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A Kind of Kinky Turing Test
This adds another layer: Beyond just being financially dominated, the user is further made lesser by the fact that they’re being dominated by something that isn’t even trying to seem human ... “A lot of kink and submission also has to do with ‘depersonalization.’ I think that being dominated by AI is just a way to feel further separated from one’s human identity,” Witt-Eden explained. “By interacting with an inanimate computer program, one also becomes an inferior object.” from Welcome to the Kinky World of AI Financial Domination
The book club that spent 28 years reading Finnegans Wake
“I don’t want to lie, it wasn’t like I saw God,” Fialka said, of reaching the book’s end. “It wasn’t a big deal.”
“When people hear you’ve been a member of a book club that reads the same book every time you meet, most people go, ‘Why would you do that?’” said Bruce Woodside, a 74-year-old retired Disney animator who joined Fialka’s reading group in the 1990s. Though “it’s 628 pages of things that look like typographic errors”, said Woodside, who has been reading and re-reading Finnegans Wake since his late teens. “There’s a kind of visionary quality to it.”
Like samizdat for a sex-positive feminist underground
Bitter but true; her writing is not much taught or studied. A couple dozen dissertations center on her work, about a tenth as many as those analyzing Roth. “‘Fear of Flying’ had seemed an apprentice work to me when I wrote it,” Jong recalled, “and now it was to be my tombstone.” from Fear of Flying at 50 [NY Times; ungated]
Connections
I just yesterday discovered that all three seasons of James Burke's history series Connections [Wikipedia] are available on the Internet Archive. That's 40 episodes for streaming or download. This comes along with news [ArsTechnica] that Curiosity Stream has a new short series Connections With James Burke [Trailer] now on their platform. Previously, from 2010.
It's not just space camp
"Inside the small world of simulating other worlds" by Sarah Scoles examines the challenges for analog astronauts of emulating space habitats as well as the difficulty of re-entering society after their artificial isolation.
How to cut the most common vegetables
Chef Jean-Pierre Bréhier shows us how to cut the most common vegetables.
Any movie scene, rewritten like a Michael Bay movie
Any movie scene, rewritten like a Michael Bay movie
[via mefi projects]
Do you feel like most movies have a serious lack of explosions? A troubling shortage of Blackhawk helicopters? Who among us hasn't watched Titanic and thought, "What this movie really needs is a mechanical shark with a machine gun on it"?
Don't worry, we got you. Just enter your favorite movie scene and our team of tiny transformers will re-direct it like Michael Bay.
What is the Web Revival?
"The Web Revival is about reclaiming the technology in our lives and asking what we really want from the tools we use, and the digital experiences we share....The goal is to find what was best about the early web and what is best about new technologies and merge the two into a model for tomorrow; while kicking all the Zuckerberg's and Musk's to the curb so we can get on with our lives. The citizens of the web deserve more respect than to be boxed into cubicles, limited to 280 characters, studied and rebranded." (Melon's Thoughts, on melonking.net, via Web Curios.)
"A sovereign entity with the power to mobilize all of society"
By the end of the 1990s, capital had triumphed and consolidated a new neoliberal spirit of the laws. But, as Maier makes clear, neoliberalism was not about expanding the reach of the market, the rallying cry of its advocates, per se. Rather, it was about shifting the income distribution from labor to capital. This was to be done by any means necessary. While it sometimes required deregulation and the removal of the state, it just as frequently required the use of state power – especially American power – and the legitimacy conferred by recommendations from Harvard experts. from The Evolution of Modern Political Power [Project Syndicate; ungated]
The Largest Peacetime Disaster in American Naval History
Calhoun knew that not everyone from his ship had made it. He wondered how many still flailed in the oil-coated water. And the engine- and fire-room crews deep inside the ship: had they been trapped down below, or were they pulled out by the undertow as the ship rolled? Those men—his men—had been 150 yards from shore with no way out of the ship. On shore, when Herzinger mentioned to Calhoun that the losses were great, as many as 20 or 30 sailors, the young captain’s response was grave: “My God, I know—but we will not discuss it now.” from Dead Reckoning
P a s t a
A very long article in the Atlantic: An inquiry into a few fundamental questions: How did spaghetti and meatballs, a dish no Italian recognizes, become so popular here? What makes some brands of pasta much better than others? What’s so special about fresh pasta? What do Italians know about cooking pasta that Americans don’t? (archive)
Humpback whales on Australia's east coast go from 150 whales to 40,000
From 150 whales to 40,000 whales, humpbacks on Australia's east coast make miraculous recovery. Experts believe the humpback whale population has reached record heights, after commercial whaling from the late 1800s to the 1960s pushed the animals to the brink of extinction.
To me, Edward Wood was the Orson Welles of low budget pictures.
The Haunted World Of Edward D Wood Jr [1995, 1h52m] is a documentary about the indefatigable filmmaker of much regrettable redoubtable renown. Also features many of those who conspired in his cinematic crimes.
"Knowing what is missing is an important first step."
Zachary Turpin (Commonplace, 10/2023), "Have You Seen Me?: Missing Works of Nineteenth-Century American Literature": "To students new to the study of nineteenth-century American literature, it may seem that the field has been so thoroughly studied and catalogued that there can be very little left to discover about it. This could hardly be further from the truth." Partially inspired by Johanna Ortner (2015), "Lost No More: Recovering Frances Ellen Watkins Harper's Forest Leaves": "Having done my secondary source reading on her, I knew that Forest Leaves was deemed lost. Call it my naiveté as a young graduate student, but I figured I might as well type in the title in the society's catalogue."
Buffy Sainte-Marie: Neither indigenous nor Canadian?
The CBC has revealed that Buffy Sainte-Marie, prominent 70s era American-Canadian singer-songwriter, and recipient of the Order of Canada, was actually born in the US, was never adopted, has European ancestry, and used legal intimidation to ensure her family stayed silent on her origins.
The revelations have divided the indigenous community has raised significant questions about the litmus test of indigeneity, the threshold for investigating such cases, and the value of authenticity when judging music.
You have 20 seconds to comply, old sport
Making Chat (ro)Bots: Boston Dynamics [previously] combines their robot dog Spot with ChatGPT, speech and image recognition, and some unsettlingly realistic vocal synthesis (plus googly eyes and a hat) to create the world's first fully autonomous, conversational robotic tour guide.
Fully Manual Austere Martian Communes
Space settlement advocates frequently argue that we will soon be able to settle humans in space. Surviving on Mars is clearly a pre-requisite to settlement, and much work has been done examining the engineering aspects of this endeavor. Much less work has been done, however, on questions related to how to arrange a society in space. Early settlements will be dangerous, isolated, and cramped, and picking a social arrangement that is likely to result in a vibrant and productive society will be critical. To Each According to Their Space-Need: Communes in Outer Space
You may touch the artifacts
Internet Artifacts: a thoroughly interactive multimedia timeline of the documents, technologies, and phenomena that defined the Internet in the pre-smartphone era. Come for the First Smiley (1983) and the First MP3 (1987), stay for the AOL Dial-Up handshake (1991) and the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny (2006). [Via Neal.fun]
Guid Luck tae ye this Hallowe'en
The venerable Public Domain Review [PREVIOUSLY] is highlighting Hallowe'en Postcards, 1900-1920. Just don't stare too hard at "Mister Toad Turned Into A Pumpkin"!
Mount Quaint & Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore? (y/n)
In 1995, short-lived video game publisher Inscape released The Dark Eye, a point-and-click first-person adventure game based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe.
cooperation and resilience vital to survive climate collapse conditions
The new research, published in a peer-reviewed biological sciences journal from The Royal Society last month, suggests that resilience is an ability that societies can gain and lose over time. Researchers found that a stable society can withstand even a dramatic climate shock, whereas a small shock can lead to chaos in a vulnerable one.
this is (not) a drill
EAS Scenarios, or Mock EAS, is a type of analog horror that uses emergency alert systems (generally televised) to tell a story about a fictional horrific event. Some examples include: SCP Realised (mock EASes based on the SCP Foundation); The Final Minutes' Zombie Plague, 2050 (futuristic international EASes), and The Tiangong Incident; V-DAY, the radio-based Absolute Zero, and a 1990s UK Black Hole broadcast. Also: don't look at the moon.
Froderick
Froderick gets a home.
(SLYT)
*gutteral groaning noise*
Boris Karloff: The Man Behind The Monster [1h40m] is a 2021 documentary biography about the British actor who embodied so many monsters across his prolific career on screen and stage.
The Thirstening
“Hey Chloe,” you say, “I would like both Four Weddings and the Funeral and my relationship with Doctor Who completely sullied while still nourishing my relationship with my vinyl fetish. You got anything for me?” - Ten flicks that'll make you thirsty... for blood!
The Black Gold Tapestry
Sandra Sawatzky uses embroidery to tell stories of oil in human history amidst changes that are leading to an uncertain future (via NYTimes)
About 30 miles north of New York City by horseback.
Ed Begley Jr., Beverly D'Angelo, Charles Durning and more bring us The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow [50m, 1985]. Introduced by Shelley Duvall as an episode of her Tall Tales & Legends anthology series. Washington Irving's original short story, courtesy of Project Gutenberg.
MeFi Business/Legal Update Follow-Up
Hi folks -- here's a thread to talk about constructive next steps after this thread from two weeks ago.
Biking the Goods - Adoption of E-Cargo Bikes in North America
Biking the Goods
- A recent & approachable white paper out of the University of Washington's Urban Freight Lab, looking at the potential for cargo e-bikes to improve urban logistics systems & recommended policies to encourage their use. It looks at five case studies & six types of cargo e-bike to make the case for making them a part of city infrastructure in North America.
98.6 is old news
Personalized Temperature Ranges.
A simple tool designed to help you know whether your current body temperature is normal based on your age, height, weight, sex (M/F only, sorry) and time of day. Brought to you by Stanford University's Department of Medicine.
Don’t go into the outhouse
Every October Matthew Meyer shares and illustrates* A Yokai A Day.
Spooky atmospheres for every mood
Haunted Forest is the most creepy of what is offered here, with an hour of creaking forest limbs and unexplained noises in a misty forest. Haunted Cemetery Ambience is two hours of a light drizzle, lingering background thunder, some rustling and murmurings and other transient "what's that" noises. Spooky Halloween Fireplace with Rain on Windows Sound is, at eight hours, the least scary and most cozy, with comforting candlelit pumpkins and fireplace crackling backed with rain upon windowpanes.
Monster Madness
A four part documentary about horror film up through the Eighties: Monster Madness Part One: The Golden Age Of Horror Film [1h17m] Part Two: Mutants, Space Invaders, and Drive-Ins [1h32m] Part Three: The Gothic Revival Of Horror [1h22m] Part Four: The Counterculture To Blockbusters [1h2m] I'm hard-pressed to think of a more comprehensive look at these early eras of this genre of cinema.
The Whole Earth, in its entirety
Gray Area and The Internet Archive have made the Whole Earth Catalog and its descendants newly available online through the archive of Whole Earth publications...
Blog post announcing the archive from the Long Now Foundation. [CW: reported racist imagery / representation in at least one of these issues]
From the high desert and the great American Southwest
"Ghost stories, real ones from all of you, all night long." Art Bell "Ghost To Ghost" 30 Oct 1996 [3h14m]
The horror! The horror!
Flesh And Blood: The Hammer Heritage Of Horror [2h30m] is a full retrospective of Hammer Studios, whose name came to be synonymous with horror cinema across the 20th Century.
The 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature goes to Jon Fosse
Norwegian author Jon Fosse
is the 2023 Nobel laureate in literature. He first gained prominence as a playwright, but has also written poetry and novels. He was interviewed last year by Merve Emre in the New Yorker. For reviews of his books, and more reaction across the day, check out M. A. Orthofer's post on the Complete Review's Literary Saloon.
Snakes in the Grass, or On the Vertical Within the Horizontal
As with any disruptive phenomenon, there are both enthusiasts, whose close-meshed nets catch some dubious fish, and deniers, who insist that even the big ones should be thrown back. For many years, insanity was a common metaphor employed for those who believe acrostics in ancient poetry are intentional. The most influential one-paragraph Classics article ever written, Don Fowler’s playful intervention about the acrostic MARS spanning Vergil’s description of the Gates of War, ends with the memorable sentence: ‘I await the men in white coats.’ What Fowler did not anticipate was that, four decades later, acrostics would begin to be recognised as not just an occasional jeu d’esprit in ancient poetry, but a widespread phenomenon and a major source of meaning. from Vergil’s secret message
Try Hard --- they sure did!
Alex, an art student, dreams of joining Eve, the "Elite’s Visual School". Together with her best friend Kimmy, they train hard to pass the notoriously impossible entrance exam. Alex’s training turns into an obsession, compromising her friendship with Kimmy.Try Hard is the first of the graduation animations (teaser) made by the class of 2023 at Gobelins, a French school of "visual creation", with each new animation released weekly on Wednesday. English subtitles are available via Youtube's closed captions functionality.
France offers subsidies for clothing repairs
Broken Zipper? France Will Pay to Get It Fixed
Starting this month, anyone in France who has shoes resoled or clothing repaired will receive a subsidy. The repair bonus of between six and 25 euros is intended to encourage consumers to visit cobblers and tailors instead of throwing away old shoes and clothes. Some 154 million euros are available for the program until 2028, according to Klaus Sieg writing in Reasons to be Cheerful. ...In this way, the French government is responding to an ecological problem that is only gradually coming to the public’s attention. Ever shorter life cycles for clothing are consuming resources and growing mountains of waste. Hardly any other flow of goods has grown so dramatically in recent years, and with so little regulation, as the ballooning textile industry.