RT @DrTOMontgomery
#YouBetTheyDie

This is a tongue strap. Used on racehorses because they are pushed beyond their natural limits.

The strap is wrapped around the tongue then it's fastened under the lower jaw.

It's just one of countless dirty secrets in horse racing.
https://youtu.be/FHkLn0L9Y7A

Today on Dirty Feed: 1 minute and 27 seconds of audio joy. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

https://www.dirtyfeed.org/2023/03/bernard-manning-newsflash/

#ChatGPT and its ilk are effectively a large-scale DDoS attack on not only specific tasks (such as teaching, software maintenance and fiction editing) but on human creative inspiration, sense of self and ability to make meaning of the universe.

notice how they are
- creating work for us rather than saving us work
- automating inherently energizing and rewarding tasks such as making art rather than tiring and tedious tasks such as filing taxes
- flooding social networks with generated content that makes it harder to connect with real humans and build community
- distracting us with questions like “what if this machine is sentient?” which keep us from noticing and acting to prevent the suffering of actual humans

that thing where all search engines have become basically unusable because they’re stuffed full of AI garbage? i fear that’s about to happen to everything.

i don’t believe this is necessarily intentional, but no machine that learns under capitalism can imagine another world.

Well folks, I can finally announce my secret project...

I'm writing a book about the history of Maxis Software for Limited Run Games. Stay tuned for info about the book currently known as SIMEVERYTHING!

Zahawi paid the HMRC because he got caught, not because he had a change of heart.

Never accept a Tory claiming patriotism again.

We pay for this country.

They steal from it.

They are the exact opposite of patriotic.

I'm older so I remember things. Everything you see happening today should be understood this way:

The top tax rate used to be 90% in order to prevent the really rich from destroying democracy.

The corporate tax rate was 50% because corporations exist to serve society.

AND the inheritance tax was really high to keep family dynasties from gaining power over us.

#taxes #democracy

Here is how #platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

1/

Sturgeon clearly, in my opinion, took the #indyref2 case to the Supreme Court knowing it would be lost.

Scottish voters are now left in no doubt that this union is anything but voluntary, which is about the best recruiting tool imaginable to the independence cause.

Indy-supporting parties will fight the next Holyrood election as a de facto referendum, and will almost certainly win handsomely.

Bring it fully the fuck on.