B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)
@b-cavello.bsky.social
activist, aspiring-polymath, problematic feminist working to better this world
@[email protected]
avatar description: Portrait of B against colorful background
banner description: Collage of creative commons illustrations
@[email protected]
avatar description: Portrait of B against colorful background
banner description: Collage of creative commons illustrations
Reposted by B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)
I interviewed 108 ML researchers. They had a lot to say about this!
Title: Lessons learned from machine learning researchers about the terms “artificial intelligence” and “machine learning.”
compstudiesjournal.com/wp-content/u...
Title: Lessons learned from machine learning researchers about the terms “artificial intelligence” and “machine learning.”
compstudiesjournal.com/wp-content/u...
November 22, 2025 at 9:58 PM
I interviewed 108 ML researchers. They had a lot to say about this!
Title: Lessons learned from machine learning researchers about the terms “artificial intelligence” and “machine learning.”
compstudiesjournal.com/wp-content/u...
Title: Lessons learned from machine learning researchers about the terms “artificial intelligence” and “machine learning.”
compstudiesjournal.com/wp-content/u...
Reposted by B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)
a fun fact, looking at images of this kind of shit can trigger it in people whose brains are prone
ask me how I know, says the person who once walked by an art gallery full of paintings made by a lady about her migraines
ask me how I know, says the person who once walked by an art gallery full of paintings made by a lady about her migraines
November 24, 2025 at 3:08 AM
a fun fact, looking at images of this kind of shit can trigger it in people whose brains are prone
ask me how I know, says the person who once walked by an art gallery full of paintings made by a lady about her migraines
ask me how I know, says the person who once walked by an art gallery full of paintings made by a lady about her migraines
Reposted by B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)
What happens when a former vfx guy develops a truly weird visual anomaly that the internet has not yet correctly modeled
I've been "enjoying" scintillating scotomas more often recently. They're difficult to describe, and images online don't really capture it. But the first thing I thought when I saw them was "I should make a shader of this" – so here's a demo, it's pretty close: meetar.github.io/scotoma/
November 23, 2025 at 8:31 PM
What happens when a former vfx guy develops a truly weird visual anomaly that the internet has not yet correctly modeled
Reposted by B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)
It's really stupid, but it just really pisses me off that he says shit like this every day and the media won't report on it. You would really think "World's Richest Man is a Nazi" would be generate clicks.
November 24, 2025 at 2:44 AM
It's really stupid, but it just really pisses me off that he says shit like this every day and the media won't report on it. You would really think "World's Richest Man is a Nazi" would be generate clicks.
Reposted by B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)
Amazing story, state legislator and Turning Points USA leader who crusaded against bogus voter fraud claims pleads guilty to attempted election fraud. azmirror.com/briefs/turni...
Turning Point leader, former GOP Rep pleads guilty to attempted election fraud | Arizona Mirror
Austin Smith election fraud guilty plea: Former GOP Rep admits forging 100+ signatures on ballot petitions in Arizona
azmirror.com
November 23, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Amazing story, state legislator and Turning Points USA leader who crusaded against bogus voter fraud claims pleads guilty to attempted election fraud. azmirror.com/briefs/turni...
Reposted by B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)
Engagement KPIs have been responsible for infinite scroll UI traps, RecSys radicalization spirals, public shame brigades, and basically every modern ailment novel to the past decade. At some point, you have to recognize that the problem isn't any one technology, it's the metric.
The company essentially turned a dial that made ChatGPT more appealing and made people use it more, but sent some of them into delusional spirals.
OpenAI has since made the chatbot safer, but that comes with a tradeoff: less usage.
OpenAI has since made the chatbot safer, but that comes with a tradeoff: less usage.
November 23, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Engagement KPIs have been responsible for infinite scroll UI traps, RecSys radicalization spirals, public shame brigades, and basically every modern ailment novel to the past decade. At some point, you have to recognize that the problem isn't any one technology, it's the metric.
Reposted by B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)
The 12-month running mean global temperature anomaly continues to fall from its peak (temporary), which is mostly in response to cooler conditions over the equatorial Pacific Ocean during the last year (weak La Niña state).
➡️ Graphic available by zacklabe.com/climate-chan... 🌊⚒️🧪
➡️ Graphic available by zacklabe.com/climate-chan... 🌊⚒️🧪
November 24, 2025 at 1:44 AM
The 12-month running mean global temperature anomaly continues to fall from its peak (temporary), which is mostly in response to cooler conditions over the equatorial Pacific Ocean during the last year (weak La Niña state).
➡️ Graphic available by zacklabe.com/climate-chan... 🌊⚒️🧪
➡️ Graphic available by zacklabe.com/climate-chan... 🌊⚒️🧪
Reposted by B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)
I maybe be just a small-town political scientist but I reckon that the Trump administration's right hand has no fucking idea what its far-right hand is doing.
"US senators say they spoke with Rubio about Trump’s Ukraine peace plan who denied it is a US plan." Welcome to the Topsy Turvy administration in which six or seven people are pursuing their own private foreign policy, and much of it is scripted by a hostile foreign power.
US senators say they spoke with Rubio about Trump’s Ukraine peace plan who denied it is a US plan
U.S. senators critical of President Donald Trump’s approach to ending the Russia-Ukraine war say they spoke with U.S.
apnews.com
November 23, 2025 at 3:03 AM
I maybe be just a small-town political scientist but I reckon that the Trump administration's right hand has no fucking idea what its far-right hand is doing.
Reposted by B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)
Harborview Medical Center in Seattle has had 6 patients since June with a rare fungal infection.
Mucormycosis has a fatality rate of about 50% and strikes the immunocompromised.
Unrelated: Harborview rang a bell and sure enough one of the first U.S. patients died of COVID19 there.
Mucormycosis has a fatality rate of about 50% and strikes the immunocompromised.
Unrelated: Harborview rang a bell and sure enough one of the first U.S. patients died of COVID19 there.
Harborview patients test positive for mucormycosis - UW Medicine | Newsroom
newsroom.uw.edu
November 24, 2025 at 12:53 AM
Harborview Medical Center in Seattle has had 6 patients since June with a rare fungal infection.
Mucormycosis has a fatality rate of about 50% and strikes the immunocompromised.
Unrelated: Harborview rang a bell and sure enough one of the first U.S. patients died of COVID19 there.
Mucormycosis has a fatality rate of about 50% and strikes the immunocompromised.
Unrelated: Harborview rang a bell and sure enough one of the first U.S. patients died of COVID19 there.
Reposted by B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)
In early October, a man died while detained by ICE at Imperial Regional. www.kpbs.org/news/border-...
November 24, 2025 at 1:39 AM
In early October, a man died while detained by ICE at Imperial Regional. www.kpbs.org/news/border-...
Reposted by B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)
Wheeling, Illinois, a suburb, northwest of Chicago
the wheeling rapid response team reports multiple plainclothes ice agents have been spotted over the past two days eating and shopping at local businesses.
the group warns “residents likely have no idea that they are agents because they are in regular clothing.”
www.facebook.com/share/p/1Cu4...
the group warns “residents likely have no idea that they are agents because they are in regular clothing.”
www.facebook.com/share/p/1Cu4...
November 24, 2025 at 1:56 AM
Wheeling, Illinois, a suburb, northwest of Chicago
Reposted by B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)
To all my new followers, please check this out before much else, but also my research is all available freely here (see the little pdf icons):
olivia.science#publications
olivia.science#publications
November 23, 2025 at 12:36 PM
To all my new followers, please check this out before much else, but also my research is all available freely here (see the little pdf icons):
olivia.science#publications
olivia.science#publications
Reposted by B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)
This is in the forthcoming book but I’d argue it goes wildly unacknowledged that the earliest forms of US mass media included political media made by Black folks. That they were included, even in order to dismiss them, reveals a press and public already interested in debates about race and equality.
November 22, 2025 at 4:25 PM
This is in the forthcoming book but I’d argue it goes wildly unacknowledged that the earliest forms of US mass media included political media made by Black folks. That they were included, even in order to dismiss them, reveals a press and public already interested in debates about race and equality.
Reposted by B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)
Indeed, some of the earliest petitions and what we’d now call letters to the editors that circulated in print media in the early americas were manifestos, and other political writings from enslaved and free Black people arguing for abolition and/or return to Africa.
On my drive back to New York from giving a book talk at Bowdoin College, I stopped briefly at Portsmouth, New Hampshire,where I stumbled on this remarkable history. A sharp reminder that slavery permeated the American experience,even where least expected. www.seacoastonline.com/story/news/l...
November 22, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Indeed, some of the earliest petitions and what we’d now call letters to the editors that circulated in print media in the early americas were manifestos, and other political writings from enslaved and free Black people arguing for abolition and/or return to Africa.
Reposted by B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)
“I think our bill was $74,000 on broken windows,” said Ranahan. “And the crazy thing is, everyone loved it. The people, the neighborhood, they still come out to me and talk to me about it.”
(via The Browser)
www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/a...
(via The Browser)
www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/a...
'It was chaos': The history of San Francisco's most unforgettable TV ad
The million-dollar shoot resulted in $74,000 in broken windows.
www.sfgate.com
November 23, 2025 at 10:39 AM
“I think our bill was $74,000 on broken windows,” said Ranahan. “And the crazy thing is, everyone loved it. The people, the neighborhood, they still come out to me and talk to me about it.”
(via The Browser)
www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/a...
(via The Browser)
www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/a...
Reposted by B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)
#SundaySunlight - a small #seaglass pile from Mallorca, in the Spanish sunshine (which i’m already missing having got back from a 48 hr whirlwind worktrip) #beachcombing
November 23, 2025 at 12:28 PM
#SundaySunlight - a small #seaglass pile from Mallorca, in the Spanish sunshine (which i’m already missing having got back from a 48 hr whirlwind worktrip) #beachcombing
Reposted by B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)
Welsh born textile artist and knitwear designer Kate Jenkins creates fun crochet/knit creations #WomensArt
November 20, 2025 at 5:38 AM
Welsh born textile artist and knitwear designer Kate Jenkins creates fun crochet/knit creations #WomensArt
Reposted by B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)
What was ChatGPT? Now nearly three years old, we can look at OpenAI's LLM as a product of its time, optimized ever since to its earliest uses. While this period of deep disorientation and social isolation has been obscured from public memory, it remains embedded within the interface.
What Was ChatGPT?
A Chatbot Optimized for Social Distance
Three years after the launch of ChatGPT, we can finally speak in hindsight about what it was and how it came to be. Its meteoric rise shocked the world, gather...
mail.cyberneticforests.com
November 23, 2025 at 12:37 PM
What was ChatGPT? Now nearly three years old, we can look at OpenAI's LLM as a product of its time, optimized ever since to its earliest uses. While this period of deep disorientation and social isolation has been obscured from public memory, it remains embedded within the interface.
Reposted by B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)
I was at a non- English conference this week and I was alarmed at the number of times I heard “I asked Chat GPT” from people who are in social movements and community work. Are these very important debates about the impact of this tech surfacing beyond English first communities?
November 23, 2025 at 10:21 AM
I was at a non- English conference this week and I was alarmed at the number of times I heard “I asked Chat GPT” from people who are in social movements and community work. Are these very important debates about the impact of this tech surfacing beyond English first communities?
Reposted by B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)
Restoring memory, including voices, documenting stories. The Sudan Memory Project. The war has destroyed society, people, museums. HT @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social #BuildPeace
November 23, 2025 at 10:48 AM
Restoring memory, including voices, documenting stories. The Sudan Memory Project. The war has destroyed society, people, museums. HT @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social #BuildPeace
Reposted by B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)
Reminder:
SDNY "was running an active investigation into Jeffrey Epstein[’s] ... coconspirators. In January [2025], SDNY prosecutors were ordered to transfer the Epstein case files to DOJ headquarters in Washington, D.C. ... the investigation into co-conspirators has inexplicably ceased."
SDNY "was running an active investigation into Jeffrey Epstein[’s] ... coconspirators. In January [2025], SDNY prosecutors were ordered to transfer the Epstein case files to DOJ headquarters in Washington, D.C. ... the investigation into co-conspirators has inexplicably ceased."
November 21, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Reminder:
SDNY "was running an active investigation into Jeffrey Epstein[’s] ... coconspirators. In January [2025], SDNY prosecutors were ordered to transfer the Epstein case files to DOJ headquarters in Washington, D.C. ... the investigation into co-conspirators has inexplicably ceased."
SDNY "was running an active investigation into Jeffrey Epstein[’s] ... coconspirators. In January [2025], SDNY prosecutors were ordered to transfer the Epstein case files to DOJ headquarters in Washington, D.C. ... the investigation into co-conspirators has inexplicably ceased."
Reposted by B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)
America putting most of its eggs in the generative AI basket, China going hard into green tech. When history looks back on this period, someone is going to look awfully stupid.
November 22, 2025 at 7:18 PM
America putting most of its eggs in the generative AI basket, China going hard into green tech. When history looks back on this period, someone is going to look awfully stupid.
Reposted by B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)
Amazon is taking the position here that the acts of perplexity users are perplexity's responsibility. It will be interesting to see if they maintain this as a consistent position.
Amazon has ordered Perplexity to halt its AI shopping agent, which was making unauthorized purchases on the Amazon platform.
Perplexity's agent allowed users to request purchases, such as "buy the best noise-canceling headphones," and then researched and purchased items on Amazon.
Amazon states-
Perplexity's agent allowed users to request purchases, such as "buy the best noise-canceling headphones," and then researched and purchased items on Amazon.
Amazon states-
November 22, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Amazon is taking the position here that the acts of perplexity users are perplexity's responsibility. It will be interesting to see if they maintain this as a consistent position.
Reposted by B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)
This Hacker Conference Installed a Literal Anti-Virus Monitoring System www.wired.com/story/this-h...
This Hacker Conference Installed a Literal Anti-Virus Monitoring System
At New Zealand's Kawaiican cybersecurity convention, organizers hacked together a way for attendees to track CO2 levels throughout the venue—even before they arrived.
www.wired.com
November 22, 2025 at 7:42 PM
This Hacker Conference Installed a Literal Anti-Virus Monitoring System www.wired.com/story/this-h...
Reposted by B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)
Great thread and responses. Friendly reminder that a HUGE part of the answer to "Where did all these ADHD people come from?" is "They/we were *very commonly* self-medicated, assisted by tacit accommodations, and possibly just 'a bit different' rather than fully pathologized."
I keep saying this but it’s at least very interesting that many doctors didn’t think ADHD persisted into adulthood until you couldn’t buy Ritalin over the counter anymore and most people stopped smoking.
yeah tbh I’d really rather be on ADHD meds and NOT have to develop a two pack a day cigarette habit as someone who’s never smoked before just to function
November 22, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Great thread and responses. Friendly reminder that a HUGE part of the answer to "Where did all these ADHD people come from?" is "They/we were *very commonly* self-medicated, assisted by tacit accommodations, and possibly just 'a bit different' rather than fully pathologized."