tobychev @tobychev@qoto.org

Lessons, living with parents with dementia: when an app on their phone spontaneously changes it's icon, it's a fucking disaster.

Some Google engineer launched a feature that got them a promotion and now my mom can't use her phone anymore. Silicon Valley is incapable of imagining a user who isn't a 27 year old white man.

I had a look at the political programme of Robert F Kennedy Jr. It's an amazing mix of environmentalism, anti-plutocracy populism and vaccine denialism and science denial.

This is a toxic blend - but unfortunately I also think it's a vision of what a future mass environmental movement will probably actually look like - one that will be a mass movement motivated by rage and despair and hence messy and confused.

Finally, I want to stress that it is no defense whatsoever to say that the algorithm could be used simply as a preliminary screen to red-flag papers for additional scrutiny.

If one is going to propose machine-learning classifier to make instrumental decisions that affect careers and reputations, one must carefully and thoroughly consider issues of fairness and risks algorithmic harm that might arise.

The authors of this preprint don't even mention such issues.

This is devastating.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/17/us/texas-transgender-care-ban-children.html #transrightsarehumanrights

To paraphrase Sherlock Holmes

"Once you eliminate that which exceeds planetary boundaries, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the future."

The flash floods & landslides in Democratic Republic of Congo have killed almost 400 people. We sent a team to South Kivu’s Kalehe territory—the worst-affected area.

Some villages have been completely swept away by the floods, incl. houses & livestock.

Learn More 👉 https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/flash-floods-and-landslides-hit-eastern-democratic-republic-congo

I guess my conclusion here is that the good news is the British government isn't as dangerous as an actual fascist movement would be.

That what they represent is just two technocrats and one transphobe in a trenchcoat.

And that's why they are so weak they need to resort to heavy repression.

Companies responsible for just under half of global oil & gas production have individually announced plans or targets to reduce scope 1 and 2 emissions, “only a fraction” of which were sufficiently ambitious, according to the International Energy Agency.

“It’s hard to see much decarbonisation in the Global Decarbonization Alliance,” said Thomas Hale, director of the independent research group Net Zero Tracker, adding that any “credible” oil and gas COP initiative must address scope 3 emissions.

#COP28 team marshals #oilandgas industry alliance ahead of #climate summit

Goals outlined in initiating letter do not address most damaging #emissions

A new alliance of the oil and gas sector is being marshalled by the #COP28UAE team behind the UN climate summit in the #UnitedArabEmirates, but early outlines of its goals aimed at tackling #globalwarming do not include the bulk of emissions that arise from the use of #fossilfuels. https://www.ft.com/content/0d8b8b3e-7f5c-4e0b-8766-834cf01ca876

"Their concerns aren't as existentially serious as the idea of these things getting more intelligent than us and taking over." --Hinton in this clip. Their = @timnitGebru & co.

Algorithmic border wall & other surveillance is existentially serious to its targets.

Synthetic media creating non-consensual porn is existentially serious to its targets.

Automated decision systems denying social benefits are existentially serious to those left without necessary supports.

https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2023/05/02/the-lead-geoffrey-hinton.cnn

>>

Yes, #Overleaf, that happens when you change "pc" to "parsec".

#astronomy

Some nice work by colleagues at MPIA showing that a pupported z~7.4 quasar is, it seems, just an asteroid.
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/accb5b

#Astrodon #Astronomy #Astrophysics #EpochOfReionization #EoRQSO

The number of mass killing fatalities in the US through April, annualized, would represent about a 50% increase over 2022. Family-related mass killings are up around 100%.
#nowyouknow #massshooting #homicide #family #familyviolence

Regarding the latter, my own complaints are more along the line of the professor's who says “using Mastodon can feel like eating your vegetables”. But others experienced more serious drawbacks.

“On Twitter, it took me a little over two years to say something that got me a bunch of racist trolls in my DMs and mentions. On Mastodon, it took 48 hours ... There’s no wonder that we started calling Mastodon the homeowners’ association of social media”.

A reminder that we still need your support. The Russian authorities have designated Meduza as a “foreign agent,” blocked our website, shattered our crowdfunding inside Russia, banished our journalists, and, finally, outlawed us. https://support.meduza.io/en

Hi, I think we need even better ways to help new users.

Thousands are signing up every day, but many leave soon after because of confusion.

My idea is that we get behind a hashtag and make it a kind of decentralised helpdesk for new people. This is already happening and I want to add energy to this.

Which hashtag would be best to unite around?

If it happens, it could be another indication that while the Kremlin prizes elite stability (see the low number of cadre changes since 2/2022), it prefers avoiding even minimal risks. Uss has been regarded as an unpopular governor whose bid for a 2nd term might attract complications.

@Radical_EgoCom I am once again asking everyone to realize that composting is an option if you have dietary restrictions that prevent you from eating the rich.

Vad är det DN skriver egentligen??

"Den svenska avskyn för ryssen har djupa rötter. Ibland kan man undra varför – historiskt har Ryssland trots allt inte förorsakat Sverige så djupt lidande. Lars Linder läser Dick Harrisons nya bok om den väldiga och opålitliga grannen i öster."

Byt ut "ryssen" mot "juden". Funkar bra?

https://www.dn.se/kultur/den-larde-dick-harrison-har-haft-lite-for-brattom-i-fienden/

An interesting as subtle bias in our image generators: the American smile

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