Week 33-26 - Curiosities
Greetings from the Mesa
Well it's been a week of no further cat health drama, so that's good! We've been out and about a lot. Finally got down to the river to hunt for some garnets in the Rio Grande. We found a few tiny ones, but KP was grossed out by all the algae growing. Then the next day there's an article about how they've found neurotoxic cyanobacteria in the river. Dogs have been getting sick. So no more river hunting until a freeze or three. Yuck. Anyhoo, it's been feeling like Groundhog day here with the heat and waiting... it feels stagnant and repetitive, but with relative cooler temps we are finally getting some serious napping in. Hibernation winter is hopefully right around the corner. KP picked some jalapeños and a habanada that were hiding in the pepper patch. We made a favorite mocktail of ginger beer, fresh mint, lime, and jalapeño last night, and the pepper flavor was awesome. I'm excited to use more of them in some food dishes. The other exciting development of late is that i'm driving again, after ~1.5 years, it feels so good to contribute to the driving again, and to have strong enough legs again to do it!
Curiosities
- AI’s Impact on the Environment Is Absolutely Horrifying, New Paper Finds. AI companies are the fossil fuel industry's best friends. Until AI does not use water its use needs to be severely restricted (IMHO).
- The "Disability Dongle": Why Silicon Valley Hates Me and you. Stop trying to fix what you don't understand, and start fixing what is actually broken.
- I’ve spent years researching what it means to be alive. This is what I’ve learned. We are living in the age of somatophobia. Now is the moment to resist it.
- 'Virtually Absent': AI Models Practically Erase Female Characters From Kids' Stories. Not anything new, but the levels and speed at which modernity is erasing women is grotesque.
- Silicon Valley billionaires’ war on democracy. I'm starting to see more and more people refer to the tech bros as 'The Nerd Reich'. Accurate.
- I love best of lists, and there's a lot of books to mine from The 50 Best Thrillers of the 21st Century
- Speaking of books, here's a whole bunch of free science fiction ebooks by women from Project Gutenberg.
- How DNF Became A-OK. I used to be a must finish it kinda reader. Now if i'm not feeling it I DNF. And that's just fine. There are so many awesome books out there, if you arn't grooving with it, let it go!
- Ladi Kwali - Nigerian Ceramicist - women artists you should know.
- We Can't Keep Ignoring Our Water Crisis see #1 above...
Consuming
Books:
Currently Reading: The Heretic's Daughter and Network Effect
Just Finished: On The Calculation of Volume IV by Solvej Balle
TV/Movies: We started watching the Ken Burns Doc on The Roosevelts. We are not making headway very fast because we fall asleep halfway through each episode. Not an indicator of the show because it's very interesting. Still watching Silo S3.
Music: Fogust Groove Mixtape by Austin Kleon
New on Hargie
More Nix/86 coming again every Monday, had a little posting break.