Everything old is new again, nihil sub sole novum, and so forth
David Byron
@dcbyron.bsky.social
Cloud engineer in gov/mil cybersecurity. Thinking and writing about art history, interpretation, magic, poetry, satire…
Good take. In many use cases (and thus in the human minds that conceive them), generative technology skips the most human-valuable stages of processing and seems to jump straight to an “answer” or “summary”. But the friends we made along the way, etc.
David Neuzerling@md.neuzerl.ing · 4d agoI genuinely, sincerely believe this is an incredibly important tweet in understanding how some people think about AI. The mindset is: every single problem is inputs and outputs, with a loss function to be minimised in between. Process is irrelevant.
The first genuinely honest ad for generative AI I've ever seen, from Microsoft / CoPilot A mediocre white guy sees his non-white colleague getting praised for good work, he asks AI to *literally copy it*, and then he gets all the praise instead: www.ispot.tv/ad/SoDi/micr...
Preparing for class today which includes study of Harriet Powers, formerly enslaved woman who created remarkable Bible quilts in the 19th century. If you look closely at her photo you'll see she added quilted elements to her apron, which I take as a kind of sartorial assertion: "I am an artist"
Protestors Criticized For Looting Businesses Without Forming Private Equity Firm First https://theonion.com/protestors-criticized-for-looting-businesses-without-fo-1843735351/
So much of our society is defined by who is allowed to lie.
Infinitely enigmatic Flagellation of Christ, c. 1455, by spatial genius Piero della Francesca. Today is his day.
Carel Fabritius, The Goldfinch, 1654 (Mauritshuis, The Hague) Goldfinches were popular pets, as they could be taught tricks like drawing water from a bowl with a miniature bucket. The artist was killed, aged 32 in an explosion in Delft #otd 12 Oct 1654.
Curious about the early Christian fascination with the Sibylline oracles? Here's a great little introduction. kiwihellenist.blogspot.com/2026/09/siby...
Sibyls and Sibylline oracles. 1. The Sibyls
Prophets and apocalyptic poetry: how one mythical seeress turned into ten Sibyls, and why some of them appear on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
kiwihellenist.blogspot.com
Great review of Escaping Obscurity. Thank you, David Byron.
Escaping Obscurity
A review of John Cox’s annotated edition of Harry Houdini’s 1897-1899 travel diary and its portrait of the magician before fame.
baroquepotion.com
2026 is the hundredth anniversary of the death of Houdini, and October is the month in which he died. So books about Houdini have been sprouting up all over. Here’s my review of one of the better ones aimed at specialists: baroquepotion.com/reviews/esca...
Escaping Obscurity
A review of John Cox’s annotated edition of Harry Houdini’s 1897-1899 travel diary and its portrait of the magician before fame.
baroquepotion.com
Fruit basket. Just being there. By Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, born on this day, in Milan, in 1571.
Years and years of therapy are not going to be enough for Isaac. Caravaggio, born on this day in 1571, is very clear about that here in 1603.
For the Knights of Malta (having become one himself) Caravaggio paints the death of John the Baptist. His largest painting, and not a pretty sight.
Who me? Yes you. Calling of Saint Matthew, 1599, from the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome. By the great Caravaggio, whose day is today.
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Blinded by the Lord, 1600, as painted in the Cerasi Chapel by the great Caravaggio. Today is his birthday.
Claude making a scientific discovery
Carl Zimmer@carlzimmer.com · last mo.Four days ago, a scientist was surprised by the news that Anthropic discovered new virus genes for making DNA. He says he’s been studying them for years—and feeding his data to Anthropic’s AI as part of his own research. Coincidence? Here’s my story. nyti.ms/3VSWayc
MSNow asked for my analysis of Kennedy Center developments. News changed by the hour, but here are some thoughts on The Koch Theatre, Trump Plaza Hotels and Trump's gross misunderstanding of corporate branding.
Opinion | Trump’s Kennedy Center problem may be more than he bargained for
The ongoing Kennedy Center saga shows Trump does not appear to understand how corporate branding differs from nonprofit norms.
share.google
Trump is promising to boost the U.S. economy by making it harder for Americans to trade with the rest of the world. He is also promising to destroy Iran's economy by making it harder for Iranians to trade with the rest of the world.
Our Mayor has Indian parents, was born in Uganda, is Muslim, and speaks Mandarin. You can’t get more New York than this!
Now is the time for fresh, sensible voices and a 21st-century sensibility in Congress
Luke Bronin@lukebronin.bsky.social · 3mo agoThank you, CT-01.
This is absolutely WILD. Here's the dashboard video posted by @fritschner.bsky.social. Fast forward to about 1 minute. An ICE officer jumps out of a van and pulls a gun on this woman immediately before lying and claiming she "almost ran us over." *profanity warning if watching in public.
Aaron Fritschner@fritschner.bsky.social · 3mo agoVideo of an ICE agent pulling a gun on a wife and mother, who is a US citizen born and raised in the area, near Bailey's Crossroads in Northern Virginia yesterday. Chillingly, they claimed she “almost ran them over” until she told them she had video proving that was a lie.
motion to stop describing datapoints as "buried in the toplines/crosstabs" when that is functionally equivalent to "the survey's results were easily accessible and I looked at them"
Both a dog and a cat have spotted you from inside Samuel van Hoogstraten's amazing View Down a Corridor, 1662. Not to mention the parrot in its cage! But the people are oblivious.
