Orion🌈&sm9eb

'AI Is African Intelligence': The Workers Who Train AI Are Fighting Back Kenyan workers are still the underpaid labor behind AI training, moderation, and sex chatbots. The Data Labelers Association is fighting back.

I met with AI data labelers in Kenya who are organizing their colleagues to fight the brutal working conditions and horrible pay given to the workers at the "bottom of the AI supply chain." They believe the NDAs they've signed are unenforceable so are speaking out:

www.404media.co/ai-is-africa...

Oh my gosh there's so much awesome #TeamHarpyEagle art in the Erminea shop. Paging @harpyeagle2021.bsky.social wherever you are!!! #2026MMM
ermineainc.org/product/harp...

How have I not seen the Harpy Eagle sticker from Erminea?!?! #2026MMM !!!
ermineainc.org/product/harp...

I love that #TeamPapyrus has a library card! You can kind of picture him blowing or floating or rolling up to the desk to check out the Book of the Dead. #2026MMM
ermineainc.org/product/papy...

a panda bear is sitting in a rocking chair with its paws up and says `` i 'm not looking ! '' ALT: a panda bear is sitting in a rocking chair with its paws up and says `` i 'm not looking ! ''

Never mind it's 2024. Phew!! For a moment I was like

Hold up, there's a final roar poster up?? I'm not looking, no spoilers!! Was it last year?

STICKERS BY THE AMAZING #2026MMM ART TEAM AT THEIR NON-PROFIT ERMINEA!!!!

I was so behind that I'm looking at a bunch of battles tomorrow night.

Fig. 1. (From Alves et al. 2019) Rabbit origins and sampling locations. Historical (circles) and modern (triangles) sampling locations. Dates in red inside the maps show the date of the first myxomatosis outbreak in the respective countries. Orange dashed arrows and dates reflect historical and archaeological records of the colonization of European rabbits from France to the United Kingdom and Australia.

#RIP European rabbit 🐰 When myxoma virus devastated rabbit populations in Australia, UK & France in the 1950s, survivors in all three places independently evolved resistance driven by changes in the same immune genes.

Evolution finding the same solution 3X! #2026MMM

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Fig. 1. Maximum likelihood (ML) phylogram for Crocodylus based on mtDNA sequences (complete matrix). The topology is identical to that supported by Bayesian analysis; white circles at nodes mark clades with 100% ML bootstrap support & posterior probabilities of 1.0. The scale bar is proportional to 0.01 substitutions/site. New World Crocodylus species form a monophyletic group, as do Asian + Australian Crocodylus species, but C. niloticus is paraphyletic. According to mtDNA results, “eastern” Nile crocodiles are more closely related to the 4 New World species than to “western” Nile crocodiles. The 8 new mtDNA sequences generated for this study are indicated by gray rectangles overlaying terminal taxon names. The 3 background colors separate New World species of Crocodylus (represented by the painting of C. rhombifer – top), African lineages (C. niloticus – middle), & Asian–Australian species (represented by C. johnstoni – bottom). The tree includes multiple representatives for some species, & these are numbered. The tree is rooted with mt sequences from Mecistops and Osteolaemus (not shown).

That croc can swim! Meredith et al. (2011) used mtDNA to show that eastern Nile crocs are more closely related to American crocs than to W. Nile crocs (same species?). This suggests some Nile crocs swam across the Atlantic in the late Miocene/early Pliocene! #2026MMM doi.org/10.1016/j.ym...

#TeamKitty made it!!! I haven't even seen the battle yet!! Will plan to watch tomorrow with Italy for expert commentary.

Wait...where's #TeamMold on this list?!

Nature is so gross, I mean beautiful! #2026MMM

a person is petting a rat holding a teddy bear . ALT: a person is petting a rat holding a teddy bear .

Gaaaah I think I'm 4 battles behind!!! I might save them for tomorrow night... #2026MMM

...Sounds almost like the tiny archive with the dampness problem and silverfish I just left, hmmm... #2026MMM

bsky.app/profile/dway...

MOLD! MOLD! MOLD!
#2026MMM

finally!

I’m ready!

watch out giant kitty! #2026MMM

You can use your sniffer to detect this process of ~biodeterioration~ in a library or bookstore: the by-product volatile organic compounds have a particular musty smell. Don't sniff too long, though; mold growth can make health conditions like asthma much worse. #2026MMM

Lessons my books learned in my previous apartment. 😪 #2026MMM

Suppressing commentary about these male lions and hockey. #MMMAfterDark #2026MMM

In #2026MMM the two male lion combatants are included in honor of Patience & Fortitude, the two Lions that Guard the NYC Public Library! (And these fists 👊) www.nypl.org/125/lions

I've been trying to imagine how this battle would play out for weeks! #2026MMM

An image of a petri dish with four three-day-old Aspergillus (mold) colonies. Taken by Adrian C Hunter and shared on Wikimedia.

Image of an adult male lion with a fluffy dark mane laying regally on a rock. Photo taken by Giles Laurent and shared via Wikimedia.

Last Up: #2 Lions (Panthera leo) vs. #15 Mold (Aspergillus sp.)! A #2026MMM collab between @mammalssuck.bsky.social and myself!

Katie WILL NEVER LET SADIE DIE! this is just a fact #2026MMM

a man wearing glasses and a black suit stands in front of a green field ALT: a man wearing glasses and a black suit stands in front of a green field

#2026MMM Book louse #Carnage !

Ninety percent chance this thing's point of origin is ISAC. 👀😉 #2026MMM

Nooooo!!! Don't eat #TeamMold before he's even competed!!!! #2026MMM

a picture of a statue with the words ea-nasir jumpscare above it ALT: a picture of a statue with the words ea-nasir jumpscare above it

Unless you're me and you forgot the *one* Akkadian-writing terrible businessman everyone knows and wants to learn more about.

(Side note this isn't Ea Nasir, it's from around a thousand years earlier and a different location.)

Who taught Archaeology of the Middle East last spring and *totally forgot* to bring up Ea Nasir??
--> ME.
Anyway, I'll see if I can find the written Sumerian cuneiform word for the himri. #2026MMM

LOOK AT THIS PERFECT #MMMART DOGGY!!! #2026MMM