Chris

One thing that's annoyed me for decades is people finding problems for technology to solve rather than finding technology to solve problems. Like inventing a lawnmower and then applying it to trimming your pubes.

"Human Centipede of content."
👌

I just saw someone use the abbreviation “AI;DR” and I’ll be laughing for a while.

Redwall by Brian Jacques

Today's Classic Cover of the Day is Brian Jacques' Redwall! Troy Howell illustrated the US editions of the series, including the 10th and 20th anniversary editions of Redwall

Proud half-asser reporting for duty. 🫡

"Europeans, let's wake up!" — Defend Democracy “We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks.” President Macron on the occasion of German Unity Day, 3 October 2025.

1/Striking speech by Macron: The future of European democracy depends on taking back its digital information space. A remarkable turn from Silicon Valley as source of enlightenment to being a purveyor of slop. And the stakes aren't just ad revenue but the nation.
defenddemocracy.eu/macron-democ...

Exclusive: Meta created flirty chatbots of Taylor Swift, other celebrities without permission Meta has appropriated the names and likenesses of celebrities – including Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway and Selena Gomez – to create dozens of flirty social-media chatbots without their permission, Reuters has found.

Exclusive: Meta has appropriated the names and likenesses of celebrities — including Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway and Selena Gomez — to create dozens of flirty social-media chatbots without their permission, Reuters has found reut.rs/3JWb00R

Fake, yes, but does it feel a bit dystopian to anyone else?

I'm not suggesting the father was parenting badly, but rather that what passes for play here suggests a societal framework that is quite...depressing.

Like the children's cigarette sweets we paid no mind to in a cancer ridden society.

Sigh, yes. But I keep hoping to fix the world with a well placed gotcha.

Smart watches will be the death of us all, I say, checking if my heart rate is signaling that it is time to sign off.

Isn't accepting handouts anathema to that dudes fundamental world view?

I'm just a guy who, with love and best intentions, has been condemned by the establishment for criticizing the consensus. That's why I am totally obedient to the wills of the new 'minority consensus.'

Cory Doctorow Says the AI Industry Is About to Collapse When it comes to tech doomsaying, few are as cynical — or prescient — as sci-fi author and tech journalist Cory Doctorow. His far-sighted blend of tech criticism and class analysis has found Doctorow time and again at the bleeding...

Cory Doctorow Says the AI Industry Is About to Collapse
->Futurism | #Collapse #AI | More from BigEarthData.ai

Honestly, in todays news climate, the idea that far off progress is possible is good news.

I suspect that, in their eager embrace of cognitive dissonance, they want academia which is both loyal and effective/entrepreneurial. (Techbros bowing at the altar of Trump evidently aren't students of history, either.)

Move along, nothing to see here.

Serious consideration should be given to this, or alternatively, to which other organizations or countries are banned from running media platforms - RT or Iranian media or ISIS recruitment or whatever.

Don't give them ideas! 😬

Chances this will be used out of context for authoritarian crackdown? 102%?

Quite apart from whether reform will implement cruel policy, it will implement dumb policy.

Also, our ancestors weren't eating ANY of the things seed oil grifters recommend instead. No beef, no pork, no chicken, none our modern vegetable selection.

Yeah, I dont think it is Russia either. Just Putin approved problem solving.

Politico senior Washington correspondent sarcastically toes the party line on X that Democrats shut the government down.

Many such cases.

You can argue that he is only putting on a show, to protect his future ambitions (presidential or otherwise), but that is precisely my point, whether you bow to the demagogue for your safety, for your ambition, or to empower your hate. When does faking it become making it?

How long can he/we do that, while still retaining the ability to heal yourself once the autocrat is gone?

Mike Pompeo is clearly an intelligent, well-spoken and capable person who is learned in the art of evaluating evidence, but when backed into a corner he falls back to common Trumpian rhetorical devices to evade engaging with his eyes and ears.

YouTube video by The Rest Is Politics: Leading What Is The No. 1 Threat To The West? Mike Pompeo on China, Russia & Israel/Palestine

Watching this discussion between Rory Stewart, Alastair Campbell and Mike Pompeo got me thinking - if you sell your soul to fascism (or any variety of authoritarianism or populism) - which requires denying the evidence of your eyes and ears - do you ever get it back?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG0p...

The real question is why only 34.

Lefties on my timeline expressing heartfelt sadness for the poor generals having to sit through a Trump/Hegseth speech. Admittedly a war crime, but still.

(I'm not immune. I actually watched a segment from Kimmel. I regretted it. But I did it.)

One thing about Trump is that he can get people to look with sympathy at people they would otherwise detest. Like the American military industrial complex.

For that matter, to detest people they would normally admire.