March 30, 2021
Do you like...pancakes?
I’ve resisted trying neural net pickup lines again, because more competent means more humanlike, which in this case means worse. Or the new neural nets might even copy existing pickup lines from internet lists, which would also be terrible. Human-written pickup lines are that bad. But with my paperback coming out, it seemed like it might be time to just try it and see. GPT-3 tries pickup lines, by AI Weirdness (previous AI weirdness).
The Possibility of Life Between Us
Women and Honor: Some Notes on Lying. Adrienne Rich (1977).
15 minutes of plot twists
Almost anything I could say about the short film Chicken/Egg would spoil the many entertaining twists and turns it crams into 15 minutes. It was written by James D'Arcy and stars (in order of appearance) Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones), Max Fowler (Powers) and Hayley Atwell (Agent Carter). {SLYT}
The Collapse at Arecibo
Daniel Alarcón on the collapse of Puerto Rico’s iconic telescope (The New Yorker). "Many Puerto Ricans ... fear that Arecibo will be yet another illustration of the abandonment and neglect that have colored many aspects of life on the island. It’s been decades since Puerto Rico was the prosperous tropical outpost of American capitalism, used as a contrast and a cudgel against socialist Cuba. The brightest years of the island’s economy corresponded with the golden age of Arecibo, when the observatory was buzzing and the science was at its most revolutionary." (Previously)
John Fahey -- Live 1997 -- Full Show
How Bears Cross a Road
It gets complicated. [SLTwitter]
All. The. Time.
Turn on MTV—on any day, at any time—and you’re likely to find an episode of Ridiculousness, a home-videos-ripped-from-the-internet-style show hosted by skateboarder Rob Dyrdek ... It is on all the time. All. The. Time. ALL THE TIME. John Gonzalez of The Ringer asks: How Did MTV Become the ‘Ridiculousness’ Network? [more inside]
Techno, from Detroit to now
Beatport's Definitive Guide to Techno As part of Beatportal’s new series on the history of electronic dance music, Marcus Barnes explores the rich history of techno, from the 1970s through to today. A long-form article packed with samples and tracks.
The State of Minnesota vs. Derek Chauvin
The State of Minnesota vs. Derek Chauvin
(PDF)
It has been ten months since the world watched George Floyd die under the knee of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin. The jury has been selected and seated. The trial began at the Hennepin County Courthouse in downtown Minneapolis on Monday, March 29th and is expected to last about a month. The trial for the other three officers is scheduled to take place later in the summer. [more inside]
'It’s Impossible to Reduce Me'
Noam Shuster-Eliassi isn't what you think she is Recently, comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi gave one of her most fraught standup performances, in East Jerusalem, before an entirely Palestinian audience. After the standup comedian who had invited her there, Amer Zahr, introduced her to the audience (“Today for the first time we have a Jewish sister with us”), the tension reached a peak, she says. “I go up, in front of an audience of 300 people, and in front there are two guys sitting with their arms crossed, looking at me angrily. I looked straight at them and said: ‘Don’t worry. I’ll be here for seven minutes, not 70 years.’ That broke the ice immediately. I left the stage in tears – I hadn’t expected such love.” [more inside]
Robbed of its Refreshing Elegance?
Ways to research the modern and ancient worlds
Historian Bret Devereaux (previously) discusses "the nature of our evidence for the ancient world and its limitations". Programmer Hillel Wayne asks: "why do interviewers like to ask linked list questions?" and uses that question as an example of some ways to research the history of the software industry.
Who will blink first? Not me
Fed up with doing all the housework, this woman decided to just stop doing it. And documented it on Twitter. [more inside]
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