Since France ’98, I’ve followed every World Cup, and of course one of my biggest obsessions has always been the mascots.
These are the mascots of this year’s tournament, hosted by Canada, Mexico, and the USA. It’s probably the only World Cup I’ll ever see hosted by my own country. Mexico is actually setting a record by becoming the first nation to host the tournament three times, which makes it even more special.
Ironically, while the World Cup is taking place in Mexico (and across North America), I’m currently traveling abroad. Still, I’ll be following the matches from afar, just as excited as ever.
Meet Maple (Canada), Zayu (Mexico), and Clutch (USA)
This traditional color pencil piece was created during my trip, so please excuse the photo quality, it’s not quite up to my usual standards.
The original artwork will be on display at the Anthrocon Art Show!
Comic Sans is the Never Gonna Give You Up of fonts.
There's nothing wrong with it, it's a perfectly enjoyable thing, it's just got so many associations with negative things that people are rarely happy to encounter it
"I'm 30 years old, and I have no children. None of my friends have any children. Do you know how badly you have to abuse a mammal to make it not want to reproduce?"
That actually makes a LOT of sense. Given some people, (myself included) were never destined to have children, but I know a number of folks who otherwise would have had kids but between a number of stress factors have chosen not to, and may eventually never have them.
And no, I'm not one of those people that is pushing for everyone to have 10 kids. I think the push to make people have kids is ridiculous and enormously wrong headed. But the fact that people who would otherwise want them aren't having them in surprisingly large numbers speaks volumes about the state of the world as we know it.
I want a kid but I do not want to subject them to this timeline either. And as I get older, this feeling becomes more frantic (because I don't want to die or be too old for them).
Two organists, one huge pipe organ, and Highland Cathedral in the magnificent Papal Basilica of St. Mary in Kevelaer, Germany!In this video, we perform the f...
Since having to leave the windows open at night to let the house cool down a bit, this is what my ears are being assaulted with at 6am every day. I suppose there are worse ways to be deprived of sleep.
(alt-text: 26-second recording of dinosaurs screaming at each other outside my window. First a high-pitched twittery one, then some repetitive honking, then more twittering, all with others in the background. I've normalised the recording, but it's all surprisingly loud in person anyway.)
Honestly, at this point I'd live in a cave. If I could get power, water and internet to it it'd be ideal. 15°C sounds like ideal fursuiting temperature.
Finally added this notice to my website "About" page:
"No LLMs or other machine learning techniques have been used anywhere on this site. I have strong ethical and moral concerns that preclude me from using the current generation of LLMs. All content is my own, created by a human mind and human hands with the help of a programmable, deterministic tool generally known as 'a computer'."
Standing on the moon, looking back at the tiny blue place where everything began. There’s a strange feeling in finally reaching that goal, while also realizing how far away home has become, and how small we are.
These cute husky astronauts were created for Galactic Camp. Digital. Procreate.
I shared the process video of this piece on the first comment of my Telegram art channel: https://t.me/panda_paco
And I shared the full process video, along the full resolution of this picture, and I have been sharing pictures I haven't shared yet on my galleries, you can be one of the first ones to see them, at supporting me on Patreon and Ko-Fi, this helps me a lot to keep creating and keep living out of this. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/pandapaco Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/panda_paco Thank you!!
Official Art Channel 🇲🇽 Clean cute artist. Full-Time Panda. Here to paint some smiles. https://linktr.ee/panda_paco Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pandapaco Ko-Fi Shop: https://ko-fi.com/panda_paco/shop Stickers channel: @pacostickers
“I mean, how would you even manage to complete everyday gang activities like leaping and twirling if you aren’t classically trained in ballet? Everybody know...
@Korawolfsrain The prince has started question their gender, and wonder if they might be a princess. They've gone to ask the dragon, hoping for a definitive answer. The dragon could say, but refuses to, not wanting to influence the young royal.
Growing up is accepting the world is changing slowly around you, while realizing you are changing with it too.
Each panel shows a different stage of youth through different moments of the day. There are little details connecting all three scenes. I don’t want to explain every meaning directly, because part of this piece is about finding your own memories inside of it.
A gift for my cousin, for her daughter's room. Digital. Procreate
You can watch the quick time-lapse process video I shared on the first comment of this submission on my Telegram art channel: https://t.me/panda_paco
But I also shared the full resolution version of this piece, with a full process video, among other drawings I haven't shared on my galleries yet. You can watch all this at supporting me monthly on Patreon or Ko-Fi, this helps me a lot to keep creating and keep living out of this. I appreciate it a lot! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/pandapaco Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/panda_paco
Official Art Channel 🇲🇽 Clean cute artist. Full-Time Panda. Here to paint some smiles. https://linktr.ee/panda_paco Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pandapaco Ko-Fi Shop: https://ko-fi.com/panda_paco/shop Stickers channel: @pacostickers
i think llms could be a useful technology. i really do. i think the value of translating nlp queries into something a computer can understand, while inefficient, can vastly help an end user, regardless of the current state of it all. i understand the drawbacks of this technology, but i genuinely find nlp -> computer assistance useful. it is something i wish i could have done with my computer all along.
but the models aren't there yet. maybe they never will be. there feels like a general sense in the industry of pushing goalposts and not admitting the limitations of the technology. the technology could be awesome, but it is absolutely hindered by the pressure to perform right now, when the technology is in its infancy. because of this capitalist pressure forward to innovate at any cost, it will inevitably enshittify at a faster rate than anything we've seen before. the market demands for the product and technology to be corrupted by financial interest from the get-go.
it can, unfortunately, never be there, in terms of both ethics and fundamental logic
at least when it comes to heuristic approaches
what we _can_ do is formalize a natural language and map it to specific instructions. We _have_ been doing that for decades. LLMs are leading us astray in that regard
it is quite a bit more complicated, essentially being the center of computational linguistics
but great examples for such interfaces are WolframAlpha or even very old text adventures. The big advantage that I just don't want to miss out on is that they are deterministic in a comprehensive way and find ways to deal with ambiguity
and yes, i'm deathly aware of how llms are made, trust me. i just feel like people don't see the actual forest for the trees sometimes when talking about the negative aspects. this technology could have been for the benefit of us all. instead, it's another tool for feudalism that's now being used for fascism. it sucks.
I'd love to be able to train my own model on, say, open-licensed code, or my own code, and then have it to generate boilerplate for me. That would be useful, and doesn't require scraping the entire fucking internet, poisoning water supplies, or propping up a scam industry. But even training your own small model is prohibitively expensive.
I'm against AI/LLMs for a number of reasons but honestly, I agree with your take here. I can *see* the potential and I can *see* how it could be beneficial, but I can also plainly see how detrimental it has become in it's current form and the way it's being foisted upon the unsuspecting public. And it's beyond frustrating how so few seem to really understand *why* it's current form is so deleterious for both the individual and for society as a whole.
Content warning: Slight spoiler for Dungeon Crawler Carl and The Amazing Digital Circus
I feel Dungeon Crawler Carl and The Amazing Digital Circus are both hitting the same "insane god-tier AI creatively torturing its victims" spot for me. I like both, but I do wonder whether exposure to too much of this might not be good for a person!
i saw a petition going around about blocking new UK based DCs until there's explicit planning rules defined for them, and my first thought was "Who is building an AI DC in the UK? With the worst electricity pricing, water for cooling pricing, and no EU data protections, what on earth makes the UK attractive for an AI DC?"
OK but this is usage for things people actually want. And a fraction of the scale or energy of these new AI data centres.
And if data centres got taxed to death, mini data centres below whatever definition, in offices, or even street cabinets, would pop up as alternatives, but without the resilience we have come to expect for such basic services like email!
> But data centres are also needed for banking, and email, and web sites, and never used to be a problem > ... > but this is usage for things people actually want
Weeeell aaaaactually, all three are examples of very harmful corporation-enforced standards that coerce us into using the "Cloud" where a raspberry pi at home without an ipv4 would have sufficed
Ferb and Evie building a PC together, and some how everything worked in the end. A traditional piece done during Furlandia, at the Artists Alley. For Ferb (Thank you!)
