@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

tokensane

@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk

Married, software dev, geek, science fiction fan, Linux user. searchable.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

A lot of people don't know the difference between capitalism and ... having markets and shopping and little coops and companies in non-super-essential economic sectors that operate independently.

Markets existed before capitalism and will exist after.

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@u0421793 @futurebird
I'd define capital a bit differently. Chattel ownership means owning the stuff you personally use: your TV, furniture, car, house etc. It can also mean tools of your trade: a computer, workshop etc.

Capital ownership means owning anything else, especially things you sell/rent to others, and things you hire others to work at.

There's a grey area between the two, but its not very wide.

RichardJMurphy, to random
@RichardJMurphy@mas.to avatar

Three things could guarantee Labour an election victory and they are refusing to do any of them https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2023/04/30/three-things-could-guarantee-labour-an-election-victory-and-they-are-refusing-to-do-any-of-them/

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@RichardJMurphy Unfortunately about 25% of the population are so amazingly primitive that they still think Brexit is a pretty neat idea. That's enough to swing the next election. In their view Brexit can never fail, it can only be betrayed. So Starmer needs to avoid pissing them off, lest they decide to vote against him.

Frederik_Borgesius, to random
@Frederik_Borgesius@akademienl.social avatar

Question about the Digital Services Act, mostly to EU lawyers I guess.

The DSA (art. 3(w)) defines 'commercial communication' by referring to the eCommerce Directive.

But many DSA provisions concern 'advertising'. I didn't spot a definition of 'advertising'.

  • Is 'advertising' defined anywhere?
  • Should we see 'commercial communication' and 'advertising' as synonyms?
  • More generally: do I miss something?

Thank you!

#eu #law #dsa

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@Frederik_Borgesius
This would be a good question on the Stack Exchange law site: https://law.stackexchange.com/

AmyDentata, to random

Techies: Google search keeps getting worse and worse! Autocomplete keeps getting worse and worse!

Also techies: AI is going to make everything better!

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@AmyDentata And if someone built a working real perpetual motion machine you can bet that physicists would be excited about it.

jonathanhogg, to random
@jonathanhogg@mastodon.social avatar

Prepare to be assimilated…

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@jonathanhogg Paging @JeriLRyan see pic at top of thread.

leetxdd, to politics

So the government has set a date to debate the petition asking them not to follow the EHRCs' recommendations regarding trans folk and the equality act. They've set the date 12th June.

Is this when we'll find out the future of the trans community? 😬

#trans #transgender #UK #politics #UKpolitics #TransUK #lgbt #lgbt #lgbtqia

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@leetxdd
Unfortunately you won't find out much. The "debate" consists of a bunch of interested MPs standing up and saying what they think, along with the government responding "thank you for your valuable input, but we're going to carry on anyway".

SalusaSecondus, to random
@SalusaSecondus@wandering.shop avatar

While not the same, this article about the #WarInUkraine makes me think of "Halting State" by @cstross. As always, that is a book I recommend that everyone involved in information security read. (It's also just a generally wonderful read.)

https://news.yahoo.com/russians-trying-help-kremlin-being-080124434.html

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@SalusaSecondus @cstross Also "Distraction" by @bruces . Its got a subplot about computers that track the borderline crazy and then spam them with messages about how an opposition politician is an agent of the devil and only you can stop him.

davidallengreen, to random
@davidallengreen@mastodon.green avatar

Remember everyone: that someone can get the top BBC job while not disclosing a relationship with the Prime Minister does not mean they are the "elite".

Oh no, the "elite" are those watching all this happen from the outside.

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@davidallengreen Oh! You mean these people.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness

ChrisMayLA6, to random
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

One index of how the #rich are just getting richer & richer is how much they spend on #luxurygoods

Perhaps the most extraordinary thing is since 2010, in the wake of the global financial crisis, which for many UK #workers remains a high-point in income/wealth they have yet to get back to.... spending on luxury goods has doubled!!!

I don't know who these people are but they sure as hell are having a better financial time of the last decade than the rest of us!!

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@ChrisMayLA6 What happens when you subtract inflation from that graph?

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@ChrisMayLA6 To answer my own question, prices since 2000 have gone up by 77%, while that graph has roughly tripled.

Meyerweb, to random
@Meyerweb@mastodon.social avatar

NOTE: your password must contain:

  • an uppercase letter
  • a lowercase letter
  • a number
  • the illusion of security
  • a special character
tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@Meyerweb My password includes that very special character that I'm in a relationship with.

tokensane, to random
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

Bumpy road ahead.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cyxknddlwd5o

QasimRashid, to random
@QasimRashid@mastodon.social avatar

A quick history lesson. From 1940-1980:
•Wealthiest paid 70-94% marginal tax
•0 of them went broke from taxation
•0 of them left USA
•All remained exceedingly wealthy
•Manufacturing boomed
•The middle class was 62% of US economy (It's now 40% post 'trickle down scamenomics)
•We had the strongest middle class growth in US History

Let's do that again. Stop protecting billionaires. Start taxing them.

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@QasimRashid Did they actually pay marginal tax rates that high back then? Or were those rates just hiding a lot of tax dodges?

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@mlibby @QasimRashid I'm just trying to compare like with like. If the effective tax rate was zero percent then and zero percent now, it suggests that the problem is somewhere else.

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@QasimRashid @kcarruthers

Turns out its more complicated than that. https://slate.com/business/2017/08/the-history-of-tax-rates-for-the-rich.html

Hat tip to @mlibby for finding the link.

newsthump, to random
@newsthump@mastodon.online avatar

The woke definition mug (because some people still seem to think it means something else).
Get yours HERE >>> https://bit.ly/3LbjfDu

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@newsthump The evidence is that the MAGAts don't know what it means. They just know they don't agree with it, whatever it is.

ChrisMayLA6, to random
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

here's @RichardJMurphy deconstructing the #BBC's 'story' on the national debt figures (which appeared on the BBC website this morning) - this is an excellent demonstration of the point @sjwrenlewis (& Murphy) have been making for some time;

the BBC's #economics coverage is misinformed & is guided by the normalisation of #austerty as a policy!

Its not a simplification to communicate to readers, its a skewed politicised narrative to serve specific political interest!

https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2023/04/25/the-bbc-should-in-the-interests-of-objective-reporting-present-a-balanced-view-on-the-national-debt/

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@zoic @ChrisMayLA6 @RichardJMurphy @sjwrenlewis I still haven't seen anyone explain what changed in Jan 2021.
http://cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/26208.jpeg

Did the capitalists suddenly wake up and realise they could have been making so much more money?

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@ChrisMayLA6 @zoic @RichardJMurphy @sjwrenlewis But that's no explanation either. No individual capitalist needs "political cover" to raise prices, they just do it. But all round the world prices did the same thing at the same time. So either there is some Council of the Elders of Capitalism making and enforcing these decisions, or there is something else going on.

GottaLaff, to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

#Toodles, Tuckums!👋🏼 He’s all yours now, OAN or anyone else stupid enough to have him.

#BREAKING: #TuckerCarlson out at #Fox!

"We thank him for his service to the network," Fox said.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/tucker-carlson-fox-news/story?id=98801613

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@GottaLaff Is this because of their commitment to the highest standards of journalism? #foxnews

neil, to random

I love visiting London. It has everything.

Get this: a place that sells printed eBooks!

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@neil While you are there, check out Foyles in Charing Cross Road.

oliphant, to random

shakes it off

Look, I don't care what server you're on. If I federate with you, we're good.

I do think, in my opinion, mastodon.social is far too large to be effectively moderated, there are bad actors out there it ignores or blocks belatedly--

However--

If you've made your server family part of your identity, if you love your server home and if it works for you, if you click 'Fave' buttons and the faves work, if you get notifications in a timely fashion, if it all seems to be working great for you, and it doesn't seem overly slow or burdened or unsafe, fine.

That wasn't my experience.

But if you are on any server and you start talking about all the spam you receive, or all the hateful comments you receive, and how this represents the "mastodon experience" I'm going to ask for more information.

For one, I'm going to want to know which accounts you had to block, what servers they came from, and possibly see if there's a common pattern there, or at least a common source.

You might block 10 accounts like whack-a-mole, but if they are all from the same server, it might be an issue where your server is federated with some server I want to investigate.

This inquiry appeared to piss some people off, and I lost a follower over it.

Anyway...sorry if I came off as a prick. I have strong opinions, but I try my best never to insult anyone personally.

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@oliphant Anyone thinking of running an open server should read @mmasnick on moderation and not becoming the Nazi Bar, and then make a plan for dealing with the issues. Otherwise you're just leading with your jaw.

GottaLaff, to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Does anyone remember this?

https://davetroy.medium.com/no-elon-and-jack-are-not-competitors-theyre-collaborating-3e88cde5267d

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@GottaLaff In the absence of evidence I'm inclined to go with Hanlon's Razor: never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence.

AriCohn, to random

No idea what Nazi controversy is going on about Substack, but this is a very weird thing to send to someone named Ari Cohn.

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@AriCohn @mmasnick
The concern I have (and why I am not joining ) is the trajectory.

If @mmasnick is correct, regular people will increasingly desert Substack. Then advertisers (I assume it has them) will desert it. You will be left alone with a few thousand fascists, and your articles will have advertising on them because that is all that is left.

At some point you too will have to move to somewhere else. So better do it now rather than later.

cautionwip, to random

“Wow!” you say excitedly, “there are wild peacocks in Victoria BC!”

“Yeah.” I reply with a flat affect, “it’s great.”

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@cautionwip Oh dear, another invasive species.

I've been around peacocks a bit in my youth. It's pretty cool for the first day or two, but it gets old real fast. Especially when the male insists on displaying to and then trying to mate with your broom.

Garwboy, to random
@Garwboy@ohai.social avatar

Was recently asked which scientific 'myth' I'd like to see banished forever

Obviously, given my field and output, I had to choose 'we only use 10% of our brains'

It's not just a silly thing that leads to shoddy movie plots. It's worse than that

For one thing, the origins of the 'we only use 10% of our brain' notion are unclear. But analysis suggests it came about at least a century ago. Believe it or not, our understanding of the brain has improved by orders of magnitude since then

/1

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@Garwboy People who say "we only use 10% of our brains" are correct. They are talking about themselves.

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