someone

I registered the domain fuckai.ca awhile back, with an eye towards some sort of anti-AI activism project. I have a few ideas but I would welcome more.

Yes, this could all potentially doxx me down the road and link my IRL identity to my posts here. I am OK with this. I've been dealing with DNS and hosting matters for literally decades. I know what I'm getting into and how to take reasonable privacy precautions.

Also, I am strictly looking for ideas. Under no circumstances, now or in the future, will I ever ask for donations. This is to be a passion project that I alone fund. Send your spare money to people and causes in more urgent need of it.

I'm looking to keep the hosting within Canada. Not because of any patriotic nonsense, but just because it's a legal jurisdiction that I'm already subject to. I'd like to minimize my exposure to the American legal system in particular.

The ideas I've had so far, and the pros and cons:

1. An anti-AI news blog.

Not yet another ranty-whining-opinion blog, but one carefully documenting real legal battles and activist actions in that space. I'm no trained journalist but I'd aim for a minimum of journalistic standards. Citing sources, requesting comment from parties involved, etc. This is the one I'm leaning towards, with a weekly schedule. I think once-per-week is frequent enough to make it timely and useful, but slow enough to avoid knee-jerk-this-is-my-hot-take clickbait slop.

Pros: Can be hosted very cheaply and securely using a static site generator. Could post articles by trusted contributors who need to stay anonymous. No need for Cloudflare and similar services to maintain uptime. Easy to mirror on the open web or as a Tor hidden service. Easy to serve by RSS.

Cons: Single point of failure, namely me.

2. A wiki documenting practical anti-AI techniques that can be used by regular people.

Pros: Opportunity for people to contribute their knowledge directly.

Cons: Higher hosting costs. Potentially dealing with scum like Cloudflare to maintain uptime in the face of DDOSes. All the usual security issues with wikis, both of the technical and of the social-engineering varieties. The risks of a trusted contributor's account getting compromised. Trying to limit accounts to reputable people might alienate reputable people who rightfully worry about me being reputable.

3. Transferring ownership of the domain to an existing reputable anti-AI org who want an easy-to-remember (if profane) domain name.

Pros: No duplication of anti-AI efforts.

Cons: There are strict legal requirements on who can register a .ca domain which limits what organizations could do this. Finding such an organization that meets the requirements and who want such a "non family friendly language" brand could be difficult.

I am open to any new ideas, comments on the ones I've come up with, etc!

"This rocket that was involved in the incident on the launch pad this week..."

"The one where the front fell off?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah, that's not very typical, I'd like to make that point."

Sometimes a BOTW isn't terribly compelling.

This is not one of those times. This is one of the ones that will be remembered.

I've been digging up some of my own old programming projects, polishing them for the public releases I'd always intended. The first is Notable, a pastebin server clone. It's under the AGPLv3. It has a few design principles in mind:

• Must work over Tor unmodified, no javascript, light page loads, fits within the standard window size.
• Must be as easy as possible to run. No outside database needed, it uses sqlite3.
• Control over if notes expire, and custom time limits.
• Notes can be updated or delete with the randomized per-note password given when creating a note.
• Understands Markdown.
• Written to be portable. If Go and CGo compile to your server's OS, Notable will work.

The README has further details.

Now I'm not talking about smuggling anything illegal, I aim to keep my activities on this side of the border strictly legal. Not out of love for cops but as a defence against them harassing me. I'm thinking about things like "helping" Americans pay only $2000 for an iphone instead of $3000, that sort of thing. Any pointers, tips, ideas?

An essential tool for finding that perfect individual strip from the greatest comic ever created.

My god they are on point with this one, such as when Mike casually commits verbal murder.

78 thousand laughing emojis and counting!

Study detects synergistic effect making substances more dangerous, raising alarm since humans are exposed to both

Few human-made substances are as individually ubiquitous and dangerous as PFAS and microplastics, and when they join forces there is a synergistic effect that makes them even more toxic and pernicious, new research suggests.

The study’s authors exposed water fleas to mixtures of the toxic substances and found they suffered more severe health effects, including lower birth rates, and developmental problems, such as delayed sexual maturity and stunted growth.

The enhanced toxic effects raise alarm because PFAS and microplastics are researched and regulated in isolation from one one another, but humans are virtually always exposed to both. The research also showed those fleas previously exposed to chemical pollution were less able to withstand the new exposures.

The findings “underscore the critical need to understand the impacts of chemical mixtures on wildlife and human health”, wrote the study’s authors, who are with the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.

PFAS are a class of about 15,000 compounds typically used to make products that resist water, stains and heat. They are called “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down and accumulate, and are linked to cancer, kidney disease, liver problems, immune disorders, birth defects and other serious health problems.

Microplastics are tiny bits of plastic that are either intentionally added to products or are shed by plastic goods as they deteriorate. They have been found throughout human bodies, and can cross the blood-brain barrier. Research has linked them to developmental harms, hormone disruption cardiovascular disease and other health issues.

Plastic is often treated with PFAS, so microplastics can contain the chemical.

Researchers compared a group of water fleas that had never been exposed to pollution with another group that had been exposed to pollution in the past. Water fleas have high sensitivity to chemicals so they are frequently used to study ecological toxicity.

Both groups were exposed to bits of PET, a common microplastic, as well as PFOA and PFOS, two of the most common and dangerous PFAS compounds. The mixture reflected conditions common in lakes around the world.

The study’s authors found the mixture to be more toxic than PFAS and microplastics in isolation. They attributed about 40% of the increased toxicity to a synergy among the substances that makes them even more dangerous. The authors theorized the synergy has to do with the interplay in the charges of microplastics and PFAS compounds.

The remainder of the increased toxicity was attributed to simple addition of their toxic effects. Fleas exposed to the mixture showed a “markedly reduced number of offspring”, the authors said. They were also smaller at maturation and showed delayed sexual growth. The effects they observed “significantly advance” the understanding of exposure to multiple chemicals and substances, the authors wrote.

“It is imperative to continue investigating the toxicological impacts of these substances on wildlife to inform regulatory and conservation efforts,” they said.