@drahardja@sfba.social
100% artisanal, human-made bytes.
Anti-DEI is white supremacy. Black lives matter. LGBT+ rights are human rights. Healthcare, security, a decent income, and housing with dignity are human rights. Abortion is healthcare. Science is our best hope. Kindness and empathy are the noblest of human traits.
It can ALWAYS get worse.
He/him.
pfp: A fluffy dog in a Panama hat (credit heyheymomo)
banner: Gatsby the Pomeranian looking at a classic Porsche with his sticker on it.
Never been a fan of FIFA, and I guess I will continue not be a fan.
Sam Litzinger@samlitzinger@journa.hostMob boss calls in a favor from another mob boss…
“Trump Asked FIFA to Review U.S. Player’s Suspension. Now He’s Eligible to Play.
The reversal of Folarin Balogun’s World Cup suspension is highly unusual. It was the first time since 1962 that FIFA decided to allow a player to appear in a World Cup game they would have been suspended for after being sent off during the tournament.”
- NYT
“How Private Equity destroyed…” is a sadly predictable headline.
Chuck Darwin@cdarwin@c.imLucky Strike Entertainment,
formerly known as Bowlero Corporation,
the private equity–backed behemoth that in the past 10+ years has bought more than 350 of the nation’s bowling alleys
and transformed them into a
(to quote the Bowlero website)
“quirky, edgy, retro-inspired bowling phenomenon”
that has deprioritized league bowling,
escalated the cost of bowling with algorithm-driven dynamic pricing,
and accelerated the demise of one of the 20th century’s most dependable third spaces.
And now, thanks to a class-action lawsuit filed in May by disgruntled bowlers, the company stands accused of violating antitrust laws,
as well as “the veritable destruction of the decades-old pastime of bowling in America.”
(Bowlero, which rebranded as Lucky Strike Entertainment after acquiring all Lucky Strike bowling centers, has since added water parks to its portfolio.)
https://www.salon.com/2026/07/03/how-private-equity-destroyed-an-american-pastime/
Replying to @dillyd@turtleisland.social
This is simply horrible. Just horrible. Channels are pumping thousands of #AI #slop videos into YouTube targeting very young children.
“In one video that’s supposed to be a nursery rhyme about cars, children ride without a seatbelt and walk in the middle of a road with moving cars behind them.”
“Another AI-generated sing-a-long video about the US’s 50 states shows garbled state names that don’t match up with the vocals, as kids are asked to learn about “Ribio Island,” “Conmecticut,” “Oklolodia,” and “Louggisslia.””
“[Pediatrics professor Dana] Suskind…likened the cognitive effects to an even worse form of brain rot: a “brain stunt,” because the children are early in their cognitive development.”
If you’re a parent, DO NOT allow your kids to view YouTube unsupervised. At the very least, get YouTube Kids and curate their playlists. Things are bad out there.
(No direct link as their preview image is AI slop)
hxxps://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/educational-youtube-ai-slop-play-in-traffic
The folks at Legoland New York recreated the climbers on their Empire State Building model. #lego #meme #trends
Source: Legoland New York on Facebook
Replying to @drahardja@sfba.social
The defining moment of the bubble breaking would be the collapse or sale of one of the large US #AI houses. I’m watching both #OpenAI and #Anthropic for signs of trouble. OpenAI has way too many monetary commitments that depend on them increasing revenue manyfold, which is never going to happen with customer budgets trending the way they do; and Anthropic is now forced to hike up token rates eight- or tenfold in short order, which will surely cause the majority of corporate subscribers to vastly reduce their AI deployments, and reverting once again to investing in people. Either of these companies stumbling will cause the market to take a critical look at all the data center and silicon contracts that are in place and ask whether any of it will ever be fully executed. And once *that* happens, the dominos will fall.
I think this happens soon. I’m getting my popcorn. This is gonna be good.
I’m glad to (finally) see some buyer’s remorse in the corporate ranks about their rapid deployment of #AI, often at the expense of jobs (or so they claim).
Costs are rapidly rising. Software quality is plummeting. Morale is tanking. The workers are getting angry. People are swamped with slop. About the only ones happy with this change are sociopaths who live increasingly solipsistic lives with a sycophantic word extruder (and maybe some jaded senior developers who want to get paid as much as possible while the going is good and no longer care what happens downstream).
I’m hopeful that the end is near. The bubble is deflating. The growth is flatlining. We are finally past the Peak of Inflated Expectations and are now descending into the Trough of Disillusionment. Deployments are getting walked back, people are getting rehired, AI budgets are reduced.
The best time for this to have happened was two years ago. The next best time in now.
https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/exclusive-zuckerberg-says-ai-agent-201123441.html
Balaclava + sunglasses + fascist logo baseball cap is the Klan hood of the 21st century.
Brian Jopek@BrianJopek@mastodon.worldThis will probably be one of the most iconic photos of our time.
This is a picture taken by Reuters of members of the white nationalist group called ‘Patriot Front’ riding the metro into DC to march on the capitol for the 250th anniversary celebration of the United States. It was taken today, July 4th, 2026.
Those of us who rightly remember American history, we see only one true patriot in this photo, and she isn’t wearing a mask.
Only cowards wear masks. - Rev. Benjamin Cremer
#USpol
