the unholy undork

“You can’t outright ask someone if they have a car or have kids. That’s technically illegal. But you need to know because sometimes they can be deal breakers. You can just say ‘Do you have reliable transportation?’ and ‘Do you have any current circumstances that could impede you from being successful at work?’

To which the last one most people fumble and would say, “Well I have kids, so sometimes they could get sick. But that’s not often.” But then your potential employer could mark it down on your interview notes nonetheless.

I thought that maybe it was just my own employer. But now I noticed that I am asked both of these almost every time I interview for a job.

The performance of the 2024.

It's well documented that pirating books negatively affects authors directly* in a way that pirating movies or TV shows doesn't affect actors or writers, so I will likely always be anti-book piracy unless there's absolutely, positively no other option (i.e. the book simply doesn't exist outside of online archives at all, or in a particular language).

Also, yeah, Libby and Hoopla licenses are really expensive, but libraries buy them SO THAT PATRONS CAN USE THEM. If you're gonna be pissed at anybody about this shitty state of affairs, be pissed at publishing companies and continue to use Libby or Hoopla at your library so we can continue to justify having it to our funding bodies.

One of the best ways to support your library having services you like is to USE THOSE SERVICES. Yes, even if they are expensive.

On 23 October last year (2024) the New York Times published an interview with former OpenAI researcher Suchir Balaji who worked on organising and gathering data for OpenAI until 2022 when he begun thinking about the morality of it. He eventually came to the conclusion that what OpenAI is doing blatantly violates copyright law and decided to leave the company altogether in August 2024.

After he came out with this accusation he was set to appear in court to testify against OpenAI’s data-gathering practices, something which had the potential of being a complete disaster for the company and the generative AI industry as a whole.

That was until 26 November, just days before he was due to appear in court, when he suddenly and mysteriously was found dead inside his own apartment. Investigators concluded that the death was self-inflicted, something which his family has disputed.

There was also “sign of struggle in the bathroom and looks like someone hit him in the bathroom based on blood spots”, and his apartment showed signs of having been ransacked for evidence: “The pin drive is missing. His computer was messed up.”.

Overall it feels pretty clear-cut what happened, that is to say that OpenAI had him killed because he was a legitimate threat to their business, indicating that they are fully aware that the way they’re gathering data is completely illegal.

Sources:

Alys Davies, 14.12.2024, OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment. BBC News

Barney Davis, 16.1.2025, Suchir Balaji’s family demand outside investigation into OpenAI whistleblower’s death. The Independent

And there actually was an investigation, but it concluded that it was suicide: https://apnews.com/article/boeing-whistleblower-suicide-9fe771a97c5745b9c53f24c04141e474

It is possible that it was suicide (which doesn't make Boeing look any better, obviously), but I wouldn't be surprised if the "surveillance footage" was doctored in some way, especially since another Boeing whistleblower, Joshua Dean, also died after he testified: https://www.snopes.com/news/2024/05/07/boeing-whistleblower-deaths/

That being said, the deaths motivated even more whistleblowers to come forward against Boeing: https://fortune.com/2024/05/09/more-boeing-whistleblowers-emerge-law-firm/

Although, I do like this ending better

You must cultivate your relationships.

It sounds silly. It sounds like something that should be common sense. But I feel like I have had to tell so many people that you need to give as well as be open and recieving.

Your relationships with the Divine (and anyone) must be tailored gently. "I saw this thing and it reminded me of you" so you send a link or a photo to someone you care about? Yeah that principle applies to the Divine, too. A rock. A photo. A piece of art. You bring them.

You also sit and talk. Have a coffee. Have a drink. Water. Dinner. You share a meal. You hold conversations. You hang out and bask in an afternoon setting sun and admire the birds.