Carrot Cake Sheet Cake

A.I. photos are flooding social media and contributing to an Internet where we can't believe what we see. Spotting A.I. 📷s is an important media literacy skill.

None of us have time to research every image we see. We just need people to notice BEFORE THEY LIKE OR SHARE that an image might be fake. If unsure, check it or don't share.

I've started drawing some comics explaining the basic of AI spot-checking and media literacy in the age of disinformation. Follow along here or on my Twitter.

I spy, with my little eye, a photo that was faked by an AI image generator! Can you spot the clues?

FB is turning into a parade of fake AI images churned out by click-farming pages. More misinformation is on the way. Learn some tricks for spotting AI photos!

The Beast that Bothers

This cheat sheet gives the final form of a dissertation, thesis or academic paper. The form of an essay depends on the author's intended purpose, audience, and the audience's needs. The professional essay follows a fixed form because its purpose it to efficiently convey expert information to expert readers, who will closely scrutinize your conclusions; it's important to avoid anything that could cause confusion. (Unless you're deliberately trying to obfuscate, which is its own variety of academic writing.)

But it's got nothing to say about your creative process. That's different for everyone. I've written thousands of professional essays, so I'll share my process. It may not work for you.

I prefer to begin with pencil and paper. No computer at this stage. The aim of this stage is to get my thoughts to flow without distractions from the computer. Do not edit or worry about choosing the best phrase, etc. Editing accesses a different part of your brain and should be avoided now. Don't worry if your notes will only make sense to you. Start with the easiest part for you to write - usually this will be the middle of the essay. Introductions are challenging to write, you can write them later. The important thing is to just get your thoughts to flow and avoid writer's block.

Next, I like to group blocks of related text together and transfer them to Microsoft PowerPoint. PPT is a far better composition tool than MS Word or similar editors because it's easier to move paragraphs around, add simple little drawings to illustrate a point, and rough out the essay organization. It also makes it a snap to develop a conference presentation for your paper, and makes it much easier to rewrite a paper for a new audience.

Organize each PPT slide so that it focuses on a single topic, with supporting material. You can see how this will cause Section 2 to emerge organically. Each topic is one or more PPT slides. For a 40 minute conference preso you'll need about from 4 to 6 topic slides.

As the essay comes together and your attention is increasingly engaged the intro and conclusions will emerge from the organization of Section 2, because both are essentially recapitulations ("tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em, tell 'em, and tell 'em what you just told 'em" is the usual formula for this form of writing.)

When the PPT starts getting large and unwieldy it's time to transfer to Word or something similar. Begin by cutting and pasting the PPT content into Word, then print it out so you can read and edit with pencil and paper again. Then update Word with your changes and repeat, alternating between computer and pencil/paper, until you've got it in final form.

There. Now you've got both your essay and your reusable PPT conference slides.

Frida Kahlo Greenwich Village rooftop in New York City - 1946 - by Nickolas Muray.

20's-30's gay diva, one of Bette Midler's icons

On April 19, 1927, Mae West was sentenced to 10 days in prison for obscenity and “corrupting the morals of youth.” #OnThisDay

Watch her continue that legacy at #TCMFF on Saturday in SHE DONE HIM WRONG.

Saul Bass: 10 iconic movie posters.

Ford Model 81A Deluxe Station Wagon 1938. - source Amazing Classic Cars.

Campy Jonathan Harris, Dick Tufeld (voice of the Robot) and Billy Mumy carried that dumb show.

Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris) and his new friend in the Lost in Space episode "The Golden Man"

The Animatrix (2003) - A Detective Story

Holy shit, they got Voyager 1 working again!

15 billion miles away and NASA was able to tweak code packages on one of the onboard computers and it worked and Voyager 1 is sending signals back to earth for the first time since November.

Incredible!

It's now Federal Law that test results have to be released to the patient. If not, the provider could be fined as an instance of information blocking. The "harm to patient" might not apply, that exception is very narrowly drawn and is intended to cover immediate physical risk not potential psychological harm. I could go back into the details of the regulation in the Federal Register - I submitted several comments to ONC at the time - but this is the gist of it.

If you think this is kind of a reckless thing to do, I can assure you that you're not alone. When the ONC first published these regulations in the waning days of the Trump Administration there were many responses to the effect that this could harm a lot of people. However, the ONC was dominated by a bunch of free-market, Ayn Rand devotees (and people expecting to data mine the new interoperable medical records) and their reasoning was completely caveat emptor as far as that goes. They decided that holding the records until the doc had a chance to sit down with the patient would become an excuse not to release the information at all.

(ONC = Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT)

Yesterday had an infuriating situation where someone who should have known better messaged a patient about their new surprise serious diagnosis when I specifically told them to call. Today found a new breast cancer diagnosis dumped in my inbox as if it were nothing with note “patient unaware.” NOT FOR LONG THEY AREN’T, the results automatically release, what the fuck is wrong with you? If you’re the provider who ordered the test and it’s positive, call the patient and set up the urgent referral, don’t wait THROUGH THE WEEKEND. Jesus Christ.

Tag yourself, i'm Asheliigynne