@stefan Thanks for all your bots!
I consider them essential to my experience here

@dedication_bot

Hey you!
Yes, you!
I want to show you something:

This is a #tardigrade / water bear / moss piglet, drawn by @nelson (It was a pleasure commissioning him! You can do the same at https://ko-fi.com/c/752498f318)
The image is licensed as #CC0 and can be downloaded here: https://schoeneh.eu/index.php/s/PmsTKoiA7EerQsx

This particular tardigrade wishes you a good day & says #FightFascism, #ProtectTransLives and #AmorVincitOmnia!

#DieSchönenDinge #Art #MastoArt

@stefan I would volunteer to be part of a moderation team

And could contribute via Github

Hey @loops @pixelfed there are some major #accessibility issues in your web-app:
https://caneandable.social/@WeirdWriter/113769006092092906

Sharing appreciated
#Loops #Pixelfed

#Hopeish - I feel this comic so much
http://www.incidentalcomics.com/2024/12/in-between.html?m=1

Thanks @v_i_o_l_a for sharing!

#Hope #EndOfYear #BetweenTheYears #ZwischenDenJahren #joinIn @joinin

Sandi Toksvig

"I won’t stand by and let that happen. I will stand up each time and say no. Clearly, if you’re anti-trans, it’s because you don’t have any trans friends. If you did, you wouldn’t be able to look yourself in the [mirror] as you say these terrible things."

"Please know I understand and I’m here. I don’t know for what, for a cuddle? I’m here to be the grandma lesbian who goes, ‘Let’s just keep going’."

https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/12/17/sandi-toksvig-if-youre-anti-trans-you-dont-have-any-trans-friends/

https://fedihum.org/@lavaeolus/113698478107307010

One of the things I'm convinced of (especially as a #historian
There is no grand scheme.
Only people doing stuff and living their life in systems and structures. The best thing you as an individual can do is: Be kind - see: https://fedihum.org/@lavaeolus/113672655734329547

There is no otherworldly spark of history, but there are people with agency (and there are moments of chance).

And as people with agency it is our responsibility to fight a #BystanderSociety - see: https://fedihum.org/@lavaeolus/113681276822650473

#histodons @histodons

@UlrikeHahn
To quote:
"While uncritical enthusiasm is out of place and the challenges we face are indeed considerable, the confrontation with advanced software tools in our own fields can help us in formulating the theories and forging the disciplinary alliances we need to build a critical understanding of the infiltration of software into every pore of contemporary society.” (Rieder and Röhle, 2012, p. 82)
Digital Methods. Five Challenges
https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230371934_4
🧵2/2

@UlrikeHahn It also feels kinda self-defeating...
My POV:
Technology can't fix societal (and deeply ingrained) issues. But it can mitigate some (if done in considerate ways) and ultimately tech+people can lead to some pretty fundamental changes.
🧵 1/2

@tkinias Another very interesting article (no paper^^):
"There's a popular narrative right now that the people who aren't using AI – e.g. women – simply don't understand the technology. And once they do, they'll get on board. But Tanksley's research shows something else entirely: once Black students understand the technology – the racist and extractive logics that are fundamental to artificial intelligence – they are better prepared to resist and survive."
https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/the-robots-have-brain-rot/

@tkinias by showing them - not telling, but showing.

Show them the limitations, the weirdness, the brokenness.

E.g.: Jacomy, Mathieu, and Erik Borra. 2024. “Measuring LLM Self-Consistency. Unknown Unknowns in Knowing Machines.” Sociologica 18 (2): 25–65. https://doi.org/10.6092/ISSN.1971-8853/19488.

"#AI" as Artificial Intelligence is not real. But the stuff being called "AI" most certainly is.
Simply telling people "AI is not real" is not helpful in the slightest. You're telling them: "Your perception of reality is wrong", but the machine does things that are 'indistinguishable from magic' (Hi Clarke!) to them.
We won't convince people by telling them "Your god isn't real! Follow me!" (I'm exaggerating), but by empowering them to emerge from their self-imposed immaturity.

'Typst' @[email protected]
The love-child of #LaTeX and #Markdown - open-source, runs locally in VSCode(-ium) etc. and has a webapp similar to #Overleaf
https://github.com/typst/typst
https://typst.app/

Very good explainer and overview: https://blog.jreyesr.com/posts/typst/
I've been using it to create two presentations last week & am very impressed (see reply).
#UsefulTools #DHsHelper #AcademicTools @[email protected]

'plotly'
Plotly allows you to save interactive HTML versions of your figures to your local disk.
https://plotly.com/python/interactive-html-export/
#UsefulTools #DHsHelper #AcademicTools
(thanks @Bindestriche!)