‘Algorithms lack the spark of humanity’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VCWgoIrRCo&list=UU9rJrMVgcXTfa8xuMnbhAEA - video
https://pivottoai.libsyn.com/20261005-anthropic-could-ai-be-conscious-pope-leo-lol-no - podcast

time: 7 min 58 sec

How many living, breathing human beings really read Techdirt? The truth — the most basic, rarely-spoken truth — is that we have no earthly idea. With very few exceptions, no media property big or small, new or old, online or off, can truly tell you how big its audience is. They may have never thought about it that way — after all, we all get as close as we can to what we think is a reasonably accurate estimation, though we have no way of confirming that — but all these numbers are actually good for (maybe) is relative comparisons. What does it really mean when someone says “a million people” saw something? Or ten or a hundred million? I don’t know, and neither do you. (Netflix might, but we’ll get to that later.)

Where should we start? How about this: internet traffic is half-fake and everyone’s known it for years, but there’s no incentive to actually acknowledge it. The situation is technically improving: 2015 was hailed (quietly, among people who aren’t in charge of selling advertising) as a banner year because humans took back the majority with a stunning 51.5% share of online traffic, so hurray for that I guess.

All the analytics suites, the ad networks and the tracking pixels can try as they might to filter the rest out, and there’s plenty of advice on the endless Sisyphean task of helping them do so, but considering at least half of all that bot traffic comes from bots that fall into the “malicious” or at least “unauthorized” category, and thus have every incentive to subvert the mostly-voluntary systems that are our first line of defence against bots… Well, good luck. We already know that Alexa rankings are garbage, but what does this say about even the internal numbers that sites use to sell ad space? Could they even be off by a factor of 10? I don’t know, and neither do you. Hell, we don’t even know how accurate the 51.5% figure is — it could be way off… in either direction.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/52757891

A great mother. Can you imagine carrying around a few dozen babies until they are big enough to take care of themselves? This Rabida Rabidosa has lost a leg and a pedipalp.

A craft makes its slow and gentle way up the Willamette River toward the Eastside Esplanade after touching down in the water.

(Actually it’s a boat, but just enjoy a snapshot of the fanciful future.)

Also, the English language is weird. For those of you not from Portland, if you try to read the text on the building on the left naively, with phonics, you’d get laughed at. English is a difficult language, and “moda center” is actually pronounced as “rose garden.” Easy mistake for the unprepared to make.

Thanks for seeing my work!

I've learned a lot of unnecessary information about small fishing and military boats. Basically every seashore used them.
About what kinda sails they have in storm (reefed), and what is a full English rig (with a triangular storm sail).
But this sketch isn't that.

BTW Is there a word for being overly enthusiastic to pick up a challenge and make it harder "for fun"?

Democratic US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed on Monday schooled Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum about President Donald Trump's illegal war with Iran.

While appearing on MacCallum's show, the Michigan Democrat made the case that Trump's war, which he launched without congressional authorization in February, was one "we shouldn't be fighting."

"Why are we fighting this war, to what end?" El-Sayed asked. "Who benefits from it? Why did we do this? What are we paying for it?"

El-Sayed: Why are we fighting this war?FOX: Iran created a huge threat to the neighborhoodEl-Sayed: The nuclear threat had been contained. FOX: I don't know, they had been breaking JCPOA by many estimations. El-Sayed: By estimations people like to cherry-pick, sure https://t.co/qYiCeq4lB3
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 5, 2026

MacCallum responded that Iran "created a huge threat" in the Middle East, and pointed to Iran's role in the 1983 bombing of a barracks that was housing US Marines in Beirut, Lebanon as evidence.

El-Sayed noted that former President Barack Obama had signed a deal with Iran to halt its nuclear weapons program, which Trump scrapped during his first term even though Iran was complying with the terms of the agreement at the time.

"Donald Trump came and tore that agreement up, and then, in his second administration, created a war that the people of Michigan are now paying for," said El-Sayed. "Then you ask yourself, does more war make us actually safer? And the argument that I think we continue to need to learn is that less war in the world is usually safer."

"We're in a situation right now where we could have chosen peace," he added. "And instead we chose war. And right, you've got a situation with the Strait of Hormuz where we can't move oil and gas."

Elsewhere in the interview, El-Sayed explained his rationale for raising taxes on the wealthy, whom MacCallum credited with making the US the "engine of the world."

FOX: I understand thinking that some people have too much money. We are engine of the world for these things and people end up being billionaires as a result. El-Sayed: The issue is not that some people have too much money. It’s that the engine that created their opportunity to make money is being underfunded…FOX: You said you wanted to choke them out.El-Sayed: I don't want to choke anyone out. I want to make sure everyone can breathe. Right now, you have an economy where people are getting choked out because they don’t have the basic means for a dignified life because we are more focused on allowing a billionaire to make another billion…
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 5, 2026

"I would rather live in a society where, rather than a billionaire making a second billion, I'm invested in a public school," he said, "so that some kid out there gets a great education, gets to participate in capitalism, builds an amazing business, and gets to make money too."

"I don't want to choke anyone out," El-Sayed explained. "I want to make sure everyone can breathe. Right now, you have an economy where people are getting choked out because they don’t have the basic means for a dignified life because we're all a lot more focused on allowing a billionaire to make a second, third, fifth billion than we are in making sure a kid gets good schools."

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

Proposition 40, which will be on the ballot in November, would impose a one-time, 5% tax on California’s 200 billionaires,

These fucks will do anything to avoid paying taxes...

with 90% of the revenue from the proposed measure going toward the state’s health care program and 10% going toward education, food assistance, and administration. Brin, with a net worth of nearly $260 billion, could owe about $13 billion as a result of the tax.

Can't be contributing to "socialism" I guess? Get some of that $260 billion liquid and pay up, dickhead.

Some 99 million years ago, during the age of the dinosaurs, a tiny insect belonging to a species previously unknown to science became trapped in tree resin. The resin hardened and turned into amber, and the fossil preserved within it has now enabled a team of researchers from the School of Zoology and The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History to identify and describe a new species: Cretodorus noonoo, or "Noo-Noo."

From Biology News - Evolution, Cell theory, Gene theory, Microbiology, Biotechnology via This RSS Feed.

The UK has threatened to expel one Israeli diplomat for every British diplomat forced to leave Israel as a result of Israel’s decision to close the UK consulate in East Jerusalem later this week.

This could mean as many as 27 Israeli diplomats being expelled from the UK, a step that would arguably mark the lowest point in British-Israeli diplomatic relations since the formation of the state of Israel.

The mass expulsion threat – more reminiscent of British-Russian diplomatic relations – was first reported by the Israeli newspaper Ynet, citing a message sent to Israeli officials. The UK Foreign Office said it would not comment on speculation, rather than denying the report outright.

Israel has threatened to close the UK consulate in East Jerusalem in protest at the UK decision to ban trade in goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and to impose sanctions on British firms that aid, support or facilitate the construction of further illegal settlements.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/67840359

In a letter addressed to Attorney General Todd Blanche, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, Mills asks the DOJ for an “investigation and intervention” of Georgia’s voting systems in connection with ballot secrecy, preservation of election records, and sharing of voter registration and motor vehicle data with outside organizations.

The letter also asks the DOJ to hold Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger “accountable” if he withholds any information or prevents the review. Raffensperger, a Republican, resisted enormous pressure from President Donald Trump to “find” enough votes in Georgia to overturn his 2020 election loss.

I get a lot of crap for my New Balances, but they did 26km of meadow hiking and no problems on the feet. Thats a win in my book.

This could set a very dangerous precedent

Today we’re joined by Dr. Lesley Warner and Andrew Leber to discuss the Houthis and the regional dynamics at play across the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. Lesley is a visiting scholar with the Africa Program and Andrew is a nonresident scholar in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Where the just authored a Q&A titled, “The Impacts of the Houthis’ Advance Could Extend Well Beyond Saudi Arabia”

Follow Lesley, Andrew and see their work below: https://carnegieendowment.org/people/lesley-anne-warner

https://carnegieendowment.org/people/andrew-leber

https://carnegieendowment.org/emissary/2026/09/houthis-bab-al-mandeb-impacts-saudi-arabia-somaliland

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/21/opinion/houthis-iran-hormuz.html

https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/china-taiwan-africa-pressure-campaign/

https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1598&context=nwc-review

https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/israels-recognition-of-somaliland-will-reverberate-beyond-the-horn-of-africa/

https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/africa-gen-z-protests-democracy/

Great discussion on the most important flashpoint on earth right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lceAMfYNQyA

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/52757934

On a September evening, Adam Johnson, 40, settled on his porch chair in Morgantown, West Virginia, to go over his ballot for the upcoming midterm election.

Chatting through all the races and the different candidates, he worked to figure out who best represented his values. But rather than discussing it with a friend or family member, he held an hours-long discussion with ChatGPT — a chatbot powered by a large language model (LLM) owned by OpenAI, an AI research company.

A graphic designer studying to be an illustrator, Johnson said ChatGPT is a significant part of his life. He uses it for meal planning, assistance in job hunting and various other tasks around the house^[maybe this is a valid use case, if buying groceries is a bit too confusing].

After prompting the AI-powered chatbot to make a list of all the races on his ballot this year, Johnson dug deeper.

Johnson is one of a growing number of voters using chatbots to research their ballots for the first midterm election since AI has taken the country by storm. About half of American adults report using AI-powered chatbots and about 42% of users said they use it to search for information, according to the Pew Research Center.

Several voters NPR spoke with said they rely on chatbots for down-ballot races with thinner news coverage, to make tables comparing candidates for governors' races and to verify or debunk viral claims. Some have been using it to create tools to help others look up their own ballots. Experts say the properties that make chatbots useful also make them subtly persuasive and eager to please.

"It might select some things that would reinforce and persuade you even more towards the way that you were leaning already," said Rafael Batista, a postdoctoral fellow at John Hopkins University, who studies the societal and behavioral impacts of AI. "So you leave more confident, without necessarily learning more about the world."

Having spent the vast majority of my life in states where the Secretary of State's main job is administering elections and therefore sending out comprehensive voter's guides four to six weeks ahead of (at least general) statewide elections, I was alarmed to discover Texas does no such thing.

That's left to the League of Women Voters, and, well, candidates are less than enthusiastic about responding to a nonprofit that will post on a website than making sure their statements are included in something mailed out to every single registered voter.

In states with main-in voting, such as Oregon, the tempo was whatever you wanted it to be. Generally, the voter's guide would arrive a week or two before my ballot, which itself arrived three to four weeks ahead of the deadline to return my ballot.

Some years, I'd get through most of it in a single sitting, but when you're dealing with eight propositions, two of which are sock puppets that look similar to two placed on the ballot in good faith, things can take a bit more time. And this is where the pro/con arguments people can pay to place past the text of the measure and the SoS interpretation of impacts including financial costs and benefits.

That's real information presented to inform. ChatGPT is neither.

But also I dont care if you understand cuz i dont give a fuck what anyone thinks... and like... thats really cool of me... and you should agree and call me cool a lot