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Daniel Martin

@fizbin.bsky.social

1.2K followers 170 following 3.8K posts

One of many, many people with this particular "real name". You might know me from... IDK. College? Did we work together once? Prodigy's old math forum? debian-devel? A certain social MUSH? xoogler slack? "Making Light" comments? (he/him)

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Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · May 22

I made a web thing a bit ago that I find useful maybe once a month or so on average, and it's been a while since I promoted it.

It's for when you have a long enough zoom meeting that everyone needs a break; it puts up a sign to remind everyone when you're resuming.

breakmessage.com

#dev

Break Message

breakmessage.com

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Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · 9h

Late for today's #BirdOfTheDay since I wasn't sure I had anything today's theme ('Family Paridae' aka 'Tits, Chickadees & Titmice')

I've seen tufted titmice around here, but haven't ever managed any decent pictures.

But this Carolina Chickadee showed up outside my office window in August, so:

A bird with a black and white head, white chest, and gray back and wings perches on the soft evergreen leaves of an Arbor Vitae. Its black break is slightly open.

f/4.0 1/250 s. 100mm. ISO 3200

Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · 14h

...aunts, and uncles to say to them "No, Aunt Jane, this is fake, and here's how you know"?

Why are people in media suggesting that there's an obligation to engage with the noise machine instead of with the machine where we have hard evidence that it actually changes people?

Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · 14h

But do we have anything like the same sort of evidence that X is changing people's minds the way we have for viral idiocy on Facebook? Or is X just changing the background noise?

Why aren't mainstream media outlets exhorting left-leaning people to engage with their FB-poisoned grandparents...

Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · 14h

Facebook use is known to drive people further right, and to have lots of money being poured into it to drive people further right.

Now compare this to X.

X has driven what it shows people further right, and the face X shows the world is manipulated toward the right by its owner.

Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · 14h

The thing is, why *aren't* people making that moral argument?

We know that right wingers like the hard core gun nuts use Facebook groups to organize.

We know that FB targeting data was used to swing 2016.

We know that fake/"spoof" news stories shared on Facebook moved certain demos rightward.

Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · 21h

I want a world where this isn't the case and every little mom and pop place has a simple website that they can keep up to date that doesn't require registering for the most invasive ad tracking ever, but that's not the world we live in.

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Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · 21h

"No one is made to feel duty bound to engage with Facebook"... uh...

If you want to find current information about local businesses, organizations, churches, Facebook is it. _Maybe_ there's a website maintained within the past year, but it likely directs you to Facebook for more up-to-date stuff.

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Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · 1d

While it is probably safe to consume pork roll (or "Taylor ham") without frying it first, I can't imagine why you'd want to.

It'd be like eating ham steak straight, without frying. Why would you do that?

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Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · 1d

It's what he says at about 3:50 into this video:

youtu.be/2r0h2mNz91M?...

Is Central Jersey A Real Place?

YouTube video by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

youtu.be

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Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · 1d

Gov. Murphy tried to claim when he was first running that:
1) Central Jersey exists, and is where he's from, and
2) There the name is "Taylor Pork" (just those two words)

I don't think anyone believed him, but that's what he said.

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Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · 1d

The one redeeming feature appears to be that they cut the pork roll multiple times before frying it and didn't do the weird "just one slice to the center so that you end up with pacman" thing.

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Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · 1d

Ah.

The ABC Islands are pretty much the only places outside actual Venezuela you can regularly see a Venezuelan Troupial, so I took a guess. (Knowing that Aruba also has loads of barn swallows that exhibit that sort of behavior)

Two barn swallows in flight. This was at a circular dirt road in the Bubali Bird Sanctuary where they'd just swoop around again and again.

Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · 1d

Co-signed; I first met her back in college.

What I like about the imagined CatNet is that it manages to feel in interactions a bit like a social mush I was on 25+ years ago, but is also something I could imagine today with a discord-esque UI, given the sci-fi machine you'd need on the back end.

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Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · 1d

Wait, are you in Aruba too? My wife and I just returned from a week there.

Recommendation if you have a day you can do it: get to the Bubali Bird sanctuary early, birdwatch until 8am when Diana's Pancake Palace opens right across the road, go have breakfast there.

A yellow warbler (medium-small yellow bird with light brown stripes down its chest) sits on a branch and sings, mouth open. One eye faces the camera.

This little guy was *right there*, so close I had to lean back a bit to get the camera's autofocus to work.

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Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · 1d

I'm rereading a YA novel from a few years ago and I'm really jealous of the aggressive social media clustering algorithm imagined there. ("Catfishing on Catnet", @naomikritzer.bsky.social's follow-up to her Hugo-winning short story "Cat Pictures Please")

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Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · 1d

Seriously, this bird was almost too close to focus on since the lens I had on the camera at the time has a minimum focus distance of 1.5 m.

Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · 1d

Time for another #BirdOfTheDay and today's theme from @alan678.bsky.social is #Beakful (so, something being carried/held in the beak)

Here we have an American Robin I used before for the "all weather" theme, but a different picture from that same morning

An American Robin steps on a gravestone with a curved, circular top. One foot is raised. In the robin's break is a worm.

The background is green made by out-of-focus grass.

ƒ/5.6 1/640 s. 300 mm. ISO 800

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Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · 2d

Today's #BirdOfTheDay theme is "Juveniles/Chicks", so here's some wild Muscovy Ducklings from yesterday.

For ducks in temperate zones it's much too late in the year to have ducklings this small still, but in the Caribbean seasons are more vague suggestions than organizing life principles.

An adult Muscovy Duck with characteristic black and white feathers and red facial growth leads six yellow and brown ducklings in the water.

An adult Muscovy Duck with black and white feathers and red face mask leads at least five ducklings to the shore out of the water.

A White-cheecked Pintail rests on the shore slightly out of focus in the foreground.

For ducklings from themselves on land right after getting out of the water.

An adult Muscovy Duck stands and makes a display at the other birds, stepping in front of her ducklings (at least five)

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Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · 3d

For today's #BirdOfTheDay theme of #spotted, here's this yellow warbler who came up right near where we were watching other #birds this morning and started singing at full volume until we turned around and spotted him. This is his "took you long enough, now take some photos of *me* please" look.

A bright yellow bird with dark yellow lines on its chest states directly at the camera while pitching on a small branch. The background is dark greenery with bits of gray-blue sky peaking through.

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Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · 4d

In the Wizard of Oz books, wasn't one of the things considered when Dorothy disappeared "maybe she fell into the pig pen"?

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Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · 4d

Later books deconstruct magical society and the lies it's built on.

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Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · 4d

Have you read Naomi Novik's Scholomance trilogy? (The one that starts with A Deadly Education)

Short version of the 1st book's trope subversion: the overly heroic "chosen one" idiot has completely broken the monster ecology by killing off all the mid-tier monsters leading to issues.

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Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · 4d

A few more #bird drawings, along with the reference photos. The first one I started from memory, and then went back to look up the photo which is why the bird's leg is held the wrong way and also why the outline is a bit off, but I still think overall the bird is captured.

Two black squares with black ink-pen drawings in them. On the left is a bird, with the outline shape of maybe a duck but a strange mottled parenting on the back. It's standing on one leg, holding the other up at an angle.

The right square has a drawing of a palm tree. No reference photo for that one because it was there in front of me as I was drawing.

An ink-pen drawing of a seagull about to step forward and to the left of the frame (its right).

A Ruddy Turnstone (a small bird with brown and black mottled back, and white underbelly) on the sand. It's standing on one leg with the other held back at an angle.

A Laughing Gull with white head and belly and a dark gray back stands on sand at the edge of the ocean. In the background water over very fine sand is visible.

Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · 4d

It's Catie, so I assume encouragement was given.

Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · 5d

Yeah, that one worked well. (The bird is actually a Carib Grackle)

My attempt at a Bananaquit went less well, but the main thing that bird has going for it visually is OMG YELLOW which is hard to convey with just a black ink pen.