TheVargo

Centuries of Black Death misinformation started with a poem A 14th century trickster tale was misread as fact.

Health misinformation ain't new!

Centuries of Black Death misinformation started with a poem www.popsci.com/health/black...

"Centuries of Black Death misinformation started with a poem."

DC ‘Sandwich Guy’ Found Not Guilty After Defense Successfully Highlights Absurdity Of It All Jeanine Pirro tried to make an example of Sean Dunn. She ended up delivering a hero to Washington, D.C.

Jeanine Pirro tried to make an example of Sean Dunn.

She ended up delivering a hero to Washington, D.C.

www.huffpost.com/entry/dc-san...

This really hasn’t gotten enough attention this week.

@wired.com #ICE
www.wired.com/story/fbi-wa...

photo of a sign outside the door of the Oval Office, reading "The Oval Office" in gold bullshit script, made out of three sheets of paper

Close-up image of the same sign

[P] Found a higher-quality photo; IT *IS* TAPED UP SHEETS OF PAPER!

OpenAI in Danger After Authors Suing It Gain Access to Its Internal Slack Messages Authors and publishers, who are suing OpenAI, secured access to internal Slack messages and emails discussing the deletion of pirated books.

“authors & publishers who filed a lawsuit against the Sam Altman-led firm have secured access to internal Slack messages… discussing the mass deletion of a pirated books dataset… A NY district court ordered OpenAI to hand over the communications regarding data deletion”
futurism.com/artificial-i...

Screenshots of the following text: Statement on Educational Technologies and AI Agents The following statement of endorsement was drafted by the MLA Task Force on AI in Research and Teaching. The Executive Council approved it as an MLA statement in October 2025. Software, specifically learning management systems (LMSs), is as important to teaching and learning as physical classrooms and facilities. The recent and hasty integration of generative AI features into those systems is already redefining student and instructor relationships, evaluative standards, and instructional outcomes—with no compelling evidence that any of it is for the better. At the same time, so-called agentic browsers are becoming widely available to the public. These offer AI “agents” that can navigate LMSs and complete assignments without any student involvement. All of this is unfolding at a time when contractual arrangements between institutions and commercial vendors often lack transparency, with worrisome implications for data collection and student privacy.

Screenshots of the following text: The Modern Language Association therefore unequivocally 1. Advocates for full faculty and instructional involvement, including faculty of languages, literatures, and the humanities, at all levels of decision-making in the selection, procurement, and responsible implementation of instructional technology systems and software, including those incorporating AI.

The instructional mission cannot be fulfilled in the absence of faculty expertise, and this expertise extends not only to the “content” of the curriculum but also to the infrastructures and environments—virtual and otherwise—in which learning happens.
  2. Calls upon law- and policymakers, LMS vendors, and companies offering agent-based AI browsers to cooperate in order to prevent misuse and to ensure that academic institutions have the ability and option to block agentic AI when needed.

Without dedicated outside cooperation from lawmakers and technology providers, academic institutions may not have the technical capacity to do so on their own. If we do not act, we risk seeing the development of a fully automated loop in which assignments are generated by AI with the support of a learning management system, AI-generated content is submitted by an agentic AI on behalf of the student, and AI-driven metrics evaluate the work on behalf of the instructor.

Very proud to have worked on this statement of the Modern Language Association with @annamillsoer.bsky.social and other colleagues on the MLA’s task force on AI in Research and Teaching. It is a direct call for faculty input into Ed Tech decision-making, especially AI: www.mla.org/Resources/Ad... 🧵

Neglected to tag @modernlanguage.bsky.social !

International Space Station taken by a satellite also in orbit above it. The backdrop of the image is Earth's clouds as the image is looking down from above.

2nd Nov. 2025 marks the 25th anniversary of the ongoing human presence off-world.

That is, humans have continuously occupied the ISS for exactly 25 years today.

So if you're <= 24 years old, you've never lived in a world where humans were *only* terrestrial-based.

Image by HEO (from above!)

🔭🧪

Wait, but it’s still…<gulp>…October…

👍was looking for the same info so I figured I’d share.

www.abc27.com/news/top-sto...

IRS Estimates a $606 Billion Tax Gap for 2022 | Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget 2024-10-24-The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently published its p

Reminder: the $600 billion per year that the IRS doesn't collect in taxes owed is enough to pay for universal school meals (~$50 billion) and the child care /preschool (~$40 billion) and paid family leave (~$20 billion) provisions of build back better...six times over!

www.crfb.org/blogs/irs-es...

Signs the Frog Has Been Boiled A large pot sits in plain sight. There’s a frog in it. Every day, Leader announces his plans to boil the frog. His campaign slogan was “BOIL THAT F...

The frog is sweating.

The frog is informed that this is due to a natural variation in temperature.

“He’s clearly boiling the frog,” say the other frogs.

All books about frogs have vanished from the library.

Dear @philadelphiaeagles.bsky.social, instead of telling fans NOT to tailgate, did you consider sponsoring the express trains to the sports complex? Public transit benefits EVERYONE, including you. @septaphilly.bsky.social @septaphilly.bsky.social @phillies.com @phillies.bsky.social

The Less You Know About AI, the More You Are Likely to Use It AI can seem magical to those with low AI literacy, a new study finds. That, in turn, might make them more willing to try it.

So new studies showcase that the more you know how GenAi works, the less likely you are to use it! 😌

This reminds me of ai advocates who claim that those who refuse to use GenAi do so because they dont know how it works, yet it’s the opposite!
The less you know the more you are likely to use GenAi

The AI vibe shift is upon us | CNN Business Rather suddenly, there’s been a vibe shift around artificial intelligence, the tech that’s hypnotized Wall Street and inspired cultish devotion across Silicon Valley over the past three years.

“The bubble bursting was never going to be one event, but a series of sentiment shifts against technology that has never proven its worth outside of specious hype” @edzitron.com

Today I rewrote yesterday’s rewrite. I think I’m finally getting somewhere.

If only I’d stayed put.

Don’t you know how difficult it is to erase an entire novel?

We ran a randomized controlled trial to see how much AI coding tools speed up experienced open-source developers.

The results surprised us: Developers thought they were 20% faster with AI tools, but they were actually 19% slower when they had access to AI than when they didn't.

Looking over what #CoPilot did produce, I realized that it's factually incorrect. "Chapter 5 starts around page 32, but this is an estimate based on the assumption that each chapter is roughly 6 pages long." Your task was literally to find out how long each chapter was!!!

In today's #AIFail. Asked Copilot to generate a report from a Word document that included headings, page numbers, and the length of each section--basically a table of contents that also included the length of each section. Multiple attempts. No dice.

I’ve been finding it as a both/and situation. It’s creeping in from bottom up but also being employed (often without fanfare) into software.

Excuse Me, But Your Theme Park Is Actually a Motif Park I just had a tour of your newly renovated theme park. I hate to be that guy, but I just want to mention that, while you refer to your destination a...

"On the map we have a castle, a geodesic dome, a haunted house, and a Chinese pavilion with a dragon poking out of it. What thematic concept, in the abstract, are you going for? Amusement? Yes, but what about amusement are you saying?"

Sign saying the things we’ll never know: a science fair of cancelled grants (with fading ink toward the bottom)

I got to take a look, it was pretty cool (if depressing)

'I wanted to do something to fight back': New app lets users know when ICE agents are in their area The creator launched the platform, called ICEBlock, in early April after watching the Trump administration begin its immigration crackdown.

A new app lets you know when ICE agents are in your area.🧪

photo of two pages of the New York Times, Sunday June 22: left page is aerial photos accompanying the headline “U.S. Joins War Against Iran, Bombing Its Key Nuclear Facilities,” a NYT ad headed “Innovating new story formats,” and right page is an ad comprised of the front page of the latest print issue of the Onion, headlined: “Congress, Now More than Ever, Our National Needs Your Cowardice”

here’s what the onion’s full page spot is running next to this morning

Chaos- the world right Farmer farming- riders is just trying to finish their book

You know how tech support lines ask you to take a survey about the customer service? When do we get to start doing that for AI voice bots? Because right now, they’re all trash.

Trolley Problem Variations for Dads A trolley is about to run over five people, but your dad gets distracted by a nearby sports bar playing The Shawshank Redemption on one of their ou...

"A runaway trolley is speeding towards a railway switch. No people are on the track, but if your dad doesn't pull the lever, he will be mildly disappointed because dads love to pull levers."