Snugglebug

joined 1 year ago
 
 
[–] Snugglebug@beehaw.org 5 points 1 year ago

Advertising to people currently on the Fediverse probably isn't their goal. Neither is just joining the Fediverse. Their goal is to become the Fediverse to swallow it whole.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish

They also have no incentive to share anti-spam tech. They would be giving up a massive sellin g point of their instance if they did.

Additionally, Threads is already stripping its implementation of ActivityPub of some features like alt text and CWs. Worse though is that they're removing the option for a chronological timeline, forcing their algorithm as the only option for its users. This would be fine, except it would also effect content on all instances (to an extent). Given that Threads will no doubt have a userbase larger than that of most instances, and that posts which play into its algorithm will show up for significantly more people, posts which engage with Threads' algorithm will be boosted more often, thus showing up for more people who aren't using Threads.

Say Threads' algorithm really likes posts that get lots of replies. Someone writes a controversial post on mastodon.social and lots of people on Threads immediately get in arguments in the replies. This post is then promoted by Threads' algorithm, causing it to be seen by more people on Threads. More eyes on a post means more likelihood of getting a higher number of boosts. Lots of accounts on Threads boost the post, which causes it to be seen by more people in federated instances. Again, more eyes means more likelihood of getting boosted. At this point the post is popular not just in Threads, but also in instances federated with Threads. Which means it'll pop up more often on other instances that do not federate with Threads. Threads' algorithm, only being implemented on Threads, extends its toxic influence out even to servers which refuse to federate with Threads.

[–] Snugglebug@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Tankie refers to people who support authoritarian "communist" regimes and often deny or justify the atrocities they commit. Stalinists mostly, but also supporters of the authoritarian aspects of China and even North Korea

 
[–] Snugglebug@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago

There are some great guides at https://www.diybookscanner.org/ that you can check out. Some of them are a bit outdated so I would recommend software like tesseract and phone cameras should be good enough for general use

[–] Snugglebug@beehaw.org 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The Ohio prison department says it allowed one unillustrated version of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” into a prison because it didn’t show symbols associated with any white supremacist groups.

Flawless logic

[–] Snugglebug@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago

From everyone I've come across addicted to something like that it's always been life circumstances spiraling out of control that pushed them to it. The study itself acknowledges that "Nearly one quarter (24%) noted that substance use currently them health, legal, or financial problems."

The 31% number specifically is in the following context: "Many participants reported using drugs and alcohol to help them cope with the circumstances of homelessness."

[–] Snugglebug@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago

It's likely a mix, but life circumstances are almost certainly going to be the cause for most. Living on the streets is hellish, of course people are going to look for some temporary escape

 

Article link (paywalled): https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-06-20/homeless-crisis-housing-californians-older-seniors-study

Excerpts:

Public policy and common perception have long tied the road to homelessness with mental illness and drug addiction.

But a new study out Tuesday — the largest and most comprehensive investigation of California’s homeless population in decades — found another cause is propelling much of the crisis on our streets: the precarious poverty of the working poor, especially Black and brown seniors.

Kushel and her team found that nearly half of single adults living on our streets are over the age of 50. And 7% of all homeless adults, single or in families, are over 65.

And 41% of those older, single Californians had never been homeless — not one day in their lives — before the age of 50.

“What people need to know is there are professionals on the street,” DeDe Hancock told me. She’s a member of the lived experience advisory council for the study.

“People who are middle income are dropping to low,” Hancock said. “People working every day are living in cars.”

And though Kushel points out that the perception is that most people on the street are using drugs, “it’s not everybody,” she said. Only about a third said they were regular users of meth — the most common drug reported.

But Kushel found that even for people with those other factors, financial instability was the tipping point.

She discovered that of the older people living on the streets were employed for most of their lives, often in physically demanding jobs such as waitressing, warehouse work or construction. The kind of jobs our economy depends on, where workers are easily replaced and often are.

 
 
[–] Snugglebug@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

While the number of files is important for the scale of the operation, keep in mind that what makes it illegal is deliberately withholding the documents and lying about returning them all that he is being charged with. The crime is trying to keep them when asked to return them and deceiving federal agencies, not just taking the files themselves

[–] Snugglebug@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If there's content on Reddit you absolutely must view, I definitely endorse RSS readers. No need for an account and you get rid of the infinite scrolling and data mining of the Front-page view

 

Prepare for a surge in immigration leading to a rise in xenophobia and fascism in the coming decades...

 
 
 
 
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