Ben Evans
@ogkittylyst.bsky.social
Usually kittylyst, someone beat me to the name here. So I'm the OG
Cisqueer author / educator / software eng known for #architecture #performance #observability #Java #JVM
Chaos acc: #cats #antifascism #queer >> #tech
More: @kittylyst@mastodon.social
Cisqueer author / educator / software eng known for #architecture #performance #observability #Java #JVM
Chaos acc: #cats #antifascism #queer >> #tech
More: @kittylyst@mastodon.social
Pinned
Ben Evans
@ogkittylyst.bsky.social
· Jul 19
Hey folks - just a reminder that @kittylyst.bsky.social is not me.
They beat me to the name here (which is just the way it goes sometimes) & about half their followers seem to be people who are probably looking for me!
But, no, I'm here.
They beat me to the name here (which is just the way it goes sometimes) & about half their followers seem to be people who are probably looking for me!
But, no, I'm here.
Reposted by Ben Evans
if you are talking today about how bad maduro was and were alive, at all, during the run-up to the iraq war you are potentially the dumbest person to ever live
January 3, 2026 at 5:00 PM
if you are talking today about how bad maduro was and were alive, at all, during the run-up to the iraq war you are potentially the dumbest person to ever live
Reposted by Ben Evans
Reminder: The US has refused to join the International Criminal Court because it argues extraterritorial justice is incompatible with national sovereignty and citizen's rights.
Vance pushes back and says this was not illegal, arguing "Maduro has multiple indictments in the United States for narcoterrorism. You don't get to avoid justice for drug trafficking in the United States because you live in a palace in Caracas."
January 3, 2026 at 4:39 PM
Reminder: The US has refused to join the International Criminal Court because it argues extraterritorial justice is incompatible with national sovereignty and citizen's rights.
Reposted by Ben Evans
"Google Cloud Run cost me $4,676 in 6 weeks with zero traff"
> I fed my setup, budget, and constraints as context into Gemini CLI,
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4637...
fuckin vibe infra
> I fed my setup, budget, and constraints as context into Gemini CLI,
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4637...
fuckin vibe infra
Google Cloud Run cost me $4,676 in 6 weeks with zero traff | Hacker News
news.ycombinator.com
January 3, 2026 at 2:44 PM
"Google Cloud Run cost me $4,676 in 6 weeks with zero traff"
> I fed my setup, budget, and constraints as context into Gemini CLI,
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4637...
fuckin vibe infra
> I fed my setup, budget, and constraints as context into Gemini CLI,
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4637...
fuckin vibe infra
The best that Bermondsey has looked since it was underwater.
I saw a visceral organ: a lung. Connected by narrow breathing tubes of iron rail, to bring people, life, energy (and yes, ok, south east London) into the city.
The Lung of London.
The Lung of London.
January 3, 2026 at 2:21 PM
The best that Bermondsey has looked since it was underwater.
Reposted by Ben Evans
"A woman dressed as a pink Power Ranger hacked a dating site for far-right extremists. She deleted the entire site, but first she made users fall in love with AI bots she ran, thus obtaining information about them. Over 8,000 far-right profiles have now been mapped."
En kvinna, utklädd till rosa Power Ranger, hackade datingsida för högerextrema. Hon raderade hela sidan, men först fick hon användarna att bli kära i AI-botar som hon drev och fick på så sätt ut information om dem. Över 8000 högerextrema profiler har nu kartlagts.
cybernews.com/security/inv...
cybernews.com/security/inv...
Investigator breaches white supremacist dating sites, exposes 8,000 users
An investigative journalist infiltrated three white supremacist platforms, including the dating site WhiteDate, exfiltrating over 8,000 user profiles and 100GB of sensitive data.
cybernews.com
January 3, 2026 at 10:27 AM
"A woman dressed as a pink Power Ranger hacked a dating site for far-right extremists. She deleted the entire site, but first she made users fall in love with AI bots she ran, thus obtaining information about them. Over 8,000 far-right profiles have now been mapped."
Reposted by Ben Evans
Ja podeu demanar a llibreries la nostra novetat:
«Argila alienígena»
📖 @aptshadow.bsky.social
🖋️ @octavigilpujol.bsky.social
🎨 @davidgvaquero.bsky.social
llegirencatala.cat/llibres/argi...
«Argila alienígena»
📖 @aptshadow.bsky.social
🖋️ @octavigilpujol.bsky.social
🎨 @davidgvaquero.bsky.social
llegirencatala.cat/llibres/argi...
Argila alienígena
Adrian Tchaikovsky redissenya l’evolució com una economia de bescanvi en aquesta sorprenent aventura que critica els totalitarismes i enarbora els estendards de la solidaritat i la cooperació.
L’objec...
llegirencatala.cat
January 3, 2026 at 8:53 AM
Ja podeu demanar a llibreries la nostra novetat:
«Argila alienígena»
📖 @aptshadow.bsky.social
🖋️ @octavigilpujol.bsky.social
🎨 @davidgvaquero.bsky.social
llegirencatala.cat/llibres/argi...
«Argila alienígena»
📖 @aptshadow.bsky.social
🖋️ @octavigilpujol.bsky.social
🎨 @davidgvaquero.bsky.social
llegirencatala.cat/llibres/argi...
Better late than never.
There is, to my mind, no justification for the continued use by the UK Government of X as a platform for official comms. There hasn't been for some time, in fact, but if the latest developments around AI-generated image abuse and CSAM don't change the policy I really don't know what will.
NEW: People are using Elon Musk's chatbot, Grok, to alter images to depict real women being sexually abused, humiliated, hurt, and even killed.
futurism.com/future-socie...
futurism.com/future-socie...
January 3, 2026 at 12:15 AM
Better late than never.
Reposted by Ben Evans
Reposted by Ben Evans
Under Irish law Musk can be jailed for 12 months for being a director of a company distributing CSAM. Section 9 of the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act 1998. 'X' is a company registered in Ireland.
January 2, 2026 at 1:57 PM
Under Irish law Musk can be jailed for 12 months for being a director of a company distributing CSAM. Section 9 of the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act 1998. 'X' is a company registered in Ireland.
Reposted by Ben Evans
Reposted by Ben Evans
Right-wing politicians and press: “hunt restrictions are waging war on rural life!”
Actual person living in a rural area:
Actual person living in a rural area:
![Hounds out of control, hunt followers blocking roads. Be careful folks!
I have just had a really stressful drive back into the village after finding the [redacted] Hunt fully hunting, and allowing their hound to chase a trail that certainly wasn't man made.
I watched as hounds crossed the [redacted] and [redacted] Road three times while in full cry. Only when they entered the village, did I hear any Huntsman's attempt at calling them back.
C'mon, [redacted] landowners. I thought you knew better than to allow illegal fox hunting on your land. It makes you the law breakers too, after all.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:icsm7hd2dok5lxddyrig4gbt/bafkreif6u2bpqy3chrr2icfxzrgf7brhtrp4fgcgxb5vqgqlg6jr223hwm@jpeg)
January 2, 2026 at 8:21 PM
Right-wing politicians and press: “hunt restrictions are waging war on rural life!”
Actual person living in a rural area:
Actual person living in a rural area:
Reposted by Ben Evans
This just in: calculator has apologized for saying BOOBS
“Upside down calculator says ‘BOOBS’”
January 2, 2026 at 8:10 PM
This just in: calculator has apologized for saying BOOBS
Reposted by Ben Evans
The Buddhist monks on a "Walk for Peace" toward Washington are urging streamers not to follow them everywhere they go
"We don't want this to become something people chase after"
"We don't want this to become something people chase after"
January 2, 2026 at 6:53 PM
The Buddhist monks on a "Walk for Peace" toward Washington are urging streamers not to follow them everywhere they go
"We don't want this to become something people chase after"
"We don't want this to become something people chase after"
Reposted by Ben Evans
Reposted by Ben Evans
This is the "testing the waters" phase of the playbook. The GOP ecosystem targets groups like Somalis, Haitians, and trans people specifically because they've calculated that the average person's passive disapproval won't ever turn into active defense. They're exploiting public apathy.
i'm really having a hard time getting past the "surely we can all agree that Somalis are worse than trash" thing. this feels new and very bad
January 2, 2026 at 6:32 PM
This is the "testing the waters" phase of the playbook. The GOP ecosystem targets groups like Somalis, Haitians, and trans people specifically because they've calculated that the average person's passive disapproval won't ever turn into active defense. They're exploiting public apathy.
Reposted by Ben Evans
I wrote about Grok's CSAM problem and how journalists keep fumbling the story
www.readtpa.com/p/grok-cant-...
www.readtpa.com/p/grok-cant-...
Grok Can't Apologize. Grok Isn't Sentient. So Why Do Headlines Keep Saying It Did?
Elon Musk’s chatbot has been “undressing” women and children in public. Journalists are letting xAI off the hook by pretending the bot is responsible.
www.readtpa.com
January 2, 2026 at 5:58 PM
I wrote about Grok's CSAM problem and how journalists keep fumbling the story
www.readtpa.com/p/grok-cant-...
www.readtpa.com/p/grok-cant-...
Can we add "ban the foreign fascist interference and CSAM factory website from Europe" please @ec.europa.eu ?
New Year, new EU goals 🌍
Here are some of our top priorities for 2026 ⬇️
Here are some of our top priorities for 2026 ⬇️
January 2, 2026 at 5:25 PM
Can we add "ban the foreign fascist interference and CSAM factory website from Europe" please @ec.europa.eu ?
Reposted by Ben Evans
You can make LLMs say almost anything. A news organization reporting "what grok said" is engaging in journalistic malpractice. It doesn't know. It just creates plausible sounding words in response to a prompt.
Grok says safeguard lapses led to images of 'minors in minimal clothing' on X reut.rs/498SoUk
Grok says safeguard lapses led to images of 'minors in minimal clothing' on X
Elon Musk's xAI artificial intelligence chatbot Grok said on Friday lapses in safeguards had resulted in "images depicting minors in minimal clothing" on social media platform X and that improvements were being made to prevent this.
reut.rs
January 2, 2026 at 4:55 PM
You can make LLMs say almost anything. A news organization reporting "what grok said" is engaging in journalistic malpractice. It doesn't know. It just creates plausible sounding words in response to a prompt.
Reposted by Ben Evans
This is the thing.
At any point when writing about Grok or any other LLM, you can replace the name of the LLM with "the computer" without any loss in meaning.
If you would not write "the computer apologized", then you should not write "Grok apologized".
At any point when writing about Grok or any other LLM, you can replace the name of the LLM with "the computer" without any loss in meaning.
If you would not write "the computer apologized", then you should not write "Grok apologized".
Saying "Grok apologized" is like saying "my phone predictive text chose words that look like apology."
January 2, 2026 at 4:08 PM
This is the thing.
At any point when writing about Grok or any other LLM, you can replace the name of the LLM with "the computer" without any loss in meaning.
If you would not write "the computer apologized", then you should not write "Grok apologized".
At any point when writing about Grok or any other LLM, you can replace the name of the LLM with "the computer" without any loss in meaning.
If you would not write "the computer apologized", then you should not write "Grok apologized".
Reposted by Ben Evans
This story is about one of the ones who walked away from Omelas.
January 2, 2026 at 5:10 PM
This story is about one of the ones who walked away from Omelas.
Reposted by Ben Evans
Saying Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians is "nothing but terror," is highly inaccurate.
It is, in fact, MORE than terror.
Moscow is *using* terror as a TOOL to commit genocide of Ukrainians.
This FACT matters a great deal.
It is, in fact, MORE than terror.
Moscow is *using* terror as a TOOL to commit genocide of Ukrainians.
This FACT matters a great deal.
January 2, 2026 at 5:12 PM
Saying Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians is "nothing but terror," is highly inaccurate.
It is, in fact, MORE than terror.
Moscow is *using* terror as a TOOL to commit genocide of Ukrainians.
This FACT matters a great deal.
It is, in fact, MORE than terror.
Moscow is *using* terror as a TOOL to commit genocide of Ukrainians.
This FACT matters a great deal.
I can well believe this about delivery apps - archive.is/0KD62
archive.is
January 2, 2026 at 4:52 PM
I can well believe this about delivery apps - archive.is/0KD62
Reposted by Ben Evans
LLMs "apologize" a LOT, because they spew a lot of bullshit and are frequently called on it. But a true apology requires a commitment to change future behavior, which LLMs are incapable of doing, so no LLM can make a true apology.
January 2, 2026 at 4:06 PM
LLMs "apologize" a LOT, because they spew a lot of bullshit and are frequently called on it. But a true apology requires a commitment to change future behavior, which LLMs are incapable of doing, so no LLM can make a true apology.
Co-signed on the JFC. And skip paywall link - archive.is/YMuj5
January 2, 2026 at 4:10 PM
Co-signed on the JFC. And skip paywall link - archive.is/YMuj5
Reposted by Ben Evans
I know some people take twilight as a signal to hurry home – especially when their route home crosses an old churchyard – but not me. I love boneyard lingering at twlight. That's when the tombs whisper loudest. That;s when you hear all its best gossip. – Izzie Barber #VOH
January 2, 2026 at 3:40 PM
I know some people take twilight as a signal to hurry home – especially when their route home crosses an old churchyard – but not me. I love boneyard lingering at twlight. That's when the tombs whisper loudest. That;s when you hear all its best gossip. – Izzie Barber #VOH