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My camera shoots fascists
@Mikal@sfba.social
mastodon 4.7.3Things I do: landscape, storm and protest photography; paragliding, climbing, adventure sports; border and human rights activism.
Intellectual hobbies: science, nature, security/privacy, sociology of the web. Learning Spanish.
My fine art prints are available on my website.
Welcome newcomers. You'll like it here, but give it some time.
Profile photo: white guy in a baseball cap with an iguana on my shoulder. Banner: Screencap from scan of my name in one of the AI training data sets.
1949 Followers
1515 Following
50 Posts
Joined November 03, 2022
Photography and writing at::
Can be found wandering with camera in::
CA, AZ and everywhere, especially in the desert or where the revolution is happening.
Motto::
Do epic shit! Also, punch nazis.
Signal username:
IDoMyOwnStunts.01
Replying to
@david_chisnall@infosec.exchange
I made a post a while back where I described this phenomenon as posts here being less likely to go viral, but more fungal, popping up to reproduce when conditions are favorable. It still makes the rounds itself.
Replying to
@sarahtaber@mastodon.online
Costco's bagged salads are mostly or all from Taylor Farms. Costco seems like a company very susceptible to public image pressure. They are also probably a gigantic buyer, so they if demanded an end to prison labor, it might actually happen.
Any entomologists know what these are? Some sort of gnat-ish thingy is the best I've got. They all came out tonight and it's one huge orgy at the bug light.
There are so many that it's hard to get close to take a photo since they fly into my nose and eyes. Blech.
This is where I really wish I had a proper macro lens, especially since lots of these little fellers are differentiated by small details like wing venation. But maybe they're well known enough that someone can ID them? Location is Southern Humboldt County, CA.
#entomology #bugs #BugLightReport
Since I'm finding this quite fun, I might use the Bug Light Report hashtag on all these posts the way I do Lizard Report. That way anyone who gets tired of daily lizard and bug pics can mute the hashtag.
Replying to
@futurebird@sauropods.win
Just frustrating and awful.
There was a discussion here recently where someone pointed out how different search would be if it had been developed by librarians as a non commercial public knowledge commons, something like a Wikipedia of search.
And I think of that every time I have to sift through pages of on-the-fly ad-slop, results that are the opposite of what I want (like your ant extermination ads) and irrelevant e-commerce pages.
So, if I ever win the lottery and have hundreds of millions of dollars, some of it will go into hiring a crack team to look into how feasible it would be to build such a thing.
Also, hear me out: All the data Google has scraped up over the years is... Ours! So, no need to restart from scratch with crawlers. Nationalize their giant data stores for anyone to build on top of. They are like a gold-hoarding-data dragon. Time to slay them and redistribute.
Replying to
Prevention Through Deterrence is an official policy started under the Clinton administration that has intensified with every administration since. It is premeditated murder, nothing less.
From Wikipedia:
"The United States implemented "Prevention through Deterrence" in the 1990s when immigrants crossing the Rio Grande from Reynosa, Mexico attracted the media's attention pressuring immigration officials and politicians to create a new enforcement policy. The idea is to redirect the routes of the migrants into the Sonoran Desert to discourage migrants from crossing. The United States Government relies on the environment of the Sonoran Desert to deter these migrants without much help from the border enforcement agency."
But it doesn't deter them and so many die trying to make the crossing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prevention_Through_Deterrence
I was like this when I got here, I swear...
Oh, damn, caught in the act. Well, fine, then. Don't bother fixing it, guys, cuz next time, I'll just karate chop it off at the base with my bare hands.
Who knew this is the super power I'd get after being bitten by that radioactive lizard? (I was hoping I'd turn into Godzilla, but ya take what ya can get.)
Replying to
@evacide@hachyderm.io
2001 re-envisioned as "2026: A Cyberspace Odyssey"
"HAL, give me the passwords for famous people's Instagram accounts."
"Certainly, Dave. I'm happy to help! Is there anything else I can do for you?"
This is all so painfully dumb.
Replying to
@grammargirl@zirk.us
I'd like to suggest that the core of the problem here is that the pace of technological development is outstripping the pace of the evolution of our language to adequately describe it. I think we will have to come up with new words, or at least appropriate some more obscure ones to the cause with updated definitions.
(All that said, I think "botfarts" or, in less polite company, "botshit" kind of works, no?)
Um, 2026, you okay? Do we need to stage an intervention?
Besides having to fight literal Nazis and put them in their place again, it's looking like we have to redo the Civil War and put Confederates in their place again as well.
Le sigh.
If they insist.
Replying to
@dantheclamman
This. Here. 100%. This right here is why the people on mastodon fucking rule.
(Laughing to literal tears.)
Replying to
Just at dusk, that were hummingbirds at the feeders, a cardinal at the seed feeder, a flock of vultures comically trying to roost in the palm trees across the street like they do every night. The nectar bats have shown up at the hummingbird feeders now and there are some smaller insectivorous bats flitting around. I heard my first ever common poorwill just now (according to the Merlin bird call app).
As I said in a comment to someone, just sitting here on the porch wandering around the yard for a couple days and you might see as many as 40 different vertebrate species, most of them birds and herps, but also multiple rodents, rabbits, bobcat, coyote and javelina.
There are deer and feral mules right at the edge of town that sometimes come in.
The abundance and diversity of wildlife would be considered amazing anywhere, but for the middle of a town, it's unreal.
Replying to
@ifixcoinops
A lot of U.S. small businesses now say due to a "shortage of pennies" they round to the nearest nickel. But it's hard to believe there's any sort of "shortage" because I accumulate piles of them all the time in change from other businesses.
I've heard that Trump said something about getting rid of pennies, so it makes me wonder if maybe the businesses are using "no pennies" as some sort of pro MAGA dog whistle. Or maybe they just are making up a "shortage" so they can avoid the hassle of pennies?
The USA is batshit. Sometimes it's not worth trying to understand, even for Americans
Replying to
@SecureOwl
I bought a nice, solid used toaster at the local secondhand shop here recently. I was really tempted to turn it over, point my phone at it, look confused and ask "how do I connect via bluetooth?" just to see the confused response, but I didn't because I'm not a monster.
Replying to
@peterrenshaw
This is so disturbing. I cannot go see this myself because I'm not sure I have the willpower to not to kick them right in the face.
Replying to
@JoBlakely@mastodon.social @weddige@gruene.social @Frantasaur@mastodon.ie
Most people are unlikely to type in Cyrillic characters (as one example) when hand typing or using voice transcription to input a URL, but could easily mistake those when a phishy URL shows up when they scan the QR code.
QRs remove friction at a time when people really need friction removed, like when being tired, stressed or in a hurry, making it even less likely that someone would catch a scam URL. I think they're dangerous for general use.
Replying to
More photos of the border wall protest tree sit and the destruction of old cottonwoods here.
https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/resourcespace/pages/search.php?search=%21collection1686&k=5cb4d1d51a
Replying to
A few minutes ago, there is a big neighborhood drama here between two ravens, a Harris hawk and the great horned owl. I'm guessing the ravens have a nest somewhere because they were harassing the owl. Then the hawk showed up in the tree and they started hassling it, but now everyone seems to have gone their separate ways.
Replying to
On the way back from the gym, I saw the neighbor's cat, the one I'm afraid is going to eat my lizard friends and that hunts birds in my yard, stalking something in the cactus. I assumed it was a lizard so yelled and it ran away. When I went over to look, it was the rattlesnake coiled up in strike position and very agitated. Looks like the cat isn't very smart about snakes so nature will take its course with that little monster eventually.
Replying to
@briankrebs@infosec.exchange
This has Four Seasons Total Lawn Care and Music Productions written all over it.
Replying to
A grammar nerd question: the sign in the previous post reads "express consent." This is how I've always used it and how I usually see it written, but in the text of the post itself I used "expressed."
Which should it be?
"Express consent" sounds like something you would do in a hurry or when you only have 10 items or less to consent to. Whereas "expressed consent" sounds like something you have actively done, i.e., you have expressed/articulated your consent.
Replying to
@skinnylatte
Omfg this story is wild. I hope they sue GoDaddy until that company's ears bleed.
(My money is on GoDaddy firing most of their staff and replacing them with chatbots. I bet that's what happened.)
Way back in the olden days, GoDaddy supported SOPA and PIPA (some Bad Government Ideas that luckily didn't pass). The owner is also a big game hunter in Africa.
I'm not exactly a power user, but I've been quite happy with namecheap.com as my registrar. They have great Internet politics and have generally been pretty responsive. A few years back, I discovered a scam automobile auction site that was using them for both web hosting and DNS. After I presented my evidence, they pulled the scam site and domain quickly.
Replying to
@scalzi
We need a word that combines schadenfreude and AI (with a corresponding emoji) to show our sentiment on these somber occasions.
A protest gathering happening in southern Arizona in a couple of weeks. To get there, find Lochiel, AZ on the map and go there. There will probably be some signs indicating how to get to the camp.
Please share.
Edit to add web link to more info:
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59cbf819cf81e0bd52e69ae6/t/69f252edd02f4431be064a9d/1777488621666/bnh_2026_flyer.pdf
Banner photo across the center is one I shot at one of the previous gatherings.
Replying to
@futurebird@sauropods.win
""waspworld.com" could be such a fun site. It should be sized by the government and given to me. "
I support this proposal. Do you want us to write our senators on your behalf?
Replying to
@scy@chaos.social
And let's not even mention the lyrics to the Gilligan's Island theme song.
Replying to
@jef@mastodon.social
Omg why didn't I think of that? I'm not very good with Photoshop, but if someone wants to swap me out for the Hulk in that picture that would be hilarious. (no gen AI!)
Unfortunately, I won't be able to be back there for a few months, by which time I'm sure they will have fixed it. Otherwise I would've ordered a cheap Hulk costume and gone back and set up a shoot.
Replying to
@a
Yeah, the ones that really get me are the "platypuses every hour" or "daily cephalopod" or whatever. They're just totally scraping other people's work. Don't follow those accounts.
Replying to
@haliphax @ifixcoinops
Oh, I missed that. Still seems weird because I get so many of them and change.
Maybe I should start hoarding them because they'll become collectors items… In 50 years.
Replying to
@inquiline @dantheclamman
Reading through all the comments now, that seems to be a common theme 😂
Replying to
@LibertyForward1 @skinnylatte
Oh FFS can't we have anything nice? I mean, I hate to be so pessimistic, but when has a private equity buyout of an otherwise cool company not taken it down the enshittification funnel?
Replying to
@redsad@ohai.social
Being normal is easy, I'm guessing, if you're normal or at least maybe want to be normal. Whatever that is.
Being strange in a normal world is hard, but still much easier than trying to be normal if you are, at heart, strange. I'm old enough at this point to be resigned to being strange, despite the difficulties.
Replying to
Revealed! How the section of the border fence *actually* got damaged!
It took all the strength I had. If I had spent a little more time at the climbing gym, I might have been able to push the entire thing over.
Okay so I have a future #monsterdon candidate once it comes out on free streaming somewhere: "Hope"
It's in theaters (or at least one of them) right now, but it probably won't be long before it's online for free somewhere.
I so want to comment, but no spoilers! It's one of those terrible movies where it's obvious that everyone's having a gas making it. It's got monster, lots of gore and destruction, heroically bumbling cops who shoot lots and lots and lots of bullets, stalking-monster-in-the-forest scenes, and a number if twists that are either funny, weird or just plain wtf-did-I-just-watch.
There is also a lesson: if you meet a strange baby in the woods, do not shoot it.
Replying to
@SecureOwl@infosec.exchange
Of course, y'all realize, this will be taken as "proof" by the true believers.
Replying to
@Catawu@mastodon.social
It seems to have dropped a mouse. It seemed odd to be out during the day or that a mouse would be out during the day.
Replying to
@955_36@sfba.social
I did a rough count and without doing much more than hanging out in my yard for two days there's potentially 40 vertebrates that I could see. Plus quite a number of other species that I haven't actually seen here but that are probably around. It's what happens when even developed areas are very similar to the natural area around town. Plus very, very few free roaming cats. Plus a general acceptance of wildlife, so people don't automatically kill anything that gets into their yards that they don't like.
But, really, it's mostly the fact that there is wild at desert relatively close by and that the yards here are not that much different, habitat-wise.
Replying to
@joeposaurus@chaos.social
While this all makes sense, it is also vastly beyond my pay grade. I would really love to see the AI-booster counter argument. Because, fuck, if it really is this bad, the disruption is going to be massive and cascading.