knapjack

[knapjack]

Or curtsey....

I get not deadnaming someone because you disagree with their politics, or they're just an ass. But if they happen to be a nazi?

If I can gently correct you: I don't deadname anyone, no matter what, because I don't deadname. Period. Agreement, disagreement, or politics has nothing to do with it. Even if a person is abhorrent (and, for example, just to pull something randomly out of the air. ran over a guy with her car and somehow got away with it), that person does not deserve to be deadnamed, ever.

Deadnaming is wrong. It's hurtful. It's dehumanizing. I personally believe that it's always wrong, no matter what.

Nazis are all about dehumanizing people, right? Let's not be like them. If you see a Nazi, the appropriate reaction is to punch them in the face, take a bow, and move along.

[knapjack]

Love this.

We’re taking steps to protect against future interference in our political conversation by state-sponsored propaganda campaigns

Hi Tumblr,

We’re all grappling with the influence that state-sponsored disinformation campaigns can have on our political conversations—and how wide-spread that interference turned out to be. So please take a moment to read this, think about it, and talk about it.

Last fall, we uncovered 84 Tumblr accounts linked to the Russian government through the Internet Research Agency, or IRA. These accounts were being used as part of a disinformation campaign leading up to the 2016 U.S. election. After uncovering the activity, we notified law enforcement, terminated the accounts, and deleted their original posts. Behind the scenes, we worked with the Department of Justice, and the information we provided helped indict 13 people who worked for the IRA.

Now that the investigations are done, we want to let you know how we’re going to help protect Tumblr in the future and what you can do to help.

Here’s what we know about these accounts

The IRA employs more than 1,000 people who engage in electronic disinformation and propaganda campaigns around the world using phony social media accounts. Their goal is to sow division and discontent in the countries they target. What makes them so difficult to spot is that they’re not spambots. They’re real people who get trained and paid to spread propaganda.

As far as we can tell, the IRA-linked accounts were only focused on spreading disinformation in the U.S., and they only posted organic content. We didn’t find any indication that they ran ads.

Remember, the IRA and other state-sponsored disinformation campaigns play off our zero-sum politics. They want to drive a wedge between us so that we spend our time fighting with each other instead of building towards the future. We’ll be watching for signs of future activity, but the best defense is knowing how they operate and how to judge the content you see.

What we’re doing in response to the interference

First, we’ll be emailing anyone who liked, reblogged, replied to, or followed an IRA-linked account with the list of usernames they engaged with.

Second, we’re going to start keeping a public record of usernames we’ve linked to the IRA or other state-sponsored disinformation campaigns. We’re committed to transparency and want you to know everything that we know.

We’ve decided to leave up any reblog chains that might be on your Tumblrs—you can choose to leave them or delete them. We’re letting you decide because the reblog chains contain posts created by real Tumblr users, often challenging or debunking the false and incideniary claims in the IRA-linked original post. Removing those authentic posts without your consent would encroach on your free speech—and there have been enough disruptions to our conversations as it is.

What we’re doing to stop future disinformation campaigns

You’ve probably read that U.S. intelligence officials expect foreign agents to try similar propaganda campaigns in the future. We’ll be monitoring Tumblr for signs of state-sponsored disinformation campaigns, and if we see anything we will…

Terminate the accounts and remove their original posts.

Notify you if we determine that you’ve liked, reblogged, replied to, or followed a propaganda account.

Add the username to the public record.

Alert law enforcement.

There are also things you can do to help stop the spread of disinformation and propaganda.

Be aware that people want to manipulate the conversation. Knowing that disinformation and propaganda accounts are out there makes it harder for them to operate. The News Literacy Project has this handy checklist for spotting their tricks.

Be skeptical of things you read. Disinformation campaigns work because they know people don’t fact check. Look for reliable sources, and double-check that the source really says the same thing as the post. You can also check Snopes and Politifact. Both are award-winning resources and usually have the latest viral claim fact checked on the front page. 

Correct the record. When you see people spreading misinformation—even unintentionally—politely say something in a reblog or reply. If it’s your friend, send them a message to let them know.

One last note: Please vote.

Transparency won’t mean a thing if we don’t participate in the process. Whatever your political stance, voting ensures a government that represents your interests. For our U.S. users: You can register online or by mail, and many states are holding primaries right now.

[knapjack]

In the middle of every March, the SXSW Music Festival fills Austin, Texas, with thousands of musicians from around the world. It’s a marathon so daunting — it’s a marathon and a sprint, really — that even longtime SXSW veterans need a hand winnowing the festival’s countless discoveries down to digestible doses.

That’s where The Austin 100 comes in. Handpicked from thousands of bands playing at this year’s festival, these 100 songs highlight the best SXSW 2018 has to offer — songs from around the world, across a broad spectrum of genres, sounds and styles.

Here’s how you can listen: You can stream songs on our artist pages, or in the NPR One app. You can also download MP3s on each artist page, or grab a ZIP file containing all 100 songs here. And if you’re a Spotify user, you can stream most of the mix via our Austin 100 playlist.

These six-plus hours of music are only the beginning of NPR Music’s SXSW 2018 coverage: You will eventually find more recommendations, conversations, videos and dispatches from this year’s festival at npr.org/sxsw. But in the meantime, enjoy the music!

The Austin 100: Stream or download 100 great songs by artists performing at SXSW 2018

Photo: NPR

[knapjack]

Inaction

This week I’ve felt convicted for not being more proactive, particularly in light of the continued mass shootings, but in other areas of life as well.  I’ve been focused on formulating my thoughts for a sermon on the topic, although I’ve contemplated writing here sooner too.  I won’t accomplish much with this post along, but think it’s worth noting that I hope for a clearer call to action to be posted soon.

Each time events like this happen, along with acts of racism and gender discrimination and more… I see a lot of posts.  I also see a lot of arguments. 

I am confident that we must demand action.

I am equally confident that we must listen carefully to one another to know what actions will be most meaningful. 

I am further confident that we won’t all be happy with said action, and in fact that we may have to change and refine whatever happens many times.

Even so, we cannot abide inaction.  We cannot let a single racist comment or joke be offered without addressing it.  We cannot tolerate mass shootings in schools or otherwise.  We can do this without trampling on rights.  We can.

Jesus helped point us in the right direction.  He also demonstrated that true power doesn’t come from a sword, nor a throne.  As for me, I seek to follow where Christ leads us.  I believe it will help us find meaningful reform and abiding peace.

[knapjack]

I should start a Kickstarter to open a bar where Mark Blyth gets to drink for free.

[knapjack]

submitted by @gaydeliverydriverunion

[knapjack]

Van Cleef & Arpels Complication Poetique Midnight Planetarium Watch

Complication Poetique Midnight Planetarium Watch has six rotating disks, each bearing a tiny sphere representing one of the six planets visible with the naked eye.

The disks rotate at different speeds so that each sphere makes one revolution around the dial in the time it takes the actual planet it represents – Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter or Saturn – to orbit the sun.  Mercury in 88 days, Venus in 224, Earth in a year, Mars in 687 days, Jupiter in 12 years and Saturn in 29. It’s a very complex watch and a true display of supreme watchmaking. Time is indicated by a shooting-star symbol rotating around the dial’s circumference. Leveraging the brand’s specialty in jewelry, each of the planets are represented by precious and semi-precious stones, ranging from red jasper to serpentine and turquoise. An even more extravagant edition is available with baguette-cut diamonds set into the bezel. The planet module was designed by Christian van der Klaauw, renowned for his movements featuring astronomical indications. The movement is self-winding and contains 396 components.  The case is 44 mm in diameter and made of rose gold. The dial is made of aventurine and the planets of semiprecious stones.  Price: about $245,000; a diamond-set version will be about $330,000.

[knapjack]

John Stilgoe, Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places

See also: his segment on 60 Minutes

Filed under: my reading year 2017

[knapjack]

The words were those of Coretta Scott King, widow of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

But they resulted in a rarely invoked Senate rule being used to formally silence Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

On the Senate floor Tuesday, Warren began reading from a letter Scott King wrote in 1986 objecting to President Reagan’s ultimately unsuccessful nomination of then-U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions to a federal district court seat.

Now-Sen. Sessions, R-Ala., is President Trump’s nominee for U.S. attorney general. Warren was speaking in the debate leading up to Sessions’ likely confirmation by the Senate Wednesday.

Republicans Vote To Silence Sen. Elizabeth Warren In Confirmation Debate

Photo: Pete Marovic/Bloomberg via Getty Images

[knapjack]

Chiune Sugihara. This man saved 6000 Jews. He was a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania. When the Nazis began rounding up Jews, Sugihara risked his life to start issuing unlawful travel visas to Jews. He hand-wrote them 18 hrs a day. The day his consulate closed and he had to evacuate, witnesses claim he was STILL writing visas and throwing from the train as he pulled away. He saved 6000 lives. The world didn’t know what he’d done until Israel honored him in 1985, the year before he died.

[knapjack]

I have one of these and never used it. I got it for free on an SR-T 101 body and thought felt like a plastic piece of crap. Now, I’m going to have to try it. It’s on an XE-7 now, finishing out a roll of Fuji Acros 100.

It actually looks good and handles reasonably well on the XE-7 with it’s big pentaprism overhang. The 101 needed a little more glass for a good balance.

[knapjack]

It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.”

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (via spaghettitree)

[knapjack]

Way.

This. is. amazing. 

[knapjack]

I wonder where that policeman is now?

A black policeman protects a KKK member, as protesters were closing in on them in at a rally in Austin, Texas. 1983

via reddit

[knapjack]

your little daily reminder

not to be too hard on yourself.

Humans didn’t develop/evolve/come to be with instincts and abilities based around technology. We aren’t born with eyes that are meant to stare at screens for prolonged periods, or minds that are supposed to handle mathematical, political, social, and linguistic problems every 15 seconds like we do in this modern world.

If you look at the human span of existence, language, business, ‘the work day,’ and all of these modern problems are the tiniest blip at the end of the spectrum. In a body that for millenia specialized in survival practices such as hunting, gathering, and procreating, you are making spreadsheets, completing homework assignments, going to weddings, cooking on a stove top, inventing machines, using smart phones, having relationships dependent on small bubbles of words, Snapchatting, motivating, reading, writing, driving heavy machinery, and making art in the process.

It’s okay to procrastinate a little. You’re not inhuman or a failure. You are far ahead on the learning curve, and there’s much that you have made yourself able to do through desire and willpower. Written language is not innate, nor is mathematics, etiquette, or any of these constructs we use daily. In fact, studies show that there is a recorded shift in the dominant part of the brain and the patterns of brain growth after written systems of language and calculation came about. Before this, this part of the brain was a rarely used tool, something that came up very rarely when looking for patterns. 

We as humans collectively shifted our major. ;)

We as humans taught ourselves beyond our ‘evolutionary capabilities’ and created society. 

Any time you are feeling down on yourself, just realize “I have these problems because humans decided they were going to kick biological convention on its knees and do one better.”

You were not born to make spreadsheets.

but you can make spreadsheets.

That alone makes you pretty groovy. Go ahead and make some hot cocoa and watch Supernatural. History might just let you have the night off.