Bits

Canada’s intent to ban the Flipper Zero wireless tool over car thefts is, on the one hand, an everyday example of poorly researched government action. https://hackaday.com/2024/02/12/canada-bans-flipper-zero-over-what-it-imagines-it-does/

Replicating our existing capabilities, simply at greater speed and lower cost, is a minor achievement. The most valuable tools complement human capabilities and open new frontiers of possibility. The most pedestrian ones incrementally outperform existing tools. #ai #llm https://www.noemamag.com/how-ai-could-help-rebuild-the-middle-class/

The University of Michigan is selling hours of audio recordings of study groups, office hours, lectures, and more to outside third-parties for tens of thousands of dollars for the purpose of training large language models #llm #ai #ethics https://www.404media.co/university-of-michigan-sells-recordings-of-study-groups-and-office-hours-to-train-ai/

Don’t trust corporations, especially those where one egomaniac has all the power. Use #opensource and community driven solutions if you can #nitter https://nitter.cz/

Comics

American Counterculture, Glimpsed Through #zines https://1ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newyorker.com%2Fculture%2Fcultural-comment%2Famerican-counterculture-glimpsed-through-zines

Politics & Economics

#canada #trains #transit https://thewalrus.ca/the-diminishing-romance-of-train-travel/

“If you want #trains to operate on a private-sector-market-economy level playing field, then you have to be internally consistent and do that to the highways as well.” #canada https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/transportation/privatization-ahead-for-vias-most-travelled-route/

Bits

These are almost certainly #fossilfuel plants that might be reasonable candidates for retirement if it weren’t for their use to supply #bitcoin miners. So, these miners are contributing to all of the health and climate problems associated with the continued use of fossil fuels. https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/02/over-2-percent-of-the-uss-electricity-generation-now-goes-to-bitcoin/

Common Crawl’s mission as an organization does not easily align with the needs of trustworthy #AI #llm development. https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/research/library/generative-ai-training-data/common-crawl

Music & Sound

“the instrument emerged in the shadow of the National Research Council, Canada’s federal agency for R&D in science and technology” #synth https://spectrum.ieee.org/electronic-music

The Hugh Le Caine Collection https://soundandscience.net/collections/midcentury-electronic-musical-instrument-design/

I couldn’t care less about the #grammyawards .. but this performance from #jonimitchell moved me https://networkeffects.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/joni-mitchell-feb042024.mp4

no riffs hint at the grittiness of navigating masculinity when you aren’t born of privilege. No key shifts evoke images of depression, anxiety and identity crisis. Combs’s interpretation of Chapman’s lyrics feels like an ode to an actual car. What a waste. #music https://archive.ph/FboEl

a voice of “the doomed, the damned, the weird.” https://1ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F02%2F08%2Farts%2Fmusic%2Fmojo-nixon-dead.html

a site for making mixtapes together. Once it’s full, your mixtape will be automatically converted into a single, crossfaded mp3 that can be streamed or downloaded #music https://mixtapegarden.com/

If all my days was hills to climb and circles without reason,
If all I was was passing time my life was just a season .. https://youtu.be/7CekMoTerEM?feature=shared

Comics

One day Son, all this will be yours .. https://embed.tumblr.com/embed/post/-Qo_qojk7kK4BBQB3f2Sgw/741558348537888768

Film & Video

“We’re in a position where we’re kicking the door in. When you kick the door in, you should just put your foot in the door and stand there.” https://12ft.io/https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/lily-gladstone-is-holding-the-door-open

Politics & Economics

I expect taking real steps to address #foodsecurity by regulating monolithic supermarket chains would have gone a long way in this unrest .. but no, tax the farmers & ditch the sustainability commitments instead .. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/31/eu-delays-biodiversity-rules-amid-rising-protests-from-farmers

#novascotia #publictransit #trains https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/transportation/railroad-trilogy-2024-canadas-passenger-rail-service-past-present-and-future/