Even as Trump has directed the responsible party to dismantle the institution, and is clawing back payment plans in arrears administered under department, he is encouraging the promotion of literacy in artificial intelligence, which the secretary so charged with making herself redundant referred to as the steak sauce, with the integration into the curriculum to teach the next generation of AI workers. Aside from sounding like a dystopian effort to drain human handlers of original, non-recursive thought, expendable once exhausted or replaced with a level of sycophancy useless to all parties, prioritising such initiatives following other governments stated reforms, which strike as far more feasible and responsible imbued with a functioning bureaucracy, Trump will need his DOE extant in some form to administer his Presidential AI Challenge and form partnerships within the industry, an unacknowledged tension for the organisation that he ordered dissolved and remanded to state school districts as the Supreme Court appears more focused on granting parental carve-outs for objectionable curricula rather than a hands off approach as promised.
Friday, 25 April 2025
a1 is number one (12. 411)
Sunday, 13 April 2025
not magic—it’s all done with mirrors (12. 389)
Via MetaFilter, we thoroughly enjoyed this latest music video from OK Go (previously), for a song with the generic title Love, that features rather than CGI an amazingly choreographed array of industrial robots that the singers interact with precise timing to create one four minute continuous, kaleidoscopic shot (one can see more on the making of the spectacle here though the execution is transparent and no less upstagingly mind-breaking for it). It was filmed in the Keleti (Eastern) train station of Budapest.
Friday, 4 April 2025
agency for defence against hallucinatory disruptions (12. 364)
Via Web Curios, we are directed towards this AI generated music video from artist called Igorr from the Meat-Dept collective that displays a directorial continuity through storyboarding that we didn’t think was possible with current models—the inability for character permanence or the ability to tweak the outcomes, edited or otherwise. There’s no real narrative quality to the short piece but the underscoring of the percussion track and the unexpected series of strangeness holds one’s attention despite its unsettling visuals and รผbercanniness. Neurodivergence is virtuosity, particularly in this setting.
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica) plus The Good Life/Good Neighbours (1975)
seven years ago: Capella Sansevero, askance satellite views, more on seamstress Agnes Richter plus antique Friendship Books
eight years ago: an open air gallery in Amsterdam, tensions over North Korea, Gibraltar and Brexit plus a march against alternate facts
nine years ago: an MST3K reboot plus mesh churches
ten years ago: more links to enjoy plus Norway mothballs a secret arctic seaport
Thursday, 3 April 2025
the wisdom of the crowds (12. 362)
A bit of social media sleuthing and reverse engineering suggests that the Trump administration contrived its nonsensical tariff formula by asking AI and set those custom rates per the confident suggestion of a chatbot, which are not reciprocal to import duties at all but rather their trade surplus divided by total exports. Economist and frequent financial contributor to The New Yorker and other publications James Surowiecki obtained similar solutions when prompting various AI models with the question “how to fix trade imbalance.” We suspected that infusing artificial intelligence into everything and the attendant slop produced eventually would drive us collectively over a cliff but wasn’t suspecting such a mark, like a kid rushing to get an overdue homework assignment completed, would be its agent, native and wilful ignorance, shortcuts and retribution conspiring to further fray the global supply chain whose brittleness was on display not too long ago during the pandemic and unleash havoc on world markets and international relations.
Sunday, 30 March 2025
catbus and content policy (12. 349)
Though circulating for less than a week, the relatively low benchmark which has been picked up by several prominent posters, OpenAI’s latest chat-to-image feature can faithfully filter pictures in the style of Studio Ghibli. While again encroaching on a signature look without credit or attribution is hardly anything new, mainstreaming a disregard for infringement on intellectual property does seem to be an inflection point not to be celebrated—especially as it comes on the cusp of a US court decision, reversing earlier judgments, that AI works of art can be copyrighted as long as a human prompter is involved, a seemingly backchannel approach as derivative works would instantly overwhelm and bury their original corpus. Far from thrilled to see their creative process automated, the studio’s co-founder filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki responded that he was utterly disgusted with these developments that can in virtually instantaneously animate the results, something that illustrators and colourists take weeks and months to achieve. This news comes at the same time an AI voice generator, with thirty-six years of dialogue of Homer or Moe Szylak, could effective replace the actors behind The Simpsons franchise.
catagories: ⚖️, ๐ฏ๐ต, ๐ณ️, ๐ค, The Simpsons
Wednesday, 26 March 2025
9x9 (12. 339)
debonair: an amazing and comprehensive collection of flight attendant uniforms—via Things Magazine
contrapoints: a documentary contextualising misinformation to point out it is misinformation
shortened itinerary: second lady’s tour of Greenland (now joined by her husband) is limited to inspecting the troops at Pituffik Space Base

jug band: a fun cover of Beat It!—with a powerful solo bridge by the Bottle Boys
boilerfaker: a new trend in microdosing alcohol—via tmn
duty to report: the 1890 attempt to coerce Canada into joining the US backfired spectacularly
signalgate: The Atlantic editor inadvertently added to a national security counsel group chat publishes transcript in full after Trump administration downplayed the seriousness of the breach
hmnd: an incomplete bestiary of humanoid robots
Sunday, 23 March 2025
where the axe is buried (12. 332)
Cory Doctorow’s Pluralistic has an intriguing book recommendation from scifi author Ray Nayler, just the third novel from former Peace Corps volunteer and press attachรฉ and consular officer, that follows his previous works in engaging with themes of artificial intelligence, animal ethics (after several short stories published in prestigious anthologies, his debut book The Mountain and the Sea dealt with the discovery of an octopus society off the coast of Vietnam where Nayler was a special envoy for environment, science and technology in Ho Chi Minh City) his titular latest writing is a geopolitical study that could well be set in the present as a meditation on oligarchy and activism in a polarised world consisting of two competing blocs. In the aligned west, the branches of government have been replaced by AIs referred to PMs who have managed to optimise the messiness of politics and have seemingly solved the ungovernable problems, striking a balance between climate stewardship, modest growth and keeping the populace generally placated. Their foil is known as “the Republic,” a massive state under the tyranny of a immortal despot, whose consciousness has been digitised and is transferred into a replacement body periodically once his current one wears out (with some ill-advised modifications that ultimately reject reincarnation)—though presented to the people as the leader’s intellectual anointed heir. Contrasted with the apparent freedom of the AI governed world, which nonetheless uses inscrutable, paternalistic algorithms for social-engineering and entrapment, subtly limiting the chances of certain for the collective good, the Republic is a totalitarian regime that suffers no dissent or illusory freedom of choice with both systems are on the brink of collapse, betraying their mutual fragility.
Wednesday, 19 March 2025
8x8 (12. 318)
first comes the performance, then comes the repetition, then comes the integration: thirty lonely yet beautiful acts of defiance—even including social media—via Kottke
fubar: Muckrock presents its FOIA Foilies awards for 2025—probably too early—see previously
not shuttered, per se, just considered complete: venerable UbuWeb started back up after closure last year
audible enclaves: researchers have discovered how to beam sounds to a targeted listener—via the New Shelton wet/dry
it’s peanut butter jelly time: froghorn.exe is an homage to what used to be the internet’s biggest draw
programmable mutterer: the allure of magical thinking and how the displaced grace of AI could prove more analogous to markets and institutions steering better than individuals
smoking gun: Trump declassifies a tranche of documents on the JFK assassination, unredacted and “ushering in a new era of maximum transparency
greeks bearing gifts: Senator Schumer votes to let the wooden horse into Troy
Tuesday, 18 March 2025
9x9 (12. 314)
๐: a “half-swipe” feature that allows recipients to screen messages with them being marked as read is exacerbating dating anxiety amongst teens—via Superpunch
rabbithole: global styles of curiosity survey as revealed by Wikipedia app usage—via Clive Thompson’s Linkfest—are you a hunter, dancer or busybody?
we have urinated in our beds—there was no chamber pot: a survey of the graffiti of Ancient Rome that’s very much like a contemporary comments section

quotidiano: Italian news paper prints all-AI edition
derezz: local club hosts a TRON party during a gaming developers’ conference as a history lesson
gulf-stream: a mesmerising overview of the world’s ocean currents and eddies
let your fingers do the walking: the typography of the telephone directory, the Yellow Pages, and its antecedents
patrimonialism: running a state as one’s family business
forbidden unlawful representation of roleplaying in education: legislation in Texas would outlaw students presenting as other than human, check out the acronyms of the bill, including fursonรฆ
synchronoptica
one year ago: the science behind sippy-birds (with synchronoptica), another 3D rendering challenge plus assorted links worth revisiting
seven years ago: the allure of old books, The Gods of Japan (1943), more links to enjoy plus artist Grant Wood
eight years ago: the architecture of choice, Trump defunds agencies plus Trump’s foreign policy
nine years ago: more on state fossils plus collected quotations
ten years ago: the new EU central bank headquarters, job redundancy, even more links, animals on trial plus local galleries
Sunday, 16 March 2025
take me to the river (12. 309)
Watching the Netflix production The Electric State about a retro-future dystopia where the thinking machines have been locked away in a no man’s land, under the leadership of Mister Peanut, and noticing stacks in a warehouse of presumably contraband Big Mouth Billy Bass, we couldn’t resist reposting this clever modification to this novelty animatronic trophy catch from Austrian hacker Charlie Diaz that greatly expands its vocabulary with the the help of ChatGPT, responding in a voice inspired by Arnold Schwarzenegger. This benevolent vision of things to come with AI shoehorned into everything is not yet commercially available but Diaz helpfully includes builds for all of his projects.
synchronoptica
one year ago: Stile Bertone (with synchronoptica), a pronunciation guide to British surnames plus a walk in the countryside
seven years ago: more on Fluxus, US school shootings, Balinese New Year traditions plus propaganda and reality television
eight years ago: feline hybrids plus a constellation calligram
nine years ago: the Mah Nร Mah Nร song, culinary mushrooms, outdoor classrooms plus the original vision for Star Trek: The Motion Picture
ten years ago: intermediate geologies, the sugar trade plus assorted links worth the revisit
Tuesday, 11 March 2025
7x7 (12. 294)
wikiportraits: a group of photographers offering their services to furnish the free encyclopaedia with better celebrity images
good enough: the rising phenomena of vibe coding, AI text-to-programming
any one, any one: how US tariffs might play out—see more
march madness: a bracket face-off of the best literary villains
stand up to a bully: a profile of Canada’s new prime minister, former governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney
i’m using an exclamation point so you know i’m friendly and excited: email etiquette
ask jeeves: the International Butler Academy of Simpelveld in Limburg
synchronoptica
one year ago: Marlo Thomas and Friends’ Free to be You and Me (with synchronoptica) plus a lightly edited royal portrait
seven years ago: propagandist Axis Sally
eight years ago: toasting the newly discovered TRAPPIST exoplanet system
nine years ago: a moving McDonald’s ad plus odd British toponyms
ten years ago: more protests against refugees in Germany, assorted links to revisit, folk etymologies and false cognates plus recycling e-waste
Monday, 10 March 2025
the birth of the robot (12. 291)
Having enjoyed some samples of Leonard Charles Huia Lye’s work (better known as Len Lye) in his pioneering animation studies and experimental use of rotoscope techniques, we appreciated being introduced to his kinetic sculptures and work in stop-motion short
(presented in living Gasparcolor, developed in Berlin in 1933) about an undaunted motorist (see also) suddenly caught in a sandstorm and stranded in the unforgiving desert, who despite being reduced to sun-bleached bones is resurrected (with a few drops of life-giving petroleum) as cyborg. Watch the entire film at Open Culture at the link above from the Shell Oil historical archive—which includes many other promotional pieces of iconic animation.
synchronoptica
one year ago: 1978’s The Incredible Hulk (with synchronoptica) plus a cheese-mongers’ survey
seven years ago: a next generation scarecrow
eight years ago: bringing back the bees plus more on repealing and replacing Obama Care
nine years ago: illustrator William Thomas Horton, a fantastic projection of the Trump dynasty plus a Roald Dahl inspired font
ten years ago: an Ayn Rand film adaptation plus roving wireless
Thursday, 6 March 2025
7x7 (12. 280)
yarn-bomb: a collection of museums and monuments around the world for knitting and craft enthusiasts
defying democracy: Randy Rainbow breaks into the ballad from Wicked during an interview
the living? the miraculous task of it: Joseph Fasano’s short poetic response to a student who used AI to write a papereight million dollars to promote lgbtqi+ in the african nation of lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of: all you need to know about the southern African enclave (the only one outside of Italy) landlocked by South Africa
fission chips: a survey of Mid-Century Modernism
spinsrรฟche: a mashup of “Jet City Woman” and prog metal
mullet talley: cross-referencing hair-styles with football club fans in Australia—from the Annals of Improbable Research (previously)—via Pasa Bon!
synchronoptica
one year ago: the mental radio interceptions of Grant Wallace (with synchronoptica) plus more on endonyms and exonyms
seven years ago: Teen Look magazine plus a demonic backlog of unfinished business
eight years ago: presidential pets, animator Tom Oreb, separating migrant families plus NASA’s style guide
ten years ago: assorted links to enjoy
eleven years ago: neglected bestiaries
Saturday, 1 March 2025
7x7 (12. 267)
dromedary: Ze Frank’s True Facts (previously) about the camel
client state: secretary of defence Hegseth orders Cyber Command to halt Russian contingency planning

rosmรฅlning: the decorative doll houses of Amy Balfour—via Messy Nessy Chic
pulmonic ingressive affirmative: the Gaelic Gasp or how the Irish inhale their yeses
hydro integrator: Vladimir Lukyanov’s unique water computer designed in the 1920s to improve the durability of reinforced concrete
musk or us: lessons from the ostracising of apartheid South Africa is a resonant learning moment lesson in how boycotts can overcome evil
capri candela was some ginchy chick, daddy-o: Wilbur’s Place from Peter Gunn—see also
Thursday, 27 February 2025
11x11 (12. 263)
broadband equity, access and deployment: Trump administration thinks the BEAD programme of the Infrastructures Investment and Jobs Act is too woke
fermata: a thousand artists release a ‘silent’ album to protest changes to UK intellectual property rights to attract AI companies interesting in training their models on copyrighted material—via the New Shelton wet/dry—also more music without sounds
late stage capitalism: Washington Post owner Bezos will only allow editorials that defend “free markets” and “personal liberties”—see also
annual reformulation: important meeting of the US Centres for Disease Control to discuss strains for next season’s influenza vaccine cancelled, confirming fears that the new health secretary will pivot away from proven preventative medicine
rif me daddy: what Trump’s AI enhanced shitpostings reveal about the administration and plans for the future of Palestine
absalom, absalom: William Faulkner’s record-setting run-on sentence
torus and tokamak: a German fusion startup is lauded for its plans, peer-reviewed, to launch a functioning power plant
only the markets can save us: America’s total economic boycott planned for the last day in February
touch grass: an app that blocks screentime and doomscrolling until one has proven one’s gone outside—via Waxy
snoopers’ charter: Apple’s capitulation to the UK’s Investigative Powers Act is Chekov’s Gun for privacy worldwide
by the people and for the people: dossiers of the people working for the Department of Government Efficiency
synchronoptica
one year ago: ceramicist Yoonmi Nam (with synchronoptica) plus the age of ludicrous inventions
seven years ago: A Million Random Digits plus assorted links to revisit
eight years ago: more misattributed quotes
nine years ago: Sร mi tone poems
ten years ago: theodicy, get anything delivered, more links to enjoy plus RIP Leonard Nimoy
Tuesday, 25 February 2025
eye opener (12. 259)
Via Clive Thompson’s always excellent Linkfest (lots to explore there), we are directed to a revealing tool created by the photo app-maker Ente that discloses what the Google Vision API (Application Programming Interface) sees when it sees your photos. Intrigued by the idea of seeing myself how the algorithms see me and not having a standard headshot handy, I snapped a quick selfie and uploaded
it—not the best picture and obviously it got a few things right but didn’t think I necessarily presented as fatigued or wary—or particularly agnostic (I like to think of myself as a vaguely Jesus-y bon vivant, thank you), and not only did it zero in on my location, it also annoyingly focused on the pile of laundry in the background and decor and makes up a little narrative of insights for targeted advertisements, which are way-off base. I understand that’s how the commercial ecosystem works and people are algorithmically pigeon-holed and typecast all the time—sometimes with consequence, but seeing it in action, all the good and bad bits to be gleaned even from information and artefacts that are not public-facing, is a bit of off-putting fun.
synchronoptica
one year ago: Austria’s national anthem (with synchronoptica), assorted links worth revisiting plus Hitler’s first official postion
seven years ago: a Trump-branded property in Panama, street debater kits plus animator Len Lye
eight years ago: signals to the stars, a cruel captivity called off, our privileged view of the Cosmos, a flatpack pavilion for urban gardening plus a fast food franchise with a view of a Roman road
nine years ago: where are my flying cars, attentive listeners plus a Beaux Arts apartment in Manhattan
ten years ago: a tarot deck inspired by the art of Edward Gorey
Monday, 24 February 2025
9x9 (12. 257)
johnny 5: artificial intelligence and inkblot tests—see previously
hop-on, hop-off: a new train route through Central Europe allows passengers to visit cities at their own pace
boone and wesson: the disturbing trend of aggressive baby names in the US—see also, see previously—via Miss Cellania
sixth-tenths of a letter: the depth of natural history visualised as pages in a book
ok boomer: Chinese netizens’ approach to uncomfortable questions is reply at random (ไธ้ฝไนฑไผ, everything is chaotic, xฤซqiรจ dลu shรฌ hวnluร n de) and defuse intergenerational conflict
bluelights in the basement: RIP Roberta Flack
protect & survive: Shades another post-apocalyptic UK mini-series in the vein of Threads and The Day After Tomorrow
express limited: a collection of Showa-era Japanese gate entry tickets, a unique surcharge of the train system
integrated information theory: Richard Dawkins (previously) chats with AI, asks it is it conscious
Sunday, 16 February 2025
12x12 (12. 237)
little sisyphus: a challenging NES-style side-scrolling game—see previously—via Waxy
behind every robot that turns evil there’s an engineer that installed red diodes in its eyes in anticipation: Meta wants to create AI powered robots to do your chores
quipu: the largest known superstructure in the Cosmos, named for the corded knot accounting of the ancient Inca culture—via Strange Company
parataxis: storytelling loves a list
i will say this only once: John J Hoare responds to a video take-down notice for reposting an old clip—that suggests that YouTube is focused on hate speech against Nazis

pump and dump: nothing to see here, just another perfectly normal president pulling the rug out from under his country with a memecoin
return to forever: Chick Corea and friends at the forty-third Jazzaldia festival
stairwell of the quarter: more on the design efficiency of alternating tread stairs
nanook of the north: Robert J Falherty’s 1922 documentary on the Inuit
how many department of government efficiency employees does it take to screw in a lightbulb: a look at DOGE at work—via Nag on the Lake
windows, icons, menus, pointers: a cursor dance party—via Pasa Bon!
Saturday, 15 February 2025
antiqua et nova (12. 234)
With the above incipit, we learn that back in mid-January, Francis issued a papal bull—as Web Curios informs—on artificial intelligence, which is absolutely by far one of the most circumspect, heavily footnoted, thoughtful considerations of the implications of the technology touching on ethics, labour and the economy, culture, the arts, theology and human identity. In begins with a detailed history, going back to the summer workshop hosted on the campus of Dartmouth university in 1956 which first explored the concept, drawing a distinction between narrow AI and general intelligence and the ability to think and reason, not necessarily condemning the increasingly sophisticated models as trickery or mere pablum—or mankind fetishising the divinity it deserves—but rather as something potentially complementary for human dignity and vocation if harnessed in the right manner. Far from condemning technological advancement—though wary of the tac taken—or privileging, imbuing the human condition with something vague and inviolable, there is an interesting philosophical departure on the mind-body problem and how intelligence, which is not only found in functionality and solution-finding, but requires incarnation, embodiment, to engage in its environment and filtering all the noise not as hallucinations but as input and impulse—lest it remain just a ghost in the machine. The entire essay is worth reading and making the effort to parse the pope’s position, which seems on the whole a positive one that acknowledges AI’s potential to enhance decision making and a force to elevate all of us but cautions not to conflate true wisdom, measured by one’s capacity for charity and empathy, both transcendent and imminent by our own interiority.
synchronoptica
one year ago: the Beautiful Blue Danube (with synchronoptica)
seven years ago: assorted links to revisit, the animation of Pablo Lozano, renaming historic artwork to give the models a backstory plus Canadian Flag Day
eight years ago: food artist Dan Bannino
nine years ago: moustachioed sea birds, soup and sandwiches plus brutalist Paris
eleven years ago: policing the police state plus to google in different languages
Saturday, 8 February 2025
curds and whey (12. 215)
Google has edited its commercial slotted to play during the Super Bowl, promoting its Gemini AI model pitching the use-case scenario of a small, independent cheesemonger using the chatbot to craft a description about Gouda for his shop’s website. The erroneous statistic that Gouda makes up “fifty to sixty percent of the world’s cheese consumption” was replaced in the ad with “one of the most popular cheeses in the world,” the false claim apparently regurgitated from a webpage called cheese.com filled with AI generated, SEO-optimised (see redundant acronym syndrome) blogs. The AI assistant’s responses have the disclaimer that they are “not intended to be factual” but rather framed as a writing aid and that one should perform some fact-checking, presumably googling it.