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We’re pleased to kick off our content previews with some Quatre cosplay (@miyurinq)!
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Try out your dumpling making skills with us (and @lokineko)!
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Hi folks:
The written responses in Mata v. Avianca, Inc. (the ChatGPT-using lawyer case) dropped this evening (including additional declarations by LoDuca, Schwartz, and another firm attorney (clearly drafted by the Professional Responsibility attorneys), a memorandum of law by the Professional Responsibility attorneys, and a bunch of supplemental exhibits - including the ChatGPT transcript) but thanks to tumblr prioritizing profit over accessibility, I have only had a chance to briefly skim them. Since I know some folks are following me specifically for updates, I want to let you know that I won't have a chance to update my post before the hearing on Thursday. Realistically, it's not going be updated until the weekend.
In the meantime, though, you can read the documents yourself on CourtListener. And if you want some commentary but don't know where to start, I personally enjoyed this thread be Courtney Milan. (And going off of her tweet, I'm going to start tagging my posts on this case '2 Stupid 2 Sanction'.)
PLEASE SIGNAL BOOST THIS! RUSSIA HAS BLOWN UP THE KHAKIBKA HYDROELECTROSTATION DAM AND IS FLOODING COUNTLESS UKRAINIAN TOWNS AND VILLAGES! THIS IS THE BIGGEST ECOLOGICAL CATASTROPHE IN EUROPE SINCE CHORNOBYL!
Post written and provided by @ohsalome:
Now, the situation is desperate. I know I've bothered you with donations recently, but this is a time-sensitive matter. I've collected several organisations that are currently helping to evacuate people from the territory that is/will be soon flooded. Please, please, send them any cent you can and signal boost this, the things are really BAD and we need as much help as we can get:
Vostok SOS helps people evacuate from dangerous territories, since the beginning of the war they've already helped 46 000 people. Elderly and disabled people are of an extra need of assistance.
Helping to leave is another organization that has been helping evacuate people from occupied territories, and is currently gathering funds to help people in Kherson region.
PEOPLE ARE DROWNING, THE ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS ARE BEING WIPED OUT! THIS IS SOME OF THE MOST FERTILE SOIL ON THE EARTH, WHICH HAS BEEN GROWING GRAIN FOR EXPORT TO HUNDEREDS OF COUNTRIES, INCLUDING THE ONES MOST DEPENDANT ON FOREIGN EXPORTS!
Here you can also donate to the Firefighters foundation that works directly with The State Emergency Service of Ukraine. They're collecting money to buy a lot of motor pumps tu pump the water from flooded areas.
There's also this link from UAanimals fundraising money to save animals affected by flooding. This is a trusted source, please donate.
remember that any donation matters
can we please appreciate their t-shirt though holy
[ID: A photo of Mayor Owen Hurcum, a person with bright green hair. They are smiling and holding up a white mug with a rainbow symbol on it. They are in a black t-shirt that reads, in white letters, THEY/THEM/THE MAYOR]
"please learn about disorder so you understand why I react the way I do" and "my disorder is not an excuse to be an asshole" should co-exist and people should understand the difference
"Gay" was such a derogatory term for my generation/demographic that with the rise of LGBTQ rights we actually had to have accompanying ad campaigns to discourage people from using it as an insult.
I've never been called queer as a slur but boy do I have experiences with the word 'gay'. And yet you don't see us falling over ourselves to stop people from identifying with the term. Anyone who says "queer is a slur!" but lets "gay" pass without comment is fucking lying. It's a dogwhistle.
Hot take: The much quieter level of corporate Pride this year is not worth celebrating.
Not because I want to spend my dollars on Pride merch sold by corporations that don’t care, but because the near-absence of corpo Pride is a canary in the coal mine. Corpo Pride is a barometer of sorts for social acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community. If Corpo Pride goes away, it should be because being LGBTQ+ is so normalized and seen as “no big deal” that there’s no message to ‘sell’ anymore; but what’s happening now is NOT that.
What IS happening then? Because I'm confused
What is happening is not that corporations are winding down the Pride displays and merch due to Pride being no big deal anymore because we live in a society where LGBTQ+ people are just seen as the same as everybody else.
What is happening is corporations are staying away from Pride because public shows of acceptance of LGBTQ+ people now comes at a much higher cost. For corporations, that cost is monetary. For people, that cost is physical violence - and I'm not saying it's new that people have been violent towards the LGBTQ+ community. I'm saying the violence is now much more widespread, and isn't just aimed at the community anymore, but at anybody who either supports the community or LOOKS LIKE they might belong to the community. Corporations deciding not to display rainbow logos and merch is just a sign of how bad things have actually gotten in the last few years.
TL;DR : Corporations "supported" us when it was easy. That many no longer visibly do so means it's no longer easy to do it. That's not a good thing.
I’m very tired. you probably heard that Russia destroyed the Kakhovka Dam to slow Ukraine’s counter offensive. here’s something I didn’t quite realize: since this February, the Russians operated the dam in juuuuust the right way so that as much water would build up as possible when the snow melted and spring showers started. and then they blew the whole thing up.
40,000 people may need to be evacuated.
I don’t really have the energy to say anything else right now.
Hospitallers Medical Battalion: actual angels can confirm. they’re combat-zone medical services - you know how humanitarian groups like MFS and Red Cross have to pause operations due to the Russians fucking shooting at humanitarian zones? yeah, these guys don’t pause for bullets, they fucking walk into them and they bring out anyone they can.
Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation: you can choose from a number of various fundraiser projects here, if you’re feeling particularly picky. for those of you who balk at the idea of supporting anything military just please remember that things like vehicles and drones aren’t just for military use, they’re also for evacuation and finding the wounded and they’re fucking vital.
KSE Foundation: similar to the above, KSE has multiple projects you can choose from to donate to. looking at it right now, one of the projects with the lowest amounts of money raised thus far - despite being started in April - is Seeds for Ukraine, which will help Ukraine recover from the ecological devastation Russia has been wreaking (and with Ukraine, the countries that rely on Ukraine’s grain exports that Russia keeps trying to steal).
Come Back Alive: do these guys even need the introduction? they’re Come Back Alive. I’m kissing all of them.
United24: Zelenskyy’s brain child, and the official fundraising platform of Ukraine. Mark Hamill recommends the fundraisers for drones in particular.
UAnimals: Nova Kakhovka’s zoo got… pretty much completely swept away. all zoo residents except the birds have drowned. UAnimals has tried throughout the occupation to keep the animals safe, and they’ve been reporting on the status of the zoo. I don’t really know what to say except that I hope they’re able to save the pets and strays in the towns along the river.
Contact your local library (or comment on their social media) positively for any pride/LGBTQIA+/queer-related displays or events they have going on.
Seriously.
What I’m seeing and hearing from the (mostly US-based) library workers in my groups and social circles is that the anti-queer (anti-gay, anti-trans, anti-drag queen story time, etc.) comments and complaints that have ramped up in the past year aren’t going away. Even library workers with supportive coworkers/bosses/boards are steeling themselves to deal with an avalanche of garbage, or are second-guessing their displays and events because the amount of vitriol can wear a person down so much. And the ones without supportive people or work environments? It’s worse.
Give the library something else: give them both the ammo (by being one of the numbers they can count worth the positive group) if they need to show their community isn’t wholly negative. Give them the compliment of knowing that their work got appreciated.
Rocky Horror is turning 50 next month and people still act like being gay was invented by Ellen in 1997
But honestly! Renowned French poet Théophile de Viau wrote the poetic ode to King James titled "The Duke of Buckingham," containing the immortal lines "One man fucks Monsieur le Grand de Bellegarde/Another fucks the Comte de Tonnerre/And it is well known that the King of England/Fucks the Duke of Buckingham" exactly 400 years ago and people still act like being gay was invented by Oscar Wilde in 1890
Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep were buried together in the 25th century BC and people still act like being gay was invented by renowned French poet Théophile de Viau 400 years ago
Gilgamesh and Enkidu "loved each other like man and wife" in 2700 BC and ppl STILL act like being gay was invented by Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep in the 25th century BC
Nearly every social species on the planet has a non zero frequency of homosexuality and most likely had for millions of years before primates first evolved and ppl still act like being gay was invented by Gilgamesh and Enkidu in 2700 BC
[ID: a comment reading, "i fully know what you mean! but! i did also think "Oscar Wilde published The Picture of Dorian Gray 133 years ago as of 2 months from now, and people still act like being gay was invented by the Rocky Horror Show in 1973" and now i cannot stop laughing making more gay history comparisons." /end ID]
It’s been long enough since I worked at the hideously mismanaged nanotech startup that I’ve started romanticizing it. Like, yes the hydrogen explosion was scary and I’m entirely too familiar with the odor of decaborane, and yes the CEO and CTO got in a fistfight in the conference room, but nothing makes you feel alive like turning chunks of graphite on an ancient manual lathe with inadequate respiratory PPE.
Asbestosis-like lung damage via inhalation of loose airborn boron nitride nanotubes, nitrate-induced chronic migraines, and a crippling caffeine addiction build character.
Fondly remembering the day where we decided to try a nickel organometallic catalyst instead of our usual iron. The difference being that while nickel should be a better catalyst, if you get an iron carbonyl leak the room smells bad for a bit, whereas if you get a nickel carbonyl leak you’re dead before you hit the floor.
So much adrenaline! We went home wired and giddy, full to the brim with nightmares and scientific euphoria. Every day I dreaded waking up, and every day I held the raw stuff of miracles in my hands. Good times.
god lived in this box, I’m pretty sure
No. Even with such egregious safety shortcuts, they barely even scratched the surface of what was possible. Sure, they had drive and vision, but never enough for my taste. They weren’t mad. They were barely even eccentric.
And I was no mere hench! I know the process. Every single object you see in these pictures was designed and assembled by me, with my own mind and hands. And moreover, I know all the radical experiments that they were too timid to attempt. All I need is some space, a bit of cash, and a used furnace or two, and I will spin up an operation to put my erstwhile peers to shame.
For as much as they were willing to risk with our health, they were unwilling to risk the money. Honestly, I get it. People do stupid things when funding is on the line. Happens all the time. I can’t even be angry. I’m really not.
No, I’m not mad, I’m just… frustrated.
OP how does it feel to be a real life mad scientist
Ok so if you haven’t already heard of it, there’s an excellent podcast on engineering disasters (and sometimes engineering disgraces) called Well There’s Your Problem, and they have a segment at the end of every episode called Safety Third, which is listeners writing in about egregiously unsafe experiences they have had especially at their workplaces.
OP, I am BEGGING you to write in with this because I want so badly to hear their voices read your email with mounting horror as they get to the pictures of the box god probably lived in.
(Also if this is the first you’re hearing of the podcast, last week’s episode had the wonderful Maia Arson Crimew @nyancrimew to talk about cybersecurity among other things, which was excellent. On the whole, great podcast, would recommend.)
124 episodes of workplace drama?????? Holy crap, this’ll keep me occupied for a few weeks, thank you!
I am enjoying the fuck out of the notes here, most of which are variations on “I thought this was a bit and then OH MY GOD THERE WAS A PICTURE.” and look I’ve mostly worked in the corners of science that are founded in naturalistic variation with very little room for hubris and I still believed every word from OP there. I’ve seen with my own eyes a video of the time my friend genetically engineered a hamster for maximum rage, okay? I’ve seen the consequences of the horrors and the thwarted sulking of those whose hands have been slapped by IRBs or Environmental Health and Safety or IT. I have two different friends on IRBs and one of these days I’m gonna make friends with someone at EHS purely for the cocktail party stories. And that is in the relatively tame field of behavioral research, okay, I’m not fucking with the stuff of material reality here.
Also I’ve read the inimitable Derek Lowe’s Things I Won’t Work With and I have a healthy fear of applied chemists.
Executives at the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) decided to replace hotline workers with a chatbot named Tessa four days after the workers unionized.
NEDA, the largest nonprofit organization dedicated to eating disorders, has had a helpline for the last twenty years that provided support to hundreds of thousands of people via chat, phone call, and text. “NEDA claims this was a long-anticipated change and that AI can better serve those with eating disorders. But do not be fooled—this isn’t really about a chatbot. This is about union busting, plain and simple,” helpline associate and union member Abbie Harper wrote in a blog post.
According to Harper, the helpline is composed of six paid staffers, a couple of supervisors, and up to 200 volunteers at any given time. A group of four full-time workers at NEDA, including Harper, decided to unionize because they felt overwhelmed and understaffed.
“We asked for adequate staffing and ongoing training to keep up with our changing and growing Helpline, and opportunities for promotion to grow within NEDA. We didn’t even ask for more money,” Harper wrote. “When NEDA refused [to recognize our union], we filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board and won on March 17. Then, four days after our election results were certified, all four of us were told we were being let go and replaced by a chatbot.”
