sculd 1w ago • 100%
FYI. They didn't just plan to. There are already thousands of CCTVs around HK now.
sculd 2w ago • 100%
Ever 17: The Out of Infinity I understand this game may be harder to find since its not on modern platform, but I strongly recommend Ever17.
Eye opening visual novel. Interesting set up, unexpected turn of events. One of the classics. Unfortunately the company went broke so the game is stuck on older platforms.
sculd 1mo ago • 100%
Touhou series? Some of them are pretty good. The music are also superb.
sculd 1mo ago • 100%
Agreed... The current culture of pushing everything to the boundary is one of the reasons why we are seeing so much depression, anxiety, mental issues, etc. around
sculd 1mo ago • 100%
Great article. The right wing trolls who try to cite "biology" apparently doesn't even understand biology.
sculd 1mo ago • 100%
Classical architecture is an extremely broad term.
Are you talking about Greece or Roman architecture? Gothic? Byzantine? Renaissance? Baroque?
Even when you talk about "European" there are a variety of styles among different countries.
sculd 1mo ago • 100%
They made you sure you would always get some Musk tweets. Its very annoying.
sculd 1mo ago • 100%
Agreed. Anyone who studies history should understand why Trumpism is bad and unsustainable.
But a lot of people are just in for the historical "aesthetics".
www.workingclassicists.com
A good article in which the author researched how Twitter's algorithm pushed people interested in history into alt-right content. **Quote:** "Adhering to my guidelines to follow accounts suggested by the algorithm, I clicked the “follow” button. This was the first time I was recommended content adjacent to **alt-right and "manosphere" ideology**. Prior to that, it was all history related. After “liking” approximately 100 Tweets, however, I saw that the accounts suggested to me were becoming increasingly political, and I was specifically being recommended accounts run by **internet political commentators** – as opposed to professional politicians or journalists. I cannot definitively call this observation evidence of being led down an alt-right pipeline, but it was interesting to note that those were the types of accounts suggested to me by the Twitter algorithm."
sculd 2mo ago • 66%
Great article to let people understand the problematic aspect of Telegram
sculd 2mo ago • 60%
You realize there are so many right wing extremists there that they would have been banned had they been using other services?
sculd 2mo ago • 100%
We need more facts like this!!
sculd 2mo ago • 100%
Good article. Games should be inclusive and a lot of the working population don't have the time to "get good". If it is a single player game let people enjoy in whatever ways they want.
sculd 2mo ago • 100%
Haven't heard people mention Mai Hime for ages. Certainly an anime worth watching.
sculd 3mo ago • 100%
Sometimes I am glad that super cheap Chinese hardware is a thing and I can always switch to those in case these greedy companies all became shit
sculd 3mo ago • 100%
If anything, advanced Economic students would understand that utilitarian model has a lot of bullshit in it
sculd 3mo ago • 100%
Countable infinite. Infinite because there are infinite possibilities. (Spectrum) Countable because the number of human beings is countable.
sculd 3mo ago • 100%
Elizabeth Warren, she is fiercely against Wall Street and monopolies. It will not happen though.
sculd 8mo ago • 100%
Happy for them. Good journalism should be rewarded.
sculd 9mo ago • 66%
I play Honkai: Star Rail daily during commute. The day mission can mostly be auto'ed. More complicated quests can be done when you have time.
sculd 9mo ago • 100%
One of the best podcasts out there to keep track of the lunatics
>Speaking at a Bloomberg event on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Altman said the silver lining is that more climate-friendly sources of energy, particularly nuclear fusion or cheaper solar power and storage, are the way forward for AI. >"There's no way to get there without a breakthrough," he said. "It motivates us to go invest more in fusion." Right, surely the energy intensive AIs will make the world invest in climate-friendly energy instead of just burning more fossil fuels as they always did. Also shows how unsustainable the current neoliberal system is.
www.theverge.com
>On Amazon, I searched for “OpenAI policy” and boy, did I get results! I’m not entirely sure what this green thing is but I’ve been assured that it will “Boost your productivity with our high-performance [product name], designed to deliver-fast results and handle demanding tasks efficiently, ensuring you stay of the competition.“ Phenomenal! Unfortunately, there are no customer reviews — yet, anyway! The Verge article made reference to this [thread](https://www.threads.net/@rick.williams84/post/C2AaTA-LSeN/): >At this point Amazon is like generative AI for products - you can just make up ideas and some alphabet soup company will drop ship a low quality version of it to you Welcome to the New World, powered by AI Overlord
arstechnica.com
Apparently, stealing other people's work to create product for money is now "fair use" as according to OpenAI because they are "innovating" (stealing). Yeah. Move fast and break things, huh? >"Because copyright today covers virtually every sort of human expression—including blogposts, photographs, forum posts, scraps of software code, and government documents—it would be impossible to train today’s leading AI models without using copyrighted materials," wrote OpenAI in the House of Lords submission. >OpenAI claimed that the authors in that lawsuit "misconceive[d] the scope of copyright, failing to take into account the limitations and exceptions (including fair use) that properly leave room for innovations like the large language models now at the forefront of artificial intelligence."
www.thedailybeast.com
Since this billionaire doesn't want us to learn about what bad things he did, I figured we should let as many people know as possible: >In a move that has press freedom campaigners troubled, **Rajat Khare**, co-founder of Appin, an India-based tech company, has used a variety of law firms in a number of different jurisdictions to threaten these U.S., British, Swiss, Indian, and French-language media organizations. >On Nov. 16, Reuters published a special investigation under the headline “How an Indian startup hacked the world,” detailing how Appin allegedly became a “hack for hire powerhouse that stole secrets from executives, politicians, military officials and wealthy elites around the globe” >Khare retained the powerhouse **“media assassin” firm Clare Locke LLP**, which boasts on its website about “killing stories,” to send Reuters several legal threats over the past year about the story >Across the pond, Khare had his name removed from a joint investigation between The Sunday Times and the nonprofit Bureau of Investigative Journalism, titled, “Caught on camera: confessions of the hackers for hire.” Three paragraphs that reported on Khare were removed from both publications following legal threats on his behalf Lets spread the word!!!
www.youtube.com
Amazing video produced by **Jessie Gender** along with a group of creators whom many of them are from the ** LGBTIAQ+ community** . I knew from my anthropology class many years ago that **George Lucas** borrowed concept from the **The Hero with a Thousand Faces.** What I did not know is that the author, **Joseph Campbell** is: 1. A **misogynist** 2. An **antisemite** 3. Didn't research properly This explains why the hero must be a (white) men. Carl Jung's theory about collective unconsciousness and archetypes are also **outdated and discarded by psychology.** The archetypes reduce women to "mother", "Goddess". etc. but never the hero. Also, since Jung's theory categories people neatly into archetypes, those who **does not fit social norm (LGBTQIA+ people) were never represented.** When the creation is based on such shaky foundations, no wonder the Star Wars fandom turns out to be racist and misogynist. Btw, do you know who else's book borrows heavily from Jung? **Jordan Peterson.**
restofworld.org
The investors might want a refund after seeing what the money were used for. Notable quotes: >Several employees pointed to Suzuki’s research into the American far right, which included him **presenting on QAnon** during a company wide all-hands meeting and attending Donald Trump rallies using company funds. >This mission would, at times, **lead Suzuki down far-right rabbit roles**, according to several former employees. “[He] really wanted to get inside QAnon and figure out what’s going on there,” one former employee told Rest of World, saying Suzuki’s interest in its conspiracy theories only heightened during the Trump administration. **“We were worried for him.”** >The trips often included visits to rallies for Donald Trump, multiple employees said. **“Why would I want to give up one week of my life showing some guy from Tokyo around a Trump rally?”** recalled one employee who declined an invitation to join the road trip in 2020. “The whole premise of the idea was very bizarre.” Yeah, not exactly a good working environment.
www.vice.com
More efforts from tech bros to build Rapture. Interesting quotes: >it had backing from tech heavyweights such as billionaire **Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong**, **AngelList co-founder Naval Ravikant**, and venture capitalist** Fred Wilson**, a Coinbase board member who sold his shares in the company for $1.8 billion after it went public in 2021. >“Bitcoin, if it wins, **completely changes the world**, because it changes the ability of centralized states to do what they’ve been doing,” Srinivisan said in a presentation delivered to a Bitcoin conference in Amsterdam in October. >The **Bitcoin-based Network State** will be based on “internet values” such as “open source” and “peer-to-peer,” Srinivasan has written. An utopia run on Bitcoin? What could possibly go wrong?
www.youtube.com
Great video by Caelan Conrad who dissected the anti trans movement from their origins. I didn't know TERFs existed even back then at Stonewall. It was such a great lesson in history. The video also went on to show gays and lesbians who tried to be assimilationists and why it wouldn't work. i.e. Leopards eat their faces too. A must watch for everyone who are interested in LGBTQIA+ communities. I honestly need to read more books about it.
www.youtube.com
While there are a bit of stereotype against Vtuber in Japan, I can say that Nornis is probably the best Vtuber singing unit out there. They are so good that Netflix use their song for one of their animes. Nornis already held a live concert in Osaka and are reaching more people.
(Video has full English subtitle if you turn it on) Okay...as expected, the AI revolution has already reached Hololive. First using ChatGPT for script in previous episode, now AI tools to generate video...
www.resetera.com
This is too funny to not share! Some of the requests like listening to multiple songs and type in the number which changed instruments are genuinely difficult. The 3D puzzles can be very tricky as well. Whose genius idea is this??
Article from The Atlantic, archive link: https://archive.ph/Vqjpr Some important quotes: >The tensions boiled over at the top. As Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman encouraged more commercialization, the company’s chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, grew more concerned about whether OpenAI was upholding the governing nonprofit’s mission to create beneficial AGI. > The release of GPT-4 also frustrated the alignment team, which was focused on further-upstream AI-safety challenges, such as developing various techniques to get the model to follow user instructions and prevent it from spewing toxic speech or “hallucinating”—confidently presenting misinformation as fact. Many members of the team, including a growing contingent fearful of the existential risk of more-advanced AI models, felt uncomfortable with how quickly GPT-4 had been launched and integrated widely into other products. They believed that the AI safety work they had done was insufficient. >Employees from an already small trust-and-safety staff were reassigned from other abuse areas to focus on this issue. Under the increasing strain, some employees struggled with mental-health issues. Communication was poor. Co-workers would find out that colleagues had been fired only after noticing them disappear on Slack. Summary: Tech bros want money, tech bros want speed, tech bros want products. Scientists want safety, researchers want to research...
www.theguardian.com
Now we know why Open AI's board fired him. Honestly can't fault them. If Altman was going to leave with key staff anyway, why don't just fire him? Its a lost cause.
I have seen so many articles, tweets, posts, etc. in the past few months about AI eradicating all jobs or something along the line, and robots eliminating all needs for human labour. And then I look at all the jobs that I have worked on. Good luck using AI to get through government bureaucracies. I am sure ChatGPT get help you navigate all the regulations, apply to all the licenses automatically, comply with regulations etc. I am sure when a company is fined millions they can just say "[but...ChatGPT say this can work](https://www.reuters.com/legal/new-york-lawyers-sanctioned-using-fake-chatgpt-cases-legal-brief-2023-06-22/)!" Good luck telling the CEO to use AI assistant. I am sure the 70-years-old CEO would prefer shouting to a phone which may tell them the idea does not work instead of shouting to a group of employees who would nod nervously and then implement the ideas while ignoring the bad parts. Good luck replacing humans with robots. The maintenance costs of hardware and software on an army of robots which needs fuel and electricity and probably internet connection MUST BE lower than hiring labour at minimum wages. Right? Did I forgot to mention that human can takes care of themselves? Remember that the society is run by humans. Even the rich and the powerful are human and have human needs. They would want other people to work for them. What if a singularity AI took over the world? I mean if that is possible and the society fail to prevent such an event from happening then humanity deserves to perish anyways. Also please don't tell me you believe in [Roko's basilisk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roko%27s_basilisk). Stop worrying and start living your life!
www.youtube.com
I strongly recommend this indie singer songwriter. I can feel the emotion every time to their song. (FYI. Kei Sugawara is non-binary.)
www.theatlantic.com
No Paywall: https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theatlantic.com%2Fideas%2Farchive%2F2023%2F06%2Fchristian-movement-new-apostolic-reformation-politics-trump%2F674320%2F >The reformation meant recognizing new apostles—men and women believed to have God-given spiritual authority as leaders. It meant modern-day prophets—people believed to be **chosen by God to receive revelations through dreams and visions and signs**. It meant spiritual warfare, which was not intended to be taken metaphorically, but actually demanded the battling of demons that could possess people and territories and were so real that they could be diagrammed on maps. >It meant **portals**: specific openings where demonic or angelic forces could enter—eyes or mouths, for instance, or geographic locations such as Azusa Street in Los Angeles, scene of a seminal early-20th-century revival. It meant the rise of the Manifest Sons of God, an elite force that would be endowed with supernatural powers for spiritual and perhaps actual warfare. >Most significant, the new reformation required not just personal salvation but action to transform all of society. Christians were to reclaim the fallen Earth from Satan and advance the Kingdom of God, and this idea was not metaphorical either. The Kingdom would be a social pyramid, at the top of which was a government of godly leaders dispensing biblical laws and at the bottom of which was the full manifestation of heaven on Earth, a glorious world with no poverty, no racism, no crime, **no abortion, no homosexuality, two genders, one kind of marriage, and one God: theirs**. Reading this article feels terrifying.....by the sheer ignorance of the people covered. They believe they are acting on behalf of God, literally. It feels like a doomsday cult.
www.bigtechnology.com
>The new data — comprehensive and definitive — should put to rest the countervailing narratives over Musk’s management of the app. Under his stewardship, X’s daily user base has declined from an estimated 140 million users to 121 million, with a widening gap between people who check the app daily vs. monthly. X’s remaining daily users are engaged similarly as before. But the pool is shrinking. Apptopia pulls its data from more than 100,000 apps on iOS and Android, along with publicly available sources. So apparently it lost only 13% of daily users? Thats a smaller number than I thought. Still bad news for Twitter though. On the other hand, it shows the power of content creators and niche communities. I used less Twitter but cannot delete it because it is literally how I connect with my niche community on there.
www.ghacks.net
From article: If you have the Brave Browser installed on your Windows devices, then you may also have Brave VPN services installed on the machine. Brave installs these services without user consent on Windows devices. More reason to ditch the crypto bro browser.
Instead of focusing on bad news, why don't we share some good YouTube channels made by LBGTQ+ creators to celebrate them? Let's share what you watch and why! I will start: **Alexis and Lilian** https://www.youtube.com/@AlexisLilian/videos A channel by lesbian couple Alexis and Lilian. Very cool. Offers lots of useful advice.