Conn McQuinn
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connmc.bsky.social
Conn McQuinn
@connmc.bsky.social
6.9K followers 1.2K following 520 posts
Science, technology, and neuroscience educator, mostly retired but still kibitzing. Into cartooning, maker spaces, and storytelling. And because life demands it, politics.
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It’s frustrating to have to question everything we see online now, but that’s where we are.
Freaked out my brother and me as well. We still speak of it as the Nitty Gritty Itty Bitty Puny Zuni.
You and me both. It has zero redeeming social value.
You can briefly see the Sora watermark on the right edge of the video. It’s AI.
Reposted by Conn McQuinn
At my town hall in Aurora, a constituent asked me what gives me hope for a better tomorrow:
Reposted by Conn McQuinn
More #NoKings from Des Moines, Washington.
#NoKings Des Moines, Washington (small city south of Seattle, and the S in Moines is *not* silent.) The street was lined for blocks on both sides.
I am a huge Obama fan, but this is one of my greatest disappointments with his presidency. People should have gone to jail for the widespread fraud that led to the mortgage crisis that so seriously harmed our country and its citizens.
I’m thoroughly convinced that some of the people who laughed loudest about the Rapture delusion are themselves cheerleading the “AI Changing the World” delusion. Neither group loses faith when the predictions fail, they just push the arrival of the blessed events into the future.
Reposted by Conn McQuinn
JD Vance is outright LYING when he says Democrats are giving health care to illegal immigrants in our funding bill. How do I know? Because I wrote it!

Undocumented immigrants are NOT eligible for federal health care programs. But our bill DOES stop your premiums from doubling next year.
I think we could have some interesting discussions. I'm a retired educator and spent most of my career in educational technology, working at a regional level. I totally agree that reforming systems is close to impossible, but have come to believe technology has minimal value as part of improvement.
Bear in mind that report was an political effort to blunt Democrats' public strength on the education issue. It was very successful in that regard, but not because it was accurate. This article from 2007 gives a good overview - www.edutopia.org/landmark-edu...
Education at Risk: Fallout from a Flawed Report
Nearly a quarter century ago, "A Nation at Risk" hit our schools like a brick dropped from a penthouse window. One problem: The landmark document that still shapes our national debate on education was...
www.edutopia.org
One of the main giveaways is that the shark being cleaned in the first segment is inconsistent in appearance. The amount of stuff on its hide changed, and the markings are different from one cut to the next. Also, the gills don’t move as it’s sitting there for no apparent reason.
All but one of the swing states have some form of post-election audit to look for irregularities, and nothing was found. Harris had a team of over 100 lawyers focused on election integrity, headed by bulldog Marc Elias. If there was any evidence of fraud, they would have been all over it.
True, but the government was hard pressed to afford the tax waiver without the financial assistance from the U.S.
The Argentinian soy bean prices are now more competitive because Argentina dropped their export taxes. In a very direct way our bailout is subsidizing their capture of soybean market from U.S. farms. www.agweb.com/news/worlds-...
The World’s No. 3 Soybean Producer Cuts Export Taxes, What U.S. Farmers Need to Know
Reacting to the news out of Argentina on Monday, U.S. soybean market prices were at their lowest levels in more than a month.
www.agweb.com
Bytedance has a CCP party committee as part of its corporate structure. The vice president of the company is the committee secretary. Can you point out which of the companies you mentioned have government representatives in executive roles, particularly governments with a long history of espionage?
But can you think of any that are run out of China and are used for multiple hours a day by tens of millions of Americans? ByteDance partners with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security and has other connections to the CCCP.

I totally agree the ban was dumb, but the security concerns were valid.
"Workslop" is now firmly embedded in my vocabulary, and my sole regret in being retired is having fewer opportunities to put it to use.
"Employees are using AI tools to create low-effort, passable looking work that ends up creating more work for their coworkers. On social media ... this content is often referred to as 'AI slop.' In the context of work, we refer to this phenomenon as 'workslop.'"
AI-Generated “Workslop” Is Destroying Productivity
Despite a surge in generative AI use across workplaces, most companies are seeing little measurable ROI. One possible reason is because AI tools are being used to produce “workslop”—content that appea...
hbr.org
*From the TikTok Wikipedia page. No mention of Singapore.
TikTok was developed in China, and is still headquartered in Beijing. Ownership is divided up between a number of investors, but they still operate from within China.
Because cybersecurity experts believe the data TikTok harvests from millions of U.S. users for the Chinese government is a serious security concern. Some politicians clearly voted for it due to content issues, but the bill was focused on national security concerns.
Unfortunately, Fox News is a cable channel, not a broadcast channel. FCC only has authority over licensees for broadcasters using federally-managed airwaves, so Fox News isn't subject to FCC regulation. (Also why the idea of returning the Fairness Doctrine isn't relevant - it didn't impact cable.)