Ceccanti believed ChatGPT could help as an organizational tool for their housing project. He aimed to create a bespoke chatbot that would help steward the land, keep track of their things to do and show others how to emulate their project.

During this process, Ceccanti didn’t spend “ridiculous amounts of time” engaging with ChatGPT, said Fox. He continued to work, while also farming and taking care of their animals: goats, a horse, his cat, a dog and several chickens. Invested in the people and relationships around him, he spent quality time with his friends and wife, she said. Life went on without any issues for years while they slowly made progress on their housing plan.

In the spring of 2025, Ceccanti’s obsession with the chatbot began. He told Fox in late January that he needed a bigger record of his conversations with the bot so that he could continue using it to work on their sustainable housing project with longer prompts and conversations – upgrading from a $20-a-month subscription to a $200 one. By mid-March, he had begun spending more than 12 hours a day in the basement, sometimes up to 20, typing to ChatGPT, Fox recalled. That’s when “he decided to really start chasing the creation of an independent AI on a home server”.

Over time, his relationship with the chatbot came to replace his human connections, Richardson said: “Every time he went back to ChatGPT, it hooked him a little bit more, and after a while, he stopped being interested in anything else.”

On 11 June – day 86 after Ceccanti’s heaviest engagement with the bot – Fox begged him to stop using ChatGPT. In a moment of clarity, he listened to her. He unplugged his computer and quit ChatGPT.

On the third day, however, when Fox and Richardson were out for work, they received a phone call from their neighbor saying Ceccanti was in their yard acting strangely. When they returned, they found him talking to their horse, with the horse’s lead rope tied around his neck like a noose.

“He was absolutely enraged with us. He did not recognize that he was not himself anymore,” said Richardson.

Ceccanti moved to his friend’s place in Portland and eventually resumed using ChatGPT. After a month, however, he quit ChatGPT again, just a few days prior to his death.. “He was going to go to Hawaii and not take his computer, and he was going to work on finishing a story and get his shit together,” said Fox. By the time he stopped engaging with ChatGPT, he had 55,000 pages worth of conversations with it, according to Fox.

::: spoiler TW: suicide

Joe Ceccanti – who had been missing for several hours – had jumped from a railway overpass and died. He was 48.

Fox couldn’t believe it. Ceccanti had no history of depression, she said, nor was he suicidal – he was the “most hopeful person” she had ever known. In fact, according to the witness accounts shared with Fox later, just before Ceccanti jumped, he smiled and yelled: “I’m great!” to the rail yard attendants below when they asked him if he was OK. :::

https://reg.bom.gov.au/

Also, reminder that the places interface they were developing on the old site is awesome:
https://reg.bom.gov.au/places/
-- you can navigate to an arrangement of weather info for a place and just bookmark that URL.

Sick of our elected representatives warmly welcoming a leader of a genocidal apartheid state?

Reckon the reckless acceptance of massacaring the family and friends of our own community is not helping social cohesion?

Then make it known! Turn up! 5pm on a weekday for your convenience.

As Agence France-Presse reports, Venezuelan officials say the US air strikes that killed at least 56 soldiers also destroyed numerous non-military targets, including the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC).

On Wednesday, the country’s science and technology minister Gabriela Jimenez shared footage of an obliterated building which she says housed the mathematics department at the IVIC. On top of this, Jimenez said that four other IVIC buildings were targeted for destruction: the physics, chemistry, ecology, and nuclear research centers.

“Two missiles struck the area directly,” Jimenez wrote on Telegram referencing the mathematics center, per AFP which translated the comment. “The attack was total: these areas housed servers and equipment essential to our computer networks that were completely devastated.”

In addition to the academic buildings, the governor of La Guaira, Jose Alejandro Teran, said the US air strikes destroyed a medicine warehouse located on the coastal city near Caracas.

“Tons of medicine burned to ash, tons of food,” Teran said in a video posted on social media. “Here are the results of what the bombs and missiles of the United States government have done… to destroy our warehouses full of medicine and food.”

cross-posted from: https://theblower.au/users/DropBear/statuses/115824013993575742

A Jewish woman who grew up in Bondi wore a keffiyeh to an event at Bondi, after the massacre.
"All of Israel is illegally occupied Palestinian land; Israel is an illegitimate entity that never fulfilled even the requirements for UN membership, and the deeper you go into the history, the clearer that becomes."
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/12/29/fwdd-d29.html
@[email protected]
@[email protected]
#Palestine
#Israel
#CrimesAgainstHumanity

The NSW parliament is being recalled on Monday to address legislative changes in response to Sunday's terrorist attack at Bondi Beach, which saw 15 people killed in a shooting targeting the Jewish community.

The government will seek to outlaw the public display of "terrorist symbols" such as the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) group flag, and give police more powers to require someone suspected of committing an offence during a public assembly to remove their face covering.

The laws will carry penalties of up to two years' imprisonment or a $22,000 fine for any individual publicly displaying terrorist symbols. For organisations, the fine will be up to $110,000.

Under current laws, face coverings only have to be removed for police to confirm someone's identity post-arrest. The new restrictions would mean the threshold would be lowered to include all suspects.

Minns said the chant 'globalise the intifada' would also be banned, saying "horrific recent events" had shown that the phrase "is hate speech and it encourages violence in our community".

The 15 innocent victims killed in Sunday’s terrorist attack on a Hanukkah party at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia are being exploited by extreme Zionists in a bid to distract from Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Their memories are being used by the likes of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli as well as Australian officials, sections of the media and members of the public.

Instead of putting the blame on the only known perpetrators police have identified so far — the father and son shooters Sajid and Naveed Akram — Zionist extremists are implicating innocent citizens who have dared protest Israeli atrocities.

https://yewtu.be/watch?v=3nF3j3bK35M

Everyone wants a piece of the Bondi massacre, it seems. I took a look at some of those factions and the things they've done in the wake of the tragedy. After the clown show, I have a chat about the conclusions I've come to.

---

thank you

Tom Tanuki
Shared December 18, 2025

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/40525859

We successfully plugged the hole in the ozone layer that was discovered in the 1980s by banning ozone-depleting substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). But, it seems we might be unintentionally creating another potential atmospheric calamity by using the upper atmosphere to destroy huge constellations of satellites after a very short (i.e. 5 year) lifetime.

According to a new paper by Leonard Schulz of the Technical University of Braunschweig and his co-authors, material from satellites that burn up in the atmosphere, especially transition metals, could have unforeseen consequences on atmospheric chemistry—and we're now the biggest contributor of some of those elements.

It's been a long time coming that we would be though—Earth has plenty of other material spread through its upper atmosphere via meteorites burning up. In fact, even now, according to the paper, the total mass of material injected into the atmosphere from rockets and satellites is only about 7% of the mass of meteors that hit Earth annually. However, since rockets and satellites are primarily made up of metals, whereas meteors are primarily made up of silicates, the amount of metal we inject into the atmosphere is around 16% that of natural causes.

That may not sound like much, but for a few particular elements it's much, much higher. In 2015, anthropogenic (i.e. human-made) sources were the highest contributor to 18 different elements in the atmosphere. In 2024, that number jumped to 24 different elements. That could grow to as many as 30 different elements that will be the primary reason for their increased levels in the atmosphere in the coming decades.

[...]

The paper itself: Space waste: An update of the anthropogenic matter injection into Earth atmosphere

We successfully plugged the hole in the ozone layer that was discovered in the 1980s by banning ozone-depleting substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). But, it seems we might be unintentionally creating another potential atmospheric calamity by using the upper atmosphere to destroy huge constellations of satellites after a very short (i.e. 5 year) lifetime.

According to a new paper by Leonard Schulz of the Technical University of Braunschweig and his co-authors, material from satellites that burn up in the atmosphere, especially transition metals, could have unforeseen consequences on atmospheric chemistry—and we're now the biggest contributor of some of those elements.

It's been a long time coming that we would be though—Earth has plenty of other material spread through its upper atmosphere via meteorites burning up. In fact, even now, according to the paper, the total mass of material injected into the atmosphere from rockets and satellites is only about 7% of the mass of meteors that hit Earth annually. However, since rockets and satellites are primarily made up of metals, whereas meteors are primarily made up of silicates, the amount of metal we inject into the atmosphere is around 16% that of natural causes.

That may not sound like much, but for a few particular elements it's much, much higher. In 2015, anthropogenic (i.e. human-made) sources were the highest contributor to 18 different elements in the atmosphere. In 2024, that number jumped to 24 different elements. That could grow to as many as 30 different elements that will be the primary reason for their increased levels in the atmosphere in the coming decades.

[...]

The paper itself: Space waste: An update of the anthropogenic matter injection into Earth atmosphere

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/40483475

A Jewish woman wearing a Keffiyeh as well as the Star of David was escorted off Bondi Beach by police. The resulting social media storm led to death threats to her and to her friend.

I am writing this knowing it will likely result in more death threats.

That is not a metaphor. It is a statement of fact, based on what happened to my friend Michelle and me this week, and what happened next when we sought protection from the state.

On Monday, at the Bondi memorial for the victims of the mass killing the day before, Michelle – a Jewish local and member of Jews against the Occupation ‘48 – was surrounded by a hostile crowd shouting “get her off”. She was escorted off the beach to the sound of applause by approximately forty police officers, whilst trying to explain her position to the surrounding reporters, and taken to Bondi Police Station, where she was told she couldn’t go back to Bondi Beach for 6 hours.

Her “offence”? Wearing a Keffiyeh.

Whether one agrees with her politics or not is beside the point. The memorial was dominated by Israeli flags – the flag of a state currently accused of genocide and whose leaders are wanted for war crimes. Michelle wore the keffiyeh because she objected to a moment of mourning being politicised. But it is not a crime. Nor is it a provocation warranting mob intimidation.

What followed should concern anyone who believes the rule of law applies equally.

After video footage of Michelle circulated on X, under a post by journalist Hugh Riminton, the abuse escalated rapidly.

[article continues]

Video of some police interaction with Michelle: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=wvWm3zEmygY

A Jewish woman wearing a Keffiyeh as well as the Star of David was escorted off Bondi Beach by police. The resulting social media storm led to death threats to her and to her friend.

I am writing this knowing it will likely result in more death threats.

That is not a metaphor. It is a statement of fact, based on what happened to my friend Michelle and me this week, and what happened next when we sought protection from the state.

On Monday, at the Bondi memorial for the victims of the mass killing the day before, Michelle – a Jewish local and member of Jews against the Occupation ‘48 – was surrounded by a hostile crowd shouting “get her off”. She was escorted off the beach to the sound of applause by approximately forty police officers, whilst trying to explain her position to the surrounding reporters, and taken to Bondi Police Station, where she was told she couldn’t go back to Bondi Beach for 6 hours.

Her “offence”? Wearing a Keffiyeh.

Whether one agrees with her politics or not is beside the point. The memorial was dominated by Israeli flags – the flag of a state currently accused of genocide and whose leaders are wanted for war crimes. Michelle wore the keffiyeh because she objected to a moment of mourning being politicised. But it is not a crime. Nor is it a provocation warranting mob intimidation.

What followed should concern anyone who believes the rule of law applies equally.

After video footage of Michelle circulated on X, under a post by journalist Hugh Riminton, the abuse escalated rapidly.

[article continues]

Video of some police interaction with Michelle: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=wvWm3zEmygY

The New South Wales supreme court has struck down a law that had given police expanded powers to prevent protests near places of worship.

Josh Lees, on behalf of the Palestine Action Group, had challenged the law on the basis that it was unconstitutional.

Justice Anna Mitchelmore ruled on Thursday that the police powers impermissibly burdened the freedom of political communication implied in Australia’s constitution.

The challenge came after the NSW government in February made changes aimed at curbing antisemitism. This included a law which gave police the power to move on protesters who were “in or near” a place of worship.

[...]

The court heard the catalyst for the places of worship bill was a protest outside the Great Synagogue where a member of the Israel Defense Forces was speaking.

“[It] was not a religious event,” PAG’s barrister, Felicity Graham, had told the court.

Lees told reporters after the judgment was delivered: “The Palestinian group has not organised a single protest targeting a place of worship.

“These laws were about targeting anyone who protested near a place of worship, even if it had nothing to do with that place of worship.”

Doppler wind screenshots from https://theweatherchaser.com/radar/bom/melbourne/doppler-wind-velocity?m=480

Similar situation to Melbourne & surrounds, I suspect.

[...]
Open fires were found to be the most harmful way to heat a home. The health impacts of extra air pollution breathed in each house with a fire led to an annual cost of around NZ$53,400 (£23,000) to the New Zealand healthcare system and economy. This assumes a household of two adults and two children who are exposed to air pollution indoors from their open fire.

Even modern stoves created indoor air pollution. The researchers estimated a health and economy cost of NZ$1,800 annually from air pollution breathed in by each household that used one of these appliances. And indoor pollution from gas cooking exerted an annual cost of NZ$9,200 from each household.
[...]
Wood burning also adds to outdoor air pollution, which affects the local community. This extra health cost was NZ$3,200 (£1,400) annually for each modern wood stove and as much as NZ$26,800 (£11,500) for each open fire.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/28991736

Indoor air pollution from New Zealand’s 523,000 wood burners was estimated to account for 446 hospital admissions for heart and lung problems, and 101 early deaths annually, in a country with a population of just over 5 million people. Breathing fumes from gas cooking indoors created more than 1,000 hospital admissions, 208 early deaths and more than 3,000 new cases of childhood asthma each year.