maarten inghels
@sherbertilluminated there's a line somewhere in Ursula Vernon's Digger that goes something like "it is difficult to be metaphysical around the truly geologically minded"
trying on a metaphor

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@planningtoride
maarten inghels
@sherbertilluminated there's a line somewhere in Ursula Vernon's Digger that goes something like "it is difficult to be metaphysical around the truly geologically minded"

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i figured out this is in the göta canal in söderköping, sweden! it’s called “rabbit crossing” and it’s made by eva fornåå!
the other half is super cute too <3
and theres more to the story
Thing is, the work done by AI isn't better.
At least, not in 2025. If you think it's better you're not paying attention. You checked a few sample outcomes and said to yourself, "looks pretty good!" while not realizing AI eventually absolutely will hallucinate something. Because it always does. Inevitably.
Why d'ya think every AI system comes with a big fat disclaimer saying it's often wrong, please verify results, etc? Trust me, AI companies would love to do away with those warnings because they kill the mood. But they can't, for legal protection.
Okay, this is pretty incredible. A 3D artist, consulting scholars and archaeologists, worked for a year and a half in Blender to create a reconstruction of pre-Columbian Tenochtitlán, complete with the surrounding landscape. It’s staggeringly beautiful, and—at least to me—gives a wonderful impression of the city as a place where people worked and lived and worshiped
Sell your tesla and take the bus, or else
or else what lmao
We send the creature after you

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WHO ELSE REMEMBERS:
The Western Interior Seaway
Bossware is unfair (in the legal sense, too)
You can get into a lot of trouble by assuming that rich people know what they're doing. For example, might assume that ad-tech works – bypassing peoples' critical faculties, reaching inside their minds and brainwashing them with Big Data insights, because if that's not what's happening, then why would rich people pour billions into those ads?
https://pluralistic.net/2020/12/06/surveillance-tulip-bulbs/#adtech-bubble
You might assume that private equity looters make their investors rich, because otherwise, why would rich people hand over trillions for them to play with?
https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2024/11/19/private-equity-vampire-capital/
The truth is, rich people are suckers like the rest of us. If anything, succeeding once or twice makes you an even bigger mark, with a sense of your own infallibility that inflates to fill the bubble your yes-men seal you inside of.
Rich people fall for scams just like you and me. Anyone can be a mark. I was:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/05/cyber-dunning-kruger/#swiss-cheese-security
But though rich people can fall for scams the same way you and I do, the way those scams play out is very different when the marks are wealthy. As Keynes had it, "The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent." When the marks are rich (or worse, super-rich), they can be played for much longer before they go bust, creating the appearance of solidity.
Noted Keynesian John Kenneth Galbraith had his own thoughts on this. Galbraith coined the term "bezzle" to describe "the magic interval when a confidence trickster knows he has the money he has appropriated but the victim does not yet understand that he has lost it." In that magic interval, everyone feels better off: the mark thinks he's up, and the con artist knows he's up.
Rich marks have looong bezzles. Empirically incorrect ideas grounded in the most outrageous superstition and junk science can take over whole sections of your life, simply because a rich person – or rich people – are convinced that they're good for you.
Take "scientific management." In the early 20th century, the con artist Frederick Taylor convinced rich industrialists that he could increase their workers' productivity through a kind of caliper-and-stopwatch driven choreographry:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/21/great-taylors-ghost/#solidarity-or-bust
Taylor and his army of labcoated sadists perched at the elbows of factory workers (whom Taylor referred to as "stupid," "mentally sluggish," and as "an ox") and scripted their motions to a fare-the-well, transforming their work into a kind of kabuki of obedience. They weren't more efficient, but they looked smart, like obedient robots, and this made their bosses happy. The bosses shelled out fortunes for Taylor's services, even though the workers who followed his prescriptions were less efficient and generated fewer profits. Bosses were so dazzled by the spectacle of a factory floor of crisply moving people interfacing with crisply working machines that they failed to understand that they were losing money on the whole business.
To the extent they noticed that their revenues were declining after implementing Taylorism, they assumed that this was because they needed more scientific management. Taylor had a sweet con: the worse his advice performed, the more reasons their were to pay him for more advice.
Taylorism is a perfect con to run on the wealthy and powerful. It feeds into their prejudice and mistrust of their workers, and into their misplaced confidence in their own ability to understand their workers' jobs better than their workers do. There's always a long dollar to be made playing the "scientific management" con.
Today, there's an app for that. "Bossware" is a class of technology that monitors and disciplines workers, and it was supercharged by the pandemic and the rise of work-from-home. Combine bossware with work-from-home and your boss gets to control your life even when in your own place – "work from home" becomes "live at work":
https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/24/gwb-rumsfeld-monsters/#bossware
Gig workers are at the white-hot center of bossware. Gig work promises "be your own boss," but bossware puts a Taylorist caliper wielder into your phone, monitoring and disciplining you as you drive your wn car around delivering parcels or picking up passengers.
In automation terms, a worker hitched to an app this way is a "reverse centaur." Automation theorists call a human augmented by a machine a "centaur" – a human head supported by a machine's tireless and strong body. A "reverse centaur" is a machine augmented by a human – like the Amazon delivery driver whose app goads them to make inhuman delivery quotas while punishing them for looking in the "wrong" direction or even singing along with the radio:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/02/despotism-on-demand/#virtual-whips
Bossware pre-dates the current AI bubble, but AI mania has supercharged it. AI pumpers insist that AI can do things it positively cannot do – rolling out an "autonomous robot" that turns out to be a guy in a robot suit, say – and rich people are groomed to buy the services of "AI-powered" bossware:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/29/pay-no-attention/#to-the-little-man-behind-the-curtain
For an AI scammer like Elon Musk or Sam Altman, the fact that an AI can't do your job is irrelevant. From a business perspective, the only thing that matters is whether a salesperson can convince your boss that an AI can do your job – whether or not that's true:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/25/accountability-sinks/#work-harder-not-smarter
The fact that AI can't do your job, but that your boss can be convinced to fire you and replace you with the AI that can't do your job, is the central fact of the 21st century labor market. AI has created a world of "algorithmic management" where humans are demoted to reverse centaurs, monitored and bossed about by an app.
Plus ça change...
Old enough to have worked through many cycles of these management efficiency scams. The truly terrible thing is with each advance in technology they become crueller, more pervasive and more destructive. Watching them roll through our workplaces over the years, watching enthused management 'true believers' (as OP points out -principally in their own infallibility) time and again.
It doesn't make bigger profits. It kills creativity, causes mental and physical pain, causes stress, ill-health.
Got secret to share with 'ces types' -
Rule 1 - Pay your people well and trust them with the task you are paying them to do.
If you think you need AI monitoring, metrics, KPIs, Emotional regulation indicators, then you have forgotten rule 1 ... and you've started stealing from your people.
When it comes to rich people and tech scams, I'm fairly convinced by the argument I read a year or two ago: modern zillionaires chasing after Big Tech mirages are the same thing as the robber-barons and aristocrats of a hundred years ago who went totally gaga over occultism. The pop culture background is the only thing that's changed.
So, in the 1920s, rich idiots went down rabbit holes like telepathy, divination, mediumship, and lost worlds or Aryan precursor civilizations. You know, the kind of thing Conan-Doyle, Maupassant, or Lovecraft might've written pulp tales about.
In the 2020s, the same people's obsessions are now more futuristic and sci-fi themed. Like robot intelligence, or colonies on Mars, or Peter Thiel's insane immortality obsession. In other words, stuff whose common denominator is "I was a teenager in the eighties and I desperately want to believe that Skynet, the Genesis Device, and mutant genes are a real thing, or at least will be if I just throw enough money at them."
With the 'we do it through an app so it's not illegal', I find myself reminded of the case British Gas being taken to court for harassment over repeated letters being sent for a debt that wasn't owed. One of their arguments was that as the letters were being sent automatically and not by a person then it couldn't count as harassment. The judge didn't agree
[Transcript: I have long Covid and for this Pride Month, I'm mask for mask. Let's talk about it. I hate to break it to you, but Covid-19 is very much still a thing. The virus continues to spread all over the world, and it still poses a major threat to your health and to the health of others. One of the serious complications is long Covid. Now, long Covid is a catch-all term that describes a variety of chronic symptoms that people can experience after Covid-19 infection. This can include chronic fatigue, cognitive decline, breathing issues and cardiovascular problems. All of which can be debilitating and last for multiple years. i have personal experience with this. In April of 2023, I tested positive for Covid. Since then, I've had major breathing issues and air hunger, which is super uncomfortable and can make it really difficult to sleep and especially to exercise. Long Covid can affect anybody, but keep in mind that for those with pre-existing conditions, they may be at risk to severe Covid, even if they get vaccinated. Reducing the spread of Covid-19 requires multiple safety measures and masking is one of the most important. By wearing a well-fitting mask that creates a seal, like an N95, a KN95 or a KN94, you can reduce your risk of aquiring Covid-19. And you're also reducing the risk that you'll spread the virus to others. It's never too late to start wearing your mask again and remember it's not all or nothing. If you don't know where to start, I recommend wearing a well-fitting mask with a seal to essential public spaces, like the grocery store, public transportation and medical facilities. Remember: Pride, Free Palestine and Disability Justice, including Covid safety, are all interconnected. Take care of yourselves and don't give up. Until next time, goodbye. End Transcript.] Note: if you experience Post-Exertional Malaise (also known as Post-Exertional Symptom Exacerbation) you should NOT be exercising because it is unsafe for your body. If you experience any increase in symptoms (including insomnia) after exertion, exercising is NOT safe for you. Do not engage in any form of 'graded exercise therapy' or 'graded exercise'. Learn about 'pacing' from places like ME Action. Yes, pacing is fucking awful and hard. But it's the only way to protect your health from getting worse.
Source
Video of Tama
Follow Ultrafacts for more facts
The picture in the background of the second one
Tama is boss
THE TRAINS HAVE CARTOON TAMAS ON THEM
Sad update everyone, Tama recently passed away… An estimated 3,000 people, including railway officials, attended Tama the cat’s funeral on Sunday, days after she died of heart failure aged 16. [x]
For those who haven’t read articles about it, the local shrine elevated her to a god. She’s now the Eternal Stationmaster and patron god of the station.
Beautiful.
Now I’m crying thanks
and a new cat was hired right?
yep! her name is Nitama (essentially ”second tama” or “tama II”) and she served under Tama as an apprentice before being appointed her deputy
she works very hard
Everytime this crosses my dash, I reblog. It is the law.
I’m crying at 11pm over train cats
Nitama, already now a mature cat (born 2010), has a protege named Yontama (fourth Tama, b. 2016). There is no information available for either the physical befellment or tragic self-disgrace which has removed Santama from contention.
^Nitama majestic, and below with Yontama
Yontama.
a legacy
okay but actually what happened to santama (or sun-tama-tama, which is her name because it’s a pun on santama) was that she was basically sent to train for the position in okayama and they liked her so much they refused to send her back
“Sun-tama-tama” (a pun off of “Santama”, lit. “third Tama”) was a calico cat sent for training in Okayama. Sun-tama-tama was considered as a candidate for Tama’s successor, but the Okayama Public Relations representative who had been caring for Sun-tama-tama refused to give the cat up writing, “I will not let go of this child, she will stay in Okayama.” [25]
As of September 2018, Sun-tama-tama is working as the stationmaster in Naka-ku, Okayama and appears occasionally on Tama’s Twitter account.
Every time I see this post there’s new info and it gets better
You are only allowed to scroll pass this after you pay tribute to the great Tama Station masters.
The shrine of Tama Daimyōjin (Great gracious deity Tama), next to the Kishi station where she worked.
Nitama presenting her yearly offerings to Tama Daimyōjin on the anniversary of Tama’s Death, June 23 (The offerings are presented by the company president, as Nitama is a cat and thus can’t hold the offerings herself) (Not pictured, but also present, Yontama)
you cannot pass without reblogging guys. i’m sorry, i don’t make the rules.
You can’t not reblog a goddess. It’s just what’s so. :)
So, fun fact- the manga Noragami has an arc where the main character, Yato (a minor kami/God that is down on his luck but trying to make it big time) goes to a council/conference for all the Gods in Japan.
And they are announcing the winner of the “up and coming god” award, and of course, Yato thinks it’s him.
But no-
ITS TAMA!
Always reblogging this.
Likewise.
Bow, bow, clap-clap, bow.
Changed to this version for the manga addition.
Posted in memory of Tama Daimyojin on the anniversary of her passing.
I'll always hate Christianity from taking away cat gods from us.
The Sick or Injured Test
So yes, I have been thinking about this because of Reasons, those reasons being that I’m watching a lot of like, tiny house design videos while getting over the tail end of the flu, but it occurse to me that a lot of the awesome, clever, innovative, space saving designs I see would be utterly unusable when you, say, have the flu. I’ve been chronically ill my entire life, so it’s second nature to me to look at a space or situation and go “How will I manage this when I’m feeling like a pile of dog turds somebody heated up in the microwave?” But a lot of people don’t consider this kind of thing, and get blindsided when they’re sick. So I propose a simple test for the livability of a house design:
Can an otherwise able-bodied person get from the bed to the bathroom and back into bed again with a fever, concussion, broken bone, or other minor illness or injury that most people inevitably suffer at some point in time? If not, this living space has failed the Sick or Injured test.
The most common way to fail the Sick or Injured test involves putting stairs, or worse, a ladder, between the bed and bathroom. Loft beds fail by default, and are a blight.
A solid majority of my household is mobility impared, and my brother uses a wheelchair, so I am well aware this doesn’t cut it for a lot of people. But most disabled people are aware of what they need from a living space, and a lot of able-bodied people forget that they are walking around in flesh sacks that will sometimes fail on them, and that even if they are lucky enough to never become disabled, they will probably get the flu. So they should consider just what their living space will look like when they do.
Often my first thought looking at not just tiny houses, but all houses and apartments. As someone who's looked at a lot of apartments, I have seen some horrors. And I can't imagine telling a friend, well, you have a wheelchair so you can't come over. Often not even to the door. Or, having a serious break in my leg and being like, welp, can't go home now. Or guess I'm sleeping in the shoe area. Like it's the year 2024 and we can't figure this out???

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Dog sculptures turned golden from tourists petting them throughout the years
@canisalbus
I must not mock Gen Alpha. Mocking Gen Alpha is the mind killer. Mocking Gen Alpha is the little-death that brings total generational solidarity obliteration. I will engage with Gen Alpha lovingly. I will permit them to be cringe. And when they grow up I will turn my eye to their accomplishments. Where mocking has gone there will be nothing. Only generational solidarity remains
Now a good application for AI would be to imbue Roombas with the ability to listen and respond to shouted commands.
No! Stop! Don't eat that!
...as it's gobbling up cables.
I love kids so much. They can’t get to the protests so they’re making their own
😭❤️🖤🤍💚🇵🇸
So! This is a perfect case study in situations where you should be wary of misinformation.
Take a moment and ask yourself, a project like this requires a lot of time, money and dedication of resources, why would scientists dedicate that time to something that could just be done by a tree?
The answer is they wouldn't. So that means this claim requires further investigation!
This project is called LIQUID 3, and it's not meant for cities with wide open spaces, it's meant for cities like Belgrade in Serbia. These cities are densely populated and heavily polluted, to the point where pollution actually chokes out current trees and makes creating green spaces difficult.
Liquid 3 was a PhD scientists answer to these problems. The microalgae tank is intended for spaces where you either:
Don't have enough space to plant full trees, or
Don't have enough time to plant trees and wait for them to grow up.
The tank is extremely efficient when you consider the amount of space needed compared to the amount of CO2 turned into oxygen. The tank can operate throughout the winter. And most importantly, it can be quickly set up in areas that desperately need relief from air pollution NOW not in 10 years when trees are done growing. Children currently suffocating on polluted air can't wait for trees to grow, they need to be taken care of now, and Liquid 3 is one of the ways to take care of them. Depending on the species of microalgea used, a number have shown a pretty amazing capacity to pull heavy metals out of the air which is something trees can get choked up by.
The tanks aren't just tanks either! Liquid 3 have solar panels placed on top, they have lighting and mobile phone charging, and they work as public benches. The designers of it want to encourage green spaces where there's room, but where there isn't room or time, Liquid 3 can step in. Realistically, this isn't a replacement for trees. It's replacing boring metal city benches with new, cooler benches that also clean the air (and have at least some heating during the winter).
Not only that, but the microalgea that grows is native to Serbia and all that microalgea has a ton of great uses! It makes for great fertilizer, compost, wastewater treatment, cleaner biofuels and even for helping create new tanks for further air purification. They only require a quick algae divide once a month, and the produced algae can be carted off to where ever it's needed. This makes them effective solutions for areas that can't sustain complex installations.
So yeah, there's actually quite a lot of places that would like these. Lots of people currently breathing in terrible quality air would much rather have their boring city benches replaced with really fucking cool algae tanks that clean the air and can be used to help create + sustain future green spaces in cities. I dunno about you, but I'd take that over a dumb metal bench any day. Put these at every bus stop and I'd be delighted.

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Can everyone who reads this PLEASE reblog it?!?!? Libraries literally saved my life as a child!
Being abused at home, bullied at school and lost in the world, the library and all the books I could escape to the most amazing worlds, kept me alive!
I would walk to the library, and spend all day, from 10 am to 9 pm reading there!! I got special awards for how many books I read, I wrote little blurbs on why i loved the books (probably why I love to BETA and do ARCs)
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE Just hit the green arrows and the reblog!!!
As a 50 year old woman, the library offers me so much. Digital art pads to borrow, 3D printing, book clubs that are face to face (yeah, the introvert likes face to face because a moderator will stomp on anyone getting snarky)
New books in LARGE PRINT! I’m visually challenged and as much as I love my kindle, The feel of a real book in my hands will always be a beloved feeling!
Our library also has quarterly books sales of almost free books!! For 5$USD we get in a day early and can buy as many as we want. Anyone else has to wait and there is a limit for the first 2 days.
Also many, many libraries have inter library loan(it may be called something different). This means if they don’t have the item you want, they can get it for you. This may include photocopy/pdf of articles. This can also include along with books and DVDs, microfilm/fiche which is also a huge resource. Check around for libraries that are listed as depositories if you want to look at government documents.
Remember that many colleges and universities have open stacks for the public. You will likely have to pay a membership fee but you will get to stuff.
I love the library ☺
The library was one of my favorite places to go as a kid and I still live to go and just. Sit and read. Or do homework. The university I’m at has a massive 8-story one I love to just wonder around in~ Great places
Libraries are amazing places, we need to protect them to ensure their continued existence.
I used to wander about the fiction section in my local library, and choose books with the most interesting titles - I discovered two amazing authors that way
If you feel disconnected from your local community & want to find ways to get involved, seriously consider spending some time at the library. Go to some events! Organize a reading group!
Support your libraries!
Read banned books!
People who don’t learn can be more easily controlled and told what to think!
Echoing @mathcat345, if your school has banned a book, your library will likely have it. Read it. Fuck censorship.
2020.06.20 | corona walk