Jim @sullybiker@sully.site

#Introduction Hi #fediverse ! We’re the European Southern Observatory, and we design, build and operate ground-based telescopes.

One of them is our Extremely Large Telescope, currently under construction in #Chile. It will have a 39 m mirror, and its rotating enclosure will weigh 6100 tonnes, or about 700 mastodons!

We’re looking forward to chatting with all of you about #astronomy

📷 ESO/G. Vecchia

#astrodon #astrophysics #space #science

There's a post going around right now that is a long, thorough analysis of the failures of technology in the last decade, and its is very good.

https://www.wheresyoured.at/never-forgive-them/

It's full of zingers like "The average person’s experience with technology is one so aggressive and violative that I believe it leaves billions of people with a consistent low-grade trauma. We seem, as a society, capable of understanding that social media can hurt us, unsettle us, or make us feel crazed and angry, but I think it’s time to accept that the rest of the tech ecosystem undermines our wellbeing in an equally-insidious way. And most people don’t know it’s happening, because everybody has accepted deeply shitty conditions for the last ten years."

(Thread)

"Everywhere is walking distance, if you have the time." — Steven Wright

I have proven this myself many times over many years.

Mastodon isn't perfect.

But the fact a social network exists that is completely free to use,

has no venture capital investors,

has no shareholders to answer to,

has no growth targets,

with a web interface with zero cookies,

and mobile apps with zero trackers at all

with ten thousand server administrators who donate their time for user safety

is - in my opinion - mindbogglingly cool, given the state of the world we live in.

Not everything has to be shit. People make things better.

VDLM2 Message From: C-FLDX / F82800

Message: TERRIFIC.....TOO HEAVY FOR 390 I DONT KNOW WHATS UP THERE

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#acars #vdlm2

Over the past few years, many people have unfortunately become more dependent on streaming media. But it's important to remember how streaming services can deprive you of important rights. Dis-services like Disney+ and Netflix mandate the use of a hardware-level backdoor called Widevine, giving them permanent access into deep components of your machine. Try video sites like the Blender Open Movies project instead.