Arindam Basu @arin_basu@mastodon.nzoss.nz

Hear be kiwis: New Zealand celebrates as distinctive cry of iconic bird returns https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/12/hear-be-kiwis-new-zealand-celebrates-as-distinctive-cry-of-iconic-bird-returns?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

RT @waltmossberg@twitter.com

Today’s outrageous attack on the Capitol building by people who have swallowed a false election narrative only underscores the need to restore civics education and introduce news literacy education into our schools. https://twitter.com/newslitproject/status/1347011694086811649

RT @joeydanna@twitter.com

not enough people are talking about how literally every single piece of any electronic equipment in the Capitol needs to be thrown away and re-bought, and all furniture needs to be tossed and searched in detail. The infosec concerns of this terrorist attack are massive.

Only the lyrics to 96 songs are in the release; Lehrer cautions the accompanying music will appear later "with further disclaimers."

But it's quite a list, including "Bright College Days," "The Elements," "Oedipus Rex," "Smut," "Wehrner Von Braun," "The Vatican Rag," and yes, "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park!"

3/

What is your principle Fediverse stream?

How do you follow / use The Fediverse / Mastodon?

Boosts appreciated.

The traces of the Great Indian Mastodon Influx of 2019 (GIMI'19) are interesting to look through. In trying to find #Indian folks to follow here, I time and again come across people who came to Mastodon around Nov 2019 (when the Twitter political censorship issues surfaced), stayed around for a month or so, and then left (presumably back to where they came from, having made a symbolic gesture against the censorship).

But even that one month has left an impression here, lots of interesting links to follow, clever #desi jokes, good discussions, it feels like an archaeological discovery of an interesting and intellectual civilization - though of course this was barely a year ago.

It would be loads better if they'd stuck around - I feel a twinge of sadness every time I think "wow this is a cool account to follow", and then see the last post was somewhere in November 2019 - but I'm glad that the GIMI'19 happened at all. It left behind a good bulk of interesting content, and when I do find a live account that someone still uses, it feels like finding buried treasure!

RT @marcdaalder@twitter.com

🎵 Another one bites the dust 🎵

You might not have noticed it, but New Zealand's third outbreak started in mid-September and has already been stamped out. At six cases, it was a third the size of the outbreak in the White House right now. #Covid19 https://www.newsroom.co.nz/we-just-stamped-out-our-third-outbreak?amp=1&__twitter_impression=true

That surveillance capitalism isn't a "rogue" capitalism, it's just "capitalism" - with surveillance, which it gets away with by creating monopolies that can capture their regulators and enmesh themselves in the national security complex.

9/

https://www.socialcooling.com/

I finally finished porting my page on Slack replacements to the P2PF wiki and updating it for 2020 remote workers desperate to liberate themselves:
https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Slack_Alternatives

#Slack #P2PF

Long shot, but one of my fiends / ex-colleague is in limbo regarding jobs, she is awesome at @rstats and anything related to #OpenScience, #FAIRData, image analysis and processing, and #bioinformatics. If you hear about anything in and around #Meanjin / #Brisbane, or remote, please let me know.
(Boosts encouraged)

The real story is that ‘developing’ nations have done remarkably better at fighting COVID-19 than the rich and white. The real story starts precisely where the western map ends. Here be dragons. We be dragons.

The real story is that places like Vietnam and Mongolia have completely kicked COVID-19’s ass. The real story is that places like Rwanda and Ghana have innovated and survived. There are countless stories like this — from Sri Lanka to Trinidad & Tobago, but you wouldn’t know because we’re not rich or white. But you should know. Because we’re right. This information could save your life.

https://medium.com/indica/the-overwhelming-racism-of-covid-coverage-78e37e4ce6e8

(But please keep posting about a vaccine, eating like normal, and relying on your institutions to save you. It'll all work out for you I'm sure.)

Rethinking academic publishing for the digital age means publishing *more* data, but *less* peer-reviewed papers, so scholarly effort can be focused on writing (and reading) fewer, higher quality papers:

https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2014/aug/05/why-we-should-publish-less-scientific-research

Why would you eat and hunt animals when you could trap humans!!! In boxes!!! and break things and apologize later! I love silicone valley so much

I think the people who help us define the post-COVID "new normal" are not those with influence prior. We need the folks who're happy with less to call the shots. Equating influence & "success" & credibility with wealth is what got us into all these messes to start with. I suspect wealth is inversely correlated with happiness, satisfaction, and kindness. We want to be sustainably prosperous, not wealthy.