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A book that unexpectedly explodes upon opening it would be good grounds for a product liability claim; a book whose content inspires someone to act recklessly should not.  –  Elizabeth N. Brown

Choke Point (#1388) 

The government is now demanding banks not do what it has repeatedly demanded they do:

Federal Trade Commission…sent letters…to the CEOs of PayPal, Stripe, Visa and Mastercard, warning them against debanking practices — including denying access to services due to a customer’s…“political affiliations, religious beliefs, or lawful business activities”…last year…the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a report on debanking…in which it named adult entertainment as one of several sectors facing discrimination for engaging in activities contrary to banks’ “values”…[and threatening] an FTC investigation…but those rules will not stop banks from making decisions regarding their customers in a way deemed “consistent with safety and soundness.”  This leaves broad leeway for banks to continue discriminatory or exclusionary practices toward adult industry creators and businesses…

When Ambulance-Chasers Run the Hospitals (#1450)

Politicians increasingly use nuisance lawsuits to circumvent the Constitution:

[Facebook] has been ordered to pay New Mexico [politicians] $375 million, in a verdict that paves the way for more states to [rob] social media companies under the guise of child protection—and demand changes that will compromise everyone’s online speech and privacy…the lawsuit [misused]…the state’s Unfair Practices Act…States [ab]usingconsumer protection laws [to achieve unconstitutional tyranny they could not otherwise accomplish] have been a big trend lately.  This ruling all but ensures it will intensify…Section 230…is supposed to protect against this sort of thing.  If someone uses Facebook to engage in illegal activity, it’s that person…who may be criminally liable…[but] state attorneys general have been fighting against this…for nearly two decades…[because] they’re stuck prosecuting individual criminals…not [deep-pocketed corporations they can pillage]…The verdict in this case…”will be terrible for the open internet,” said Techdirt[‘s]…Mike Masnick…

The Cop Myth (#1566)

It’s too bad they don’t inflict all of their violence on each other:

…two [North Carolina pigs who lived together got in a fight which ended with a sow shooting her pig boyfriend]…Adam Bean [dead.  Because the murderer is also a cop, the pig herd is attempting to hide as much]…information [as possible]…

Aladdin’s Satellite (#1586)

The only way to rein in chatbot pushers is to threaten their cash flow:

OpenAI won’t be rolling out an erotic version of ChatGPT any time soon…the controversial plan has been shelved “indefinitely”…as even its own advisors warned that ChatGPT users could form unhealthy attachments, which might harm their mental health.  One advisor chillingly suggested that the tweak risked turning ChatGPT into a “sexy suicide coach”…[and lawyers warned] it [would be] hard to keep illegal behavior out of outputs, like bestiality and incest…investors questioned why OpenAI would risk its reputation on a product with “relatively small upside” for…[a company regularly] linked to mental health harms in both kids and adults [which have led to] lawsuits…

Mad Libs (#1595)

LLMs…train the brain to disengage…[leading] to passivity…and low integration of concepts“:

…chatbots have become a common part of many [fools’] daily lives, even though they…[give] wrong answers…45 percent of the time.  But [stupid people] don’t understand that reality…and…tend…to take…chat[bot vomit] at face value, even when it [gives] them the incorrect answer…experiment…participants were asked to answer a variety of reasoning and knowledge-based questions.  Despite making the use of ChatGPT optional, over 50 percent…chose to use the chatbot to answer the questions…researchers…[found almost 80% of chatbot] users w[ere] willing to believe what[ever nonsense it barfed up] regardless of accuracy, in what [researchers] termed a “cognitive surrender” that effectively overrode their intuition and deliberation process…“to outsource thinking itself”…[and] give up their own agency…further cementing [their dependency] on [machines]…

“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free.  But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.”  –  Frank Herbert, Dune

Shame, Shame (#1612)

To Musk, this is pocket change:

Elon Musk’s [pet] chatbot [MechaHitler has] been banned from [gener]ating non-consensual…[sexual] images…by a Dutch court…the…order [applies to all of]…Europe…and…[includes] a [token] penalty of 100,000 euros ($115,000) for every day it [refuses] to comply…with a maximum fine of 10 million euros…Numerous lawsuits have [also] been filed…[including one from] Baltimore [abusing] the city’s consumer protection laws and…[an]other…[from] three teenagers in Tennessee [who were actually victimized by MechaHitler]…

Compared to Musk’s net worth, this is like me being fined 6¢ a day, maximum $6.

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1621)

Another broadside against the dangerous “semen retention” cult:

Regular ejaculation — for example, by masturbation — produces higher quality sperm…according to a comprehensive new…meta-analysis of more than 115 studies…that cumulatively involved nearly 55,000 men, as well as 56 studies of 30 non-human species…The results revealed that stored sperm deteriorates over time, resulting in DNA damage, reduced motility, and other defects that can affect fertilization and embryo outcomes…The study…sheds light on the possible evolutionary origins of masturbation, which has been observed in…dozens of [nonhuman] species including dolphins, elephants, lions, and many primates.  Masturbation may have emerged as a way to avoid leaving sperm in the tank for too long.  Indeed, even species that don’t masturbate in the traditional sense of self-stimulation have still been observed offloading sperm in a practice called “sperm dumping”…

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

The search bar replaced the reference desk without replacing the skills behind it.  –  Hana Lee Goldin

When I was in library school in the early ’90s, the internet was very young and largely accessed by libraries, universities, and research corporations via several companies such as Dialog which charged by the minute for access.  Because of this, it was considered important for librarians to learn how to formulate effective Boolean searches which would return roughly half a dozen good, solid articles on the topic.  It was recognized that a search delivering dozens or hundreds of results was a poor one because it would take too much (expensive) time and (professional) effort to sift through all that to find what one was actually looking for.  And I was really good at it; I excelled at crafting “Goldilocks” searches which would return a manageable number of relevant articles, neither too many nor too few, usually on the first try.  Then two things happened: AOL started offering unlimited connection time, and Google came up with its non-Boolean search engine which delighted non-librarians by returning thousands of items in the pretense that more is better.  And so an entire generation of people has grown up with absolutely no idea how to craft an effective search, leaving them helpless in the face of Google’s rapid enshittification, and therefore easy prey for its predatory and typically-wrong chatbot.  As Google has rapidly decayed I’ve tried several other search engines, but none of them are remotely as good as classic Google was.

That’s why I was so excited to discover this article by reference librarian Hana Lee Goldin, explaining not only how to get around Google’s loathsome practice of dishing up swill instead of what you ordered, but also how to use Boolean operators which have apparently always been hidden in the system.  Goldin explains the reason for her article concisely:

Google…constantly…swaps in synonyms, personalizes results based on your history, and decides what you probably meant rather than returning what you typed. Most of the time that interpretation is invisible. These tools are how you override it.

Beyond that, I’m not going to quote her excellent article because you should read it all.  The link above is to her Substack blog, but to head off the possibility of link rot I’ve also backed it up.  And if Hana happens to read this: from a retired reference librarian, thank you!

Censorship [is] wildly popular among…those who believe the most terrifying fact of the world is that others beside themselves have free will.
–  “Ship of Fools

 

[In contrast with the] cost…[of] second-rate, weeks-old grocery store eggs…two hours of literally shoveling shit twice a year…begins to seem like a good bargain indeed.  –  “Diary #665

 

“Nonprofit” merely refers to the organization; those who run it often make plenty of profit.  –  “Schadenfreude (#1425)

I will not comply.  –  Luanne James

To Molest and Rape (#1177)

Sows are just as disgusting and predatory as their male counterparts:

A [Massachusetts cop] was [rewarded with a paid vacation for]…sexual abuse [of a minor]…Samantha Pelrine…and her…husband, Daniel Forand, repeatedly sexually and physically assaulted the…[victim for] several years…[after wheedling control from] the victim’s aunt and grandmother[, who had] raised them until they were 12 years old…about one year later, Pelrine and Forand became the…victim’s legal guardians…and…began sexually assaulting the victim a short time after[ward]…continu[ing] until 2025…

No Difference (#1359)

Another victory for US evangelical prohibitionists:

Senegalese proponents of a tougher anti-LGBT law [got advice from] a U.S.-based [anti-sex] group that ​calls homosexuality a public health threat…MassResistance…has advised like-minded African [prohibition]ists for years…but now…is trying to take advantage of …[the] Trump…[regimes]’s [mass destruc]tion…of [US-funded health programs in Africa]…the ⁠new law…doubles the maximum prison term for same-sex sexual acts to 10 years and criminalizes so-called promotion of homosexuality…

Shame, Shame (#1494)

This sleaze is bottomless:

WebinarTV, a company that bills itself as “a search engine for the best webinars,” is secretly scanning the internet for Zoom meeting links, recording the calls, and turning them into [computer]-generated podcasts [without the consent of the participants]…in an attempt to promote WebinarTV’s services…in some cases the [creators of the] stolen videos…[are informed by computer-generated emails “signed” by imaginary corporate officers that their]…webinar is “featured on the Phil & Amy Show”, [which is a make-believe]…talk…show…[featuring] two [cartoon characters synchronized to chatbots outputting nonsensical “commentary” on]…the [stolen Zoom] call…WebinarTV accesses meetings using links that have been shared publicly, then records the sessions [without any] participant’s [knowledge or consent]…in…violat[ion of] Zoom’s terms of service…

A Woman’s Point of View (#1506)

As with cannabis legalization, if enough of these are thrown at the wall one may eventually stick:

…[If] a [new] bill…[is] passed, Colorado would become the first state to fully decriminalize sex work state-wide…This is not [the Swedish model, but rather] a decisive shift away from criminalization and toward safety…to [placate the very stupid]…the bill draws a firm line between consensual sex work and exploitation…and…would repeal statutes related to solicitation and patronizing…[and] update outdated escort service regulations…Nick Hinrichson…Lisa Cutter…Lorena Garcia and Rebekah Stewart…[are the sponsoring politicians.  A similar]…bill…in…Illinois [is still languishing undiscussed]…

Thought Control (#1600)

This is the library whose board chair wanted a snitch list of those who read books he wanted censored:

In a message…to the Rutherford County Library…board, Director Luanne James said she would not comply with an order to move…LGBT…titles from youth sections to the adult area…[saying] “Restricting access…through subjective relocation or removal constitutes a violation of the community’s right to information”…[which] would violate both the First Amendment and her professional obligations…The…Board [had] voted…to relocate more than 190 books…following a [“]review[” by non-librarians on order of]…Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett…Board Chair [and wannabe Big Brother] Cody York [defended his censorship attempt by bizarrely vomiting out]…“dismembering…healthy sex organs”…during [a] debate…[and threatened to sack] James…

Aladdin’s Satellite (#1602)

Sanders has announced he next plans to interview a TV set:

[Perennially-clueless politician] Bernie Sanders has a viral video making the rounds in which he “interviews” Anthropic’s Claude chatbot about the dangers of AI and privacy…and it might be one of the most unintentionally revealing demonstrations of…actual problems [with LLMs] that a politician has ever produced — just not in the way Sanders thinks…When you “interview” a large language model you are talking to a very sophisticated text prediction system that is specifically designed to give you responses that are (possibly) helpful, (hopefully) relevant, and (obsequiously) agreeable — shaped entirely by how you framed the question.  It’s not there to help you uncover hidden truths.  It’s not a whistleblower.  It’s not a witness in a congressional hearing, which is exactly what Sanders’ staging is designed to imply.  Ask it scary questions, get scary answers.  Ask it reassuring questions, get reassuring answers.  It is a mirror, not a source.  And Sanders’ video demonstrates this…

Walled Garden (#1611)

The internet’s global scope is the main reason politicians hate it and want to destroy it:

Ofcom, the U.K.’s [censorship bureau, is trying to] fine…4chan £520,000 for [refus]ing to implement [user surveillance] procedures and other measures [demand]ed by the U.K.’s Online Safety Act.  The [shakedown demand] includes “£450,000 for not having age checks in place”…[and the rest] for [refus]ing to provide Ofcom with [busywork it demands] and for not [submitting to posting compelled speech] in its terms of service…4chan[‘s lawyer, Preston Byrne,] responded to Ofcom with a…[computer]-generated picture of a giant hamster [hold]ing a [giant] peanut…attached to a truly excellent email response [stating]…”As has been explained to your agency, ad nauseam, the United Kingdom lost the American Revolutionary War…We are not in the mood to discuss the matter further, and have not been in the mood for 250 years…[4chan] reserves all rights and waives none…[including] the right to sue you again and/or to respond to future correspondence with an even larger rodent, such as a marmot.”  This is exactly the attitude U.S. companies should be taking with foreign authorities intent on forcing their online [censorship] on the rest of us…Ofcom [responded by absurdly claiming that the internet is a bar]…

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

Diary #822

As you can see, Axel and Speck are now friends.  I can’t really claim any credit; Speck was the one who made all the overtures and slowly got him used to her presence.  I apologize for this being a poorly-composed picture; that lump under the blanket is my leg, so if I’d tried to get up to catch the shot from a different angle, they might’ve moved.  Alas, Axel has not stopped being aggressive altogether; a few days ago a stray cat came into the atrium and if I hadn’t called him off it would not have been pretty.  But one step at a time; at least he leaves the resident cats alone.  He is now down to 50 mg of trazodone per day, in a single dose at bedtime; that’s a lot lower than what he was on when he arrived in late November, but it’s still quite high considering he’s on a typical human dose despite having only about a quarter of a typical human body mass.  Even so, I’m going to keep weaning him off of it slowly; since I stopped splitting the dose between afternoon and bedtime I’ve noticed he’s a bit more antsy in the afternoons, so just cutting him off would still be a bad idea.  His next reduction will be this coming Sunday, down to 25 mg, so we’ll see how that works out and proceed accordingly.

In chick news, I typically keep them inside for three weeks, so they should’ve gone out into the henhouse nursery on Sunday.  However, the turkey chick is two weeks younger than the others, and the predicted low on Sunday night was -4o C, so I held off on putting them outside until today (it was only a one-night cold snap).  So watch next week for a video of them in the newly-rebuilt nursery, where they’ll spend the next three weeks before I start letting them out in the daytime to mix with the adult hens.

Back Issue #153

I’ve been around the block more times than you’ve masturbated, and if you think you can trick me into doing your homework, you need to be slapped harder than I’m willing to give you for what you can afford.  –  “Not Last Night

Links #821

Teleporting is no fun.  –  Gregg Phillips

It’s difficult for young people nowadays to understand just how badly our culture has backslid into sexual repression during my lifetime.  Here’s an example from the 1978 Broadway musical On the 20th Century in which fairly typical 21st century sexual attitudes are the subject of mainstream mockery.  The links above the video were provided by Nun Ya; Reason; T. Greg Doucette; Jesse Walker and Popehat; Nun Ya again; and T. Greg Doucette again (x2), in that order,

From the Archives

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

When we use the courts to…bully someone into an unnecessary medical procedure against their will, it’s akin to torture.  –  Cherise Doyley

Property of the State (#431) 

When this evil started a decade ago, potential victims were warned in advance:

Cherise Doyley…wanted to try for a vaginal delivery, but she understood from years of experience as a professional birthing doula that things don’t always go as planned…Doctors told her they were concerned about the [<2%] risk of uterine rupture…[but] she understood th[at negligible] risk…and repeatedly told doctors she wouldn’t consent to a cesarean without trying to have a vaginal delivery first…Then a nursing supervisor wheeled a tablet up to her bed and informed her she was in court….[for] failing to agree to a C-section…abortion restrictions can lead to pregnant women being denied lifesaving care…[bu]t the opposite problem, forced treatment, could also become more common in states like Florida that have fetal personhood policies [which place politically-determined “rights” of a fetus above that of an adult]…woman…who…is…[essentially considered an] incubator…

To Molest and Rape

Most rapist cops use their cop power, but some prefer the brute-force approach:

Detroit…[cop] Benjamin Wagner…is now facing life in prison on numerous kidnapping and [rape] charges…[for at least] five [attacks carried out] between 1999 and 2003…Wagner targeted girls and young women between the ages of 15 and 23, approaching them while they were walking and then forcing them at gunpoint into secluded areas…The charges are tied directly to sexual assault kits collected at the time of the attacks…[which the police] never [bothered to] investigate…[a “new broom” politician named Kym] Worthy launched a sweeping initiative to [make political coin]…It took nearly a decade just to test all of the kits…

I Spy (#1422)

Your regular reminder that used cars still exist:

…a federal mandate requiring surveillance technology that monitors your every blink, glance, and head nod…[will empower a computer to] decide…whether you’re fit to drive.  If [a computer program] determines you’re impaired (blood alcohol ≥0.08% or showing fatigue), it can prevent ignition startup or limit vehicle speed…[buy]ing…a 2027 model means accepting this digital copilot…[worse still,] these systems [will be] updatable [without owner consent, allowing]…monitoring capabilities [to be expanded] post-purchase [at a political whim]…manufacturers [will almost certain]ly upload biometric data to corporate servers…[for] sharing with insurance companies to [raise] your premiums…Car manufacturers [point out that]…false positives [will regularly] strand drivers.  They’re concerned about customer backlash and [100% predictable] sales declines as buyers seek older, unmonitored vehicles.  The federal government [justifi]es this surveillance [by barfing the word “]safety[” at useful idiots]…

The Vultures Descend (#1510)

This twisted scheme was first attempted in Wyoming:

…The [latest attempt by forced-birth politicians to make abortion more difficult, odious, and stigmatized]…would [criminalize] flush[ing] abortion or miscarriage remains down a toilet “to protect both human dignity and America’s water systems”…The bill[‘s sponsor, Mary]…Miller[, vomited a lot of bizarre claims and convoluted dysphemisms all over reporters while attempting to justify her attempt to]…force women [using abortion pills] to [bleed into a bag marked “BIOHAZARD”]…and bring the [expelled tissue] to their physician.  [Presumably, women who miscarry unexpectedly would be expected to leave the results in the toilet, go and get one of these scarlet bags, and then scoop the mess, feces and all, into it, upon pain of]…a $50,000 fine and up to five years in prison…Trace amounts of all medications…can be found in wastewater…but there is no scientific evidence to back up the [prohibitionist propaganda] that abortion pills are polluting drinking water or harming [anyone]

Pyrrhic Victory (#1511)

Looks like it’s time for veils to come back into fashion:

Walmart has recently been awarded patents…for [algorithms which enable]…surveillance pricing, the practice of charging people different prices for the same goods and services based on their unique [facial-recognition-linked profile in the software]…Another patent recently granted to Walmart…involves the use of machine learning to predict the demand of various items and recommend prices…[using] third-party data…

Torture Chamber (#1602)

Fascism in action:

West Virginia prisoners [have filed a class action lawsuit against] Aramark Corporation [because it] serves inedible, low-quality food in its prison cafeterias to drive customers to its [overpriced] food-for-purchase programs…Aramark is the largest food provider in the United States to prisons and jails…and…brought in $18.5 billion [last year.  It has a long history]…of serving inedible or spoiled foodprepared in kitchens where workers have [regular]ly found maggots…In Kentucky, Aramark’s [terrible] food…led to a prison riot [in 2015]…

Walled Garden (#1621)

As the old adage says, “Three can keep a secret if two are dead”:

…an unprotected database [belonging] to IDMerit, a company that claims to help businesses verify identities, exposed roughly 1 billion sensitive records across 26 countries.  In the United States alone, more than 203 million records were left unsecured…researchers…discovered [the] exposed…database on Nov. 11…anyone who knew where to look could access it.  Inside were full names, home addresses, postal codes, dates of birth, national ID numbers, phone numbers, email addresses and gender information…Researchers notified the company, and the database was secured the following day…[bu]t automated bots constantly scan the internet for exposed databases and can copy them within minutes…

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

Blues for a Bird

A few months after I started using Bluesky, I wrote: “…the only reason I’m still on Twitter is that Bluesky simply isn’t big enough yet to provide all the content I need to keep this blog going.”  But it was difficult to figure out exactly how I’d know when the time had come, because it’s actually rather difficult to compare the sites.  Because Twitter uses algorithms to hide a lot of my posts, artificially boost the reach of garbage and advertisements, and freeze the follower counts of people it wants to silence, there’s no real apples-to-apples comparison with Bluesky, which does none of those things.  When Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022, my follower count there had been frozen at roughly 18,500 for several years; since then it has slowly dwindled to about 16,500 as people abandon the declining platform.  But even when my follower count at Bluesky was a small fraction of that, I routinely noticed that most posts on Bluesky would get double or triple-digit levels of engagement while the exact same post on Twitter got single-digit levels.  And that’s not the only indicator; in November of 2024 Twitter changed some kind of code so it was no longer possible to embed tweets on my website, so at that time my monthly selection switched entirely over to Bluesky.

About two years ago I decided that when my Bluesky follower count reached half of my Twitter follower count, it would probably be time to leave Twitter for good.  As of this writing my count is 7900, and by the time you read this it will likely have hit 8000; judging by past performance I’m likely to hit my trigger-point of 8200 by the beginning of summer.  My posts there routinely get more reach than they’ve had on Twitter in the past decade, and the average quality of the responses is dramatically higher; furthermore, most of the people I used to be interested in reading on Twitter have now moved to Bluesky, so I no longer need to sift through Twitter for content.  Accordingly, once I hit 8200 I’ll be largely stepping away from Twitter.  I plan to mute everyone there who is also on Bluesky because like me, most of those folks cross-post everything, and while I will still check my account so as to reply to messages, I’ll no longer make original posts there.  All good things must come to an end, and Twitter has been dying for years now.  But at least we have a decent replacement.

There really isn’t an excuse for repeated attempts at social engineering that aren’t even tied to some kind of grift, pork, or fascist collaboration.
–  “In the Dark

Being able to look out a window and see grass and trees and animals…is so much better for my mental and spiritual health then being subjected to a “view” which consists of nothing but concrete, glass, and automobiles.
–  “Diary #664

“Innocence” is merely a fanciful euphemism for “ignorance”.  –  “Tweetenstein

For me, no sorrow is ever experienced in isolation; new tears falling into the pool immediately cause it to overflow, and then it’s impossible to tell how much of my anguish is due to the proximate source of the grief, and how much is old pain which has never been fully resolved.  –  “Pool of Tears