A blog devoted to finding a Fediverse server to join Mastodon

This has been a blog page devoted to finding a Fediverse server to join Mastodon

put together by Hal Brown

I'm not going to keep updating this blog because I discovered that there was a more comprehensive list which people can use to decide which Fediverse  Mastodon server they want to use to read and toot on. Click below:

Archives on Right >

Posting, i.e. Tooting, now on Mastodon - see right column there 

This is my blog about Mastodon from Dec. 16

Below: Just a few servers on Mastodon

Click above to enlarge image

Those who want to view or join Mastodon can do so at lots of web addresses for Mastodon servers which are decentralized. They are all on a Fediverse. 

The fediverse (a portmanteau of "federation" and "universe") is an ensemble of federated (i.e. interconnected) servers that are used for web publishing (i.e. social networking, microblogging, blogging, or websites) and file hosting, but which, while independently hosted, can communicate with each other. On different servers (technically instances), users can create so-called identities. These identities are able to communicate over the boundaries of the instances because the software running on the servers supports one or more communication protocols that follow an open standard.^[1] As an identity on the fediverse, users are able to post text and other media, or to follow posts by other identities.^[2] In some cases, users can show or share data (video, audio, text, and other files) publicly or to a selected group of identities, and allow other identities to edit other users' data (such as a calendar or an address book). Wikipedia

You can read more about Mastodon here:

The images below are about 42 of the links which you can use to view or join Mastodon. Click to join. There are over 160 as of Dec. 20 and more are added just about every day. 

These two appear to have the most members:

Mastodon Social

This is where I toot. I can't find a logo for it so I'll use my version until I find an official one.

 

https://masto.ai/explore 

These are other popular ones:

This one is called Pachyderm

The servers above appear to have the most members.

Others have fewer, even some less than 200.

All the images below are links.  The newest links are on the bottom of the list.

.

This one is in German

Seeing how GOP is about to drive off a cliff reminds me of a favorite Charles Addams cartoon

Seeing how GOP is about to drive off a cliff reminds me of a favorite Charles Addams cartoon

By Hal Brown

Archives on Right >

Why I was banned from Daily Kos

Posting now on Mastodon - see right column there 

Click to enlarge

My Version

CLICK ABOVE TO ENLARGE

When I was too young to appreciate the writing in The New Yorker, which my parents subscribed to, I looked forward to each issue for the cartoons. My favorite cartoonist was Charles Addams which no doubt showed something about my personality. In fact, that when I read McCarthy's Race For Speaker Risks Upending House On Day One in HUFFPOST this morning the above cartoon came to mind.

It was one of the two Addams cartoons which I liked the best. This is the other one:

I suppose this says something about my developing personality and my somewhat morbid sense of humor. I also like the cartoons in The Hanging Book:

Click above to enlarge - I misplaced or loaned out my copy of this book and writing this story prompted my to order the last used copy they had on Amazon.

If you stumbled on this blog because you're a Charles Addams fan and haven't already watched the streaming Netflix show Wednesday I highly recommend it. It has two Golden Globe nominations and features the Christina Ricci  in a supporting role. She played the original Wednesday in the original Addams Family TV show.

But I digress...

Back to what I think the cartoon represents. The car which is about to careen off the cliff is occupied by all Republicans but you have to wonder who is driving it. I'd have to choose between Marjorie Taylor Greene and Donald Trump depending on whether we are thinking only about Congress or the GOP as a party.

Who then is this driver?

He sees the approaching semi and is aware that the Republicans who are chasing and about to overtake him, and is smart enough to take advantage of the opportunity that fate afforded him.

The Democrat's leader, President Biden, lacks the ruthlessness gene and is not a malignant narcissist, anything but, so he wouldn't even dream of sticking his arm out the window and making the universal "it's safe to pass me" gesture which he knows would result in real life in the kind of movie scene where a car speeds off a cliff and bursts into flames.

The other way to interpret the cartoon is to say the man waving driver of the car to pass and die engulfed in flames is Donald Trump and he's being chased by any and all Republicans that don't bow down to him.

Pictures that say 1000 words

Pictures That Say 1000 Words

By Hal Brown

Archives on Right >

Why I was banned from Daily Kos

Posting now on Mastodon - see right column there 

Background from InPixio, Hal Brown

Updated Dec. 19: 

As Elon Musk and Donald Trump compete for headlines with their self-defeating bizarre behavior I watch how editors decide to illustrate their stories. Today I found a opening page story for  Elon Musk Posts Twitter Poll Asking If He Should Step Down As CEO on HUFFPOST. It is no longer the top of the page story so you can't the it online the way I did.

It fits right in with the theme of the following story. Of all the photos of Musk they could have used they found one where his gaze was directed upward as if he was looking at the headline. For posterity, here it is:

Click above to enlarge

The symbolism of this above photo was lost when the story moved down the page because while his gave was up the title was under the much smaller photo. It happens to be to the left of another Musk article which happens to be about Mastodon which is the platform I now am active on.

Below is my original blog story:

This was the top story on the HUFFPOST website this morning linking to this article:

I don't know whether it was an actual photograph of was photoshopped and made into a dark silhouette. 

I did a Google Image search and found the photo was used several times before:

Click above to enlarge

It is credited to Justin Sullivan of Getty Images. It was used in this article among others:

Whether it was photoshopped or not I think the black background was added because most people who are photographed have a background behind them.

As I write this the top of the site article on HUFFPOST is about Trump's malevolent doppelgänger Elon Musk for this article. It isn't nearly as dramatic as the Trump illustration:

I would guess that the black background  was also added to replace whatever was in the background of the photograph to make it more dramatic but I can't prove it.

I would characterize the photo of Musk as not particularly flattering but not appearing as obnoxious as he does in some of the photos published of him.

When the Musk article was no longer the lead story and moved down the page this is the Photoshopped image HUFFPOST used which shows him as looking ominous:

A Google Image search shows the first photo being credited to Jim Watson of Getty Images. It has been used frequently:

For example, it was used to illustrate a New York Times June 9, 2022 article.

There are so many photos of Trump and Musk showing such a range of emotions for editors to choose from to illustrate articles. Editors do not decide which to use by accident. 

Generally the photos we see of people in the public eye come with some kind of copyright protection and there is a legal gray area about how they can be republished. On this blog I often use the amazing Photoshop manipulated images made by DonkeyHotey since they are free to use as long as you give him his well deserved credit.

I used two of them in this blog story:

I took the photo HUFFPOST used and with BeFunky made it look like this:

With InPixo I made this with Jan van Eyck's Crucifixion and Last Judgement diptych from Wikipedia as a background.