Dinah @metagrrrl@mastodon.social

The Design Behind EFF's New Membership Shirt https://www.eff.org/new-2019-t-shirt-design

There are so many people who have "angry" be part of their name/brand. Why would you even do that. What for

they like my bb’s pets better than mine bcs his hands are big enough to cover them both ❤️

The AR-15 was named after Ayn Rand and the maximum age at which it's okay to think she should be taken seriously

Up the river they swam, past fields of grazing cattle, past meadows, hamlets, and hills. To a little lake in the heart of the forest.
There, the mermaids sang of sweet waters, of leafy shadows, of love and longing and lust.
They returned to the sea, carrying daughters and dreams.
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories

Rating vs Ranking and the Forced Scarcity of American Excellence https://kottke.org/19/07/rating-vs-ranking-and-the-forced-scarcity-of-american-excellence

(a) a predictive language model by definition can only have output whose statistical properties regress toward the mean—that's the purpose of a language model in the first place, to determine how statistically likely a sequence of words is. (b) a language model is based on *text*, i.e., language ripped from context—so the output of a predictive language model (by definition) can't address shared emergent contexts between interlocutors

I resent that my computer, the most complex and powerful machine I'll likely ever use, is turned on by some pissant little five-cent plastic button like it's a shitty VCR from the 90's. I want a massive ornate copper knife switch, as long as my forearm, with the lower position hand-lettered "HALT" and the engaged position labelled "COMPUTE." When I go to use my computer, I want it to know I MEAN it.

Want to Buy a Bob Ross Painting? You Can’t. (And Here’s Why.) https://kottke.org/19/07/want-to-buy-a-bob-ross-painting-you-cant-and-heres-why

Some ant species developed agriculture millions of years before we did, and live on mushrooms that they cultivate themselves

Source: http://factourism.com/source/farmer-ants

RT @XaiaX@twitter.com

For two weeks only, you can become a member of EFF for just $20. Help us build a better digital future. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/07/better-digital-future-possible

i guess what i'm saying is i want to play an RPG where your party looks like https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutting_the_Stone#/media/File%3ACutting_the_Stone_(Bosch).jpg

(i just think it could be an interesting combat mechanic to have a character class who has to rifle through a library of books they carry with them to find one with the appropriate tactical effect and then contrive to actually find a way to move into melee range to physically smack the monster with the text in question.)

The enchanter Mabon in the story of Le Bel Inconnu touches a princess with an "unidentified magic book" and thereby turns her into a serpent (just read about this in Skemer p. 137)—this got me thinking about books as weapons in RPGs—all of the examples i can think of where characters "wield" books are magic users where the book just fills the equipment slot normally reserved for conventional weapons, but the character doesn't actually attack with the physical book?

Holding hands with cats , Sunday edition

MetaFilter, the online community I run, is 20 years old today, which is just whaaaaaat when I really think about it.

I wrote up some thoughts about what the site means to me and what I want it to be.

https://metatalk.metafilter.com/25256/Happy-20th-Anniversary-MetaFilter