Shaking out the cobwebs, mostly by faceplanting in the lake repeatedly

Shaking out the cobwebs, mostly by faceplanting in the lake repeatedly

NEW: Meta has run dozens of paid ads that include explicit, AI-generated child sexual abuse material in recent months. Some as recently as this week. "These are ads that were reviewed, approved, and allowed to run by Meta, never encountering interference while the company collected the ad dollars."

Meta Ran Ads That Contained AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Imagery

More than 50 offending image and video ads were published across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or Threads, according to Meta’s ad library data. Some ran as recently as this week.

wired.com

If anyone is wondering, I don't use generative AI. It offers me nothing useful creatively and nothing trustworthy as research. The environmental impact is appalling and the companies who developed it stole copyright intellectual property knowing that is illegal. GenAI is dishonest at every level.

My daughter and I have been waiting for this day for many years. Thank you so much for not letting it slip past us unnoticed. I'll turn on my google surveillance smart home bullshit, fire up the roomba, and enjoy a whisky as I watch the apocalyptic wildfire smoke swirl across the yard.

#PedSky #MedSky #addictionsci #PainResearch #neuroskyence #neurosci 💊 Please join us on Dec 2 here in the Triangle for the Maixner Pain Research Symposium 2026, this time @ncstate.bsky.social in Raleigh, NC !! The call for abstracts is open ! cvm.ncsu.edu/maixner-symp...

To be very clear, extrajudiciously killing people you suspect are drug traffickers is *also* murder

CNN@cnn.com · 4d ago

The US military’s strikes on alleged drug boats have likely illegally killed “individuals who are not involved in narcotrafficking,” Sen. Tim Kaine told the White House, following “a careful review” of classified information he has seen so far.

There Will Come Soft Rains In 1950 Ray Bradbury wrote a short story called There Will Come Soft Rains. The story appears in a collection called The Martian Chronicles. The title comes from poem of the same title, written in 1918 as a response to the horrors of World War 1: There will come soft…

There Will Come Soft Rains

In 1950 Ray Bradbury wrote a short story called There Will Come Soft Rains. The story appears in a collection called The Martian Chronicles. The title comes from poem of the same title, written in 1918 as a response to the horrors of World War 1: There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,

telescoper.blog

My new investigation into a mass shooter’s harrowing history with ChatGPT reveals numerous red flags—and some very disturbing ChatGPT replies—from long before his attack on Florida State University www.motherjones.com/media/2026/0... 1x 🧵

Inside a mass shooter’s harrowing history with ChatGPT

A year of chats reveals glaring red flags—and disturbing ChatGPT replies—from long before a rampage at Florida State University.

motherjones.com

A society that vilifies scientists and healthcare workers for trying to save lives is a society determined to destroy itself.

See you in court, creep.

MPR News@mprnews.org · last wk.

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company is suing Minnesota over a first-in-the-nation law banning technology that allows users to create and post deepfake videos or images of people naked without their consent.

genai ushering in an era of productivity and efficiency

Erin Fogg says Free Link@criminalerin.bsky.social · 2w ago

Me: What did I just do Spreadsheets: You bolded a row Me: Yes & what didn't I do in the next row Spreadsheets: Bold anything at all Me: Right ok so what did you do when I entered information into the row that I didn't bold Spreadsheets: 👀 Me: 👀 Spreadsheets: I bolded it Me: YOU BOLDED IT

one of the most important things you need to do when developing a new product, especially in tech, is sit down and think about how it can be misused by bad actors and nowadays it sure seems like the bad actors are less “people to be guarded against” and more “the target customer base”

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 2w ago

FWIW, Meta was fully aware of how these glasses would primarily be used. The glasses were designed to erase consent, and that is why they exist. Anything that they do that suggests they want to ameliorate this use is an attempt to win the PR battle and manipulate public opinion.

even if bluesky is an echo chamber it seems more important that X is run by a guy pushing race war but that’s why i’m not an op-ed editor i guess

150,000 people joined London's biggest ever Trans+ pride and protest to show solidarity and strength with the Trans+ community 🏳️‍⚧️ Ki Griffin reports 👇

Exclusive: NIH, which 1 year ago was slammed by a federal judge for illegally terminating more than 1700 grants funding research on health disparities and other politically sensitive issues, is again killing ongoing projects on those topics. Learn more: https://scim.ag/4pF6Mvy

Whoops

End of carbon tax rebates a financial hit for Canada’s poorest, research shows

Rebates were tax-free payments that compensated consumers for the cost of carbon taxes

theglobeandmail.com

This is in fact, the perfect way to set up your weekend

Chris Dwan (he/him)@somershade.bsky.social · 2w ago

I found this listing of the ordinary and casual abundances of our modern age soothing on a temperate Friday evening. Have a great weekend, everybody. ordinaryabundance.com

NIH is testing their ability to terminate “unaligned” grants, with at least one new termination documented. Disgustingly, they awarded this grant simply so they could add a termination clause. Then they terminated it. From @jocelynkaiser.bsky.social www.science.org/content/arti...

NIH is again terminating grants that the Trump administration dislikes

With cancellation of health disparities project, agency may be testing new way to legally kill politically sensitive grants

science.org

Folks! It's so good to see this back. If you are any flavour of queer doing any flavour of science, tech, engineering, or maths - come along! It's free and a lovely time, I promise. Their taste in plenary speakers is also impeccable...

LGBTQ+ STEM@lgbtqstem.bsky.social · 3w ago

Final countdown for Abstract Submissions! Submit your abstracts for your presentations for the STEMinar! Deadline 31 July! Find all the registration forms here: sites.google.com/view/lgbtqst...

Happy disability pride month I guess

public health guy@publichealthguy1.bsky.social · 2w ago

40% of disabled cancer patients die during the wait period to enroll in medicare — and the rate is rising

Next time someone accuses me of “making science partisan” I’m going to throw the physical NYT edition of this article at their head. These people are operating in bad faith…we have a mountain of evidence. (Gift link) www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/b...

Trump Administration Admits Canceling Grants to States That Did Not Vote for Him (Gift Article)

Federal officials said in court documents that they halted billions of dollars in funding for energy projects to states “based solely” on whether they backed President Trump in the 2024 election.

nytimes.com

Yacht practice? 🤞

Angelo Iulianella@aineurolab.bsky.social · 2w ago

Astonishing display of Orcas’ power—pulverizing sunfish. One holds the fish which another rams it all full speed! Hope they don’t decide to ‘sunfish’ humans when they are finally fed up of our polluting shenanigans.

sir this is a wendy’s

worm@rfksbrainworm.bsky.social · 2w ago

extremely normal guy voice: I cloned myself so I can become my own blood boy.

“I got carried away and may have killed millions in the process” is the correct framing

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2w ago

‘I got carried away’: Elon Musk expresses regret about Doge and wading into Trump’s orbit

I think this fundamentally misunderstands the question, cos the actual answer is burn Meta to the ground, and tax the tech broligarchy into oblivion

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2w ago

Meta’s smartglasses mean any child can be covertly filmed. In the age of AI, how do we tackle that risk?

Great new review article from Ru-Rong Ji, Temugin Berta, and colleagues, on neuron-glia interactions in pain! Microglia, astrocytes, and satellite glial cells actively shape pain by driving neuroinflammation, sensitizing neurons, and remodeling pain circuits. journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10....

It took six months and hundreds of dollars, but my USA health insurance has finally decided to pay for the medication I've needed to take for years. The rage/relief combo is real.

A reminder that UC _faculty_ and Faculty Associations — not the universities themselves nor their administrators — are waging this battle in court, demonstrating great bravery and moral clarity.

White House admits it used keywords to kill billions worth of California research grants

Federal agencies that terminated more than a thousand research grants at the University of California last year admitted that they used keywords related to diversity, gender, vaccine hesitancy and COV...

apnews.com

And with this, The Onion goes bankrupt.

Scott Horton@robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 3w ago

Mark Zuckerberg's assistant at Meta, Josh Felker, who was responsible for Meta's "digital experiences for kids," was arrested after admitting he tried to sext a 13-year-old during an undercover sting. nypost.com/2026/07/20/u...