Is it alive or only pretending to be? Our Electronic Petting Zoo seems to hit a nerve...
Elektronischer Streichelzoo: Kinder streicheln "Booboo"-Roboter-Meerschweinchen
In Karlsruhe hat ein "Elektronischer Streichelzoo" eröffnet. Die Roboter-Meerschweinchen zum Streicheln kommen gut an, werden jedoch kritisch betrachtet.
www.heise.de
December 11, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Is it alive or only pretending to be? Our Electronic Petting Zoo seems to hit a nerve...
Reposted by twena
I wish I had spoilers for the ending of this story
TIL about a memorial ceremony in Iceland in 2019 to mark the end of a glacier, changing the place name from Okjökull to Ok (jökull = glacier). Uncompromising wording on the bronze plaque:
"This is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it".
"This is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it".
December 8, 2025 at 3:59 AM
I wish I had spoilers for the ending of this story
I've recently become interested in maps and mapping. Crazy maps specifically. So I had to stumble across Aby Warburg eventually. OF COURSE we had an exhibition about Warburg's Mnemosyne Bilderatlas in 2016. Wouldn't have expected anything less.
Aby Warburg. Mnemosyne Bilderatlas
Anlässlich des 150. Geburtstags von Aby Warburg zeigt das ZKM eine vollständige Rekonstruktion seines Bilderatlas in Originalgröße.
zkm.de
December 7, 2025 at 10:35 AM
I've recently become interested in maps and mapping. Crazy maps specifically. So I had to stumble across Aby Warburg eventually. OF COURSE we had an exhibition about Warburg's Mnemosyne Bilderatlas in 2016. Wouldn't have expected anything less.
I talked to a young person (tm) today. She said her classmates talk to ChatGPT casually when they're bored. It's the always available responder that never let's you stay on read.
November 30, 2025 at 4:00 PM
I talked to a young person (tm) today. She said her classmates talk to ChatGPT casually when they're bored. It's the always available responder that never let's you stay on read.
Reposted by twena
An issue we're seeing at all levels of university is that many students are simply refusing to do *anything*. They aren't reading the syllabus, aren't following assignment guidelines, aren't engaging with material, ignoring deadlines. And this might seem like old news, but it truly has ramped up.
November 28, 2025 at 10:15 PM
An issue we're seeing at all levels of university is that many students are simply refusing to do *anything*. They aren't reading the syllabus, aren't following assignment guidelines, aren't engaging with material, ignoring deadlines. And this might seem like old news, but it truly has ramped up.
Ich bin auf der Suche nach modernen Büchern (geschrieben in diesem Jahrtausend) über linke Ideen. Kapitalismuskritik. BGE. Moderner Humanismus. Habt ihr da Empfehlungen für eine junge Person?
November 28, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Ich bin auf der Suche nach modernen Büchern (geschrieben in diesem Jahrtausend) über linke Ideen. Kapitalismuskritik. BGE. Moderner Humanismus. Habt ihr da Empfehlungen für eine junge Person?
Offering creative writing and poetry classes is now a dystopia resilience skill that you teach
Poets are now cybersecurity threats: Researchers used 'adversarial poetry' to trick AI into ignoring its safety guard rails and it worked 62% of the time
Hacking the planet with florid verse.
www.pcgamer.com
November 27, 2025 at 9:49 PM
Offering creative writing and poetry classes is now a dystopia resilience skill that you teach
Okay. So it turns out that even if you go on to work with stuff that doesn't need school-level physics, math and chemistry you will still need this working knowledge 20-odd years later to help your child study.
Today, I said hello to my non-existing knowledge of plate capacitors.
Today, I said hello to my non-existing knowledge of plate capacitors.
November 26, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Okay. So it turns out that even if you go on to work with stuff that doesn't need school-level physics, math and chemistry you will still need this working knowledge 20-odd years later to help your child study.
Today, I said hello to my non-existing knowledge of plate capacitors.
Today, I said hello to my non-existing knowledge of plate capacitors.
My kitchen tables arrive in my home due to the kindness of strangers. Always.
November 23, 2025 at 3:22 PM
My kitchen tables arrive in my home due to the kindness of strangers. Always.
fuck capitalism; find a friend (via @hhf.bsky.social)
Don’t blame women for men’s loneliness. Blame capitalism
There’s a lot of money to be made off angry, isolated men
www.salon.com
November 18, 2025 at 10:53 AM
fuck capitalism; find a friend (via @hhf.bsky.social)
Instagram sends me fun fact accounts into my feed.
This was last night's fun fact.
This was last night's fun fact.
November 7, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Instagram sends me fun fact accounts into my feed.
This was last night's fun fact.
This was last night's fun fact.
Reposted by twena
Mamdani: "New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and as of tonight, led by an immigrant."
November 5, 2025 at 4:40 AM
Mamdani: "New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and as of tonight, led by an immigrant."
So: is it alive? Or is it only pretending to be? In case of our robot guinea pigs, there's an easy answer - look what's inside! But with software, the answer might not be as easy.
We want to talk about machines pretending to be alive and how to deal with them, using a petting zoo of fluffy robots.
We want to talk about machines pretending to be alive and how to deal with them, using a petting zoo of fluffy robots.
November 4, 2025 at 6:14 PM
So: is it alive? Or is it only pretending to be? In case of our robot guinea pigs, there's an easy answer - look what's inside! But with software, the answer might not be as easy.
We want to talk about machines pretending to be alive and how to deal with them, using a petting zoo of fluffy robots.
We want to talk about machines pretending to be alive and how to deal with them, using a petting zoo of fluffy robots.
I have always been partial to red wine. Suddenly, I can't drink it anymore. My nose itches when I do, and I get splitting headaches the day after, no matter how little I've drunk. Turns out, this is a symptom of perimenopause. Another I've never heard of. This sucks.
November 1, 2025 at 5:34 PM
I have always been partial to red wine. Suddenly, I can't drink it anymore. My nose itches when I do, and I get splitting headaches the day after, no matter how little I've drunk. Turns out, this is a symptom of perimenopause. Another I've never heard of. This sucks.
I live my life on the clock. Timekeeping is very important to me. Kazakhstan is proving to be my nemesis.
YOU CAN'T JUST SWITCH TIMEZONES LIKE THIS *shakes fist* (I was at the museum an hour early today because my phone still had the UTC+6 time for Almaty)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in...
YOU CAN'T JUST SWITCH TIMEZONES LIKE THIS *shakes fist* (I was at the museum an hour early today because my phone still had the UTC+6 time for Almaty)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in...
Time in Kazakhstan - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
October 21, 2025 at 7:10 AM
I live my life on the clock. Timekeeping is very important to me. Kazakhstan is proving to be my nemesis.
YOU CAN'T JUST SWITCH TIMEZONES LIKE THIS *shakes fist* (I was at the museum an hour early today because my phone still had the UTC+6 time for Almaty)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in...
YOU CAN'T JUST SWITCH TIMEZONES LIKE THIS *shakes fist* (I was at the museum an hour early today because my phone still had the UTC+6 time for Almaty)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in...
Reposted by twena
the news you need today
The return of Kokpar as Kazakhstan’s modern national sport
Since independence, kokpar has made a comeback as part of a broader revival of nomadic traditions. The World Nomad Games, launched in 2014, showcase sports such as archery, wrestling, and kokpar.
globalvoices.org
October 12, 2025 at 12:58 PM
the news you need today
I'm sitting in a wildly delayed train. At 3pm, a TV crew is scheduled to come film us for a tourism segment (?). My team is currently building a singing swamp and a sled for our robot dog. Someone has unearthed some influencers who want to come, too. A startled resident is 3D printing in a corner.
October 10, 2025 at 11:51 AM
I'm sitting in a wildly delayed train. At 3pm, a TV crew is scheduled to come film us for a tourism segment (?). My team is currently building a singing swamp and a sled for our robot dog. Someone has unearthed some influencers who want to come, too. A startled resident is 3D printing in a corner.
So tomorrow I'm hosting a Weisswurstfrühstück for the residents (and my colleagues), have a budget meeting for 2026, and go swamp-hunting for a singing swamp installation tomorrow. Great fun!
October 8, 2025 at 3:53 PM
So tomorrow I'm hosting a Weisswurstfrühstück for the residents (and my colleagues), have a budget meeting for 2026, and go swamp-hunting for a singing swamp installation tomorrow. Great fun!
Reposted by twena
So-called #genAI means the abolition of the future through the proliferation of endless streams of stochastically rendered generic pasts. Having turned large parts of the cultural archive into training data, it now traps us in a foreverized pastness, a 24/7 nostalgia for a past that never existed
have just come across a YouTube account that has been using Sora to upload reels of fake, AI-generated “90s sitcoms” every few hours
October 7, 2025 at 12:32 PM
So-called #genAI means the abolition of the future through the proliferation of endless streams of stochastically rendered generic pasts. Having turned large parts of the cultural archive into training data, it now traps us in a foreverized pastness, a 24/7 nostalgia for a past that never existed
Deleuze des Tages: "Und jedesmal, wenn man einen Toten verzehrt, kann man sagen: wieder einer, den der Staat nicht kriegt."
October 7, 2025 at 6:13 AM
Deleuze des Tages: "Und jedesmal, wenn man einen Toten verzehrt, kann man sagen: wieder einer, den der Staat nicht kriegt."
I went to our archives today, to talk about a project based on a historical event. This was lying randomly on the table: a newspaper from the day of the moon landing.
Normal stuff at ZKM.
Normal stuff at ZKM.
October 6, 2025 at 7:38 PM
I went to our archives today, to talk about a project based on a historical event. This was lying randomly on the table: a newspaper from the day of the moon landing.
Normal stuff at ZKM.
Normal stuff at ZKM.
I am reading essays about "9 Evenings" and E.A.T. (Experiments in Art and Technology) in the 1960s and thoroughly enjoying how much of an epic failure this project was thought to be by contemporary critics. Sometimes it takes a few decades for a projects' contribution to be recognized.
October 4, 2025 at 3:38 PM
I am reading essays about "9 Evenings" and E.A.T. (Experiments in Art and Technology) in the 1960s and thoroughly enjoying how much of an epic failure this project was thought to be by contemporary critics. Sometimes it takes a few decades for a projects' contribution to be recognized.
Deleuze des Tages: "Man hat nur die Wahl zwischen dem Arsch des Bockes und dem Antlitz Gottes"
October 4, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Deleuze des Tages: "Man hat nur die Wahl zwischen dem Arsch des Bockes und dem Antlitz Gottes"
I spent the last two days with a guy who remembers the time he could read the whole of the www each morning. And be done with it before the 2nd cup of coffee.
Such an unexpected gem of a person at a theatre conference, no less.
Such an unexpected gem of a person at a theatre conference, no less.
October 3, 2025 at 2:59 PM
I spent the last two days with a guy who remembers the time he could read the whole of the www each morning. And be done with it before the 2nd cup of coffee.
Such an unexpected gem of a person at a theatre conference, no less.
Such an unexpected gem of a person at a theatre conference, no less.