@inthehands@hachyderm.io2025-07-04 21:04:18
I am triply cautious of this article from @…:
- OpenAI et al use the supposed danger (and thus implied power) of their own product as a marketing ploy (as the article points out)
- When a product vendor funds their own research about the potential dangers of their product, it’s more likely to be good PR than good research
- Society always engages in moral panics about new things causing addiction and psychological damage (including bicycles and novels!)
With those caveats in mind, I do think this is an issue worth watching closely. And that quote in the post? Chef’s kiss.
https://mstdn.ca/@dyckron/114796898620291517
@rberger@hachyderm.io2025-06-03 20:37:57
"The administration’s claims to monarchical power are a real threat to America’s constitutional order. But its executive orders and policy feints are so haphazard and poorly articulated that they amount to a kind of autocratic takeover written in smudge-able crayon: terrifying, cartoonish, and vulnerable to erasure, all at once.
This is not to say that Americans should ignore Trump’s efforts to make confetti of the Constitution. Rather, when evaluating any one Trump policy, one has to keep front of mind the possibility that it simply won’t exist by the end of the week. Despite an energetic effort by some right-wing intellectuals to make Trump out to be some kind of 14-dimensional-chess player, his approach doesn’t resemble chess so much as a denial-of-service attack on a functioning government."
#USPolitcs
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/06/trump-self-destructive-agenda/683013/
@servelan@newsie.social2025-07-04 23:46:14
"Maryland House of Delegates Majority Leader David Moon (D) told host Alicia Menendez that two bills he's introduced would enable his state to begin withholding state funds meant for the federal government. Moon defended the bills as necessary due to the Trump administration's recent announcement withholding $7 billion from K-12 schools across the country."
'Act like a collections agency': Democrat reveals blue states' secret weapon against Trump - Alternet.org
https://www.alternet.org/blue-states-trump/
@Techmeme@techhub.social2025-06-02 13:30:40
A UK government trial with 20K civil servants using Microsoft's Copilot AI for three months found a 26 minute average daily time saving, or two weeks per year (Melissa Heikkilä/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/7c2aa19d-4c92-490d-bb35-f329a246fe5b
@pre@boing.world2025-06-02 20:28:08
Confusing episode. Let me clear it all up.
The world is sinking into the doubt needed to rescue Omega, remember, and The Doctor is falling with a balcony that's separated from the building.
How does he get out of that?
Well, saved by a literal magic door that pops out of nowhere, leading back to the time hotel. 🤨
Anita, who he spent a year with once a couple of Christmases ago, has been popping around the Doctor's entire long life, peeping on him with the Daleks and stuff. Trying to find him on the Earth's last day. Today.
And now he's rescued, today turns into a groundhog day. Same day over and over again. 😆
There's another woman that's been stalking him through time lately, Mrs Flood. She was following him everywhere, but she had Xmas off she reckons, so didn't see the Time Hotel bit. Thus the element of surprise in the deus ex machina rescue. 😀
The Doctor is broken free of the wish spell now anyway, popped his conditioning, and can use the time hotel's door to recall Unit and break them all out of the wish too.
The Rani pops in to say hi and explain her plans. 😝
How did the Rani survive the end of the Timelords? She flipped her DNA to sidestep the genetic bomb apparently? Well that makes no sense, but nor does anything else so no time to ponder.
The end of the Time Lords made them all Barons... No, made them barren. There can be no more children of the time-lords.
She's popping Omega back out of the underworld for his DNA because the timelords are all barren and she wants to recreate Galifrey.
But wait a minute: Poppy is the Doctor's kid in wish world! So she should have Timelord DNA too! Maybe that could work?
No. The Rani is a nazi, don't like the kid's contaminated blood. She's got human all over her DNA. Eww.
Rani pops off back to her Bone Palace, and makes the bone beasts attack.
The Doctor explains that the Giant dinosaur skeletons are beasts that pop in to clean up the world when there's a reality flux, and the Rani has turned them on Unit HQ.
So the UNIT HQ turns into some kinda ship? Like the Crimson Permanent Insurance. Lol. It's blasting lasers at the bone beasts and turning around, and has a steering wheel like pirate ship now. 🤣
During the battle, the Doctor pops out to take a ride on the sky-bike, looking like something from Flash Gordon, and crashes into the Bone Palace.
Too late though! Omega is pretty much here now. He's a giant boney CGI zombie, become his own legend. Looks great but doesn't really seem like Omega, who ought to be held together by pure will.
Omega eats the Rani! One of the Ranis anyway. Mrs Flood avoids being eaten. She pops off with the time bracelet. "So much for the Two Rani's. It's a goodnight from me!" as she disappears off into time. Great gag. 😁
The Doctor just shoots Omega to get him back into his box. Pops a rifle off the wall. The Vindicator has apparently also got a built in laser as well as locator beacons. So that's handy. The Doctor doesn't use guns but some of his devices work like one. 🔫
So all is well! The day is saved and the wish is over and baby Poppy survives in a time box! 🍻
They're going to take the space baby off to do space adventures. Ruby is jealous of seeing The Doctor and Belinda vibing like that, as they plan a life in space with the space baby. Aww. Poor Ruby. 😭
But then Poppy pops off! Disappears entirely, and everyone other than Ruby forgets. Ruby remembers because she's disappeared from time herself in the past they say.
Okay: to save his child and on Ruby's word alone, the Doctor will sacrifice himself to turn reality one degree.
He goes off to commit suicide by Regeneration, but Thirteen is here! She's popped out of her timeline to stop him! Or maybe to help, with a motivational chat instead. Gives him a pep talk then pops back off again.
The Doctor zaps reality with his Tardis, dying but holding off on the actual regeneration for a few moments to go check on the kid.
The kid is safe! But isn't his own kid any more. Poppy has popped all her Timelord DNA and is just all human now. Poppy's pop isn't the doc, it's someone called Richie.
And Belinda has been so keen to get home all this time in order to get back to her Baby! Who isn't a timelord, and definitely didn't exist until she was wished into being.
This may not be the most ethical action The Doctor has ever taken: To bend the whole universe in order to recreate a baby that was accidentally wished into being out of nothing. Twisting time to give a child to a nurse who didn't previously have a child, or even remember the wish. Then it's not even the same child that disappeared, coz this one is all human. 🤷
But the doc is popping off to regenerate with Joy in the stars, and... Turns blonde: "oh. Hello?" 🤯
It's Rose! Billie Piper is back? Fantastic!
Is Rose doing a David Tennant Impression there?
Billie playing the Doctor, doing a Tennant impression as Bad Wolf? Amazing. Can't wait.
#doctorWho
@arXiv_eessIV_bot@mastoxiv.page2025-06-26 08:37:40
FundaQ-8: A Clinically-Inspired Scoring Framework for Automated Fundus Image Quality Assessment
Lee Qi Zun, Oscar Wong Jin Hao, Nor Anita Binti Che Omar, Zalifa Zakiah Binti Asnir, Mohamad Sabri bin Sinal Zainal, Goh Man Fye
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.20303
@callunavulgaris@mastodon.scot2025-06-29 10:12:56
I have a new fun game. Towards pay day I start putting anything on eBay that I'd like to buy into my basket - this month bathroom scales, various health foods, saddle soap for my leather hat and a canvas laundry basket - then on the day I'm paid I can just hit the button. It's similar to fantasy shopping but you do actually have to pay for the stuff £££
@cdarwin@c.im2025-06-21 22:25:28
A Reuters/Ipsos poll releasedThursday found that
🔥62 percent of self-identified Democrats said that the party should replace Democrats with new leaders,
with only 24 percent disagreeing with that statement.
A plurality of respondents, at 49 percent, said that they’re unsatisfied with current leaders.
The survey included over 4,200 respondents, including 1,293 Democrats, and was conducted earlier this month
@memeorandum@universeodon.com2025-06-24 00:01:08
Florida to receive federal funds to build immigration detention sites, including "Alligator Alcatraz," Noem says (Camilo Montoya-Galvez/CBS News)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alligator-alcatraz-florida-immigration-detention-centers-dhs-secretary-noem/
http://www.memeorandum.com/250623/p146#a250623p146
@samerfarha@mastodon.social2025-06-25 17:53:51
Went to La’ Shukran for the first time last night and both the cocktails (especially with arak) and the food were fantastic.
