Are you finding Mastodon to be less vibrant/active?
I’m worried that we are not getting as much engagement on our Ukraine war reporting as we used to.
We’re trying to decide which social media platforms to continue posting on, given how much effort it takes to replicate across all of them.
If you want to send a signal to us that we should keep posting here, will you sign up for our newsletter? Counteroffensive.substack.com
I’m only asking Mastodon users today so we can gauge impact.
The Counteroffensive with Tim Mak | Substack
A war correspondent's open notebook, reporting live from Ukraine. Click to read The Counteroffensive with Tim Mak, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of readers.The Counteroffensive with Tim Mak
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Typo of the day: diuretic debit.
Kind of appropriate I guess, since apparently donating to Stonewall was pissing money away.
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Today’s new word: wankflange.
Definition: Richard Foord MP (Lib Dem), who thinks there is intolerance on both sides of the issue of trans rights, and thinks that parents should know if kids change pronouns at school.
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Erik Demaine proved that any pattern of straight cuts can be implemented by folding a piece of paper then making a single straight cut!
Here is what this looks like for a Koch snowflake:
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I was just reading up on various parasites (trying to figure out what's biting us) and came across this sentence about agromyzid midges: 'The midge adults would have caused the holes back when the leaves were still folded up inside the bud, resulting in a “snowflake” like pattern of holes once the leaves expanded'.
(Parasites on the midges are known to bite humans too.)
I haven't found any pictures that look like snowflakes, though you can clearly see the symmetry.
bygl.osu.edu/node/1967
Holey Oaks and Chestnuts
What’s causing holes to appear in the leaves of oaks and chestnuts in Ohio?bygl.osu.edu
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Beelzebub has the Devil for a sideboard.
Which doesn’t sound very convenient, although I suppose you could hang your keys on the horns.
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I'm so sick of biological TERFs. They just drive me biological wild with their biological bigotry. They should get a biological life.
@NightlyBye I genuinely don't think they know what "biological" means and they just use it as an amplifier like "fucking"
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I witnessed another trans person's deed poll today. A bit more involved, necessitating a trip to the solicitor, because he's 14, but nevertheless it reminded me of the surreal socially distanced signing dance I did during lockdown for my deed poll with @Zoë O'Connell and @Sarah Brown
It didn't have to be me that signed -- it could have been anyone who knew him and his parents -- but I felt privileged to do it, passing on some part of the support other trans people gave me.
Me: Chatty as all hell, wants to babble at the world constantly
Also me: Terribly shy about one-on-one conversations, hasn't used Telegram regularly in months
Also also me: HI HELLO GIVE ME ATTENTION
Also also also me: NO NOT LIKE THAT
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Please, please, please YouTubers of the world.
"The essay" is an educational tool, not an engaging presentation format. That "paragraph intake of breath" is so depressing. There's so much great material in these things, but I do wish people would study public *lectures*.
For millennia people have been perfecting it in all kinds of varieties to suit personalities, access, etc.
"Like a video message from someone being kept hostage by an evil history postdoc" is one of the *less* successful.
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Mental Health
My mental health remains somewhat wobbly, as it has been for a month or two now. There have been two absolute low points, one "head buzzing so much with despair" and one of the form where the world is a treacle of minor chords and even being present feels like an effort that can't be guaranteed. In between it's been recovery and walking a sort of narrow path on the edge, as if solid rock can be felt to one side and an abyss to the other. A forgetfulness of joy, too, as if I have lost the object permanence of love.
I have CBT starting next month. I have an appointment with my GP potentially to adjust antidepressant doses. I've got the endocrinologist tomorrow. The things I can do apart from just hanging on, I am doing. (To be clear, I'm not a danger to myself or anyone else.)
Caster Semenya won her case in the ECHR yesterday. Only the legal summary is currently available in English: “Discrimination against professional athlete with differences of sex development who was required under non-State regulations to lower her natural testosterone level to compete in women’s category in international competitions: violation”.
The judgment in French is at hudoc.echr.coe.int/%7B%22appno… ; I’ll toot the official English translation when it appears
In order to serve you better, I wanna share you some secrets about myself and beg your pardon. I'm sorry when I become loud during high-pressure inflation 2 min after starting, as I'm pumping on full throttle!”
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David Tennant, of Dr Who fame, apparently said some pro trans things and now the TERFs are going after him on Twitter. His response is that he isn't worried because, and I quote, "I'll be fine, Terfs can't climb stairs"
I want that on a T-shirt. No, I NEED that on a T-shirt!
ETA: Apparently it was a parody account that said the stairs line. I still want it on a T-shirt.
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Am having trouble so far finding an explanation/breakdown of what "terfs can't climb stairs" means exactly.
Am not posting this looking for enlightenment specifically. Though it would be nice & appreciated, of course.
Increased Seismic activity in Iceland. 🇮🇸
Not erupting... Yet. But some webcams are ready.
eruption.acme.to/
#Iceland #Eruption #Seismic #LiveStream
Stay tuned
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The Grand Canal, Venice. A #slitscan from Casino di Venezia to Ponte delle Guglie, using a vaporetto (waterbus) as a slow, steady scanning support, using a suction-cup camera mount inside the window.
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Since I managed to find it and someone elsenet was asking about the “U.K. trans asylum in NZ case”…
AL (United Kingdom) [2017] NZIPT 502911
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I love it when they threaten us with a good time. tech.lgbt/@gourdcaptain/110438…
theverge.com/2023/5/25/2373711…OpenAI threatening to leave the EU if they pass legislation requiring them to list their data sources because:
"In addition to the possible business threat, forcing OpenAI to identify its use of copyrighted data would expose the company to potential lawsuits. Generative AI systems like ChatGPT and DALL-E are trained using large amounts of data scraped from the web, much of it copyright protected. When companies disclose these data sources it leaves them open to legal challenges."Like every other boom tech company, it's just doing labor crimes and theft and claiming you're actually too innovative to be regulated, God.
OpenAI says it could ‘cease operating’ in the EU if it can’t comply with future regulation
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has warned that the company could pull its services from the EU if it finds upcoming regulations too onerous. The EU AI Act is currently being finalized by lawmakers and should become law next year.James Vincent (The Verge)
Some trans women breastfeed and conservatives have a LOT of feelings about that, which they're determined to make all of our problem.
For Assigned today I wrote about the latest right-wing meltdown over trans people doing a thing, compared it to coverage of cis adoptive mothers using the same method for inducing lactation trans moms do, and dived into the science of lactation (which for me is always the most fun part). #trans #journalism #science
assignedmedia.org/breaking-new…
Trans Women Breastfeeding: Behind the Conservative Meltdown
The Newman-Goldfarb Protocols are known to help people who didn’t give birth to breastfeed. The right can’t handle the fact that it works for trans moms too.Evan Urquhart (Assigned)
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The ABCD Family Tree - Starkey Comics
I’ve created an infographic showing the relationship between different scripts used in languages across the world.These 57 different scripts are all thought to have ultimately evolved from the hieroglyphs the Egyptians used over 5000 years ago.Ryan Starkey (Starkey Comics)
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Brian Repko
in reply to Tim Mak • • •jj the Santa Barbarian
in reply to Tim Mak • • •Tim Mak
Unknown parent • • •Tim Mak
Unknown parent • • •Death by Lambda
Unknown parent • • •>> We do posting on social media as a service to our followers!
It's sad that you see it like that and not a commitment to the truth.
>> But it ultimately will not be sustainable if we don’t get subscribers who sign up to pay.
But this IS STILL TRUE. And I don't know how we solve it.
#unbiased #Journalism is the greatest gift to the #downtrodden. I.e. The people it the most can "afford" it the least.
Phlawless
in reply to Tim Mak • • •Frank D’Elia
in reply to Tim Mak • • •Andy 🌎
Unknown parent • • •@george @TCatInReality That's true, but you also won't be able to support the team if you burn out.
Take care of yourself Tim and be safe!
Julianna Morris - Author
in reply to Tim Mak • • •Sherifa Zuhur
in reply to Tim Mak • • •