@Quantillion@mstdn.io avatar

Quantillion

@Quantillion@mstdn.io

The past has vanished.
The present is infinitely small.
The future is infinitely variable.
...for every point in the infinite universe.
#Time #Science #Brexit #Equality #Humanity
Let's give our heads a shake, regularly. Sweep out the cobwebs of ideology, cultivate #CriticalThinking.
None of us is 100% right, nor 100% wrong. Each of us is a grain of sand in a world of knowledge.
(Similar handle on the Chirpy site)

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

Sherifazuhur, to israel
@Sherifazuhur@sfba.social avatar

#Yemen - #Houthis announce fourth escalation phase, sanctions on all ships associated with Israelโ€™s ports if #Rafah invaded โ€“
@yemen @israel
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240504-houthis-announce-fourth-escalation-phase-sanctions-on-all-ships-associated-with-israels-ports-if-rafah-invaded/

Quantillion,
@Quantillion@mstdn.io avatar

@Sherifazuhur @yemen @israel
I thought they'd already done this. ๐Ÿค”

jwz, to random
@jwz@mastodon.social avatar

How the press manufactured consent for never-ending COVID reinfections.

Julia Doubleday:

It's difficult for me to understand how anyone could see this data - which finds the rate of Long COVID after 3 infections to be a whopping 38% - and not...
https://jwz.org/b/ykIa

Quantillion,
@Quantillion@mstdn.io avatar

@jwz
March 2021: Vaccines Will End The Pandemic
Summer 2021: "Breakthrough Infections Are Rare"
Fall 2021: Delta. Only "High Risk" People Should Worry
Winter 2021-22: Omicron AKA 'The Mild Variant'
September 2022 - Present: "The Pandemic Is Over"
๐Ÿ‘† Please cite your sources here. (Are they the only citations available for those seasons/months?)

marcelias, to random
@marcelias@mas.to avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    Quantillion,
    @Quantillion@mstdn.io avatar

    @marcelias
    How does something like that NOT get repealed over a whole 130 years?!! ๐Ÿ˜ฎ

    TheConversationUS, to USpolitics
    @TheConversationUS@newsie.social avatar

    #Antisemitism has traditionally come from the far right in the United States, but not any more.

    A team of researchers has looked at trends, including the correlation between flare-ups in Israeli-Palestinian conflict and increases in antisemitic attacks.

    https://theconversation.com/antisemitism-has-moved-from-the-right-to-the-left-in-the-us-and-falls-back-on-long-standing-stereotypes-215760

    #uspolitics #news

    Quantillion,
    @Quantillion@mstdn.io avatar

    @TheConversationUS
    Pretty obvious now that the world's foremost anti-Semite is #Netanyahu. Real hatred of Jews and their individual experiences of #antiSemitism are diluted & completely eclipsed by his exploitation of it for his own power trip as he conflates it with criticism of #Israel's ethnic cleansing campaign on #Palestine.
    "If you don't like our genocide campaign then you're clearly #AntiSemitic!"

    micahflee, (edited ) to random

    I just blogged my argument for why we shouldn't use the slogan "from the river to the sea" https://micahflee.com/2023/11/why-we-shouldnt-use-the-slogan-from-the-river-to-sea/

    Quantillion,
    @Quantillion@mstdn.io avatar

    @micahflee @TheSaanichDaily @linguacaps @msteenhagen
    ALL words can be made to be surreptitiously ambiguous if someone who never said them wants them to be, for their own purposes.
    These are 6 words & you could write a thesis about them.

    Quantillion,
    @Quantillion@mstdn.io avatar

    @micahflee @anilmc
    Such as? ๐Ÿค”

    Quantillion,
    @Quantillion@mstdn.io avatar

    @micahflee @anilmc
    You didn't give an example though. You just said "there are plenty".
    "From the river to the sea" is about as anodyne as you can get, taken literally. My point below was that it wouldn't matter if your slogan was "biscuits for granny", it would be reinterpreted as "meaning" something completely different by your enemies.
    https://mstdn.io/@Quantillion/111365190945064542

    Quantillion,
    @Quantillion@mstdn.io avatar

    @micahflee @anilmc
    Sorry, I meant specifically what you suggest at the end - "There's plenty of language we can use [...] that doesn't have genocidal connotations". FtRttS on its own has no such connotations. Which is why I say that any slogan can be reinterpreted by others to mean something that suits their purpose.

    Quantillion,
    @Quantillion@mstdn.io avatar

    @micahflee @anilmc
    Yes, that is what I'm saying. And connotation/interpretation is entirely manipulated according to the purposes of those doing it.
    And they always will, however literally anodyne the slogan is.

    jeffowski, to random
    @jeffowski@mastodon.world avatar
    Quantillion,
    @Quantillion@mstdn.io avatar

    @jeffowski
    This is me. Only even more irregular. :blobnerd:

    jeffowski, to random
    @jeffowski@mastodon.world avatar
    Quantillion,
    @Quantillion@mstdn.io avatar

    @jeffowski
    The corollary is of course, the notice that says
    "I DON'T PAY MY STAFF A LIVING WAGE. I'm just a cheap piece of shit!"

    Wraithe, to random
    @Wraithe@mastodon.social avatar

    Well, Safari is still my primary browser due to the better sandboxing & security
    Used Chrome, cos I needed something that worked with Chrome-ish sites that Safari fought with.
    Brave, because Chrome had become a shitshow of bad performance & security issues.
    Brave added cryptocoin shit in there and other stuff &I read about the CEO, so...

    Can someone let me know if Firefox sneaks into peoples houses and steals their socks or something before I go ahead and install ANOTHER browser? ๐Ÿ˜†

    Quantillion,
    @Quantillion@mstdn.io avatar

    @Wraithe
    I've always used FF although Brave too for some specific purposes/sites. There's Tor (which uses FF but on a higher level of security/anonymity).
    Not perfect, but what I like about FF is all the plugins: easy to install & configure (e.g. uBlock Origin, ImTranslator, Xmarks, etc.)

    pluralistic, to Podcast
    @pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

    This week on my #podcast, I read my recent #Medium column, "Microincentives and Enshittification," about the way that monopoly drives mediocrity, with Google's declining quality as Exhibit A:

    https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/microincentives-and-enshittification/

    --

    If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

    https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/24/cursed-bigness/#incentives-matter

    1/

    video/mp4

    Quantillion,
    @Quantillion@mstdn.io avatar

    @pluralistic
    I quit Guยตgle over 7y ago already. They robbed me once with their worthless Adรงense before I saw how they operated. I have all their URLs blocked now, never been back & never missed them.

    jeffowski, to random
    @jeffowski@mastodon.world avatar

    Quantillion,
    @Quantillion@mstdn.io avatar

    @jeffowski
    #TrickleDown works perfectly, except that everyone has it upside-down.
    The economy is like the water cycle.

    • A few enormous oceans (of wealth: the 1%)
    • Evaporation (tax)
    • Precipitation (govt spending)... on the oceans, to no advantage, but on the mountains, creating...
    • Millions of tiny streams (the lowest incomes), to nourish...
    • Crops (production), with excess flowing to larger rivers (mid-sized wealth/corps), & eventually trickling back down into the...
    • Oceans.
    jeffowski, to random
    @jeffowski@mastodon.world avatar
    Quantillion,
    @Quantillion@mstdn.io avatar

    @jeffowski
    Racism has become pretty acceptable tbh. If you choose the race you ism carefully. ๐Ÿ˜‰

    jeffowski, to random
    @jeffowski@mastodon.world avatar

    Quantillion,
    @Quantillion@mstdn.io avatar

    @jeffowski
    Also, your money will remain in your local community rather than flowing away gradually into distant tax havens.

    EU_Commission, to random
    @EU_Commission@social.network.europa.eu avatar

    We have sent to X a formal request for information under the Digital Services Act.

    It follows indications of the alleged spreading of illegal content and disinformation, in particular the spreading of terrorist and violent content and hate speech.

    We are investigating X's compliance with the , including:

    • Policies and practices regarding notices on illegal content
    • Complaint handling
    • Risk assessment measures to mitigate the risks identified.

    More:
    https://europa.eu/!JcPMMq

    Quantillion,
    @Quantillion@mstdn.io avatar

    @EU_Commission
    This should have been done a long time ago.
    What I am very concerned about is the timing, the depth & the suddenness of this.
    Will there be some public oversight of the specific instances of illegal content & disinformation that has been taken down?

    plaguepoems, to random
    @plaguepoems@mastodon.social avatar

    Musicians keep getting sick
    sick with something
    a bad cold or mysterious illness
    a weird infection or out of season flu
    they keep getting sick
    but never with COVID
    which is fortunate
    because if that was the case
    if they said that was the case
    it might void their tour insurance.

    Quantillion,
    @Quantillion@mstdn.io avatar

    @plaguepoems
    Isn't that what "#insurance" is for?
    Taking people's money then "voiding" any claims! ๐Ÿคท

    parismarx, to tech
    @parismarx@mastodon.online avatar

    Yesterday Justin Trudeau revealed that agents of the Indian government murdered a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil. When Canadian Sikhs went to post about it on Facebook, the platform removed their posts as a violation of Indian law.

    https://pressprogress.ca/facebook-is-blocking-canadians-posts-about-the-assassination-of-a-bc-sikh-leader-their-posts-were-targeted-by-indias-government/

    Quantillion,
    @Quantillion@mstdn.io avatar

    @parismarx
    Unfortunately I can't #DeleteFacebook a second time as I've never been back.

    micahflee, to random

    "Corporations rely on the illusion of corporate personhood, using expensively crafted 'brand identities' to present themselves to us as having personalities aimed at making us feel an emotional connection--and like we're all in this together. But firms have no intrinsic virtues. They are not our friends. If a corporation is a 'person,' it's an immortal colony organism that treats human beings as inconvenient gut flora. It doesn't have a personality and it doesn't have ethics. Its sole imperative is to do whatever it can get away with to extract maximum economic value from humans and the planet."

    ~ Rebecca Giblin and @pluralistic in Chokepoint Capitalism

    Quantillion,
    @Quantillion@mstdn.io avatar

    @micahflee @pluralistic
    Indeed. And a corporate "person" can also be created for fiscal motives at virtually the press of a button, in a #TaxHaven jurisdiction of one's choosing.
    A real person cannot.

    EU_Commission, to Teachers
    @EU_Commission@social.network.europa.eu avatar

    New school year, new challenges!

    We know that sometimes dealing with topics such as disinformation might not be very easyโ€ฆ but dear #teachers, we have got you covered!

    Explore our guidelines filled with tips and interactive exercises to teach your students more about how to:

    โœ๏ธ know more about their digital footprints,
    ๐Ÿ“ engage with fact-checking, and
    ๐Ÿ“˜ tackle disinformation.

    Good luck to all the #students and teachers for this new chapter of your #school path!

    #EU #BackToSchool #FactsMatter

    Quantillion,
    @Quantillion@mstdn.io avatar

    @EU_Commission
    Most teachers have not been trained in - or to teach - #CriticalThinking.
    Difficult to teach #Misinformation effectively without this grounding.
    Critical Thinking should be part of a child's education from their very first years of school. Yes, that may involve questioning Santa Claus, but their vulnerability & propensity for ideological capture later on begins here.

    EU_Commission, to random
    @EU_Commission@social.network.europa.eu avatar

    Have you ever seen a strange online ad and wondered why?

    ๐Ÿท The new Digital Services Act will make sure you have the answer through clear labelling of ads on online platforms.

    ๐Ÿšซ Ads targeting minors based on their personal data will be banned altogether from online platforms.

    A video shows two young women watching a volleyball match. One checks her phone and sees shoe advertisements popping up. A few seconds later, the same happens to the other woman. As the camera shifts, the TV shows similar advertisements. The two young women, then, stare at each other in disbelief. The doorbell rings and someone leaves a promotional leaflet with the same product. One of the two, suddenly turns off the TV, while the other opens the door and sees a man trying to sell her shoes. The two women become afraid and cover underneath a blanket. Text appears on screen, which says, "Ever seen a strange online ad and wondered why? With the DSA everyone will have clear information on why they see ads on online platforms." The European Commission's logo fades in and the video ends.

    Quantillion,
    @Quantillion@mstdn.io avatar

    @EU_Commission
    You need to go further than that. Much further.
    We need a Commission of Experts in various fields that will assess all products & services that come to market so EU citizens can get a balanced description instead of the lies & personal targeting of #advertising, which is all we currently have.
    This would be very good for small, local producers of excellent products/services who cannot compete with the marketing/lobbying budgets of (US) megacorps.

    anneapplebaum, to random
    @anneapplebaum@journa.host avatar

    Remember all of that rubbish about not "humiliating" Putin? Here's the @FT arguing that he isn't looking for an "off-ramp" because he wants a much bigger war
    https://on.ft.com/3Qi3Rco

    Quantillion,
    @Quantillion@mstdn.io avatar

    @anneapplebaum He also knows that as soon as the war ends, NATO will be reinforced with the membership of Ukraine. So he will drag it out as long as he can.
    NATO should offer Ukraine a date for membership, EVEN if the war is still ongoing. Yes, Putin would rather go down in a firestorm v. NATO than with a whimper & withdrawal, so he will likely do what he can to set it off anyway & give NATO no choice.

    silvereagle, to random

    I posted about switching to Firefox as my "daily driver" browser as a little tiny step away from Chromium browser hegemony, and I had a ton of people in the replies suggesting I should just use Brave or Edge or Opera or Vivaldi instead.

    I'm a little concerned that people don't realize just how pervasive this problem is. Every single one of those sits on top of the Chromium codebase.

    Quantillion,
    @Quantillion@mstdn.io avatar

    @j3j5 @silvereagle
    And of course Tor is based on Firefox.

    MnemosyneSinger, to random

    See how easy it is to forgive debt?

    Quantillion,
    @Quantillion@mstdn.io avatar

    @MnemosyneSinger Weird that debt should be "forgiven" anyway, like it's a sin!
    In other countries/cultures, debt is canceled.

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