Notices by Dan Ports (dan@discuss.systems), page 2

@globalmuseum @skinnylatte And, at 1,300°C, it's still cooler than the average outdoor temperature in Singapore!

@skinnylatte and slap a vaguely racist name like "Trader Ming's" on it for good measure!

The Pixel cleaning process, you say?

#cats #catsofmastodon

@skinnylatte aha, the TL *is* a hotbed of illegal activity just like I was always told!

@irene @timnitGebru @sharon after that meeting, I looked into the ACM DEI council and its budget, and, well, you probably won't be surprised by the results.

https://discuss.systems/@dan/113403844018937425

@irene @timnitGebru @sharon Oh, and let's not forget the part where, when we did run the survey at an ACM conference, they put together a survey of their own and told people to take it instead "because it'll take only 2 minutes and doesn't ask any uncomfortable questions"

How my Teams calls today have been going

How my Teams calls have been going, today's edition

@rasterweb We were promised a cat in a taco truck on every corner!

@irene posted earlier about the controversy about the UW CSE grad student skit being cancelled for criticizing the administration (https://discuss.systems/@irene/113600301389320679) and then reinstated, but I thought I would share the actual storyline behind it because it is great:

The new art installation in the CSE building, a creepy robot, becomes sentient and starts eating students. Students express concern to the administration, but it brushes them off and refers them to the Title 404 office, which handles robot-related complaints. The department refuses to ban the robots from the building because they threaten to sue, and instead says "let's let this play out in the Title 404 office. Students always have the option to work from home if they want to reduce the risk of being eaten by a robot." The department refuses to hold a training on how to deactivate robots until the Title 404 investigation concludes. Instead, the students have to organize themselves to fight back against student-eating robots.

Looking back at the candidates for the Dumbest Work-Related Email I’ve Had To Write in 2024, but I can’t pick a winner yet because I have a feeling December is going to produce some strong contenders.

@atsuzaki @ionchy @bhaktishh that one is in fact listed as an option on my upcoming flight!

I hate to imagine what an airline caterer would do if you asked for the food to be *more* bland…

Last week, our new cat Miso managed to escape he house -- only a day after he was adopted. Over the next 54 hours, we and volunteers from a cat rescue organization set up a variety of traps around the house to get him back in, but he was too smart to fall for them.

We finally got him back by leaving the basement door ajar and rigging a pulley system so we could remotely close it without scaring him away.

Please enjoy this video of his return with narration from (GPT-4 as) David Attenborough.

#cats #catsofmastodon

Well, this raises more questions than it answers.

@abstractcow @cwebber I’m pretty sure a trap for mansplainers is called a well actually

Nowadays, when a post goes viral and escapes the cozy confines of Academic Twitter, it starts making the rounds on Incel Twitter, a true hellhole.

Meanwhile, when a post goes viral and escapes Academic Mastodon, it circulates on Trans Catgirl Mastodon.

I know which one I prefer...

Breaking out some emergency kitten photos for anyone who needs them tonight…

#cats #catsofmastodon

I took a look at the annual reports of the ACM's Diversity and Inclusion Council going back to its founding. Let's see how much ACM, an organization with $211,000,000 in assets and $10,000,000 in annual income is spending on this:

- FY24: $0
- FY23: $50,000
- FY22: $50,000
- FY21: $0
- FY20: $0

And where did those $50,000 budgets go? Marketing. To add diverse stock photos to "embed a DEI lens within current ACM communications", to "build ACM DEI Marketing Website Content Strategy" and "for targeting diverse nominations" for ACM's existing awards.

Hope everyone is having a floofy #caturday.

#cats #catsofmastodon

Does Max fit into this bed? Not really. Is he going to let that stop him?

#cats #catsofmastodon