I think it might have discussed the themes in https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-rule-of-idiots.

I would love to be able to read Niccolò Machiavelli's chapter "Concerning the Ways an Idiot Prince Surrounded by Foolish Counsel Gains Power".

@Merovius Well, it's not wrong.

Before you get upset by this, just think... there are so many states that fit this definition. Which one are you upset about?

Why would anyone think that a state founded by terrorists would do anything other than commit war crimes?

@danwentzel Is there any indication that the recycling doesn't end up in the bottom with the rubbish? It looks like it does to me.

when this bubble bursts its gonna be fuckin wild

babaf-pifun-bapuz-zigaj-julab-mupin-puzos-nurog-malik-mogof-nimul-vudib-zuluf-sahop-lojob-nubol-povij-mafij-jozul-gatas-jimoh-manaz-rukim-fisaj-kumih

"One of the artifices of Satan is, to induce men to believe that he does not exist: another, perhaps equally fatal, is to make them fancy that he is obliged to stand quietly by, and not to meddle with them, if they get into true silence." — John Wilkinson 1836

So it seems that the ethics committee at #UZH is a complete waste of space. That this research was undertaken without significant push-back from them beggars belief. I would have hoped in a situation like this for the committee to have first told the researchers that the study was unethical, and failing that convincing them, made formal representations to the administration of Universität Zürich including, given the legal issues raised in the article here, their legal and risk department.

https://www.science.org/content/article/unethical-ai-research-reddit-under-fire

A model for Cambridge Analytica on steroids: Build an innocuous AI Friend™ service and roll it out for free (beer), wait for users to form attachment to their Friend™ and then, at an appropriate political juncture, turn the alignment of the AI to shift opinions of potentially millions of victims^H^H^H^H^H^H^Husers.

Just seeing that they are threatening Wikipedia's tax exempt status. The one good thing on the internet, the one healthy way we have of interacting with information.
https://www.theverge.com/news/656720/ed-martin-dc-attorney-wikipedia-nonprofit-threat

#USPol #Wikipedia

There's a culture war around #cycling in #Australia where motorists believe that cyclists get too much for free (they don't), are using resources that rightfully belong to motorists (they don't), and are constantly breaking the law (they aren't). Anything that supports any of these beliefs makes cycling on Australian roads less safe.

So, please, please, please, #roadies, can you stop behaving so badly when you use the roads for your sport. When it's a red light, STOP. When there is a pedestrian crossing and you are dropping out of your optimal training zone, JUST WAIT. If the front of your peloton makes it through a traffic signal, but you do not, DO NOT JUST BLOW THROUGH IT. If there are other cyclists in front of you and you want to pass, DON'T ASSUME THEY ARE HAPPY WITH PELOTON SPACING.

#Roadies, each time you behave like an arsehole, people notice, and all of us cyclists get tarred with the same brush. Just stop it.

#urbanism #bikes

@badrihippo @fesshole Looking at the etymology, it seems that it refers to the legal descriptions required to define the deeds for a property. These would minimally be the location and bounds, and the owner, and so be plural.

@aran @fesshole The Meriam Webster and Cambridge dictionaries both only include the synonym of "basis" as the definition. Collins includes the incorrect definition of "site"; it then goes on to give its use in the correct form, "premises", thus self-refuting.

I work in a profession that uses the word 'premises' for shops and pubs etc. a lot. Can we all agree that, even talking in the singular it is still 'premises'. Premise is not the singular, it is the basis for a work or theory. It drives me nuts, and am now correcting colleagues.

@Merovius The hypertext equivalent of "Talk to the hand."

Dijkstra was right.

A happy Japanese pun from

https://www.reddit.com/r/golang/comments/1jyr6ci/transitioning_from_oop/mn5zgcd/

===

Fun fact from Japan! We have a saying "郷に入っては郷に従え" (gō ni itte wa gō ni shitagae) which is our version of "when in Rome, do as the Romans do." Here "郷" (gō) means "village" or "hometown" - equivalent to "Rome" in the English proverb.
The funny part - in Japanese, "郷" (gō) sounds exactly like "Go"! So Go programmers here often joke: "Goに入ってはGoに従え" (Go ni itte wa Go ni shitagae) or "When in Go-land, follow Go's ways." A perfect bilingual pun that just works!