Recently updated blogs

UBERMORGEN are the guests of the third episode of the podcast series I did with artists who 1. are among my absolute cultural heroes and 2. have exhibited at Aksioma Institute for Contemporary Art in Ljubljana. UBERMORGEN, The Silver Singularity, 2024 UBERMORGEN, [V]ote-auction, 2000-2006 (Installation view, UBERMORGEN, THE*AGENCY [for manual Election Recounts] (Graz, 2004) UBERMORGEN is an artist collective that brings together autistic actionist lizvlx a.k.a. Liz Haas & hyperactive …

By David Tuller, DrPH Earlier this month, I wrote a post about a new study asserting that “exercise does not cause post-exertional malaise in Veterans with Gulf War Illness.” As I explained, the research, led by experts from the University of Wisconsin and published by the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, made no sense. Although … Trial By Error: Norwegian Tabloid Covers Stupid Gulf War Illness/PEM Study; My Letter to …

Dear Creative Commons (@creativecommons.org @[email protected] @[email protected]), Can we have CC-NT licenses for no-training (ML/LLM, GenAI in general), just like we have CC-NC for non-commercial?My previous post¹ reminded me that I’ve been creating, writing, inventing, and then sharing things with #CreativeCommons (CC) #licenses for a long time (I have to see if I can dig up my first use of CC licenses.)I’ve used and recommended a variety of CC licenses for …

A couple of reference to a Vine Northgate Street. April 1835, “a meeting of The Auxiliary Conservative Society will be held at Mr Larratts Vine Northgate St in the coming week, meeting starts o’ clock”. September 1836, at the small debts court D. Larratt v G Coulson, Mrs Larratt claimed 15/- for rent money and accommodation of pawning some of Mrs Larratts clothing. Coulson claimed that Larratt had given her …

Electric service starts this weekend. The blog comment system stopped working on the August open thread, so let's try this instead?

‘Frequently it pays to look first for the characteristics of devices in use which may be such that an essential pragmatic approach offers the best chance to success. It often is possible to solve an accident of malfunction problem with straightforward and uncomplicated approaches, deliberately ignoring their more subtle aspects.’ “ Haigh Company Employee Handbook By the Book, The Worlds of Frank Herbert, 1971

Doctors need a medical humanities that does more than just help them see health and disease through a patient’s eyes.

LLMs are good search helpers. Here’s three search tools I use every day. All of these use an AI to synthesize answers but also provide an essential feature: specific web search results for you to verify and further research. I use these for conversational inquiries in addition to more traditional keyword searches. Phind is an excellent free LLM + search engine. The AI writes an answer to your query but …

Every time I mention a Brian Aldiss novel, I have to be careful to check the original title against the one published in the US. The terrific novel Non-Stop (1958) became Starship in the States, rather reducing the suspense of decoding its strange setting. Hothouse (1962) became The Long Afternoon of Earth when abridged in the US following serialization in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. I much prefer …

The weekend was spent at home celebrating pre-onam and onam. The Onam sadhya was great. I published the whole set of Pooklam arranged by Anju this year. Uma has learnt to make new friends. So Uma, Anju, and everyone at home have a viral fever. They have been out of service since Wednesday :) I took a couple of days off to babysit the family. It was not hectic but …

Matt and Sam answer listener questions for their 100th episode—and hear from friends of the podcast, new and old.

Bell & Ross, known for crafting timepieces that blend high-end watchmaking with practical design, has launched the limited edition BR-X5 Racing. This watch, limited to 500 pieces, draws inspiration from motorsport, offering a combination of performance, precision, and modern aesthetics. Design Rooted in Motorsport The BR-X5 Racing features a design that mirrors the functionality and form of racing car dashboards. Its central seconds hand boasts a checkerboard pattern for precise …

For authors, one of the (these days, increasingly few) positives of social media is connecting with other authors. Especially if no one else in your family/social circle is involved in the arts (raises hand), it’s great to be able to find a community where you can discuss craft, business, the ups and downs of querying, the challenges of self-publishing–both sharing your own experiences and learning from others’. But…what if that …

1. This robot arm can do your tidying up. TidyBot, a research “mobile manipulator” from Princeton, successfully puts away 85.0% of objects in real-world test scenarios. It uses large language models to quickly learn preferences (e.g. shirts on the shelf vs in a drawer). Instruction following used to be one of the great challenges for home robots. LLMs solved that problem at a stroke. I have previously speculated about portable …

I've never come across a YouTube classic synth video I didn't love. One of my favorite channels belongs to the legendary Anthony Marinelli, and I was really happy he picked a Madonna classic here.