"Hmmmm...now how about that?" (2025 thread)

Without the State to insulate and protect us from the predators of capitalism, we are screwed:

https://defector.com/billionaire-dipshit-and-his-strike-team-of-greasy-beavises-...

The grandmother of all conspiracy theories, "The Iron Mountain Hoax":

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/16/iron-mountain-hoax-anti-vietnam-...

How about a tour inside Brian Eno's studio?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR4JAonAR4g

Loved this one. Eno is my kinda guy. And, as I recall, he never learned to read music.

Okay, this seems really weird:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq808px90wxo

Love this long, fascinating interview with Blindboy. His perspective on the world is so refreshing and so well-considered. From Palestine to the recent controversy with the Irish rap group Kneecap (and a lot of things in between).

What a smart guy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjmXzFQl4xI

"Rosebud..."

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c89en7nvz3wo

Was Shakespeare a pothead?

https://lithub.com/did-shakespeare-write-hamlet-while-he-was-stoned/?utm_source=...

How about a video game where you operate a small bookstore?

https://aftermath.site/tiny-bookshop-impressions?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medi...

So now you can be called a "terrorist" if you damage property?

https://thebaffler.com/latest/no-action-newton?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium...

Yup. Palestine Action have been prohibited in the UK because they splashed orange paint on a RAF jet. So far, around 1200 people have been arrested at demonstrations because they had the words "Palestine Action" or placards or banners. One guy was even arrested for having "Plasticine Action" on his T-shirt.

Trump is trying to gut the NPR--they're trying to raise money to thwart his efforts:

https://www.npr.org/donations/support?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social&a...

Wow...A.I. resurrects Christopher Hitchens and has him comment on Trump's psychotic U.N. speech:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTTiuJZeS0Q&t=32s

Really enjoying Armando Iannucci's BBC Radio program "Strong Message Here".

Anyone else tuning in?

https://www.bbc.com/audio/brand/m0024cp6

>13 CliffBurns: For the most part, the BBC has re-branded its spoken-word factual radio output as "podcasts", so I've been hearing Strong Message Here on first broadcast on Radio 4.

Our new Nobel laureate:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y810rlmd8o

>12 CliffBurns: I just listened to it and it's hilarious and spot on. Satire is the only discourse making US news palatable nowadays, but I wasn't aware of the resurrected Hitchens, just the alive and kicking satirists whom the orange Mussolini desperately wants cancelled. Makes me wonder if the resurrected Hitchens would make him turn against AI industry :D

Sample quote: The UN had never before hosted someone who combined the intellectual capacity of a concussed goldfish with the diplomatic skills of a bar fight and the oratory elegance of a seizure. :D

Pluto Press is allowing readers to download a free e-book copy of Francesca Albanese's report on the genocide in Gaza.

You can find it here:

https://www.plutobooks.com/?utm_source=Pluto%20Press%20Newsletters&utm_campa...

(Albanese is one of my heroes, a truly great human being.)

"Today, half of internet traffic is bots":

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_zfN9wnPvU0

A.I. is burrowing like a deer tick into literature: is there anything to be done about it?

https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/june/chattiness

>19 CliffBurns: Since I got thrown off Facebook early in the year for supposedly being a chatbot (I suspect a technical fault in the data pipeline that is corrupting some of the data packet code), the only social media I've been on is LinkedIn, where there's a LOT of conversation about AI.

My contribution has been to say that if I were ever challenged over some of my writing appearing to be AI-generated (like Ian, I suspect a lot of my blog material has been scraped to teach these things), my response would go something like this:

"Sirrah, your insinuation that I, a literate Person with a proper Command of Language, would employ such a Contrivance as a so-called 'Artificial Intelligence', is the Direst INSULT. I Demand Satisfaction upon the Field of Combat. My second will communicate with you presently."

>20 RobertDay: It's an interesting question:

To what extent will authors have to affirm that EVERY SINGLE WORD they're submitting or publishing is human made and NO A.I. was employed to create or edit it?

I'm happy to do it...but isn't that a sad commentary of the times we live in?

Further, if it's allowed to use A.I. (isn't it inevitable, life performance-enhancing drugs?), to what extent?

How much must be human and how much content is allowed to be A.I.-assisted?

>21 CliffBurns: I would say zero use that involves writing and editing, which leaves only using it as a sounding board to throw at ideas and get some back as inspiration. That would be a battle harder than performance-enhancing drugs in sport, though, since I doubt major publishers are willing to make it at all. Corporate focus on profits and more profits dictates so.

A completely different field, but if anyone is interested International Mathematical Union just adopted a declaration to address the challenges posed by the use of AI within mathematics research. It's a great blueprint how every field should set some standards for themselves.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/06/mathematicians-warn-of-ai-threats-to...
Declaration itself https://leidendeclaration.ai/

>22 SandraArdnas: Agreed: as far as corporate America is concerned, who cares if there are human hands at the controls? The important thing is the bottom line.

As anticipated in a key scene from Robert Altman's "The Player":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wng7hVkElPo

>23 CliffBurns: Ha, good memory. I forgot about the new guy saving on screenwriters even before the arrival of bots to spew some lines