Hyperlexic

Nina is a very good follow for lots of ancient imagery.

i didn't get into it in my essay on this speech, but beyond the basic incoherence of vance's assorted grievances, i'm struck by how ungrateful *he* is, a man who owes his fame and fortune to the open, cosmopolitan society he is trying to destroy for the sake of power

AI is powerful tech of the future, with major economic and military implications.

China is America's main geopolitical competitor.

So the Biden admin restricted AI chip sales to China, and the Trump admin facilitated AI chip sales to China to get a cut of revenue for itself, do I have that right?

Trump Rages at ‘Deranged Bum’ Nobel Laureate in Late-Night Meltdown The president went after economist Paul Krugman in an irate Truth Social post.

Well, this is flattering. I may add "Deranged BUM" to my profile

www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump...

This is why for years I thought I didn't like sci-fi novels. Turns out I just don't like the kind of sci-fi that Campbell liked.

Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan saga was how I found out I actually love sci-fi novels. I don't think Campbell would have approved of Cordelia Naismith.

Donald J. Trump & ( @realDonald Trump Washington, D.C. will be LIBERATED today! Crime, Savagery, Filth, and Scum will DISAPPEAR. I will, MAKE OUR CAPITAL GREAT AGAIN! The days of ruthlessly killing, or hurting, innocent people, are OVER! I quickly fixed the Border (ZERO ILLEGALS in last 3 months!), D.C. is next!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT

Trump whipping himself up about cracking down on DC.

The language - “savagery, filth and scum” - should worry any right-minded person.

Someone forgot to take down this webpage:

www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/v...

so many of his 80s films were phenomenal. that, Escape From New York, The Thing…

BIG
TROUBLE
IN
LITTLE
CHINA

The vastly different cultural attitudes toward the ownership of single family homes versus apartments is a bugbear of mine.

Corporations owning apartments and renting them out? Good and Normal.

Corporations owning single family houses and renting them out? Bad. Terrible. Make it illegal.

email to me: Our disabled son has CP and bladder spasms so urologist is recommending Botox treatments and we read your article and are concerned about the presence of mRNA in the Botox. Is mRNA in all brands? How can we know if it is in there? Is there a safe brand you recommend? He has to have this so what do we do? Thanks

my reply: personally, i'd recommend you follow the advice of your doctor. but what do i know, i'm just a random person you emailed. I have no more formal education around botox than the author Naomi Wolf, whose advice I assume you were actually seeking. but since you emailed me, my suggestion is that you listen to your kid's urologist, who is a trained medical professional, rather than seeking out medical advice from someone with an english degree and a history of making significant errors in her research. best of luck!

a specific skill I've developed over the past ~20 years is crafting responses to emails sent to me, but intended for that other Naomi Wolf

except the grand inquisitor was competent.

An illustration of Thranduil from The One Ring First Edition. This illustration didn’t make the corebook. It replaced a rejected piece of art by another artist, and was used in “Words of the Wise”, a free scenario by Dominic McDowall for the game. After that had to go away for contractual reasons, the art reappeared in… Heart of the Wild? Darkening of Mirkwood? Those two titles began as one book, so I don’t always know the split.

I’m late for the anniversary of its release at GenCon 2011, but to celebrate that ancient release of The One Ring First Edition: one like = one illustration from TOR 1st ed, which I helped illustrate, art direct, write and creatively direct. Good times. Here’s Thranduil with whom I was happy.

An illustration from The One Ring Roleplaying Game first edition of a Nazgûl.

16. (Whoops) Nazgûl. Frikkin loved designing these bad boys. I saw the animated movie when I was too young, and it terrified me for life. So this was a treat.

An illustration from The One Ring Roleplaying Game first edition showing a hobgoblin with a nasty underbite.

37. It’s a hobgoblin from the marshes around Lake-town. Thought this fellow looked suitably mean and like he bites people. Liked his shield and axe too.

I mean that LLMs seem most useful as an input to / accelerator for someone that can judge the quality of their outputs. Eg for coding, someone already proficient in the language.

was this really a Bay Area specific thing? do other bottleneck areas eg Manhattan not have carpool lanes?

An owl sits in a branch, eyes closed, head tilted, claw outstretched in a “hold up a second” gesture.

my kid correcting me about a dinosaur fact

The administration that’s restoring monuments to the Confederacy is rewarding Russia for territory it “earned” by invading Ukraine.

Image of a circle labeled "Proton", one about he same size labeld "Neutron", and other much smaller labeled "Electron", and a fourth even smaller labeled "Close-Ad-Button"

archetypal Berkeley moment

In terms of older music: Fugazi, Roger Waters, Billy Bragg

in Berkeley the opponents of reform are almost universally older people who seem like they’d be lovely people in other contexts.

at our middle housing hearing the dividing line at ~55yo was nearly perfect over ~100 commenters.

Train disruption warning in southern England as clay embankments crumble Rail operators take emergency measures to allow repair works on affected tracks

"The problems are among a series facing railways in the UK and other countries as climate change makes climactic events more extreme."

> simple things like clay shrinking in dry weather can be hugely disruptive as our infrastructure was designed for a different climate

"TTRPGs are just so expensive now"
According to the MSRPs printed on my AD&D 2e books - PHB-$20, DMG-$18, MM-$30. That's $68 in 1990 money. Inflation puts that at $170ish in 2025.
We now have full-color books. Most RPGs come with PDFs. And all for the same price or less.
Stop yelling at clouds.

5) is exactly what I’m talking about.

TikTok to replace trust and safety team in Germany with AI and outsourced labor TikTok workers in Berlin are striking over mass layoffs amid company’s global push to replace moderators with AI TikTok workers in Germany are holding strikes over mass layoffs of the company’s trust and safety team. The social media behemoth said it is planning to dismantle its entire Berlin moderation team, which removes harmful content from the platform, and outsource the work to artificial intelligence and contract workers. This means the dismissal of 150 employees. The trade union that represents the TikTok workers, ver.di, has been pushing to negotiate with TikTok over the past few weeks. Kalle Kunkel, a ver.di spokesperson for the Berlin-Brandenburg region, said the union sent a list of demands to TikTok regarding severance for the affected employees and an extension of the layoff notice period to one year. So far, he said, TikTok has refused to come to the table. Continue reading...

TikTok to replace trust and safety team in Germany with AI and outsourced labor