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/