Chris Williams
@chrisnjwilliams.bsky.social
LARP, literature, lightsabers, laughs and the law. Personal account. All views are my own. He/him/his.
Right now anyone can learn to write or create art. The price of admission is incredibly, super-duper low. Don't have a computer? You can write or draw on paper. Yes, it takes time to learn how to tell good stories or create compelling art, but there is no gatekeeper. 3/
- We believe in second chances! - So you think refugees deserve a second chance at making a life? - Not like that - Young people who’ve made mistakes shouldn’t be punished? - Nope - Benefits to help people get back on their feet? - Ha! - So who do you believe in second chances for? - Nazis!
It is programmed to "guess" what the user is likely to be interested in, based on such weightings. It often guesses wrong, and unpredictability, because a rewording of a query which would not matter to a human can totally alter its output. LLMs are not fit for general use.
NEW: Over the last few months, Meta has run dozens of paid ads that included AI-generated CSAM. The ads, some of which were linking out to “nudify” apps, targeted men in the US, UK, and a dozen European countries. Some were running in the last few days
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
I've got something in my brain about #ttrpg players and parasocial relationships, but I'm not in the right headspace. We've all witnessed the rise in a parasocial relationship with D&D5e alone, buoyed by Critical Role and a few key others. But that pales in the shadow of Vampire: The Masquerade.
"The US military came under pressure to buy into just-in-time supply chains of the sort used by companies like Amazon. This worked great, right up until the moment you’re fighting a war, when it turns out you suddenly run out of bullets."
Drought conditions
This week: southern Britain has too little water; this map projection has far too much. But first: in praise of inefficiency.
jonn.substack.com
Southport did not have malls. What Southport had was shopping arcades. Specifically, Wayfarers Arcade www.wayfarersarcade.co.uk which contained my every geeky teen and pre-teen need /1
Home | Wayfarers Arcade | Wayfarers Arcade
Bursting with gift ideas
wayfarersarcade.co.uk
John Bull@garius.bsky.social · 19h agosmall, single corridor shopping centre in Stevenage Old Town. Called the 'Magnet centre' after the family that owned the land. odd nik-nak and dress shops... ...and in the mid-90s briefly, hidden at the back, the town's first comic shop. we discovered it as teens. it was like finding heaven /1
small, single corridor shopping centre in Stevenage Old Town. Called the 'Magnet centre' after the family that owned the land. odd nik-nak and dress shops... ...and in the mid-90s briefly, hidden at the back, the town's first comic shop. we discovered it as teens. it was like finding heaven /1
ashley fairbanks@ziibiing.com · 22h agotell me about your town’s weird mall
Looks like a seahorse, but it’s not. It evolved the same body plan independently! journaloflostspecies.org/index.php/jl...
My answer is LOL ROFL (dickbrain) The terminally AI-pilled can't even *imagine* some people have *never* asked stochastic parrots to cheat at their job for them.
I’m a radiologist. By now AI should have replaced me. As it turns out AI has had a minimal impact and I’m busier than ever using my actual intelligence to interpret diagnostic images. So much hype and so little impact.
Getting real sick of slop midwives pleading for a 'respectful discussion' of AI as relates to the arts. Your use of AI to 'make art' is not respectful. It benefits from stolen art, destroys the planet, and does not make you an artist any more than someone driving 26.2 miles is a marathoner.
Well.
Josh Gerstein@joshgerstein.bsky.social · yesterdayJUST IN: Trump signals plan to reframe his suit against BBC. Likely to narrow Trump's claim to take out ref to damage to his businesses/brand. Needs judge's OK, but may limit BBC access to his financial data Doc: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us... Earlier: www.politico.com/news/2026/07...
The big changes over the weekend: I’m off of pain meds; the dizziness is almost entirely gone; and I’m sleeping through nights again. I’m also drawing once more -
Muskrat 8647@muskratjohn.bsky.social · yesterdayVery well. I think we turned a corner last weekend…and I didn’t fall down while doing so!
@shannonappelcline.bsky.social are you still collecting versions of the original PHB cover.
Muskrat 8647@muskratjohn.bsky.social · yesterdayThe big changes over the weekend: I’m off of pain meds; the dizziness is almost entirely gone; and I’m sleeping through nights again. I’m also drawing once more -
I don't think people are ready for this kind of joke yet.
🧵Spotted While Roaming in Aotearoa New Zealand: A woman (50s?) is huffing and puffing and teenage eye-rolling theatrically as her mum (80s?) straightens her scarf. Her Mum laughing and giving her a faux biff under her chin, telling her to behave. (1)
Every now and then someone takes a run at me along the lines of "I don't understand why you, a scifi writer, don't appreciate 'AI'," and I'm all, motherfucker, it's *because* I'm a science fiction writer I have the positions I have, how many times do we have to fucking yell "torment nexus," my dude
The only reason Bluesky is a liberal bubble is because it’s not algorithm driven & reality has a liberal bias. This is super simple.
The Verge@theverge.com · 2d agoBluesky's new CEO Toni Schneider on the platform's reputation for being a liberal bubble: "Yes, we definitely want that to change. It is already changing. It certainly wasn’t designed to attract one specific group of people."
“Underlying health issues” is the new “pre-existing condition,” the excuse health insurance companies would use to refuse cancer treatment to people who had acne once.
Aditya Mukerjee 🦦 🏳️🌈@chimeracoder.bsky.social · 2d agoEvery person who has ever died of AIDS died of an "underlying health issue"
A lot of people today talking about an awful person who died but i want to make everyone aware of a good person who died: Northern Irish comedian Jimmy Cricket, who you should all look up if you don’t know. 10/10 all around wife guy, dad, granddad, and just a generally solid person
So, I really hope I get to tell this story in longer form in the near future, but it it’s burning a hole inside me. Most of it comes from an interview with Bob Hirst this weekend. Bob has been Exec Editor of the Mark Twain Project for 47 years, before which he was part of its staff for ~15. 1/16
Penicillin was not, in fact, the first antibiotic.
"At a certain point, it seems to me that we have to conclude that what such people are actually advocating for is not to use sunlight to expose and disinfect our society of bigotry, but simply to have a society in which bigotry is free to dance in the sun." www.the-reframe.com/the-case-for...
The Case For Shunning
People like Scott Adams claim they're being silenced. But what they actually seem to object to is being understood.
the-reframe.com
I ask again (rhetorically), what do you do with a political opposition obsessively fixated on complete fabrications
A new week deserves a new article! Here's one on Nanashi no Game Me, sequel to Square-Enix's ace DS curse 'em up of similar name that does a fantastic job of... uh... mucking up everything the first game did so well: ko-fi.com/post/Nanashi...
