Mastodawn

@MLE_online @lisamelton I volunteer at what’s basically a beer co-op that’s open to the public. No one gets paid (not even tips directly, those go to the bartender party fund), no owner takes a cut, no usurious landlord; it’s the cheapest bar in town, largely because there’s no profit motive. Standard beer is $1.25. And I know our numbers because I count and drop the till when we close—they’re very noticeably down since pre-pandemic. It isn’t *only* cost, there’s something bigger.

sidb 1d ago

e.w. niedermeyer 1d ago

*glancing briefly at the feed during a frantic work day* what do you mean Trump is instituting The Purge, isn't that something congress is supposed to do

sidb 1d ago

La Kwaaaaa Boy 2d ago

Hi. Hello. Someone tried to scold me for moving a default branch from master to main by being very pedantic with the Oxford Dictionary so I just said, "Yeah well there are some men I call master so when I see the word I get an awkward chub," and immediately won the argument.

sidb 1d ago

Yoko's Asterisk 🏳️‍⚧2d ago

I woke up this morning and chose violence

https://buttondown.com/charliejane/archive/let-firefly-stay-dead/

Let Firefly Stay Dead!

Reminder! You can still get a signed, personalized, doodled copy of Lessons in Magic and Disaster, my novel about a trans witch, her grief-stricken lesbian...

Happy Dancing

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sidb 2d ago

@spellingmistakescostlives That looks great! I admit, I first doubted the anaglyph except on the logo where the red and cyan are easily visible, but I had the glasses handy, and wow, it really is there. Especially zoomed in—on too small a screen, it doesn’t pop as much zoomed out. At poster size I bet it’s perfect.

sidb 2d ago

Simon Brooke 2d ago

Guess who's behind the sudden rush of age verification legislation?

In the US, #Meta is spending $26.3 Million to hire at least 86 Lobbyists from 40 lobbying firms, and lobbying in at least 45 states. It is confirmed that Meta wrote the Louisiana age verification bill.

In the EU, Meta is spending ten million euros annually on lobbying, retaining 18 lobbying firms.

Edit: this article is based on LLM generated material, and I haven't spent the time to check its sources

https://tboteproject.com/

Age Verification Lobbying: Dark Money, Model Legislation & Institutional Capture

Investigative research into age verification lobbying, dark money, and model legislation

The TBOTE Project

sidb 2d ago

GeePawHill 2d ago

People who characterize DOGE as having failed in its mission startle me.

Of course, that mission wasn't what the thoroughly and repeatedly documented straight-faced liars said it was, so I suppose there's room for some naïve folks to think that.

The mission -- "destroy one of the most successful governments in the history of the world as much as possible as quickly as possible while creating maximum chaos and taking a profit" -- was a stunning success.

sidb 2d ago

Anders Eknert 2d ago

Vibed account verification.

(via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/posts/lukehinds_sign-of-the-vibe-times-share-7438895731354066944-K7ox)

sidb 2d ago

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Corey S Powell 3d ago

This summary of the Starshot project by one of its team leaders is a bit defensive. But it's a fascinating peek into the minds of the engineers who deeply, passionately wanted to be able to send a spacecraft to another star within their lifetime.

https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2026/03/03/starshot-is-a-success-part-i/ #science #astronomy #space #tech

sidb 3d ago

Electronic Frontier Foundation 3d ago

When lawmakers and advocacy groups frame queer existence itself as a threat to young people, age-verification laws become ideological enforcement instead of regulatory policy. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/03/rep-finke-was-right-age-gating-isnt-about-kids-its-about-control

Rep. Finke Was Right: Age-Gating Isn’t About Kids, It’s About Control

What’s at stake is whether “protecting children” becomes a legal pretext for embedding government control over the internet to enforce specific moral and religious judgments—judgments that deny marginalized people access to speech, community, history, and truth—into law.

Electronic Frontier Foundation