I had to look up the vaguely Kurdistan-looking flag in the background — for anyone else wondering, it’s this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Êzîdxan_Protection_Force

And the other flag is of course the pre-revolution flag of Iran (which always reminds me of St. Mark’s Lion on the flag of the Venetian Republic)

I agree, but the problem is that the media (encouraged by tech companies) use the sci-fi definition, and the layman doesn’t know any better.

LLMs are AI in the same way that the lane assist on my car is AI. Tech companies, however, very carefully and deliberately play up LLMs as being AGI or close to it. See for example toe convenient fear-mongering over the “risks” of AI, as though ChatGPT will become Skynet.

Absolutely, I don’t trust them at all. There’s a reason I’m on Mastodon and not either of the corporate platforms. It is nice to at least be able to follow people there though, and interact with them.

AFAIK that’s still the case, yes. I don’t have a Bluesky (or Threads) account so I can’t confirm.

Bsky federates. I follow several people from my Mastodon profile.

Edit: I should add a caveat here. Federation doesn’t work as smoothly as Threads yet. You have to use a bridge service: https://fed.brid.gy/

I thought it was unsuccessful as xitter was already the preferred platform

It isn’t anymore, ad I expect that to accelerate. The Guardian just announced today that they will no longer use it, for example (although individual journalists may still choose to do so)

Does Ed ever miss? I suppose it must be possible, but I have yet to see it.

I think you meant to link to the “religion” section? Anyhow, I hate to defend BoJo, but there are worse role models than Pericles.

This is an old one

When I got to the punchline I realized you weren’t kidding.

He was never pro-Russia and sees himself as a defender of classical western virtues, so this isn’t surprising at all.

BRB, going to sell 1/8 lb burgers to take advantage of dumb Americans

If anybody needed definitive proof that Elon`s purchase of Twitter was a deliberate political ploy to fuel the far right, here it is…

They’re obliterating entire cities, so yeah.

Given that most Palestinians are under the age of 14, this was to be expected: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_State_of_Palestine

Ah, thanks! This is interesting:

Selon Frédéric Encel, géopolitologue et spécialiste du conflit israélo-palestinien, « un policier ou un soldat en armes d’un autre pays n’a pas le droit d’y rentrer sans l’accord du consulat français »10, cependant selon Gérard Araud, ancien ambassadeur de France en Israël, ce domaine ne constitue pas, à la différence d’un consulat une « emprise diplomatique » aux termes notamment de la Convention de Vienne10.

The quotes say that a police officer or soldier of a foreign country cannot enter without permission of the French consulate, but that the region does not constitute a diplomatic enclave.

This is the first I hear about this territory being claimed by France, and there’s no mention of it on the French Wikipedia page for the Mont des Oliviers. Is there any source whatsoever to corroborate that?

Vaxry who got banned from Freedesktop for being an asshat? https://drewdevault.com/2024/04/09/2024-04-09-FDO-conduct-enforcement.html

Elon looks like one of the pointing soyjaks in that pic.

The EU could easily take on Russia militarily even if the latter weren’t already neck-deep in Ukraine.