Mark Goody @marramgrass@nitech.online

I turn my back for ONE min and ya'll start doing literal phrenology.

Listen if your head has ANY diameter at all there ought to be enough brain in there to understand that's not how anything even works.

#phrenology
#why

tooms from the x files is due another killing spree this year, lock up your livers

The whole internet loves Bandcamp, a lovely site that sells indie music! *5 seconds later* We regret to inform you a billionaire bought it and sold it to another billionaire who fired everybody

It's funny: Both Bandcamp and Patreon had the easiest and most straightforwardly long-term profitable business models imaginable: Sit between indie creatives and their fans, provide some basic services for mediation (comment sections, media posts, semi-global payment) and take enough of a cut of any payments to cover the costs and then some.

But because that business model wouldn't scale forever, they are instead being gutted, because ever _increasing_ growth is the only model capital accepts

If “tech ethics” are the enemy, then I’m the enemy.

If “sustainability” is the enemy, then I’m the enemy.

If “trust and safety” is the enemy, then I’m the enemy.

If “social responsibility” is the enemy, then I’m the enemy.

Go fuck yourself and take your childish sociopathic accelerationist Silicon Valley mates with you.

Apparently LLMs are great at taking standardised tests, and to me that tells us a lot more about the design and usefulness of the tests than about the LLMs.

Everything that is delivered by a public authority is part of a bureaucracy. Public transport, the health service, libraries, welfare, bin collections, parks, so on and so forth.

Neoliberalism has ruined the bureaucracy because now public authorities, like the Government, local councils, etc, are trying to run themselves like enterprises. Why? The nature of public services is that they cannot be corporatised, because they cannot turn a profit. The “profit”, if you will, is a better and mobile society.

Every welfare payment is never going to be directly paid back with interest — but it will mean that someone will spend money on goods and services they need until they find a job and they will stay safe and alive.

Every bus may not have a good farebox recovery ratio — but each of those passengers is given an opportunity to do something that will benefit them and therfore society.

Whenever we talk about “reorganising” public service, it always usually means trying to let private contractors move in — who then overcharge public authorities for the privilege — or forcing public services to hit KPIs, goals, etc, which is absolutely bullshit because a public service still needs to be provided no matter how many people use it.

The profit mindset has been so ingrained in society now, that the bureaucracies that we so rely on to make our settlements function are being choked and strangled because the working conditions are dire, the pay is dire, and any government that hates public service can make your job disappear overnight.

Public authorities do so much, that a bureaucracy is neeeded to handle the volume and scope of everything that happens. But if the Government dismisses bureaucracy instead of helping it then we end up with a system where public workers are powerless against protocol and where everything feels broken, as every individual portion is defanged, defunded, and the workers end up demoralised.

Put simply: a well-funded, well-staffed, and flexible bureaucracy leads to better outcomes for everyone.

adultbel pictures I made

What an astonishingly beautiful and empowering and generous piece by Mark Steel. Goodness. https://marksteelinfo.com/cancer/

It’s that time of year again: if you’re a National Trust member please read the AGM booklet and vote in the council elections so we don’t end up with people obsessed with the word “woke”, thanks folks

Today I went to the ATM machine and entered my PIN number to get money for a DC comic book (I knew the ISBN number). The clerk scanned the UPC code and I paid the amount shown on the LCD display. On my drive home I listened to NPR radio where they talked about the value of opening an IRA account, and the latest scores from the MLB baseball playoffs.

I’m increasingly convinced that all services and most jobs would be improved with more staff. Literally, just more people.

More people sitting around getting paid with nothing to do, until there is in fact something to do.

Pay people to staff all those windows at the post office and bank and then celebrate no lines. Pay people to bus the tables, and other people to seat the guests, and still more people to take the orders and run the food.

I’m so tired of seeing one person doing it all

YouTube really wants to radicalize you.

I just watch guitar, fitness and space science videos there. That's it - and I police my feed and watch history judiciously.

And it still suggests Jordan Peterson, Crypto Tech bros, Joe Rogan, white guys ranting in trucks about immigrants and communists, Koch funded professors, and weird white supremacy guys with caliper mindsets non-stop. I click "Do Not Recommend This Channel" twenty times a day but the stream keeps flowing.