myrmepropagandist

pro-ant propaganda, building electronics, writing sci-fi teaching mathematics & CS. I live in NYC.🎖️(<<Medal Awarded for the time when there were too many people.)
Proverbs 6:6

bug haters DNI

If you only use bluesky follow me here:
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tumblr: https://futurebird.tumblr.com/
bsky: https://bsky.app/profile/myrmepropagandist.bsky.social
pronouns: she/her/lady/ma'am/That One/Mrs.
give me your stray bits and I'll spend it promoting ants $: 1DS6Qg8UgDws3kJ5qWa24agrVvP8j7iuUU

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Last Notes

2026-03-24 21:44:28 UTC

Sora, the money pit, has been shut down.
Who could have predicted this???

2026-03-24 16:13:47 UTC

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This baby bird is too cute. I CAN'T STAND IT. it's too much.
You will get no sympathy. Give the baby everything you own.

2026-03-24 10:04:46 UTC

Ants are social creatures and so they are no strangers to social exploits.
Kidnapping!
Coups!
Slavery!
Hi-jacking!
Highway Robbery!
Protection Rackets!
Wars of Territory Conquest!
Wars of National Security!
Wars of resource extraction!
Wars of stealing your house!
You can find ants doing things that have the same shape of many human crimes. Is it projection to name what these ants do with our ideas of human crimes? Perhaps.

2026-03-23 09:19:42 UTC

New word just dropped:
"conspress"
To express concern.
"Despite his many conspressions you can't count on him."
"I must conspress my fear for your future."
"I will conspress him to our cause."
Just pretend it's real and use it and it'll become a word in five years.

2026-03-22 13:55:45 UTC

Cat Owners
Has your cat ever been any of the following when asking for food?
Check all that apply.
Pica is often a little condescending, or she really thinks we don't know how to get her food and need help. Because the fact that we have not fed her *must* be because we were too dim to understand what needed to be done..

2026-03-22 12:32:30 UTC

I've linked to the time code where the error happens.
It's possible to tell that the video is AI generated, but something about how it breaks down here is very disturbing. No one in the comments seemed to notice.
I was scrubbing around trying find out what article they asked the AI to summarize to make this.
Anyway here is the creepy moment.
https://youtu.be/8yTO9nQdN7w?list=TLPQMjIwMzIwMjYkZfxbXaBybw&t=1141

2026-03-22 11:51:13 UTC

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There is this cynical and currently popular idea that everything is "virtue signaling" and to some extent it's true. Part of why people do what is right even when it won't benefit them is about making a statement to themselves and others about what we value.
But, it's also ... not that hard, not even that remarkable to really want to be a good person even when you don't personally benefit. I'd even suggest it's normal.

2026-03-22 11:47:12 UTC

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Nothing irritates a bully more than when someone else demonstrates the courage or honor that they lack. They will have an immediate need to prove that any such acts were either a sign that the person was duped, or that the sacrifice was motivated by a desire for public acclaim, not any principles or moral values.
To confront true selflessness is terrifying for the bully. Nothing could be more alien. Nothing more clearly calls into question their own self worth.
No! It's virtue signaling!

2026-03-22 11:39:48 UTC

Bullies are often fundamentally cowardly: if their home, or their country is under attack they rank saving their own life and possessions first and above the group.
A bully will expect any group they target to crumble in a similar manner. The idea that their threats and attacks might cause people to find a common cause, that it might inspire bravery and unification is not something they can anticipate or imagine.
Because were it them? They would shove the child out of the lifeboat and run.

2026-03-22 11:22:16 UTC

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Also when schools gut their arts programs, when they get rid of things like shop class and PE it's really harmful. It's harmful even if all you care about is students learning "the basics" eg. how to read and write, how to understand numbers and a smattering of history. Young people can't understand those things as well when they simply have less experience in everything.

2026-03-22 11:14:35 UTC

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When I only work with students in a context where I'm giving a grade, and that grade is "high stakes" because colleges care about math grades the students are less likely to bring their full creative potential to the subject of math. Grad grubbing happens.
But when they know me from working on a project first, where the feedback is narrative, where they help set the goals they are just more open to really learning the material, just just "getting through it"

2026-03-22 11:12:16 UTC

I teach both middle school "technology" (think shop class mixed with Computer Science) and I later teach the same students in geometry and calculus in high school. This means when I first work with students there are no grades, just an opportunity to be creative and learn how to use tools and programming to make things.
This creates an amazing foundation for our work in academics later.
I wonder if it could be a model for improving math education we could expand?

2026-03-22 09:11:54 UTC

RE: https://mastodonapp.uk/@PoliticalCartoon/116271879521141158
Image Description: A stippled ink realistic drawing of a middle aged white man at a gas pump. His arms are flung in the air as he tosses the pump falling to his knees crying out "why?"
He has on a red MAGA hat.
The drawing is black and white and the hat is the only color.
#note12ce…ad6j

2026-03-22 00:42:48 UTC

Who is 4.5 years old, has 600 daughters and 500 eggs ready to go for spring?
This queen carpenter ant. I’ve known this bug longer than some people— and I like her better.
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/270/043/128/239/482/original/8f4e4977650da76b.png

2026-03-21 21:00:59 UTC

When you talk about people you make them important. I want to think more about who I choose to make important.
Even if you are criticizing someone, burying their bad ideas with logic and all the knives of science you're still making them and their ideas important.
You can expect me to talk about Iain M. Banks more and the questions I have about his work.
It's why it's probably is a good idea to do a critical review of Newitz and their "Terraformers" which I also have questions about.

2026-03-21 09:37:00 UTC

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People just LIVE like this! All the time! You mom probably does!

2026-03-21 09:35:34 UTC

ugh. sponsor block missed an ad. And I listened to the WHOLE advertisement (for a mattress?) then *I* had to add the start and end times of the ad to the sponsor block list myself.
:(
poor me how i suffer some days.
(I'm being silly, this is the first ad I've experienced in a week and it really confused me since I forgot that ads exist. "why is the science show man telling me about a mattress? what is happening???" Advertising is madness, truly. )

2026-03-21 09:17:55 UTC

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I don't want to report a user to their home server. I want to report them to a list of 100 servers that I trust who would also quickly and quietly block them limiting their reach.
And I want to be able to decide who I trust with that information. The needlessly controversial #fediblock tag was created because we don't have a tool like this.
Using public hastags to do this is obviously inferior. But users adapt to system that can't be bother to adapt to their needs.

2026-03-21 09:16:42 UTC

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I have experienced a moderate amount of this nonsense, I don't think the fedi is worse than other online spaces but... shouldn't we strive to be better? Not just "good enough?"

2026-03-21 09:13:56 UTC

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I really wish there was a more sophisticated way to share moderation examples. Eg. individuals and servers could "trust" each other and then automatically share lists of reported domains and users *including* the offending posts and comments about context.
Right now the software offers to let your report a user to their home server and this is almost always a terrible idea since their whole server is probably terrible and it just makes more slur filled posts show up.

2026-03-21 08:54:18 UTC

The word "gubernatorial" as in "gubernatorial election" (election of a governor) cracks me up. Because I always hear it as "goobernatorial" as in the governor is a goober.

2026-03-21 08:47:28 UTC

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My grandma called them "Conniption Bugs" because when you see one you have a conniption fit as they are rather large and astonishing, but in the end harmless.
Seeing a dobsonfly is good luck because it means the fresh water streams and lakes are clean enough to support the hellgrammite who are the most cute and evil-looking larvae of any insect.

2026-03-21 08:44:58 UTC

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Dobsonflies are Megalopterans, large insects loved by fishermen because they attract all the best fish in fresh water. They have a bunch of goofy names:
Helgramite, Dam-worm, The Andy, Flying Crabs, Scrabbles, Molly-Grubs, Flying Worms, Stone Crab, Hell Devils, Conniption Bugs, Bogart, Ho Jack, Hiltamites, Snake Doctor, Alugmites, Water Grampus, Hell Divers and many more...
If you see one hanging around a porch light, turn it off. They only have a week to mate.

2026-03-20 09:34:55 UTC

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That old psudoscience story about a vast vanished ancient civilization that lived on early earth and left little evidence that they existed.
But they were ants. They live 200 million years ago and left for space and we find out about them when they return in their space habitats to check on the old home planet and see how things are going.

2026-03-20 09:32:59 UTC

Ants That (Probably) Do Not Exist
1. Cave Ants
2. Sea Ants
3. Time Ants
4. Space Ants
5. Cloud Ants
6. Ice Ants

2026-03-20 09:26:19 UTC

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Barnacles confused Darwin so much he cried. But that's OK. Nature is vast and confusing and if you never cry about it you probably aren't really trying to understand it very hard.

2026-03-18 18:24:08 UTC

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This is why phones are not real computers. You can't write a program and put it on your phone. Unless you make a server and make it a website. And now my husband will want me to make him a website for all his programs.
And I will make it since I need it for my horrible iphone.
I would love a linux phone, but I wonder if that will ever be workable. I have this goofy work app and I bet it won't run on that. And what about wireless payment?
Anyway this sucks.

2026-03-18 11:48:17 UTC

prepping for the Ant Show— the girls are NOT happy about being away from home.
It’s like a mini museum of ants in a box!
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/250/011/633/030/455/original/098b07c752153f13.png
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/250/011/814/186/679/original/c4444414d0df916b.png
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/250/011/972/274/039/original/42a9107b0cfc605f.png

2026-03-18 00:14:34 UTC

A woman made love to over 24 ghosts and now she will marry one of them.
...
...
...
she found her boo

2026-03-17 20:07:49 UTC

* Even proofs done “by induction” use deductive reasoning.
* Do not leave your proofs on the induction range THAT could cause a fire.

2026-03-16 12:05:19 UTC

render distance very low today
who used all the compute?
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/238/744/391/667/166/original/72d2c70667a735b3.png
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/238/744/588/380/929/original/d11e9f9b3f514716.png

2026-03-16 00:31:11 UTC

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OK now you are creeping me out.

2026-03-15 23:10:10 UTC

My husband and some of my students are sensitive to sound and recently there have been so many sirens in NYC. Just nonstop. It's not the police or fire ... it's these ambulances, some of them aren't official but they have highway level sirens and use them on residential streets.
Is there some kind of community org that works to stop noise position?
Sirens are designed to penetrate the sound insulation of cars on the highway. But we do not live on a highway. It's too loud.

2026-03-15 13:28:42 UTC

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If you have a job and you boss is named "Jane" but you decide you'd rather call her "Debbie" since you think she looks more like a Debbie than a "Jane" and you also decide you'd rather only speak to her by singing... well is it "against free speech" if she fires you for being annoying and not treating her with respect?

2026-03-15 11:09:45 UTC

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With an online conversation it's hard to know if someone who disagrees with you is being sincere or not.
"LGBTQ people and their allies want it to be illegal to express yourself"
There are always limits to expression. If I decide I don't want to call you by your name, but I feel that "Sealion" is a better name for you, I could get in trouble at work or at school for doing that after you object... because it's rude.

2026-03-14 22:48:15 UTC

She wants to be taken seriously —- but look at her toes.
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/229/961/559/833/015/original/e03f0bd2d6c2334c.jpeg

2026-03-14 21:11:53 UTC

The human brain is 2 percent of body weight but the ANT BRAIN is 15 percent of total body-weight (in the smaller ants)
checkmate primates

2026-03-14 17:31:50 UTC

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They dig and maintain the nest.
They forage for food and lay trails.
They defend each other and the queen from threats.
They find and farm scale insects for nectar.
They stop and greet each other and check if anyone who wants to enter is from the colony.
So much complexity and you have one of the smallest ant brains. They do vary in size a lot, and ants have relatively large brains for their size as insects (bees do too)
But when you look at the smallest ants it's kind of shocking.

2026-03-14 17:16:18 UTC

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I've written program to make the legs of 3D models of ants walk in a realistic way. You control the legs in two groups of 3, the lower part of the limbs can self correct. Still I'm certain the program is too long to fit in their little heads. But, they are racing around protecting their mother like they are going to do something with mandibles thinner than one of my hairs.

2026-03-14 17:12:46 UTC

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They still have six legs, tiny mandibles and tiny ant intentions and projects they are working on with their mother.
What do they have in their legs? One muscle fiber per joint?
They are so complex and tiny it's breaking my brain a little.
I don't understand why people aren't freaked about about this more often.

2026-03-14 17:08:48 UTC

I have a new queen. Lasius brevicornis. The queen is about 9mm Her nanitics are so tiny I'm going to cry. They are 1.5mm and transparent yellow.
They are smaller than the antennae on my Camponotus pennsylvanicus queen. Nanitics are the first workers in a colony and they are often smaller than the workers produced later when the colony is better established. But this is out of control. They are just so small.
They would make a fruit fly look like an elephant.

2026-03-14 13:36:09 UTC

I'm going to start an interoperability religion. This is the only way.
DO NOT post that damn #xkcd comic don't you dare.

2026-03-14 12:29:42 UTC

Even ants get hacked. Ant opsec is tremendous, but there are beetles and other ants who find exploits all of the time.

2026-03-14 10:01:12 UTC

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In decades of knowing trans people in being in places that are more accepting of trans and LGBTQ people I've never once had someone say "how dare you misgender me" though if someone had I don't know if that would matter, it's just nothing like what people expect and fear.
No one is pole dancing. I do not live in a gay pride parade.
I'm a Christian, I go to church now and then. I'm inwardly kind of prudish and I don't even like being around people swearing much.

2026-03-14 09:55:28 UTC

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I sometimes want to just explain to the bigots, this could all be very normal if you'd stop huffing bigoted media and get to know someone who was trans. It's just like ... a hormone imbalance that can be treated. It's like being mad at people for having red hair. If only you knew how boring this could be, how normal. How easy to forget that they are trans.
And I could just forget, if it weren't for the bigotry and the threats to their safety.

2026-03-14 09:51:56 UTC

I know 8 trans people well and many more as acquaintances. The 8 people I know well range from being an old childhood friend, to coworkers, to students, to neighbors.
I'm mostly aware that they are trans at all due to the increase in anti-trans laws and blatant transphobia in the US. Were it not for that? I might not know or even care. I worry about them.
In each case the fact that they are trans is one of the less interesting things I know about them.

2026-03-13 21:56:47 UTC

You must pick one very minor talent:

2026-03-13 15:27:24 UTC

contrary to popular belief, there *is* crying in mathematics

2026-03-13 13:11:22 UTC

Ladies please do not let some woman with a media empire, conservative influencer career and/or government appointments and **no kids** tell you that *you* need to be married, have lots of kids and not bother your silly little head with college.
This has been happening multiple times.
Please don't fall for it.
Also ignore if she has a nanny.

2026-03-13 10:55:52 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@kumarvibe/116218018125876181
These are not "pills that turn you into an ant"
Queen ants often dig a hole when they leave to found a new colony. The queen will seal herself away in a little pocket with no entrance or exit until she can lay and raise several eggs. Then the small workers emerge and forage for her.
This is why a queen ant can be kept in a test tube with water and she will be very happy.
These little plastic bubbles are too small and there is no water. But the ants seem to be alive still. Very upsetting.
#note15xw…4f32

2026-03-12 16:31:02 UTC

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OMG
I suppose this would be obvious to some of you but I just realized this is why they think it’s so “easy” to cut a government budget.
They assume someone somewhere must be eating lobster and then cut that.
Poor Elon.

2026-03-12 11:13:01 UTC

Some of the Lesser US War Department Budget Items Included:
Lobster Tails $7,000,000
King Crab $2,000,000
After the meals, the table is always a mess with these kinds of foods. There is something more visceral about eating an animal that you need to tear apart with your hands. The warriors must feast and remind themselves they are warriors. And of course we should pay for this, after all these are the men who keep us all safe and they have so much to be proud of and celebrate in their work.

2026-03-12 09:29:44 UTC

I have a playlist of "classical mix" for studying and Different Trains came on.
I had to turn it off.
I've listened to Steve Reich's piece many dozens of times and contemplated the source of the sound samples. I've wondered if you can hear any difference in the whistles.
But a voice whispered in my ear. "It's not trains this time, is it?"
Sprawling warehouses. Is that a data center or is it a camp?
Either way, out of sight and out of mind.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Different_Trains

2026-03-11 11:48:13 UTC

Why can't someone just tell me about one of these things before it happens so I could get in on the rug pull and make some money with the rest of ya'll just once?
It's not fair. They keep using tweets like this to make the market jump and wiggle and all of us have to just watch while they get rich off of insider information. Since no one ever gets in trouble for insider trading anymore I just feel like a sucker for being left out.
:(
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/210/374/734/835/336/original/af9cb32615b3a160.png

2026-03-10 23:53:01 UTC

Hi everyone. I need to get a rough sense of how many people are around #onhere (in this part of the fedi) who might be in the greater NYC region.

2026-03-10 00:54:33 UTC

In a few years my husband wants to go to China. We've been before to the big cities which are amazing but we'd like to go to one of the dozens of cities in China with millions of people most people in the west know very little about.
I'd like to go to see ancient invertebrates. Is there anything to do at the Qingjiang biota? There has to be a university or museum or something there.
My husband speaks Chinese ... poorly, like a 10 year old. Which I think is impressive tbh.

2026-03-09 20:07:26 UTC

Ant Fact of the Day:
"Ant Garnets" are tiny red gems found by ants. I know this sounds made up ... but it's real.
Harvester ants dig deep nests (up to 6m!) and they bring the soil to the surface grain by grain. Sometimes they find garnets, tiny precious red gemstones.
These are waste to the ants: they end up in the spoil heap around the nest. When it rains, the lighter stone washes away, the garnets from deep in the earth remain.
Those in the know can collect them from the surface.

2026-03-08 12:19:06 UTC

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My disgust for war, for the military, is not the result of being sheltered.
I hate your wars because I know exactly what they are and how when violence occurs it reverberates for generations.
Someone has lost a daughter and with her many of their reasons for living. What grim task will they devote themselves to?
What would you do, Pete, if they killed your family? Do you think you are the only person who loves their children?
I think you must.

2026-03-08 12:14:07 UTC

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The events feel unreal but the deaths are very real. This is not a video game. This is not a text adventure.

2026-03-08 12:11:54 UTC

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Right wing war hawk commentators are saying that hitting a civilian target, a school filled with little girls is "good strategy, actually" we, the soft-handed peace-nicks are simply not smart enough to understand the strategic power of this action.
But, if the Department of war won't say it remains unclear if this atrocity is based on incompetence or dim-witted malice.
update: We can infer that they "missed"
https://shakedown.social/@AAronL1968/116193541496761440

2026-03-08 12:08:19 UTC

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His speeches sound LLM generated because they are filled with so many cliches and empty sentences. And because they sound nothing like they way he speaks extemporaneousnessly. Of course this could just be a bad speech writer. Or it could be that when your ideas are bad no words can fix it.
The Department of War will not even say if they missed or not. Did they *want* to hit that school? If not the school then what?

2026-03-08 11:54:24 UTC

RE: https://infosec.exchange/@hacks4pancakes/116192434654015384
I have been watching this story simmer for several days. I've been wary of it. It fits too neatly into the criticisms and warnings many of us have been raising. But it's starting to look like, yes, they are using an LLM to make critical decisions.
At the same time I have heard parts of speeches from the US Secretary of War.* I have been dismayed by his shallow thinking. It doesn't help that his speeches also sound like they are also composed by an LLM.
*formerly Defense
#note1jxf…tacz

2026-03-07 22:35:07 UTC

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Is she even real??
(she is snoring and it sounds like a muppet)
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/190/273/694/282/841/original/c81de43f66bcf76b.png

2026-03-07 22:21:29 UTC

She loves to sleep on my coat*
*decorate it with cat hair
#caturday #picaTheCat #catsofmastodon
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/190/220/715/822/421/original/313a7ac2712aadac.png

2026-03-07 20:02:39 UTC

Happy Caturday from #picaTheCat #leadership #investNow
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/189/665/952/561/501/original/4be56b0b251b1937.png
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/189/666/233/531/167/original/280913e38550401b.png

2026-03-07 18:13:42 UTC

RE: https://mas.to/@skeletor/116188678255691223
I'm turning a light shade of red and there are little red numbers floating up from me every time I read this.
oof
#note1ah9…d44x

2026-03-07 15:28:31 UTC

The man in the gabardine suit was not spy. He *was* a right wing influencer. His bowtie was not a camera, it was those damn glasses. He'd put tape over the little red light.
We've gone to look for a way out of America. Where is the exit?

2026-03-07 13:44:48 UTC

Would you be surprised to find out that the facebook "smart" glasses have been outsourcing the video for review and processing to Nairobi?
Wealthy people once lived with vast staffs who cooked and cleaned for them, and who often knew intimate details of the lives of the powerful.
Now we have found a way for the rich to outsource ... thinking. Off-load mental work to minds half way around the world. We are suppose to pretend AI is doing this work.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0q33nvj0qpo

2026-03-06 11:24:12 UTC

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I keep thinking about how one of the reasons Epstein was not prosecuted in FL more seriously was due to the opposition research on his victims done by Alan Dershowitz . And Dershowitz was able to point to FL law that said that a teen, a 14 year old, could be charged with prostitution.
That is the conflict in our laws and values. A rich powerful man who gives a child pocket change to exploit her is a criminal. But we also regard the child as a criminal. It's monstrous.

2026-03-06 11:20:33 UTC

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We've been living through a deeply reactionary moment. But a reaction to what? The first Black president? Maybe. But I don't think we can discount the momentum of "me too" -- This idea that every man, even the powerful, might be held accountable for their treatment of women and girls (even 'unimportant' women) made some people very very angry. (and also scared they could be next)

2026-03-06 11:10:22 UTC

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There is a kind of division in "news" where stories about relationships, engagements, infidelity etc. are classed as "not real news" -- but, people care immensely about this information.
If you are a woman who has allowed your position in society to be defined by your relationship to men the norms and morality implied by such stories have material consequences.
But, it's sidelined by "serious news" as "news for women" gossip.
And because of this it becomes like the description.

2026-03-06 11:03:14 UTC

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To be clear Oprah's audience was always white women in the stage of their life from post teen-aged years but before their kids grew up. She talk about marriages and relationships in a serious way and centered their concerns. She talked about famous people through this lens and dished gossip.
Owens is doing something similar.
Her fans think she's "so loving and compassionate" wild, right?

2026-03-06 10:54:36 UTC

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And for some reason everyone forgets all of the more exploitative episodes Oprah had. Always with that "understanding psychology" and compassion angle.
"How to identify a Psychopath" and other unscientific BS.
It's the same genre of media. One that will never die.

2026-03-06 10:53:28 UTC

If you start thinking about the ways Candice Owens and Oprah are similar you will at first be mad at me for bringing this up (how dare) however there is more there than I think we might like.
Specifically their audience. Oprah has aged with her greatest fans, and become a lot more tame. Candice Owens fans of today would have been watching Oprah, Dr. Phil and others way back when.

2026-03-05 14:43:12 UTC

“practice makes perfect” but what makes perfect practice?
Athletes know all about this: you can’t really improve if there’s no challenge, no strain involved in an exercise. That said it’s also possible to overdo it. Is this true in math? I think it is.
“feel the burn, but do not reduce your brain to ashes”

2026-03-04 11:35:07 UTC

Nurtured.
Blessed.
In my lane.
Full of ants.
🐜 😌 🐜

2026-03-04 09:57:54 UTC

*old man voice with sarcastic subtext*
Back in my days the warmongers and the profiteers were more respectable. Oh they sold weapons and bombs, but they made those! Made them with their own hands (or someone's hands) ... these days tsk tsk, they just bet in an app using inside information that nations will be bombed and profit in the millions without doing any work at all. Nobody wants to work anymore.

2026-03-04 01:09:37 UTC

The average fire ant queen lives 6 to 8 years. This pretty typical for ant queens. Carpenter ant queens live from 10 to 15 years. The little black ants? Lasius niger and neoniger (these are small black ants found in the US, UK, Europe and more) have queens that live for two to three decades.
There may be a thirty year old insect in your yard and she is very busy!
(Six years ago this was the "ant fact" that made be obsessed with ants.)

2026-03-03 02:48:21 UTC

Pre-attack about 25 percent of Americans thought "military action" against Iran was a good idea. I never get used to this but after the attack it's moved up to 41 percent.
This is depressing but it's good news since in the past the jump has been much bigger.
However, I do not understand the person who changes their mind under these circumstances?
Is it just down to the media? Not wanting to face up to living in a country that is doing harm? What is it?

2026-03-02 11:22:58 UTC

Move over "who's on first"
"Looksmaxing is an atheistic geared to the male gaze"
"IDK, straight dudes also play a role in it."
"Gaze, like looking."
"Mmm they do. But, so do straight people, come on."
"I'm not saying gays like gay people. I'm saying gaze like your eyes."
"Good. I'd hope they would. That's the whole point of this eyeliner."

2026-03-02 09:54:03 UTC

It's really a missed opportunity that no one has named a species of army ant after the bacchae yet.
A crazed cult of women who run through the forest. The name is RIGHT THERE.
(Ideally for a nocturnal species with conspicuous columns.)
"Eciton bacchus" sounds so good.

2026-03-01 22:49:36 UTC

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We don't need to do this. We could just do something else ... or nothing. There is NOTHING forcing the hand of the US. No urgency. No reason.

2026-03-01 22:47:41 UTC

"... three US military service members have been killed in action. And sadly there will likely be more."
- Donald Trump Current US President on US military deaths due to his choice to attack Iran, killing many civilians there as well.
He really said "and some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I'm willing to make"

2026-03-01 20:53:42 UTC

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Two of the most momentous parts of the game are when you fix the public bus and when you get the ferry service working again.
You bring all of the materials to fix the boat but still need to buy tickets to use it because buying tickets for a nice functional local public transit system are kind of part of the whole allure.

2026-03-01 20:52:11 UTC

Stardew valley is a popular game with people in my generation. Like most video games it's a power fantasy.
In this case about growing food, having a functional "third space" in your community and fixing public transit. Pure escapism.
Also there are magic forest spirits and dungeons with monsters and treasures.

2026-03-01 13:50:27 UTC

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HER
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/154/236/352/368/690/original/d37aedc9e95dc5f7.png

2026-03-01 13:42:08 UTC

A guy I know has been married to Lorain for years. But it's a loveless marriage. He's really in love with this girl called Clearly.
So, it was not that surprising when Lorain tragically passed and I heard him singing to himself at the funeral:
"I can see Clearly now, Lorain is gone..."

2026-03-01 13:35:47 UTC

How can one cat be so fat and yet so too tiny?

2026-02-28 22:06:52 UTC

dove romance
mourning dove 1: hey
mourning dove 2: hey
mourning dove 1: want 2 make a nest?
mourning dove 2: not really
mourning dove 1: ha ha me neither, but let's hang out for life
mourning dove 2: ok! i know where there are seeds.
mourning dove 1: let's go!

2026-02-28 00:50:14 UTC

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🐜 0164: 🐜 0034 is a beetle!
🐜 0023: I knew it! Everyone block 🐜 0034
🐜 0034: That is a lie I'm NOT a beetle.
🐜 0164: or maybe a spider?
🐜 0536: A spider? WHERE?

2026-02-28 00:48:13 UTC

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🐜 0023: Found something sticky.
🐜 0536: Where??
🐜 0023: Ugh just ping me right here.
🐜 3045: Is it pepsi?
🐜 0536: Where??
🐜 0034: Please made a channel for this conversation don't clutter the public feed.
🐜 0023: It's not "clutter" this is an network for ants how can this be "clutter"
🐜 0536: Where IS IT???
🐜 0023: Just get my location I have share on.
🐜 3045: NOT pepsi. GRAPE SODA
🐜 0164: ooooh I love grape soda.
🐜 0536: Where IS IT???
🐜 0034: OMG take this to a #
🐜 0536: PLEASE where is it?

2026-02-27 23:57:13 UTC

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Each and every ant should have her own node. It will be amazing.

2026-02-27 23:56:24 UTC

I'm still trying to learn how to use this "mesh" stuff and have infested the bronx radio network with ants.
:/

2026-02-27 20:27:39 UTC

Why are there usb ports on the microwave?
wrong answers only
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/144/474/739/504/793/original/e5e852c5843a3195.png

2026-02-27 11:33:47 UTC

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I'm also very curious if any cis people got the letter by mistake. It seems likely.
Nearly all of the people who have been harassed in public over restrooms rules tend to be cis women who look a little butch or like a bowtie or something.
This isn't a flaw it's a feature. Because part of the purpose is to make a gender dress and behavior code for adults.
No men shall wear pink or nail polish. No women shall have whiskers on their chin or leave the house without a layer of foundation.

2026-02-27 11:26:23 UTC

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It's kind of obvious that what the Republican Kansas legislator would like to do is make being LGBT illegal. I find it somewhat promising that they have done something technical, creepy, and obnoxious instead. But they are pushing that boundary in the most obvious ways.
They are still too scared to do what they really want. The public ought to be disgusted.
I am.

2026-02-27 11:13:31 UTC

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Are you an "LGB" person ?
Are you enjoying an upstanding gay marriage with a white picket fence?
Are you a black American (oh wow) but not (oh no no) an immigrant ?
Are you reading the room ?
We're next! We are next.

2026-02-27 11:07:59 UTC

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Don't get it twisted this attack on trans people in Kansas (how did they identify the people they sent those letters to? They have a list, the monsters.) is a trial, a test. Let them get away with it they will move on to the next smallest group they feel they could target without public backlash.
That is how this works.

2026-02-27 11:05:50 UTC

Kansas goddamn.
God damn it all.
#KansasGoddamn

2026-02-26 00:43:21 UTC

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To be an army ant is to run with the horde! To raid and run and raid again.
To carpet the earth with so many mandibles and legs.