Notices by myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win), page 11

Bernie got arrested again!?!?
(via tumblr https://www.tumblr.com/typhlonectes/760726854326976512)

Can you imagine how thick The Post would be if they printed a story like this for *every* fender bender like this that happened in NYC for ONE DAY?

So this is where we are? Really?

(Guess I found out what it'd take for the Post to care about traffic crashes. Ha ha. hm. )

Me when I take a selfie vs. me when someone else takes a photo of me.

AI art works by generating matrices that can be used in multiple contexts. These matrices will generate images that are close matches to features of large portions of the training data. This is why the images often look good until you look more closely or think about the meaning or the relationship between elements.

It's sort of like learning to paint by muscle memory and technique alone. If a line curves like this it keeps going, if its fuzzy textured it's part of a cat.

May you live to see much less interesting times!

I'm still mad that some think "safe space" is a concept worthy of mocking. Not being able to make your spaces safe is just a sign of disorganization, not enough resources and carelessness. It's not "tough" ... everyone *needs* to feel safe. It's a basic human need. How is this something we have to explain?

@queenofnewyork

It's fine to give a child strategies for dealing with bullies better. But, if it's really bullying* it's not the child's responsibility to solve the problem.

*Bullying is about rejecting a member of a community as an equal and denying them the respect that others can count on and expect.

I've said this before but there is nothing normal about bullying. Nothing normal or acceptable about a child being bullied, or being a bully. (sometimes I've found the child who is described as "bullied" is, in fact, a bully themselves... bullies can be very socially isolated)

I've had tough guy parents roll their eyes about my concern for the social well being of my students thinking I'm being unreasonable in expecting a school to be a SAFE SPACE.

@SmudgeTheInsultCat

I have a less ominous version of this tale. When studying for quals I put all of the theorems in analysis I might need to prove in a little hand-written booklet (about 5x8cm) so I could quiz myself on the subway. These theorems became my whole world. I was staring at a proof when a man, puzzled by my state of concentration, asked “are those… your prayers?”

I was disoriented by the interruption. But on a moment’s swift reflection I could only answer: “Yes.”

@artemis

It could have been that, or just yelling or who knows. Something was going very wrong and not being addressed and this guy pours gasoline on it and makes it everyone's problem.

Why would he buy a child in that state a gun? I'm floored.

This video is remarkable. It's so easy to second-guess the choices of parents with perfect hindsight and limited information. But, I can't help but sense a rejection of help for this young man. A rejection of what's "for snowflakes" -- not a therapist, not discussing feelings. He bought his son an AR.

Children try to be who we tell them to be. They try SO HARD. Who are you telling your chid to be when you buy them a weapon of war?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dECT_Ut11VQ

Wanting to live in the end times is kind of cowardly since it absolves of you of the burden of building a better future. Some great compelling force will come down from on high and sort it all out.

Since you don't really know what times you face it's more responsible and brave to live as if these are the "Beginning Times" instead. And with great effort you may do a tiny bit of good that lasts a few decades beyond your grave.

Contemporary car design is so ugly. Every car looks like an old man who got too much plastic surgery with angry anime eyes. The forms are neither geometric and pure, nor are they taken from nature— it’s just a pointless collision of ‘swooshes’, like the Nike logo, and ‘swerves’ that gesture at aerodynamics without being functional or beautiful to behold. The colors are aggressively frumpy— the textures plastic, so that even when brand new they do not shine.

A secular society needs to have some nice uniforms in a few places or else a segment of the population will run off and commit atrocities to get special hats.

A marching band— stuff for bureaucrats — figure it out. Don’t let the whole scene turn down casual in every corner people start defecting to the worst ideologies because they want a medal that “means something”

Can anyone convince me that Elon wouldn't suppress things that scare and displease him on Twitter? Everyone needs to leave that place. It's like living in a house knowing that someone lives in your walls who secretly rearranges your furniture at night and messes with your food... but not doing anything about it.

I checked on the trending topics a few times on X over the evening including after the Taylor Swift endorsement and "Taylor Swift" was not trending. Even after an hour or so the only Taylor related tag was "Tay Tay" and it wasn't in the top five.

It could be that there are simply no women on X anymore.

But, I can't shake the feeling a billionaire messed with his algorithm.

Of course I can't prove this. But it's reasonable, right?

I've seen a few people saying things like "but didn't everyone think Hillary did really well in her debate with Trump but then she lost?"

I understand this impulse and this race is not in the bag for anyone. There is a lot of work to do. But, this debate was nothing like the 2016 debate. Trump was much less unhinged. After the debate his supporters and many moderates thought that he did well. This time Trump supporters are complaining about the moderators.

1/

Harris has not come out of this debate thinking that she's going to win. She continues to run as the underdog.

In the 2016 debate Trump made personal attacks on Hillary. For mostly BS reasons, but also a few legitimate reasons a lot of people had strong negative feelings about Hillary. So Trump's nasty attacks on her didn't bother people as much.

Trump's nasty attacks this time were on ... America. Nothing he says makes sense unless you watch Fox all day. 2/

When challenged on his bogus lie about immigrants eating people's pets Trump indignantly replied that he saw it on TV.

At that moment it hit me: Trump is just another old man who watches too much Fox news and spends too much time online. He's not a crafty manipulator of racial hatred ... he gets his information from the same place as his fans. That may be why he feels so authentic to them.

It was something of a sad moment of exposure for the reality star. 3/3