Merijn

Naomi Kritzer's short sci-fi story about a helpful AI, not unlike the one in Mrs. Davis #

imagine the client learning their lawyers are charging them to literally type "is this a real case" in ChatGPT #

along with banning NSFW content from the API, this will effectively kill every third-party Reddit client #

hard to believe these all scan, but they do #

Former NBA star Dwyane Wade, a Florida sports legend whose daughter is trans, revealed he moved out of the state in part because his "family would not be accepted or feel comfortable there".

So Your Kid Wants to Be a Twitch Streamer. "My son and I were out for a walk when he told me he wanted to be a streamer when he grows up. He's 11. I instantly grew a long and bushy beard."

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In a Memorial Day reflection, historian Heather Cox Richardson highlights a pamphlet distributed by the US War Department to Army soldiers during World War II on the topic of fascism: what it is and how to combat it.

The War Department thought it was important for Americans to understand the tactics fascists would use to take power in the United States. They would try to gain power "under the guise of 'super-patriotism' and 'super-Americanism.'" And they would use three techniques:

First, they would pit religious, racial, and economic groups against one another to break down national unity. Part of that effort to divide and conquer would be a "well-planned 'hate campaign' against minority races, religions, and other groups."

Second, they would deny any need for international cooperation, because that would fly in the face of their insistence that their supporters were better than everyone else. "In place of international cooperation, the fascists seek to substitute a perverted sort of ultra-nationalism which tells their people that they are the only people in the world who count. With this goes hatred and suspicion toward the people of all other nations."

Third, fascists would insist that "the world has but two choices — either fascism or communism, and they label as 'communists' everyone who refuses to support them."

It is "vitally important" to learn to spot native fascists, the government said, "even though they adopt names and slogans with popular appeal, drape themselves with the American flag, and attempt to carry out their program in the name of the democracy they are trying to destroy."

See also The 14 Features of Eternal Fascism, How Fascism Works, Toni Morrison's Ten Steps Towards Fascism, and Fighting Authoritarianism: 20 Lessons from the 20th Century.

Tags: Heather Cox Richardson · politics · USA

The mind-boggling winners of the Best Illusion of the Year Contest for 2023 have been announced. The entries for each the ten finalists include a video that demonstrates each illusion and then shows how it works. The top prize winner is this working model of Platform 9 3/4 from the Harry Potter books:

One of my favorites is The Poggendorff Triangles, which goes to show you that straight lines aren't always straight:

Here's an audio illusion that sounds as though the tempo is endlessly rising (similar to the Shepard tone):

And then there's this hollow face illusion in which this woman's face looks at you as you move around her:

You can check out the rest of the finalists here.

Tags: best of · best of 2023 · optical illusions · video

a big bet on the fidelity of their passthrough cameras, trying to normalize wearing ski goggles around others with a front-facing display #

For years I thought I've been building a friendly relationship with someone called Peter from the Danish IT department. Today I have been informed Peter is a robot created to deal with IT enquires via email - I feel hurt and confused as he was the only bearable one here.

like The Clock of the Long Now, and it didn't need $42 million from Jeff Bezos to build #

My son is now really good at FIFA but is convinced I let him win every game. I don't. I try really fucking hard and the little shit keeps handing me my arse. It's got to the point where I hide one of the controllers so we can't play.

For ages now I've been singing Tenacious D's "Fuck her gently" to my kids, changing "fuck" to "hug", and changing other rude words to "cuddle" etc, under the pretence that I made the song up. I don't know when or how they'll find out the truth, but it'll be glorious.

I left my job, not because I didn't enjoy my work, but because they always give leavers generous gifts and I knew they'd never find a replacement as it's such a skilled role. I bought an iPad Pro with the money and negotiated a large pay rise when they begged me to come back.

18 achievements for 1,000 Gamerscore

We have a tough update to share: Block Party’s Twitter product is going on indefinite hiatus starting tomorrow. We fought hard to stay here, but recent changes have made it impossible for now. We’re so sorry it’s come to this.

FYI there’s a fake account on here impersonating me and going viral. The Twitter CEO has engaged it, boosting visibility.

It is releasing false policy statements and gaining spread.

I am assessing with my team how to move forward. In the meantime, be careful of what you see.

When my son was 4 he asked why he didn't have 2 Grandads. Rather than tell him my Dad died from Type1 Diabetes when I was 16,I told him he was eaten by a Great White whilst swimming. He was amazed and still tells everyone. Now I don't have the heart to tell him the boring truth.

SCOOP: After asking researchers to fork out $42,000 a month for API access Twitter is now saying those who don't pay have to delete any data they've already accessed under prior agreements - which one researcher compares to "book burning". (tip @techmeme) inews.co.uk/news/twitter-res…

I've always wondered about the process for making pieces of metal that appear to fit together perfectly, so perfectly that you can't see any sort of cut or seam. In this video, Steve Mould explains how wire EDM works, in part using cheese.

Tags: how to · Steve Mould · video

related: badidea.zip links to a ZIP file called badidea.zip containing a QR code that points to badidea.zip #

built on top of data from Have I Been Pwned?, I haven't heard of many of the companies that leaked my info #

Public records show SF city Supervisor Mandelman plotting with residents to shut down wireless internet at public libraries to get rid of homeless people who rely on it, despite being told by the library that it is critical for equal access to Internet and has no impact on crime.

breaking: someone has finally found a use case for NFTs

nitter.net/web3isgreat/status/1660739982322028558#m

My dog once jumped onto the sofa and grabbed my dad's steak off his plate while he answered the door. I managed to get it back off her, wipe it down and get it back on his plate before he returned. Never told him to this day.

My son thinks he gets one over on me by asking me to read more books to him in exchange for him going to bed earlier. More time with my son, more time with the Mrs, and it's better than an iPad for him. 3-0 me.

It turns out that some enterprising individuals are purchasing blue checks on Twitter and then uploading hundreds of videos, up to two hours long.

This data storage cost vastly exceeds the revenue Musk receives from those accounts for their Twitter Blue subscription.

a Google spokesperson said they won’t be removing accounts with YouTube videos “at this time.” #

My significant other casually said "I am with you because you look mediocre and you will never dare to leave me".
I cried the whole day and filed for divorce

The co-founder of Wikipedia just schooled Elon Musk about free speech