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JamesGleick ,
@JamesGleick@zirk.us avatar

Literary sub-genre: Novel or play retells a classic from the perspective of a secondary character or characters. The new story tracks the the original but shifts some of its action offstage. The two versions intertwine, each now commenting on the other.

Examples:
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Tom Stoppard).
James (Percival Everett).

Are there others? There must be.

tito_swineflu ,
@tito_swineflu@sfba.social avatar

@JamesGleick Wicked?

cstross ,
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

@JamesGleick There are tons! The Wind Done Gone, for example, retells Gone with the Wind from the slaves' point of view. The Last Ringbearer is an alternative take on The Lord of the Rings from the Mordor viewpoint. And so on.

TechConnectify ,
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

So I just got back from a Menards run and I've noticed something fascinating:

Menards has always had a lot of store brands. But they're really pushing a new food brand called Marcella. Stuff like coffee, jams and jellies, prepared foods, sodas, etc. A lot of it is fairly unique - I bought a maraschino cherry cola on a whim and it was pretty great!

The weird part? They're pricing this in-house stuff higher than name brands. The soda was a tad more expensive than the Sprecher's next to it!

TechConnectify OP ,
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

@BartV no, the label was just not visible in either picture

https://mas.to/@TechConnectify/112675355624900027

StampedingLonghorn ,
@StampedingLonghorn@social.linux.pizza avatar

@TechConnectify @brennen You should make a video about Menards.

notjustbikes , (edited )
@notjustbikes@notjustbikes.com avatar

CityBeautiful recently released a great video about how to fix stroads.

It's accurate, and lines up exactly with the advocacy that my wife and I were doing 10 years ago, right down to using StreetMix to redesign streets.

It's also extremely depressing and makes me glad that I don't live in North America anymore.

https://youtu.be/1V679pkDl6k

notjustbikes OP , (edited )
@notjustbikes@notjustbikes.com avatar

@MrLee there's a book called The Sprawl Repair Manual that I always wanted to make a video about, but I couldn't get the copyrights to the images.

https://sprawlrepair.com/home/

In part of it, the author talks about how to turn suburban malls into town centres, and then connect them together (and to downtown) by transit.

I think this is the best hope that suburbia has got.

Trying to urbanise the giant stroads of suburbia is basically a non-starter. There are so many other low-hanging fruits.

dunks ,
@dunks@mstdn.ca avatar

@notjustbikes

Perfect, and rings true:

"The best thing that can happen is that they die a natural death and, in doing so, create a minimal amount of harm to the community. That's ultimately how this is fixed."

JamesGleick ,
@JamesGleick@zirk.us avatar

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) continues to be the member of Congress who best demonstrates the qualities of leadership so badly needed by her party. She will not succeed in impeaching these Supreme Court justices, but she will shine a light on their corruption and lay down a marker for voters.

Every Democrat should learn from her example.

https://www.newsweek.com/supreme-court-justices-impeachment-aoc-1919728

Huntn00 ,
@Huntn00@mastodon.world avatar

@JamesGleick This can’t be ignored. There is a fast approaching showdown that MUST take place if you care about what we are to become.

BRAVO, more power to her, and to the members of Congress, who understand what an outrageously unconstitutional ruling that SOTUS spit out in their disregard for our nation.
Checks and balances no longer work when corruption has infested the body, which means that although I’m a pessimist, this action, some action must be taken before the next phase. 🧐

michael_w_busch ,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

@JamesGleick @futurebird In ; we currently have Ilhan Omar, who has called for impeaching the illegitimate extremists who form the current SCOTUS majority, and Tina Smith, who has long been advocating expanding the court and appointing new justices who respect the Constitution & human rights.

May everyone represented by other members of Congress encourage them to do likewise.

JamesGleick ,
@JamesGleick@zirk.us avatar

This smells like a real story. The headline says “mystery fundraising firm,” but there’s no evidence of a fundraising firm. There is a Delaware LLC, apparently a ghost or a shell—no address except a post-office box—that has received $3.1 million in Trump campaign cash.

Where did the money go then? Into thin air?

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/mystery-fundraising-firm-takes-millions-trump-campaign-rcna156755

PattyHanson ,
@PattyHanson@mastodon.social avatar

@JamesGleick Trump has more than $600 million reasons to hide money: $450 +/- million to the State of NY & another $90 million owed to E. Jean Carroll. These totals don't include the interest that's accruing every day on those 2 obligations OR the money he owes multiple lenders waiting in the wings for the court monitor to dole out pmts on outstanding debt.

The registered agent for is a big company that acts in this capacity.

is money Plain & Simple

julz ,
@julz@sfba.social avatar

@JamesGleick follow the money...

erlend ,
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/fep-7952-roadmap-for-actor-and-object-portability/4332?u=erlend_sh

I think this is the most important (WIP) Fediverse Enhancement Proposal of this year for the protocol:

FEP-7952: Roadmap for Actor and Object Portability — by @by_caballero and @dmitri

It ties a lot of elementary building blocks for neatly together, most succinctly summed up by one particularly magic feature:

Bring-your-own Actor ID! 🪪💫

Actor profiles can now be hosted separately from the instance (including as a static JSON object (…)

mikedev ,
@mikedev@fediversity.site avatar

No point in moving your identity if your content server shuts down unexpectedly. I'm actually working on nomadic content over ActivityPub right this moment. Centralising it destroys everything I've done with nomadic identity over the last dozen years. We have clonable identities (identity and content) right now with live synchronisation. If your server cert expires or goes offline right this second, go to your clone and nothing has changed. You have all your content, friends, and settings. Everything. I'm not giving this up and neither should you. Content-addressable mechanisms don't work because the url changes if you edit the object. Every project has completely different URL paths and object-type mappings.

I'm currently convinced the only way to solve this is with a mapping table, so that /item/something on my system can be found at /object/something on your system (or whatever). We also have 30-40 different object types that most other projects haven't even considered. This is the only way to make them portable. Just store the object in the mapping table instead of the local path mapping for that object. Done. The portable url could just be $apgateway/$did/$resource-id. If my software supports that kind of object I'll redirect to where we store that kind of object. If it doesn't, I'll just return the portable object.

Cheers.

by_caballero ,
@by_caballero@mastodon.social avatar

@smallsees @erlend @dmitri (also the spec indirectly explains how to build a microservice that could run for $1/mo on a little heroku-style platform you could point myname.com at-- we can hopefully provide a prototype soon and, if people demand it, add more explicit detail about how to build one's own or adapt the idea to other form factors?)

JamesGleick ,
@JamesGleick@zirk.us avatar

“Artificial intelligence” () is the wrong term for the many services for which the term is being used. These are not generating intelligence. They are generating text or images or music—that is, information.

But it's not real information. It's ersatz* information. So when you hear "artificial intelligence,” I suggest that you substitute “ersatz information.”


*pseudo, fake, synthetic, spurious

clive ,
@clive@saturation.social avatar

@JamesGleick

This is of a piece with the discussion between Melanie Mitchell and Alison Gopnik that I just posted, at almost the precise second you posted your comment 😂

https://saturation.social/@clive/112672795502304111

shoq ,
@shoq@mastodon.social avatar

@JamesGleick “Information-like data?”

JamesGleick ,
@JamesGleick@zirk.us avatar

Are they reading this at the New York Times editorial board? Do they have any self-awareness left?

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/editorials/first-presidential-debate-joe-biden-donald-trump-withdraw-20240629.html

Luna ,
@Luna@mastodon.world avatar

@JamesGleick Dropping out is the best thing he can do for tha USA.

mcfedr ,
@mcfedr@meshed.cloud avatar

@JamesGleick finally the response I was looking for, at least someone else thought of it

bardi ,
@bardi@mas.to avatar

Currently working on an important first update to Tusks that will address many of the early pain points/limitations. Should be submitted for App Store review no later than tomorrow night.

(Will respond to all @’s as soon as I can.)

bardi OP ,
@bardi@mas.to avatar

I managed to carve enough pockets of time over the weekend to get this update done asap. Thanks everyone for your patience. 1.07 is now available: https://midnight-beanie-ccb.notion.site/Changelog-92a8ce131cf24ac786180db0f619c236?pvs=4 This will be the first of many :) Have a great week!

bardi OP ,
@bardi@mas.to avatar

Tusks 1.16 went out over the weekend with important fixes to the Pins screen. Entries will be presented the same as on the Posts screen, and they should all appear at launch (regardless of when you updated them last) https://midnight-beanie-ccb.notion.site/Changelog-92a8ce131cf24ac786180db0f619c236?pvs=4. Another smaller update on its way soon too.

TechConnectify ,
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

Gotta new video today for ya.
It's time to make fun of RCA again!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGT1EvmDJh4

pa3weg ,
@pa3weg@mastodon.social avatar

@TechConnectify "I've always been fascinated with the idea of building 7-segment displays out of weird things. Imagine a clock where each segment is a 4 foot fluorescent tube"

yes
I have done this a looong time ago and it's a nightmare to get the high frequency drive of the tubes right and if I'd do it now I would probably predict when to change digits (if it's a clock) to pre-heat the filaments to strike the tubes flicker-free.

robnee ,
@robnee@fosstodon.org avatar

@TechConnectify wonderful video as always. Did any actual products ever use these?

Nonilex ,
@Nonilex@masto.ai avatar

is supposed to rule this morning on ’s claim that he is immune from prosecution on charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election.
The decision will determine whether & how special counsel ’s case against Trump can proceed — although it’s unlikely a trial would happen before Day. But the ruling could also set an important for how to prosecute presidents for their actions in office.

Nonilex OP ,
@Nonilex@masto.ai avatar

Some justices suggested during oral arguments that they were taking a sweeping approach to the case. “We are writing a rule for the ages,” Justice said.
is facing 4 charges stemming from his attempts to overturn ’s victory in the , the most serious of which carries a max of 20 yrs in . The case has been on hold while considers Trump’s argument that presidents are immune from prosecution for official acts they take while in office.

Nonilex OP ,
@Nonilex@masto.ai avatar

Justice dissent:

“Never in the history of our Republic has a President had reason to believe that he would be from prosecution if he used the trappings of his office to violate the criminal . Moving forward, however, all former Presidents will be cloaked in such .
…if the occupant of that office misuses official power for personal gain, the criminal law that the rest of us must abide will not provide a backstop. With fear for our , I dissent."

JamesGleick ,
@JamesGleick@zirk.us avatar

This is the headline at talkingpointsmemo.com. I don't know why it isn't the headline at the NY Times and the Washington Post and everywhere else. It’s certainly accurate. The Supreme Court is granting itself powers not anticipated by the framers, who thought Congress and the executive branch had a role to play.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/supreme-court-chevron-overrule-agency

Christo ,
@Christo@mastodonapp.uk avatar

@JamesGleick
In a sane world those Scotus judges would be struck off and charged with treason

trillytrill ,
@trillytrill@mstdn.social avatar

@JamesGleick
Checks and balances where

JamesGleick ,
@JamesGleick@zirk.us avatar

Six Republican Justices, already embroiled in scandal for receiving millions in “gifts” from oligarchs with business before the Supreme Court, overturned the clear will of Congress today to legalize bribery-after-the-fact. Or as they call it, “gratuities.”

Justice Jackson, dissenting, has some choice words: (1/5)

hannahshouse2 ,
@hannahshouse2@toot.community avatar

@JamesGleick
noun
A favor or gift, usually in the form of money, given in return for service.

Something given freely or without recompense; a free gift; a present.

Similar: present
Something voluntarily given in return for a favor or service, as a recompense or acknowledgment.

cdunnpasadena ,
@cdunnpasadena@sfba.social avatar

@JamesGleick
This is very similar to the bump stock ruling that willfully ignores the plain mean of the law passed by congress and declares that bump stocks are not yet illegal.
With this court, the words written by congress have no binding power

JamesGleick , (edited )
@JamesGleick@zirk.us avatar

Trump and Republicans Have Launched an Unprecedented Campaign of Deception to Poison the Presidential Race with Fake Videos and Lies about Biden

is what the NY Times means to say. Instead, they somehow manage to twist this into another story about Biden being old and vulnerable.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/21/us/politics/biden-age-videos.html?smid=url-share

lunaticatlarge ,
@lunaticatlarge@stranger.social avatar

@JamesGleick I guess I'm glad that the NYT is usually behind a paywall. That way I don't have to look at the nonsense.

havvyhh2 ,
@havvyhh2@mas.to avatar

@JamesGleick I like Biden's new attack focus on trumpo...."he's even worse than before". Brilliant, and true!!

notjustbikes , (edited )
@notjustbikes@notjustbikes.com avatar

Nebula gift cards are now available ... and you can pay for them with iDEAL!

I have had so many people tell me over the years that they would sign up to Nebula, but only if they could do it via iDEAL. Now that it's available, I am expecting half of the Netherlands to sign up by the end of the weekend.

iDEAL and Giropay are NOT yet available for normal subscriptions, but you can "gift" yourself a subscription if you'd like!

More info is here:
https://gift.nebula.tv/notjustbikes

bas_spr ,

@notjustbikes great, I don't know what iDeal is and giropay is being phased out by the end of the year

BoukevanderSpoel ,

@notjustbikes
Okay, I overreacted. Mistake, not malevolence. Sorry for that. I still have to wonder: how is it possible that a mistake in the referral url changes the product? I guess it says something about me that I am unwilling to give companies the benefit of the doubt, but I've seen too many dark patterns to do so.

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