Megzigzag

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems... SIMON: What? SHAPIRO: ...Or saying... SIMON: You imagine that? SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over. SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level. SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this. SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

Claude AI logo

Kurt Vonnegut’s butthole drawing

Claude AI’s logo is unironically Kurt Vonnegut’s butthole drawing

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

A screenshot of today's NYT Connections, not completed. Some of the words have alternative slang innuendo in the UK

Is it me or is Connections a bit filthy today?

Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."

Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...

Here is a thing that I hear from *almost every British Jew I know* but have barely heard expressed in any of these programmes: No single person has done more to make Jewish people globally less safe than Benjamin Netanyahu.

Article reads: Woman named as Archbishop of Canterbury in historic first The 63-year-old archbishop-designate is married to Eamonn Mullally, with whom she has two children. Originally from Woking in Surrey, she was the UK's chief nursing officer from 1999 to 2004.

This article manages to name her husband before it names… her.

First time this guy has ever made me laugh

…

Screenshot from The Times which reads: "Zia Yusuf, Reform’s policy chief, said that his party’s changes would lead to “hundreds of thousands of people having to apply [for] and ultimately losing their settled status in the UK” on a staggered basis to prevent disruption to businesses. Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Yusuf said: “Many of those who will lose their leave to remain are entirely dependent on the welfare state and will leave voluntarily upon losing access to benefits. Those that don’t will be subject to immigration enforcement as part of our mass deportation programme.”

Retrospective removal of Indefinite Leave to Remain from "hundreds of thousands of people" in the Reform plans is obscene.

They talk about "preventing disruption to businesses" but have no regard for what this means for the people themselves, their families and communities which will be torn apart.

Here are my top 10 dog sneezes!

half-remembering that thing about how most Roman citizens experienced the fall of Rome as simply one day their local bridge went out and nobody came around to repair it

Graphic with the headline “London is the greatest city in the world” set against a bright view of the River Thames with the Shard, Tower Bridge and the city skyline. The text celebrates what makes London special: regularly voted the number one city in the world, incredible diversity with over 300 languages spoken, world-class transport, world leader in finance tech and life sciences, best museums and galleries many free to visit, world-leading nightlife, food sport and music for every taste, host to the world’s best sporting events, home to seven Premier League clubs, globally-ranked universities, a city where you can be yourself and love who you love, and a place for everyone.

I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again.

Ignore the haters, London is the 🐐

Ruby Bridges, age 6

Ruby Bridges flanked by three U.S. Marshals on the steps of her school

Norman Rockwell's painting "The Problem We All Live With," depicting the event originally published as a centerfold in the January 14, 1964, issue of Look magazine.

Ruby Bridge talking to President Obama as they look at Rockwell's painting when it was temporarily displayed at the White House in 2011.

Happy 71st Birthday to Ruby Bridges, who at the age of 6 desegregated the New Orleans public schools.

She’s younger than 30 senators and our last two presidents—and only 7 years older than Barack Obama.

The past isn’t past.

Queen

One of these rich dudes invested in a food company with all proceeds going to kids in need. The other started Sundance Institute, boosting the lives of countless artists. Hey modern rich dudes, don't be a typical greedy AI crypto-prick, be like these two.

Apologies for not adding alt text to all these photos. My cat is screaming her head off and if I don't let her outside right this instance, where I have to accompany her, I might die.

Style lessons from Robert Redford, one of the most stylish men in the last century. 🧵

I made a video. Thought it was maybe a bit earnest and cringe but people seem to enjoy it on the other social media places so here goes.

The role: Benjamin Braddock Who got it: Dustin Hoffman Director Mike Nichols's friend, Robert Redford, was very interested in playing the lead role in The Graduate. Nichols tells Vanity Fair he "interviewed hundreds, maybe thousands, of men" for the part and recalls the conversation he had with Redford after he screen-tested for the role: "I said, 'You can't play it. You can never play a loser? And Redford said, 'What do you mean? Of course I can play a loser? And I said, 'O.K., have you ever struck out with a girl?' and he said, 'What do you mean?' And he wasn't joking." .»

Somebody just sent this in the group thread

Written by a doctor at St Thomas' Hospital, London after the Tommy Robinson march on 13/9.

Right now, this is an extreme minority magnified by a social media that sends extremes viral. If nobody has the courage to say that’s what it is - & that normal people, even if worried about immigration, spend their Saturdays in Tesco or taking the kids to football - it won’t stay extreme for long.

Brilliant piece on the casual erasure of of a female artist from a landmark moment in pop culture. And the answer to the question, Why don’t Peter Blake’s other album covers have the power and impact of Sgt. Pepper?

Here are some things that Charlie Kirk said in his life.

The man is dead, and so it only seems fair to share his legacy by cataloguing the values he spread while alive.

A racist mob menacing refugee children and our town. Read this and see what lies ahead, unless we act now | Anonymous Last weekend, it fell to ordinary people to oppose the far right and others. The national toxicity has reached us: a kind of hate I haven’t seen since the 1970s

A racist mob menacing refugee children and our town. Read this and see what lies ahead, unless we act now | Anonymous

the very hungry caterpillar superimposed on an illustration of gregor samsa from the metamorphosis as a beetle

one morning, when gregor samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a very hungry caterpillar

Very important info for eg women in violent relationships who maintain a secret phone. Please pass along.

We have a paper on how Labour's strategy is disastrous.

There's an exclusive coverage in @newstatesman.com

www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

Timeline cleanse