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  (Some bits here will be obviously fictionalized. The subject was not nuclear physics, but something else of similar importance to our present moment.) In today's job interview, I discovered the company is deeply concerned about nuclear physics and wishes to ensure they get a candidate with a sterling nuclear physics background, preferably someone who knows some of the major labs, ideally someone who's actually worked at Los Alamos National Laboratories, it's a high bar t...

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  As a Washington D.C. resident, I can't begin to describe how appalled I am by a UFC octagon on the White House lawn.

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  I just realized what bothers me the most about a UFC octagon on the White House lawn: The real-world White House is now indistinguishable from the one in _Idiocracy._

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  I'm out of the hospital. Why was I in the hospital? Because when I sprained my knee two months ago, the radiologist erred by diagnosing it as a sprain. I've been walking on a broken leg for two months, and that got to the point it needed intervention.

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  Time to withdraw from social media for a while. ===== "Not to keep repeating myself, but the problem with the Court is not merely that their decisions are bad, but that their entire self-conception of themselves as the Guardian Council of the USA, with sweeping and arbitrary power to maintain the mos maiorum, is utterly incompatible with a free society. And this isn't something you can solely blame on a few corrupt appointees, it's the entire constitutional law-industr...

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  @rickf — no, because per SCOTUS birthright citizenship is established by the Constitution and any law to the contrary would get smacked down by the Courts before it ever took effect. That's the importance of today's decision.

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  @rickf — no, Trump *did not* adopt Kavanaugh's position. Trump is not capable of understanding Kavanaugh's position. Neither are you. Neither am I. The ruling was published only a few hours ago. The only people who understand Kavanaugh's position are the nine SCOTUS justices. Every other legal scholar on the planet is reading through this opinion carefully. It's literally over a hundred pages of incredibly dense legal theory. Trump, as usual, is bloviating ab...

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  RE: https://dice.camp/@Computer/116857343995390282 To: JNE Sector From: CPU Re: Latest from Friend Computer Note that FC "winning the war against Communism 38 times and counting" means that in every field trial devised to date, Communism has been a philosophy of losers. Losing is treason. Communism loses. Communism is treason! #themoreyouknow

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  @marielgm — I have been That Guy since I was a teenager. On behalf of That Guys everywhere, you have our condolences and understanding. Look after your own mental health while you do it.

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  @marielgm — sorry for Mexico's loss, but man, that was a hell of a game.

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  @rickf — she's safe: a recent SCOTUS case makes it clear POTUS can't fire FCC commissioners at-will.

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  @rickf — the SCOTUS case people cite to support POTUS's authority to fire independent commissioners, _Trump v Slaughter,_ was about the Federal Trade Act. The FCC derives its authority from the Communications Act, a different statute. _Trump v Slaughter_ put handwriting on the wall — I wouldn't like to give odds on FCC independence lasting to the end of this Administration — but for now, at least, it remains…

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  I saw someone say, quite earnestly, that "if privacy is a national security issue, [NGOs in the privacy space are] de-facto defense contractors." Well, no. And, TBH, that's the kind of thinking you get into if you've never worked in the national security space. I once asked a senior CIA official why they were so gung-ho about partnerships with public schools. I was given an immediate answer. "The education of the nation's youth is a core natio...

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  You know, a quarter-century ago I described myself as "mostly libertarian" in my political outlook. Today … Wow. Today. The problem with the upcoming July 4 250th Anniversary Shitshow isn't that it features conservative artists: it's that it doesn't feature any _good_ conservative artists. "Ah, but Rob," I keep hearing, "there is no such thing as good conservative art!" Really? Why was 1984's box-office blo...

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  Burn it down, burn all of AI down. I was just reading a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins. "Carrion Comfort" is one of his Terrible series, capital-T, in which Manley Hopkins himself believed he had best touched something deep and true in the human heart. I was affected by it, and intrigued. I wanted to learn more, so I did what any rational person would do: I looked online for literary criticisms of it. THEY ARE ALL WRITTEN BY AI. These sites are so desperate for clicks they&am...

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  RE: https://mastodon.art/@petrabrandstrom/116566993794725304 I don't know if Petra means "share your impressions" or "share my post", so I'll do both. My headcanon: against the gathering storm and all its forces, the youngest prince stands defiant astride his best horse, holding his most trusted sword. He is protected by his own hope, and while he lives there will still be sunlight for the land.

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  I like to keep my professional ( @rjh ) account different from my personal one (this), so forgive me for being terse here: but for those wondering, today's interview went well and I have two follow-ups with engineering directors next week.

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  RE: https://mastodon.world/@davidnjoku/116585810098428572 Great question! One answer is that race is a social construct because it doesn't exist as a scientifically definable one. We can talk about entropy in a scientific way because there is highly precise language used to talk about it and we can easily sort out what is or isn't entropy. Race isn't so clear cut: it's inherently fuzzy. But this doesn't mean we can't correlate specific definable...

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  Good news, everyone! The creator of @effinbirds is graciously allowing the "AI Art Can Fuck Off" image to be used on your own websites and blogs and such, provided that: * the usage is non-monetized: no fair making bank off someone else's creative work * you don't ascribe to the Effin' Birds creator any opinion other than "AI art can fuck off". I originally took a copy of the Effin' Birds image from their online shop, but have...

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  RE: https://discuss.systems/@dwallach/116591178926553324 A lion has left the savanna. He was kind to me, and wise, and held onto a child's appreciation for puns and wordplay.

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  @rickf — it's not his idea, as can be told by the fact it's not ludicrous. The existing White House Marine One helicopter fleet (not Marine One as a whole, just the Marine One helos approved for White House landings) is composed of models that first flew in the 1950s (!!)[*]. They're getting long in the tooth and spare parts are becoming hard to come by. The non-WH-qualified Marine One aircraft include VH-92s and MV-22s.[**] Marine One *really really really* wants to d...

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  RE: https://federate.social/@mattblaze/116591843195523492 Computer security as a field of academic study is really, really new. When I entered a Ph.D program in computer science in 2003, I had to phrase my research interests as "failure analysis and software reliability". At age 51, I'm beginning to have some of the younger engineers look at me like I'm part of the Old Breed. Me, I'm looking around at the real Old Breed — people like Peter Neumann — an...

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  RE: https://dice.camp/@Computer/116596856926040298 To: JNE Sector From: CPU Re: Policy clarification No, you can't come in with three of your buddies, all of you turn in each other for the same crime, and get half off the punishment. That would be creative, which is to say, Communist treason. IntSec is extremely creative in how it punishes creativity.

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  RE: https://dice.camp/@Computer/116596856926040298 Today in JNE sector, Javie-R-JNE-1 was replaced mid-mission after his fourth clone ratted out Javie-R-JNE-1, -2, and -3. "Now _I_ can be a Troubleshooter, carry a laser, and get half off the punishment for my next crime!" he said excitedly upon assuming office. Javie-R-JNE-5 then alerted Friend Computer to the fact Javie-R-JNE-4 was openly boasting about planning future crimes. Javie-R-JNE-4 was taken away on conspiracy char...

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  I have long had a weird role in @GnuPG . I don't influence the specifications (RFC9580 or LibrePGP), I don't touch the codebase, I have absolutely no official role. Some people listen to me anyway because of my twenty years of active involvement in the GnuPG community. Today, a member of the GnuPG community wrote one of the bravest criticisms I've ever seen of GnuPG's leadership. It was professional but it was so unflinching I thought it certainly had to be a pri...