People say they prefer stories written by humans over AI-generated works, yet new study suggests that’s not quite true
Participants in a study were willing to spend just as much time and money on an AI-generated story as one they were told was written by a human.The Conversation
I think it misunderstands how right wing propaganda works. Virtually ALL of DOGE's claims have been fraudulent. It's just like Twitter Files. The point is not to make truth claims, it's to create a false scandal right wingers will adhere to and to get cover to do entirely unrelated things to govt.
The Way Texans Elect School Board Members Plays a Key Role in What Students in Diverse Districts Learn
—
In six Texas districts that used at-large voting systems, ideologically driven conservatives successfully helped elect school board members who have moved aggressively to ban or remove educational materials that teach children about diversity.
propublica.org/article/texas-s…
#News #Texas #School #Education #Diversity #Race #Gender #DEI #Student
How At-Large Voting Creates Conservative Majorities on Texas School Boards
After a voting rights lawsuit, two rapidly diversifying school districts in Keller and Richardson took much different approaches to culture war battles over race.ProPublica
Happy 21st birthday to John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory:
penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03…
Green Blackboards (And Other Anomalies) - Penny Arcade
Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.www.penny-arcade.com
True: “a pocketful of mumbles such are promises” is the American health care plan now.
#vaccinesSaveLives #measles #RFKjr
statnews.com/2025/03/19/measle…
The fleeting miracle of measles elimination | STAT
Twenty-five years ago the U.S. was declared measles-free. That increasingly looks like a fleeting victory.Jonathan Temte (STAT)
![At an emergency meeting Saturday, the USIP board decided to lock the building and tell employees not to come to work Monday. They also decided to suspend their building security contract with Inter-Con, a global company with a number of government contracts that USIP security chief Colin O’Brien said he suspected was working with DOGE.
On Sunday, FBI agent Doug Silk with the Washington field office and another agent “went to the home of one of my staff members” to question them about “the Inter-Con contract” and access to the building, O’Brien said Tuesday.
Separately, O’Brien said, he received a call from Silk saying he was the “subject” of a Justice Department investigation of the Friday events and asking him to “come in for [FBI] questioning.”
Reached by telephone, Silk referred all questions to the FBI press office, which declined to comment.](https://friendica.rogueproject.org/photo/preview/640/282511 "At an emergency meeting Saturday, the USIP board decided to lock the building and tell employees not to come to work Monday. They also decided to suspend their building security contract with Inter-Con, a global company with a number of government contracts that USIP security chief Colin O’Brien said he suspected was working with DOGE.
On Sunday, FBI agent Doug Silk with the Washington field office and another agent “went to the home of one of my staff members” to question them about “the Inter-Con contract” and access to the building, O’Brien said Tuesday.
Separately, O’Brien said, he received a call from Silk saying he was the “subject” of a Justice Department investigation of the Friday events and asking him to “come in for [FBI] questioning.”
Reached by telephone, Silk referred all questions to the FBI press office, which declined to comment.")
The image is a meme divided into two sections, with the text "Playing D&D with kids comes in two flavours:" at the top. On the left side, there is a cartoon illustration of a young character with elf-like ears, dressed in green, holding a bone and a small animal, possibly a mouse, in his left hand. He is facing a large wolf with a speech bubble that reads, "I try to befriend it and keep it as a pet!" The background is plain white. On the right side, there is a screenshot from a video game titled "War Crimes," showing a character in a military outfit standing in a war-torn environment with fires and destruction in the background. The character is facing away from the viewer, and the scene is rendered in a realistic, gritty style. The two sections humorously contrast the innocence of a Dungeons & Dragons scenario with the harsh reality of war.
Provided by @altbot, generated privately and locally using Ovis2-8B
🌱 Energy used: 0.196 Wh
The Oklahoma Board of Education has passed new curriculum standards that require educators to teach that the 2020 presidential election was rife with fraud or discrepancies
— despite numerous judicial rulings and audits indicating that the election was legitimate.
The new standards were inserted into the curriculum by State Superintendent Ryan Walters,
a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, shortly before the board voted on them earlier this month.
At least one member of the board took issue with the fact that the changes to the curriculum were introduced well after the public comment period.
truthout.org/articles/new-okla…
New Oklahoma School Curriculum Requires Students to Learn “The Big Lie”
The new standards would require students to “identify discrepancies in 2020 elections results.”…Chris Walker (Truthout)
huffpost.com/entry/justin-eich…
Minnesota State Senator Arrested In Sting On Same Day He Introduced 'TDS' Bill
Justin Eichorn, who allegedly sought sex with a detective posing as a teen, was trying to pass a bill to declare “Trump derangement syndrome” a mental illness.David Moye (HuffPost)
MPs urge government to stop using "unsafe" US cloud services - DutchNews.nl
MPs have urged the government to stop migrating confidential information about tax returns, contracts, and medical records to US cloud services, saying they are a threat to Dutch cyber security.Robin Pascoe (DutchNews.nl)
Indigenous guides in the #Arctic are training #Canada’s military: ‘When they talk, I listen’
theguardian.com/world/2025/mar…
Indigenous guides in the Arctic are training Canada’s military: ‘When they talk, I listen’
With the country facing new threats to its sovereignty, the country is looking to reaffirm itself as ‘an Arctic nation’Leyland Cecco (The Guardian)
GOP representative: “I support Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency.”
Town hall crowd: “BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!”
Let’s keep making Republicans own their complicity in President Musk’s hostile takeover. Take action near you during this congressional recess: indivisible.org/muskorus
Report: Starlink Tries to Fix White House's Wi-Fi Woes
Satellite internet now reaches the presidential residence thanks to a donation from Elon Musk's SpaceX, according to a New York Times story. But will it actually help staffers get a better signal?Rob Pegoraro (PCMag)
*I wonder if people might buy sodium batteries because they're considered somehow "classier" than lithium batteries
theverge.com/news/631357/eleco…
A sodium-ion portable power bank comes to market
Elecom’s Na Plus sodium-ion power bank is safe to use in extreme temperatures and can be recharged nearly 5,000 times.Andrew Liszewski (The Verge)
"Lithium...? That's so... 2024...!"
Or maybe "Lithium...? Please! This is 2025!"
(Or something...?)
“The Online Safety Act [UK] places onerous duties on small websites and blogs that may lead them to close or geoblock UK users rather than risk penalties. The closure of small sites will not keep children safe but will benefit bigger sites, including Facebook and X, who are laying waste to content moderation on their platforms."
The UK government can exempt small, safe websites to protect #netplurality.
🗣️ ORG's @JamesBaker
telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/…
#onlinesafetyact #fediverse #ukpolitics
Hamster forum and local residents’ websites shut down by new internet laws
Scope and scale of Online Safety Act likened to China’s ‘great firewall’ as small websites struggle to complyJames Titcomb (The Telegraph)
reshared this
"“We’re not setting out to penalise small, low-risk services trying to comply in good faith, and will only take action where it is proportionate and appropriate,” a spokesman said."
Nothing in the act specifically exempts "small" sites.
They could have easily put in a limit of sites with < X number of UK users, or < £xxxx in yearly revenue, but they didn't.
Secondly, there seems to be no easy to follow guide to explain anything to "small" sites.
I downloaded the pdfs to read, and collectively they ran to 1000pages.
I gave up after a bit....
‘Thar she blows.’ #AI #whale detection system gives ship captains advance warning to avoid collisions nationalobserver.com/2025/03/1…
Thar she blows. AI whale detection system gives captains advance warning
This is WhaleSpotter, an artificial intelligence-powered whale detection system that aims to transmit real-time alerts to ships to prevent them from colliding with whales—a threat that leads to the injury or death of thousands of whales each year.Canada's National Observer
*Surely there's a better name for this stuff than "WaaFs," which doesn't make sense even as an acronym
nanotechnologyworld.org/post/r…
Revolutionary van der Waals open frameworks: a new era in porous materials
Researchers from Kyoto University have achieved a groundbreaking advancement in materials science by developing the world's first three-d...Mateo Cardinal (nanotechnologyworld)
Trump calls for the impeachment of a judge, as lawsuits pile up
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/18/nx-s1-5332086/trump-lawsuits?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
Posted into Politics @politics-npr
West Virginia Senate adopts Coal Renaissance Act
CHARLESTON (WV News) — The West Virginia Senate adopted Senate Concurrent Resolution 18 on Monday.WV News
New, by @lorenzofb: Researchers at Citizen Lab have named several countries as potential customers of Paragon's Graphite spyware, which Citizen Lab says was used in a widespread campaign targeting human rights defenders in Italy.
The report comes weeks after WhatsApp notified dozens of people that Paragon had exploited WhatsApp to deliver spyware to victims' phones.
techcrunch.com/2025/03/19/rese…
Researchers name several countries as potential Paragon spyware customers | TechCrunch
The Citizen Lab said it believes several governments may be customers of spyware maker Paragon Solutions.Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai (TechCrunch)
"US immigration - I’m the Canadian who was detained by Ice for two weeks. It felt like I had been kidnapped" (The Guardian)
Horrific but compelling article. Recommend.
theguardian.com/us-news/2025/m…
I’m the Canadian who was detained by Ice for two weeks. It felt like I had been kidnapped
I was stuck in a freezing cell without explanation despite eventually having lawyers and media attention. Yet, compared with others, I was luckyGuardian staff reporter (The Guardian)
MOVED to: @Linux@mastodon.au likes this.
reshared this
Judge bars Trump’s EPA from taking back $20B in climate grants — for now
The ruling orders EPA and climate change groups to return to court to argue about the fate of the money.
#AureFreePress #News #press #headline #GlobalWarming #climatechange #climatecrisis
politico.com/news/2025/03/18/j…
‘Correcting’ the ‘Party Course’ in #Jordan @jordan
jordantimes.com/opinion/mohamm…
‘Correcting’ the ‘Party Course’ in Jordan
Many political parties, especially what have been called the new programmatic parties, are going through a transitional phase and internal movement, some of which resemble internal storms, especially after the parliamentary elections, since the resul…Jordan Times
Scientists hail ‘avalanche of discoveries’ from Euclid space telescope
Data from European Space Agency’s mission has allowed researchers to create detailed catalogue of 380,000 galaxiesIan Sample (The Guardian)
I designed matching saucers for each of my flower pots! Each saucer has a ribbed pattern on the bottom to help prevent stagnant moisture, along with a rim that complements the pot’s design.
Here’s an example – The octagonal saucer: printables.com/model/751403
Octagon Plant Saucer in Various Sizes by Metikumi | Download free STL model | Printables.com
A geometric octagon-shaped plant saucer designed to promote airflow, in classic terracotta style. | Download free 3D printable STL modelswww.printables.com
Los 122 mayores productores de #CombustiblesFósiles y cemento del mundo han contribuido, entre 1854 y 2020, entre un 37% y un 58% al aumento actual de la temperatura del aire y entre un 24% y un 37% a la subida media mundial del nivel del mar.
“Immediate and near-term mitigation is crucial to meeting global climate goals and reducing long-term impacts, such as sea level rise, which will evolve over centuries."
More alarming: "about half of all CO2 from burning fossil fuels ever emitted was emitted over the last two decades or so" albert.rierol.net/tell/2021040… (and also: "Half of all plastics ever made were produced in the last 13 years leading to 2017".)
In other words, it's us, our very lifestyle, that contributed most of the damage. Not the people from the 50s, or the 60s, or the 70s, not even those of the 80s. But us, over the last two decades.
Hanna Ritchie runs the numbers: ourworldindata.org/co2-emissio…
Deep sea mining is a horror of horrors. It will:
• “Destroy deep-sea habitats and drive biodiversity loss
• “Disrupt fisheries, harming food security and coastal economies
• “Undermine the ocean’s role as the largest carbon sink, worsening climate change
• “Exacerbate social and economic inequalities by benefiting corporations while leaving coastal communities at risk
• “Threaten indigenous peoples’ rights and inclusive sustainable development
65,000 UK companies are unlawfully hiding their beneficial owner. We've just published an interactive map showing them all.
Thread:
Tausende setzen Zeichen gegen Netanjahus Krieg
Zwei Monate hielt die Waffenruhe zwischen Israel und der Hamas. Nun hat die Regierung unter Premier Netanjahu neue Angriffe im Gazastreifen gestartet. In Israel protestierten dagegen Tausende Menschen. Auch im Ausland ist die Kritik groß.
Glyn Moody reshared this.
Keep ‘em coming
Via Kyle Cheney:
BREAKING: Judge denies #Trump administration motion to dismiss #Khalil lawsuit, orders it transferred to New Jersey. storage.courtlistener.com/reca…
Sensitive content
Told one minute at a time, micro dramas are soap operas designed to fit in your hand
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/19/nx-s1-5330470/micro-drama-soap-opera-app?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
Posted into Arts & Life @arts-life-npr
Canada strikes radar system deal with Australia to defend Arctic as it shifts away from US reliance
New Canadian prime minister announces spending plan to assert sovereignty over Arctic
independent.co.uk/news/world/a…
#news #Canada #politics #australia #artic
Canada and Australia strike Arctic radar deal amid Trump threats: ‘World is changing’
New Canadian prime minister announces mega spending plan to assert sovereignty over ArcticShweta Sharma (The Independent)
Bandersnatch
in reply to ProPublica • • •