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06.11.25 - Book Review: As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh
piratequeen: From the anime Kaleido Star, Sarah in an angel costume. "Never lose hope" (Never Lose Hope)
As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh

[Goodreads | Storygraph]

5 / 5 stars

More under the cut )
06.11.25 - [Review] The Wicked + The Divine Vol.9 - Gillen, McKelvie, Wilson, Cowles
lil_1337: Devotion (Guardian)
Review )
06.10.25 - Puff
lovelyangel: Nagisa Kubo from Kubo Won't Let Me Be Invisible, Vol. 10 (Kubo Usagi)
Puff
Puff
Nikon D810 • AF-S Micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8G
f/13 @ 60mm • 1/30s • ISO 400

The Soft Gray Bunny I bought two weeks ago on my Excursion to MudPuddles Toys & Books needed a name. The manufacturer, Douglas Cuddle Toy, named the bunny Stormie. I thought the name was a bit harsh for a critter so very soft and cuddly.

I considered Mofumofu (which means Fluffy) – or maybe Mofu-tan. But these names seemed too bulky for my little bunny. So I’ve decided to call her Puff.

Puff will inherit Mr. Bear’s position when Mr. Bear retires (due to age and wear). Mr. Bear is hanging tough after 17 years, though. Amazingly, the pads on Mr. Bear’s paws are still silky soft. I think he wants to be hugged every night forever.
06.10.25 - Thoughts on "Redemption" in Left-Leaning Fandom Discourse
labingi: (ivan)
Interesting video by Jessie Gender on the "redemption" of Syril Karn in Andor. It prompted some thinky thoughts I'd rather put here than throw at YouTube. (Andor S2 spoilers)



I agree with Jessie's contention that white men are often treated with kid gloves when it comes to creating space for them to see the error of their ways, while marginalized people's lives are dismissed and errors castigated. Jessie cites the difference in fan discourse between sorrow that Syril died without a chance at redemption and near silence that Cinta (a queer woman of color) got summarily killed off. I'd add that this is partly because Syril is a better written character—but, then, white men have long been better written characters. That is evidence of her point.

But I'm frustrated by recent fandom's/leftwing YouTube's discourse on "redemption." I love a good redemption story; it's my favorite kind, but I think we need to dig deeper into the concept because, too often, it gets used without being explored.

"Redemption" is (at least primarily) a Christian concept. Traditionally, it refers to being saved from damnation, and this entails is a mix of personal responsibility and external acceptance. It requires personal responsibility in the form of actions like repentance of sins, penance, baptism, truly reformed behavior, etc. It requires external acceptance because ultimately it's God's to accept or withhold, and in many versions of Christianity, it cannot fully be attained without God's grace, that is, without that mystical quality of salvation that one cannot earn but is given.

When we use in secular discussions, as of characters like Syril Karn or DS9's Garak, or real people (Jessie mentions JK Rowling), we often end up with formulations like video commenter elanthys makes: "But not everyone deserves redemption, and not everyone who does gets it...." What does this actually mean? "Deserves" according to whom? "Gets" from whom? In the theological context, the answer is God. God can grant grace to someone who doesn't "deserve" it. (In traditional Calvinism, no one deserves it.) All redeemed people ultimately "get" it from God.

So who grants redemption in secular society? I think, by default, it usually translates to "us," the people having the conversation, the good people, the good leftists, the anti-fascists, etc. "We" judge that some do not deserve redemption. "We," sometimes in error, withhold it from those who may. What does it mean to be redeemed? In Christianity, it means heading to heaven. In the secular context, it means being socially forgiven, I guess? No longer cancelled, etc.? Slate wiped clean?

I do not trust myself to determine who metaphysically "deserves" anything. There are people I have not forgiven, but that says more about me than them. I do believe in accountability, which is, in essence, what Jessie is calling for. Accountability is a comparatively easy concept, if hard to achieve. If you've done harm, own it and take proportionally appropriate steps to repair it or—if it can't be repaired—do other, ideally related work to bring more good into the world.

Syril is never accountable for his actions. If he hadn't died and was to have a "redemption" arc, I think he would have had to spend the rest of his life trying to repair the damage or, more accurately, change the system so similar damage does not continue. But did he "deserve redemption"? I don't like the God-like insight that question presupposes.

Personally, I'm a Buddhist, and I prefer a Buddhist framework: that we are all on the path to awakening. We're just in different places, going at different rates, and taking different "side trails" to get there. The question of what we "deserve" is fairly meaningless. We are where we are; we carry the karma that we carry and work through it as best we can. And we can, to an extent, recognize that in each other and help each other through it.
06.09.25 - Apple WWDC 2025
lovelyangel: (Eve Angel)
I generally follow Mac Rumors for detailed coverage of Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC). Based on rumors earlier this month, I was not expecting anything particularly notable at this year’s WWDC – and that turned out to be true. I don’t need new features anyway; I’d be happy if Apple simply fixed broken things. Nonetheless, there was an avalanche of small features and changes that will be either useful or annoying and generally balance out as zero net gain. Apple isn’t the company it was twenty years ago.

It did take me quite a while to read through all the WWDC 2025 posts at Mac Rumors. Definitely worth reading if you live in the Apple ecosystem.

As I expected, Frieren, my recently retired 2017 iMac Pro, is excluded from the list of computers that can run the next major version of macOS – macOS 26 Tahoe. (See: macOS Tahoe Compatibility) I upgraded my Macintosh just in time. (Mac Migration Assistant doesn’t work properly if old and new Macs are not on the same version of macOS.) Still, the iMac Pro had a decent, 8-year run. (Mine was over 7 years old when it was retired.)
06.08.25 - Kick the TWICE Can Down the Road
lovelyangel: Sana Fridge Interview Teaser (Sana Fridge)
With my computer and photography budgets for 2025 getting blown out of the water, I’ve looked to cut back in other areas. I had originally planned to use my Electrify America credits (like 700 free kWh remaining) before they expire in August to take a road trip to SF – but I killed that idea.

One big unknown in the 2025 budget was what I might end up spending if TWICE went on tour this year. My budget let out a sigh of relief when the group recently announced the schedule for their THIS IS FOR World Tour, Part 1. Part 1 allocates the last half of 2025 for stops across Asia and Australia. This means that Part 2, for the Americas and Europe, won’t be until 2026. I kind of expected this as major U.S. stadiums are dedicated to American football in the fall and winter. For 2026, I’ll budget for one or two visits to concert cities in the U.S.
06.06.25 - Book Review: The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin by Alison Goodman
piratequeen: From the game Dragon Age, Alistair (Dragon Age: Alistair)
The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin by Alison Goodman

[Goodreads | Storygraph]

4 / 5 stars

More under the cut )
06.04.25 - MISAMO at the Tokyo Dome
lovelyangel: Sana RTB Special in Japan (Sana Concert)
MISAMO Japan Dome Tour 2024 “Haute Couture” Blu-ray box set
MISAMO Japan Dome Tour 2024 “Haute Couture” Blu-ray box set

DHL today delivered the package from CDJapan on the actual release date of the MISAMO Japan Dome Tour 2024 “Haute Couture” Blu-ray box set. The box set came with a 40-page color photo booklet and 12 photo trading cards (3 Mina, 3 Sana, 3 Momo, 3 group). I guess I know what I’ll be watching in bed tonight.
06.03.25 - Bookshop.org Promo Code If You Want It
labingi: (Default)
I'm grateful to everyone for all the great book recommendations. As a thanks, here is a Bookshop.org promo code for 20% off your first order:

https://refer.bookshop.org/egkfmyy2

I really like them as my Amazon alternative. (They only ship in the US and UK though.)
06.03.25 - Coco!
lovelyangel: Hidamari Sketch Manga Vol 8 back cover (Matsuri Angel)
Coco from Witch Hat Atelier
Coco from Witch Hat Atelier
1/8 scale figurine by Kotobukiya

Yesterday my Coco Figurine from Witch Hat Atelier arrived from CDJapan. I’m glad Kotobukiya issued a re-release of this sculpture as I had missed it the first time around. The sculpture is about 8.5" tall and is nicely detailed. I’m pretty happy to have this in my collection.

Coco 1/8 scale figure by Kotobukiya

Coco 1/8 scale figure by Kotobukiya

Coco 1/8 scale figure by Kotobukiya

Coco 1/8 scale figure by Kotobukiya

Coco 1/8 scale figure by Kotobukiya
06.03.25 - [Review] The Modern Bestiary - Joanna Bagniewska
lil_1337: (Default)
Review )
06.02.25 - Book Review: Behooved by M. Stevenson
piratequeen: From the game World of Warcraft, a druid in tree form "hug a tree" (Hug a tree druid)
Behooved by M. Stevenson

[Goodreads | Storygraph]

3 / 5 stars

More under the cut )
06.01.25 - Seeking Book (or Movie/Series) Recs - Slow-Paced, Dreamy Fantasy/Fairytale
labingi: (Default)
I feel the need for some "escapist" literature (or video), and right now I want to escape into something dreamy and otherworldly. I would love recommendations.

An example of the type of thing would be Angel's Egg, the 1980s short anime. On the fast-paced, action, heartwarming end, maybe the recent movie, Flow. At the intellectual/concrete extreme, maybe A Voyage to Arcturus.

Seeking stories with...

* nature/beauty
* a dreamy or surreal quality - like it may be a dream or metaphor or afterlife or enchantment or something.
* on the slow, quiet end.
* vaguely old-timey in setting, like anywhere from 150-7000 years ago or the rough equivalent in an otherworld.
* some story/plot, though it can be slight, long enough that I get to spend time with the characters: novella or long; hour-ish video or longer.

Don't want...

* anything YA
* anything obviously moralizing;
* any "strong feminist heroine" or anything that smacks of contemporary politics of any kind from any side of the aisle;
* anything fast-paced or action packed. (I'm fine with Flow at the extreme end of fast.)
* anything that "feels" like it was written in and for the 2020s or 2010s;
* anything really short.

Fine with or Fine with Caveats...

* melancholy, dark, horror-tinged if not super dark/depressing/horror
* relatively thin characters, as long as what's there isn't any of the "don't want."
* romance if it's subtle, not the main point, not stereotypical. (Romance will be an easier sell if it's m/m.)
* child, teen characters as long as the story itself doesn't feel aimed at modern kids/teens (see Angel's Egg).
* written/created in pretty much any time period from ancient to present, if it more or less fits the above.

Thanks in advance for rec's!
06.01.25 - Link Roundup May 2025
wepon: orange mantis sitting on a partially-peeled orange, holding part of the peel in its forelegs (Default)
Netanyahu says Israel is now dividing up Gaza. What does that mean on the ground?
Focusing on the Morag corridor is also “a kind of a political decision in order to give the right-wing extremists in the government, a kind of hope that maybe we will be back in some areas (settlements) as before,” Dangot added. “When you say ‘Morag’ out loud, it means going back to the disengagement of Gush Katif.” Gush Katif was a bloc of several Israeli settlements, including the agricultural settlement of Morag, in the southern Gaza Strip. When Israel disengaged from the Gaza Strip in 2005, then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dismantled Gush Katif and expelled some 8,000 Jewish residents living there. Some Israeli settlers have since October 7 called for a return to Gush Katif and for the re-settlement of Gaza, a movement emboldened by Israel’s right-wing politicians who have openly called for the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza.


Netanyahu says new offensive in Gaza focused on consolidating seizure of territory
Humanitarian organisations have unanimously rejected Israel’s plan to establish a limited number of aid distribution hubs run by private contractors and guarded by the IDF in southern Gaza. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Sunday accused Israel of trying to shut down the existing aid distribution system run by the UN and its humanitarian partners in order to impose its own supply system.


Case of brain-dead pregnant woman kept on life support in Georgia raises tricky questions
The Associated Press has not been able to reach Smith’s mother, April Newkirk. But Newkirk told Atlanta TV station WXIA that her daughter went to a hospital complaining of headaches and was given medication and released. Then, her boyfriend awoke to her gasping for air and called 911. Emory University Hospital determined she had blood clots in her brain and she was declared brain dead.


Green Card Holder From Germany 'Free' After Two Months of ICE Detention
Although Schmidt has no ongoing legal issues, according to his family, he previously had a misdemeanor charge for having marijuana in his vehicle in 2015. That charge was dismissed after laws about cannabis changed. His mother said he missed a hearing about the case in 2022 because the notice was not forwarded to his correct address. He also had a DUI about a decade ago.


Fabian Schmidt speaks out for the first time since his detention
Schmidt eventually fainted going to the bathroom and remembers collapsing and hitting the ground hard. When he woke up, he told an agent he needed to go to the hospital. “He said, 'Oh, you’re just gonna med out like everybody, huh?’ That’s the verbatim words. I was like, 'Med out? I don’t even know what that means,'” Schmidt recounted, finding out later it meant someone who physically breaks down under stress. He was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, handcuffed to the bed, and treated for the flu and a high fever for six hours. Schmidt described being given a medical assessment that would have warranted privacy, but CBP officers wouldn’t leave the room. A doctor said he needed rest and a place to recuperate. Instead he was brought back to the Logan Airport holding area.


Trump’s ‘beautiful’ bill spans 1,116 pages. Here’s what’s inside it
To be eligible for Medicaid, there would be new “community engagement requirements” of at least 80 hours per month of work, education or service for able-bodied adults without dependents. The new requirement would not kick in until Jan. 1, 2029, after Trump leaves office. People would also have to verify their eligibility for the program twice a year, rather than just once.


EPA will roll back limits on 4 'forever chemicals.' See if they were found in your water.
Most of these detections weren’t enough to trigger action under the now-abandoned rule, but dozens of utilities providing water to a total of 4 million Americans reported measurements that would have required them to install advanced filtration or find other sources of water.


Most Americans don't earn enough to afford basic costs of living, analysis finds
The Ludwig Institute also says that the nation's official unemployment rate of 4.2% greatly understates the level of economic distress around the U.S. Factoring in workers who are stuck in poverty-wage jobs and people who are unable to find full-time employment, the U.S. jobless rate now tops 24%, according to LISEP, which defines these groups as "functionally unemployed."


The Department of Education Forced Idaho to Stop Denying Disabled Students an Education. Then Trump Gutted Its Staff.
Time and again, the U.S. Department of Education has been the last resort for parents who say the state of Idaho has failed to educate their children. The federal agency in 2023 ordered Idaho to stop blocking some students with learning disabilities, like dyslexia, from special education. That same year, it flagged that the state’s own reviews of districts and charters obscured the fact that just 20% were fully complying with the federal disability law. Last year, it told the state it must end long delays in services for infants and toddlers with disabilities, which could include speech or physical therapy. Now President Donald Trump has pledged to dismantle the department.


NOAA ending its "billion-dollar disasters" database
NOAA announced Thursday that it is decommissioning several databases, including its widely reported annual compilation of billion-dollar weather and climate disasters. The announcement was made on NOAA's website under "notice of change," which said it would no longer be updated due to "evolving priorities, statutory mandates, and staffing changes."


On Teacher Appreciation Week, union leaders say teachers are underpaid and under attack
Trump's requested federal budget cuts to the Education Department for fiscal year 2026 total about $12 billion, or some 15% of its current funding. The biggest portion of those cuts would be a reduction in K-12 funding by more than $4.5 billion.


'Everybody's worst nightmare': Air traffic controllers say outages have become too frequent
The controller said the team that handles Newark air traffic is working stressful 10-hour days, six days a week, with unreliable equipment.


As Trump sets his sights on public broadcasting, a decades-old institution frets about the future
Trump’s order instructs the CPB and other government agencies to “cease Federal funding” for PBS and National Public Radio and further requires that they work to root out indirect sources of public financing. Separate from the CPB grant, for example, PBS gets a grant from the U.S. Department of Education for programming that helps build the reading, math and science skills for children age 2 to 8, particularly in poor areas.


Trump says he's revoking Harvard's tax-exempt status: 'It's what they deserve!'
His administration in April said it is freezing more than $2 billion in federal funding for the Ivy League school after Harvard leaders said they would not agree to a list of Trump administration demands, which included a mask ban and removal of diversity, equity and inclusion programs.


Trump upends DOJ's Civil Rights Division, sparking 'bloodbath' in senior ranks
Rather than focusing on enforcing federal laws against discrimination, the division is now charged with pursuing priorities laid out in a series of Trump’s executive orders, including “Keeping Men out of Women's Sports” and “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” according to the memos, which were issued by division head Harmeet Dhillon and obtained by NBC News.


Harvard, UCLA, Stanford among schools across US reporting student visa revocations
These incidents are part of what appears to be mass targeting of international students by Trump's administration over alleged violations of their visa or green card conditions, ranging from minor legal infractions to participating in demonstrations. In other cases, the reason for the revocation is unknown or has not been provided by the administration. Since the beginning of Trump's second term, the State Department has revoked over 300 student visas nationwide, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on March 27.


Trump administration looking at $5,000 'baby bonus' to incentivize public to have more children
Simone Collins and her husband, Malcolm Collins, are pro-natalists who have advocated actions to make it less difficult for families to have children and ultimately reverse declining birth and marriage rates. Simone Collins told ABC News that she and her husband have submitted several draft executive orders to the White House Domestic Policy Council, including bestowing a "National Medal of Motherhood" to mothers with six or more children. They also proposed that couples should not face a tax penalty for getting married.


Key safety hotlines disrupted by HHS cuts
THHS also laid off staff overseeing other hotlines that help people who want to quit smoking and new mothers with postpartum depression, per Stat.


How the Education Department helps students with disabilities get an education
President Trump has said his administration is going to move "special needs" to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), an agency that recently announced its own drastic cuts. His administration hasn't specified exactly which programs will be moved, and whether IDEA is among them, but the conservative policy playbook Project 2025 does propose moving IDEA to HHS.


Almost half of U.S. residents are exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution, new report says. These are the areas that got an "F"
Last month, the EPA announced it will roll back or change 31 environmental rules and regulations, including revisions of national air quality standards for particulate matter, emission standards for industrial air pollutants and regulations restricting vehicle emissions. The proposed cuts are putting more than five decades of progress at risk, Kate Bender said.


Supreme Court lets Trump administration resume deportations under Alien Enemies Act
The court did not rule on whether Trump can use the Alien Enemies Act to deport immigrants it says are members of a Venezuelan crime gang. And the majority said the immigrants should get a chance to contest their deportation. But the ruling says the immigrants brought their challenge − which was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia − in the wrong court.


Inside ICE Air: Flight Attendants on Deportation Planes Say Disaster Is “Only a Matter of Time”
That morning over Mexico, Lala said, the girl’s oxygen saturation level was 70% — perilously low compared with a healthy person’s 95% or higher. Her temperature was 102.3 degrees. The flight had a nurse on contract who worked alongside its security guards. But beyond giving the girl Tylenol, the nurse left the situation in Lala’s hands, she recalled.


Budget airline Avelo faces backlash for signing up to fly deportation flights for ICE
Facing financial headwinds, Avelo struck a long-term deal to work with ICE. The company says three of its planes will begin operating charter flights for ICE based out of Mesa, Ariz., starting May 12.


Trump says things are ‘going very well’ after worst stock market drop in years over tariffs
“I think it’s going very well. We have an operation, like when a patient gets operated on and it’s a big thing. I said this would exactly be the way it is,” he said, an apparent reference to the selloff.


How Trump changed his mind on tariffs
After more market losses this week, and with pressure mounting from Republicans on Capitol Hill, Trump began having second thoughts. In his first term, he often viewed the ups and downs of the stock market as a kind of report card on his presidency, celebrating its rise. The downturn had gotten his attention.


Major deal wipes out $30 billion in medical debt. Even backers say it's not enough
New York-based Undue Medical Debt, which buys patient debt, is paying off $30 billion worth of unpaid bills in a single transaction with Pendrick Capital Partners, a Virginia-based debt trading company. The average patient debt being retired is $1,100, according to Undue Medical Debt, with some reaching the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The deal will prevent the debt being sold and protect millions of people nationwide from being targeted by collectors, though this will overwhelmingly benefit residents of Texas and Florida, who account for about half of the debts being retired.


'A hostile state': Why some travellers are avoiding the US
The nation's stricter border enforcement has recently led to the detention of Canadian and European tourists, prompting Germany, the UK, Denmark, Finland and Portugal to issue travel warnings and advisories for the country. Now, it appears that a growing number of voices are advocating for an all-out boycott of travel to the US.


Elon Musk hands out $1 million payments after Wisconsin Supreme Court declines request to stop him
A unanimous state Supreme Court on Sunday refused to hear a last-minute attempt by the state’s Democratic attorney general to stop Musk from handing over the checks to two voters, a ruling that came just minutes before the planned start of the rally. Two lower courts had already rejected the legal challenge by Democrat Josh Kaul, who argues that Musk’s offer violates a state law. “Wisconsin law prohibits offering anything of value to induce anyone to vote,” Kaul argued in his filing. “Yet, Elon Musk did just that.” But the state Supreme Court, which is currently controlled 4-3 by liberal justices, declined to take the case as an original action. The court gave no rationale for its decision.


What to Know About the REAL ID Changeover—and How You Can Still Fly Without One
Travelers can also present a valid passport, passport card, or Enhanced Driver’s License. Other forms of valid identification are listed on the TSA site. Passengers traveling without a REAL ID or another acceptable alternative ID may experience delays as they’re traveling, as they may be directed to a separate area and undergo further screening, according to TSA.


Republicans escalate their efforts to rein in judges: From the Politics Desk
House GOP leaders are pursuing one potential off-ramp for a vote that would be less politically precarious: Johnson backed a bill from Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., that would seek to limit district court judges from issuing nationwide injunctions, the sort of rulings that have hampered Trump from fully enacting his plans on issues from deportation to federal agency cuts.


Under Pressure From Trump, ICE Is Pushing Legal Boundaries
The only warrants for them, the attorneys said, were written up after they were detained. “The creation of a warrant after the fact does not cure the warrantless nature of these incidents,” attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote, “and the Settlement’s training material specifically forbid reliance on post hoc administrative warrants to avoid warrantless arrest requirements.”


Trump fires at least 3 national security aides following a meeting with far-right activist Laura Loomer
The president told reporters on Air Force One that it was customary to let go of “people that we don’t like, or people that we don’t think do the job, or people that may have loyalty to somebody else.” He said he wasn't sure how many officials had been fired.


Trump's "restoring truth" order could return toppled Confederate monuments
Besides purging "improper ideology" from Smithsonian facilities, Trump directed the Department of the Interior to determine whether "public monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties" in its jurisdiction have been removed or changed "to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history." The order directs the agency to reinstate those monuments and ensure they do not contain descriptions that "inappropriately disparage Americans past or living."


HHS to cut about 10,000 full-time employees
That puts the total employees at around 62,000 people -- down from 82,000 at the start of the Trump administration. The agency oversees the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services -- among other divisions.


How Kennedy is already weakening America's childhood vaccine system
Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist with a well-documented history of promoting misinformation, promised ahead of his confirmation as HHS secretary that he would not take away vaccines. Since taking office, however, he has repeatedly downplayed the severity of measles currently sweeping the country — outbreaks that have hospitalized scores of children and left at least two dead. He has publicly pushed unproven treatments, including vitamin A regimens that have reportedly sickened children, and offered limp public support for vaccines themselves — despite vaccines offering the safest, most effective way to prevent many infectious diseases. Under his leadership, HHS has overseen mass firings across federal health agencies, including staff responsible for outbreak response and vaccine access; canceled or postponed meetings of independent vaccine advisory committees; and ended vaccine education campaigns.


Trump edges closer to crossing the market's reddest line
The mere possibility that Trump could erode the Federal Reserve's independence has been enough to unnerve investors and tank the stock market. Trump risks plunging the global financial system into crisis if that threat becomes a reality and he attempts to remove Fed chair Jerome Powell or undermine his authority.


Judge allows 'New York Times' copyright case against OpenAI to go forward
And while the suit only names OpenAI and its financial backer, Microsoft, other AI companies also scrape the web for content to train their models. For the most part, the AI industry has followed OpenAI's lead when it comes to training chatbot and other AI services, operating under the premise that processing data found on the open web into chatbot answers is legally protected by copyright law.


Federal authorities arrest two judges, in escalation of Trump immigration crackdown
Dugan and another judge entered the hallway and confronted the arrest team, telling one deportation officer that he needed a judicial warrant to make an arrest instead of an “administrative warrant,” the affidavit said. Dugan then ordered them to go to the chief judge’s office, it said.


Musk’s SpaceX town in Texas warns residents they may lose right to ‘continue using’ their property
A “type-C municipal corporation,” Starbase was officially formed earlier this month after Musk’s aerospace and defense contractor prevailed in a local election. It is now run by officials who are SpaceX employees and former employees. As of early this year, the population of Starbase stood at around 500 people, with around 260 directly employed by SpaceX, the Texas Tribune reported. Most other residents of Starbase are relatives of SpaceX employees.


Tesla sales plunge after Elon Musk backlash
Tesla shares have lost more than a quarter of their value since the beginning of this year, as of 13:51 EDT (18:51 BST) on Wednesday.


White South African Afrikaner refugees arrive in U.S. on a government-chartered plane
The South African government did pass a land reform law earlier this year, allowing in rare circumstances for expropriation without compensation, but zero land has been seized. In fact, while whites in South Africa account for some 7 percent of the population, they still own about 70% of commercial farmland.


DoJ lawyers say detained Tufts student was sent to Louisiana before court order
The transfer of Ozturk first appeared to violate a federal court order from Tuesday, which directed the DHS and Ice to give the court 48 hours’ notice before attempting to take her out of Massachusetts. But on Thursday, government lawyers said her transfer took place before the court’s order.


U.S. Cancels Contract With Moderna to Develop Bird Flu Vaccine
Mr. Kennedy’s ideas for containing bird flu are unorthodox. He has suggested that instead of culling birds when the infection is discovered, farmers should let the virus run through the flocks. Then, he has said, farmers should identify birds that survive the illness and study them to identify the source of their immunity. Many scientists assert that would be inhumane and dangerous. Last week, Mr. Kennedy urged the Canadian authorities not to kill 400 ostriches that had been exposed to H5N1, and Dr. Mehmet Oz, who oversees Medicare and Medicaid, offered to relocate the birds to his ranch in Florida.


ChatGPT Can Reveal Personal Information From Real People, Google Researchers Show
The underlying machine learning model that powers ChatGPT, like all so-called Large Language Models (LLMs), was trained on massive amounts of data scraped from the internet. With training and reinforcement from humans, the program ideally generates new strings of texts without churning out any of the original text it ingested. Previous work has already shown that image generators can be forced to generate examples from their training data—including copyrighted works—and an early OpenAI LLM produced contact information belonging to a researcher. But Google’s new research shows that ChatGPT, which is a massively popular consumer app with millions of users, can also be made to do this. Worryingly, some of the extracted training data contained identifying information from real people, including names, email addresses, and phone numbers.


How Strangers Got My Email Address From ChatGPT’s Model
Much like human memory, GPT-3.5 Turbo’s recall was not perfect. The output that the researchers were able to extract was still subject to hallucination — a tendency to produce false information. In the example output they provided for Times employees, many of the personal email addresses were either off by a few characters or entirely wrong. But 80 percent of the work addresses the model returned were correct.


RFK Jr. may bar government scientists from publishing in medical journals
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he will ban government scientists from publishing in leading medical journals and proposed creating an “in-house” publication by the department. “We are probably going to stop publishing in the Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA and those other journals because they are all corrupt,” Kennedy said during an episode of “The Ultimate Human” podcast. Kennedy said such publications are “vessels” for pharmaceutical companies.


The Untold Story of How Ed Martin Ghostwrote Online Attacks Against a Judge — and Still Became a Top Trump Prosecutor
Over the last four years, the office prosecuted more than 1,500 people as part of the massive investigation into the violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. While Trump has pardoned the Jan. 6 defendants, Martin has taken action against the prosecutors who brought those cases. In just three months, he has overseen the dismissal of outstanding Jan. 6-related cases, fired more than a dozen prosecutors and opened an investigation into the charging decisions made in those riot cases. Martin has also investigated Democratic lawmakers and members of the Biden family; forced out the chief of the criminal division after she refused to initiate an investigation desired by Trump appointees citing a lack of evidence, according to her resignation letter; threatened Georgetown University’s law school over its diversity, equity and inclusion policies; and vowed to investigate threats against Department of Government Efficiency employees or “chase” people in the federal government "discovered to have broken the law or even acted simply unethically.”


How DOGE’s Cuts to the IRS Threaten to Cost More Than DOGE Will Ever Save
The strategy used by the Trump administration to reduce the size of government has been indiscriminate and far-reaching, meant to oust civil servants as fast as possible in as many agencies as possible while demoralizing the workers that remain on the job. As Russell Vought, director of the Trump White House’s Office of Management and Budget and an architect of Project 2025, put it in a speech first reported by ProPublica and Documented: “We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains.”


How Investigative Journalists Actually Find Fraud, Waste and Abuse
Another standard step in the search for WFA is a dive into reports by an agency’s inspector general or the General Accountability Office, an arm of Congress with deep expertise in examining federal agencies. The inspectors are independent, and their reports can be a rich source of reporting avenues to pursue. President Donald Trump complicated any prospects DOGE had of using this knowledge by firing 17 inspectors general who were responsible for some of the biggest budgets in the federal government, including the Pentagon and Social Security Administration. As for the GAO, the head of the organization told Congress that his analysts have had little contact with DOGE. Gene Dodaro, the comptroller general, said the GAO has a list of reforms that could save the federal government $200 billion without laying off massive numbers of federal workers. Dodaro said staff cuts were an inefficient way to cut the budget since payroll costs are less than 10% of total spending.


This is why Canada has plenty of eggs — and the U.S. doesn't
Von Massow suggests a number of explanations for that. It gets colder in Canada, so barns are more tightly sealed, which helps keep flu virus carried by wild birds out. Canada also has fewer free-range chickens, which are more susceptible to getting infected. But perhaps the biggest difference is that egg farms in Canada are much smaller, so when one farm does suffer a flu outbreak, the effects are less far-reaching. The typical egg farm in Canada has about 25,000 laying hens, whereas many farms in the U.S. have well over a million. In effect, American farmers have put a lot more of their eggs in a relatively small number of baskets.


How the Trump Administration Is Weakening the Enforcement of Fair Housing Laws
Those accused of housing discrimination seem to have taken notice. HUD officials described an increase in defendants ignoring correspondence from investigators or even copying Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency in their communication with HUD, seemingly in hopes the cost-cutting department will take their side. “For them to face a consequence, they will need to be brought through a litigation process, which requires expenditure of litigation from the department, and they know that we don’t have those resources anymore,” one HUD official said. “They also feel emboldened that this administration will not consider the things that they are doing to be illegal.” Some defendants have been more explicit about this. In one case, a midwestern city — which had allegedly allowed local politicians to block affordable housing in white neighborhoods — asked HUD officials if the agency still had the backing to pursue the case if the city walked away from the negotiating table, one official said. In another case, a public housing authority, also in the Midwest, rescinded a six-figure settlement it had offered two days prior, citing Trump’s newly issued executive order attacking “disparate-impact liability.” The housing authority had allegedly favored white applicants and denied applicants with even modest criminal records. HUD spent years building the case; it crumbled in 48 hours.


U.S. to revoke legal status of more than a half-million migrants, urges them to self deport
The Trump administration will be revoking the legal status of hundreds of thousands of Latin American and Haitian migrants welcomed into the U.S. under a Biden-era sponsorship process, urging them to self-deport or face arrest and removal by deportation agents.


America’s got talent: Inside the scramble to hire federal workers fired by DOGE
Nearly a dozen states have launched specialized websites promoting open government positions to unemployed federal workers, with many hosting job fairs aimed at them. A handful are expediting hiring practices to overcome bureaucratic slog. Others are developing advertising campaigns, across social media and public-transit facilities, with a shared theme: the federal government under President Donald Trump doesn’t care about you — but we do.


Annotating the Trump administration's Yemen war plans from their Signal group chat
Waltz appears to change the settings so messages will automatically disappear after one week. In theory, this is something that is considered best practice to keep private information secure from prying eyes — but in this case, it raises federal record-keeping concerns. Under the Presidential Records Act, conversations of this nature must be memorialized in accordance with US law. It remains unclear if any official record of this conversation exists. Later in the conversation, Waltz extends the timer to four weeks.


Hundreds of scholars say U.S. is swiftly heading toward authoritarianism
In the benchmark survey, known as Bright Line Watch, U.S.-based professors rate the performance of American democracy on a scale from zero (complete dictatorship) to 100 (perfect democracy). After President Trump's election in November, scholars gave American democracy a rating of 67. Several weeks into Trump's second term, that figure plummeted to 55.
05.31.25 - [Review] The Wicked + The Divine Vol.8 - Gillen, McKelvie, Wilson, Cowles
lil_1337: (Chibi Me)
Review )
05.31.25 - Tsundoku May
lovelyangel: Fern from Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (Fern Smile)
Tsundoku Stack, May 31, 2025
Tsundoku Stack, May 31, 2025

As I promised in April, I focused on working through the manga in the tsundoku stack, even as I added six and then four and then one (Frieren, vol 13) more manga volumes. I’m happy to say that by the end of the day yesterday, I had finished all the outstanding manga. By total height, that amounts to about half the tsundoku stack.

The Books I Read in May Below This Cut )
05.31.25 - Book Review: You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle
piratequeen: From the anime Bungou Stray Dogs, Dazai looking pensive - "Damaged" (Dazai - Damaged)
You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle
[Goodreads | Storygraph]
2.5 / 5 stars

More under the cut )
05.30.25 - [Review] The Wicked + The Divine Vol.7 - Gillen, McKelvie, Wilson, Cowles
lil_1337: (Default)
Review )
05.30.25 - [Review] The Wicked + The Divine Vol.5&6- Gillen, McKelvie, Wilson, Cowles
lil_1337: (Default)
Review )
05.29.25 - [Review] The Wicked + The Divine Vol.4- Gillen, McKelvie, Wilson, Cowles
lil_1337: (Default)
Review )
05.29.25 - [Review] On Stranger Tides - Tim Powers
lil_1337: (Reading - Tori on books)
Review )
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