If you always have all your digital stuff set to English you may not be aware of how often those ...

If you always have all your digital stuff set to English you may not be aware of how often those of us who use multi-lingual interfaces come across bad auto-translation that force us to do a double-take. (worst case they can of course be very dangerous).

This is from an email log in Gmail today.

The label "Delstat" is presumable from "State" in English, meaning what condition/status the email is in.

But delstat in Swedish essentially refers to U.S. State. Which makes this information appear very odd 😂

«This can be immensely empowering, and can improve public trust: it’s hard (and unwise) to give y...

«This can be immensely empowering, and can improve public trust: it’s hard (and unwise) to give yourself over to a technology that won’t tell you how it works, particularly when its predefined settings allow only for meagre approaches to “user privacy”. As I ask my students, if you could develop an AI at your own home, and programme it to reflect your values and prioritise your safety, wouldn’t you trust it more? Well, the idea isn’t so outlandish – it only feels impossible because big tech firms want us to think it is.»

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/02/billionaire-big-tech-frugal-elon-musk-innovation

Open question about OpenGraph to any geek who feels like responding 😄 BlueSky and LinkedIn fail ...

Open question about OpenGraph to any geek who feels like responding 😄

BlueSky and LinkedIn fail to fetch the featured image for posts on axbom.com (my English site) but does it with no issues for posts on axbom.se (my Swedish site).

From my perspective they are set up in exactly the same way (Ghost sites). My estimate is that this started happening more than a month ago and I have no idea why.

So, what could be the issue?

LinkedIn, plattformen för professionellt nÀtverkande, uppdaterade för nÄgra dagar sedan sin polic...

LinkedIn, plattformen för professionellt nÀtverkande, uppdaterade för nÄgra dagar sedan sin policy gÀllande hatiskt och krÀnkande innehÄll. Specifikt har man tagit bort formuleringar som inneburit ett tydligt stÀllningstagande mot trakasserier riktade mot transpersoner.

LÀs hela inlÀgget: https://axbom.se/linkedin-raderar-tydligt-stod-for-transpersoner/

This is of course very bad, but I also found it funny. AI evangelists are suddenly privacy-aware ...

This is of course very bad, but I also found it funny. AI evangelists are suddenly privacy-aware and repeating this as a security risk. And it is. But the idea that using ChatGPT itself hasn’t always been a security risk is ridiculous to me.

TLDR: If you’ve ever used the share function on a ChatGPT chat, that full chat can be found via Google, viewable for anyone in the world.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91376687/google-indexing-chatgpt-conversations

If people are wildly optimistic and non-critical about deploying something that is destructive, t...

If people are wildly optimistic and non-critical about deploying something that is destructive, that should never be framed as a positive.

And continuing on this, if I am being critical of optimism in this scenario, that’s not ”slowing progress” or ”being backwards”. That’s being cognizant of bad outcomes and resisting them.

This all reminds me of when people are understandably confused by ”negative” results in healthcare, when they can be the most welcome of news.

Reading McComas’ article from 1996, and I have to say it’s very refreshing. TEN MYTHS OF SCIENCE...

Reading McComas’ article from 1996, and I have to say it’s very refreshing.

TEN MYTHS OF SCIENCE: REEXAMINING WHAT WE THINK WE KNOW…

Some examples:

* Myth 3: A General and Universal Scientific Method Exists
* Myth 5: Science and its Methods Provide Absolute Proof
* Myth 6: Science Is Procedural More Than Creative
* Myth 10: All Work in Science is Reviewed to Keep the Process Honest

https://homepages.bluffton.edu/~bergerd/TenMyths.html

Something to always be aware of: Many wheelchair users can stand and move around for brief period...

Something to always be aware of: Many wheelchair users can stand and move around for brief periods of time. Not all wheelchair users are paralysed. Reasons for wheelchair use are numerous and varied.

Some wheelchair users choose not to stand in public because chances are they will be chastised and harassed if they do. With more awareness and understanding this risk can hopefully diminish over time.

For example, if a wheelchair user is able to retrieve their own wheelchair from the boot/trunk of their car, this does not mean they are ”faking”, and accusing them of this is ableist in itself.

”Ambulatory wheelchair user” is something you can search for to learn more, as many are sharing their experiences online, like Lauren:

https://www.rareyouthrevolution.com/post/ten-things-i-wish-you-knew-from-an-ambulatory-wheelchair-user

#accessibility #wheelchair #ambulatory

From the archives. ”As more and more decisions about human fates are made by algorithms, a lack ...

From the archives.

”As more and more decisions about human fates are made by algorithms, a lack of accountability and transparency will elevate heartless treatment driven by efficiency devoid of empathy. Humans become mere data shadows.”

”The main argument in defense of algorithms is that they eliminate the obstacle of human inefficiency. Often this sentiment fails to take into account the many benefits of human inefficiency, such as taking time to reflect, taking time to question and taking time to listen.”

https://axbom.com/killer-robots/

Just 100 companies are responsible for 71% of human emissions. If institutions are the problem we...

Just 100 companies are responsible for 71% of human emissions. If institutions are the problem we could be letting them off the hook by focusing on individuals.

"[
] this sort of deflection of responsibility is likely what energy companies and other major corporations want: if we're pointing the finger at one another, we're not pointing it at them." (Catastrophe Ethics, p. 50)

Climate scientist Michael Mann in an interview about his book The New Climate War:

"Any time you are told a problem is your fault because you are not behaving responsibly, there is a good chance that you are being deflected from systemic solutions and policies. Blaming the individual is a tried and trusted playbook that we have seen in the past with other industries. In the 1970s, Coca Cola and the beverage industry did this very effectively to convince us we don't need regulations on waste disposal. Because of that we now have a global plastic crisis. The same tactics are evident in the gun lobby's motto, 'guns don't kill people, people kill people,' which is classic deflection.

For a UK example look at BP, which gave us the world's first individual carbon footprint calculator. Why did they do that? Because BP wanted us looking at our carbon footprint not theirs."

The idea of individual responsibility can be weaponized to prevent real climate progress.