#Covid19 Chronische DACH-#MECFS-Heuchelei in der Politik, während die #LongPost/#PostCovid-Welle überall immer größer wird.

WICHTIG
✔️ #Forschung
✔️ #Therapie

UND 🥁
✔️ #PräventionStattNachsorge
✔️ #DavosStandard
✔️ #MaskUp 👨‍⚕️🏥
✔️ #CleanAir
✔️ #Impfen

DENN #CovidIsNotOver

Ok I'm gonna try and do 1 hour on #DIYAlgorithms per programming day until I get a reasonable prototype with some basic Algo examples, that'll be here: https://git.jon-e.net/jonny/diyalgo
prior context here: https://wiki.jon-e.net/Masto_Forks/DIY_Algorithms

the first things I think are simple but the most requested ones I've seen on here:

• #NRecent : feed with just the most recent n posts from everyone - to balance us adhd hyperposters with ppl more careful with their words.
• #ChronoMatching - to rotate your friends who post at different times from you due to time zone/sleep cycle/etc. into your posting cycle.
• #ExclusiveFeeds (@lina ) - a copy of your home feed without posts that have been included in an exclusive feed (and the exclusive feed itself) for situations like eg. #monsterdon where you don't want to mute something but you don't want it to flood your feed

for now this all just world by POSTing an array of status IDs to a modified lists endpoint in order to be maximally general/interoperable with other Algo implementations. things like NRecent make me think there should be some way to do diffs instead, where you remove one item on the feed and/or insert one in a position too tho. maybe I am preoptimizing.

I am thinking the way to do this will be to have a system of
a) features that can be lazily computed for different object types (status, account, or derived types like lists of accounts, etc.)
b) a tree of procession steps with each node returning a value bounded 0-1 and the root being used as the position on the feed. posts that should not be put on a feed have a special value of NA that terminates processing the rest of the tree.
so that
c) an algo can be defined as an easily serializable eg. JSON/#JSONLD-like format that specifies features as dependencies and then describes the processing tree with an array of node objects, each pointing to some node type (and where it comes from, to plan ahead for plugins), parameters, and how it's connected in the tree.
d) eventually, new URL routes/API endpoints so you can link to, follow, and re-use other people's (opt-in public) algos in-medium.

the goal is to get very low-fi, ie. no big data, inaccessible hardware requiring NLP or neural nets and shit - explainability and transparency by designing simpler qualities that people combine in specific ways. yno. like .... designing an algorithm on purpose. for our own benefit, not some investor.

#LongPost #MastoDev #MastoHacks

ok so re-reading #IPFS paper and there are a few things I think in retrospect are undesirable about the #MerkelDAG spec. it's hard to parse them out as separable ideas because they depend on one another, but the main thing I think is how it conflates the structure of a metadata graph, the content of the graph, and the notion of authorship/identity.

In (basic) IPFS, each node contains some data and some links. the data is some unspecified binary blob, the links are all references to hashes of other nodes, and then the hash of all that identifies the node. There are some abstractions like flattened trees that can represent n-depth links, but that's the gist. I'm refreshing myself, so correct me where I'm wrong.

This makes traversing the graph expensive from a naive (cacheless) state- you have to fetch each node and parse its links serially, and since there isn't a notion of authorship except when used to sign a node, you might have to do the resolution process across a lot of the network instead of being able to say "ah ok this is from this identity so I should ask their neighborhood first"

Since the links are untyped, and because of the need for serial resolution, you can't really "plan" queries and move the query logic to the "edges" (in a networking, rather than graph parlance) of the network - the network resolution logic handles all that.

This structure also makes it so you can't "talk about" a node. A node contains its links. The links are directional, so I could make some statement about a node by pointing to it, but I can't, as a third party make a link under my identity, separate from the author and content of the node, that points from some object to another. That makes the network more like a hard drive than a social space.

Further, since links aren't typed, you have to move that metadata inside the node, and since "keys" for identifying different fields in the node aren't themselves links, you can't have any notion of "schema" where a term can be reused. So there isn't really a facility for being able to do graph queries like "find me this type of data whose field has this value" which restricts a whole huge range of possibilities too long to list here. This also makes knowing what the binary data inside a node is. #IPLD and #Multiformats are intended to solve, post-hoc.

I'll stop there for now, and save what I think could be a different model for later, but I am thinking along the lines of merging with #LinkedData #Triplets , encoding the notion of authorship into links (so that links can have an "utterance" rather than "fact" ontological status), a notion of container/contained for explicit block formation and metadata separation, and formalizing the notion of orthogonal Merkel DAGs to change the points where the content addressing happens to be able to have "graph subunits" that allow for cycles at a "complete" scope but for the purposes of hashing have no cycles. very much #WIP, still at conceptual stage haven't started writing spec yet.

#LongPost #p2p #WorkingInPublic

OK I'm starting my #p2p #LinkedData reading list to get started drafting a protocol and I'm checking out #IPLD - lots of really good ideas here, and plenty to learn from. It has a bit of a different focus than what I have planned, but some stuff i like and some stuff I can learn from:

• This typology of complete vs incomplete codecs - I'm learning that one of the major ways I differ in thinking from a lot of prior art is an explicit embrace of heterogeneity, vernacularism, and mess as desirable features of an expressive system rather than designed out by engineer types as an error. I think explicitly allowing for incomplete/imperfect translation between schema is super important for systems of expression, after all it's how language works! So I really liked seeing the "Incompleteness is Valid" section. I also love some of the terminology here, "topowild," "plane-mangling," "underkinded."
• How IPFS gateways work - I have always wondered how this works, and it is a pretty concise access point to seeing why some of the ideas in IPLD are good ones. I like Protocol Labs general approach to bridging across protocols, and being able to access data in #IPFS from HTTP is a really important part of how IPFS gets used (eg. by libgen). I want to read more about how other protocols approach (or don't) interoperability like this.
• CIDs are interesting - - but i ultimately I think they collapse too much information because of how they are intended to be used. It binds the metadata and data to a specific codec, which has attractive qualities, but it becomes clear that they had to do a lot of work around the fact that there is no division between metadata and bytestring/binary data for querying, selecting, etc. Having to expand blocks is not really desirable, and it also is related to one of the bigger problems I see with this approach, which makes data modeling pretty damned complicated having to deal with blocks, models, advanced data layouts, schemas, etc. You can also really see how the blockchain stuff starts to seep into the rest of the ecosystem design starting around here and in adjacent stuff like graphsync
• The tricky-choices section is extremely interesting and i wish more projects had something like it. In particular I liked the discussion on why ordering by default is a good decision in graphs/maps that don't necessarily need order.
• The schemas docs are pretty revealing about the direction of the project, values, design priorities, etc. In particular they are "developer"-oriented interfaces, rather than something intended for any old person out there to be able to structure data with. They share some of what I'm thinking about re: structuring existing data, but the combination of the data schema with the serialization has similar points of difficulty as with CIDs. I want to read more about these and ADLs because i dont' have time rn to do but they seem p subtle and worth spending time with.

I depart from a lot of their design decisions, and it's also clear that this is something that evolved in the process of developing IPFS (they say as much) to fill gaps as they were emerging, rather than a foundational part of the ecosystem. In particular I think the blockchain brain ties them to this notion of immutability, append-only stuff which (imperfectly) trades off with needs for privacy and careful scoping/permissions, valuing verifiability and structuredness above ease of expression, and etc. Regardless, interesting to see a bit of the way they think, particularly since they're a bunch of years ahead of me in dealing with the practicalities of implementation.

I'm gonna try and do this project in public, writing as I go on here rather than limiting to an end piece, so if u want to avoid future posts like this from me in the future u can mute the #Longpost and #WorkingInPublic hashtags which will be sort of wandering like this.

#Longpost #Protocols #WorkingInPublic

#Longpost #SonictheHedgehog #Sonic #MilesPrower #Sonails

Filling this out in text because Bored, I don't like physically filling these out, and I wanna elaborate more on stuff.

How it happens: Slowly for both of them. I imagine that they do have an immediate interest/connection with each other, so they try to get closer, and it happens very smoothly, perhaps not even realizing how much their bond grows over time, to the point they don't even think about it.

Showing affection: Sonic really likes building up Tails, tells him how great and cool and special to him he is, which embarrasses Tails soo much, but he's grateful for it. While Tails shows his affection more physically, I think he's kind of starved for... positive physical touches. But not like, head pats or things like that, he would be a hugger, cuddler. Something long and lasting, leaves warmth behind.

Handling conflicts: I wouldn't say either of them would start arguments but neither are "laid-back" persay. There are definitely aspects of their personalities that clash. As an example, Sonic is way more impulsive than Tails. Prone to making quick decisions, which would definitely lead to some issues. They would both need soace after getting into a fight to calm down and consider the issue and why the other is so upset.

Dealing with jealousy: Tails would deal with this more because of his insecurities. Worried about being replaced or abandoned because of someone better, or afraid he isn't living up to some perceived standard... though he knows deep down it's not a rational fear he can't help it sometimes! Sonic hardly gets jealous but when he does he probably won't pick up on it. Like seeing someone else petting his fox, he'd feel a twinge of possessiveness and cut in. And it's a little reassuring to Tails because it reminds him he is not so above it all. Sonic needs to have his space sometimes, while Tails is more needy for attention. Although he is trying to be better about this for both their sakes.

Relationship attitude: They are both very dedicated to each other, but are a bit reserved directly showing it around others. They are more directly affection while alone or in private. Though others can see how strong their bond is by seeing how well they interact and synergize with each other.

Attachment: Tails has some separation anxiety again relating to his insecurities and fear, but seeks to be more independent. Learn not to worry so much, figure himself out. Sonic does have a bit of separation anxiety too, but in a kind of different way in relation to his protectiveness. He takes it personally when someone hurts his partner in any way. He isn't used to Tails becoming more independent at first but he is happy and proud of him. He doesn't want to hold him back.

First to confess: Tails would ruminate a lot on how or what to say about how he feels, think about if it's the right moment or not, wonder if he should even be direct or just show signs of his changing feelings... he would eventually, and that would give Sonic an excuse to admit his own feelings. He is a bit weird about admitting this sort of thing. Probably would be the kind of guy to just show signs rather than say anything.

First to apologize: This is hard to think about. I think it really depends on the argument? Perhaps they might do it at the same time after getting their space from each other to think things through.

More popular/charismatic: Well obviously Sonic! He just has that kind of charm, Tails is less outgoing in this respect.

Best sick caregiver: Tails would study whichever sickness Sonic gets as much as he could and pester him to take the steps to heal it properly. Sonic would have him do the basic things like drinking and eating enough, getting rest, etc.

Does the cooking: Sonic probably only knows how to make chili, and hot dogs. But you can't just have this! So Tails would make some other things for them to eat...

Does housework: They could probably do this together. I think Tails finds busywork a comfort, and Sonic doesn't mind helping but is somewhat unfamiliar with it.

Does the speaking: Depending on the topic. Tails can speak at long length about something he knows or is interested in, and sometimes tends to blirt things out accidentally. But Sonic is better with... conversations, actually talking to others.

The overprotective one: As established in Attachment, Sonic is this; Tails doesn't feel a need to be most of the time.

Designated driver: Because of how reckless Sonic can be Tails insists on driving them when they use land vehicles. He's less picky about planes. Snic will insist Tails steers any sea based vehicles.

Penmanship: I have very little frame of reference for this ^" I see no reason their penmanship would be noteworthy.

Relationship experience: I don't think either of them has much experience with that kind of relationship.

Sensitive to subtle changes: Sonic learns to pick up on Tails' mannerisms and movements that indicate his mood or thoughts. Sonic is not subtle so Tails has no trouble reading him most times.

Proposal: Since their relationship is reserved, they probably don't have much need for big gestures such as this, or marriage, etc. I think they are content just existing together with the closeness they've gathered with each other over time.

The one who dies protecting the other: Both, but Sonic moreso.

And scene. (o_ _)o

#Longpost During a Test match, Fred Trueman forced an edge from the batsman and it flew straight towards Raman Subba Row standing at first slip. Not only did Subba Row fail to catch it, but the ball went right through his legs and carried on down to the third-man boundary. Trueman was silently fuming as he trudged back to his mark. At the end of the over, Subba Row, looking suitably embarrassed, went up to the bowler and said apologetically, ‘Sorry, Fred. I should’ve kept my legs together.’
Trueman snorted, ‘Not you, son. Your mother should’ve!’

I want to share a few thoughts on one of the biggest factors that has enabled my success in cybersecurity: Making friends.

I won't call it networking because that is too often reduced to a buzzword for job seekers and honestly if your waiting until you need a job to start networking it's a little late.

I'm talking about making friends intentionally and as you go.

Making Friends Intentionally

Finding peers, mentors, & experts in your Rolodex. There isn't a magic formula.

Step 1: Show up

Show up to the conference (especially small ones), be active on some form of social media, show up to happy hours, networking events etc.

Seriously. You must put yourself in a place for serendipity to happen. If you aren't "there" it doesn't matter.

I have connections going back to my days at a small regional con (Phreaknic in Nashville), local tweetups, & meeting a competitor at a vendor event. You never know when someone is going to drop your name or open a door. But don't focus on that. See step 2.

Also, put yourself in unexpected rooms. I sit in talks that I don't have any current use for other than being curious but they often turn out to be useful later. Sit in marketing or strategy sessions. Get out of your comfort zone.

Step 2: Be Curious and Kind

I remember sitting at Caesar's bar at my first Blackhat. I was a complete noob and was nervous to be around so many experts. Then I noticed something, if you pretended to be an expert you were quickly dismissed BUT if you were ok being a noob and asking questions those experts were an open book. Most folks love teaching and everyone loves talking about themselves.

So here in lies the lesson: Ask questions and don't try to fake expertise.

I know some folks are not extroverts and this may seem daunting. That's ok, this industry is full of diverse personalities & neurodivergent people. That expert likely thinks they are awkward too.

Questions to get going

• What do you do?
• Wow that sounds really (hard / interesting).
• How did you get into cyber? [I love this question because so many of us took non-traditional paths into this work.]
• What do you love about your job?
• What do you wish was different?

4 questions and you are off to the races.

Then find a way to stay in touch. Ask if they are on Mastodon, Linkedin, or get their email.

Later on you might can ask for their opinion on something or ask for 15m if their time. Always be respectful of boundaries and know sometimes it clicks and sometimes it doesn't.

A quick aside about mentors.

Mentors have been key for me. I have and have had excellent professionals that were part of my advisory team.

My approach is try to use their time well and sparingly. I typically make a point to talk to my mentor every 2 months. Usually over lunch or virtual coffee. Then if there is a quick question I have email or slack. You may need a different approach. I'm just sharing mine. Remember, Don't be a nuisance and hold up your end of the bargain as a mentee. Also read Lesley's post on Lesson's Learned from Mentoring

Step 3: Pay it forward. Be helpful.

Make connections for other people. Share your experience with students or people just getting started.

If you are someone that is known as being curious, respectful and helpful you will go far in this business.

Make Friends as you Go:

Lastly, making friends with people in other areas of your company. I've made real progress dealing with folks in Sales, HR, & IT by just trying to understand and be helpful. They already have a hard job and sitting in an ivory tower and issuing edicts isn't going to make your team or organization better. Be a bridge builder and someone they know they can come to for help.

Same with trusted vendors.

That's it.

Be curious. Be Kind. Be Helpful.

PS: I'm still a noob. The rabbit hole just keeps going.

#longpost #mentoring #networking

"We do not post Content Warnings because we believe the subject is inappropriate, we just want to offer the reader of the post the chance to give informed consent" : https://maloki.medium.com/on-content-warnings-on-mastodon-318771be78e8
⸺
#howTo #Mastodon #MastodonTips #spoonie #longPost #ContentNotice #mentalHealth #CW ❤️#learn #enjoy 🌱#joy #easyReading #simpleEnglish #hashtags 🚨#tagging 🎯#naming #microBlogging #wordsMatter #safety #personalSafety #protection #decisionMaking 🐻#benevolence

I wanted to document my sort of personal identity journey leading up to now. It's been on my mind for a while and I felt it good to put it out there, to get it out of here 🧠

Early teens: I met a same aged guy at a school event, made a new friend. I felt some sort of attraction to them, however they were a bit more feminine (but identified as gay), and I felt (based on my media exposure) that I might be gay or bisexual.
–
Mid teens: I recall doing a few book reports on books featuring female lead characters, protagonists, or otherwise that were explicitly female oriented or "intended for female audiences" 😅​ I remember reading Chicken Soup For The Soul series a lot, but felt awkward after realizing it wasn't really something "boys" read.

I also worked away from home for one summer, staying overnight during weekdays. I recall:
* wearing (somewhat often) womens clothing like short shorts, crop tops, womens jeans, etc. Explicitly purchasing the clothes to wear during the summer away from home.
* Wearing makeup sometimes. Shaving my legs and chest areas.
* Presenting male 90% of the time, but still being against the male-headspaces.
* Flat out asking the owners what would happen if I showed up as a girl (as in, transitioning) the first day of work, despite being interviewed and listing myself as male on paper. Maybe I was doing all of that for attention, or personal confusion, or being a stupid teen, who knows now. (Also the transition question happened 3 months away from work start, so clearly nothing significant would have happened... this was WAY back before how things are now)

I identified as gay, and kept generally closer friendly relationships with the girls working there; the guys as well, but I felt a better connection to the girls :). I stayed in men's sleeping areas though given AMAB. At the end of that summer working, I came to find myself liking one of the girls I worked with. I then identified as bisexual.
–
Mid-late teens: Identified as bisexual but didn't really make it any part of my personality or feeling at all. Dated a few girls but it really wasn't anything serious
Adulthood: Identifying as bisexual but mainly living on autopilot, work, school, whatever. Not dating anyone for many, many years (still single yay)

Finally, the past summer while traveling, I hit breaking points in my physical, emotional, and mental state, which sort of made these "suppressed" thoughts come back up. I felt a lot of gender dysphoria in the summer. A lot of body envy since it was the summer, and general thoughts of "I wish I was a woman but that's a lot to go through if I did" and such related things (i like her outfit/hair/etc). Jealousy I guess? I don't know. Lack of creature comforts too I suppose. The general lack of emotional connection on my trips, as I didn't make too many close connections, didn't help either.
I felt an immensely more positive/comfortable connection when staying in shared sleeping spaces with women, versus those when men were present. Primarily because 99% of the time, the women NEVER snored, and were always polite and quiet late at night, but also were far more pleasing to talk to... whereas the sometimes opposite of that for the men... I also really envied the female-only spaces, as I heard from female travelers that they always had great experiences in there (meeting new friends, going out as a group together, feeling safer in their space, etc).

I called Trans Lifeline for a good hour one night mid-summer, and thanks to whoever helped me calm down and process my thoughts, as well as sharing online accounts and people I could look to, who were non-binary/GNC, or transfem. As well, explaining what body/gender dysphoria is in simpler terms for me.

And well... even after, I still didn't do much, because I really was on autopilot just trying to live while traveling. But now having been back home again, it's all really come up to a head. So I guess this is just my way of sharing what happened to bring me to this point, that it's not all linear, and it doesn't have to be. But I guess just it's important to try and be happy in a sense. Maybe someone will appreciate this rant a bit.
Slowly I'm going to make myself feel better :)

#trans #thoughts #rant #longpost #pretrans #preop #amab #enby #nb #TransThoughts #personal #story #nonbinary

I think the biggest problem I face right now is basically the feeling of being a fraud, or faking feeling like I want to be a woman, or identify as one, or even wearing womens clothing to try and pass as one.

And I think this is all based around having a penis. I'm not saying it's bad for me to have one, I just feel discomfort in it. I also don't necessary feel like I would need to get bottom surgery to feel like a woman as a whole, but it would definitely help if I went that far.

It just feels like... I feel like a pervert. Like sometimes I'll see a sexy photo or something online and be like "oh that's hot", but then at the same time I may also say "damn I wish I looked like that" or "i wish i had a booty/boobs/hips (etc) like that". and the only solution is to clear my mind through masturbation. but even that isn't foolproof.
and extending to that, I really like women. I only like women, and if I was a woman or identifying as one or however it is, I would only want to date woman. so in that sense, I could be considered a "transfem lesbian" if it were at that point of transition. and even still, that feels like cheating, especially if I still were be pre-op for bottom surgery. It just feels like I'm somehow removing myself from any barriers to entry of a relationship or otherwise because there's less perceived risk because I don't identify or look like a man, and that feels wrong. it feels like im cheating in that sense, even though that's absolutely not my intention for going through with this.
I also want to say in extension to that, i don't feel a want or desire to be a woman or identify with femininity for the purpose of being a pervert or getting a pass to leer at women or other things like that; or if some people really wanna read into this, no i don't care about what happens in the changing rooms, just let me get changed and go in the pool or sports complex... I can look at nude bodies online instantly......

and extending to that, that also makes me feel bad for men in my life who I know are good hearted, who struggle with relationships like that, or otherwise.

I think the other thing is that I feel a serious like, genuinely deep anxiety to ever compliment a woman, when presenting or someone identifying me as male, because I worry they get a wrong idea about it, when honestly 99.9999999% of the time if I compliment someone on their outfit or hair or whatever, I really honestly mean it, and also sometimes want to know where they got that clothing, or hair product, or style, etc.
for whatever remainder percent there is, it would absolutely be under some kind of pretext relating to flirting, in a safe comfortable environment... and would probably only be under an implication the other party were flirting with me; they'd (or someone nearby) probably have to explicitly tell me they're flirting for me to even pick up on that...

I really don't know what this is about. and if someone finds this offensive please let me know so I can edit or delete it. and if you want to unfollow me because you feel unsafe or otherwise please do. I apologize profusely if I've caused that, but at this point I really do feel a need to just say all this because I feel bad, I feel wrong, I feel perverted, I feel like a gender cheater, and I feel like there are solutions but it just doesn't feel RIGHT to do in that sense.
and this is all bottled up and I can't tell anyone IRL for fear or repercussions (I am in safe places, I am not under abuse or duress or otherwise. I feel my family and friends would understand, but I need to be certain of what to say and how to say it. and I'm not there yet)

i do have therapy sessions but they're closed until februrary for holidays, which is why I feel a need to info dump this now, and speak with them later for guidance.

also extra context I am single, I won't be seeking relationships until I feel very comfortable in my own space and my own body and mind. I am not mentally prepared to deal with something like that clearly...

merry holidays and happy chrysler #RIPVINE

#trans #thoughts #rant #longpost #pretrans #preop #amab #enby #nb #help #nsfw

Ever since Adam Smith, those trying to prove that contemporary forms of competitive market exchange are rooted in human nature have pointed to the existence of what they call ‘primitive trade.’ Already tens of thousands of years ago, one can find evidence of objects — very often precious stones, shells or other items of adornment — being moved around over enormous distances. Often these were just the sort of objects that anthropologists would later find being used as ‘primitive currencies’ all over the world. Surely this must prove capitalism in some form or another has always existed?

The logic is perfectly circular. If precious objects were moving long distances, this is evidence of ‘trade’ and, if trade occurred, it must have taken some sort of commercial form; therefore, the fact that, say, 3,000 years ago Baltic amber found its way to the Mediterranean, or shells from Mexico were transported to Ohio, is proof that we are in the presence of some embryonic form of market economy. Markets are universal. Therefore, there must have been a market. Therefore, markets are universal. And so on.

All such authors are really saying is that they themselves cannot personally imagine any other way that precious objects might move about. But lack of imagination is not itself an argument. It’s almost as if these writers are afraid to suggest anything that seems original, or, if they do, feel obliged to use vaguely scientific-sounding language ( ‘trans-regional interaction spheres’, ‘multi-scalar networks of exchange’) to avoid having to speculate about what precisely those things might be. In fact, anthropology provides endless illustrations of how valuable objects might travel long distances in the absence of anything that remotely resembles a market economy.

The founding text of twentieth-century ethnography, Bronislaw Malinowski’s 1922 Argonauts of the Western Pacific, describes how in the ‘kula chain’ of the Massim Island off Papua New Guinea, men would undertake daring expeditions across dangerous seas in outrigger canoes, just in order to exchange precious heirloom arm-shells and necklaces for each other (each of the most important ones has its own name, and history of former owners) — only to hold it briefly, then pass it on again to a different expedition from another island. Heirloom treasures circle the island chain eternally, crossing hundreds of miles of ocean, arm-shells and necklaces in opposite directions. To an outsider it seems senseless. To the men of the Massim it was the ultimate adventure, and nothing could be more important than to spread one’s name, in this fashion, to places one had never seen.

Is this ‘trade’? Perhaps, but it would bend to breaking point our ordinary understanding of what that word means. There is, in fact, a substantial ethnographic literature on how such long-distance exchange operates in societies without markets. Barter does occur: different groups may take on specialties — one is famous for its feather-work, another provides salt, in a third all women are potters — to acquire things they cannot produce themselves; sometimes one group will specialize in the very business of moving people and things around. But we often find such regional networks developing largely for the sake of creating friendly mutual relations, or having an excuse to visit one another from time to time; and there are plenty of other possibilities that in no way resemble ‘trade.’

Let’s list just a few, all drawn from North American material, to give the reader a taste of what might really be going on when people speak of ‘long-distance interaction spheres’ in the human past:

1. Dreams or vision quests: among Iroquoian-speaking peoples in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was considered extremely important literally to realize one’s dreams. Many European observers marveled at how Indians would be willing to travel for days to bring back some object, trophy, crystal or even an animal like a dog they had dreamed of acquiring. Anyone who dreamed about a neighbor or relative’s possession (a kettle, ornament, mask and so on) could normally demand it; as a result, such objects would often gradually travel some way from town to town. On the Great Plains, decisions to travel long distances in search of rare or exotic items could form part of vision quests.

2. Traveling healers and entertainers: in 1528, when a shipwrecked Spaniard named Alvar Nuriez Cabeza de Vaca made his way from Florida across what is now Texas to Mexico, he found he could pass easily between villages (even villages at war with one another) by offering his services as a magician and curer. Curers in much of North America were also entertainers, and would often develop significant entourages; those who felt their lives had been saved by the performance would, typically, offer up all their material processions to be divided among the troupe. By such means, precious objects could easily travel long distances.

3. Women’s gambling: women in many indigenous North American societies were inveterate gamblers; the women of adjacent villages would often meet to play dice or a game played with a bowl and plum stone, and would typically bet their shells beads or other objects of personal adornment as the stakes. One archeologist versed in the ethnographic literature, Warren DeBoer, estimates that many of the shells and other exotic discovered in sites halfway across the continent had got there by being endlessly wagered, and lost, in inter-village games of this sort, over very long periods of time.

We could multiply examples, but assume that by now the reader gets the broader point we are making. When we simply guess as to what humans in other times and places might be up to, we almost invariably make guesses that are far less interesting, far less quirky — in a word, far less human than what was likely going on.

#longpost

“I used to frequent Internet newsgroups in the 1990s, which at the time were full of creatures that called themselves “anarcho-capitalists.”… Most spent a good deal of their time condemning left anarchists as proponents of violence. “How can you be for a free society and be against wage labor? If I want to hire someone to pick my tomatoes, how are you going to stop me except through force?” Logically then any attempt to abolish the wage system can only be enforced by some new version of the KGB. One hears such arguments frequently. What one never hears, significantly, is anyone saying “If I want to hire myself out to pick someone else’s tomatoes, how are you going to stop me except through force?” Everyone seems to imagine that in a future stateless society, they will somehow end up members of the employing class. Nobody seems to think they’ll be the tomato pickers. But where, exactly, do they imagine these tomato pickers are going to come from? Here one might employ a little thought experiment: let’s call it the parable of the divided island. Two groups of idealists each claim half of an island. They agree to draw the border in such a way that there are roughly equal resources on each side. One group proceeds to create an economic system where certain members have property, others have none, and those who have none have no social guarantees: they will be left to starve to death unless they seek employment on any terms the wealthy are willing to offer. The other group creates a system where everyone is guaranteed at least the basic means of existence and welcomes all comers. What possible reason would those slated to be the night watchmen, nurses, and bauxite miners on the anarcho-capitalist side of the island have to stay there? The capitalists would be bereft of their labor force in a matter of weeks. As a result, they’d be forced to patrol their own grounds, empty their own bedpans, and operate their own heavy machinery—that is, unless they quickly began offering their workers such an extravagantly good deal that they might as well be living in a socialist utopia after all…”

- David Graeber

#longpost

#Dysphoria #Trans #mtf #Euphoria #LongPost 🧵
I’m finally coming home to myself,
from out of my fear of suffering I had chosen to live without my identity,
believing I could bargain away my happiness in exchange for a feeling of safety,
but that fear is in my past now, was the fear easy to let go of?
No! Some days are so emotionally painful that they crush me,
but once I had begun to accept myself,
I found that I could embrace this pain,
because alongside it there came the possibility of Joy…

#introduction

Once in a blue moon I will want to write a #longpost on Mastodon. I will do it on https://msdon.com cause I do not want my main account to be blocked or #defederated.

Catch my regular posts at
https://mas.to/@Lapjaz

Once in a blue moon I want to write a #longpost. I do it on this #instance cause I don't want my main account to be blocked or #defederated.

Catch my other posts at
https://mas.to/@Lapjaz

-at until I was 41. I lost the will to do Art in my late 20s. Found it again just a few years ago.

You'll figure something out eventually. In the meantime, keep trying. We're all just internally screaming wtf and wildly pressing buttons and hoping for the best, and anyone who says otherwise is probably lying. A little bit.

#Thoughts #LongPost #Life #WeAreAllInternallyScreaming #ScreamTogether

Interesting. I have no idea whether this was all planned or it’s been just as much chaos as many assume, but it seems Musk has presented bird-site plans.

My view is that a part of what he’s after has always been recreating PayPal, but better.

Here’s the four items that caught my attention and a guess at what he’s after:

🐦 Video, I presume longer videos.
🐦 Encrypted Direct Messages, the right thing to do, I hope the individual gets to provide their own keys (not the system), if they want.
🐦 Longform tweets, they’ve been moving in this direction with the threaded tweets, for a while.
🐦 Payments, other than being his dream this has promise to make the company profitable, instead of losing 3 to 4 million a day.

#elonmusk #longPost #payments #e2ee #twitter

So here's the two bundled posts.

https://6d6rpg.com/2019/02/11/30-hot-picks-from-highmoor-dungeon-expo/

And

https://6d6rpg.com/2022/11/24/74-short-seeds-for-tabletop-rpgs/

#ttprg #longpost

@legobeered #LongPost Literally depends on how you access the service. It's possible that apps superior to the official Mastodon for iOS (ie, any other app) would have such a setting.
For the best user experience here, get rid of that restrictive official app and use Toot!, Metatext or my personal favourite, Tooot.
These other apps slpit the official app's unified feed into Home (those you follow); Local (this instance only) and Federated feeds.

Thinking about this new and exciting social app, one of the pieces that I started thinking about was having the ability to subscribe to something like a community blocklist.

A list, organized by and individual or group, that a user could subscribe to, that would exclude any content within that list from the feed of the subscriber. It’s easy enough to block individual accounts or tags, but sometimes there’s a tidal wave of content so diverse around a single topic that to block all of it would be absurd for an individual to undertake.

Take for instance, the 2022 World Cup. I have a number of issues with what’s going on in Qatar, and I’m trying to keep my interactions with it to an absolute minimum. To that end, a “Boycott World Cup 2022” list might allow to block the following:
- Accounts for all teams participating in the World Cup 2022.
- Accounts for all organizing bodies of the World Cup 2022.
- Accounts for the relevant promotional orgs tied to the Qatar.
- Journalists who exclusively cover football/soccer.
- Posts with hashtags directly related to the World Cup, like #fifa or #WorldCup.
- Posts geo-tagged as coming from stadiums or other venues participating.
All of which could have a user or instance specific sunset period, after which the blocklist could cease to function. Like a month after the World Cup completes.

I think you get the idea. Like, for instance, I could block any and all Ye / Kanye West content I’d be stoked. I Imagine there’s tons of folks that would love to block all Crypto / NFT content as well.

As it stands, Mastadon is a great platform for this, as amongst other things, it’s not beholden to corporate sponsors. Want to block mention of all Nestle Co. products? No multi-billion dollar corporation to threaten to remove their ads. Also, the federation of the platform helps with this sort of thing. Subscribing to a list from a server that is managed by the users of that server seems like it’d be pretty excellent.

At the core of this is my desire to better curate my social media experience. If the driver of social media is the attention economy, then I want a better way to not sustain (with attention) things on social media that I find objectionable.

Thoughts?

#mastadon #socialmedia #longpost