Lauren Weinstein

https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/@lauren

< Tech Systems & Policy Analysis: Internet, Privacy, plus his other sundry topics >

Los Angeles - lauren.vortex.com

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Lauren's Blog: https://lauren.vortex.com

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Last Notes

2026-09-09 17:50:57 UTC

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Insanely expensive. Just say no.

2026-09-09 17:15:12 UTC

We seem to be back in "AI will kill us all!" mode again as the #AI companies try divert attention from their real world abuse of the public.

2026-09-09 14:00:39 UTC

Report: ChatGPT told delusional man he was Jesus, pushed him toward suicide
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/09/man-told-chatgpt-he-was-feeling-delusional-chatgpt-insisted-he-was-jesus/
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/241/442/132/250/852/original/902ec1693817ff94.png

2026-09-08 17:00:45 UTC

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You're under arrest, citizen.

2026-09-08 16:28:27 UTC

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The first one of course (ST:TMP) is the one I worked on. I've always considered it the worst of the film versions, but I do get people telling me they loved it, so different strokes for different folks ... I'm probably skewed by knowing what a mess the actual production was. I shiver just thinking about it. I've told the story of how I'm sort of responsible for the stupid round data screens on the Enterprise, because I didn't get my argument against them in early enough. But that's another story ...

2026-09-08 16:03:43 UTC

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Actually, in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" Scott used the term "materializer" instead of transporter! Either way, it's a murder machine.

2026-09-08 15:37:24 UTC

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I don't have problems with the term "techie" -- but I agree with your thoughts on compensation.

2026-09-08 15:35:11 UTC

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Only once in a lifetime does one get the experience of watching shows like that for the first time. During the original airing of the original series, we had a Star Trek club at my Junior High. (Why did I keep getting accused of thinking like Spock?)
There was a lot of media confusion in the early days. He often got called "Dr. Spock" because his name would be conflated with the actual "Dr. Benjamin Spock" who was a famous child development expert at the time.
Personally I like TOS best. Granted, "Turnabout Intruder" really sucks.

2026-09-08 14:51:48 UTC

Big Tech workers SERIOUSLY need unions.

2026-09-08 01:34:05 UTC

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I've never seen an actual miss. But man, I've seen some that were close, like with the IFB going to dial tone in my ear less than a minute before air and other scary stuff. Not being able to hear the director or program feed on a live network interview is seriously scary. For my regular weekly live radio segments I'm hooked into master control about half hour before air these days.

2026-09-08 01:31:08 UTC

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I can imagine! Hell, they even parodied the harried stage manager in "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol" (no coincidence that the songs were written by an award winning Broadway team). The thing about live network radio or TV is that you have absolutely no margin for error when you start, during breaks, or when you end. The show "clock" segmentation is absolutely the law, and when you have hundreds or more stations tied in all depending on to the second accuracy for their own breaks and spots and IDs and such, you better get it right!

2026-09-08 01:09:18 UTC

Folks never in live broadcasting generally have no idea how incredibly chaotic it can be leading up to the last minutes and in some cases even last seconds before air in radio and television. Yet somehow at zero it always seems to sound and look fine.

2026-09-07 19:41:38 UTC

"The Three Stooges Meet Hercules" (1962), is probably the strangest time travel film ever made. Meandering oddly between slapstick comedy and a bizarre sort of costume historical drama, it benefits mightily from the Columbia Studio sets, props, and costumes that were available. Who would have imagined the Three Stooges (in this case, Larry, Moe, and Joe DeRita -- aka "Curly Joe") in a film spending considerable screen time as chained galley slaves? Perhaps what makes this film most interesting is that while the situation is naturally ridiculous, everyone plays it basically straight, as if the Stooges as we've known them had actually been transported to the time of the Roman Empire.
It's currently available for free (at least in the U.S.) on Roku Streaming (you can X out the account creation pop-up and watch without an account if you wish).
Sidenote: As I've said before, meeting Larry Fine of the Stooges was one of the high points of my life!
https://therokuchannel.roku.com/details/d6ef4299f39c5102bb7e9334b8d22166/the-three-stooges-meet-hercules
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/231/455/276/908/833/original/ab1c04cc00e56c7f.jpg

2026-09-07 18:35:48 UTC

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Well, actually it would be:
1,$s/mexico/America/ig

2026-09-07 18:33:54 UTC

Heil! - Trump Drew Inspiration for New Space Force Uniforms From a Movie About Fascism
https://gizmodo.com/trump-drew-inspiration-for-new-space-force-uniforms-from-a-movie-about-fascism-2000808222
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/231/191/902/638/906/original/b465cc8e3dc247c7.png

2026-09-07 18:11:26 UTC

"We taught them a lesson, in 1918,
And they've hardly bothered us since then!" -
- Tom Lehrer on Germany

2026-09-07 18:08:17 UTC

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Space Food Sticks and that Instant Pudding stuff you made with water that would settle into two or three different layers! Loved the butterscotch!

2026-09-07 17:25:44 UTC

Far right parties have always worked out so well for Germany.

2026-09-07 14:44:30 UTC

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Used presumably to write poison pen letters (joke lifted from "Casino Royale" - 1967)

2026-09-07 14:30:33 UTC

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Now you're saying stupid stuff, by bringing up the tan suit. You can do better. Of course every person accused of a crime deserves proper representation. That doesn't mean you need to bring someone who you know will be a flashpoint into an event like that. That's just common sense, so we KNOW it was done purposely to provoke his adversaries. He's pretty constantly doing that.

2026-09-07 14:27:30 UTC

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Yes, I discussed this case a couple of days ago.

2026-09-07 14:26:45 UTC

Senile Trump calls for renaming New Mexico to New America, which he has no authority to do

2026-09-07 01:14:59 UTC

Hackers Had A Live Feed Of Every ID This Verification Company Scanned. For Over A Year.
https://www.techdirt.com/2026/09/03/hackers-had-a-live-feed-of-every-id-this-verification-company-scanned-for-over-a-year/
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/227/106/748/459/967/original/ab5328e7da180378.png

2026-09-07 00:32:40 UTC

BREAKING: At least 5 dead plus injured in Amazon Cargo plane crash at Miami airport

2026-09-06 20:22:43 UTC

BREAKING: Amazon cargo plane overruns Miami runway, hits vehicles, catches on fire

2026-09-06 20:07:56 UTC

I guess Trump's trying to look pretty for Natalie.

2026-09-06 19:52:14 UTC

Trump's dye job is so awful, he must have ordered the cheapest stuff he could find and then had Natalie do the job.

2026-09-06 19:41:02 UTC

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I'm just saying it was obviously purposely provocative. The Mayor is smart enough to know that, and proceeded to invite the unnecessary controversy, for whatever reasons tickled his fancy.

2026-09-06 19:28:15 UTC

BREAKING: Extreme far-right party wins Germany state election 1st time since WWII, but may fail to achieve governing majority

2026-09-06 19:22:30 UTC

Donald Trump dyes hair and looks more like dad Fred in his final years after makeover
https://www.aol.com/articles/donald-trump-dyes-hair-looks-035417000.html
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/225/720/760/492/934/original/b283071f6e25de55.png

2026-09-06 19:03:40 UTC

Online voting is a horrible idea for so many reasons, but imagine if we had it now! Trump would just order the ISPs to cut it off. Boom!

2026-09-06 18:39:18 UTC

USPS confirms that a single "bad" ballot in a batch of a million would cause the entire batch to be rejected
https://www.propublica.org/article/mail-voting-usps-officials-concerns-disenfranchisement
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/225/551/001/909/948/original/531fbc598124185e.png

2026-09-06 18:26:08 UTC

Currently (11:26AM) 63F in my corner of L.A. In late summer. With some drizzling rain. A handful of days ago it was around 107F at this time. Summers and into Fall are always bone dry here, with two exceptions. One is occasional (sometimes many, many years apart) local thunderstorms that can drop some precipitation. The other is like today, when weather associated with a tropical storm off the coast is having some impact. Definitely triggers an asterisk in the weather records!

2026-09-06 18:16:32 UTC

The pro-data center bros seem to really think they're going to score points by calling anyone opposed to data centers "stupid" or "backwards" or worse. Don't look down guys, you're already suspended just off the cliff.

2026-09-06 18:07:23 UTC

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Sure. Which opens the question, what was he doing there? No way to view as other than a provocation, and the Mayor must have known it.

2026-09-06 18:06:33 UTC

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Sounds like Coyote vs. Acme!

2026-09-06 17:50:48 UTC

Proposed two panel comic:
1) Guy in suit yells about how the U.S. needs data centers.
2) Giant data center falls from the sky, crushing him underneath.

2026-09-06 14:37:46 UTC

Tesla's Cybercab has been deployed, and it's already under investigation
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/09/teslas-cybercab-has-been-deployed-and-its-already-under-investigation/
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/224/601/181/870/026/original/61947a5df27d686e.png

2026-09-06 14:37:20 UTC

Telsa Cybercab has no steering wheel, so it tells first responders they may have to push it in emergencies and steer by manually turning the tires with their hands!
https://gizmodo.com/first-responders-may-have-to-push-teslas-cybercabs-turn-front-wheels-by-hand-2000807946
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/224/599/563/039/499/original/280dfe82bbbd571d.png

2026-09-06 14:16:24 UTC

Trump denies wearing wig as his hair dramatically changes

2026-09-06 05:18:23 UTC

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Controlling filament would be very difficult.

2026-09-06 04:28:33 UTC

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I stand by my analysis. Utterly impractical for nontechie users who are just trying to get the basic stuff to work to pay their bills and deal with email. Most have no understanding beyond defaults and often get locked out due to such lack of knowledge -- which isn't their fault. I deal with them all the time. They don't even want to set up 2sv. They use the machines as they get them and have no interest in changes. There are always exceptions, but the general rule holds. Of course, whatever works for you is great for you.

2026-09-06 03:48:08 UTC

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A lot of stuff was dangerous then. Common practice, in films like that one and "White Christmas", etc. was for snow they used asbestos.

2026-09-06 03:39:45 UTC

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Not a practical solution for the world at large, only for extremely dedicated and single-minded techies.

2026-09-06 02:37:42 UTC

Margaret Hamilton, who played the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939's classic "The Wizard of Oz", would tell of how she got the role. Her agent contacted her to tell her she was under consideration for the film. "What part?" she asked. "The witch", he replied. "The WITCH?" she responded. "What else?" he said ...

2026-09-06 02:29:05 UTC

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That's why they keep the printer in Room 101.

2026-09-06 02:16:57 UTC

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Not the best security policy in general.

2026-09-06 01:54:24 UTC

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I've never been able to figure out how his works have ever been accurately translated to English.

2026-09-06 01:37:43 UTC

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That is also true. It's a long fall down to the ground from the top of their golden pyramids.

2026-09-06 00:55:28 UTC

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My pleasure.

2026-09-06 00:55:01 UTC

AI almost sent hazmat train barreling toward 'catastrophe' in Eastern WA
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2026/aug/28/ai-almost-sent-hazmat-train-barreling-toward-catas/
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/221/366/088/217/105/original/2acb6f84b05d4931.png

2026-09-06 00:32:27 UTC

It's easy to miss the forest for the trees. The rapidly growing movement against invasive and intrusive Big Tech: Forced AI, data centers, Flock and other camera surveillance systems and so on, are bipartisan, include rural and urban areas, and all age groups. Nothing like this has ever been seen in contemporary U.S. history (or maybe ever in U.S. history) and politicians (and the billionaire Big Tech CEOs) are standing directly in the path of a political bulldozer.

2026-09-06 00:26:09 UTC

When it comes to the cats, I just follow orders.

2026-09-06 00:16:50 UTC

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Actually, an even earlier version was in an original "Twilight Zone" episode (Valley of the Shadow - 1963) where a man stumbles across a small town with highly advanced tech. One of the devices they show him is a replicator that creates objects from printed paper cards with the molecular formula encoded on them. Very much like a 3D model STL or 3MF file. Way ahead of Star Trek replicators. Oh yes, and then there's the point-to-point teleportation chambers (called "evaporators") in the 1953 WB cartoon: "Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 Century."

2026-09-06 00:11:04 UTC

I still view 3D printing as "slow replication" a la Star Trek. And the printer case and door continually remind me of the test teleportation receiving cabinet in the original "The Fly" (1958).

2026-09-06 00:02:03 UTC

Retaining clip broke off old RJ45 plug at the end of a long cable, in a location where replacing the plug would have been very difficult. 3D printed a little clip on thingie (lots of predesigned models to choose from) that provides a positive lock in the switch socket. Printed 4 of them in 20 minutes. Made them green. Of course, the government would really like to ban 3D printing, and there are already laws enacted moving in that direction for government monitoring and completely unworkable specified blocking of your printing activity. Both parties are in on this one. Fascism on parade.
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/221/156/385/298/591/original/8dd641cd8f33f32d.png

2026-09-05 23:30:42 UTC

Thought for the Day: Big Tech is much more fragile than their billionaire CEOs want you to realize.

2026-09-04 14:24:22 UTC

[I won't say "I told you so." Oops, I just did!] 39 New Methods That Compromise Passkey Authentication
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/39-new-methods-that-compromise-passkey-authentication/
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/213/223/854/492/626/original/286e6a8d4478e78f.png

2026-09-03 18:42:09 UTC

VP Vance finishes extremely long press conference, demonstrates that he is far more intelligent than Trump (yes, a low bar), but just as crazy.

2026-09-01 00:32:24 UTC

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Individual polls can be very wrong, but over time the integration of polls conducted in statistically valid ways tend to be remarkably accurate. All the data coming through now represent such large numbers (in terms of polling differentials) that they are vastly outside the margin of error. There's a popular myth that polls are crap. That's just not true in the general case, though as I said, some are. There's a whole subfield of statistics that defines this stuff in a quite rigorous way.

2026-08-31 03:33:00 UTC

Google's kowtowing to fascist madman Trump -- a man literally trying to steal the next election by preventing millions of people from voting -- is rapidly pushing the firm and by extension Alphabet into the unenviable historical position of IBM's servicing of the Third Reich.
#google

2026-08-31 00:15:17 UTC

Thought experiment: What if #Google said "NO" to Trump and the renaming of Lake Ontario? I know which geo naming conventions Google claims to follow and how they make decisions about politically-sensitive names and borders. None of that is relevant under a fascist takeover of the federal government. What we needed to see is Google saying NO and then watching to see what Trump did next. But of course Billionaire CEO Sundar, once upon a time claiming to be socially conscious, would never risk his position sucking up to Trump, just as we'll no doubt see him suck up to the next president irrespective of party.

2026-08-30 21:22:04 UTC

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Users are going to be pretty pissed when some court in the future demands some significant chunk of code be removed due to being in violation. The real problem is that most techies don't really have a clue about the risks they're running with that stuff. They will learn, probably the hard way.

2026-08-30 20:52:09 UTC

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But code consumed by LLMs without permission may be considered stolen in some cases, and then be regurgitated in some form. Who's responsible? Probably the firm of concern would go after everybody involved and let the courts figure it out.

2026-08-30 20:33:34 UTC

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Easy for them to say, almost impossible to do. Because with AI generated code, unless the dev announces this explicitly, there's no way to know stolen code was used until (for example) the actual owner of purloined code that was used by the AI comes around in a very bad mood.

2026-08-30 15:19:49 UTC

Time to relegate #Debian to the AI Slop trash heap.

2026-08-28 23:07:29 UTC

Wow: Red state ranchers are LIVID at Trump for his deal to import 300K
tons of beef

2026-08-28 18:07:47 UTC

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Yeah, I had to look up the acronym. My first thought was that it was some sort of vaccine.

2026-08-28 17:46:51 UTC

EU forces #Google to provide more spam results to EU users
https://stratnewsglobal.com/technology/google-spam-policy-europe/
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/174/383/797/313/360/original/811a73541ac93f78.png

2026-08-27 22:55:19 UTC

BREAKING: Report: FTC investigating YouTube for possible law violations relating to account takedowns

2026-08-27 19:42:46 UTC

Trump wastes time and money changing names that can be quickly changed back. Most people everywhere still use the traditional names. Idiots trying to change them from the original names just expose their
stupidity to everyone.
How many people actually call the Sears Tower in Chicago by the "new" name "Willis"?

2026-08-27 19:17:08 UTC

#AI industry begging Trump for exemption from planned chip tariffs that
will devastate consumer devices

2026-08-27 19:10:03 UTC

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"I've got a little list ..." as G&S would say.

2026-08-27 18:49:49 UTC

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A bit more complicated in Commodus' case. The Guard was apparently involved, but the sources I've seen suggest his mistress poisoned him, but when he vomited it up they sent in his personal trainer/wrestling partner to finish the job. Of course, history is written by the victors.

2026-08-27 18:38:36 UTC

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Given how Sundar has a hobby of kissing Trump's ass (at least), one would assume so.

2026-08-27 18:35:39 UTC

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Addendum: Commodus and the 12 years
Oh, by the way, the reason why Commodus' time as emperor is usually considered to be 12 years (nearly 13), even though his reign was from
177 to 192, is because for the first few years he served as co-emperor with his father. The real fun began when he had the empire all to himself.

2026-08-27 18:19:37 UTC

History Moment: The Fall of Commodus
Commodus served as the emperor of Rome from 177 to 192. His reign is generally considered to have been even more damaging that that of the notorious Caligula, mainly since Commodus reigned for twelve years and Caligula for only four.
Apparently far more interested in the trappings of the emperor than actually ruling, Commodus fired knowledgeable advisors and surrounded himself with incompetent loyalists. He had a penchant for a cult of personality, renaming places and things after himself, ultimately including Rome itself.
His reign came to an end in 192, and triggered a chaotic succession of short-serving emperors, when he was poisoned and strangled to death.

2026-08-27 15:58:00 UTC

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No apology necessary. Point is, AI is ultimately going to be extremely tightly regulated, and mechanisms will ultimately be mandated to deal with the detection problems, at risk of firms finding their AI systems being shut down by governments. The trend line is clear, though since currently it's the "wild west" phase I realize that isn't particularly obvious!

2026-08-27 15:37:58 UTC

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Not the common use case.

2026-08-27 03:28:05 UTC

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My educational background is actually surprising eclectic and almost certainly couldn't be duplicated today. But there just wasn't time for everything, and I pretty much stuck mainly to prose (though not 100%).

2026-08-26 22:39:28 UTC

BREAKING: Man who brought guillotine to D.C. arrested for violating Washington knife laws

2026-08-26 22:10:58 UTC

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Unfamiliar with it.

2026-08-26 19:55:11 UTC

In a divided America, the left and right unite to oppose artificial intelligence data centers
https://whyy.org/articles/data-centers-artificial-intelligence-unite-left-right-opposition/
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/163/563/957/949/074/original/2e410a62ea6d35bf.png

2026-08-26 19:42:43 UTC

Think of it this way, what if there was a law that required that whenever you wrote with AI, you had to list that AI as the primary author, with you as the secondary. That would be honest at least.

2026-08-26 18:56:49 UTC

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The right environment can foster creativity where it exists. It will not create creativity. For many people, their goal is destruction, not creativity. And for ones who
just want to "get by" AI is a way to pretend to write and put their
names on whatever output they can get, just like hiring a human to write for them anonymously. Absolutely no difference.

2026-08-26 18:50:06 UTC

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Creativity is an innate factor. It can be improved and shepherded but where it doesn't exist those people are living in ways where what we call creativity just doesn't exist. You think you could make Trump feel creative in some way that wasn't destructive?

2026-08-26 18:47:29 UTC

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I assume you're joking.

2026-08-26 18:34:36 UTC

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That only works if you enjoy writing. Many people don't, still need to, and still need to not let machines do the writing for them under their names.

2026-08-26 17:04:34 UTC

10 AM in my corner of L.A., and it's already 100F.

2026-08-26 17:00:44 UTC

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I have and never had any interest in surfing per se, but I've always found that film to be fantastic!

2026-08-26 16:49:38 UTC

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The ultimate surf film is and will always be Bruce Brown's "The Endless Summer" (1966).

2026-08-26 16:26:33 UTC

After boosting #AI for years, Bill Gates writes essay claiming concerns
It's another "everyone" essay -- like Zuckerberg's! -L
https://www.gatesnotes.com/work/make-ai-work-for-everyone/reader/a-turbulent-ai-era-and-critical-choices-to-make
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/162/743/580/355/469/original/6379cc555a4349c3.png

2026-08-26 15:29:55 UTC

#AI writing is ghostwriting. You are publishing words that you did not originate, and claiming them as your own. A WSJ editorial written with AI is like giving a human writer a list of your opinions, then taking the essay they create and sticking your name on it. It is unethical and disgusting, irrespective of whether or not your WSJ editor approves of the practice. All AI writing that can be identified as such with available tools to a high degree of certainty should be called out and marked for public shaming.

2026-08-26 14:48:28 UTC

Interview with worker at Amazon's rare book destruction facility
https://www.404media.co/inside-the-warehouse-where-amazon-scans-and-destroys-books-for-ai-training/?ref=daily-stories-newsletter
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/162/357/859/610/864/original/28f083f5a46e6672.png

2026-08-26 02:09:41 UTC

BREAKING: After Trump says he wants to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America, Rep. Dingell jabs and suggests Trump should call it "Lake Natalie"

2026-08-25 18:17:42 UTC

Dolly Parton dies at 80. Peace.

2026-08-25 17:12:52 UTC

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https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/@lauren/117156668389816960
#note1tgg…v9nr

2026-08-25 16:56:00 UTC

I must admit that I never thought I'd mention Twisted Sister in one of my network radio tech reports. But it happened yesterday! Never bet against chaos theory!

2026-08-25 16:42:32 UTC

Upset at Canada, senile madman Trump wants to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America

2026-08-25 16:29:20 UTC

Cops really don't like the public interfering with Flock cameras because this interferes with cops stalking their ex-girlfriends.