2023-12-20 Links

Lying in bed, feeling out of sorts – a man flu perhaps – gave me a chance to catch up on some reading. Sharing a few of the highlights.

Daily Reads:

I was listening to the 2023 Nobel Lecture on Monday, and understood so little. This Crash course in cell theory was my first attempt at reparations.

Hunter S Thompson liked weird things like Burning the christmas tree and the house down

Splendid animation of 4.5Billions years of earth in an hour!

Nick Morgan does small talk – just four minutes spent on exchanging unconscious information.

Cory Doctorow: What kind of bubble is AI? Must read, along with Baldur Bjarnsson’s Bad Business AI: Channel 1 Simon Willison is calling out the AI Trust Crisis. Timnit Gebru, Emily Bender, and a whole host of researchers have been calling out the harms of AI for a while. Is anyone listening?

Anne Helen Petersen: One Significant Adult is a moving tribute to a pastor she knew growing up. Took me down memory lane too.

Robin Ince: Who Needs This Blog?

David Epstein: The Christmas Tree Effect and the Subtraction Game in the same article πŸ™‚

Graham Duncan’s Questions didn’t just push at my own boundaries, but seem to be far beyond them.

QOTD:

β€œThe most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.”
– Calvin Trillin

Music:

Tommy Emmanuel caresses the guitar to tease out What A Wonderful World