tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64997717785692096672024-03-18T23:29:38.489-07:00Flying TotemsAn outlet for stuffBenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.comBlogger3153125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post-89280337377984614662024-03-17T22:14:00.000-07:002024-03-17T22:14:04.593-07:00It's the little things<p>It's funny how things just come back to you sometimes. When I was a little kid I had a book, or someone had it, and I could look at it. Ownership isn't really my point here. But the book was <a href="https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-butterfly-s-ball-and-the-grasshopper-s-feast/">this poem</a>, <i>The Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast</i>. Even as someone who gets a little antsy ha-ha when a lot of insects are around I'd have to admit the illustrations were gorgeous. </p><p>Now if you'd asked me when this had been written, I'd have said probably the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. Couldn't be from before Victoria's time, right? But as it turns out that it was first published in 1802, when George III was still King. Also that the poet, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Roscoe">William Roscoe</a>, was an influential abolitionist, which is pretty cool.</p>Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post-22713333498497486202024-03-15T22:06:00.000-07:002024-03-15T22:06:58.845-07:00Discordant messageWhile I'm sometimes tempted to use ad blockers on sites like YouTube, I generally accept ads as the cost of doing business. So a lot of times I let them play through, hitting "skip" when they turn out to be long or really annoying.<div><br /></div><div>There's a weird one I've seen lately. It's for Stop & Shop. A voice over says "Uh-oh (couple names I can't remember) are shopping hungry again!" And the man and woman go nuts throwing things into their cart.</div><div><br /></div><div>The weird part is that it looks like they're supposed to be high with the munchies. Like, I'm pretty sure that's the <i>intended</i> effect. But it doesn't quite come off because they're so skinny and cadaverous that it genuinely looks like they haven't had solid food in weeks. The ad creators landed on something more disturbing. Maybe someone was feeling prankish.</div>Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post-80070304277118694082024-03-13T21:57:00.000-07:002024-03-13T21:57:49.509-07:00A return<p>A while ago RIPTA changed their bus pass system. Instead of getting a new pass made out of thin cardboard every month, you can get a plastic card that you keep permanently, reloading it with money every month.</p><p>In practice, the plastic is so cheap that it will eventually break. Once that happens the card can't be read by the sensors, so you have to get a new one. Which happened to me this week.</p><p>I found out that the store where I'd gotten these bus cards before didn't have any on-hand. What I was happy to learn is that RIPTA again has a customer service office in their downtown depot, and that the nice lady I used to buy bus passes from is back. So I bought a new card from her and transferred the funds from the old card.</p><p>Nice to see her. Also good to know that some more sanity is returning post-COVID.</p>Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post-4318324870942748262024-03-11T22:04:00.000-07:002024-03-11T22:04:09.060-07:00狐仙I was talking to a gentleman today―second time I saw him this particular day―about Chinese mythology. He did more of the talking, because while I've read a little about it, I couldn't bring much to mind. So I decided to give myself a little refresher.<div><br /></div><div>The figure of <a href="https://mythopedia.com/topics/huxian">Huxian</a> is quite interesting. A trickster figure who can make you wealthy but will also steer you onto the wrong path. The idea of foxes being untrustworthy apparently crosses over between wildly divergent cultures. There's a practical reason for this among farming communities, of course. But it also feeds a human need for deceit, I think. In this case projected onto other creatures.</div>Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post-39466744387461409812024-03-09T22:15:00.000-08:002024-03-09T22:15:07.950-08:00Wind you can hear<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCjfy5J0lL6_Zzw3O24G-gSSRTLkh8JzHXz3rbzoSCYfbsBa6R2L9lH1H3Yk5M5YzsBTbcQC-LTP7q6pPgh1chF97zVDSxmCFbo1bVV4yCP-fmJpo0pmQsfg7jrxhxCYYg4qeCSSZQZ8xIvE2A70-n9O07Rh_qUlbX9WJMohqgBZsoyM6YZziiPeSTBujv/s740/Storm%20Wind%20Von%20Werefkin.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="566" data-original-width="740" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCjfy5J0lL6_Zzw3O24G-gSSRTLkh8JzHXz3rbzoSCYfbsBa6R2L9lH1H3Yk5M5YzsBTbcQC-LTP7q6pPgh1chF97zVDSxmCFbo1bVV4yCP-fmJpo0pmQsfg7jrxhxCYYg4qeCSSZQZ8xIvE2A70-n9O07Rh_qUlbX9WJMohqgBZsoyM6YZziiPeSTBujv/s320/Storm%20Wind%20Von%20Werefkin.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>The Russian artist Marianna Vladimirovna Veryovkina had a fascination with Germany, a country which gave the world German Expressionism during her lifetime. She in fact Germanized her name to Marianne von Werefkin, which is the name she's been known by since then. As a member of the Russian nobility she pretty much had to indulge her curiosity about foreign lands, as the Russian Revolution made her homeland a dangerous prospect.<div><br /></div><div>The title of the above painting has been translated as "Storm Winds." The winds are palpable, causing trees to lay almost on their side. This is nature at its most forbidding. It does exude a kind of fascination, though, in the sliver moon. Still, you can't blame the small human figures for gravitating to the light and warmth of the tavern or cafe.<br /><p><br /></p></div>Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post-16267973220081325712024-03-07T22:20:00.000-08:002024-03-07T22:20:48.418-08:00Primary primer<p>I got a mailer recently from the Board of Canvassers. A reminder that we in Rhode Island have a Presidential primary on April 2, and where to vote. I appreciate this. Still, what to do?</p><p>Obviously Joe Biden is going to win the primary. He'll get the nomination, unless the Democrats convince him to step aside. And in truth, nobody in the party with a snowflake's chance of replacing him is that much better. In the general, Trump may be a better, but there's still going to be a historic lack of good options.</p><p>I'll probably vote for a hopeless dark horse candidate. Someone who I can at least support and look at myself in the mirror.</p>Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post-78654822372758959452024-03-05T22:07:00.000-08:002024-03-05T22:07:51.783-08:00Do I hear another bid?Am now reading <i>Sotheby's: Bidding for Class</i>, by Robert Lacey. It's about Sotheby's, as you might have guessed. Lacey's first chapter is an extended vignette on the auction of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's estate soon after she died, and provides some justification for the adage that truth is stranger than fiction.<div><br /></div><div>After that Lacey backtracks to deep background, the auction house's founding in London during the eighteenth century and the history that followed. They've always been in competition with Christies, but both sides have had to remain dignified in public. During the early years Christies specialized in art and Sotheby's in books, but it was inevitable that the two would start to step on each other's toes.</div><div><br /></div><div>Another interesting detail is that Peter Cecil Wilson, one of their top auctioneers of the twentieth century, served in British Intelligence with none other than Ian Fleming. He often claimed to be the basis for James Bond. Weird if true, but who knows?</div>Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post-44676097907074576982024-03-03T22:19:00.000-08:002024-03-03T22:19:48.516-08:00Losing faceOf course I still see them, although thankfully not as many as there were before. The masked, that is. But when I see them it's in some bizarre contexts. A guy on bicycle or a woman walking onto the porch of her house, neither of them within six feet of anyone, for whatever that meant in the first place.<div><br /></div><div>The thing is there was never any logic to it in the first place. COVID wasn't sold to people the way you convince grown-ups to do things. It was always just fear and guilt, limbic system abuse. So a few souls are just married to it now. After all, when do you stop? The very question makes you a bad person.</div>Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post-70747461421606722242024-03-01T20:45:00.000-08:002024-03-01T20:45:04.866-08:00Riches of embarrassmentA giant pumpkinhead monster gazes into a bomb shelter filled with teenagers. It wades in. Seconds late a wave of blood rises. It looks like you didn't secure the lid on the blender while making your cranberry smoothie.<div><br /></div><div>This is <i>Dark Harvest</i>, which I remember being a pretty good book by Norman Partridge. The movie is filled with baffling dialogue, incompetent fights, and yes, moronic CGI gore. Best things to say about it are that it's relatively brief and good for unintentional laughs, except for those unfortunate times when it's trying to be funny.</div><div><br /></div><div>I only just caught up on the news that the Coen Brothers are not only getting the band back together but working on a <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/coen-brothers-horror-film-2024-b2486964.html">horror movie</a>. Good news, because after tonight I'm convinced that the genre could use whatever they have to bring to it.</div>Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post-46991560609173589342024-02-28T21:59:00.000-08:002024-02-28T21:59:04.804-08:00Get a load of this guyDid the West learn the right lessons from the Holocaust? Or much of anything? One would like to think so, but it's unclear at best.<div><br /></div><div>After World War II, as the camps were liberated and the world found out what the Jews of Central Europe had suffered, it was inevitable―and probably necessary―that antisemitism would be a major focus for the civilized world. The problem is that we seem to have gotten special pleading and nothing else. It should go without saying but still needs to be said that persecuting Jews for being Jewish is wrong. The obvious corollary, both logical and moral, is that the same should hold for any other ethic and/or religious group. And the past few months have made it obvious just how many people just can't make that leap.</div><div><br /></div><div>Germany is where this gets most bizarre. The government <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-journalist-rails-at-west-bank-apartheid-in-berlinale-acceptance-speech/">is</a> <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240226-germany-probes-berlin-film-festival-in-anti-semitism-row">investigating</a> the two filmmakers behind the documentary <i>No Other Land</i> for being antisemitic and overly sympathetic to Palestine, despite one of the two being not only Jewish but Israeli. In fact the Deutsch have clamped down on criticism of Israel all over, and dissident Jews have been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/11/denouncing-critics-of-israel-as-un-jews-or-antisemites-is-a-perversion-of-history?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other">disproportionately targeted</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Germany has a rich history, has made many contributions to poetry and music, etc. But if they think sending the Unteroffizier out to reeducate those they find guilty of Jewish self-hatred is any kind of path to redemption, they're fooling themselves.</div>Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post-17861767911199295952024-02-26T22:26:00.000-08:002024-02-26T22:26:08.703-08:00It came from the drawer<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOZ-G-vm2mvt8Qda-cpcgewbPRXQE3_Onado0bmMHoI9AwW1DQ6G3paymb2g4cnfdjGSargczhUWHOkpuN58-QqtyxFzUjm8AWke8Etmel068DFrtW4ZSaYuYPpeApG3OOSHP_OiES1keRjDaMao04rBIdyvOYFd37lNsIESFTW56znr3UXlnQ0xA4X_7d/s599/Time%20and%20Eternity.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="444" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOZ-G-vm2mvt8Qda-cpcgewbPRXQE3_Onado0bmMHoI9AwW1DQ6G3paymb2g4cnfdjGSargczhUWHOkpuN58-QqtyxFzUjm8AWke8Etmel068DFrtW4ZSaYuYPpeApG3OOSHP_OiES1keRjDaMao04rBIdyvOYFd37lNsIESFTW56znr3UXlnQ0xA4X_7d/s320/Time%20and%20Eternity.JPG" width="237" /></a></div><p></p><p>The concept of trompe-l'oeil ("trick the eye") is a well-established one, popular during the Renaissance, which you can bet also means it had precedent in Ancient Greece. But it underwent another huge revival in the nineteenth century. This time out the objects seemed to be presented for their own sake. The idea of painting as straightforward narrative was breaking down. </p><p>The painting above is "Time and Eternity" by American artist John Haberle. Who certainly had a way of painting realistic wood grains. It almost seems to invent surrealist anti-narrative. </p>Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post-23322430425438010112024-02-24T21:55:00.000-08:002024-02-24T21:55:48.177-08:00What's wrong with this picture?<p>I'm not going to stop you if you want to have a good laugh at Google's <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharyfolk/2024/02/22/google-stops-gemini-ai-from-making-images-of-people-after-musk-calls-service-woke/?sh=7ced7ed6374b">Gemini fiasco</a>. It's both embarrassing and funny that it proved almost entirely unwilling to create images of white people, even where appropriate. A search for "America's founding fathers" returned a George Washington who looked like Barack Obama in the middle of a wig party (not to be confused with the Whig Party.)</p><p>But I have to ask, what even is the purpose of this thing? Assuming they get the bugs out, what then? An AI-generated image isn't informative in the same way a photograph is, because it doesn't focus on an object outside of itself. It's not in and of itself art, although an avant-garde artist could conceivably use it in a larger piece. </p><p>If this is going to be treated as a big deal, it sounds like an admission that flesh-and-blood human beings are giving up on creating anything themselves.</p>Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post-52137033306515708342024-02-22T22:08:00.000-08:002024-02-22T22:08:15.563-08:00Can you dig it?This <a href="https://www.darkroastedblend.com/2015/06/worlds-strangest-theme-parks.html">list of theme parks</a> doesn't have a date on it, so I don't know how long it's been hanging around online. It's got some color to it, though.<div><br /></div><div>Dickens World is certainly a specific twist on the living museum. It's got Dickens-themed animatronics as well. One hopes none of them forget Asimov's <a href="https://www.kevsrobots.com/blog/three-laws-of-robotics.html">Three Laws of Robotics</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Diggerland is the one that really tickles my imagination. Who's the absolute visionary who thought up letting young visitors drive around in construction vehicles? At this point it's a hard-to-find sensation.</div>Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post-38132216774074373472024-02-20T21:09:00.000-08:002024-02-20T21:09:56.636-08:00Dog days of winter<p>I don't have firsthand experience of pregnancy and childbirth, certainly, so I can't testify to how uncomfortable they can be. Saw something to put this in perspective, though. Today when I ran out for a quick trip to the grocery I saw a lactating pit bull. Now I can only imagine that having everything hang down like that when you're so low to the ground to begin with could make you grumpy. She seemed to be handling it pretty well, which is good, because pit bull.</p>Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post-61930708015389007872024-02-18T22:22:00.000-08:002024-02-18T22:22:45.276-08:00Schroederific<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xPg-7ybSeV4" width="320" youtube-src-id="xPg-7ybSeV4"></iframe></div><br />One question that has been asked many times over the ages is, "Can you play jazz on a toy piano?" I decided to investigate on YouTube. This couple-minute video is actually pretty encouraging on the topic.<p></p><p>I also confirmed that some of my recommended videos are things like "The life and sad end of X" where X is a person who's still alive. AI obituaries, gotta love 'em.</p>Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post-70179710063749414722024-02-16T21:52:00.000-08:002024-02-16T21:52:18.398-08:00Form/Function<p>I've read some contemporary mystery novels in recent weeks., in large part to reassure myself that writing about mysterious crimes is still possible. And there's something I've noticed in regards to their narration. </p><p>There are two big types of third party narration. One is third person omniscient, in which the narrator seems to have a godlike perspective on all events, statements, thoughts, etc. The other is third person limited, where the narrator is separate from any character but <b>limited</b> to describing things through their perspective.</p><p>A popular way of writing murder mysteries now―possibly the default―is to use third person limited, but rotate it. That is, the perspective switches from character to character with each chapter.</p><p>This seems to me a counterproductive way to write a whodunit. Say you just killed someone. You'd probably be thinking about it quite a lot, right? But in order to not give away the solution, a writer using this model will have to make sure their killer doesn't think anything in the privacy of their own head that wouldn't give everything away if they said it out loud. I'm not sure that works.</p>Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post-4038704483310055322024-02-14T21:21:00.000-08:002024-02-14T21:21:21.846-08:00Snow showThe blizzard we got on Tuesday felt something like the Main Event. Just about everything was closed. I did go out for a bit, but not entirely without regret. The thing is, if your insulated boots don't keep the water out, the insulation doesn't do you a hell of a lot of good. And walking through deep slushy snow, nobody's boots are waterproof. <div><br /></div><div>Today the temperature dropped, below freezing most of the day. That meant that the snow solidified, so it wasn't as likely to get your feet wet. You just have to watch out for those treacherous shiny bits on the sidewalk.</div>Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post-49920921145012389392024-02-12T22:03:00.000-08:002024-02-12T22:03:53.329-08:00The New Old Normal2020 will stand in history as a great playtime for our news media. The election of Donald Trump in 2016 had allowed them a greater-than-usual degree of self-dramatization. With the post-George Floyd reckoning and "mostly peaceful" protests a number of them now went full leftist guerrilla...at least within the confines of their own skulls. And on the other side of the political spectrum some of the people who made hay on being anti-Covidian or gender critical weren't really putting anything on the line if you looked closely.<div><br /></div><div>As of now it's no longer 2020. Playtime is over and it's back to work. Part of this work is <a href="https://original.antiwar.com/cook/2024/02/11/cnns-israel-bias-has-been-laid-bare-but-cnn-is-the-norm-not-the-exception/">selling the Israeli line</a> on their Gaza war. But it doesn't end there.</div>Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post-20742038350064230532024-02-10T21:53:00.000-08:002024-02-10T21:53:42.379-08:00It is worse than a crime, it is a mistake.<p>On the subject of cozy mysteries I would say that <a href="https://unherd.com/2024/02/in-defence-of-grumpy-old-men/">Otto Penzler</a> is half right. By and large they do suck, although I'm sure there are exceptions. But it's not because they're mostly written by women. It's because the formula encourages authors to make little variations like which state the small town setting is in and what kind of quaint business the amateur sleuth runs, while not taking creative chances anywhere else.</p><p>On the larger question of what to do with someone like Penzler, the obvious answer is "nothing." If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If you believe that being an artist means you should never have to deal with people who disagree with you, you won't be a very good one.</p><p>Rosenfield notes that when Penzler was bounced from editing the Best American Mystery series he started his own anthology series that immediately outsold theirs. The man knows what he's doing. You want to keep people like that around.</p>Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post-1271059310379721722024-02-08T21:49:00.000-08:002024-02-08T21:49:42.419-08:00Wrong move<p>Over the past couple of years this country has trying to rally its people together by playing up the rightness of its foreign policy. I could say "Biden" but really it's a number of politicians and politician-adjacent people in both parties. And regardless of party or stated ideology, it seems like a counterproductive step. </p><p>I have my opinions on the Middle East and on the Ukraine. Other people have theirs. One problem with interventionism is that it declares to your own native population (and everyone else, of course) that you've thrown in with a foreign government or faction. If you want national unity, even just to the extent of people getting along with each other, the last thing you want to do is pressure everyone to agree on some other part of the world.</p>Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post-40698653753560922812024-02-06T21:46:00.000-08:002024-02-06T21:47:48.813-08:00ForbiddenHow pervasive is racism? And can you repress it out of existence?<div><br /></div><div>I recently had occasion to see a couple of training videos meant to educate new employees away from prejudice and harassment. The very white, 1950s-sounding VO narrator and the very 2020s multiethnic actors seemed to be in competition who could be more stilted. </div><div><br /></div><div>Beyond that, think about this.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the middle of the twentieth century, everyone in professional life had to wear a suit and tie whenever they were out in public. A backlash counterculture rose who believed that t-shirts and grease-stained jeans were appropriate for all occasions. They eventually won.</div><div><br /></div><div>Around the same time and a little later politicians and men in respectable trades had to be family men with doting wives, children preferred if not absolutely necessary. But of course a hundred gay and lesbian and "queer" subcultures bloomed. </div><div><br /></div><div>So if you make racial guilt and constant apologies a condition for employment, what will the downstream effects be?</div>Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post-48724185618192492612024-02-04T21:44:00.000-08:002024-02-04T21:44:01.016-08:00Totally cyber<p>In a recent issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine I read a story by Erica Obey featuring characters of hers that have also appeared in a <a href="https://www.forewordreviews.com/reviews/the-brooklyn-north-murder/">novel</a>. These are librarian Mary Watson and Doyle, the latter being an AI she created to write mysteries. Needless to say, the pair get involved in real crime cases somehow. </p><p>While this sounds like a cutting edge 2024 idea, oddly there's a precedent for mystery series featuring AI detectives. In 2011 Dave Zeltserman published a collection called <a href="http://gadetection.pbworks.com/w/page/40210365/Julius%20Katz%20and%20Archie" style="outline-width: 0px !important; user-select: auto !important;"><i>Julius Katz & Archie</i></a>, featuring a lazy investigator (as the wiki article notes he has a Roman emperor first name and an animal themed last name, so spot the parallel) who has an AI assistant loaded into his tiepin. And way back in 2002 there was <a href="https://lincolnlibraries.org/your-2022-just-desserts-hiatus-reading-assignment-the-four-turing-hopper-novels-by-donna-andrews/">Turing Hopper</a>, an itinerant AI detective created by author Donna Andrews.</p><p>Truth to tell this is not the kind of fiction I would write myself. The idea of artificial intelligence solving crimes sounds a little too much like something they'd dream up at Davos. But I do think it's interesting that "AI as crime solver" appears to be an established subgenre going back to the beginning of the century. With roots that may extend even further, including some stories by Isaac Asimov.</p>Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post-23952604754170660322024-02-02T22:21:00.000-08:002024-02-02T22:21:21.169-08:00Snowy scene<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5vt9rE7e34n0PF86Hrr2tU9aJTQq9BuCEgbhYQLh-rgBcNaZTFZZteQ1_RCO8a7XqgEpvWH__l1dzin0BzKKnV0MMR7bQqSSFmSL0Te8oDosTHRj3rVZIIBQcywqC8vYIrTYQpVFfxQC8J9vIqiB2UzuFbL__tuSFCv_DcfE2fjUQUXkEVQEgYLEdlGM3/s600/481px-Snow_in_New_York.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="481" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5vt9rE7e34n0PF86Hrr2tU9aJTQq9BuCEgbhYQLh-rgBcNaZTFZZteQ1_RCO8a7XqgEpvWH__l1dzin0BzKKnV0MMR7bQqSSFmSL0Te8oDosTHRj3rVZIIBQcywqC8vYIrTYQpVFfxQC8J9vIqiB2UzuFbL__tuSFCv_DcfE2fjUQUXkEVQEgYLEdlGM3/s320/481px-Snow_in_New_York.jpg" width="257" /></a></div><br /><p>This picture bears the name "Snow in New York." Did you really doubt that was the setting? It was painted in 1902, and already the buildings are vertiginous. </p><p>The painter is Robert Henri, an artist originally from Cincinnati. And yes, he was of French descent, but he pronounced it "hen-rye." He was associated with the Ashcan School, who focused on urban realism. That doesn't describe everything he did―he painted portraits, although they looked more spontaneous than other portraits―but seems to have been a good foundation for him.</p><p>On balance I don't know that he was fond of winter.</p>Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post-81911306807845774872024-01-31T21:58:00.000-08:002024-01-31T21:58:33.207-08:00Ni!Things that are familiar enough might become invisible, at least virtually. Looking around at the neighborhood just now I noticed how many houses have evergreen shrubs out front. The reason why is not too mysterious. Evergreen means a lot less raking, which is especially a relief when you're talking about shrubs and bushes where it's harder to get under. But is this a common practice all over the world? Probably not. Maybe not even all parts of the country.Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499771778569209667.post-43918974029656493222024-01-29T21:56:00.000-08:002024-01-29T21:56:21.176-08:00Taken for a rideToday while getting lunch I heard a guy talking. Talking about Uber and Lyft, both of which he's driven for. The deal now apparently is that they don't pay you benefits because according to them you're not an employee, you're an independent contractor. But you're not really an independent contractor because you can't negotiate. And they go out of their way to hire younger drivers because the older, more experienced ones know how much more they used to get paid.<div><br /></div><div>None of this was all that surprising in the light of what I had heard before. Still, I had to wish him luck when he talked about joining a nascent labor movement for rideshare drivers. We'll see how that goes.</div>Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.com2