PSA: uBlock Origin's EasyList has an AI Widgets option that doesn't get turned on by default, including if you had other EasyList items selected already before it was added.

Enabling it removes a number of various AI buttons, nags, prompts, etc. across various sites.

#AI #LLM #Firefox

Book Blogger Hop: One Single Genre.

This week's prompt is about what genre you'd pick if you had to read a single genre forever. I... was very reluctant to make any choice, haha.

https://breathesbooks.com/2026/07/31/book-blogger-hop-one-single-genre/

#BookBloggerHop #bookstodon

Oh, but shoutout to https://fibertools.app

Jason Ramirez is my hero for having an excellent, accessible site with _just the info_ and some really neat little tools. I'd buy him a coffee if I could!

The beauty of #Alaska changed me. I had never seen an old-growth forest or walked through a temperate #rainforest before. Standing among trees that had lived for centuries, surrounded by the biodiversity of so many plants, fungi, and animals, shifted something in me. I started noticing the natural world in a way I never had. And somewhere along the way, I fell in love with being alive in a way I hadn’t felt before.

For a long time, I thought purpose was something I had to find one day. Instead, I found it by paying attention: learning the names of trees and mosses and mushrooms; watching a bear scratch its back on a tree; or just sitting quietly and noticing Stellar Jays bullying smaller birds away from the feeders. I realized the woods are full of stories, and it’s up to us to slow down and notice them.

Paying attention became an act of gratitude. Curiosity became how I moved through life. Slowly and quietly, my mental health started to heal.

Crochet pattern for doll costume with accordion! 🧶

Get your #crochet on with this accordion-playing doll 👧🏼

Note that this pattern is just the dress and the super-cute #accordion — the doll body is separate (avoid the error of ordering twice)

You can also just get the 🪗 which is nice, but this outfit is yodelly
https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/4461693070/crochet-costume-doll-with-accordion
#yarn #knitting

A core feature of masculinity is strength. Especially strong and very large back muscles. Strong legs don't matter as much. Vision is also important. Big eyes are very manly. And how can I forget having a small head? Little mandibles? Tiny head? Amazing! What man would need to be like a solder or worker who cuts and carries with huge mandibles when he is called to fly and sense with long antennae and find a queen?

... uh... oh no.

I think maybe I'm mixing things up a little again.

@sundogplanets

This, from The Conversation:

"The crash itself poses no danger. However, it signals a looming regulatory problem. As governments and companies race to build a permanent presence on the Moon, there is almost no practical framework for coordinating activities that permanently reshape the lunar environment."

Move fast and break things, eh? 😖

https://theconversation.com/an-abandoned-spacex-rocket-is-about-to-crash-into-the-moon-the-real-problem-comes-next-288287

Three time stamps worth considering with each noted piece of knowledge:

When was the note made?
I watched a recorded lecture on exoplanets two months ago. I took notes then. That was the time stamp.

When was the source of the notes made?
The lecture was recorded in 2015. All information on exoplanets might not be up to date at the time of writing notes two months ago, but even if I watched the lecture in 2015 this would still be true today.

What time is the source of the knowledge referencing?
I learned what some team discovered in 2011. To the best of professors knowledge this was still true, but in general case the source of the knowledge itself might be out of date or less informed.

#pkm #TakingNotes

People think a lot about the output they get from AI tools and chatbots.

But they don't think enough about the input they give to AI tools and chatbots.

Your input is very likely collected, tagged, evaluated, shared, and reused. Every word, every image, every line of code, every data point you share with them, knowingly or unknowingly.

You're not using them.
They're using you.

#NoAI #Privacy #DigitalRights #MassSurveillance

Aboriginal rangers have wiped invasive fire ants off an Australian island. After 22 years, the Tiwi Rangers have eradicated tropical fire ants from Melville Island, hunting and baiting nests one by one, a feat one entomologist ranks among the top three ant eradications ever. The ants had been eating turtle hatchlings and nesting birds. Mongabay https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rangers-eradicate-invasive-tropical-fire-ants-in-australias-tiwi-islands/
#ShareGoodNewsToo

#linuxMint mirror data

Could anyone recommend an application to mirror automatically (like every day) a directory to an external SSD for back up reasons? bonus if no AI slop is involved.
and yes, in this use case it's desired to actually mirror everything.

I would be very grateful for your recommendations, I'm low on time and energy right now.

#linux #linuxNewbie #backUp

#GenAI #TheOneRing #Evil #Tolkien
Via: https://www.tumblr.com/ellipsus-writes/822936303010267136

AI Policy

My policy on AI in the form of generative AI is pretty much summed up as "just fuckin' don't".

I don't use LLMs to write my posts, create graphics, write comments, or anything else I can think of. I try not to use LLMs in searches, though the ongoing enshittification of the internet makes that harder than I'd like. I try to make my own graphics for link-ups and so on where I'm aware that generative AI has been used.

That said, I'm not the...

https://breathesbooks.com/ai-policy/

RE: https://aus.social/@Unixbigot/114520219793496002

TIL you can get the classic {cyber,hope}punk story “Red Star, Winter Orbit” (and more) free online; it’s in the Mirrorshades anthology https://www.rudyrucker.com/mirrorshades/

Sick of centrists claiming “but #AI is useful” in specific instances that require ignoring *everything else* around it. A good thread by a game dev about why to avoid it, with the ethics last: https://bsky.app/profile/dcfedor.bsky.social/post/3mrggd23ic22i

I noticed a neighbour had set up a little library box in their front yard. I checked the books and saw they were all jumbled up.

I had only moved a few when a net fell on me.

"Gotcha! Oh..."

"What's going on?" I asked.

"There's a feral librarian around."

"Ah. Catch, tag, feed, release?"

"Yup."

#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories

Compromise

"I've got you an excellent compromise with the Terrans. They've agreed to stop sending junk into space, and you've agreed not to bombard Earth with your Z-cannons."

"What Z-cannons?"

"As I said, it's an excellent compromise."

#writever #MastoArt #FlashFiction #SmallStory #TootFic #MicroFiction

I'm watching an ant arguing with her mother about where they should put the larvae.

The queen moves them to the dark corner, the daughter moves them to the more damp but too bright corner.

I swear the queen was stomping the third time she discovered the larvae had been moved again.

Ants don't give orders, they work on consensus and... sometimes they struggle a little to find one. In the end mom won since her other daughter took her side on this important matter.

Three years ago at one of the most famous waterfalls of the alps
#mountainmonday

Handmade art book for my Moon-obsessed toddler 🌕
(Sans cover because their name is on it)
It started as a low effort "I can finish this in one afternoon" project, with finger-painted moon & splotchy stars. But I decided to add the animals so it ballooned into a week-long ordeal.

Acrylic paint, gesso, matte medium & water-soluble pastels on 180gsm mixed media paper.

#artvideo #video #MixedMedia #art #MastoArt #fediart #artwork #CreativeToots #TraditionalArt #painting #ArtistBook #moon