Hi all!
If you don't know who we are, Streetmix is an open source street design tool where anyone can play with and "remix" streets, with the goal of making streets better and safer for everyone.
Here's a great recent example of what our community does with Streetmix:
hot take, FOSS
FOSS as a mechanism for the commons has been a complete failure from a legal perspective, for reasons that would have been obvious to marginalized folks from the start: you do not actually have the money to send lawyers after license violators for enforcement.
The only reason any of it works *at all* is because the concept has established some sort of shared understanding of a commons and the social norms within it, as a side-effect. The legal component is a no-op there.
And even that barely works; it's not intersectional at all, leading to a 'big tent' approach, which frequently results in exploitation of the commons, and the gradual erosion of people's understanding of the "public commons" part.
covid, looking for resources
Does anyone know of good sources for up-to-date info on covid risks? Especially interested in:
comparative risk of different types of activities (indoors vs outdoors, unmasked vs different types of masks, etc)
risk of long covid in vaccinated people, especially chronically ill people
For artists who include AI 'art' for sale in their portfolio
With all the constant talk of how generators like Stable Diffusion and MidJourney trained their AI on other artists' work without their permission, if you're in the art scene *at all*, you know. You KNOW. You know it's exploitative and infringing copyright and morally and ethically wrong. You *know*.
Just... do better. Have faith in the quality of your own hand crafted work, and drop the AI. You have a choice not to be a shit person.
For artists who include AI 'art' for sale in their portfolio
(Disclaimer, I used to do stuff with MidJourney. Then I stopped because I realised that they, too, had training data that included people's work without permission.)
If you're an artist yourself, you should know better. If you're an artist who crafts their own artwork from a learned skill, you should know better. If you've had other people or companies stealing your work, or work of artists you know, you should know better.
(cont)
Ongelooflijk mooie fotos van een bizar wezen https://www.barrywebbimages.co.uk/Images/Macro/Slime-Moulds-Myxomycetes/ #myxomycetes
A gentle reminder: as recently as 15 years ago, Elsevier, everyone's least favorite and most predatory academic publisher, was also a LITERAL ARMS DEALER.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/may/30/armstrade.weaponstechnology
(h/t @researchfairy)
I’m Jewish. I’m trans. I’m queer. I’m disabled. I’ve seen the fascism warning signs for a long time now, and have written about it at length. Fascism is here. Now. All the anti-trans legislation, removal of reproductive rights, etc, IS fascism. If you’re waiting for them to forcibly load you on trains to take you to camps for you to recognize that it’s here, that will be too late.
PSA: Redbubble
If you buy things from Redbubble, please be aware that they changed their business model so that they now get over 85% of whatever products they sell. If you are interested in buying something from a creator, you may want to check whether they have an alternative outlet that won't scam them this way.
If you are a creator who has used them...I am sorry.
To be clear, I'm not promoting anti-intellectualism here, we should listen to scientists and others in their specialized field and the conclusions drawn detailed/rigorous meta analysis on those topics they've collectively come up.
But we have to stop assuming that someone with a PhD in sociology knows more about the struggles of marginalized people than a marginalized person; we have to stop creating vanguards of intelligentsia; and we have to accept that in order to successfully complete that much schooling, you have to have privilege, lots of not insignificant privilege.
In the process of moving to @joepie91. This account will stay active for the foreseeable future! But please also follow the other one.
Technical debt collector and general hype-hater. Early 30s, non-binary, ND, poly, relationship anarchist, generally queer.
- No alt text (request) = no boost.
- Boosts OK for all boostable posts.
- DMs are open.
- Flirting welcome, but be explicit if you want something out of it!
- The devil doesn't need an advocate; no combative arguing in my mentions.
Sometimes horny on main (behind CW), very much into kink (bondage, freeuse, CNC, and other stuff), and believe it or not, very much a submissive bottom :p
My spoons are limited, so I may not always have the energy to respond to messages.
Strong views about abolishing oppression, hierarchy, agency, and self-governance - but I also trust people by default and give them room to grow, unless they give me reason not to. That all also applies to technology and how it's built.