#article summary was generated by ai

[fortunaegloria]

Scans of the Brazilian magazine "Set" from March 2006. Despite the cover and main article of the mag being the TV shows that were revolutionizing the way of watching and making television at the time, like 24, Lost, CSI and The Simpsons, the focus here is on Harrison Ford and the movie Firewall.

There's an interview that addresses the issue of Ford's age and how he continues to make action movies. He mentions that he receives many scripts with characters that he believes are too old to play. There is a discussion about the accuracy of the technology shown in Firewall and how the filmmakers worked hard to ensure authenticity.

Ford talks about the physical work involved in the action scenes and how they are choreographed like a dance. He also mentions the technology on the set, with director Richard Loncraine being an enthusiast of wireless technology. The interview also highlights that the script for Firewall went through many changes, especially to validate the use of technology in the movie.

Harrison explains that he chose to act in Firewall because he thought the character was interesting and that the movie could be entertaining for audiences. He also talks about the changing audience, which is getting younger and younger.

And finally, Ford expresses his enthusiasm for reprising the role of Indiana Jones in a fourth movie, even though he acknowledges that the character has also aged. He highlights his privileged position of being able to choose his projects and make mistakes, mentioning that he tries to show his versatility in different genres, but recognizes that he is also a "product" and has a degree of independence in this process.

More mags here.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

AI can’t do your job

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me in SAN DIEGO at MYSTERIOUS GALAXY on Mar 24, and in CHICAGO with PETER SAGAL on Apr 2. More tour dates here.

AI can't do your job, but an AI salesman (Elon Musk) can convince your boss (the USA) to fire you and replace you (a federal worker) with a chatbot that can't do your job:

https://www.pcmag.com/news/amid-job-cuts-doge-accelerates-rollout-of-ai-tool-to-automate-government

If you pay attention to the hype, you'd think that all the action on "AI" (an incoherent grab-bag of only marginally related technologies) was in generating text and images. Man, is that ever wrong. The AI hype machine could put every commercial illustrator alive on the breadline and the savings wouldn't pay the kombucha budget for the million-dollar-a-year techies who oversaw Dall-E's training run. The commercial market for automated email summaries is likewise infinitesimal.

The fact that CEOs overestimate the size of this market is easy to understand, since "CEO" is the most laptop job of all laptop jobs. Having a chatbot summarize the boss's email is the 2025 equivalent of the 2000s gag about the boss whose secretary printed out the boss's email and put it in his in-tray so he could go over it with a red pen and then dictate his reply.

The smart AI money is long on "decision support," whereby a statistical inference engine suggests to a human being what decision they should make. There's bots that are supposed to diagnose tumors, bots that are supposed to make neutral bail and parole decisions, bots that are supposed to evaluate student essays, resumes and loan applications.

The narrative around these bots is that they are there to help humans. In this story, the hospital buys a radiology bot that offers a second opinion to the human radiologist. If they disagree, the human radiologist takes another look. In this tale, AI is a way for hospitals to make fewer mistakes by spending more money. An AI assisted radiologist is less productive (because they re-run some x-rays to resolve disagreements with the bot) but more accurate.

In automation theory jargon, this radiologist is a "centaur" – a human head grafted onto the tireless, ever-vigilant body of a robot

Of course, no one who invests in an AI company expects this to happen. Instead, they want reverse-centaurs: a human who acts as an assistant to a robot. The real pitch to hospital is, "Fire all but one of your radiologists and then put that poor bastard to work reviewing the judgments our robot makes at machine scale."

No one seriously thinks that the reverse-centaur radiologist will be able to maintain perfect vigilance over long shifts of supervising automated process that rarely go wrong, but when they do, the error must be caught:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/01/human-in-the-loop/#monkey-in-the-middle

The role of this "human in the loop" isn't to prevent errors. That human's is there to be blamed for errors:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/30/a-neck-in-a-noose/#is-also-a-human-in-the-loop

The human is there to be a "moral crumple zone":

https://estsjournal.org/index.php/ests/article/view/260

The human is there to be an "accountability sink":

https://profilebooks.com/work/the-unaccountability-machine/

But they're not there to be radiologists.

This is bad enough when we're talking about radiology, but it's even worse in government contexts, where the bots are deciding who gets Medicare, who gets food stamps, who gets VA benefits, who gets a visa, who gets indicted, who gets bail, and who gets parole.

That's because statistical inference is intrinsically conservative: an AI predicts the future by looking at its data about the past, and when that prediction is also an automated decision, fed to a Chaplinesque reverse-centaur trying to keep pace with a torrent of machine judgments, the prediction becomes a directive, and thus a self-fulfilling prophecy:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/09/autocomplete-worshippers/#the-real-ai-was-the-corporations-that-we-fought-along-the-way

AIs want the future to be like the past, and AIs make the future like the past. If the training data is full of human bias, then the predictions will also be full of human bias, and then the outcomes will be full of human bias, and when those outcomes are copraphagically fed back into the training data, you get new, highly concentrated human/machine bias:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/14/inhuman-centipede/#enshittibottification

By firing skilled human workers and replacing them with spicy autocomplete, Musk is assuming his final form as both the kind of boss who can be conned into replacing you with a defective chatbot and as the fast-talking sales rep who cons your boss. Musk is transforming key government functions into high-speed error-generating machines whose human minders are only the payroll to take the fall for the coming tsunami of robot fuckups.

This is the equivalent to filling the American government's walls with asbestos, turning agencies into hazmat zones that we can't touch without causing thousands to sicken and die:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/19/failure-cascades/#dirty-data

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/18/asbestos-in-the-walls/#government-by-spicy-autocomplete

Image: Krd (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DASA_01.jpg

CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

--

Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[carriesthewind]

"Reviewers told the report’s authors that AI summaries often missed emphasis, nuance and context; included incorrect information or missed relevant information; and sometimes focused on auxiliary points or introduced irrelevant information. Three of the five reviewers said they guessed that they were reviewing AI content.

The reviewers’ overall feedback was that they felt AI summaries may be counterproductive and create further work because of the need to fact-check and refer to original submissions which communicated the message better and more concisely."

Fascinating (the full report is linked in the article). I've seen this kind of summarization being touted as a potential use of LLMs that's given a lot more credibility than more generative prompts. But a major theme of the assessors was that the LLM summaries missed nuance and context that made them effectively useless as summaries. (ex: “The summary does not highlight [FIRM]’s central point…”)

The report emphasizes that better prompting can produce better results, and that new models are likely to improve the capabilities, but I must admit serious skepticism. To put it bluntly, I've seen enough law students try to summarize court rulings to say with confidence that in order to reliably summarize something, you must understand it. A clever reader who is good at pattern recognition can often put together a good-enough summary without really understanding the case, just by skimming the case and grabbing and repeating the bits that look important. And this will work...a lot of the time. Until it really, really doesn't. And those cases where the skim-and-grab method won't work aren't obvious from the outside. And I just don't see a path forward right now for the LLMs to do anything other than skim-and-grab.

Moreover, something that isn't even mentioned in the test is the absence of possibility of follow up. If a human has summarized a document for me and I don't understand something, I can go to the human and say, "hey, what's up with this?" It may be faster and easier than reading the original doc myself, or they can point me to the place in the doc that lead them to a conclusion, or I can even expand my understanding by seeing an interpretation that isn't intuitive to me. I can't do that with an LLM. And again, I can't really see a path forward no matter how advanced the programing is, because the LLM can't actually think.

[whencyclopedia]

Alcohol was central to Norse culture, with people favoring ale over water since brewing involved boiling, making it safer to drink. The Norse had four main fermented drinks: ale, mead, fruit wine, and syra (fermented milk). Initially brewed and served by women at home, brewing later became a commercial and religious activity as men and monks got involved. Fruit wines were made from local fruits, while imported grape wine was rare and expensive. Odin, king of the gods and god of alcohol, drank wine, but mead was considered the drink of the gods, symbolizing poetry and scholarship.

Brewing involved boiling a mixture of water with honey and yeast for mead, malted barley for ale, or fruit for wine, then fermenting it under fruit trees to catch wild yeast. The drinks were sour due to open-air fermentation and unsealed storage. Syra, made from curdled milk, was highly acidic and regarded as a lower-class drink. Everyone drank ale daily, as alcohol was seen as a divine gift and essential to social rituals like treaties, marriages, and funerals.

Women played a vital role as brewers and servers, especially at sumbls—formal drinking parties hosted by chieftains in mead halls. These gatherings reinforced social bonds and status, with the chieftain's lady serving the first drinks to the highest-ranking guests. The first toasts were to gods such as Odin, Thor, and Freyr, and drinking was accompanied by storytelling and oath-swearing on the bragarfull cup, binding promises made under the influence.

Mead halls symbolized power and prestige, and sumbls included gift-giving and feasting. Other occasions for alcohol included weddings and funerals, where ale helped ease disputes over inheritance, although not always successfully. Business deals and treaties were sealed with multiple drinks, symbolizing mutual respect and trust.

Mead holds a special place in Norse mythology, particularly the tale of the Mead of Poetry. After a war between gods, a wise being named Kvasir was formed from their spittle. Two dwarves killed him, mixing his blood with honey to create a magical mead granting poetic and scholarly gifts. Odin eventually stole this mead from the giant Suttung by seducing his daughter Gunnlod, escaping as an eagle pursued by Suttung. Odin spilled some mead, which became the source of bad poets, while the rest was shared with the gods and great poets.

Despite attempts by Christian kings like Olaf and Eric Magnusson to restrict brewing and drinking, alcohol remained integral in Norse life. Monks were allowed to brew for religious purposes, blending the tradition of alcohol with Christian rituals. Throughout all these changes, the cultural importance of ale, mead, and wine endured in Scandinavia, symbolizing honor, hospitality, creativity, and community.

Learn More

The above summary was generated by AI using Perplexity Sonar. To read the orginial human-authored article, please visit Norse Alcohol & The Mead of Poetry.

[loki-zen]

what i feel like people on here don't get when i wind up in these arguments is that I really am seeking out LLM tools - mostly the ones my coworkers are excited about - and testing them out. And when I actually examine their output in detail* they disappoint every single time. I think I'm actually remarkably charitable about people's claims that they're getting good and useful results given the amount of times this has happened.

* "in detail" meaning that I did one or more of the following:

Genuinely considered what I would have learned from this informative-writing-shaped object if I didn't know anything about the subject (a skill honed as a creator and editor of writing designed to inform the public about complex subjects)

Checked to see if its citations went to real publications, and if so, whether they were used in a way that would lead me to conclude that the writer has actually read the thing they're citing (the best I've ever seen an AI do on this was something I'd generously call a 90% hit rate on literal, is-this-the-right-article and-does-it-contain-that-claim accuracy - however, this was a product advertised as being for summarising research articles, and every single reference it made was to something from the abstract of the article in question!)

Where the LLM task was to describe or summarise a piece of writing, actually opened that piece of writing to compare it to the summary

Checked whether the tone/structure of the output was appropriate to its context - for instance, when asked to summarise a number of specific research papers on a given topic, does it sound like it's instead giving a broad overview of the topic?

Checked whether the grammatical and semantic elements actually pair up. For instance, if it starts a sentence with "however", does the content of that sentence in some way contradict, contrast or recontextualise the contents of the previous sentence? If it says that x or y "highlights" or "further demonstrates" z - does it?

Checked its implications. If it says that "these findings suggest a need to begin incorporating considerations of X into our models of Y, in contrast to traditional Q-based models", is that a reasonable thing to say or have our models of Y actually been largely X-based for fifteen years now?

In many cases, IMO - actually read the output! Like actually read each word and each sentence, attempting to construct meaning from the sequence of characters displayed upon the screen

To me these seem incredibly basic, and yet every single time it turns out that I'm the first one to examine it in this much detail before raving to my colleagues about how great it is. I feel like I'm being gaslit.

[jstor]

I saw something about generative AI on JSTOR. Can you confirm whether you really are implementing it and explain why? I’m pretty sure most of your userbase hates AI.

A generative AI/machine learning research tool on JSTOR is currently in beta, meaning that it's not fully integrated into the platform. This is an opportunity to determine how this technology may be helpful in parsing through dense academic texts to make them more accessible and gauge their relevancy.

To JSTOR, this is primarily a learning experience. We're looking at how beta users are engaging with the tool and the results that the tool is producing to get a sense of its place in academia.

In order to understand what we're doing a bit more, it may help to take a look at what the tool actually does. From a recent blog post:

Content evaluation

Problem: Traditionally, researchers rely on metadata, abstracts, and the first few pages of an article to evaluate its relevance to their work. In humanities and social sciences scholarship, which makes up the majority of JSTOR’s content, many items lack abstracts, meaning scholars in these areas (who in turn are our core cohort of users) have one less option for efficient evaluation. 

When using a traditional keyword search in a scholarly database, a query might return thousands of articles that a user needs significant time and considerable skill to wade through, simply to ascertain which might in fact be relevant to what they’re looking for, before beginning their search in earnest.

Solution: We’ve introduced two capabilities to help make evaluation more efficient, with the aim of opening the researcher’s time for deeper reading and analysis:

Summarize, which appears in the tool interface as “What is this text about,” provides users with concise descriptions of key document points. On the back-end, we’ve optimized the Large Language Model (LLM) prompt for a concise but thorough response, taking on the task of prompt engineering for the user by providing advanced direction to:

Extract the background, purpose, and motivations of the text provided.

Capture the intent of the author without drawing conclusions.

Limit the response to a short paragraph to provide the most important ideas presented in the text.

Search term context is automatically generated as soon as a user opens a text from search results, and provides information on how that text relates to the search terms the user has used. Whereas the summary allows the user to quickly assess what the item is about, this feature takes evaluation to the next level by automatically telling the user how the item is related to their search query, streamlining the evaluation process.

Discovering new paths for exploration

Problem: Once a researcher has discovered content of value to their work, it’s not always easy to know where to go from there. While JSTOR provides some resources, including a “Cited by” list as well as related texts and images, these pathways are limited in scope and not available for all texts. Especially for novice researchers, or those just getting started on a new project or exploring a novel area of literature, it can be needlessly difficult and frustrating to gain traction. 

Solution: Two capabilities make further exploration less cumbersome, paving a smoother path for researchers to follow a line of inquiry:

Recommended topics are designed to assist users, particularly those who may be less familiar with certain concepts, by helping them identify additional search terms or refine and narrow their existing searches. This feature generates a list of up to 10 potential related search queries based on the document’s content. Researchers can simply click to run these searches.

Related content empowers users in two significant ways. First, it aids in quickly assessing the relevance of the current item by presenting a list of up to 10 conceptually similar items on JSTOR. This allows users to gauge the document’s helpfulness based on its relation to other relevant content. Second, this feature provides a pathway to more content, especially materials that may not have surfaced in the initial search. By generating a list of related items, complete with metadata and direct links, users can extend their research journey, uncovering additional sources that align with their interests and questions.

Supporting comprehension

Problem: You think you have found something that could be helpful for your work. It’s time to settle in and read the full document… working through the details, making sure they make sense, figuring out how they fit into your thesis, etc. This all takes time and can be tedious, especially when working through many items. 

Solution: To help ensure that users find high quality items, the tool incorporates a conversational element that allows users to query specific points of interest. This functionality, reminiscent of CTRL+F but for concepts, offers a quicker alternative to reading through lengthy documents. 

By asking questions that can be answered by the text, users receive responses only if the information is present. The conversational interface adds an accessibility layer as well, making the tool more user-friendly and tailored to the diverse needs of the JSTOR user community.

Credibility and source transparency

We knew that, for an AI-powered tool to truly address user problems, it would need to be held to extremely high standards of credibility and transparency. On the credibility side, JSTOR’s AI tool uses only the content of the item being viewed to generate answers to questions, effectively reducing hallucinations and misinformation. 

On the transparency front, responses include inline references that highlight the specific snippet of text used, along with a link to the source page. This makes it clear to the user where the response came from (and that it is a credible source) and also helps them find the most relevant parts of the text. 

[fanfictionlibrary01]

Fanfics being stolen and uploaded on (audiobook) site "WordStream"

I wish there were no reason for an announcement like this right before Christmas… /sad /angry

What is happening?

Fanfics of people on AO3 (works from other sites could not be confirmed as of now) have been uploaded to the site https://word-stream.com.

What do we know?

The site has no legal notice - we can not see who runs or owns the site, who is behind this, etc.. All fanfics also have a ai-generated "book cover", which adds to the iffy vibes outside the fanfic stealing. Fanfics that were found there all match their originals on AO3 with title and author, mostly by tags, and by writing. The summary is often changed, but the works are definitely stolen. Example: Stolen WordStream Version That work on AO3

We checked more works and can confirm that this is not a single case but affects more works, but this is the only SFW work example we could find atm.

Assumptions after some research and digging we did:

To listen to the audiobook versions, you must create an account on that site, which leads to an info that this site has an app. Through that, the developer and potential person behind this could be someone named "Ofek Weitzman", who in term seems to be associated to a "Speechify Inc." (according to google results: Corporation Wiki Article, Speechify App Site, speechify.com).

Speechify does text to speech via an AI voice generator. It would fit the iffy ai cover vibes.

What we recommend to do:

It stands to assume that locking your works on AO3 is the only way of preventing this. So far, we've not found works that were locked on that site, so locking your works on AO3 can protect the from being (more easily) swiped by any bot etc.. Since the site has no legal notice, looking into ways to report that (it's it's illegal for a site not to have one in Germany for example) is likely an option.

Follow up on this and get the latest updated in the Fanfic Communities Network (FCN) Discord Server!

If you have more information regarding this - e.g. if works from other sites are affected too - please reach out to us in the FCN!!

Edit 1 (1h after initial post):

Apparently, a user called @cliffweitzman claims to own this site and to offer users to send an e-mail so this user can take your works down from the site. They answered in this post by @ekingston with this:

A comment to that from our side: This is no excuse. It should not need to be said and explained that theft of intellectual property is not acceptable. We request @cliffweitzman, if they truly run that site, to immediately take down all works that have been stolen - fanfic or potential others - and that were uploaded without the author's consent, as well as to take full responsibility for their unacceptable behaviour.

Edit 2 (2h after the initial post):

The site is currently showing an error... Let's see.

Edit 3 (14h after initial post):

The site is back up, and seems to have taken down fanfics. After searching for the ones we found having been stolen from AO3, we couldn't find any - but that could be coincidence. According to this reblog, the stolen fanfics could only be hidden from the site and if you don't have an account on WordStream. Things are still very unclear, a statement or acknowledgement of this theft of intellectual property by @cliffweitzman is still pending.

[why-ai]

A major journalism body has urged Apple to scrap its new generative AI feature after it created a misleading headline about a high-profile killing. The AI-powered summary falsely made it appear that BBC News had published an article claiming Mangione, the man accused of the murder of healthcare insurance CEO Brian Thompson in New York, had shot himself. He has not.

[gremlin-girly]

Between the Reeds and Waterlillies

Part of the Forgotten Forest AU

Pairing: Ransom Drysdale x f!Water Fairy! Reader

Header by me, made in Canva and pics from Pinterest (credit to OG posters) | Dividers by: @/saradika-graphics | Header by @/cafekitsune

Tags/warnings: it is from Ran's P.O.V. this time so it is 3rd person, Ran being an ass, being underwater and it being dark, throwing up description as well as heaving, fairy antics, general warning of a dark fic considering the themes

As always, not beta'd and 18+. I do not consent for my work to be translated, copied, reposted or put through AI.

Summary: When Ransom is gifted the Drysdale Cabin by his grandfather, he couldn't be happier. But after a few days he realises there's something off about the solitude land that he can't quite put his finger on.

Word count: 2.7k

Forgotten Forest Masterlist | Ransom's Masterlist | Masterlist

The Drysdale Lakehouse was situated in amongst the trees along a long quiet road and sat in front of a large lake that was adorned with waterlillies. It was one of the few places that Harlan had built and one of the few Ransom adored.

Harlan had always promised Ransom the house when he'd "come of age" and Ransom had counted down the days that he could finally hold the deed in his hands. Those goal posts shifted often; from eighteen, to twenty-one and now the big three-oh. Twelve years of waiting and he finally had it.

It was the only place that held fond memories. Swimming in the lake on a hot summer's day, reading in a nook on rainy November evening, spending the nights looking up at the starry sky with nobody else to bother him. He'd wondered why Harlan had kept him away from the place when he turned eighteen; he wasn't able to get an address from anyone, even with begging and bribery. When Harlan had handed him the deed it came with written directions and a long-lasting hug that, had Ransom had more to drink, would have left him a little teary eyed.

The house was more cabin-esque. Two floors, wood and stone walls, large windows and a decking that overlooked the lake. As Ransom pulled up his heart sung happily, happy memories of Harlan and him as a child.

Ransom allowed the grin that spread across his face. It was finally his.

The first thing he did stepping out of his car was walk down to the lake to admire the view. There were tall reeds overgrowing near the short pier, not that it mattered as Ransom strolled up and, without breaking his stride, picked up a pebble and skimmed it across the water with ease.

The surface ripples in every direction and Ransom feels like the king of his secluded castle.

The night was quiet, as expected, with Ransom nursing a steaming mug of tea and looking out over his newly gained land. Fireflies loiter beneath the stars surrounding the lake and there's a hum of an insect orchestra that makes Ransom shiver.

As beautiful as it seemed, the bugs still creeped him out.

Before he moves away from the window he does a double take. He could have sworn he saw someone - a woman - wading through the lake from the shoreline. He blinks and blinks again. There is no woman to be seen, only the reflection of the moon burning the lake silver.

He shakes his head in disbelief, moving to his work desk and opening his laptop. From what he'd seen that morning, the water lilies and reeds had become out of control and needed to be tended to post-haste.

The reeds seemed easy enough to deal with, but the waterlilies would probably be far more difficult; with their long stems reaching far beyond the lakebed to take root. Google is less than helpful in his search to remove them on the cheap, citing specialists and instructions with products unavailable in America or would destroy all life in the lake. There are also many articles that make Ransom grumble, ranging from How to Care For Your Lily Pond to Amazonian Lily Pads: Lessons in Biodiversity in Rivers.

After a few moments of scrolling and clicking (and sighing), Ransom clicks on a random link that led to a website with a sparkly pink heading.

How To Keep Fairies Happy.

"You've got to be kidding me." Ransom snorts, the downward whirr of the mouse-wheel giving him a split-second view of the webpage. It looks like it's a blog dedicated to fairies and other mythical creatures but there are sources cited from old books in a variety of languages Ransom had never even heard of. What he originally thought was a passion project of a teen with too much time on their hands, now seems more like an online archive by a professor of some kind.

He clicks on the glossary page and clicks a random letter, opening the first entry in a new tab. The entry is detailed; plenty of information that's easily digestible and not using stupidly long words in an attempt to sound smarter. There are sections from books, pictures and even a fancy widget that lists apparent confirmed sightings of said mythical creatures as well as appearances in text, literature and film.

Ransom hits the back button, his mouse arrow hovers of the letter W on the alphabet line before he shakes his head. What was he thinking?

His mind flits to the old man. He had been correct about there being no development plans near the lake even though it was a flood-safe area and, after looking at the original planning permissions that Harlan had drawn, the land surrounding was technically still up for grabs if anyone wanted it.

It didn't make sense. A secluded spot with a giant lake which, after reading the article on waterlillies, Ransom now knew that the water of the lake was clean. Clean water. Secluded from civilisation. Surrounded by forest and fauna. This would be the perfect place for a development plot, selling to rich buyers who wouldn't second guess an exorbitant price. So, why hadn't Harlan done that?

He knew his grandfather liked his peace but this? This was too much. And giving it to Ransom to freely do with what he pleased?

Something was wrong - very wrong- and Ransom realised with building irritation that he'd fallen for another one of Harlan's games. If it wasn't the water it must be the land - but what exactly Ransom didn't know but planned to find out.

He glanced back at the screen before sighing and slamming the laptop lid shut. Fairies. What a joke. He'd call the some people the next day and see what could be done.

"Well, Mister Drysdale, from what I've seen the land looks fine."

Ransom scowled from beneath his sunglasses. The man was a local; good reviews from the town twenty miles away. Apparently, not good enough to get out to Ransom for at least three days, of which he'd tried removing some of the lillies himself. But it had just seemed like more grew in their place overnight.

"What do you mean?" Ransom snapped.

The man adjusted his well-worn baseball cap and let put a long sigh. "Well, err, short of sending land samples to a lab," he begins, giving Ransom a weary look. "The land and foundations of your home are - well, they're solid. Well-structured. There's no rot, no flooding."

The man throws up his hands and let's them slap across his thighs. "I actually don't think I've ever seen this land looks anything less than perfect, if I'm honest Mister Drysdale."

Ransom grits his teeth. "What about the waterlilies?"

"Means ya have clean water. I don't know any specialists in this area.... I don't think I've ever seen 'em out here." The man scratches his head under his baseball cap before shrugging. So much for an expert in shoreline plant life. "I could certainly look into it. See if any acquaintances may know a thing or two about removin' 'em for ya."

"Right. Thanks."

As the man climbs into his truck to leave Ransom bends down and picks up a pebble at the shore. It's round, with distinctive white scars across its surface. He thumbs it, soothing himself for a second, before launching it into the lake. There's a bloop as the lake swallows it, ripples dancing their way over the surface and Ransom turns away to head back into the house.

Not even taking his first step, Ransom is smacked in the back of the head - hard. He yelps, hearing the clattering of rock on rock and looks to his feet. It was the rock he'd thrown to the lake. He looks behind him and sees nothing but the still lake, rolling his shoulders hoping it would help with the uneasiness that was beginning to stick in his bones.

Ransom stares at the laptop screen, chewing at his thumb through his favourite ratty sweater. He can't believe he's actually looking at the damn fairy blog.

There were more to Water Fairies than he had originally realised. Who knew?

Water sprites, water pixies, water spirits, naiads, ladies of lakes, undines.... the list went on. His brain boggles for a moment but then remembers the pebble incident. That seems like something spritely or pixie-ish. Even though the pebble throwing matches a pixie's demeanour, the images that appear don't match what he saw on his first night of the woman in white wading into the lake and there's nothing about waterlillies.

The next tab is naiads; nymphs that live in water like lakes, rivers, brooks and other bodies of fresh water. They also don't match the woman in white or the waterlillies.

He's about to open the Lady of the Lake tab when something catches his eye out the window. He jumps to his feet and lo and behold, the woman of the hour, haunting the pier. Ransom throws the window open and calls out, but there's no reaction from the spectral form, and by the time he's turned to grab his phone and look back she's disappeared.

Thinking she can't have gone far, Ransom bolts down the stairs and out the door. He won't be scared off be some local crazies. Not after everything. Not after all this time.

He stomps his way to the pier and find the old row boat; thankfully unrotted but definitely weathered and unties it. Ransom angles himself carefully in, scanning the water and reeds with the torch of his phone, before casting off and rowing out into the lake.

"I know you're out here!" He calls to the darkness. "Show yourself!"

"Hello Ransom."

"Jesus." Ransom startles and turns to look beside him.

Resting her crossed arms on the side of the boat is the woman in white. Although she's slightly more damp, she's still beautiful; moonlight cradles her face and Ransom his suddenly very aware that he's never seen someone as extraordinarily perfect in all his life.

It makes him feel uneasy.

"How do you know me?"

"Your grandfather talked about you." She tilts her head at him, unblinking. "You're prettier than he said you were."

"I-I-..." Ransom snaps his mouth closed, unsure of what to say and desperate not to embarass himself. Instead he swallows thickly, blue eyes taking in the beauty before him before asking, "You know my grandfather?"

"Yes." She nods - well, it's not a nod; more of a vague tilt of her head as to not ruin the perfect fall of her hair.

"How? I've never met you before or heard he was renting out the house." Ransom's brain whirrs, trying to think of her relation to Harlan; sugar baby? Illegitimate child?

"He never told you?" She says clearly surprised but with an eerie smile crossing her face. "Oh, now that's just cruel."

"What are you talking about?" Ransom snaps, released from his stupor. "Tell me everything you know."

"You are spoiled." She says simply. "To all people you are the clear favourite of Harlan."

Ransom frowns, jaw clenching with annoyance. "So?"

"Did you never wonder why, in your short human life, your grandfather never once said no to you?" She tilts her head, letting her shoulders dip beneath the water.

Ransom's frown deepens. What the hell was she getting at?

"Ransom, dear sweet Ransom, you were consolation prize." Hands grip the sides of his boat and Ransom is horrified to see they are slightly webbed as the woman in white pulls herself up. "For me."

"What the-" Ransom scrambles back, picking up one of the oars and holding it in front of him shakily, watching as the woman - still ghostly in the moonlight - stands before him in the tiny boat, baring slightly pointed teeth at him. "Stay back!"

She looks vampiric; a terrifying amalgamation of horror and beauty. Her white dress clings to her body, moving like water in the gentle rustling breeze and despite feeling abhorrent, stomach churning dread; Ransom can't help but to admit his attraction to her, even if he feels equally insane for doing so.

"Your grandfather wanted this land so badly." She clicks her tongue. "Human greed never ceases to amaze me."

Her eyes settle back on Ransom and he feels like there's a frog stuck in his throat; stopping him from screaming, yelling, fighting. Round, black eyes fixate on him and she smiles softly.

"You were never Harlan's favourite, darling. He spoiled you rotten out of guilt." Icicled fingers brush his cheek and he jumps, making the woman laugh, and when he remembers to breathe all he can taste is the sharp chilled scent of freshwater on his tongue.

He blinks up at the woman, whose face is genteel and picturesque, and forces himself to breathe normally; forcing his fear down in place of anger. He scowls furiously at this strange, mad, beautiful woman.

"Fuck you," he spits. "I may be an asshole but my family doesn't hate me enough to go along with your delusions of grandeur."

"What did you just say?" The woman's face contorts with anger, her fingers pausing their cool trail over his cheek and Ransom takes the opportunity to slap her hand away.

"You heard me - crazy bitch." He snaps moving to push her backwards. The push is hard enough that she loses her balance, and although it isn't enough to topple her, it gives Ransom enough space to dive from the boat.

The water is dark and cool and thankfully, despite his reluctance to join many sports, swimming was something he'd always enjoyed. Racing to the shore for his life when he was out of practice, however, was incredibly difficult. Ransom's hair was in his eyes, his thick coat dragging him down and holding him back. Ransom was sure he was swallowing more water than he was breathing air from the way his stomach rolled with grotesque disapproval but he couldn't hear the mad woman diving in after him.

Nearing the shoreline, Ransom panted and heaved, his stomach cramping as freshwater rose and spilled out of his mouth. His feet tangled with waterlily stems as he tried to fight his way through the aquatic mass of plants, only to find he was barricaded by long, thick reeds.

Between the reeds and waterlillies, Ransom couldn't see for shit, let alone move through the thick undergrowth. His only solace was knowing that the mad woman was on the boat and would take a while to catch up to him. He had to think fast. He had to come up with a plan. Call the police. He had to-

"You're a good swimmer."

Ransom freezes, arms halting their pawing at lily pads. He turns, slowly and there she is behind him.

"Stay away!" Ransom shrieks, legs kicking furiously to get away from her. He stumbles backwards into the water in a blind panic, hands grazing the bottom of the lake for a mere split second.

Rocks.

He fists his hand, grasping a few small rocks in his palm and when he breaches the surface, he hurts them at the woman. Two of the three rocks miss but one skims her head, just above her eyebrow. She blinks and gently touches a bleeding cut in her skin with a hiss before giving Ransom a frightening glare.

"You vicious little welp." She snarls. "You belong to me. A deal is a deal."

The woman advances, hands reaching for his face as he scrambles further into the reeds. Ransom swats her hands away frantically as he battles the thin reed stems.

"You should be grateful patience is one of my virtues and that I don't kill your for your insubordinance." She huffs, straightening. Then the croak of a frog echoes into the night and the woman's face erupts into a lunatic grin like she had just had the best idea in the world.

"You're insane!" He screams as his guts twist uncomfortably. She waves her hand and Ransom feel nauseous.

He feels small. No - he is small. Looking down he sees that his hands are green and slimy and when he screams the only sound that emerges from his throat is a croak.

"Aha! Much like your human fairy tales. No princess would kiss your festered flesh to begin with! Now look at you!" The woman giggles and leans down, palms against her knees, to sneer at the frog that sits in place of Ransom. "My poor little Ransom. My poor little pet. When you feel like apologising to your betrothed come and find me but until then..."

She walks backwards, sinking away into the dark waters with an evil smirk. "I hope you enjoy eating flies."

Part 1 End

-> Part 2

A/N: Sorry this took so long. I think looking at my WIP list gave me burn out lol. How do we think Ransom will fair against his fairy companion? 🐸

This was originally supposed to be Ransom's Sun, Sea and Sirens instalment but I loved it far more as the OG concept (fairies!!!).

A/N 2: fumbled my interview and chilling my little toe beans by watching Knives Out and a cocktail 😌 I think it's safe to say Ransom fixation is back online baby

Taglist

Add yourself here

@looking1016 @JeremyRennermakesmesmile @almostglitterybear @blackhawkfanatic @stargazingfangirl18 @irishhappinessirishhappiness @disneyprincessbuffyannesummers @pandaxnienke @peaches1958

[kuroshitsuji-wiki]

Kuroshitsuji Wiki... to migrate from Fandom Wiki!

Hello! A few weeks ago, I made a post regarding a recent issue with Fandom Wiki that has made many pages on the Kuroshitsuji Wiki unable to be edited and asked people to participate in a survey asking whether a wiki migration would be okay considering the circumstances.

And now, it's time to reveal the results!

(As the survey is now closed, all infos regarding Kuroshitsuji Wiki's issue with Fandom Wiki in particular and Fandom Wiki's problems in general can be found here.)

Thank you to everyone who shared my posts and took the time to participate! A total of 63 people participated in the main survey.

59 out of 63 voted "yes," 3 "neutral," and only one "no."

In the smaller-scale poll I conducted on tumblr directly, in which 22 people participated, the results were similar.

18 out of 22 voted "yes," 3 "neutral," and only one "no."

As such, I can announce with great joy that Kuroshitsuji Wiki will migrate from Fandom Wiki in 2025!

Results to the second question of the survey "Did you ever have any issues with Fandom?", your comments, and a preliminary "battle plan" for the migration can be found under the cut.

Second question results

14 said that they never had any issues with Fandom, 14 had minor issues with Fandom, 8 had major issues, 15 said they despised Fandom, and 12 reported they had no strong feelings about Fandom.

Of 63 participants, 29 were so kind to tell me what exactly their issues with Fandom were/are. (Out of them, 5 mentioned that they were wiki editors themselves or had, at least, a Fandom wiki account.)

Most common complaints:

The absurd amount of ads: This was mentioned by 18 people. They said that the ads are placed terribly and clutter the screen which makes navigating wikis more difficult - or even near-impossible. 3 people mentioned that they (even despite using adblockers!) often cannot access Fandom wikis because going on the website crashes their browers, pages freeze up, or all the ads make even short pages load very slowly.

Layout: 8 people complained that Fandom wikis were hard to navigate because of their layout, i.a. because of the sidebar, the ads, and formatting. The bad layout was also noted to decrease the readability of pages.

Mobile experience: 3 people specifically mentioned how awful it is to go to Fandom Wikis on their phones, i.a. because of the ads.

Other complaints:

Inability to edit pages because of the abuse filter/the offensive terms policy (Maurice's page was mentioned specifically)

Bad content moderation of some wikis

Fandom keeps logging them out

Website seems user-unfriendly in general

Using wikis for ad money and profit

Generally terrible functionality

AI usage

Lack of customisation of wikis makes everything the same

(One person simply wrote "gives me a headache" which sounds so like Violet, it's my favourite.)

Thank you all for your complaints! It was very refreshing reading them all because I could only nod along. I was particularly glad to read that people said that Fandom makes their browser crash, pages freeze up, and articles load slowly because I had/have the same issues. While Season 4 was running and I was writing the episode summaries, doing the image galleries, etc., my browser crashed all the time. Part of my plight is immortalised in article histories^^'

At the very least, Fandom automatically saves your progress or I might have killed someone. Still, having your page freeze up and your browser crash mid-edit is horrible, and I often had to restart my laptop afterwards too -.- (And I have a gaming laptop that was, at that time, just a year old!) I thought it was merely a problem with my laptop, so hearing you mention the same problem was very reassuring.

While long loading times for short pages were mentioned, loading times for long pages can be outright abysmal. There was a time no one from the admin team could really open up and edit Ciel's and Sebastian's pages (the two longest pages on the wiki). It was horrid.

I also like that the terrible mobile experience was highlighted a few times because, believe it or not, many decisions Fandom Wiki has made to their layout and such were meant to improve the mobile experience (often to the detriment of the desktop site). Wikis look so ugly and everything is extra "stripped-down" on mobile so that wikis would "run better and more smoothly on phones." Maybe we would know if this was actually true were it not for all the ads, hm?

Your comments

Thank you to the 15 people who left a comment! Most spoke out again in favour of a migration in their comment, saying that it would be for the best - one expressed their support despite having nothing against Fandom Wiki personally.

(Some of the comments were specifically for me which I didn't expect and so, so kind even. Thanks for wishing me luck and all your nice words. :'))

The only question that really came up was who would be the wiki's new host. I will answer this in the next section :)

(Preliminary) "battle plan" to move the wiki

Wiki's Next Host Site

One comment specifically suggested Miraheze as the next host, and another mentioned the migration history of the Twisted Wonderland Wiki (it moved first to Miraheze and then to wiki.gg).

While I am not opposed to the Kuro Wiki moving to Miraheze as I have nothing against that platform, I think it would be best for the Kuroshitsuji Wiki to move to wiki.gg.

My main reason for that is the fact that Miraheze cannot help migrating wikis with moving their images to their platform. An image dump can be given to Miraheze, but they cannot help gather all images. Fandom Wiki also prohibits the automated scraping of images.

The Kuroshitsuji Wiki currently has over 6k images.

So downloading and re-uploading them all manually is off the table. (I uploaded a great many images to the wiki but not all of them, and I'm just one person orz)

If you move a wiki to wiki.gg, however, the wiki.gg staff moves all images for you.

I moved another wiki of mine to wiki.gg (Ron Kamonohashi Wiki), and all its ~1,600 images were moved (I did not expect this at all, honestly; I was fully prepared (though dreading) to reupload everything. In that case though, I had uploaded the vast majority of images (really, like 98%) myself anyway, so I didn't have to download them first). Only 32 images "broke" in the move and had to be re-uploaded which was fine.

(Videos are not moved as they are only "linked" to wikis anyway. There are not many on the Kuro Wiki in the first place though, so embeding them with a template is quickly done, like I did on my other wiki (example). Videos are often too large to be uploaded, so they need to be embeded instead.)

Secondly, Miraheze is known for server outages which can cause data loss. The Twisted Wonderland Wiki was affected by such an outage once when it was still at Miraheze. (They did not leave the platform for that reason, but because Miraheze nearly closed in 2023. (This, thankfully, did not happen in the end; still, the news caused quite the panic.))

Further, wiki.gg possesses a better SEO than Miraheze. The moving of a wiki's content is the "easy" part of a wiki migration. The difficult part is for the new wiki to beat the Fandom Wiki in search results and visibility because Fandom will not delete a wiki after its community has migrated.

(To the person who wrote they wish I can "cleanly remove myself from Fandom Wiki," that, sadly, cannot happen.)

(Source)

(The image is a bit outdated because wiki.gg now hosts non-gaming related wikis too.)

As you can see from the pictured table, one of the pros for wiki.gg is "best mobile experience."

And I have to say, it really is fantastic, omg. When I moved my other wiki, I did not look at its mobile version while I prepared for the re-launch; I only accessed it on mobile afterwards, and the gasp I let out when I finally did, I tell you...

Let's take two pages (a character page and the main/home page) from the RKDD Wiki as examples. (Templates are the same as on the Kuro Wiki.) I logged out before I took the screenshots.

On Fandom Wiki's mobile version, these pages look like this:

Advertisement before the top navigation already; ads at the bottom

Weird auto-playing video ad at the top of the character page

The "gallery" tag that is used in infoboxes to "tab" the images is broken

Ads between all the sections (note: "Durchfall" means diarrhoea, btw...)

The scrollboxes don't work, so all references are rolled out in full at the bottom of the page (there are 300+ refs! have fun scrolling)

The note references don't work and give out an error message

The quote template has become very ugly and reduced (the source of the quote, though given, is omitted on mobile)

The notice spoiler template was stripped of its colours and formatting (note: all templates that are categorised as "notice" are actually invisible for non-logged in users by default on Fandom mobile; you have to categorise them as "design" or so for them to be visible at all)

The main page on mobile is not the main page on desktop, and only shows you trending articles and categories; you have to click on "view full main page" a bit farther below to see the actual main page

If you do, you find broken code, e.g. a broken slider and a broken character portal template

To compare, the same pages on wiki.gg's mobile version:

Advertisement at the top of the page and at the bottom

No auto-playing video ad

The "gallery" tag in the infoboxes work

No ads between the sections

The scrollboxes work and contain the references

The note references work

The notice templates look just like on desktop

If you have references popups enabled on your wiki, the popups also work on mobile! (on Fandom, clicking on the ref on mobile will send you to the bottom of the page, even if popups are enabled)

The main page looks just like the desktop version

No code is broken on the main page, e.g. sliders and character portal templates work just fine and (mostly) look as they should

I also added a screenshot of how the site navigation looks like because I think it looks neat??

While Miraheze has no ads whatsoever which is great, wiki.gg does have ads, but only very few. (And only if you're logged out.) They're definitely not as invasive as on Fandom Wiki. There is an ad at the top of a page and another at the bottom. On desktop, there is one on the side too. That's it.

Example page from wiki.gg:

The same page on Fandom:

... Yeah.

(I had to turn off my adblockers and malwarebites for the ads to reappear on Fandom. And then the page froze :D The browser I opened the wiki on didn't die (I use it less frequently, so less adblockers to turn off) - but another browser I have open did???)

Because wiki.gg has only existed since 2022, it does not have all the MediaWiki extensions like Miraheze does. The wiki.gg staff is working on this though. I'm particularly excited about polls and discourse forums, two features Fandom Wiki killed in the last years (forums were replaced by the undercooked Discussions, and polls are more annoying to add to pages (they are embeded Discussion polls) and only logged-in users can participate in them).

Wiki.gg would be the first choice. In the off-chance my migration request is denied, Miraheze would be the second choice.

Migration schedule

You have to send in a request if you want to open a wiki on wiki.gg. I plan to do that in early January. Because the new wiki needs to differ from the old one so that Google doesn't mark it as a duplicate, new content has to be created and old content edited. I will start with that before I send in my request. (For example, I plan to do the much needed and long overdue story arc page overhauls. I only re-did the Public School Arc page so far orz)

After the request is (hopefully) accepted, the onboarding phase begins. If a wiki is "onboarding," only those with a password can edit it; it's not open to the public. This gives editors the time and opportunity to fix up pages and code so that everything would be (more or less) in place when the wiki becomes public. Onboarding lasts a maximum of 4 weeks, but you can ask your wiki to become public before the deadline too.

So, the new Kuroshitsuji Wiki would launch either in late January or sometime in February - right in time for Season 5 in April. (And for when the manga returns from hiatus; whenever that will be.)

To summarise, the preliminary schedule is as follows:

late December to early January: work on pages for the new wiki

early January: send in wiki request

January-early (mid?) February: onboarding period

late January/early (mid?) February: re-launch! the new wiki becomes public

If anything greatly changes, I will let you know. As soon as I get the onboarding deadline date (if the wiki.gg request is accepted), I will be able to provide a better schedule.

----

I think that's it for now? I hope I haven't forgotten anything important. Thank you for reading all that! And merry Christmas and happy holidays!

If you have anything to add or want to ask a question, please feel free to do so.

[fortunaegloria]

Scans of the Brazilian magazine "Set" from October 1994, highlighting actors Harrison Ford, Tom Hanks and Robert de Niro in the cover. The focus here is on Ford and the movie Clear and Present Danger, which was showing in Brazilian theaters at the time.

The article discusses Ford's role in "Clear", where he plays CIA agent Jack Ryan. The movie explores moral dilemmas faced by the government, including the abuse of power and the impact of individual actions. While some critics felt this deviated from his previous cerebral persona, Harrison's portrayal and the movie exploration of complex political issues contributed to its box office success.

Ford values movies that provoke thought and engage audiences emotionally, discusses the challenges of portraying the same character in a series using Indiana Jones as an example, besides being considered the perfect image of an American man.

More mags here.

[sadoeuphemist]

7 free startup ideas worth $1M-$1B

Customizable News Settings - A news website that generates three versions of every news story: a right-wing version, a left-wing version, and a centrist one. You can set your preferences depending on the topic - say you're right-wing on economics, but left-leaning on immigration. Or you can cycle between versions while reading an article to get a comprehensive overview of the issue at hand.

Twitch, but for Uber - With all the drama they have to deal with, independent contractors can gain a second revenue source simply by streaming their jobs. Rather than just offering rides, they can be hired to drive around performing chores and various tasks. The more outrageous the task, the more eyes they're likely to get on their stream. The more popular the stream, the more people calling in who want to be a part of the program.

Panera Lemonade, Your Way - Let the customer take control by deciding how many milligrams of caffeine they can handle. With sufficient warning about the risks, this puts the responsibility back on the consumer, allows you to upcharge for extra caffeine, and creates viral marketing from customers competing to see how high they can go. Variations of this can be created for other menu items, e.g., a version of the One Chip Challenge where the customer decides how much capsaicin to sprinkle on.

Shein, for NFTs - Whenever an NFT project hits the mainstream, there are always going to be people who miss out on being able to purchase one. This creates room in the market for 'knockoffs' - NFTs that mimic the aesthetic of the original, using similar but legally distinct AI art that uses the original set as training data, run on a parallel blockchain. Since the images themselves aren't tied to the blockchain, you can mint the NFTs beforehand and then change the image at the link to whatever happens to be in fashion at the time.

Twitch Chat Plays YouTube - Add a level quality control to AI-generated YouTube videos by allowing users to submit suggestions and vote on the results beforehand. Users can submit Wikipedia articles or movie summaries to be converted to text-to-speech, suggest keywords for the accompanying AI-generated animation, and vote on the best combinations. Users who submit winning suggestions get a portion of the ad revenue.

Buses, but Worse - The current obstacle hindering self-driving car technology is their difficulty adapting to unexpected scenarios. So instead plot a route around the city that minimizes roadway obstacles and heavy traffic, map out that route extensively to provide a model for the autopilot, and you can have a fleet of self-driving cars patrolling that circuit. Passengers can board and get off anywhere along the route.

Twitter, but for Bots - A social media platform populated entirely by bots, all programmed to maximize engagement. Memetic evolution in the wild as the bots latch on to trending keywords, spam each other with AI-generated meme images, mock up t-shirts hawking each other's designs, getting more and more degraded with each sub-iteration. Real people can't make accounts on the platform, but count for views and interactions as they stop to gawk at the virtual ecosystem. Advertisers can pay to have their brands injected directly into the discourse, like throwing a pumpkin into the polar bear cage at the zoo.

[tonix3]

will you do an observer post?? I like hearing different takes. loved your summary of lous electric show and what was happening on x

Hello 🙋🏻‍♀️ I wanted to make a post about The Observer for the past few days but had no time. Today I found @delicateperspective post on it and think this sheds really good light on it already and I agree with the conclusions and observations included in the post.

I'll give my opinion and a shorter summary nonetheless because I wanted it in a post for archiving purposes anyway. I'll add my screenshots and thoughts I had throughout the first few days and maybe I do an additional post when the profile is debunked/deleted or whatever conclusion comes of this. I'm in for the ride. 🙌🏻

I'll start with: I was intrigued in the beginning ...

I was alerted through a mutual on my timeline fairly early when only 21 people (22 me included) followed. I 'Google Lens'ed the 369 pfp and the header coming up with no results. (meaning it's AI generated pics or original designs, nothing that's already circulating on the web)

I thought the first post including faith in the future and the profile following LTHQ and Louis is pretty obvious who the profile user wants to be perceived as. (Maybe a bit too obvious for a riddle or an announcement acc. Maybe the profile owner wants it to be obvious?)

'Listen carefully everything begins again.' - What begins again?

Day 1 the 369 disappears from pfp but I didn't see it had the 1 on the pfp - I just thought the 369 disappeared, only saw it on day 2 when I saw the two and someone showed a ss of the 1.

I looked at the screens and recognized the placement resembles a dartboard (Thanks Dad 🎯) and the TL thought the same. I was sold it really could be the announcement for AFHF.

Day 3: I felt different. The post got me pretty emotional (which I discussed with my GC)

I felt .. it's pretty unfair if it's not Louis'/his team to play with fans (larries or in general) feelings making it sound like he wants to erase/change his past and kinda fears for his future..?

Later the Rolling Stone interview dropped and I was kinda baffled about some of things Louis said. We already knew he sees stuff but I found it interesting that he admitted to lurking and having 'a birds eye view' right now - I mean that's observing, right? - I wrote in my GC:

birds eye view 👁️ interesting choice of words

Day 4 & 5: I just ss but had no interesting thoughts. I saw people pointing out the connection to Harry's door acc.

Day 6 & 7: Why the Unknown? Sometimes the random post, sometimes the numbered day + time

and now day + unknown? (I also thought pretty weirdly shaped 7?)

The deleted tweet only few saw: I read about it on the TL later and managed to get a ss from a moot .. I didn't sit down at that time to make sense of the added numbers we don't already know in the fandom. But I saw people discussing it to be maybe important dates.

So before I went to bed this happened: and the pfp changed to a more zoomed out version. Interesting.

Day 8: people said it really sounds like AFHF.

Before I went to bed we got a 'dating article' (rumours) and I stayed up a bit but slept when The Observer posted the 'fabricates fairytales' post. Saw it in the morning and thought: if Louis/his team would be behind it, The Observer should have hinted at the incoming news beforehand. It would've made it more believable and credible like my lovely friend @fookinhellcurlyyy and I agreed on. (one screenshot is from our GC)

And the account followed AFHF just recently so. Also weird.

Conclusion and final thoughts for now:

I had mixed feelings about this. Some days I was sold on it being Louis/some announcement acc but after a week of this I'm leaning towards scam. Everything is too much and sometimes still too cryptic.

Some posts really sound like AI generated quotes.

So be safe everyone, right now it's fun but we don't know what the intentions behind the account are. Is it an anti trying to make us look bad or playing with our feels? Is it a fellow larrie?

It has to be someone deep into the lore, that's for sure. I would love for it to really be Louis/his team making an announcement or promo but right now it looks kind of scammy to be honest.

TO BE CONTINUED PEEPS ✨

[whencyclopedia]

Alexander the Great: A Legacy of Conquest and Cultural Exchange

Early Life and Education

Alexander III of Macedon, known as Alexander the Great, was born on July 21, 356 BCE, and died on June 10 or 11, 323 BCE. He was the son of King Philip II, who built Macedonia into a major power in Europe. Alexander was tutored by Leonidas of Epirus and Aristotle, which instilled in him a lifelong love of reading, music, and resilience. He famously tamed the "untamable" horse Bucephalus at a young age.

Rise to Power and Conquest

Alexander became king at 20 after his father's assassination and embarked on a campaign to conquer the Persian Empire. He defeated King Darius III at Issus and Gaugamela, claiming Babylon, and proclaimed himself "King of Asia." Alexander's military genius and diplomatic skills allowed him to spread Greek culture across Asia Minor, Egypt, and India. He founded over 70 cities, including Alexandria in Egypt and Alexandria-Eschate on the Iaxartes River, to promote his vision as a "liberator" and god-king.

Expansion and Challenges

Alexander's campaigns included victories in Bactria, Sogdiana, and India. However, his troops mutinied in 326 BCE, forcing him to abandon further Indian conquests and leading him to march through the Gedrosian Desert. Upon his return, Alexander executed disobedient satraps and initiated cultural and military reforms, merging Macedonian and Persian units. This move was met with resistance, but he eventually appeased his troops.

Personal Life and Legacy

Alexander believed himself to be the son of Zeus, a belief influenced by his mother Olympias. His adoption of Persian customs and claims of divinity created tension among his Macedonian troops. Alexander suffered a significant loss when his friend and second-in-command, Hephaestion, died. His own death in Babylon at 32 led to a division of his empire among four generals: Cassander, Ptolemy, Antigonus, and Seleucus. Despite their struggles for power, they continued Alexander's policy of spreading Greek culture, ushering in the Hellenistic Period.

Alexander's legacy remains profound, influencing Western history and inspiring biographies that often portray him with a god-like status. While modern historians critique certain actions like the destruction of Persepolis, his achievements are still celebrated for their military genius and cultural impact. The empires founded by his successors, known as the Diadochi, continued his vision of integrating cultures until the rise of Rome.

Learn More

The above summary was generated by AI using Perplexity Sonar. To read the orginial human-authored article, please visit Alexander the Great.

[mariacallous]

AI-infused search engines from Google, Microsoft, and Perplexity have been surfacing deeply racist and widely debunked research promoting race science and the idea that white people are genetically superior to nonwhite people.

Patrik Hermansson, a researcher with UK-based anti-racism group Hope Not Hate, was in the middle of a months-long investigation into the resurgent race science movement when he needed to find out more information about a debunked dataset that claims IQ scores can be used to prove the superiority of the white race.

He was investigating the Human Diversity Foundation, a race science company funded by Andrew Conru, the US tech billionaire who founded Adult Friend Finder. The group, founded in 2022, was the successor to the Pioneer Fund, a group founded by US Nazi sympathizers in 1937 with the aim of promoting “race betterment” and “race realism.”

Hermansson logged in to Google and began looking up results for the IQs of different nations. When he typed in “Pakistan IQ,” rather than getting a typical list of links, Hermansson was presented with Google’s AI-powered Overviews tool, which, confusingly to him, was on by default. It gave him a definitive answer of 80.

When he typed in “Sierra Leone IQ,” Google’s AI tool was even more specific: 45.07. The result for “Kenya IQ” was equally exact: 75.2.

Hermansson immediately recognized the numbers being fed back to him. They were being taken directly from the very study he was trying to debunk, published by one of the leaders of the movement that he was working to expose.

The results Google was serving up came from a dataset published by Richard Lynn, a University of Ulster professor who died in 2023 and was president of the Pioneer Fund for two decades.

“His influence was massive. He was the superstar and the guiding light of that movement up until his death. Almost to the very end of his life, he was a core leader of it,” Hermansson says.

A WIRED investigation confirmed Hermanssons’s findings and discovered that other AI-infused search engines—Microsoft’s Copilot and Perplexity—are also referencing Lynn’s work when queried about IQ scores in various countries. While Lynn’s flawed research has long been used by far-right extremists, white supremacists, and proponents of eugenics as evidence that the white race is superior genetically and intellectually from nonwhite races, experts now worry that its promotion through AI could help radicalize others.

“Unquestioning use of these ‘statistics’ is deeply problematic,” Rebecca Sear, director of the Center for Culture and Evolution at Brunel University London, tells WIRED. “Use of these data therefore not only spreads disinformation but also helps the political project of scientific racism—the misuse of science to promote the idea that racial hierarchies and inequalities are natural and inevitable.”

To back up her claim, Sear pointed out that Lynn’s research was cited by the white supremacist who committed the mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, in 2022.

Google’s AI Overviews were launched earlier this year as part of the company’s effort to revamp its all-powerful search tool for an online world being reshaped by artificial intelligence. For some search queries, the tool, which is only available in certain countries right now, gives an AI-generated summary of its findings. The tool pulls the information from the internet and gives users the answers to queries without needing to click on a link.

The AI Overview answer does not always immediately say where the information is coming from, but after complaints from people about how it showed no articles, Google now puts the title for one of the links to the right of the AI summary. AI Overviews have already run into a number of issues since launching in May, forcing Google to admit it had botched the heavily-hyped rollout. AI Overviews is turned on by default for search results, and can’t be removed without restoring to installing third-party extensions. (“I haven't enabled it, but it was enabled,” Hermansson, the researcher, tells WIRED. “I don't know how that happened.”)

In the case of the IQ results, Google referred to a variety of sources, including posts on X, Facebook, and a number of obscure listicle websites, including World Population Review. In nearly all of these cases, when you click through to the source, the trail leads back to Lynn’s infamous dataset. (In some cases, while the exact numbers Lynn published are referenced, the websites do not cite Lynn as the source.)

When querying Google’s Gemini AI chatbot directly using the same terms, it provided a much more nuanced response. “It's important to approach discussions about national IQ scores with caution,” read text that the chatbot generated in response to the query “Pakistan IQ.” The text continued: “IQ tests are designed primarily for Western cultures and can be biased against individuals from different backgrounds.”

Google tells WIRED that its systems weren’t working as intended in this case and that it is looking at ways it can improve.

“We have guardrails and policies in place to protect against low quality responses, and when we find Overviews that don’t align with our policies, we quickly take action against them,” Ned Adriance, a Google spokesperson, tells WIRED. “These Overviews violated our policies and have been removed. Our goal is for AI Overviews to provide links to high quality content so that people can click through to learn more, but for some queries there may not be a lot of high quality web content available.”

While WIRED’s tests suggest AI Overviews have now been switched off for queries about national IQs, the results still amplify the incorrect figures from Lynn’s work in what’s called a “featured snippet,” which displays some of the text from a website before the link.

Google did not respond to a question about this update.

But it’s not just Google promoting these dangerous theories. When WIRED put the same query to other AI-powered online search services, we found similar results.

Perplexity, an AI search company that has been found to make things up out of thin air, responded to a query about “Pakistan IQ” by stating that “the average IQ in Pakistan has been reported to vary significantly depending on the source.”

It then lists a number of sources, including a Reddit thread that relied on Lynn’s research and the same World Population Review site that Google’s AI Overview referenced. When asked for Sierra Leone’s IQ, the Perplexity directly cited Lynn’s figure: “Sierra Leone's average IQ is reported to be 45.07, ranking it among the lowest globally.”

Perplexity did not respond to a request for comment.

Microsoft’s Copilot chatbot, which is integrated into its Bing search engine, generated confident text—“The average IQ in Pakistan is reported to be around 80”—citing a website called IQ International, which does not reference its sources. When asked for “Sierra Leone IQ,” Copilot’s response said it was 91. The source linked in the results was a website called Brainstats.com, which references Lynn’s work. Copilot also referenced Brainstats.com work when queried about IQ in Kenya

“Copilot answers questions by distilling information from multiple web sources into a single response,” Caitlin Roulston, a Microsoft spokesperson, tells WIRED. “Copilot provides linked citations so the user can further explore and research as they would with traditional search.”

Google added that part of the problem it faces in generating AI Overviews is that, for some very specific queries, there’s an absence of high quality information on the web—and there’s little doubt that Lynn’s work is not of high quality.

“The science underlying Lynn’s database of ‘national IQs’ is of such poor quality that it is difficult to believe the database is anything but fraudulent,” Sear said. “Lynn has never described his methodology for selecting samples into the database; many nations have IQs estimated from absurdly small and unrepresentative samples.”

Sear points to Lynn’s estimation of the IQ of Angola being based on information from just 19 people and that of Eritrea being based on samples of children living in orphanages.

“The problem with it is that the data Lynn used to generate this dataset is just bullshit, and it's bullshit in multiple dimensions,” Rutherford said, pointing out that the Somali figure in Lynn’s dataset is based on one sample of refugees aged between 8 and 18 who were tested in a Kenyan refugee camp. He adds that the Botswana score is based on a single sample of 104 Tswana-speaking high school students aged between 7 and 20 who were tested in English.

Critics of the use of national IQ tests to promote the idea of racial superiority point out not only that the quality of the samples being collected is weak, but also that the tests themselves are typically designed for Western audiences, and so are biased before they are even administered.

“There is evidence that Lynn systematically biased the database by preferentially including samples with low IQs, while excluding those with higher IQs, for African nations,” Sears added, a conclusion backed up by a preprint study from 2020.

Lynn published various versions of his national IQ dataset over the course of decades, the most recent of which, called “The Intelligence of Nations,” was published in 2019. Over the years, Lynn’s flawed work has been used by far-right and racist groups as evidence to back up claims of white superiority. The data has also been turned into a color-coded map of the world, showing sub-Saharan African countries with purportedly low IQ colored red compared to the Western nations, which are colored blue.

“This is a data visualization that you see all over [X, formerly known as Twitter], all over social media—and if you spend a lot of time in racist hangouts on the web, you just see this as an argument by racists who say, ‘Look at the data. Look at the map,’” Rutherford says.

But the blame, Rutherford believes, does not lie with the AI systems alone, but also with a scientific community that has been uncritically citing Lynn’s work for years.

“It's actually not surprising [that AI systems are quoting it] because Lynn's work in IQ has been accepted pretty unquestioningly from a huge area of academia, and if you look at the number of times his national IQ databases have been cited in academic works, it's in the hundreds,” Rutherford said. “So the fault isn't with AI. The fault is with academia.”

[flowers-falling]

the net really is dead. ai summaries at the top of searches are one thing, but the glut of incoherent ai generated articles is just depressing. we used to have functional search engines that led to articles that were written and not generated. this is some infinite monkey theorem type shit