Lou Katz @lou@entropyservice.com

The advent of LLMs masquerading as artificial intelligence has made the notion of an absurdly powerful computer, constructed at great expense, and given unseemly resources to answer a meaningful question, only to return the answer “42”, feel more and more prophetic.

Voters approved a statewide measure requiring Kansas City to spend at least 25% of its general revenue on police. It’s the only city in the state with no control over how it’s policed. No accountability. And this takes money away from basic services. https://boltsmag.org/kansas-city-police-funding-referendum/

Accusing Elon Musk’s X of bias is like accusing J. P. Morgan of capitalism. https://journa.host/@samlitzinger/112922809028968929

Via Andrew Weissmann:

Let’s remember that as the polls start to show a Harris-Walz victory, it means not just another loss for #Trump, but the real prospect of jail. Given those stakes, we shd expect truly criminal and violent behavior above and below the water line.

SHOCK POLL: Majority Of Voters Say Trump Is ‘Too Old’ To Be President https://www.politicalflare.com/2024/08/shock-poll-majority-of-voters-say-trump-is-too-old-to-be-president/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Cops are not medical professionals. They should never be given the power to decide who can legally wear a mask for health reasons.

I keep hearing people I know who I thought genuinely cared for the people on the ragged edges of US society saying that they’re not going to vote for Harris. I wish they’d see voting as a thing we do *for each other* instead of something that speaks to your own self-centered opinion.

It’s just moral narcissism - the idea that how it makes you feel about yourself is the most important thing. It’s wildly, WILDLY selfish. And these are the same people who lecture others about privilege.

Wild.

Term limits aren’t enough. Expand the Supreme Court. https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/4808114-biden-proposal-supreme-court-reform/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Back before nation states and the rule of law there was a reason that cities usually had a very large wall around them.

Smoking, vaping called a deadly combination for lung cancer risk https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2024/08/02/smoking-vaping-lung-cancer-study/9151722604964/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Weird and weirder, it’s all they’ve got!

@ceejbot Time to bring "microfortnights" back into common use. They sound so much more elegant than "seconds" and they're a bit longer as a bonus.

Pressure grows on President Biden to arrange prisoner swap with Boeing for two astronauts currently held indefinitely on international space station.

You'd think by now they would have identified all the images with motorcycles. I feel no need to continue to process them for our digital overlords.

EFF's "privacy badger" extension today expanded its effect on the Google "Ad Sandbox" to disable not just Topics (the worst of Ad Sandbox's features so far) but also the other two features— including "Ad Measurement", a feature that Apple copied a couple years back and Firefox adopted as an "experiment" this month.

https://mastodon.social/@eff/112831156838249955

The EFF here succinctly argues why all of these ad features should not be running on your computer:

I'm starting a new delivery service for pecans, almonds, macadamias, pistachios, and cashews. I'm calling it "Nuts to You!"

The people who confused the Last Supper with Greek Mythology are the same people who want to eliminate the Department of Education

Governments always want to censor and surveil the internet and the only thing that ever changes is the boogeyman they point to as justification for their power grab.