Gizmodo asks “Will We Ever Solve the Problem of Losing Data?”

I love this answer: “I know of one data storage form that can be permanent: a library. Or rather, a world full of libraries. Libraries aren’t perfect storage devices (nothing is), but they are fiercely committed to self-repair. A good library is a collection of people, technologies, and practices that pass an obligation—to remember the things we must remember—from the last generation to the next.”
https://gizmodo.com/will-we-ever-solve-the-problem-of-losing-data-2000792386 #libraries

Sesame Street Has A New Extreme Weather Episode.

"A new special, Storm on Sesame Street, which aired on Aug. 3, follows Elmo and friends as they work together to get ready for a big storm, and help rebuild in its aftermath. The episode was created to help kids better understand extreme weather as it becomes increasingly more frequent. "

https://time.com/article/2026/08/05/sesame-street-extreme-weather-climate-experts/

The Income Needed to Be Happy Around the World
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-income-needed-to-be-happy-by-country/
• Slovenia is the only country where the average wage exceeds the estimated “price of happiness”, the point beyond which additional income no longer improves life evaluation scores.
• Luxembourg, Estonia, and Singapore are the next closest, with average wages reaching about 90% of the income level where well-being plateaus.
• In the United States, the average wage covers just 55.8% of the country’s happiness threshold

I’m curious: Do you own or work at a small business?
(Boost for reach)

BREAKING: Jeff Dean, #Google chief scientist and Google employee #30 -- often called the smartest person at Google -- and one hell of a nice guy -- is leaving Google, along with three other top AI researchers, to form new AI venture.

i should post more about my regular cooking things, right? tonight i’m stretching, attempting to learn more about Japanese cuisine, a significant part of my roots. With the help of this incredible book, i’m making Fried Tofu Cakes (Ganmodoki), and i’m also making a vegan unagi with eggplant from our garden. Oh, and oh yeah — first i gotta make unagi sauce. 😎 #Cooking #Japan

@phil_stevens @blogdiva @rcosta
In Gironde, they planted a huge pine monoculture which is way more flammable than appropriate broadleaf species.

https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2026/08/04/quand-des-centaines-de-milliers-d-hectares-sont-couverts-de-pins-les-flammes-disposent-d-un-combustible-quasi-continu_6738777_3232.html

RT: @AOC I appreciate AIPAC proving it doesn’t belong in the Dem Party and especially our primaries.

From endorsing Jan 6th members to ensuring Congress remains in the hands of a 34-count felon, AIPAC is an org committed to undermining democracy at home and abroad.

See you in November.

RT: @MarkRuffalo Here’s the problem. When you put another country above the USA, when you are in the US government, no matter what you say, you aren’t working for the American people. Go be a lobbyist. Register as a lobbyist for a foreign government and make your living that way, but don’t take a paycheck from the US taxpayer. Get out of representing the people of the USA.

RT: @camkasky “We need to treat Israel the way we would treat any other country that behaved the way Israel is behaving."

Some of the best messaging I’ve heard on the issue from a high profile politician. Very simple, but highlights that there’s only one country we allow to behave like this.

Last night, 41-year-old Dr. Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed won the Democratic primary for United States Senate in Michigan. What he overcame is not just politically significant. It is historic.

He was outspent 11 to 1. His opponents deployed more than $60 million in outside spending against him. He won anyway. And we need to understand why so we can duplicate it nationwide. Here's how:
https://www.qasimrashid.com/p/dr-abdul-el-sayeds-win-isnt-just

#music #time #JohnCage

'A rare chord change on Wednesday — from seven notes to eight once an A4 pipe was added — represented the completion of about 4% of the 639-year endeavor of the John Cage Organ Project Halberstadt.'

https://apnews.com/article/john-cage-organ-project-halberstadt-organ-aslsp-938b5a1d0bc3d8d0dec5cb19accd00a6

I’m selling a vintage Apple pro keyboard

Ping me if you’re in SF and you’re keen. I am also going to San Mateo later this week

I also have the puck mouse for sale

https://www.craigslist.org/view/d/san-francisco-apple-pro-keyboard/eq17nLHbeKYN3KByjGZ7iu

#SanFrancisco #SanMateo #Apple #retrocomputing

Despite the German state’s slavish support for Israel and its brutal repression of anti-genocide protest, the pro-Palestine movement has scored a major legal victory.

The Zweibrücken Higher Regional Court has ruled that comparing Israel with the Nazis is legal.

The court ruled that Nazi-linked symbols can legally be used:
“If someone uses the signs for sharp criticism of the methods of the State of Israel and is thus accompanied by a clear distancing or condemnation of Nazi injustice.”
#gaza

Got a call from the library where my kids are volunteering this summer.

Apparently someone used a cheap combination lock to lock shut a bin of materials for a young readers program, as a prank. My kids shimmed the lock open for the librarian.

And the librarian called basically to say ‘this was super helpful but also it seems like you should know they had it open in 5 minutes’

I don’t think she expected my response to be “that long?! I guess we need to practice”

"Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) reportedly used a private Republican lunch this week to caution his colleagues against talking to the press — a warning that, within a day, leaked to the press."

Fed-up Tom Cotton's secret lunch plea to stop talking to reporters leaks - Raw Story

https://www.rawstory.com/tom-cotton-2677662486/

Stop calling it "AI training." Start calling it cultural vandalism.

Court filings reveal Anthropic ran a secret operation, "Project Panama," buying up to 2 million physical books just to destroy them. Spines cut, pages scanned, text shredded for data. Internal docs state plainly: "We don't want it to be known."

It is #TimeToResist the forces worshipping unchecked tech extraction over human culture. We need to reclaim the moral compass 👉 https://www.greenpeace.org/international/act/reclaim-the-moral-compass

Peggy Flanagan’s people-powered campaign is up against millions in outside spending in Minnesota.

Chuck Schumer and the Democratic establishment are backing a conservative Dem who voted to thank ICE and pass the Laken Riley Act.

We need your help to GOTV for Peggy before Election Day on Tuesday: https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/971600/?source=mastodon

A lot of people seem to believe that if you ask an LLM to look through a database and calculate something, or extract data according to some criteria, then it will do exactly what you ask for.

It won't. It will calculate an output that looks normal. And you won't discover this unless you do the same operation manually and compare.

#llm #ai #aibubble