“Young men are all right wing now!”

Erm, no.

30% of young men (18-24) would vote Green, whilst just 12% would vote Reform.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DUn9esviFX_/

Oooooh SNAP!!! 💥

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of Spain:

“First, we will change the law in Spain to hold platform executives legally accountable for many infringements taking place on their sites. This means that CEOs of these tech platforms will face criminal liability […]
Second, we will turn algorithmic manipulation and amplification of illegal content into a new criminal offense. […]
spreading hate must come at a cost.”

Have a great weekend, Elon! 😘

https://www.youtube.com/live/NElqgJ1aXFA?si=M52qiZYBt55KRamm

I stopped trying to debate software devs on LLMs a while back. Even if they could be budged on empirical grounds, they are explicitly fine with using tools that are themselves deeply unethical

Debating people who look past "chatbot psychosis", the dismantling of the education system, the gendered abuse, the generated CSAM images, the overt attacks on the media industries, or the ultra-right's glee about "AI", by showing them a well-constructed academic study is never going to work 1/n

My 92 year old aunt: You do the Leenux thing, right? You need to come over sometime and install it for me, because f#ck all I ain't gonna update to Windows 11.

Me: .... ?!#!?

I explain what the change-over entails and that I generally don't recommend it just because...

Aunt: No, f#ck that, f#ck capitalism, my laptop is still fine, so come over and set me up with that Leenux thing.

#Linux #christmas

For those wondering why I'm making such a fuss about #Solstice, here's an excerpt from Terry Pratchett's #Hogfather. Susan, a mortal who is Death's granddaughter, has just saved the Hogfather (a Santa/Father Christmas type figure) from a messy death at the hands of those who would prefer a more clockwork universe.

I WILL GIVE YOU A LIFT BACK, said Death, after a while.

"Thank you. Now... tell me..."

WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU HADN'T SAVED HIM?

"Yes! The sun would have risen just the same, yes?"

NO.

"Oh, come on. You can't expect me to believe that. It's an astronomical fact."

THE SUN WOULD NOT HAVE RISEN.

...

"Really? Then what would have happened, pray?"

A MERE BALL OF FLAMING GAS WOULD HAVE ILLUMINATED THE WORLD.

They walked in silence for a moment.

"Ah," said Susan dully. "Trickery with words. I would have thought you'd have been more literal-minded than that. "

I AM NOTHING IF NOT LITERAL-MINDED. TRICKERY WITH WORDS IS WHERE *HUMANS* LIVE.

"All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... *fantasies* to make life bearable. "

REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little --"

YES. AS PRACTICE YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

-----

Happy #Hogswatch to all who celebrate.

It's becoming increasingly clear to me that Reflect Orbital's fucking stupid giant mirror satellite, with absolutely NOTHING useful to offer, which will cause countless safety issues, ecological disasters, and destroy the night sky, is going to launch.

A bunch of astronomers and I have sent out a fact sheet about them to a bunch of journalists, but very few are going to write about this. So, let me try posting it all here.

Here's what I know about Reflect Orbital and all the downsides: