Iowa school district asked ChatGPT which books had sex in them, then banned them, including "Beloved," "Friday Night Lights" and "Handmaid's Tale." We must protect high schoolers from independent thought at all costs https://www.popsci.com/technology/iowa-chatgpt-book-ban/
@drewharwell When I moved to Iowa 20ish years ago, it was purple enough to hold a clear advantage over its neighbors to the west and south, but its rapid downward spiral to the far end of the red spectrum makes it seem our useless governor is competing with DeSantis to see who can create the vilest cesspool. Kim Reynolds is an embarrassment to humanity.
@snoopfrog@arstechnica I haven't used Chrome as my primary browser for ages, but I suppose this will impact Vivaldi as well since it's chromium-based. I'm giving Firefox a try as my primary browser since I'd previously used it only on a limited basis. It crashed trying to close a private window, and the theme I've applied disappears every couple hours. Otherwise it looks like it might suffice.
@cliffwade
The detail and focus certainly seems better with the iphone pic. That said, it would take a lot more than that for me to switch to an iphone...
#PHOTOS: Stanley Park, containing some of Canada’s largest old-growth trees, provides an immediate reminder of what used to exist all across Vancouver. Solana Pasqual reports. 🌳📸
Interesting... Minutes of music in my library is not at all indicative of how much I listen to a particular composer. My Top 4 in terms of listening would almost definitely be:
📽️ I discovered earlier that HISTORY OF THE OCCULT is available on #Kanopy, so I guess tonight's movie is settled.
(It's also on #Tubi for those of you who don't have Kanopy, but if you have a library card in the U.S., I beseech you to check and see if you can access their amazing library of #films.)
@stina_marie@horror I wish my library offered Kanopy but it only offers Hoopla, and with such a low daily organizational limit that I can never watch anything in the evening.
Took my 12 y.o. grandson to his first live symphony performance last Saturday, it was a learning experience. The conductor and symphony board decided on a “challenging” program of 19th Century Czech composers in two parts, the first featuring a trumpet concerto - which I thought would be a perfect intro for my grandson. Though good, it was not the program I expected. I had to explain to my grandson that though there is a large corpus of really beautiful classical music, sometimes orchestras choose to perform more challenging or experimental pieces. A shame IMO. There exists, after all, bad classical music - let’s face it. Of course I’m opinionated (I’m sure you’re not surprised), and I personally think any classical piece written after say 1840 is suspect and most are rubbish. Aficionados would argue that modernist classical music simply reflects the times; discordant, busy and brassy. I argue that is not classical music’s job. #music#ClassicalMusic#ClassicalMusicLovers
I suspect the total amount of money the catholic church has spent on settlements and cover-ups for child sexual abuse could have housed, fed, and clothed the entire world. Priorities, right?