BREAKING: I found a partial thesaurus sent by the New York Times to the staff for use in the headlines when reporting on Trump's administration.
Writer, technologist, educator, gadfly Founder, https://successlearning.ng π³π¬ #OER, #ODL, #MOOC, #CBE, #mlearning, #EdTech, #stackability [β¦] π bridged from https://social.fossdle.org/@stevefoerster on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/
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BREAKING: I found a partial thesaurus sent by the New York Times to the staff for use in the headlines when reporting on Trump's administration.
Iβll keep posting this every day. Brian Kilmeade actually said we should genocide homeless people. And somehowβ¦ he still has a job.
"When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." - Maya Angelou https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-friends/fox-news-host-mentally-ill-people-who-commit-crimes-just-kill-them #uspol
So, unless you feel the author mislead you, and the sample pages, blurb, and reviews were bullshit, rather donate the book to the library for their booksales than pulping it or having it dumped in a landfill. Just my opinion, of course
Hi @startrek people, I listened to the first episode of #StarTrek Khan this morning in the car, and it was actually pretty decent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDOn6BBis_8 Yes, I was a sucker for the frame story that included George Takei and Tim Russ reprising Sulu and Tuvok. But more than [β¦]
New: I did my best to document one month of this administration's authoritarianism. There were times when the examples seem to come faster than I could write them down. radleybalko.substack.com/p/roundup-on...
Meta suppressed research on child safety, employees say https://archive.ph/AVCuH It's as if Mark Zuckerberg heard that NestlΓ© was the most hated corporation in the world and thought, "Challenge accepted!"
This is a lovely and interesting account of the author's visit to the #BigIsland of #Hawaii. https://gimmytomas.github.io/hawaii.html
I don't know which I'm dreading more: the unnecessary sequel to This Is Spinal Tap, or the unnecessary remake of The Running Man.
My take on the trend toward 90 credit Bachelor degrees in US higher education, and a few thoughts about the benefits and drawbacks, and about the compromise solution of the Distance Education Accrediting Commission for 3-year programs. This started out as my response to DEAC's request for [β¦]
In fairness, I wouldn't take his calls either. https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/pm-modi-refused-donald-trump-calls-four-times-in-recent-weeks-german-newspaper-frankfurter-allgemeine-faz-2777026-2025-08-26 #uspol #India
In 1985, Sol Wachtler, the chief justice of New York's Supreme Court, famously said, "Any good prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich." That's what makes it so funny that prosecutors failed to get a felony indictment for the guy who threw a sandwich at National Guard occupiers [β¦]
@cogdog I'm more surprised that Twitter amnesiacs have embraced Bluesky... well, okay, I'm not surprised, as such, just a bit disappointed and dismayed. That said, this is probably a minority opinion around here, but I would love to see a professional networking component of the Fediverse.
https://apnews.com/article/trump-executive-order-flag-burning-4628d588350db4f6baf10ae1d91f49c1 To be honest, I don't want to burn a flag. I don't believe that liberals should let MAGA get away with appropriating national symbols that belong to all of us. But the right to engage in that form of [β¦]
Since so many are talking about #CrackerBarrel: If you're worried your clientele is too old and want the next generation to like your restaurant, the solution isn't to pay millions to piss off your existing customers by neutering your distinctive logo, it's to implement "Kids eat free!" That [β¦]
Cautionary tale from a hacked book author at #Amazon: https://dgilesphilosopher.medium.com/how-amazon-allowed-someone-to-sabotage-my-book-sales-6475f01f87f2 @pluralistic might want to add this to the #enshittification files
#timetravel #sapientcorvid #corvid
I just belatedly saw this poignant essay that my friend Atul Singh wrote in May about his emotional experience moving country, and thought it deserved to be much more widely read. https://www.fairobserver.com/fowednesday/the-pain-of-leaving-your-parents-behind/ #immigration
The Nobel Peace Prizeβs long tradition of tarnished choices https://archive.ph/CrVdj While this op-ed was obviously prompted by discussion that Trump wants one, it could have been written any time in the past few decades. One could draft a list of things that Very Serious People Take Very [β¦]
#uspol
#uspol
My wife's not a SF person, but yesterday she had a far-reaching decision to make, so I persuaded her to watch Tapestryβthe TNG episode where Q gives Picard the "It's a Wonderful Life" treatment. It made an impression! @startrek #StarTrek
BREAKING NEWS: If you deep fry something healthy, it becomes unhealthy. Who knew! https://archive.ph/bNqEN
Free software people I am begging you to stop naming your software
It's not hyperbole to say that what we in the Fediverse are doing to build decentralized social media is important for the future of liberal democracy. https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/05/take-back-our-digital-infrastructure-to-save-democracy/ #uspol
Now that everyone's talking about how em dashes are a dead giveaway that something was generated by an LLM rather than written by a person, I'm finding myself using them more than ever, just to be contraryβthey're fun!
Not everything Bill Bonner writes about economics is particularly orthodox, but this clear, simple description of why this tariff policy is idiotic makes this short piece well worth reading. https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/p/fire-and-ice-e21 #uspol
New unboxing vid dropping soon #MoveSlowlyAndBuildBridges
Everyone keep repeating: Trump's #tariffs are NOT taxes on foreign countries. They're #taxes on American companies and their customers. That's us.
@gl33p The Second Dumbing?
Here's a great example of a university delivering timely, relevant content of interest to its local community! https://hilo.hawaii.edu/natural-hazards/tsunamis/surfing.php #hawaii #surfing
Bagpipes drowning out Trump as heβs speaking. Can we make this a thing everywhere he goes
@miriamboosh.bsky.social βIn the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.β β Martin Luther King Jr. Scotland, definitely has this covered!
#TomLehrer, mathematician and singer-songwriter known for colorful satire, dies at 97 https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/tom-lehrer-mathematician-and-singer-songwriter-known-for-colorful-satire-dies-at-97 Well, shoot. As a musician, academic, and smart ass, I really feel this one!
When the history is written of this benighted era, the spineless shamelessness of Columbia University will earn a special dishonorable mention. White House Seeks Payments From Other UniversitiesβIncluding HarvardβAfter Columbia Deal Sets Precedent https://archive.ph/O8yW0 #uspol
@hannah In the future, survivors in the smoldering wreckage will argue whether it was CERN or the death of Harambe where it all went wrong.
Half the time I don't know whether authoritarian social media posts attributed to Donald #Trump are really him or just satire. Trump has replaced the Constitution with Poe's Law. #uspol
Pleased to announce that my book, Move Slowly and Build Bridges: Mastodon, the Fediverse, and the Struggle for Democratic Social Media, is now available online, and will be out in print in a couple weeks! https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com That site has more stuff, too -- links to related [β¦]
I'm not sure what music I was expecting to be playing at the local supermarket, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't expecting it to be Tori Amos. Kudos to Giant for keeping things interesting.
And I have never been happier to be a @Vivaldi user.... https://www.threads.com/@theinformation/post/DMJDfHuizWN
This is a great list that keeps getting better as more get added.
I'm glad tjat it seems we're finally approaching the bet-hedging phase of the hype cycle. https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/timelines-june-2025 #ai
Hey, this tech is cool! Anubis: Web AI Firewall Utility https://anubis.techaro.lol/ #cogdogcooltech From my stuff tagged "cooltech" bookmarked in pinboard https://pinboard.in/u:cogdog/t:cooltech
Russiaβs βanti-wokeβ visa lures those fearing a moral decline in the West https://archive.ph/Omv0F May there be many, many more takers, and good riddance to all of them.
If next year is the semiquincentennial, does that make this the pensemiquincentennial? π€ Either way, happy #IndependenceDay to everyone in the US. And I mean everyone, because *this* does not only belong to *them*: πΊπ²
@aaronrosspowell.com Or rather, as legitimately as one can with a minority of the popular vote. But I do agree with your point.
@christineburns Europeans should enjoy it while it lasts. Once the Atlantic gets watered down with enough melted fresh water and the Gulf Stream collapses, they'll miss having seasons that aren't winter.
@cogdog "I can fix him!"
Conductors really do have to be ready for anything! @classicalmusic https://youtube.com/shorts/rOXcQx0u5ZM?si=TJBMbwWsP1mpYjxq
@theothersimo @VeroniqueB99 Come on, at this point I think you're missing my point on purpose. Neither Trump's wife nor son would be deportable in the absence of the the particular process of asserting US citizenship that he and his supporters oppose. Does that way of putting it make you less [β¦]
@theothersimo @VeroniqueB99 It sounds like you're arguing against a bunch of stuff I didn't say. Either way, it had nothing to do with my point.
Ghostβs @johnonolan and WordPressβs @pfefferle want to help blogs and long content thrive on the open social web. Meet βthe longformers,β who chatted to @mike for the latest edition of Dot Social. https://about.flipboard.com/fediverse/john-onolan-and-matthias-pfefferle/ #DotSocial #Ghost [β¦]
@VeroniqueB99 I don't like Trump either, but neither his wife nor his son became a US citizen through jus soli, so this just makes us look like we don't know what we're talking about.
I actually really like neoclassical #architecture, but I enjoyed this interesting essay by Jeffery Tyler Syck in favor of diversity of style. https://lawliberty.org/the-promise-of-modern-architecture/
Like Trump himself, those attracted to his administration don't actually believe in their own talking points. They just want power. #uspol
βI just couldnβt cut people. And thatβs what we should have done,β Tomelden says of the minimum-wage-related pressures that ultimately forced his hand to close the restaurant on Sunday. βI thought things would change.β [β¦]
It's always the ones you most expect. https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article295212454.html Put another way, the P in GOP stands for Pedo. #uspol
Emptywheel linked us to this βlong thread from Doug Landry on the advance planning failures of Trump's birthday party.β Just read. π€¦π»ββοΈπ https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1934052056878243848.html
Head of RFK Jr.βs MAHA Institute believes the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are real https://www.timesofisrael.com/head-of-rfk-jr-s-maha-institute-believes-the-protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion-are-real/ Kookaburras of a feather flock together. #uspol #antisemitism
βWhen they finally found his ID confirming his citizenship, the agents let him go β without offering any explanation or apology. Lemus also asked them for their names and badge numbers and they refused.β
@hunterw.bsky.social
Here's a great modern version of the classic "Join or Die" cartoon from the American Revolution to prepare for Friday. #NoKings #uspol
@streetartutopia The caption is incorrect, as the third figure is JD Vance, who is not a billionaire.
@randahl I know it sounds really gross, but that's actually true, and having plans for even the most unlikely scenario has long been part of what militaries do. The difference now is that the commander in chief is a Russian asset (or free agent nutjob, whichever) who is determined to undermine [β¦]
@randahl I know it sounds really gross, but that's actually true, and having plans for even the most unlikely scenario has been part of what militaries do. The difference now is that the commander in chief is a Russian asset (or free agent nutjob, whichever) who is determined to undermine the [β¦]
@cogdog @_elena Couldn't resist: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7338676484967985152/
@DemocracyMattersALot While John Fetterman has had an uneven tenure in the position, I will forever be glad that he saved us all from Mehmet Oz becoming a US Senator.
"If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them." -George Orwell
The rise of student reliance on #AI to write for them reminds me of this quote, and how we're seeing it play out in real time: βIf people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.β - George Orwell
You might consider yourself something of a tech support badass, but unless you can remotely repair the thrusters on a 45 year old spacecraft that 23 light-hours away, maybe you should have a seat. #NASA #Voyager [β¦]
Just need someone to listen? This guy's for you! https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/volunteer-listening-tour-1.7534025 #uplifting
Happy Global Accessibility Awareness Day to everyone in the Fediverse! And remember your alt text! https://accessibility.day #GAAD
Republicans have a plan to add trillions of dollars to the national debt https://www.economist.com/united-states/2025/05/13/republicans-have-a-plan-to-add-trillions-of-dollars-to-the-national-debt The Party of Small Government strikes again! #uspol
There's a really charming movie from the '80s called "Saving Grace" starring Tom Conti as a young, newly installed #Pope who sends the Vatican into an uproar by going off on walkabout without telling them where he is. In the movie his regnal name was Leo XIV, so I can't help but wonder whether [β¦]
Trump's Education Secretary mocked after critics spot embarrassing grammatical errors in threatening letter to Harvard https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14685541/Trump-Education-Secretary-critics-spot-errors-letter-Harvard.html It includes an amusing image of the letter marked up in red [β¦]
Zuckerbergβs new Meta AI app gets personal in a very creepy way https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/05/05/meta-ai-privacy/ (Or : https://archive.ph/ROx51 ) I mean, this is no surprise at all, but still.
The European Commission is trying to woo American researchers with a new β¬500 million program (with France contributing another β¬100 million) called βChoose Europe for Science.β [β¦]
Here's a great short article on the unexpected relationship between #CincodeMayo and democracy in the US: https://www.the74million.org/article/teaching-students-why-cinco-de-mayo-matters-for-our-democracy/
My parish is using every hymn that refers to stars and planets this morning, and our anthem is set to a tune from Holst's The Planets suite. #StarWarsDay
A gentle request to help others- before zealously sharing pay/subscription walled article links. e.g. from Wired, WaPo, NYT, heck the Chronicle of higher ed, take maybe an extra 30 seconds in your browser to stick https://archive.ph/ in front of the link to find/generate a direct read link. A [β¦]
The accrualty is the point. #crypto #uspol https://truthout.org/articles/watchdog-urges-congress-to-investigate-trumps-multimillion-dollar-crypto-scheme/
The web we want still exists-- shining a light on the #SmallWeb and its beautiful things with omg.lol - A lovable web page and email address, just for you https://home.omg.lol/ From my stuff tagged "smallweb" bookmarked in pinboard https://pinboard.in/u:cogdog/t:smallweb
Mark Carney should put Donald Trump on his Christmas card list. #canpoli
Wow, @npr , I'd sure love to share this with deaf colleagues, but it's conspicuously missing its transcript. π https://www.npr.org/2025/04/28/nx-s1-5357617/deaf-students-had-a-path-to-science-careers-until-their-federal-grants-ended
@walterolson.bsky.social Given that shorted-sightedness is seemingly their directing principle, I would believe it.
@cogdog It looks like you're trying to capitalize on AI hype to part foolish VCs from their money! Would you like help?
@geekmomprojects Cool d60, but how do you know which number it's rolled?
Be URL smart. Any @techcrunch link you boost/share on the fediverse carries the tracker utm_source=threads that reports your action and data back to the Zuckerborg machine, plus credits Threads. Do yourself and everyone else a favor #DisruptDataSurveillance in the simple act of stripping of all [β¦]
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes
In today's post on @medium, I challenge the portrayal of the late #PopeFrancis as an ally to the oppressed, particularly when it comes to women, queer and trans people. Click the link, not the image preview, to bypass the paywall [β¦]
Political power is like bubble wrap: you'll regret giving it to someone who wants it too eagerly.
Ghostwriting fiction is more common than I realized β and itβs not just celebrities doing it. Dan Gerstein knows all about it and enlightened me on this week's show. We talked about how ghostwriting works in the world of fiction, what writers and clients expect [β¦] [Original post on zirk.us]
Happy Earth Day to all Earthlings in the Fediverse, especially @bryanalexandee
Trump: US can't give every person it wants to deport a trial https://www.dw.com/en/trump-us-cant-give-every-person-it-wants-to-deport-a-trial/a-72304947 I suppose that whole tedious "rule of law" thing is just too inconvenient? #uspol