Could someone in the know explain this in "lay person" terms? 🙏
What does it mean and how bad is it?

"The Internet goes on high alert after discovery of 8 compromised TLS certs"
https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/10/the-internet-goes-on-high-alert-after-discovery-of-8-compromised-tls-certs/

#TLSCertificates #Internet

Scalpsie bay #ButeIsland #Scotland #NatureIsBeautiful (or.. Bute-iful? 😁)

"New Google Maps images reveal massive scale of devastation in Gaza" https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/01/new-google-maps-images-reveal-massive-scale-of-devastation-in-gaza

#IsraelGazaWar #TheGuardian

#Mushroom question:
Can we eat these?

Location: #Glasgow, #Scotland

Edit: it looks like these might be edible (Boletus / cep), but they also may not, so I will do additional checks and will let you all know!

When was the last time you ran?

#SillyPoll #Running (oops pretty sure that will bias the poll)

#Rat people: I'm planning to work with old rats 🐀🧓 for my next experiment (neuroscience). I know we have a lot of pet rat experts around here and I was wondering if you wouldn't mind listing the problems that you might have noticed in your old rats and at what kind of age these started appearing? Like - tumors, problems with locomotion, things like that. Memory problems would be very interesting too if you noticed any.

Not a very joyful topic, so of course feel free to scroll by if you don't want to think about it...

#Rats #RatsOfMastodon

Post (mostly) for instance admins: spam / sleeper account registrations

Our server, with approved registrations (i.e. mods only accept new people after checking their "reasons to join") is still constantly getting spam account requests. (spam, for lack of a better word... maybe 'sleeper accounts'?)

These are not obviously immediate to the untrained eye, but it's been happening for months now and there are some clear patterns. Here's a list of what I've learned so far in case that's useful to other mods. Any additional advice welcome!

How to spot a sleeper account request (beyond the obvious):

1. Always from a disposable email domain.
2. Otherwise, a lot of them are from "proton.me" domain or "onionmail.org"
3. request reads as if it was an account description, not an account request e.g. "writer, queer, loves cats, profile pic of a lake in front of a mountain, posts a lot about bread, here to share ideas and engage positively with the community, my DMs are open" - yeah it sounds like your average Fedi person, but that's probably because they scrape profiles from Fedi in the first place.
4. The account request will not directly name your server or meaningfully answer the account request text
5. The name of the account and of their email will have nothing to do with each other, e.g, username "colixal" and email "inyfupvtr@proton.me"
   
6. the email usually looks random (see above), probably because they're all randomly-generated.
   

Solutions / mitigation (for Admins):

1. Switch on approved registrations on your server! @FediTips has instructions for this.
2. Tell in your server's account request description that you do not accept registration from disposable emails and you want specific reasons for choosing your server.
3. How to spot a disposable email domain: you can check this list, but I don't think it's up to date. you can also search for the domain with quotes "domain.xyz" online and it will usually show up as being disposable.
4. Once you know a domain is disposable, you can block registrations from it (User Preferences menu>Moderation> Blocked email domains > add new)
5. in doubt, email the "person" to ask them more specific info. 50% of the time the email will bounce back, and 40% you will get no answer. That's your cue to reject those (and possibly add their domain to the block list, although you don't want to block non-disposable ones of course)
6. requesting a donation, even minimal (say 10p per account) would probably completely block those.
7. It is possible that we've already accepted a few of the sleeper accounts. We should all probably go back and check everything out (yes, that's easier when you have a small server).
8. Any other suggestions / tips? Let us know!

Of course, some of these measures are bound to also prevent some genuine people from joining. In this case I think it's worth it, and also, if you can't be bothered writing 3 lines of text to explain why you chose a server then maybe you wouldn't be contributing to Fedi much anyway.

Quantification

We are a very small server (150 active accounts) and are getting about 1-3 such requests per day when our usual rate of genuine requests is about 1-2 per month (well, except when @jonny makes a post that pierces the thin veil with the real world). I can't imagine how many of those must be infiltrating large, open instances like mastodon.social... Have any of you people on other servers noticed it? Please let us know in answers. And if anyone personally knows one of the mastodon.social mods it would be interesting to hear from their point of view.

Possible goals and consequences

• wasting our time
• making it harder for genuine people to join
• sudden spamming
• use all the server's storage to block the server
• propaganda
• harassment (possibly in private posts so they can't be reported)
• anything else? In any case, no good can come out of it.

Other posts noticing this

quoting @johannab:
https://cosocial.ca/@johannab/116856878972351914
quoting @dsalo:
https://digipres.club/@dsalo/117039864558262328
quoting @tante:
https://tldr.nettime.org/@tante/116845372717559528
quoting @jerry who mentioned making a script to auto-block the disposable domains - I don't know if this exists now?
https://infosec.exchange/@jerry/116805164892680867
and
https://infosec.exchange/@jerry/116846097736300539
quoting @futurebird
https://sauropods.win/@futurebird/117161690843829586

PS: If you answer please un-tag all these nice people to avoid spamming them!

#MastoAdmin #MastoAdminTip #FediAdmin #AcountRequests #SleeperAccounts #SpamAccounts

"Aux Etats-Unis, une opposition grandissante à Flock, un réseau de 120 000 caméras qui identifient les voitures"
https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2026/08/31/aux-etats-unis-une-opposition-grandissante-a-flock-un-reseau-de-120-000-cameras-qui-identifient-les-voitures_6762379_3210.html

Sous pression, une centaine de villes ont rompu leur contrat avec l’entreprise.

-> Il y a toujours de l'espoir!
#UsPol #Surveillance #LeMonde

Also: what are good alternatives for Airbnb that are privacy-friendly?

#AirBnb #BoycottAirBnb

Here's another reason not to use AirBnb: it just activated a "Let us use your data to train our AI" WITHOUT ASKING 😡

I don't know for how long this has been active for.. But today I noticed that typing private messages in it was really so which pushed me to check..

Can we sue companies that do this, use our data without consent?
#AirBnB #NoGenAI #Privacy

To anyone familiar with Alzheimer's disease: is it true that AD patients can have phases where they remember everything properly, and then go back to having forgotten those things?
Is there any research done on that aspect? I don't even know how to call it...

Edit: maybe "temporary lucidity"? I found a new york times article on "terminal lucidity" although it seems anectodal and I'm more interested in recurrent episodes during the progression of the disease..

#AlzheimersDisease #Alzheimers

So glad to see Trump's constant push for destroying the planet comes back to bite him on his "special day"

US gripped by extreme heatwave, disrupting 250th anniversary and World Cup celebrations

(sorry, the article is paywalled, not even I can read it)
#UsPol #GlobalWarming #LeMonde

Have you ever tried to use a #StandingDesk for work (whether working from home or in the office), if so would you recommend it?

Since I'm spending about 23/24h sitting (or sleeping) these days, I wonder if I should give it a go.. Please tell me what you think!

"Rest and be thankful" spot in #Scotland,

Before and after the snow (2 days ago vs today)

Ah, Google Documents.. So convenient.. But #Google is bad and the current US government is crazy.

What is the closest existing alternative to GDocs which is not owned by an american for-profit?

So far, Libre Office docs could be a replacement but there doesn't seem to be an integrated way to do co-editing online with it?

Conditions:

• I am not interested in Latex
• I want to use it to co-edit documents with other people, having tracked changes and comments is necessary
• I ideally would like to use it with Zotero but it's not essential

#GoogleDocuments #AcademicChatter

We always talk about things that get worse with #Aging - but what about the things that get better? For example I feel that people become more confident and able to make faster decisions, especially about what they like or want to do. Can you think of anything else that improves with aging?

Trying to get ideas for a research fellowship proposal :)

Album: Musique d'un Film
Song 1: Elle Est Née Au Nord

This song is about me 😊 I was just a small child at the time, and I think it explains why my parents chose my first name - has good musicality and many possible play on words!

I was just talking to @Fragglemuppet about it which is what pushed me to write this thread. I added the French lyrics and my English translation to it. I plan to do that for the upcoming songs when I get a chance!

2/

#JacquesDuvelle

[voir ci-dessous pour la traduction fr]
This feels like a time as good as any to share the (French) songs of my dad - Jacques Duvelle - who was a music teacher and a singer - musician - composer.

He released two albums with his group and also led a national event in France at the time of the war in #Bosnia (1994) where he somehow organized for 10 000 children of schools all across France, plus the world-famous singer Barbara Hendrix, to come to Paris and sing "the song of Sarajevo" against the war.

I noticed that you can upload mp3 files here, so I will share the songs in this thread... 🎵 ⤵️

-- Version Française --

Le temps est venu de partager un fil sur les chansons de mon père - Jacques Duvelle - qui était un professeur de musique (au collège) et un chanteur - musicien - compositeur.

Il a sorti deux albums avec son groupe et a aussi organisé un événement national en France au temps de la guerre en #Bosnie (1994) où il a réussi à faire venir 10 000 enfants de tous les collèges de France, avec la chanteuse de renommée mondiale Barbara Hendrix, sur le Champ de Mars à Paris, pour chanter une chanson qu'il avait composée avec les enfants "La Chanson de Sarajevo", contre la guerre.

Apparemment on peut publier des fichiers mp3 ici donc je vais partager ses chansons ci-dessous! 🎵 ⤵️

1/x
#JacquesDuvelle

A colleague is asking how many #Neuroscientists are here on Mastodon / Fedi. If you are one, could you make yourself known in this poll? Also, more specific comments about your field welcome! 🧠

please boost around if you don't mind
#Neuroscience #Academia #AcademicChatter

This is not a joke... A press release from the UK government about a meeting of the "national drought group", in order to "save water at home", suggests to:

"Delete old emails and pictures as data centres require vast amounts of water to cool their systems"

... while the government also pushes for full-blown investments in, and adoption of, "genAI" (e.g. here ) with absolutely no mention of the environmental costs.. which are surely orders of magnitude worse than whatever a server uses to store old pictures, and for what?! 🤦🤦🤦

#GenAI #SavingThePlanet