owlet's nest

if your without and you put nuts on it I don't make the rules snowflake

TRUCK

1. The court holds Google responsible for statements made by its AI, considering them Google's statements (search engines have limited liability for results in their engine as they're the words of other sites/companies/people), meaning when their AI lies/hallucinates they're liable for the defamation/harm resulting from those statements.

2. Google's defense that customers are generally aware of the lack of reliability and are responsible for fact checking was dismissed. As the court pointed out, that would "significantly diminish" AI Search's stated purpose and it can't be distinguished from Google's business practices/statements as a search tool.

3. Studies have found about 91% of Google's everyday AI responses are accurate, leaving millions of searches per HOUR with potential liability for falsehoods. 56% of correct responses weren't supported by the sources the AI listed. Both of which mean Google is now liable for a LOT more AI "errors."

4. Google was held liable for 80% of court costs in this case and this precedent is expected to reverberate around the world. This is a massive shift from the 3rd-party search provider role Google has previously played and it comes right as they've tied ALL searches to their AI search.

Last week, the Trump administration quietly released a sweeping new federal rule that would use funding threats to force institutions across the country to reject transgender people. The 400-page proposed regulation would codify the administration's anti-trans executive orders into binding federal policy, imposing a blanket prohibition on federal funds going toward "gender ideology"

The proposed rule, formally titled "Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance," rewrites the government-wide framework governing all federal grants across every agency. Among its most consequential provisions, it requires that before a federal grant recipient can receive money, the award must pass a "pre-issuance review" conducted by a political appointee—not a career expert or peer reviewer—to ensure it is "consistent with applicable law, Federal agency priorities, and the national interest." The regulation explicitly instructs these appointees to screen for "denial by the recipient of the sex binary in humans or the notion that sex is a chosen or mutable characteristic." [...] An institution that acknowledges transgender people exist—through its policies, its training, its healthcare, its bathroom access, its HR procedures, its name-change processes—could be deemed to "deny the sex binary" or to “support the notion that sex is mutable” and have its federal funding blocked.

Flexible feather armor

Not only will you get to see the hilarious names of these works but usually a short story and a detailed look at his work progress!

anyway, apparently no one told the side of this conflict that considers themselves "speed readers" that "speed reading" refers to a specific technique of skimming a lot of text quickly for basic comprehension, and they are under the impression that "speed reading" means "reading normally, just faster than regular people." then someone got mad at me for pointing out that reading a 137k late 20th century novel in "2 days" wasnt "speed reading", just a respectable--but normal--reading pace. that book (The Vampire Lestat) will take someone reading at 250wpm a smidge over 9 hours to finish, which is like. nothing if youre hitting it on the toilet, before bed, and on the bus to and from work (in my direct experience). 250wpm is how fast someone reads who is mentally sounding out every single word, which fast readers generally do not.

Hello friends! If you have been wondering if there are other ways you can help with the conservation of the critically endangered pygmy raccoon, we have a few remote volunteer opportunities available!

Donor relations:

Managing donor list on Monday (a browser based work management platform)

Sending thank you messages

Creating and sending out newsletters with conservation project updates and fundraising emails

Ideally a long term position. You’d get a custom domain email address and access to canva premium, which is fun.

Grant writing:

Finding potential grant opportunities for conservation research and program development (We’re quite literally trying to build a sanctuary among other things)

Conducting research, collecting data, and developing background information for proposals

Developing and writing grant proposals

Can be a one-off thing, or a long term thing

Educational Materials Designer

Making educational posters/brochures/other graphics to target different groups about pygmy raccoon conservation issues

Can be a one-off thing, or a long term thing

You’d get access to canva premium if you were interested in this being a long term thing

Spanish Translator

Editing the shitty auto translate copy on the website

Potentially making WhatsApp calls to vendors in Mexico to get quotes for building materials and foods and whatnot

Translating educational material

Some more info: As we are a 501(c)3 nonprofit, this volunteering can be used for community service hours, or, if your company does paid volunteer days, those too. I’m happy to sign anything needed. Pretty much all of these opportunities can be a one off/every once in a while type volunteer thing, except for the donor relations, where I’d love to have someone help a little more regularly. It’s just become completely impossible for me to try to keep up with my research/permit applications/writing journal articles/paying for raccoon stuff in Mexico/etc on top of running the nonprofit needed to actually fund the work we are doing.

For anyone wanting to do something longer term, I would be able to get you access to a naturetourism.org email and canva premium. And if anyone has an idea for how to help out in a way not currently listed, just let me know!

Like I said, the museum was a pretty snotty institution. It’s got a LOT of objects it’s way famous for possessing, but nobody knew about the absolutely massive collection of Moche erotic pottery it had because the curators were totally embarrassed by this stuff.

Some examples:

Pretty hot shit, right? They never, ever put any of this stuff on public view or published it in any catalogues but - we legit had like several hundred pieces of Moche ceramics in the “dirty pots” category. Anyway, I was left alone to just do my job with regard to the database for several years, ok? And I figured, well, these’re accessioned objects in the museum’s collection - better get down to bidness. 

I catalogued every goddamn bestiality, necrophiliac, cocksucking, buttfucking, detached penis, and giant vulva drinking cup in that collection. I’d be like, 

A drinking vessel in form of a standing man wearing a tunic and cap. He holds an oversized erection in his hands and stares into the distance (note I did not say “like he’s hella-constipated”). The vessel has a hole at both the tip of the penis as well as around the rim of the figure’s head, thus forcing the drinker to drink only from the penis or risk spilling wine all over themselves from the top of the vessel. Red and orange slip covers the surface of the piece.

Pretty straightforward, right? Apparently the deep seated fear of these objects that the curators exhibited was meant to spread to me as well, but - no one ever gave me that memo, because I guess Midwesterners reproduce asexually. When the curators understood that I had catalogued all of these objects in addition to the other, non-sexy pieces in the collection, they were apparently livid, but knew they had no legs to stand on in terms of getting pissed at me for it. 

I visited the museum’s online public access database a few years back and - every single description I wrote of these pieces has been totally neutered to say something like Male figural vase.