On Her Meijersty's Secret Customer Service

#DepartmentStoreABook
#HashTagGames

Sleeping with Montgomery Ward Cleaver

#DepartmentStoreABook
#HashTagGames

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolworth

#DepartmentStoreABook
#HashTagGames

Susan Collins has held office as a corrupt piece of shit for THIRTY YEARS.

She promised to leave decades ago; show her the door.

The FBI anti-corruption squad was circling Susan Collins — until Trump got in the way
https://www.bangordailynews.com/2026/09/22/politics/elections/fbi-anti-corruption-squad-susan-collins-joam40zk0w/

#ChooseTroyJackson #Maine #USPol

MBTA when traveling around the wheel instead of along a spoke.

Happy 100th birthday, Winnie the Pooh

#books #livres #ChildrensBooks #LivresJeunesse #WinnieThePooh #Bookstodon

RE: https://fosstodon.org/@fullyabstract/117417964538091620

The playlist for today's (10/12/26) episode of Not Brahms and Liszt can be found at

https://alleystoughton.us/not-brahms-and-liszt/#show538

And a Samply link (good for 2 weeks only, downloads not allowed) to the high-quality audio file for the show can be found at:

https://samply.app/p/Qii6hzo0k8kggrBv0uWj?token=AfpXrfGDdGtdk7TlyqpC&si=4DWmn1Bf0vWsstUezexL8rIABDr1

You can listen via this link in your web browser, without needing an account. There is also an iOS app.

#Cambridge #Boston #Radio #ModernClassical #ContemporaryClassical #StringQuartet

Ninety minutes of modern string quartets starting in 10 minutes - at 4pm ET - on WMBR Cambridge 88.1 FM streaming on https://wmbr.org

#Cambridge #Boston #Radio #ModernClassical #ContemporaryClassical #StringQuartet

RE: https://fosstodon.org/@fullyabstract/117417964538091620

Ninety minutes of modern string quartets - five from the 21st century and one from 1931 - this (10/12/26) afternoon beginning at 4pm ET on WMBR Cambridge 88.1 FM streaming on https://wmbr.org

#Cambridge #Boston #Radio #ModernClassical #ContemporaryClassical #StringQuartet

The one thing that really stands out to me in this struggle about AI adoption, is, that the (supposed) technically oriented people advocating wide spread AI adoption are not battle hardened software engineers but almost without fail new-comers, who (I suspect) see now a way to a career path to glory, short circuiting the long laborious process of actually learning a trade by overtaking aforementioned experienced engineers on the right lane.

Now put yourself into the position of management who typically have no street creds in software engineering, but so often believe in their innate ability to judge people and second guess the future by their (inborn) gut feeling.

What they see, is a group of fresh-faced new-comers promising the world and group of weary veterans of the trade defending the status quo.

Then the rampant ageism of the industry (and their distrust of the experts) hits: Older engineers are (in their view) not able to learn or to change (let's not mention that not to change and stick to the processes and not challenge the status quo for decades was exactly what you trained them for and what you selected for).

Also the cult of disruption plays a role here: Management has been indoctrinated for decades that disruption is the window of opportunity, that "normal people" won't be able to see that opportunity and how companies missing the window of opportunity will be left behind and wither (their favorite example is Nokia).

And now I ask you: Is it so astonishing that (without a smidgen of evidence) management (as a general rule) comes down at the side of the fresh-faced new-comers with the big promises instead of the naysayers (the experienced software engineers)?

Ok, if you think it is getting particularly crazy these days--not just normal insane crazy, but super insane crazy--you are right. It was always bound to come to a head as we approached the mid-terms. And it will get even crazier, because they are about to have some of the power they abuse so visciously torn from them. There is nothing more furious than a cornered beast, and the walls are closing in on these guys. So, buckle up. Press on. Be not afraid. We are almost there. VOTE!

#WeThePeople

String quartets by Ruth Crawford, inti figgis-vizueta, Shawn Jaeger, Yusef Lateef, Michael Murray & Robert Sirota - featuring Arneis Quartet, Benda Quartet, Momenta Quartet, Rothko String Quartet & Telegraph Quartet - on Not Brahms and Liszt Monday (10/12/26) 4-5:30pm ET on WMBR Cambridge 88.1 FM streaming on https://wmbr.org

#Cambridge #Boston #Radio #ModernClassical #ContemporaryClassical #StringQuartet

@wmbr

“Furthermore, Longwell finds that Trump 2024 voters in Florida whom Trump needs to energize for this election, really hate them—the word Longwell used is “revulsion.” One said: “We need to get rid of all these people. Even if the Republicans don’t win for the next ten years, it’s probably best to wash these people out, you know, so you can get cleaned—clean slate.”” 2/2

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/october-9-2026

"Sarah Longwell of The Bulwark, who conducts focus groups with voters, says Trump’s campaign ads boosting himself have backfired: people hate them. They object to using taxpayer money for them by a margin of 86 to 9.” 1/2

Quoted by Michael Harris:

“The result is also contained in a paper… released by OpenAI on October 6, 2026, in which the proof strategy and specific choices of notation are identical to a preliminary version of the present paper that was uploaded to ChatGPT on September 8, 2026.”

https://siliconreckoner.substack.com/p/now-all-mathematicians-can-be-mechanical

https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.10072

“When public health modeling turns aging into scary headlines, it isn’t science—it’s spin. True causal relationships are strong, clear, and undisputed. When studies contradict each other and rely on 4% relative increases, there is no meaningful real-world risk.” 3/3

“The same studies show that moderate drinking is associated with a 15% lower rate of kidney cancer, thyroid cancer, and lymphomas. Neither direction represents true causation, but health agencies cherry-pick the upward noise, tipping their hand: This isn’t about truth, it’s about pushing an agenda.” 1/3

https://researchtranslation.substack.com/p/deconstructing-the-alcohol-cancer

"Compare that to moderate alcohol intake and breast cancer, where public health authorities point to a paper-thin 4% relative increase. A relative risk that low is not a cause-and-effect relationship—it is the classic residue of lifestyle confounding. Furthermore, public health agencies selectively report these tiny upward bumps while ignoring the other side of the ledger.” 1/3

Reaction from a colleague in Marseille to the recent OpenAI dump of math papers:
https://aeporreca.org/blog/why-we-should-reject-ai-in-academia/

> If AI-powered “research”, let alone “teaching”, becomes the norm, we’ll lose at least a generation of human experts. I’ve personally witnessed whole classes of students pressured (by peers and, above all, by the behaviour of their teachers and the university bureaucrats) into using LLMs to write code. These students are not learning. They will never be the human expert in the loop. And the same thing will happen to our junior colleagues, if you force them to use LLMs to do their job. In fact, one day there will be no expert at all. Even if you don’t believe that, one day you will lose your expertise too if you let LLMs do your science for you. Snap out of it.