A housing spokesperson saying "fires happen" about Grenfell is wild given the litany of policy, regulation, and official failures in that tragedy. It is, for a number of reasons, very illuminating, however.
I'm probably not being entirely fair or rational. My friend is being buried tomorrow and things seem bleak. This doesn't change the above, only my ability to pretend it doesn't matter.
The more I think of published authors getting caught out for AI, the more hopeless it feels. I've never even been invited to the table. I've lost more opportunities than I've been offered. It's too late now and, looking back I realise what you need most of all is to know how the game is played.
Why does an author - a wordsmith, someone in thrall with writing - want to use AI to write or form an opinion in the first place? I practically give up my soul when I'm edited by a living breathing human, never mind a machine. Give up the words themselves, the agency, creation, beauty? Why? Why?
Had a brilliant idea for a group fitness class called Run Choir, which gets packs of people singing loud and rousing songs while running. Cooled when I realised that's basically the army.
A jaguar walks through a dense, dimly lit forest with green foliage. The WWF panda logo appears in the top left. Text on the image reads: "We’re switching OFF this Earth Hour."
Earth Hour is HERE! ⏰
This is the moment we’ve been waiting for – time to switch off for our world. 🌎
Don’t forget to share your photos using #EarthHour, so we can see how you're getting involved. 📸
The strategic beigeness of Andy Weir in that YouTube interview clip is why I don't care to learn about authors and actors beyond what they do on page or screen.
I have squandered
the @alcs.co.uk money
that arrived in
the account
and which
I should probably
have saved
for utilities
Forgive me
it was delicious
so spendy
and so free
Oh my word(s) - I got a payment! Thank you @alcs.co.uk
I enjoyed Project Hail Mary; it's feel-good and funny, yet also somewhat downbeat, and that's very much a film of our times. But while memorable and touching, the film adaptation was mid for me, and I keep puzzling over why and I think it's because: it has no ugliness, and that just doesn't compute.
Four film posters: Project Hail Mary, Pet Sematary, The Dinosaurs, and Double Jeopardy.
Dune poster - bright orange circle with a man and a woman in front. Film title reads VOTE. Subtitle reads FOR PEDRO.
Screenshot of an ad shows a blue background and white text which reads Rail fares have been frozen across England until March 2027
Good news; it'll still only cost you £540,000 to travel by train from Leeds to London if you book six weeks in advance during a new moon and on a Friday.*
*Train may be a replacement bus.
I've started getting around 200 junk mails a day, but all from predictable addresses. So I blocked them. But now I'm getting hundreds of spam emails from a slightly different pattern of predictable addresses. Which seems highly unusual if it is indeed lots of spammers and not, say, just one ... 🤔
I don't care for the person the algorithm thinks I am. I have no interest in that person's interests and yet everywhere I look, there she is, boring me to tears.
Just spent thirty minutes looking longingly at Kingfisher in various shop windows, so that one :)
I finally lost my shit about so-called AIs, LLMs, enshittification & everything fucking evil that @officialgrammarly.bsky.social is doing. I'm fucking furious, and not just about what 1 company has done. An open letter to Grammarly & the rest of the LLM hype machine www.moryan.com/an-open-lett...
Well, this is delightful - Tolkien's own melody for Chip the Glasses brought to life with an octave mandolin.
www.youtube.com/shorts/PXrNi...
#Tolkien
The more I think about it, the more my pronunciation of gnu sounds like something in a Donald O'Connor song.
Wait, is it gnu ("new") or gnu ("guh-new")? Because it's always been gu-new for me, even if it's gnocchi and gnome and gnaw.
Apparently, the g - of gnu - is anyway a descendant of "Southern Bushman !nu: (in which ! and : represent clicks)" [Etymonline], I say with a certain kind of desperation.
I always assumed that was the point; to manufacture a reason to raze a land, destroy its people, and then profit from rebuilding or resources. Everywhere is a blank slate if you put your mind to it.
Schrödinger's error message was quite the prank, as payment went through fine.
I'm not filled with confidence about the UK government being a digital beast and pushing income tax filing online only, but at least my road tax is sorted for the year.
Logic puzzle:
1. Paid road tax online ✅
2. Page gave payment error ❌
3. DVLA email thanks me for successfully renewing road tax ✅
4. Payment shows as pending in my bank account ✅
5. gov uk status suggests I haven't renewed ❌
5. Phoned DVLA to confirm - wait of 45 mins ❌
... ?
Pardon me for not being in thrall to every little thing men say but who CARES what Timotei Chalamay thinks about ballet or opera or bellybutton lint. Maybe the world wouldn't be burning if we spent less time reporting what any random person thinks regardless of whether it's useful or even accurate
Sure are a lot of brands neatly side-stepping the implications of International Women's Day - structural change, now - in favour of trying to sell stuff. Brands are gonna brand.
I need every single male artist that follows me to read this. It's not very long. You need to bear witness to this shit. You have to see it with your own eyes because you never will in your everyday life.
I'm serious, read it all please
Movie posters: The Untouchables, Point Break, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Firm.
I am the degenerate who doesn't do star ratings. Also, I've regressed to a teenage boy, apparently.
#LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched
If you're not buying an atlas today, you're doing World Book Day all wrong.
Really enjoying Edible Economics on BBC Sounds. Ha-Joon Chang's book tells the story of economics through memoir and meals. Fascinating to hear how food journeys - our now staple ingredients - are rooted in Africa, exploitation, and class. Worth a listen. 📚
#BookSky #AmReading
