Lunatech @Lunatech@social.cleverlibre.org

There is one prominent exception to the trend where businesses make it almost impossible to get someone on the phone:

When you want to cancel any kind of regular pay service, such as cable TV, you are REQUIRED to speak to someone who'll try to argue you out of it.

(Of course, getting them on the phone involves a lengthy wait, at least in my experience.)

ChatGPT users are finding various "jailbreaks" that get the tool to seemingly ignore its own content restrictions and provide unfettered responses (Rohan Goswami/CNBC)

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/06/chatgpt-jailbreak-forces-it-to-break-its-own-rules.html
http://www.techmeme.com/230206/p23#a230206p23

I have discovered @NetNewsWire recently. I can add a #Mastodon user #RSS feed to it. That way, I can mute them on my timeline and read their (many) posts in batch. It's a great way for me to keep up to date on news.

I can also unfollow many Twitter users now, because I can subscribe to their website feeds (like with Japan Times).

For me, the perfect companion to Mastodon. Free and #opensource too: https://netnewswire.com/

Thanks a lot NNW, you will be on my devices for a while.

I'm normally delighted to ignore Trump and the deranged hateful emissions that come out of his mouth. But apparently last night he once again, by name, sent his followers after Ruby Freeman (the retired Georgia election worker whose life he baselessly and shamefully put in danger two years ago).

None of his antics can exactly be considered surprising at this point, but they remain shocking and sickening.

Capitol security officials split last week over whether to erect fencing around the Capitol ahead of tomorrow’s State of the Union address.

The #House’s new sergeant at arms opposed it, losing on a 2-1 Capitol Police Board vote.

https://www.politico.com/minutes/congress/02-6-2023/capitol-security-split/?cid=mas

SAN FRANCISCO — Google said it will soon make its own artificial intelligence chatbot available to the public and begin using the tech to generate answers in search results, firing back at accusations the company, long a leader in AI tech, has been slow to respond to competition from its rivals.

Story by Gerrit de Vynck: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/02/06/google-bard-chatbot/

Pakistan unblocks Wikipedia after three days; Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif: the ban's unintended consequences over objectionable content outweigh its benefits (Manish Singh/TechCrunch)

https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/06/wikipedia-pakistan/
http://www.techmeme.com/230206/p22#a230206p22

A federal judge today said the Supreme Court's #Dobbs decision may not have ended the constitutional right to an #abortion.

"It is entirely possible that the Court might have held in Dobbs that some other provision of the Constitution provided a right to access reproductive services had that issue been raised," the judge wrote.

She wants a briefing on whether the 13th amendment — or any other — might confer such a right.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/06/federal-judge-constitutional-right-abortion-dobbs-00081391?cid=mas

"Eric Trump tourmate claims Jewish people are frauds and ''Hitler was actually fighting the same people that we're trying to take down today'"

#Fascism

https://www.mediamatters.org/diversity-discrimination/eric-trump-tourmate-scott-mckay-claims-jewish-people-are-frauds-and-hitler

#cartoonist Dave Whamond
#KevinMcCarthy #HouseGOPLeaderMcCarthy #DebtCeiling #SocialSecurity #Medicare
#GOPdomesticTerrorists #GOPsabotage #GQP #Politics #editorialcartoons #cartoon

Do you want Cylons? Because this is how you get Cylons. (Seriously. See 'Caprica')
https://futurism.com/chatgpt-emulating-dead-people

Why are @reiver and I building #SpaceHost?

Because we looked at the Fediverse's biggest needs right now, and we both agree that there's a HUGE need for more instances.

And not just Mastodon instances. Every kind of instance!

But there's a big barrier to entry: most people have neither time nor expertise to self-host an instance.

So we want to make running an instance incredibly easy by doing the heavy lifting for you!

My kids’ elementary school is having a lockdown drill today, so this is a reminder that, even with the school shootings you hear about in the news, school is by far one of the safest places children can be, there’s zero evidence that lockdown or active shooter drills improve safety, and their main effect is in traumatizing children by convincing them that school in fact isn’t safe. It’s shameful that schools do this to kids and parents should demand they stop.

The reasons for it are clear and were predictable, but I’m still astonished at how utterly quickly Twitter (or at least my timeline there) went from being a vibrant, if frequently problematic, community to a total wasteland. There’s simply nothing there for me any more. And it took maybe a month.

“We’re Still Gonna Say No”: Inside UnitedHealthcare’s Effort to Deny Coverage to Chronically Ill Patient
--
After a college student finally found a treatment for his ulcerative colitis that worked, the insurance giant decided it wouldn’t pay for the costly drugs.

His fight to finally get coverage exposed the insurer’s hidden procedures for rejecting claims.

#Insurance #UnitedHealthcare #Health #Healthcare #DenialOfCare

https://www.propublica.org/article/unitedhealth-healthcare-insurance-denial-ulcerative-colitis?utm_medium=social&utm_source=mastodon&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

A previously unknown layer of partially-molten rock extends below much of the planet's surface, and could illuminate mysteries in plate tectonics.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkgjyv/scientists-discover-hidden-zone-of-earth-100-miles-beneath-surface
#tech-science #Science #earth #geology #Abstract #worldnews