Eben @eben@g0v.social

Advertising spending on Twitter by the top 30 companies fell by 42% to an estimated $53.8 million for November and December combined — i.e., after Musk took over — according to Pathmatics, despite an increase in spending by six of them. https://www.reuters.com/technology/heres-what-twitter-lost-advertising-revenue-final-months-2022-2023-01-19/

I'm so happy to see that the new @icecubesapp has implemented something I've imagined since we rolled out our own Mastodon instance (https://mastodon.macstories.net/@viticci/109542886691696219):

The ability to pin local timelines from *other* instances for quick access. This way, if an organization has their own instance, you have a fast way to see all posts from it.

I love this idea. Well done @dimillian 💯

Another stupid hot take about the Fediverse. This time courtesy of Megan McArdle from the Washington Post.

Apparently, Mastodon is doomed because it solves problems most users don't care about.

Just like Linux is a failure—because only hobbyists and IT professionals use it.

Except—unknown to Megan—Linux is a huge success which runs on everything (including your router).

Also Megan seems unaware that the *actual* problem with social media really is centralization.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/17/twitter-mastodon-replacement-social-media/

"The world remained firmly in warming’s grip last year, with extreme summer temperatures in Europe, China and elsewhere contributing to 2022 being the fifth-hottest year on record"

"The eight warmest years on record have now occurred since 2014"

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/climate/earth-hottest-years.html

@SocraticEthics
Agree. I'm German, aware of our past and I used to be anti military. But times change and even if we Germans only consider our own egoistic goals, we must supply #Ukraine with the maximum we can, now. If the #kleptofascist #neocolonial #oligarch #parasite #Putin regime captures #Ukraine, they have millions of new cannonfodder, that time for installing "neutral" vassal dictators in eastern #Europe, and later western fascist vassals (AfD, Le Pen, Meloni, ..).

Imagine the potential for cultural richness and innovation of such free people.

After mere couple of decades of enjoying such freedoms, Taiwan gives us a glimpse of what was possible. What could, one day, still be possible for the Chinese peoples too.

3/3

#china #prc #ccp #communism #dictatorship #colonialism #genocide #democracy #taiwan #unitednations #humanrights

Well, fuck.

"The mysterious outage of Tweetbot and other third-party Twitter clients that began Thursday night was an intentional suspension, according to internal messages viewed by The Information. The suspension cut off the ability of people to use Twitter on outside apps, forcing them to go to Twitter’s own app."

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/musks-twitter-intentionally-suspended-tweet-bot-third-party-apps-messages-show

“#Musk cut virtually all staff in #Brazil, allowing an unmoderated surge in misinformation that helped fuel this month’s attacks on the country’s government center…”

#Twitter moderation cuts felt hardest outside the U.S., Canada - The #WashingtonPost

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/01/14/twitter-moderation-cutbacks-impact/

"China has effectively ended a ban on Australian coal after officials in the southern province of Guangdong got the go-ahead to clear Australian coal cargoes, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing two sources."

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/china-ends-ban-australian-coal-wsj-2023-01-12/

@reuters

#china #australia #coal

NCCU’s Election Study Centre has released its annual survey results on political attitudes in Taiwan in 2022. This survey has data going back to 1992 and is a valuable resource for studying trends in identity and political orientation in Taiwan.
#Taiwan #TaiwanStudies

Source: https://twitter.com/johnsfeng/status/1613991838935044097?t=wOA9_8yHEHF0cxoiSxryEg&s=19

Elon keeps firing people and shutting down parts of the Twitter network and the Fediverse grows each day with new servers popping up managed by self-employed admins

The more people 'invest' in Twitter the smaller it gets, every cent to free open source software only makes it better and grow

Plus... at the end of the day you can literary download what you pay for

#Fediverse #Twitter #Mastodon #FOSS

1/ Russian tank repairmen in Belgorod have some explaining to do after they reportedly accidentally set on fire and blew up a T-72 tank they were repairing, also damaging two other tanks.

The Russian Bazabazon Telegram channel reports that a fire broke out at a tank repair base in Belgorod on the evening of 12 January, due to a violation of fire safety rules.

So just how good were the #ExxonMobil projections from the 1970s onwards on global warming temperature increases due to anthropogenic activity and burning of #fossilfuels ?

This review paper in Science explores what ExxonMobil knew and what they did not communicate.

Whilst this knowledge is not new, it still beggars belief that this company have chosen profit over planet and people.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abk0063

#ClimateCrisis #ClimateChange

The West has sent #Ukraine an array of weapons once seen as too provocative, and it looks like #tanks will be next. With a new #Russian offensive expected, Western officials see an urgent need to shift the balance — @nytimes@twitter.com

https://nyti.ms/3XwAFPv

The country where the Covid pandemic began is one of the last to learn what it means to live with the virus.

Moments like this are when you realize how frightening it is that so few news organizations have a presence on the ground in China. Thankfully we still have a few reporters there, straining to tell us what's happening in the face of huge obstacles. #china #covid

https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-covid-dropped-restrictions-reopen-xi-11673534796