As I mentioned back in February, I’ve been musing about a longer piece about AI, the catch-all if imprecise term lobbed at the current crop of large language models (e.g. ChatGPT, Claude, Co-Pilot, Grok, Gemini, etc.). I get more examples of videos and articles motivating me to write that longer piece on AI every week. The current hucksterism selling AI strikes me as the same overconfident idiocy that led some to believe microwaves would replace…
Okay, so it’s a couple months since the Super Bowl, so I’m arguably late to the post-SB-party, but I haven’t stopped thinking about one of the commercials that aired as it was cheerfully pro-dystopia: Yeah, even people who think “Orwell” might be a brand of microwave popcorn found their spidey-sense tingling. Well, it turns out the lawyer folks at LegalEagle really took notice and they have a very informative video validating your fears and explaining…
I’m in the midst of some other writing, so to feed the Internet algorithm, I give you Screen Junkies’ now-annual tradition of explaining all the best picture nominees in their irreverent manner. You can check out all the nominees on the academy’s web page and if you’re wondering which films to cram in before Sunday’s ceremony, Joe Reid over at Vulture gives you his ranking of all 50 films nominated. It’s been years since I’ve…
Some folks may first think of Jim Cummings as the “new” voice of Winnie-the-Pooh (Hal Smith had a couple outings in the 80s, but most people probably remember the distinctive voice of Sterling Holloway as the silly old bear). Cummings has voiced a lot of characters in the past 40 years or so, not just Pooh, and he offers some very specific acting tips that are very welcome.
One of the kids is currently studying World War II, so I reminded them that dads (not just Baby Boomers) are required to know all sorts of military history. It’s like a Dad Merit Badge. In fact, I think World War II is only the first one. Anyway, to help dads everywhere earn or maintain their Military History trivia bona fides, check out George Dvorsky‘s article on 8 low-tech weapons and tactics used during the…
Anecdotally, I’m given to understand many purveyors of horror and spine-tingling thrillers are some of the nicest, chillest folks around… so I though of that when I came across this excerpt from a 1964 CBC interview with celebrated filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock: Interviewer: Mr. Hitchcock, what is your definition of happiness? Alfred Hitchcock: A clear horizon — nothing to worry about on your plate, only things that are creative and not destructive and that’s withing yourself.…
It’s time once again for a self-referential post as 11 years ago today, I relaunched my personal website. Neither I nor Nigel Tufnel thought we’d get here, but Nigel at least had a plan. (Incidentally, in searching for the appropriate graphic, I learned that Spinal Tap was not the first to go to 11, which I feel should be better known). Yes, it’s time for a: The 11th Anniversary is apparently the “Steel” anniversary. So…
Going through some of my old research on space exploration –because why shouldn’t one write science fiction of space explorers knowing some related science fact?– I came across this article by Denise Chow for Space.com back from 2011. It’s all about how people are practicing how to explore space while still here on Earth. And since it’s from 2011, I wondered how some of these projects turned out in early 2026, 15 years later. The…
A definite plus of last year was reading the number of books I did: far more than I had the previous few years. Not only did it help with my writing, but it also helped provide some solace amid all the happy fun stuff happening in the world. But before I advocate wanton reading, you should be made aware of the research done by Gregory Berns and others, research that indicate STORIES CHANGE YOUR BRAIN.…
I’ve been musing about a longer post about AI, because my thoughts about the current large language models (LLMs) and the like have evolved over the past year as we’ve looked into more and more use cases at the dayjob. However, if you detected skepticism in my previous posts about AI and my many links to articles and videos, that doubt has not dissipated. Besides the consistently cited environmental impacts, something that at best must…