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SFFBookClub August poll

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Buenos días desde la Administración Pública.
Esta va a ser una semana especialmente corta para mi. El jueves es festivo y el viernes tengo día de asuntos propios. Además, ha vuelto mi jefe de sección.




Quick reminder: DO NOT USE YOUR PRIMARY EMAIL OR PHONE FOR ANY POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS.

What I did in 2020: sent a check, snail mail, to the campaign. I gave my full name, legal address, occupation and employer (legal requirement for $200+). No email, no phone.

For good measure, I crossed out the phone number and put a sticky on the check that said “NO DNC, NO DSCC, NO DCCC”.

The Biden campaign mailed me a magnet, and a thank-you after the election. I got 0 calls/emails. From anyone.
#USPol

This entry was edited (2 months ago)
in reply to Matt May

You could also filter them out and never see those pesky emails ever again! BTW, what’s a check? LOL
in reply to victor tsaran

@vick21 Parties and candidates sell their lists to other candidates and PACs. It’s not a matter of filtering, because they’ll be sending them from dozens of sources with new ones popping up every week because they _know_ you’re filtering.

Checks are what people older than you use as money.



I’ve suffered through many over-the-top renditions of the national anthem, but the one from this year’s Republican convention was by far the most extra. They threw in an orchestra, a choir, and at least eighty-seven key changes. I can’t even. Please just sing the damn song FFS. youtube.com/watch?v=h8MqnFQw3q…
This entry was edited (2 months ago)
in reply to Drew Mochak

Wo, that was quite a spectacle! I would remove vocal tracks and leave everything else in place. That sounded like a musical almost. A simple brass orchestra would suffice? :)
in reply to Drew Mochak

That orchestral arrangement reminds me of an evangelical Christian singer named Sandi Patty whose career peaked in the 80s, so, during my childhood. Yes, she did key changes like that, too. Of course, she's well past her prime now.

Somewhat to my surprise, the rendition you linked *was* Sandi Patty's arrangement. Sounds like that other singer used the same track. I don't actually recall hearing Sandi Patty's version of the national anthem growing up.

in reply to Matt Campbell

@matt I was just watching it with Jamie and we were speculating that it was a backing track, since she never actually saw any instruments or performers. That makes so much sense! Thanks.
in reply to Drew Mochak

For many in the target audience at the convention, that performance probably brought back memories of the Reagan era, when Sandi Patty's version came out.
in reply to Matt Campbell

@matt Oh wow, you just reminded me. She narrated a heavily abridged version of the bible for kids that I used to listen to growing up. I don’t remember most of it but I am sure it was super formative. Holy crap. I haven’t thought about that in years. I don’t think I knew she was a singer though.
This entry was edited (2 months ago)
in reply to Drew Mochak

I hate to disappoint, but I actually don't remember that either. Maybe that was one of her later projects, after I was the right age for it.
in reply to Matt Campbell

No, that was 1987. Go figure. I'm sure we never had that on cassette.
in reply to Matt Campbell

@matt Oh yeah, I know of Sandi Patty. Yeah, she's definitely past her prime these days, but she did used to do key changes like that all the time. It was pretty wild.
in reply to Joseph King

@jdking92 Her version of the national anthem wasn't even her most over-the-top song when it came to key changes. As far as I know, that dubious distinction goes to one of her more obscure religious songs, "Unshakable Kingdom", which went through a total of 6 keys (A flat, A, B flat, C, C sharp, and finally E). No, I don't remember that from when I was like 7; I listened to it again more recently.
in reply to Matt Campbell

@matt GOod lord. Yeah...I used to have a lot of her stufff in digital form. IT sort of got nuked when my old computer's hard drive bit the dust and I just never bothered replacing it.
in reply to Joseph King

USPol, evangelicalism

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Despite the high cost of living, it remains popular.




“By expanding the human shielding charge to every inch of #Gaza, #Israel is using a familiar strategy at an unprecedented scale... the human shielding allegation…strategy has previously been seen in conflicts ranging from the Vietnam War to the war against ISIS. However, the intensity and scope of how Israel has mobilized the human shields accusation in the past year is unprecedented.” | Nicola Perugini and Neve Gordon, Hewish Currents jewishcurrents.org/human-shiel…


bledá známosť ešte viac vybledla, má ten pocit pochmúrnosti




This November, you have the power to make Elon Musk waste 180 million dollars.



I will never forgive The New York Times for bringing this to pass. They violated the journalistic norms they claim to uphold in their vindictive campaign against him. They hounded him out of office. They'd best not crow and they'd best not do the same to Kamala Harris. But I have no faith they can restrain themselves. Same to the Post.


Trump is trash for five billion reasons. His weight is not one of those reasons.

He will not see your surface-level criticisms of his appearance. Your fat friends will.

Please stop making me defend him.



"I’ve always been more 'Let’s just kick the fascists' asses' than 'Blue no matter who.'

But I will obviously support anyone Democrats nominate over Donald Trump. That’s the easiest choice of my life that doesn’t involve waffle fries.

When it all comes down to it, I’m a single-issue voter. My issue is that I’d like to keep voting."

~ Jason Sattler

#KamalaHarris #Biden #Democrats
/1

thecause.substack.com/p/biden-…

in reply to William Lindsey :toad:

"Nothing says women refuse to accept second-class citizenship like electing one. I have no doubt she can do it, and I look forward to watching the support she receives from Hillary Clinton, her sorors, and pretty much everyone in America who loves democracy. We have work to do!"

#KamalaHarris #Biden #Democrats
/14

in reply to William Lindsey :toad:

"Donald Trump and Chris LaCivita are about to hit Kamala Harris with an avalanche of racist and sexist attacks and a ton of slut-shaming. Democrats across the board need to be saying now what we all know, which is that this will bring out the very worst of Trump. Racism and sexism are his brand. Charlottesville is his brand."

~ Josh Marshall

#KamalaHarris #Biden #Democrats
/15

talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/a…



A hummingbird just flew up to me to let me know that my feeder was out of nectar. I will just absolutely never get over the fact that they do that. I mean, to know not only that I am the one that feeds them (which, I've never even noticed one around to witness) but to figure out how to communicate with me. Just completely blows my mind.

#hummingbird #hummingbirds

This entry was edited (2 months ago)



The post about representation in cyberpunk settings that I just boosted reminded me of an idea I had not long ago: It would be cool if someone made a game similar to System Shock, but as an audio game. For those not familiar with System Shock, Jimmy Maher covered it well: filfre.net/2021/03/system-shoc… 1/2
in reply to Matt Campbell

Now, in System Shock, what Maher calls the diegetic UI is explained in-world by having the player character outfitted with a neural implant in the backstory. So in an audiogame remake, the hacker could be blind, and then the implant, rather than giving them sight, gives them a new audio UI to their world. 2/2
in reply to Matt Campbell

BTW, someone wrote a complete fan novelization of System Shock, called Free Radical: shamusyoung.com/shocked/ Obviously they made the story their own, filling in details that aren't fleshed out in the game, especially details about the backstory. Regardless, I appreciated being able to enjoy a version of the story aspect of one of the many games I'll likely never be able to play.


If your cyberpunk setting doesn’t have gay furry hackers I don’t want it


US pol

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Wow, in #nvda, you can now press NVDA+ctrl+escape to enable/disable screen curtain. #accessibility #blind

reshared this

in reply to Jonathan Rodriguez

You sure can! I just shared your post - nice little tip for people :)
in reply to Jonathan Rodriguez

I've had this mapped to NVDA plus printscreen for ages. Seemed a far more sensible shortcut


fedi meta, screen readers

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Aquí intentando utilizar el nuevo Outlook para Windows. Aprovechando que #NVDA indica que se corrigieron algunos fallos con el mismo y que mozilla thundervird se está poniendo algo molesto con mostrarme recordatorios cada 5 minutos; es la oportunidad perfecta para echarle un vistazo.
#nvda
in reply to Édgar López Rendón 🇷🇺🇨🇳

Gracias. Infórmanos si tienes algún problema con NVDA y Outlook.

Thank you - do let us know if you hit any issues with NVDA and Outlook.



USPol

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Please friends, use hashtags or at least content warnings in political posts. Yes, I know this moment is crucial but I just can’t do the snark and pointless sniping from any side or angle. Respectfully: make it easier for those of us who want or need to opt out. Maybe it’s naive or unrealistic but I’m trying to make my feed be a haven of beauty and wisdom.


I agree with everything Scott Hanselman writes in this post.

linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:l…

#crowdstrike #microsoft #dei #softwaredevelopment



a gentle ask to be kind, to consider tagging and/or cw'ing political/uspol discussion.




BREAKING: President Biden steps down from presidential race. Trump continues to be 78–year-old convicted fraud and rapist who stole classified documents from White House and incited an insurrection to overthrow an American election.


Do you like the US Supreme Court?

Reminder that you're voting for who gets the #SCOTUS seats of Thomas and Alito in this election.

That's the legacy at stake here.



GUADEC talks are complete but BoFs and Workshops start tomorrow 15:00 UTC, check the schedule for more details and links:
events.gnome.org/event/209/tim…
#GUADEC #GUADEC2024


Hugging Face's SmolLM transforms AI with compact, powerful language models that outperform tech giants, bringing advanced capabilities to personal devices witho…

Source: VentureBeat Hugging Face's SmolLM transforms AI with compact, powerful language models that outperform tech giants, bringing advanced capabilities to personal devices witho…
Source: VentureBeat search.app/YZgrmTd4k57eTVaa9



You hear that? That’s the sound of a thousand “Biden must go” newspaper editorials being hastily rewritten as “With Biden gone, Democrats are still in trouble.”

#USPol

in reply to Angus McIntyre

@ppatel Ideally, we should stop worrying about what just happened and start concentrating on fixing what is to happen.


We're excited to share that GUADEC 2025 will take place in Brescia, Italy! We look forward to working with the local team and we hope to see you all in Brescia next year!

#GUADEC #GUADEC2025 #GNOME

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in reply to GNOME

awessome. Some of our team members are thinking to join. Are there any dates yet?