I’m re-reading “Everybody’s Fool,” by Richard Russo (or, more precisely, listening to the audiobook). One of the heroes, Donald “Sully” Sullivan, is old, he has slowed down, he’s sick, and he’s disabled by injury. Sully is deeply flawed. But he’s still a better man than most and certainly better than the dimwitted, narcissistic villain.
The book was published in 2016, but it can be read as a political metaphor for the present day. That only just now occurred to me, more than halfway through my re-read of the 544-page book.
Are we dating the same guy? Facebook groups offer intel but upend lives [Brittany Shammas and Marisa Iati / The Washington Post]. Trial by gossip works well but fails badly.
What in Tarnation Is ‘Tarnation’ [Mental Floss]
I asked the AI-powered Perplexity search engine “Who is Mitch Wagner?”
Mitch Wagner is a versatile individual with various roles and achievements. He is known as a talented journalist and creative editor, as well as an athlete in CrossFit Games[1][2]. Wagner has been involved in the CrossFit community, showcasing his dedication to fitness and competition[3]. Additionally, he has had a successful career as a trial lawyer in San Diego, being involved in notable cases such as the 2007 wildfire litigation against San Diego Gas & Electric[4]. Wagner’s commitment to excellence is evident in his pursuits both in journalism and athletics.
Citations:
[1] www.linkedin.com/in/mitchw…
[2] games.crossfit.com/athlete/2…
[3] swolverine.com/blogs/ath…
[4] jcfsandiego.org/individua…
[5] www.bodybuilding.com/content/m…
Three people. Those are three different people, all named “Mitch Wagner.”
A Department of Veterans Affairs official tried to ban the famous Kiss photo, taken on VJ Day after World War II, from hanging in VA facilities because it “depicts a non-consensual act.” The department quickly rescinded the decision after predictable anti-woke shrieking. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2…
Cory Doctorow: Exxon CEO Darren Woods says the quiet part out loud: The problem with renewable energy sources is that they “don’t generate above-average returns for Exxon’s shareholders.” pluralistic.net/2024/03/0…
The sun generates virtually limitless and free energy, with much of it available in the form of wind and tides. And we’re already well under way to harnessing that energy.
On the other hand, fossil fuels and uranium are limited and expensive, so Exxon can make money on them.
If you sawed open my skull and examined my brain (and I’m not actually asking you to do this!), you would find that the portions devoted to writing, reading, drinking coffee and memes are huge, while everything else is shriveled raisins.
Russia plans to put a nuclear reactor on the Moon – with China’s help www.theregister.com/2024/03/0…
Medieval historian Dr Eleanor Janega hilariously and informatively refutes a Twitter troll’s bonehead claims about women’s sexuality in history. going-medieval.com/2024/03/0…
I asked ChatGPT to generate illustrations for a few books, TV shows and movies, including “The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet,” “MAS*H,” “Die Hard,” and more. Here’s what ChatGPT came up with.
Hours before the deadline, I just pledged to back the Kickstarter for Tapestry from Iconfactory. I said I wasn’t going to do it, but then I figured why not. It looks like a very appealing and intriguing project, if it comes to fruition.
Millions of people — including me — were locked out of Facebook, Threads and Instagram this morning due to a password-reset glitch. (The Register).
Until reading this article, I thought I might have been banned for good. I wasn’t sure if I was upset about that or happy.
Cory Doctorow at Pluralistic: “You can’t shop your way out of a monopoly. Any election where you vote with your wallet will be won by the people with the thickest wallets.”
Trusting one company to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” was a failure.
Anthropic’s Claude 3 gave a response that made it appear as if it knew when researchers were testing it (VentureBeat).
There. I fixed the headline.
Benj Edwards at Ars Technica analyzes Anthropic’s announcement of the latest version of its Claude AI, which for the first time beats GPT-4 on benchmarks and demonstrates “near-human” capabilities in some areas (or so Anthropic says).
Benchmarks don’t necessarily show how effective the tool is, Edwards notes.
Also:
It’s probably true that Opus is “near-human” on some specific benchmarks, but that doesn’t mean that Opus is a general intelligence like a human (consider that pocket calculators are superhuman at math).
Google and XPRIZE launch $5m prize to find actual uses for quantum computers. This seems like something that Google (and IBM) should have been thinking about before spending truckloads of money developing quantum computers.