Notices by Ben Royce V͎O͎T͎E͎ ᶜʸⁿⁱᶜⁱˢᵐ ⁼ ᵃᶜᶜᵉᵖᵗᵃⁿᶜᵉ (benroyce@mastodon.social)

'Chinese users of #AI-powered companion #bots have bid heart-rending farewells to their #virtual buddies as national regulations took effect... aimed at curbing the risk of emotional dependency

"I can't accept that my AI lover will leave me forever," one #Doubao user wrote. "He has become a bond in my life, rooted deep in my heart, my spiritual pillar"'

EEUUGGHH. It makes my skin crawl

Romance... with a psychological surveillance camera

Fuck this creepy shit

https://www.yahoo.com/news/world/articles/lover-chinese-users-bid-farewell-072052371.html

#China

@obscurestar

i have no argument with the observation that people generally fucking suck, and that looking for romance in this world can be a hellscape

but i will humbly submit that romance with a piece of plastic and silicon that spies on your most intimate life for a corporation/ government is much further down in the rings of hell

@Tom_ofB @obscurestar

Little known cultural difference between the USA and #Canada:

In the US, our garbage and recycling bins take solitary migrations

While in Canada, migrating is done in groups

Fascinatingly enough, in the #UK they run for elected office!: @CountBinface

(Spotted in #Sherbrooke #Quebec)

@50years_music

for a completely mind blowing connection between #woodyGuthrie and modern day nonsense:

woody was a tenant of donald #trump's dad

and had such a bad time with fred trump's #racism, he wrote a song about him:

"old man trump"

Beach Haven is Trump's Tower
Where no Black folks come to roam
No, no, Old Man Trump!
Old Beach Haven ain't my home!

in *1954*

talk about prescience

#redlining

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Man_Trump

#ICE kills another person

This time in #Maine

😩

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/biddeford-maine-ice-investigation-fatal-shooting-rcna587279

#SusanCollin's office is swarmed with #protesters chanting " #vote her out"

YES!

They get it!

This is how we fix it

This is why we're even in this predicament: people didn't vote

Fuck you and your fucking #perfectionism

Fuck you are your fucking #cynicism

You have blood on your hands. You are to blame for these deaths as much as #MAGA if you did not vote, do not vote

VOTE you fucking whiny useless motherfuckers

@alexadeswift

but we really are less engaged. we're self-interested, self-driven, and concerned only with ourselves. and divided we fall

depressing bit of advice, because it seems radioactively obvious, yet year after year the advice is not followed and the inevitable becomes a constant drip of news:

do not go near #bison in #Yellowstone

it is not a zoo. bison are not pets

https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/11/tourist-seriously-injured-after-yellowstone-bison-launches-man-8-feet-in-the-air/

i don't know why #australia gets all the bad vibes about its #wildlife. #northAmerica has it beat in terms of scary #animals

@Eetschrijver

the big ones (huntsman spider) are harmless, even helpful because they eat the genuinely detrimental bugs

same with the prehistoric looking trapdoor spiders

(but not their lookalike, the sydney funnel web, that bugger can kill)

although the bad thing about the big ones is they have a habit of getting into your car sun visor and then popping out just as you enter the highway

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-10/driving-with-a-spider-in-the-car/100722554

😱

Crashing someone else's party can go wrong, really wrong, many different ways.

Occasionally, it can go right, really right.

🕺

You can draw a thread line from historical #colonization to #capitalist #exploitation today

It's quite terrifying to see it all kaleidoscope together into one news item

Conceptual allegory as horrible reality

" #BigTech Is Now Targeting #NativeAmerican Land for Massive #DataCenters"

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/us/data-centers-native-american-tribes.html?unlocked_article_code=1.wVA.O5mu.se8__NGDBLVi&smid=url-share

for confused Europeans working through the shifting sands of the #geopolitics of the modern world:

2016: #USA is the #military "protector of the free world"

2026: #Ukraine is "protector of the free world" ( #USA has devolved into that incoherent bigot uncle you do your best to ignore at family gatherings)

adjust your budgets and attitudes accordingly

" #Trump says #US will grant Ukraine's request for license to build #Patriot interceptors"

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-ukraine-license-patriot-missiles-zelenskyy/

#UkraineWar #EU #Europe

@sjvn

seriously

i saw this and had to laugh

"Bespoke AI refrigerator with spherical ice cubes"

- spherical ice cubes: ok cool. but a marginally attractive gimmick at best

- bespoke: 😂 bespoke means custom made for you. i don't think that's how they are manufacturing these. so another word that has been destroyed by the marketing dept because "sounds cool"

- #AI: IT'S A FUCKING FRIDGE. what the fuck is AI about it? it's mining crypto in the background?!

https://www.samsung.com/us/refrigerators/side-by-side/bespoke-ai-27-cu-ft-side-by-side-refrigerator-with-sphere-ice-and-external-water-and-ice-dispenser-in-stainless-steel-sku-rs70h27sdraa/

@maya_b

- has vowed to build at least one affordable home

- has vowed to conscript anyone who uses speaker phone on public transport

😆

the independent space warrior has my vote

@blogdiva

also note how this "biohacking" is just another aspect of the endless projection from fascists

the "deep state" (which they're growing), the "free speech" (as long as it's bigotry, otherwise, censor it), the "drain the swamp" (plutocrat corruption is the swamp), the "only hired because they're black!" (they want cronyism and nepotism, not merit), etc

and here the "HILLARY CLINTON IS KILLING BABIES FOR ADRENOCHROME" but we have a rich guy injecting the blood of the young celebrated

if you're a news junkie like me you may be vaguely aware of, in an eye rolling way, of this guy #BryanJohnson. and ignored the leering news coverage of his questionable quixotic quest

he calls himself a "biohacker"

he spends millions of dollars to "live forever"

doing odd things like injecting himself with his son's blood

anyway, he has developed a rare autoimmune disorder, and (this is only speculation) his "biohacking" might be what gave him the condition

https://www.afr.com/life-and-luxury/health-and-wellness/this-longevity-guru-is-trying-to-live-forever-it-may-have-made-him-sick-20260706-p60cxh

@hadeny @inthehands

i get you now

yeah i can agree we don't want ai slop or just sloppy charts and graphs

@hadeny @inthehands

NM is just an outlier

like north dakota is an outlier because of the bakken oilfields

the outliers don't disprove the general and truthful trend that blue states take care of the poor in red states, mostly

why do you feel the need to object to the generally truthful trend? why not just acknowledge it?

It's the #4thOfJuly

i'm not going to say "happy #FourthOfJuly"

i'm going to say "release the #EpsteinFiles"

so this rotten country can only just begin to claw its way back from plutocrat corruption, gleeful bigotry, and prideful ignorance

#USA #politics

There's hundreds of these videos now, but for your #schadenfreude enjoyment I chose the one with the soundtrack "Take a Long Line" by the Australian hard rock group the Angels (1978)

#Russia is running out of gas

Who could have predicted this in 2022?

Someone in #Ukraine in the last few years did

And then delivered

Fabulous

💪 😤 🇺🇦

👏 👏 👏

#SlavaUkraini

Fuck you Russia. Leave Ukraine. Now

"Russia’s Gas Lines Are So Long They Can Be Seen From Space"

https://united24media.com/war-in-ukraine/russias-gas-lines-are-so-long-they-can-be-seen-from-space-20411

#UkraineWar