Basalisk

That gemfox looks awesome!

I've heard two theories and I'm not sure which one is the primary. First is that it's the techbros widening and deepening the moat on setting up a website. Second its the toxic church/family crowd trying to block kids from finding out they are in a cult that can be exited. Porque no los dos?

"... and furthermore, the quality of litter provided is completely unacceptable for a person of my delicate sensibility. Please rectify these issues at once! Also... can I get some scritches behind the ears please?"

Every green party in the world owes its existence in part to the Franklin Dam protest in Tasmania in 1982/1983. One tactic was to have protestors arrested then break bail (by returning to the protest site) thus filling the limited gaol capacity of the state. Literally "they can't imprison us all!"

Hmm, maybe we should ask the government to fund a libertarian education center? Perhaps make it mandatory for school children to attend? It'd probably also be a good idea to make any criticism of it illegal, for obvious reasons

I think it is interesting that one episode was never broadcast, because of 'sensitive information', and it was cancelled due to the creator dying in a totally not suspicious plane crash.

Actually no it isn't interesting at all, coincidences happen all the time I'm sure it's nothing it's fine

Attention fellow AUSTRALIANS! 🇦🇺

We now have an official petition to parliament to STOP MASTERCARD and VISA from its campaign of censorship, restricting what legal products we can buy.

Please sign it now, and if you're not an Aussie, spread the word!

www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/...

Cheshire cactus?

Another thing I'm mulling over is if there's a likely conflict between worker firms and consumer rights, and how that can be managed. But that's a ramble for another day

Perhaps there's a way to have a really low barrier for new voices to emerge, but with an effective yeet button for those that want to burn the place down? I don't have good answers yet, but this is what you get when I start musing on something after night shift

I'm not convinced by some efforts to reinvigorate traditional journalism. Substack, for instance, seems to have decided that they should have no say over what gets put up, and they are currently at the stage of having a few polite nazzys, and either don't know or don't care where that leads

I think there might be a model to be looked at in "Science", where articles are published with the expectation that there will be critical review by peers both before and after publication. Science does have the advantage that it has mother nature as an umpire, and she's very hard to fool

"Social" media is another can of worms, with an invisible algorithm acting as an unaccountable editor, with hard to discover biases and an incentive towards engagement instead of enlightenment
(to be fair though, it's the same incentive as a traditional editor, but millions of times a second)

There's also the challenge that you don't want The Government deciding what is and isn't acceptable to print, because it's prone to confuse legitimate criticism of its actions with sedition and treason

It's not the whole answer, a lot of stories get buried because of the possibility of libel litigation, and the fight isn't considered worth it. I'm pretty sure some of the crap that some religious groups played to cover up their clergy's offences was suppressed by the implicit threat of lawyers

I believe that having media organisations be worker owned and operated might go some way. When an editor doesn't have to worry about what the owner will say about the front page, there's likely going to be more honesty.

In some respects, it's like trying to cut off the hydra's head that is the morbidly wealthy's propaganda operation, whilst at the same time avoiding crushing alternative viewpoints that are valid options. Think antislavery in 1750, or votes for women in 1870

There needs to be some way of ensuring antidemocratic propaganda can be suppressed, without destroying the "frank and fearless" benefits that come from a free press. It's the paradox of tolerance that Popper spoke about.

I think it's pretty clear that oligarch owned media (both "social" and traditional) is not effective at preventing democratic backsliding or even keeping a populace informed. It is an effective propaganda propagation process, promulgating pablum to people promoting propertied patriarchs' priorities

I have been thinking, after seeing that video of multiple tv stations giving the same "impromptu" speil against regulation, how the media should work in an ideal society. How do you stop the enemies of freedom from using the media to convince people to give up their society to the oligarch class?

They bring a strongly worded letter

It takes decades to grow a tree, days to put it through the wood chipper.

Societies grow small when old men mulch trees of which they enjoyed the shade

I think it comes from the belief that The Powers That Be can only focus on one or two projects at a time, which may be true if you want to build robust, effective institutions. But if you want to demolish those institutions, well, that can be done in days if you don't give a shit about people

Representing each Megaplex theme for every year I have attended from 2018 - 2025.
Featuring Morokai, Forest, Dilyn, Tycoon, Jaraah, Firecracker, Basalisk, and Dingoroo. 💛
🎨: @dingoroo.net / Megaplex Guest of Honor 2025!

Perhaps the jargon needs replacement, "streethouse slop" maybe, to match AI slop? I'm not sure what a good term is, but demonising suburban residents is not the way to make friends. I'm pretty sure suburban dwellers would love character filled, pedestrian friendly suburbs, we just don't build them

I think it's a disconnect between the general term "suburb", that most people take to mean the non-downtown subregions of a metropolis, and the urbanist jargon of "suburb" meaning a mass produced dormitory with minimal distinguishing features and car prioritisation by default

It's sad we live in a world where it has to be said

Some might say that point one implies point two. Some might even go so far as to say it's required to do point two in order to meet point one. Regardless, they are both lines that ought not be crossed

Honestly, if you've named your horse "natural bottom" are you really expecting it to be a stud, or to be studded?

43rd solar orbit completed