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avildsen.bsky.social
peter ⓥ
@avildsen.bsky.social
human, curious to know more
Reposted by peter ⓥ
I just feel awful for the National Guard troopers caught up in this. They’re just standing around looking bored all the time, but they have been made into a deliberate symbol by the Trump admin and that may have made them a target for this gunman.
BREAKING: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Trump administration would send hundreds of additional National Guard soldiers to the nation’s capital after two soldiers were shot in the city Wednesday.
Trump Admin to Escalate D.C. Military Takeover After Two National Guard Members Shot
Read more here.
www.democracydocket.com
November 26, 2025 at 11:36 PM
Reposted by peter ⓥ
If you're interested, this tribute to Alice Wong was written by one of the people who knew her best

www.thenation.com/article/soci...
A Tribute to an Oracle, Alice Wong
Alice had the ability to look to the future and a world where laws and attitudes did not keep disabled people poor, pitied, and isolated.
www.thenation.com
November 26, 2025 at 11:18 PM
Reposted by peter ⓥ
Look I keep saying this - the most nuns I personally met or know about were women uninterested in the constraints of patriarchal society. While the church of course has those too a convent still frees you up from marriage to men and pressures to have children, and gives you access to education.
November 26, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Reposted by peter ⓥ
The first woman with a PhD in computer science was a Catholic nun.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ke...
Mary Kenneth Keller - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 26, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Reposted by peter ⓥ
Newly released emails show the FBI spent almost $1 million in overtime analyzing the Epstein files as part of an effort dubbed the “Special Redaction Project."
FBI’s Frantic Scramble to Redact Epstein Files Revealed
A trove of emails shows all-nighters and almost $1 million in overtime as Trumpworld debated releasing the Epstein files.
trib.al
November 26, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Reposted by peter ⓥ
Also: for everyone saying "why can't we have this in my state?", take heart. I think something like 20-30 states are at some stage of considering a similar bill. I suspect this will spread quickly. Listen to the pod!
November 26, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Reposted by peter ⓥ
Today, in Utah, homeowners *or renters* can simply buy a solar panel at Costco, take it home, and plug it in to a wall socket, like an appliance. It just sits there & trims about 15-20% off a residential power bill. If you move to another apt., you can take it with you.
November 26, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Reposted by peter ⓥ
Today on Volts: I've had more requests to cover this than almost any other topic in the pod's history, so now, at long last, balcony solar! We dig into how "plug-in solar" took off in Europe & how it's making its way to the US, starting in Utah. Backyard DIY types rejoice!
What's the deal with balcony solar?
Cora Stryker joins me to explain how "plug-in" solar took Europe by storm and is finally, via Utah (?), making its way to America.
www.volts.wtf
November 26, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Reposted by peter ⓥ
Exclusive: President Trump has argued with the architect he handpicked to design a White House ballroom over the size of the project, reflecting a conflict between architectural norms and Trump’s grandiose aesthetic.
Trump wants a bigger White House ballroom. His architect disagrees.
The president and James McCrery had argued in recent weeks over the project’s size, with Trump pushing him to expand the ballroom.
wapo.st
November 26, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by peter ⓥ
sorry this is so funny and also inevitable
Exclusive: President Trump has argued with the architect he handpicked to design a White House ballroom over the size of the project, reflecting a conflict between architectural norms and Trump’s grandiose aesthetic.
Trump wants a bigger White House ballroom. His architect disagrees.
The president and James McCrery had argued in recent weeks over the project’s size, with Trump pushing him to expand the ballroom.
wapo.st
November 26, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Reposted by peter ⓥ
I strongly support this kind of gloating, it’s good for everyone’s souls!
Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷
November 26, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Reposted by peter ⓥ
imagine what we could be doing if the federal government wasn't actively trying to throttle the growth of this industry
November 26, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Reposted by peter ⓥ
Our 1995 US home consumes <1/2 what it did then.

Higher eff A/C, heating, LED lighting, & new appliances, are to thank.

We paid for superior insulation at build, but expect to do 10% better with new insulation in the attic.

We added Solar recently, ~40% of use. Total grid offload is ~ 75%.
November 26, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Reposted by peter ⓥ
Reposted by peter ⓥ
i think my main problem is that if you struggle with writing ai ensures you will never get better and also, being able to write the material feels like a necessary component of being able to evaluate and edit the output!
September 4, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Reposted by peter ⓥ
2) Folks who could produce coherent documentation, summarize their ideas, and present them clearly and concisely were more effective in a remote-first videoconference environment. Other workers had to read and produce plans, synthesize information, and present their own ideas.
September 4, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Reposted by peter ⓥ
Sudden switch to remote work I think definitely revealed a lot of middle management that was incompetent or didn't do anything which is one of the reasons there was such a heavy push to deride and end the practice bsky.app/profile/sara...
1) I saw managers and engineers who had reading or writing difficulties either due to habit or limited English proficiency penalized by early COVID exigencies which demanded asynchronous communication and documentation.

Suddenly, shouting and hoping the audience understood didn't work.
I think more than anything else AI feels like a miracle to people with questionable literacy because it can read and write for you, and a lot of us who are highly literate underestimate how many of our society's leaders, esp in business, struggle with literacy.
September 4, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Reposted by peter ⓥ
I’ve always struggled with reading and especially writing. It’s fucking torture. I can do it, but my brain hates it. I’ve found other ways to get the information, but nothing has ever helped me write. I don’t need to write much anymore, but if I did I would be thanking the gods for Ai
September 4, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Reposted by peter ⓥ
That's kinda mind-blowing in some ways when you think about how vital literacy skills are to actually performing management jobs, then you remember how most people wound up in management jobs...
September 4, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Reposted by peter ⓥ
I think more than anything else AI feels like a miracle to people with questionable literacy because it can read and write for you, and a lot of us who are highly literate underestimate how many of our society's leaders, esp in business, struggle with literacy.
It's pretty much mandatory at work that I appear to be using it, so I've doe a few functional things with it, and it's a moderate time-saver if used right. But nowhere near worth it's stock value, energy cost.

Then I realize there's a lot of people who simply can't write coherent paragraphs.
September 4, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Reposted by peter ⓥ
this is truly the core problem with modern LLM tech, and especially with the utterly deranged and dangerous way it’s being marketed right now
Yep and everything we know about human psychology point to people will rely on it way too much regardless of how it's marketed or whatever (automation bias, it's something known for the longest time just completely boosted by llms)
September 3, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Reposted by peter ⓥ
Yep and everything we know about human psychology point to people will rely on it way too much regardless of how it's marketed or whatever (automation bias, it's something known for the longest time just completely boosted by llms)
September 3, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Reposted by peter ⓥ
that said basically nobody has a previous way of dealing with something that is unreliable in this exact way. it's a fucking bizarre piece of tech that resembles nothing that existed previously in how you have to handle it
September 3, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Reposted by peter ⓥ
fuck you

the memories of a generation lost because of Reagan's homophobia will not be erased

i think we should do something in DC that would make david wojnarowicz proud tbh
November 26, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Reposted by peter ⓥ
SCOOP: The Trump administration has instructed employees and grantees not to use U.S. funds to commemorate World AIDS Day — because the observance was started by the World Health Organization.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/h...
Trump Administration Cancels U.S. Observance of World AIDS Day
www.nytimes.com
November 26, 2025 at 6:41 PM