Guitarsophist

@nprofile…pfuj I think that the evidence that the ants are responsible for the graffiti, even given their warlike nature and sketchy name, is circumstantial at best.

2026-05-11 17:24:44 UTC

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@nprofile…pfuj Was the alien insectoid? One wonders. Also, this story set me off to wondering about the political implications of a joy detector. Imagine what awful things an authoritarian regime could do with that. "Citizen! Why are you not deliriously happy in the brave new world that Dear Leader has provided for you?" Or the contrary, "Citizen! You are suspiciously joyful in the midst of your poverty and squalor. What thought-crime are you committing to be in this state?"
OK, I'll go back to thinking blissfully about the happy ant. It's a good story.

2026-03-08 15:23:04 UTC

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@nprofile…l70y I think one problem is that nearly every pundit is saying, "You can't do regime change without boots on the ground," so Trump is going around saying, "I need boots on the ground." In that sense the pundits are escalating the war.

2026-02-07 00:48:02 UTC

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@nprofile…emk6 It's disinformation.

2025-12-27 16:40:15 UTC

#caturday #catsofmastodon
Teddy has claimed this one.
https://cdn.social.linux.pizza/system/media_attachments/files/115/792/518/428/120/413/original/719ddf868472b457.jpg

2025-10-26 00:15:13 UTC

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@nprofile…e4ry Well, the ants just think, "You left this stuff out for us, thanks for the contribution!"
By the way, we have both Argentine ants and the tiny tiny ones that are about a third of the size of the Argentines. When I was a kid we called them "grease ants" because they liked potato chips so much. What are the tiny ones really called?

2025-10-19 03:17:57 UTC

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@nprofile…pmx6 @nprofile…x7e5 Or maybe Gitanes.

2025-06-18 16:38:32 UTC

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@nprofile…3wy7 @nprofile…zezf @nprofile…fflq @nprofile…98rg @nprofile…007f @nprofile…jpfa @nprofile…qtlf I joined Mastodon in late 2022, I think it was when Elon bought Twitter. I found a list of servers, some of which were closed to new users because of the mass migration. I ended up applying to social.linux.pizza because I was running Linux Mint and it was open. I was accepted, then I started figuring out how to work it. After a while, I started using Phanpy.
Some of the things you say are defects or omissions might actually be features. I have been using computers for a long time, though I am not professionally involved with them. My first online experiences were on the GEnie BBS. I also don't use any of the typical social media. I had a Twitter account (no longer), but I only used it to follow the Ukraine war. I didn't mind having to figure out Mastodon. It meant that the users had to have a certain level of commitment and curiosity. I think it cuts down on the trolling and blathering. The necessary information is out there, if you look for it.

2025-06-07 15:40:56 UTC

Here is Teddy sublimely relaxed without a care in the world.
#caturday #catsofmastodon
https://cdn.social.linux.pizza/system/media_attachments/files/114/642/836/139/688/077/original/9c6929f066b4a348.jpg

2025-04-12 19:49:08 UTC

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@nprofile…args Didn't Beatrice Potter write a screenplay for "The Lichen that Digested the Earth" before she wrote Peter Rabbit? Maybe I'm remembering that wrong.

2025-03-08 16:30:26 UTC

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@nprofile…r5mx DEI is an anti-scapegoating program that is now being scapegoated.

2025-02-08 16:08:42 UTC

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@nprofile…r5mx Those examples are dead metaphors that continue as idioms. Good luck battling against them. The language has a mind of its own.

2025-01-29 21:35:48 UTC

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@nprofile…args This is very amusing! I have a science fiction story in which some rather large spacefaring ants kidnap and enslave a colony of humans and try to get them to live in hives using stone-age tech. There are some collaborator humans who work directly with the ants. These call their masters the "Big Stinkies" because of their communications are so odoriferous. Any human who doesn't cooperate gets fed to the larvae.
It needs a rewrite. Perhaps I should get it out and work on it some more, but I have other things in the mix.

2025-01-19 15:56:14 UTC

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@nprofile…a0z2 I haven't read your work, but I have been enjoying your hiking photographs a lot.

2025-01-11 01:48:49 UTC

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@nprofile…89wx As you know, I am an old white guy. I did not know this history. I lived in Altadena up until third grade. I had Black classmates and a Black teacher. On the first day of school in second grade, when I had a Black teacher, I came home and said, "My teacher has a really dark suntan." That is how much I knew about race as a kid. It is unfortunate we cannot preserve that innocence.
I used to teach Octavia Butler's novel Wild Seed. That novel has a lot of interesting things to imagine about race and being human. She is very important.

2024-12-04 00:29:19 UTC

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@nprofile…r5mx I gave up on WaPo and NYTimes, but I recently started reading the Atlantic. It seems to me that there is some diversity of view there that is not corrupted by both-sides-ism. I may also support the Guardian. The Guardian's coverage of American politics is often deeper and more nuanced than U.S. sources.

2024-11-26 16:37:40 UTC

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@nprofile…0lh9 Yes, scientists do make YouTube videos, but to have an audience they have to be photogenic, clever, and funny with great graphics. Personality persuades, data is boring. We have lost the Enlightenment.

2024-11-18 15:09:15 UTC

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@nprofile…r5mx Yes, whatever we call it, what is coming is bad. It does irk me when people (not you of course) throw political terms around like insults, often accusing someone who is slightly liberal to be simultaneously woke, fascist, AND communist. If the terms become meaningless, we have to invent new ones.
AOC discovered that some of her constituents had voted for her AND for Trump. She recently gave an interview talking about what she found out when she asked them why they did that. Some of them said that they hated politicians, but she seemed "real" and Trump also seemed "real." Maybe we do need new terms.

2024-08-14 19:25:28 UTC

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@npub1t00…kx23 Some people would absolutely not know what to do if they became happy.

2024-07-20 17:48:34 UTC

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@npub15wt…7rek Try doing what quantum physicists do. All the stories are about Alice and Bob. If you need a third character, add Ted.

2024-07-14 15:16:53 UTC

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@npub1psd…9sr7 I'm having trouble processing "skin flicks for the furry market." Contradiction in synechdoches? Absence/presence problem? Uncovering/covering?

2024-06-27 02:31:39 UTC

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@npub1842…0kn3 It's such a great book! It would be a good desert island choice.

2024-06-07 17:44:41 UTC

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@npub1nqz…838y One of my colleagues was sure that she didn't have a dishwasher, but when she got home to check, she did.

2024-05-11 14:02:27 UTC

#caturday #catsofmastodon
Teddy thinks the bread machine needs some help.
https://cdn.social.linux.pizza/system/media_attachments/files/112/422/823/233/897/852/original/54391f092197abd9.jpg

2024-05-03 16:30:57 UTC

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@npub1xsy…cevg Some cats are neighborhood cats. It's sort of a protection racket. You haven't been contributing, so watch out.

2024-01-11 02:21:08 UTC

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@npub1jc6…7v67 OK, that works. Not intuitive though. I wasn't following you. Was there an announcement about this?

2023-09-03 22:57:46 UTC

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@npub1nxt…055a
Floating, waking, floating. Dreaming, I guess. A party. A goat man. A disease. I guess. Or I drank something. Brain fog and swirling cloth. Did I leave the window open? The door? Did I lock the door? I can't rise to see. Eyes heavy. Limbs ache. Is it day? Am I awake? Where did the goat man go? Was he in a dream or was he?
A breeze swirls the cloth. A door has opened somewhere. Time passes.
Oh. A face. At the end of the white tunnel. A goat face.

2023-08-28 01:44:28 UTC

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@npub1wu7…3d23 @npub1nxt…055a I am just getting back into writing, so I am paying attention to this. But it seems to me that a whole self-publishing industry is very dependent on Amazon and that a slight change in Amazon's algorithm or policies could devastate a lot of authors. It reminds me of the music industry in the 60's when big acts like the Rolling Stones and Credence Clearwater sold millions of albums, but the record companies took all the money. In general, creators don't get paid.

2023-08-26 16:19:54 UTC

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@npub1nxt…055a Some of them pretend to work toward a better world, but they are not very good at it. I think for most of them, life is like a video game and the bank balance is the score. They are against anything that makes the score go down, or go up less quickly. In most cases, virtue does not make the score go up.

2023-08-25 20:13:45 UTC

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@npub1nxt…055a I think that bondsman is probably a low information voter.

2023-08-24 02:45:37 UTC

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@npub1nxt…055a Did he give a reason? It's like when they say they are going to impeach Biden, but they don't say what the impeachable offense is. Aside from the cartels, Mexico is a pretty good neighbor. Is he going to invade Canada too?

2023-08-21 16:57:30 UTC

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@npub1psd…9sr7 I have the Logitech one. My daughter gave it to me, so i didn't choose it, but I am happy with it. It is also much cheaper than the Apple one.

2023-08-20 23:49:27 UTC

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@npub1nxt…055a Ok, Ok, so the crab drones have built-in 3D printers and they print what you need out of the local not-pixie dust. Maybe like pixie dirt or pixie sand. Definitely not the dust kind.

2023-08-20 20:46:49 UTC

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@npub1nxt…055a Drywall is so 20th century. But if the future is roadless, perhaps there will be spider or crab drones to bring building materials to the location of your habitat. Or even better, programmable nano-bots that build whatever you need out of local pixie dust.

2023-08-15 22:58:44 UTC

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@npub1aum…5jx0 I was joking a bit. But one must consider all the alternatives to big rewrites. Sometimes a new solution becomes apparent.

2023-08-15 21:51:54 UTC

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@npub1aum…5jx0 Couldn't you introduce a temporary psychotic episode and do a Gollum/Smeagol kind of thing?

2023-08-10 23:56:47 UTC

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@npub1nxt…055a
It started when I got a cyber foot. I was walking on the lawn while the robot mower cut the grass. Yes, I was watching a video on my cornea implants, and yes, I should have been looking where I was going. One flesh foot and one cyber foot was asymmetrical, so I got another foot. Those feet were better! I started putting money aside for new parts because Insurance Are Us said it was elective surgery. One thing led to another, and now I'm all almost all cyber.
Except for my head.

2023-08-10 01:09:51 UTC

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@npub1nxt…055a
I had a good job. I was tending bar on Uptown Station at Actulus. It's a crossroads, so you get every kind of species--Draxoids, Blomians, Filagree, even humans. So three humans come in, a girl, a guy, and a non-binary, off the Bogus. They start talking trash about Emperor Gax. Mostly, I'm cool, but this was our Emperor, you know? So I tell them off. They get heated. Then some Drax get involved. A riot starts.
The boss is Raki. I got fired for talking politics. So here I am.

2023-08-07 16:03:00 UTC

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@npub1nxt…055a Are you sure? At least some of the people who stormed the Capitol on 1/6 thought that they were acting in love and courage. Love can be deceived and love and hate can be two sides of the same coin. It seems to me that the factors that are missing right now are civility, which allows us to coexist, and tolerance, which both loves and is governable. And unless we are anarchists, we want a society that is benevolently and usefully governed. Don't we?

2023-08-06 21:39:55 UTC

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@npub1nxt…055a In one high school class the books were assigned by rows. My row got The Great Gatsby. I wanted to read Old Man and the Sea. I was so mad that at first I refused to do any work on it. The teacher sent a letter home saying I was going to fail, so I grudgingly read it. In retrospect, Gatsby is the better novel, but at the time I loathed it. I had no context for it. I was playing rock 'n roll. For my high school self it was boring people doing boring things for no discernible reasons.

2023-08-02 15:39:42 UTC

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@npub1nxt…055a Doesn’t that mean that you have to watch stuff at a particular day and time? Or record it to watch later and then never watch it? That sounds horrible.

2023-08-02 00:30:01 UTC

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@npub1nxt…055a Reality is full of plot holes.

2023-05-19 03:38:04 UTC

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@npub1nxt…055a
Or an alternative:
We all live on a demon-haunted ship,
Demon-haunted ship, demon-haunted ship.
We all live on a demon-haunted ship,
And our teeth are oh so long,
Many more of them, does it seem wrong?
And our friends are all aboard.
Many more of them swim ashore.
Don't be afraid of the demon-haunted ship,
We are a plague, we will infect you
With our teeth, we will inject you.
With our mouths, we will ingest you.
And the band begins to play,
Tra la la la lot, tra la la la la

2023-05-19 01:39:01 UTC

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@npub1nxt…055a
Our engines failed. We drifted. The wind died down, but we were enveloped in mist for months. Our provisions ran out and we began to fish, but the fish we caught were strange, with long teeth and elongated jaws. We ate them anyway, pan-fried in olive oil, or boiled when the oil ran out. It was Nicky, the first mate, who first noticed that our teeth and snouts were growing. In his cabin, we heard him gibbering.
Please, let us dock. We are human like you. We won't eat you. Please.