Stephen McCarthy
@misterjabsticks.bsky.social
Latin, Epicureanism, data protection and AI, dogs, photography, legislation, science fiction. (he/him). Fervently #TransRightsAreHumanRights.
📷 photography is currently without a home, having left Meta's evil influence.
📷 photography is currently without a home, having left Meta's evil influence.
Pinned
The Copilot Delusion
#HackerNews
<a href="https://deplet.ing/the-copilot-delusion/" class="hover:underline text-blue-600 dark:text-sky-400 no-card-link" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-link="bsky">https://deplet.ing/the-copilot-delusion/
#HackerNews
<a href="https://deplet.ing/the-copilot-delusion/" class="hover:underline text-blue-600 dark:text-sky-400 no-card-link" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-link="bsky">https://deplet.ing/the-copilot-delusion/
"When you outsource the thinking, you outsource the learning."
Reposted by Stephen McCarthy
it’s cool that fascism has pushed us so far that the Catholic Church is now Banksy
Leaders of a Catholic church in Massachusetts kept a Nativity display with an anti-ICE message in place on Monday, defying an order from the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston to remove it. The display shows Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus missing, replaced by a sign reading “ICE WAS HERE.” trib.al/adPW46y
December 10, 2025 at 7:55 AM
it’s cool that fascism has pushed us so far that the Catholic Church is now Banksy
Last night I learned about GW170817, a discovery in 2017 resulting from the collision of two neutron stars. The more I read about it the more amazed I am. It resulted in the production of very heavy metals in addition to everything else it shot out into the universe.
December 9, 2025 at 11:51 PM
Last night I learned about GW170817, a discovery in 2017 resulting from the collision of two neutron stars. The more I read about it the more amazed I am. It resulted in the production of very heavy metals in addition to everything else it shot out into the universe.
Reposted by Stephen McCarthy
November 16, 2025 at 1:35 AM
New evidence on Roman concrete production. #AncientBlueSky #ClassicsBlueSky #BlueSkyClassics
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
An unfinished Pompeian construction site reveals ancient Roman building technology - Nature Communications
Here the authors combine microstructural and chemical analysis of building materials collected from an active construction site in Pompeii prior to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 ...
www.nature.com
December 9, 2025 at 11:35 PM
New evidence on Roman concrete production. #AncientBlueSky #ClassicsBlueSky #BlueSkyClassics
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This intensely incompetent man wants us to believe ChatGPT is the future. What springs to my mind is the humans in Wall-E. That's the world he wants to create.
Jimmy Fallon: "And do you use ChatGPT when raising your baby?"
Sam Altman: "I cannot imagine figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT."
Sam Altman: "I cannot imagine figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT."
December 9, 2025 at 11:17 PM
This intensely incompetent man wants us to believe ChatGPT is the future. What springs to my mind is the humans in Wall-E. That's the world he wants to create.
Reposted by Stephen McCarthy
The Australien Government has made an ad about the Social Media Ban for Under-16s, and it's surprisingly honest and informative.
Honest Government Ad | Social Media Ban
YouTube video by thejuicemedia
www.youtube.com
December 8, 2025 at 3:49 AM
The Australien Government has made an ad about the Social Media Ban for Under-16s, and it's surprisingly honest and informative.
Reposted by Stephen McCarthy
It is night. The adjectives are coming for Roland Barthes.
December 9, 2025 at 7:39 AM
It is night. The adjectives are coming for Roland Barthes.
Reposted by Stephen McCarthy
The Thing (1982, John Carpenter)
December 9, 2025 at 2:27 AM
The Thing (1982, John Carpenter)
Reposted by Stephen McCarthy
(whispers into the void: "hubris is feminine in ancient Greek")
Hubris Maximus: The Shattering of Elon Musk
The Shattering of Elon Musk
bookshop.org
April 22, 2025 at 6:00 PM
(whispers into the void: "hubris is feminine in ancient Greek")
Reposted by Stephen McCarthy
🚨 Real-time footage showing global efforts to regulate AI and tackle AI-related harm. WATCH:
December 8, 2025 at 11:35 AM
🚨 Real-time footage showing global efforts to regulate AI and tackle AI-related harm. WATCH:
Opening this website hit all of the happy nostalgic parts of my brain. I grew with a Vic-20 and a C64, played early PC games, Amstrad too, and this guy's whole aesthetic makes me happy.
December 8, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Opening this website hit all of the happy nostalgic parts of my brain. I grew with a Vic-20 and a C64, played early PC games, Amstrad too, and this guy's whole aesthetic makes me happy.
Reposted by Stephen McCarthy
Even when dealing with the infinite, some things are simply impossible
Do you think that somewhere out in the multiverse, there is a place where printers work with regularity?
December 8, 2025 at 10:42 AM
Even when dealing with the infinite, some things are simply impossible
Reposted by Stephen McCarthy
TIL about a memorial ceremony in Iceland in 2019 to mark the end of a glacier, changing the place name from Okjökull to Ok (jökull = glacier). Uncompromising wording on the bronze plaque:
"This is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it".
"This is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it".
December 7, 2025 at 5:17 PM
TIL about a memorial ceremony in Iceland in 2019 to mark the end of a glacier, changing the place name from Okjökull to Ok (jökull = glacier). Uncompromising wording on the bronze plaque:
"This is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it".
"This is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it".
Reposted by Stephen McCarthy
Roland Barthes — the terror of a world in which desire is dead:
December 8, 2025 at 7:36 AM
Roland Barthes — the terror of a world in which desire is dead:
Reposted by Stephen McCarthy
my one very sincere piece of business advice to universities:
it takes *a lot* of indignities to kill the goodwill of people who choose to work at universities but managing to do so is not something to be proud of
it takes *a lot* of indignities to kill the goodwill of people who choose to work at universities but managing to do so is not something to be proud of
December 8, 2025 at 7:49 AM
my one very sincere piece of business advice to universities:
it takes *a lot* of indignities to kill the goodwill of people who choose to work at universities but managing to do so is not something to be proud of
it takes *a lot* of indignities to kill the goodwill of people who choose to work at universities but managing to do so is not something to be proud of
PSA: never accidentally put milk into Lemsip.
December 8, 2025 at 9:03 AM
PSA: never accidentally put milk into Lemsip.
"Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task"
- Nataliya Kosmyna, Eugene Hauptmann, Ye Tong Yuan, Jessica Situ, Xian-Hao Liao, Ashly Vivian Beresnitzky, Iris Braunstein, and Pattie Maes.
arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872
- Nataliya Kosmyna, Eugene Hauptmann, Ye Tong Yuan, Jessica Situ, Xian-Hao Liao, Ashly Vivian Beresnitzky, Iris Braunstein, and Pattie Maes.
arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872
Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task
This study explores the neural and behavioral consequences of LLM-assisted essay writing. Participants were divided into three groups: LLM, Search Engine, and Brain-only (no tools). Each completed thr...
arxiv.org
December 7, 2025 at 6:10 PM
"Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task"
- Nataliya Kosmyna, Eugene Hauptmann, Ye Tong Yuan, Jessica Situ, Xian-Hao Liao, Ashly Vivian Beresnitzky, Iris Braunstein, and Pattie Maes.
arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872
- Nataliya Kosmyna, Eugene Hauptmann, Ye Tong Yuan, Jessica Situ, Xian-Hao Liao, Ashly Vivian Beresnitzky, Iris Braunstein, and Pattie Maes.
arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872
Reposted by Stephen McCarthy
I think about the consistently misunderstood case of the Luddites. They were extremely advanced machine users (go try to use a spinning Jenny!), but they recognized a technological regime that displaced expertise (and payment) from the artisan to the tool.
December 7, 2025 at 3:12 PM
I think about the consistently misunderstood case of the Luddites. They were extremely advanced machine users (go try to use a spinning Jenny!), but they recognized a technological regime that displaced expertise (and payment) from the artisan to the tool.
Worth reading for lots of reasons, but particularly because it closes with something I see in my work and travels speaking on writing and AI. Many, maybe most students do not want AI-mediated schooling or lives. We can offer them something better. www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself
Students use AI to write papers, professors use AI to grade them, degrees become meaningless, and tech companies make fortunes. Welcome to the death of higher education.
www.currentaffairs.org
December 7, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Reposted by Stephen McCarthy
Between Worlds by Gautam Bhatia, ed.: Review by Niall Harrison locusmag.com/review/...
December 7, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Between Worlds by Gautam Bhatia, ed.: Review by Niall Harrison locusmag.com/review/...
Reposted by Stephen McCarthy
Unsolicited writing advice, no. 209:
Not all writing needs to “lead somewhere.” Joy is a valid end in itself. So is practice: everything you write makes you better writer.
Not all writing needs to “lead somewhere.” Joy is a valid end in itself. So is practice: everything you write makes you better writer.
December 7, 2025 at 10:36 AM
Unsolicited writing advice, no. 209:
Not all writing needs to “lead somewhere.” Joy is a valid end in itself. So is practice: everything you write makes you better writer.
Not all writing needs to “lead somewhere.” Joy is a valid end in itself. So is practice: everything you write makes you better writer.
Reposted by Stephen McCarthy
Your seasonal reminder that the existential crisis is not limited to humans.
Ancient Animal Advent Day 7!
Ancient Animal Advent Day 7!
December 7, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Your seasonal reminder that the existential crisis is not limited to humans.
Ancient Animal Advent Day 7!
Ancient Animal Advent Day 7!
Reposted by Stephen McCarthy
Some good news.
“A wild beaver has been spotted in Norfolk for the first time since beavers were hunted to extinction in England at the beginning of the 16th century.”
“A wild beaver has been spotted in Norfolk for the first time since beavers were hunted to extinction in England at the beginning of the 16th century.”
‘No one knows where it came from’: first wild beaver spotted in Norfolk for 400 years
Cameras capture lone creature collecting materials for its lodge in riverside nature reserve
www.theguardian.com
December 7, 2025 at 6:05 AM
Some good news.
“A wild beaver has been spotted in Norfolk for the first time since beavers were hunted to extinction in England at the beginning of the 16th century.”
“A wild beaver has been spotted in Norfolk for the first time since beavers were hunted to extinction in England at the beginning of the 16th century.”
Reposted by Stephen McCarthy
add her face to rushmore
Woman Hailed as Hero for Smashing Man's Meta Smart Glasses on Subway
A New York subway rider has accused a woman of breaking his Meta smart glasses. She was later hailed as a hero.
futurism.com
December 5, 2025 at 10:46 PM
add her face to rushmore
Reposted by Stephen McCarthy
My dad abhors any negative comments about immigrants. Asked him recently why he’s so strong on it: ‘Because we’re always happy to take the rich and clever ones. Which means it’s not about disliking immigrants. It’s about disliking the poor and vulnerable. And that’s a bad human instinct.’
December 7, 2025 at 8:31 AM
My dad abhors any negative comments about immigrants. Asked him recently why he’s so strong on it: ‘Because we’re always happy to take the rich and clever ones. Which means it’s not about disliking immigrants. It’s about disliking the poor and vulnerable. And that’s a bad human instinct.’