CNBC:

Over a decade ago, Meta – then known as Facebook – hired social science researchers to analyze how the social network’s services were affecting users. It was a way for the company and its peers to show they were serious about understanding the benefits and potential risks of their innovations.

But as Meta’s court losses this week illustrate, the researchers’ work can become a liability. Brian Boland, a former Facebook executive who testified in both trials — one in New Mexico and the other in Los Angeles — says the damning findings from Meta’s internal research and documents seemed to contradict the way the company portrayed itself publicly. Juries in the two trials determined that Meta inadequately policed its site, putting kids in harm’s way.

… With AI now getting outsized attention for the harmful effects it’s having on some users, those companies must ask if it’s in their best interest to continue funding research or to suppress it.

Ignoring the possible social effects of your world-changing technology is literally sociopathic.

A simple breakfast kefir bowl:

• 3/4 c milk kefir
• 1/2 c rolled oats

Stir together and refrigerate overnight. The next morning, let sit for a few minutes to take the chill off; heating would negate the benefits of the kefir. Stir in your favorite toppings: seeds, nuts, fresh/dried fruit, sweetener.

To do this weekend:

• Make farmer’s cheese.
• Make scrapple. I’m picking up the neck bones tonight.
• Fix the truck door handle. Parts should be arriving today.
• Celebrate my 28th wedding anniversary with my sweetie.

I’m trying to remember a few lines of some piece of Christian devotional writing that has a structure like “[some bad or difficult thing exists] therefore we are saved by [Christian virtue].” I feel like one line ends “therefore we are saved by hope.” It’s driving me crazy. Halp!

The future is invisible; we will find our way along the way.

File this under “I want to believe”: How AI Slop will Spark the Next Human Renaissance (YouTube video). He references another person’s video (also worth watching) that predicts this renaissance will happen in the 2030s. But this will be counter-productive if human-made becomes a “luxury good.”

Memory verses for localists: “And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; that ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.” (1 Thess 4:11-12)

I’ve had General’s Cedar Pointe pencils on hand at home for years now, but today I’ve started using them at work, mostly so I can use them more regularly. No idea where I first heard about them. I like the texture, the black eraser, and–above all–the scent.

Who else imagines Peter Thiel corrupting the normally ethically-bound Claude AI into a Pentagon murder machine, like Morgoth torturing elves into orcs?

These ginger bran muffins from the Old Farmer’s Almanac are good. You could even crank up the ginger a bit if you love it like I do. It’s gotten me thinking about making my own crystallized ginger.