#ars technica

[infinitemonkeytheory]

Good morning. It is October 24, and today's image features an amazing shot of the Moon over a sanctuary in Sicily. It was captured by Dario Giannobile, a talented Italian astrophotographer.

This is a brilliant shot of the Moon, with the light from Earth shining on about 75 percent of the lunar surface and the remainder brightly lit by the Sun. The Moon is seen above the Santuario della Madonna Nera (Sanctuary of the Black Madonna) in Tindari, a small town on the northern coast of Sicily.

#ars technica #astrophotography #moon #lunar photography #sicily #luna

[jewelpit]

How not to ring in pride by plugging a Matt Walsh film, courtesy of Ars Technica

(I'm posting this today because I wanted to give them the weekend to respond to it, and it's now nearly 1:00 PM EDT and there's still no official response or even message that the article has been edited, s here we are)

So I don't know how many of my friend on here read science and tech news, but for several years my favorite source for these subjects was Ars Technica, which seemed (emphasis on the past tense here) to have a higher level of journalistic quality than most of the free sci/tech news sites out there. They've even earned a reputation for being moderately progressive, with articles covering the reality of climate change and the effectiveness of vaccines.

This weekend, we learned that this veneer of progressiveness has a sharp and painful limit: LGBTQ+ issues.

Last week, Twitter's safety chief resigned after Elon Musk ordered her to surface an anti-trans propaganda piece, What Is A Woman, by Matt Walsh, a prominent anti-LGBTQ+ hate figure and major popularizer of the current push to label all LGBTQ+ people as sexual predators and groomers.

This could have been an easy slam dunk for Ars. Cover the departure, cover even the tiniest bit of backstory into Matt Walsh and why he's such a shitty guy, and then wait for the ad dollars from your progressive-leaning audience to roll in.

Instead, we got this (Wayback link here):

That was it. That was the whole article.

No mention of Matt Walsh proudly talking on Twitter about how he helped spread the "all queers are groomers" rhetoric that's spreading strong throughout much of the US (and it's only a matter of time before that breaches containment). No mention of how Chloe Cole holds rallies to try to make try to make puberty blockers and hormone treatment (which collectively have a regret rate that hovers around 1%) illegal for anyone to access until they're 18 and puberty has already permanently changed their body.

Ars' failure doesn't stop here, though I wish it did. Let's check the comment count:

Now for people who don't read Ars, that number might not mean much. Here it is in context:

Eight times as many comments as half the stories around it. Three times as many comments as an article about EA and gaming NFTs, topics that are guaranteed to create discussion. The only story that even comes close is a multi-page article about Starliner, a topic which consistently creates strong engagement on a site that cares enough about space to have its own purely-rocket themed sub-periodical.

Remember above when I said that Ars got a reputation as a semi-progressive site because they supported vaccines and the reality of climate change? That extended to the comments section, where their moderators would remove comments that called climate change fake or vaccines a scam. Let's see what kind of comments they're leaving up on this article:

Interesting how some topics are tightly moderated, and others, when they concern human rights, are left to the Ars community (which thankfully downvoted these posts into oblivion).

Save your downvote fingers, though, because these comments are locked to hell and back. No upvotes, no downvotes, no further comments. Just this:

"Culture war topics." "It should go without saying that the intent was not to spread hate." "This story was really about Ella Irwin's resignation... [and] Twitter is becoming less safe for some people seemingly by the hour."

I wonder if Ken Fisher, the founder and editor-in-chief, has any experience with running a site that's becoming less safe for "some people" by the hour? Given how they handled this this weekend, the first weekend of Pride month, I'd say he does.

Catch that part where he said the story is being updated? Here's a Wayback link to the updated version: linkle. Unfortunately it's now long enough to be a multi-page article, which means that putting it into the Wayback machine is a hassle, and it's so much longer that I'm not going to link it in here, but I suggest giving it a read.

Notice anything missing? Anything like... any kind of notice that the article was updated? A timestamp for updates? Nope, gonna just drop a modified version and pretend that this was the only version that ever existed. Thanks for the great article and amazing updates, Jon Brodkin.

...

...

Wait a second. So Jon Brodkin wrote an article that uncritically parroted talking points from an anti-trans propaganda piece made by an openly transphobic Christian nationalist. Is this an honest mistake, or is Jon in on the bit? Let's check who he follows on Twitter (sourced from https://twitter.com/jbrodkin/following).

...and of course:

He follows some green people too, but it's just politicians and fiction writers. No pro-trans publications or pro-trans nonfiction writers. At this point, the lazy response from the journalism team at Ars Technica is pretty clear. Rather than this being a case of uninformed allies making a mistake and trying to cover it up rather than own it, it seems a lot more likely that they have an actual transphobic employee, who intentionally published an actual transphobic article, and the leadership team cares more about protecting his professional reputation than they do about not spreading hate.

Happy fucking Pride.

#ars technica #transphobia #matt walsh #jon brodkin #pride #happy fucking pride i guess #bad journalism #trans rights are human rights

[fischyplier]

If people were wondering why ISWM is broken up into 2 parts, this is why! 

#markiplier #mark fischbach #markimoo #Markiplier Reacts To His Top 1000 YouTube Comments #Ars Technica #video #ahwm #like and/or reblog!

[refinedstorage]

as if this is not feasible in 2024

#this brand of nerd (affectionate) has all but disappeared from gaming #and things are worse for it #what a loss #deus ex #ion storm #ars technica #warren spector #bring it back #Youtube

[startrekvsfaceapp]

#star trek #ars technica #video games #star trek the original series #star trek the next generation #star trek deep space nine #star trek voyager #star trek enterprise #mildly interesting

[toshootforthestars]

From the report by Beth Mole, posted 29 Feb 2024:

In a lengthy background document, the agency laid out its rationale for consolidating COVID-19 guidance into general guidance for respiratory viruses—including influenza, RSV, adenoviruses, rhinoviruses, enteroviruses, and others, though specifically not measles. The agency also noted the guidance does not apply to health care settings and outbreak scenarios. "COVID-19 remains an important public health threat, but it is no longer the emergency that it once was, and its health impacts increasingly resemble those of other respiratory viral illnesses, including influenza and RSV," the agency wrote. The most notable change in the new guidance is the previously reported decision to no longer recommend a minimum five-day isolation period for those infected with the pandemic coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. Instead, the new isolation guidance is based on symptoms, which matches long-standing isolation guidance for other respiratory viruses, including influenza. "The updated Respiratory Virus Guidance recommends people with respiratory virus symptoms that are not better explained by another cause stay home and away from others until at least 24 hours after both resolution of fever AND overall symptom are getting better," the document states. "This recommendation addresses the period of greatest infectiousness and highest viral load for most people, which is typically in the first few days of illness and when symptoms, including fever, are worst." The CDC acknowledged that the eased isolation guidance will create "residual risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission," and that most people are no longer infectious only after 8 to 10 days. As such, the agency urged people to follow additional interventions—including masking, testing, distancing, hygiene, and improving air quality—for five additional days after their isolation period. "Today’s announcement reflects the progress we have made in protecting against severe illness from COVID-19," CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen said in a statement. "However, we still must use the commonsense solutions we know work to protect ourselves and others from serious illness from respiratory viruses—this includes vaccination, treatment, and staying home when we get sick." Overall, the agency argued that a shorter isolation period would be inconsequential. Other countries and states that have similarly abandoned fixed isolation times did not see jumps in COVID-19 emergency department visits or hospitalizations, the CDC pointed out. And most people who have COVID-19 don't know they have it anyway, making COVID-19-specific guidance moot, the agency argued. In a recent CDC survey, less than half of people said they would test for SARS-CoV-2 if they had a cough or cold symptoms, and less than 10 percent said they would go to a pharmacy or health care provider to get tested. Meanwhile, "The overall sensitivity of COVID-19 antigen tests is relatively low and even lower in individuals with only mild symptoms," the agency said. The CDC also raised practical concerns for isolation, including a lack of paid sick leave for many, social isolation, and "societal costs." The points are likely to land poorly with critics. “The CDC is again prioritizing short-term business interests over our health by caving to employer pressure on COVID guidelines. This is a pattern we’ve seen throughout the pandemic,” Lara Jirmanus, Clinical Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, said in a press release last month after the news first broke of the CDC's planned isolation update. Jirmanus is a member of the People's CDC, a group that advocates for more aggressive COVID-19 policies, which put out the press release. Another member of the group, Sam Friedman, a professor of population health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, also blasted the CDC's stance last month. The guidance will "make workplaces and public spaces even more unsafe for everyone, particularly for people who are high-risk for COVID complications," he said.

But, the CDC argues that the threat of COVID-19 is fading. Hospitalizations, deaths, prevalence of long COVID, and COVID-19 complications in children (MIS-C) are all down. COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective at preventing severe disease, death, and to some extent, long COVID—we just need more people to get them. Over 95% of adults hospitalized with COVID-19 in the 2023–2024 respiratory season had no record of receiving the seasonal booster dose, the agency noted. Only 22% of adults got the latest shot, including only 42% of people ages 65 and older. In contrast, 48% of adults got the latest flu shot, including 73% of people ages 65 and older. But even with the crummy vaccination rates for COVID-19, a mix of past infection and shots have led to a substantial protection in the overall population. The CDC even went as far as arguing that COVID-19 deaths have fallen to a level that is similar to what's seen with flu. "Reported deaths involving COVID-19 are several-fold greater than those reported to involve influenza and RSV. However, influenza and likely RSV are often underreported as causes of death," the CDC said. In the 2022–2023 respiratory virus season, there were nearly 90,000 reported COVID-19 deaths. For flu, there were 9,559 reported deaths, but the CDC estimates the true number to be between 18,000 and 97,000. In the current season, there have been 32,949 reported COVID-19 deaths to date and 5,854 reported flu deaths, but the agency estimates the real flu deaths are between 17,000 and 50,000. "Total COVID-19 deaths, accounting for underreporting, are likely to be higher than, but of the same order of magnitude as, total influenza deaths," the agency concluded.

(say no to raw dough: CDC)

#please stay safe #the vaccines are safe #yes the covid shot is safe #covid is not a hoax #covid causes permanent long term damage to your body even if you're healthy #news #scicomm #science #ars technica #covid--19 #coronavirus #beth mole #pandemic #the cdc #centers for disease control #5 day covid isolation #yes you should stay home for at least 5 days if you test positive for covid #Open windows to ventilate indoor space with outdoor air to prevent virus transmission #Wear a mask that doesn't touch your lips #keep distance from others

[choosingaesthetics]

Are you wondering if your art has been stolen and illegally used in A.I. image generation models without properly purchasing the legal right to license and use your images in their datasets from you?

Well, there's a website for that.

-Here's an article from ARS TECHNICA about it.-

"In response to controversy over image synthesis models learning from artists' images scraped from the Internet without consent—and potentially replicating their artistic styles—a group of artists has released a new website that allows anyone to see if their artwork has been used to train AI.

The website "Have I Been Trained?" taps into the LAION-5B training data used to train Stable Diffusion and Google's Imagen AI models, among others. To build LAION-5B, bots directed by a group of AI researchers crawled billions of websites, including large repositories of artwork at DeviantArt, ArtStation, Pinterest, Getty Images, and more. Along the way, LAION collected millions of images from artists and copyright holders without consultation, which irritated some artists...." (cont. in article)

#A.I. Art #midjourney #ai art generation #ai image #aiartcommunity #ai generated #stable diffusion #image generation #artists on tumblr #art #copyright #ai art fail #digital art #traditional art #drawing #artwork #haveibeentrained #ars technica #cool websites #dalleart #illustration #digital painting

[hezigler]

Trash from the International Space Station may have hit a house in Florida | Ars Technica

It's wrong! It's just so wrong to call that patched up habitable satellite a "space station." We all know what a space station is supposed to be from the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey."

The audio in this video starts out very softly.

#international space station #outer space #falling objects from outer space #2001 a space odyssey #space #science fiction #scifi #blue danube waltz #Youtube #nasa #ars technica

[informationatlas]

Based on extensive research, it has been discovered that crows are highly intelligent creatures known for their remarkable ability to utilize tools. In fact, researchers have found that female crows, in particular, exhibit extraordinary proficiency when it comes to using tools, surpassing their avian counterparts in overcoming various challenges with remarkable speed and efficiency.

(via What happens in a crow’s brain when it uses tools?  | Ars Technica)

#ars technica #animals #crow #crows #animal behavior #science #female crow #female crows

[fidelishaereticus]

Breaking.“Bees Like To Roll Little Wooden Balls As A Form Of Play, Study Finds”

Bees Like To Roll Little Wooden Balls As A Form Of Play, Study Finds

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/12/bees-like-to-roll-little-wooden-balls-as-a-form-of-play-study-finds/

(includes important footage of a bee rolling around little wooden balls. for science )

#bees #ars technica #science #entomology

[jasoncanty01]

#ars technica #twitter

[infinitemonkeytheory]

👏

#fcc #net neutrality #ars technica

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mehmet Oz—aka Dr. Oz—repeatedly emailed top-level Trump administration officials, urging them to push the ineffective malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine, to treat COVID-19 based on scant, sketchy data from a now-disgraced French researcher.

Emails from the notorious celebrity doctor were revealed for the first time Wednesday in a report from the House Select Subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis. The report, titled "A 'Knife Fight' with the FDA," delved into how the Trump administration worked to undermine, pressure, and bully the Food and Drug Administration during the pandemic.

Specifically, it unearthed how the Trump White House pressured the FDA to bend safety standards so that COVID-19 vaccines could be released before election day. It also revealed the tenacious efforts and subterfuge by top Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro and adviser Steven Hatfill to pressure the FDA into supporting the use of the debunked malaria drug. The report's title stems from a direct quote from Hatfill that the White House had a "knife fight scheduled with the FDA" over hydroxychloroquine.

Both efforts were ultimately unsuccessful—the FDA did not authorize vaccines before the election, nor did it re-authorize hydroxychloroquine after it was clear it was not effective. But the administration's actions caused lasting damage to the FDA, the country's pandemic response, and public trust, the report concludes.

"As today's report makes clear, senior Trump Administration officials undermined public health experts because they believed doing so would benefit the former President politically—plotting covertly with known conspiracy theorists to dangerously push a disproven coronavirus treatment, bullying FDA to change its vaccine guidance, and advocating for federal investigations into those who stood in their way," Select Subcommittee chair Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said in a press statement. "These assaults on our nation's public health institutions undermined the nation's coronavirus response—and are precisely why we must never again settle for leaders who prioritize politics over keeping Americans safe."

OZ’S ROLE

But before Navarro and Hatfill spearheaded efforts and "work from the shadows" to champion a junk COVID-19 remedy, there was Dr. Oz, who was equally eager to promote the unproven treatment.

Oz, who has a long history of peddling unproven treatments and health scams, was quick to jump on the hydroxychloroquine train. Days after the small, dubious French study—led by a now-disgraced microbiologist—suggested that hydroxychloroquine was 100% effective at treating COVID-19, Oz sent emails to Trump White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Deborah Birx and Trump's son-in-law and White House senior adviser, Jared Kushner, pushing for hydroxychloroquine.

On March 22, Oz sent Birx a series of emails complaining about a "coronavirus drug shortage" and prodding her to help expand access to hydroxychloroquine. He also claimed that the drug had "confirmed clinical benefits." The next day, Oz emailed Kushner, saying that Trump should "push academic centers to move more expeditiously" on hydroxychloroquine trials. Kushner responded, "What do u[sic] recommend to speed it up?"

In those emails, Oz mentioned plans to run a clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine with his own money. Earlier this year, a representative for Oz confirmed to the New York Post that Oz spent nearly $9,000 of his money to buy more than 2,000 hydroxychloroquine tablets in 2020. And he was reportedly prepared to spend $250,000 to fund a clinical trial at Columbia University.

On March 28, Oz emailed Birx again about the French study. Birx forwarded his message to then-FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn with the note, "We should talk." That same day, the FDA granted a controversial emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, allowing use against COVID-19.

In June, the FDA reversed the decision, sending Navarro and Hatfill on an unsuccessful mission to get hydroxychloroquine reauthorized. And numerous studies have subsequently found the drug ineffective and potentially harmful for treating COVID-19 patients.

Oz, a crudité aficionado who is now running as a Republican Senate candidate for Pennsylvania, ultimately scrapped the hydroxychloroquine clinical trial idea and reportedly donated the pills to an unnamed hospital.

#us politics #news #ars technica #2022 #dr. mehmet oz #dr. oz #mehmet oz #donald trump #trump administration #hydroxychloroquine #covidー19 #coronavirus #coronavirus pandemic #Pennsylvania #2022 midterms #2022 elections #food and drug administration #deborah birx #jared kushner #Rep. James Clyburn #peter navarro #Steven Hatfill #Stephen Hahn #New York Post

[ailurinae]

#my posts #news #Google #Ars Technica #Medium

[rafael-salazar]

OpenAI’s GPT-4 exhibits “human-level performance” on professional benchmarks

Multimodal AI model can process images and text, pass bar exams. OpenAI plans to release GPT-4’s text capability through ChatGPT and its commercial API, but with a waitlist at first. GPT-4 is currently available to subscribers of ChatGPT Plus. Also, the firm is testing GPT-4’s image input capability with a single partner, Be My Eyes, an upcoming smartphone app that can recognize a scene and…

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#ai #ars technica #chatgpt #chatGPT Plus #gpt-4

[jackalgirl]

[ Image description: screenshot of an article from Ars Technica showing a 3D rendering of a skull on the left side and a portrait of a pale-skinned man with dark brownish/greyish hair and brown eyes, wearing a 19th Century outfit consisting of a white shirt and white cravat under a black jacket. The headline reads, “We now have a pretty good idea of what the ‘Connecticut vampire’ looked like”, with “Targeted whole genome analysis strengthens case that he was a man named” and then instead of “John Barber”, it reads “Maximillian DeSoto”. Article by Jennifer Ouellette. The images are captioned thusly: “Forensic facial reconstruction of the ‘Connecticut vampire’ (aka JB55), accounting for known tooth loss and inferred health issues.  Hair is based on 19th Century styles.  Skin, hair, and eye color are based on phenotype predictions. (Credit: Parabon NanoLabs)”. End ID ]

Meanwhile, on Ars Technica...

(Article here: https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/11/scientists-use-dna-3d-scans-to-reconstruct-face-of-connecticut-vampire/)

#the outer worlds #maximillian desoto #blorbo mio #ars technica #an ancestor maybe