Screenshot or it isn't real.

What is with the sudden onslaught of #AI apologists Sea Lioning on the #Fedi? Is it just that I haven't seen them before or is it really a new thing for everyone?

(I've seen three today. One was so bad I called him out to mark the account for others and blocked…)

#SocialMedia

Related (and what brought the above to mind):

> Flock Cameras Are Really Just the Start of Our Dystopian Surveillance Hell, Experts Warn. https://futurism.com/future-society/flock-axon-alpr-police-surveillance-cameras

FWIW? I think if we want privacy laws we need to start doing serious sousveillance of rich people. Cameras outside their houses. Drones tracking their outdoor activities. Publishing their car plate numbers and favorite restaurants.

Because if the rich feel they need #privacy we might get some change…

We don't know the exact shape of the Russia deal yet, but we can be certain of one thing: It does not mean Russia will be shipping diesel *in* to the USA in order to replace the diesel USA producers are shipping *out*. Instead it will allow Russia to ship diesel to the higher paying customers on the world market; as opposed to the lower paying customers willing to sidestep sanctions.

The goal is to reduce the world market price for diesel.

[contd]

I got curious if diesel futures are reflecting the Orange One's 'deal' with Russia to supply the fuel in return for cutting sanctions.

They have gone *up* slightly…

> https://www.barchart.com/futures/quotes/HOPAUS01.CM

This is important because the reason diesel prices in the USA are so high is because the world market price for diesel is high and USA producers are *exporting* the fuel to meet world demand.

So, what does the Russia deal *do*?

[contd]

#uspol #energy #markets

Holy fuck!

> Passengers overcame pilot who tried to crash flydubai flight, Israel says. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/diverted-flydubai-flight-israel-was-not-hijacking-incident-israeli-prime-2026-09-30/

> The co-pilot of a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv tried to crash the plane after stabbing the pilot, but ​passengers subdued him while other pilots landed the plane safely in Saudi Arabia, Israeli officials said on Wednesday.

#terrorism #news #WTF

Every time I hear Microsoft Windows and Apple MacOS users complaining bitterly about the most recent humiliations forced on them when they update to the latest version, I get more convinced everyone but #Linux users are little more than masochists begging 'daddy' to hurt them more.

(Of course, I also need to admit those Linux users who insist on using offbeat distros or otherwise making major changes to their boot scripts seem to me like they are into a form of self-harm…)

#software #computers

The Left aren't the only ones thrilled #Yiannopoulos was deported by #ICE.

> Why MAGA Is Celebrating Milo’s Deportation. https://www.thebulwark.com/p/maga-celebrating-milo-yiannopoulos-deportation

But then, Milo was a walking proof of my saying, "Terrible people are terrible to each other too."

And now that he's back in the news I hope it leads to a more general airing of MAGA dirty laundry. Because there's a big pile of nasty there and more people need to know about it.

#uspol

Really? It's a 'human problem' and one where giant corporations are the worst and most active villains. The question we need to be asking is: "How harmful are they?"

And if the answer is, "As bad as heroin?"

Then we need to act like these things are as bad as heroin. Or whatever other thing we restrict for everyone or allow limited access for everyone or maybe allow adults to use with the foreknowledge some of them will make bad choices.

This isn't about children. It's about all of us.

[fin]

We age-restrict things like alcohol and gambling not because they are 'safe for adults', but rather because at some point you become fully responsible for your own choices. And some adults then make terrible choices with them.

If Meta's products are addictive for children, *they are also addictive for adults*. If children's learning capacity is harmed by #AI, *the same can happen for adults*. It's simple and straight-forward and we need to acknowledge this isn't a 'child problem'.

[contd]

FWIW? It's understandable how most people do not understand global economics, money markets, and Modern Monetary Theory. Everyone should, sure. But most people don't understand basic physics either.

Only when it's the president of a country and his hand-picked minion at the reserve bank who act ignorantly? That's how you get economic crashes. Just ask Herbert Hoover.

Also FWIW? Trump recently revived the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act. Ask Hoover about that one too…

So I'm here to argue the underlying problem is popularity. And here's where you find out this long thread is actually the kind of shitpost someone makes when they are trying to make an unpopular point:

Maybe the problem is allowing people to become popular in the first place?

[fin]

Now, if you go up thread on the conversation linked at the top of this thread, you will find someone calling popular accounts 'victims' of the assholes. And I guess that is a valid way of looking at it. Except, short of somehow eliminating them from the human herd, these kinds of assholes are going to be there and are going to seek out the popular to 'victimize' no matter what you do.

Is it 'blaming the victim' when they deliberately walk onto a busy highway? Or is blame fungible?

[contd]

And one of my principles is this: You cannot fix people. (Sometimes they can fix themselves, but most often they go to their graves still broken.)

By choosing to be popular you are choosing to be a target of assholes. And, at least for Social Media, popularity *is a choice*!

I say this because you can do things to stop it. You can use a nym and not reveal your true identity. On some platforms you can lock your follows at a reasonable number. You can simply not participate.

[contd]

That's because by simply being popular you have become a magnet for the kind of performative asshole seeking a wide stage. And, in fact, blocking them becomes a burden and a chore. Hell, some of them would even be motivated to create new accounts just to get another bite at the apple.

All of this is basic human nature stuff. Some people are simply assholes. Some of them are assholes for fun and recognition. And the latter represents a problem in any social space; online or not.

[contd]

This means if you have 100 followers the chances at least one of them is just such an asshole is pretty damn high. But it isn't really a problem — they poke their head up and you block them, done. It's not like you have to do this constantly, because you can double your number of followers before you are likely to have to do it again.

But if you have 10,000 followers? Now you might see a hundred of them. Except no, at this point you get more!

[contd]

Serious scientists *DO NOT DO SHIT LIKE THIS*!

> We Are Admittedly a Bit Startled by This Medical Case Report About Giving an Elderly Woman With Advanced Alzheimer’s a Gigantic Dose of Psychedelic Mushrooms Just to See What Would Happen. https://futurism.com/health-medicine/elderly-woman-high-dose-psychedelic-mushrooms

IMHO? Someone should face criminal charges.

#science #WTF #brain #psychedelics

Proposal for a Constitutional Amendment banning USA presidents from putting their likeness or name on anything except official portraits, correspondence, and nude sculptures of them bent over with a feather sticking out of their ass.

#uspol

First sneakers, now toilets. We've definitely reached that point in the #AI #bubble where it's all about slapping a label on your company to attract stupid investors.

> Toilet Maker Spikes in Value as It Flushes Money Into AI. https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/toilet-maker-toto-ai

(OK, OK, they are actually a semiconductor maker as well as bidets. Still, you gotta appreciate the thematic convergence of AI and, well, poop…)

#enshittification #business #biz #stupid #WTF

More:

First more hail. Then rain. Now driving rain and hail at the same time. (Sun is gone.) It's flat nasty out there.