Dimestorehalo @Dimestorehalo@qoto.org

Is it just me, or are robots not just getting more capable but also a little cocky? 😆 (Watch to the end.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e1_QhJ1EhQ

House Republicans are trying to pass a bill to implement a MASSIVE 23% national sales tax on all taxable goods and services — with more tax hikes to come later on.

This would be absolutely crushing for middle-class families.

The corrupt bargain Kevin McCarthy made with far right Republicans, which he still refuses to make public, includes a promise to advance a 30% national sales tax. They repeal taxes on billionaires while you pay 30% more for gas, food, and so much more:

https://www.semafor.com/article/01/18/2023/republicans-worry-a-national-sales-tax-bill-would-be-a-political-gift-for-democrats

Absolutely in love with this story about all the mistakes being made by the AI that writes CNET's articles now https://futurism.com/cnet-ai-errors

Now someone's taken that teacher's use of ChatGPT to create lesson plans, emails, reports, ideas, advice, brainstorms, and newsletters and productized it.

Should students be worried about *teachers* being the ones who will rely more heavily on ChatGPT??

https://www.schoolai.co/

/cc @caseynewton

An in-law of mine keeps horses and used to have a small donkey. She named him Beans.

Because he was a burrito.

I will never not find this funny 😂 #asstodon

Heyyyy #DoctorWho friends! Is anyone going to #GallifreyOne in LA next month? Because I am and I am super excited. I’ll be working green room so I may not be around much but give a holler if you will be there!

(Jodie’s gonna be there. JODIE. This is going to be a peak professionalism test)

Former Trump campaign staffer Jessica Denson has secured a massive settlement terminating ALL 2016 Trump campaign non-disclosure agreements, deeming them INVALID and UNENFORCEABLE! https://youtu.be/yXH0wTsFOw0

It’s done! 365 days of recording the local temperature and weather in a knitted scarf.

In 2021, #COVID19 took fewer lives than 2020, but it took younger lives, resulting in 500,000 more years of life lost. “We found that the median age at which people were dying decreased by nearly a decade, down from 78 years in 2020 to 69 years in 2021. That's kind of astonishing.”

https://www.wbur.org/news/2022/12/01/mortality-age-data-pandemic

And yet here you are, controlling what women can do with a bun in the oven.

I have to be careful to not get out of hand and out of alignment with my own values, but after a lifetime of bullying, it felt *pretty good* to stand up to bullies successfully.

Big props to the sex pest voice actor for giving me three years of practice in handling assholes on social media 🥰

Eurasian lynx in the Bavarian Forest National Park, Germany
#Photo credit Konrad Wothe

#cats #cat #caturday #CatsOfMastodon #NaturePhotography #photography

I am truly aghast at how public health agencies had abdicated their primary (in fact only!) responsibility in the #COVID19 pandemic. Over on the bird site, someone shared this--a screener tool in Ontario. Children who are infected with #COVID19 are told they can go to school (mask optional) if their symptoms aren’t worsening. 😟

We have no idea what repeated infections will do to the long-term health of children, but studies are not encouraging. This is unethical and dangerous, IMO.

As Carl lay there thinking about all of the life choices that led him to this point, his biggest regret was trusting that stupid cowboy and his space man friend.

I like this article for focusing on the ways the Mastodon experience is superior to Twitter.

"I find Mastodon restful. Like the first time you realized that TV is possible without commercials. Also, because journalists and scientists are leading the charge to Mastodon, my feed seems to reflect a culture of knowledge, even leaning on peer-reviewed citations."

Thanks @tchambers!

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-tao-of-innovation/202212/the-psychology-of-mastodon-the-great-migration-from-twitter

One day around 32,000 years ago, an arctic ground squirrel ate parts of a plant, silene stenophylla, including its seed. The squirrel was digesting it when its life ended.

Its body was recovered from permafrost and examined. Scientists germinated this plant seed. This silene stenophylla just bloomed.

It is 32,000 years old.

The strength, the vitality and stamina of living things — of life itself — is incredible.