This post starts with a warning. It’s a little depressing. Heavy, even.
I actually meant to publish it weeks ago but didn’t thinking about adults insulting infants, mass extinction, and animals stuffing their homes with human trash, and that only covers half of the topic!
Well, we are at Shadows in Mind. Here are the type of cold shadows that creep across your room in the nighttime.
Test Tube Babies
This first is a nod to what was considered weird when I was a child. The general public had not yet accepted the concept of “test tubes babies”. Forty years after the first in vitro fertilization, people continue to worry about what will come of the technology other than viable human children.
Human Privilege
Photo by Elijah Wolfson
A study recently published in the United States’ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) determined that out of the 550 gigatons of carbon in Earth’s known life, humanity makes up a tiny 0.01%. Another interesting finding was that the biomass of domesticated animals surpasses that of wild mammals and birds. Quartz reports that the study also shows human civilizations have drastically destroyed the world’s wildlife.
Even if we don’t weigh much, humans take up too much space. Wildlife has to coexist with us. However, I’ve noticed people are often surprised to learn how much wildlife exists within their cities.
CE’s engineering work shows that AIR TO FUELS™ technology can produce fuels for less than $1.00 /L once scaled up, making them cost competitive with biodiesels.
If we can shake the fossil fuel industry’s control on politicians, we can see this process put in place everywhere.
Speaking of taking modern technology in a new direction…
Intelligent Light-bending
Researchers from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have shown that a form of artificial intelligence can be solidified into 3D-printed layers of transparent material, imprinted with complex patterns, that “do to light going through them what the [probability] math would have done to numbers.”
That’s hard to imagine, isn’t it? TechCrunch writer Devin Coldewey explained,
If that’s a bit much to wrap your head around, think of a mechanical calculator. Nowadays it’s all done digitally in computer logic, but back in the day calculators used actual mechanical pieces moving around — something adding up to 10 would literally cause some piece to move to a new position. In a way this “diffractive deep neural network” is a lot like that: it uses and manipulates physical representations of numbers rather than electronic ones.
The writer in me wants to twist this into a story about intelligent light.
I’d be happier if I stuck in shadows without my consent.
While waiting for Twitter to respond about what’s happening with my account, I’m playing with the options that site has left open for me during the poorly explained restrictions.
Twitter is ignoring my instructions from WordPress. The restrictions twitter.com also carry over to tweetdeck. I wasn’t left with many options to tell Twitter-only followers why I’ve gone silent. Mostly all I can do @writeramlynn is change my settings and profile information.
So that’s what I’ve updated!
My profile shows that I’m:
under restrictions,
trying to talk to Twitter Support, and
posting about the situation on this website (Shadows in Mind).
I’ve removed the “Hiding in the woods” joke in my location, because that’s not funny to me at this time.
Choosing to hide away is different from being forcibly hidden away, and I feel that with the horrific stealing of rights happening in the world these days, that difference should be respected.
By the way, I do see notifications from those of you who are responding to my pre-lockout tweets and trying to get Twitter Support’s attention for me. Thank you for thinking of me! ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
I’d be happier if I stuck in shadows without my consent.
While waiting for Twitter to respond about what’s happening with my account, I’m playing with the options that site has left open for me during the poorly explained restrictions.
Twitter is ignoring my instructions from WordPress. The restrictions twitter.com also carry over to tweetdeck. I wasn’t left with many options to tell Twitter-only followers why I’ve gone silent. Mostly all I can do @writeramlynn is change my settings and profile information.
So that’s what I’ve updated!
My profile shows that I’m:
under restrictions,
trying to talk to Twitter Support, and
posting about the situation on this website (Shadows in Mind).
I’ve removed the “Hiding in the woods” joke in my location, because that’s not funny to me at this time.
Choosing to hide away is different from being forcibly hidden away, and I feel that with the horrific stealing of rights happening in the world these days, that difference should be respected.
By the way, I do see notifications from those of you who are responding to my pre-lockout tweets and trying to get Twitter Support’s attention for me. Thank you for thinking of me! ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
The status of my @writeramlynn account hasn’t changed since I blogged about it on Wednesday. With the restrictions keeping me from interacting with others on Twitter is making me feel left out.
I can log in but can do almost nothing other than view content and unfollow accounts. Twitter won’t allow me to tweet, like or retweet, follow anyone new, add to lists, or send direct messages. These activities are blocked with alerts.
Please try again. And again. And again. Have you given up yet?
What’s new is that unlike a couple of days ago, I was able to submit a contact form to Twitter from its Help Center.
Twitter responded with a generic response asserting that my account “may be compromised by a user or a service not associated with Twitter.” The email contained simple instructions, which I’ve followed. I’ve also checked again for any signs of suspicious activity or unauthorized connections within my account. For the record, I’ve found none.
Additional Update–Saturday, August 11: The form email from Twitter instructed me to reply to if the issues continued after a few hours. I sent a reply this morning.
Does anyone else remember chats at the office water cooler? I was looking for images for this post and realized that mainstream corporate culture has changed so much that maybe people hovering in a corner at breaks for a chance to talk about personal issues with less of a risk of a disciplinary meeting is unfamiliar.
Anyway, this post is about other types of changes. I’ve removed a note from my Writing Resources page, which is under “processes –> links go to new spaces”.
Which sites host good forums for writers?
Note: I recommend avoiding Absolute Write until they complete their security updates.
Absolute Write (AW) updated their server to add encryption to their Water Cooler forums. That means they’ve better secured the information you give them–for example, at registration, when you share your birthday and email address.
My web browsers seem happy with the new encryption, so I’m happy with AW’s security. Absolute Write Water Cooler is a new addition to my list.
Also, I’ve registered as a member!
My current concern is that AW appears to be no more active than most writing sites, including the relevant forums at SFFWorld. I’m tempted to go outside of the regular, year-round forums and join a cabin at Camp NaNoWriMo for conversation next month.
What about you? Are you a writer? Do you frequent a writing forum online?