2024 is the year that Netflix, drunk with power, decided to make a romcom about a woman who falls in love with a literal snowman who transforms via the magic of Christmas, into a mid-looking shirtless himbo with four and a half braincells.

Man, picking profile pics is so hard. Hello Mastodon! I like talking about security, ML, data/software engineering, plants, birds, and nature.

Time to relax...

Handwriting activates broader brain networks than typing, study shows
https://www.psypost.org/handwriting-activates-broader-brain-networks-than-typing-study-shows/

Babby is two. TWO.

How the fuck did that happen?

https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/the-american-oligarchy-is-out-of?r=fyvv4&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Robert Reich
The American oligarchy is back, and it’s out of control

It’s the third time in the nation’s history that a small group of hyper-wealthy people have gained political power over the rest of us. Here’s what we must do.

Robert Reich
Dec 20, 2024

Anna is one of the best researchers on money in politics and political influence that I know. She’s done fantastic work at OpenSecrets & is now launching a newsletter that I predict will become a must-read in 2025: InfluenceBrief.com As she says, transparency has never been more critical. Please consider subscribing.

I want to invent a currency that has a coin worth 1/3rd of a dollar, just to punish programmers

#Bluesky #disinformation #InformationWarfare #ContentModeration

'Experts on cybersecurity and online foreign influence campaigns are urging social media company Bluesky, whose app has exploded in popularity in recent weeks, to step up moderation to counter potential state-sponsored influence efforts.'

https://www.voanews.com/a/bluesky-could-become-target-of-foreign-disinformation-experts-warn/7906626.html

Everyone knows about Santa Claus, but have you heard of Wangkarnal the Christmas crow?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-21/wangkarnal-christmas-crow-bush-community-tradition/104737088

French diplomacy is, above all, extremely French

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/20/europe/macron-cyclone-mayotte-french-swear/index.html

🍲💖 Winter season means eating Hotpot with friends 🍲💖 I finally finished this! #art #OCsky #originalcharacter

Friend: Thinking of getting some Koi for my pond in the garden

Me: Cool. Did you know that Koi should always be bought in groups of 4.

Friend: Really, Why?

Me: It's a self preservation thing, they'll sacrifice one of their own to protect the group.

Friend: I've never heard of that and I've been researching them for weeks.

Me: Yeah, if the group is attacked Koi's A, B & C will scatter and leave the remaining one behind.

Friend: Hmmmm

Friend (2 mins later): D Koi... Fucking D Koi... you bastard.

Well, after a dreary mix of rain and sleet all day, it's finally snowing. I'm very happy I do not need to go anywhere this evening. Or tomorrow, for that matter. We're not supposed to get any real accumulation, but it's pretty watching it come down.
#Today

OK, I'll bite, because (as recently determined) my search-foo, and most search engines today, is/are rubbish.

But why oh why do astronomers refer to literally everything heavier then Helium as 'metals'?!

We CISOs need to do a better job of networking with folks in sales, marketing, finance, and other business communities, however, just getting out there and networking is so very important.

I just had a lovely chat with a friend of a venture capitalist who I had met at an event. The person I chatted with is putting me in touch with her network, in the hopes that I might find a full time position through her network.

Even networking with our peers can help. My current part time role at Forge Path (an excellent firm by the way) came because I gave a talk at Secure World that impressed folks. One of them ran into me at an after hours dinner, found out I was in the market for a new situation and recommended me to Forge Path.

So, that invite from that vendor for dinner or drinks? Go. Meet folks. Join the CISO Society. Join the ISSA. Join the CISO Executive Network. Etc. Go to their events and meet people. Talk at ISSA meetings, talk at Secureworld, B-Sides, and other smaller conferences. If you can talk at RSA, do so.

If you get invites to events that are for CEOs, CMOs, CFOs, etc. go. Learn to talk about companies, not just about security.

Spend as much time as you can building connections. Be a resource for others so that one day they may be a resource for you.

Elon Musk is becoming a one-man rogue state – it’s time we reined him in

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/dec/20/elon-musk-is-becoming-a-one-man-rogue-state-its-time-we-reined-him-in

He's one of us.

#StarWars #Superman

Trust me when I tell you I'm smarter than you think I am, but dumber than you thought was possible.

Fuck, I even like the Incredibles, but please go read @ireneista's thread and try to understand the ways in which it's a work of objectivist philosophy (in the Ayn Rand sense).

Punching insurance executives didn't lead to single-payer health care. Murdering the UHC CEO didn't stop the NYPD from setting up a special FastPass for billionaires.

https://adhd.irenes.space/@ireneista/statuses/01JFE21DCS16BDD1QF7FRDXCNW

For a weird few years I had a full time job, rather than doing contracts and my own stuff, so I ACTUALLY had time off over the end of the year.

Of course, it never worked. I just found other projects to fill my time in.

I'm going to work no matter what, so I might as well just accept it.

Once I went on a holiday to the tropics with my then-GF.

I sat by the pool with my laptop and began designing DLC for my latest game.

Relaxing.

#HobbyStreak day 1134

Glued #InfinityTheGame #FediPaint entry to the base. Didn't get super glue on my fingers today (still plenty there from yesterday).

Used home brew terrain wash on this #RangersOfShadowDeep scatter #Terrain.

#Warmongers #Nerdlings #MiniPainting #MiniaturePainting #PaintingMiniatures #PaintingMinis #Wargaming @warhammercommunity #FantasyTerrain

https://www.europesays.com/1704061/ President Zelenskyy chatting with Oleksandr Usyk ahead of his fight with Tyson Fury 💪 🇺🇦 #Ukraine

World War Fee

and we are all paying the Fee
for the World's Wars
with our Taxes
Supplying the Bullets, and the Bombs
The Planes and the Tanks

The victims of the Wars
are paying with their lives

The Wars are between the good
and the bad
the same 2 sides as in the first 2 Wars
but the line is so blurred
no one knows who is good
and who is bad anymore

#WorldWarFee

Elon Musk Hit For Comparing Far-Right German Party to Dems

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/elon-musk-brutally-roasted-for-claiming-far-right-german-party-identical-to-democratic-party-under-obama/

Pixelfed has a Mascot.

How did I not know this.

Pixelfed's mascot is a Red Panda.

(source: https://github.com/pixelfed/brand-assets )

#DeSo #Fediverse #Pixelfed #RedPanda

Veterans Commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, Hitler's Last Major Attack on the Western Front
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/veterans-commemorate-the-80th-anniversary-of-the-battle-of-the-bulge-hitlers-last-major-attack-on-the-western-front-180985709/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into Smartnews @smartnews-Smithsonianmag

"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any." —Alice Walker

The Winter Solstice Is Here. How Dark Days Affect the Human Body

The moment when Earth’s Northern Hemisphere tilts farthest away from the sun—the December solstice, on the 21st this year—is not just a mark on the calendar. It is also defined by the way our bodies react to the event. The dimming of our daily ration of natural light leading up to the winter solstice produces a series of conspicuous physiological changes.

These changes relate to circadian rhythms. The word circadian derives from the Latin “circa diem,” meaning “about a day.” It signifies the way animals, plants, fungi and bacteria react to environmental cues, including inputs of light, on a daily and seasonal basis.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/our-bodies-are-so-ready-to-celebrate-the-rebirth-of-the-sun/

LMAO someone unironically posted Thiel’s book on startups as one of their 20 books. somehow posts from Bluesky tags federate with ours? i just blocked them.

Content warning: uspol Click to open/close

You don't have to feel sympathy for mass-murdering CEOs to recognize that committing individual murders won't get us to systematic change.

That's not hand-wringing about "violence is not the answer," it's me begging you to realize that the Luigi/Incredibles meme actually highlights the problem: individualist philosophy of action doesn't result in lasting justice.

The sun will rise in #StLouis #Missouri tomorrow at 7:15, 29 seconds later than the day before.
It will set at 16:42, 27 seconds later than the day before.

Hey I would love help calibrating something, if you see this and you’ve read Joshua Meyrowitz’s No Sense of Place (more than short excerpts), would you let me know?

If you haven’t, you don’t have to say, I will assume most people have not!

RGB displays are designed around average human rods and cones. Audio compression is designed around psychoacoustics — what the brain notices vs. filters out in sound, so compression can selectively damage the part your brain throws away anyway.

I have never seen science fiction acknowledge how fucking weird our MP3s must sound and how bizarre the color gamut of photographs on a luminous RGB or reflective CMY(K) display surface (including printed paper) must be to space aliens.

the entire history of paint mixing is like that to some extent. and we don’t necessarily need space aliens for this, human tetrachromats and birds with wider color gamut sensitivity exist

@janboehm war in einem Restaurant mit #Sharing-Konzept — und ich dachte, es wäre was lustiges mit Sherry-Konzept...
#festundflauschig #Weihnachtszirkus

HOUSE PASSES FUNDING

The House is voting yes on the CR to fund the government; President Biden just stated he WILL sign the bill by midnight!

#AureFreePress #News #press #headline #breaking #breakingnews

Würde ich überhaupt auf einen Weihnachtsmarkt gehen wollen (was mich nicht interessiert) - ich würde mich auch jetzt nicht davon abhalten lassen.

Das Risiko, auf dem Rad- oder Fußweg dorthin von einem Autofahrer, der mich "übersieht", verletzt oder getötet zu werden, ist ungleich größer als das Risiko, bei einem Anschlag verletzt zu werden.

Von gezielten Attacken, weil mein Transsein irgendwem auch dank rechter Hetze nicht passt, ganz abgesehen.

Darum bringt #Magdeburg mich auch nicht einmal ansatzweise auf die Idee, eine Partei zu wählen, die mir "mehr Sicherheit, mehr Abschiebungen, mehr Überwachung" verspricht.

Diesen Parteien ist unsere Sicherheit nämlich egal.