Mark Mounts @markmounts@social.cleverlibre.org

The traits that are associated with ‘AI’ — intelligence, professionalism, power — are those that the white racial frame ascribes to white people. White people overrepresented in the ‘AI’ workforce are designing a set of servants who would let them avoid interacting with people who aren’t white. The whiteness of ‘AI’ is dehumanizing because the white racial frame itself is dehumanizing to anybody who is not ascribed whiteness —

Emily Bender
https://faculty.washington.edu/ebender/papers/Bender-2024-preprint.pdf

#science #books #libraries #PersonalLibraries #CharlesDarwin

"The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online... has released an online 300-page catalogue detailing Darwin’s complete personal library, with 7,400 titles across 13,000 volumes and items including books, pamphlets and journals. ... Darwin’s library has also been virtually re-assembled with 9,300 links to copies of the works freely available online."

https://news.nus.edu.sg/the-complete-library-of-charles-darwin-revealed-online/

A federal case against book restrictions in #Florida schools is going forward #bookbanning #libraries

https://www.npr.org/2024/01/11/1224126482/a-federal-case-against-book-restrictions-in-florida-schools-is-going-forward

The Disturbing Impact of the Cyberattack at the British Library #britishlibrary #librarians #history
https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-uk/the-disturbing-impact-of-the-cyberattack-at-the-british-library

Meditation, it works.

Currently reading an enjoyable book where literature and maths intersect:

"We often think of mathematics and literature as polar opposites. But what if, instead, they were fundamentally linked? In her clear, insightful, laugh-out-loud funny debut, Once Upon a Prime, Professor Sarah Hart shows us the myriad connections between math and literature, and how understanding those connections can enhance our enjoyment of both. "

#book #mathematics #literature #sarah_hart

Brian interviews Ken
#UNIX

https://youtu.be/EY6q5dv_B-o?si=Z135MGCxkPuEroAL

Hi guys, it’s me, your local angry ER doc!

Iowa GOP Senate passed a bill allowing 14 year olds to work night shifts. I have worked countless night shifts. I’ve worked 24 and 36 hour call, and I’ve had to go to lectures or meetings after many of these. I can tell you with certainty that kids who work night shift aren’t learning at school the day after. Night work also increases risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer, among other ill effects. Kids should never work nights. Ever.

AI image detectors are labeling real images from the conflict between Israel and Hamas as faked which some people are calling a second layer of disinformation.

This cuts across two of my regular themes. First of all, systems that claim to detect AI generated text or images are snake oil. They are guessing and will often guess wrong.

Secondly, it’s difficult to figure out what the facts are in the middle of a war. Treating it as a tech or moderation problem isn’t enough

https://www.404media.co/ai-images-detectors-are-being-used-to-discredit-the-real-horrors-of-war/

"This report argues that consumer technology reviewers have failed their basic nominal purpose of critiquing tools. Instead, inspired by values introduced by Apple in the late 1990s, the tech review industry prioritizes aesthetic lust as the primary critical factor for evaluating objects. The reification of these values in their scoring system is transmitted to consumers and manufacturers alike. Like other prurient things, the objects designed within this paradigm are optimized not for usefulness but for photogenic and telegenic properties, a framework that finds its fullest realization in YouTube reviews and unboxing videos. There, even the intimation of critical rigor within tech reviewing vanishes, the smartphone becomes the center of gravity, and manufacturers are even further incentivized to design products for end consumers who are less users than viewers."

https://components.one/posts/the-new-pornographers-tech-reviews

#consumerism #technology

Emissions from computing are apparently higher than for air travel, and that’ll only go up in the coming decades.

“As a society we need to start treating computational resources as finite and precious, to be utilised only when necessary, and as effectively as possible. We need frugal computing: achieving our aims with less energy and material.”

https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.06642

#ClimateChange

There’s going to be a golden window of opportunity for knowledge workers where AI makes you better at your job followed by a through of despair when AI can just do your job and you’re not needed anymore.

📚 What is a Machine Learning Librarian?
🤖 How can a Machine Learning Librarian enhance the field of #machinelearning? #libraries #ai

I've written an article exploring this emerging role. Check it out here: 🔗 https://machinelearninglibrarian.substack.com/p/what-is-a-machine-learning-librarian

#HH211: #Jets from a #FormingStar
#Astronomy #Picture of the Day

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230919.html

#APOD

You know how we've reached the point where half of congress says that it's totally inappropriate for people to be able to file their taxes online directly with the IRS? That the Good and Right thing is to have to pay H&R Block or Intuit?

That's the play that private identity vendors are making. They’re racing for the perception of incumbency before states can catch up with mDLs, before Login.gov can work with those states to ensure that anybody with a DMV record can access government services.

#TIH #OTD 06 Sep 1903: Death of Charles Ammi Cutter (b. 1837), US #librarian best remembered for Cutter Expansive Classification: a system of shelving by standardized class numbers so #books on related topics sit together. He also helped produce the US’ 1st public #CardCatalogue and played a major role in making card cataloguing—versus the old practice of chronologically listing titles in ledgers—the international model. #GLAM #BookHistory #Libraries
@bookhistodons

Meta/Facebook/Threads/Instagram is now using your content for generative AI. There is a form to opt out, although I don't know if it'll make a difference, but here it is: https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/1266025207620918

#passkeys are the worst, most user-hostile security design ever imagined in my lifetime. They're endlessly confusing for people, the sync mechanisms make no goddamn sense and their rollout has been a complete shit-show so far.

Let's start with Chrome and passkeys. I'm on a Mac and I want to use a passkey. #Firefox doesn't even support passkeys, so I can use #Safari or #Chrome. IF I USE CHROME, the passkey generated is NOT synced OR usable on the iCloud Keychain. It exists only on the Mac Keychain. So if I lose this laptop OR delete my Chrome user, that login is simply gone forever.

Ok so I'll use safari. Whoa there partner, now the passkey isn't usable on Chrome! Now I'm locked to Safari forever. Let's say I'm sick of Apple and decide to go to Android someday? All those logins are gone forever.

Jesus Christ, I'll use Windows. Nope, those passkeys don't sync ever! So if I ever lose that laptop, I'm locked out of all those accounts regardless of how I use passkeys.

None of these risks have been properly communicated to users and none of them are acceptable. I cannot believe that we are suggesting that anyone use these broken things right now. Shameful.

#security #programming

Need to get all the links from a website into a spreadsheet? Use the developer tools console!
console.table($$('a'),['innerHTML','href']) is the key.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFUwVl4Gqvw

Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment “disqualifies former President Donald Trump, and potentially many others, because of their participation in the attempted overthrow of the 2020 presidential election,” argue two Federalist Society prominent legal scholars in a forthcoming law review article. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4532751