Mastodawn

David Penfold

@davep@infosec.exchange

2K Followers

261 Following

22.7K Posts

Does IT stuff. Vegan and anarchism curious.

Likes permaculture, infosec, Tranmere Rovers. But mainly bad jokes stolen from https://www.justthetalk.co.uk/thehaven/17468/urgent-i-need-a-good-joke-right-now

Also unreasonably fond of BPMN.

Officially not right in the noggin #ʘ‿ʘ

like	whatever
Signal	Dave.14
CO2 ppm at birth	321.37
LinkedIn	AHAHAHAHA

David Penfold

1m ago

internetsdairy 13m ago

Saw what looked like a really fucked-up dog being taken for a walk but it turned out to be a ferret! (No shade on fucked-up looking dogs or ferrets, they are all beautiful creatures)

David Penfold

6m ago

RolloTreadway 11m ago

If I was rich, I think I would have two or three or even four entirely different sofas to lounge on, choosing between then dependent on my mood.

Show thread

David Penfold

9m ago

Couldn't find the big stepladder to jury rig the big ladder to in order to attack the higher branches. So I resorted to the 5m long manual cutter thing. This may be a good move.

Managed to start pruning the smaller peripheral branches and one of the 3cm thick ones that was actually interfering with the overhead cables. It's really tough work to engage enough power. On the second one I think I just tore my right bicep as I finally got the damn thing to cut. Bugger.

Waiting to see how bad the damage is. Still, it beats any sort of chainsaw mishap.

David Penfold

49m ago

sophari.4d ago

Show thread

David Penfold

53m ago

I'm sure this third espresso will help, and not at all make me jittery, no sirree.

David Penfold

55m ago

Heliograph 57m ago

#ArtGallery #NewSouthWales #gadi

David Penfold

1h ago

Doug 22h ago

In the 1700s, teens were accused of being… addicted to novels.
Not alcohol. Not gambling.
Reading.
Across Europe, a strange fear gripped adults. Young people were devouring novels at a pace never seen before. They read at the dinner table, in bed, even while walking through the streets.
This wasn’t seen as a harmless hobby.
It was called “reading fever” or “book addiction.”
Some claimed it would rot their minds.
Others worried it would damage morals, ruin posture, or lead to dangerous daydreaming. Fiction was accused of causing everything from laziness to madness.
Moralists and educators sounded the alarm.
Pamphlets warned parents. Schools debated limits.
It wasn’t just what teens were reading — it was who was writing it.
Books like Samuel Richardson’s Pamela (1740) or Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) stirred emotion, imagination, and independence.
They were often written by or for women — a major threat to the era’s social order.
But despite the panic, teens kept reading.
And quietly, something revolutionary was happening.
This “reading mania” helped fuel mass literacy, gave rise to the modern novel, and encouraged generations to explore new ideas through story.
The so-called crisis?
It laid the foundation for modern literature as we know it.
Funny how things change.
Today, we beg kids to pick up a book.
Had you ever heard about the 1700s reading panic?
What do you think society would say if teens got “addicted” to books again?

The photo that I found. Can’t remember whose it was. Makes me laugh out loud.

David Penfold

1h ago

Had a meeting this morning that the other party postponed at the last minute. Grr. At least I can deal with that slightly over-zealous tree that is encroaching on the overhead power line coming into the house. If you don't hear from me again I've over-estimated my abilities. Again.

David Penfold

1h ago

Augie Ray 5h ago

That is an awful lot of words to say, "I had sex with underage girls and the Epstein files prove my guilt."

Jim Salter 1d ago

This is the best take on Fermi's Paradox that I've ever seen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox

Show thread

Charlie O’Hara 1d ago

@jimsalter I’ve always assumed that intelligent life is so rare that it appears only once every few galaxies. There’s just no way for any species to communicate at that distance, let alone to traverse the distance at sublight. Each one truly, truly alone. 😭

Show thread

Jim Salter 1d ago

@awfulwoman if you assume that becoming technological doesn't extend the likely lifespan of a species--which seems extremely likely--the odds of us existing at precisely the right time to intercept another intelligent species' radio noise even WITHIN the galaxy are pretty damn remote.

Even crocodiles would be wildly unlikely to have been around to intercept such a brief window, and it seems VERY unlikely that we'll make it to a single million years of tech, let alone hundreds of millions.

Show thread

Charlie O’Hara 1d ago

@jimsalter mate, you’re talking to someone who read Cosmos cover to cover when she was 8. 😂

Show thread

Jim Salter 1d ago

@awfulwoman me too, but I was WILDLY more optimistic about practical FTL travel back then. I didn't really understand why Fermi's Paradox *isn't* a paradox at all until sometime in my early thirties, IIRC.

Show thread

Cassandrich 1d ago

@jimsalter @awfulwoman I am absolutely optimistic about FTL and that's why I accept that it's not possible.

Impossibility of fascism ruling the entire universe or even multiple star systems is the most wonderful thing possible.

Show thread

Irenes (many)1d ago

@dalias @jimsalter @awfulwoman ha, well said

Show thread

Jim Salter 1d ago

@dalias @awfulwoman it's essentially impossible for fascism to rule the one planet we already have, for that matter. They can't get rid of us any more than we can get rid of them. Humans try All The Things, both good and bad. It's hard wired into the design.

It depresses me that the fight against fascism can never be won once and for all, but it's a relief that it can never be LOST once and for all either.

Show thread

Charlie O’Hara 1d ago

@jimsalter yeah, similar. I used to be sad that I’d never live to see the golden age of humanity. Now I’m just glad I won’t be around to see the end of it.

Show thread

toooobeeee

1d ago

@awfulwoman
I'd like to follow you for this post alone 🥰👋
@jimsalter

Show thread

cliffordheath 1d ago

@jimsalter @awfulwoman Extend? Technology is precisely what *ends* planets, or rather, civilisation is, because its primary role is to exponentially accelerate resource depletion.

Show thread

Jim Salter 1d ago

@cliffordheath @awfulwoman I don't disagree. Now. Thirty years ago, I would have argued rather vociferously otherwise, and I suspect at LEAST a plurality, if not an outright majority, of our species still would.

Show thread

cliffordheath 1d ago

@jimsalter @awfulwoman The depressing thing is realising that it couldn't be otherwise, on any planet. Evolution exists because selection itself favours any species that's better able to utilise (dissipate) the available resources and energy flows. This is a tide which cannot be turned

Show thread

Jim Salter 1d ago

@cliffordheath @awfulwoman "cannot" be turned might be a little too strong. Ever read The Mote In God's Eye? It's not impossible to imagine a very old planet eventually rewarding species/civilizations that minimize their footprint, strongly enough to bend the arm of evolution toward conservation.

Show thread

cliffordheath 1d ago

@jimsalter @awfulwoman to "minimise their footprint" depends on rational thought, but we have ample evidence that rationality is an accidental byproduct, not a driving force

Show thread

Jim Salter 1d ago

@cliffordheath @awfulwoman it doesn't require rational thought, it just requires an environment that rewards conservation. Species that evolve in a desert tend to be pretty damn frugal in their use of resources, by necessity.

Show thread

Jiří Fiala Total Landscaping 1d ago

@awfulwoman @jimsalter I must say I strangely don't find that that sad. This way we can commiserate in silence

Show thread

Feoh 1d ago

@jimsalter I need to be focusing on Fermi's Paradox more, lately I keep dwelling on Fermi's Great Filter, to an almost unhealthy extent, but DAMN it's hard with everything going on in the world :)

Show thread

saddest cabbage 1d ago

@jimsalter
How horribly sad and poigniant. 🙁

James Mark Miller is a writer, narrative designer, reader, and inveterate recluse.

He lives in California with his wife, two dogs, a horrible cat, and too many books.

His book based on his twitter entries is called A Small Fiction.

https://www.instagram.com/asmallfiction/

#cartoons #attribution

Login • Instagram

Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.

Show thread

Jim Salter 1d ago

@craigduncan thank you! 💚

Show thread

Kevin Russell 1d ago

@jimsalter

Wishful thinking. Billions and billions spent, terabytes of data, thousands of searchers, decades of nitpicking study, and not one empty matchbook, not a sniff, not an atom out of place in a very very big Petrie dish.

Hopeful sure, even excited for the search, but the unlikeliness, the fragility, of this gossamar exception, is also fascinating and enervating.

And frightening. Its really very easy for a planet to fail.

#Fermi #FermiParadox #Venus #climate #carney #CDNpoli #klima

Show thread

Jim Salter 1d ago

@kevinrns the wishful thinking isn't that intelligent life might exist elsewhere, the wishful thinking is that attaining some level of technology actually extends a species' likely lifespan.

PARTICULARLY in the absence of some magical technology, and I do mean, *magical*, that would make migrating to a new solar system practically possible. I'm pretty dubious that even interplanetary colonization will ever make sense, at this point.

Show thread

Kevin Russell 1d ago

@jimsalter

The potential for Martian, lunar and asteroid belt habitation is 5 sigma.

Extra solar human activity has no supporting technology. Or expected technology.

Fermi's paradox is science. The mathematical potential for it is astounding, the evidence is zero, not just none.

Show thread

Kevin Russell 1d ago

@jimsalter

Scale is hard for us.

If you had a pizza box and a bowl of soup.

And you ripped the pizza box in half, drew the biggest circle inside and pinned it to the wall. Then took the bowl of soup to the next room.

When you come back, look at your circle on the wall and pretend its a drawing of our galaxy.

Pull out the pin, don't drop the galaxy.

The hole in the pizza box from the pin, corresponds well with the distance all of earths radio has travelled since radio was invented.

Show thread

doboprobodyne 1d ago

@kevinrns @jimsalter

Good visualisation; thank you.

May I ask what the soup-in-the-next-room represents?

Show thread

Ross of Ottawa 1d ago

@doboprobodyne it's lunch, cuz you're out of pizza
@kevinrns @jimsalter

Show thread

lizzzzard 1d ago

@ottaross @doboprobodyne @kevinrns @jimsalter 😂

Show thread

Iris Volk 1d ago

@ottaross @doboprobodyne @kevinrns @jimsalter 😂

Show thread

Kevin Russell 1d ago

@doboprobodyne @jimsalter

I'm ashamed to say, Ross is right, its a planned joke.

The bowl of soup is for lunch.

Show thread

D. G. Marshall 1d ago

@kevinrns @doboprobodyne @jimsalter

Well, you can't eat the pizza box.

Don't ask me how I know this.

Show thread

doboprobodyne 1d ago

@kevinrns @jimsalter
🙏

Show thread

Michael Gemar 1d ago

@kevinrns @jimsalter Is the answer to the Fermi Paradox that nowhere else has invented soup?

Show thread

Kevin Russell 1d ago

@michaelgemar @jimsalter

Precisely, we can find no dirty bowls.

Show thread

MostlyTato 1d ago

@jimsalter
A picture, or in this case a series of pictures, paints a thousand words.
Edit: bookmarked to re-post at a later date if I may...

Show thread

harmone 1d ago

@jimsalter I think that any aliens considering visiting Earth would take a look at how we humans treat each other and then just think, nah, we're good.

Show thread

Robin Barton 1d ago

@jimsalter Ironically, unless we break the faster than light puzzle it will remain as such

Show thread

Giesbert Damaschke 1d ago

@jimsalter (Excuse my bad english): I think it does not illustrate the Fermi Paradox: it depends how one understand the „other We“. „We“ (as humans) exist on this planet (and this planet only), other intelligent life exists in other forms, that are not „We“. Every single individual (on earth) feels lonley (and is surroundet by other lonely beings)). Anyway: thanks, I really like this comic

Show thread

ROTOPE~1

1d ago

@jimsalter the best part is that when two alone civilizations meet, they quickly become one alone civ and one dead civ.

Show thread

anon20394702398750 1d ago

@jimsalter

Since we started broadcasting radio waves over a hundred years ago, they've only reached a dozen or so stars. We'll be long gone before they reach any other civilization (if there's anyone still around there to hear it).

I like to think that buried in the universe's background noise is the incredibly weak remnants of countless dead alien civilization's radio chatter.

Show thread

mrflash818 1d ago

@jimsalter Even if the odds are minuscule, I would like us to attempt high-power focused radio transmissions to candidate systems that could detect us, on the chance anyone was there to receive us. #meti #seti https://mrflash818.livejournal.com/229959.html

Show thread

cliffordheath 1d ago

@mrflash818 @jimsalter Our most powerful radio emissions would not become audible with our best receivers any further away than 10LY, a fraction of just this small galaxy. There are a lot of stars in that sphere but it's still infinitesimal in the universe

Show thread

Jim Salter 1d ago

@mrflash818 of course. SETI is incredibly cheap, when you look at the risk to reward, even if it's unlikely to pay off.

Show thread

peterF 1d ago

@jimsalter

our lifespan is very short... an intergalactic species would need a lifespan of billions of years to bother coming to find us.
We would not recognise them, nor them us.

Show thread

Ross of Ottawa 1d ago

@jimsalter the underlying truth is that we as humans are really, really poor at comprehending enormous numbers. We can work with them, and write them down, but we can never really grok them.

Show thread

luna aria ielenia 1d ago

@jimsalter credit:
https://theoatmeal.com/comics/oracle
@oatmeal

The Oracle - The Oatmeal

The Oatmeal

@jimsalter 💯

There is another contributor to the paradox that I don't see trotted out very often.

That blasted c thing! The speed of light and that hyper inflation thang means that vast areas of the universe are outside of those cute light cone things that you see in text books and QuantaMag articles.

The universe is too large to know if we can possibly communicate with all intelligent paradoxes.

I look forwards or perhaps backwards to the suitable XKCD.

Show thread

Jim Salter 1d ago

@gerdesj yeah, I talk about that a lot. I think most people who talk about Fermi's are aware of c... But most of them are science fiction fans, so even if they don't think FTL will ever happen, they still tend to think that a technological species should survive essentially forever. Which, if true, would leave the paradox intact.

But if you assume no greater lifespan for a technological civilization than for a typical species... Well. No more paradox.

Show thread

Cynthia 💣🏳️‍⚧️1d ago

@jimsalter

I've long believed that to be the case.

Show thread

TFed 🍉🌻🚀

23h ago

@jimsalter life should exist out there, It took as few billion years to transition into multicellular organisms.

Probably, life at least exists there as a single-celled organisms

Show thread

Philipp Blum 23h ago

@jimsalter They may not be. We are just not developed enough to even know. -- X CEO

Show thread

Jim Salter 18h ago

@citrullin well, I'll certainly agree that Musk is woefully undeveloped.

Show thread

Philipp Blum 15h ago

@jimsalter > He might be not so bad after all. You might be surprised. This might just be the comeback story of the century. -- X CEO

Show thread

Jim Salter 14h ago

@citrullin nah man, I'm pretty sure the emerald mine trust fund kid who hangs out with outright Nazis on the social media platform he bought, threw sieg heils from the podium of a White House address, and made the AI model he embedded in said platform so right-wing it started calling itself "Mecha-Hitler" is, in fact, pretty fucking bad.

Show thread