Trained on “publicly-available” text scrapped with or without consent from billions of human authored, English language websites in the hopes of informing accurate or at least confident language models, the rather nascent AI boom might be facing a bust as it is running out of data to mine. Previously we’ve looked at the phenomena of recursive AI as generated content begins to saturate the internet, but conversely as vast as the web seems industry experts estimate that AI—to presumably get better at delivering right and desired responses with minimal intervention by exposure to countless right answers and only learning through brute iteration—needs far more information than has been thus far produced in order to advance. Exuberance, nonetheless, is undeterred and growing, notwithstanding immense energy demands, threats to labour and intellectual property even given a spotty record of actual adoption and the dangers of citing less than authoritative sources—the original sin of artificial intelligence, exhausting the sum of human knowledge, only really came to light not by complaints of plagiarism but rather from competitors trying to shield warehoused content from the clearing house and our actions may be propping up something adversarial and degenerative. More from Ed Zitron at the link up top.
Wednesday 24 April 2024
Tuesday 23 April 2024
7x7 (11. 509)
betteridge’s law: the legacy of Alfred Harmsworth, Viscount Northcliffe, and commoditising fascinating factiods to sell newspapers
congestion pricing: overtourism and its consequences
disclose, divest: on the 1968 anniversary of the protest that ousted the university’s president and established the student body senate, activism on Columbia’s campus is again in the national spotlight over Palestinegrace period: America’s addiction to credit cards
zoonosis: concern rises over avian flu as it appears in cows and wild animal communities
nonstop flight: the epic migration of the Bar-tailed Godwit and the engineering of feathers—via the New Shelton wet/dry
catch-and-kill: deal to bury stories unfavourable to Trump by tabloid The National Enquirer was an “agreement between friends”
Saturday 27 January 2024
piggy bank (11. 296)
As part of an inventory from the British Museum that concludes—along with the need for better definitions and legal protections to ensure that important antiquities are not sold on the open market—recent years have yielded the highest number of treasures found since records have been kept, we are introduced to non-singular practise of Iron Age Britons of storing their coins in naturally occurring hollow flint nodules found in the chalk and limestone strata of the region. The contents of the ball date from the last decades BC and were minted in the East Wiltshire area and are classed as “Savernake Wreath” staters, after the Ancient Greek standard, ฯฯฮฑฯฮฎฯ (weight), circulating first as ingots then as coins, brought by the Celts to Western and Central Europe. Learn more at the History Blog at the link above.
synchronoptica
one year ago: the Paris Peace Accords (1973), corecore, Ballroom Blitz plus Cistercian cyphers
two years ago: RIP Peter Robbins, the voice actor for the character Charlie Brown, more on esoteric programming languages plus assorted links to revisit
three years ago: The Singing, Ringing Tree, inspired watch-faces, computing in Poland plus an alternate spelling alphabet
four years ago: policy via magical thinking plus emoji on license plates
five years ago: more on generative adversarial networks
catagories: ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ, ๐บ, ๐ฑ, libraries and museums
Tuesday 9 January 2024
10x10 (11. 254)
job security: the US only created seven-hundred new IT positions last year—compared to two-hundred seventy thousand in 2022—via the New Shelton wet/dry
tidy mouse: an industrious rodent sorts out a human’s workspace
a theft from those who hunger: Dwight Eisenhower’s Chance for Peace Speech of 1953
seo: how Google’s search algorithm has shaped the webpast is precedent: Austin Kleon shares one-hundred things that made his year—a very good list
the big mac index: the rising costs of fast food and its political implications
high school high: graphic designer Veronica Kraus curates gems from old yearbooks—see also—via Messy Nessy Chic
armed conflict survey: mapping wars around the world
double fantasy: celebrated photographer Kishin Shinoyama, who captured the intimate moments of John Lennon and Yoko Ono for their album art (see below) passes away, aged 83
year-on-year: the word from Davos forecasts anaemic economic growth
synchronoptica
one year ago: Nobody Told Me plus canal workers’ jargon
two years ago: Mambo Italiano, RMS Queen Elizabeth plus the premier of the iPhone (2007)
three years ago: classic rebrands, assorted links to revisit, a snowy day, more on Cats plus a diet inducing doorway
four years ago: attempts for a peaceful resolution to the Iraq War (1991), the yacht whisperer plus plans for a Woven City
five years ago: the diplomatic status of the EU downgraded, more Hampsterdance, repairing the Azure Window plus more links to enjoy
catagories: ๐, ๐, ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ, ๐ฑ, ๐, ๐, ๐ท, ๐บ️, labour, networking and blogging
Saturday 23 December 2023
11x11 (11. 208)
mmxxiii: the year in anniversaries, including the debuts of Question Hound, Casablanca, the World Wide Web, The Exorcist and the Yom Kippur War
seasons greetings: decades of off-kilter Christmas cards from John Watersexplainer: five video essays worth your holiday downtime
tl;dr: public nominates longreads worth revisiting
enigmatic chemical reactions: runaway chaotic catalysts are heating up two massive landfills near Los Angeles
cash-on-deposit: leaving money in your bank-account also contributes to one’s carbon-footprint
lithub: the biggest literary stories of the year
a year in illustration: the collages accompanying Pluralistic posts
re:view: Dezeen’s annual top tens
et exaltavit humiles: a medieval token likely dispensed by a Boy Bishop, who held authority from the feast of Saint Nicholas through the Day of Holy Innocents, was discovered in Norfolk
2023: the year in review from the Financial Times
Tuesday 19 December 2023
9x9 (11. 196)
mister jingeling: a dozen, beloved department store Christmas characters—see also—via Miss Cellania
bubblenomics: pondering the consequences of when AI goes the way of crypto and NFTs
indefinite causal order: quantum batteries are powered by paradox—via Damn Interestinga winter’s tale: selected readings of Christmas ghost stories—via Things Magazine
the waitresses: the cynical anti-holiday hit Christmas Wrapping that became a festive classic
infinite jukebox: a clever AI application that extends songs forever
high ground: study of the competition for space dominance between the US and China suggests America occupy Lagrange points to counter malign ambitions
52 snippets: facts gleaned from economics and finance from the past twelve months
snoopy come home: Gen Z rediscovers and identifies with the Peanuts’ character
Thursday 7 December 2023
9x9 (11. 169)
sub-space: the potential problems of communications with relativistic spacecraft, traveling at a fraction the speed of light with solar-sails
new quality productivity: Chinese buzz-words of the year, including a coinage by President Xiailex: artist Alicia Framis announces her marriage to a hologram
der nussknacker: the Fรผchtner family who made the first traditional nutcracker is still in the business
wallsynth: Love Hultรฉn’s custom, one-of-a-kind musical creations have a Mid-Century Modern aesthetic
the day of the animals: a 1977 nature rampage film from William Girdler
network effects: building a better, unbundled Craigslist turned out like the trajectory of Twitter
american dream: Investopedia’s most searched economic terms of the year reveal a lot about how people feel about their financial situation
in space, no one can hear you kern: when lost in the inner Solar System, typography can come in handy
synchronoptica
one year ago: Blue Marble (1972), Sovereign Citizens plus using AI to invent a language
two years ago: galaxies outside our own plus assorted links to revisit
three years ago: birdsong in December, more links to enjoy, non-conterminious territory plus more words of the year
four years ago: the Guzman Prize awarded (1969), Scientology HQ plus a lunar cruise
five years ago: the etymology of chauvinism, Dr Magnus Hirschfeld, circular economies, more movie typography plus juxtaposing photography
Tuesday 28 November 2023
9x9 (11. 146)
the big easy: Bonapartist diaspora had designs for Napoleon to retire in New Orleans—via Messy Nessy Chic—see also courtesy of Super Punch
holiday emporium: Kottke’s annual gift guide returns after a hiatus
triple word score: players and lexicographers are a bit mortified with Scrabble’s new tournament rulescolophon: the rise and fall of Borders Books
moonlight towers: during the infancy of electric lighting, there was a predecessor to serial lamps
pump and dump: insurance companies are exacerbating the climate crisis
fiat: during the bank strikes of Ireland in the 1970s, pubs stepped in to fill their function—via the new shelton wet/dry
ai garage sale: haggle with robots for real items—via Waxy
pas de goulots d’รฉtranglement dans la production: a strange 1940 diagram from linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf presenting French as a factory assembly line
Wednesday 22 November 2023
freiwirtschaft (11. 131)
Proposed by German-Argentine economist and proponent of market socialism Johann Silvio Gesell—detailed though eventually acquitted by authorities impressed with his argument in his own defence for his part in the in the short-lived, experimental Bavarian Soviet Republic, Freigeld (that is money free from the temptation for hoarding it without the incentive of interest) that decayed and depreciated over time, thus rather than a store of wealth made “worse as a commodity if we wish to make it better as a medium of exchange.” Considering himself a world-citizen and constantly relocating, Gessel arrived in Buenos Aires to open a franchise of a family member’s business coinciding with the 1890 economic depression and the experience informed his thoughts on property and welfare and sought to balance self-interest and liquidity. Like a form of negative interest or demurrage (the cost of holding money subject to a periodic tax), Gessel’s proposed currency would have a limited purchase—before expiry—of a constant value, subject to neither inflation nor deflation, freely exchangeable among other currencies and bear a grid on the obverse of fifty-two spots for monetary authority issued stamps for which the holder must affix one per week for the note to hold its value, the bill losing value as long as it was retained and not spent at the holder’s expense. The experiment was trialled (with certificates and scrip) to some acclaim and continues for a certain extent with limited-time-offers, coupons and local complementary currency.
synchronoptica
one year ago: a proposal for a broadcast energy transmitter, assorted links to revisit plus the Beatles’ White Album
two years ago: Angela Merkel becomes chancellor (2005) plus a Harry Belafonte classic carol
three years ago: more on script and spelling reform, the Battle of Ballon (845), more on Angela Merkel, the resignation of Margaret Thatcher, the BBC motion graphics archive plus the Feast of St Cecilia
four years ago: Our Sandman plus more public testimony over the Trump impeachment inquiry
five years ago: Plato’s Stepchildren plus a Thanksgiving greeting
Tuesday 31 October 2023
thrifty business (11. 086)
First observed on this day in 1925 as the result of an initiative of the First International Savings Bank Congress (see also)—a summit of some three hundred fifty delegates from twenty-seven countries held in Milan—held the year prior, World Savings Day was promoted as not just an occasion to encourage home economics but to promote financial literacy. While the original motivation came in response to the end of World War I and has always emphasised education, the perceived over-commercialisation of the holiday has been subject to criticism for inculcating young people as early and loyal clients (traditionally accounts opened at this time, shifted according when and where the date fell on a bank holiday, included calendars as giveaways and other enticements) and bundling the cause with other premiums, like insurance and investment instruments.
one year ago: St Quintinus
two years ago: suffrage in Switzerland, a Brazilian monopod, dancing security dogs, assorted links to revisit plus Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses
three years ago: a collection of strange classical music compositions, Frestonia, police propaganda plus more links to enjoy
four years ago: Halloween greetings, a collection of metro logos, a Cornish holiday, the Speaker of the House steps down plus the Trump impeachment
five years ago: more of the season’s salutations, an October Surprise plus the March of Folly
Sunday 22 October 2023
11x11 (11. 070)
post-amazon era: monopsonic retailer’s workers’ are writing about the dystopian company to fight back—via Slashdot
sublet: tech startups are relinquishing office space office space back to their landlords
stop making sense: negative manifestos, rule-breaking and by defined by what one is not
deci-lon 10: an outstanding collection of slide rules curated by the analogue computer’s appreciation society—named after their seventeenth century inventor, William Oughtred of Cambridge—via Web Curiosdancing delicacies: 3-D printed plate and nano technologies promise interactive meals
primer simposium tecno: a 1981 electronic music concert in Madrid
piramida: updated plans for the restoration of Tirana’s Brutalist landmark
destroilet: an automatic combustion plumbing solution popular in the 1960s and 70s
down in the underground: agencies of the subsurface
fiver: a new adaptation of Watership Down as a graphic novel
proposition m: San Francisco passes a punitive tax of vacant housing speculation
the faanmg index: the blush has worn off Amazon’s rose—via Nag on the Lake’s Sunday Links (lot’s more to explore there)
synchronoptica
one year ago: brittle egos bristling at Karen’s Garden plus modern sundials
two years ago: the International Meridian Conference of 1884, The Last Picture Show plus an early alternative currency
three years ago: the father of psychophysics, red food dye, another failed doomsday prophecy plus the Humument series
five years ago: the US Gun Control Act of 1968, the WWII bombing of Kassel, the spread of disinformation, anticipatory libraries for other worlds plus RIP to the inventor of the Little Library
Wednesday 18 October 2023
a conference divided (11. 065)
Entering its third week without a leader, the US House of Representatives’ Republican forerunner for the gavel and Speaker of the House, a hard right conservative, Trump apologists and noted obstructionist, having blocked far more legislation than sponsored, failed to secure the required majority with some rather brave GOP hold-outs refusing to allow Congress to fall further into the control of a radical minority element of the party. Despite not having secured the commitment of other fellow Republicans for support, the vote was brought to the floor, hoping that a public forum would draw the ire of their constituents in a rather unprecedented campaign for a congressional leadership role. Under pressure to fill the vacant role of House Speaker, Congress is unable to introduce new bills and severely handicaps its ability to address immediate concerns of funding the government with a looming deadline in mid-November, approving the appointment of ambassadors and military commanders or for extending aid and armaments to allies of two wars.
synchronoptica
one year ago: the BBC at 100, rallying against the totalitarian regime in Iran plus a gallery of nightmare art
two years ago: an obtunded opportunity, your daily demon: Velar, Toto’s Africa plus Video Killed the Radio Star
three years ago: International Necktie Day, more musical mashups, more mushrooming, drills for the zombie apocalypse plus put our service to the test
four years ago: the Peaceful Revolution of East Germany, a font inspired by Greta Thunberg, more US gun violence plus prayer goes digital
five years ago: International Credit Union Day, Big Bird retires plus the Postal Illuminati
Sunday 15 October 2023
rentenmark (11. 058)
In order to combat runaway hyperinflation after World War I and the the subsequent occupation of the industrial Ruhr region by French and Belgian forces that caused a major slump in economic activity and an attendant drop in government tax revenues that the Weimar Republic tried to compensate for with quantitive easing (that is—printing more money), finance minister Hans Luther, working with the Reichsbank, introduced a new currency on this day in 1923 to replace the Papiermark. Money had become nearly worthless and subject to precipitous devaluation on a daily basis due to lack of gold and other stable assets to back it, and Luther, whose plans for reform were grounded on the economic principles espoused by Karl Helfferich who suggested floating, indexing monetary value on rye and other agricultural commodities, devised a mortgaged-mark not tied to produce and crop yields (the original idea rejected due to inherent instability) but rather to the land that produced them, backed by biannual payments on farmland and business properties. With the first notes issued on 1 November, one trillion Papiermark could be exchanged for one Rentenmark and the relatively successful transition provided the stability for a recovery in the national economy.
synchronoptica
one year ago: most popular Halloween candy by state according to AI, a UB40 classic from 1988, the cemetery of Old St Pancras plus a menu ร la carte
two years ago: assorted links to revisit, more unaired television pilots, Mouldy Old Dough plus dialling up the fright factor with AI
three years ago: more obscure and choice insults, a musical selection from Bronski Beat, more links to enjoy, Jack the Ripper’s From Hell letter, word nuance in cooking plus The Great Dictator (1940)
four years ago: high-energy cosmic rays
five years ago: a fun Star Trek musical mashup, more links plus discovering the convenience of public transport
Friday 29 September 2023
lapse in appropriations (11. 030)
With the deadline looming and only hours left before a government shut-down (previously) looks more and more inevitable, continued in-fighting amongst Republican members in Congress sabotaged a bill sponsored by the Senate that would have have been a stop-gap measure, a continuing resolution, to keep the funded government and operational through mid-November. The Speakership in hock and the House of Representatives held ransom by a radical element willing to let the government run out of money, insistent on a thirty-percent across the board cut in budgets and halting aid to Ukraine. Despite a precariously narrow majority in Congress that cannot enforce its will (captivity to an arch-conservative, pandering wing notwithstanding) without compromise and concession, particularly in mixed jurisdiction (and again, gerrymandering that protects their seats notwithstanding), the GOP is refusing to negotiate and willing to force a crisis costly in terms of economics and repute that may prove difficult to resolve.
one year ago: the Mayak disaster (1957)
two years ago: assorted links to revisit
three years ago: Star Trek tarot, the Feast of the Archangels, the cartoons of R Cobb plus more links to revisit
four years ago: more Theremin maestros plus more Middle English vulgarities
five years ago: the Munich Agreement (1938) plus the Suprematism movement
Wednesday 20 September 2023
the panic of 1873 (11. 011)
The period of economic stagnation originally referred to as the Great or Long Depression before the interwar slump set new standards for the definition and though caused by a range of contributing factors including the opening of the Suez Canal that was disruptive for entrepรดt trade (also controlled by the British Empire, goods from the Far East were formerly warehoused in South Africa with the previous sea route around the Cape of Good Hope and the traditional sailing ships could not be adapted to navigate the new short-cut as the prevailing Mediterranean winds pushed them back into the Red Sea), devastating fires in Chicago and Boston and Germany going off the bimetallic standard—precipitating a fall in silver prices, the financial crisis with global implications was chiefly attributed to rampant speculation by investors in railroads and boom in their construction particularly in the United States following the Civil War. The panic began on this day in 1873 with the collapse of the Jay Cooke & Company, an innovative banking institution and brokerage house that pioneered the use of “wire” transfers and confirming transactions over telegraph lines, overextended and unable to sell on millions in bonds it had secured to build a second transcontinental line. With the railroad company and the bank indebted, bankruptcy soon followed with contagion spreading to other financial institutions and the insurance industry, prompting the closure of the New York Stock Exchange for ten days with immediate redundancies in the manufacturing sector. Railroad workers went on strike in protest of reduced wages, further exacerbating the crisis and knock-on effects overseas which led to a wave in immigration to the States that coincided with the easing of the turmoil by 1879.
Sunday 10 September 2023
6x6 (10. 993)
wordwhile: whilst Damn Interesting takes a short sabbatical to recoup and regroup, try their fun word game
home-ec: kakeibo (ๅฎถ่จ็ฐฟ) the century-old method of household budgeting devised by Motoko Hani, Japan’s first woman journalistgerminating hope: seed art with a message at the Minnesota state fair
bullet points: an encomium for the co-creator of PowerPoint Dennis Austin (RIP)
vim and vigour: more on the nineteenth century cocaine-fortified wine—see previously
☕️๐ซ: more on universal words, Betteridge’s and Cunningham’s law—browse through the comments
one year ago: Hey Jude (1968), links to enjoy, more telling the bees plus more assorted links to revisit
two years ago: St Aubert, the ecological importance of oyster-beds, comparable to coral reefs plus even more links worth revisiting
three years ago: the largest basilica in the world, artist Marianne von Werefkin, a devastating earthquake in Constantinople (1509), the original and the reprised Fresh Prince, burning skies plus Hongkonger neologisms
four years ago: the dissolution of the Austrian Empire (1919), Boris Johnson suspends Parliament, Sharpiegate plus more assorted links
five years ago: Denver airport plays up conspiracy theories, towing an iceberg to the desert, an innovative wind-turbine plus the premiere of X-Files (1993)
Friday 26 May 2023
8x8 (10. 766)
to scale: time: a model in the Mojave Desert that makes commensurate the span of a human life and the age of the Universe—see previously
montreal protocol: humanity’s affirming effort to plug a hole in the ozone layer—previously—was an inadvertent salvation that is still paying off—see previously
qartcode: generate custom scannable re-directs with the little pixelated image of ones choice—via Pasa Bon!talking steel guitar: the musical stylings of Pete Drake and his innovative talk box—see previously
fourteenth amendment: US President Joe Biden’s options to stop the standoff over the debt ceiling
i’m fantastic, made of plastic: the trailer to Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie
flow-chart: your guide for turning on the air-conditioning in New England—works a lot of places—see also
time out of mind: a 1979 BBC documentary series on science fiction featuring interviews with iconic authors
Wednesday 24 May 2023
7x7 oops all america (10. 764)
the hills we climb: Amanda Gorman’s inspirational poem (previously) during the inaugeration for Joe Biden among reading materials subject to a ban in Florida
gen-z-span: a C-SPAN and Tik Tok split-screen is “giving democracy”—via Waxy
sealioning: the baiting, false pretence for an honest discussionlove is love: US retailer removing some LGBTQ+ collection apparel from its stores after backlash directed at employees plus more attacks against allied merchandise
line-in-the-sand: negotiations on the impending US debt ceiling have stalled with little time to spare
patent troll: the state of Louisiana introduces legislation to curtail the private equitisation of supposed infringement on intellectual property—via Super Punch
won’t someone think of the children: analyses reveal that the majority of book ban challenges for curricula and libraries come from eleven people
Saturday 20 May 2023
you’re gonna need a bigger boat (10. 754)
In honour of the feast day of theologian and logician Blessed Alcuin, we revisit this humour take on his logistics puzzle recently presented as a lament by McSweeney’s Internet Tendency contributor Lillie E Franks: “American Infrastructure has Failed Me, a Farmer with one Wolf, one Goat and one Cabbage.” Thanks to a chronic lack of upkeep enabled by a culture of inertia in Washington, the rowboat can hold hold me and one of my three items. This creates serious problems, which our political system is ill-equipped to handle … the most realistic plan the Democrats have put forward is that I should take the goat across first, row back, take the wolf across instead of the cabbage, row back, and finally cross with the cabbage. And while that does deal with the problem of my goat eating my cabbage, it’s not a workable solution. More at the links above.
catagories: ๐ฑ, ๐, ๐ฑ, Middle Ages
Saturday 13 May 2023
8x8 (10. 737)
what is a strikebreaker: past gameshow champion Ken Jennings to host Jeopardy! during its final episodes for the season, crossing the picket line during the Writers’ Guild protest
captain’s table: a tour of the Hamburg-America Line’s SS Prinzessin Vitoria Luise—the world’s first purpose built cruise ship, launched in 1900
the big four: the dominant professional services networks providing auditing and assurance advise clients on how to cheat their way through compliance inspectionbull-boards: more on the Osborne brandy mascot that’s become an icon of Spain
get your kicks on route 66: ahead of its centenary, the historic American highway gets a much needed refurbishment—via Miss Cellania
c’est le dernier qui a parlรฉ qui a raison: ahead of tonight grand prix in Liverpool, a look back on the geopolitics of Eurovision—see also, see previously
lucky duck gets private equitied: the latest cartoon fro, Ruben Bolling—see previously, see also
home port: despite the ban, cruise ships are still docking in Venice
scabs: Starbucks announced closure of three franchises in Ithaca, New York has nothing to do with the workers’ decision to unionise