Mastodawn

I often joke that Brittany is the most left-wing region in France - and has the highest number of cafés and bars per capita... but perhaps the two aspects are more closely linked than I thought.

This article - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/27/progressive-paris-far-right-french-capital-food-culture-community-extremists - links the increasing number of car-free and non-commercial social spaces in Paris with its continuing extraordinary left voting record - and suggests that the well documented disappearance of such spaces in the US and elsewhere may be a factor in the rise of the extreme right.

Progressive Paris has many weapons to fight the far right, but the best? Spaces where you can simply hang out

Drop into any of the French capital’s ‘third places’ and you’ll find food, culture, community – and an antidote to the disaffection extremists feed on, says Paris-based writer Alexander Hurst

The Guardian

Enjoyed this

You know, it isn't even that tools like this are useless. There are absolutely things they could be good at. I've personally seen Claude find stupid little bugs you'd spend an hour figuring out and hating yourself for afterwards with great efficiency. I tried the first iteration of Copilot, back when it was just an aggressive autocomplete, and while I had to stop using it because it was overconfidently trying to finish my programs for me without being asked, it was great for filling in boilerplate and maybe even a couple lines of real code for the basic stuff. We have models nowadays that are actually trained to find bugs and security issues in code rather than having the entire internets thrown at them to produce something Altman & Amodei can sell to the gullible as AGI.

But there's the problem. The technology has been around for a while, we have a good idea of what it's good for and, more importantly, what it's not. "Our revolutionary expert system for finding bugs in your code" isn't nearly as marketable to the general public, and the CEO class especially, as "our revolutionary PhD level sentient AI that will solve all the world's problems if you only give us another couple trillion dollars, and also wants to be your girlfriend." And so we get Claude and ChatGPT and RAM shortages and AI psychosis and accelerated climate change instead of smaller, focused models that are actually good at their specialist subjects. Because those don't produce as much shareholder value.

Ben Curthoys 20h ago

jonny (good kind)22h ago

It was only a matter of time before some AI-addled guy saw me quoting fucked up parts of the Claude code source, thought it was my code, and say it was just a skill issue and I just need to {prompting superstition} but it finally happened.

Ben Curthoys 20h ago

Ben 21h ago

Oh good. I see we've reached the point where our government is telling us there's nothing to be done but to just pray. GOOD MORNING!

Look to faith this Easter, says Starmer, during period of 'real anxiety'

https://news.sky.com/story/look-to-faith-this-easter-says-starmer-during-period-of-real-anxiety-13527590

Ben Curthoys 1d ago

Show thread

Nick 1d ago

@TheBreadmonkey I’m astonished it’s still going. I stopped watching it after noticing that everyone had already made the same or better topical jokes on Twitter earlier in the week.

https://theonion.com/british-man-desperately-trying-to-get-out-of-panel-show-duty/

British Man Desperately Trying To Get Out Of Panel Show Duty

LONDON—Pinching the bridge of his nose and releasing a long weary sigh after he opened a letter summoning him to BBC headquarters, British man Arthur Batts confirmed this week that he was desperately trying to get out of panel show duty. “For God’s sake, it seems like I was just on 8 Out Of 10 […]

The Onion

Ben Curthoys 1d ago

Libre CGM says 16 and rising... Just about to do a correction dose when I think "that seems off"... Finger prick test says 10.0! Glad I checked!

#t1diabetes

Ben Curthoys 1d ago

Dr. Katharine Hayhoe 1d ago

What if one of the most powerful climate solutions isn’t technology—but conversation?

💇‍♀️ Good news: Hairdressers may be some of the most effective climate communicators we’ve been overlooking. A U.K. study shows that when salons spark climate conversations, nearly 73% of clients say they’d adopt more eco-friendly habits.

⚠️ Not so good news: War doesn’t only devastate lives - it also drives massive emissions. A Climate and Community Institute analysis shows the first two weeks of the Iran conflict alone released about 5 million tonnes of carbon pollution. Rebuilding the damage will add even more.

🌱 What you can do: While negative news spreads faster, it’s positive, actionable stories that actually motivate us to act. Follow at least one source that shares climate solutions this week and share what you learn, on or offline. https://www.talkingclimate.ca/p/this-everyday-job-can-activate-climate