Blooms & Barnacles Podcast

Nate Silver @NateSilver538 • 5h •.° I'm just one person, and my programming needs are somewhat unusual (building various kinds of statistical forecasting models). But I'm just not seeing the consistent productivity gains from LLMs that I would have expected if you'd asked me 6 months ago.

AI has lost the dunce vote. It’s over

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)

The whispers of doubt dance around the genius of Shakespeare. Each play feels like a tapestry woven from many voices, urging us to explore the depths of collaboration and creativity. #booksky #books

Ep. 163 - The Spirit of Reconciliation — Blooms & Barnacles Bitches love sonnets.

Ep. 163 - The Spirit of Reconciliation

Shakespeare couldn't have possibly written all those plays all by himself... right?

#booksky

A small fire at the front of the bookshop was started last night after rubbish bags that were awaiting collection were set on fire. The guards don’t have reason at this time to believe it was a targeted attack. Thankfully the damage was limited and everyone is safe. We are open for business as usual

A portrait of woman, head turned three quarters to the left, wearing a hat that comes down just over her eyebrows, a polka-dotted shirt with a high collar covering her neck, and a dark jacket

This month on Patreon, we're discussing Djuna Barnes' classic novel about 1920's Paris and lesbian longing, Nightwood

#booksky

Listen or watch the video at patreon.com/barnaclecast

Make sure to read and share the post far and wide. That'll show 'em

@moderation.bsky.app has suppressed my Sweets of Sin post!

To read the blog post that's too hot for Bluesky, please visit bloomsandbarnacles.com

It's what James Joyce would want you to do

#booksky

Ep. 162 - Quaker Librarian — Blooms & Barnacles I, for one, think geese really do have souls. Topics in this episode include librarian Thomas Lyster and his Quaker faith, why Lyster always seems to be dancing in “Scylla and Charybdis,” the journal...

Ep. 162 - Quaker Librarian

We discuss an especially an especially obscure passage of Ulysses and @animatewithdermot.bsky.social 's most obscure illustration

#booksky

@moderation.bsky.app has suppressed my Sweets of Sin post!

To read the blog post that's too hot for Bluesky, please visit bloomsandbarnacles.com

It's what James Joyce would want you to do

#booksky

Sweets of Sin — Blooms & Barnacles “... a volume of peccaminous pornographical tendency entitled Sweets of Sin, anonymous author a gentleman of fashion…”  “...I wonder what kind is that book he brought me Sweets of Sin by a gen...

New blog post -- Sweets of Sin

On the influence of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Venus in Furs, and Victorian flagellation literature on Ulysses

#booksky

Ep. 161 - Yogibogeybox — Blooms & Barnacles We finally learn the weirdest thing that Joyce and Gogarty got up to.

Ep. 161 - Yogibogeybox

If you'd like to know about the various uncouth antics of a young James Joyce and Oliver St. John Gogarty, we've got you covered.

#booksky

www.bloomsandbarnacles.com/episodes/ep-...

YouTube video by Blooms & Barnacles Podcast Bonus Ep. 32 - Giacomo Joyce [TEASER]

We're talking Giacomo Joyce, James Joyce's only story set outside of Dublin. We talk about the poetry of the work, how it influenced his later work, and of course the controversy surrounding this work

Here's a preview. You can find the full episode at patreon.com/barnaclecast

youtu.be/sshBjDtpf-o

Being on social media is fine but if it’s getting in the way of you doing deep reading and deep thinking, then your balance of how you spend your time is off

Lots of interesting threads here and none of them are a substitute for reading a good book or essay

Try Not to Breathe from Automatic for the People

YouTube video by Blooms & Barnacles Podcast Bonus Ep. 32 - Giacomo Joyce [TEASER]

We're talking Giacomo Joyce, James Joyce's only story set outside of Dublin. We talk about the poetry of the work, how it influenced his later work, and of course the controversy surrounding this work

Here's a preview. You can find the full episode at patreon.com/barnaclecast

youtu.be/sshBjDtpf-o

Authors celebrate “historic” settlement coming soon in Anthropic class action Advocates fear such settlements will “financially ruin” the AI industry.

AI advocates have warned that if every author in the class action filed a claim, it would "financially ruin" the entire industry.

Thanks for the tip. I will check that out!

Ep. 160: Anne Hath A Way — Blooms & Barnacles No, not that Anne Hathaway. The Shakespearean one.

Episode 160: Anne Hath a Way

Stephen Dedalus would have you think that Shakespeare's wife Anne was an Elizabethan Yoko Ono. Is he right?

(Spoiler: No, he's not. Also, Yoko didn't break up the Beatles.)

#booksky

The new tariffs are going to hit artists particularly hard if it means losing customers in the US, so I'd ask Irish people to please consider buying local, from Irish makers, where at all possible. Support that means little to a huge business makes a massive difference to small creators. We need ye.

The Most Historic Spot in All Dublin — Blooms & Barnacles “History in ‘Wandering Rocks’ is not only colonial history registered in the fabric of the city; it is also quite specifically colonial history distorted and dominated by Protestant and Anglo-Irish in...

New blog post: The Most Historic Spot in All Dublin

In which we discuss the Geraldines, visiting buildings that don't exist, and why landlords suck.

What do you think is the most historic spot in all Dublin?

#booksky

when the AI bubble finally collapses and everyone who spent a year smugly hyping it suddenly has to come crawling back with their tail between their legs, i just want to say i am not going to be the bigger person about it. i am going to be meaner than you can even believe

A confused rusty robot wearing a black fedora scratches its forehead while steam rises. It is scribbling on papers with a pencil clutched in its claw. More papers are scattered to the sides

We're so proud of our video about Ulysses and AI that we're pulling it out from behind the paywall for your perusal.

Could an AI write Ulysses?

Watch now at:
youtu.be/lHVdjVLpLx0

#booksky

Aristotle and Joyce in one ep? That's a wild brain workout. My fave pun might be "I'm reading a book on anti-gravity... it's impossible to put down"

Ep. 159: AEIOU — Blooms & Barnacles Stephen Dedalus beats debt with this one simple trick!

Ep. 159 - AEIOU

We talk Aristotle and possibly Joyce's best pun. What's your favorite pun?

#booksky

www.bloomsandbarnacles.com/episodes/ep-...

I feel bad for all the kids stuck in Juku prefecture

Amazing stuff happening in the Chat GPT subreddit or right now.

How much money and energy have we poured into this technology that it can return results on par with 2025 Google? As I said in my video, why do I need a separate program to just Google things for me?

I would add that Google search suffers from similar problems at the moment as well. It is much more beneficial to search Jstor and other online archives in general than wading through the chaff in a generalized search engine. This was not always the case. It is simply enshittification.

@animatewithdermot.bsky.social