Lmst

Arend van Beelen boosted:

German satirical artist Jacques Tilly has been sued in Russia by Vladimir Putin for defaming the Russian state by making carnival sculptures in Germany — outside Putin's dystopian jurisdiction — so it would be a real shame, if that made us share his artworks and embarrass Putin even further.

Source: https://youtu.be/hGzaU6eAsVI?si=SoMPHdut3MlEhx4v

A Putin sculpture pointing to 6 other nations claiming they are all nazis while he himself is wearing a military uniform and a red armband with a Z that also looks a lot like an N.

A Putin sculpture taking a bath in blood.

A Putin sculpture attempting to pierce a small jester which just continues tapping his forehead with two clubs.

A Putin sculpture appearing to be in a sexual act (fellatio) with a sculpture of Patriarch Kirill, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Arend van Beelen boosted:

AI corporations can't get your money, because most people don't want to pay for that. And they need a lot of money to justify their investment.

So they're going after government contracts, with their powerful network of lobbyists. That way, your government can give them your money anyway. To pay for that, they will very likely cut in public services.

If you don't want that to happen, email or call your government representatives.

#NoAI

@europeanspodcast Personally I take the fact they are slower as a positive. When I go on holiday, I don't want the stress of flying, nor the cramped seats of a plane. Rather, I can take the convenience and pace of the train to unwind and arrive at my destination well-rested.

Arend van Beelen boosted:

🚄✈️ Why is it still so hard to choose a train over a plane?

On many long-distance routes in Europe, choosing the train can feel like a borderline heroic decision. It’s often more expensive, takes longer, and can be less reliable when connections are tight.

This week we spoke to cross-border rail advocate @jon about what Europe would need to change to make rail the obvious choice, not a moral gesture.

Here’s his recipe. THREAD:

#trains #travel #europe #infrastructure

Arend van Beelen boosted:

You can now test GritQL queries in our playground! It's great for getting quick feedback.

Try it yourself! https://biomejs.dev/playground/

Screenshot of Biome's playground showcasing a query that can highlight recursive function calls.

Arend van Beelen boosted:

As some of you may know, I’m an avid enjoyer of Nick Cave’s music, books, films, and film music. So it should not come as a big surprise that I follow his Red Hand Files too.

This week, his entry touched me more deeply than usual and I decided to make a collage out of it, so I could hang it on the wall in my study.

Here comes… #NickCave #WritingCommunity #Art

At the International Film Festival in Berlin, jury president Wim Wenders sparked controversy, stating that art and artists are “the counterweight to politics, we are the opposite of politics.” He said, artists “have to do the work of people, not the work of politicians.” Any thoughts on this? — RAINER, POTSDAM, GERMANY Dear Rainer, I have known Wim for over forty years, and his response to the question at the Berlinale moved me deeply. It reaffirmed my understanding of him as a passionately principled, thoughtful, and courageous man — a person who cares profoundly about film and the state of the creative world. His words were a caring, gentle, and protective gesture, directed not only at the artistic community but at humanity itself, and despite the predictable pile-on, I suspect that many artists, maybe most, will genuinely appreciate his words. Of course, I can’t speak for Wim, but perhaps, like me, he laments the state of art as it has unfolded into this present moment. Perhaps, as the president of the Berlinale Jury, he despairs over the fate that has befallen other film and literary events. The furore around the Adelaide Writers’ Week was happening while I was on tour in Australia. In an almost cosmic display of stupidity, that entire event was vaporised in a mushroom cloud of cowardice, performative

Perhaps Wim is trying to save the Berlinale from succumbing to the fate of those festivals that have become little more than a narrowing of the cultural imagination, where the concept of an arts festival as a space for free-ranging and diverse ideas, a place of vitality and originality that encourages disagreement and good faith debate, is being sucked down the sinkhole of a single monolithic ideology — one voice, one cause, one dissent. I do not imagine for a moment that Wim thinks art should ignore the great and persistent injustices of the world. He seems to believe, as I do, that using art to raise awareness of these injustices can be extremely effective, but perhaps he also believes that art is more than the sum of its utility; it is more than a tool or a weapon. Maybe he believes, as I do, that at its core, great art exists purely for its own sake — and that at its most transformative it reveals itself subtly, ambiguously, and curiously; that it is something we approach with awe and wonder, that humbles us whilst also enlarging our hearts, that works its way into our souls and spirits, guiding us towards what is good, beautiful, and true. Art captivates us and imparts a sense of what it means to be human, broadening our understanding of the world and our own place within it — that we have the right to love, laugh, cry, and be thrilled by the world. This is art’s largesse — to remind us that life is worth living.

I think Wim’s words moved me because they might serve to usher in a fresh appraisal of the cultural space before us, where art reclaims its dynamic nature. Perhaps his words will encourage artists to feel confident expressing how they truly see themselves, in all their radical complexity and diversity, to say, ‘This is what I am. This is how I feel.’ But perhaps Wim meant none of these things. I don’t know. But, whatever his intention, I sensed the concern, gentleness, and care in his response, and its lovely openness alone filled me with a kind of relief, a sense of freedom and sudden potential. I expect, beyond the clamour, many felt the same. Love, Nick

The full collage. Note that a small part about cancellation was unintentionally cut… such is art 🤷‍♂️

Arend van Beelen boosted:

Another update for today: We're planning to revive LibreOffice Online, a web-based version of the suite that users can deploy on their own infrastructure: https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2026/02/24/libreoffice-online-a-fresh-start/

Arend van Beelen boosted:

Ladybird Browser adopts Rust

https://lemmy.world/post/43504233

Arend van Beelen boosted:

The LLM discourse on the Fediverse has really irked me the last few days.

Refusing to read writing made with the use of LLMs and refusing to give time to writers who use, promote or justify the use of LLMs is not purity culture, it's a boycott. It's a political act of withdrawing my time, resources and support for something that I find deeply morally wrong. It's protest. I have a choice and I refuse.

LLMs are exploitative, destructive, biased, mediocre parroting machines. Using them has a negative impact on the climate, the arts, the quality of the internet, the job market, the economy, the accessibility of electronics, even on skill development, creativity and mental health. LLMs are made and trained on the unpaid labour of millions -if not billions- of people who didn't consent. Their generic output litter the path to finding anything by true human creators.

Wherever I can, for as long as I can, I reject LLMs and anything that is related to them. I'm boycotting.

Arend van Beelen boosted:

#WritingCommunity 🤍 #poetry

a phoenix reborn behind the chittering glass terror and scorn for those who will pass look at the fire consuming your soul look at the fool behind the chittering glass

Arend van Beelen boosted:

We've been on X/Twitter for many years, but it's time to reduce our activity there and instead promote Mastodon as our main social media channel now. So we've done just that: https://x.com/LibreOffice/status/2026204949760131158 – Welcome to all our new followers here 😊

Arend van Beelen boosted:

Who should I be following in the Fediverse? Twitter just makes me sad, and I need a new place to find people doing interesting things.

I'm interested in software development in any programming language, game development, web development, UI, design, and home lab stuff. I'm not interested in AI.

Drop your recommendations below!

Arend van Beelen boosted:

Uhh, whoops. https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/18/microsoft-says-office-bug-exposed-customers-confidential-emails-to-copilot-ai/

Arend van Beelen boosted:

AI might not be taking jobs at the moment — but many people already fear it.

In our new preprint (experiment + large panel study), we examine why.

Drawing on Integrated Fear Acquisition Theory and the Technology Acceptance Model, we show that simply framing AI as being “in control” increases job replacement anxiety — especially when AI is seen as highly useful (ease of use didn’t matter).

Preprint: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/exg7t_v1

#AI #FutureOfWork #AIAnxiety #NewResearch #IOPsych #IOpsychology

RE: https://indieauthors.social/@aronsilver/116090798011282982

#ReadingCommunity too ❤️

Arend van Beelen boosted:

Do not use Microsoft products or services. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/17/ice-microsoft-technology-immigration-crackdown

# The Case for Mandatory Service

A new blog post is up for the #Philosophy of #Balance !

English: https://philosophyofbalance.com/blog/the-case-for-mandatory-service/
Dutch: https://philosophyofbalance.com/blog/nl/ter-defensie-van-de-dienstplicht/

Respond to this toot to reply to the post.

RE: https://indieauthors.social/@aronsilver/116084829256711948

Special shoutout to @Krita and #FOSS in general for enabling anyone with inspiration and a #Linux computer an opportunity to make awesome #art and animations.

@wffl You may wish to contact https://jamsiedaly.com/

He organises Rust Amsterdam meetups and usually has good info on job offers.

Happy to share that my text-clipper project has been migrated from #GitHub to #Codeberg: https://codeberg.org/arendjr/text-clipper

#OpenSource #development #JavaScript #TypeScript

Client Info