AI has successfully trained me to distrust any image or video with an out-of-focus background

Check out the new Factually! episode with Cory Doctorow wherever you get podcasts: The Enshittification of Everything » Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t... » Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/3HeN... » YouTube: youtu.be/P1EKQidRooc

CHATGPT: I understand where you're coming from. You worked really hard to get here, and now it's time to enjoy the fruit of your labors. ISILDUR: So I should keep it? Elrond says I shouldn't CHATGPT: The ring is precious. Sometimes friends don't have your best interests at heart. ISILDUR: true

My test of any new AI video model is whether it can make an otter using wifi on an airplane Here is Sora 2 doing a nature documentary... 1980s music video... a thriller... 50s low budget SciFi film... a safety video.. a film noir... anime... 90s video game cutscene... a French arthouse film

Pythagorean Triple Square Day, as one man affectionately calls 9/16/25, is a day like no other this century.

An ‘ultracrepidarian’ (19th century) is one who loves to give their opinion, at length, on matters they know nothing about.

I am beginning to find it somewhat tedious that so many people seem to take pleasure in pointing out absurd and factually erroneous statements generated by LLMs as though it’s some sort of revelation.

Simpler times.

Sometimes I really wish we could go back to the days where people “… lead lives of quiet desperation.”

Something’s weird with my Bluesky account. My profile says I have 85 followers but I only have 14 and it shows ‘No Results' when I look at the list of followers. My Mutuals list also seems broken only showing me a few posts.

Out for a walk this afternoon. A turkey vulture stares me down, daring me to take their roadkill.

BREAKING: SpaceX Starship explodes during static fire test

Strangely, I’ve never seen any comment from AI industry leaders of when AI will finally replace CEOs. After all, they just sit around making decisions which sounds like a perfect task for AIs.

My sources and news outlets are reporting White House confirmation that Jared Isaacman is no longer going to head NASA. His nomination was inspired. His un-nomination is beyond stupid. He is - or would have been - a bright light at NASA. A true believer in the agency, its people, and its potential.

People who design hotel room interiors should be forced to live in their own creation with two large suitcases for a week.

Mark Carney deployed unbelievable levels of blandness in defence of Canada. Blandness like you've never seen.

This wave of right-wing politics is feeling really familiar… Check out the new Factually! episode with Mark Blyth wherever you get podcasts. » Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t... » Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/6apA... » YouTube: youtu.be/iScVfNWBmxk

Some very happy ice plant soaking up the noon sun.

Lilacs aren’t really suited for USDA hardiness zone 9b but one of the bushes came through.

"o3, You are a consultant hired by the Dark Lord, analyze the org chart of Mordor. How would you improve it for today's changing Middle Earth" o3 does some actual satire, ending with: “One Org to rule them all, One Org to find them, One Org to bring them all, And in the darkness, align them.”

Almost every line of this story would have been simply unbelievable a few months ago: —Pioneering cancer researcher; —*Arrested* at airport in Boston; —Now indefinite ICE detention in Louisiana; —"Crime": not declaring some frog-embryo samples for research. Read it. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

Meanwhile in China... Want a fairing ? only lightly used.... source: weibo user

When I was born, atmospheric CO2 was 318 ppm. It’s now 430 ppm, an increase of 35%, and still rising 3.75 ppm/year with no sign of deceleration.

On unintended side effect of the Great US-China Tariff War of 2025 will be US ports getting horribly backed up and cargo ships stuck waiting offshore while companies delay clearing in-transit shipments through customs in hopes the rates will drop.

It’s pretty clear that HAL 9000 from “2001: A Space Odyssey” isn’t an LLM since at one point it says "I'm sorry Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.”

I just learned that the entire press team at the FDA was fired last week. The *entire* press team. It's difficult to grasp how bizarre this is. To wrap my brain around the idea, I made a list of things the FDA is responsible for, and that reporters now have no one at the agency to ask about... 🧪🛟

This is really unfair to everyone who just voted for him for the racism.

I feel bad for Lesotho. All Trump did to calculate the tariff rate was imports ÷ exports ÷ 2. So a poor country of 2.2M that ranks 169th in per capita GDP and exports cloths, textiles, and diamonds to the US for $250M but only imports $2.5M gets hit with a 50% tariff.

Farewell Gaia! Incredibly successful mission, that has utterly transformed our knowledge of our home galaxy. www.cam.ac.uk/research/new...

If you follow modern China you will run across the phrase 差不多 (chàbùduō) which is often translated as "good enough” but really means more like “do the minimum amount of work necessary to pass”. Many people think AI is already outpacing humans but really it’s still pure ‘chabudo’.

China has a planetary exploration roadmap focused on extraterrestrial life: 2028: Tianwen-3 Mars sample return 2029: Tianwen-4 to Jupiter and Callisto 2033: Venus atmospheric sample return 2038: Mars Research Station for ISRU 2039: Probe to Neptune and Triton (DSEL/CNSA)

Rising global temperatures can influence the timing of events, such as when crops are ready to plant and harvest and when flowers and trees bloom. One example is the timing of the peak cherry tree blossom in Kyoto, Japan, where records stretch back to the ninth century — that’s over 1200 years.

I think I’ve already greatly exceeded my daily dose of stupidity and it’s only late afternoon.

Saturn has 128 newly-discovered moons. Here they are color-coded by their MPEC release. Orange: MPEC 2025 E153, Purple: MPEC 2025-E154, Green: MPEC 2025-E155.

Trump can remain irrational longer than the country can remain solvent.

It is sad that one of my favorite political bloggers, Kevin Drum, has passed after battling cancer for over a decade. He always searched and presented facts on issues when most just give their opinion. jabberwocking.com

It’s on days like today I think of the Thucydides Trap.

“Words, words, words” — Hamlet, Act III, Scene I.

I always SMH when I read a newspaper's description of Trump’s wholesale destruction of the gov’t as an earnest but misguided effort to get rid of waste, fraud, and abuse. Seriously they need to call it what it is — the complete dismantling of Roosevelt’s New Deal and Johnson’s Great Society.

1/ Most Russian recruits who arrive on the front lines are almost completely unaware of the nature of the war in Ukraine, say Russian warbloggers. They blame it on people's deliberate, conscious ignorance and say that it is exploited by commanders to throw unprepared men into assaults. ⬇️

The year is U.S.A. All words have been replaced with references to America. Only a few of us remember the old tongue. A patriotism enforcer approaches and asks "Lincoln 4th of July Delaware Columbus Apple Pie?" He's asking for proof of Prime Citizenship. This is bad. "Ch-cheese burger." I say.

Google didn't waste any time.

New rule. Never take my blood pressure _after_ reading the news.

It is sad day for the world when we see the end of Pax Americana and the rise of Imperium Americana.

Canada considers tariffs on US canned water

Bluesky could really differentiate itself from that other site by adding a second button along with the like (♡) button. I think a face palm (🤦) button would be very appropriate for the next 4 years.

I always come back to Wilhoit's Law from a Crooked Timber blog comment by Frank Wilhoit in 2018 — "Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect."

I’m old enough to remember when “the end justifies the means” was a negative statement.

I wonder why I still don't trust machine translation.