Notices by RealGravitas -Citizen Saboteur (cwilbur@sfba.social)

Let’s talk about the crap from #AI #DataCenters that’s wedging its way into our worlds right now. I manage a website, and for years we’ve been getting metrics on who visits the site from where. Now the hosting service has bought into some AI bullshit and wants to pass that cost on to me.
This was their choice to replace a free service with a more elaborate fee-based product that to me is about as welcome as Argentinian beef products. I will likely be shopping for a new hosting service. But still, trying to jam AI down an existing customer’s throat, while participating in ruining rural landscape with these damned data centers seems pretty effed up.

#flock comes to #Carlsbad on the freeway pointing both directions

@QasimRashid Don’t forget that part of that so-called “disapproval of dems” comes from members of the democratic party. They may “disapprove”, but they’re still with us.

Back a ways I complained that we weren’t actually replacing fossil fuels with solar and wind, but just adding those sources into an ever expanding CORPORATE energy budget. These #DataCenters make clear that corporate america doesn’t understand or care about the lethality of #climatechange . And neither does the #gop .
Vote against them whenever and wherever you can.

I just realized another way that #AI is already f*cking with us. I administer a .org website thru WIX, and they are raising their prices at the same time as offering a bunch of AI tools. Even if I don’t want to use these tools, we still have to pay for it. This feels less like a gold rush than force-feeding a goose prior to liver extraction.
My financial advisor is recommending a GE spinoff that makes gas turbines. Sounds innocent enough until you find out that their biggest customer is, you guessed it, AI data centers.

@dgar I get it, man.
I’ve been writing novels now for over 25 years, and I may have sold 50 books in all that time.

But I still keep writing.

@dgar Thanks!
What I really feel would boost things for all of us would be to form a group that consumes and reviews each other’s works.
Reviews is the first step, am I right?

@dgar I admire your persistence.

Elfin Forest offered up a bit of variety today. Not a lot out there as far as #butterflies but what was there kept me entertained. Here’s some highlights.

I headed back to Penasquitos Preserve to check on the #butterflies. It only got up to 68 degrees, but it was sunny and there were some flyers. Mostly small and drab - tho I did see a Tiger Swallowtail (hint; not small or drab). The day belonged to the Ringlets. There were dozens if not hundreds in view today.

It’s hard not to notice that these all show #butterflies on the ground. It IS winter, and they like the warmth and moisture on the ground. There were some flying around though, and landing higher up. Like this guy, sharing a sunflower blossom with some ladybug-ish beetle.

Calavera Preserve really performed today as a December #butterfly locality. My creekside/chaparral time was a no-hitter, but the “volcano” hilltoppers were there in numbers. All four Vanessa (ladies) species were present.

@bmacDonald94 Just “Alligator” will do fine. I’m torn between that and tattooing that to their forehead. Maybe both.

Don't buy anything on Black Friday or any of those online sales days. (As if we could afford anything anyway.) It'll make a point and you know the stuff will still be on sale afterwards if no one buys anything. #boycott #BoycottUSA #protest

@skinnylatte My cousin when he was oh maybe 12, slipped on one of those very rocks the same day we arrived in Pacific Grove for summer break, and broke his kneecap. Spent the rest of the summer in a full leg cast

@hellomiakoda Now you understand how deeply tragic it is to have a caffeine allergy.

@catsalad Liberace demonstrates the conventional 2-cycle engine. #CatsOfMastodon #caturday

Things were popping a little bit today at Daley Ranch. The #butterflies were out. Mostly moving too fast for good portraiture but I did my best.
- Lorquin’s’
- Monarchs
- Cabbage Whites
- Buckeyes
- Duskywings
- Mourning Cloaks
- Marine Blues
- Acmon Blues
- Euphilotes (Bernardino, Enoptes, or …?)
- Gray Hairstreak
No sign of Coppers or Crescents, and I did look!
This picture fell out of the day’s work. My fave.

A couplof other nice shots from today. #butterflies.

After a rather fruitless search for some sunny location in the Oakland Hills this morning, (there weren’t any), I ended up driving partway up Mt Diablo and had much better luck with the #butterflies. Not super happy with the picture quality, but I bagged a Copper and that’s huge.