Current status cc @gknauss

the whole AI / LLM thing is really quite useful for summarization of long text / long discussions -- as long as you make sure it didn't hallucinate anything important. Depends on the text, I guess?

@briankrebs being alive does beat the alternatives most of the time

"According to leaked tax returns highlighted in a ProPublica investigation, the 25 richest Americans paid $13.6 billion in taxes from 2014-2018—a “true” tax rate of just 3.4 percent on $401 billion of income." https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax

"We need leaders not in love with money but in love with justice. Not in love with publicity but in love with humanity. Leaders who can subject their particular egos to the pressing urgencies of the great cause of freedom. God give us leaders. A time like this demands great leaders. Leaders whom the fog of life cannot chill, men whom the lust of office cannot buy. Leaders who have honor, leaders who will not lie. Leaders who will stand before a pagan god and damn his treacherous flattery.” -- speech at Purdue University, 1958, Martin Luther King

It is interesting to consider which countries have the most — and least — wealth concentration. Bear in mind the USA has the most billionaires https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/wealth-inequality-by-country

The pursuit of infinity may have some unanticipated downsides https://archive.ph/j3V4t

I just don't understand. Am I the one who is wrong? Or is it the extreme, hyperbolic centralization of wealth that is wrong? Is it, like, impossible to live a good life for you and your family with "only" 10 million dollars, for example? We can debate the number, but it's the principle that matters here. When is enough?

This building is amazing. I wouldn't want to live in a brutalist building, but tell me this design doesn't totally evoke an old computer punched card program https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/brutalist-architecture-boston

Meetings: where work goes to die, except when you take a meeting with me https://blog.codinghorror.com/meetings-where-work-goes-to-die/

I heard a rumour there will be a new White House pet soon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_pets

I don't need this, nobody really needs this, and yet I MUST HAVE IT

Why have I never heard of Distributism before today? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributism

"As the political scientist Barbara F. Walter has observed, a majority of civil wars over the last century appear to have broken out in countries with winner-take-all systems." https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/01/14/opinion/fix-congress-proportional-representation.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

We have learned literally nothing from "computer, enhance" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhF_56SxrGk

I like how "remastered in HD" now means "bicubic upscaling with a sharpening filter plus some hallucinated 'AI' nonsense we've added because reasons"

p.s. Meta isn't having any of this, which means it's time to triple down https://www.404media.co/meta-is-blocking-links-to-decentralized-instagram-competitor-pixelfed/

https://pixelfed.org/servers

I can't bring myself to post anything snarky or cynical any more. I am not advocating for "toxic positivity", only basic optimism and trust.

My authoritative and final ranking of the world's best mammals:

1. Cats
2. Dogs
3. Humans

citation: https://www.mammalwatching.com/2017/05/05/worlds-best-mammals-winners/