1/7 Warning: Spoilers ahead.
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Joseph
@JosephMeyer@c.im
mastodon 4.7.2I enjoy well-crafted novels and nonfiction in the sciences. I spend much of my time as a caregiver for disabled dependents. I enjoy hiking, music, and do-it-myself projects. I believe in dog. Banner photo is from the mountains of El Cielo Biosphere Reserve in Mexico, above the morning clouds.
🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️BLM
917 Followers
1212 Following
50 Posts
Joined November 06, 2022
How To Win Over Some Conservatives?
Forty years ago when I was in graduate school, I did field research on land owned by ranchers in south Texas. I think they were probably conservatives. But at that time, many Texas conservatives had a mind your own business mindset. They tolerated those with whom they disagreed. They might have liked vanilla ice cream and not understood why some people prefer chocolate ice cream—but they accepted it. They might have preferred a steak dinner to enchiladas—but they too liked Mexican food and accepted that some preferred it. They might have not understood the beliefs of Jews or Mormons, but they accepted freedom of religion. They did not understand why some people were attracted to others of the same sex—but what people did in their own bedrooms was not their business. It has only been more recently that many conservative politicians have persuaded voters to get involved in issues that do not affect them and are none of their business. I think a key to Gina Hinojosa and James Talarico earning conservative votes and winning their elections in Texas is calling for a return to mind your own business conservatism. They could even admit to things they themselves do not understand and yet accept. Months ago, I told my longtime neighbor that the person he once knew as my son identifies now as my transgender daughter. He replied, “I don’t understand it, but I accept it.”
#Texas #Politics #GinaHinojosa #JamesTalarico #Elections #Voting #Tolerance #Conservatism
A political Halloween decoration seen in front of a neighborhood home on this morning’s dog walk. #Halloween #Politics #Texas
Execution by firing squad to be live streamed.
In his essay, ‘Reflections on the Guillotine,’ Albert Camus called for a return to public executions as a way to shock the conscience of the public and bring about the abolishment of capital punishment. I used to agree with Camus’ idea and the reasoning behind it. But in today’s USA, where depravity is a virtue in the eyes of many, execution is celebrated.
https://abcnews.com/Politics/hegseth-hasan-execution-public/story?id=137110734
My daughter who has schizophrenia and some paranoia bought an old and beat up Dell 960 desktop computer without a hard drive on eBay. She wants a legacy computer because she thinks it is more secure than a newer computer and it is pointless to try convincing her otherwise. After reseating the two loose memory cards, I was able to successfully boot up Linux Mint Cinnamon from a USB drive as shown in the attached image. I can access the Linux Mint menu using the Windows key, but for some reason a USB mouse is not working. I am going to try using a dedicated mouse port instead to see if that works.
I have attached a photo of two unused cables that I assume are for the missing hard drive. Am I wrong? One of the cables is damaged and I may have to replace it. I am obviously not a hardware guy and am just stumbling my way through this. If I buy a 3.5 Dell SATA hard drive, can I expect it to plug and play (if I replace the damaged cable)? Or, is it more complicated than that?
#Linux #Dell #Hardware #PC #CPU
Opposition to bigotry is anti-religious in the opinion of this dolt.
An army psychiatrist who committed a mass shooting at a military facility in Texas is to be executed by firing squad as recommended by Pete Hegseth and approved by Donald Trump.
https://abcnews.com/US/pentagon-execute-convicted-fort-hood-mass-shooter-nidal/story?id=137019865
Bertrand Russell reportedly once said “the fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.” Michael Desronvil, the lone juror who voted “guilty” in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial, demonstrated Russell’s maxim by saying he "didn't have any doubts" that she knew what she was doing when she killed her children. Unless the other eleven jurors were wrong in having reasonable doubts, Desronvil was too ignorant to join them in that opinion.
#BertrandRussell #Crime #Justice #Insanity #Philosophy #LindsayClancy #Stupidity #Ignorance #MentalHealth
Fifteen Texas wildflowers seen on this morning’s muddy trail hike.
#iPhone #Photography #Bloomscrolling #Nature #Texas #Hiking
Replying to
@Gaolaitch@cupoftea.social For me, joy is an emotional sensation of profound contentment and unexpected happiness. I can’t seem to summon it on demand. It is not coming on right now as I anticipate another day in my busy caregiving role. I recall a collection of short writings by C.S. Lewis that I once read, titled Surprised by Joy. I enjoyed it when I read it many years ago as a devout Catholic. But, like you, I am now an atheist. I am sometimes surprised by the same feeling of joy in learning that I once associated only with religious experiences. What an interesting question you asked! Thank you!
1. A long morning walk with my dog that was good for me and he seemed to enjoy judging by the amount of sniffing he did.
2. A friendly smile and wave from another walker wearing a diversity shirt and her dog. She probably saw my dog’s rainbow-colored serape collar and leash, thinking it was a pride pattern which it is not, but correct anyway if she thought I am an ally or have LGBTQ+ family members and friends whom I love and respect.
3. Lots of birds and squirrels seen going about their morning business, which is natural and fundamentally more important than any of the artificial things done by billionaires to increase their wealth.
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Being a heathen, I mowed and trimmed my yard on Sunday morning with no guilt.
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Much needed rain is in forecast tomorrow.
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I feel pretty relaxed this morning rather than stressed, despite everything.
Automatic transmissions are now standard.
#ExplainItWrongButGetItRight#HashTagGames
Edible plants seen along the Slaughter Creek / Bauerle Ranch trails today. I left out dewberry, my favorite, because animals like me have already eaten their tasty raspberry fruit.
#Hiking #EdiblePlants #iPhonePhotography #Plants #Austin #Texas #Nature
Appreciation for Cyanobacteria (and the humble species of the Nostoc genus)
“It is certainly no exaggeration to say that we owe our existence in present form to cyanobacteria.” - Kartik Aiyer, PhD, University of Aarhus
Behind the Shady Hollow Community Center in southwest Austin, Texas is a concrete slab. It may be related to a water treatment facility that was decommissioned a couple decades ago. During dry weather, one can find at one end of it dark patches of crunchy stuff that most persons would probably think is leaf litter or unidentifiable crud. But, when it rains, runoff water puddles at that end of the slab and the crunchy black stuff quickly becomes dark-green icky glop when it rehydrates. Look closely. It is a species of a cyanobacteria of the Nostoc genus. Some sources indicate it can survive 100 years in the dehydrated state. Cyanobacteria are believed to have evolved on Earth about 3.5 billion years ago and the Nostoc species about 600 million years ago. I take a deep breath, feel the effects of oxygen in my lungs, and appreciate the indispensable contribution that humble cyanobacteria made to my very existence. I have included photos that show the Nostoc from a distance and up close to reveal its photosynthetic chlorophyll.
https://asm.org/articles/2022/february/the-great-oxidation-event-how-cyanobacteria-change
#Nature #Evolution #Biology #Cyanobacteria #Nostoc #Oxygen #Aarhus #Denmark #TIL
My daughter bought an 18-year-old Dell Optiplex 960 with no operating system on eBay and asked me to install Linux Mint for her. I reluctantly agreed to keep the peace. But I was surprised anyone would sell such a machine with a hard drive. Well, it arrived today and the hard drive was so thoroughly wiped as to be invisible (i.e., it contains no hard drive). It also was poorly packed and arrived with the face plate broken loose, a dead cricket and a few pieces of broken plastic inside the case, and one of the memory cards dislodged. Even after reseating the memory card, there was still a hardware problem with the memory. At least it didn’t burst into flames when I plugged it in and tried booting it up. But I did remind myself where the fire extinguisher is located. Why am I doing this? Because my daughter has schizophrenia and is paranoid about AI, she wants hardware no newer than 2008, and I am trying to keep the peace. Why 2008? Your guess is as good as mine.
#Schizophrenia #MentalHealth #Linux
@sk76@mastodon.ie “My Aunt Alice (Alice Ridnor) was on Broadway. She was loud, brassy, and until her last breath, had platinum blonde hair, cherry red nails, layers of face powder, and furs that smelled of mothballs. She could also walk down the street, knitting and carry on a conversation at the same time. On her piano was a signed picture from President Kennedy, a thank you for the sweater she’d knit him.”
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“What’s good? Life’s good” - Lou Reed
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Setting aside troubles to be mindful of the warm morning sun on the skin, the sound of birds in the trees, and a slightly cool breeze during a morning walk.
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A hot cup of espresso coffee brewed from freshly ground beans sourced from fair trade growers.
"Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you." - Joseph Heller, Catch-22
My wife told me our younger son does not believe humans ever walked on the moon. My guess, based on prior conversations, is that he does believe UFOs carrying aliens from other worlds have visited Earth. I know he believes in supernatural events. His critical thinking skills are weak.
I searched the internet for a quiz to assess one’s susceptibility to conspiratorial thinking and easily found a couple of them. I thought of asking my son to complete one and comparing his results to mine. Before proposing that to him, I decided to take the two quizzes myself. Although my susceptibility to conspiratorial thinking is less than average, I was surprised to test positive for some conspiratorial thinking, particularly about government influence by powerful persons. I quickly realized that answers suggesting my susceptibility to conspiratorial thinking were mostly informed by what I have observed during the last two years. So I retook the quizzes and answered the items based on my thinking just a couple years ago. My revised results then showed conspiracies to have little effect on my thinking. Perhaps thinking that would have been considered conspiratorial when the quizzes were designed (e.g., wealthy persons have excessive policy influence and suppress technology that could benefit society) is less conspiratorial today?
#Catch22 #Conspiracy #Misinformation #Disinformation #Corruption #Politics #Government #Society
Replying to
@auschwitzmuseum@mastodon.world Some of my Jewish ancestors were from Poznan, an area hit hard by Nazi atrocities with the full cooperation or acquiescence of non-Jewish neighbors. My ancestors migrated to the USA in the 1850s. But my guess is they left behind relatives and friends whose descendants perished in the Holocaust. Today I see intolerance for, and harsh treatment of, undocumented immigrants and LGBTQ+ individuals in the USA as a sign of what some persons are willing to do to others. And, I have neighbors who support such actions. To me, these neighbors may be capable of the same indifference or complicity that killed so many innocents during the Holocaust.
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Having written and mailed a letter yesterday morning to friends I had not communicated with in about a year, I received a letter from them that afternoon. Serendipity!
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Calling those friends on the phone today to wish the husband a quick and full recovery from a minor stroke that he mentioned in the letter I noted above.
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Listening to Max Richter from Sleep, a CD he sent me with his letter, while ordering for him and his wife a favorite collection of poetry by Wislawa Szymborska.
Replying to
@scottwilson@infosec.exchange
NAMI Delaware has a presence on the Fediverse and toots occasionally.
@namidelaware@mastodon.social
Replying to
@SeanCasten@mastodon.social A fourth possibility is that he’s delusional enough to actually believe he is apolitical.
Replying to
@tubetime@mastodon.social Well, that is clearly a mustard-yellow dual vacuum tube receptacle GAP/R MODEL K2-X including a clear glass 6AN8 tube on the left and a clear glass 12AX7 tube on the right, which is the extent of my knowledge about these and any other vacuum tubes. #Alt-Text
Replying to
@NorcalGma2@sfba.social What a lovely toot! Congratulations to you and your partner! For me this is the Toot of the Day.
Replying to
@MelissaBearTrix Yes, but I would have to look up how to read a binary clock while expecting many other users of the Fediverse know how to read one.
Replying to
@CiaraNi That might be the most detailed alt-text I have ever seen and read. There is a music video of a song, ‘To The East’ by a defunct alternative band named Electrelane that features dancing by a woman with large industrial cranes in the background. Her arm movements evince the cranes. It is quite lovely in my subjective opinion, but I omit it here to avoid cluttering your thread. My unfamiliarity with such cranes leaves me uncertain about their uses. The music video also includes scenes of ocean waters and trains, which makes me think the cranes are probably used for moving shipping containers between ships and trains. Is that correct?
Replying to
@dilmandila It being the Artists Village, a community of village weaver birds could be invited to work in the baobab tree. In addition, the photo includes a striking mélange of small and old French colonial-style buildings for artists in the foreground with large multistory office buildings for capitalists in the background. I see an LED light fixture mounted above the door of the Médiathèque, most likely a disposable one.
Replying to
@mothninja @brianbilston Both of the above are truly helpful mnemonics that I must memorize so I can recall the words “acrostic” and “karate” which I would otherwise forget. Now I need a mnemonic for mnemonic.
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Feeling relaxed after a dog walk, some yard work, and a warm shower.
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A good cup of coffee in hand from freshly ground beans in my espresso machine.
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Settling down on a sofa to continue reading an interesting book.
Replying to
@futurebird Like many of us, he probably had a driving experience where he did not remember part of the journey. Unlike the rest of us, rather than attributing the experience to not committing a familiar driving route to longterm memory, he believes in teleportation because he is stupid.
Replying to
@elgringomexicano@mastodon.social @nixCraft@mastodon.social Err, I think it took me close to 65 years before I began to think I’m smarter than I once was and to understand how to be a better human. But I’m still stupider and more cowardly than many people.
Replying to
@stux First reaction: The small size of this bin and the small number of can receptacles conveys to me the Dutch drink far fewer sodas and produce much less trash than people in the USA.
Eating spinach gives one superhuman strength.
#CartoonCharactersRules
#HashTagGames
Replying to
@rbreich At least we’ll know to distrust any acquaintances who talk about episodes of The Apprentice.
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I just remembered I have a chocolate chip cookie left to eat.
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I bought unshelled peanuts for an endeavor to befriend a corvid.
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Someone coined the word “befiend” on the Fediverse and I’m here to encourage its use.
Replying to
@EricLawton I can’t read the article since it is for subscribers only. But I wonder if Dr. Pierluigi Mancini can “fathom” 350,000+ persons with serious mental illnesses locked up in US jails and prisons at any given time with about one-third untreated and many in solitary confinement; or the roughly 200,000 additional persons with serious mental illnesses living homeless and untreated on US streets; or the thousands with untreated serious mental illnesses who die on US streets each year; or hundreds with serious mental illnesses who are either shot dead by police officers or executed for their crimes in the US each year. But it is true these people are not locked up in psychiatric hospitals, since the US has shuttered most of those.
Replying to
@The14 I’ve read before about this idea of schizophrenia possibly being a issue of the brain giving too much attention to incorrect information. It aligns with some of my early experiences as the parent of a child with early-onset schizophrenia who had both visual and auditory hallucinations, though the visual experiences seem to have disappeared in adulthood. Our brains try to quickly form associations with earlier experiences so we can react and respond quickly to situations in life. Being able to do it helps us survive and is an evolutionary advantage. We can take notice of those quick associations it we look for them, even if we do not think about or even notice them most of the time: Walking outdoors we see something in the distance, or perhaps up close in the corner of our vision. We instantly form an idea of what it is. Then getting closer, or turning our heads to look directly at the object seen in the corner of our vision, we realize the original idea was incorrect and we correct ourselves. Now imagine how we might perceive the world if that kind of correction to what we first perceive with our vision, hearing, private thoughts, or dreams did not happen. Maybe something like that lack of correction is what happens in schizophrenia.
Last night, shortly before I went to bed, there was a local news report about a shooting in a nearby town. This morning’s news indicates it was a police shooting, and the person shot is deceased. No other information has been released. It may turn out to be a clear case of a police officer protecting the public against a dangerous criminal. The Texas Rangers are reportedly at the scene to assist with the investigation. They may be an organization that can look at an event involving another law enforcement officer with eyes of fairness and objectivity, unlike the Republicans looking at Trump’s relationship to Epstein, and unlike church leaders investigating child abuse within their own congregations. But a few years ago, National Public Radio interviewed a historian who wrote a book about the sordid history of the Texas Rangers which at one time included extrajudicial killings of Mexican Americans. Several years ago I might have been more confident in thinking Texas had moved beyond such abuses. But, today, one wonders. Is the aim of The Texas Rangers to secure evidence and get to the truth? Maybe. I hope so.
#Texas #Police #Policing #Justice #Law #LawEnforcement
Replying to
@mxchara@seattle.pink I have hash-tagged and criticized today’s journalism a number of times on the Fediverse and to my knowledge have never gotten a response from a journalist, which probably is mostly because no one cares what I write about anything. But it might be a tiny bit related to fear and defensiveness. It will be interesting to see whether you get replies from inside the journalism profession, or at least from academics. I think part of the solution might be for more persons to become paid subscribers to independent news sources like the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), National Public Radio (NPR), Pro Publica, The Texas Tribune, and others.
Replying to
@skinnylatte@hachyderm.io Cause and effect are often reversed and particularly if blame can be put on a behavior (e.g., anxiety) that can be judged as personal weakness. Sarcasm: Oh look, she’s anxious—weak, rather than resilient. We reverse cause and effect, blaming others for their illness symptoms rather than striving to understand causes. She apparently had good reason to feel anxious: active disease.
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Completed the lab work for my upcoming annual checkup.
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Did some grocery shopping so there is now food in the house.
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Wrote and mailed a letter to an old friend.