🔗 WWW
There are a lot of links out to different parts of the web on this site. I try to mark them all so they get listed here.
If you are following along, you know this is my ‘year of stoicism’ … so of course Existential Comics burst my bubble!
🔗 Getty Images Sues AI Art Generator Stable Diffusion in the U.S. for Copyright Infringement via @gruber
Well this isn’t good, particularly in light of
“Stable Diffusion occasionally produces output with Getty Image’s watermark.”
YIKES
Russell Brand Sucks
I was never a fan of Russell Brand, so hard to say my opinion of him has ‘fallen’.
That was from the start, but his very misplaced prank with Ross on Andrew Sachs sealed it for me.
I also don’t spend much time thinking about Jonathan Ross - but at least he has a tiny spec of talent.
Which is why I enjoyed this short video of 🔗📼 Helen Lewis talking Russell Brand decent into conspiracies and a good analysis of how he - and others of his ilk - ‘do it’.
[April 6: 2025 - sadly - this video has been take private - BUT there is this one …
🔗📼 How Russell Brand became a conspiracy theorist Guru | Helen Lewis
🔗 Canada is coming undone - a report from Al Jazeera. I think this change is happening in a few other countries - but it might not be as obvious. Yet. We need to be vigilant. We need to act.
I always had 🎵 BrandX as ‘Jazz/Fusion’ - but they are sometimes classified as ‘Progressive’. That’s why 🔗 ’genres’ are so hard - if not to say meaningless. Whichever they are - a great listen - delivered courtesy of The Old Grey Whistle Test.
…anyone using it?
🔗 Just to say thank you to some of the unseen heroes of the MicroBlog community … more will be added - but it is a start.
🔗 Management Positions Could Be Next on Chopping Block as Businesses Course Correct
It’s telling that the ‘permafrost layer’ is ‘next’ not ‘first’.
🔗 Ilhan Omar’s removal from panel was ‘stupidest vote’, says Republican
Ken Buck, a committee member and Republican congressman from Colorado, was heard calling the action the “stupidest vote in the world.
… maybe, but he still voted ’for’.
Just when you think it can’t get any worse, it does. What do these people (and I use the word loosely) think they are doing? Who are they protecting? 🔗California police kill double amputee who was fleeing: ‘Scared for his life’.
Said it before saying it again ..l 🔗 this Mastodon / MicroBlog stuff is not easy is it?
🔗 Chris Hedges is one of many voices I read talking about the war mongering U.S.A. … and I get it - I really do … BUT … if somebody invades a country … and we 🔗 don’t do what we are doing … then what should we do?
David Fisher has the scoop this morning in the NZ Herald about Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown’s WhatsApp comments to his ‘Grumpy Old Men’ tennis mates about having to cancel their game on Friday because of having to deal with media ‘drongos’ requests about the flood. This will embolden more people to call for his resignation. And when Wayne loses the Herald he is in trouble…the detail about Brown begging Fish not to run it is instructive.
💬 Wayne Hickey
The article ….
🔗 Auckland floods: Mayor Wayne Brown’s 30min phone call with the Herald.
… which I haven’t read because it is paywalled, opens with these words …
📺 Peaky Blinders ★★★★★
The Series that is. The film at the end - to bring ‘closure’? Yeah - not so much
This is how Jim Crow rolls on in the 21st century. Yes, it’s about the guns. But the guns are about the racism. If my fellow men weren’t so damned racist, so scared of “the other,” they wouldn’t be getting killy, fewer people would be getting killed, and de-escalation could begin.
As it is, you’re safer in Kyiv.
💬 Dana Blankenhorn
🔗 Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution
If you are teacher in Florida, why would you stay? (Either in teaching - or Florida).
… without a shared understanding of where we are in life and what words mean to us, there’s no room for constructive interactions."
💬 Manuel Moreale
No argument.
Behold … a source for your ‘daily enigma’ …