Notices by Lauren Weinstein (lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org)

"Would the AI data centers be able to withstand the onslaught of millions of angry unemployed individuals descending on them like a hoard of locusts? The AI refused to answer."

In insane rant, Trump fires head of Bureau of Labor Statistics because of poor job numbers, will appoint a crony to cook the numbers for him going forward. Also calls for Powell to be "put out to pasture"

Founded in 1967, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is shutting down due to Trump's FASCISM

https://www.newscaststudio.com/2025/08/01/corporation-for-public-broadcasting-plans-closure-by-january-2026/

Using "private funds", Trump is building a $200 million "golden ballroom" to the White House, first major addition since Truman balcony

@dalias HAL wasn't robotic sounding, more like aristocratic.

The HAL 9000 from "2001" may have been a paranoid murdering AI, but at least he wasn't a moron AI like what Big Tech foists on us today.

In the 21st century, you'll be able to buy Ethernet switches at Walmart.

No longer certain that the Ethernet hub line cable per se is causing the intermittent failures 24/7. I thought switching to a backup cable solved the problem but apparently not. Will replace a switch in a few hours. If that doesn't work, another switch. If that doesn't work, it's time to play with the cats.

Bringing back the Voice of America should be a high priority after the fascists are expelled from the federal government.

Cheating at golf is pretty much an American pastime. Don't worry about Trump cheating at golf. Worry about him creating a fascist state here in the U.S. and putting millions of people at risk of starvation and disease around the world. Trivializing Trump is a Trap.

BREAKING: Mathematician and Musical Satirist Tom Lehrer dies at 97. Peace. I've been dreading this day for years. It's impossible for me to fully explain how much his songs impacted my life growing up and right through to this day. I have much more to say about him but I won't right now, except to note the following references:

New York Times obit:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/arts/music/tom-lehrer-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Zk8.TYYp.gl4ekMMTpL1R&smid=url-share

Tom's website where he placed his body of work (songs, etc.) in the public domain:

https://tomlehrersongs.com/

Live performances:

Copenhagen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHPmRJIoc2k

Oslo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1IiVF6Ehw8

L

Tax the billionaires out of existence, and a vast number of our other societal problems will be enormously reduced.

Paramount-Skydance merger approved after payment to Trump clears and Colbert fired

Powell points out Trump's lie to Trump in person at Fed

https://www.newsweek.com/jerome-powell-donald-trump-fed-reserve-dispute-2103756

I suddenly realized that #Google AI Overviews aren't just full of misinformation, they've become extremely CREEPY lately. This seems to be a new issue as Google has pushed them for more and more queries that consist just of a few words and don't even present an explicit question. Long AI Overviews appear (sometimes taking up the whole screen, pushing all the links off the bottom) that just ASSUME what you might have meant by those words, and whether it's right or it's wrong it's just damned invasive and creepy.

It's as if you asked someone on the corner how to get to a particular address, and they responded with something like: "Oh, you must be going to Dr. Foonman, so you're having urinary problems, huh? Yeah, I know a great supplement for that, you should ask Foonman about them, and also ..."

REALLY REALLY REALLY CREEPY GOOGLE. TERRIBLE.

Trump (maybe) filed a $10 billion lawsuit against WSJ and reporters. There is some question as to whether it has actually been filed yet. Experts say that as a public figure the lawsuit will be worthless, even putting aside the truth of the allegations made by the WSJ. But if it proceeds the discovery should be fascinating.

Also, it's worth nothing that it could take weeks or months for a court to rule on releasing Epstein grand jury testimony. Much was already released that could be, much of the rest is not releasable unless victims, etc. agree. So this is just a stalling tactic to avoid releasing the many gigabytes of data on Epstein that the FBI has -- and where we hear today they were ordered to flag everywhere they found Trump's name.

BREAKING: FBI agents were told to "flag" any Epstein records that mentioned Trump, Sen. Durbin says

flag == delete

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https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/18/trump-epstein-fbi-durbin.html

Report: Trump called Editor-in-Chief of WSJ to try block upcoming story on Trump/Epstein relationship

@jwcph My overall view is that all of the major email platforms are moving in the same direction, and that hopping from one to another is ultimately futile. These issues need to be dealt with en masse across the provider space, and that means legislatively. Obviously the environment for that right now is awful, but it remains the only long term solution. Because unless these practices are banned, all of these firms will ultimately feel the competitive pressure to use them. I concentrate on Google because it is obviously very large, has about a third of global email, and I know it the best (both as a user and internally from the times I worked inside).

I believe I've found the new Gemini-centric "smart features" controls in Gmail, that also seem to include the "other apps" setting as well. If you click the gear, then All Settings, then scroll WAY DOWN in the General tab, there's a "Manage Workspace smart feature settings" bubble. If you click that, you'll see a pair of settings that appear to represent your choices during the forced dialogue modal popup I discussed in the original post on this thread. I can't be 100% sure, but that's how it appears to me currently. My recommendation: Make sure they are both OFF!