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Oh, the history of history and Star Trek!
Star Trek’s Cold War
While America was fighting on the ground, the Federation was fighting in space.
By Tom Nichols
To be sure, some Star Trek episodes were just fantasy and fluff. (“Spock’s Brain,” in which the first officer has his brain stolen by a planet of gorgeous but apparently daft women, is often regarded as the worst episode, but there are several contenders.) Others commented on American social problems, such as racism, with thuddingly obvious symbolism: “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” describes an endless war between two races on the same planet, one black on the right side of their body, one black on the left side, and … well, you get the picture.
But to appreciate the Cold War setting of Star Trek, you need only to understand that the Earth-led United Federation of Planets (a free and democratic association committed to equality among all beings) was NATO...
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Oooh! Today's standards. I've gone through a couple generations of young people saying, "They didn't know better back then." Having lived through those times, they did indeed know better but chose to ignore it. We are going through this right now with the MAGA and Techbro lot. Twenty years in the future people may say they didn't know better. They most assuredly do.
Trek could be both enlightened and abyssmally sexist when it came to female characters. Some portrayals I found upsetting even as a kid without any understanding of women's rights. Did I still love Star Trek? Yes, I did. But I did wish it could have been better. JK Rowling has this same problem.
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Tesla replaced laid off US workers with foreign workers using H-1B visas that Musk want to increase
Elon Musk Wants Indentured Servitude Employees
H1B are primarily a vehicle for US corporations to get access to cheaper foreign labor with reduced labor protections. H1B workers always live under the threat of being deported if they lose their job, which forces them to be more compliant to their corporate masters while they're here. If we really cared about improving US workers' tech skills, we'd just spend money training and educating US citizens.
#ElonMusk #Tesla #H1B #VisaAbuse
Tesla replaced laid off US workers with foreign workers using H-1B visas that Musk want to increase
Tesla has replaced some of its US employees who were let go as part of a big wave of layoffs...Fred Lambert (Electrek)
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It's the new Liam Neeson film, where his daughter gets carjacked.
Taken 4: A Ride
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I'm falling asleep, soooo...
HAPPY NEW YEAR! from Australia two hours early!
Grevillea fireworks
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"Wealth might make it possible to pay people and communities to accept harms; conversely, the less wealth that the recipients have, the more likely they are to accept the terms. But that doesn't mean the terms are fair. Worse, it means that existing inequalities are compounded."
— Deb Chachra: How Infrastructure Works, pp. 134-134
How Infrastructure Works - BookWyrm
bookwyrm.socialA new way of seeing the essential systems hidden inside our walls, under our streets, and all around us
Infrastructure is a marvel, meeting our basic needs and enabling lives of astounding ease and productivity that would have been unimagin…
Eight Clams Control This Polish City’s Water Supply
In the city of Poznań, Poland, a group of eight clams controls the local water supply through a clever bio-monitoring system: Tkottke.org
Volkswagen leak exposed precise location data on thousands of vehicles across Europe for months | TechCrunch
The data was found exposed on an Amazon cloud server, and contained precise location data on thousands of vehicles.Zack Whittaker (TechCrunch)
I arranged to have this on a karaoke machine for my birthday one year, so I could sing it with my friends!
@Christoph
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For me, TESCREAL is the word of year for 2024.
Coined by @timnitGebru and @xriskology in 2023 to describe multiple overlapping techno-philosophies that constantly try to redefine and rebrand to evade criticism. The word TESCREAL pins them down, bundles together, and invites further scrutiny.
"The Milky Way’s Unusual Twin in Pegasus."
International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA Image Processing: J. Miller (International Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab), M. Rodriguez (International Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab) & M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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There are good things and bad things about the new generation of AI, but one of the most terrible is the ability to impersonate humans. Let's not do this.
Counterfeit people are more dangerous than counterfeit money. They are tools for disinformation and manipulation. They destroy trust.
Let's not allow them. futurism.com/the-byte/facebook…
Facebook Planning to Flood Platform with AI-Powered Users
Meta says it envisions Facebook as being filled with AI generated characters that exist on the platform the same way as human users do.Frank Landymore (Futurism)
Just great.
Facebook Planning to Flood Platform with AI-Powered Users
"Meta says that it will be aiming to have Facebook filled with AI-generated characters to drive up engagement on its platform, as part of its broader rollout of AI products."
Facebook Planning to Flood Platform with AI-Powered Users
Meta says it envisions Facebook as being filled with AI generated characters that exist on the platform the same way as human users do.Frank Landymore (Futurism)
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How does the use of Nextcloud in Public Sector keep your data safe?
Nextcloud CEO @Karlitschek shares the importance of digital sovereignty in today's digital world, how open source in Germany is finding success, and a taste of the latest features in Nextcloud Hub:
Thank you @CollaboraOffice !
#CollaboraOnline #DigitalSovereignty
Does the Public Sector Keep Your Data Safe? - Nextcloud CEO Frank Karlitschek
We speak with Frank Karlitschek, CEO of Nextcloud about why Germany is investing so much in Open Source, the rising importance of digital sovereignty in the public sector and the latest improvement...@fps_gbg – PeerTube
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Hi folks. Please help get the word out! 🙏
lmno.lol, my blogging service, is now generally available. No invite needed!
😡 No #tracking #ads #paywall or #bloat
🥰 #privacy first, read anywhere (even #terminal), #markdown, bring your own #editor
My blog lmno.lol/alvaro
I hope LMNO gets you blogging in 2025!
Please help me get the word out 🙏
#vim #emacs #vscode #indiedev #indieweb #indie #plaintext
The city of Joplin, Missouri is doing a series of PSA's about porch pirates (depicted as actual theatrical pirates) and the videos have got less than 100 views.
youtube.com/watch?v=-7EYZ4Uwex…
- YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music that you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.www.youtube.com
Jimmy Carter’s idealism and humility left a lasting imprint on American life
Former US president Jimmy Carter, a man defined by his humility and idealism, has died at 100.
Many US presidents come from modest upbringings. Born in Plains, Georgia, Jimmy Carter’s Depression-era childhood was no exception. His home lacked running water and electricity, while his rural high school lacked a 12th grade.
What made Carter exceptional was the degree to which these humble beginnings would influence his life, most notably his time as America’s 39th president from 1977-1981.
Jimmy Carter’s idealism and humility left a lasting imprint on American life
The former US president was widely criticised for his time in government, but his work on leaving office came to exemplify what a post-presidential life could entail.The Conversation
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Tiffany & Company - Liars or Time Travellers
- YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music that you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.youtube.com
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Today, I discovered that in #Rails 8, the command for setting up a fresh database has changed from `db:migrate` to `db:prepare`. This caught me off guard since it wasn’t mentioned in the [Rails 8.0 release notes](guides.rubyonrails.org/v8.0/8_…).
Thankfully, I found it documented in the [ActiveRecord CHANGELOG](github.com/rails/rails/blob/8-…).
However, testing migrations now requires `rails db:migrate:reset`, which feels far from intuitive.
#ruby
Ruby on Rails 8.0 Release Notes — Ruby on Rails Guides
Ruby on Rails 8.0 Release NotesHighlights in Rails 8.0:Ruby on Rails Guides
Good bye to both of the Brad's! I will miss you when we finally make the jump to Healesville!
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"Orion's Belt or the Belt of Orion."
Giuseppe Donatiello from Oria (Brindisi), Italy, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
There's a lot I don't know yet, but no sense in delaying with what I do know – hi, my name is Robin and I'm trans.
I'll be going by Robin Riley, and using they/them pronouns for the foreseeable future. And it's going to take ✨ time ✨ to update my info everywhere, so please bear with me.
Jay Bryant
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