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Canadian Analysis: Permanent Daylight Saving Harms Sleep and Mental Health

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"With the push to eliminate the twice yearly clock change, Permanent Daylight Savings Time has emerged as the favorite for most states and provinces," writes longtime Slashdot reader kbahey, sharing the findings from a recent analysis published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Sci.News reports: "Ending the clock change solves one problem, but it creates another decision: which time should we live on year-round?" said University of British Columbia's Professor Raymond Lam, lead author of the study. "The health evidence points to standard time, largely because morning light matters for our body clocks, sleep, and mood." Professor Lam and colleagues examined the health consequences of the two possible permanent systems rather than the broader question of whether seasonal clock changes should be abolished. They concluded that the accumulated evidence favors permanent standard time, which keeps the clock more closely aligned with human circadian biology. This distinction, according to the team, becomes particularly important during winter. Permanent daylight saving time would push sunrise an hour later. In cities such as Toronto, for example, the latest winter sunrise would occur at 8:51 a.m., compared with 7:51 a.m. under permanent standard time. In Calgary, the corresponding times would be 9:40 a.m. and 8:40 a.m. The extra hour of morning darkness could leave people traveling to work or school before sunrise, while shifting more daylight into the evening. The change could have consequences for sleep, mood, learning and productivity, particularly among people who already have difficulty sleeping or who must follow early schedules. The reason is rooted in the body's internal clock. "Our biological clocks need morning light to stay synchronized with the 24-hour day," said Simon Fraser University's Professor Ralph Mistlberger, co-author of the study. "Permanent daylight saving time moves that light an hour later just when winter mornings are already darkest." The analysis also highlights concerns about seasonal depression. [...] By delaying natural morning light, permanent daylight saving time would act in the opposite direction, potentially weakening an important circadian signal.

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InShaneee
11 hours ago
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Workers behind Dungeons & Dragons vote to unionize

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Whether it’s monsters or just unfair labor practices at the gate, the artists and workers behind Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering are standing together. This morning, the D&D team and Studio X, which includes Magic: The Gathering and Duel Masters teams, announced their intention to unionize. They’ve asked the Wizards Of The Coast leadership to voluntarily recognize their union by October 13, and have shared a petition that the public can sign if they wish to support the cause. 

In a press release, the workers have laid out what they’re seeking from management. Surprise, surprise, like basically everyone in any kind of creative field, they’re looking for some kind assurance that they won’t be replaced by AI. However, they’re also asking for what appear to be pretty standard requests from your employer. This includes fair wages, job security, reliable healthcare, fair workloads (including remote and hybrid working), and ownership of work created outside of the company. 

If Wizards Of The Coast voluntarily recognizes the union, the Dungeons & Dragons team and Studio X say that they will then begin bargaining and have promised to “share additional details with you all as they develop.” “The games we create are foundations of the gaming industry,” the teams write in the release. “Just as D&D has inspired countless TTRPGs and Magic sparked the TCG revolution, we hope to catalyze real change within our industry and build upon the groundwork laid by other gaming unions, creating a space where all workers are protected and treated fairly.” While this is still up in the air, the teams have encouraged any supporters to sign and share their petition.



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InShaneee
11 hours ago
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Rogue One actor lost Andor role for refusing to cut "unrealistic" dreadlocks

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Don’t look for Corporal Tonc in Andor—apparently his hair just wasn’t realistic enough for the Rebel Alliance. That’s what Tonc actor Jordan Stephens told Zeteo UK on Monday, where the actor and rapper (one half of British rap duo Rizzle Kicks), explained his reasons for declining the opportunity to reprise his small but heroic Rogue One role.

Stephens, who’s been growing his dreadlocks for seven years, told interviewer Shehab Khan that while he had successfully hidden his locks away under a rebel helmet during his brief appearance in Rogue One, Andor producers were adamant he cut off his distinctive hair. “In Rogue One, I’m wearing a helmet the whole time. So I was like, ‘Yeah I’ve got locks but who cares, just put me in a helmet [again],'” Stephens recalls. He then quoted an unnamed member of the production team as telling him, “‘We’re going to be training so we’re going to need you in traditional army attire, including your hair. And if you have locks, I don’t think it’d be realistic.'”

It was that last word that truly turned the actor against a flashback return for his late character. “I was like, ‘You’re talking about an intergalactic space war with giant slugs and swords made of light, and you’re worried about a soldier having dreadlocks?’ On principle, the cognitive dissonance was too difficult to handle. The idea that someone would watch and say ‘Oh, well he’s got dreadlocks so it’s obviously not real’—what is going on? It’s absolutely insane.”

Stephens, most recently seen in Paramount+ series The Ex-Wife, never explicitly mentions race in the exchange, but Star Wars fans no doubt recall the racist outcry that greeted John Boyega’s casting as former stormtrooper turned rebel Finn in 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And Boyega himself has been unsparing about the franchise’s approach to characters of color. Stephens, for his part, has few regrets for missing out on a return to the Star Wars universe. For one thing, he told Khan that he was offered “fuck all” to reprise his role. 

And for another, it’s not like the Star Wars universe lacks people and beings with all manner of hairstyles (or whatever Bib Fortuna has on his head). In their article on the controversy, IGN helpfully points to Clone Wars‘ Jedi Master Quinlan Vos as an example of a Black man whose dreadlocks didn’t shatter anyone’s illusions.



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InShaneee
11 hours ago
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AI has come for comics on stage and in The New Yorker

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By design, large language models plagiarize because for generative AI to work at the scale we’re told it must, the LLM must ingest everything it can to spit out something similar. As the technology has proliferated, it has found a home on social media, where relaxed moderation policies meet an endless appetite for more content. As we’ve seen time and again, once something hits social media, its creator no longer owns it. In the past, that could mean an idea becoming a meme that’s outside the creator’s control. But now, much of what people post becomes material for AI to ingest and regurgitate. That’s what’s happening to comedian George Brett Olson, who realized an AI-generated woman was stealing his jokes, movements, and even the color of his outfit from a video of his stand-up set. 

Caught by writer Nate Bowling in his Takes & Typos newsletter, Olson’s video breaks down how Tiffany Sloan, a fake woman with massive physical features very different from his own, uses his jokes and movements as motion capture, like he was Andy Serkis and “she” was Gollum. Sloan’s creators are stealing all the way to the bank, amassing a massive following on others’ hard work (Olson isn’t the only comedian it copied) and directing viewers to the AI’s OnlyFans page. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t violate Meta’s terms of service. Even weirder, it’s telling Olson’s joke about AI taking everyone’s jobs. Or as Bowling succinctly puts it: “A working comedian had his joke stolen by an anonymous person who created a big-butted hot girl AI avatar, which then stole his jokes and dozens of others’, monetized the theft, ran an adult content side hustle, and somehow managed to violate none of Meta’s terms of service.”

But stand-up comics aren’t the only ones vulnerable to AI. New Yorker comics artists are also getting robbed. A recent report from Nieman Labs reveals that the signatures of real New Yorker artists are being slapped on AI-generated New Yorker cartoons without their knowledge or consent. Nieman Lab found that ChatGPT has stolen the signatures of more than 15 New Yorker cartoonists, including Brendan Loper, Harry Bliss, Emily Flake, Pat Byrnes, George Booth, Liza Donnelly, and more. For artists, their signature carries currency, authenticating their work and giving it value. 

In 2024, OpenAI signed a licensing deal with The New Yorker’s parent company, Condé Nast. However, the tech company was not permitted to train on cartoons. Somehow, it’s creating New Yorker-style cartoons with real cartoonists’ signatures. OpenAI’s product currently generates New Yorker slop with real signatures at the bottom. OpenAI told Nieman Lab, “This prompt may violate our guardrails concerning similarity to third-party content,” but has done nothing about it.

“It’s an uncanny simulacrum of an impression of a joke,” Jason Adam Katzenstein, a 12-year veteran of the New Yorker pages, tells Nieman Lab. “But it’s not the point for it to actually be funny or good. The point is that it’s trying to deal a death blow to labor. It’s trying to render individual cartoonists obsolete because we cost money and take time.”

Last month, unsealed and unredacted court documents from The New York Times ongoing litigation against OpenAI and Microsoft revealed Microsoft director of applied science Brent Hecht calling AI training the “largest theft of labor in human history.” We suppose these are just two more examples for his argument. 



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InShaneee
23 hours ago
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Letterboxd users attempt to pool money to buy platform

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Letterboxd users are trying to put the future of their beloved film-centric platform into their own hands. For months, Tiny, the Canadian holding company with a controlling stake in Letterboxd, has been shopping the user-focused social media platform around to interested parties. And there are plenty of interested parties, to say the least. The potential sale has sent users into a frenzy—and who could blame them, especially amid the near-complete merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery and what the last few years have done to Twitter. Now, Intrinsic Entertainment Collaborative, a public benefit company, has launched a grassroots campaign called Letterboxd4All to rally the Letterboxd community to buy the majority stake by making a minimum $100 investment for equity ownership on Wefunder or donating $1 or more through GoFundMe. “The valuation of Letterboxd reflects the years of creative labor users have contributed to building the platform,” Elizabeth Joyce, founder of Intrinsic, told TheWrap. “Our campaign is a reflection of people’s frustration at seeing value extracted from their communities. Our model offers communities the chance to be the owner, not the product.”

Letterbox’s growth has been exponential in recent years, and the platform has a staggering 30 million users, according to Inc. It’s become a space where celebrity users, from Charli xcx and Rachel Sennott to Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, can drop their hot takes or praise the work of their peers. The success has resulted in celebrities eagerly rattling off their top four movies on red carpets, and, for better or worse, fans immediately logging their reviews as soon as a film’s credits roll. It’s no surprise that movie fans of every kind, from casual viewers to cinephiles who take pride in watching multiple films a week, are desperate to preserve the platform. Plus, there’s an obvious conflict of interest if a major studio buys the platform, since it could influence which films get highlighted or exploited to push its own agenda. Until a sale goes through, either from Letterboxd users or a big studio, Film Twitter will have to stand by anxiously. 



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InShaneee
23 hours ago
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Cook County groups want a budget freeze for the sheriff and state’s attorney

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A coalition of 57 community, faith, policy, and social service organizations is calling on the Cook County Board of Commissioners to freeze law enforcement spending amid a projected $550 million budget shortfall for fiscal year 2027. The groups argue commissioners should freeze spending on the Cook County Sheriff’s Office and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s […]

The post Cook County groups want a budget freeze for the sheriff and state’s attorney appeared first on Chicago Reader.

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InShaneee
1 day ago
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