“And for my next trick..”

(via)

Yep.

Congratulations to The Register for what might be my favorite coverage of the indictment.

Wait, the closing paragraphs are pretty strong, too.

This was published June 17 2023

Florida's Anti Gender Affirming Care law has been partially struck down

Elon Musk: the most dangerous Antisemite

Identifying/understanding [GOP] misogyny.

Maybe the real crisis of masculinity is that none of you people have FRIENDS.

The thing that I find most embarrassing about "Crisis in masculinity" narratives is that they've been talking about it my entire life and the "solution" has always been to consume: "BUY my book! LISTEN TO my podcast! TAKE these boner pills! JOIN this gym! BUY a big fucking truck! EAT steak! DRINK whisky! COLLECT guns! GET cosmetic surgery to MAKE YOUR HEAD LOOK LIKE A BOX so bitches will want to FUCK you!"

And yet it never seems to be enough, and the reason it never seems to be enough is because there *is* no crisis of masculinity, there's a crisis of corporate media making men feel insecure so that they can sell them shit. It's absolutely no different from the cosmetics industry or the diet industry or the fashion industry doing the same to women.

That's an interesting comparison, but it IS different. Yes, corporations tell men to consume things, and people like Rogan, Peterson, Tate, Tucker and Trump try to get their followers to buy certain products, because they're grifters. But they are are ALSO selling misogyny, racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and ultimately, fascist ideas.

The right-wing panic over the "crisis of masculinity" isn't really about what men should buy or wear or eat or drink (although to them these things symbolize a past era of supposedly ideal masculine virtues). It's about whiny pathetic loser men feeling threatened because groups they are used to trampling on (women, gay people, trans people, people of color, Jews, you name it) are trying to just live their fucking lives, and this makes some men feel like their era of cultural hegemony is over.

(Even though old white heterosexual Christian men still hold most offices in the US government, and their hegemony is very much still here.)

Then right-wingers, whether they're run-of-the-mill conservatives or neo-Nazis, try to capitalize on this male anxiety about the "crisis of masculinity" and tell men that the real enemy "destroying" or "weakening" or "feminizing" America is social justice warriors, democrats, BLM protesters, climate activists, etc — but ultimately they blame Jews, gay people, trans people, feminists, disabled people etc.

So, no, this isn't just corporations making men feel insecure so they'll buy stuff. It's right-wingers making men feel insecure so they'll buy into an idea. And I don't think that all men who talk about the supposed "crisis of masculinity" are neo-Nazis, but there is a clear recruitment tactic being used on them whether they know it or not.

i’m starting a movement to stop calling this shit “artificial intelligence” cause it’s fucking not. it’s not intelligent, and the things it produces are not informed by logical choices. it doesn’t know how to research sources for you. it doesn’t compose art thoughtfully or meaningfully.

call it machine-generated, text generator, chat bot, but it’s not intelligent.

I use "procedurally-generated," which seems to convey the idea pretty well.

[Image Description: A screenshot of a series of tweets from C.W. Howell (@cwhowell123) Tweet 1: So I followed @GaryMarcus' suggestion and had my undergrad class use chatGPT for a critical assignment. I had them all generate an essay using a prompt I gave them, and then their job was to "grade" it -- look for hallucinated info and critique its analysis. *All 63* essays had Tweet 2: hallucinated information. Fake quotes, fake sources, or real sources misunderstood and mischaracterized. Every single assignment. I was stunned -- I figured the rate would be high, but not that high.

Tweet 3: The biggest takeaway from this was that the students all learned that it isn't fully reliable. Before doing it, many of them were under the impression that it was always right. Their feedback largely focused on how shocked they were that it could mislead them. Probably 50% of them

Tweet 4: were unaware that it could do this. All of them expressed fears and concerns about mental atrophy and the possibility of misinformation/fake news. One student was worried that their neural pathways formed from critical thinking would start to degrade or weaken. One other student

Tweet 5: opined that AI both knew more than us but is dumber than we are since it cannot think critically. She wrote, "I'm not worried about AI getting to where we are now. I'm much more worried about the possibility of of us reverting to where AI is."]

*****

OK, I'm going to try to ask this in the nicest possible way, because clearly I am having an XKCD 2501 moment (https://m.xkcd.com/2501/) and I have massively over-estimated general understanding of what chatGPT does. So I need to correct my biased viewpoint, and for that I need people to explain to me. So.

People who were under the impression that chatGPT is always right, that it's fully reliable ... or who were under the impression that out of 63 essays, you'd expect to get unreliable information in much fewer than 63 cases ... or who were thinking that this unreliability can be easily circumvented by asking chatGPT if its output is accurate ... basically, anyone who is surprised by this thread

this is a genuine and not-condescending question: Why? What experiences or sources or reasoning led you to think that? What is it about chatGPT, or about the way people are talking about chatGPT, that makes you trust it so much more than you would trust your phone's autocorrect function?

Because my industry is clearly not doing it's damn job, and I need to understand where the disconnect is. What are we forgetting to explain, or are explaining poorly, or are using terrible terminology, or whatever it is we're screwing up, that left you with the impression you have/had about this technology?

i think the fact that these algorithms (all of them, whatever their source or purpose) are commonly called "artificial intelligence", specifically (mis)using the word "intelligence".

i'm thinking back to when computers were being used for calculations, ie to take large quantities of data and run them through the multi-variable equations to produce things like trajectories, or weather maps, even code breaking as in ww2. nobody called it "intelligence", it was just doing complex calculations so much faster than any human ever could, that it produced useful results within useful time frames.

now the computers are bigger and faster, but they are still doing the same basic thing, only chewing on millions or billions of pages of language (used without the consent or permission or even knowledge of the original writers, which is often glossed over if it's even mentioned), and it's being called "intelligence" which it is NOT, but that dresses it up in a way than makes it seem more plausible. in fact it is increasingly regressive and lacking in real insight.

Exactly. It is NOT intelligent.

It’s Wet Weasel Wednesday!!!!

A cub Puma admiring his mother.

Photo: Rodrigo Ahumada Zeidan

https://www.instagram.com/razeidan.photo/

[Image description: a photo of a mother puma and her cub walking across a yellowed grassland. The mother is in profile and look straight ahead; her cub is a half-step in front of her and looking up at her, toward the camera. End ID.]

Capybaras and friends ♡

𝘊𝘢𝘱𝘺𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘭 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘥𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘶𝘯𝘶𝘴𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘴

(via)

Local horny idiot tries to nest in my nightstand drawer

How to Help Hawaiian Forest Birds

Well, that was the last of my queued photos from the most recent Hawaiʻi trip.

I don’t usually post commentary here, but I’ve been trying to use my photography to raise awareness of the plight of Hawaiian endemic birds, as many of them are very near to extinction due to invasive species and introduced diseases.  So, here’s a little more information for you.

The main threat these beautiful forest birds is avian malaria, a disease that was introduced by non-native birds and is spread by invasive mosquitoes.  The majority of Hawaiʻi’s endemic forest birds have no immunity to this disease and a single bite from an infected mosquito can be fatal.  Because of this, these incredible birds can only survive in isolated high elevation forests above the mosquito line.  Each year, as the climate warms, that line creeps higher up the mauna.  If measures are not taken soon, many of these birds could be extinct within 5-10 years.

The other threat Hawaiian endemic birds face is invasive mammals, including predators like mongoose and feral cats and ungulates like pigs, sheep, goats, and cattle.  Invasive predators have nearly wiped out many of the ground-nesting seabirds in Hawaiʻi.  Fencing has saved a few populations, but removal of feral cats and other predators is critical to preserving these species.

Feral ungulates–domestic livestock released to run wild across the island–also present a major problem.  Pigs, sheep, goats, and cattle destroy delicate native plants, which evolved without any defenses against grazing mammals (there are NO native land mammals in Hawaiʻi except the bat and the monk seal).  Feral livestock can decimate native forests, leaving nothing but empty space for invasive grasses to take over.  Controlling and removing these animals from sensitive habitats is necessary to preserve the native forests (and thereby preserve habitat for endangered birds).

If you’re interested in trying to help these birds, here are some places to learn more and where you can contribute to the efforts to save them…

Birds Not Mosquitos - A coalition fighting to control the invasive mosquito population which is spreading deadly avian malaria, which is the primary threat to these endemic birds.  They are spearheading an effort to control mosquito populations via releasing male mosquitoes sterilized by naturally occurring Wolbachia bacteria.  These infected male mosquitoes do not bite and cannot spread this bacteria to other animals, but females that mate with them will produce no fertile offspring.  This is a safe and effective method of controlling mosquitoes used worldwide to prevent mosquito-borne disease in humans.  It uses no GMOs and no pesticides.  And it may be the last hope for these birds.

Friends of Hakalau Forest - A non-profit that works to maintain and preserve the Hakalau Forest NWR, one of the last bastions for many of these species on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi.

Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project - Another group dedicated to saving the endemic birds on the island of Maui.

Kauaʻi Forest Bird Recovery Project - The group working to preserve endemic forest birds on the island of Kauaʻi.

Big Island Invasive Species Committee - Dedicated to controlling and removing invasive plants and animals from the Big Island of Hawaiʻi.

ʻIʻiwi in Flight

Depanis coccinea Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge Mauna Kea, Hawaiʻi

the philippine hanging-parrot is a small parrot species endemic to the philippines. they primarily inhabit moist tropical forest habitats, feeding on nectar and soft fruits such as figs. unlike most parrots, they are seldom found in large groups, and more commonly seen as an individual or in pairs. males and females can be distinguished by red feathers on the male’s chin or chest, which the female lacks (except in one subspecies, in which neither sex has red coloration there). they are also one of the only parrot species to gather nesting material; most parrot species nest in bare or sparsely lines tree cavities. while the species is currently considered ‘least concern’ by the IUCN, their population is in decline due to capture for the pet trade & habitat loss.

I love this post! I found out about hanging parrots recently. Here are some more photos of them living up to their name.

Philippine hanging parrot (photo by Alden Fernandez)

Blue-crowned hanging parrot (photo by Stign De Win)

Vernal hanging parrot (photo by Raj Dhage)

Sri Lanka hanging parrot (photo by Corey Callaghan)

Sula hanging parrot (photo by Alpian Maleso)

And my personal favorite:

Papuan hanging parrot (photo by Mark Van Biers)