ABrockwell @aebrockwell@qoto.org

RE: https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/116189311117746551

#forkiverse denizens, this reminder about the wonders of RSS might have transformed my digital life today. So grateful for Cory Doctorow.

Manet's famous painting Un Bar aux Folies-Bergère never appealed to me. But now I realize its genius, and my spine tingles every time I see it.

The perspective looks all wrong. You're staring straight at this barmaid, but her reflection in the mirror is way off to right. Even worse, her reflection is facing a guy who doesn't appear in the main view!

But in 2000, a researcher showed this perspective is actually possible!!! To prove it, he did a photographic reconstruction of this scene. Check it out in my next post.

This blows my mind.

(1/3)

Can't wait to use and promote illegal operating systems that do not verify age.

Adulthood is realizing Superman comics aren’t fantasy about how good it would be to have power; they’re a fantasy about what it would be like if someone with power was good.

Not to sound alarmist, but consider a future where you *must* use #Windows 12 because switching to #Linux is "illegal" thanks to Age Verification nonsense.

It's clear the Corpos are literally trying to remove the ability for anyone to use compute without their gatekeeping. The time to fight that is now.

Dianna Cowern (aka Physics Girl on YouTube, and possibly @dianna) has been fighting COVID-induced ME/CFS since 2022. She just posted her first video in three years:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3m3AMRlYfc

You can learn more about her battle and amazing comeback here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqeIeIcDHD0

Are LLMs the last stage of people losing sight of the joys of being Human?
I can't get it. Everyone trying to push that shit every fucking day. Strangers, friends, all the fucking time. I have great joy and pride in using my brain. A lot of stuff takes time and frustration. And that's fine. Because when things finally work the joy is amazing. And I like and do shit this garbage doesn't reach and will never reach because it can't think, no matter how much everyone is trying to stick that idea.

Medical journal The Lancet blasts RFK Jr.’s health work as a failure
Kennedy's destruction "might take generations to repair," The Lancet said.
https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/03/medical-journal-the-lancet-blasts-rfk-jr-s-health-work-as-a-failure/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

@johnpaulflintoff @pluralistic You only use an AI summary if you don't really care about the answer. Which begs the question, why get an LLM to summarise anything?

If you need to make an informed decision about something, you need to read it and understand it yourself.

You run the risk of making decisions based on hallucinations, with potentially catastrophic consequences.

Here, in a nutshell, is why using AI for military purposes is worse than dangerous:

If you ask it for a plan to attack something, it will never respond "that's bad idea, don't do it."

Ok new rule, products of subsidiaries of nasty tech companies get referred to by the most disreputable name in the structure, not their branding.

They're not Waymo robotaxis. They're Google robotaxis.

It's not Whole Foods Market. It's Amazon Foods Market.

It's not Meta Glasses. It's Facebook Glasses.

Cover of the Feb 28, 2026 issue of The Lancet (one of the world's leading medical journals, published weekly since 1823) has this sentence as the main body of the page -

"The destruction that Kennedy has wrought in 1 year might take generations to repair, and there is little hope for US health and science while he remains at the helm."

Same could be said for science in general under trump.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue/vol407no10531/PIIS0140-6736(26)X2006-2#closeFullCover
Full editorial at https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(26)00414-9/fulltext
#UsPol #Health
1/n

We've been on X/Twitter for many years, but it's time to reduce our activity there and instead promote Mastodon as our main social media channel now. So we've done just that: https://x.com/LibreOffice/status/2026204949760131158 – Welcome to all our new followers here 😊

@dan
- "My dishwasher is on the internet!"
- "Why is on the internet?"
- "To download software updates!"
- "Why does it need software updates?"
- "To fix security vulnerabilities!"
- "Why would it have security vulnerabilities?"
- "Because it's on the internet!"

My feeling icky aside, my small community has been dealing with the kidnapping of a mom and three children by ICE. Early morning raid, mom and three children taken. The youngest is FIVE! The husband, American citizen born in Alaska, and the media was told they would be in a hotel in Anchorage...lie! They were put on a plane and deported. Mom was here legally after being granted asylum in 2023. Her crime? Missed a meeting in Jan. that she thought was in June. Attorney assured her all was well...it was not! Mom and 2 youngest are in Tijuana all alone. Oldest, 18, is in Anchorage jail for reasons unknown. No criminal history, hard working mom and member of our community. First time something like this has happened with children as young as 5. Here's the story...#FuckICE #NobodyIsSafe https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2026/02/20/rapid-deportation-case-may-signal-change-pace-alaska-immigration-proceedings/

Lmao.

I have a very clear opinion on AI chat agents in the hiring process. It's very short: this is the worst reputation damaging move a company can make.

The reason for using them often is: we don't have enough HR capacity to handle all applications and all questions candidates might have by people.

Let me translate that: we don't invest enough money in good HR folks and we don't care very much if this reduces candidates' experience with applying with us.
So you do have enough money to pay competitive salaries (at least I hope so), but you don't have 1/20th or less of a monthly salary of an HR partner to invest in a trustful relationship with a candidate.

Nicer concentration camps and more cordial Klansmen with badges is a dumb fucking argument and, if it is an argument you are making as an elected Democrat in the year 2026, you should resign exactly now and let any actual decent person do the job you have exhaustively proven you are fucking unqualified to do. https://bsky.app/profile/housedemocrats.bsky.social/post/3mer7sywmis2q

This whole "OpenClaw" thing has made me very angry and I wrote a bit about the why. It's not that "it's AI": It is the way that kind of project invalidates decades of work and care in free software. "AI" software isn't just careless, it is actively rejecting responsibility and care.

https://tante.cc/2026/02/14/diffusion-of-responsibility/