@krapp Like we can't even talk about if the stuff that seems like obvious nonsense might be... obvious nonsense. Because that's "demonic." Give me a break. I do think that there are things in the world that when you see them what you feel is very real. I think about the time I saw a tornado […]

RE: https://sauropods.win/@futurebird/117037344789241428 I guess I need to also say: demons are not real. (If you are wondering why I'd need to say something so obvious I'll explain) The vice president of the united states either thinks demons are real or wants people to think he thinks they […]

Why doesn't anyone care that Iran (maybe) did a cyber attack on US water plants? Without the context of the war and a US strike leaving 10,000 in Iran without water I wouldn't give this much attention either. But, this fits in with the tit-for-tat restrained but persistent strategy of Iran […]

Nice work, Michigan. Now it begins.

situational awareness kid really said "im gonna make TAS speed runs for real life" and they gave him $45 billion dollar. He said "this is the future:" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccTGKiqGxQM

RE: https://mas.to/@havvyhh2/117039791242598049 If you are running for a local office money is important, but do you know what matters more? A good volunteer. A retired person, or a teacher with summer time, a student or the head of the local church choir. Get these people with sharp minds […]

No one cares about Aphaenogaster fulva even thought it's one of the most common ants in the US. Just two sentences in the wikipedia. It amazes me how little we can know about ants that are a huge part of our environments.

Some myrmecologists, both amateur and professional have started to wince away from the term "slavery" when used to describe the way that some ants capture other ants. This is mostly a kind impulse to not mix up the horrors of human slavery with something insects do. I've made the case that the […]

"Speaking stones, you have the wisdom of every written word, every dream of mortal man, tell me how to remain a king forever." "An excellent request" said the speaking stones "Only the most shrewd and wise rulers think to ask. Your question shows your insight and deep love for your people." […]

The new king was a tyrant and the people lived in fear. The king's first advisor, a magician of a new religion claimed that he would make the stones speak, and that that those who listened to the stones (any merchant, bard or lord) might unlock endless wealth. The magician made and offering to […]

Will someone write a poem about the Americans? The Americans were a war-like people but they made delicious little sandwiches and bewitching music but that age is long long gone lost in time.

A machine with unbounded output can't be integrated into a company, into your life, or into greater systems since you can't imagine the range of possible outputs and plan to interface with them. LLMs and systems that execute macros generated by LLMs strive for the illusion of unbounded output […]

[You think someone would do that?] Just go on the internet ... and lie??? This interviewer is cracking me up. (video cued to the timestamp) She is responding to Ed explaining that people are maybe kind of skeptical of circular financing […]

American capitalism has always had no chill. No sense of reflection, no moral floor. But, that was supposed to be the point. A feature, not a bug. Like a hurricane or a wildfire only the tallest and most healthy trees would survive. And this would make companies efficient, prices low, trade […]

This is the best summary of the facehugger 'hack' incident. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpTw9z5RIM8

Ants have little combs on their front legs and they use them to keep their antennae free of dust and debris. When they clean their antennae they look like they are brushing their very long hair. Here is a collection of photos I've tagged showing ants grooming. Need to stay lovely […]

RE: https://sauropods.win/@futurebird/113866093397576803 What is it like to work at FLOCK what is is like to work at palantir? What is it like to work for ICE... not on the ground but doing their website, or their payroll? I posted about this just after the election and this interview reminded […]

myrmepropagandist@futurebird.sauropods.win.ap.brid.gy · 2y ago

If you work with a database and are asked to alter the table structure to comply in advance for citizenship or gender categorizations it's really important to NOT do it. "The governor is concerned about all this stuff they want us to update our record keeping so we store both gender AND […]

It's Uber for nursing. Nurses will bid against their coworkers for shifts, the one willing to work for the lowest wages "wins" Well. I think someone else is winning. https://ainowinstitute.org/publications/uber-for-nursing

Uber For Nursing Part II - AI Now Institute

A seismic shift is rocking the healthcare industry. Uber’s business model—the “gigification” of labor—and lobbying practices have made their way to healthcare staffing.

ainowinstitute.org

@WorldTravelerAll7 I'm asking because there is a kid in Iran who is depressed because they can't go outside and identify bug. (there are other things to be depressed about but I find this young person's choice of focus in an obvious crisis very relatable and I want to help them) iNaturalist […]

[facehugging] When they keep saying the OpenAI agents "escaped containment" does that mean that the agent was running on their server and used an illegal process to get information from another server? Or does it mean that the agent put a new process on another server and that is what did the […]

Being a math person makes me bad at taxonomy sometimes. I want these things to be discrete and well defined. I get hung up on "but what about the tiny chance that it's ..." when it's not likely. I think I'm getting better at it but it's a little hard.

I thought NYC was so cool since we have our own introduced ant. (it's not good that it was introduced, but it's kind of neat to have a NYC only ant in the US) But I just found out that in St. Louis they have Tetramorium tsushimae ... it's replacing their Tetramorium immigrans. It's not really […]

[US Pol: RFK] I didn't watch the whole interview. But, what I found most fascinating from the parts that I saw is that ... he's a true believer. He really just thinks he's right about all of this stuff and it is fatal and dangerous because he's wrong. I do think he must know he's stretching […]

Are there any insect-focused sites like iNaturalist that are more popular with Arabic speakers or just more popular in countries where most people speak Arabic? iNaturalist is in theory language neutral, but it's very English heavy.

#SilentSunday

I know there have been some problems with iNaturalist but it's posts like this that have me addicted to the site. Someone posts an amazing photo of a Meranoplus ant in Indonesia. I'm just admiring the amazing spines and wondering about her colony. I go through the whole genus looking for the […]

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[CEOs] I think I get it now. CEOs are influencers. The CEO of a public company, or of a private company that needs to raise a lot of funds can't just run the company and try to make money, they need to be a public person, interesting, controversial. They need to say things that will aid in […]

@futurebird If you have any influence on creators, let them know about Camradery, a creator-owned cooperative that works like Patreon, but functions without any of the venture capital funded enshitification. https://comradery.co/

Comradery

Collect money from your subscribers on a cooperatively owned platform

comradery.co

The less tactile computers become the more tactile the espresso machines will be. Does this make the coffee taste better? I don't even like coffee but I want to use all of these gadgets. The hands long for knobs and pumps.