Tag: The Future

“Darkness, Darkness…”

OR: I can see clearly now…

Our nights are getting brighter and we are finally beginning to understand why that might not be such a great thing. While many of us have been aware of various manifestations, from insect and bird behavior to satellite pollution, there continue to be new perspectives on it daily.

On a personal level, I came to realize the impact of discrete periods of true dark and light were having on me after making a trip to Houston, Texas after living in Fairbanks, Alaska for several years. I had become adjusted to the extremes of day and night length, given the latitude there in Alaska and the quick trip to Houston, in high summer, was a bit of a shocker. I know that some of it was a result of time zone differences, but after a week there, I was still keenly sensitive to a kind of bodily “disconnect” with the day lengths.

Since then, I have been much more sensitive to these differences and found this article of some interest —

https://spectrum.ieee.org/led-light-pollution

Yours brightly,

~~D.

Future Attractions…

OR: Stay tuned for live music!

The machines are slowly churning up to action, hosting providers waking up, content bubbling in the cauldrons of creation even as we type!

All of which is to say, I got the computers connected to their respective mixers and interfaces, some of the synths, both software and hardware, connected and recognizing their respective controllers, and have been working on the network side of things…

So watch this space for announcements of new URLs for the streaming service websites. Some fun stuff ahead, I promise.

The Zoia Sisters Await…

Not a Happy Birthday

OR: “… I can’t help it, I wonder what’s gone wrong”

It’s funny: In German and English, we recognize the birthdate with “Happy Birthday” or “Fröhliche Gebürtstag” but in French, we recognize the “anniversary”of the day —”Bon anniversaire.”

So, no, not a “happy birthday” for you, US of A. We will acknowledge that you have managed to last 250 years, but happiness is in somewhat short supply today.

It was with tears in my eyes that I posted this over on the Book of Failures. The lyrics are those of the version that Giddens and Simon performed at the Grammy salute to Simon. The change in lyrics is ever-more important today of all days.

“Many’s the time I’ve been mistaken
And many times confused
Yes, and I’ve often felt forsaken
And certainly misused

Oh, but I’m alright, I’m alright
I’m just weary to my bones
Still, you don’t expect to be bright and bon vivant
So far away from home, so far away from home

I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered
I don’t have a friend who feels at ease
I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered
Or driven to its knees

But it’s alright, it’s alright
For we lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the
Road we’re traveling on
I wonder what’s gone wrong
I can’t help it, I wonder what’s gone wrong

And I dreamed I was dying
I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me
Smiled reassuringly

And I dreamed I was flying
And high up above my eyes could clearly see
The Statue of Liberty
Sailing away to sea
And I dreamed I was flying

~ “We didn’t come here on The Mayflower
We came in a ship in a blood red moon” ~
[ORIGINAL: We come on the ship they call The Mayflower
We come on the ship that sailed the moon]
We come in the age’s most uncertain hours
And sing an American tune

Oh, and it’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright
You can’t be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow’s going to be another working day
And I’m trying to get some rest
That’s all I’m trying to get some rest.”

~~ P. Simon, “An American Tune”

https://youtu.be/67pyIglP79U?si=REXDfUNFNWx1IpjG

Resilience and “Bouncing Back:

Or: How do we deal with these cha-cha-cha-changes?

Rather than blocking out the things that have happened, this suggests that we integrate them in to move forward. This is not only for the physical, but other forms of trauma, too.

https://theconversation.com/bouncing-back-is-a-myth-resilience-means-integrating-hard-experiences-into-your-life-story-not-ignoring-them-275069

“These are not misprints”

Or: “Mistakes were made…”

As a long-lapsed rare books conservator, the lede caught my roving eye — “not misprints but beauties of my style hitherto undreamt of” — and I had to dig deeper. Of course I had to follow that link, and down the rabbit hole we went!

The first link in the MetaFilter story went to artnet.com and provides the source — from the Yale University Library — of the images below. The “Ulysses” image is especially nostalgic: the multiple copies of “Ulysses” held at the University of Texas’s Harry Ransom Center (I think there are twenty-two? I’ve forgotten the exact number) were the subject of some of the last treatments I performed when I worked there. I was responsible for cleaning the books and consolidating the paper dust jackets.

If you ever want to experience the very worst of the physical side of commercial paper-making, the 19th and 20 Centuries provide excellent examples. Given that the book was printed in between the two word wars, premium materials were not all that available and the paper dust jackets, seen here in the illustration, were made with some real crap. Yeah, a “technical” term to describe the highly brittle paper that was used. Fun times, indeed,

But the contents were also irresistible. The mother-in-law at the time and I discussed some of the eccentricities of Joyce’s linguistic games —“Agenbite of Inwit” has stayed with me the past forty years (Barb, you are missed by all).

So diving into these two articles was absolutely necessary!

The artnet story:
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/yale-errata-exhibition-2751007

The exhibition announcement:
https://events.yale.edu/event/beauties-of-my-style-errata-and-the-printed-mistake

Enjoy —




And what is the Internet for?

Or: “Prøn. Cats and prøn!”

Years ago — back in grad school, I think or shortly thereafter — there was some discussion about what were the “drivers” of the adoption of new technologies and people brought up the battles that video tape faced. Some went even further back and brought up book publishing/moveable type. It was a discussion I followed closely, in part due to my own interests in the history of bookbinding, as well as my interest in digital publishing.

A running joke at the time, yet still applicable today, was that “the Internet is for prøn, prøn and cats”, the deliberate use of the “ø” and misspelling to avoid immediate censorship by the more easily-offended. There is an amusing truth to the joke: adult entertainment drove the development of micro-payments that led to the monetization of anything put online. And erotica1 was among the earliest of Western European book publication. Quite simple, really, entertainment sells and adult entertainment sells very well.

And so, here we are:

We’ve already seen the AI cats, the nudification of celebrities and spiteful ex-partners, the slop that is spreading in all forms of digital entertainment.

  1. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18459/18459-h/18459-h.htm
    This links to the Project Gutenberg digital version of the classic. More explanation and background on this text, in the following link,
    as the “Hypnerotomachia Poliphili is the a example of these early “entertainments”. ↩︎

META Loves Me, this I know…

OR: Be-cause FaceBook Tells Me So…

Well, that’s amusing… wonder if someone has complained and the Great Gawds of META have acted accordingly… time will tell.

Taking a force break from interacting with them until further notice. It’s not like I haven’t anything else to play with, right [looks over at the synths on the desk and the guitar on the other side]?

“…it’s even worse than it appears.”

Or: WHAT?!?!

How in the hell did these NOT show up in the morning news feeds this past week?

… and here, so with two examples we KNOW this IS NOT SATIRE!

And why the headline above (if you know me, you know I’m not a huge Grateful Dead fan, but sometimes…), you ask? Well, machinations within machinations within in machinations. Sometimes there really ARE patterns to be seen.

And there you have it.


#HUELGA

#USRegimeChangeNOW

#TrumpEtAliaDelendusEst

#DemocracyDiesInOligarchy

“You must remember this…”

Or: I miss Marianne…

In case you were wondering why the US is now engaged in an utterly illegal action against Iran, with the explicit help of Israel —

“Could have come through anytime,

Cold lonely, puritan

What are you fighting for ?

It’s not my security.

It’s just an old war,

Not even a cold war,

Don’t say it in Russian,

Don’t say it in German.

Say it in broken English,

Say it in broken English.

Lose your father, your husband,

Your mother, your children.

What are you dying for ?

It’s not my reality.

It’s just an old war,

Not even a cold war,

Don’t say it in Russian,

Don’t say it in German.

Say it in broken English,

Say it in broken English.

What are you fighting for ?

What are you fighting for ?

What are you fighting for ?

What are you fighting for ?

What are you fighting for ?

What are you fighting for ?

Could have come through anytime,

Cold lonely, puritan.

What are you fighting for ?

It’s not my security.

It’s just an old war,

Not even a cold war,

Don’t say it in Russian,

Don’t say it in German.

Say it in broken English,

Say it in broken English.

Say it in broken English,

Say it in broken English.

What are you fighting for ?

What are you fighting for ?

What are you fighting for ?

What are you fighting …”

“In Darkness Let Me Dwell…”

Or: “Semper Dowland, semper dolens”

What fresh hell is this?

Words like “out of control”, “insanity”, “regime change now” are all springing to mind but the regime change needs to be in Washington, DC. I’m not supporting the zealots in Tehran, but I am emphatically calling for invocation of the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution or for the US Congress to initiate impeachment proceedings against one of the most corrupt administrations in US history.

Nothing less.

And preferably on the grounds of treason and sedition so that the others engaged in the support of the convicted felon currently residing in the White House can also be removed from power.

https://youtu.be/-ge1VLj2Vf0?si=od8K0n1spHGLcHWo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnaAqbQucu0&list=RDpnaAqbQucu0&start_radio=1

Four hundreds (roughly) separate these two; this is 400th anniversary of Dowland’s death, he “whose touch upon the lute lute doth ravish human sense.”

… hail Freedonia.

Or: “…we’re going to war.

To the Office of the President:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyeKYQdYISg&list=RDyyeKYQdYISg&start_radio=1

https://youtu.be/jBF3K1J9wHI?si=qk-GlwQAOEsYaWen

https://youtu.be/ztZI2aLQ9Sw?si=NtA1PzupxSvby3iI

https://youtu.be/p-JeQduJ0f8?si=2Rr8fXJkHmFZXdEr

… but for the those of us that bear the brunt of your corrupt, grifting, and blatant arrogance:

https://youtu.be/7IX4gWkFqvU?si=CQKFY8EM_sGfz0un

“Paging The Terminator, Line #02…”

Or: He promised he’d be back…

The AI wars are about to begin. Anthropic has been banned from Federal contracts, along with any sub-contractors who use it — and now they are not alone:

“Hundreds ofemployees at Google and OpenAI are backing artificial intelligence technology company Anthropic, which faces a Friday evening deadline to give the Pentagon permission to use its AI system as it wishes or face repercussions from the department. 

Employees who signed a letter alleged the Pentagon was trying to “get them to agree to what Anthropic has refused,” which could imply the Pentagon has inquired with the top AI companies about similar access to their technology. The letter is still accepting signatures.”

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5759106-google-openai-anthropic-pentagon-ai

Note that the letter is still open and accepting signatures.

AI, Food, Delivery Systems

Or: Where is Kiki When We need Her?

Because AI make live so much easier, systems more efficient, and saves money,. right? </CYNICISM OFF>

https://scitechdaily.com/replacing-humans-with-machines-is-leaving-truckloads-of-food-to-rot/

“AI and data-driven systems now shape decisions across agriculture and food delivery. They are used to forecast demand, optimize planting, prioritize shipments, and manage inventories. Official reviews of the use of AI across production, processing, and distribution show that these tools are now embedded across most stages of the UK food system. But there are risks.”

Words, Words, Words…

Or: “Speak, hands, for me…”

So it really is more about how you say it than what you say.

https://scitechdaily.com/the-way-you-talk-could-be-an-early-warning-sign-for-dementia/

“The findings provide some of the clearest evidence so far that natural speech patterns reflect core cognitive skills. Rather than relying only on formal testing in controlled settings, the research suggests that everyday conversation itself may carry measurable signals of brain health. The study builds on earlier work showing that faster speaking rates are associated with stronger cognitive performance in older adults (Wei et al., 2024), expanding that insight to more subtle features of timing and fluency.

The message is clear: speech timing is more than just a matter of style, it’s a sensitive indicator of brain health,” says Dr. Jed Meltzer, Senior Scientist at Baycrest’s Rotman Research Institute and senior author on this study.”