“Dzidzilalich” has been proposed as an honorary name for the new Elliott Way in downtown #Seattle, and for Alaskan Way from Elliott Way to S Dearborn Street. I'm glad to see the name return to our waterfront, but couldn't we have done better than "Elliott Way" for the new road? https://www.writesofway.org/dzidzilalich-return-seattle-waterfront-honorary-name-elliott-way-alaskan-way/ #Lushootseed #Duwamish #Suquamish #Muckleshoot #StreetName #StreetNames #NativeNames #NativeAmerican

Officially turned on my automated reply for parental leave in 2023 - decided to make it a bit less cruel to colleagues who have to keep me on email chains, while also sneaking in a linguistics fact.

You've heard of Sapir-Whorf, but you are probably unfamiliar with the Tapir-Worf hypothesis, which states:

"A tapir could kick Worf's ass if it was necessary for plot reasons to establish that the tapir is very strong."

Native technologists call for the Apache® Software Foundation to change its name.

https://blog.nativesintech.org/apache-appropriation/

I am not Indigenous, but I join their request in allyship.

#ASF #NativesInTech #software #programming #openSource

Finally - if your reaction to a community setting a boundary with you ("don't index me, even if you technically can") is "fuck you, I'll do what I want," then congratulations, you are engaging in a pattern of deliberate boundary erosion.

There's a name for that. It's not a nice name, and you probably don't think of yourself in those terms, but it's abuse.

"I should be able to talk to anyone, about anything, at any time" and "I should be able to read and search any conversation held in a public place, from anywhere, at any time" are brain damage left over from pro-capital social media. Universality makes those projects more attractive to money.

Communities, definitionally, _aren't_ universal. A group of people (large or small) connected by common needs or goals has borders, or at least boundaries.

@mxmatched see also: https://mstdn.social/@ElleGray/109660945741765701

It has occurred to me today that there are two AI-boosterist hype memes (axioms of fantasy) afoot right now

- LLMs can be used as a search engine (see Galactica, etc)
- LLMs are *not* pastiche/plagiarism engines; (giant data sets are just "fair use")

Are these two ideas mutually compatible?

If so, some weird opportunities for (e.g.) industrial espionage on these closed data sets ("prompt: Microsoft's internal acquisition plan for 2023").

If not, one or both of these axioms may be wrong

So they put Rhea Perlman, notable Jewish woman, in Star Wars The Bad Batch as ... a lizard person.

Sigh. I'm so tired.

Resistance Leader: we need someone good at setting traps

Me, ADHD: *raises hand*

RL: for other people

Me: *lowers hand*

I loved What Moves The Dead. Review with spoilers at https://books.theunseen.city/user/eldang/review/58360 #SFFBookClub

My piece “The Tapestry of the Search for Terrestrial Intelligence” is on view as part of the Cosmological Elements exhibit at @fosunfoundation in Shanghai through Feb 11.

The Voyager space probes went out with the famous Golden Records containing sounds - and encoded images - from Earth. If aliens found these discs, how would they understand them? I suppose they might interpret the encoded data as instructions for weaving a 40 meter long tapestry.