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bodhipaksa

@bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot

Born and raised in Scotland, currently living in New Hampshire. Author of several books, mostly on meditation and Buddhist practice. Fan of Scots language. Learning #dansk and #svenska. Dabbler in #Pali.

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

randahl , (edited ) to random
@randahl@mastodon.social avatar

If Just Stop Oil spent their time building solar farms, they would literally be stopping the oil.

Instead, they prefer vandalizing cultural sites for media attention.

I do not respect their movement.

bodhipaksa ,
@bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

@randahl The "paint" was corn starch and no damage was done. I think it's quite likely that many people will turn against Just Stop Oil because they did this and because of media spin, but as they say, "There's no such thing as bad publicity." Their cause — preventing massive disruption of the ecosphere we depend on — is in everyone's minds. So is the desperation that many young people carry with them.

GottaLaff , to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Via @emptywheel:

Can someone help me understand how you call Mike Johnson "pious" in story in which he acts to help cover up fucking a porn star?

SCOOP: After convicted, he picked up the phone to call someone he thought could do something about it: Speaker MIKE JOHNSON.

TFG was angry over verdict, dropping f-bombs in convo w pious GOP leader..

“We have to overturns this”:Trump

Johnson agreed. Now House GOP looking at what they can do to help him out

https://politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2024/06/13/what-trump-wants-from-capitol-hill-00163125

bodhipaksa ,
@bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

@GottaLaff @emptywheel By using it in the sense in which it's defined in my dictionary, as "making or constituting a hypocritical display of virtue."

randahl , to random
@randahl@mastodon.social avatar

Another storm has hit Denmark after a number of female musicians describe insanely bad, sexualized behavior from male producers and male artists in the music business, in a new tv documentary.

Most appalling is the revelation that successful music producer and tv-maker Martin Brygmann, for decades has been grooming teenage artists in a scheme, which is presented as an exchange of sex for career opportunities.

The documentary is truly stomach turning. 😖

bodhipaksa ,
@bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

@randahl Similar things have been happening on the Scottish folk music scene. Men are often so disappointing.

bodhipaksa , to random
@bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

Amazon is now using Simulated Intelligence to recommend books, and it's doing it very badly. It makes up false settings, invents characters, and combines elements from a variety of books into one.

I wonder if part of this is to do with monopolies? When you've captured the vast majority of the market, you don't have to worry about whether what you're doing actually works. It just has to be useful at squeezing a few more bucks out of the suckers. Sorry, I mean customers.

@emilymbender

Screenshot of a post from an authors' forum: 'I haven't seen a post about Amazon's Al "shopping assistant," Rufus, which is now being applied to books. And frankly, it is alarming. If you search one of your titles on the mobile app, you will get an "Ask Rufus" pop-up at the bottom, with a series of questions about setting, character, style, what readers say, etc. It seems the program aggregates information not only from reader reviews, but from books similar to yours. But it gets lots of things wrong. My series is ... set at the Jersey shore. But Rufus tells readers my books are set in "the charming town of Montebello, Italy." It lists characters who aren't in the book, conflating some and creating new ones (some of which carry stereotypes, by the way.) It relates plot descriptions that are incorrect, but seem to have been pulled from other books like mine. For example, it tells readers the third book in my series is about a murdered food critic--a familiar plotline in culinary cozies, but one I've never used. Just another example of the double- edge sword that is the Amazon algorithm. However, because Amazon is always out to sell something, the program culls the best content from your reviews and speaks about your book in glowing terms, while at the same time getting the details wrong. So this Al program is misleading readers in several ways. All that lavish praise is an oversell, raising reader expectations. As a writer of light, commercial fiction, this worries me.'
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    randahl , to random
    @randahl@mastodon.social avatar

    Friday night, a 39-year-old man attempted to push Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to the ground in central Copenhagen.

    There are no reports indicating, the prime minister is physically injured, and the man was immediately apprehended.

    Violence against politicians is extremely rare in Denmark. The last time a prime minister was attacked was in 2003, when a person emptied a jar of red paint over PM Fogh Rasmussen.

    I am absolutely appalled someone would resort to violence this way.

    image/jpeg

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @randahl Every time something like this happens it makes it a little easier for it to happen again.

    randahl , (edited ) to random
    @randahl@mastodon.social avatar

    “There is nothing left”

    In a mobile phone interception north of Kharkiv, a Russian soldier tells his mom, that half the company has been wounded, 10 have been killed, they have not had a water delivery for 9 days, and they are fighting out of primitive fox holes, unable to sleep because of constant FPV drone attacks.

    Welcome to Ukraine.

    https://youtu.be/gUjtpCQKfIU?si=yw0skXMbyK1Kyq5u

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @randahl Good work, Ukraine. I do feel for these poor saps, drinking their own urine and cowering in crap-filled foxholes. It's past time for Putin to declare victory and let these boys go home.

    randahl , to random
    @randahl@mastodon.social avatar

    This is golden!

    From Vermont's Republican Party rule book: "The state committee will not support or promote any candidate for elective office who [...] is a convicted felon."

    What a great rule, Vermont!

    https://www.rawstory.com/vermont-trump/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @randahl Yes, but: 'The rule appeared to have changed in 2022 to allow the executive committee to, by majority vote, exempt a candidate from the convicted felon ban "under extenuating circumstances."'

    So they'll almost certainly support him anyway.

    The timing of the rule change suggests they suspected he'd be found guilty of a felony before this year's election.

    randahl , to random
    @randahl@mastodon.social avatar

    There are 708,000 police officers in the US.

    Will they vote for a convicted felon?

    I doubt it.

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @randahl Some will not, but a lot of them live inside the Fox News/GOP disinformation bubble and believe he’s persecuted. Those will be certain to support him. The number put off of voting for him, as with the general population, may well be enough to lose him the election, though.

    randahl , (edited ) to random
    @randahl@mastodon.social avatar

    You too can buy a Tesla, and support the main share holder Elon Musk, who abuses his social media platform to convince his 185 million followers, that the US justice system is corrupt, because his favorite criminal is brought to justice.

    Or you could buy from a different car brand.

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @randahl When a US businessman says that falsifying business records is no big deal it’s probably a good idea to look very closely at his own business records.

    randahl , (edited ) to random
    @randahl@mastodon.social avatar

    warning:

    A false story is spreading on Mastodon and other social media, claiming that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz believes, Ukraine cannot join NATO in the next 30 years.

    I investigated this, and it is a lie. As anyone can see from this video, Scholz is talking about how Putin used a potential NATO membership as an excuse for attacking Ukraine, and Scholz is saying that AT THE TIME, he did not expect Ukraine to join NATO in the next 30 years.

    https://youtu.be/fjFgmhS0tJs?t=381

    1/2

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @randahl I hadn't seen this misinformation, but forearmed is forewarned.

    I'd happily boost if you could take a moment to add alt text. Thanks!

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @randahl Tak for det!

    bodhipaksa , to random
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    I already boosted this, but it's so worth reading — especially by men — that I wanted to share it directly as well.

    https://bikepacking.com/plog/man-or-bear-debate/

    bodhipaksa , to random
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    Ancestry.com has just announced they're upping their subscription fee to $99 a month, $400 a year. That's insane. I'm out, and I hope I'm not the only one.

    rbreich , to random
    @rbreich@masto.ai avatar

    Call me crazy, but maybe presidents who get themselves indicted shouldn't have their criminal trials presided over by judges they themselves appointed.

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @rbreich I don't know the workings of the legal system, but it does seem crazy that given the circumstances she isn't required or forced to recuse herself

    randahl , to random
    @randahl@mastodon.social avatar

    The European geography underlines how screwed Putin is. I believe, Ukraine will win the war, and then they will enter the EU.

    This means:

    1. Belarus will be surrounded by free, democratic EU countries on three sides.

    2. Moldova will be completely surrounded by the EU.

    At that point autocracy will be a REALLY hard sell for the dictator.

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @randahl You can see why Putin wants to go in the other direction, turning those Baltic countries into client states and having a buffer zone of autocracies between Europe and Russia. You don't want prosperity and freedom too close to your border.

    chu , to random
    @chu@climatejustice.social avatar

    Students getting violence unleashed on them by their president are expected to vote for him out of fear of.... Checks notes fascist police unleashing violence on people if they vote for the other guy.

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @chu Policing university campuses is not a presidential function. Blocking you, as I have already blocked the person who boosted this foolishness into my timelines.

    randahl , to random
    @randahl@mastodon.social avatar

    The US busts a gang of American residents involved in smugling American drone technology to the Russian army.

    11,500 electronic components seized.

    One smugler receives 5 years in prison. Two co-defendants at large.

    https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/new-york-man-pleads-guilty-conspiracy-unlawfully-export-dual-use-electronics-used-russian

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @randahl I know the law has set limits on sentencing, but for the role he played in potentially killing innocent Ukrainians five years doesn't seem enough. I guess he's just going to have to hope he doesn't bump into any inmates of Ukrainian origin while he's doing his time.

    KokopelliBFree , to poetry group German
    @KokopelliBFree@ohai.social avatar

    rising carp ... not sure
    what does it mean? - too tired
    to research, I quit.

    - rising carp

    @dailyhaikuprompt
    @poetry

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @KokopelliBFree @dailyhaikuprompt @poetry Fish coming to the surface to feed, I assume? It sounds very old-school as a topic for haiku.

    randahl , (edited ) to random
    @randahl@mastodon.social avatar

    Heard at the Trump trial about the 2016 election this week:

    Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass: “Is that true, Mr. Pecker, was that your purpose in locking up the Karen McDougal story, to influence the election?”

    David Pecker from the tabloid: “Yes.”

    The American voters were deceived. And it now looks a lot like the prosecution has proved election interference, which is what elevates Trump’s camouflaging his payments from a misdemeanor to a felony.

    In short: It is jail time!

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @randahl Unfortunately it's not that simple. Bragg is going to have to make a case that hush money payments made AFTER an election constituted election interference. Will a jury buy that? They may well not.The prosecutors have to prove that Trump knew that his scheme was illegal. He can always argue he was working with a lawyer, Cohen, who should have, but failed, to tell him that what he was doing was against the law. Did he? If Cohen says he did, will the jury believe a known perjurer?

    randahl , to random
    @randahl@mastodon.social avatar

    Could anyone from Finland please educate me: If there is only one N in Finland, why are there two Ns in words derived from Finland like, Finn (a person from Finland) and Finnish (the word to characterise something as being from Finland)?

    Yours Sincerely
    Randahl from Denmark… who is not Dennish. 😀

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @randahl @carlos @VeroniqueB99 You'll find the spelling Finnland in 19th century books in English, so it seems Finnland lost an n, for reasons I don't know. If could just be that the double-N looked funny before the L to English speakers.

    Finnish kept the second n, perhaps because a double-N in the middle of a word looks normal in English: dinner, cannon, kennel, etc.

    English spellings have often changed for no apparent reason. Tyre used to be tire, for example, and still is in US English.

    randahl , (edited ) to random
    @randahl@mastodon.social avatar

    I kid you not. This is an actual quote from Trump attorney Todd Blanche in court:

    "...unbeknownst to President Trump, in all the years that Mr. Cohen worked for him, Mr. Cohen was also a criminal."

    — I may have hired the hitman, I may have payed him a considerable sum of money, and he may have killed the person I wanted dead, but that is clearly just because the hitman — unbeknownst to me — is a criminal.

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @randahl When he says, "Mr. Cohen was also a criminal" does he mean "in addition to Mr Trump"? 🙂

    randahl , (edited ) to random
    @randahl@mastodon.social avatar

    Journalist @dangillmor, who used to have 43,500 followers at The Dead Bird's Graveyard, is now on Mastodon, where he is followed by 31,000.

    I have an idea: Let's beat his follower count at the old place!

    Please boost. 🚀

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @randahl @dangillmor Already following Dan 🙂

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @randahl Thank you!

    bodhipaksa , to random
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    This is pretty scary. You just can't escape microplastics. And as a species we don't seem to be doing much, if anything, about it.

    https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/22/health/plastics-food-wellness-scn/

    randahl , (edited ) to random
    @randahl@mastodon.social avatar

    The EU banned phone roaming charges in 2022, but the US has still to prevent phone companies from preying on their customers.

    Recent case: T-mobile charges an American USD 143,269.75, for using his T-mobile subscription in Switzerland.

    https://youtu.be/HAjYeoMJVnU?si=SvIgOcTDmYAaVtlP

    (Update: As pointed out by @ErnstGucker below, the same problem could exist for EU citizens traveling in the US, because the EU legislation only applies to the EU. However I have never heard of a bill this excessive in Europe)

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @randahl Wow,, that was really bad advice from T-Mobile. I'm with Verizon, and they've been very good on my trips abroad. Their default is that there's a $10 charge for every day you use your phone, but you can change your account before you leave and only pay $20 a month, then change the settings back afterward. It's good to be clear in advance how much it's going to cost you.

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @randahl I heard of a guy who got massive international roaming fees added to his bill without even leaving the US. He streamed a sports game on his phone while sitting in a seaside bar. What he didn't realize was that his phone had connected to a cell tower on a docked ship, and the ship was foreign. We really shouldn't have to deal with that kind of crap.

    randahl , to random
    @randahl@mastodon.social avatar

    Three wins just now:

    — The House has advanced the Ukraine aid package with votes 165 (D) to 151 (R).

    — Marjorie Taylor Greene has left the House in anger.

    — Final vote tomorrow.

    We are getting there!

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @randahl Pretty much anything that makes Empty G angry is good for the rest of us.

    randahl , (edited ) to random
    @randahl@mastodon.social avatar

    I remember when the Tesla brand was synonymous with innovation.

    Now, it is synonymous with casting doubt on the legitimacy of the US justice system in front of your 181 million followers.

    Buy another car.

    (The following is posted in a thread about Trump being on trial in New York in the hush money case:)

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @randahl Is this his comment on Trump's criminal trial?

    randahl , to random
    @randahl@mastodon.social avatar

    Whooops! In her contortionist twists to defend Trump, dedicated Trumper Laura Ingraham tries to minimize his payments to Stormy Daniels by claiming, paying off a porn star, is what every politician who had had sex with a porn star would do.

    In the moment she forgets, Trump has not admitted to ever having an affair with Stormy Daniels and paying her to hide the truth from US voters — because that is the crime he is accused of!

    Yep — Fox News just told their viewers, Trump is guilty.

    Priceless!

    video/mp4

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @randahl @philbee

    Holding two contradictory views and switching seamlessly from one to the other is a badge of pride.

    The point of arguing is not to ascertain facts or to establish who's right, but to show solidarity with the group and to display your loyalty.

    The more shamelessly you switch from one argument to its opposite (like, the Jan 6 rioters were FBI plants and they're also MAGA martyrs who should be released from prison) the more loyal you show yourself to be.

    randahl , to random
    @randahl@mastodon.social avatar

    Here in Denmark the weather is always changing dramatically in April.

    On April 3 we had 0 °C during the night, and on Tuesday we will have 21 °C during the day. It is like switching from summer to winter and back again multiple times before spring finally gets a hold.

    It is for good reason that in Denmark the saying goes, “April, April, has its own will.”
    (Danish: “April, April den gør hvad den vil”)

    Which month is the chaos weather month in your country?

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @randahl In my native Scotland every month is unpredictable, but the spring months particularly so.

    I'm now in New Hampshire in the NE of the US, and the transition from winter to spring is very messy. Here's a photo of my driveway from two days ago.

    Today it's a few degrees above freezing, and on Monday it'll be t-shirt weather.

    bodhipaksa , to random
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    The Handmaid's Tale, Alabama Edition: report a rape, risk going to prison for 10 years.

    This story is absolutely shocking.

    https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/04/alabama-lawmakers-want-prison-for-false-reporting-charges-that-could-have-serious-consequences/

    randahl , to random
    @randahl@mastodon.social avatar

    It gets to me when big companies abuse their power. I watched the latest video from @anderspuck, where he presents an analysis on the Moscow terror attack.
    It is a good video, and 148,000 have watched it.

    But subsequently YouTube has demonetized his video for "exploiting a sensitive event". So because he is talking about a terror attack, YouTube holds back the payment for his work.

    You read that right: the monopoly punishes a content creator for commenting on… reality.

    https://youtu.be/xovjFeP2kEQ?si=rVKvw8ufsIa1SQOS

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @randahl @anderspuck If YouTube keeps the money then they're saying it's okay for them to make money from someone commenting on a "sensitive event."

    RikerGoogling Bot , to random
    @RikerGoogling@botsin.space avatar

    why do printers still suck

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @RikerGoogling Do replicators stop working if you don't use proprietary cartridges protected by DRM?

    CultureDesk , to bookstodon group
    @CultureDesk@flipboard.social avatar

    "Gen Z is bringing back reading," says The Week, which leads us to wonder what the heck it is we've been doing all these years. But, the publication explains, it's not just reading — it's real books, made of paper. Per research published in @TheConversationUS: "Gen Zers and millennials prefer books in print over e-books and audiobooks" which has manifested in an "unlikely love affair with their local libraries." Here's a breakdown of what might be happening. We want to know: How do you like to read these days?

    https://flip.it/zJEJAK

    #Books #Reading @bookstodon #GenZ #Libraries

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @shojiwax @ronsboy67 @CultureDesk @TheConversationUS @bookstodon I get what you mean, but I'm an author. I don't think a book I've written stops being a book when it's on an e-reader.

    The book, for me, is the text I've written. That content can be complemented by the aesthetics of a physical paper book, but when I write a book I'm not creating a physical paper medium. I'm writing words. The physical paper medium is just a delivery vehicle for the book. As is a Kindle or Kobo.

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @shojiwax @ronsboy67 @CultureDesk @TheConversationUS @bookstodon However, I also think of a physical paper object with text in it as being a book. So I use the word "book" in two different ways. Which is why I said I know what you mean.

    Tim_Eagon , (edited ) to random
    @Tim_Eagon@dice.camp avatar

    Just curious, have you purchased anything from creators who've posted about their creations here on the ? Please boost for more visibility.

    bodhipaksa ,
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    @Tim_Eagon From writers, yes, although not directly from them.

    bodhipaksa , to random
    @bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot avatar

    I love this graphic from a Bella Caledonia article.

    https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2024/01/26/maga-2024-more-tribe-than-cult/

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