Alan Johnson @acjay@qoto.org

.@crampell nails it. Again
---
RT @crampell
Republicans say they want to balance the budget — but meanwhile they have ruled out every mathematical path for doing so (cuts to defense, cuts to entitlements, wiping out nondefense discretionary spending, or raising taxes). https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/24/republican-debt-ceiling-hostage-budget/
https://twitter.com/crampell/status/1617865790178590721

You can DM people on Mastodon by writing a post in "mentioned" visibility mode. In that mode, only accounts mentioned in the post can see it.

You can set post visibility by clicking on the visibility logo below the post:

🌎 - Public visibility, anyone can see it

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🔒 - Followers-only, your followers and anyone mentioned in the post can see it

@ - Mentions, only accounts mentioned can see it.

Find out more at https://fedi.tips/how-to-use-mastodon-and-the-fediverse-basic-tips/#WhoCanSeeMyPosts

ChatGPT gets treated like technological magic, but that ignores the humans behind the curtain that make it function.

OpenAI paid Sama to hire Kenyan workers at $1.32 to $2 an hour to review “child sexual abuse, bestiality, murder, suicide, torture, self harm, and incest” content. Their work made the tool less toxic, but left them mentally scarred. The company ended the contract when they found out TIME was digging into their practices.

https://time.com/6247678/openai-chatgpt-kenya-workers/

#tech #chatgpt #ai

Oh, wow. Just wow.

When I was 18, I was in the Canadian army. I'd joined in a fit of denialism, trying to prove how manly I was.

I was posted, back then, to West Germany, to a Canadian NATO base there (near Baden-Baden). While I was there, I met a young woman, a German, with whom I fell madly in love (as did she with me). When I got sent back to Canada after they found out I was queer (and kicked me out), we tried to stay in touch. I even tried to get a visa to go to Germany.

1/

There's a lot of debate as to the efficacy of "ban cars" as an advocacy slogan, but "The government might consider banning gas stoves" sure did generate a lot of coverage about the health and climate problems caused by gas stoves. It simply wasn't on most Americans' radars last week.

Food for thought!

I'd fallen for, and helped spread, what I now realize was a myth about quote tweets: That there's almost no research on them. Big mistake! Now rectified.

Here's my new post, digging into more than 30 studies with data on quote tweets. They don't settle all the questions. But there are answers, or at least partial ones, to most. It's still complicated, though.

It's a * very * long read, but there are summary points ....1/2

https://absolutelymaybe.plos.org/2023/01/12/quote-tweeting-over-30-studies-dispel-some-myths/

#MissedQuoteBoost #QuoteBoost #QuoteTweets

Peter Hotez on new omicron variant, vaccine fatigue, bivalent booster https://www.houstonchronicle.com/lifestyle/renew-houston/health/article/Peter-Hotez-COVID-XBB15-variant-vaccine-booster-17707273.php

This may go nowhere because I have not been using this platform but if it works, I will be very happy!!! I am teaching online communities to our master's students. If you are a graduate student, practitioner, or faculty member working in this space I would love to have you as a guest speaker to my class. Please let me know! Topics include moderation/regulation, hate speech/harassment, misinfo/disinfo/conspiracy theories, design-oriented online communities work, and privacy!

I keep seeing articles, about people trying to violently overturn election results, that use phrases like “motivated by election lies”.

They aren’t motivated by lies, they are motivated by not liking the result. Repeating the lies just makes them feel powerful because it makes them part of the grift. They think they’re fooling people.

Blaming the lies lulls us into thinking that this is an education/disinformation problem which, if addressed, will eliminate the violence.

These folks aren’t deluded. They’ve learned from their leaders that violence and lying are the route to power.

For most of my life I thought these problems could be solved by education. I no longer do. As far as I can tell, about 30% of the population believes that getting away with grifts and bullying people is proof of power and leadership that should be respected, worshiped, and emulated.

We can’t educate these folks. We can only build a society that ensures that they cannot gain control. Unfortunately, the entire human race has largely failed to do so, and we’re suffering the consequences on a planetary scale.

Every day we act as though they don’t *know* that the elections were valid, is a day we risk losing the fight for democracy, equality, and a stable environment.

#brazil #JAN6

A key thing I've learned about Mastodon: When you find people you know and want to keep up with, don't just follow them — add them to a list!

Merely following is not enough, b/c their posts may not show up in your feed at a time you're logged on. Unlike FB or Twitter, Mastodon has no algorithm to resurface your friends' posts from hours or days ago.

So create a list called "Friends" and check it when you're on. This will ensure that you see what they posted while you were away.

A black man wrongfully jailed for a week in Louisiana after face recognition error, report says. Lawyer says police didn't check man's height, weight or the mole on his face.

#blackmastodon #facialrecognition

https://peopleofcolorintech.com/articles/facial-recognition-tech-used-to-jail-black-man-for-louisiana-theft-hes-never-been-to-louisiana/