Lmst

"Are we living double lives that are now being encouraged by tech giants who want to make it easier for us all to lie to people? Or is it a case of responding to a world where it feels as if everyone is sharing everything, rendering our personal lives even more sacred and worthy of being protected as much as possible?" #WhatsApp #chat #privacy
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/whatsapp-locking-chats-illicit-behaviour-b2899702.html

How much does a #Tesla robot cost? How does profit for investors and Mars exploration translate into reduced poverty? Screenshot from #WSJ (3 Jan 2026 10:13:49 am):

"...articles written with AI used more complex language on average than those written without AI. However, among articles written without AI, ones that used more complex language were more likely to be published.
This suggests that more complex and high-quality writing is perceived as having greater scientific" #AI #writing merit.https://the-14.com/what-the-hyperproduction-of-ai-slop-is-doing-to-science/

Deepti Ruth Azariah boosted:

#WritersCoffeeClub 12/28. How does your prose create and maintain tension?

So I thought I'd look up how tension is defined for literature - and then had to laugh because all I got was variations on "tension keeps readers engaged" which is a cop-out because it says what tension does, not what it is.

Well, the answer is "mystery". It's something about the story the reader wants to know that's not been revealed yet. The unanswered question - and whether

Increased tension is giving that thing more significance and, I guess, whether it can be resolved at all.

So how do I do it? No idea 😆

After I wrote this I did find one reference that actually tries to break it down:

https://literarydevices.net/how-to-build-tension-in-writing-techniques-tips-for-readers/

#writing

"Do we publish too many books? The answer has to be yes. Reading tastes are narrowing and escapism is the go, whether it be sexy dragons, celebrities or crime (which might sound like a cheap joke, but is unintended)" @ArtsHub #books #publishing #Australia https://share.google/0oTnViZQTmCBJzMT3

Deepti Ruth Azariah boosted:

Whose colon is to blame for our enshittocene 💩 (@pluralistic) :
‹It lies with policy makers. Regulators and politicians who created an enshittogenic environment: a rigged game whose terrible rules guarantee that the worst people doing the worst things will fare best.

These are the true authors of enshittification: the named individuals who, in living memory, undertook specific policy decisions, that had the foreseeable and foreseen outcome of ushering in the enshittocene.›
https://pluralistic.net/2025/11/28/disenshittification-nation/

"Dispensing false information in a confident tone, rather than offering no answer when none is readily available, is a major flaw of generative AI, experts say." In @TheGuardian https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/nov/22/ai-workers-tell-family-stay-away?CMP=share_btn_url #AI #chatbots #aislop

'AI slop' crowned word of the year 2025 in Macquarie Dictionary's committee and people's choice categories #AI #writing #wordoftheyear
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-25/ai-slop-named-macquarie-dictionary-word-of-the-year-2025/106047682

https://theconversation.com/how-did-australian-universities-go-from-free-education-to-50-000-arts-degrees-in-50-years-268782?utm_medium=article_native_share&utm_source=theconversation.com #highered #australia

At least 30,000 graduates lose qualifications in Australia’s vocational education crackdown https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/nov/13/at-least-30000-graduates-lose-qualifications-in-australias-vocational-education-crackdown?CMP=share_btn_url

Deepti Ruth Azariah boosted:

A wet few days on the Burma Road/Kinrara Estate. Not much in the way of views high up but some dramatic clouds over Strathspey from lower down. #Strathspey #cairngorms

Landscape of woods in autumn colours below mountains and swirling clouds.

Deepti Ruth Azariah boosted:

Rockstar, the games company, has sacked staff from its Edinburgh offices for seeking union recognition to negotiate better terms & conditions of employment.

Once again, workers' right to act collectively is seen as illegitimate by employers. The firm of course itself is the result of collective action among investors!

Class war is alive & well in the games industry, and the Scottish Greens are right to be supporting these workers!

#unions #workers #GamesIndustry

https://greens.scot/news/rockstar-greens-backs-workers-against-union-busting-game-developer

Deepti Ruth Azariah boosted:

Why AI-Fueled Layoffs Will Backfire
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-11-10/why-ai-layoffs-like-amazon-will-backfire?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into Business @business-bloomberg

"While I agree that leaning on a cliché might be a prosaic get-out-of-jail-free card, I do think they get a bad rap. The general criticism is that clichés are lazy... But why is using a common idiom such an issue in the first place?" - in https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/essays/in-defence-of-cliche #writing #essay

Deepti Ruth Azariah boosted:

When Amazon Web Services’ DNS failed on October 20, the problem wasn't that servers went down. It was that millions of people couldn't find them. DNS is the internet's phone book, and a single bug exposed how centralization is quietly creating invisible points of failure https://buff.ly/ITkS6HS

"...#capitalism teaches humans that they are separate from, and superior to, #nature.... [It] wants people to work the same number of hours year-round, no matter the season. This...runs counter to the way #Indigenous people have lived for 1000s of years." https://share.google/3q2wzQVRs4kosc3Fx