stephen.daedalus
@stephendaedalus.bsky.social
i got values but i don't know how or why
Pinned
i keep going back to "they just let you do it."
we're watching this guy grope and assault and abuse our republic, and the people we've elected to represent us and our interests (as the body politic of this republic), the institutions we depend on to advocate for us--:they're just letting him do it.
we're watching this guy grope and assault and abuse our republic, and the people we've elected to represent us and our interests (as the body politic of this republic), the institutions we depend on to advocate for us--:they're just letting him do it.
Reposted by stephen.daedalus
Military historians wouldn't placate the anti-intellectual, anti-statists who are attacking higher ed. The truth about war is just as destabilizing to the fables they want us to believe about this country as the truth about anything else.
history departments are being shut left and right because of a multi-decadal, transnational attack on both the humanities more broadly and on the university and academic labor. its not because they don't offer military history courses or hire military historians.
December 24, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Military historians wouldn't placate the anti-intellectual, anti-statists who are attacking higher ed. The truth about war is just as destabilizing to the fables they want us to believe about this country as the truth about anything else.
@joshtpm.bsky.social i realize nobody's going to be happy with the terms we use to describe this stuff, but I do think that "generative AI" is the best overall term. "llm-based achine learninf," by contrast, feels almost like the worst possible choice.
talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/ai-th...
talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/ai-th...
AI: The Bright Shiny Object at the Crossroads of the Future
I got a host of very interesting responses to yesterday’s post about...
talkingpointsmemo.com
December 24, 2025 at 6:52 PM
@joshtpm.bsky.social i realize nobody's going to be happy with the terms we use to describe this stuff, but I do think that "generative AI" is the best overall term. "llm-based achine learninf," by contrast, feels almost like the worst possible choice.
talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/ai-th...
talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/ai-th...
Reposted by stephen.daedalus
watching my favorite christmas movie and what is possibly the great american comedy about class and race
December 24, 2025 at 12:18 AM
watching my favorite christmas movie and what is possibly the great american comedy about class and race
feels like last years was all "look! ufos in the night skies!"
even accounting for the colossal dumbness of the year just passed, it's hard to top this. perhaps those imagined ufos (like so many ancient birds) augured the stoopid that was to come?
even accounting for the colossal dumbness of the year just passed, it's hard to top this. perhaps those imagined ufos (like so many ancient birds) augured the stoopid that was to come?
I do think that we're going through a period where replies are getting dumber, and I blame December. I think this happened last year too, but we blamed it on the influx of all the new people.
The BlueSky media literacy crisis continues:
December 23, 2025 at 6:31 PM
feels like last years was all "look! ufos in the night skies!"
even accounting for the colossal dumbness of the year just passed, it's hard to top this. perhaps those imagined ufos (like so many ancient birds) augured the stoopid that was to come?
even accounting for the colossal dumbness of the year just passed, it's hard to top this. perhaps those imagined ufos (like so many ancient birds) augured the stoopid that was to come?
Reposted by stephen.daedalus
Trump is heavily focused on getting a military that's personally loyal to him, from the generals to the rank-and-file. He needs it for when he asks them to fire on protesting American citizens, or staging his next coup
It's a shell game. Trump is taking money from soldiers' housing subsidies to "give" them $1,776 "warrior dividend" checks.
Trump rebrands Congressionally-approved troop housing subsidy as ‘warrior dividend’ bonus
More than $2.9 billion in reconciliation funds was allocated to beef up troop housing allowances. Now it’s being used for $1,776 checks.
www.defenseone.com
December 18, 2025 at 10:50 PM
Trump is heavily focused on getting a military that's personally loyal to him, from the generals to the rank-and-file. He needs it for when he asks them to fire on protesting American citizens, or staging his next coup
Reposted by stephen.daedalus
Lauren Bacall by John Rawlings for Vogue in 1945.
December 14, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Lauren Bacall by John Rawlings for Vogue in 1945.
Reposted by stephen.daedalus
December 17, 2025 at 3:25 AM
more like this please!
FILED: Our client Carlos Zapata Rivera has sued a federal agent for using excessive force against him on November 6, 2025.
www.aclum.org/cases/zapata...
www.aclum.org/cases/zapata...
December 16, 2025 at 6:23 PM
more like this please!
Reposted by stephen.daedalus
FILED: Our client Carlos Zapata Rivera has sued a federal agent for using excessive force against him on November 6, 2025.
www.aclum.org/cases/zapata...
www.aclum.org/cases/zapata...
December 16, 2025 at 5:43 PM
FILED: Our client Carlos Zapata Rivera has sued a federal agent for using excessive force against him on November 6, 2025.
www.aclum.org/cases/zapata...
www.aclum.org/cases/zapata...
Reposted by stephen.daedalus
Indict him too while you’re at it.
Jared Kushner has pulled out of a planned Trump-branded development in Belgrade after the project sparked protests and the indictment of a senior Serbian politician.
On Monday, a special prosecutor indicted a cabinet minister and three other officials over the project.
On Monday, a special prosecutor indicted a cabinet minister and three other officials over the project.
After Backlash, Jared Kushner Drops Plan to Build a Trump Hotel in Serbia
For more than two years, the U.S. president’s son-in-law had sought to build a complex of towers in a central Belgrade site once bombed by NATO.
www.wsj.com
December 16, 2025 at 1:41 AM
Indict him too while you’re at it.
Reposted by stephen.daedalus
retelling of the odyssey but odysseus tells the cyclops LLM his name is drop table;
December 15, 2025 at 10:10 PM
retelling of the odyssey but odysseus tells the cyclops LLM his name is drop table;
it used to be that 'lynchpin' was a kind of backdoored spelling of 'linchpin.' a corrupted variant that (b/c of its frequent occurrence) got legitimized as a secondary spelling. i feel as if this arrangement is now inverted--as if modern editors seem okay with this?
the example is from @slate.com
the example is from @slate.com
December 14, 2025 at 6:11 PM
it used to be that 'lynchpin' was a kind of backdoored spelling of 'linchpin.' a corrupted variant that (b/c of its frequent occurrence) got legitimized as a secondary spelling. i feel as if this arrangement is now inverted--as if modern editors seem okay with this?
the example is from @slate.com
the example is from @slate.com
Reposted by stephen.daedalus
This column on Vox is the biggest pile of steaming AI crap I've seen this year. Human's aren't running out of ideas. Instead, those with power and money don't want to listen to ideas that threaten their power and money.
Ideas are plentiful. Putting those ideas into action is the hard part.
Ideas are plentiful. Putting those ideas into action is the hard part.
We’re running out of good ideas. AI might be how we find new ones.
What if the best use of AI is restarting the world’s idea machine?
www.vox.com
December 13, 2025 at 4:17 PM
This column on Vox is the biggest pile of steaming AI crap I've seen this year. Human's aren't running out of ideas. Instead, those with power and money don't want to listen to ideas that threaten their power and money.
Ideas are plentiful. Putting those ideas into action is the hard part.
Ideas are plentiful. Putting those ideas into action is the hard part.
this was in reference to yet another g.o.p.-fueled atrocity, but still. the times' false equivalencing seems even more egregious 7 months on, with >24 million expected to see their insurance premiums increase radically.
cuts to medicaid + lapsing of aca subsidies = a looming healthcare catastrophe.
cuts to medicaid + lapsing of aca subsidies = a looming healthcare catastrophe.
December 13, 2025 at 4:02 PM
this was in reference to yet another g.o.p.-fueled atrocity, but still. the times' false equivalencing seems even more egregious 7 months on, with >24 million expected to see their insurance premiums increase radically.
cuts to medicaid + lapsing of aca subsidies = a looming healthcare catastrophe.
cuts to medicaid + lapsing of aca subsidies = a looming healthcare catastrophe.
Reposted by stephen.daedalus
… "Ethnic Minority" by #NightmaresOnWax samples James Last: "Washington Square" (Beach Party, 1970), Lou Donaldson: "Pot Belly" (Pretty Things, Blue Note, 1970), and Olympic Runners: Swamp Lizard (1978):
www.whosampled.com
December 13, 2025 at 12:40 AM
… "Ethnic Minority" by #NightmaresOnWax samples James Last: "Washington Square" (Beach Party, 1970), Lou Donaldson: "Pot Belly" (Pretty Things, Blue Note, 1970), and Olympic Runners: Swamp Lizard (1978):
Reposted by stephen.daedalus
I made it better*
*worse
*worse
December 12, 2025 at 2:12 AM
I made it better*
*worse
*worse
Reposted by stephen.daedalus
White House Begins Christmas Season With Ceremonial Lighting Of Cross
December 10, 2025 at 10:00 PM
White House Begins Christmas Season With Ceremonial Lighting Of Cross
Reposted by stephen.daedalus
Editors at a Springer Nature logic journal resign and launch new open-access journal, Philosophical Logic.
Editors at Springer’s Journal of Philosophical Logic Resign, Launch New Open Access Journal - Daily Nous
All of the editors-in-chief and associate editors of Springer Nature's Journal of Philosophical Logic have announced their immediate or pending resignation and the launch, as of today, of a new "diamo...
dailynous.com
December 10, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Editors at a Springer Nature logic journal resign and launch new open-access journal, Philosophical Logic.
Reposted by stephen.daedalus
They're using the confinement box, one of the most horrific methods of CIA torture in the post-9/11 black sites, against migrants now. This is the direct result of the lack of consequences for the architects of the torture program. Either there will be criminal penalties for this or it will expand.
Torture Techniques from CIA Black Sites Were Used at Alligator Alcatraz
Amnesty International, interviewing migrant detainees, identifies use of the confinement box. There can be no denying it is a torture prison
www.forever-wars.com
December 8, 2025 at 9:40 PM
They're using the confinement box, one of the most horrific methods of CIA torture in the post-9/11 black sites, against migrants now. This is the direct result of the lack of consequences for the architects of the torture program. Either there will be criminal penalties for this or it will expand.
Reposted by stephen.daedalus
Wait, what? My son’s friend, traveling in China, is staying at a hotel chain called ‘James Joyce Coffetel’, and instead of a Gideon Bible, they leave a copy of Ulysses by the bedside.
December 7, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Reposted by stephen.daedalus
I’m in favor of this but only for financial crimes
A Palantir billionaire just called for public hangings.
“It's time to bring back masculine leadership to protect our most vulnerable,” writes Joe Lonsdale.
This is where Silicon Valley authoritarianism is heading:
www.thenerdreich.com/joe-lonsdale...
“It's time to bring back masculine leadership to protect our most vulnerable,” writes Joe Lonsdale.
This is where Silicon Valley authoritarianism is heading:
www.thenerdreich.com/joe-lonsdale...
Joe Lonsdale Calls For Public Hangings
Silicon Valley radicalization escalates
www.thenerdreich.com
December 7, 2025 at 2:00 AM
I’m in favor of this but only for financial crimes
Reposted by stephen.daedalus
Truly the stupidest cult. Obsessed with a drug that doesn't work against an infectious disease that they don't even think is real.
In lieu of affordable universal health insurance, Texans will now be given better access to de-worming medication.
December 5, 2025 at 12:41 AM
Truly the stupidest cult. Obsessed with a drug that doesn't work against an infectious disease that they don't even think is real.
Reposted by stephen.daedalus
If only the freaks running murder missions in the Caribbean had as much moral fiber as this hack neoclassical architect.
December 5, 2025 at 2:29 PM
If only the freaks running murder missions in the Caribbean had as much moral fiber as this hack neoclassical architect.
Reposted by stephen.daedalus
The priest at a Catholic church in Dedham defended his parish’s decision to replace nativity figurines of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph with a sign reading “ICE was here,” saying the gospel is clear about treating immigrants with respect. trib.al/Ob5ptDw
December 3, 2025 at 10:00 PM
The priest at a Catholic church in Dedham defended his parish’s decision to replace nativity figurines of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph with a sign reading “ICE was here,” saying the gospel is clear about treating immigrants with respect. trib.al/Ob5ptDw