Every query on Chat GPT or another artificial intelligence app requires extraordinary amounts of electricity and water. Users have no way of knowing.

An autistic child. The struggle for services. The 911 calls. This is the harrowing story of how one mom scrambled to get help for her son and keep her head above water.

There's no surer way to start a fight than to talk politics with someone who disagrees with you. But UCSB psychologist Tania Israel says it doesn't have to be that way. She sees as an opportunity to help bridge America's political divide.

Entrepreneur Emmet Stephenson and his daughter are giving $150 million to City of Hope to fund an award for innovation research in pancreatic cancer. It's the largest single gift the center has received.

Recent research suggests that the disease can diminish intelligence even years after symptoms resolve. It's one more reason to get the latest vaccinations.

A sixth grader from Arkansas won a national mullet championship and announced he would donate the money to foster home organizations to help children find homes.

Sony Music Group is sending more than 700 letters to tech companies and music streaming services, calling on them to not use its music to train AI without authorization from the label.

A new poll shows that California voters are increasingly moving to social media, such as TikTok, for election information.

The British Embassy in Washington donated 2,500 Paddington books to schools based in Washington, D.C., just in time for Christmas.

Maybe it's a genuine sentiment. Maybe it's clouded by bitterness stemming from his one (failed) season in Washington. Regardless, former Redskins quarterback Donovan McNabb is not a fan of the zone read option.

$12 million -- That's the whopping number of dollars Oprah Winfrey handed over to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the museum announced Tuesday, according to the Washington Post. Winfrey's name will adorn a 350-seat theater in the new museum, which is slated to open in 2015 on the National Mall. She already donated $1 million to the project in 2007 and has served on the museum's advisory council since 2004.

Progressive newcomer Alexis Mercedes Rinck absolutely bodied Council appointee Tanya Woo in the August primary, scoring a cool 50.2% to Woo’s 38.4%. Rinck has every reason to measure drapes for the new office in City Hall she will probably move into, and it looks like the deep-pocketed outside spenders who got Woo’s buddies elected last year are counting her out too. Proportionally, Woo’s Independent Expenditure (IE) has spent 90% less this year than a similar IE did in her initial council bid. by Hannah Krieg

Progressive newcomer Alexis Mercedes Rinck absolutely bodied Council appointee Tanya Woo in the August primary, scoring a cool 50.2% to Woo’s 38.4%. Rinck has every reason to measure drapes for the new office in City Hall she will probably move into, and it looks like the deep-pocketed outside spenders who got Woo’s buddies elected last year are counting her out too. Proportionally, Woo’s Independent Expenditure (IE) has spent 90% less this year than a similar IE did in her initial council bid. 

Woo’s campaign has raised $453,000 from 7895 donors, averaging approximately $57 per contributor, according to the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission. Her contributors include the real estate industry, CEOs, lawyers, retirees, and some of the conservative council colleagues who appointed her such as Council Members Bob Kettle and Maritza Rivera.

But typically, big IEs spend an ungodly amount of money in the last few weeks of a race on mailers, TV ads, and other strategies to get their preferred candidate's name and face in front of voters before the election. Last year, IEs backed by business or labor or both spent $1.6 million across the seven City Council elections. The candidate with the most outside spending through IEs won in every race besides Woo's failed bid for District Two. Between her campaign and IEs, she outspent her opponent, incumbent Tammy Morales, two to one. 

But IEs don’t seem as interested in burying progressive competition with their cash this time around. 

Many of the same donors who backed Woo in 2023, funded the victorious conservative slate that appointed her, and the previous three mayors. They collectively contributed more than $130,000 to Woo through the Friends of Seattle. This includes the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, Seattle Hospitality for Progress PAC, R.C. Hedreen Company, Goodman Real Estate, and HomeStreet Bank. 

But they don’t seem to be trying as hard this go round. 

A 2023 IE, Friends of SE Seattle, spent $168,000 on her bid for the District 2 seat where she had to win over a majority of the 67,000 registered voters. That’s an investment of $2.50 a voter. Now, in 2024, for her citywide campaign, she’s trying to capture the majority of 485,000 voters. A $130,000 investment from the current IE shakes out to about a quarter spent per voter. That means IEs, who successfully bought every seat besides Woo’s last cycle, have spent 90% less on Woo than they did in her last election where she lost despite spending twice as much as her opponent.

This marks a shift in behavior from corporate donors when compared to the last time Seattle voted on citywide council seats in 2021. An IE called Change Seattle pooled $414,000 for Council President Sara Nelson’s bid for a citywide seat or about three times as much as they are spending on Woo. 

What does any of this mean? Well, it could mean those conservative donors are stretched thin funding the awful, Republican-backed Let’s Go Washington Initiatives, the Republican candidate for governor, or maybe even President Donald Trump’s third shot at the White House. Or, it could mean these corporate donors are saving up to support their darlings, Nelson, City Attorney Ann Davison, and Mayor Bruce Harrell, when they go up for re-election next year. 

Either way, progressives aren’t really beating conservatives at the fundraising game. Rinck's campaign has raised $460,790 from 8,637 contributors, averaging slightly more than $53 per contributor Her contributors include unions, labor organizers, every progressive politico you can think of, and politicians including King County Executive Dow Constantine, Woo’s old foe Morales, and many state lawmakers representing Seattle.

Rinck also found support in a new IE, Progressive People Power (P3), that spent more than $190,000 this cycle. P3’s donors include SEIU 775, which made up more than half of the pot, some other unions, several failed left-lane candidates, and King County Democrats Chair Carrie Barnes who gave more than $42,000 herself. Didn’t know you had it like that, Barnes!

But as P3 Board Chair Ry Armstrong said at a fundraiser last month, progressives don’t need as much money to win — their ideas are just better. A recent poll by the Northwest Progressive Institute found only 28% of respondents voted or will vote for Woo, while 52% voted or will vote for Rinck.

Worried about Tuesday? Here's something to look forward to via @nwprogressive! pic.twitter.com/LQrEh7GSfV

— Hannah Krieg (@hannahkrieg) November 3, 2024

With Election Day upon us ‘tis the season to make hasty accusations about the insecurity of America’s voting system. In Washington, like in other parts of the country, the right-wing has focused on attacking the idea of mail-in ballots. Last week, with the ballot explosions in Clark County and Portland, right-wing influencers such as Jonathan Choe quickly capitalized on these incidents to make claims that the “entire system is vulnerable.” by Ashley Nerbovig

With Election Day upon us ‘tis the season to make hasty accusations about the insecurity of America’s voting system. In Washington, like in other parts of the country, the right-wing has focused on attacking the idea of mail-in ballots. Last week, with the ballot explosions in Clark County and Portland, right-wing influencers such as Jonathan Choe quickly capitalized on these incidents to make claims that the “entire system is vulnerable.”

As we move through Election Day and beyond, bad faith actors are poised to take every single election related mishap or misunderstanding and turn it into another reason to make our elections more “secure” which just means erecting more barriers to make it harder to vote, measures that often disproportionately affect Black and Brown voters. So how do you stop yourself from becoming a sucker for a piece of election misinformation that could lead you to support a law that might deprive your neighbor of their right to vote? Glad you asked. I’m here to walk you through what misinformation might look like in the days to come.  

Most of the time, rumors around elections fall into four buckets, according to local election rumor expert Kate Starbird. She co-founded the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, which studies false and misleading information online and designs strategies to combat it. First bucket: Someone observes an event and assumes something has gone wrong, but in reality, the system functions as intended—they simply don’t understand the process. But the person shares the information as something potentially nefarious. Some examples include last week when former President Donald Trump’s name appeared on the second screen for the California ballot, leading people to complain about having to click an extra button to vote for him. The explanation was not that California was purposefully suppressing Trump voters, only that California randomizes the order of names on ballots and, unluckily for Trump that meant he landed on the second page.

The other three buckets involve when someone faces a real issue with voting, such as the machines not working, their name missing or misspelled on the voter rolls, or as has happened recently in Washington, they receive multiple ballots. These issues are typically distorted in one of three ways. First, the rumor emerges that whatever issue prevented someone from voting was intentional. Second, someone makes an unverified claim that the issue is widespread and deprives a much larger group of people from voting. Finally, the rumor obscures the fact that even if someone faced an issue voting, the elections office actually had a solution to the problem.

A good example of some local election rumor coverage happened last week when KING 5 reported a poorly contextualized piece claiming that a woman had received 16 ballots with names of people she’d never met. The station quoted the woman as saying the incident caused her to have concerns over the democratic process. To verify what actually happened, I spoke to the King County Elections Spokesperson Halei Watkins who explained the woman had moved to a new address where she received her ballots. But she also was sent the ballots of seven people who previously lived at her address. She then returned those seven ballots to the post office, which redelivered them to her, creating the appearance that she had received more than a dozen ballots. Watkins said the ballots ultimately were undeliverable because the voters hadn’t updated their addresses with the county. Watkins called it an isolated incident, not indicative of a massive problem within the election system.

That’s a pretty typical case of an election rumor that paints a picture of some deeper issue where one doesn’t exist. But when Starbird looks at how people use the ballot boxes to undermine confidence in our elections, things become a little more tricky. The fires don’t fall cleanly into any of the four buckets of misinformation, Starbird said. First of all, the fires represent a real attack on our voting systems. We don’t know the motives of the person involved. Remedies exist for the problem, but they’re imperfect and some ballots may have been lost. These attacks do appear isolated to two ballot boxes, and one possible earlier attempt on October 8 in Vancouver that did not result in any damaged ballots. The fires also had mixed outcomes regarding the ability of ballot boxes to extinguish fires. In Portland, only three ballots actually suffered damage, because the mechanism to extinguish flames in the ballot box deployed quickly. In Vancouver, Washington, the fire-suppressant device worked less effectively, but Clark County and King County are both looking into better tools to prevent fires. 

So yes, the fires exposed a vulnerability, but it can hardly be used to definitively call into question mail in voting as a concept, which is how people such as Choe wish to use the incident. Overall, issues with mail in voting are few and far between, and voter fraud involving mail in ballots is exceedingly rare.

When Watkins hears people decry mail-in voting or talk about returning to in-person voting, she points out that polling places have a whole host of issues that could leave the election vulnerable to mishaps or mistakes. Before King County switched to mail-in voting in 2009, the county had 500 polling locations, with 8,000 temporary staff or volunteers who received between four to 12 hours of training in preparation for election day. Now, teams of two pick up ballots from the various ballot boxes that they deliver to election headquarters in Renton. King County has 75 permanent and 800 temporary staff who help with all things related to the election. The process is much more streamlined. 

Watkins also pointed out that at the time King County switched to all mail-in voting, 86% of votes in King County had registered as permanent absentee voters, meaning they already voted by mail, which speaks to the preferences of the county, Watkins said.

“I feel like people who push for in-person voting would just end up creating barriers to voting, not making it more secure,” Watkins says.

The most depressing thing last night for me was reading that a longtime friend voted for the worst candidate they've ever voted for because the other one was worse. They wouldn’t say who they actually voted for. This is what we’ll be left with as a country when all this is done.

I gave another $100 to Harris to compensate, and of course voted straight Democratic on Thursday. Unlike my friend I was proud to vote for her. The alternative, after what we lived through between 2017 and 2021, to choose to go through that again, hard to imagine the horror.

And of course that’s assuming he voted for Harris.

“When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be. And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be. Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be. Whisper words of wisdom, let it be. And when the broken hearted people living in the world agree, there will be an answer, let it be. For though they may be parted there is still a chance that they will see, there will be an answer. let it...

Abandoned States is a fascinating project by Pablo Iglesias Maurer, who found 1960s matchbooks with images from an idyllic resort in upstate New York. He revisited the condemned site and not only recaptured subjects of original illustrations exactly, but combined them into compelling animated GIFs.

Helmed by Buzz Osborne, the Melvins have helped codify the heavy music lexicon since 1983…

Blitz opens amid a terrifying conflagration on a nighttime city street…

Politics has long had whisper campaigns, with negative rumors — racial, sexual, criminal — spread secretly by campaigns. Of course, with the advent of the automated robocall, you don't need to be subtle about it anymore.

So it is with a recent robocall against Sandpoint mayoral candidate Shelby Rognstad…

The former President of the United States calls Facebook, Twitter, and Google 'a total disgrace and an embarrassment' to the country for banning him from the platforms.

Collaboration between award-winning photographer Alan Gignoux and Shakesperian project.

Donkey Week celebrations for centenarian.

Richard Lutz explains how Midland Tories received £193,000 worth of donations from a construction giant.

International sports legacy experts will convene at the University of Birmingham this week to discuss the rationale behind hosting global mega-events and their lasting impact.

In the week that saw British Airways lose a case over someone wishing to wear a crucifix at work, Gordon Harley takes issue with external emblems of belief.

As the demand for meat rises inexorably, Anna Rose explains why this doesn’t have to be the case.

Sutton Park’s Donkey Assisted Therapy centre is inviting local people to its Christmas Fair on Saturday 8th December from 10.30am to 3pm.

A Birmingham-based donkey riding charity is calling on the fun loving public to adopt a donkey this Valentine's Day to help raise vital funds

Last week staff at The Donkey Sanctuary’s Donkey Assisted Therapy Centre in Birmingham received a cheque of £4,900 from Sainsbury's Castle Vale store.

The Donkey Sanctuary’s Donkey Assisted Therapy Centre in Birmingham is holding a Summer Fair and fun dog show on Saturday 13th July

Rugby charity announces emergency support package to help West Midlands groups.

A Birmingham based medical charity is giving you the opportunity to double your donation and help save lives around the world

Donors needed at Birmingham Donor Centre due to low stocks.

Aston station adoption planting project helps local people grow.

Former patient back on his bike for Velo.

Terry Wills on the big talking point of Albion's weekend.

Richard Lutz witnesses a digital war over the information we crave.

Returnless refunds are a tool that more retailers are using to keep online shoppers happy and to reduce shipping fees, processing time and other ballooning costs from returned products. Companies such as Amazon, Walmart and Target have decided some items are not worth the cost or hassle of getting back. Think a $20 T-shirt that might cost $30 in shipping and handling to recover.

Environmental group Rainforest Action Network (RAN) alleges that palm oil derived from illegally cleared Indonesian wildlife reserves may have infiltrated the supply chains of major brands like Nestle and Procter & Gamble. RAN's investigation, supported by satellite imagery, points to the deforestation of Rawa Singkil Wildlife Reserve for palm oil plantations, potentially jeopardizing endangered species.

This is very speculative. I am assisting a faculty member where I work with the idea of establishing a Mastodon server (hosted by the university) to support a specialized intersection of a particular equity-seeking group and an area of study. The work would be to help run the server, and possibly promote it -- a combination moderator and marketer, both making sure the community is running smoothly and also reaching to people to encourage them to join. If this seems interesting to you, and in full knowledge that this might go nowhere, I'd love to hear about your moderation experience, how many hours a week you think you'd be able to put into the project, and your pay per hour expectations (in USD).

I'm a published writer with a completed script for a non-fiction graphic novel, but no-one to draw it. It's a real-world setting and cast with no fantasy or superhero elements. The story's a serious one, so the art needs to match that tone. Initially, I just need ten pages of finished B&W art (pencils & inks) to use as I pitch the project round suitable publishers. For the right artist this could grow into a paid commission for the full book. I'm happy to agree either a page rate deal or a 50/50 ownership split (including ancillary rights). The story has proven TV/film potential. If you'd like to be considered, please Metamail me with a link where I can find your samples and details of any comics work you've done before. Thank you.

A Distant Shore has just been released in an expanded version by Cherry Red Records, along with demos for songs that would eventually be released on Everything but the Girl's debut album. Tracey Thorn's classic 1982 indie album has long been a favorite of artists from Björk to Massive Attack, and is constantly rediscovered. In 2013 Thorn spoke about the album to the Guardian [archive link] and also wrote about the circumstances of its writing in her memoir Bedsit Disco Queen, excerpted here.

It's only the first day of August, but the weather in Portland is such that it already feeling like plural dog days have elapsed. And yet, through it all, a podcast episode drags itself through the sun-baked streets to appear, sweating and winded, on your doorstep. Come along with Jessamyn and I as we...chatter about MetaFilter? Basically what we normally do. This one's about an hour and 45.

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Misc
- the wikipedia article on 175 has, since recording, lost the specific nag it had when we were discussing it!
- jessamyn has been catsitting
- more like the hooey decimal system
- wellllll, Godot? We're WAAAAAAITTIiiiing!
- freedom to tinker
- you ever (Stevie) Wonder about the clavinet?
- it's a BEACH that makes you OLD
- jessamyn's maple dealer


Projects
- Quarantine Happy Hour concert archive by hades
- Recollections Of A Summer by dng
- The Sound of the Far Future by ignignokt


MetaFilter
- Patterns by They sucked his brains out!
- A unanimous vote for the right to repair. by mhoye
- Nikole Hannah-Jones and Ta-Nehisi Coates joining Howard University by Nelson
- Whammy Clavinet by Harald74
- His last purchases—beer, cigarettes, pot—occurred 18 years ago. by Grandysaur
- Happy birthday, Metafilter! by Melismata
- Shawty Got Low in Those Apple Bottom Memes by jonp72
- All mountains are old, but the Appalachians are incomprehensibly old by Karmakaze
- The world's first 1541 disk drive graphics demo by JHarris


Ask MetaFilter
- What to do in Vermont when traveling companion has mobility issues? by The Pluto Gangsta
- How does MetaFilter have such a high user engagement compared to others? by oracleia
- Nouns that you would never say "the" before? by ftm
- Library book with potentially valuable author's signature by clair-de-lune
- What song is this? by Trespassers William
- Songs with radio clips? by ftm
- Voices coming out of my iPad in the middle of the night by squink
- Why is my gas bill so high? by artificialard
- Friends' anxiety makes me angry/anxious by unicorn chaser
- Dating Failure by Aranquis
- How commonplace is crossing one's arms at Catholic communion? by Charity Garfein


MetaTalk
- Metatalktail Hour: Sneaky pet/kid stories by LobsterMitten
- MetaFilter's new Privacy Policy document by cortex
- A change in moderator coverage of the site by cortex
- 1. money 2. budget 3. ??? 4. profit!! by bendy
- Donated By "Anonymous" by cursed


MeFi Music
Featured in this episode:
- Car Music by gt2
- You Should Eat Your Yellow Vegetables by not_on_display
- Brazilian Brooks by CarrotAdventure
- Signal Tower by edlundart

The Tiny Desk is working from home for the foreseeable future. Introducing NPR Music's Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It's the same spirit — stripped-down sets, an intimate setting — just a different space. Considering how many of us have rearranged our lives to make the home-office lifestyle work, Diana Gordon's setting for her Tiny Desk (home) concert frames her music in a curated chaos that's all too relatable. Teetering towers of manilla folders, the Y2K kitsch of a slime green Apple iBook, clunky cardboard boxes and a Curb Your Enthusiasm coffee mug — it's just the right amount of cramped, mundane confusion to aid her creativity. Like the workplace props that flank her, an intriguing dose of neurotic mess makes Gordon's latest EP, 2020's Wasted Youth, feel so fitting for these unprecedented times. With her masked-up guitarist, Davin Givhan, helping to guide her, Gordon's nihilistic invincibility on "Rollin" and sonic

Intelligence to wisdom, wisdom to recognition, recognition to need, need to reliance, reliance to freedom… It all originates and turns back toward Christ. Join us now as we explain with the Bible’s guidance how to deal with stress and how the Lord sweetly encourages us. We’ll elaborate too on what it means to take up our cross and how no matter what, we mustn’t ever stop. Sometimes we feel like God ignores us, but don’t let go ! You’re not alone. Believe that Christ understands, because He does.

"As far as the East is from the West, so far has He removed our transgression from us." Sin is removed from us by a miracle of love ! And if sin be removed so far, then we may be sure that the scent, the trace, the very memory of it must be entirely gone; even Satan himself could not achieve to bring it back again. Our sins are gone, Jesus has borne them away ! (Charles Spurgeon) Join us as the pastors discuss how much God is willing to forgive more than we ask, and what God does with our broken promises. 1.- Is it okay to pray to the Holy Spirit ? 2.- The Bible says there will be an attempt to change times and laws. Does this also include the 70-week prophecy in Daniel 9 ? 3.- Revelation 11 verse 19 says the ark of the covenant is seen in the temple. How does that relate to current events ? 4.- As we are experiencing climate change, should our main emphasis be the Great Commission ? 5.- What programs do you use to study the Bible ? 6.- Is investing your money similar to gambling ? 7.- How can we know if someone has committed the unpardonable sin ? 8.- Will God leave Heaven for the new Earth, or is Heaven the atmosphere of the new Earth ? 9.- What should I do if my employer requires me to work on Sabbath? 10.- Will you please explain what the "times of the Gentiles" means in Luke 21 verse 24 ? 11.- Can you be saved without reading the Bible ? 12.- Please explain Psalm 1 verses 1-3. 13.- Please explain Revelation 11 verses 1-2. 14.- Why is Jesus’ birth celebrated in December? 15.- Who was in the fire and the earthquake and the wind when Elijah was on Mount Horeb ? and what is the deeper message of this story ? 16.- What does the Bible say about slothfulness ? Is it a sin ? 17.- Did Adam call Eve by her name before the fall ? The Bible says he called her “woman.” 18.- When does a person become responsible for responding to a given truth or message ? 19.- Can we observe the Sabbath day and also go to church on Sunday ? 20.- My son broke a promise. If he confesses, will he be forgiven or is my son’s probation closed ? 21.- What should I do if I am covered in tattoos and it’s impossible to get them removed ?

  My last post here was in July. In keeping with the theme, you could say I was hibernating, but that’s not really true. Life, work, projects, recording: all these things fought for my time and unfortunately what suffered was the amount I had left for a volunteer position I loved as a contributing editor […]

Panelistas consideran que ni las elecciones ni la movilización social han logrado canalizar el descontento en la sociedad ni la insatisfacción con la democracia.

Luis José Redondo reveló un audio que le envió el soldado Manuel redondo en el que le contaba que estaban advertidos de un ataque del ELN