!Bob

😕

So, just to recap, we have two random DOGE bros with basically no knowledge or experience in the humanities (and at least one of whom is a college dropout), who just went around terminating grants that had gone through a full grant application process by feeding in a list of culture war grievance terms, selecting out the grant titles based on the appearance of seemingly “woke” words, then asking ChatGPT “yo, tell me this is DEI” and then sending termination emails the next day from a private server and forging the director’s signature. This is what “government efficiency” looks like in practice: two guys with zero relevant experience, a keyword list built on culture war grievances, and a chatbot confidently spitting out 120-character verdicts on federal grants that went through actual review processes. The experts who might have explained what these grants actually do? Locked out. The director whose signature appeared on termination letters? Couldn’t tell you which grants got cut or w

Ever wondered how your grant got cancelled? No we know. Some college dropout asked ChatGPT "is it DEI/woke"?

www.techdirt.com/202...

That made me think of this excellent cover:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QX5...

Yeah, search engine optimization/manipulation has been a thing for a long time, but this version where people just trust what the plagiarism bot says without any further verification makes this extra effective.

YouTube video by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Rep. James Talarico On Confronting Christian Nationalism, And Strange Days In The Texas Legislature

I saw a great quote decades ago, don't remember where and can't quote it directly, but it basically said that the Internet treats censorship just like a network outage and routes around it.

You can watch the interview the FCC didn't want you to see here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiTJ...

Hey, it makes a lot of sense that you would be worried about icebergs on this vessel's maiden voyage — I get it.

I just double-checked the charts and this route is definitely iceberg free. But even if it wasn't, remember that the Titanic isn't just a boat; it's a modern, unsinkable cruise ship.

That's a powerful cartoon.

The sheer sociopathy required to see a bunch of evil shit going down in the world and think "perfect, I am gonna do *my* evil shit while everyone is too distracted to stop me" is just staggering.

Get off Meta. Facebook, Insta, Whatsapp, all of it.

These moments are really one of the funniest things that can happen on social media.

A photo of gallup

Gallup will no longer measure presidential approval after 88 years thehill.com/homenews/med...

Just had the quietest day of my life on a ski slope. Wiped out on one of my runs and didn't see anyone in the 10-15 minutes that it took me to get myself back together. Lift attendants were laughing that I was the last person they saw, etc.

Apparently there's a football game today?

GM: Charisma check.

Mamdani: [rolls natural 20]

GM: that’s a d6 how did you

Mamdani: [direct to camera] Did you know you can check out board games at your local public library? 😊

Just "finished" the first run through Black Myth: Wukong and it's one of the most beautiful games I've ever played. Just visually stunning from start to finish.

Gotta go collect all the achievements now, but jeez, so pretty, such good story telling, characters, landscapes, art, etc.

Ian McKellen performs “The Strangers’ Case” speech from “Sir Thomas More” on Colbert.

It's so good.

We gotta come up with a better system than “everything rests on whether these twelve billionnaires are nice”

The problem is helicopter fuel is just soooo expensive these days.

I love rat purse. Quick sketch and a little bit of watercolor.

Yay!
Love the leaves.

They're both super cool lookin blades.

Also, Phobia's "dire need" art is adorbs.

They really are the best pickles

Repression almost never announces itself by targeting everyone at once. It begins quietly, aimed at minorities, those with less power, fewer allies, or voices that are easier to ignore. Their rights are restricted, their freedoms narrowed, and their suffering dismissed as exceptional or deserved.

Congratulations!

I guess you didn't say you were going to share it, just that you'd have it.

*mashes f5 repeatedly*

The Suicide Pact: What Happens the Moment We Touch Greenland… Guest Post by Brent Molnar

While this points out important and horrific outcomes, I think it'd be more effective at convincing the one person who needs to see it if it was just a list of his overseas properties that will be seized on day one.

There's only one person he actually cares about.

I think that an underreported reason for why "<insert group here> has low AI adoption" is that many people do not have the luxury to be able to trade time for accuracy.

It's hard enough for women and minorities to succeed in STEM careers. We don't have the same luxury to be forgiven for mistakes

When I put this up yesterday I was told off for not including an image of me eating a big meringue - and so

Beautifully animated. Well made. Worth the watch.

It's important to take breaks from the doom scrolling, and the bike ride I just took in the snow to go retrieve breakfast burritos for the family?

It was exactly the kind of break I needed.

I hadn't ridden on ice and snow before, it was a lot less sketchy than I expected.