This month, I wrote a history of color symbology in ace and aro flags.

Atheist group faces backlash after publishing, then removing, anti-trans article | Friendly Atheist (via) – If you’re interested to know how atheist organizations deal with trans issues, Hemant provides a pretty good summary, through the lens of one recent incident.  Some orgs are better than others, but it’s frustrating how even trusted orgs can’t seem to maintain a consistent trans-positive stance.  Thankfully there were enough trans-positive voices to pressure FFRF to retract.  But I think atheist orgs have likely suffered from evaporation, with many trans-positive folks simply opting to leave (like me!).

Matthew S. Burns on AI, Empathy, and the Making of Eliza | Circuits & Synapses – As people become broadly familiar with AI chatbots, most old fiction about AI has not aged very well.  After all, the fiction was never about AI, it was about exploring humanity.  Eliza is a visual novel about using AI for talk therapy, and I think is one of the few works of fiction that has aged very well, because it was grounded in the realities (and pitfalls) of tech.  This is an interview with the author, looking back at Eliza.

Video Games & the Sexy Gender Binary | verilybitchie (video, 30 min) – Verity discusses the weird restrictions on androgyny in video game character creators, as well as the larger context.  Bulge sliders grab a lot of attention, but they’re kind of a gimmick that don’t really address deeper problems.

One thing I think is missing from the picture, is the perspective of video game devs, specifically the people who animate skeletons.  To my understanding, this is the most labor-intensive aspect of a character creator–not necessarily beyond AAA games’ means, but something they would need to consciously prioritize and budget for.  In all seriousness, bulge sliders are probably cheaper to make than tall women are.

My Day Job is Threatened by AI and I don’t Care | Great American Satan – GAS offers some of the more AI-positive perspective around here, which I appreciate.  GAS does some sort of social work, so the question is, if AI replaces them and does a good job, wouldn’t that be a good thing for society?  It wouldn’t be good for GAS personally, but it may help people navigate bureaucracy and access important social programs.  To some extent, people’s concerns about AI are a form of labor protectionism, and labor protectionism is a mixed bag at best.  You can justify almost anything with “it creates jobs”, including the US military or airport security.  I don’t want labor protectionism, I want comprehensive welfare programs.

The counterpoint is that it just won’t happen in the way GAS imagines.  For example (pessimistic case) AI will replace human workers, but won’t do a good job.  Or (optimistic case), AI will replace human workers but it will happen so slowly that it will not significantly disrupt jobs.

the sham legacy of Richard Feynman | Angela Collier (video, 2:48 hours) – People idolize Richard Feynman, not necessarily for his physics, but because he was a physicist who countered stereotypes–which is to say, Feynman was a bit more charismatic than people generally expect from physics.  I was never into the hero worship thing, but I incidentally read “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman” and watched some of his lectures.  My conclusion was that he was an excellent lecturer, and also a jerk who believed in negging women.  I didn’t think much more of it, perhaps because I didn’t have to deal with physicists’ sexism.

Angela starts out very angry at Feynman and his fans, but then suggests that the stories in the book are simply false.  So then what do we make of Feynman’s legacy?

Mantracks: a True Story of Fake Footprints | Folding Ideas (1:25 hours) – I vaguely knew that dinosaur + human footprints was a thing in YEC, but never heard the full story!