ceoln @ceoln@qoto.org

6,000-year-old settlement — full of tools and granite structures — found in France https://newsobserver.com/news/nation-world/world/article274788961.html #Archaeology #History #France #Corsica #histodons @histodons

"Within a few months, things turned very sour. Rousseau wrote hateful letters to Hume accusing him of having plotted for his disgrace and humiliation by way of petty torments." https://www.adamsmithworks.org/speakings/klein-hume-rousseau-affair
#History #Philosophy #histodons @histodons #philosopher

Source: https://twitter.com/adamsmithworks/status/1656329555517358082

"The obstacle is the path" - Zen saying

When they ask you
(and they will ask you)
why you still insist
on taking precautions
now that the emergency
has officially ended
reply by telling them
that you did not need
an emergency declaration
to make you believe
that we have an obligation
to try to protect one another.

The Fediverse is full of creative people. It is incredibly inspiring.
I love it so much!

You creators and dreamers and designers and artists and musicians and poets and beautiful souls.

Have a great weekend!
I love all of you!

Do these little things, and make life better for all of us! 😋

#bicycle #vegan #other #recycling

One of the many things I enjoy tremendously about Mastodon is the sheer mind-boggling variety of reactions to posts. If I post the sentence, "The dirt is very clumpy in my backyard today," people will discuss clumps, favorite backyards, climate change ... and then inevitably, somebody will eventually ask, "What is dirt?" I mean, it's not a bad question. Just not what I'd have expected.

Tonight I spoke at an AAPI event and mentioned America's history of anti-Asian discrimination—including the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Asiatic Exclusion League, & Koramatsu & Japanese Camps.

Afterwards an older gentlemen approached me and said, "Thank you for reminding everyone the US Govt locked Japanese Americans in camps. I know—because I was born in those camps. I carry that with me til this day."

I was left in awe. A reminder—this isn't ancient history folks. It's contemporary reality.

What should I dream about? I will abide by the results of this poll.

#StableDiffusion #AIArt #AIGenerated #AI #GenerativeAI #GenerativeArt

Three Onions #midjourney #AIArt

A scammer made about CA$13K selling AI-generated "leaks" of fake Frank Ocean tracks on Discord, as distinguishing between real and AI music becomes difficult (Joseph Cox/VICE)

https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3mn75/scammer-made-thousands-selling-leaked-frank-ocean-tracks-that-were-fake-ai-generated-the-line-steer-it
http://mediagazer.com/230512/p17#a230512p17

I've been kicking around pitching an idea for a course, tentatively titled “Introduction to Legal Writing for Public Consumption."

I'd like to marshal the fedihive mind and borrow the brains of folks much smarter and more experience than I -- does that sound like a law school course, or a journalism school course?

My experience of law school was that sort of writing wasn't even considered. Does that make this idea a feature or a bug?

#lawfedi #lawprofs #fediverse @law

Blender / Blender + Stablediffusion

I'd like to share another case for a good use of #stablediffusion technology, which can enhance and improve the workflow of creating a piece of art. To illustrate this, I'm presenting an artwork I created in #Blender, and two versions of it, one with more detail and texture added by AI using Stablediffusion.

they taught AI to speak like a corporate middle manager and think this means the AI is conscious instead of realizing that corporate middle managers arent

I've been reading the 2016 sci-fi book "Too Like the Lightning", by Ada Palmer -- and loving it so much! Honestly I was hooked by the *title page*, because it just jumped right into the world building with gusto. (The pic is a bit blurry, sorry. But take a look anyway!)

If folks post in public environments (e.g. Reddit), is it ethical to treat that as a data set for research?

The New York Times: F.D.A. Ends Ban on Blood Donations From Gay and Bisexual Men
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/11/health/fda-blood-donations-gay-bisexual-men.html