Notices by Phil Landmeier (shuttersparks@qoto.org)

@RickiTarr True. But small-minded people think otherwise.

"There are just two genders, male and female. This is obvious." Well, actually, no. Nature is much more complex than your simple black and white model. And this design is intended. It maximizes survival of a species that depends on sexual reproduction.

If humans had just two genders, we would be unique amongst all mammals. We don't. Neither do lions. Have you ever watched two male lions having sex? No? Quite a few male lions prefer sex with other males. Didn't know that did you? You know, ignorance makes you look stupid and makes you do stupid things that end up hurting you, personally.

Learn something, read books, stop listening to propaganda, pull your head out of your ass, I mean, the Bible, written by ignorant shepherds 3,000 years ago. See how the world really works and enjoy it.

@rastinza @RickiTarr Sorry for the delay. Work interferes with social media. Hahaha.

True, I gave a brief series of comments, knowing that most people in my circle already know about these things. I wasn't writing a tutorial.

I would hope that most people these days understand the basic concepts of human sexuality. It's not simple, it's extremely complex. Science is still a long way from understanding all the complexities. It will be a long time yet, if ever, that we understand all of it.

At the fundamental level there's male and female, and one might assume the two are automatically attracted to one another. But this is not the case. We know this from observation for thousands of years. Then there's intersex, which I'll ignore here.

There's genetics. Female and male are XX and XY, right? But no, there are many other variations in chromosomes.

Then there are complexities of brain development that we don't understand. The chemistry in the womb affects the fetus in ways we don't understand that result in effects after birth.

One of my grandkids is trans. She's an adult now. She was born with female hardware between her legs but from age 3 or before she knew she was male. Her brain is masculine but her hardware is female and this created all kinds of problems because her siblings, all male, didn't understand.

Here's a concise article that touches on the important parts: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/gender-science/201701/three-gender-myths-almost-everyone-believes-shouldn-t

When it comes to answering the question of "why", the shortest answer is "because it works". As living creatures, our most important function is reproduction -- passing our genes on to the next generation for further adaptation. From Nature's point of view, this is our ONLY function. All the other stuff, like our big brains, is decoration and came about because it enables us to reproduce better.

Nature / evolution / adaptation is very effective at keeping what works and eliminating what doesn't work. You can depend on this. Nature has had 150 million years to tinker with mammals and find what works and what doesn't. We are mammals, lions are mammals. So, while 2 sexes plus intersex, and 56 identified genders may seem very odd, it works. It works so well that billions of humans are infesting the planet to the point of destruction.

This is all you need to know about why. Science will be investigating the chemistry of why for decades if not much longer, but that won't change what is.

@Npars01 Yes. So-called AI (fancy search engines that can pretend to talk) are double-edged swords, or multi-purpose devices like a hammer that can be used to drive a nail or smash a brick.

AI is also useful for tracking and analyzing the oligarchy

@Free_Press Good, and let's divert a bunch of Mk84's that were headed for Israel to Ukraine. They have F-16's now. Let's get the "attitude changer" in play against the Russians. the Mk84.

@billyjoebowers It's certainly the problem here in West Virginia. Here is the epicenter of under-educated, greedy, self-centered, parochial know-it-alls. Just the kind of people Trump appeals to.

But if Trump wins, they'll get theirs -- what they deserve. Hahaha. Stupidity has a price and they're going to pay it.

@tylervu @tess @donmelton Sure, they can profit from it. They just can't do it by manipulating outcomes. They haven't yet learned how to function on a platform where you can't cheat.

@freemo This post of his demonstrates that he's a social idiot, with utter lack of sensitivity to and awareness of points of view other than his own. And he posts it so that millions can see it without any concern.

You can choose to classify him as mentally ill or an idiot.

I'll just leave this here.

BAHAHAHAHA.

I think the common expression for this is "Whooosh!"

@maryeffrancis @davidaugust Yup, lived it, including the sugar cube and classmates in leg braces and crutches.

@KydiaMusic @kwramm @bojacobs Exactly. It's a cluster of neuroses, starting with serious self-esteem problems. And so, societies with self-esteem problems are ripe for fascism to take hold.

Another red-flag for me is a society that loves the concept of revenge, which the USA is. Americans love the idea of getting revenge and this is one of the things that makes Trump so attractive. Trump frequently threatens revenge and this turns his followers on.

All of this stems from a populace that is unhappy and feels put down, which much of the USA also feels. Racists feel put down. The rest feel they can't get ahead because the system is rigged. Which it is, by the wealthy, but they don't understand it. They don't realize that the wealthy people they idolize are the very ones who have rigged the system and destroyed the middle class.

@CStamp @GottaLaff I expect he obtained the guns and permit simply because he could.

Almost everything he does he tries to turn into a badge of honor and privilege to make up for his lack of actual achievements.

Idle question of the day: who is the original nitwit that thought uppercase I (i) and lowercase l (L) should be the same symbol?

@janeadams @Martoni @GossiTheDog Agreed. As unbelievable as it might seem to some, I'll bet they didn't think it through.

Just so y'all know, most of those two-letter TLDs like .af refer to countries. In this case, Afghanistan. The country itself is the owner of that TLD and can decide who can and cannot use it. That's how TLDs were set up long ago and I see nothing wrong with it.

So think before using one. In all cases you have to to ask yourself two questions before using it. 1) Might my content offend that country? 2) Do I want to appear to be aligned with that country?

This second one has puzzled me for years. I see two-letter country TLDs on websites that, in my opinion, clearly shouldn't be aligning themselves with that country.

Bottom line: understand these two-letter TLDs and think before using them.

@clacke Scary old guy here. Yeah, newsreels went out in the late 1950s as television news gained traction.

@clacke Hahaha. That's true.

Of course, I'm really old. I'm just old enough to have caught the tail end of the newsreel era. (in black and white, of course.)

@MnemosyneSinger I'm originally from Los Angeles. Living now for many years in West Virginia has been an education. A lot of poor people here. Most of them believe that poverty results from stupidity. They believe that rich people are, by definition, good people, hard working, honest, and blessed by God. If you drive up in a nice car wearing a suit, they'll believe anything to tell them.

I'm sure this is the same in Kentucky, Tennessee, etc.

This is a huge problem that has to be fixed, but I have no idea how. I frequently disabuse people of these utterly wrong beliefs, but I'm just one person and there are millions of them.

@freemo I'll be watching this thread. I've de-Googled myself almost completely. One of the problem areas is Calendar, where I maintain calendars that are shared with up to 20 people, most of whom are not computer people and barely know how to use a smartphone.

So the State of Florida wants to provide financial support to current and future Florida criminals who want to run for president. Makes sense, for Florida, I guess.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/florida-eyes-5-million-fund-to-help-cover-trump-s-legal-bills/ar-BB1h5cpO

@goatsarah @AnarchoNinaWrites Hmm, they're completely confident they will win so showing them bad outcomes for the Nazis has no effect but to inspire them.

@mastodonmigration This looks great. Unfortunately, my instance doesn't seem to know about the BBC instance yet. Have to wait a bit.