Life in Code: A Personal History of Technology

by Ellen Ullman

I am super against light pollution, and have been for decades

but I am also super annoyed by the way it's framed as "without light pollution you can see how beautiful the night sky is" way more prominently than it's framed as "hey, did you ever stop to think of how much energy/resources/money are literally wasted by having so much light shine up into the sky?"

so people get the idea that light pollution can only be remedied by eliminating all night-time light, which would make being outside at night very inconvenient, instead of by making night-time light shine only on the ground where, y'know, the people who need it are

This leaves out the followup article where this same man was fined for illegal logging in the Amazon. Billionaires are not your friends, nor are they friends of the environment.

This is so fucking stupid and the problem with the green new deal and green capitalism. You don't really think that's fucked up you can BUY the Amazon forest? You don't think its dystopian that hundreds of acres can belong to a man? That entire ecosystems can be private property?

Story time:

In middle school biology, we did an experiment. We were given yams, which we would sprout in cups of water. We then had to make hypotheses about how the yams would grow, based on descriptions of yam plants in our books, and make notes of our observations as they grew.

Here’s what was supposed to happen: we were supposed to see that the actual growth of the plant did not resemble our hypotheses. We were then supposed to figure out that these were, in fact, sweet potatoes.

What actually happened was that every single student in every single class lied in their notes so that their observations perfectly matched their hypotheses. See, everyone assumed the mismatch meant they had done something wrong in the process of growing the plant or that they had misunderstood the dichotomous key or the plant identification terminology. And, thanks to the wonders of a public school education, everyone assumed the wrong results would get us a failing grade. We were trying to pass. We didn’t want to get bitched out by the teacher. Curiosity, learning, science - that had nothing to do with why we were sitting in that classroom. So we all lied.

The teacher was furious. She tried to fail every student, but the administration stepped in and told her she wasn’t allowed to because a 100% fail rate is recognized as a failure of the teacher, not the class. It wasn’t even her fault, really, though her being a notorious hard-ass didn’t help. It was a failure of the entire educational system.

So whenever I see crap like Elizabeth Holmes’s blood test scam or pharmaceutical trials which are unable to be replicated or industry-funded research that reaches wildly unscientific conclusions, I just remember those fucking sweet potatoes. I remember that curiosity dies when people are just trying to give their superiors the “right” answers, so they can get the grade, get the job, get the paycheck. It’s not about truth when it’s about paying rent. There’s no scientific integrity if you can’t control for human desperation.

There’s no scientific integrity if you can’t control for human desperation.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

This is still one of the top posts to come out of covid

just learned that magnolias are so old that they’re pollinated by beetles because they existed before bees

They existed *before beetles*

Why is this sad? Why am I sad?

https://xkcd.com/1259/

This is how I feel about Joshua Trees. They and avocado trees produce fruit meant to be eaten and dispersed by giant ground sloths. Without them, the Joshua Trees’ range has shrunk by 90%.

(my own photos)

Not only they, but the entire Mojave ecosystem is still struggling to adapt since the loss of ground sloth dung. their chief fertilizer.

Many, many trees and plants in the Americas have widely-spaced, extremely long thorns that do nothing to discourage deer eating their leaves, but would’ve penetrated the fur of ground sloths and mammoths. Likewise, if you’ve observed a tree that drops baseball or softball-sized fruit which lies on the ground and rots, like Osage Oranges, which were great for playing catch at my school, chances are they were ground sloth or mammoth chow.

You can read about various orphaned plants and trees missing their megafauna in this poignant post:



seems that Chrome has around 60-65% market share, so it’s not totally dominating the market yet but it’s worrying that we’re basically reliant on Apple and Microsoft to hold the line.

Does Firefox not count for anything?

about 10% and falling, but perhaps that can change, I just don’t see how.

Chrome edging towards 70% on desktop, Microsoft has thrown in the towel, Safari obviously rules iOS, Firefox exists only as insurance for Chrome.

Please, please I’m begging you, use firefox.

PLEASE install firefox as a mobile browser and then run adblock on your mobile browser it’s so good I promise.

Look.

Look.

I know I’m a total grind about open source stuff but browsers are the PERFECT place to learn to love open source software and for so long FireFox was a major part of the browser market and sometimes if you want to see what kind of fuckery google is up to it helps to see the kinds of things they block in firefox and just

There’s an organization that makes free, excellent, safe software that doesn’t collect and market your data but for some reason two thirds of the world uses a google product and most of the leftover population uses apple and just

I promise, firefox is so good - the extensions are incredible look - I can use lightbeam to see what sites I use and how they connect to other sites (bottom right should give you an idea how much time I spend on tumblr)

or I can look at ublock origin and see that it’s blocked over 2 million requests since I installed it or I can run the facebook container extension and stop facebook from tracking me and you know what I bet you can do a lot of that on chrome too but you’re doing that while chrome itself is tracking you and gobbling up your activity for google and

firefox is so fuckin great and it’s such a great ambassador for other open source projects please be a big old fuckin nerd with me and use firefox and run a bunch of funky extensions and customize the fuck out of your web experience.

Wanna be a hacker? Firefox.

Wanna use instagram on desktop? Firefox.

Wanna be a killer researcher? Firefox.

Wanna properly credit artists? Firefox.

Wanna read a whole shitload of books? Firefox.

Wanna make video responses to shitlord youtubers?

Wanna shoot cat lasers at bugs?

Wanna use youtube as a music streaming service?

FIREFOX.

I just love firefox okay.

hey guys

Man I wish universal basic income was a thing so people could just leave jobs they’re unhappy at and wouldn’t have to worry about not affording their basic needs while they look for something new or so that people could actually explore their passion projects like only the rich and powerful can just take time off to write or work on art or go back to school and even if you’re having mental health problems you can’t just take an extended vacation a lot of places still don’t consider mental health as actual illness anyway fuck capitalism am i right brother?

The best part of UBI is that you don’t need to see a cent of that money to enjoy the benefits it would provide. Just the shear ability to be able say “I don’t have to work here if I don’t want to” would give ALL workers the bargaining power to demand more from their employers, higher pay, more benefits. It would be amazing!

good news if you’re a European citizen: there’s a European Citizens’ Initiative currently collecting signatures to establish unconditional basic income in the EU!

i quote,

for it to pass, it needs at least 1 million signatures total + minimal participation threshold in at least 7 countries. as of today (September 9th 2021) it’s at a little bit above 146k signatures total and 6 more countries need to reach the participation threshold

if you’re a EU citizen please consider signing here (it’s a quick process! you enter your nationality then follow the instructions, took me 5 minutes yesterday)

if you’re not or can’t sign please consider passing on the info to EU citizens you know!! if we manage to get this implemented, it could really improve quality of life for everyone living in the EU

Even though i dont live in europe i hope they make this happen

reminder that this is CURRENTLY ONGOING

End of the collection period: 25/06/2022

how the fuck did all of those renaissance dilettantes learn so much crap? Like they spoke 3 languages and were foremost in several branches of science, plus they wrote poetry, played the violin, and were master artists? And they still had time to be gay? 

none of them ever did any laundry at all

The emotional and physical labor necessary to maintain the lifestyles of Renaissance and Enlightenment polymaths was shunted almost entirely to their uncredited servants, slaves, wives, and daughters. 

Whenever we compare ourselves to the ‘genius men’ of the past, and wonder why we fall so short, remember this: their intellectual capacity, energy, and freedom was because there was someone else washing the damn dishes.

Rosalind Miles’ “Who Cooked the Last Supper?” is about how women throughout history provided critical services so men could have leisure time.

Fuck

I forget that there’s folks who haven’t heard this so I always reblog.

STROKE: Remember The 1st Three Letters… S.T..R … My friend sent this to me and encouraged me to post it and spread the word. I agree. If everyone can remember something this simple, we could save some folks. STROKE IDENTIFICATION: During a party, a friend stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine and just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes. (they offered to call ambulance) They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food - while she appeared a bit shaken up, Ingrid went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening. Ingrid’s husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital - (at 6:00pm , Ingrid passed away.) She had suffered a stroke at the party . Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Ingrid would be with us today. Some don’t die. They end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead. It only takes a minute to read this… STROKE IDENTIFICATION: A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke…totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough. RECOGNIZING A STROKE Remember the ‘3’ steps, STR . Read and Learn! Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke. Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions : S * Ask the individual to SMILE .. T * = TALK. Ask the person to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently) (eg ‘It is sunny out today’). R * Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS . If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call the ambulance and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher. NOTE : Another ‘sign’ of a stroke is 1. Ask the person to ‘stick’ out their tongue. 2. If the tongue is ‘crooked’, if it goes to one side or the other that is also an indication of a stroke. A prominent cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10 people; you can bet that at least one life will be saved. And it could be your own.

LIVE SAVING. WOOOAHH. REBLOG REBLOG REBLOG REBLOG REBLOG 

Had a family member almost die of one, so signal boosting because you never know when you could save a life.

Because I feel bad if I don’t reblog…

My mother died after being paralyzed by a stroke. Please read this^

I remember a while ago here in UK there were stroke-identifying adverts. Their catchphrase was FAST:

We managed to save my nana with this information when she had her first stroke. 

SAVE A LIFE.

Xuanwei Su, Illustrations.

Ethereal illustrations reminiscent of Klimt by artist Xuanwei Su.

Don’t miss Supersonic Art on Instagram!

She wants the forbidden candy.

natgeotravel: Ha'a Keaulana, daughter of Brian Keaulana and the grand daughter of legendary Buffalo Keaulana carries a 50 pound boulder while running across the sea floor to train for surfing. Her father teaches surfers that they should train for a four wave hold down in case of a wipeout in big surf. At 13 second intervals between waves, that means about a minute of being held down. It is one thing to hold your breath in a swimming pool for a minute and it something completely different to swim down 30 feet, pick up a huge rock and then run as hard as you can for a minute. Thanks to her lineage, community and training, Ha’a is a true water woman from Makaha. Hawaiians have saltwater running through their veins and epitomize what it means to be connected to the sea. Photograph by @paulnicklen.

Bruh

She isn’t just running with a 50 pound rock, but she has three dudes acting as a drag! That is just…wow. holy hot damn!

Mera… queen of atlantis

Redefining My Bullet Journal System

The bullet journal is probably something you’re no stranger to. It’s been circulating around the internet for a while, and it’s one of the main subjects of studyblr posts. However, when I started college last semester, I found that I no longer relied on my bullet journal to organize my tasks and structure my responsibilities anymore. Instead, I tried out a bunch of productivity/task-organization apps: Taskade, Actions by Moleskine, Any.do, Todoist, Wunderlist. None of them seemed to have what I needed, so I decided to give the bullet journal method another try.

The first thing I reflected on was why I stopped in the first place. At first I thought it was because the method itself allowed for a lot of freedom and I’d get confused as to what things to include and how to structure everything. But then I realized that it was in fact because I had previously been bullet journaling for other people instead of myself. Since I had what one could call an ‘artsy bullet journal’, I tended to focus more on the artistic aspect so that it would get more likes and reblogs after I posted it, when I should have been focusing on how it can organize my life. I realized that the bullet journal is a tool; the focus should be on life itself, not the bullet journal, but you can use the bullet journal to add value to your life.

At the beginning of the year, I deconstructed my organizational needs and attempted to apply that to my bullet journal method. I stopped looking at other people’s bullet journals and started thinking about my own needs and preferences. I thought about how I would best organize my time so that I could accomplish all of the things I want to accomplish in the different aspects of my life.

Supplies

The fact that I only have 2 main supplies allows me to bullet journal anywhere, anytime.

The Structure

The Practice

Simply having the tool to organize your life isn’t enough - you should also have a practice, a habit, for using it.

Going Forward

One thing I’d like to work on is future logging. As of now, I think in terms of months, since the my main commitment at the moment is my education, and monthly planning has worked out for me. But I think if I’d like to tackle on larger projects - e.g. my YouTube channel that I just started - I’d need to do a lot more future logging.

Another useful thing I want to try out is to summarize my journal entries in the form of notes. Recently I’ve been audio journaling (15-20 minutes of me talking to myself), and it’s been pretty effective. However, I have no way of ‘skimming’ the entries like I would a written journal entry. Summarizing them would help me retain main ideas of each entry and remember the things I said that are or could potentially be important and useful.

Final Thoughts

If you don’t think your bullet journal is adding value to or improving productivity and organization in your life, I think you should reconsider the way you’re approaching the system. I found a method that works for me; yours might be different. While it can be beneficial to draw inspiration from other people, do whatever helps you the most, not what other people tell you you should be doing. After coming up with an appropriate structure, make sure you maintain the practice.  

Typhlosion Variations

THIS

IS

FOR

YOU

SAPPHIC

GIRLS

OUT

THERE

!!!!

Reductress really taking no prisoners today

The best part:

My biggest personal feminism fantasy?

I make a lot of money. Enough money to buy an old estate on a large bit of property. Something like this:

Then, I modify it into classrooms and dormitories. I make common areas and a cafeteria that is open to the kitchen. All of this serves a purpose.

I open a girl’s school. Grades 6 through 12. It’s called something like

or some other strong female symbol name. It has no religious affiliation. It is scholarship based, maybe a pay-what-you-can model, but ideally we work our way to 100% donation based maintenance, with every penny going back into paying the staff and bettering the schools.

Our teachers and instructors are all women, highly educated women or women skilled in their trade. There is a STEM and Law focus, ideally, with plenty of the arts. The girls are taught history and painting and music and writing alongside biology and law and physics and calculus and coding. The curriculum does not hide women, it highlights them and their accomplishments.

They take shifts to help cook meals in the evenings with the female chefs, so they can be self-sufficient. There is a large garden on the ground that everyone tends so the girls have that connection to their food, that understanding and pride. Maybe there is room for chickens and goats too, for milk and eggs, and to teach them how to get their hands dirty. Chores like mopping, and dusting, and laundry, and mowing are divided among the girls and rotated so every one of them learns how to live independently.

Science classes can venture onto the grounds for sample collection, some instructors may prefer to give their whole lecture in the courtyard. A painting class may spend an afternoon setting up easles on the lawn to study capturing light.

The lawn is for physical activities: running, and yoga, and kickball. Any sports teams the girls want to form, maybe there’s a rec league run by the older girls.

Movement, and the possession of one’s own body, is important. Uniforms are comfortable and non-restrictive. Something like this:

Clubs are abundant. Poetry clubs, and book clubs, and dance, and knitting, and debate, and scary movies, and whatever they want! There’s a mentorship program that pairs each girl with one in the grade below her. There are event nights, for movies or crafting or “How To” presentations where the girls can teach things to one another (how to sew a button, how to draft a professional email, how to change the oil in a car). The community is diverse and close.

We bring in women judges, and physicians, and professors, and engineers, and sculptors, and chefs as speakers. They talk realistically on the struggles of being a woman in their field. They talk about how they overcame and thrived. They talk about career paths, and college admission, and navigating the world through the unique lenses of womanhood.

It is a school by women for girls, to let them become self-sustained, self-realized, self-loving, truly empowered women.

It’s my dream to make it happen.