Roger Shaw

Na Kim, in the Abstract I love this self-portrait by Na Kim. It’s somehow bold and subtle? Wow.

I love this self-portrait by Na Kim. It’s somehow bold *and* subtle? Wow. [kottke.org]

I need to remind myself to not let perfect be the enemy of good. I don't need to be so serious about future-proofing straight away. Getting off the ground with the basics is the most important part. Posting publicly to hold myself accountable.

A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden A newly revived philosophy for publishing personal knowledge on the web

Just came across this concept of the Digital Garden, a personal site where you capture your thoughts and information, and continue to edit, iterate, build, and connect on them, breaking the trappings of linear scrolling. Love this, and want to start growing my own. maggieappleton.com/garden-history

People care deeply about iNaturalist, and have a knee-jerk reaction when they see the words 'AI' and 'Google'. I am not a fan of AI or Google whatsoever, and I've been an iNat evangelist for over 12 years. But I see nothing to be concerned about here. Especially since it will almost certainly fail.

Re: Google getting data, again this is using all the same data that is already being used for ID suggestions (image, location, date(?), ID), and nothing more. All iNat photos are available for this under the Creative Commons. And surely Google have already scraped these anyway? ->

The project will be attempting to run those sets of images through an image-to-text transcriber. Like, "This photo shows a person running through a meadow", except with highly-similar taxa. I am 99% sure this will fail, because AI is a stochastic parrot. And that's fine, iNat will ditch it then. ->

There is not enough published material about taxa identification, on iNat or anywhere else, to train an AI model. I am 99.9% certain that this model will solely be analyzing images, which is already being done for the ID suggestions. As everyone has already seen, those suggestions are imperfect. ->

Re: iNaturalist, reading the blowback, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. This isn't replacing the community of experts. It's taking the ID suggestions that already exist, and trying to add text. That will have to be based on attempts at image analysis, not on taxonomic literature. Thread below.

List of all the NBA, ABA and WNBA Players Born on February 29 | Basketball-Reference.com Get the list of all the NBA, ABA and WNBA Players Born on February 29 on Basketball-Reference.com

I think this explains Haliburton’s sorcery. www.basketball-reference.com/friv/birthda...

Can we please all just get behind this man? It would heal our world.

Miso Made the Masterful Way–But in North Carolina Miso Master in Rutherford County honors an ancient craft. It has become the world's largest organic producer of a Japanese culinary staple.

Tucked away in a cluster of warehouses on the outskirts of town, Miso Master has stayed true to the centuries-old technique of naturally aging handcrafted miso with the seasons since 1980.

www.theassemblync.com/culture/miso...

The Senate Democrats’ New Boss tate Sen. Sydney Batch ousted Dan Blue—one of North Carolina's most venerated leaders—from the job, but can she lead Democrats to relevance?

State Sen. Sydney Batch ousted one of North Carolina’s most venerated leaders to head a caucus languishing as a superminority. Can she lead them back to relevance?

www.theassemblync.com/politics/nc-...

Excellent, thorough article on the issues and tradeoffs facing Lake Mattamuskeet, a place that many of us love.

One of my former students. I’m so proud, and so angry.

A framed artwork depicting a portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong with his characteristic black hair on the sides of his head and a bald top. He is wearing a green collared jacket (typically known as a "Mao suit" or "Zhongshan suit") with a visible button. The portrait has a yellow-toned face with simplified features against an orange-peach background. The artwork is presented in a decorative gold-toned frame with curved edges. There appears to be a signature at the bottom right corner of the portrait that reads "David Johnson." The style is somewhat stylized rather than photorealistic, presenting an artistic interpretation of the former Chinese leader. (made by Claude AI)

Saddened to learn of David Johansen's death. For the story behind why he gifted me this small Mao portrait, see my newsletter.

Also in the newsletter: A portrait of my hero, Ganesh Devy, in the New Yorker, and Isabella Weber on "cheapflation" and price controls.

triptych.oxus.net/kerims-tript...

Two maps of US unemployment rates by county. They are identical except that the legend in the second has been converted into a histogram.

Your map’s legend can be turned into a histogram, helping your audience understand the distribution in addition to decoding the colours.

Review | Robbie Basho was a cult guitarist searching for a cult Robbie Basho was a visionary guitarist who failed to find wide acclaim. A new set of lost recordings frames his music’s beauty as the result of tireless toil.

“Regardless of who understood it, was the beauty ever up for debate?” Richards on Basho www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...

In Taiwan, years back, some civic hackers created the Gov0 campaign (or g0v) in which they got the domain name g0v.tw (it's a zero in the middle) and created alternatives to every gov website of what they would do if they were in charge. Anyone could see the plans by replacing the o with the 0.

Sunfish that got sick after aquarium closed has recovered — thanks to human cutouts A solitary sunfish at an aquarium in Japan lost its appetite, began banging into the side of the fish tank and appeared unwell days after the facility closed last month for renovations.

A sick sunfish stopped eating after its aquarium closed for renovations so the staff put cutouts of humans and pictures of smiling faces outside the tank and then it started eating the next day. [apnews.com]

I Traveled Between Durham and Raleigh on Amtrak. It Was Great, Until It Wasn't. I traveled between Durham and Raleigh on Amtrak. It was great, until it wasn’t.

Commuting on the local Amtrak route is fast, comfortable, and mostly convenient. But too few trains running daily, and unforeseen accidents, can make it challenging to be a regular passenger.

On board the Creed cruise: the unfathomable return of the ‘worst band of the 90s’ The long read: I took a cruise with thousands of fellow lunatics to find out how this much-mocked rock band became so beloved

Every frame a painting. This is art. @lukewinkie.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/music/articl...

The Case for Abolishing Elections - Boston Review They may seem the cornerstone of democracy, but in reality they do little to promote it. There's a far better way to empower ordinary citizens: democracy by lottery.

The title is inflammatory clickbait, but the idea of ‘democracy by lottery’ has been interesting for me to chew on in the months since I first read this. www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...