This really isn’t new. Tons of stories stretching back to the Middle Ages of dudes joining monasteries to hide from/attempt to mask their crimes. Abrupt religious affinities have long been used by people to try and avoid consequences of their actions. A true Christian is one who would recognize that repentance involves accepting the consequences of one’s sins and finding effective ways to make amends.

I’d like to believe that Brand has had a genuine change. But as Jesus Himself teaches, it’s what comes out of a person that either defiles or purifies and that we will know a person by their “fruit” (meaning their actions). If his “Christianity” is an elaborate sympathy ploy or selfish attempt at skirting real consequences (“see, I’ve confessed! I’ve made a change in my life to be better!”) then it’s about as genuine as the gold pockmarking the White House right now.

Tbf I think they’re basically taking fairly generic algorithmic models for photo editing and voice-to-text and slapping the “AI” moniker on them for marketing/funding purposes. I played with a 4a Pro at Best Buy the other day and the “AI” seemed about par for the course with what my iPhone 16 has (I’ve not updated to iOS27). The option to add Gemini and stuff was there, of course, but the “essentials” stuff was basic.

The Glyph is cool. But not enough to get me on board. It just felt like I was given a veneer of something different but once you get past NothingOS it’s really just Google all the way down.

Hear! Hear! I was excited about the prospect of a Razr with Graphene, but then I saw the news about both costs (and also that foldables just kinda suck in terms of longevity). I was kind of between a Nothing 4a Pro and the Fairphone 6+ with /e/OS. I’m sold on the latter. The Nothing has a cool design, but it’s still pretty locked-in on Android and a bunch of AI crap (even though it seems minuscule and optional). The idea of a completely repairable phone appeals to me. Plus I can print a clear plastic back cover for the thing to re-live the glory days of my clear teal and purple Motorola pager.

I was all set to wait for a Motorola Razr with Graphene to drop (and finally be done with Apple) until I read the iFixit tear-down of the Duo and realized that all foldables are fragile and require extra care (that I, a surfer and parent of four children, cannot guarantee). I think now I’m going to get a Fairphone 6 with /e/

For real. Just last weekend I was at a conference and realized that I left my tablet at home and the agenda/workbook for the event was PDF. I was pinching and scrolling with my iPhone while my colleague next to me opened up his Galaxy Fold and was reading everything fine. I mean, yeah, it’s not a common need for me, but there’s definitely use-cases for this–especially for people who have to read digital documents on the go a lot and don’t want to have to carry extra devices just to do so.

Unless those rumors are true and they did manage to game enough voting machines to clinch the election. In which case he was not actually elected twice…

So crazy that that dude went from being Paul on the Wonder Years to having to debunk those sorts of rumors. Life before the internet, amirite?

Been on Mastodon for like four years. Ironically, I joined when during a major Twitter exodus, but I’d already left Twitter like two years before. I came here because I started to get tired of my content being used to make money for Mark Zuckerberg and I also noticed that “the algorithm” was primed to make me both addicted and angry all the time.

Came to Lemmy because I find it has more memes and humor than Mastodon and scratches the reddit itch (I left that platform about two years ago). It’s also a pretty good place to see news from around the world.

I also use Pixelfed, but rarely. I like to look at it when I have downtime but don’t want to be inundated with political posts and commentary. It tends to just be pretty pictures of flowers and mosses.

I love the Fediverse for being influencer-free social media. I really want to start a PeerTube instance for my own content (I’m a priest at a small Episcopal parish and I use streaming for our Christian education stuff and I find a huge disconnect with using a predatory and exploitative platform like YouTube for any kind of actual Christian material).

Literally two days ago they were running the same headline in response to Starlink and Ukraine.

Well, the daughters were under the impression that the entire world had been destroyed and that it was their duty to repopulate the earth. The only man around was their dad and they had booze, and so they liquored him up. It’s the rare example of a man being raped in the Bible!

It’s an all-around awful story is what I’m saying.

But he keeps telling me that Iran’s military capabilities are completely destroyed…

Every time I watch the opening credits of Batman the Animated Series and see those airships I think of what they took from us.

We used to be a properly civilized society. Just look at all that wood paneling!

I once flew Thai Air from LAX to Bangkok. 17.5 hrs. Gorgeous plane with framed art on the walls. Friendly staff. We ended up flying like Northwestern on the way back and the experience was so jarring. Thai Air was pleasant. The US based airline was trash.

Yeah. I was merely noting that there’s a precedent for “normal-car-but-with-EV-stuff-instead.” It’s a shame that the Soul EV was given such a limited distribution. It’s easily my favorite car I’ve ever owned.

They do. Or least they sometimes do. I drive a Kia Soul EV. It’s… a Kia Soul with an electric motor and battery instead of all the internal combustion stuff.

Sounds an awful lot like current “AI” hype, tbh. It’s a good reminder that every new technological innovation carries with it those who will jam the language of the new innovation into anything and everything, even if it doesn’t really make much sense, and also try to tell you that it will solve all problems.

And now that I think more about it, the implementation of wide-spread electricity infrastructure also brought with it ecological damage and was foisted upon people who didn’t want it (particularly in the rural areas) in order to serve those who did (the wealthy being the first)… I’m not saying this in defense of “AI” or whatever. Just observing the parallels.