Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Chris Maytag @cpm5280.bsky.social · 27m

Why don't browsers take the initiative and name downloaded files usefully, @vivaldi.com? I have folders full of files named things like "bafkreidkyax4tvohxuosaq2oeukxbp2l3qieg2niceiqxadpxxqb6t3uty.jpg" but the browser could have extracted useful names from contextual clues in like 99% of cases.

Chris Maytag @cpm5280.bsky.social · 49m

Not many things seem likely to result in me in prison for the rest of my life, but this situation might just do it. I hope karma catches up with that fucker right quick.

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Chris Maytag @cpm5280.bsky.social · 59m

This view is breathtakingly detached from consequence (of her undeserved authority, of her personal politics, of her bias and racism), from motivation (of those who appointed her, of her own political views and their origin), and from merit (she is not qualified for the role). Pierce your bubble.

Reposted by Chris Maytag

Ashley Kuckelman @ashleyvotesblue.bsky.social · 4h

Diversity is our strength, no matter what racist, bigoted Republicans say.

Real Americans embrace diversity, equity and inclusion.

Real Americans reject Trump and his white nationalist cronies.

Trump is bad, project 2025 is bad and the people who love America, the real patriots reject both.

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Chris Maytag @cpm5280.bsky.social · 4h

FYI, many people are leaving Substack for Ghost because of Substack's ongoing Nazi problem.
arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

Substack’s “Nazi problem” won’t go away after push notification apology

Substack may be legitimizing neo-Nazis as “thought leaders,” researcher warns.

arstechnica.com

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Chris Maytag @cpm5280.bsky.social · 6h

Some things I've not had in my life that I wish I'd had in my life:
- metal folding machine
- hydraulic paper stack cutter
- SEM
- Physical Vapor Deposition machine
- giant crane

Chris Maytag @cpm5280.bsky.social · 6h

I remain a little surprised that we have not seen K.S. Robinson's "Children of Kali" emerge yet.

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 2d

Do we really want 250,000 mirrored satellites in Low Earth Orbit? Hasn't the Starlink megaconstellation already done enough damage?
🧪 @mjibrown.bsky.social

A US startup plans to deliver ‘sunlight on demand’ after dark. Can it work – and would we want it to?

Satellites beaming sunlight down to Earth sound like science fiction – and they have astronomers very worried.

theconversation.com

Chris Maytag @cpm5280.bsky.social · 20h

I'm not so old at fifty-six, but I'm at an age where friends and peers are dying, sometimes. It's made the value of the simple joys and time spent with people I care about that much more keenly felt.

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Chris Maytag @cpm5280.bsky.social · 20h

Another nice Saturday spent with a dear friend. At this point in my life that feels so precious, and not at all a given.

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Chris Maytag @cpm5280.bsky.social · 22h

NooooooO!! Disco had a bunch of characters I really liked, but Tilly was my number one and I've been looking forward to seeing her. I'll be really bummed if this turns out to be true.

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Chris Maytag @cpm5280.bsky.social · 22h

I'm thinking that that "Dewey" listed above could well be (probably is) John Dewey. The time and place are right.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_De...

John Dewey - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Chris Maytag @cpm5280.bsky.social · 22h

My dad sends me videos from his wildlife camera outside of his house (Southern Ca.). He gets bears, bobcats, mountain lions, deer, raccoons, skunks. He may have the house there, but they've been there a lot longer and I love knowing that they haven't been pushed out entirely.

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Chris Maytag @cpm5280.bsky.social · 23h

The list of things we need to fix when we win is looooong.

Bolts @boltsmag.org · 23h

The charge of “felony murder” allows defendants to be charged with the death of an accomplice, even when the killing was committed by someone else. Between 2009 and 2017, 83 percent of people charged with felony murder in Alabama were Black.

A Friend’s Death to Mourn, and to Serve Time for

An Alabama teen was shot alongside his friend, then prosecuted for his killing. His case highlights a particularly harsh doctrine in American criminal punishment: felony murder.

boltsmag.org

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Chris Maytag @cpm5280.bsky.social · 1d

Or switch to a super-capable, power-tool Chromium-based browser like @vivaldi.com and just avoid Google's BS entirely!

Mike W @gekido.bsky.social · 1d

so Google just added a bunch (more) AI bullshit to Chrome

Go through these steps to disable it:

opus.ing/posts/how-to...

#chrome #aibullshit

How to Remove AI From Your Google Chrome Experience - Opus

Follow these steps to resist the AI-pocalypse in your everyday web browsing.

opus.ing

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Chris Maytag @cpm5280.bsky.social · 1d

When this is over, we will be left with all of these men who accepted money to abuse the rest of us, or who didn't even need the money to be convinced to abuse the rest of us.

It's time for mainstream - white! - America to recognize what American-style policing really is, & to reject it for better.

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Chris Maytag @cpm5280.bsky.social · 1d

HFS!

Guy Pradel @pradaldi.bsky.social · Sep 2

New product on my shop, The Longest Cat.
This is a set of four stamps to create cute mutant cats.

guypradel.fr/produit/the-...

The set of four stamps, with an example of a really long cat with two backsides.

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Reposted by Chris Maytag

Eric Blair @protecttruth.bsky.social · 1d

Members of Congress should be on the streets of DC—where many of them live! —putting their bodies between these law-abiding citizens and ICE. Congress should be demanding names, and promising ICE will be prosecuted when US democracy is re-established.

But they are not—b/c they think it polls badly.

Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 1d

New — Video shared with me shows ICE officers in DC detaining a man on Friday.

Bystander filming asks man for his name. ICE agent lies and says he’s not allowed to speak to him “by law” and another says “We’ve arrested American citizens for being too close…If he gets any closer, put him in cuffs.”

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Chris Maytag @cpm5280.bsky.social · 1d

I do love adafruit - they occupy an extraordinarily important place in the scene/market - but there's always a disappointing streak. Back in the early NFT craze they jumped on that train enthusiastically until customers voiced disapproval.

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Chris Maytag @cpm5280.bsky.social · 1d

Many Americans - generally white - have never had cause to see a man with a gun and a badge and a uniform as anything but a force for good. These men protect those same white Americans, after all!

And now, suddenly, Americans get to see what armed state authority is really all about.

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Chris Maytag @cpm5280.bsky.social · 1d

I've long noticed a clear divide among my fellow Americans: Some of us trust armed agents of the state, and many of us don't.

It occurs to me that one possibly good thing about All Of This™ is that more Americans will have developed an appropriate mistrust of that particular kind of authority.

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Reposted by Chris Maytag

Angus Johnston @angus.bsky.social · 1d

"Don't you ... forget about tree."

Angus Johnston @angus.bsky.social · 1d

Why will AI never take my job? Because it tagged this GIF "a man in a trench coat is walking on a field next to a tree ."

a man in a trench coat is walking on a field next to a tree .

Alt: Judd Nelson raising a fist in triumph as he crosses the football field in the closing shot of The Breakfast Club.

media.tenor.com

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Chris Maytag @cpm5280.bsky.social · 2d

Please stop polluting the world with AI image crap. It's bad. It leaves the world shittier. Please stop.

Chris Maytag @cpm5280.bsky.social · 2d

If Roger Stone called me a nobody I think I'd have to make a t-shirt about it, to brag about my good fortune of being on the right side of things.

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Reposted by Chris Maytag

amy brown (spooky edition) @amybrown.xyz · 2d

you think moving to berkeley won't change you and then eight years later you're crying in the car because the public radio station raised so much money in the first hour of the pledge drive

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Chris Maytag @cpm5280.bsky.social · 2d

Interests include green tech, education, physical sciences & engineering, ecosystem work, theater & stage arts, R&D. I like people and the work that people do, am less thrilled about AI. I believe in science and that the world is knowable.

Reach out with queries or ideas!

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