"It is easier to twist the arm of an ally than it is to twist the arm of an enemy!" - fake Trump wisdom, ca. 2025

Weekend playlist (newly released or discovered) artists in no particular order: Robert Randolph | Orianthi | The Kruse Brothers | Buddy Guy | Anyma | Devon Allman | Morgan Wade | 8 Ball Aitken | Sundial Aeon | Lazerpunk | Alison Goldfrapp | Halestorm | Ayşedeniz Gökçin | Three Days Grace | Lissie

Weekend playlist (newly released or discovered) artists in no particular order: Tash Sultana | Hinder | State Azure | Anna Lapwood | Taj Mahal & Keb' Mo' | Matt Schofield | Ben Granfelt | Colin James | John Philbrick/Steve Maggiora | Jimmy Barnes | Volbeat | Data Rebel | The Blues Company | The HU

Weekend playlist (newly released or discovered) artists in no particular order: SYML | H.E.A.T. | J. Karjalainen | Madis | Popa Chubby | Janiva Magness | Joe Bonamassa | Samantha Fish | Ally Venable | Ghost | Anthony Gomes | Brother Firetribe | VNV Nation | LukHash | Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings

Trump says Putin is crazy, but almost everything that Trump has done during his 2nd presidency has benefitted Russia, while he has done practically nothing (at least intentionally) to really pressure Russia. How crazy is it to believe that Trump is doing Putin's bidding?

Weekend playlist (newly released or discovered) artists in no particular order: Yotto | Dynazty | Cerrone | Edge of Paradise | Anssi Kela | Mostly Autumn | Joanne Shaw Taylor | Trikk & MEUTE | Dorothy | Gotthard | Kenny Wayne Sheppard & Bobby Rush | Maison Ware | Sophie Zelmani | Koan | Smith/Kotzen

The problem with Trump breaking all rules is not Trump, but the people who were willing to vote for him for president, the republican party continuing to enable his actions, and those funding it. Trump can be replaced but the party and voters can't, and restoring trust requires proper change.

An old tactic: you want to behave "badly", so you create a minor conflict (like an obviously bad deal), then when the other side reacts poorly to it, you fake disappointment and escalate further, which forces the others to react to it, allowing you to escalate further. One of Russia's favorites.

Weekend playlist (newly released or discovered) artists in no particular order: Tremonti | Ela Minus | The Night Flight Orchestra | Kemopetrol | Kim Wilde | Bonfire | Code 64 | Chronos | Tommy Castro | Vargas Blues Band | Days of Jupiter | Chris Harms | Victory | Tami Neilson | Fungus Funk

I never expected Donald Trump to do to USA what Dylan Mulvaney did to Bud Light, but I guess if you Trump around you Trump out.

The Trump administration is trying to divide alliances like the federated states, NATO, and EU. We need to remain strong and united against such attempts, including any break ups of current memberships, ignoring and resisting the dividing forces while continuing to build on a shared world. (1/8)

"You have the right to leave your country, but we don't have to accept you into ours" vs "You have the right to demand basic education from us, but we don't have to provide it" vs "We support all rights you may wish to have as long as it does not involve us" => Talk is cheap.

Weekend playlist (newly released or discovered) artists in no particular order: Röyksopp | Purple Disco Machine | Crossroad Overdrive | Dan Terminus | Tuxedo | Mono Inc | Lara Fabian | Thibault Cauvin | -M- | Dynatron | Kal David | Sutej Singh | Geoff Castellucci | Dave Stryker | Lacuna Coil

In the Terminator movie series, SkyNet was an AI that became self-aware, and retaliated against humans when they tried to shut it down. Humans have already developed advanced AIs capable of destroying humans even without self-awareness, AGI, or ASI.

If you've been wondering why everything seems so messed up, then this 15 year old quote by Edward O. Wilson might help: "The real problem of humanity is the following: we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and god-like technology." ...and the only thing improving is the tech.

Weekend playlist (newly released or discovered music) artists in no particular order: Voodoo Circle | Hania Rani | Kim Lenz and the Jaguars | Rival Sons | Status Quo | Black Label Society | Jazz Sabbath | Gwen Stefani | The Ferguson Rogers Process | Seba | Lonerider | Garbage | Albert Cummings

Holiday playlist (recently released Christmas albums) in no particular order: The Bamboos - Hot Christmas Joe Bonamassa - Lonely Christmas Eve Mindi Abair - I Can't Wait for Christmas Gabby Barrett - Carols and Candlelight Simone Kopmajer - Home for Christmas Home Free - Any Kind of Christmas

With the recent o3 AGI announcement we learn that a STEM grad can perform much better for a fraction of the cost of an AGI level AI. It's a bit like alchemists who tried to make gold: we now know how to do that, but there's no point in doing it (yet).

It is starting to look like humankind can not save humankind from humankind, so maybe we need a divine intervention to survive, or maybe a god-like alien. But why would god-like beings bother with humans? I guess we are wishing for another Jesus for Christmas.

Weekend playlist (newly released or discovered music) artists in no particular order: Olivia Dean | Terry Marshall and Friends | Dirty Loops | Savoy Brown | Blug/Granfelt/Engelien | Liliac | Camille & Julie Berthollet | Lars Leonhard | Kim Carnes | Eric Clapton | Blackburn Brothers | Vanessa Amorosi

Left-leaning governments tend to transfer money from the rich to the poor whereas right-leaning governments tend to squeeze money from the poor to the rich. Thus, eventually, leftists run out of rich to tax, and right wingers run out of poor to squeeze. Neither really works, yet both are needed.

Weekend playlist (newly released or discovered music) artists in no particular order: Ofra Haza, Heartwind, The Baseballs, Master Boot Record, Timecop1983, Issa, Jelly Roll, Kylie, Laid Back, Kaz Hawkins, Kings of Mercia, Blackberry Smoke, Warren Haynes, Dance With the Dead, Ray LaMontagne.

Statistically, in presidential elections, Trump has only won against female opponents.

Weekend playlist (newly released or discovered music) artists in no particular order: London Grammar, The Cold Stares, Millenium, The Rides, 3FORCE, Aavikko, Auratech, The Bluesbones, Jake E. Lee, Seether, Creye, Deadlife, Edge of Forever, Emphatic, '77, Find Me, Gary Hoey, Ronnie Baker Brooks.

Joker2: such an utterly useless, pointless, and boring mess, that while I was really hoping for it to end, I also feared the unavoidable Last Song. I hope it bombs so badly, that nobody will ever again hire these people to waste other people's time and money for their self-gratification projects.

Weekend playlist (newly released or discovered music) artists in no particular order: Menahan Street Band, Dominique Fils-Aime, Morgan Wade, Hanne Boel, Tycho, Bill Withers, Hypnolove, Jessi Frey, Lovebites, Tab Benoit, Duke Robillard, David Gilmour, Telepopmusik, Andreas Diehlmann Band

Weekend playlist (newly released or discovered music) artists in no particular order: Deadlife, Mitch Murder, Rameses B, Jared James Nichols, Joan Jett, Willie Hutch, Los Lonely Boys, Chris Cain, Hybrid, De-Phazz, Riopy, Yotto, Albert Castiglia, Luke Bryan, Tape Five, Phutureprimitive, Elles Bailey.

"Orpo sanoi, ettei kyseistä rasisminvastaista kampanjaa ollut varsinaisesti tarkoitettu puolueille – vaan suurille työyhteisöille, järjestöille, työpaikoille ja urheiluseuroille." Puolueet eivät ole järjestöjä? Mikä ihme erottaa puolueet noista "varsinaisista" kohteista? "Ei meille vaan muille"?

Here's a thought: nobody knows what Donald Trump looks like, but everybody knows what his "mask" looks like: a wig, fake eye brows, a completely fake tan. Similarly, we know his public, over exaggerated role that keeps repeating the same arguments over and over against everybody. A lousy AI robot?

The war in Ukraine caused a ~10% price hike over 2 years in Finland. Now inflation is back down to 1%, but interest rates are at 3-4%. As a reaction to the high inflation, salaries were raised by ~5%, which comes into effect now. "Real" economists say real income is now "record high". What?

Weekend playlist (newly released or discovered music) artists in no particular order: The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Henry Mancini, Lindsey Stirling, Hermanos Gutierrez, Chris Jones & Steve Baker, Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore, L'Imperatrice, Mary Spender, Deep Purple, Luke Combs, Johnny Blue Skies.

Weekend playlist (newly released or discovered music) artists in no particular order: Little Albert, Lenny Kravitz, Data Rebel, Rebekka Bakken, Max Lilja, Apocalyptica, S1gns of L1fe, Quinn Sullivan, Toronzo Cannon, Iris Hond, Hauser, Cactus, Meghan Trainor, Luca Stricagnoli.

If a SAFE superintelligent AI tells us that the way forward is pacifism, would we believe it? If a "free will" superintelligence decides that humans are the biggest threat to Earth, would we believe it? Want it? Accept it? Politicians regularly ignore the brightest humans, so why trust any AI?

Weekend playlist (newly released or discovered music) artists in no particular order: Rick Vito, Vargas Blues Band, Tribone, Judith Hill, Pye Corner Audio, Oli Brown, Mark Knopfler, Kenya Grace, The Mavericks, Sven-Ingvart Mikkelsen, Side Liner, Yuja Wang, Slash, Inger Marie Gundersen, Four Tops.

YLE uutinen kertoo peli-automaattien tuoton tulevan ihmisiltä, joilla ei olisi varaa hävitä. Pitänee paikkaansa, mutta luulenpa sen missaavan ytimen. Teoreettinen mahdollisuus paeta nykyisyyttä voittaa häviön, jolla ei ole merkitystä. Se on "parhaita" rationaalisia ratkaisuja toivottomuuteen.

Koulukiusaaminen ei lopu (vaan jatkaa pahenemistaan) niin kauan kuin siitä vastuussa olevilla aikuisilla ei ole todellista painetta ja mekanismeja puuttua tuloksellisesti havaittuihin ongelmiin. Samoin seurausten on oltava kiusaajille konkreettisia. (thread)

"Google search sucks due to the results not being useful any more". While Google may also be at fault, I'd argue that the search results seem to still point to "most relevant" web pages. It's just that the pages are now "search optimized" to sell instead of being informative. Search shit, find shit.

Life is a hard, meaningless struggle from day to day, but at least my government ______________________ . Pick one to fill in the blank a) cares b) saves c) tries d) survives e) represents me f) lets me vote g) fights for my rights h) is compensated for their efforts i) knows what they are doing

AGI (human level general intelligence) is an obvious but over-hyped research target. We already have human level intelligence readily available in bulk for a fraction of the cost. Expert jobs (lots of training, hard to scale, expensive) don't need AGI: domain specific AIs will do, right now.

YLE's discussion today frames the US student protests as pro-Palestine w/ footage supporting the topic. So what? Talking about why makes it easier to discredit support for terrorists while avoiding discussion on Israel's role. Can one be pro/anti for one side in a conflict and not the other?

Weekend playlist (newly released or discovered music) artists in no particular order: Kim Petras, Leah, Akudra, Secret Sisters, Haley Rheinhart, Kris Barras Band, Cedric Burnside, Paula Cole, The Midnight, Lara Fabian, Darkside, Renaud Garcia-Fons, Kiasmos, Sebastien Tellier, Yota, Suvi Teräsniska.

Why end peaceful protests violently using either armed forces or counter-protesters: - protest ends - raises the bar for future protests - stops discussion on protest topics - correct topics emerge - shows strong leadership - protesters move to other jurisdictions - rich people like it Win-Win-...

When peaceful protests in the US by students are disbanded by force, one has to wonder how the pesky lawyers at ICC will be dealt with. At least make sure to keep the windows closed. I'm guessing a smear campaign against both the organization and the workers to undermine credibility.

We now see why the problems in middle east have not been solved in the past 50 years: there is an aggressive country there operating without any fear of consequences. Peaceful protests against their actions are a "wrong way", and calling out their possible war crimes is "an anti-semitic hate crime".

Phew! As we all know, Ukraine is fighting for Europe's freedom, so thank god the americans continue to support Ukraine for our benefit! We'd be in huge trouble if they didn't. Or, maybe Ukraine is fighting for USA's freedom. So, who's the stupid one now, huh?

Why do some americans appear to be stupid? ... (yes, yes, obviously not most of them) ... and the answer is that they consistently choose to be free - free to remain disadvantaged instead of being forcefully protected by their government.Or, rather, remain childlike with as few rules as possible.

People in power do not seek knowledge or wisdom, they only seek leverage over others to maintain and increase their power. Nobody wants a machine to tell them that they are stupid and need to step aside.

A somewhat general consensus among people doing/following AI is that AGI will be reached within a year or few, which will lead to a completely new era for the humankind. That seems a bit weird as we've had very intelligent people throughout our history and they were all mostly ignored.

If people go to see Civil War expecting to see a movie about civil war in the United States, then they might be disappointed, as it is not really a movie about war at all. However, it is a great, but not very original movie that simply happens to use a fictional civil war in US as a backdrop. Enjoy!

Not a lot of pieces make you *think differently* about something like the internet, but this one, by @mariafarrell.bsky.social and @robin.berjon.com, really does.