@hobs@mstdn.social cover
@hobs@mstdn.social avatar

hobs

@hobs@mstdn.social

#FOSS fanatic.

Trying to build teachable, private, virtual assistants that actually assist. Latest attempt is a #RAG: http://gitlab.com/tangibleai/community/knowt

Aspire to practical #utilitarianism.

All my heroes became assholes once they got rich. Even nonprofit "leaders”. I'm doing a good job avoiding that $/good tradeoff by not making any $.

#AmWriting NLP in Action (tech #nonfiction) and Artificial Agenda (#SpecFic #SciFi)

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

CarlG , to random
@CarlG@esq.social avatar

There must be some kind of mistake. The evidence phase cannot be over, because Trump promised us he would testify. And he is a man of his word, not a coward who chickens out. Right?

hobs ,
@hobs@mstdn.social avatar

@mastodonmigration

More than 10,000 children younger than 15 yr old have been seriously (emergency room visit) injured by lawn darts. In the 70s and 80s two children younger than 10 yr old were killed by lawn darts in the US.

https://www.cpsc.gov/Newsroom/News-Releases/1987/LAWN-DARTS-CAN-CAUSE-SERIOUS-OR-FATAL-HEAD-INJURIES-AND-DEATH

@andrew @CarlG

wraptile , to random
@wraptile@fosstodon.org avatar

Been reading r/worldnews for a decade now and lately it has been really revealing what a propaganda machine it has become. Just got perma banned for pointing out that "legal war targets aren't necessarily ethically correct"

With Artifact gone, reddit basically gone - what other sources do you use for ?

hobs ,
@hobs@mstdn.social avatar

@wraptile
1/2
Ground.news
Neuters.de
Metaculus.com
And mastodon hashtags and people (in a or worldnews list, muted on Home): (California)







Will find some more specific fedi accounts and sites...

hobs ,
@hobs@mstdn.social avatar

@wraptile

Put these on your list and then follow whomever they follow:
@GottaLaff
@rbreich
@JosephMenn
@MikeDunnAuthor @gtconway3
@mike. win
@ClimateNewsNow @DemocracyMattersALot
@mollvoxfff
@augierav

hobs ,
@hobs@mstdn.social avatar

@MikeDunnAuthor
I F-ed up. Don't mention @gottalaff without (not for Laffy). She's reporting live from the trump trial.

randahl , to random
@randahl@mastodon.social avatar

Brilliant proposal by German politicians: Let us place air defence systems inside NATO, and have these systems save civilian lives by shooting down missiles over western Ukraine.

This is pretty clever because

  1. Russia cannot bomb these systems as that would be an act of war against the entire NATO alliance.

  2. The systems cannot trigger a war with Russia themselves, as they are not attacking Russia.

Do it!

https://www.dw.com/uk/u-nimeccini-proponuut-zbivati-droni-nad-ukrainou-silami-nato/a-69054148

hobs ,
@hobs@mstdn.social avatar

@randahl
Interesting timing, this "idea" bubbling to the surface now, just as...Ukrainians are setting up to scramble F-16s within range of NATO air defense batteries to shoot down those exact same missiles at the exact same time. I'm sure it's just an innocent clever new idea by German politicians with no history of delaying and handicapping aid packages in the past.
@Peternimmo

MikeDunnAuthor , to random
@MikeDunnAuthor@kolektiva.social avatar

On June 21, 1877, the authorities hanged ten Irish miners in a single day in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. Known as Black Thursday, or Day of the Rope, it was the second largest mass execution in U.S. history. (The largest was in 1862, when the U.S. government executed 38 Dakota warriors). They convicted the Irishmen of murder, and accused them of being terrorists from a secret organization called the Molly Maguires. They executed ten more over the next two years, and imprisoned another twenty suspected Molly Maguires. Most of the convicted men were union activists. Some even held public office, as sheriffs and school board members.

However, there is no evidence that an organization called the Molly Maguires ever existed in the U.S. The only serious evidence against the men was presented by a spy, James McParland, working for the Pinkerton Detective Agency, who provided the plans and weapons the men purportedly used in their crimes. The entire legal process was a travesty: a private corporation (the Reading Railroad) set up the investigation through a private police force (the Pinkerton Detective Agency) and prosecuted them with their own company attorneys. No jurors were Irish, though several were recent German immigrants who had trouble understanding the proceedings.

Nearly everything people “know” today about the Molly Maguires comes from Allan Pinkerton’s own work of fiction, The Molly Maguires and the Detectives (1877), which he marketed as nonfiction. His heavily biased book was the primary source for dozens of academic works, and for several pieces of fiction, including Arthur Conan Doyle’s final Sherlock Holmes novel, Valley of Fear (1915), and the 1970 Sean Connery film, Molly Maguires.

My novel, Anywhere But Schuylkill, tells a truer story of these union miners and their persecution by the Pinkertons.

You can read my complete article on the Molly Maguires here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/04/13/the-myth-of-the-molly-maguires/

hobs ,
@hobs@mstdn.social avatar

@MikeDunnAuthor
You might like this modern (last year) revival of Molly Maguires activism: https://mastodon.social/@WNC_Wobbly/109843531714867398

BeAware , (edited ) to random
@BeAware@social.beaware.live avatar

The day when I don't have to "promote" those that argue with me in replies for no reason, will be a wonderful day....

The fact that blocking and defederating someone doesn't remove their replies to your posts is absolutely ridiculous....

Edit: AP creators in the replies talking about solutions to this!👍

hobs ,
@hobs@mstdn.social avatar

@BeAware
Hadn't thought about that, scary to think what happens to our replies on others servers after we block them.
@sl007

hobs ,
@hobs@mstdn.social avatar

@BeAware
That's scary. I think I now understand why trolls have intentionally goaded me into blocking them. They can then control the "conversation" with their followers, perhaps even alter their replies to my posts.
@sl007

hobs ,
@hobs@mstdn.social avatar

@BeAware
Thank you for the crash course in the / . And thank you for sharing lashman's art!

Love your sketch gifs, lashman! Always wondered how a professional sketches, ordering of pen strokes, etc. Do you show erasures and do-overs? Just curious about the craft.
@sl007 @lashman

GottaLaff , to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

A leading psychologist who advises on suicide prevention and self-harm has quit her role, accusing the tech giant of “turning a blind eye” to harmful content on , repeatedly ignoring expert advice and prioritising profit over lives.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/mar/16/instagram-meta-lotte-rubaek-adviser-quits-failure-to-remove-self-harm-content-?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

hobs ,
@hobs@mstdn.social avatar

@GottaLaff
Courageous of Rubæk to give up status, income, and safety to try to protect teens using Meta products. Are there publications or organizations that we can boost to support Rubæk and her cause?
@panamared27401

hosford42 , to random
@hosford42@techhub.social avatar

What if moderation were partially decoupled from server administration in the fediverse? What if you could choose one or more moderators or blocklists to "subscribe" to, and then make your own exceptions about specific users or servers to block or allow? Maybe "reports" could be compiled into user-specific block lists, which could then be voluntarily aggregated. Kind of a federated approach to moderation itself...

It seems like this would be a better system, and also would resolve a lot of debate about moderation and defederation up front.





hobs ,
@hobs@mstdn.social avatar

@hosford42
Perhaps opt-in during sign-up process? New users could onboard quickly without having to make more decisions. And servers could implement the mew federated moderation feature on their server at deploy or upgrade time, allowing users to opt in within account settings.
@BeAware

sb , to random
@sb@fed.sbcloud.cc avatar

I'm still seeing at least a half-dozen links being shared around here per day.

It's really pretty sad to see so many people just shrug it off and stick to the status nazi-supporting quo.

hobs ,
@hobs@mstdn.social avatar

@sb
I wish there was a clear alternative, a sort-of blogger Wikipedia, an activity-pub-compliant platform for +. We need to create synergy and network effects for small bloggers. Ghost and the alternatives don't check all the boxes yet

  • easy
  • private
  • sustainable
  • free if you don't monetize
  • egalitarian or regressive search algorithms
  • proactive discovery of high quality, low popularity writers

hobs ,
@hobs@mstdn.social avatar

@sb
@pluralistic what do you use for pluralistic.net and craphound.com ?

Sherifazuhur , to palestine group
@Sherifazuhur@sfba.social avatar

A man set himself on fire at the Israeli embassy in DC. Earlier reports did not include this:
“The individual, wearing fatigues, introduces himself as “an active duty member of the U.S. Air Force and I will no longer be complicit in genocide.””
And he continues yelling “Free Palestine.” @palestine

hobs ,
@hobs@mstdn.social avatar

@Sherifazuhur
You.com summary of the incident with more details: https://you.com/search?q=Did%20someone%20wearing%20fatigues%20set%20themselves%20on%20fire%20recently%20at%20the%20Israeli%20embassy%20in%20DC%20and%20introduce%20himself%20as%20%E2%80%9Can%20active%20duty%20member%20of%20the%20U.S.%20Air%20Force%20and%20I%20will%20no%20longer%20be%20complicit%20in%20genocide.%E2%80%9D&fromSearchBar=true&tbm=youchat&chatMode=default

@palestine

hobs , to random
@hobs@mstdn.social avatar

(@pluralistic) is coming to to help us the !
https://tinyurl.com/doctorowucsd

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