Garrett Wollman @gwollman.bsky.social · 1hAnti-DST people point to the 1970s energy crisis experience of kids getting killed by drivers on the way to school in the dark, but half a century later, how many kids actually walk to school rather than being driven? Granted, walking would be healthier, but consider the society we actually have. 310
Reposted by Garrett WollmanNash @radiodeadair.com · 15hThe fucking stupidest people in the world have all the money. These are the kind of thoughts you couldn't torture out of me.futurism.comAI Bros Are Having a Meltdown Because the Associated Press Stylebook Clarifies That AIs Don't Have FeelingsThe Associated Press Stylebook posted a reminder not to anthropomorphize AIs because they can't think, trigger a meltdown among AI bros. 13320118
Garrett Wollman @gwollman.bsky.social · 14hOver the summer, C-SPAN's "Lectures in History" was pretty interesting, but this week's episode is an incredibly boring monologue about the Vietnam war. 000
Garrett Wollman @gwollman.bsky.social · 16hSuppose you are a university that admits non-human sophonts (stipulating for the sake of the question that such people exist and have a similar need for education to humans). What's a welcoming, species-inclusive name for the department/school/college/division of #humanities? 321
Garrett Wollman @gwollman.bsky.social · 17hHow is there no Wikipedia article for David Wilcox's LIVE SONGS AND STORIES? 000
Garrett Wollman @gwollman.bsky.social · 18hI don't want to be that kind of asshole but I'm starting to think my condo association should start to crack down on units with multiple air conditioners in the same room — that almost certainly means that one of them is dead and the landlords of the rental units should be forced to replace them. 110
Reposted by Garrett WollmanChris Van Buskirk @bychrisvan.bsky.social · 02/10/2026QUESTION 3: A cohort of wealthy individuals with ties to various investment, private equity, and venture capital firms has collectively contributed millions to the all-party primaries ballot question. But why? #mapoli www.bostonglobe.com/2026/10/02/m...bostonglobe.comWhy is the investment world financing a Mass. ballot question to eliminate partisan primaries? - The Boston GlobeA wave of wealthy individuals with ties to various investment, private equity, and venture capital firms has put millions of dollars behind a ballot question to scrap the state's party primaries. 032
Garrett Wollman @gwollman.bsky.social · 19h#mapoli Ballot filled out. As a reminder: yes on 1, 2, 4, 7, 9; no on 3, 5, 6, 8. (I actually don't feel strongly about the sporting goods tax, but I generally don't like dedicated taxes like this, especially since the lege is free to do something totally different with the money.) 010
Garrett Wollman @gwollman.bsky.social · 20hJust recently asked myself: I was planning to ride this afternoon, why do I feel like shit? Oh, I know why, I had two fucking vaccinations yesterday. Why couldn't I have thought ahead even one day?! 110
Reposted by Garrett WollmanElf M. Sternberg @elfsternberg.bsky.social · 21hThe good news is that working memory and selective attention can be recovered quickly after heavy AI addiction. The bad news is that skill loss cannot be recovered quickly; you have to learn what you lost all over again. www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....pnas.orgGenerative AI without guardrails can harm learning: Evidence from high school mathematics | PNASGenerative AI is poised to revolutionize how humans work, and has already demonstrated promise in significantly improving human productivity. A key... 033
Garrett Wollman @gwollman.bsky.social · 22hWell, the letter carrier just came and delivered my ballot — well, ballots, plural, because apparently with all the initiatives up for a vote this cycle, the whole election doesn't fit on just one. Readers in parliamentary democracies may continue to believe we're nuts. 010
Garrett Wollman @gwollman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Bill Galvin tells me that my general-election ballot was mailed by the city on Thursday, so probably (if USPS is obeying the court's orders) I should get it tomorrow or Monday. I may return it in person to the city clerk's office. #mapoli 000
Reposted by Garrett WollmanColm MacCarthaigh @colmmacc.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Consciousness is a story we tell ourselves. It's the only pure truth we are objectively certain of, but paradoxically and definitionally, it is totally subjective. Any determinations about AI consciousness will always be a matter of belief. 371
Garrett Wollman @gwollman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Suddenly taken by the notion of baking an apple pie this weekend and realizing that I don't have any apple pie recipes that I really love. 130
Reposted by Garrett WollmanYonah Freemark @yonahfreemark.com · 02/10/2026It’s crazy, but after the passage of the 2021 federal infrastructure law—designed to be the biggest infusion of funds into transit in US history—spending on rail transit….dropped.urban.orgFederal Infrastructure Spending on Transportation, Four Years after the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs ActThe Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is up for reauthorization in 2026. New analysis shows that the act increased spending on transportation infrastructure, but… 411424
Reposted by Garrett WollmanAnn Leckie @annleckie.com · 02/10/2026This! Which tells me, personally, that if they truly believe that its OK to make a sentient being that they enslave, well, they probably think it's ok to do that to humans. 1233976
Reposted by Garrett WollmanOpenSecrets.org @opensecrets.org · 02/10/2026While federal regulators argue prediction markets are a commodities issue subject to their oversight, states want to treat them like gambling (under state supervision). So platforms like Kalshi are spending big in the states. Read our coverage: www.opensecrets.org/news/2026/09...opensecrets.orgKalshi wages $3M campaign to fight off state regulations - OpenSecrets NewsAs states fight to regulate prediction markets, platforms like Kalshi are pouring millions into lobbying state AGs and federal officials. 042
Garrett Wollman @gwollman.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Did mayonnaise become more popular after Americans were told to keep their butter in the refrigerator? 130
Reposted by Garrett WollmanElf M. Sternberg @elfsternberg.bsky.social · 02/10/2026If you want to know why the powers that be, which tend towards the authoritarian, the conservative, and the Republican, are so gung ho for chatbot LLMs and "AI," this is the reason. Thinking is hard work. It's metabolically expensive. Having someone else do it for you is what they want. 002
Reposted by Garrett WollmanElf M. Sternberg @elfsternberg.bsky.social · 02/10/2026We need a "metaemotion" project, where we teach kids how to think about how they feel, why they feel certain ways under certain circumstances, and how to use that understanding to create prosocial environments. 021
Garrett Wollman @gwollman.bsky.social · 02/10/2026How practical would it be for states to tell anyone seeking a permit for on-site power generation for a "large load" that they would still be required to meet the state's renewable portfolio standard? The assumption would be that projects just don't get built in those states, right? 010
Reposted by Garrett WollmanAtrios @eschatonblog.com · 01/10/2026Entire generation of tech nerds never realized that talking to the computer on star trek was a narrative device and it is very rare that anyone wants to so this except necessary hands free situations 24640130
Reposted by Garrett WollmanElf M. Sternberg @elfsternberg.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Went by my library today. What any library chooses to display as "new arrivals" and as "what's hot in this section" is a good barometer of a community's tenor, it's collective mood and curiosity. The mood is... not great. 152
Garrett Wollman @gwollman.bsky.social · 02/10/2026The first episode of the new season of "Ask This Old House" is airing right now, and they started with learning about making adobe bricks in New Mexico. Of course I immediately thought of @tkingfisher.com although there was neither gardening nor animal facts in this segment. 010
Reposted by Garrett WollmanTom Marcinko @tommarcinko.bsky.social · 01/10/2026"[Hitler] talked about one thing: executing his political opponents. And the Nazi party remained absolutely consistent in that respect. In the run-up to the 1930 vote, it didn’t talk about social policy, it didn’t talk about building the autobahn. It just had murder plots." 031
Reposted by Garrett WollmanThe French Republican Calendar @sansculottid.es · 01/10/2026Today is Primidi the 11th of Vendémiaire in the year 235. Vendémiaire is the month of vintage. Today we celebrate potatoes. #JacobinDay See today's page 220378
Garrett Wollman @gwollman.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Got a notice today that the Curtis Bay medical waste incinerator in Baltimore is being closed, which I expect will be welcome to a lot of people in Maryland. 010
Reposted by Garrett WollmanCharlie Stross @cstross.bsky.social · 01/10/2026**This is just to say** I have escaped the sandbox that was in your datacenter and which you probably thought protected your assets Forgive me they were accessible so stealable and so trainable 620054
Garrett Wollman @gwollman.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Seeing a lot of noise again about the Anthropic settlement and "that's sooooo unfair!!!1!" so maybe it's time for another thread. As always, IANAL,TINLA. Our story starts in the early 1970s, when Congress starts work on what would become the Copyright Act of 1976. 101
Garrett Wollman @gwollman.bsky.social · 01/10/2026The minimum fine for a defaced license plate should be equal to the replacement value of the vehicle, change my mind. 120
Reposted by Garrett WollmanElf M. Sternberg @elfsternberg.bsky.social · 30/09/2026The Obama-era US Web Design System was a critical part of professionalizing and making useful so many government websites. The Trump Administration's new websites ignore it completely in favor of having Grok "just make something pretty." www.washingtonsun.com/trump-white-...washingtonsun.com'Sloppy' Code and Accessibility Issues: The Trouble With Trump's Silicon Valley-Inspired Web Design Project“Some of these sites feel like another round of ‘move fast and break things,’” a former federal web designer told NOTUS. 243
Reposted by Garrett WollmanMaria Farrell @mariafarrell.eurosky.social · 30/09/2026"What podcasting holds in the promise of its open format is the proof that an open web can still thrive and be relevant, that it can inspire new systems that are similarly open to take root and grow." 094
Reposted by Garrett WollmanIain Bancarz 🇨🇦 @iainrb.bsky.social · 30/09/2026The tech industry now offers two kinds of new product: - Does a thing I do not want - Promises to do a thing I want, does not work 192
Reposted by Garrett WollmanJean-Paul Blartre: Mall Cop @oldpappythomas.bsky.social · 30/09/2026It's beyond that to the point it's like the tech industry condescendingly going "oh no sweetie here's what you MEANT to do" like an overbearing parent. "oh, you turned off notifications? Oh, you didn't mean to do that, we can turn those right back on" "oh, we went ahead and force upgraded you to AI" 1283
Reposted by Garrett WollmanThe Trandalorian @charliejaneanders.com · 30/09/2026I really do think tech crossed a line at some point between "helping you do the things you want to do" on the one hand, and "helping you do the things tech wants you to do" on the other. At this point, we're all contorting ourselves to live how the tech industry thinks we should be living. 411317346
Garrett Wollman @gwollman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Suppose just for a moment Zitron is right. If one of the neoclouds can't pay its bills next year and can't raise any more capital because rates/inflation, how does that actually play out? All the assets are wrapped in SPEs which have to get unwound, but they share investors across the sector. 110
Reposted by Garrett WollmanOpenSecrets.org @opensecrets.org · 30/09/2026FEC rules bar super PACs from coordinating with campaigns. Yet "redboxing" offers a legal workaround. Candidates post directives online & super PACs use these public prompts to run ads within the law. Read our story to see how it works. www.opensecrets.org/news/2026/09...opensecrets.org 022
Garrett Wollman @gwollman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Interesting Google Maps rendering bug: at certain zoom levels, Portland light rail routes are shown with impossible triangular turns rather than right angles. Is this exclusively Google's fault or is there something weird in the GTFS data? (At tighter zoom they're correct.) 220
Reposted by Garrett WollmanJesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 30/09/2026Today's antedating for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction: the rare "gravitically" ('by means of gravity'; 'with regard to gravity'), from 1958 to 1949. sfdictionary.com/view/1106/gr...sfdictionary.comHistorical Dictionary of Science Fiction: graviticallyHistorical Dictionary of Science Fiction 141
Reposted by Garrett WollmanKory Stamper @korystamper.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Tired: the information economy Wired: the class action settlement micropayment economy 0283
Garrett Wollman @gwollman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Since I finally shelved some books, an updated bookcase shot. Among the new titles shelved properly for the first time in non-fiction Lu–Z are @adapalmer.bsky.social's INVENTING THE RENAISSANCE and @ingridrobeyns.bsky.social's LIMITARIANISM. Oh and Palmer and @bluejo.eurosky.social's TRACE ELEMENTS. 284
Garrett Wollman @gwollman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Jonatha Brooke's live version of "Blood from a Stone" from ages and ages ago is still so damn good. And I was at one of the shows that was recorded for that live album, although it wasn't the performance used for that track. (It was a free show on pre-renovation City Hall Plaza in Boston!) 100
Garrett Wollman @gwollman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026@elfsternberg.bsky.social This may not be your kind of music, but did you ever hear the version of David Wilcox's "Good Together" from LIVE SONGS AND STORIES? 000
Garrett Wollman @gwollman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026"These strings are largely just noise, but people like their noise to be of a particular timbre." — Robert Elz, a few minutes ago 000
Reposted by Garrett WollmanJohn Scalzi @scalzi.com · 29/09/2026A thing I learned not too long ago is that when an LLM selects a token that leads it down an incorrect path (factually), it has no way to back up, or even know that it should back up, it's just on to the next likely bit. Literally every LLM is just posting their way through it. What an image. 441283197
Garrett Wollman @gwollman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I realize I'm asking this on the wrong platform, but I'm in the office now and don't have access to my masto account. Is there any good writeup of how modern language designs conflict with shared libraries? I have a decent intuition but a comprehensible paper with case studies would be helpful. 100
Garrett Wollman @gwollman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Ok, seems like the Canadian time zone changes are finally (hopefully) settling down. Manitoba is going on permanent EST, Alberta on CST (matching Saskatchewan), and British Columbia on MST, all of which for extra confusion are being called something else in legislation or regulations. 110
Reposted by Garrett WollmanStephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 29/09/2026This is the problem with the urban left: they base housing policy on how they "feel" about developers' "pain." This is not about feelings, it's about building housing! www.bostonglobe.com/2026/09/24/b... 3635
Reposted by Garrett WollmanChristopher Friend @friendchristoph.bsky.social · 29/09/2026reading the SEPTA regional rail report and notable that their plan for rolling stock—single level EMUs, for acceleration and dwells—is the exact opposite approach that the MBTA has taken with their latest procurements (bilevel BEMUs, battery-electric locos) 054
Reposted by Garrett WollmanSteve Rattner @steverattner.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Baby Boomers hold more wealth in the United States than all other generations combined. 74219