Wild to keep hearing anti-AI sentiment described as an "echo chamber" by people who pretend there's never been a coercive dogshit marketing campaign actively pissing people off about it for two years or any no-opt-out half-baked shovelware making everyone's PCs and phones worse
How to respond to shortlists:
If you think Book A is great, Books B, C, and D are meh, and Book E is hot garbage, JUST TALK ABOUT HOW AWESOME A IS.
Shutting up is free.
Yep. That. /\
Nobody that I know of, this year… yet. That said, I have seen it happen way more often than I would like in my *mumble* decades in this community.
For very anxious, looking cats on a short flight of steps, two tuxedos, an orange tabby, and a tortoiseshell
This is what it looks like from the back porch when we are unloading a shopping trip and the cats are not yet allowed to join us.
As someone who is not in the running to be nominated for anything, may I gently recommend not trashing your peers who get short listed or nominated. Sour grapes does not look good on anyone, and it also harms your reputation with the community of folks who nominate and vote but aren’t in the running
A clip from The New York Times reads: "But only the entities that officially paid the tariffs are eligible to recover that money. That means that the fuller universe of people affected by Mr. Trump’s policies — including millions of Americans who paid higher prices for the products they bought — are not able to apply for direct relief. The extent to which consumers realize any gain hinges on whether businesses share the proceeds, something that few have publicly committed to do. Some have started to band together in class-action lawsuits in the hopes of receiving a payout."
The average American family paid $1,700 in tariffs last year, according to the bipartisan Congressional Joint Economic Committee. Few will ever see any of that money back. The refunds will go to companies, if doled out at all. What a joke.
There are some important things to remember in terms of Awards-shortlist day etiquette. A short thread.
Even folks I really like and respect make some blunders on this stuff.
1) Allow people to enjoy the shortlist. Avoid dismissing the finalists (whomever they are) for at least a month.
My regular reminder that the reason there will not be an increase in coal production is because there is no market for it. Natural gas plants are cheaper and twice as efficient. Wind and solar are cheaper than both. I worked in the coal industry for 31 years. It is dying and it will keep dying.
CHAPTER ONE The Six Epochs Everyone takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world. -ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER am not sure when I first became aware of the Singularity. Id have to say it was a progressive awakening. In the almost half century that I've immersed myself in computer and related technologies, I've sought to understand the meaning and purpose of the continual upheaval that I have witnessed at many levels. Gradually, I've become aware of a transforming event looming in the first half of the twenty-first century. Just as a black hole in space dramatically alters the patterns of matter and energy accelerating toward its event horizon, this impending Singularity in our future is increasingly transforming every institution and aspect of human life, from sexuality to spirituality. What, then, is the Singularity? It's a future period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed. Although neither utopian nor dystopian, this epoch will transform the concepts that we rely on to give meaning to our lives, from our business models to the cycle of human life, including death itself. Understanding the Singularity will alter our perspective on the significance of changed truly understand it inherently
My general impression of the Singularity crowd is that they’re basically a religious cult, clad in the trappings of science and technology.
And right away, in the first paragraph of ch 1, we have pretty strong evidence that yes that’s precisely what they are.
One. More. Day.
Tuxedo cat on a cat bed
Tuxedo cat in a cat bed only his face is visible
Tuxedo cat on a rug next to a cat tube
Tortoiseshell cat on a salmon tablecloth with an orange tabby on the radiator bench beyond
Cat census, all pawsent, and accounted for.
Two very different newsletter takes this Monday morning on Saturday’s NYT shadow docket reporting (www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/u...)
Steve Vladeck: www.stevevladeck.com/p/221-chief-...
Will Baude: blog.dividedargument.com/p/the-non-sc...
As it happens, I’m with Steve.
All but inevitable given the quality of the material. It was only ever a question of gradual slide over all the things, or dramatic drops due to specific disasters.
I’m about 30 years older, and, yes.
Lies
A 2 ounce bottle of Melinda‘s ghost pepper, hot sauce
I am loving this stuff, and burning through it (pun intended) at an astonishing rate.
Two. More. Days.
Night fell like the expectations of an entire nation opening a bag of disappointing Cheetos… or, you know, an anteater discovering it is surrounded by…aunts. This is not the future I was promised!
#BadNoir
A tuxedo cat at the top of the flight of stairs, scratching its chin with a hind paw
Is this a paw I see before me? It’s claws toward my nose?
A tuxedo cat on a blonde wood floor in a sun beam with a perfect shadow of himself
This cat is perfect !
A tortoiseshell cat on an avengers blanket. There is a suspicious lump near her.
A cat conference on a blue rug, two tuxedo cats listen to the tortoiseshell giving them orders
The suspicious lump unveiled, an orange tabby on a cat bed
A tripod tuxedo cat on a plaid blanket, looking very belligerent
Today’s cat census, all pawsent and for!
.
Proof of cats
From a more innocent era...
Well…yes…
I mean, of course that’s what happening. It’s been clear the whole time
Perfect!
I'm not joking when I say mRNA technology is more important than "AI" and it's a tragedy we're throwing billions into one while our government is aggressively defunding the other.
Awesome, thank you for the recommendation and sharing your expertise.
Sticking his tender bits in a bear trap, being surprised by the inevitable result, and then trying to threaten the trap into submission is going about like you’d expect it to.
Two more oil tankers have been turned around in the Strait of Hormuz, Tasnim reports.