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Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.

mastodon - Link to source
I asked #craiyon to produce an image with #Captain #BenjaminSisko as a #hamradio operator on the #holodeck for my #GRcon keynote and it just couldn't do it! I tried at least a dozen times and I even threw the reference image below at it but it still consistently produced images of #whitemen as #hams or #startrek captains. If #AI is the future, it sure looks like the past. #inclusion #whitesupremacy #dei #afrofuture #BlackMastodon
Picture of Avery Brooks as the character Benjamin Sisko from the DS9 series. He is a bald brown man wearing a red and gray star fleet uniform.
#AI #StarTrek #whitesupremacy #dei #hamradio #Captain #inclusion #craiyon #BlackMastodon #whitemen #hams #afrofuture #grcon #benjaminsisko #holodeck
This entry was edited (1 hour ago)

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friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

One of the neighbours smoke detectors was going off for an extended period of time. Just as I was about to go investigate, it stopped.

I assume this either means it was a false alarm after all, or the smoke detector itself has been destroyed in the blaze. 🙃

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
My cat has three distinct modes of operation:
1. asleep
2. being cute
3. VIOLENCE
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

Joshua D. Boyd
mastodon - Link to source
Joshua D. Boyd
• •
I think that the three states are 1) sleeping 2) surveiling and 3) violence. Being cute is endemic to all states.
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.

mastodon - Link to source
JK Rowling, Harry Potter, transphobia, why 'separating art from artist' is bullshit

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in reply to Girl on the Net

refraction
mastodon - Link to source
refraction
• •
re: JK Rowling, Harry Potter, transphobia, why 'separating art from artist' is bullshit

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in reply to Girl on the Net

Tattie
glitchsoc - Link to source
Tattie
• •
JK Rowling, Harry Potter, transphobia, why 'separating art from artist' is bullshit

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friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

So, I've been getting reasonably decent with #OpenSCAD. I've debated opening an Etsy store, but I don't own a #3DPrinter. While I do have access to a couple for personal projects, I have nothing that would be suitable for commercial use, nor do I have the seed money to buy one.

One of the services I'm thinking of offering in the interim is creating custom STL files for people based on a rough sketch or photo, but I don't know if that would be a viable thing.

Is that a thing anyone here would have interest in?

#openscad #3dprinter

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in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

Chaslinux
mastodon - Link to source
Chaslinux
• •
I wonder if that's something worth discussing with the kwarztLab folks on their Tuesday drop in night? Afaik most have 3D printers, and I expect a few might have done the same?
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.

mastodon - Link to source
A shitpost that's been brewing in my head for a while now
in reply to cwicseolfor

cwicseolfor
mastodon - Link to source
cwicseolfor
• •

Someone else this morning had a lovely turn of phrase (third paragraph) around the same experience you might enjoy, if I can offer a bit of secondhand brilliance in solidarity. hachyderm.io/@uberduck/1149061…

The Uberduck

2025-07-24 03:54:24

mastodon - Link to source

I am now being required by my day job to use an AI assistant to write code. I have also been informed that my usage of AI assistants will be monitored and decisions about my career will be based on those metrics.

I gave it an honest shot today, using it as responsibly as I know how: only use it for stuff I already know how to do, so that I can easily verify its output. That part went ok, though I found it much harder to context switch between thinking about code structure and trying to herd a bullshit generator into writing correct code.

One thing I didn't expect, though, is how fucking disruptive it's suggestion feature would be. It's like trying to compose a symphony while someone is relentlessly playing a kazoo in your ear. It flustered me really quickly, to the point where I wasn't able to figure out how to turn that "feature" off. I'm noticing physical symptoms of an anxiety attack as a result.

I stopped work early when I noticed I was completely spent. I don't know if I wrote more code today than I would have normally. I don't think I wrote better code, as the vigilance required is extremely hard for my particular brand of neurospicy to maintain.

As far as the "write this function for me" aspect, I've noticed that I tend to use the mental downtime of typing out a function I've designed to let my brain percolate on the solution and internalize it so I have it in my working memory. This doesn't happen when I'm simply reviewing code written by something else. Reviewing code and writing it are completely separate activities for me. But there's nothing to keep my fingers and thoughts busy while I'm coming up with what to write next.

I didn't think we were meant to live like this.


Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.

mastodon - Link to source
quack!
Top half shows a tweet by Steph Smith (@stephsmithio): "Sometimes in the process of writing a good enough prompt for ChatGPT, I end up solving my own problem, without even needing to submit it." Overlayed on an edited scene from the show Invincible, featuring the character Omni-Man looking at rows of servers with the caption: "Look what they need". Bottom half shows a large, dramatic rubber duck with the caption: "to mimic a fraction of my power".
in reply to feliks

David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)
mastodon - Link to source
David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)
• •
As I’ve said before, the difference between an LLM and a rubber duck is that the duck is smart enough to shut up when it has nothing useful to say.

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in reply to David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)

R.L. Dane 🍵
gotosocial - Link to source
R.L. Dane 🍵
• •

My opinion of ducks (rubber and living) increases every day. XD

Pretty sure I've had a more enjoyable conversation with an actual living quacker than an LLM, particularly an LLM stan. XD

Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.

mastodon - Link to source
Is there a good way to watch @peertube videos on a TV yet? There's increasingly stuff on there that I'd like to watch, but I don't like sitting at my desk to watch videos!
@PeerTube

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in reply to Thomas Preece

Jonathan Lamothe
friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Jonathan Lamothe
•

@Thomas Preece It's an old video, but:

Jeena

2020-10-27 16:18:15

peertube - Link to source

PeerTube Admin 7: Using Chromecast on a TV to watch PeerTube videos with Chromium


Korea vlog: tube.jeena.net/videos/watch/pl…

How to switch on casting on Linux:
- alien.slackbook.org/blog/casti…
- unix.stackexchange.com/questio…


Casting to your ChromeCast in Chromium

I have a Google ChromeCast, it is an extremely convenient gadget to stream all sorts of audio and video to your television, regardless of its make or brand. Today I learnt something new, so let me …
Alien Pastures

@Thomas Preece

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
I wish #OpenSCAD let you pass one module as an input to another.
#openscad
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

patagona
mastodon - Link to source
patagona
• •
unsolicited advice, I guess?

Sensitive content

in reply to patagona

Jonathan Lamothe
friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Jonathan Lamothe
•
unsolicited advice, I guess?
@patagona Ooh. I'll have to look into that. Thanks for the tip!
@patagona
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.

pixelfed - Link to source
Katy wanted a fancy organizer for her alcohol markers but we didn't have the money for it. What I *did* have was a copy of #OpenSCAD and access to a #3DPrinter, so I made us a better one.
A white hexagonal 3D printed marker organizer filled with an array of differently coloured alcohol markers. There is a brown and white cat behind it sniffing at it.
#openscad #3dprinter
This entry was edited (6 days ago)

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friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Pretty sure Rogers keeps disconnecting my internet in the middle of the night without notice to do some kind of maintenance hoping that nobody will notice.

I keep having to reboot the modem every morning for the past few days. This time I was awake when it went down.

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
There's a storm raging outside. I wonder if we're going to lose power again.

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Katy and I have randomly discovered sumo wrestling and weirdly gotten into it. The first thing I learned was that the people who deliberately get seating in the front rows are... brave.

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in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

Digital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄
mastodon - Link to source
Digital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄
• •
It's all these dignitaries and rich people, those rows aren't easy to buy, and they get run over a lot. As do the judges, "Shimpan bowling" we call it.
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.

mastodon - Link to source
At 14 when I started learning to program I would have probably given up if someone said "oh you should be using this thing that is $200/mo"

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in reply to dreid

Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.
mastodon - Link to source
Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.
• •

I can't draw analogies like this. When I learned to program, it was by reading hundreds of printed man pages for TI-BASIC and MS-DOS. I have little hope that a 5yr old from today would do the same. I think if I didn't know how to program and had to learn that way today, I might not.

The old ways are not the new ways, and they aren't even that sacred. They are just barely the known.

in reply to Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.

mkj
mastodon - Link to source
mkj
• •

@BoydStephenSmithJr I think back in the day, you still had a chance to stumble upon someplace decent to start. You could be browsing the library and come across something like "Beginning C64 BASIC programming" or "How to tell the computer what to do" and they had a good chance of being half-way decent starting points.

You also need intellectual curiosity. That spark that goes "can I make the machine do this?" or "what happens if I do that instead?". That in turn requires feeling *safe*.

@dreid

@Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. @dreid
in reply to mkj

Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.
mastodon - Link to source
Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.
• •

@mkj I think if you have the intellectual curiosity you can still get started from most computers by using the JS console.

But, I haven't checked to see how locked down many iOS devices are now.

The TI PC was hard to get started, but once booted it wasn't locked down at all.

@mkj
in reply to mkj

Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.
mastodon - Link to source
Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.
• •
@mkj I think there are still beginner guides out there, some free in general, some free via library. But, I find it hard to judge their suitability because of the "curse of knowledge". Unless my brain is compromised, I will never again not know how to double-click, e.g.
@mkj

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Went to a large grocery store and waitied in the parking lot with a book for a few hours hoping to pick up an Instacart order. Didn't get one, but as I tried to start the car to go home, I found that I'd left the lights on and the battery's dead.

Waiting on my father to show up with jumper cables, but at least I'm not so upset about not getting an order. Would've sucked to find the battery dead when I tried to deliver it...

Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.

bookwyrm - Link to source

"It does not appear that he (Edgar Allan Poe) ever wrote or spoke of it, nor is there any evidence that he even noticed it. And yet that house, to the two persons in possession of certain information, equals or outranks in horror the wildest phantasy of the genius who so often passed it unknowingly, and stands starkly leering as a symbol of all that is unutterably hideous."

— H.P. Lovecraft: Necronomicon, p. 233

This is just Lovecraft's not-so-subtle way of saying "I'm a better horror writer than Edar Allan Poe".

What a pompous ass.

H.P. Lovecraft: Necronomicon (Hardcover, 2008, Gollancz)

Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.

Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.

mastodon - Link to source
mutual aid signal boost for a friend

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#mutualaid #MutualAidRequest @cherry flavored antacids
This entry was edited (1 week ago)

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Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.

mastodon - Link to source

Why I stopped ordering food delivery:

Modest Meal..... $14.99
Drink.... $3.43

"I will enjoy the Modest Meal and a drink." 😇

Bill:

Modest Meal $14.99
Drink. $3.43
Tax $2.80
Service Fee $5.35
Fee ... $2.80
Area Charge ... $6.90
Delivery ... $4.80
Just Go With It Fee $3.04
Movement Charge? ...$2.94
Delivery Fee... $2.80
Snakes ..$2.34
Vendor Notion $2.80
Just Because Fee $4.81
Ghost Removal $6.03
Vibes ... $1.03
Fee Tax $6.30

Total: 65.56
Tax Again For Some Reason: 11.62

True Total: 77.19 😲

This entry was edited (1 week ago)
in reply to myrmepropagandist

myrmepropagandist
mastodon - Link to source
myrmepropagandist
• •

I kind of stole this joke from someone who posted it as an image without a description, but I changed it up.

I *would* have just boosted that post, but the image wasn't described and as I started to write alt text I thought of some changes to make... so the moral is if you wanna get boosted include the alt text!

in reply to myrmepropagandist

antimagic heart-sickness
akkoma - Link to source
antimagic heart-sickness
• •

yeah by the time i finish preparing the alt text it becomes infinitely easier to just post that instead

saves everyone's bandwidth too

Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.

mastodon - Link to source

LLMs are not intelligent but they ARE good for spouting extruded text that mimics the zeitgeist of their training data and if that training data includes the overflowing sewer that is the unfiltered internet you're going to get gaslighting, lies, conspiracy theories, and malice. Guardrails only prevent some of it from spilling over.

Humans base their norms on their peers' opinions, so LLMs potentially normalize all sorts of horrors in discourse—probably including ones we haven't glimpsed yet.

in reply to Charlie Stross

Jonathan Lamothe
friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Jonathan Lamothe
•

@Charlie Stross A million times this.

Are there very narrow areas where AI can be useful? Probably, but easily 99.9% of the stuff it's being shoehorned into, AI ought never to be trusted with.

@Charlie Stross
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.

mastodon - Link to source

I think it’s dope af that plants take air and turn it into solid material

why aren’t more people awestruck that this shit happens all the time?

reshared this

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
So there's this Japanese sushi chef YouTuber that Katy and I have been watching. He does all kinds of recipes, but he keeps using this one ingredient I'm unfamiliar with. He calls it "salad oil". Is that a mistranslation of vegetable oil, or is this something else I'm just unaware of?

Kevin Davy reshared this.

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

-𝚍𝚜𝚛- (has pronouns)
mastodon - Link to source
-𝚍𝚜𝚛- (has pronouns)
• •

It's any unnamed vegetable oil that you would use to make a salad dressing; the key characteristic is that it doesn't have much flavor. It's often sold as a mix of whatever's reasonably cheap: soybean, canola, peanut, and in some cases, cottonseed.

You can substitute whatever you like, especially if you think the recipe would improve with avocado or olive oil.

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
"Physical books are so much better than ebooks because you don't have to worry about the battery dying", I say as the battery to my reading light starts dying...

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in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

Ellane
mastodon - Link to source
Ellane
• •
Candles! I appreciate the irony but at least you still have options.
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.

bookwyrm - Link to source

I'm sure it's a product of its time, but good God there are some racist passages in this book.

(comment on Necronomicon)

H.P. Lovecraft: Necronomicon (Hardcover, 2008, Gollancz)

Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

SP⟁CED GO⟁T
mastodon - Link to source
SP⟁CED GO⟁T
• •
I went to a book store once as a young teen and wound up buying this book because I thought it looked weird and creepy. I'm sure I read some of it, but I don't recall a single thing. All I remember was my Christian mom freaking out when she found out under my bed thinking I was a devil worshipper or something.
in reply to SP⟁CED GO⟁T

Jonathan Lamothe
friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Jonathan Lamothe
•
@SP⟁CED GO⟁T @Jonathan Lamothe I'm not very far into it yet, and the first few stories have been quite good, but then it took a hard turn. Maybe it's just the one story? I don't really know.
@Jonathan Lamothe @SP⟁CED GO⟁T

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Brought home a box of groceries. On my in the front door, the bottom of the box gave out and everything hit the floor. Amazingly, every single egg survived the fall.
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.

pixelfed - Link to source
ec: selfie

Sensitive content

Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.

Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.

bookwyrm - Link to source
Jonathan Lamothe started reading Necronomicon
H. P. Lovecraft, H. P. Lovecraft: Necronomicon (2008, Gollancz)

Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
I will concede that ebooks are convenient, but when it comes to a good novel, nothing tops the experience of an actual paper book for me.

reshared this

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Bank machines have business hours now? How is that a thing?

Are the machines that are replacing us demanding better working conditions now? 🙃

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in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

LilaHexe
iceshrimp - Link to source
LilaHexe
• •
in Aachen it's at least partially because people kept blowing them up at night lol
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.

mastodon - Link to source

🐓 I live next door to 18 chickens now. Therefore, be aware that a Chicken Report could happen at any time during Dubious Goals Committee. 🐔

Also simf. Simf can happen at any time during DGC. 🎹 🎵

Dubious Goals Committee airs EVERY single day at 19:30 UTC! 🕢 That's:

3:30 pm Eastern (North America)
2:30 pm Central
12:30 pm Pacific
21:30 St. Pauli (Hamburg) ☠️
16:30 Tierra del Fuego (ARG)

#radio, #anonradio, #sdf, #synth, #tob, #livestream,

Listen here: anonradio.net/

// aNONradio // – [LIVE]: World News Report with thenews

anonradio.net
#Radio #synth #sdf #anonradio #livestream #tob

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in reply to tob

pizzapal
mastodon - Link to source
pizzapal
• •
🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.

mastodon - Link to source

I need to request that *all* programmers remember that some of us are visually impaired and need to be able to edit the actual tar out of the font sizes for your menus, main bodies of your programs, etc. We need font resizing options, bolding options, color options, and font type options. For everything. If it's text, it needs to be able to be redone by the user. Also, that needs to be on a "global" and then a "per pane" basis, including the main area a person is working in.

Complaint trigger: All these M'Fkn' "Media Players" that are written for dinky little smart phones that no one over the age of 45 or 50 can even read hardly at all. I don't care that most of the people who download these things are around 12 to 25 years old. Some of us need to use these things in order to start or operate businesses and are *real grown ups.* We need these things but when we can't read them, they're useless to us.

Please fix this in every application on this planet. Thanks.

reshared this

in reply to JustRosy 🇺🇦

Steven Heywood
mastodon - Link to source
Steven Heywood
• •
Also that the fonts don't shrink back to their tiny size when you zoom in to try to read them. [Points finger at a large number of map applications.]

JustRosy 🇺🇦 reshared this.

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Days since I was baited into an argument online: 0
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.

mastodon - Link to source

Public service announcement.

(Created by bsky.app/profile/campfireharve… )

Header text: "HEY YOU! YES YOU! TAKE THIS SHIT OUT OF LINKS!" This is followed by a couple example urls, with a red square highlighting the sections with source identifiers. The rest of the text is as follows: Source identifiers are used to track your activity on a site. Where you came from, what device you use, and even who you talk to. Whether it's written clearly in the url or tied to a random string of characters, it's assigned to your activity. When you send a link containing a source identifier to somebody and they click it, it signals to the website that you two are connected. And that data goes right back to the website operators, and thus their advertisers. Whenever you select "share" or "copy link" on a social app or website, it creates a link like this. If you give even the smallest shit about online privacy, it's important to remove them. Everything after the "?" symbol can be removed without issue, especially sections starting with "si=" or "utm_source="
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.

mastodon - Link to source
#comics #funny
#funny #comics

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Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.

sharkey - Link to source
begpost, urgent, homeless in 2 days

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#fediverse #help #homeless #mutualaid #kofi #aid #urgent #BegPost #beg #soonhomeless
This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)

reshared this

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
I seem to have allowed myself to run out of CR2032s. Ah well, If I don't test my blood glucose that means it's fine, right?
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

Jonathan Lamothe
friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Jonathan Lamothe
•
Katy: Did you look in the cabinet under your night stand?
Me: Yes. They're absolutely not there.
Katy: Found some.
Me: Where were they?
Katy: In the cabinet under your night stand.
Me: 🙃

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
venting (profanity)

Our brakes sound really terrible. Our emergency fund is tapped out.

Fuck.

reshared this

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

Kevin Davy
mastodon - Link to source
Kevin Davy
• •
venting (profanity)

Sensitive content

in reply to Kevin Davy

Jonathan Lamothe
friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Jonathan Lamothe
•
venting (profanity)

@Kevin Davy I'm pretty sure they're shot. I've been neglecting it for a while (equal parts lack of funds and lack of spoons).

Already working on a contingency plan. If need be, we can lean on family for help. I just hate doing that because I know things are tight for them too.

@Kevin Davy
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.

mastodon - Link to source

This is the hardest message I have ever written.

Does anyone in have a lead on a company that would be willing to sponsor a web development technical lead?

I am open to most Euro, Japan, and Oceania.

My German is bad. My Japanese is a bit better. I would love to get better.

It seems like things are going to be no longer safe for my family.

Help me.

Please boost. 🙇

Edit:

I want to thank everyone who has boosted, replied, and offered advice. Thank you so much. I have much more to go on, and much more to learn.

Everyone. Please stay safe, and keep your family and friends close.

Thank you all.

#fedihired

#fedihired
This entry was edited (3 weeks ago)

reshared this

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
ph (nothing to be worried about)
Walking into a fast food restaurant and placing an order is a fun thing to do while wearing a heart monitor.
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

Shae Erisson
hometown - Link to source
Shae Erisson
• •
ph (nothing to be worried about)

Sensitive content

in reply to Shae Erisson

Jonathan Lamothe
friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Jonathan Lamothe
•
ph (nothing to be worried about)

@Shae Erisson It's a thing my doctor's been keeping an eye on for a while now. My heart rate will occasionally just spike for no apparent reason. I'm told it's "an electrical issue, not a plumbing issue" which is apparently far less serious.

At present, it's nothing more than a nuisance. I'm wearing the monitor for now to see of they can actually catch it happening to better diagnose, but in general, it doesn't affect my day-to-day.

@Shae Erisson
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.

mastodon - Link to source
Tell me about some good news

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in reply to FKA Farah

Face Thumb
mastodon - Link to source
Face Thumb
• •
Not to rub it in, but Australia learned from America's poor choice of president and went further left, keeping the Labour party in for another term and eating into our equivalent of the Republicans. In the fall out the losing parties even broke up their coalition so they might even never win again (At least not in that form). Unfortunately as collateral damage, Labour also ate into the Greens votes. But overall everyone is pretty happy about it. Murdoch media was fuming of course.
in reply to FKA Farah

ConnectionWithWonder
mastodon - Link to source
ConnectionWithWonder
• •

This week a “life-changing” breakthrough in gene therapy has given people born with genetic hearing loss potential for recovering some of their hearing.

Also Britain’s Ash trees are becoming resistant to Ash die back.

Also Ireland has gone COAL FREE #goodNews

#goodnews
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.

mastodon - Link to source
Reports that a Canadian citizen who has resided in the US since age 10 was abducted at a green card interview. Her husband is begging ICE to let him fly her back to Canada and they refuse to release her.
Cynthia Olivera is a Canadian who’s been living in the US since she was 10 She’s in ICE custody, after being grabbed at her green card interview. The 45 year old wife & mother has been moved between facilities while her husband begs ICE to let her get on a plane to Canada. 🧵 They’re willing to pay. She’s willing to leave. But she can’t escape. This is why we call them concentration camps. There’s no due process. Some people go in and never come out.

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