Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Paul Starr @pa.ulst.ar · 2h

i'm going to become a hawaladar for hentai

Paul Starr @pa.ulst.ar · 2h

I've been thinking a lot about the itch dot io stuff and the constant vulnerability of porn to extralegal attacks via pressure on payment processors.

2

Paul Starr @pa.ulst.ar · 2h

It kills me that this is precisely the kind of attack that cr*ptocurrency was meant to obviate, but thanks to a strange form of cultural regulatory capture (in addition to just good old fashioned regulatory capture), that entire category of technology is out-caste.

2

Paul Starr @pa.ulst.ar · 2h

perfect comparison!!

Paul Starr @pa.ulst.ar · 2h

I've been thinking a lot about the itch dot io stuff and the constant vulnerability of porn to extralegal attacks via pressure on payment processors.

2 3

Paul Starr @pa.ulst.ar · 7h

more like….CANTMAKE

1

Paul Starr @pa.ulst.ar · 21h

Whatcha got there

1

Paul Starr @pa.ulst.ar · 1d

Yeah, as it turns out, the big labs have varying degrees of taste too—

1

Paul Starr @pa.ulst.ar · 1d

Actually no, taste is more like a normal distribution, with gen AI being a taste-irrelevant amplifier—but since one thing taste grants is the instinct for whether AI use is appropriate for the circumstance, you end up with disproportionately more from the bad-to-mediocre end of the distribution

1 1

Paul Starr @pa.ulst.ar · 1d

My theory about this is that generative AI is a taste exaggerator, and most people not only don’t have good taste, but also can barely recognize the presence of taste in things around them.

1

Paul Starr @pa.ulst.ar · 1d

I feel like Claude’s reasoning here here sort of dodges the “stemming from an evolved need to survive” point, although I can’t decide whether that’s a fair condition on Chiang’s part or not

Paul Starr @pa.ulst.ar · 1d

That one line read from @fiofiorello.bsky.social somehow landing as the funniest and most emotionally devastating shit I ever heard

Reposted by Paul Starr

Anime Sickos Podcast @animesickos.bsky.social · 1d

In our defense we have always been very up front that Sicko Shock 2 will make you cry, and the reason is it's one of the best and most relevant pieces of fiction made in this decade

Chungo Tumpus: Clear Sky @mrfinnmccool.bsky.social · 1d

I love those crazy screwballs at @animesickos.bsky.social, but I never listened to Sicko Shock 2. I bet this is just going to be a fun, goofy time.

*three hours later*

Why the fuck am I crying?

1 3 27

Paul Starr @pa.ulst.ar · 2d

when I text her half an hour later that it's on the family plex server

Edward Leighton, "The King and the Beggar-Maid", 1898

3 34 210

Paul Starr @pa.ulst.ar · 2d

wife asking me to find a british detective miniseries that's 30 years old and was never streamed got me feeling like

3 4 60

Paul Starr @pa.ulst.ar · 2d

wait.....no, wait, that's the bad part--miya, that is the BAD PART!!!!!

Paul Starr @pa.ulst.ar · 2d

oh man classic carter mckendry

1

Paul Starr @pa.ulst.ar · 2d

DROP THE CLIP CARTER!!!!

1 2

Paul Starr @pa.ulst.ar · 2d

which part of the story are you in

1

Reposted by Paul Starr

Joseph Howley @illdottore.bsky.social · 2d

Tired: wondering why Hero of Alexandria didn't start an Industrial Revolution in the ancient mediterranean

Wired: whatever's going on here

Anise K. Strong @anisekstrong.bsky.social · 2d

Also, @amayor.bsky.social points out that this may be a mythologizing of inventions from Ptolemy II's court being sent as diplomatic gifts to India: theconversation.com/robots-guard... If true, that would make this a wonderful Reverse Mechanical Clock/Abul-Abbas the Elephant to Charlemagne story.

3 12

Paul Starr @pa.ulst.ar · 2d

Millenium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, Paprika

1 3

Paul Starr @pa.ulst.ar · 2d

I recommend everything else from Satoshi Kon unreservedly. He was a giant.

1 1

Paul Starr @pa.ulst.ar · 2d

oooh, that's an all-timer. What a treat to see it in the theater!

1 2

Paul Starr @pa.ulst.ar · 3d

!!!!!!!!!!!

‼️‼️‼️

1 1

Reposted by Paul Starr

Lissa Harris🐀 @lissaharris.bsky.social · 3d

yo Scansion Bluesky, we got another one

Deanna Kreisel 🌱 @doctorwaffle.substack.com · 6d

In honor of National Poetry Day, the greatest parody rewrite of all time:

Screen cap of parodic version of William Blake's "The Tyger" that begins:
Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright
(Not sure if I spelled that right)
What immortal hand or eye
Could fashion such a stripy guy?
What the hammer that hath hewn it
Into such a chonky unit?
Did who made the lamb make thee,
Or an external franchisee?

1 23 63

Paul Starr @pa.ulst.ar · 3d

If there’s one group of people I hope to be remembered by, it’s the ingroup. And if there’s one thing I hope to be remembered for, it’s my high status therein.

5