unexpected humor from linkedin:
🤣
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7008916993537961985/
@AmberWavesofFlame Also he banned ALL the accounts of the guy that was posting the information, not just the one that was posting it. Which is hard to account for.
@AmberWavesofFlame The thing is that he came in saying that anything that wasn't illegal would be allowed, because Freedom of Speech. Then when it impacted HIM he went back on that, without a hint of acknowledging that his initial promise was actually a bad idea and he was wrong.
(Also that information is still / already public. If we wants to do something about that, he has to talk to the FAA and Congress, not just ban some guy from Twitter.)
AI Art stuff; maybe a little light plagiarism
"The Mona Lisa" produces obvious (but much worse) variants, but that's definitely out of copyright...
@coleens_ That's not what I thought that song was about, I admit...
This cartoon hits hard.
It hits even harder when you notice the 2007 publication date in the lower right corner.
#climate #environment #nature #COP15 #COP27 #sustainability #PredatoryDelay
ICYMI ‘Gaslighting’ Is Merriam-Webster’s Word of Year
First def =“psychological manip of a person usually over extended period of time that causes victim 2 question validity of own thoughts, perception of reality, or memories & typically leads 2 confusion, loss of confidence & self-esteem, uncertainty of one’s emo or mental stability, & a dependency on perpetrator.”
2nd, defines “gaslighting” as “act or practice of grossly misleading someone espec 4 one’s own advantage.” https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/gaslighting-merriam-webster-word-of-the-year-180981203/
“A Treatise On Artificial Limbs” from 1899: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/treatise-on-artificial-limbs
The illustrations are quite amazing
Cat Harpists!
A cat playing a harp may not be the first image that comes to mind in cat employment, but "string plucking" is awfully close to "scratching the sofa" and the soft, mindful melodies of cats accompanying their pleas for treats can only please the ethereal animal spirit.
One job danger for the Cat Harpist is the tickling of the whiskers in the vibrating strings; alas, but that is a small price to pay for bringing joy to their lower tier human caretakers.
Riiiiiiiiight.
AI Art stuff; maybe a little light plagiarism
It has been brought to my attention :) that there are at least two phrases on which Midjourney (v4) is so overtrained that it would be hard to argue that the outputs aren't derivative works: "afghan girl" (which produces slight variations of the justly-famous Steve McCurry photo of Sharbat Gula) and "starry night" (which produces somewhat more varied variations of the van Gogh De sterrennacht).
The Midjourney folks have actually banned "afghan girl" (and even "afgan girl") as prompts; seems likely that this is to help prevent their users from using their system to do something that might be violating copyright.
I wonder if there are other phrases that produce something so famously linked to them that they are instantly recognizable. And if so, how many are still in copyright.
This has somewhat softened my prior opinion that the training set is so large that it will basically never reproduce a single image from it. I do still think it's pretty rare, and only in extremely famous cases that occur a ridiculous number of times in the set. But still!
When people ask for good books to help #decolonize their histories, I typically like to suggest Young Readers editions.
These take tough topics and make them a lot more accessible especially for non-readers.
This is also a great way to introduce these topics to the entire family.
https://paperbacksandfrybread.com/products/an-indigenous-peoples-history-of-the-united-states-for-young-people-revisioning-history-for-young-people-2-by-dunbar-ortiz-roxanne
#bookstodon #books #indigenous #amreading
Hello! Today’s #ArtAdventCalendar is a big 4ft high #acrylic on canvas depiction of the New Horizons spacecraft on the first ever flyby of Pluto and its moon, Charon. I painted this piece before there were any clear photos, so with the help of an astronomer pal, I guessed using what info I had. It was pretty close to accurate! This #painting hangs in my #art studio. #sciart #astronomy #science
A consciousness somehow associated with matter.
Posting about culture, philosophy, politics, AI Art Tools, NaNoWriMo, Software Development occasionally, the relationship of consciousness to matter.
Degrees in Philosophy and Computer Science, once had a US TS/SCI(redacted) clearance, radical-for-the-US politics, ex-Libertarian, zen-buddhist-pantheist-atheist.
Google employee, but I do not speak for Google in any way.
If your profile tells me nothing about you, it's less likely I'll follow you (back).
Header: abstract smoky patterns
pfp: Adorable weird piglet / delirium cultist... thing. In a hoodie.