaniceternity@sakurajima.moe avatar

    @bookstodon I'm currently #reading Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche. I must admit I don't find his idea of a universal drive for power compelling.

    It relies first and foremost upon an invisible subconscious that we cannot reach or touch inside all of us that tells us to always seek more power. And that anything other than we do is just justification for our power grabs.

    My problem with this is how... When you start out looking for it it is easy to say that anything anyone does is a power grab. Getting out of bed is an excercise of our dominion over gravity etc etc..

    Does a child draw letters in the sand merely to signal that they have power over sand? Is wearing cool and shiny boots a way of signalling social power over others? Maybe. But in my mind it is unlikely to be the most compelling reason behind everything... Solely because most people do not behave like cartoon villains. Or even cartoon villains trying to camoflage themselves.

    I admit. I am only 70 pages in and a very novice philopher at best. But as it stands... I don't think a drive to power as envisioned by Nietzsche is a universal truth.

    #philosophy

    BillySmith ,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @CoranDeo @bookstodon @oceaniceternity @Scienceisnotopinions

    The desire for control on an individual level is a desire for autonomy.

    For self-control, against being controlled by others.

    BillySmith ,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @CoranDeo @Scienceisnotopinions @bookstodon @oceaniceternity

    Demonstrating their own will-to-power by conditioning other people to surrender their autonomy.

    Have you come across this Public-Service-Warning film?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvVHPVe525Q

    Knowledge of the techniques used, can act as a early warning signal, so you know when to GTFO.

    If you see the red flags, then leave.

    BillySmith ,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @CoranDeo @bookstodon @Scienceisnotopinions @oceaniceternity

    Or the corporate cults like the ones from California.

    Similar training techniques used to constrain the range of acceptable questions.

    Another approach can be found here:

    https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-or-the-office-according-to-the-office/

    It's a longer set of articles, but the section on the Sociopaths is directly relevant to the original toot about Neitzsche, while the section on the Clueless fits with the members of the MLM systems. :D

    BillySmith ,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @CoranDeo @bookstodon @Scienceisnotopinions @oceaniceternity

    Forgot the pic :D

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