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I mean, it’s impossible to write about The Fast Show without quoting it. So let’s get them out of the way. Brilliant. I like this, when comedy worlds collide and remind me that sometimes shows that seem from different eras actually shared a schedule. Which is nice. The Stage – Thursday 13 November 1997 This one is more interesting from a TV history point of view. I’m amazed they were …

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AI Can Now Create a Replica of Your Personality James O’Donnell | MIT Technology Review “Imagine sitting down with an AI model for a spoken two-hour interview. A friendly voice guides you through a conversation that ranges from your childhood, your formative memories, and your career to your thoughts on immigration policy. Not long after, a virtual replica of you is able to embody your values and preferences …

This caught my eye in the New York Times the other day: That word, “cleaner,” wasn’t familiar–I imagined it meant what Americans would call a cleaning lady, a cleaning person, a custodian, a janitor, basically, something that sounded a bit fancier than what the job really is. “Cleaner” felt British to me, along the lines of “carer,” also not found in the U.S. (We would say “companion,” “care-giver,” or, wordiest …

“[45] In India there are wild asses as large as horses, or even larger. Their body is white, their head dark red, their eyes bluish, and they have a horn in their forehead about a cubit in length. The lower part of the horn, for about two palms distance from the forehead, is quite white, the middle is black, the upper part, which terminates in a point, is a very …

Having abandoned the decorator thread for now, I propose to test-drive a forwarding mechanism based on descriptors. It goes quite nicely.

According to the multiverse theory, we are likely to find ourselves in a universe particularly suited to the emergence of life. According to a new paper, though, that’s not the case given how it’s expanded over time. But does that mean the multiverse theory has also been invalidated? Let’s take a look.

Murder While You Work by Susan Scarlett aka Noel Streatfield This book is one of twelve written under the Susan Scarlett pseudonym and in some ways it is a romance, but certainly not of the delicate sort. It combines a murder mystery with elements of a domestic thriller, as well as observations of conditions in the Second World War. Bombs do not rain down on this English village, but there …

Welcome to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc's review of notable catalogue titles (and some new ones, too!) making digital debuts. We've got Beach Boys covers with some fascinating history related to the band, a tribute to one of the greatest musical icons we lost this year, a new single from a […]

By Yochai GalSelf PublishedCairn Two weeks ago, Aldra, the beloved butcher of Isthmus Town, suddenly vanished without a trace. Some days later, a local teen reported seeing a man swallowed up by the earth near Deadmill. Others have also gone missing. Now, the townsfolk are left wondering: Who might be next? This little 24 page digest adventure presents a classic setup: a small village with some shit going on for …

Third time’s a charm? Not for me when it comes to Point Lobos, the iconic State Natural Reserve just south of Carmel and Monterey. I’ve been there twice in 2013, and didn’t feel like I really got anything substantial from ... Read moreThanks for following Alexander S. Kunz Photography via RSS & keeping independent websites alive. Buy me a coffee? Support @ $3/month. Visit My Print Store. Browse My Photo …

Sunday is the first anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and television remembers with a number of somber tributes that lend a grim backdrop to the beginning of the holiday week. The day begins with the CBS special Four Dark Days (10:30 a.m. CT), an hour-long retrospective of the events one year ago, including the assassination, the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, and the President's lying in …

Regular readers might just remember that nine years ago, I posted a brief history of Anne Heap of Frogs, the hard rock band I was guitarist for in 1988. (Astonishing to think it’s nine years since I posted that!) Here once more is the photo of twenty-year-old me, on the left with the white strat; on the right is Andy Charles on bass. And here I am in 2024, playing …

A ‘Why am I reading this?’ post, because this is why I haven’t posted many reviews lately: I keep giving up on books I have nothing much to say about. Benjamin Myers, Cuddy Winner of prizes, lauded indie publisher’s saviour, the subject is a favourite (early medieval English religion and history), and wow was I … Continue reading Did Not Finish →

BBC4 – which, for much of the time, is the only BBC channel worth watching – no longer has a budget for making new programmes. This apparent deprivation has also been something of a blessing, leaving the channel free to delve in the vast BBC archive of classic (or at least worth another look) programmes from happier times. Lately we've had the brilliant prison sitcom Porridge (razor-sharp scripts, perfect lead …