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When a devolved legislature’s presiding officer certifies legislation is within that legislature’s competence… is that a vires check?

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The Northern Ireland Assembly website is “temporarily unavailable” which I suppose is appropriate. (If annoying since it means I can’t read it to inspect the Assembly’s processes)

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The builders’ merchants have a “no reversing without a banksman” sign. What’s the gender neutral equivalent? “No reversing without a banker”?
in reply to ceb

@molybdomantic Post-Bod: When the Milkshake Runs Dry. The Commissioning of Childrens Television in the late 1980s.
@ceb

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in reply to Adam

@pseudomonas @molybdomantic Banksy would be fun, 😄 . You could then sell the signs to art dealers afterwards.
@ceb @Adam


Heard this Scot on the radio talking about the maudlin in the forecast. Took me a while to realise he meant modelling!

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Heading out into storm #Babet, #RRSSirDavidAttenborough departed from Portsmouth this afternoon to begin the long journey South. Intention is to find shelter further along the coast rather than burn unnecessary fuel battling the 8-10 m waves presently in the Western Approaches.

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This is fascinating: Hacking the job search process by inserting secret prompts into your resume that confound or manipulate the AI language models that are being used to screen applicants.

kai-greshake.de/posts/inject-m…


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IG/Meta has been inserting the word "terrorist" into the bios of users that included the words Palestinian" and “alhamdulillah” (which means praise to Allah, or God) 404media.co/instagram-palestin… #meta #instagram #palestine #war

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in reply to Taylor Lorenz

I wouldn't want to ascribe maliciousness where incompetence could be the more likely outcome but this would only translate like this under 2 conditions:

- a constantly learning/re-learning translation model
- editorially

The former seems unusual because most words don't change in translation based on current events ... unless Meta is of the opinion that what words mean is based on their users opinions.

I also tested this phrase on a few LLMs & none of them translated to that.


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I've had a number of non-Jewish friends reach out to me over the past week to see if I'm okay.

No, I'm not okay. But neither is anyone.

Tribes are bullshit. Race is bullshit. Religion is bullshit if you kill in the name of God. Murder is murder. Cruelty is cruelty. Injustice is injustice. Dead children are dead children.

The planet is being devoured by the insatiable greed of a handful of people and the rest of us are fighting over scraps. It only gets worse from here unless we learn to love.

in reply to Aram Sinnreich

We are so enbroiled in all the world that we cannot understand there is only one simplesolution to it all. We cannot reach this solution because the world is full of people who do not love themselves for whatever reason, good or bad. When you no longer have love for yourself, you cannot understand anything. Not one thing.

Our world is full of broken people that do not love themselves so they will never be able to act compassionately and see that the entire worlds problem lies within each and everyones heart and their ability to love in the true sense of the word. Not the love we sell as true, that for your family friends and church. But true compassionate and powerful love. The deep type of love that does not allow you to be violent, angry and mean. We have lost the ability to have LOVE. Without it we are doomed.

Unknown parent

mastodon - Link to source
EarthMomma

Psychopaths and sociopaths are people who no longer can identify with the power of love. Not the love of couples family children. That is the only love we are left with currently and it is an exclusive GIFT we only give if we feel the other person is WORTHY.

That is not real love. Real love has no judgement. The world has fallen out of its capacity to actually love and the result of this is sheer catastrophe. Our planet is now out of balance with hatred and hatred kills. It is as simple as that. But we have no recollection of how it works so we will have to suffer horrible loss so we can regain our humanity which is the path to understanding that love IS NOT SOME GIFT YOU GIVE TO PEOPLE YOU LIKE A LOT.

Love IS the POWER of all creation. Without it we cease to exists.

That was Christs Message
That was Muhammad Message
That was Buddhas Message
That was Gods Message

Love is not something you GIVE

LOVE IS WHAT YOU ARE

Or
ARE NOT.

This entry was edited (1 year ago)

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Still terra nullius.

My @smh cartoon.

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So, for the first time in eleven months I had a bigot 'reply-guy' on a post I did about a #trans -affirming UK legal case. Like the only other time it has happened, I reported it immediately and cc:ed his server of course

Result: their account is removed within 20 minutes. Gone, nixed ...

It matters, "it's why I am here and not there" :birdsite:

Thank you to all moderators on servers big and small for keeping things safe, and reacting fast like this

#Fediverse #Mastodon #Moderation #Mods #LGBT #LGBTQ #OnlineSafety

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Unknown parent

mastodon - Link to source
HiddenByLil
you don't know me, but I'm here as of yesterday due to my account on the other place having been censored and by result given a permaban. Bigots of the "free speech for me, not for thee" ilk mass reported me. It was always on my mind to migrate here, and having had received this unfair censorship. It was the straw that broke the camels back. I'm glad to see the moderation on this platform is actually doing its job properly.


ukpol


It’s weird. I remember in the lead up to the 1997 General Election that Blair and Brown were offering hope. With an election next year it feels like all the parties are now offering is reduced despair.


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We done fucked up if "killing civilians of any nationality is bad" is a controversial thing to say.

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genocide
One might think “the cold blooded murder of a million children is a bad thing” is an uncontroversial statement to make on this here federated network thing, but apparently there are more fans of murdering children here than one might imagine.
Unknown parent

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Sarah Brown
genocide
@Rachel Lawson yeah. I server blocked them.

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The Israelis are about to kill over two million people, half of whom are children, and the world is just going to let them.

How utterly monumentally fucked up.

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Unknown parent

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Sarah Brown
@Steffi the Redhead Get fucked, genocide apologist. Not having that shit on my wall. Arsehole. *plonk*
Unknown parent

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Sarah Brown

@Jack The difference is that Hamas aren’t actually capable of doing this.

Israel absolutely is.


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Thread of UK and Ireland #Palestine demos today.

#Glasgow

This entry was edited (1 year ago)

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the funniest thing in the Apple is the last version of MacOS features "video reactions" where if your camera sees you do a thumbs up or heart symbol with your hands, stuff happens behind you like fireworks in ANY video app you are using BY DEFAULT.

A friend was in an online therapy session, describing his trauma so the therapist asked if he was alright and he did a thumbs up and then HUGE FIREWORKS BEHIND HIS HEAD.

It's so bad that online therapy sessions now start with a warning dialog!

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theonion.com/dying-gazans-crit…

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The Activision thing finally landed. Which means MS owns Infocom, via an impressive 40-year chain of buyouts, takeovers, and shakeups.

Now I formally put forth the plea:

Microsoft should put all of Infocom’s IP under a Creative Commons license. Or donate the rights to a nonprofit which can do the same. Let’s bring all these legally-shaky fan sites and collections into the light.

blog.zarfhome.com/2023/10/micr…

(Yes, I’m part of a nonprofit that could do that.)

Pass it along.

#InteractiveFiction


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When Russia inflicts this kind of damage on civilian targets in Ukraine, we call it a war crime, and rightly so.

Why isn't it a war crime when Israel does it to Gaza?

bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-middle…

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Thoughts on the Eben Moglen situation and how it reflects a wider problem in free software: mjg59.dreamwidth.org/68004.htm…

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Unknown parent

mastodon - Link to source
Matthew Garrett
@lxo it wasn't during his speech, it happened at the end of the conference in a hallway
in reply to Matthew Garrett

thanks. I'm pretty sure I was there on that year. I even watched his speech, but I surely didn't have the context to read between the lines what you did.

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Link Post: Breakthrough in reading unopened ancient scrolls by scanning them scrollprize.org/firstletters

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Meta, news


I realise I have fallen out of the habit of hash tagging or cw-ing posts. Given the distressing nature of the news at the moment I will try harder to do so.
in reply to Matthew Vernon

@demoographics I think this is because the post is originally on friendica. I got confused about it a while back. Our comments here *do* end up in friendica, but the original content is a link.
in reply to kæt

@kæt @Matthew Vernon It’s confusing and I don’t understand why friendica’s AP implementation does that, but 🤷‍♀️

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It is strange and disturbing to see so many posts on social media that deny it's a war crime to stage a surprise attack on civilians (including murders, kidnappings, and rapes) or to starve out a civilian population (by cutting off electricity, food, and water).

These are both obviously war crimes and should be discussed as such.

justsecurity.org/89403/the-sie…

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And there it is. A fully sorted #Amiga 1200 with a working floppy, 68060 CPU, 128mb of RAM, and a 4gb SD for storage. Really, really pleased with this thing. 2023 is the year of Amiga on the desktop. 😀

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in reply to Sarah Brown

👏 If we ever adopt a written constitution, this should be the opening paragraph.


Maybe I need to dig out the several Palestinian flags I brought back home from my visit in 1994


There was a time in Palestine pre Oslo where waving the Palestinian flag was against the law and Palestinians were arrested and jailed for doing so. Apparently it became a custom to wave slices of watermelon instead. mastodon.social/@Lazarou/11121…


When one of the West's most ghoulish fascists in government says they have your back perhaps it's time to stop and think?
#UKPOL #Tories #SuellaBraverman #FreeSpeech
in reply to Alexandra Lanes

Incidentally, the ban is still in place in the 80% of the West Bank still under Israeli military law. Military Order 101 says: “It is forbidden to hold, wave, display or affix flags or political symbols, except in accordance with a permit of the military commander”. (Source btselem.org/demonstrations/mil… )

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Over the past decade, the Overton window has shifted so drastically that it is now considered acceptable in mainstream discourse to advocate for the eradication of Palestinians, liken them to animals and place blame on them for their own deaths

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in reply to Miriam Boosh

Seems horrible. Like First Nations being robbed by Europeans from their lands through genocide, now in real time, an occupation, theft and extermination of human beings presented as something acceptable...

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The Israeli government has cut off food, water, and fuel to 2 million people inside Gaza as part of its campaign to stamp out Hamas terrorism. Collective punishment is not only contrary to international law, it is inhumane and illogical. It is what my community once endured in World War II, all because of the actions of others who happened to share our ethnicity. Have we learned nothing? How will this possibly help deescalate the violence rather than radicalize many more? It is madness.
in reply to George Takei 🏳️‍🌈🖖🏽

As well as the desperation one feels for the Palestinian people there is the immense sadness that so few in the West seem moved by it. The silence of so many is deafening.

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This is a very good time to speak carefully and attend to your language around state versus people.

The STATE of Israel absolutely engages in genocidal behavior.

But a whole lot of antisemites are trying to use that reality to sow hate by pretending that the state and the people there are one and the same.

They are not.

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in reply to Gwen Snyder is uncivil

Millenials are Killing Capitalism did a good show on this difficult topic. One main point was that there aren't just fash units fighting for Ukraine, but socialists and anarchists as well. Leftists on the front lines defending their homes. Being anti-war and avoiding western left-splaining is the challenge. Here's a link:
millennialsarekillingcapitalis…

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Amidst the performative cries of “Israel has the right to defend itself”, it seems to be heresy to acknowledge the humanity of the few million people who get to live, in perpetuity, as Israel’s ritual punching bag, and are expected to do nothing in response, nothing in prevention, and accept the blame for others doing literally anything.

And even saying this will just result in tedious wankers going, “oh, you support terrorism then?”

The way the Palestinian people are treated is some serious Omelas shit.

in reply to Sarah Brown

@Sarah Brown The main thing I remember from visiting Gaza was how full it was, and how closed in it felt. Border fences on three sides, sea on the fourth (but restricted). Even in the heady days of 1994 just post Oslo it felt like a cage. Sometimes the electricity would go off. You had to queue in the heat to get in or out, divided families shouted news to each other across the barbed wire fence. That was probably the high point of freedom. The thirty years since have raised a generation whose hopes for the future keep getting blown up and locked down at the jailers’ whim.


For UK readers desiring a sense of scale, this is the boundary of the Gaza Strip (area 365 km^2, population 2m) rotated so it can be overlaid on the Isle of Wight (area 381 km^2, population 140k).

(Map generated with thetruesize.com)



Abbreviation and handwriting have led to my Public Law notes inventing the Royal Pierogi.

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Unknown parent

@Sesquipedality Aww, but you’re a proper lawyer and everything!

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Two German soldiers are hunting for a downed British airman.

"We'll never find him in this wood at night." One says, quietly.

"You're right." The other one replies, loudly. "BECAUSE I HEAR HE WENT TO ETON."

"Actually gentleman, I'm a Wykehamist." A nearby bush replies, annoyed. #histodons

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1. 'AND', the most powerful word in any language?
Sharon Astyk (a Jew by marriage) wrote the following rules for discussing #Israel / #Palestine / War in a FB group she administers.

"Hi Folks. I just want to set down rules for any discussion of Israel/Palestine/ProtoWWIII.
Here are the rules.
1. MORE THAN ONE THING CAN BE TRUE AT THE SAME TIME, INCLUDING BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY:
#Jews were mass murdered over and over again and have a justifiable fear of being murdered again AND that fear has made us do horrifying things to the Palestinians over and over again that are not justified in any way.
Jews have lived in Israel for thousands of years, and have a historic claim to it AND we use religious language and assumptions that may be mythological to most. AND real Palestinian people lost their homes unfairly. More than one people can have a historic claim to the same place.

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Bit pissed off with the EU for the “solidarity with Israel” posts. Solidarity with the Israeli citizens maybe, but with the state? Nopenopenope. Bet they don’t express solidarity with Palestine when Israel piles in and levels half the city again.