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Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your weary 'net denizen"):
meg@fediscience.org ("Megan ⚘") wrote:

I finally watched the documentary "Ghost in the Machine." It is depressing, but essential for everyone to see. I was aware of most of the sordid history in tech because my circuitous career (from genetics to machine learning and everything in between) continuously clashed with its eugenics underbelly. It sickened me then as much as it does now and is probably why I became an activist scientist. The one positive message is that we have defeated this before and can do it again.

https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/ghost-in-the-machine/

#Film #Tech

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Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
donaldham@mstdn.social ("Donald Ham 🏳️‍🌈 🐱🏋️‍♂️") wrote:

RE: https://c.im/@cdarwin/117368389650768955

Nobel winner Paul Krugman, one of the signers, alerted his followers to the most important aspect of the billionaire tax a few months ago.

It's a tax on wealth, not income, and would be one of the world's first, a precedent that could spread and make them pay up worldwide. Thats why they're in such a panic.

Be sure to vote "yes" on 40, and "no" on 41 and 42, red herrings designed to neutralize 40.

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Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
Colarusso ("David Colarusso") wrote:

When Zork was released under an MIT License, I bet no one thought an LLM would be used to port it to a language used by law students to make HTML-based interactive flowcharts, yet here we are. Enjoy!

https://www.qnamarkup.net/i/?source=https://www.qnamarkup.org/templates/zork%5Fqna.txt

Note: QnA Markup celebrates its 12th birthday in November. 🎂

Screenshot of a retro Zork text-adventure interface with glowing green monospace text on black. “ZORK I: The Great Underground Empire” describes an open field west of a white house with a boarded front door and a small mailbox. Five large dark-green command buttons read “open mailbox,” “open door,” “take mailbox,” “xyzzy,” and “inventory.”

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Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
Miro_Collas@masto.ai ("Miro Collas") wrote:

Brazil attorney general says meddling ‘cannot be tolerated’ after Trump funding plans revealed | Brazil | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/01/brazil-attorney-general-election-meddling-trump-funding-plans

"Brazil’s attorney general has said foreign meddling in his country’s institutions and democracy “cannot be tolerated” after a Guardian report revealed how the Trump administration was pushing to direct funds to a campaign against the Brazilian supreme court."

#Brazil #USA #RightWing

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Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
Miro_Collas@masto.ai ("Miro Collas") wrote:

Hegseth puts the future of warfare in the hands of major Maga donors | Trump administration | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/01/hegseth-musk-warfare-taskforce

"Installing tech billionaires Elon Musk and Palmer Luckey to Pentagon defense board raises conflict of interest concerns"

#USA #DOD #Corruption #RightWing

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Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
mondoweiss@social.mondoweiss.net ("Mondoweiss 🇵🇸") wrote:

Israeli courts put on a show of indicting criminals who kill and maim Palestinians, but the final verdict — a presidential pardon and a hero's welcome — is already predetermined.

https://mondoweiss.net/2026/09/the-pardon-of-elor-azaria-killing-maiming-and-culpability-in-the-israeli-law/

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Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
MaryAustinBooks@mstdn.social ("Scary Austin") wrote:

It is International Raccoon Appreciation Day. This is from Ranger Rick Magazine, which I grew up with. 🥹 It delights me to know it's still in circulation, teaching kids about wildlife.

#raccoons #WildLife

Nobody will remember: -How clean your car was -How "caught up" you were -How many emails you answered -Whether the food container lids matched People will remember: -How much you loved raccoons -How many raccoon facts you knew -If you ever stopped everything to watch a raccoon -If a raccoon showed u in your mailbox every month There is a picture of a trash panda at the bottom. The mascot of Ranger Rick Magazine is a raccoon dressed as a park ranger.

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Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
JohnAutry@mindly.social ("John Autry") wrote:

#LizaDonnelly 9/30/2026

Liza Donnelly 9/30/2026

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Boosted by ireneista@irenes.space ("Irenes (many)"):
weaver@soylent.green ("ɹǝʌɐǝʍ") wrote:

I want all computer touchers, starting with everyone in infosec, to spend an hour once a month with a 70+ yo person helping them re-login to their healthcare, banking, email, and landlord’s apps, along with the inevitable side quest of recovering their primary icloud/android account

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Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
CatsOfYore ("Cats of Yore") wrote:

Snack snatcher from my collection, 1963. The back says “Fluffel, the well fed cat. In our trailer in Cozy Trailer Park, Edison, NJ (he is 6 mo. old).”

Black and white photo of a shorthaired white and tabby cat standing on a seat with its front paws on a dining table, leaning forward as if about to snatch a bit of sandwich on a plate in front of it on the table.

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Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
stilgherrian@eigenmagic.net ("Stilgherrian") wrote:

Voting is open in the 2026 ABC Australian Insect of the Year. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-02/2026-australian-insect-of-the-year-vote/107098520

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fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻 ✍️ 🥐 🇵🇷") wrote:

"It’s also why purportedly well-meaning liberals have demonized us online and on cable news for voting against our interests. It’s why they’re comfortable making jokes about the deportations of our loved ones. We apparently need to be taught a lesson, and they claim to have the answers."

What's worse, narrative that justified Latino demonization by the left turned out to be a lie. The exit polls were way off. Yet we're being scapegoated for the 2024 election to this day

https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/stop-chiding-latino-voters/

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Boosted by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻 ✍️ 🥐 🇵🇷"):
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻 ✍️ 🥐 🇵🇷") wrote:

To all my open web folks! We know that today's AI summaries are pretty unsophisticated. If Jane Doe were to be doxxed, a small but dedicated group of people could muck up the channels in which that info is being spread with incorrect info.

Obviously not suggesting anyone do that since it would be against platforms' TOS, just pointing out that it could be done.

#cornell

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Boosted by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻 ✍️ 🥐 🇵🇷"):
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻 ✍️ 🥐 🇵🇷") wrote:

To all my Wikipedians! In a scenario where Jane Doe were to be identified/doxxed, is it possible to keep that name off Wikipedia?

#cornell

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glyph ("Glyph") wrote:

@jonny @aeva yeah and to echo aeva, thanks for writing all that. I appreciate the perspective

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jonny@neuromatch.social ("jonny (nonvenomous)") wrote:

@glyph @aeva yeah, i'm not saying these are things they always do correctly, but these are defensible uses where i have found net-positive usefulness in them - in no small part because i am capable of evaluating the output.

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glyph ("Glyph") wrote:

@jonny @aeva now granted some of that danger is in the harness or in the current product design, but this still doesn’t compensate for all the times that you will ask them to do a basic translation task like this for you and get a massively time-wasting error out.

so this might be the same thing you’re saying with your distinction, but I cannot see these as things the models are “useful for”

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glyph ("Glyph") wrote:

@jonny @aeva so this is all stuff that the models can “sometimes do” and the fact that it ever works is legitimately impressive, but every single one of these tasks is something that I, personally, have seen them screw up at, in ways which are potentially dangerous, even in my _extremely_ limited usage. not to mention that this is only safely usable by someone who *does* know what correct cron syntax looks like.

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dysfun@treehouse.systems ("gaytabase") wrote:

who called it a round staircase when stircase was right there?

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dysfun@treehouse.systems ("gaytabase") wrote:

rice wool

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Boosted by glyph ("Glyph"):
aeva@mastodon.gamedev.place wrote:

@jonny i ask because people keep saying stuff to the effect of "now we all have to agree that it's useful and worth burning everything down for, but" as if i'm meant to understand *what* it is useful for and solemnly hang my head in agreement that they've got a point, but everything i see it getting used for is completely horrific and i haven't a god damn idea why people keep saying this and i feel like i'm taking crazy pills

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Boosted by brennan@social.lol ("Brennan Kenneth Brown 👻 BOO!"):
girlonthenet ("Girl on the Net") wrote:

‘if I were there in that room, I’d have stopped it.’

‘if I were there in that group chat, I’d have said something.’

You're here now. What are you doing?

A blog post about Cornell.

https://www.girlonthenet.com/blog/cornell/

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dysfun@treehouse.systems ("gaytabase") wrote:

braillescale

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Boosted by jwz:
alice@lgbtqia.space ("🅰🅻🅸🅲🅴 (🌈🦄)") wrote:

I hear billionaires are full of the stuff.

A billboard featuring a blonde child, presumably named Sophie, with the caption "Right now, the need for blood is rising."

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dysfun@treehouse.systems ("gaytabase") wrote:

abelian goops

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Boosted by jwz:
depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy ("depths of wikipedia") wrote:

i can't believe this is a legit and not-vandalized page

[President (also commonly called Asshole,1 Scum,1 or Capitalism1)]4

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dysfun@treehouse.systems ("gaytabase") wrote:

i have discovered a miraculous proof.

this margin is too small to contain the prompt.

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jwz wrote:

Seasons Greetings from Tall Slut No Panties!

Krysten Ritter on the hellsite:
https://jwz.org/b/ylAq

Screenshot

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fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻 ✍️ 🥐 🇵🇷") wrote:

"The Cornell police allegedly did not include a student’s account of being drugged and sexually assaulted by seven members of the campus’ Chi Phi fraternity in October 2024 after giving an hourslong interview to them."

Defund the police.

https://www.newsnationnow.com/crime/cornell-police-omitted-rape-allegations/

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Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your weary 'net denizen"):
mediaarchaeologylab@post.lurk.org ("media archaeology lab") wrote:

Our new zine is here!

It's titled 'How to Spend Ten Years Repairing a Computer and Why You Should Too' - and we'd like to send out some free copies.

First 50 emails with the subject line "Zine, please" to mediaarchaeology+zine@proton.me will get a copy (U.S. only, sorry folks, trying to keep our postage costs under control).

You can also find a print-ready version of the zine at https://archive.org/details/lisazine

4 copies of How to Spend Ten Years Repairing a Computer and Why You Should Too