Sweets

Wife: What’s Shiv Roy’s poor husband’s name?

Me: Fitzwilliam Darcy. Miserable he may be, but poor he most certainly is not. 10,000 pounds a year and he owns half of Derbyshire.

Wife: Babe. Please. It’s for work.

Me: Ugh blah fine, Tom Wambsgans.

When a chatbot gets something wrong, it’s not because it made an error. It’s because on that roll of the dice, it happened to string together a group of words that, when read by a human, represents something false. But it was working entirely as designed. It was supposed to make a sentence & it did.

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

how happy we’d all be if this was all the internet was for

Lord Peter Wimsey is the narrative voice of The Waste Land.

I know it’s not technically polite, but I love having a conversation with other people who are comfortable with short interjecting interruptions. To me it makes the conversation feel more like something we’re weaving together rather than alternating individual presentations. It feels more alive.

On October 3rd, I’m asking you to register to vote.

zohranfornyc.com/register

dunno who needs to hear this but

Fuck RFK jr and fuck this administration

Here’s the link to file claims in the Anthropic case: www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-au...

Hi authors! Please remember to file a claim!

Turkey, a three legged orange cat, lies flat on his back on several blankets on top of an ottoman. His tail and back leg are stretched straight out, and his front paws are vaguely tucked like a bunny. He looks drunk

A close up from above of Turkey the cat as he gets his fluffy chest gently rubbed. He's making air biscuits with his front paws and his head is lolled happily to the side. He can barely keep his pretty green eyes open

He is Up to Stuff

Meet Turkey, an orange tabby cat with white cravat, white paws, one and a half ears, and pretty green-gold eyes. His tail has pronounced white stripes at the tip, and he's growing his fur back after his back left leg was amputated (he's doing great!)

Turkey the cat lies on his left side on an ottoman draped in blankets, his back leg stretched out behind him with his tail wrapped around it, and he makes happy air biscuits with his front paws. His head is tucked upside down and his eyes squeezed shut. He has settled himself right in

Then last week I saw a piece of @jortsthecat.bsky.social merch at the local Animal Care & Control and went "welp, that guy's gotta come home." Anyway here he is: six years old, two months into life as a tripod, longest resident of animal control no more. Meet Turkey, whom I could not possibly rename

Gus the cat sits on a green sofa next to a blue tartan blanket, licking his lips and gazing yearningly and expectantly at an off-camera Churu treat

I knew the house needed someone else besides me in it so I wouldn't drown in despair, but I couldn't and still can't conceive of any creature, human or cat, that could measure up to the standard set by a slightly tyrannical three legged stripey gremlin

Gus the cat lies on his back on a colorful rug, showing off his fluffy white tummy, gray paws, and noticeable absence of back right leg. A dozen of his approximately 300 cat toys are scattered on the floor behind him

I knew I would adopt another cat at some point, but the loss of Gus cut me off at the knees, in the midst of a family situation that can only be described as a slow-moving trainwreck that has no end in sight for years to come. He was my best friend, my comfort without fail

Gus, a lynx point Siamese cat, has draped himself practically across my face while I try to nap on the sofa. He gazes upward with beautiful blue eyes, blissfully unaware that he might be in the way

My best, most perfect, most beautiful, most wonderful boy in the whole world, Gus, passed away July 1 after his cancer returned sooner than I hoped. I was and am filled with grief beyond words. How dare such a small creature leave such a chasm in the world.

I signed!

Absolutely thrilled for you! I've been thinking about you over the last few months, congratulations on the new gig!!!

Hey, as a librarian I need to tell you:

Our funding depends on usage.

So go ahead and check out that book even if you don't think you'll finish it. No one will know. Check out that DVD even though you might not like it. Get ambitious in your quest for knowledge.

guys it’s really not funny that the fbi agent took a footlong to the chest. stop laughing. it’s NOT FUNNY that an fbi agent in head to toe tactical gear tried to chase the guy who hucked a sandwich straight at his bulletproof vest but couldn’t outrun him

"ChatGPT is great for brainstorming!"

Actually we have a tool for that already! It's called thinking. We use our brain. It's called brainstorming! Clue is in the name.

They killed Google Reader but we move.

Pivot to video was such a curse. Now everything’s like obviously you’d rather watch a 40 minute video than read a sentence.

This is why, if anyone who isn't chronically online starts talking about genAI positively to me in person, I channel a Godzilla ray of facts about what it is and what it does and how it's destroying the planet, and I don't care how taken aback they are.

Cover of In Intimate Detail: How to Choose, Wear, and Love Lingerie by Cora Harrington. Book cover has pastel pink background with black lace lingerie set front and center. Text is black. Book is surrounded by baby’s breath flowers on neutral background.

There are still a few more days left in Pride, so I just want to take a moment to let everyone know that my book about lingerie, In Intimate Detail, is gender-neutral and contains intimate apparel advice for trans folks, disabled folks, and other communities. Available wherever books are sold! 🌈

A large white and gray three legged cat lies on his side on a cat bed with a blue blanket on it. Even when he doesn't feel well and has needed a bath three mornings in a row which has traumatized us both, he remains unbelievably handsome and soft

A white and gray three legged cat with a striped tail and forehead lies on a handmade quilt, using a brand new catnip banana as a pillow and, devastatingly, not as a toy

This is hardly the most urgent problem in the world at large but my perfect beautiful large cat has injured his remaining back leg and is in a lot of pain and it will be at least a few weeks before (if?) he starts feeling better and I need someone to fix it immediately or I will implode

I suspect that fact that the vast majority of LLM users don’t seem to have received this (really very simple!) message is because the AI companies have a vested interest in us not understanding it. “ChatGPT is smart, it just makes mistakes sometimes” is much more marketable than the truth.

trans people will always exist (laudatory)
trans people will always exist (threatening)
trans people will always exist (factual)

Also, NYT: if everyone’s jumping off a bridge, in fact it IS bad and you shouldn’t jump! If everyone’s drunk driving, it is BAD and call a cab! If everyone is using a piece of software that demonstrably damages their intellect?? Yeah, it’s BAD. Get back to thinking on your own!

This is an excellent point.