The_Icarian

The_Icarian, 9 months ago to random

“Socialism” is a scare word they’ve hurled at every advance the people have made. “Socialism” is what they called public power, social security, farm price supports, and free and independent labor organizations. “Socialism” is their name for anything that helps all people.

—US President Harry Truman

The_Icarian, 13 days ago to random

The_Icarian, 4 months ago to random

"I think hard times are coming when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now and can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies. We will need writers who can remember freedom. Poets, visionaries – the realists of a larger reality."

—Ursula K. Le Guin

The_Icarian, 20 days ago to random

The_Icarian, 3 months ago to random

The_Icarian, 2 months ago to random

The_Icarian, 3 months ago to random

The_Icarian, 7 months ago to random

Support Bandcamp's union!

The_Icarian, 6 months ago to random

Content Warning - Don't look away. This is what unlimited gun rights look like. This is what allowing military-style weapons easier to obtain than adopting a dog or cat looks like.

This was brought to you by the NRA, the theocratic wing of SCOTUS and the GQP, wholly owned subsidiaries of Putin.

This is what their idea of freedom looks like. Does this look normal to you?
https://wapo.st/46pzeqc

The_Icarian, 24 days ago to random

The_Icarian, 2 months ago to random

The_Icarian, 4 months ago to random

Secretive US rightwing group Alec designs law to give big business ‘complete immunity for bad acts’

Group wrote model legislation to restrict lawsuits under public nuisance laws used to hold opioid makers and others to account
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/05/public-nuisance-laws-business-opioids

The_Icarian, 20 days ago to random

mastodonmigration, 23 days ago (edited 23 days ago) to random

So now SpaceX, with no working spacesuit, and years behind on it's multi-billion dollar moon lander, is lobbying NASA to go to the Hubble Space Telescope.

"A successful private mission could improve Hubble's ability to point at celestial objects and, by boosting its orbit, extend its life by years... however, an accident could leave the multibillion-dollar telescope broken — or, even more tragically, tethered to the dead bodies of the astronauts sent to repair it."

https://www.npr.org/2024/05/16/1250250249/spacex-repair-hubble-space-telescope-nasa-foia

The_Icarian, 2 months ago to random

The_Icarian, 3 months ago to random

How artists are fighting generative AI

An interview with Karla Ortiz on how AI image generators are upending the careers of artists

https://disconnect.blog/how-artists-are-fighting-generative-ai/?ref=disconnect-newsletter

The_Icarian, 2 months ago to random

MAMMA MIA! Actor Sara Poyzer Reveals BBC Voiceover Role Was Replaced With AI
Sara Poyzer, a stage and screen actor who is best known for performing in Mamma Mia! in the UK for many years, has taken to social media to share a story she's calling "sobering."

Poyzer was recently cast as a voice actor in an unnamed BBC show, but was later told, via email, that she will no longer be needed as her voiceover role was replaced with AI.
https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/MAMMA-MIA-Actor-Sara-Poyzer-Reveals-BBC-Voiceover-Role-Was-Replaced-With-AI-20240328

The_Icarian, 4 months ago to random

The opening day of Indiana’s legislative session, Republican Rep. Joanna King filed a bill that would allow kids as young as 14 to effectively drop out of school following 8th grade and go to work full-time on a farm.

If the teenager “has been excused from compulsory school attendance after completing grade 8” and obtains their parents’ permission, they can work up to 40 hours a week all year round, including during school hours.

https://substack.perfectunion.us/p/indiana-bill-would-let-14-year-olds

The_Icarian, 1 month ago to random

What the Cybertruck’s many failures mean for Tesla
Recall represents another ‘black eye’ for the company which saw its share prices fall this week, wiping away all its gains this year
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/apr/20/cybertruck-failures-tesla-elon-musk

“What we have seen perpetually with Tesla is the ethos of a tech company, wanting to push out product as quickly as possible, wrapped up in an automotive manufacturer, which should be far more intentional and thoughtful in producing vehicles.”

The_Icarian, 2 months ago to random

The_Icarian, 6 months ago to random

The Great Enshittification: The ultimate dream of business combined with CONservative/fascist government.
https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/25/moral-injury/#enshittification

The_Icarian, 1 month ago to random

If the GOP Can't Keep Voters from Putting Abortion on the Ballot, They Will Try To Trick Voters. They Will Cheat.
The "Decline to Sign" movement is gaining traction in GOP-dominated states
https://jesspiper.substack.com/p/if-the-gop-cant-keep-voters-from

All of CONservative political strategy is based on lies and cheating. They can't win without them.

The_Icarian, 7 months ago to random

US companies push guns as blithely and murderously as they once did tobacco

Guns are used so often in suicide that if the left were associated with lax gun laws, the right might accuse liberals of conspiring to kill white men
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/02/us-gun-companies-suicide-homicide-laws-tobacco

The_Icarian, 7 months ago to random

It's interesting that this is exactly the kind of world Phillip K Dick predicted. You don't own shit and have to pay rent for everything from the lock on your front door to your toaster.

I'll open my own garage door, buy an old fashioned timer for my lamps and turn on my own vacuum cleaner, thank you.

Amazon Alexa is a graduate of the Darth Vader MBA
"I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."
https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/26/hit-with-a-brick/#graceful-failure

The_Icarian, 13 days ago to random