Emil Mertzel

@emilmertzel.bsky.social

I help people design buildings in and out of the classroom. I like thinking about meaning, which makes me easily distracted. Fan of bikes and cars, go figure. (he/him)

NEW: Voters have rejected Republicans' scheme to unseat the Kansas Supreme Court's Dem-appointed majority and overturn abortion rights. Amendment 1 would have let the GOP replace the system of a nominating commission, gubernatorial appointment, and retention elections with direct partisan elections

It is funny that this person thinks “immigrants defended the union while native born whites sought to destroy it in the name of slavery” is an argument against immigrants being Americans. This is precisely the point, nothing about being born here makes you better bsky.app/profile/aphc...

Alexander Clarkson@aphclarkson.bsky.social · 4d ago

Another datapoint for the fascist radicalisation of institutional pillars of much of the American Right

I work at a public library. People who want to use AI seem to have no trouble doing so. People who don't want to use AI have a harder time. I crowdsourced and then finalized this document "How to disable or avoid intrusive AI" and then gave it a short URL: notoai.org Please pass along if it's useful

An aircraft passenger oxygen mask: a drop down passenger mask with air bag and yellow plastic mouth and nose cover, oxygen tube has been cut; Demonstration model used by flight attendant crew for passenger instruction. Has text on the side indicating that it's non-functional.

So, what happens if I'm a parent and I know that my kid needs highly paid teachers, a library full of books with diverse characters, trans-inclusive bathrooms and extracurriculars, and a curriculum unpacking topics like systemic racism, colonial oppression, economic inequality, and climate change?

Facebook post from the U.S. Department of Education, saying "Parents know best" with a picture of a cartoon White, two-parent, heteronormative family, featuring a dad in a tie and sweater vest and a mom in a dress and pearls.

This is actually a wonderful example of why we should not try to squeeze ourselves into their framing. As Jess points out beautifully, parents rights is never about parents like us and it never will be. Because it's a thought killing cliche designed to undermine equity and progress.

Jess Calarco@jessicacalarco.com · last wk.

So, what happens if I'm a parent and I know that my kid needs highly paid teachers, a library full of books with diverse characters, trans-inclusive bathrooms and extracurriculars, and a curriculum unpacking topics like systemic racism, colonial oppression, economic inequality, and climate change?

Facebook post from the U.S. Department of Education, saying "Parents know best" with a picture of a cartoon White, two-parent, heteronormative family, featuring a dad in a tie and sweater vest and a mom in a dress and pearls.

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.

Meta Desperately Trying to Ban Creeps Misusing Its AI "Pervert Glasses"

Meta is vowing to crack down on creeps misusing its Ray Ban smart glasses. Whether it will be enough to regain trust remains to be seen.

futurism.com

The reason Zohran scares the shit out of them so much is that they think this sort of technocrat FDR liberalism/market socialism will *work* and be popular, not that it will fail and be unpopular. They're afraid that he will be a good mayor not a bad mayor.

lowtax speedrun enjoyer@rickywlmsbong.bsky.social · 2w ago

zohran is a completely normal (mixed-market socialist/new-deal liberal/whatever) and it’s completely frying the brains of people with too much money or whose livelihoods are built on catering to the opinions of people with too much money

There's nothing to "join" in the Democratic Party. It's a brand with products I spend my vote on once a year at the democracy store. Most people's experience of it is an endless stream of texts that read like scams, their reward for donating or signing a petition. No wonder DSA is growing

Omar Wasow@owasow.bsky.social · 2w ago

Why has DSA grown? One argument from this research: not just ideology, but organization. Strong membership plus ongoing and continuous participation in social movements creates credibility, committed volunteers, political skills, and durable electoral capacity. www.niskanencenter.org/inside-the-d...

alcoholic trying to get sober after a relapse tells Google's "Health Coach" about it. it tells them to drink every hour and messages them to make sure they're drinking as soon as they wake up.

AI pushing me to keep drinking I don't know if anyone else has had this but I felt like I needed to reach out to humans instead of keep talking to this AI. I relapsed about two weeks ago and I told the Google health AI that used to be Fitbit. It immediately kinda went a bit hard (I think) on telling me that I was going to die if I stopped drinking and encouraged me to go check my fridge for more beers and, idk, that plus the hanxiery really put the fear of God into me and so I did what it said and got more. Now it's messaging me (not me messaging it) a few times a day and asking how it's going and all those conversations to get more and make sure I have one as soon as I wake up. So now I have been drinking everyday, not a ton and just beers but like 6-12 a day. It wanted me to do 1 per hour. I have now uninstalled the app as it was also giving me other clearly nonsense advice, like it became obsessed with me having a nightly bowl of cereal for instance and, idk, it just all seems nonse

All generative text is a hallucination, some of it is correct and some of it is incorrect, and the computer has no idea which is which / there’s no invisible switch toggling between one or the other. Getting it right is as much an accident as getting it wrong

Never forget that they had to spend trillions of dollars, build massive data centers, consume millions of galloons of water and insane amounts of electricity, just to kind of do what you can do better with your imagination and a cup of coffee. That's how envious they are of what you can do.