@Mediagazer@mstdn.social2025-11-13 01:46:02
Condé Nast employees rallied in New York to protest recent firings and suspensions following Teen Vogue layoffs; NY AG Letitia James joined the rally (Lucia Moses/Business Insider)
https://www.businessinsider.com/ny-ag-letitia-james-dema…
@tiotasram@kolektiva.social2025-10-13 06:16:23
Just finished "Beasts Made of Night" by Tochi Onyebuchi...
Indirect CW for fantasy police state violence.
So I very much enjoyed Onyebuchi's "Riot Baby," and when I grabbed this at the library, I was certain it would be excellent. But having finished it, I'm not sure I like it that much overall?
The first maybe third is excellent, including the world-building, which is fascinating. I feel like Onyebuchi must have played "Shadow of the Colossus" at some point. Onyebuchi certainly does know how to make me care for his characters.
Some spoilers from here on out...
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I felt like it stumbles towards the middle, with Bo's reactions neither making sense in the immediate context, nor in retrospect by the end when we've learned more. Things are a bit floaty in the middle with an unclear picture of what exactly is going on politics-wise and what the motivations are. Here I think there were some nuances that didn't make it to the page, or perhaps I'm just a bit thick and not getting stuff I should be? More is of course revealed by the end, but I still wasn't satisfied with the explanations of things. For example, (spoilers) I don't feel I understand clearly what kind of power the army of aki was supposed to represent within the city? Perhaps necessary to wield the threat of offensive inisisia use? In that case, a single scene somewhere of Izu's faction deploying that tactic would have been helpful I think.
Then towards the end, for me things really started to jumble, with unclear motivations, revelations that didn't feel well-paced or -structured, and a finale where both the action & collapsing concerns felt stilted and disjointed. Particularly the mechanics/ethics of the most important death that set the finale in motion bothered me, and the unexplained mechanism by which that led to what came next? I can read a couple of possible interesting morals into the whole denouement, but didn't feel that any of them were sufficiently explored. Especially if we're supposed to see some personal failing in the protagonist's actions, I don't think it's made clear enough what that is, since I feel his reasons to reject each faction are pretty solid, and if we're meant to either pity or abjure his indecision, I don't think the message lands clearly enough.
There *is* a sequel, which honestly I wasn't sure of after the last page, and which I now very interested in. Beasts is Onyebuchi's debut, which maybe makes sense of me feeling that Riot Baby didn't have the same plotting issues. It also maybe means that Onyebuchi couldn't be sure a sequel would make it to publication in terms of setting up the ending.
Overall I really enjoyed at least 80% of this, but was expecting even better (especially politically) given Onyebuchi's other work, and I didn't feel like I found it.
#AmReading
@cowboys@darktundra.xyz2025-12-13 00:19:32
Gut Feeling: Cowboys-Vikings staff predictions https://www.dallascowboys.com/news/gut-feeling-cowboys-vikings-staff-predictions
@Techmeme@techhub.social2025-09-13 05:20:52
Internal email: xAI lays off hundreds of data annotation team staffers, following a strategic shift to prioritize specialist AI tutors over generalist roles (Grace Kay/Business Insider)
https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-xai-layoffs-data-annotators-2025-9
@anneroth@systemli.social2025-11-10 21:03:28
"In the budget speech this year, commission president Ursula von der Leyen made a bold statement that AI is expected to approach human reasoning by next year."
Die Nächste, nach (bzw. vor) Wildberger.
"Surprised by this statement, I asked the commission to provide me with documents .."
"The commission’s response was not filled with references to the scientific literature. Instead, the Commission referred to the essays and books by tech CEOs."<…
@Nathan@social.lostinok.com2025-11-11 13:09:35
@hex@kolektiva.social2025-09-13 11:53:04
As we continue down this path of escalating nihilistic meme violence, it can feel like the worst things have become viral. We are drowning in the memetic effluent of a capitalist media that profits by maximizing engagement. But I wonder if anyone remembers "Pay it Forward?"
A movie came out in 2000 about a kid who started a viral kindness campaign. The idea was that you do something nice for someone else with the expectation that they do the same in the future. I never really saw the movie, but I do remember the time. There were a few weeks, maybe a few months, where people started doing it. People would just be randomly nice, and everything actually just started feeling better.
Over time, the world caught up. Capitalism consumed the whole thing, and life went back to normal. 9/11 happened the next year, and the US started down the path of becoming the most twisted and evil version of itself. But there was a short time that doing nice stuff was a viral meme, a thing that people just started doing.
Gun violence doesn't have to be the only viral meme we have. We can make good things happen too.
@floheinstein@chaos.social2025-11-13 07:34:30
Currently setting up my new laptop (HP EliteBook X Flip G1i), and so far:
1. The device was delivered with a bundled warranty that already started 50 days ago
2. The supplier delivered a Battery Replacement Care Pack for 3 years instead of 5 years as ordered
Called HP for the warranty precox, had to send the invoice. Agent: "Yeah, it's gonna be about 2 weeks till we correct that."
(OK, Laptop won't leave the house until then)
Wrote the supplier for…
@marcel@waldvogel.family2025-11-11 03:55:17
@cowboys@darktundra.xyz2025-12-12 23:58:26
Gut Feeling: Cowboys-Vikings staff predictions https://www.dallascowboys.com/news/gut-feeling-cowboys-vikings-staff-predictions