Tariffs xkcd.com/3073
08.04.2025 00:03
👍 31364
🔁 8763
💬 258
📌 466
Tariffs xkcd.com/3073
Vibe coding new activities?
I just learned what vibe coding is, and how people are using AI to create great new simple tools without coding. I think to myself: I want to put the power of the internet using information gap activities literally into the hands of my students (well, their mobile…
I saw the Brutalist the night before Anora. While I think Anora appeals to a broader audience, Brutalist is a better movie. Curious that immigration is featured in both.
I’m seeing it tonight with my sisters in Colorado for $6 a ticket in a tiny theater with 30 seats.
The Dao De Jing
by Laozi, about 2,500 years ago. New translation by Ken Liu. Do by not doing, and there is nothing that cannot be done. The text is short, and contains enigmatic phrases that have been interpreted over the millennia. Ken Liu writes mostly science fiction, and very well at that.…
Calque. This I did not know
Calque vs loanword. Cool blog. These two are very similar but subtly different. Flea Market and Skyscraper are examples.
Attention is Everything All At Once
I’ve been basing grades in my classes on what I call Attention Units (AU=gold, get it?). Since studying 37.5 hours over a semester (15 weeks, 90 min class and 45 homework) is not measurable for proficiency, and because I run a class with a lot of…
Remember Enron? Corruption and oil spills? It’s gone nuclear
You can now buy a nuclear reactor for your home. From America’s favorite company. What could go wrong? From Slashdot. Spoiler, this is a SATIRE. It's a fun fake. Had you going, though, right?
Attention Grabbing by Mr. Beast
Mr. Beast of YouTube fame is expanding his empire with a new game show. This is a review of the show, complete with a short history of how Mr. Beast got there. A good lesson for where are attention is being guided. Take back control, folks.
Hot Stuff Checked
Kottke points us to a new video (20 minutes) about hot sauces and the YouTube channel …. Besides talking about food, this is a good exploration into critical thinking. Bonus, this channel HowTown is going to be on my regular rotation of shows that are replacing my addiction (and…
Women and Men in University
In this newsletter (blog post) Celeste Davis looks at the reasons why fewer men are going to college in the US. For every 1% increase in the proportion of women in the student body, 1.7 fewer men applied. One more woman applying was a greater deterrent than $1000 in…
Cool Biomass Visualization
Multi-step explanation of how much living stuff is on earth (biomass) and then compares that to man-made stuff (technomass). Eye opening. Via Kottke.
Reasoning and/or AI?
Mike Caulfield blogs about reason and reasoning and surprisingly doesn’t care how AI got there, and who is still doing the work. Google and Perplexity have launched Deep Research engines, AI help for regular research. He talks about SOK (State of Knowledge) and the next step…
This worked really well in Spain to rid the government of the aftermath of Franco the dictator. I was there. What worked even better was adding in a strike. And being Spain, they made it a party. Over a million people in Barcelona alone.
Russell has a brand new one out about a simpler way to create an audio dialogue with Zenmic.com
Al is making us stupid
Research by Microsoft (pdf) shows tech industry users show a reduction in critical thinking as use of AI increases.
Fake Research
The Whole Earth Catalog was vetted. Not so for many journals. Is caused by an evaluation process much like Google’s PageRank, where a paper is rated by how many links there are to and from it. That’s how over 400,000 research articles in the last 20 years are probably fake, created…
Thanks, this looks great!
Attention Attention Attention
Remember when it was Location, location, location? With the Attention Economy we are the ones getting mined (that's a polite word for it), especially now, with social media up on the inauguration dias. I'm sure the tech bros and the president figure they can outwit…
Good news for readers
Some books I gave away last year Independent bookstores will soon be able to sell over a million electronic books (e-books). I have over 350 books on Amazon (and over 100 on Audible) and am definitely ready to make the move. NYTimes.
Teen Use of Social Media in the US
Bryan Alexander has been watching teens and universities and how they use technology. Here is his latest update on social media. I'm guessing hte federated media (Mastadon and Bluesky mostly) are too small to figure here. Hopefully that will change.
Curipod beats Kahoot
I just discovered Curipod, a lesson creator with AI feedback built in. It looks like a valuable tool more suited to language learners than Kahoot. I like the flexibility of customization while there is a good lot of lesson templates. For now, it looks like short writing…
Gulf of Google
Google will change the names of Gulf of Mexico and Denali to fall in line behind Trump, reports CNBC. Tim Snyder, author of On Tyranny posts that most progress made by autocrats and wannabe dictators is through accession previous to any pressure. Lesson #1 (of 20): Do Not Obey in…
Good to know. I’ve been looking for an alternative since bitly now limits free links to a couple a week (month?).
Pragmatics. And Jokes.
The Reverse is a masterful manipulation of expectations that defies normal Pragmatics. This type of joke, more than most, defies built expectations. The best at this is Anthony Jeselnick. Profiled.
Eraserhead
I remember the velvet, slick with age, and the ashtrays at the end of the arms on the creaky seats in an also run theater in the barrio Chino of Barcelona. I remember being high as hell on a new batch of hashish from the kid brother of a friend. I remember being both scared and…
Good Question
How can we harness AI for learning without it being a crutch, when kicked out, doesn’t leave us flat on the ground? I kept thinking about Khanmigo and how it never just gives the answer and makes the students go through the steps. Can we do that with language learning? The Unresolved…
Globalization
Is still on the march. Only the US is falling behind. Kevin Drum, previously of Mother Jones, a liberal magazine, has taken to data analysis and reporting after his retirement while he battles cancer. His blog is a treasure trove of data showing how little things are changing, even…
Dron on AI for Learning
This interview of Jon Dron on using AI for education is not typical. His stance is clear. It makes sense. It doesn't go overboard. He admits when he is not sure of something. He is against LMSs, even though he developed some big ones for the Canadian educational system.…