it has been zero days since a customer told us we're not allowed to handle their proprietary code on an internet-connected machine and then sent us a setup script that depends on the internet to bootstrap

“Contrary to government statements, Dr. Monarez has neither resigned nor yet been fired. She will not resign.” - Attorney Mark Zaid

The Infectious Diseases Society of America doesn't like the latest #FDA announcement about #COVID #vaccines

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Graphic reading, "By narrowing its approval, FDA has made a decision that completely contradicts the evidence base, severely undermines trust in science- driven policy and dangerously limits vaccine access, removing millions of Americans’ choice to be protected and increasing the risk of severe outcomes from COVID.” | ® IDSA President Tina Tan, MD, FIDSA, FPIDS, FACP -®IDSA

“Judge Rules Ohio’s Voucher System Unconstitutional”- That ruling found that using public funds to subsidize tuition at private religious schools violates the Ohio Constitution’s ban on directing “school funds” to religious or sectarian institutions. https://prospect.org/education/2025-08-22-judge-rules-ohios-voucher-system-unconstitutional/

Voting should be easier than buying guns.

if you are not happy single, you won't be happy in a relationship.

true happiness comes from chaining together obscure `sed` and `awk` commands to parse a log file, not from someone else.

Now this is real convenient, especially on machines where's it impossible to hit the right key fast enough to enter the UEFI BIOS settings.

On #OpenBSD/amd64, you can now type "machine fwsetup" at the boot> prompt in efiboot. ​

jmatthew@ modified src/sys/arch/amd64/stand/{efi,}boot/*: Add a 'mach fwsetup' command, which uses the EFI OsIndications feature to reboot the machine into the firmware setup interface, if supported.
This is an optional feature introduced in UEFI 2.4 (released 2013).

ok kn@

@Nonilex If the US government can nationalize defense contractors it can nationalize health insurance companies.

The first 100% effective HIV prevention drug is approved and going global

It's royalty free and there's already six, generic manufacturers lined up.

https://newatlas.com/infectious-diseases/hiv-prevention-fda-lenacapavir/

@davew We keep having these trends of trying to kill URLs. E.g.:

1. In the 90s, even as the Web started to really take off, services like Compuserve continued to push "GO Words" and other centralised, controlled keyword systems of addressing.

2. In the 00s, as search finally got good, advertisements experimented with "search for [X]" rather than printing an address (which lead to the obvious Googlebombs and squatting, because of course it did).

3. At various times, browsers have experimented with (and in Safari's case, even pushed ahead with) efforts to conceal the power of the URL, cutting the visible part down just the domain name or even replacing it with the name from the (EV) SSL certificate.

4. And nowadays, people's business cards show e.g. a Facebook, X, or Instagram logo followed by the "keyword" that'll find their services on that platform. There IS a URL, but people don't see it anymore. It's Compuserve all over again.

The NYT reports today that members of the Department of Government Efficiency uploaded a copy of a crucial Social Security database in June to a vulnerable cloud server, putting the personal information of hundreds of millions of Americans at risk of being leaked or hacked, according to a whistle-blower complaint filed by the Social Security Administration’s chief data officer.

From the story:

"Mr. Borges did not indicate that the database had been breached or used inappropriately."

"But his disclosure stated that as of late June, “no verified audit or oversight mechanisms” existed to monitor what DOGE was using the data for or whether it was being shared outside the agency. That kind of oversight would typically be provided by the agency’s career information security professionals, Mr. Borges said in his account."

'And his complaint cites an official agency security assessment that described the project as “high risk” and that warned of “catastrophic impact” to Social Security beneficiaries and programs if the database were to be compromised."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/us/politics/doge-social-security-data.html

Check out my new shirt! 👕

Destroy AI!

• Bad at Everything! 👎
• Kills the Planet! 🌍
• Brain Atrophy! 🧠

Artist: Phineas X. Jones
Order one too: Octophant

Thanks to @tante for the fantastic recommendation! https://tldr.nettime.org/@tante/114863463868788391

#NoAI #HumanArt #NewShirt

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Photo of a person wearing a black t-shirt with only the torso part showing. The t-shirt has an amazing illustration from artist Phineas X. Jones, showing a punk woman holding a chainsaw and kicking a robot in the face. Above her the words: "Destroy A.I." and below the design are three sentences: "Bad at Everything!", "Kills the Planet!", and "Brain Atrophy!"

Do you ever think about how the fine for peeing in public is substantially more than the fine for dumping tonnes of CO₂ in public?

doomscrolling fedi with this bad boy

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a computer mouse with two scroll wheels, the packaging says "Cruise the Net faster with 2 wheels"

@woe2you @thomholwerda Ah, yes, because when I ask “how is the weather outside" I desire for the response to be "well, water thinks it's very cold”.

See also:

The only reason I use Fedora Server is because I like saying, "Oh you can just add that using the COCK PIT web UI"

The MIT research found that, of more than 300 organizations analyzed, 95% saw zero financial returns for their AI efforts, and even those which were actively using the technology had not seen major changes. https://www.semafor.com/article/08/22/2025/ai-fails-to-bring-businesses-returns-report-says

do trans db admins get on that postgresterone or?

✨ A Sprinkle of JoyousJoyness ✨

BOING!

Have a JoyousJoyfulJoyness day!

#happy #dog #dachshund #cute #joyousjoyness #repost

#3132 - Coastline Similarity

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Three-panel black-and-white classroom comic. Panel 1: A teacher points with a stick to a wall map. On the world map, the east coast of South America and the west coast of Africa are traced in red. Text at top reads: “People had long noticed that South America and Africa had similarly-shaped coastlines.” Panel 2: Same classroom. Two students sit at desks facing the teacher, who stands by the map. Text at top: “In the 20th century, geologists finally found the explanation:” Panel 3: One of the students raises a hand and speaks; and the teacher interrupts. Dialogue: Student: “Plagiaris—” Teacher: “Continental drift.” Student: “Oh.” Hidden text: "Hey! A bunch of the early Cretaceous fossils on each coast seem to have been plagiarized, too!"

@liaizon @samhenrigold After some testing, we've determined that lobsters are surprisingly easy to disassemble using standard tools (the Jimmy was especially handy here). However, the disassembly was entirely destructive, which means a zero in terms of repairability.
It's not all bad, though! Unlike traditional tech, lobsters take very little resources to manufacture and are completely biodegradable. This makes replacement an acceptable alternative to repair in this crustacean's case.

#memes #humor #funny

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This is a popular meme presented as a screenshot of a tweet from the user "Taming Fred Savage" (@FredTaming). The meme uses a simple, two-line format to create a self-deprecating joke: **me: [donating body to science]** **science: [donates my body to goodwill]** **Explanation of the humor:** 1. **The Setup:** The first line, "me: [donating body to science]," describes a noble and altruistic act. Donating one's body to science is seen as a valuable contribution to medical research and education. 2. **The Punchline:** The second line subverts this expectation. "Science" is personified as an entity that receives the body, evaluates it, and finds it so lacking in value that it passes it on to Goodwill. 3. **The Joke:** Goodwill is a well-known chain of thrift stores that accepts donations of used goods (like clothing, furniture, and household items) to sell. The humor comes from the absurd and insulting idea that a human body would be treated like an unwanted piece of second-hand merchandise, implying the person is so worthless that even science has no use for them. In short, the meme is a humorous expression of low self-esteem, suggesting that the speaker is useless even after death.

Quokka eating a leaf timeline cleanse.

"Nom nom nom nom".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quokka

A 1914 Gay-Ola Soda Advertisement.
https://www.bhamwiki.com/w/Gay-Ola
.
#Soda #Advertisement #Retro #Vintage #softdrink

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Advertisement is black-and-white. The bottle of soda sits in a man’s hand. It says “keep it on hand“ it also mentions that it was produced in Alabama

Today I heard the phrase, "GPT endpoint". Sad to report it didn't mean what I first thought.

Meanwhile in Norway.... the taxation of the wealthy has become a key election issue, with the major parties responding to the 'exodus' of the mega rich (upset at a 1% wealth tax) over the last decade.

Even if the centre Left wins, it looks like the tax will be 'reviewed' at the very least.

Which once again poses the Q. of why the ultra-rich who would hardly notice a 1% levy on their wealth get so vexed about its imposition? A Q. of relevance well beyond Oslo.

#tax #Norway #politics
h/t FT

Like, follow, and share if you love libraries!

Then, take action to support libraries at action.everylibrary.org

— "Can you believe how stupid and primitive the ancient Greeks were? When they didn't know something, they asked an oracle, and they believed whatever it said!"
— "That's nuts. Where was this oracle?"
— "No idea. Let's go ask ChatGPT."

Here’s a poem called ‘Roger’s Thesaurus’.

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Roger’s Thesaurus In order to grow, expand, widen his lexicological corpus, Roger bought, acquired, purchased
a synonymopedia, a thesaurus. Soon, presently, without delay, he no longer ran out of things to say, speak, utter, express, articulate, give voice to, pronounce, communicate. This was all very well, fine, great, wonderful, super, terrific but his friends, mates, pals found him boring, tedious, dull, soporific. So let this be a warning, an omen, a sign, a premonition, it’s all very well to show learning, education, knowledge, erudition, but here’s a top tip, a hint, a suggestion, some advice, don’t ever let it stop you from being concise

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brief, short, clear, pithy, succinct, compendious, to the point, compact, snappy, laconic. Breviloquent. Brian Bilston

MIT Backs Away From Paper Claiming Scientists Make More Discoveries with AI. After a review process, MIT stated that it “has no confidence in the provenance, reliability or validity of the data and has no confidence in the veracity of the research contained in the paper.” https://gizmodo.com/mit-backs-away-from-paper-claiming-scientists-make-more-discoveries-with-ai-2000603790

I wonder if the federal patrols descending on DC will be including white-collar crime in their crackdown. You know, like pulling over fancy cars and auditing their taxes.

That could have a real impact.

When Australian artificial intelligence expert Dr Kobi Leins declined a medical specialist’s request to use AI transcription software during her child’s upcoming appointment, the practice told her [she] was "welcome to seek an alternative" provider.

[...]

It was a system whose privacy and security capabilities Leins had previously reviewed as part of her work in AI governance — and one she said she would not want her child’s data “anywhere near”.

https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2025/kobi-refused-a-doctors-ai-she-was-told-to-go-elsewhere.html

This feels appropriate for the second thing I've ever posted to mastodon.

The only thing ChatGPT ever does.

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Andrew Kadel @DrewKadel@social.coop My daughter, who's had a degree in computer science for 25 years, posted this about ChatGPT on Facebook. It's the best description I've seen. Something that seems fundamental to me about ChatGPT, which gets lost over and over again: When you enter text into it, you're asking "What would a response to this sound like?" If you put in a scientific question, and it comes back with a response citing a non-existent paper with a plausible title, using a real journal name and an author name who's written things related to your question, it's not being tricky or telling lies or doing anything at all surprising! This is what a response to that question would sound like! It did the thing! But people keep wanting the "say something that sounds like an answer" machine to be doing something else, and believing it *is* doing something else. It's good at generating things that sound like responses to being told it was wrong, so people think that it's engaging in introspection or looking up more information or something, but it's not, it's only, ever, saying something that sounds like the next bit of the conversation.

TIL the Kensington Turbo Mouse can use a billiard ball.

#RetroComputing #VintageMac #VintageAP

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Photo of a beige trackball with an 11 red/white striped billiard ball in it next to a Mac Plus keyboard.

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Photo of a beige trackball with an 8 black billiard ball in it next to a Mac Plus keyboard.

BRB. Moving to Ireland.

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A picture of a train. Text superimposed over the picture reads: "Irish Rail introduces 100 Euro fine for playing music without earphones."

Celebrating 50 years of The Rocky Horror Picture Show
"It's had a profound impact on our culture, especially on people who've felt different and marginalized."
https://arstechnica.com/culture/2025/08/celebrating-50-years-of-the-rocky-horror-picture-show/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

I’m probably laughing harder at this than it deserves. But, still… 😂

#Caturday

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Photo of a picture in a magazine, mimicking the layout of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody album, with the lit faces of four cats staring out towards the viewer at a point just above the camera, set against a black background. Written in white, blocky letters, above and below the faces, are the lyrics: MOMMA I JUST KILLED A MOUSE SLAPPED HIM RIGHT ACROSS THE HEAD HIS REMAINS ARE ON YOUR BED

“See the intended message was, Fascism Sucks. However, they gave the good Zoids to the fascists so instead you got, If you want a T-Rex with big guns, you want fascism. And I feel like that explains a lot of our cohort.” — My sister being too smart for her own good.

I would love it if people had the same level of "Wikipedia isn't always right, you know" skepticism about... literally all other sources, regardless of context.

It's so weird how for decades most people around me were like "whoa, gotta be careful, can't trust wikipedia" and now many of those same people are taking whatever AI cooks up hook, line, & sinker.

I'm beginning to think it was never about actual info quality or actual critical thinking.

@catsalad

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lady reading book titled, "How to tell if your cat is plotting to kill you." The cat is behind her, glaring at her.

It should be illegal to sell "half and half" that is mostly skim milk and corn syrup. I generally don't do the shopping b/c I always get the wrong thing, and yesterday I grabbed what looked like a regular half-n-half off the store shelf but when I woke up w/ today's coffeine found it tasted like ass. What is the point of low-fat half-n-half? Doesn't the name itself suggest it's at least half cream? What a scam.

Yesterday my daughter emailed me, asking why I didn't do something useful with my time.
Talking about "doing-something-useful" seems to be her favorite topic of conversation.
She was "only thinking of me," she said, and suggested that I go down to the Senior Center and hang out with some of the other old fellows.
So I did this and when I got home last night, I decided to play a prank on her. I emailed her and told her that I had joined a Parachute Club.
She replied, "Are you nuts? You are 71 and now you're going to start jumping out of airplanes?"
I told her that I even got a Membership Card and e-mailed a copy to her.
She immediately telephoned me and yelled, "Good grief, Dad, where are your glasses?! This is a Membership to a Prostitute Club, not a Parachute Club."
"Oh man, I'm in trouble again," I said. "I really don't know what to do. I signed up for five jumps a week!!"
The line went dead.
Life as a Senior Citizen is not getting any easier, but sometimes it can be fun.