melonbottle reblogged
Servitude
melonbottle reblogged
Fifty per cent of web users are running ad blockers. Zero per cent of app users are running ad blockers, because adding a blocker to an app requires that you first remove its encryption, and that’s a felony. (Jay Freeman, the American businessman and engineer, calls this “felony contempt of business-model”.) So when someone in a boardroom says, “Let’s make our ads 20 per cent more obnoxious and get a 2 per cent revenue increase,” no one objects that this might prompt users to google, “How do I block ads?” After all, the answer is, you can’t. Indeed, it’s more likely that someone in that boardroom will say, “Let’s make our ads 100 per cent more obnoxious and get a 10 per cent revenue increase.” (This is why every company wants you to install an app instead of using its website.) There’s no reason that gig workers who are facing algorithmic wage discrimination couldn’t install a counter-app that co-ordinated among all the Uber drivers to reject all jobs unless they reach a certain pay threshold. No reason except felony contempt of business model, the threat that the toolsmiths who built that counter-app would go broke or land in prison, for violating DMCA 1201, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, trademark, copyright, patent, contract, trade secrecy, nondisclosure and noncompete or, in other words, “IP law”. IP isn’t just short for intellectual property. It’s a euphemism for “a law that lets me reach beyond the walls of my company and control the conduct of my critics, competitors and customers”. And “app” is just a euphemism for “a web page wrapped in enough IP to make it a felony to mod it, to protect the labour, consumer and privacy rights of its user”.
same article with no paywall on the author's blog
Source: ft.com
melonbottle reblogged
TL;DR: We're looking for English-speaking neopronoun users (aged 18+) to participate in a paid linguistics study.
Hello!
Professor Kirby Conrod from Swarthmore College is recruiting participants for a paid interview study (in-person in Philly or on zoom). Anyone who uses neopronouns for themself, is 18 or older, and is fluent in English is welcome to participate. The study will consist of a casual interview between you and a researcher, a similar interview with a friend of yours, and an exit survey for each of you. Each will receive $15 as compensation for their time.
If you're interested in participating, please fill out this form: (https://forms.gle/YajpkjxGYiwL7RLF6). Filling out this form does not require you to participate; it's just an expression of interest.
Even on Tumblr, neopronoun use is relatively uncommon, so it would be very helpful if folks could reblog this post to help it reach as many neopronoun users as possible.
Kirby Conrod is a cool linguist who's done neat research on the grammar of singular they and I hope they get lots of participants in their new study about neopronouns as well!
melonbottle reblogged
melonbottle reblogged
me n who
melonbottle reblogged
english's pronunciation rules are absolute bullshit poopoo made up crap but one of my favorite side effects of this in written english specifically is like. altering the spelling of a word in such a way that it's technically pronounced the same. but reads very differently when your eyes go over it in written form. and that sort of dissonance between the proper spelling and the altered spelling producing the same basic sounds in your brain creates an unprecedented level of comedy.
ingredience. creacher. both of these are pronounced essentially exactly the same but the altered spellings are just hilarious for some stupid reason. the english language is a disaster but at least whatever is wrong with it is REALLY funny.
pakige 📦
melonbottle reblogged
Today's Seal Is: Frozen Out
melonbottle reblogged
some fucking space aliem: please i need help our peiple are being attackd and killed and injured and hurt so we need helppppp
captian picarid:
melonbottle reblogged
Society of Janus Collection, 1989, Frank Jur (creator)
melonbottle reblogged
melonbottle reblogged
Minecraft sea turtles, when bred, will always try to travel back to the beach where they themselves spawned in to lay their eggs. You can place turtle eggs in a chosen location and when they hatch they will consider that their home point to return to. With this, you could theoretically do messenger turtles with your friends by having turtles hatch at each of your home bases and then swapping turtles. If they want to get a message to you, they can breed your turtle and it will return to your base. The only thing is that you can’t actually attach anything to a turtle so the only thing you can actually message your friends would be turtle eggs on their lawn. Unless you changed the name of the turtle to reflect your message so a “CHECK YOUR DMS” could appear on your front yard which would be medieval considering there’s a chat feature in the game already. Plus the whole process would be so stupid in general and you would have to keep swapping turtles. I think people should do this however
melonbottle reblogged
melonbottle reblogged
ENTRY LEVEL MEANS NO EXPERIENCE. IT MEANS NO PORTFOLIO OF RELEVANT SAMPLES. ENTRY LEVEL IS ENTRY LEVEL
melonbottle reblogged
Bulletproof Dreams is an exhibition that displays paintings by Gazan children and aims to raise international awareness to the genocide in Gaza. The exhibition is located in Turkey. So powerful.
Video: @reyad.belkacem
melonbottle reblogged
melonbottle reblogged
It looks funny, right? You think it looks funny.
I do too. But it lives its whole life. So you have to take it seriously eventually, right? And be respectful and shit.
I think it can digging in the ground for tubers.
This post lives in my head. I deeply love “I think it can digging in the ground for tubers”
But I can’t stress enough that echidnas cannot be doing that. They are insectivores. Their mouth is not at all capable of biting a potato.
Well…
Maybe it just keeps them. I don’t know.
melonbottle reblogged
melonbottle reblogged
When an archer is shooting for fun He has all his skill. If he shoots for a brass buckle He is already nervous. If he shoots for a prize of gold He goes blind Or sees two targets – He is out of his mind.
His skill has not changed, But the prize divides him. He cares He thinks more of winning Than of shooting – And the need to win Drains him of power.
Zhuang Zhou (369 BC - 286 BC)
AND THE NEED TO WIN DRAINS HIM OF POWER
melonbottle reblogged
i joke a lot about being the reason for the fast car renaissance, but this is actually so beautiful and i’m glad tracy chapman got to have this moment tonight 🥹
Source: x.com
melonbottle reblogged
academic bias is so funny because you’ll be reading about the same historical event and one person is like “Despite the troubles that befell his homeland and near constant criticism of the court King Blorbo remained strong in the face of adversity” and the other one is like “after letting his people carry the brunt of his cringefail decisions Blorbo the Shitface refused to listen to any reason and continued to be a warmongering piece of shit. Also he was ugly.”