AI search engines give incorrect answers at an alarming 60% rate, study says
Or, looked at another way, 40% better than the current White House Press Secretary.
Postal Service signs cost-cutting deal with DOGE
Just when you thought mail delivery couldn’t get any worse. Makes me very glad I’m not living in a rural county any more. When DeJoy complains of “unfunded mandates” he’s talking about the centuries-old tradition of delivering to every American.
Got a snail mail fundraising letter from the DNC today, over Kamala Harris’s signature. Given the number of people who directly blame Biden & Harris for the mess we’re in, that seems a pretty questionable fundraising tactic. Certainly reminding me of the last campaign doesn’t encourage me.
Some nitwit legislator in Texas wants to ban (among other things) wearing fake animal ears or meowing in school.
He also seems a bit unclear on how acronyms work.
Amazon Uses Arsenal of AI Weapons Against Workers
Every new technology gets used for porn first, but worker control isn’t far behind.
How Children’s Eating Could Change After $1 Billion Food Cut
State Dept: Let’s ruin kids' nutrition by cutting off foreign aid.
Agriculture Dept: hold my beer.
Trump has decided that Chuck Schumer is ‘not Jewish anymore’
In any other Presidency, this would be top of the news. Now it’s just lost in all the other terrible noise. The Overton Window has pretty much fallen into a black hole.
Just put in a Github pull request for the first time in quite a while - fixing a one-character typo in a README file. The perils of being an editor never end.
Probably just wishful thinking, but one can hope. Smarmiest quote:
After he took his four-year-old son, X, to the White House last month, insiders say Trump asked for the HMS Resolute desk to be disinfected. The boy felt just as at home as his father.
Democratic Attorneys General Sue Over Gutting of Education Department
I assume by now the NYT writers have a daily alarm set to fill in a template starting with “Democratic Attorneys General Sue Over _______”.
Trump Administration Launches All-Out Assault on Environmental Protection
More depressing details on the Trumpian Environmental Non-Protection Agency and their push to get back to the good old days. You know, back when the Cuyahoga River caught fire.
Meta is trying to stop a former employee from promoting her book about Facebook
Cue the Streisand Effect.
Joan Baez: “We’re being run by a bunch of really incompetent billionaires.”
“Tree Gremlin”
Olympus TG6, f/4.9, 1/100s, ISO 250. Yesterday at Mount Pisgah.
“Sweet Smells”
Olympus TG6, Ultimaxx .43x Wide Angle Lens, f/4.9, 1/160s, ISO 100. Yesterday at Mount Pisgah.
E.P.A. Declares ‘Greatest Day of Deregulation Our Nation Has Seen’
If you’d rather die than support this administration, Trump’s stooges will be happy to make that happen faster.
“Spring is Near the Ground”
Olympus TG6, Ultimaxx .43x Wide Angle Lens, f/4.9, 1/400s, ISO 400. Yesterday at Mount Pisgah.
Nebraska lawmakers advance bill allowing parental notification for school library checkouts
More performative legislating. Do they seriously think any student over the age of 10 can’t find whatever book they want for free on the internet?
The fact that they’re idiots doesn’t make this a good thing.
Finished reading: A House Divided, by Pearl S. Buck. 📚 I inherited a 10-volume signed limited edition of some of Buck’s works. As far as I could tell, they’d never even been cracked open. Well that’s just silly, and I’ve been working my way through. Simple, slow, and lush reading, wildly out of fashion, and quite enjoyable. This is the third volume of the Good Earth trilogy, tracing the fortunes of the Wang family across three generations. Buck’s writing seems to capture much about a Chinese culture now long-vanished, though how can I know how true-to-life the portrayal is?
More Republican Nonsense
Restore Medicaid’s intent: Prioritize the most vulnerable over able-bodied childless adults
Prepare for a lot of this ahistorical nonsense as the Republicans ramp up their effort to give money to billionaires by taking it away from everyone else. In fact, Medicaid grew out of Harry Truman’s push for universal healthcare and was envisioned as one of the first steps (along with Mediare) on that path by Lyndon Johnson, who was a savvy enough politican to get what he could passed instead of waiting for perfection.