Friendly reminder, that a big birthday is coming up, DoomGuy will turn 30th on December 10th. I might stream the game myself, although I just finished it a few weeks ago.
"More than 250 years ago, the #Ojibwe people, one of the largest Indigenous populations in North America, received a prophecy to migrate westward until they reached the land where food grows on water.
When the #MilleLacsBand of Ojibwe encountered wild rice in north-central Minnesota, they knew they found their new home. Rice harvesting has been a cornerstone of Ojibwe culture ever since.
"Today, mining exploration company #TalonMetals, also has its sights set on Minnesota. Some of the world’s richest high-grade #nickel and #copper deposits are thousands of feet below the state colloquially known as 'the land of 10,000 lakes.'
"Talon seeks to construct a mine in the rural town of Tamarack, which it says will be integral to building the nation’s domestic supply of materials necessary for a clean energy transition.
"Nickel and copper are key components of rechargeable #lithium ion (#LION) batteries that are widely used for low-emission technologies like electric vehicles (EVs). The company already has an agreement to supply #Tesla with nickel from its proposed mine, potentially bringing hundreds of unionized mining jobs to this rural area.
"The federal government has also recognized nickel and copper as 'essential to national defense,' adding them to the U.S. critical minerals list in 2022 and 2023, respectively. And, this September, the Department of Defense awarded Talon a $20.1 million matching grant to continue searching for deposits throughout the #LakeSuperior region.
"As the U.S. strives to be a leader in clean energy transition, the #TamarackProject encapsulates both the promise and challenges that lie ahead.
"The Dangers of Sulfide Mining
"Kelly Applegate, the commissioner of natural resources for the Mille Lacs Band, was shocked when he first saw deep earth imaging of nickel-copper deposits beneath his tribal land in the late 1990s.
A study from the U.S. Geological Survey suggested that the Lake Superior region could have deposits as lucrative as high-yield mines in Canada and Russia.
'Oh my gosh, look at these mineral deposits that may one day be sought out,' he recalls thinking to himself.
"Two decades later, Talon Metals, a mining company founded by former Canadian venture #capitalists and based in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), applied for a permit with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to create the Tamarack Project just over a mile away from the closest Mille Lacs Band community. "
Scientists have found a ‘sleeping giant’ of environmental problems: Earth is getting saltier
#Salt used to de-ice roads is the single biggest source of salt in the U.S.
By Kasha Patel
October 31, 2023
"Human activities are making the globe saltier, specifically in our soils, fresh water and air, according to a study released Tuesday in the journal Nature Reviews Earth & Environment.
"The excess salt has already caused serious issues in freshwater supplies in recent decades. Saltier water led to brown tap water for months in Montgomery County, #Maryland. It also played a part in creating the #toxic lead-laden water in #FlintMichigan.
"Salt pollution isn’t some flashy threat to our existence — like, say, a meteor hitting Earth — but the issue is gravely overlooked and is a 'sleeping giant,' said Sujay Kaushal, lead author of the study. He said it might be the 'most boring but contemporary problem that we have.'
"Most people think of salt as the white specks we put in our food or the salt in oceans, chemically known as sodium chloride (NaCl). That sodium salt can also be found in detergents, other household products and more, but there are many different salts, including calcium, magnesium and other ions used in additional products — and they’re all increasing in places where they don’t normally occur.
"Over the past 50 years, salt ions have increased in #streams and #rivers as people have begun using and producing more salts, the study says. The team found that across the globe, about 2.5 billion acres of soil — an area about the size of the United States — have become saltier. Salt lakes are also drying up and sending saline dust into the air.
“'We use water for everything from growing crops to drinking to industrial processes to heating and cooling,' said Kaushal, a geologist at the University of Maryland. 'But when you have salt in the water, it affects all of those things … and it’s increasing.'"
#Streams galaxy
-- note 1: communication with the Fediverse is standard practice in this universe.
#Hubzilla galaxy
-- note 1: developed a way to communicate across the Mycelial Web (a.k.a. the multiverse). Can also communicate with BlueSky and diaspora.
#Friendica galaxy
-- note 1: developed a way to communicate across the Mycelial Web (a.k.a. the multiverse). Can also communicate with BlueSky and diaspora.
#X#Twitter Mycelium (closed borders; isolated; have not discovered there are other mycelium/universes besides their own)
#Tumblr Mycelium (closed borders; isolated; rumours has it their government decided against connecting with the other mycelium/universes, but they are aware)
#Flickr Mycelium (closed borders; isolated; aware of other mycelium/universes)
@fediverse Let's face it. When talking about the Fediverse, it is very hard to sell interoperability between different types of instances as a major advantage.
Do not recommend one software and/or one instance.
Using your scenario, would you recommend photography instances based on #Mastodon knowing Mastodon only allows up to 4 “attached” images? Not only that, Mastodon will only display 4 images even if there are more than that?
Or, are you going to recommend #Pixelfed designed for images. Or, maybe #Firefish, #Friendica, #Hubzilla, #Streams, which all allow more than 4 images and will display all the images even if it exceeds their software's attach limit?
Quite frankly, in my opinion, with the image display alone, Mastodon is highly not recommended. So, the number of users and instances Mastodon have does not make it the best #Fediverse software, as you have mentioned earlier, “Mastodon is the level of UX other projects should aim to”. It's not.
The best approach is we understand what the user needs and suggest to them the appropriate software and instances that will suit their needs.
Let's forget about the Fediverse for a while.
We have to remember that not everyone is on Twitter or Facebook. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of individuals who only have an Instagram account. Why? They don't need Twitter and Facebook.
In Korea, for example, they have their own culture and platforms for communication Twitter/Facebook-like, so they don't need those. But many of them have Instagram accounts.
Now, let's go back to the Fediverse.
If those are the users we are reaching out to, then there should be no problem recommending Pixelfed. Because for these target market, their only concern and type of use is to share, well, photos or their latest digital artwork. They don't care about a Twitter/Facebook-like experience or use.
That brings us back to the features of #ActivityPub. It is an “added benefit”.
Users who want to follow this content creator can do so using their existing account.
Okay, you can't do this with #Lemmy, the last time I checked, however, you can do it with #Kbin. That's a Lemmy limitation, not the fediverse.
For the content creator who migrated to the fediverse, in particular, Pixelfed in our scenario, they have a greater reach because they're federated.
(Extra: You can actually turn Pixelfed into a regular Twitter-like software if you are using the web UI. Although, last time I heard it will be removed eventually.)
(Extra 2: BookWyrm also allows Twitter-like feeds and interaction, it's not restricted to just books.)
The times they are a changin' - it's quite the popular topic in #Fediverse_City and closely followed by many....
But, how 'bout you enlighten many with a few #dark_theme pics? It's very pretty - and more importantly, intuitively operable by the average user due to the simplified UX it exposes :)
Thank you for your envisage of what social communications can be today, right now, without waiting!
Something a little different from my usual autumn pieces … less colorful, less brilliant … a bit more moody and contemplative. To see where my head was really "at" when I created this one, click into the links below to read the descriptions .. or not and enjoy it your way! 😁
The latest PragerU YTP reaction stream VOD is live!!
If you've never seen PragerU YTPs they really are something absurdly special (no, these heavily edited parody videos do not support prager's world view)