Brian Beach has moved @bwbeach@qoto.org

One important thing to know about malignant narcissists and authoritarians (and there is so much overlap that the Venn diagram is practically one big circle) is that no amount of complicity will save you. They will always turn on you. It is only a matter of time.

Useful information about the Tennessee legislature:

People yelling in the galleries & holding signs are protesting. They can be expelled -- & were.

That's what happened today in the Tennessee legislature.

They were NOT engaged in an insurrection--an attempt to overturn a government.

Words have meanings, folks.

#tennessee #politics #insurrection #protest

Do you know there's a #fediverse alternative to Amazon-owned #Goodreads? #BookWyrm is a social network for tracking your reading, writing reviews, and discovering what to read next. You can follow and interact with users on different #BookWyrm instances and on #Mastodon. You can import from a Goodreads CSV export. You can create private shelves and curated lists. Join us at https://ramblingreaders.org or choose one of the other instances available #books #reading  #bookstodon @bookstodon

Well this is horrifying.

AI and the American Smile.
How AI misrepresents culture through a facial expression.

https://medium.com/@socialcreature/ai-and-the-american-smile-76d23a0fbfaf

Think of language models like ChatGPT as a “calculator for words”

I wrote about why using ChatGPT as a search engine replacement isn't the right framing if you want to get the most out of these powerful new tools

https://simonwillison.net/2023/Apr/2/calculator-for-words/

Tl;dr: The harms from so-called AI are real and present and follow from the acts of people and corporations deploying automated systems. Regulatory efforts should focus on transparency, accountability and preventing exploitative labor practices.

Just to be clear, experts (who disagree about all sorts of things) are virtually unanimous that online voting is inherently too risky and untrustworthy for use in US civil elections. It is well beyond possible with the state of the art, and would require several fundamental breakthroughs in computer science before we could even try it. See, for a good discussion, the National Academies "Securing the Vote" consensus study, which is unequivocal about this. https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/25120/securing-the-vote-protecting-american-democracy

The parents of two children who died from AR-15 gunfire consented to the Post reconstructing the damage to their bodies.

There is absolutely no justification for civilians having access to AR-15s. None.

Fantastic and heartbreaking reporting by the Post. https://t.co/opHlruDFmP

From: Cyclists
To: Motorists

If we’re at a corner where there’s any complexity at all and it’s your right-of-way, PLEASE TAKE YOUR DAMN RIGHT-OF-WAY.

Otherwise we end up stuck looking poignantly at each other and I have to guess what you’re going to do, and if I guess wrong I might get killed.

We all did Drivers’ Ed. You know if you have the right-of-way, and this knowledge simplifies the process and means you don’t have to think. So sure, glance at me to be sure I saw you; but then go.

Across right-wing media, the hateful word of choice these days is “groomer”—which wrongfully implies children are the targets of not just the LGBTQ+ community but of anyone seeking to educate around questions of gender identity and sexual orientation.

Today on #TheBigPicture, we tackle the critical task of unpacking this recent trend and propose a way to fight against this harmful rhetoric: https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/groomer-lgbtq-slur-fighting-back

You may have heard that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - the #IPCC - released a new #climate report.

Here’s the most important take home:

There are *still* so many feasible & effective opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions & adapt to #climatechange available right now.

Climate solutions will improve #food, energy & water security, benefit global health, promote equity, conserve biodiversity & boost the economy.
Read more: https://www.ipcc.ch/

I see people being deceived by this again and again: ChatGPT can NOT read content from URLs that you give it, but it will pretend that it can (and can be incredibly convincing when it does that)

Constantly debunking this feels like a Sisyphean task, but it's really important to spread this message any time you see anyone falling into this (very understandable) trap

https://simonwillison.net/2023/Mar/10/chatgpt-internet-access/

Excuse me, WiCyS is being hosted in Nashville next year? Where it's like not even safe for trans women to legally or physically exist? That's... um. It's a thing. I genuinely appreciate a lot of stuff they do, but I'm flummoxed.

TikTok: Look! I discovered hot water melts frozen food faster!

Twitter: Look at this TikTok video showing how to defrost your food faster!

Yahoo news: Millions of Twitter users view TikTok video showing new life hack for melting frozen food!

Mastodon: Please read my academic white paper describing the impacts of public school system underfunding

"In Defense of Studying 'Basket Weaving' at College" 🧺

An essay on why cultural subjects that get derided for being silly or frivolous (and, surprise surprise, are historically the province of women and indigenous groups) turn out to be intellectually fascinating, deep, and practical as hell

My essay, for Medium subscribers: https://clivethompson.medium.com/in-defense-of-studying-basket-weaving-at-college-a862792f3a85

A "friend" link in case you're not a Medium subscriber: https://clivethompson.medium.com/in-defense-of-studying-basket-weaving-at-college-a862792f3a85?sk=05da00e8ad388013630497ce92368ed8

The EU’s “chat control” legislation is the most alarming proposal I’ve ever read. Taken in context, it is essentially a design for the most powerful text and image-based mass surveillance system the free world has ever seen.

Excited today to have a great guest post from @riana about how Section 230 and the internet are actually important for food safety, and how undermining 230 could make us all less safe *physically* as well. https://www.techdirt.com/2023/03/09/another-casualty-if-section-230-gets-repealed-food-safety-data/

Yikers: A new paper on reconstructing images from brain activity. Better fasten your mind belts; we're in for a bumpy ride! https://sites.google.com/view/stablediffusion-with-brain/ #AI #ML