Community-funded archaeological excavations of ‘really important’ sixth-century monastery also rewrite story of Lismore

To the residents of the Scottish island of Lismore, population 190, history is never very far away. The tiny island near Oban in Argyll has no row of shops or even a pub – if islanders want to meet for a coffee, the only place to do so is in the lively Gaelic heritage centre that records the many centuries of community life on the island.

This quiet place, documentary evidence records, was home to a monastic settlement in the sixth century AD, when missionaries from Ireland were first moving into northern Britain to spread Christianity. But apart from a few fragments of an early carved cross, there was almost nothing to see from this period of history.

Continue reading...

martinphoto11 has added a photo to the pool:

Sunlight across the rolling fields contrasts with the dark clouds above. A small red shed adds a splash of colour to this quiet rural scene.

Greg Adams Photography posted a photo:

The Gare do Oriente, Lisbon's Train Station in Portugal. 2026

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Google is reportedly testing a program that pays around 100 publishers based on how much their content contributes to its AI-powered search features. According to The Information, one publisher earned more than $1 million over a year, while another has received roughly $50,000 to $60,000." Digiday reports: Once a publisher joins the "AI contribution pilot," they receive an extra AI earnings widget via their Search Console dashboard. This displays a monthly earnings number (with some history), though no other detailed information on how payouts are calculated currently. Payments are based more on value than raw usage, meaning Google only pays when it judges that a piece of content has meaningfully contributed to an AI-generated response. Publishers can opt out at any time.

[...] Digiday has learned that at least dozens of publishers have been approached by Google for the AI contribution pilot, though the program has been more appealing to small and mid-sized, rather than large publishers and has widened far beyond news publishers. Digiday couldn't get final confirmation of the number. Screenshots from Google Search Console, seen by Digiday, show an "AI contribution" panel that appears once a publisher opts into the program. The interface lists the program name and a monthly payout figure.

"It's quite black box," as one exec with knowledge of the matter told Digiday. "Do I wish they were more transparent? Definitely," said one publisher exec who is in the program. "But I'm hopeful that the fact that they're setting a precedent for exploring paying publishers directly for content through this is meaningful," they added.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Jason Koebler:

One of the most heated discussions occurring on X at the moment is about the ethics of a GitHub project in which a person is running Saw-like "torture" and "pain" experiments on a series of locally hosted large language models, causing a series of effective altruists and people who believe LLMs are sentient to beg GitHub to delete the project on the grounds that the AI is suffering and that this glorified text adventure game is somehow cruel. [...]

In the wake of all this, several meme coin cryptocurrencies about the torture chamber have launched. Anyways, LLMs are not conscious and should not be personified; the harms that humans using AI are causing to other humans is enormous, and is actually worth your time.

This was funnier when it was a science fiction story -- fiction -- about the "first human upload", written in the style of a Wikipedia article: Lena by qntm.

AI God knows what you did to The Sims, and you're gonna be in trouble. All these Pac-Man ghosts lost... like... tears... in the rain...

Anyway, which kind of AI booster are you: the kind who's a fraud, or the kind who thinks they own millions of slaves?

Also, this is fine: "You're Not Crazy": A Case of New-onset AI-associated Psychosis.

Previously, previously, previously, previously.

Eternal Family is a media service that shows “a hand-picked collection of unique & rare films across Vintage Animation, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror, Action, Documentaries, Found Tapes & Much More”. KDO readers might like the Early Technology section.

Original Mastodon Post

Been taking an Introduction to Printmaking class this fall. It's been a blast. Here's my first attempt at a linocut print.

"I Want to Believe"

#linocut #mastoart #printmaking #art #TheXFiles