zephorah

@zephorah@lemm.ee

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Paul McCartney and Dua Lipa among artists urging British Prime Minister Starmer to rethink his AI copyright plans⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s like the goal is to bleed culture from humanity. Corporate is so keep on the $$$ they’re willing to sacrifice culture to it.

  I’ll bet corporate gets to keep their copyrights.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do we tolerate it that Luigi Mangione is being held in prison. We know its absolutely the least safe place he can be?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  True. I think even if he gets off, they’ll kill him. Remember all the whistleblower deaths in 2024? Like that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨NSF stops awarding new grants and funding existing ones⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Most of it was psychological, not unlike lines painted on a road acting like a divider. The only barrier, most places, is a mental one. Even when a road is empty, most people obey out of a sense of safety and respect for 3 ton bullets.

  Windows on houses, also a psychological barrier to entry. They’re glass, anyone can break them with little effort. Take away the mental restraint and you have every zombie movie ever made.

  Belief in the constitution, the democratic republic of America, and the rule of law does not exist with MAGA. As such, there are no mental guardrails to hold anything dictatorial or destructive back.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨NSF stops awarding new grants and funding existing ones⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  As a nation we already have to import degrees. Now, I anticipate bleeding the homegrown degrees out to other countries.

  I’m a little shocked the money makers and corporate haven’t pushed Trump out to pasture via the 25th amendment to save the dollar and future innovation/$$$$.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The first driverless semis have started running regular longhaul routes | CNN Business⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Terrifying.

  I wonder how much our car insurance will go up due to this.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mark Zuckerberg Thinks You Don't Have Enough Friends and His Chatbots Are the Answer⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Until you listen to the Behind the Bastards on him and realize FB started out as a women hotness rating system local to his college. There was no benign origin here.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨All four major web browsers are about to lose 80% of their funding | by Dan Fabulich | Apr, 2025⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  This is another bullet point on the list of MAGA stopping or confusing the flow and accessibility of information.

  We are to know nothing about what they are doing in the world, ideally.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Amazon says displaying tariff cost 'not going to happen' after White House blowback⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  MAGA attacked the largest law firms first. Then the news. Then research and universities. Now Wikipedia. Google kissed the ring before he won. META is eager to toe his line, per leaked staff meetings. The White House press secretary routinely ignores reality in favor of cluster B personality disorder false reality.

  This is all about blocking true and correct information. There can be no opposition if everyone’s in doubt regarding truth and what is actually happening.

  So of course he is vehemently opposed to something like Amazon spelling out how tariffs really work.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump’s Social Media Surveillance: Social Scoring by Another Name⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I think they’re talking about people you may have lost contact with. Where do find anyone for a quick text? Facebook. What is the substitute platform for finding just about anyone?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Cops are deploying AI-powered social media bots to talk to people they suspect are anything from violent sex criminals all the way to vaguely defined “protesters”⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Wait. Events are moving too fast to keep up with, now free speech is illegal. Great.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Unless you live inside a major city in America, you can’t get to work without a vehicle. It’s either have a car or be homeless.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  They were manufacturing original Volkswagen beetles in Brazil and Mexico up until 2003?. Illegal to sell in the USA.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨FCC head Brendan Carr tells Europe to get on board with Starlink⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  So our government is now doubling as advertising executives?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Fund managers worry about Trump’s mental state amid tariff debacle⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  He’s 80 years old and has lived his life in erratic impulsivity. That’s the background structure of the inertia he is experiencing during dementia, allegedly.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bots increase online user engagement but stifle meaningful discussion, study shows⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If “engagement” is a tap in, which this article is not clear on, then it’s a piss poor measurement of engagement.

  I think bots are “good” for making an item appear viral through artificial amplification of visibility. Of note, the headlines in Gaza and Israel pre 2024 election were a deluge. Multiples every day. Post election, that deluge of posts dropped abruptly, to 0-1 a day.

  There also needs to be a distinction between passive and active engagement.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Switch 2 preorders delayed over Trump tariff uncertainty⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  What’s uncertain? He’s solidifying income for the executive branch sans congress. And thus gutting congressional power over the executive branch before midterms.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What phones are the government people using that are supposedly secure enough to discuss war plans? iPhone? Android? Some special custom-made phone specifically for the government?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  They’re using Signal so nothing is recorded.

  Basically there’s a government transparency mandate by We The People. It’s why info gets released to the press and eventually things like the JFK assassination are released years later. It’s why everything the president writes or says is recorded. Because, in theory, they work for We The People and have to answer to us. They can’t do that if no one knows what they’re up to.

  Trump admin says, fuck that, fuck We The People, we will now use an end to end encrypted service that cannot be effectively subpoenaed. What we do is our secret, so no one knows what we are up to.

  As a messaging service Signsl is as secure and private as the people using it. You want privacy you use WIRE or Signal. Your stuff isn’t recorded on a database like Facebook Messenger, for later subpoenas, it’s just poof, gone, as you delete it. You can even time delete it for everyone in chat after a few minutes, an hour, a week, etc.

  As for the phones themselves, I don’t know. In general terms, out of the box, Apple is more secure than android but neither is private, unless the feds get a telemetry removal package or some such which would make sense. GrapheneOS on an Android device (strips all telemetry including that map app) is how we laymen do it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump supporter Rick Fuze was arrested in CA for using a stun gun on peaceful protesters outside a Tesla dealership. The woman kicking this guy’s ass is a retired professor with 16,000 citations.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  She’s medically trained, so she knows where to hit him. In addition, there’s a lack of barrier to entering the physical space of strangers and physically touching them just in general. That barrier almost doesn’t exist for medical. The rest of the world, middle of the bell curve, hesitates.

  And if she’s done direct patient care at any point in her career, there’s a good chance she has no patience left for shenanigans.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A Trump H-1B crackdown could hit Big Tech hard, with Amazon suffering most.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Isn’t this President Musk’s baby? This will never happen.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨US retailers haggle with suppliers after Trump tariffs⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Chinesium items you normally run to Amazon for, the same exact items, the same pictures even, at 2/3 to 1/2 the price: Temu. I’m not buying clothes there, but the price difference is real.

  Those of us who are older remember eBay before Amazon. Phone chargers, cases, adapters, that’s where you went. Then all that product slid over to Amazon as it rose to prominence beyond bookselling. Then Walmart wanted a piece and duplication on two markets happened. Now it’s more directly available on Temu. Ali before that, just not as heavily advertised. Bonus, Bezos doesn’t get paid. Same crap, different vibe.

  The Chinesium is still cheap, even with tariffs, you just have to bypass more middlemen to get there. High odds you won’t have easy returns like Amazon and Walmart, that’s the trade off.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are some slow acting poisons?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Heavy metals in artists’ oil paints.

  You can always dig into true crime, see what methods are used to kill husbands.

  Check out ChubbyEmu on YouTube. He’s a pharmacist who presents strange and interesting medical stories (with dramatic re-enactments) involving unusual chemical exposures that damage and sometimes kill people. Examples: soda, coconut water from a bad coconut, a fermented soup, ivermectin ordered online, lab chemicals stolen by a student and given to a disliked roommate, and so on. Maybe something there will inspire you. ChubbyEmu does a good job of breaking down complex medical into an easily digestible format.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Assassin's Creed Shadows | Review Thread⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  The challenge side quests. I could not pursue them in full. Not that the speed runs didn’t have enjoyment, it was just too much. And the brother was both irrational and grating to deal with for that long.

  The Mirage info is simultaneously reassuring and infuriating. The latter for money reasons given probable content expectations after Odyssey and Valhalla.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Assassin's Creed Shadows | Review Thread⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Loved Odyssey and Origins was quite good. Valhalla was too long, too much. Granted I’ve never been into the Thor/Odin pantheon like some people, Tom Middleton’s Loki being the exception. The sheer amount of game (completionist) made me not want to engage Mirage or Shadows.

  Aside from that general opinion, AC games are usually spot on for people who can only ingest 2hrs at a time, like it’s their daily or bi-daily TV binge allotment.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I love McMaster-Carr's website.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  The shipping rates will shock you but yes, you can find so many useful things on this site.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨U.S. withdrawal from WHO could bring tragedy at home and abroad⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This will be an intense loss of resources for vaccine development going forward. Granted, scientists tend not to care about politics and share info on their own terms, for science, here’s hoping anyway should something on par with or worse than COVID comes up.

  The yearly flu shot, for example, is a world collaboration.

  Think of it this way. Flu is forever mutating into new flu. If two flus meet in the night, there’s a high probability a third flu will be born. Pig flu can hook up with human flu. Human flu can hook up with chicken flu. And so it goes, an endless cycle of new flus, some better adapted to some species than others, until it just adapts.

  So scientists collaborate every year to develop a flu vaccine that contain the top, say, 3 or so strains they predict will hit globally, and that mix is your flu vaccine, new and different every year. Most of the time, they get it right. Some years, a new bad player pops up and we have H1N1 or H5N1 making news.

  I still don’t understand what Trump thinks he’s getting out of getting out of WHO.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨uhh… my ex girlfriend and long-time friend is now cishet, very christian, and makes those “i identify as” jokes regarding trans people. would it end up bad for me if i continued to be her friend?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This is always a personal choice.

  Bear in mind you do yourself a disservice by believing rag headlines (common dreams, daily beast, new republic, etc) in an echo chamber. Talking to people who don’t agree with you will tell you more about present politics, in terms of what the “other guy” is thinking. It’s also an opportunity to pick things apart in chill discussions and find the point where you digress instead of assuming.

  Flippant remarks are typically engaged in areas people haven’t spent time or mental resources on. They’re more likely to be verbal passcodes for a social group. You could find out. Where the jokes stop is usually the more viscerally believed area.

  Or maybe that’s just me who has an interest in that sort of thing. That said, you can encounter people you start to sway with reasonable discussion based in listening to everything they want to say who then get angry, yell that they can’t talk to you any more, who then simply go away.

  To be fair I have all the energy in the world for strangers because they’re often 1-4 encounters and done. In my personal life, I have the energy and wherewithal to maintain 1, and that is probably only because they’re my closest genetic link.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Cars will need fewer screens and more buttons to earn a 5-star safety rating in Europe | Euro NCAP will introduce new testing rules in 2026 requiring physical controls for the highest safety score⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Maybe the evolution. My grandmother told stories of her dad scaring her mom with his “crazy” driving, speeding up to 40, sometimes even 45 mph.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Cars will need fewer screens and more buttons to earn a 5-star safety rating in Europe | Euro NCAP will introduce new testing rules in 2026 requiring physical controls for the highest safety score⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Screen consoles in 4000lb bullets were the dumbest engineering idea ever. It’s probably a contributing factor as to why accident rates are up.

  Up until 2018 I could manipulate my entire console without shifting my eyes from the road. Doing this by touch alone only works with physical buttons and knobs.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Amazon Restricted Vaginal Health Products for Being ‘Potentially Embarrassing’⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The better odds are on control.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨France is about to pass the worst surveillance law in the EU.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Luigi wasn’t talking with anyone. None of this would’ve helped them with him.