Beyond Harris and Trump: Swing Left forecasts "sea change" — and possible Democratic sweep | Salon.com

I hope they aren't just being hopeful...

https://www.salon.com/2024/07/27/beyond-harris-and-trump-swing-left-forecasts-sea-change--and-possible-democratic-sweep/

People can do both, right? Because, believe it or not, many do.

And collective action *does* matter, right? Because I'm pretty sure you're just cherry picking your favorite flavor of collective action.

"on the fediverse"?! Is that supposed to mean more to me than my country, state, community, etc?! Because winning elections is a pretty efficient way of helping tens of millions of vulnerable people.

Lastly, I'm pretty sure that being a cynical assh*le isn't exclusive to the cis community.

I think the most evil thing about #elonmusk sharing Ai generated voice clips of #harris is that he is a massive proponent of generative #ai and yet knowingly shares a video that abuses its application, in hopes of fooling people who don’t know better.

To him this isn’t a big or an abuse, but a feature of Ai. To manipulate people and distort their perception of reality. As long as people like him exist, there is no good future where Ai is embraced.

Elon Musk Shares Manipulated Harris Video, in Violation of X’s Policies

The billionaire owner of the social media platform X reposted a video that mimics Vice President Kamala Harris’s voice, without disclosing that it had been altered

On Friday night, Mr. Musk, the billionaire owner of the social media platform X, reposted an edited campaign video for Vice President Kamala Harris that appears to have been digitally manipulated to change the spot’s voice-over in a deceptive manner.

The video mimics Ms. Harris’s voice, but instead of using her words from the original ad, it has the vice president saying that
President Biden is senile, that she does not “know the first thing about running the country” and that, as a woman and a person of color, she is the “ultimate diversity hire.”

In addition, the clip was edited to remove images of former President Donald J. Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, and to add images of Mr. Biden.
The original, unaltered ad, which the Harris campaign released on Thursday, is titled “We Choose Freedom.”

The version posted on X does not contain a disclaimer, though the account that first uploaded it Friday morning, @MrReaganUSA, noted in its post that the video was a “parody.”

When Mr. Musk reposted the video on his own account eight hours later, he made no such disclosure, stating only, “This is amazing,” followed by a laughing emoji.
Mr. Musk’s post, which has since been viewed 98 million times, would seem to run afoul of X’s policies, which prohibit sharing “synthetic, manipulated or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm.”
Some observers quickly called out the post. “This is a violation of @X’s policies on synthetic media & misleading identities,” Alex Howard, a digital governance expert and the director of the Digital Democracy Project at the Demand Progress Education Fund, posted on the site on Saturday.
“Are you going to retroactively change them to allow violations in an election year?”

Mr. Musk did not respond to a request for comment. The owner of the @MrReaganUSA account, who appears to be a conservative podcast host named Chris Kohls, also did not reply to a query.

In a statement, the Harris campaign said, “The American people want the real freedom, opportunity and security Vice President Harris is offering; not the fake, manipulated lies of Elon Musk and Donald Trump.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/27/us/politics/elon-musk-kamala-harris-deepfake.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Thinking about poor Jasper, Alberta today, and John Denver’s song about the area. It’s fitting.

“Clear waters are laughing,
They sing to the sky,
The Rockies are living,
They never will die.”

(This one is on my #Solarpunk playlist.)

#music #ClimateChange #wildfires

https://open.spotify.com/track/3bqywu4Itkcpnwc5RqPWRP?si=Z6sUBhwXQU-aGB-9Xvp-TQ

Canada owes First Nations billions after making ‘mockery’ of treaty deal, top court rules
Court urges federal and Ontario governments to make payouts after ‘dishonourably’ neglecting 174-year-old deal
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/26/canada-payment-first-nations-indigenous-treaty-deal

Kamala Harris erases Trump’s poll lead in one week – Turnaround since vice-president took election frontrunner spot from Joe Biden described as ‘astounding’

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2024/07/27/us-election-kamala-harris-erases-donald-trumps-poll-lead/

President Biden will announce Supreme Court reform plans next week ...

It is probable that Biden will support the implementation of term limits for Supreme Court justices, the establishment of an ethics code, and a constitutional amendment that restricts presidential immunity.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/26/biden-supreme-court-reform-plans-00171493

When your #caturday is going a little TOO well.

#cat #cats #catstodon #CatsOfMastodon #humor #humour

I know this is true.

We managed to get away from #Boston up the #NorthShore for a bit this month, got out on the water in kayaks a few times, and saw some tremendous skies.

Uh, why is ANYONE still on Xitter?

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/27/us/politics/elon-musk-kamala-harris-deepfake.html

#elonmusk #twitter #x #disinformation #KamalaHarris

Lotta new people on the fedi suddenly on #mastodonforharris no one has ever seen before and their sole post content is to get you to feel bad for getting politically involved. Block them

Scribe Awards were awarded by the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers.
But wait... how the hell is Legend of the Five Rings not "speculative"? It's a fantasy universe!

(as per the association's website: "General=mystery, action, adventure, literary, romance, comedy, etc., anything without a speculative slant to it."; "Speculative = fantasy, science fiction, horror, paranormal")

#l5r #legendofthefiverings

‘Clean air in schools benefits students & staff in terms of physical health & learning capacity.
Numerous epidemiological studies link poor air quality with reduced attendance rates at school.
Actions are urgently needed to enhance classroom air quality.’
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1155/2024/5531325

Marvel shows footage from Thunderbolts* at SDCC, doesn’t explain the asterisk https://www.polygon.com/sdcc/24205391/thunderbolts-first-trailer-marvel-mcu-sdcc-2024

TIL: During the parade of nations at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, Greece always enters the stadium first due to its status as the birthplace of the Olympics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greece_at_the_Olympics
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1edxmj9/til_during_the_parade_of_nations_at_the_opening/

I just overheard someone say “I’m not voting for Kamala Harris because she’s a woman, I’m voting for Kamala Harris because she wants me to have as many rights as a man”.

This needs to be said more.

I am available to run Tesla and I promise only good posts not bad posts

Remember musk was going to put individual cars through a series of underground tunnels that would *individually* have car elevators cut into the street somehow and everyone who worked in tunnels, cars, or elevators was like “bro what”

Content warning: my thought about political donations Click to open/close

Google claims its “Privacy Sandbox” protects your privacy, but it really protects their profits. That's why Privacy Badger's latest update automatically opts you out. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/07/why-privacy-badger-opts-you-out-googles-privacy-sandbox

🤯🤯🤯Holy crap... she's actually going to do it.

Harris can even lose Texas, Florida, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma, and Ohio... and still win at 271.

But she has to run the table on MN, WI, PA, and MI.

Edit: I think she picks Shapiro for VP. But she should probably pick Walz instead. Shapiro is too risky. Kelly too. Whitmer already declined.

She just needs Vance to keep talking, and to keep threading the needle with Black voters and to help them vote.

Major Democratic donors can kiss my ass.

Quartz: Major Democratic donors want Kamala Harris to fire the FTC chair if she becomes president

https://qz.com/kamala-harris-democrat-donor-ftc-lina-khan-linkedin-iac-1851606256

#goodnews #goodearth #rewilding #rivers #fish #UK

Salmon Return to the Heart of UK for First Time in 100 Years After Dam Removal: ‘It’s very rewarding’

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/salmon-return-to-the-heart-of-uk-for-first-time-in-100-years-after-dam-removal-its-very-rewarding/

So Conservative leader #Poilievre just takes over a kid's playground, starts ranting and insinuating Trudeau will be "selling drugs in corner stores"; there's no members of the public there except his crew to film it .. and then the guy is rewarded with an full page article on CBC. 🤦

#PoilievreIsLyingToYou #Campaigning247 #cdnpoli #canada #DougFord @MikeImBack

My last post on here was August last year so what's been happening in the past year?

- Went to California to see my fav musician perform a bunch of times and then visited Yosemite and Sequoia, the latter of which was maybe the most spiritual experience I've ever had (photo attached)
- Hiked the Jatbula trail with a bunch of mates (including getting the flu halfway along oops) and just had the most beautiful time
- Set myself a challenge of uploading a new video to YouTube every week and so far have stuck to that! (Mostly covers, but a couple of originals in there!)
- Moved into the bulk of my job being timber machining and bespoke work construction so my job is now machining and building things from recycled wood ???
- Been feeling my relationship to gender and clothing shift more and more to your classic lumberjill dyke aesthetic (maybe it's time for a photoshoot with an axe slung over my shoulder...)
- Haven't written as much as I'd like, but appeared on the 1st episode of Trans Sexual podcast (https://www.transsexualpod.com/) which is a delightful listen
- Have written half of a couple of different new EP projects and am excited to maybe get one of those together in the next year or two

Mostly though I've just been more and more offline, working on wood, going for walks in the woods, playing and writing music, and just being happily homo alone for the most part!

#SeedBombs are great fun for children and adults!

"Whether it's a plant pot, flowerbed, wild patch in your lawn or an entire #meadow, sowing #wildflowers in your #garden provides vital resources to support a wide range of insects that couldn't otherwise survive in urban or built-up areas.

Throwing, breaking up or digging ‘seed bombs’ (or balls) into areas in your garden that need a little brightening up is a perfect way of spending an afternoon!

You will need:

- Meadow flower seeds or seeds collected from the garden.
- Peat-free compost.
- Powdered clay (found in craft stores)
- Mixing bowl.

Creating your seed bomb:

1. In a bowl, mix together 1 cup of seeds with 5 cups of compost and 2-3 cups of clay powder (you could use clay soil instead if you have it).

2. Slowly mix in water with your hands until everything sticks together.

3. Roll the mixture into firm balls.

4. Leave the balls to dry in a sunny spot.

5. Now for the fun bit! Plant your seed bombs by throwing them at bare parts of the garden and wait to see what pops up!

Top plants to include in your seed bombs:

- Bulbous #Buttercup - Ranunculus bulbosus
- #Chamomile - Chamaemelum nobile
- Common Bird’s-foot-trefoil - Lotus corniculatus
- Common Knapweed - Centaurea nigra
- Common Spotted-orchid - Dactylorhiza fuchsii
- Lady's bedstraw - Galium verum
- Red #Clover - Trifolium pratense
- Wild #Thyme - Thymus polytrichus

Source: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/actions/how-make-seed-bomb

#Gardening #GardeningForPollinators #NoMowMay #SeedBombs #SeedBalls #rewilding

Don't threaten me with a good time

I can't see anything on the #scienceLimericks hashtag. That can't be right.

There once was a lady named Bright,
Who could travel much faster than light.
She went out one day, in a relative way,
And came back the previous night.

During the Olympics opening ceremony, the Algerian team threw flowers into the Seine River at the very point where in 1961 over 200 Algerians were beaten and intentionally drowned by French police during a protest against an anti-Muslim curfew. Long live Algeria 🇩🇿🇩🇿🇩🇿

https://webdoc.france24.com/october-17-1961-massacre-algerians-paris-france-police-history/

#ParisOlympics #Olympics #Algeria #Racism #Islamophobia #Massacre

A-fuckin'-men Baby!!

“…you cannot trust generated code. I can’t emphasize this enough. AI-generated code always looks quite plausible, but…it’s rarely congruent with your wants and needs. … It will make up variables, method names, function calls; it will hallucinate fields that don’t exist. … The more important, difficult or meaningful a piece of code is, the less likely you are to generate a usable artifact using AI.”
https://stackoverflow.blog/2024/06/10/generative-ai-is-not-going-to-build-your-engineering-team-for-you/
#generativeai #ai

‘School conditions, particularly classroom air quality, are often less than ideal, sometimes poorer than air quality in offices or homes. Such conditions compromise the comfort of students and have been directly linked to health issues.’
#COVODisAIRBORNE
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1155/2024/5531325