Mitch's Blog

Meta wants to fill your social media feeds with AI-generated characters. They’ll have bios and profile photos and generate content, but they’ll be bots.

Nick Heer:

A big problem for Meta is that it is institutionally very dumb. … There are lots of smart people working there and its leadership clearly understands something about how people use social media.

But there is a vast sense of dumb in its attempts to deliver the next generation of its products.

I’m still very active on Facebook, but getting less so as Meta overthinks its products and my real-life friends and family wander away. I just want Facebook to just get the hell out of my way and let me see posts from the people, groups and pages I follow. That’s it. I’m fine with them throwing me the occasional ad to make money; Facebook ads are entertaining.

I don’t post these links to Facebook anymore because nobody sees them.

h/t @manton

Even Boomers who have saved for retirement are worried about outliving their money, and are living frugally to get by, according to a new study by Prudential Financial. This article focuses on wealthy retirees, but the study looks at retireees who are married with as little as $100,000 in assets, which is not much at all.

Today, I learned that HFY science fiction is a thing and that the acronym goes back at least 10 years. Although the subgenre goes back much longer — Isaac Asimov called it out.

Jimmy Carter Deserved Our Thanks and Respect, Not Our Sneers — Nicholas Kristof says Carter, who was reviled and ridiculed, will be remembered as one of America’s great Presidents and statesmen. “Hundreds of millions of people around the globe are living better lives because of his relentless efforts to overcome violence and disease.”

Military families scramble as new a anti-LGBTQ+ rule is poised to become law. — Republicans endanger military families.

A conservative organization led by Trump adviser Stephen Millier is threatening prison time for elected leaders and employees in San Diego and other California jurisdictions that enact immigration sanctuary policies.

I posted a multi-paragraph post to mitchw.blog earlier today, and my blogging software deleted all the paragraph breaks. Argh! However, I finally got it sorted, so if you are curious to read about my favorite TV shows of the year, it’s safe now.

A couple who met as teen penpals separated by 7,000 miles are now celebrating 30 years of marriage.

Trump’s Immigration Policies Could Create a Dystopian Humanitarian Crisis

Google Street View helped solve a year-old Spanish murder cause. Caught photos of what appeared to be a man dragging a corpse down a street and stuffing it into the trunk of a car.

The images were captured in the incredibly small town of Tajueco in Spain. And by small, I mean it’s home to barely over 100 people.

… this was a return trip for Google, but the company’s last visit occurred nearly 15 years ago.