Hope things are looking up, friend. I see you.

Indeed! There was so much to like about it. I'm still enjoying some scenes a couple of days later. 😊

Pillion (film) - Wikipedia

I'm just gonna say, if you can appreciate queer humor with a fetish twist, you will likely enjoy seeing Pillion. Friend and I found it refreshingly funny and tender.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillion...

Join Dr. Desiree Brown-Quilty on 22 April us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Today, a lot of people will be talking about the manifesto that Palantir released. In addition to pouring over what those words mean, I invite you to ground the conversation in what Palantir has already done.

Its work with Israel and ICE show us exactly what it stands for.

“In order for me to write poetry that isn’t political,

I must listen to the birds.

And in order to hear the birds,

the warplanes must be silent”

- Marwan Makhoul

Hartzog said lawmakers need to create more specific rules tailored to the unique threat posed by the combination of facial recognition and nearly undetectable surveillance technology before it becomes ubiquitous. Those laws need to target not only people using the technology, but also the companies behind it, he said. “A lot of these conversations tend to focus on, ‘is it OK to use these glasses or this tool to surveil other people?’” he said. “What often gets lost in this conversation is, ‘is it OK for companies to design these really socially hostile tools in ways that will foreseeably lead to massive violations of privacy?’”

🛎️🛎️🛎️

literally every day my wife or I go outside with our daughter people go out of their way to be friendly, offer aid or a kind word, no matter where we've traveled. it's nice to remember that hostility as default mode of interaction is not destiny, much as it benefits some to pretend it is

So if someone opts in, and has taken photos of friends, relatives, kids, even strangers, they’re “giving permission” on behalf of all those people. So lots of people have no say in this.

The whole “opt in” thing was always a charade but it’s approaching terminal nonsense at this point.

Today in quotidian horrors... 😱
"Opt-in" now but for how long?

An infographic. There are six panels. 1. "Slow internet. Alt text is shown in place of unloaded images." a drawing shows a phone with poor signal, and alt text is visible where the image should have loaded. 2. "Findabillity. Alt text helps to search content." A drawing shows someone searching 'dog with banana' and a post is shown underneath without the words 'dog' or 'banana'. It is implied to be part of the alt text. 3. "Screen readers. Alt is read out to people using text-to-speech software". There is a drawing of the output a screen-reader would show when viewing an image with alt text on bluesky. 4. "Translation. Alt text can be translated". A drawing shows a post being translated. The alt text is also translated into german. 5. "Readability. Text in images can be made legible" There is a drawing of some truly awful handwriting inside a speech bubble. The alt text clarifies what the text is supposed to say. 6. "Disambiguation. Description helps clarify intent." There is a drawing of a post with a picture of a creature. This is styled after the famous optical illusion of a rabbit and a duck. The alt text clarifies that the animal is a rabbit. It definitely looks more like a duck.

Generally we think of alt-text as the domain of those with accessibility needs.

However alt-text is useful for many reasons, which benefit your viewers, as well as you, the creator!

Whew.

"We want to bring people, their stories and their words to our table. And in our newsroom, that will be done without the use of artificial intelligence."
Shout out for this level of transparency.

Oh my goodness! Thank you!

Translations

Folks, if I could put one book on your radar for this year, it would be this: *Translations* by Jumaana Abdu. Debut novel, superb writing, a genuine study in craft! Deserves all the prizes. 👏🏾👏🏾 @roxanegay.bsky.social
stella.org.au/book/jumaana...

#Bookmarking

Of course, the pics are up!
www.ais.at/school-stori...

Teen celebrated a milestone today: Participated in our school's Senior Walk, where graduating class dons their caps and gowns and walks through a cheering gauntlet of the rest of the PK-11 student body. Elementary students make signs for each senior...Truly uplifting! 🥳

this is just to say

I have had an issue
fetching the posts
that were
on the timeline

and which you
were probably
hoping
to doomscroll

forgive me
the takes were so hot
and so
rate limited

D, iron, and potassium are common ones, especially for black women. I swear by a super dose vitamin d supplement and legit “porch time”. We were built for sun.

Something I still think about a lot, almost 15 years into living in New York, is how it changed my perception of danger. I feel safer on the street with a big group of strangers or when I can hear people outside as I’m going to sleep than when things are very quiet and still!

Well played. 😅

Once again, an entirely appropriate use of this platform. 😂

You're seeing how the US right wing and center commentariat are downplaying the negative effects of Orban's reign and this is a preview of how they will approach Trump's regime.

Prominent Journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin Detained in Kuwait as Gulf Cracks Down on Free Speech During Iran War Shihab-Eldin, who is a US citizen and long-standing critic of Israel, has been imprisoned for six weeks.

"Prominent Journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin Detained in Kuwait as Gulf Cracks Down on Free Speech During Iran War"

Shihab-Eldin, who is a US citizen and long-standing critic of Israel, has been imprisoned for six weeks.

A picture of a library shelf with a small rolled up note on it. The note says “read this” in child’s handwriting.

A picture of the note unrolled. In the same child’s handwriting it reads “beware of the future!!”

Still thinking about this note I found in the children’s section of the public library when I worked there back in 2018. This kid tried to warn us…

Hey yesterday I emailed an archivist with, and I quote, “do you know what ‘bundle dated 1190-1200,46’ might be?” And they emailed me back within an hour with the full text of a deed and a translation

so yeah, ask a librarian (and archivists)

one of many reasons i will never accept abandoning my trans siblings or the broader queer community for the purposes of "a bigger tent"

I'm facilitating a session April 15, 8pm Cairo time, 2pm ET, 6pm GMT) on Co-creating Guidelines for Ethical AI Use by Faculty and Students (some of my students will be there, and I encourage you to join and invite your students as well) @equityunbound.bsky.social

aucegypt.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

I didn’t know this, did you? Amazing!