Let’s get this Friday started!
#thiswritinglife
Saw this coming, as did everyone else, including, if you had asked it, ChatGPT. The motion and brief ask the court to rule that defendants OpenAI and Microsoft infringed on the authors’ copyrights by pirating their works, copying them to train their AI, and trading the books between them as currency, and to reject the…
I can handle bad news, but not with every mouthful.
I remember when I got to the end of Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma thinking, “Well, what the hell CAN I eat, then?” Although the mental image of that potato farmer covered in fertilizer did stick, to the point that I started growing my own potatoes, I was pretty much done with Pollan lecturing me…
Read more I can handle bad news, but not with every mouthful.
Lagniappe Sunday
This, ladies and gentlemen, is an Australian numbat, which I’m sharing for the name alone. Also, it’s off the endangered list, so yay! (Fix the News) Quote: “JEFFERSON, Ga. — Marci Bakely couldn’t understand how her ex-boyfriend always seemed to know where she was. When she went to buy groceries or on a date or…
#thiswritinglife
The Anthropic settlement, Part the Nth, this time from the New York Times. The link beneath the image is a gift link if you want to read it in full. Excerpts, with my comments in bold. The sum is gargantuan: $1.5 billion. But as thousands of authors wait for their cut of the largest copyright settlement in…
Let’s get this Friday started!
From the Simple Dreams album, every track of which is pure gold.
#inmygarden
Finally, the monkshood are in full bloom, in good time to show up as a backdrop to that glorious Red Rocket barberry. And the Queen of the Prairie made it into bloom just under the fall wire.
The book lady.
Dolly Parton’s Children’s Literacy Legacy, from Publisher’s Weekly. Through her Dollywood Foundation, Parton created the Imagination Library in 1995 as a tribute to her father, who felt shame over his inability to read or write, something she believed prevented him from realizing his dreams. “Inspiring kids to love to read became my passion and my…
You’re grateful that no real terrorist thought of it first.
A police procedural featuring a murderer who chooses his victims by their street address. Almost everyone lives in a town with a Main Street. You said this wasn’t like any terrorism you had seen. That’s because we think of terrorism as something that happens in the cities. Nw York, Washington, DC, LA. This does something…
Read more You’re grateful that no real terrorist thought of it first.
Lagniappe Sunday
Defining America in 25 objects, including the Red Solo Cup and the Ring Doorbell Camera. My favorite is the Costco roast chicken, where somewhere in America that isn’t Alaska it only costs $4.99. (NYT gift link) This week’s time sink, and you’re welcome. What the heck, I went ahead and requested Though Not Dead, the…
