it's jolting how little AI skepticism has reached the general public. i've had many acquaintances ask whether i use AI for research and seem shocked when i tell them it's completely useless for that purpose. my wife recently told her colleagues about hallucinations and it was news to all of them.

Image shows a red panda with white fluffy ears, red fur and a white snout against a green background. He looks pleased to meet you.

We are long overdue for some floofiness on this feed.

Red panda happy hour starts now.

Exactly this.

LLMs were created with no sense of ethics and thrown out with no sense of ethics, and HUGE SHOCKER, probably the most lucrative way to use it is literal automation of scams to get money from people by scaring and/or lying to them.

I wish more people were less gullible.

Replace “LLM” with “machine made by a giant corporation” and ask yourself if we want everyone in the world to filter everything they know through the giant corporation machine.

Good commentary on the recent "AI"-related troubles of this year's Worldcon. It remains a general rule that you should not trust Large Language Models to produce accurate information. They're not designed to produce accurate information. They're designed to produce statistically probable sentences.

Trump’s NIH Axed Research Grants Even After a Judge Blocked the Cuts, Internal Records Show A lawsuit led by the Washington state attorney general offers an unprecedented view of the termination of more than 600 NIH grants, including transgender research grants threatened by Trump’s executiv...

NEW: Whistleblower records show that the NIH axed research grants – even after a federal judge blocked the cuts with an injunction.

www.propublica.org/article/trum...

🧵

We now leave navigation to our phones. The result: more of us are getting hopelessly lost | John Harris The blue dot of GPS has cut us off from a basic human skill. It’s no wonder mountain rescuers are being called out so often, asks Guardian columnist John Harris

We now leave navigation to our phones. The result: more of us are getting hopelessly lost | John Harris

This.

We are going to be picked apart by AI bureaucracy.

10 Years of Telling Your Stories. 10 Years of Unicorn Riot. - UNICORN RIOT For over a decade, Unicorn Riot has been on the frontlines of social and environmental movements covering stories that are often ignored in mainstream discourse, including alternatives to conventional...

For 10 years, Unicorn Riot has been on the frontlines covering social & environmental movements often ignored by legacy news.

Help us continue providing an unfiltered, nonprofit platform for diverse communities, storytellers & media makers.

Donate here: unicornriot.ninja/10years/

Reminder that you can request to have your data deleted and exercise your rights to not have your data sold. Their request page is here www.clearview.ai/privacy-and-...

EFF Border Search Pocket Guide border-pocket-guide-2.pdf

If you're critical of the US government and you are planning to cross the US border any time soon, today is a good day to review EFF's border search pocket guide: www.eff.org/document/eff...

Louder, for the people in the back who think mask bans are a good idea.

Do call it Musk's DOGE or Musk's project, as naming Musk drops the favorability rating by 13 points Don't call it the Department of Government Efficiency or even "DOGE," government efficiency sounds likea. good thing and DOGE has less name recognition

Important messaging research out of Navigator:

Always call it "Musk's DOGE"

For John Green, Tuberculosis Is More Than A Disease | Atmos The bestselling author says our inability to fix solvable crises is an indictment of our empathy and shared humanity.

It's true: Tuberculosis is more than a disease. It's a form and expression of injustice. atmos.earth/for-john-gre...

YouTube video by Amanpour and Company “Everything Is Tuberculosis” John Green on Funding Cuts & the Fight to End TB | Amanpour and Company

Recent chat with @johngreensbluesky.bsky.social about his latest book #EverythingIsTuberculosis.
As we withdraw USAID efforts to fight this disease (that already kills >1mm every year) there’s a higher chance of more drug resistant strains developing.

youtu.be/4cVd0p9ACuc?...

The October Story That Outlined Exactly What the Trump Administration Would Do to the Federal Bureaucracy Historians have hindsight when they look into the past; journalists have the facts on the ground and context to help them look ahead. That means we can sometimes be surprised by how prescient a story…

An October 2024 story about Russell Vought captured the breadth and ferocity of the coming attack on the federal government.

So why didn’t this story drive more of a national conversation when it appeared?

IRS nears deal with Ice to share data of undocumented immigrants – report Immigration officials could give names and addresses, raising concerns about abuse of power by Trump administration The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is reportedly nearing a deal to allow immigration officials to use tax data to support Donald Trump’s deportation agenda, according to reports by the Washington Post. Under the proposed data-sharing agreement, said to have been in negotiations for weeks, Immigration And Customs Enforcement (Ice) could hand over the names and addresses of undocumented immigrants to the IRS, raising concerns about abuse of power from the Trump administration and the erosion of privacy rights. Continue reading...

IRS nears deal with Ice to share data of undocumented immigrants – report

Give to Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies | Giving Day I’m ready to support Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies on March 5, 2025 during Giving Day. Learn more about Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Do you hate the state of the world? Do you want to take 5 minutes to do something about it?
You can support the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies as part of the University of Maryland's Giving Day campaign!

givingday.umd.edu/campaigns/wo...

Appointed in 2002, Weintraub has been a vocal advocate for stronger campaign finance enforcement, transparency, and combating foreign election influence.

Ellen Weintraub, chair of the Federal Election Commission, announced that President Trump sent her a letter declaring her immediate removal. However, Weintraub rejected the action, stating it was not legally valid.

We each have ways to resist.
One way you can is to make six calls a day. Short/sweet. R outnumber D calls at least 4 to 1. Even if you hate making phone calls, the person on the other end can't tell. Their job is just to take notes.
Scripts available here. chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions.substack.com

If you are a federal employee or contactor do not directly share any emails or messages without checking for hidden characters or retyping or using a photo with stripped metadata

USAID.gov is down. Why is this concerning? Trump has no legal authority to eliminate a congressionally funded independent agency. The work of USAID is vital, and if this can happen to them, it can happen to any of us.

Note to OPM staff: Personal items cannot be searched. If any attempt is made, demand legal representation. Personal devices you own are off-limits to these staffers. Also, do not leave personal items in the office overnight. Stay alert and cautious.

At OPM, Musk’s staffers won’t leave—they work around the clock and have even installed sofa beds in the office. Our access to data systems has been restricted, raising serious concerns about cybersecurity and a complete lack of oversight. We are keeping our heads down and documenting everything.

Elon Musk and SpaceX Face Federal Reviews After Violations of Security Reporting Rules Federal agencies have opened at least three reviews into whether the company and its leader complied with disclosure protocols intended to protect state secrets, people with knowledge of the matter sa...

Just a reminder that Musk couldn’t get a top level security clearance. And he was under investigation for violating the terms of the clearance he did have. Now he has your Social Security number, your tax returns, and is unilaterally deciding who the government does and does not pay.

Let's make this happen asap

A high school friend of mine started with small things right after 2016 and is now an alderperson here in Chicago. Scarleteen started with answering one email for one teenager and now provides sex ed to millions of young people a year for free. Small things are how big things start!