People of Mastodon, I have your reading for today: 📸 the first ever image to be photoshopped --
the Guardian
Jennifer in paradise: the story of the first Photoshopped image
One holiday snap has been manipulated thousands of times on thousands of computers. Gordon Comstock on how a woman on a beach in Bora Bora taught t...
 🍵 how a storm made Britain's tea taste worse --
the Guardian
Storm Ciarán’s low pressure made tea taste worse, say scientists
Recordbreaking low pressure due to extreme weather meant water was boiling at 98C in Reading on day of storm
 💰 “I know someone who literally takes garbage bags full of $20s with him back home" --
Stars Getting Rich Off Fan Conventions: How to Take Home "Garbage Bags Full of $20s"
One effect of superhero culture: a proliferation of fan events where Marvel movie heroes and 'Walking Dead' stars walk away with six figu...
 All sourced from my latest "Linkfest" newsletter 📬 , free to read online here and subscribe:
Linkfest #23: Zero-Dimensional Pong, "Null Island", and A Social Network For Whales
Hello all! It’s time for my latest “Linkfest” — i.e. "the opposite of doomscrolling”, in which I harvest the Intertubes for the finest ma...
"Within the next several months, Nevada plans to launch a generative AI system powered by Google that will analyze transcripts of unemployment appeals hearings and issue recommendations to human referees about whether or not claimants should receive benefits." If we're talking about relying on large language models, this is a simply terrible idea They say a human will review each recommendation, but the push for speed/efficiency/cost always erodes that
Gizmodo
Google's AI Will Help Decide Whether Unemployed Workers Get Benefits
The state is working with Google on a first-of-its-kind generative AI system that will analyze transcripts from appeals hearings and issue a recomm...
 (via @npub17jna...alaq)
Can astronauts vote in space? An interesting question for the two US astronauts who are now stuck on the International Space Station until next February ... Item #8 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free to read and subscribe here:
Linkfest #23: Zero-Dimensional Pong, "Null Island", and A Social Network For Whales
Hello all! It’s time for my latest “Linkfest” — i.e. "the opposite of doomscrolling”, in which I harvest the Intertubes for the finest ma...
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Here's a *really* superb Q&A with Meredith Whittaker ([@Mer__edith](
Mastodon
Meredith Whittaker (@Mer__edith@mastodon.world)
1.19K Posts, 314 Following, 33K Followers · President of @signalapp
 )), the president of Signal:
WIRED
Under Meredith Whittaker, Signal Is Out to Prove Surveillance Capitalism Wrong
On its 10th anniversary, Signal’s president wants to remind you that the world’s most secure communications platform is a nonprofit. It’s fre...
 It covers not only Signal and its wonderfully huge growth in usage ... ... but Whittaker's long history working with Google, and her awakening to the problems of toxic surveillance-based business models Towards the end she neatly closes the loop by talking about how modern AI (deep learning, LLMs) are built on surveillance Too much to quote; read the whole thing!
aw come ON image
Sometimes people on the Internet are brilliant
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A good piece pointing out that price controls to combat price-gouging are already in place in several states ... ... so crafting federal, country-wide legislation (as Kamala Harris recently proposed) wouldn't be out of step with what states are already doing: https://archive.is/GnpI8 "Price gouging" in this case defined narrowly as a manufacturer or distributor jacking up prices in response to a short-term crisis (power outage, natural disaster) to a level that's excessive (usually 10 to 25%)
I just got a spam comment on one of my Medium posts from a "Jamie Geller" who says she found an excellent "spell caster" online who offers the following spells 1 LOVE SPELL 2 WIN EX BACK 3 FRUIT OF THE WOMB 4 PROMOTION SPELL 5 PROTECTION SPELL 6 BUSINESS SPELL 7 DICK ENLARGEMENT 8 HIV AIDS 9 LOTTERY SPELL 10 COURT CASES SPELL 11 GOOD JOB SPELL 12 BECOME A FAMOUS FOOTBALLER 13 BECOME A FAMOUS ARTISTS 14 BECOME A POWERFUL VAMPIRE #14 is pretty tempting, not gonna lie
What can design do (and what can't it do) to help people realize they can pick an indie browser? @Cory Doctorow offers a nice summary of the existing research into this:
Pluralistic: The paradox of choice screens (12 Aug 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
I built this tool a year ago but I feel like Mastodon folks would like it The "Weird Old Book Finder" Type in a search query, and it'll find one randomly-chosen public-domain book that matches the query -- and present it for immediate reading:
Weird Old Book Finder
 Why only one book? To prevent the paradox of choice! Just *start readin'* Can't promise every book will be weird, but most are A longer essay on how/why I developed it: https://debugger.medium.com/a-search-engine-that-finds-you-weird-old-books-3a74fbb5f3d4 This was a search for "mastodon" image