AFAICT, both of our societies (American and European) are currently putting more money and political capital into air conditioning GPUs than into climate-proofing homes for vulnerable populations, so maybe we could just cut back on data centers and free up some capacity for making sure people don't die of heat exhaustion.

@pluralistic patiently explains why the apparently limitless powers of AI to change the world are a dangerously misleading illusion:

"early success with theory-free inference at scale tells us nothing about how to solve the vast range of problems that theory-free inference at scale sucks at"

https://pluralistic.net/2026/08/21/world-historic-forces/#multicore

@kapellosaur yet still more pleasant than satan station

RE: https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/117136603195850233

A well-argued essay from @anildash tucked at the bottom of the latest from @pluralistic

Like many others whom the post addresses, I find “AI” so frustrating and distasteful that I have a hard time remembering that no one’s mind was ever changed by arguing

I’m resolving to at least try and do a better job of hearing what is behind others’ drive to engage with the slopbots in service of providing viable alternatives

#wwzmd

I enjoyed this:

https://craigmod.com/ridgeline/232/

@ptoothfish my wife saw that over my shoulder and said "eew that sounds like dandruff"

@quixoticgeek I'm glad France is up to the challenge of taking "worst station" from Barcelona Sants

@Caelumtangi genial! 😀 de res!

…The original Jaws script for the above scene voiced by Murray Hamilton was:

“As you can see, it’s a beautiful day, the beach is open, and people are having a wonderful time.”

One more week to apply for my PhD position in digital forensic #linguistics #nlproc #phdposition 🤗
https://jobs.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/jobposting/870a96abc9c1d265d30d96c359a15f0d1c02b97c0

affirmations when opening a stuck jar:

- I am stronger than the jar
- i know what left and right are
- ⁠⁠smashing the jar will make a mess
- i have strong and dextrous hands
- ⁠⁠I have opened jars before and I will open jars again

finally salt for man

Lücke in WordPress-Plug-in Elementor Pro: 6 Millionen Webseiten gefährdet https://www.heise.de/news/Luecke-in-WordPress-Plug-in-Elementor-Pro-6-Millionen-Webseiten-gefaehrdet-11421805.html

#Linktipp

@spla m'ha anat de conya aquest enllaç! Fet! i gràcies!

#OtD 22 Aug 1917 police in Turin, Italy fired on an anti-war protest of mostly women and children calling for "peace and bread", killing and injuring members of the crowd. The following day, workers responded with a general strike, raids and barricades https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9449/turin-anti-war-protest-massacre

Ursula K. LeGuin's "Earthsea" cycle is an excellent thing to re-read in your early 40ies, to see how different and still the same it feels in the middle of your life instead of the first quarter.

And this particular edition - hard to hold in your hands, impossible to carry with you, but containing quiet a few extra texts - is something I definitely recommend, too.

#VicisBooks #UrsulaKLeGuin #books #Earthsea

Wahlkampf via Social Media: Weizenbaum-Institut bittet um TikTok-Datenspenden https://www.heise.de/news/Wahlkampf-via-Social-Media-Weizenbaum-Institut-bittet-um-TikTok-Datenspenden-11421727.html

#Linktipp

As I am missing a few followers in my instance move, it is with an actual purpose that I say:

It's my birthday, give me boosts.

Well we have reached the point where someone just sent me a 10p doc that is “I asked AI to tell you how to do your job”.

Deeply insulting. I’m far from perfect. But I have been doing this for 30 years and I promise I can beat the voluminous mediocrity you sent me.

What it say is you do not understand my job, nor have enough respect to learn.