"University of California terminates subscriptions with world’s largest scientific publisher in push for open access to publicly funded research"
Context for those not in the US: this is huge. UC is a uniquely enormous and influential university system in our country. When they do things, many other universities follow suit.
I'm watching some discussions about that podcast writing competition SyFy recently announced, and ugh. I'm used to seeing sketchy stuff from fake/vanity presses and the like, but the terms of that contest are astonishingly predatory.
I feel bad about the number of people who will submit to it, not win, and then see parts of their work appear in someone else's project months or years afterward.
Also from the Rothney Astrophysical Observatory Baker-Nunn telescope. By combining a series of images taken over the lunar eclipse, a picture of the Earth's shadow. #astrophoto
Our country is racist, the media are racist. Case closed.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2019/01/12/if-ever-you-doubted-the-existence-of-media-bias/
Why are 200 million workers on strike in India?
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2019/01/08/why-are-200-million-workers-on-strike-in-india
'...India has a workforce of over 520 million, only 6-7% of whom are employed in formal enterprises, of which barely 2% of are unionized. Most of the unionization is limited to public sector employees, with very few instances of a formal union being active within the private sector or informal sector. In the last Employment and Unemployment Survey to be conducted by the government in 2012, over 62% of the employed were estimated to be daily wage workers, making their source of income seasonal and very vulnerable to market fluctuations. There is very little to indicate that things have changed radically in the past seven years. If anything, the very nature of unorganized labor has changed...'
Annnd then they get David Brin on and he spends fifteen minutes literally screaming at the camera. ... Well then!
It's interesting to think of the concept of the "free and open web" as a generational thing. I can't imagine that that phrase means much to someone born in Generation Z, who grew up with "the internet" meaning an array of chiclet-sized apps built by companies in Silicon Valley.
It is kind of meteor out there right now. Think I was seeing one a minute for awhile.
Also ridiculously, *ridiculously* clear. I wasn't expecting to be able to (sort of) make out M42 with the naked eye given the state of mine, but there it is..
Like being able to mow down dozens of zombies in seconds is cool and all, but that's not going to help me build a sustainable farm.
Instead of having missions to get more guns, imagine how cool it would be to have to go on missions to recruit specialists to address specific needs in your growing community.
Don't have proper plumbing? Go find a civil engineer. Having trouble building sustainable housing. Trade grain with another community to have their architect teach you.
That would be LIT.
I feel like we still haven't hit the peak of survival gaming yet.
Most survival games are centered around the individual experience of a dude, usually a white guy, arming himself to the teeth and progress is measured by how easily they can kill.
I'd like a game that has a more holistic and community context. Yes, defending yourself is important, but so is housing, a power grid, water, schools, manufacturing etc. You know, community building.
I don't know of a game that goes that far with it.
... Did just catch Neptune though, or at least a faint blue dot where that particular faint blue dot should be, so that's fun.
Just two and a half more planets and I've collected the set!
I am futilely shaking the angryfist at you, Mr. Comet Currently Parked Behind The One Streetlight In This Neighborhood As Clouds Threaten To Roll In Later.
I'm on to your little game.
So a couple of newsbots from one site or another showed up in my federated feed doing the same thing their cousins on Twitter do: post about each article they link 2-4 times in rapid succession.
Just what's going on there anyway? It's consistent across both platforms and only seems to happen with that kind of account. Are they all mangled the same way? Is it reposting for fixed typos (but 3-4 times in the same minute?)? Is it some ultra-dumb Do This To Get Moar Clickz(tm) strategy?
Poking around the edges of getting started on astrophotography.
It's a fun combination of "this stuff is extremely neat, I think I have the basic ideas, and I want to get more deeply into it" and "the abilities (and equipment) of people who've been at this for any amount of time are frankly terrifying."
Adjective verber of nouns