I’ve been writing a counter narrative of shutdowns that has me revisiting media from that time. And let me tell you, the only other option was everybody die. So yeah.

Peter@notalawyer.bsky.social · 3d ago

it’s pretty obvious that a lot of people remember that COVID lockdowns were unpleasant and from there just extrapolate that they were therefore bad policy

I wonder if students today would be less likely to lean on AI for writing assignments if schools had made sure they could touch-type (at least 60wpm) before having them submit all their assignments online. 1/🧵

I keep thinking back to the 2016 study showing students were so bad at spotting misinformation the researchers (rightly) concluded it was a threat to Democracy. We assume the younger generation is tech-davy, don't teach them, and things get worse. www.npr.org/sections/the...

Students Have 'Dismaying' Inability To Tell Fake News From Real, Study Finds

Stanford researchers assessed students from middle school to college and found they struggled to distinguish ads from articles, neutral sources from biased ones and fake accounts from real ones.

npr.org

Appropriate air quotes because the most infuriating part about Americans debating "lockdown" is that it simply never happened. Having to pick up your Applebees and eat it on the sectional does not count. There wasn't even a brief moment where "everything" was closed. That's not real.

Melissa Gira Grant@melissagiragrant.com · 3d ago

if you hated covid "lockdowns" try long covid

There simply aren't enough competent people who are willing to work for this administration. www.reuters.com/world/africa...

US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference

A U.S. government map of Africa mislabeled every country during a State Department presentation at ‌a global conference taking place in Brazil this week, causing a stir among attendees who took screen...

reuters.com

Student: Oh, you need that? No worries, I got this covered. 😌 Narrator: *takes a puff from their pipe in an old armchair in a wooden study* Needless to say they don’t have this covered because they ignored their professor’s explanation and didn’t read the instructions.

AI COMPANIES ARE DESTROYING BOOKS as a blatant reminder that they're villains and techbros are useless to society. www.pcgamer.com/software/ai/...

AI companies are anonymously buying and destroying millions of books through middleman services to avoid headlines about AI companies buying and destroying millions of books

Booksellers say they're facing a sudden surge of orders for seemingly random rare books—and fear they might be profiting from their destruction.

pcgamer.com

Did it 👍 (eventually) [ #cuteart #illustration ]

cc: scientists who work with protected human data, and especially those ones who are also AI evangelists

Maggie Harrison Dupré@mharrisondupre.bsky.social · last wk.

NEW: A large trove of Claude-generated documents have been exposed to the web and indexed by Google. We reviewed what appear to be real medical records, the full names and phone numbers of school-aged children, and company documents marked for internal use only. futurism.com/artificial-i...

Zoom now has an anti-screen-capture setting, and I just selected it. It caught someone trying to screen-record an oral exam on the first day 😭😭😭

🚨 Science-y BS used to push bunk! Scienceploitation! Scientific authority cues increase the spread of misinformation www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... "...these cues are associated with an increase in sharing, especially when sharing low veracity content, and when users lean politically to the right."

Scientific authority cues increase the spread of misinformation | PNAS

Despite extensive efforts to curb misinformation, it continues to spread on social media platforms. Research indicates that people rarely share con...

pnas.org

Share this with the programmers in your life to give them anxiety.

Things will get worse as more students secretly use AI to do homework. There has always been a divide between those who care about education for its own sake and those who only care about grades, but AI will worsen this divide, leaving fewer people with the ability to do causal reasoning.

The Volatile Mermaid@ohnoshetwitnt.bsky.social · 2w ago

I’m sorry what

I am hoping they are partly lambasting the Korra haters by giving them the version of Korra they’ve had in their heads and then taking it away with the truth, but we’ll see if they can manage something like that haha

Paula@Otakon😸@kochanya.bsky.social · 2w ago

Really hoping "the avatar let us down" is a red herring because I'm sooooooo tired of hearing about how Korra is "the worst character ever" from dudebros

Korra destroyed the world bc she couldn’t kiss her gf or talk about their relationship openly on screen. Decades later, Vaatu said, “Girl, that’s soooo homophobic of Nickelodeon.” And she said, “That’s true. I guess you’re right,” which uno-reversed Raava and Vaatu. This is canon. I have a source.

the whole "women's sports exist to protect women from men" framing is hilarious, given that a lot of these divisions were initially formed because men were deeply embarrassed any time a woman beat them at a sport olympic shooting was mixed gender right up until a woman won the gold

So true. #DisabilitySky

“I just don’t get what she means when she says I should use my mouth to turn my thoughts into language,” said the frustrated Gerald Ullman, explaining that “brain thoughts aren’t for girlfriend.”

Overbearing Girlfriend Expects Man To Take Feelings In Head, Use Words To Say Them Into World

BOSTON—Struggling to come to grips with the unreasonable demands, local man Gerald Ullman told reporters Wednesday that his overbearing girlfriend was expecting him to take the feelings in his head an...

theonion.com

I have been trying to unsubscribe from some email lists, and tell me why 90% of them have broken unsubscribe pages that don’t load or work?

Oruguito with his oruguitas 🤍 #WitchHatAtelier #Δ帽子

that sound you hear is the collective weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth and sobbing of academics realizing their summer is over, and they are nowhere close to a) having finished their summer tasks, and/or b) the fall semester looms like a nightmare and they have so much work ahead

Donovan Schaefer@feelingtheory.bsky.social · 2w ago

just sent my first 'enjoy the rest of summer' email

All but 1 assignment plan has been updated for this summer semester. Grading has been a breeze. Reporting misconduct has been a breeze. I only have to update 1 assignment type in the fall semester. The earth is healing.

Went to a craft thing in person and the AI-generated/obviously stolen art on so many of the stickers was killing me. The ones with clear human-made work were so busy that I had no hope of even looking at their wares.

Half of my reads this year have been from my backlog, overlapping with a third from subscription boxes/etc., and a third from just the library (aka no purchase made).

Jeb Bush's Iconic 'Please Clap' Moment

Alt: Jeb Bush's Iconic 'Please Clap' Moment

static.klipy.com

Got to 1k encounters in Safari Week 😮‍💨 4 hours this year so far, 1 hour from last year. I’ll keep at it bit by bit.

“Narcissists' desire for attention, affirmation and control makes them more likely to favour in-person work because it ‘offers richer channels for controlling and commanding reverence from employees.’”

Boss wants you back in the office full time? New research suggests there may be personal motives behind it | CBC News

As more employees are being ordered back into the office full time, new research suggests the rationale may be more about bosses' desire for power and status than productivity.

cbc.ca

CW: emetophobia, TMI? Thought the evil bacteria got me today, but it was just greasy food and really bad air making me horrifically nauseous 😭

"Jessica is a state of mind" you're goddamn right she is

Byron C Clark@byroncclark.bsky.social · 3w ago

The creator of Roger Rabbit (who is 85 years old by the way) is a good sort Crossposted with @openvibe.social

on this day in 1995, scientists discovered bisexuality. happy 31st birthday to all my fellow bs