David Weinberger

In a study of 22.7 million vaccinated & 5.9 million unvaxxed, the vaxxed had 74% lower risk of death from severe COVID-19 and no increased risk of death 45 months later.

Me: Obvious hoax. I'm gonna need to see all their birth certificates first.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

PS: Fuck RFK,jr

LPT: Any shoe worn long enough turns into a slipper.

From shortcuts to sabotage: natural emergent misalignment from reward hacking Anthropic is an AI safety and research company that's working to build reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems.

Fascinating exploration of machine learning "reward hacking": The ML not only learns how to appear to be accomplishing its task, but generalizes this more broadly. Makes me want to say, as in Jurassic Park, "Clehvah gurl." Hats off to @Anthropicfor the research www.anthropic.com/research/eme...

Clothing catalog lists "Men's Comfort Sliup On Boat Shoes"

Why would anyone want to buy shoes for slipping on boats? Weird category.

Klimt Painting Becomes the Most Expensive Work of Modern Art at $236.4 Million At Sotheby’s first sale in its new headquarters, it became the priciest work of modern art ever sold at auction.

A painting by Klimt has at auction sold for $236.4 million.

Ah, a quarter billion dollars so the painting can be enjoyed by one person and their invited guests.

Why isn't this considered for-profit looting of our culture?

www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

a man in a tuxedo is sitting in front of a window and says `` capeesh '' . Alt: Marlon Brando as the Godfather is saying "capeesh."

Thank you! That's great to hear.

And just by the way, wouldn't it be a shame if something were to happen to those other two...? :)

😇

Hi, Seb. Good to hear from you. Honestly, I have to check with publisher about how much I can say since it doesn't come out until NEXT OCTOBER. Sigh.

I just sent to MIT Press a book ready for copy-editing. Been working on it for 4 years, full time for 3, and obsessively for 6 months. First time I haven't had something pushing aside all other duties. (Exception: grandkids.)

I'm going outside to rake some leaves! (I hear it's autumn already!)

Title of MIT Tech Review article: What is the chance your plane will be hit by space debris?

Articles I'm Not Going to Read Past the Headline

www.technologyreview.com/2025/11/17/1...

Who's a good Ai! Who's a good Ai!
[Gives Claude a treat]

Pope Leo offers his strongest criticism of Trump yet The Pope, who is American, called for "deep reflection" on how migrants are treated, and spoke against US bombing of Venezuelan vessels.

Could someone please goad #Trump into saying that he should be #Pope?

www.bbc.com/news/article...

A discombobulated clock. The numbers are out of position and only have 1,3,4,5,7,8. The minute and hour hands are anchored at 3 and are drawn outside of the clock. The second hand is randomly anchored in the clock and also extends into space. This is when the time was 9:32

Tired of unambitious clocks that change the position of their hands but nothing else? Welcome to AI World Clocks: 9 clocks from 9 different models, updated per minute.

clocks.brianmoore.com

Now do lawnmowers!!

Donald T#rump is the best proof that we're living in a simulation. From the name "Trump", to it actually being "Drumpf", to the self-applied orange skin, to the gold-plated everything, to the billionaire's hamberders, to the MTV cartoon sons. It's not a coincidence. It's a sign from our overlords.

Supreme Court denies request to revisit same-sex marriage decision" - NY Times

Thank Heaven!!! (I hear all love counts there.)

I feel like a weight's been lifted.

Global Voices · Local perspectives for a global audience Global Voices is an international, multilingual community of writers, translators, academics, and digital rights activists.

Please consider making a donation to GlobalVoices.org, a voice from the early Web days when we thought at last the world had a way to hear all its voices.

ChatGPT is oriented in space worse than I am. And that’s saying something. The full transcript

I had a fun interchange with #chatGPT to determine the eastern most head on Mt. Rushmore. The #AI kept explaining why its wrong answer was right. When #Gemini finally convinced it, ChatGPT lied about learning from its mistakes.
dweinberger.medium.com/chatgpt-is-o...

BREAKING NEWS: Trump to tear down Mt. Rushmore's east wing. Lincoln to be replaced by the head of the highest bidder to honor America's Art of the Deal.

Shouldn't have laughed. Laughed. Could I *be* more ashamed?

The Mac's new UI design makes me I feel like I'm using a toy computer designed for kiddies. Is that so bad?

Yes, it is.

"Hitler, Stalin, Trotsky and Freud all lived within a short walk of each other in Vienna"

What would be the title of the one act play set in a Viennese café based on this fact?

via @mathewingram.com
newsletter.mathewingram.com/why-one-arli...

Amazon page for Kurzweil's "How to Create a Mind" lists the pub date as Jan. 1, 1800.

Jeesh! This Kurzweil guy was *way* ahead of his time!

www.amazon.com/How-Create-M... #Amazon #Kurzweil #oops

Interstellar Object Is Spraying Something Weird, Scientists Find The mysterious interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is absolutely blasting out water at a staggering rate, astronomers found.

Another entry for the "Headlines ignored at the start of cheap sci fi movies" club:
"Interstellar Object Is Spraying Something Weird, Scientists Find"
futurism.com/space/inters...

Science girl on X: "Leap of a Belgian Malinois https://t.co/P31TSCIwQb" / X Leap of a Belgian Malinois https://t.co/P31TSCIwQb

Ever wonder how far a Belgian Malinois dog can jump? Me neither, but be prepared for some high-flying @barkour. (via @mathewingram.com
x.com/gunsnrosesgi...

From the blackmagicfuckery community on Reddit: Whattttt Explore this post and more from the blackmagicfuckery community

This is mildly mind blowing. The word you hear is the one you are reading at the time. Brains are nuts.

www.reddit.com/r/blackmagic...

Creative ways to protect pedestrians in crosswalks
x.com/Thebestfigen...

via @mathewingram.com #traffic #funny

I tried the new video- and talk-based Gemini AI app this morning, and the very first thing it said to me, unprompted, was "You look tired. Are you okay?".

For real.

I Thought I Knew Silicon Valley. I Was Wrong Tech got what it wanted by electing Trump. A year later, it looks more like a suicide pact.

Outstanding Wired piece by @StevenLevy about how the Valley went MAGA. Great writing by someone who has been chronicling the Valley - its dreams, geniuses, failures, and now its utter political corruption - since well before it was the Valley. Pulitzer-worthy
www.wired.com/story/silico...

[SPOILER: Contains a NYT Xword hint]

Aren't things bad enough ... is the feeling you get as you do today's NY Times Crossword puzzle with the sinking realization that, yes, it's a product placement.

US forces strike third alleged drug vessel killing three, Trump says Venezuela has condemned a series of strikes by US forces in the Caribbean targeting alleged drug traffickers.

He's got the taste of blood.

It only gets worse from here.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Hosting a WebSite on a Disposable Vape Someone's trash is another person's web server.

Here's a web server running on a cheap vape thingy.

bogdanthegeek.github.io/blog/project...

It's cool, but the idea that it could probably run Doom (as a friend said) is unimpressive. I'm running Doom right now by shaking a box of paperclips.