Arthur Dent @ArthurDent@unxpnx.farm

Look, I'm not suggesting anything, but I want to point out that France has erupted into violent protests because the government raised the retirement age.

From 62 to 64.

Meanwhile, in America, we're not eligible for full retirement benefits until 67.

Despite what many conservatives and "centrists" would have us believe, I don't think Americans riot often enough.

Okay, turns out I'm suggesting a thing.

I recall a dad joke that I told the day my first daughter was born: “with the birth of my first child I’m incredibly excited! I can now tell dad jokes without being a faux pa!”

I still giggle when I think about it.

Also, it's #ShutTheFuckUpFriday

If the cops suspect you of a crime, NOTHING you say will help you. Tell them you are invoking your right to remain silent and request an attorney.

GETTING YOU TO TALK IS HOW THEY GET CONVICTIONS

Your lawyer will help you decide, carefully, what to say if anything. Don't make that decision without your lawyer.

Do not seize the day. This will startle the day and may cause it to become aggressive and give you a nasty bite.

Instead approach the day calmly without making eye contact, pet it gently, and slowly enfold it in a careful embrace

If the day shows any signs of resistance to being engaged with, it is likely to turn on you. Back off and return to bed.

Imagine if there were people who kept saying, "I'm not homophobic, but I think gay men should be kept out of locker rooms so they don't assault straight men. And I also think gays and lesbians shouldn't be allowed to marry because that takes away from from straight marriages. Also I think they're converting the youth. Still, I support gays' right to exist."

And the mainstream press was like, "SEE? They're not homophobic. They even said so." That's where we are now with trans people.

Very subtle, nice 😂

Did the NYT really publish an Opinion speculating that young girls today are more depressed than ever because of _phones_?

In a world where they lost the right to control their own reproductive healthcare? Where states are pondering making them report their periods? In a world debating genital inspections to play school sports? While banning books? Where they practice school shooting drills? With climate change? Where sexual assault isn’t disqualifying for public office?

Sure, it’s the phones.

The Onion is on a roll. https://www.theonion.com/evangelical-leaders-announce-j-k-rowling-finally-bigot-1850129128

@Tarah

I'm a maker. I've been using your boards for years. I've recommended their use to countless people, advocated for your goals, and remained excited for everything you had done to further coding in education. You were doing good work, and had an immense amount of goodwill within the maker community. Have credit where it's due.

But your recent antics are wholly unacceptable.

Firstly, you have abandoned the maker community in recent years by prioritizing your industrial customers over them. The very same maker community that fueled the wide adoption of your products, the people who tirelessly evangelized your mission, are being left behind.

You're right - people are cross that they can't get your products any more. And that's because you're not making them for us any more. And we know it.

Secondly, your recent "Hey, we hired a cop!" post is concerning. UK law enforcement has a long history of terrible behavior in infiltrating activist circles, establishing sexual relationships with activists, and in some cases abandoning the children they fathered in those relationships.

This is a well-documented pattern of behavior, and is still playing out in the courts. The individual you hired most likely had a direct hand in enabling that behavior, as his role was in developing surveillance techniques. That history should be considered shameful, yet somehow you've decided it's a selling point.

This raises further concerns when considered within the context of your recent pivot towards prioritizing industrial customers over the maker community. In many perfectly reasonable ways, this could be considered a signal to government and law enforcement agencies of your willingness and intent to expand your business with them.

After all, you also manufacture small cameras as well as small, network-enabled computers. Now you're advertising that you've brought someone in-house with extensive experience in law enforcement under a dubious title (what exactly is the job description of a "Maker-in-Residence" anyhow?).

It's clear that your original vision has changed, and not for the better.

All of this is concerning enough. But when these perfectly valid criticisms and concerns were brought to the attention of your Fediverse instance, your brand ambassador responded with glib dismissals and began blocking the very people who have supported you for the past decade.

Not to mention the absolutely ridiculous recent claims by your co-founder, Liz Upton, that this backlash is due to not putting a CW on a picture of pigs in a blanket. That's patently absurd, and had she taken any time whatsoever to seriously look at the conversation, she would know it.

But, again - we're not the customers you care about any more. And we know it.

The fact is, you have managed to burn down a decade's worth of goodwill in the span of a day or so by being condescending, inconsiderate, and tone-deaf towards your most loyal customers and their extremely valid concerns. And on a personal level, I'm wildly disappointed and feel a certain amount of betrayal.

Of course I'll be vigorously recommending your competitors from now on, for both moral and practical reasons. There are far superior alternatives on the market already. At the basest level, I'm quite comfortable forgetting that #RaspberryPi is even an option for a single-board computer, and never mentioning the name to another potential maker again.

Not that it matters, since we can't even get your boards without an obscene markup anyways.

#RaspberryBye

some more #trekposting for yall since it seems you can't get enough of it

Please boost if you’re still masking indoors (in public places)

I re-ran the usual "scan my existing twitter friends for signs of them on the Fediverse" script...

https://fedifinder.glitch.me

... which many of us should be re-running every week or so until Twitter completely tanks.

Have you re-run it lately?

Web3 Doesn't exist - the decentralized web is just another chapter in the book of trying to solve people problems with technology.

https://escapingtech.com/tech/opinions/why-web3-doesnt-exist.html
#web3 #tech

Earlier this year, I was invited down to Texas by folk who asked me: "Do you think you could teach our assorted group of blind, low vision, and neurodiverse folk about lockpicking?"

Their results were terrific. 😁👍 This video was captured that day...

https://youtu.be/2tVpNzX963g

...and we are jointly publishing it as a way of sharing this lesson plan with you all in the hopes that more classes like this can be replicated by others. 🔓

New Users, if you're on the official Mastodon mobile app Stop 🛑. It does not show all the views and confuses most new users. For Android I would suggest Tusky, for Apple I would suggest Metatext or Toot. #NewToMastodon

As the World Cup opens in Qatar, our thoughts are with the migrant workers who suffered to make it possible. We still recall how Qatar was the only government that was willing to host the next World Trade Organization summit after demonstrators shut it down in Seattle in 1999.

But rather than treating Qatar as exceptional, we should scrutinize the World Cup itself. Here's why our Brazilian comrades resisted the World Cup and its impact on their communities back in 2014:

https://crimethinc.com/texts/worldcupbrazil