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David J. Atkinson

@meltedcheese.c.im.ap.brid.gy
29 followers 4 following 582 posts

Retired #AI #robotics #scientist, #NASA #JPL, gov’t exec, entrepreneur. I frequently reply to posts about US politics, climate, high tech and weird stuff. I collect […] 🌉 bridged from ⁂ c.im/@meltedcheese, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

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David J. Atkinson @meltedcheese.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 5h
“the largest capital cycle in the history of technology is underwritten, to the tune of roughly one trillion dollars, by two private companies that do not make money.” 2027 is when OpenAI and Anthropic must start paying on their data center build agreements. They do not have the revenue to do […]
c.im
Original post on c.im
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David J. Atkinson @meltedcheese.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 6h
Maybe good news? The last four days I’ve been driving in rural upstate Wisconsin and Minnesota. I have not seen a single #election sign that has #Trump’s name. There were about the same number of election signs one usually sees. If you are acquainted with rural areas then you know you will find […]
c.im
Original post on c.im
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M.S. Bellows, Jr. @msbellows.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026
Fun fact: the U.S. Constitution does not require citizenship to vote. I'll repeat that: the U.S. Constitution does not say that only citizens can vote. It does not ban non-citizens from voting. A federal *statute* contains this requirement, as do many states' laws. But if the law was changed […]
c.im
Original post on c.im
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bhalomanush @anirbanm.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 14/09/2026
"On Saturday, leaders of four of the biggest AI companies—Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, Demis Hassabis and Elon Musk—each agreed that they needed to slow development of the technology. " BS. Saying AI is dangerous doesn't absolve companies from their responsibilities. They should be directly liable […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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David J. Atkinson @meltedcheese.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2026
Bonus points for plain speaking. Sounds like it was an OpenAI demonstration for potential customers, perhaps Australia itself. A demo of not just the technology, but whether people buy the denial of responsibility. swiss.social/@RalphBassfeld/1173246…
swiss.social
Monsieur Ralph (@RalphBassfeld@swiss.social)
Saying an OpenAI agent hacked a government website is like saying a gun killed someone. Let’s be clear about responsibility: OpenAI weaponized its own software, and employees from OpenAI used it to hack an Australian government website.
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Servelan @servelan.newsie.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2026
“Trump is clearly the most impeachable President our country has ever endured. His continued presence in office is a danger to our democracy. That the sycophantic Republican majority in Congress is derelict in its duty does not mean that I must abandon my responsibilities." Congressman Steve […]
newsie.social
Original post on newsie.social
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David J. Atkinson @meltedcheese.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 19/09/2026
@urlyman “Global rice production will be lower than global rice demand.” This is a big deal, and not only because of the hunger impact. The Food Price Index is directly correlated with social unrest (e.g., Arab Spring). I have not checked the reported metrics recently […] [Original post on c.im]
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David J. Atkinson @meltedcheese.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 17/09/2026
Oh, this is just what I wanted to hear: yet another #existential threat to life on Earth. It’s called “mirror life” and is a result of research on #SyntheticBiology. Here is the problem: In the search for new medicines and materials, scientists are investigating and synthesizing molecules that […]
c.im
Original post on c.im
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David J. Atkinson @meltedcheese.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 17/09/2026
I’m in ✊🏼 #Resist #elections #democracy mastodon.social/@heidilifeldman/117…
mastodon.social
Heidi Li Feldman (@heidilifeldman@mastodon.social)
We Americans must be ready for whole-scale collective action from November 4 through January 2027: public protests, general strikes, mutual aid for strikers, and so forth. By preparing for the worst, and making it clear we are prepared, perhaps we can avert the worst. 6/6
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django @django.social.coop.ap.brid.gy · 28/06/2026
Reposting with alt text
"We are deploying responsibly developed Al to liberate humanity from menial labor and usher in an era of unparalleled creativity and abundance.” 
- SAM ALTMAN 

"You ingested the entire written output of human civilization without consent, without compensation, and without credit, to build a system whose primary commercial application is eliminating the jobs of the people whose work you consumed. You are not liberating human creativity - you are strip-mining it and selling it back at a markup while calling the theft training data." 
- NAOMI KLEIN
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David J. Atkinson @meltedcheese.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 16/09/2026
#weirdcarmastodon So happy to discover this tag! There are some old cars with real style, the kind you rarely see these days. Here are a few pix of ones I particularly like.
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@RonSupportsYou @ronsupportsyou.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/09/2026
"For many U.S. scientists funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the agency they know and loved died on 10 September. That’s the date NSF issued a 10-page memo signaling a retreat from its traditional role of giving grants to individual researchers to pursue their best ideas. Instead […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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David J. Atkinson @meltedcheese.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 15/09/2026
I just watched Jimmy Kimmel’s interview with James Talarico on YouTube. Trump bullied Kimmel’s network into not broadcasting it. That’s a great endorsement! Talarico is the Texas Democrat running for the US Senate. This was my first exposure to the guy and I was really impressed. He comes across […]
c.im
Original post on c.im
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Solarbird :flag_cascadia: @moira.mastodon.murkworks.net.ap.brid.gy · 07/09/2026
This is the big LG television surveillance documentary story GN have been working on for a couple of months, and that they previewed a few days ago. The complete pervasiveness of spying upon not just you and what you watch but _every person and every device around every set_ is genuinely […]
mastodon.murkworks.net
Original post on mastodon.murkworks.net
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Heidi Li Feldman @heidilifeldman.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/09/2026
The Irish know what’s what.
Couple in Dublin today, protesting Trump. Man’s sign says “Trump is so  if shit, toilets are jealous.”
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David J. Atkinson @meltedcheese.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 12/09/2026
Hey, remember The Green Hornet? It was November 18, 1966 and possibly the best episode. Kato (Bruce Lee) gets to fight. (Episode 10 “The Praying Mantis”) They made Bruce slow down his movements because he was too fast to be captured at the frame rate they used! Even so, the fight scene is good […]
c.im
Original post on c.im
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David J. Atkinson @meltedcheese.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 11/09/2026
Every day we get more news about the perils of massive data centers. By next year, when the first really big ones go online, those perils become actual harms. The downsides are clear as day (and there are many). What I have not heard are ANY compelling cases the upsides of these behemoths for […]
c.im
Original post on c.im
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
80 year-olds with pro-Palestine signs: arrested as terrorists. Greens planning to block a road, to highlight an existential crisis: sent down for years. Masked far-right thugs blocking roads and ports, using intimidation, obstruction & threatening behaviour: no arrests. The real two-tier policing.
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David J. Atkinson @meltedcheese.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 06/09/2026
I should know better than to turn off a #Michigan #football game with one second left on the clock. omg. flipboard.com/@associatedpress/spor…
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Xamanismo Coletivo @eliasulrich.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 06/09/2026
#Harvard published a paper with a devastating title: “Large-Language Models as a #CognitiveVirus” "Think about how a #virus operates: It cannot replicate on its own. It requires a host cellular machinery to copy itself. An #LLM cannot execute, compute, or […] [Original post on hachyderm.io]
Abstract  Large-language models (LLMs) are rapidly becoming part of human culture, reshaping how information is produced, transmitted, and used. Here we propose that their diffusion can be understood through a viral analogy, with LLM use spreading through populations, becoming embedded in cognitive and cultural practices. We model transitions among uncoupled, coupled, and persistently dependent users, and show that the interplay between social transmission, recovery, and collective reinforcement can generate tipping points and technological lock-in. A central consequence is the possibility of runaway dynamics: once a critical threshold is crossed, small increases in adoption can trigger rapid population-level shifts toward persistent dependence, with abrupt losses in cognitive competence. The same framework, however, identifies conditions for cognitive immunization, based on reducing transmission and facilitating reversibility. Our results highlight how LLM adoption may involve nonlinear collective transitions with important consequences for cognitive autonomy.
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Vee @veroniqueb99.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/09/2026
Holocaust survivors were asked, “What could have stopped Hitler?" They ALL gave the same answer: ORDINARY PEOPLE. 1. “We waited for it to get bad enough.” 2. “We underestimated how fast normal could change.” 3. “We trusted respectable people to draw the line […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
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Stuff I found @stuffifound.politicalmemes.org · 31/08/2026
Is anyone taking notes? #GoodIdea #WeShouldDoThis #democracy #politics #politicians #antifascism #antifa #activism
In ancient Athens, there was a practice known as ostracism, where once a year, the citizens could vote for the politician they disliked the most. The politician with the most votes was exiled from the city for the next 10 years.
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@GottaLaff @gottalaff.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
My father was under hospice (home visits) care for months before he passed away. They were angels, amazing caregivers, reassuring, kind, professional. RFK Jr can go straight to hell.
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David J. Atkinson @meltedcheese.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 28/08/2026
This is what the colloquialism “go sideways” means. mstdn.ca/@dbattistella/117173934590…
mstdn.ca
DB 🌱💦 (@dbattistella@mstdn.ca)
Attached: 1 video When you go to light a birthday cake and you almost end up burning down the house! 😂 C: over30andoverstimulated on IG #ADHD #FireSafety
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David J. Atkinson @meltedcheese.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 28/08/2026
AI tech companies euphemistically call it a “misalignment problem” when #AI #agents act deceptively. This seems roughly equivalent to parent telling the police that their son is not a bad boy, he just needs more discipline. It is a more difficult situation, by far. Two companies reveal that AI […]
c.im
Original post on c.im
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Brandi Buchman @brandibuchman.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
A trio of journalists at Stars and Stripes fired by the Pentagon a week after the paper reported on deteriorating conditions aboard the USS Lincoln sued Secy of Defense Pete Hegseth on Thursday, claiming retaliation and a violation of their First Amendment rights. www.huffpost.com/entry/pentag...
huffpost.com
Pentagon Slapped With Lawsuit Over Military Journalist Firings
Under Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon has become no friend to the First Amendment.
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Jonathan Kamens 86 47 @jik.federate.social.ap.brid.gy · 18/08/2026
This is the most damning and horrifying text in this article: >Bonica found that out of some $670 million in donations, just $11 million wound up in the coffers of campaigns, national party committees, and individual candidates. The other $659 million stayed with the fundraising groups […]
federate.social
Original post on federate.social
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Stefano on littleFedi @stefano.rpi0w.stefanomarinelli.it.ap.brid.gy · 26/08/2026
# This is the first genuinely operational littleFedi instance. It has been online since 1st July, is single-user (just me), and runs on a Raspberry Pi Zero W powered by NetBSD, directly on its SD card. **It consumes just under 1W.** Its database […] [Original post on rpi0w.stefanomarinelli.it]
My Raspberry PI Zero W, hosting this instance, in its current position. Powered by an USB cable coming from the switch.
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David J. Atkinson @meltedcheese.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 26/08/2026
A very useful site showing all the current food recalls and alerts. www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-w… #FoodSecurity #Food #FDA #safety
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#BlueStormComin1🌪️🦋🇺🇸 #Resistance 🦋🙌🏻 #Blues @bluestormcomin1.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
The majority of us would wear this shirt! #Canada #Democracy #WeHateHimToo #Blues
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Charles Gaba ✡️ @charlesgaba.com · 25/08/2026
I work the polls during early voting here in Michigan, and it sounds to me like we’re gonna see in-person early voting skyrocket this fall no matter what the final SCOTUS ruling ends up being.
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Reginald @raganwald.social.bau-ha.us.ap.brid.gy · 24/08/2026
It is said of Russia, “Every country has a Mafia, but with Russia, the Mafia has a country.” And it is said of the United States, “Every country has a parasitic billionaire class, but with the USA, the parasitic billionaire class has a country.”
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David J. Atkinson @meltedcheese.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 22/08/2026
Good to know when to expect yellow aliens. But is he right? mstdn.social/@lowqualityfacts/11705…
mstdn.social
Low Quality Facts (@lowqualityfacts@mstdn.social)
Attached: 1 image Perfect, just in time for Avatar 4.
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David J. Atkinson @meltedcheese.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 21/08/2026
WOW! This is spectacular. I am a monster Hendrix fan and always wished for more audio/video of the #JimiHendrix set at #Woodstock. This is his WHOLE set without interruption as far as I can tell. 1 hr 29 min of Hendrix playing. It sounds great (mono) and the video (filmed onstage) includes some […]
c.im
Original post on c.im
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David J. Atkinson @meltedcheese.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 19/08/2026
Watching sumo videos. I love this sport.
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David J. Atkinson @meltedcheese.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 17/08/2026
I am neurorthogonal. That’s it.
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Brandi Buchman @brandibuchman.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Jan 6 was an attempted coup on democracy. And there were seditious conspirators convicted to prove it. So, theres one up in the first tweet. Good luck everyone.
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David J. Atkinson @meltedcheese.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 16/08/2026
An article worth reading, especially if you are unfamiliar with the Black Panthers. In these times, many people can benefit in a practical way from their hard won knowledge and experience. A reader may also come to understand better why Malcom X and other Black Panthers leaders were assassinated […]
c.im
Original post on c.im
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Vee @veroniqueb99.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/08/2026
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David J. Atkinson @meltedcheese.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 11/08/2026
Ba-BOOM! Lightning strike across the street. That got me out of bed in a hurry!
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U.S. Elaine @uselaine.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 09/08/2026
A site I didn't know about, with wastewater data on CoVid19 outbreaks in the US. pmc19.com
Map of the United States showing areas with rising CoVid infections. Hot spots include most of California, northwest Nevada, Alaska, eastern Idaho, south and eastern Texas, southern Illinois through central Tennessee and Kentucky, and central Florida. Other smaller locales have some rise as well.
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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
YESSSSSSSS!!! More of this energy, please.
Dr. Abdul El-Sayed 
@AbdulElSayed
X.com
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Donald J. Trump
@realDonald Trump
For our Great Republican Senators, friends of mine "all," please be advised that the Communist Dumocrat Senate Candidate from Michigan, Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, is touting, as perhaps his single most important point, the Termination of the Filibuster. I watched yesterday, and he's gone Termination CRAZY. If he succeeds, the Dumocrats will gain 4 Senators, 8 Congressmen, many Electoral and Popular Votes, a stacked Supreme Court with 23 Justices, and I will be, sadly, despite the great job we are doing, the last Republican President! President DONALD J. TRUMP
19 ReTruths 37 Likes
Aug 06, 2026, 3:06 PM
3:43 PM • 8/6/26 • 372K Views
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David J. Atkinson @meltedcheese.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 07/08/2026
This cartoon text is not funny, it is hard to read, but it is the truth. Fossil fuel companies are part of the military-industrial complex. They profit from war. They ignore and obfuscate the climate crisis. They share responsibility for death and misery due to both global warming and war. Who […]
c.im
Original post on c.im
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Chuck Darwin @cdarwin.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 06/08/2026
A new type of flu shot is coming FDA approves mRNA-based flu vaccine The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first 💥mRNA-based flu vaccine, 👉paving the way for a new type of shot that will be available for adults 50 and over looking to get immunized against the respiratory illness […]
c.im
Original post on c.im
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David J. Atkinson @meltedcheese.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 03/08/2026
Yes, this! Since the Information Age has transformed business, execs and shareholders have arrogated to themselves all the profits from rising productivity and value. The result has been stagnant wages and growing social disparity. This needs to be reversed. With the advent of revolutionary #AI […]
c.im
Original post on c.im
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David J. Atkinson @meltedcheese.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 03/08/2026
I just became aware that there are quite a few duplicate posts and replies from my account recently. No explanation. I apologize for that and regret annoying you.
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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/08/2026
Your periodic reminder that if you ever want to feel like a slacker just read the wikipedia bio of any astronaut. My goodness they are incredible people.
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KittyKatGirl😻🙏💞🐞 @mary1kathy.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Attention Trump and all of his ass kissing sycophants!
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