Posts with Recent Comments
“It is fun to have fun but you have to know how.”
Caleb Carr interview about a cat that saved his sanity Recently deceased writer, Caleb Carr speaks warmly about his rescue cat Masha and the book that describes their relationship. Full discretion: I recently lost my Familiar, Neko the Brave, who wasn't named Neko the FasterThan Cars.
Europe is Healthier than US
'This is my third essay comparing US to Europe, which is the sex scenes of travel writing — usually cringe, usually vapid, but boy oh boy does it sell. The prior two, “US is better than Europe!” and “America does not have a good food culture”, are two of my most read essays.'
Challenge: Failed
This just in: the Supreme Court has issued their opinion (.pdf) on FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, and it's unanimous. The plaintiffs lack the standing to challenge the FDA on the abortion medication drug mifepristone. Previously.
Helicopters, oyster boats, and barges called in to save rare raptors
Helicopters, oyster boats, and barges called in to save rare raptors from extinction.
Artificial nesting platforms are installed at key coastal sites across South Australia to help the eastern osprey breed after the population dropped to just 50 pairs of birds.
God Mode
Technically, the returns will diminish because of the nature of LMs: they will return shallow text probabilistically biased toward any religious text in their training corpus. Spiritually, while LMs may marshal text effectively, they can neither “read, mark, learn,” nor “inwardly digest” it. Meditating on divine words is what human beings do in their inner being. This technically cannot and morally should not be automated. Mary could not have outsourced her pondering of the angel’s words to an LM, not only because an LM’s next-item-prediction objective is not pondering, but also because it would have denied those words’ ability to form her. from ChatGPT Goes to Church [Plough] [more inside]
Fully Automated Luxury Price Gouging
Digital surveillance and customer isolation are locking us into a consumer hell of personalized prices. Companies were deterred from purely individualizing what they charge, because of publicly posted prices and consumer anger over the unfairness of being charged differently for the same product. Today, the fine-graining of data and the isolation of consumers has changed the game. The old idiom is that every man has his price. But that’s literally true now, much more than you know, and it’s certainly the plan for the future.
Beach Reading to Defeat the Patriarchy
“In publishing, the term used to refer to the blockbuster books published in summer... Over time, the term ‘beach read’ began to describe a certain type of book... Many times these books can be classified as ‘women’s fiction’: romance, domestic psychological thrillers, or contemporary novels featuring female characters. The term is dripping with sexist assumptions about what women read and the books women authors write. It’s a logical leap in a patriarchal society: books by women, about women, are more likely to be considered ‘light reading.’” – from Book Riot’s What Makes a Book a Beach Read? Accordingly, here are some small press books by women, about women, including Become Ungovernable, Feminism against Cisness, On Strike Against God, and 25 more. [more inside]
I cut out all the boring parts so it’s real exciting and fast-paced
Czumak-Abreu’s path is one that more young Americans are considering. Skepticism about the cost and value of four-year degrees is growing, and enrollment in vocational programs has risen as young people pursue well-paying jobs that don’t require desks or so much debt, and come with the potential to be your own boss. The number of students enrolled in vocational-focused community colleges rose 16% last year to its highest level since the National Student Clearinghouse began tracking such data in 2018. from Gen Z Plumbers and Construction Workers Are Making #BlueCollar Cool [WSJ]
Out of this world: An Oral History of ALF
“Patchett: I remember meeting Paul in [manager] Bernie Brillstein's offices. Bernie didn't know Paul at the time. This was before. He got very upset. "What's this f*cking puppet doing here?" He represented Jim Henson and didn't want any other puppets around. Then he saw ALF and said to me, "Tom, I have one word for you: Merchandising." That's show biz.“ Jake Rossen for Mental Floss. [more inside]
The $450 billion crime industry targeting Australia's wildlife
Inside the battle to stop the $450 billion crime industry targeting Australia's wildlife. Australian wildlife is showing up around the world where it shouldn't. Now animal forensics, artificial intelligence and advanced science are combining to combat the trafficking of these creatures.
Talk dirty to me
KJ Scott conducted a survey of preferred nomenclature for all the sexy bits. (link is to a PDF, no images but virtually all of the words are NSFW)
Up Close and Personal
The Mauritshuis website recounts the details and discoveries of a recent in-depth examination of Vermeer's Girl With Pearl Earring Includes close-up images, video footage, and technical information.
That is precisely why I am the right person to make this list
25 Songs about Horses Ranked By How Much I Think You Should Play Them for Your Horse (slPaste) [more inside]
Government flags massive expansion of Antarctic marine park
Government flags massive expansion of Antarctic marine park for untouched Heard and McDonald Islands. The marine park that includes the subantarctic Heard and McDonald Islands is set for a massive expansion, with the Australian Federal government planning to protect an extra 300,000 square kilometres of ocean.
A matchstick and a paper cube
A matchstick and a paper cube – a little over 2 minutes of stop motion animation.
Perlin flow
Senator Snowball Melts Away
Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, famous for his climate change denial speech where he brought a snowball on the floor of the Senate, has died at 89. [more inside]
The special pleasing experience
Dong DOOM This video shows a stupid project of a special DOOM port…
New overtime protections for 1 million workers. Thanks, Biden.
On July 1, the Biden administration's new rule extending overtime rules went into effect. President Biden said, "While Republicans side with big corporations and special interests on Park Avenue to try to deny workers these protections, I will always side with hardworking families like the ones I grew up with in Scranton." Another 3 million will get protection next year. [more inside]