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An international team of researchers from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), the University of Greifswald, and Universiti Brunei Drussalam has discovered that Nepenthes hemsleyana – a pitcher plant found in Borneo – uses an echo reflector to attract bats. However, it is not the bats themselves that the plants are after, but their droppings. As the pitcher plants grow in soil that is low in nutrients they need additional fertiliser and the bats’ droppings provide them with vital nutrients. In return, the plants offer the bats the perfect place to sleep inside their pitchers.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13235727

What in the name of all the Earth and its domains and the heavens above is this asshattery?

The family of Ruth Bader Ginsburg is very much up in arms at something called the Dwight D. Opperman Foundation over its decision to give a leadership award named after the former Supreme Court justice to **drumroll* … *Elon Musk.

. . . Oh yeah, Rupert Murdoch is also getting this year’s Leadership Award, along with Martha Stewart (weird but whatever), Michael Milken (what?), and Sylvester Stallone (no, seriously, fucking what?).

. . . The award is all of four years old, and has previously gone to “individual women of prominence.” Did we run out of those or something?

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13207517

A leading psychologist who advises Meta on suicide prevention and self-harm has quit her role, accusing the tech giant of “turning a blind eye” to harmful content on Instagram, repeatedly ignoring expert advice and prioritising profit over lives.

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A leading psychologist who advises Meta on suicide prevention and self-harm has quit her role, accusing the tech giant of “turning a blind eye” to harmful content on Instagram, repeatedly ignoring expert advice and prioritising profit over lives.

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The headquarters of the New Orleans Police Department is in such a state of decay that rats are eating drugs in the evidence room, the department's chief said.

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Stolen data rule (dotnet.social)

4 panel System32Comics comic 1: "Oh no! The virus is stealing my personal data!" 2: "Free Anti-Virus Software Help!" 3: Free Anti-Virus Software to the rescue! 4: Free Anti-Virus Software is stealing his personal data

1017

Avast, the cybersecurity software company, is facing a $16.5 million fine after it was caught storing and selling customer information without their consent. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced the fine on Thursday and said that it’s banning Avast from selling user data for advertising purposes.

[-] wanderingmagus@lemmy.world 42 points 9 months ago

Moe (萌え, Japanese pronunciation: [mo.e] ⓘ), sometimes romanized as moé or moe' in English, is a Japanese word that refers to feelings of strong affection mainly towards characters in anime, manga, video games, and other media directed at the otaku market. Moe, however, has also gained usage to refer to feelings of affection towards any subject.

Moe is related to neoteny and the feeling of "cuteness" a character can evoke. The word moe originated in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Japan and is of uncertain origin, although there are several theories on how it came into use. Moe characters have expanded through Japanese media, and the concept has been commercialised. Contests, both online and in the real world, exist for moe-styled things, including one run by one of the Japanese game rating boards.

Moe characters have expanded within the Japanese media market. In 2003, the market for moe media such as printed media, video, and games was worth 88 billion yen; roughly one-third of the estimated 290 billion yen otaku market in Japan.[16] In 2009, Brad Rice, editor-in-chief of Japanator, said that "moe has literally become an economic force" saying that more products use some element of moe in order to sell better. Rice also goes on to say that moe is used to get anime and manga works out to "hardcore fans who buy excessive amounts of items related to the character of their desire."[17] Source: Wikipedia

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/11125375

“I’m aspirationally Jewish,” Musk said. “So I was like, ‘What are people talking about with this antisemitism?’ Because I never hear it at dinner conversations."

Elon Musk said he is "Jewish by association" during a conversation with conservative commentator Ben Shapiro after a visit to the former Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz, Poland.

Musk, the Tesla CEO and owner of social media platform X, made the comments during a conference on antisemitism organized by the European Jewish Association. The association had arranged for Musk to make a private visit to Auschwitz, where an estimated 1.1 million Jewish people were killed during the Holocaust.

"I must admit to being somewhat frankly naive about this. In the circles that I move, I see almost no antisemitism. ... Two-thirds of my friends are Jewish," the billionaire tech mogul said in a video posted on YouTube by Bloomberg Technology. "I have twice as many Jewish friends as non-Jewish friends. I’m like Jewish by association."

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/10484686

Pardon?

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[-] wanderingmagus@lemmy.world 44 points 1 year ago

New York Daily News NewsNew York News SUBSCRIBER ONLY Woman buying pot from NYC deli maced, dragged by hair, kicked in head by cashier who mistook her for trans Assault Victim 35yr old Jasmine Adams, seated inside the Offices of her Attorney, Robert Brown, talks to the News about her ordeal suffered by the hands of an employee inside the West Brighton Deli Grocery Bodega in Staten Island. Friday Oct. 6, 2023. Assault Victim 35yr old Jasmine Adams, seated inside the Offices of her Attorney, Robert Brown, talks to the News about her ordeal suffered by the hands of an employee inside the West Brighton Deli Grocery Bodega in Staten Island. Friday Oct. 6, 2023. By Rocco Parascandola | rparascandola@nydailynews.com | New York Daily News PUBLISHED: October 9, 2023 at 6:51 p.m. | UPDATED: October 9, 2023 at 7:49 p.m.

A Staten Island woman buying pot from a local deli got into a misunderstanding with the cashier — who ended up macing her, dragging​ her outside by her hair, kicking her in the head and mistakenly calling her trans.

​The shocking caught-on-video attack has left Jasmine Adams traumatized, her distress compounded by no arrest being made.

But on Monday, she moved a step closer to possible justice when her lawyer, Robert Brown, filed a discrimination suit in Staten Island Supreme Court against the West Brighton Deli Grocery & Grill.

The suit alleges that Adams, who is bisexual, was attacked because the cashier “perceived plaintiff to be transgender.” The NYPD confirmed Adams provided the same account to police when she reported the incident.

​”Even if I was a transvestite, what does that have to do with anything?” asked Adams, 35, who was wearing an Apple watch wristband adorned with pride rainbow colors when she was attacked.

“Why were you so comfortable putting your hands on me? I wasn’t being aggressive. I didn’t have any weapon. I was a customer.”

The worker has been fired, but the store, on Henderson Ave. near Campbell Ave., has not cooperated in helping to identify him, police said.

Brown said cops dropped the ball by failing to release the video to the media, as they often do when it is trying to identify and locate a suspect, and by conducting just one cursory phone interview with the victim. The Hate Crime Task Force is involved in the case, police said, but Brown noted that no investigator from that unit has contacted Adams.

Adams, a mother of two who manages a home for disabled adults, stopped at the grocery to buy marijuana for a friend around 11:30 p.m. July 28. The West Brighton Deli Grocery where assault Victim 35yr old Jasmine Adams, seated inside the Offices of her Attorney, Robert Brown, talks to the News about her ordeal suffered by the hands of an employee inside the West Brighton Deli Grocery Bodega in Staten Island. Friday October 6, 2023. (Theodore Parisienne) Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News The West Brighton Deli Grocery & Grill where Jasmine Adams was attacked. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)

Weed has been legal in the city since 2021 but so far, there are currently only nine dispensaries in New York City licensed to sell marijuana. Hundreds of other shops nonetheless sell pot products.

Because she’s not a smoker, Adams had her friend on the phone as she made the $40 purchase, asking questions to make sure she was making the right choice. The clerk mistook her conversation as an attempt to haggle for a lower price.

“I said it wasn’t about the price and that I was just trying to figure out what I was buying,” Adams said. “So I paid. But he sucked his teeth and got mad and me and threw [the marijuana packet] on the floor.” Cellphone footage shows Jasmine Adams being dragged out of Staten Island bodega. Cell phone footage shows Jasmine Adams being dragged out of Staten Island bodega.

An insulted Adams opted not to pick the weed up off the floor and asked for her money back.

“He said I was trying to get him fired and that he was going to call the cops,” she recounted. “I said, ‘Call the cops! I just want my money back.’ Then I heard him call me a transvestite. I’m like, ‘Transvestite? I’m a whole female. I have lady parts.'” Cellphone footage shows Jasmine Adams being dragged out of Staten Island bodega. Cellphone footage shows Jasmine Adams being dragged out of Staten Island bodega.

The next moments were a blur.

Before she could duck, the attacker maced her in the face, she said, then ran around the counter toward her. Barely able to see, she remembered grabbing a coffee pot and swinging it at him.

She doesn’t know if she hit him, but he grabbed her by her long hair.

As she was being pulled from the store, called a “b—h” and dragged down three concrete steps, several young people were outside recording on their smartphones, some reacting in shock to the assault.

“Oh, my God!” one woman can be heard yelling in video obtained by the Daily News.

“You don’t have to do all that,” another person says.

The worker threw her to the concrete and kicked her in the head, the video shows.

“Next thing I know when I opened my eyes, I was outside next to my car on the floor,” Adams said. “I said to myself that I gotta get outta here because I don’t know if he’s going to kill me.” Jasmine Adams is pictured in Staten Island on Friday, Oct. 6, 2023. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News) Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News Jasmine Adams is pictured in Staten Island on Friday. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)

Adams somehow drove off in her car but stopped about a block later and flagged down a couple she did not know, getting their help taking her home. Jasmine Adams is pictured in Staten Island on Friday, Oct. 6, 2023. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News) Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News Adams says she feared for her life during the attack. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)

When she called 911 after getting home, cops showed up but she was told she needed to go back to the scene, which is in a different precinct from her home, and call 911 from there.

Brown, a former NYPD captain, noted police are obligated to take a report no matter where the crime occurred and that forcing crime victims to return to where they were attacked is traumatizing. The NYPD said Adams told the 911 dispatcher she would go to the scene, suggesting she voluntarily offered to do so.

Regardless, when Adams went back to the grocery and called for police from there, it took officers four hours to show up, she said. The officers, she said, appeared to know the attacker, referring to him as “Mr. Fourth of July.” Jasmine Adams is pictured in Staten Island on Friday, Oct. 6, 2023. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News) Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News Strangers helped Adams get home after the attack. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)

Adams, who was bruised and cut as she was dragged and kicked, didn’t realize video of the attack was on Facebook until she was alerted by a co-worker. She showed it to her mom, who cried but didn’t watch it herself until recently.

“I tried to suppress what happened,” Adams said. “It makes you feel vulnerable. I like to believe that I’m a strong woman. To me, I wasn’t so strong. It makes me feel weak.”

As crime victims often do, Adams has blamed herself for being out that late and for not just leaving the store after the clerk flung the marijuana to the ground. Her friends have tried to convince her she had every right to stand up for herself.

“But part of me still blames myself,” she said. Jasmine Adams and her attorney Robert Brown are pictured in Staten Island on Friday, Oct. 6, 2023. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News) Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News Adams and her attorney Robert Brown on Friday. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)

Workers at the store told The News they remembered the incident but referred all questions to a manager, who ignored requests for comment.

Adams turned to her pillars of strength, her mother and grandmother, before deciding to file a suit.

“They said that what happened to you is not right and that you need to let everyone know that,” Adams said. “For me, it’s not about the money. Whatever my sexual preference is, it shouldn’t be questioned when I walk in the store.”

[-] wanderingmagus@lemmy.world 42 points 1 year ago

What is not banned?

Surprisingly, there is a whole slew of exempt special-purpose bulbs that will continue to be manufactured, according to the Energy Department. Here’s what manufacturers can still build and stores can continue selling:

  • Appliance lamps, including fridge and oven lights
  • Black lights
  • Bug lamps
  • Colored lamps
  • Infrared lamps
  • Left-handed thread lamps
  • Plant lights
  • Floodlights
  • Reflector lamps
  • Showcase lamps
  • Traffic signals
  • Some other specialty lights, including marine lamps and some odd-sized bulbs

I mean, good for the effort, but that's still a lot of exceptions.

[-] wanderingmagus@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year ago

The written word. Just think about how much that has completely revolutionized communication all around the world. We can receive firsthand accounts of events from thousands of years in the past, on the other side of the world, from a civilization that hasn't existed since the Pyramids. We can learn the sagas and myths of countless cultures around the world. There's a good reason that the very act of writing itself was considered magical for eons. In many ways, it still is.

[-] wanderingmagus@lemmy.world 40 points 1 year ago

Thanks for everything you do to keep this community safe. I know it can't be easy.

[-] wanderingmagus@lemmy.world 46 points 1 year ago

Maybe it'd be healthier for all of us in the long run to just unplug, go outside, and visit a library or join a social club. Or we can just unplug from the ~~internet~~ corpo-net and go full Fediverse and FOSS. I'm sure there's plenty of people already doing it here on Lemmy.

[-] wanderingmagus@lemmy.world 34 points 1 year ago

If it's affecting your mental health, I highly recommend avoiding this side of social media and focusing on your needs. Don't let the world drag you down with it.

[-] wanderingmagus@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago

Samurai. Literal nobility, regular baths, nice clothes, fitted armor, regular training, and at least during the Edo period, low risk of actually having to go into battle (doesn't apply during the prior periods of course). Good food, good rice wine, poetry and music, good literature, intellectually stimulating conversations.

Contrast a cowboy - saddle sores, dust, caked sweat from weeks without baths, cholera, gangrene, bandits, native raids, long hours, and the blazing desert sun.

And the pirate: nothing to eat but hardtack and freeze-dried cod until you make port or board a merchantman, hunted by the Royal Navy, surrounded by fellow pirates who haven't bathed since the last port call, constantly alternating between seasickness and landsickness, cramped quarters belowdecks, constant risk of drowning, and when you finally go on a raid, you're getting shot at by grapeshot and 16-pounder roundshot at effectively point-blank range.

Samurai, any day. raises cup of green tea

[-] wanderingmagus@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago

Got my first explicit scatological DM from someone with no fewer than three actual slurs (n-word included) in their username yesterday, from the lemmy.world instance (yes, my instance), so that was "fun". I've also seen the same sort of posts, from the same sorts of users, elsewhere in comment sections. Fun times.

[-] wanderingmagus@lemmy.world 28 points 1 year ago

I'm in this picture and I hate it

[-] wanderingmagus@lemmy.world 34 points 1 year ago

Definitely recommend Connect for Lemmy. Gives me RIF vibes and has worked really well for me.

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wanderingmagus

joined 1 year ago