Posts with Recent Comments
A reliable method of discovering the music of past eras
The Most Iconic Electronic Music Sample of Every Year (1990–2024) and The Most Iconic Hip-Hop Sample of Every Year (1973–2023) [Open Culture]
inside the mind of your ai pal
'The AI firm Anthropic has developed a way to peer inside a large language model and watch what it does as it comes up with a response, revealing key new insights into how the technology works. The takeaway: LLMs are even stranger than we thought. The Anthropic team was surprised by some of the counterintuitive workarounds that large language models appear to use to complete sentences, solve simple math problems, suppress hallucinations, and more.' Anthropic can now track the bizarre inner workings of a large language model (MIT Review). [more inside]
Wear what you want
Sharks recorded making sounds underwater
"Like electric sparks": Sharks recorded making sounds underwater. Sharks were thought to be silent, but scientists have recorded a New Zealand species making a clicking noise.
The First Female Anglo-Saxonist
"Elizabeth Elstob left behind no family and few mourners, just some rooms full of ‘books and dirtiness’, as one visitor described them. Yet Elizabeth was a pioneer of medieval studies in England". Article by Yvonne Seale in History Today about Elizabeth Elstob (1683-1756).
“You’re either going to make a deal or we’re out.”
Trump Administration Live Updates: Trump and Vance Loudly Berate Zelensky in Oval Office (SLNYT, archive.ph)
Be hot and steamy and sweaty in this week's Free Thread
As the song about sauna, the Swedish entry for Eurovision, continues to delight fellow musicians and climb various music charts, the Free Thread for this week asks: what situation, event, or incident were you hot, sweaty, comfortably or uncomfortably warm in, maybe needing to cool down? Either deliberately or accidentally; perhaps a trip to Death Valley or Burning Man? Eating a chilli-laden meal? Falling asleep while sunbathing? Something else?
Joni and James Taylor on the Beeb
Joni Mitchell and James Taylor, on stage, October 1970, London (audio only). Recorded either at the Paris Theater or the Royal Albert Hall. Playlist and a little more info at Beehive Candy. Also available, split into two MP3 files and zipped at the Internet Archive (but their playlist is wrong). [more inside]
The Encampments
The trailer for the Encampments - a documentary produced by Watermelon Pictures and Breakthrough News, following student organizers at elite universities as they take a historic stand against their institutions' investments in the Gaza genocide. The documentary features currently detained activist Mahmoud Khalil, who is currently facing deportation. Hip hop star Macklemore is executive producer, and he explains to Democracy Now! why he got involved. They also spoke with Atalla; Sueda Polat, a Columbia graduate student and fellow campus negotiator with Khalil; and Grant Miner, a former Columbia graduate student and president of the student workers' union who was expelled from the school over his participation in the protests. [more inside]
tv.garden
What radio.garden did for radio, tv.garden is doing for... yes, tv. That is: Freely stream live tv stations from around the world!
“The new definition of antisemitism serve[s] Christian nationalism”
Itamar Mann and Lihu Yona of Haifa University on the implications of defining antisemitism as anti-Zionism for American society and for a Christian nationalism truly dangerous to Jews. [more inside]
Least I Have You, CocoRosie!
CocoRosie have released their 8th studio album, Little Death Wishes Comprised of sisters Sierra Rose "Rosie" and Bianca Leilani "Coco" Casady, their music is a heady mix of lo-fi avant-pop, freak folk and hip-hop with an often strident political, radical feminist messaging. [more inside]
Joan Didion, unsurprisingly, took a lot of notes
This extraordinary little looseleaf binder — undated, though one page makes reference to 1965 — may be among the the most revealing items in the collection. It’s a (seemingly but not really) random collection of quotes, thoughts, observations, and other bits of prose, mostly likely just Didion’s “I might want to use this” file. (They’re mostly typewritten, though one bears the handwritten addition “what am I saying here.”) Mann remarked to me that it’s a lot like the “commonplace books” that many 19th- and early 20th-century authors kept. from A First Look Into the Joan Didion Archives [Vulture; ungated]
Honey, it’s Friday, let’s go out to eat tonight. Screw the budget!!!
There are 173 Michelin rated restaurants in Canada. There are 74 restaurants included in the guide for British Columbia and of course they’re all in the Vancouver area. There are 99 in Ontario and they’re all in the Golden Horseshoe. There are none in Montreal - whaaaat? [more inside]
Ibogaine: The Last Trip?
Werner Herzog's "God's Angry Man"
God's Angry Man is a 1981 documentary film directed by Werner Herzog about Gene Scott, a U.S. pastor and Stanford PhD who served for almost fifty years as an ordained minister and religious broadcaster in Los Angeles.*
And so it begins
Bill Evans - Sunday at the Village Vanguard
"Sunday at the Village Vanguard is a live album by jazz pianist and composer Bill Evans and his Trio consisting of Evans, bassist Scott LaFaro, and drummer Paul Motian. Released in 1961, the album is routinely ranked as one of the best live jazz recordings of all time." * [more inside]
Legends, Lattes, and Lament
Not rose tinted
In 17th century Mughal India a unique set of spectacles were crafted from an approximately 200 carat diamond. Named the Halqeh-e Nur, or Halo of Light, the now 25 carat lenses are flat and set in a frame that is set with multiple rose cut diamonds. Another set of spectacles, Astaneh-e ferdaws, meaning "Gate of Paradise", was made with slices of an emerald instead of diamonds. With an estimated value of about $2 million to $3.4 million per pair the spectacles are currently in a private collection.