The Barnum effect of chat bots

Here’s a post that summarizes generative “AI” quite well. Hat tip to Brian Krebs, posting this on Mastodon. I can’t embed the post here—maybe he has his embedding turned off. The original that Krebs cites, by David Gerard, can be found here. Like the social media websites concocted by the graduates of Prof Fogg’s class […]

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The two Ranis

I had suspected Anita Dobson’s Mrs Flood had a connection to the Rani in Doctor Who, only because I was trying to make a connection between the character’s last appearance in the 1993 charity special ‘Dimensions in Time’ (which, as far as I know, is canon) and Angie Watts, who, in EastEnders canon, was last […]

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These covers could be hazardous to your eyes

Of the public-domain paperbacks we’ve published, I like to think we’ve done a very decent job. In the case of A Farewell to Arms, we’ve had some custom because no one has published the book in its uncensored form till now. We’ve given something to the literary world and we finally fulfilled Ernest Hemingway’s wishes. […]

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More disinformation sploggers point to Semrush

More disinformation sploggers have owned up and blamed Semrush, not that they are taking their posts down. The latest: Hope you are doing well. First of all we are extremely sorry for using the keyword related to your name. We only use this as a keyword. According to the semrush this keyword has potential of […]

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A long time ago, in a newsroom far, far away …

  Star Wars fans with a sense of humour will love Chris Barker’s Deathstar Express, which had been popping up on social media this year. He’s put almost all of his mock front pages on one web page. When you think about it, and I’m sure Chris had, how do you keep the population in […]

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Miscellaneous images from the US

A bit of a clear-out of a downloads’ folder on my computer. This has been sitting there since 2016 and I’ve no idea of its origins, but let’s say that Americans do understand irony and whomever claimed otherwise was wrong.     This was from The New York Times in the early 2000s. Dave Barboza […]

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Generation Z has the right idea with flip phones and digital cameras

  This may be a source of comedy on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, but to me it’s obvious why young people are opting for flip phones and digital cameras. They’re smart enough to think: why should I have a device that’s addictive and wastes my time? Why should I spend time on websites […]

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There is no point to posting on Twitter

The demise of Twitter continues. Today I saw, while heading back to Tawa from Papakōwhai, the aftermath of a seven-vehicle accident (three cars, four commercial vehicles) on the opposite side of State Highway 1. I posted this on Mastodon, and, made an exception and did a fresh message on OnlyKlans, I mean, Twitter. You know, […]

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Elizabeth Arden is missing out on a big market here

As this wasn’t shared much on social media, I can only assume not many of you share my sense of humour. It’s a fake, of course, since I’m feverish from the first dose of the shingles vaccine (if you look down the side-effects list, I have them all) I needed something to ease my way […]

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