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Xavier Snelgrove

@wxs.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy

CS + Graphics + ML + Vision + etc.etc. What are ways we can mathematically and computationally model our world? How do we hold the gap between those models and […] [bridged from mastodon.social/@wxs on the fediverse by fed.brid.gy ]

Posts Replies Media

Xavier Snelgrove @wxs.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/04/2025

Ah yes electric cars, the saviours of the environment...

China paused the mining of heavy rare earths near Longnan a few years ago because it was causing severe chemical pollution.

On Friday, at the site of one mine near Longnan, a diesel generator was humming and liquids were gurgling through plastic pipes, indicating that at least some mining operations had probably resumed. Heavy rare earths are mined by dumping strong chemicals into holes dug in the top of a hillside. The chemicals dissolve the ore and dribble out of the base of the hill, where they can be pumped to nearby pits for initial processing

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Xavier Snelgrove @wxs.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/03/2025

By popular demand PostPost.social now includes accessibility features: send us your phone number and we'll read your posts aloud to you! #toronto #socialmedia #mail #accessibility

An index card that says:
Screen-Free Social Network!
Decorate an index card and mail it to:
PostPost.social
#616-2938 Dundas St. W
Toronto, ON M6P 3N8
CANADA
Include $2 for return postage, wait, and soon you'll receive a package of Posts!

Wow!

Billionaire-Free!
Made in Canada!

Then: beautifully composited atop the image, the text "New Accessibility Feature: include a note with "call me:" and your phone number, and we'll call to describe your package of Posts.

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Xavier Snelgrove @wxs.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/03/2025

Launched a bespoke mail-based social network in #toronto — if you like how mastodon is niche you'll LOVE postpost.social.

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Xavier Snelgrove @wxs.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/01/2025

Huh! First book I've noticed specifically prohibiting training AI on the copyright page.

photograph of the copyright page of a book with a clause prohibiting the training of generative AI

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Xavier Snelgrove @wxs.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/12/2024

TIL "thymos" lives alongside "logos" and "eros" (which I had heard of) as a basic third of the human soul (for Plato). It's the need for glory and recognition.

The other plank of Fukuyama's construct was 17:23 3M the fundamental human need for recognition, an concept with a long lineage in Western philoso--phy. In Plato's Republic, the key term is thymos, which is usually translated as "spiritedness" and forms the third essential part of human nature alongside the more familiar concepts logos and eros. Like reason and passion, thymos must bea properly managed to ensure social harmony. Unchecked, it leads to domination and exploita-tion. Tyrants demand not simply more power and wealth than their subjects but also excessive forms of recognition. Hence the giant palaces-and bad public art erected by the likes of Josepha Stalin and Nicolae Ceauşescu to monopolize their underlings' attention; hence the needlessly provocative tweets of Elon Musk, who cannota be satisfied unless his status is also validated by millions

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Xavier Snelgrove @wxs.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/11/2024

Every time I read Jan Zwicky I feel this sense of clarity, she's writing from another world where the poetic and analytical minds are not separate. I recommend her piece in the latest issue of Brick magazine. (Buy the magazine at brickmag.com or at […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

George Whalley's Contemplative Mind
Jan Zwicky

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Xavier Snelgrove @wxs.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/11/2024

I'm definitely going to adopt this practice: @bret has his preferred contact on his website as a PO box. I would also prefer to engage in high effort/care communication (also why my inbox has 8000 unread emails, I will give you my full attention over a dinner)

screenshot of Bret Victor's contact page saying he prefers PO Box

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Xavier Snelgrove @wxs.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 18/11/2024

Anticipating social media, and its discarnate aggressors, in 86. (Via The Immaculate Perception, Christopher Dewdney)

Fvery human has a minimal operational territory, an invisible social field surrounding each individual which is subconsciously acknowledged by others. This territory is quantitatively flexible, diminishing in crowds & expanding in open spaces. During hostile or aggressive confrontations this field becomes critical, a transgression resulting in violence or retreat. The telephone cuts across all territorial conventions dur ing hostile or aggressive interactions. We are confronted with a totally novel situation (phylogenically) when a discarnate aggressor, often a credit manager from the local exchange, not only trespasses personal territory but proceeds with overt ver bal aggression past the point at which adrenalin levels would normally precipitate physical violence. The skilled aggressor can easily out-manoeuvre the flustered & helpless rage of his or her victim.

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