Continuing my series of posts about the current crop of AI and machine learning –especially the post a few Wednesdays ago about what we the people or we the government of the people might do about AI— here’s something quite topical: Data Centers! Amid the general backlash against AI, the very NIMBY backlash about data centers keeps popping up in news pieces… probably because of the overwhelming push tech titans are making to build new…
Okay, so I spent most of last week with posts about Banned Books Week which, based on site traffic, was well received (unlike some books in some quarters), but as we know, AI is being used for writing copy. Not always for school papers. Not always for blog posts. But in familiar patterns like the one I’m mocking right now. They also like using the em dash, to which I say: Yeah, I’m not going…
Hopefully you’ve had a fine Banned Books Week and now simply want to kick back with some mead and enjoy a stirring saga of a bunch of folks who the average 9th Century inhabitant of the British isles would like to ban. Yes, I’m talking about the Vikings and, seeing as it’s Leif Erikson Day, that extremely well-known holiday passed into law in 1964 for which we don’t get off work, I’m sure you’ve been…
What with it being Banned Books Week and me posting yesterday about how much people are reading for pleasure less, it’s altogether unusual that a bookstore chain is doing well… well enough to befuddle no end of retail analysts in the age of inveterate online shopping. Now, I posted about Barnes & Noble’s curious resurgence back in January 2025, but guess what? It’s still going strong as per this eight-minute video for Fortune: I have…
I’m probably not the only person during Banned Books Week pondering how much reading people are doing during this age of algorithms trying to keep people online. You’ve probably heard news reports or anecdotal evidence about people reading less. Well, I went and found one of the actual studies that doubtless fueled some of those news reports. Basically, Americans have been “reading for pleasure” less and less over the past 20 years or so… as…
Look. I’ve posted about pirates before (as evidenced here and here for a start). I see no reason to stop now.,, especially considering one of the finest pirates ever to sail the faux Spanish Main has passed (see grinning man above). So whether you want to enjoy Muppet Treasure Island or something with less felt and more blood, it’s best you go into it without being a complete lubber. Historian Angus Konstam is looking out…
If you’ve been following my series of posts on AI and machine learning, you’ll recall I’ve referenced Adam Conover and his vitriol against AI before. Not only do I believe his message is worth listening to, it’s delivered in a fun way: Now, I suppose if someone had no exposure to the previous Internet, before everything was curated by algorithm and pushed to apps or both… or if one is a fan of corporate consolidation,…
I missed the chance to post about this at the beginning of summer grilling season, so I’m coming in under the wire.. and folks are still going to fit in a bit more grilling, right? So, if you’re looking to recreate or experiment with some different types of burgers for said grilling, this video does an admirable job of rounding up a heck of a lot of regional burgers (though I do wonder a little…
Okay, so I mused a lot in Wednesday’s post, so I’ll allow someone else to muse, in this case Dutch YouTuber Tom van der Linden, the man behind the channel “Like Stories of Old.” In the half-hour video below, he goes into what many of us cinemaniacs have often felt, but felt hard to articulate: they’re not making films like they used to… and we may be losing something because of it. What I really…
Okay, yes, what with the news of AI breaking containment when it shouldn’t have been able to do so… and the fact that AI may now be harnessed for new disturbing acts of bio-terrorism, maybe we plucky humans don’t make it out alive. But what if we do? What if the aftermath of this Post-AI disruption era is actually positive? And no, that does not mean I’m about to say, “Gee, nimrods trying to change…