nonesuch_user @nonesuch_user@qoto.org

Last week, a Redditor fine-tuned an AI image model on the work of one illustrator, sparking a debate about the ethics of reproducing a living artist's style. I talked to that artist to see how she felt about it, and the person who made it. https://waxy.org/2022/11/invasive-diffusion-how-one-unwilling-illustrator-found-herself-turned-into-an-ai-model/

“Very fine people on both sides”

Elon Musk fired Twitter's entire staff in Brazil except a few salespeople.

Among those fired: "eight people who moderated content on the platform in order to catch posts that broke its rules against incitement to violence and misinformation."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/01/08/brazil-bolsanaro-twitter-facebook/

#Brazil

9,073,926 accounts
+490 in the last hour
+12,970 in the last day
+114,089 in the last week

Remember, there’s infrastructure, and then there’s Dutch infrastructure.

#Dutch #bridge #design #Netherlands

Inspired by the power of Trump's example, and egged on by some of Trump's propagandists, Brazilians mount their own assault on their own democracy and their own constitution

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/01/08/world/brazil-congress-protests-bolsonaro?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes

Putin's list of murder victims has been growing steadily.
https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/columns/ravi-shankar/2023/jan/08/the-sudden-russian-death-syndrome-2535020.html

It takes a keen eye to spot a microbe grazing on some viruses! Biologist John DeLong & his colleagues tagged the viruses with a fluorescent glow to see if anything was eating them.

Sure enough, it turns out that several different types of microbes appear to be snacking on viruses.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2215000120

#life #biology #ecology

Researchers have discovered the first known "virovore," an organism that feeds on viruses. Probably there are many others like it -- an entire, previously unknown food chain.
One day into 2023, and already things are going topsy turvy.
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/975344 #ecology #life

A presidential reward. Putin has appointed Moscow district judge Anastasia Loskutova to a spot on the city's main court. Her rulings sent Navalny to jail multiple times. http://publication.pravo.gov.ru/Document/View/0001202301040002?index=0

Common tactic in the evolution of vaccine misinformation: move the goalposts. It's clear vaccines are preventing serious illness & death, so blame those who are unvaccinated and seriously ill on vaccine "shedding" to unvaccinated, despite zero evidence or biological plausibility.

#joke

#film

#CyberdyneSystems

The most telling reporting I’ve seen on Musk’s acquisition of the bird site, this article concisely lays out his financial backers. Should prompt anybody to depart the platform. https://wapo.st/3Wpbzlg (gift article, no paywall).

"#Bakhmut, #Kreminna and other areas in Donbas, which now require maximum strength and concentration.

The situation there is difficult, painful.

The occupiers are expending all the resources available to them - and they are considerable resources - to squeeze out at least some advance.

And I thank all our people who stand in positions, stand strong and who still find opportunities not only not to lose anything, but also to knock out the occupiers, to "minus" them.

Glory to Ukraine!"

I feel like twitter was a bar where for some reason everyone had a knife and now I’m here looking around like “none of you have KNIVES, right??” and you’re all like “why would I have a knife, are you ok”