Steve Kilbane

4 frame comic. each frame shows a scene of destruction in Iran, with pillars of smoke rising up in the sky. text reads : joseph weizenbaum was an a.I pioneer and the creator of the 1966 early chatbot "eliza". in his 1976 book "computer power and human reason", he warned against the dangers of artificial intelligence. weizenbaum asserted that a.I. should never be used for decision-making, because it will always lack moral judgement. people in power, executing their will through a.I., would absolve themselves of moral responsibility. weizenbaum would have known about that. his jewish parents fled nazi germany. from 1933, the nazis spent considerable resources studying how to desen- sitize their agents to commit mass murders. the solution was automation and the removal of agents from decision-making.* (note : The Nazi Mind, Laurence Rees, 2025) I wonder what Weizenbaum would have thought about the rise of AI warfare.

AI and decision-making.

What kind of maniac says “poTAHto” anyway?

Sigh. Looks like it’s time to replace our iMac. Late-2015 model. Office won’t update. macOS is a few versions behind. Firefox okay, but thunderbird has problems.

Annoying, because the hw is still lovely.

Time for a Mac Mini and a random monitor.

It’s ridiculous to think that just about EVERYTHING bad with the world is (a) a deliberate choice by about 500 people (b) we know who most of them are (c) not only are they not in jail, they’re in power.

Charlotte (Charles) d'Éon de Beaumont (1728 – 1810), usually known as the Chevalière d'Éon or the Chevalier d'Éon, was a French diplomat, spy, and soldier. D'Éon fought in the Seven Years' War, and spied for France while in Russia and England. #CelebratingWomen

Eyeing Voting Rights, Liberals Aim to Secure Wisconsin’s Supreme Court through 2030 - Bolts After flipping the court in 2023, Wisconsin liberals now hope to expand their majority on a body that could be a critical backstop for voting rights during the next presidential election.

NEW: Believe it or not, it’s that time of year: the Wisconsin Supreme Court election is next month.

Liberals have a huge opportunity: if they win, they can lock down the majority of this court thru 2030.

That means they’d have it in the next presidential race, a big democracy guardrail.

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People say the UK no longer has any leverage on the world stage, but we could threaten to stop all the money-laundering we do.

Moore has a couple of sequences in Promethea where there are conversations that loop and can be read in either direction with the same effect. It’s more linguistic than graphic, but the panels/layout give the bi-directional nature.

Fabulous stuff here. I really need to re-read this thread when I’m not using a tiny phone screen.

FT comments section this morning - saying what everyone else is thinking, right?

Did Cloisters fulfil the brief?

Bloch and Eileen Nearne. Both are white women with dark hair. Denise is on the left, with the dates 1916-1945 beneath her photo. Eileen is on the right, with the dates 1920-2010 beneath her.

Very early #OnThisDay, 3 Mar 1944, Denise Bloch and Eileen Nearne arrived, separately, into occupied France as wireless operators for the British Special Operations Executive.

#WomenInHistory #History #WorldWar2 #WHM #WomensHistoryMonth 🗃️

1/2

You’re very handily placed for the Blue Blazer, Cloisters and the Bow Bar, though BB and BB are pubs that do not do evening food; Cloisters might - cannot recall.

Apple TV popping up a notification on my phone to recommend drama series TEHRAN is… certainly a choice.

… it’s probably going to be a load of Potter, isn’t it?

Bond: obviously.

But also: Carry On. Merchant Ivory. Hammer. Marple and Poirot. Powell and Presburger. Ealing Comedies. Pinewood Studios. Dickie Attenborough. Mike Leigh. Richard Curtis.

Speaking of Great British Menu: the theme this year is celebrating British movies, so naturally we expect contestants not to have picked things WE think would hit the brief.

Masterchef: The Professionals is back on telly. So is Great British Menu.

Two programs with multiple episodes per week. Why are their broadcast periods overlapping?

(This very much a #me post.)

So we’ve established that the trans panic in media and government was driven by billionaire pedophiles, as revealed in the Epstein files. And yet the media and governments are still doing it anyway?

Might be time for some self-reflection.

Regret to announce that we’ve reached Wrong Coat season. Every coat you wear from now til mid April will be The Wrong Coat for the weather

We’re into season four of our viewing of the original Columbo, and I can’t get over US cars. it’s like everyone is driving a long, wide, flat plank with a cabin in the middle.

On the one hand, yes, it’s terrible that the US president is directly interfering with government relationships with specific businesses.

On the other hand, I am happy to drop this admin and an AI company into a sack and let them fight it out.

Reform is arguing that the dangerous extreme Muslims forced their wives and daughters to....vote for.....a white working class woman who believes in trans rights. Sounds great to me, my crying chums.

“Look, don’t you understand we’re supposed to manipulate the plebs into voting for what Murdoch demands?”

I remember in 2017 as Labour unexpectedly rose in the polls, Theresa May whined on telly that "Corbyn's trying to get in to government via the back door!" and her reasoning was: he was trying to win the election and people were in to what he was saying.

Same now with the Greens.

Nick Cohen's article about the shamelessness of Zack Polanski

This might surprise people who aren't from the UK, but over here there's a publication that, in order to write for it, you have to be a sex offender.

Yes, the world is terrible and everything is awful, but @katwhen.bsky.social and I are doing our Saturday night roast chicken and spuds thing, so there are some things to be grateful for.

In fairness, Blair did that with Iraq too.

Lost 19th century film by Méliès discovered at the Library | Timeless Library conservators recently made a startling discovery in a batch of decaying film reels -- a long-lost 1897 film by early cinema icon George Méliès. The French magician-turned-filmmaker's

Wow!

H/t Kristin Thompson

Take two seven year olds in a primary school in the Prime Minister’s constituency.

His Dad is a banker
Her Mum is the cleaner at that bank

Is the Government’s Ipoproposal that richer child gets permanent status at age 10 while in primary school & working class classmate not until they are 22?