Martin Ruskov @mapto@qoto.org
- Games
- https://mapto.itch.io
- Others (+fedi)
- https://linktr.ee/mapto
Studying how people interact, in the past (#CulturalAnalytics) and today (#EdTech #Crowdsourcing). Researcher at @IslabUnimi, University of Milan. Bulgarian activist for legal reform with @pravosadiezv. I use dedicated accounts for different languages.
My profile is searchable with https://www.tootfinder.ch/
Joined Nov 2022
Martin Ruskov
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Italia, the 10 2025 climate trends photograph a country that does not accelerate
This is what emerges from the Italy for Climate annual report, which, although growing, sees Italia lagging behind the European average
#ClimateChange #GlobalWarming #UpheavalClimate #ClimateInstability #ClimateDisruption #MassAtrocity #pollution #ecology #environment #climate
Martin Ruskov
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Built for a hostile internet: Canonical VP of Engineering on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS https://www.zdnet.com/article/built-for-a-hostile-internet-canonical-vp-of-engineering-on-ubuntu-26-04-lts/#ftag=COS-05-10aaa0j by @sjvn0001
Everything you wanted to know about Ubuntu #Linux 26.04 from the Canonical executive in charge of building it.
Martin Ruskov
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‘Take me to the EU court’ – Kövesi defends her ‘outstanding prosecutors’ https://www.euractiv.com/news/take-me-to-the-eu-court-kovesi-defends-her-outstanding-prosecutors/?utm_source=eac&utm_medium=mastodon&utm_campaign=%40euractiv%40masto.ai
Martin Ruskov
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No, baby boys aren’t “less social.” That’s just a stereotype.
Decades of research shows boys and girls are equally wired to connect from day one. But boys are nudged toward toughness over tenderness, given fewer chances to practice empathy and subtly discouraged against connection.
Martin Ruskov
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That same year [2016] the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence’s official journal StratCom, published a paper entitled ‘It’s Time to Embrace Memetic Warfare’.
The paper proposed methods by which to undermine ISIS: “systematically lure and entrap” recruiters; subvert its messaging via “fake ‘sockpuppet’ accounts” – online personas manufactured to simulate grassroots support or opposition – and “expose and harass people” within its funding network, “including their family members”.
To the editors of the NATO journal, these may have appeared as novel strategic prescriptions. In fact, they had already appeared – in a different context entirely.
Those tactics had been developed and deployed over years by a loose network of far-right organisations – funded, in part, by figures directly connected to Thiel.
And they resemble too much mechanics used by Russian propaganda throughout Europe and beyond.
Martin Ruskov
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@reiver agents seem to be cool. But they raise even harder sustainability questions:
1. They consume even more natural resources, because harnesses mean that the LLMs behind will fidget until they fit the answer to the task.
2. They continue to rely on ever larger models, which is the unsustainable part. Will we finally manage to switch to smaller specialized models? No signs in sight.
Sounds too much like the Kremlin:
"Around the same time, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles forced a meeting of Trump’s most trusted advisers. The problem: No one was being honest with the president about the domestic impact of the war.
Privately, Wiles had expressed fears that the inner circle’s rose-tinted retelling of the conflict would leave Trump oblivious to the political reality of the war, just months ahead of a contentious midterm season, reported Time magazine earlier this month."
https://newrepublic.com/post/209262/donald-trump-iran-war-plans-screaming-aides
"Among those monitored were a Palestinian academic invited to give a guest lecture at Manchester Metropolitan University and a pro-Gaza PhD student at the London School of Economics, according to internal documents.
In October 2024, the University of Bristol provided the firm with a list of student protest groups it wished to receive alerts about, an internal university email suggests. It included pro-Palestinian and animal rights activists.
In total, 12 universities paid the firm to monitor campus protest activity. Others include the University of Oxford, Imperial College London, University College London (UCL), King’s College London (KCL), the University of Sheffield, the University of Leicester, the University of Nottingham and Cardiff Metropolitan University."
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/20/uk-universities-pay-to-spy-on-students-social-media-accounts
Martin Ruskov
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If what we care about ultimately is equality — as suggested by your first post here — I would propose that our priority ought to be ensuring that no company can “corner the market” on learning. IP creators can forbid copying texts, but the things we learn from them are a collective inheritance.
“Someone who says ‘I’m against abortion but says I am in favor of the death penalty’ is not really pro-life,” Leo said. “Someone who says that ‘I’m against abortion, but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pope-leo-breaks-down-why-maga-is-not-really-pro-life_n_68dd802ae4b0c450ba64c434
Martin Ruskov
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R to @ERC_Research: Learn more about what you need to know before applying for an ERC grant in the 2027 competitions:
• Resubmission restrictions
• Application rules
• Eligibility windows for #ERCStG and #ERCCoG https://link.europa.eu/BjTmVt
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https://nitter.net/ERC_Research/status/2045062134799945758#m
One of the core problems of GenAI is that it's trained on junk data no one has ever read and reviewed. Once again we see that's a lesson not learned, because in their endless quest to more data for more-of-the-same models, GenAI companies have found a new source of mediocre training slop: work-related chats.
https://gizmodo.com/failed-companies-are-selling-old-slack-chats-and-email-archives-to-train-ai-2000747916
What are they thinking? Have they never participated in such conversations not to know that in the context of remote-first work, these are the equivalent of watercooler conversations? Noise is the norm there, and transformer models are supposed to filter this out? All this without considering the survivor bias of failed companies (nice pun).
Martin Ruskov
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Not everything you read online is true & AI is making it harder to tell what’s real.
Before you repost, check:
🔹who shared it
🔹the date and context
🔹if other trusted sources report the same story
Discover what the EU is doing against disinformation: http://link.europa.eu/wCp6NV
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https://nitter.net/DigitalEU/status/2044721713410371726#m
Martin Ruskov
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No greens, no liberals, no reds: Changing of the guard in Budapest is anything but a swing to the left https://www.euractiv.com/news/no-greens-no-liberals-no-reds-changing-of-the-guard-in-budapest-is-anything-but-a-swing-to-the-left/?utm_source=eac&utm_medium=mastodon&utm_campaign=%40euractiv%40masto.ai
As for environmental consequences, I'm afraid by now individual choices not to use it have a negligible impact.
Managing AI is as simple as that: Use it at your risk, and be transparent about it
Martin Ruskov
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People minimizing Orbán’s defeat in #Hungary through voting, and claiming that the same can’t be done to Donald Trump: Remember that Orbán was in power for SIXTEEN YEARS, that is, 2.5× LONGER than Trump. He had more than twice the time Trump has had to intimidate, corrupt, and destroy Hungary’s systems of voting. And yet, voting unseated him.
PLEASE do not preemptively give up on voting. Voting still works in the US, and it is quite likely that our voting infrastructure will far outlive Trump and his destructive party.
Authoritarians rely on a perceived popular mandate to continue their abuse. Voting can decisively deny them that mandate. Do not give up prematurely.
VOTE. VOTE. VOTE.
Martin Ruskov
boosted
@jeantranscene @reiver at least for me, this thing is the threadiverse. Whereas mastodon is centred around people, the threadiverse is centred around topics and interests. People are complex and have various interests. As a consequence, they don't emit a consistent signal on topics.
Long story short, try this search: https://lemmy.world/search
The mechanics behind this is that you can follow threadiverse communities from mastodon as you do with users.
It's mind boggling how US commentators, media or ordinary people, oversimplify what is happening in Hungary. A blank cheque was written to someone who was extremely secretive during his campaign. Probably the only confirmed fact was that his career is extremely tightly woven in Fidesz. We've seen many saviors like this in Eastern Europe. Yes, not Orban, but easily his proxy. Think Dimitry Medvedev if you need a famous example. Did he oust Putin?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/12/peter-magyar-hungary-next-leader-profile
This is the part that commentators need to understand down does not work when you're dealing with narcissists:
"Maybe you could have just asked your husband to get that done, Melania? I hear he’s pretty high up in politics."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/apr/11/melania-trump-epstein-lebanon-ireland
- Games
- https://mapto.itch.io
- Others (+fedi)
- https://linktr.ee/mapto
Studying how people interact, in the past (#CulturalAnalytics) and today (#EdTech #Crowdsourcing). Researcher at @IslabUnimi, University of Milan. Bulgarian activist for legal reform with @pravosadiezv. I use dedicated accounts for different languages.
My profile is searchable with https://www.tootfinder.ch/
Joined Nov 2022
