Thomas Claburn
@lot49.com
Journalism: https://www.theregister.com/Author/Thomas-Claburn
Fiction: https://lot49.com
Code: https://github.com/dotnaught
Fiction: https://lot49.com
Code: https://github.com/dotnaught
Reposted by Thomas Claburn
They made it illegal to sell lawn darts after one kid died.
![“On April 5, 1987, seven-year-old Michele Snow was killed when a dart thrown by her brother's playmate penetrated her skull and caused fatal brain trauma.[8] The darts were purchased as part of a set of various lawn games and had never been played before the incident occurred.[8] Snow's father David began to advocate for a ban on lawn darts, claiming that there was no way to keep children from accessing lawn darts short of a full ban.[8][9] As a partial result of Snow's lobbying, in 1988 the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission introduced an outright ban on lawn darts in the U.S.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:35reg3wommhn6sa5ofuawu77/bafkreibi2g5doclt2nh5f2ppymrclnb3lq2mofdlg55g6hmciszfewvlbi@jpeg)
December 22, 2025 at 3:13 PM
They made it illegal to sell lawn darts after one kid died.
Reposted by Thomas Claburn
If refusing to comment is enough to kill a story, then the government now has veto power over journalism.
That’s what CBS normalized last night — and it should scare everyone.
open.substack.com/pub/adamkinz...
That’s what CBS normalized last night — and it should scare everyone.
open.substack.com/pub/adamkinz...
CBS Pulled a “60 Minutes” Story Because the White House Refused to Comment — That’s a Veto on Journalism
Pulling a finished investigation because the administration refused to comment isn’t journalism. It’s submission.
open.substack.com
December 22, 2025 at 4:30 PM
If refusing to comment is enough to kill a story, then the government now has veto power over journalism.
That’s what CBS normalized last night — and it should scare everyone.
open.substack.com/pub/adamkinz...
That’s what CBS normalized last night — and it should scare everyone.
open.substack.com/pub/adamkinz...
Reposted by Thomas Claburn
I don’t understand why people are questioning the integrity of leadership at the Donald J. Trump Federal Bureau of Investigation and Redaction.
December 20, 2025 at 9:04 PM
I don’t understand why people are questioning the integrity of leadership at the Donald J. Trump Federal Bureau of Investigation and Redaction.
Reposted by Thomas Claburn
Since you mentioned it…
Prompting with Hitler!, an art print by Phineas Jones
Gallery Quality Prints
www.inprnt.com
December 18, 2025 at 9:19 PM
Since you mentioned it…
Reposted by Thomas Claburn
When the AI boom began, copywriters were singled out as one of the jobs most vulnerable to AI. Now, three years later, I wanted to hear from workers on the frontlines of the industry, to hear what had actually taken place on the ground.
For many, it was even worse than they'd feared.
For many, it was even worse than they'd feared.
"I was forced to use AI until the day I was laid off." Copywriters reveal how AI has decimated their industry
Copywriters were one of the first to have their jobs targeted by AI firms. These are their stories, three years into the AI era.
www.bloodinthemachine.com
December 12, 2025 at 6:47 PM
When the AI boom began, copywriters were singled out as one of the jobs most vulnerable to AI. Now, three years later, I wanted to hear from workers on the frontlines of the industry, to hear what had actually taken place on the ground.
For many, it was even worse than they'd feared.
For many, it was even worse than they'd feared.
If you develop software and your employer is requiring the use of AI tools, would you be willing to chat about it? tclaburn (at) theregister (dot) com
November 19, 2025 at 5:47 PM
If you develop software and your employer is requiring the use of AI tools, would you be willing to chat about it? tclaburn (at) theregister (dot) com
@shriekback.bsky.social is working on album #19. All is good with the world. There is continuity and coherence.
SHRIEKBACK 'Things with Heads'
YouTube video by ANAXATON6
youtu.be
November 6, 2025 at 4:50 PM
@shriekback.bsky.social is working on album #19. All is good with the world. There is continuity and coherence.
Reposted by Thomas Claburn
“We are replacing pluralism with personalization, and surrendering our information-gathering to validation machines that always tell us we’re right.“
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
The Validation Machines
Humanity thrives on friction—so why are the tools of the future built to make everything seem so easy?
www.theatlantic.com
November 2, 2025 at 2:08 PM
“We are replacing pluralism with personalization, and surrendering our information-gathering to validation machines that always tell us we’re right.“
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Choose musicians over AI.
Live from Meyhouse Jazz: Andrea Claburn sings Ella Fitzgerald
YouTube video by Meyhouse
youtu.be
October 30, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Choose musicians over AI.
"We study how Elon Musk's polarizing and partisan actions have impacted Tesla vehicle sales in the United States... Without the Musk partisan effect, Tesla sales between October 2022 and April 2025 would have been 67-83% higher, equivalent to 1-1.26 million more vehicles."
www.nber.org/papers/w34413
www.nber.org/papers/w34413
The Musk Partisan Effect on Tesla Sales
Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...
www.nber.org
October 27, 2025 at 11:17 PM
"We study how Elon Musk's polarizing and partisan actions have impacted Tesla vehicle sales in the United States... Without the Musk partisan effect, Tesla sales between October 2022 and April 2025 would have been 67-83% higher, equivalent to 1-1.26 million more vehicles."
www.nber.org/papers/w34413
www.nber.org/papers/w34413
Reposted by Thomas Claburn
the duality of man
October 26, 2025 at 1:18 AM
the duality of man
Reposted by Thomas Claburn
While the AWS team has resolved the severe us-east-1 outages, reading this post-mortem makes one thing clear: they are still suffering from a critical shortage of paragraph breaks
October 23, 2025 at 5:49 PM
While the AWS team has resolved the severe us-east-1 outages, reading this post-mortem makes one thing clear: they are still suffering from a critical shortage of paragraph breaks
For those in Palo Alto on Oct. 25:
Andrea Claburn Sings Ella: A Tribute to the First Lady of Song (5pm) | Meyhouse Jazz
Jazz vocalist Andrea Claburn honors the legendary Ella Fitzgerald in an evening of timeless swing, soaring scat, and heartfelt ballads. With Matt Clark (piano), Dan Feiszli (bass), and Michael O’Neill...
www.meyhousejazz.com
October 18, 2025 at 4:54 PM
For those in Palo Alto on Oct. 25:
Reposted by Thomas Claburn
"The Labor Department warned in an obscure document filed with the Federal Register last week that 'the near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens' is threatening 'the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S. consumers.'”
Trump administration says immigration enforcement threatens higher food prices
U.S. farmers face labor shortages and potential food price hikes due to Trump’s immigration policy, the administration acknowledged in a Federal Registry document.
wapo.st
October 11, 2025 at 12:28 PM
"The Labor Department warned in an obscure document filed with the Federal Register last week that 'the near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens' is threatening 'the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S. consumers.'”
Reposted by Thomas Claburn
Love this from @lot49.com -
We would argue that political bias ... is not only unavoidable in LLMs trained on human-created content but desirable.... The more interesting question is how LLM bias should be tuned.
www.theregister.com/2025/10/10/o...
We would argue that political bias ... is not only unavoidable in LLMs trained on human-created content but desirable.... The more interesting question is how LLM bias should be tuned.
www.theregister.com/2025/10/10/o...
OpenAI claims GPT-5 has 30% less political bias
: AI model maker touts effort to depoliticize its product
www.theregister.com
October 10, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Love this from @lot49.com -
We would argue that political bias ... is not only unavoidable in LLMs trained on human-created content but desirable.... The more interesting question is how LLM bias should be tuned.
www.theregister.com/2025/10/10/o...
We would argue that political bias ... is not only unavoidable in LLMs trained on human-created content but desirable.... The more interesting question is how LLM bias should be tuned.
www.theregister.com/2025/10/10/o...
Tick, tick, tick...
Pluralistic: The real (economic) AI apocalypse is nigh (27 Sep 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
pluralistic.net
October 4, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Tick, tick, tick...
Reposted by Thomas Claburn
The Register: "Curl project, swamped with AI slop, finds not all AI is bad"
https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/02/curl_project_swamped_with_ai/
https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/02/curl_project_swamped_with_ai/
Curl project, swamped with AI slop, finds not all AI is bad
: Artificial intelligence works when humans use it wisely
www.theregister.com
October 2, 2025 at 8:37 PM
The Register: "Curl project, swamped with AI slop, finds not all AI is bad"
https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/02/curl_project_swamped_with_ai/
https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/02/curl_project_swamped_with_ai/
🔥
Dropkick Murphys "Who'll Stand With Us?" Music Video
YouTube video by Dropkick Murphys
www.youtube.com
October 2, 2025 at 1:46 AM
🔥
Reposted by Thomas Claburn
Matt Seybold ( @mattseybold.bsky.social )
"I ask my fellow educators to consider some measures for reducing our complicity in efforts to steal our students identities, attention, and right to education, even indenture them to train algorithms"
theamericanvandal.substack.com/p/against-te...
"I ask my fellow educators to consider some measures for reducing our complicity in efforts to steal our students identities, attention, and right to education, even indenture them to train algorithms"
theamericanvandal.substack.com/p/against-te...
Against Technofeudal Education
Pillars For Protecting Our "Core Infrastructure" From OpenAI
theamericanvandal.substack.com
August 27, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Matt Seybold ( @mattseybold.bsky.social )
"I ask my fellow educators to consider some measures for reducing our complicity in efforts to steal our students identities, attention, and right to education, even indenture them to train algorithms"
theamericanvandal.substack.com/p/against-te...
"I ask my fellow educators to consider some measures for reducing our complicity in efforts to steal our students identities, attention, and right to education, even indenture them to train algorithms"
theamericanvandal.substack.com/p/against-te...
Reposted by Thomas Claburn
The problem with AI isn’t just that it uses a lot of power, it’s how it uses it
Like a volume dial that jumps straight from 1 to 11 with nothing in between.
Modern grids weren’t designed for that. Which makes Googles latest move all the more important.
www.theregister.com/2025/08/04/g...
Like a volume dial that jumps straight from 1 to 11 with nothing in between.
Modern grids weren’t designed for that. Which makes Googles latest move all the more important.
www.theregister.com/2025/08/04/g...
Google agrees to pause AI workloads when power demand spikes
: On hot summer days, air conditioning is rather more important than search summaries
www.theregister.com
August 5, 2025 at 2:55 AM
The problem with AI isn’t just that it uses a lot of power, it’s how it uses it
Like a volume dial that jumps straight from 1 to 11 with nothing in between.
Modern grids weren’t designed for that. Which makes Googles latest move all the more important.
www.theregister.com/2025/08/04/g...
Like a volume dial that jumps straight from 1 to 11 with nothing in between.
Modern grids weren’t designed for that. Which makes Googles latest move all the more important.
www.theregister.com/2025/08/04/g...
Reposted by Thomas Claburn
“Here at Apple, we have no ideas, and we can’t wait to show you what we haven’t been working on.”
August 1, 2025 at 12:59 AM
“Here at Apple, we have no ideas, and we can’t wait to show you what we haven’t been working on.”
Majorana or ... ?
Bitter fight over 2020 Microsoft quantum paper continues
Deep dive: Ground control to Majorana
www.theregister.com
July 31, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Majorana or ... ?
Reposted by Thomas Claburn
new albums - vinyl and all sorts now available at shriekback.com/store and fridge magnets.... always with the fridge magnets
shriekback
Home page of shriekback, an alternative group from london
shriekback.com
July 5, 2025 at 1:48 PM
new albums - vinyl and all sorts now available at shriekback.com/store and fridge magnets.... always with the fridge magnets