Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Pyke Redrock @pykeredrock.bsky.social · 3h

Hedge funds slowly figuring out that the slop machine won’t help them unlock infinite money is hopefully a sign the bubble’s gonna burst.

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Pyke Redrock @pykeredrock.bsky.social · 3h

It still hasn’t been received by the Registrar when normally two weeks is the max, so I’m gonna go ahead and assume it’s gotten caught up and lost in the clusterfuck that is mailing things to the U.S. from overseas 🫠

Pyke Redrock @pykeredrock.bsky.social · 26d

Got my Virginia absentee ballot for the general election. Filling it out this afternoon and getting it in the post first thing Monday.

Pyke Redrock @pykeredrock.bsky.social · 4h

Me: I’m feeling out of spoons.

Australia: Sounds like a “You” problem, mate.

A stylised map of Australia with collectable teaspoons hanging from each significant population centre or tourist attraction that matches the artwork on the teaspoons’ handles or bowls.

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Reposted by Pyke Redrock

Holly Anderson 🍇 @hollyanderson.bsky.social · 23h

you fucked around and now the Episcopalians are doing memes. are you happy now. are you

Screenshot of a Facebook post featuring three of the Portland protesters wearing inflatable frog costumes with the following text:

Episcopalians on Facebook
Elizabeth Rose Elrod • 22h •
Exodus 8:2-6
"But if you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs...
The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your officials."

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Pyke Redrock @pykeredrock.bsky.social · 1d

“Demons run when the guy who isn’t that guy becomes that guy.”

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Pyke Redrock @pykeredrock.bsky.social · 1d

This is what would convince me to consider homeschooling.

Luke Plunkett @lukeplunkett.com · 1d

kids teacher just sent this home as part of an assignment he's doing and i want to smash every computer at the school

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Reposted by Pyke Redrock

Rob MacWolf, Werewolf Hitchhiker @robmacwolf.thevoice.dog · 1d

When we write or draw porn or erotica, we get banned from having a bank account and our livelihoods get seized even if we give it away for free.

When billionaires steal what we've written or drawn to churn out a slop-approximate of porn, they're allowed to charge for it.

Matt Burgess (WIRED) @mattburgess1.bsky.social · 1d

Oh good, ChatGPT is getting "erotica for verified adults" later this year

We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right.

Now that we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases.

In a few weeks, we plan to put out a new version of ChatGPT that allows people to have a personality that behaves more like what people liked about 4o (we hope it will be better!). If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it (but only if you want it, not because we are usage-maxxing).

In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our “treat adult users like adults” principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults.

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Reposted by Pyke Redrock

NightEyes DaySpring @nighteyes.bsky.social · 1d

Apparently when an individual writes erotica, that's a problem and payment processors don't want people to see that. As an example, my adult books are still delisted on Itch.

Apparently if a big tech company AI writes it, that's an innovation.

Matt Burgess (WIRED) @mattburgess1.bsky.social · 1d

Oh good, ChatGPT is getting "erotica for verified adults" later this year

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Pyke Redrock @pykeredrock.bsky.social · 1d

That’s funny and all, but the absolute lying through his teeth about their concern for mental health issues is fucking rage inducing.

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Pyke Redrock @pykeredrock.bsky.social · 1d

“How dare you question our intentions‽”

*proceeds to invade a neighboring nation they also once tried to erase from existence*

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Pyke Redrock @pykeredrock.bsky.social · 2d

The theory’s underlying hypothesis that there can be any “good” AI doesn’t stand up to rigour.

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Pyke Redrock @pykeredrock.bsky.social · 2d

The best English teachers I had would make sure to relate the texts to modern culture and draw comparisons as appropriate.

The worst ones just had us read the text, asked us if we understood what was happening and why it was important to the story, then moved on.

John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 2d

Most "classics" are boring as fuck to a modern reader in no small part because the context of the story is not understood by them and so many of the allusions and "inside jokes" known to then-contemporary readers have been lost in time and in translation

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 3d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

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Reposted by Pyke Redrock

bleary @bleary.off-the-records.com · 2d

If anyone needs me I will be in the museum, lying down next to the bog bodies.

Did people really memorize phone numbers before cell phones, or is that just a movie thing?
2? Questions
I was watching some old shows from the 90s and noticed people would just dial numbers from memory - like they'd call their friends or family without looking anything up.
Made me wonder if that was actually normal back then? Did people genuinely have all their important numbers memorized, or did most folks keep a little address book or written list nearby?

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Reposted by Pyke Redrock

Chris Kluwe @chriswarcraft.bsky.social · 2d

Honestly, it needs to go further than this.

We need to confront the fact that democracy and wealth hoarding cannot coexist. Allowing people to amass the resources of a small state/country allows them to act as such, which is inimical to a shared society of “one person, one vote.”

John Rogers @johnrogers.bsky.social · 2d

“No Kings” is great , but we really don't get a functioning democracy back until we internalize, bone deep, the instinctive response to this and every other statement like it: “I don’t care what that rich guy thinks.”

Make it your morning affirmation. Say it ten times at the top of every hour.

The Independent @the-independent.com · 2d

Elon Musk calls for US troops to be sent to San Francisco for war on drugs: ‘It’s the only solution’

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Pyke Redrock @pykeredrock.bsky.social · 3d

A bird just crashed into my home office window, and then began chirping at it angrily after recovering from its daze (it's otherwise fine, it was a light impact - bird just overshot a landing in the bushes).

This activity attracted its friends.

Pretty sure they were all ready to fight the window.

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Pyke Redrock @pykeredrock.bsky.social · 3d

Birds are pretty neat.

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Pyke Redrock @pykeredrock.bsky.social · 4d

I'm so glad the mainstream media are investigating deeply and politicians are demanding accountability...

nvm, it's just @coffeezilla.bsky.social and concluding the obvious that Trump's inner circle is making money hand over fist.

what did he know?

YouTube video by voidzilla

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Pyke Redrock

Katav 🐺 g(r)ay wolf 🐏 bighorn(y) ram @katav.gay · 4d

warm coffee on a cool day

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Pyke Redrock @pykeredrock.bsky.social · 4d

Historian: The hammer and sickle are symbols of communism because they represent collective labor.

Student: Okay.

H: Fists and roses are symbols of socialism to represent the blooming of tomorrow borne through activism.

S: Okay. And the frog is anti-fascist because...?

H: Fucking 2020s, man... 🥃

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Pyke Redrock @pykeredrock.bsky.social · 4d

It's that scene in V for Vendetta where all the Guy Fawkes masks get delivered on the eve of the climactic protest...

But way sillier.

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Pyke Redrock @pykeredrock.bsky.social · 4d

him frens will never believe 😔

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Pyke Redrock @pykeredrock.bsky.social · 4d

Billionaire techbros standing shoulder to shoulder for fascism

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Pyke Redrock @pykeredrock.bsky.social · 4d

*slow clap*

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Reposted by Pyke Redrock

Darkrose @darkrose.bsky.social · 4d

Too bad no journalist will ask a Catholic official—like say, the Vice President—to comment on ICE refusing to allow a priest to administer the sacraments. That sounds pretty anti-Catholic to me.

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Reposted by Pyke Redrock

J.L. Briere @jlbriere.boats · 4d

Foxtober 11th: Caramel Apple

I just felt like drawing Mahri gnawing on a caramel apple like a dog with a ball or something while she's distracted by research findings. 🦊🍎

Fox woman gnawing on a caramel apple as she focuses her attention to a clip board.

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