By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Hen Music of the Day

Northern Mockingbird, 350 South Madison Avenue, Pasadena, Los Angeles, California, United States. With droning airplane.

Affected person readers, I’m within the strategy of wrestling the most recent HICPAC assembly into submission; disappointingly however unsurprisingly, they plan to stay with their saggy blues. So that is an open thread. Nevertheless, let me describe my current expertise with social media–

On Twitter (“X”), I forgot the cardinal rule that the moderators (or the moderating algorithms) don’t perceive hyperbole, particularly when it entails violent rhetoric, and obtained banned till I eliminated the offending, hyperbolic put up. After I went to do this, I obtained caught up in an infinite captcha look — VPN? Cookies? — and obtained actually banned for attempting the captcha too many instances (showing to Twitter’s model of Skynet, little doubt, like a bot).

So I believed I might attempt BlueSky (versus Threads, which is The Zuckerberg™, ick, no). As readers might know, there’s a great deal of triumphalism from liberal Democrats about leaving Twitter and shifting to BlueSky, which they hope will trigger Twitter’s demise (slightly untimely, provided that BlueSky’s world consumer base is — to the extent the numbers are any good in any respect — 20 million, whereas Twitter’s is 611 million).

So I created a Blue Sky account, whereupon BlueSky offered me with a timeline, and requested me to “like” seven posts, to coach their algorithm (there may be certainly a second timeline for posts solely from accounts I adopted, however I hadn’t adopted any but).

The primary poster for me to love, on the prime of the timeline: AOC.

I scroll down slightly: Taylor Swift.

Oh.

Sky, eh?

Anyhow, I went via the method, and truly discovered some accounts I may observe (e.g., Trisha Greenhalgh), so I wasn’t off social media completely. (I even have a Mastodon account, however not less than on the reader I exploit, the threading is simply unattainable, so it’s laborious to make use of.)

In every week, Twitter determined my captcha rely was beneath the bot threshold, and so I logged in, and, chastened, eliminated the offending put up.

And I have to say, I’m glad to be again; I’ve some quiet little neighborhoods on Twitter I couldn’t rebuild anyplace else. Furthermore, in case you’re knowledgeable doomscroller, as I suppose I’m, Twitter is the far superior platform (not that platforms are good, they’re dangerous). Twitter is a firehose; BlueSky is a backyard hose. The “hellsite,” as its customers fondly name it, is sort of a world metropolis, like Manhattan; BlueSky is sort of a provincial city (and I don’t imply like an “under-rated vacation spot”). Even when Twitter is owned and run by a ranting thirteen-year-old tech boy billionaire hopped up on no matter it’s he’s hopped up on. In fact, in order for you your mellow unharshed, BlueSky is the place to be.

Including, when BlueSky numbers degree off, as they are going to, we may have a good-ish proxy for the precise measurement of the TDS-afflicted inhabitants; one million thus far. An attention-grabbing outcome! (I predict that, as soon as once more, the PMC will discover that they merely lack the category energy to attain their political targets.)

Contact data for vegetation: Readers, be happy to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) learn how to ship me a verify if you’re allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn how to ship me photographs of vegetation. Greens are tremendous! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary vegetation! In order for you your deal with to seem as a credit score, please place it at the beginning of your mail in parentheses: (thus). In any other case, I’ll anonymize by utilizing your initials. See the earlier Water Cooler (with plant) right here. From Wukchumni:

Wukchumni writes: “Sierra mushrooms.”

For those who haven’t despatched in a plant picture to Water Cooler, why not attempt it? It’s simple, it’s enjoyable, and also you get some good compliments! (For those who want instructions, see beneath.)

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