Tag: Entertainment
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Not even a reported full moon reported!
Along with the usual reported dozen reported overdoses, we’ve got some reported Creative Craziness today reported! 2200 East South Altamont Blvd, assault reported. Caller reports she was attacked with a dog bone and a water can. [Imagining this fight would be a good challenge for story-writers. I can’t picture it!] Reported a student stabbed a…
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Reverse causation
Common opinion seen online: Is it just me, or has mainstream music not only gotten so bad, but it’s also kinda matching up with how dumbed down everything feels now? Like it’s conforming to people who don’t want any depth anymore. It’s a highly understandable conclusion but I think the causation is backwards. First, most…
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Annie Dillard dies
Oddly enough, her death was unnoticed at Substack. I would have expected plenty of attention there. They go on endlessly about people I’ve never heard of. So we’ll make a note here instead! I used to read Dillard’s books, and absorbed her attitude toward nature and thinking. The SPECIFIC thing I learned is the universal…
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Fair but misses the usual
Nieman has a fair-minded article on the decline of science journalism. The author recognizes that science journalism isn’t unique; it’s failing on the same schedule as general journalism. He misses the reason as always. He also categorizes science magazines oddly. He says Scientific American, Popular Science and National Geographic are the three biggest. SciAm has…
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Wanted to hear the music
Reprinting this 2016 item because I wanted to hear the march, and also because a couple of chance mentions have new reference points. = = = = = START REPRINT: Before 1960 local radio stations, even in big cities, spent a LOT of time serving farmers and agricultural occupations. Early morning typically featured one or…
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Bit of syntax fun
Seen at substack, wasn’t meant to be funny so I didn’t snark it there. Word order is important, and singular/plural agreement is important! Some mayflies live only hours as adults, Kevin McMullen MD writes, after having lived for years as a nymph.
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Reported full moon reported!
Via Spokane News. 800 North Sullivan Rd, vehicle collision in the drive through line reported. Reported a vehicle with a person dressed as an oversized bear on the top of a vehicle did not see the other vehicle and hit them. Caller thinks one driver is possibly intoxicated. Reported the occupants of both vehicles are…
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Toadbird
What I want from a real newspaper is features, not articles. Since I subscribed to the real Spokesman-Review last month, it’s been coming through in fine form. Today’s issue has a lighthearted locally written feature on a WEIRDASS local bird, the Common Poorwill (apparently too poor to afford a whip). Unlike the romantic-sounding name, it’s…
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Are these results useful?
Here’s what an outstanding AI helper can do for you! Well, I wish I had trusted AI to write to write welcome I’m the guy side of back of Welcome, I’m the guy with side on the back on of my JS and CSS and Welcome, I’m the guy, HTML5 on the back of the…
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Can’t resist
Via Spokesman, More on the large news lawsuit against large Altman models. = = = = = START QUOTE: The news organizations allege OpenAI is stealing and distorting their copyrighted works, inhibiting their ability to sell their original journalism while also providing ChatGPT users reporting that’s often inaccurate. They have been joined by the Authors…
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Tailings, nuggets
SR describes a huge new $20 million house in Coeur d’Alene. The spec-built estate is spec-named Talis. Clearly the marketers gave considerable thought to the name. 1. Per the article, talis is the genitive case of tal in Latin, (‘of such a type’) which apparently acquired the connotation of ‘best of the type’. 2. Unstated…
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Another Martian dream
Odd parallel with a Martian dream last summer. = = = = = Today’s dream: I was attending an arts fair. Noticed an old lady selling typewritten manuscripts about her experience with Martians, who taught her their system of government called optothecy. I told her I was curious and asked to hear more. “Well now,…
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Understands that science is entertainment
In Preparation is a fairly new Substack publication performing a task that has been missing for a LONG time. It treats science as entertainment, parodying the bizarre excesses of Publish Or Perish and other old and new trends. The writer is extremely careful to label it as satire, which is crucially necessary in the online…
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Why I never re(re(re(re(re(curse)))))
In 40 years of active programming I’ve never used a recursive function. I don’t see why you’d want to GUARANTEE problems. I know the Turingian theorists and Computer “Science” classes advise recursing everywhere, which is an added reason to avoid it. In the AI era, text witch hunters search for em-dashes. In coding the witch…
