Mastodawn

Michael Cervieri Apr 24, 2023

"If your business model is to tell lies so that you’ll get viewers and have lots of advertising revenues, then, odious though this business model may be, the tax system’s job is to tax you on the profits that you actually make from it. And those profits are indeed reduced when you are successfully sued by the victims of your malicious falsehoods."
https://www.levernews.com/fox-can-claim-tax-writeoff-for-defamation-settlement/
#media #law #gross

Fox Can Claim Tax Writeoff For Defamation Settlement

The company says it can deduct the cost of its $787 million payout to Dominion over its election lies.

The Lever

Michael Cervieri Apr 23, 2023

the clouds are puffy this evening

Michael Cervieri Apr 21, 2023

say what? when caterpillars infest corn, the corn emits a signal to attract wasps to attack them.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.92.10.4169

@plants

Michael Cervieri Apr 20, 2023

the bee in here tells me the lawn's coming in nicely.

Michael Cervieri Apr 17, 2023

when vengeance really was personal:

"Starting in pre-Christian times... fasting was a method of resolving legal disputes. A person might sit in front of the house of someone who had wronged them, either seeking support from the gods or threatening to curse the enemy by dying on their doorstep."

https://daily.jstor.org/the-irish-fasting-tradition/

#religion

The Irish Fasting Tradition - JSTOR Daily

Particularly before the Second Vatican Council (a.k.a. Vatican II), fasting was part of the Catholic calendar. No one took it more seriously than the Irish.

JSTOR Daily

Michael Cervieri Apr 17, 2023

"As humans, we are creating new types of ecosystems that have potentially never been seen before."

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2023/04/animals-migrating-great-pacific-garbage-patch/673744/

#environment #nature #oceans #trash

Animals Are Migrating to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The oceanic soup of plastic fragments is becoming a new kind of ecosystem.

The Atlantic

Michael Cervieri Apr 17, 2023

using non-lethal tech to protect desert tortoises from ravens:

"When raven eggs hatch, the adults go into overdrive because they have babies to raise. You have these predatory vacuum cleaners scooping up everything... They just go out and start killing everything, and if baby tortoises are around, they’re really easy to nail.”

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/for-young-threatened-desert-tortoises-these-technologies-have-arrived-to-help-180981969/

#conservation #nature #tech

For Young Threatened Desert Tortoises, These Technologies Have Arrived to Help

Biologists are deploying 3D-printed replicas of hatchlings, lasers and drones to curb predation

Smithsonian Magazine

Michael Cervieri Apr 17, 2023

this month's print editions of Maximum PC and MacLife will be their last. here's a nice obituary celebrating the age of computer magazines.

https://www.technologizer.com/2023/04/15/the-end-of-computer-magazines-in-america/

#tech #publishing #media

The End of Computer Magazines in America

The April issues of Maximum PC and MacLife are currently on sale at a newsstand near you—assuming there is a newsstand near you. They’re the last print issues of these two venerable computer magazines, both of which date to 1996 (and were originally known, respectively, as Boot and MacAddict). Start

Technologizer by Harry McCracken

Michael Cervieri Apr 16, 2023

i gave my daughters a heavy, dark rye with their dinner tonight.

they thought it was chocolate toast.

the disappointment was real.

Michael Cervieri Apr 14, 2023

unseasonably warm weather made solo parenting two young girls a breeze... a day at the beach, so to speak.