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Entry tags:

ai,
politics

Postcards from the AI-pocalypse

I read this last week, and it's been haunting me ever since.

A new kind of bias: AI choosing itself over humans
Adding another wrinkle, researchers publishing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) recently discovered a startling trend they call “AI–AI bias.” Large language models like GPT-4 and Meta’s Llama 3.1 consistently favored content created by other AIs over human-written material across product ads, academic abstracts, and even movie reviews.

Study coauthor Jan Kulveit warned that such bias could reshape economic opportunities, with humans at risk of being systematically sidelined. “Being human in an economy populated by AI agents would suck,” he said on X, advising people to run their work through AI tools before submitting it if they suspect another AI will be evaluating it.

This creates a troubling picture: not only are AI systems struggling to deliver promised productivity gains, but they may also be reinforcing their own dominance at the expense of human contributions.

From this article in The Economic Times (India), which also covers an MIT study into AI business application ("95 percent of business attempts to integrate generative AI are failing"), the AI bubble, and AI psychosis.

Current Mood: good

Starsky and Hutch chat day

Slept late and enjoyed the extra hour gained by the clocks going back. Got up around 12:00 and had breakfast and coffee.

Then at 1:30 I went to the Starsky and Hutch Creative Work session. Had a very good time, though I didn't get much writing done. There were a couple more people than there have been, for a total of five, which was nice.

We chatted until a little after 6:00, and then got off. I puttered online and then at 7:00 Teamed the FWiB.

We talked til 8:30, when I had to call Middle Brother. He had fun on Halloween, the group home had a Halloween party as usual. He also went to Target and 7-11 yesterday, or maybe today, he didn't specify.

Then I had dinner, and called

mashfanficchick and talked for a awhile. Then I puttered my phone til pet feeding time.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. The Starsky and Hutch fandom.

3. Susan M is sending me tee shirts!

4. Middle Brother is having fun.

5. Got extra sleep.

6. Plans with

mashfanficchick for the week.

Entry tags:

!squee/vent

Post of Squee and Ventilation (11/02/25)

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: accomplished

Entry tags:

food,
personal

Today's Cooking

Today I am making Tomato-Basil Bread from Hello! 365 Tomato Recipes: Best Tomato Cookbook Ever For Beginners, the yeast version from page 32. We're out of parmesan cheese, so I substituted Manchego which is dry enough to grate and has a similarly sharp taste. Already the dough is a very pretty salmon-pink, currently rising in a bowl set inside a bowl of warm water to help maintain temperature.

Achtung! Cthulhu

My character discovered that using his acting skills to look like a dangerous opponent kind of backfires if it gets the full attention of something that is a dangerous opponent.

Entry tags:

card exchange,
poll

Admin Post: Community Card Exchange 2025 - Poll

December's just about a month away, so we're kicking off our annual Community Card Exchange this week. :)

Drawesome's Community Card Exchange 2024

How it works:
During this time of year, we make and exchange cards with members of our drawing community. A list of mailing addresses is created and shared privately with participating community members. Cards may be general, seasonal or holiday-themed, and you're free to mail out one or as many cards as you wish.

Please fill out our poll to indicate whether you'd like to take part in this year's Community Card Exchange:

Poll #33794 Community Card Exchange 2025

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 3

View Respondents

Would you like to participate in our Community Card Exchange this year?

View Answers

Yes
2 (66.7%)

Maybe
1 (33.3%)

And if you're new here, or you have any questions about the exchange, please feel free to ask in the comments section of this post. All community members are welcome to take part in our card exchange. :)

Current Mood: artistic

Entry tags:

Feline Negotiations (part 1 of 1, complete)

Feline Negotiations
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1840

:: Torrin meets Griffin’s grandmother, Judy, and they discuss ways to make the telepathic cats more comfortable in their new home. This story is actually the precursor to

chanter1944’s actual prompt, so I’m posting it now to make the later store clearer. Technically, written for the October of 2025 Feathering the Nest prompt call, with my thanks! ::

“I’m not sure about how to do this,” the elderly lady began, then smiled at the young man who put a mug of spearmint tea at her elbow. “Thank you.”

Loudmouth shrugged. “I’m a very straightforward person, ma’am. You wanted to meet Torrin, and talk business. I wanted to be here because I want to offer a hint or two about what constitutes a good deal on both sides, not take over.” She gestured as Torrin entered, carrying a lemon yellow kitten in his cupped hand, with a tiny bottle in the other. “Ah, I didn’t realize that it was still feeding time.”
( Read more... )

Entry tags:

(no subject)

After several days in a row of being able to walk more than is now typical for me, and also doing PT, yesterday my ankle hurt enough that I stayed put as much as possible. I took a naproxen around lunchtime, which made no descernible difference.

I'm doing significantly better today, in terms of ankle and other joint pain. I didn't go for a walk, but did go outside to take out trash and spend a few minutes outdoors during daylight, and then started on what has turned out to be a lot of PT exercises. We're back on standard time as of this morning, meaning the sun set in Boston at 4:35 (we're near the eastern edge of this time zone).

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

gaming,
networking

Gaming

New study: Dungeons & Dragons provides real benefits to people with disabilities and the elderly

“Serious leisure” refers to an activity that demands skill, commitment, and personal fulfillment, Messina defined. With the intricate world-building, score-keeping, and character development required of D&D, she said, it’s a blueprint for serious leisure.
[---8<---]
“Players were comfortable being themselves by engaging in the game pursuit,” she added, “but at the same time were building personas in line with, or in contrast to, their normal personality. They described it as a way to take charge, or lead an effort in ways that their normal personality would allow for, but they wouldn’t be inclined to do.”

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

Gaming

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Seasons of Drabbles: Post-Deadline Pinch Hits due November 7

Event: Seasons of Drabbles is an exchange for the creation of drabbles and drabble variants. The minimum is 100 words.

Event link: Dreamwidth | AO3 Collection

Due date: Friday, November 7, noon Eastern time (Countdown), though we can be flexible if needed.

Pinch hit link: Please view the details and claim it at this post.

PH 8 - Psychonauts (Video Games), Umineko no Naku Koro ni | When the Seagulls Cry, No Straight Roads (Video Game), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types

PH 10 - The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension (1984), Crossing Jordan (TV 2001), NCIS: Los Angeles

PH 20 - Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Limbus Company (Video Game), 機動戦士ガンダムサンダーボルト | Gundam Thunderbolt

Entry tags:

emotional support fiber

I slightly less half-assedly fixed the warp on the Clover Sakiori loom (Japanese).

weaving WIP close-up

I didn't bring a comb for the weft and was using a tapestry needle, but catten remains unlikely to mind imperfect weaving.

Also, further adventures in dyeing wool yarn. I'd like to test on dyeing combed top for cotton, ramie, and silk (mulberry/bombyx, eri, tussah, and maybe a small sample of my treasured stash of muga); and then try some on alpaca or mohair after I've processed some more.

dyed yarn

Later in the season, in natural dyes, I might experiment with the traditional hoary old standby of onion skins; rose hips (several of my roses shrubs produce them); and find out if windfall figs from the no-longer-quite-so-baby fig tree do anything interested as dyes. Osage orange, common madder, true and false indigo, hibiscus, and elderberry grow in Louisiana so making a dye plant plot might be entertaining. That or I sacrifice e.g. a bunch of beets lol. For personal use, I don't care about consistency (I prefer chaos ball colors) and I'm not that fussed about reliable fastness. "Throw it in a pot and also an ~appropriate mordant" for personal experiment promises to be very entertaining.

Current Mood: tired

Entry tags:

Book Log: Fuck Yeah Video Games

Ahhhh remember when FuckYeah[Thing] was everywhere in the fannish parlance?

Anyway some years back I was an avid watcher of

NerdCubed's youtube channel, because as someone with horrible hand-eye coordination I found his irreverent skill and enjoyment at taking video games to their absurd limit really fun, and such LPs as I still remember for "Bully", "Shadow of the Colossus", "Psychonauts", "Outer Wilds" and one of the Jurassic Park games where you can actually build a theme park (and the raptors kept escaping, which enraged him to no end). These days I still have him subscribed but don't watch him as often, as there's way more content I follow now.

Regardless, back when he announced that he'd written a book, I ordered it as a way to say thank you for all those hours of entertainment, which is why I have a copy of Daniel Hardcastle's Fuck Yeah Videogames. It is, in my opinion, near incomprehensible if you don't already know Daniel and his brand of humour, as it is an irreverent list of various video games he loves and some he does not, the history ("history", in places) of various video consoles, plus a healthy dollop of semi memoir in the little stories he tells about himself, his family and friends, in explaining the way various video games make him feel. It's less a book and more like longform stand up in text form, I think. Maybe the audio version would be better, as someone who's enjoyed his rambling, but in text form I found it a bit tiresome.

At the back he lists his 100 favourite games of all time and I was shocked to see Outer Wilds was not there (he introduced me to the game!). Then I checked, and oh the game came out in 2019 and he finished writing the book in 2018, which explains it.

Entry tags:

daily

Daily check-in

This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Sunday, November 2, to midnight on Monday, November 3 (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #33793 Daily check-in poll

Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 14

How are you doing?

I am OK
8 (57.1%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now
6 (42.9%)

I could use some help
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single
5 (35.7%)

One other person
5 (35.7%)

More than one other person
4 (28.6%)

Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.

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Round 155 Has Ended!

And so another Round of Fic_Rush draws to a close, and some things even got done! Be sure to brag about your accomplishments in the comments, and as always our undying gratitude to our glorious Mod Squad:

xandromedovna, WerebunniesBane

thedarlingone, Rainbow Fairy Godpenguin

lilly_c, Clumsy Rhino

glinda, Supreme Tea Temptress

Entry tags:

Round 155 Has Ended!

Stay tuned for scenes from our next episode!

Current Mood: full
Current Music: Chiefs vs Bills on tv

Entry tags:

now he's going to try to make something happen

Some Sunday sundries...

- Baby Miss L was sick for Halloween, but I did get a lovely picture of her from the previous weekend where she, her mother, and my sister were all dressed as witches. <333

- I made another pot of garlic and bread soup this evening and it's so good and my apartment smells like garlic and olive oil (in a good way).

- However, for the first time ever, cutting scallions made my eyes tear up like cutting onions - I guess the white part is really oniony.

- Yesterday, I also made the dough for those Levain-style chocolate chip cookies and I had one this morning and they're so good. I will be baking one off each morning for breakfast this week.

- Call me crazy, but every time I see that commercial with Paul Skenes (and Questlove and Francisco Lindor), I think it's Josh Allen at first. They look alike!

- Amazon is actually listing book 8 of Dungeon Crawler Carl (Parade of Horribles) but only on audible or in hardcover. Why is there no kindle listing??? The release date is either May 26, 2026 or June 2, 2026 - I have seen both.

- Despite my difficulties with audiobooks etc. I did try the first DCC audiobook, but the narrator sounds like he's an out of shape 40-year-old, not a jacked 27-year-old, so it didn't work for me on that level as well as the various other levels, though Donut's voice was fantastic.

- Still no word that I can find on a date for Alecto the Ninth.

- I was pulling for you, Toronto! Sorry about that. *hands* Was a great series, though, even with that ending.

- and now no more baseball until March. *sadhair*

- At least the Rangers have won a couple of games? Though I don't have a lot of optimism for their season. And I really dislike Chris Drury and his way of being a GM, and unfortunately it doesn't look like it's going to change any time soon. Sigh.

*

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Trick R Treat special features

Entry tags:

Monthly round up: October

October

Fics wrote: -
Books read: -
Games done: ESO: Necrom,
Podcast: Welcome To Night Vale - Book Talk With Tamika Flynn [except], Date Night, Sheeple Chase - Dead Singer, Spray It Ain’t So, Da Minister, The Grotto - Buried Alive, Sheeple Chase - Strife On Mars
Who audios: Forty Five - False Gods, Order Of Simplicity, Casualties Of War, The Word Lord, Embrace The Darkness
Other Big Finish stuff:-
Comics read: Fantastic Four 4, Exquisite Corpses 2, Exquisite Corpses 3, Exquisite Corpses 4, Exquisite Corpses 5
Graphic novels read: The Amory Wars: Good Apollo I’m Burning Star IV: From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness Volume 1

Things watched
Amazon Prime: War Of The Worlds [2025]
Blu Ray: Wildhood, Terror Of The Zygons, Trick R Treat
DVD: -
Disney+: High Potential - Checkmate (rewatch), Eleven Minutes, Futurama - Wicked Human, A Haunting In Venice, The Simpsons - Treehouse Of Horror, Treehouse Of Horror II, Treehouse Of Horror III, High Potential - Behind The Music, The Simpsons - Treehouse Of Horror IV, Treehouse Of Horror V, High Potential - Content Warning, The Simpsons - Treehouse Of Horror VI, Treehouse Of Horror VII, High Potential - Chasing Ghosts, The Simpsons - Treehouse Of Horror VIII, Treehouse Of Horror IX
Netflix: Wednesday - Call Of The Woe, If These Woes Could Talk, Hyde And Woe Seek
Now tv: It Welcome To Derry - The Pilot, The Thing In The Dark
Shudder: VHS Halloween
YouTube: Mini Mart - Your Favourite Boyband Is Back! (Fan Edition Vol 2) [though only first 30 mins], Ghost Files - Hunting The Phantom Of The King Opera House, 5 Seconds Of Summer - Not Ok, Ghost Files - The Basement That Shook Shane: Investigating Bracken Manor, Stranger Things 5 Trailer, Animal Crossing new horizon switch 2 edition trailer
Cinema: Curse Of Frankenstein, Him, Mystery Film - Good Boy, The Long Walk, Night Of The Zoopocalypse, Tron Ares, Black Phone 2

October has felt like a mixed bag and it’s mostly because, between glasses fucking up and being sick, I’ve not been able to do the things I had planned. I think the main annoyance was not being able to see Frankenstein in cinemas yet. Partly that’s due to wanting to see it, but if I had seen it last week as planned it would have meant I’d have been to the cinema every week of October.

Even without that though I’ve seen 7 cinema films last month, which is more than I saw in all of last year. It’s hard to give a fav of those, it feels it’s between The Long Walk and Black Phone 2.

Other than that there’s been a lot of Treehouse Of Horrors, which I might try and finish going through this month (how many others are there? *checks* oh Disney+ has 36 what)

Also new is Now tv cause, like I said, I totally caved for it. (And yessss the second ep had Joshua Odjick albeit for about 5 seconds). And speaking of him I still love Wildhood. I really need to finish the special features of it, because that’s when my glasses broke.

This month I’m hoping to actually fic. I had started something I was working on and it was going well, then BAM sickness. Ugh. Hopefully I can get back to it this week.

***

The first weeks of November are gonna be real busy. This week is, Frankenstein and maybe Shelby Oaks (which’ll be two separate trips) and the Telford trip which I feel will be draining. The following week has Naryu’s vet trip, the James Marriott gig (and maybe Stranger Things cafe if I get the timings right), another eye test and the 5 Seconds Of Summer album coming.

Also the spooky season catch up.

Day 30: Pokémon ZA, It welcome to Derry - the pilot

Pretty much covered in the last post.

Day 31: Halloween! It Welcome to Derry - the thing in the dark, Trick R Treat

The second ep of Welcome To Derry went live on Halloween and I was able to watch it in the night. It wasn’t quite as messed up as the first one, though damn. IT really loves tormenting those kids huh? And the military angle is definitely gonna blow up in their faces. (And ugh racism)

Trick R Treat is my annual Halloween film and this is the version I got last year. It’s still the only 4K thing I have but I feel it was so worth it considering it’s a yearly thing and how great it looks. Plus it’s just fun, despite the stories being pretty scary. (I still think the real monsters are the school bus parents)

I did carve my pumpkin into a simple face, but didn’t even put a light in it this year and it sat in the kitchen which feels so wrong.

The sequel
Day 1: Strictly Halloween, Nine Bodies In A Mexican Morgue finale

Strictly Halloween was really great this year, it really felt like everyone bought their a game and everyone looked great. (And awww it was sweet that this dance made La Voix love it.) I was so sad that Ellie was sent home through, she was doing so well and mum was so mad when they didn’t vote for her.

Nine Bodies was an interesting finale. I had a feeling it was going to go the way it did after last week, I just didn’t expect the extent it would. And ha! That ending.

Now though I’m gonna finish the Trick R Treat special features and the. Bundle up.

The End of the End

So I no longer have a job. I am no longer something, something defined by a career. How strange. Can I be a bum? A bum might be cool.

On the morning of my last day, before the break of dawn, I was surprised by an outstanding modification done to the golf cart my section uses to get around the grounds at work. It was decked out to look like a giant My Little Pony pegasus, specifically Rainbow Dash. Plus two tin-can chains dragging on the ground behind it, just in case anyone didn't notice a giant rainbow pony driving by. Despite the modifications, the cart did not go faster.

At break there was Oreo cookie cake, payback for all the cakes and desserts I've put out for people to eat on Fridays. I got my revenge: I'd also brought a dessert for this last day, a box of 48 hand-picked very fancy gourmet chocolates made by a local chocolate shop.

Otherwise, my last day at work was mostly normal, a day-long race to try and get everything fed, cleaned up after and medicated. People suggested I could "take it easy", go visit other areas at work. Well, no time, and anyway, no one has any animals I want to casually visit. I spent what time I could spare picking up the bits and pieces I'd squirreled away hither and yon. Like a big pile of CD's I'd spin in my main working area. People appreciated all the boom boxes I'd left everywhere, so those stayed, I don't need them at home, but I took home my calendars, coffee mugs, instant coffee and such the like. Many people stopped me to wish me a happy "retirement" and a handshake. And then the day was over.

There was a going away party, with cake, pies, potato chips, and more cake. A lot of food, the pastries were baked and decorated, in a My Little Pony theme, by my coworkers. Another gave me a tote bag made from dozens of heavy-duty bags the horse feed/treats/minerals come in, horses on one side of the tote bag, good will wishes printed out using cut out letters, like a ransom note, on the other side. Many of the letters were modified to make other letters, like two 'Y's became an 'X', seamlessly, like quilted Photoshop typography. Impressive.

There were pictures, chatting, compliments and a lot of people. So much cake. So very many people. I found some containers and took a good chunk of the food home. Most is now in the freezer as it is going to take ages to eat it all. Everyone is keen for me to come back to visit often.

Entry tags:

round 155 posts

Round 155, Hour 48

*giant door starts lowering comically slowly*