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Confusingly, many of them grow up to dislike Batman.

One of the neat things about keeping tabs on American military technology is that it allows for a little more insight into a government's defense priorities and how far their senior military leadership's head is up the ass of their Commander-in-Chief:

The U.S.

— Read the rest

The post US Navy resurrects dumb weapons project for dumb Trump ship project appeared first on Boing Boing.

helenvaughans:

📢📢📢

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I need to do an upbeat comic week one of these days. They all end with hooray.

In 1991, Frank Frazetta took a brush to one of the most famous paintings in horror-comics history and painted the clothes off the central figure. He'd done the original Vampirella #1 cover for Warren Publishing in 1969, knocking it out in a few hours, and it became the debut image of a character who'd endure for decades. — Read the rest

The post Frazetta painted the clothes off Vampirella, sold the result for $3.1M appeared first on Boing Boing.

Alphabet President and Chief Investment Officer Ruth Porat kissed Trump's butt so ferociously that it looks like she is trying out for a cabinet position. Porat was startlingly deferential to Donald Trump, thanking him for securing U.S. leadership in AI and promising that Google is "committed to assist in all of your work." — Read the rest

The post Alphabet president Ruth Porat heaps praise on Trump and offers Google's assistance appeared first on Boing Boing.

uncivilliberties:

anexperimentallife:

Too good et cetera et cetera

notgreengardens:

bunabi:

Times like these I remember that Malcolm X quote about healing and how it requires acknowledging the knife is there. Things like “this isn’t who we are” and “this is un-American” and “what are we? [insert another country]??” reveal a deep seated denial of American history and state-sponsored domestic terror that I’m just not gonna entertain anymore from leftists over the age of twenty.

“If you stick a knife nine inches into my back and pull it out three, that is not progress. Even if you pull it all the way out, that is not progress. Progress is healing the wound, and they haven’t even begun to pull out the knife. They won’t even admit the knife is there.”

X

An estimated 42,000 iPhones have been compromised by a cybercriminal version of Coruna, a hacking toolkit that security researchers believe was originally built by or for the US government, according to Wired. The criminal variant plants malware that drains cryptocurrency wallets and steals photos and emails. — Read the rest

The post A US government iPhone hacking tool leaked to criminals appeared first on Boing Boing.

After Epstein died in August 2019, the FBI opened a file called "Investigation into Potential Co-Conspirators of Jeffrey Epstein." Prosecutors contacted victims and asked if they'd testify. They agreed. By October 2019, FBI agents were conducting interviews. The Wall Street Journal has now documented what came of it: women named specific men, gave detailed accounts of sexual assault, and not one of those men was charged. — Read the rest

The post DOJ took Epstein victims' testimony, then did nothing appeared first on Boing Boing.

Can I lick it? is the periodic table of elements as befits the table where you eat. It's been so widely copied that the original is hard to discern, but this image on Imgur [via Jason Kottke] might be it. Some of its conclusions strike me as suspiciously encouraging: I would not lick uranium under any circumstances. — Read the rest

The post Can I lick it? The dining room periodic table appeared first on Boing Boing.

depsidase:

maxofs2d:

Firefox 148 rolls out with the promised AI kill switch: here’s how to enable it

The Firefox “AI kill switch” is here.

Go to Settings > AI controls. There, you can toggle the “master kill switch” on to fully block all the features, which means two things:

1. you won’t see them,
2. you can’t even be asked about them.

The default state is, like before, “available”. This means the features are NOT on by default (they never were), but Firefox will let you know about them where they exist (e.g. when you create your first tab group) so that you can choose to opt in.

Please note that Firefox for Android or iOS have never included AI features, so you won’t see these settings on your smartphones or tablets.

Please also note that, unlike popular belief here on Tumblr, besides “chatbot in sidebar” (which is simply embedding the same page you’d have normally browsed to), none of these features have ever interacted with anything outside your PC, because they download a small model to your computer, to do everything locally. These small models have never been and are not downloaded until you explicitly agree to turn on one of the features.

grungekitty-77:

arliedraws:

Dude, I almost cried yesterday because of AI. I can’t grade anymore without getting upset because of how much kids are using generative AI. How can I assess their ability to think critically when they aren’t thinking critically? One kid admitted he used ChatGPT on an assignment, and he was like, “So? Is my answer right?” And I was like, first of all, whether or not it’s “correct” is not the problem, and ALSO, it was INCORRECT. Like…majorly so!

They can’t fucking think for themselves (or rather, they’re losing the ability). This is not “ooooh technology scary” – this is a fundamental, they can’t fucking answer questions when I ask them to their faces. I fucking HATE when my colleagues roll their eyes and say, “Well, this is how we felt about phones! Just accept it!” First of all, it’s different. And TWO! We’re FUCKING FIGHTING PHONES every day! We’ve literally banned all cell phone use during class in my district because letting kids use their phones and not fighting their use in class FUCKED US OVER, and now we have to FIX IT.

Okay, but also, kudos to Tumblr, the weirdo website, and our anti-AI stance here because my weirdo queer kids are the ONLY ONES who are STAUNCHLY against gen AI; they’re the only ones reliably not using AI. Dear children of Tumblr, thank you for being little weirdos who give a shit.

It was a slightly different situation, but it’s translatable. This became a stable for me.

I asked my students if it’s nice/helpful/good/acceptable/normal to help someone else lift something really heavy they were struggling with. Of course they agree! Then I asked them if it would still be (or explain to them that it isn’t) nice/helpful/good/acceptable/normal to help someone lift heavy weights if they are working out at the gym. The answer is no! Because the POINT is that it’s hard to do alone! That’s why it makes you stronger! (Plus it gives the kids a very funny and therefore memorable visual for the concept. You can play into it and have a laugh with the kids at how weird someone would be if they did that!)

I often used “Don’t lift their weights!” as a shorthand when a student was trying to give another kid the right answer.

Anyways, AI is lifting your weights for you. If you go to gym everyday and have a robot lift the weights for you, are you going to get any stronger? Even if you are going to the gym and “lifting weights” everyday? Even if the robot was really good at it? School is the gym for your mind. It’s hard for the same reason gym weights are heavy.

radicalgraff:

“A group of ‘Bad Apples’ is called a Precinct”

Sticker spotted in Portland, Oregon

malibuklaus: