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Justin (J. M. L.) Whittington @jmlwhittington.com · 1d

I've been obsessed with Wingspan for over two weeks now, which I lovingly refer to as "bird game." It's just so much fun for no reason at all.

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Reposted by Justin (J. M. L.) Whittington

Ian Bogost @ibogost.com · 1d

Pibb calls itself a “spicy cherry soda.” Dr. Pepper rejects any suggestion of cherryness; it is a “pepper soda,” of which it is the canonical and hypothetically sole example. Cola is spiced, as a flavor, mostly by cinnamon. That is all for now.

Oh, Pibb Zero is possible.

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Reposted by Justin (J. M. L.) Whittington

Christina Holland @mortalwombat.info · 2d

This kind of behavior is always kind of annoying but especially bugs me in this case because this is an 87 page NTSB report including both culture issues and detailed photos and microscopic analysis of the hull failure which I was really itching for and all previous reports were light on

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Justin (J. M. L.) Whittington @jmlwhittington.com · 2d

Can't not read this as "I've been byte-en."

videogame history @vghistory.bsky.social · Apr 27

bug-byte, software house, t-shirts (1984) archive.org/details/your...

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Justin (J. M. L.) Whittington @jmlwhittington.com · 2d

Folks are *still* trying to do this too. I'm someone who notices these things as well but gets over it. Aside from its figurative form here, I can attest to the *literal* myopia this level of screen usage causes. Less is more.

After Just 10 Minutes With Breath Of The Wild's Switch 2 Port, I Know I Can Never Go Back To The Original

Breath of the Wild’s Switch 2 port doesn’t change too much, but a fresh coat of paint on an all-timer has me excited to sink another 100 hours.

www.thegamer.com

Justin (J. M. L.) Whittington @jmlwhittington.com · 2d

Almost (read: 125%) certain that when I ask Kayelin how the game is going later, she'll respond with, "So much fun! Look at my cute Pokémon! We're winning so many battles!"

There was similar discourse around TLoZ: Breath of the Wild when it released...now considered one of the greatest games ever.

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Justin (J. M. L.) Whittington @jmlwhittington.com · 2d

Review challenge: cover a game without treating graphics/performance as 80% of the content.

Polygon @polygon.com · 2d

Frame rate dips and longer loading times aside, it's not bad (so far)

Pokémon Legends: Z-A is surprisingly functional on OG Switch in its early hours

Frame rate dips and longer loading times aside, it's not bad (so far)

www.polygon.com

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Reposted by Justin (J. M. L.) Whittington

Waffle 🧇 @wafflecut.bsky.social · 2d

Learned that an anonymous outside expert on submersibles did an interview with the OceanGate Titan investigation, and they released a transcript, with all the names redacted. The first line of his first answer? "I'm sure you're familiar with my film Titanic."

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD
*****************
Investigation of:
LOSS OF THE SUBMARINE TITAN
IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN
ON JUNE 18, 2023
*
*
*
*
*
*
Accident No.:
*********** * * * * * *
Interview of:
Co-designer/Pilot
Deepsea Challenger
DCA23FM036
via Microsoft Teams
Friday,
July 26, 2024

INTERVIEW OF
10
BY LCDR
11 Q. So how did you get yourself started into submersible
12 operations?
13
A.
Well, I'm sure you're familiar with my film Titanic.
When I
14
set down the path to make that film, the first thing that I did
15
was arrange to be introduced to the head of the submersible
16
program at the P.P. Shirshov Institute in Moscow, a guy named
17|
Professor
I. I did that through a mutual friend
18
of ours, a guy named
, who is one of the preeminent
underwater cinematographers in the world. And had been on a
20
submersible expedition out to Titanic the previous year with the
21
Russians. And that was organized by a Canadian company that was
22 doing an IMAX film which was released under the title Titanica.

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Justin (J. M. L.) Whittington @jmlwhittington.com · 3d

There was an underpass in my hometown that had "Infowars.com" spray-painted on it when I was younger.

maps.app.goo.gl/A8rMKwsn1L39...

It sat there for years and I remember visiting it out of curiosity. Immediately saw it as nonsense.

I need this resolution to the story arc.

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 4d

Regarding the news today, all I have to say for now is... subscribe to The Onion. Thank you for believing in us and thank you for your patience.

Join The Onion

Don’t just read the news. Feel it. Be among the first to feel the news.

membership.theonion.com

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Justin (J. M. L.) Whittington @jmlwhittington.com · 3d

This game disappointed me so hardcore on launch. I gave it another chance recently and it wasn't *too* bad, but I'm still left wanting for the New Vegas spiritual successor I was promised.

Also, what happened to telegraphing possible story decisions in RPGs? Or not harshly punishing early ones?

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Reposted by Justin (J. M. L.) Whittington

videogame history @vghistory.bsky.social · 4d

commodore user, magazine, excerpt (1986) archive.org/details/Comm...

graphics: a mysterious robed figure, hood covering face, only eyes visible, is pointing at something.
caption: danger - software super hype at work

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Reposted by Justin (J. M. L.) Whittington

Cemetery Rozier 🎃🦇 @velodus.bsky.social · 4d

It's honestly so liberating the first time you go to a theater by yourself because you realize you can just, like, go see any movie whenever you want and then you realize how many times you've deprived yourself from experiencing stuff you like due to a stigma.

Seth 🍿 @sethasaurus.bsky.social · 5d

i don't want to be a gatekeeper, so i'm not going to say that people who agree with this tweet don't actually like movies. not gonna say it.

Tweet from @israeldfirzt: "Going to the cinema alone is a different level of lonely"

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Reposted by Justin (J. M. L.) Whittington

Ian Carrillo @iansociologo.bsky.social · 5d

Du Bois basically did a version of this in his bibliography in Black Reconstruction

BIB L I OGRAPH Y
STAN DARD - A N TI-NEGRO
(These authors believe the Negro to be sub-human and congenitally un-
fitted for citizenship and the suffrage.)
Burgess, John W., Reconstruction and the Constitution, 1 866-1 876.
Coulter, E. Merton, Civil War and Reconstruction in Kentucky.
Davis, William W ., The Civil War and Reconstruction in Florida.
Dunning, William A., Reconstruction, Political and Economic .
Eckenrode, F. Hamilton, Political History of Virginia During Reconstruc·
tion.
Fertig, James Walter, The Secession and Reconstruction of Tennessee.
Ficklen, John R., History of Reconstruction in Louisiana.
Fleming, Walter F., Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama.
--, Documentary History of Reconstruction, 1 906, 1907.
Hamilton, Joseph G. de R., Reconstruction in North Carolina.
Hollis, John Porter, The Early Period of Reconstruction in South Carolina.
Lonn, Ella, Reconstruction in Louisiana after 1 868 .
Ramsdell, Charles W., Reconstruction in Texas .
Rhodes, James F., History of United States from the Compromise of 1 850.
Scott, Eben G., Reconstruction During the Civil War.
Staples, Thomas S ., Reconstruction in Arkansas .
Studies in Southern History and Politics . Inscribed to William Archibald
Dunning.
Carpet-Baggers in the United States Senate. By C. Mildred Thompson.
The Literary Movement for Secession. By Ulrich B. Phillips.
Negro Suffrage in the South. By W. Roy Smith.
Some Phases of Educational History in the South Since 1 865. By Wil-
liam K. Boyd.
Southern Legislation in Respect to Freedmen, 1 865- 1 866. By J. G. de
Roulhac Hamilton.
The Federal Enforcement Acts . By William Watson Davis.
The New South, Economic and Social . By Holland Thompson.
Grant's Southern Policy. By Edwin C. Woolley.
Taylor, Richard, Destruction and Reconstruction.
Thompson, Clara M., Reconstruction in Georgia, Economic, Social, Po-
litical, l 805-1 872.
Wooley, Edwin C., The Reconstruction of Georgia.

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Justin (J. M. L.) Whittington @jmlwhittington.com · 5d

An in-depth technical explanation of what's going on here and why it scares me so terribly: www.safebreach.com/blog/invitat...

Justin (J. M. L.) Whittington @jmlwhittington.com · 5d

"Someone sent you a meeting invite via email and you were too lazy to read through your inbox. Now, you've just helped a stranger take over the Mojave Wasteland."

Hackers Hijacked Google’s Gemini AI With a Poisoned Calendar Invite to Take Over a Smart Home

For likely the first time ever, security researchers have shown how AI can be hacked to create real world havoc, allowing them to turn off lights, open smart shutters, and more.

www.wired.com

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Justin (J. M. L.) Whittington @jmlwhittington.com · 5d

A friend sent me a Reddit post today about the new Gemini 2.5 Computer Use model, and my brain went immediately to prompt injection attacks.

It's wild that the real-world implementation of this tech is too quickly becoming this guy:

Yes Man

Yes Man is an AI program that serves as Benny's assistant and right-hand man in 2281. He is a modified PDQ-88b Securitron with a unique personality, serving as an integral part of Benny's scheme to ta...

fallout.fandom.com

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Justin (J. M. L.) Whittington @jmlwhittington.com · 5d

The joke can probably be seen as a case of the truth fading "quickly" in terms of historical era; once Sumer fell, the context was lost and the joke's meaning too because it was too largely bound up in that moment.

Yet, as mentioned, new interpretations are still possible.

Justin (J. M. L.) Whittington @jmlwhittington.com · 5d

It was. Propaganda is a great example in which the overt ties to that context cause its interest to fade quickly as the context fades. But I was also thinking of some folks' newfound appreciation of Soviet-era propaganda, per a rise in socialist identification. It's a two-sided coin.

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Justin (J. M. L.) Whittington @jmlwhittington.com · 10d

Nathalie's claim, if I'm understanding correctly, aligns with this still. New meanings are being read through the detachment of now and then, even if some of the original is lost in the process. Benjamin is doing dialectical work and so that tension is natural.

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Justin (J. M. L.) Whittington @jmlwhittington.com · 10d

Most cases are somewhere in-between this and right now, and require varying degrees of careful historical and interpretative work as a result to uncover truth content. Weirdly, the Sumerian joke can still provide *some* meaning: that understandings can be lost, for instance.

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Justin (J. M. L.) Whittington @jmlwhittington.com · 10d

I know this is an ancient reply, but I come back to the main post every so often and just so happened to look down this time.

The quoted post is an example of what happens when enough time passes to fully obscure the relationship between the subject matter and the truth content.

jam @socialistboat.dad · 14d

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Justin (J. M. L.) Whittington @jmlwhittington.com · 11d

That, or good faith engagement? I don't see what we stand to lose.

Justin (J. M. L.) Whittington @jmlwhittington.com · 11d

It goes beyond misuse and into questions of, in my example, racism, but more broadly (and as Marinucci points out in the text in the other response) personhood/humanity in general.

So, a variation of the golden rule: "If all I have to say is 'you're a bot,' perhaps no response is also sufficient."

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Justin (J. M. L.) Whittington @jmlwhittington.com · 11d

Early on in the "how do we detect AI?" furor, people were using "delve" as a shibboleth. AI detectors were born of the same impulse. I deliberately link "calling folks bots," because the paranoia and rush to prove human authorship resulted in non-English users being called "non-human."

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Justin (J. M. L.) Whittington @jmlwhittington.com · 11d

Having attended the author's presentation on the book at a conference recently, and that the intro states it as well: the impetus for the book was the loneliness that drove her own chatbot interaction.