This isn’t a story so much as a floating mass of jellyfish tendrils with which the viewer intermittently comes into contact. And the show’s premise is a joke that neither a Hollywood millionaire or a Silicon Valley behemoth have any right to make. It’s a long, long exercise in seeing how long your customers will tolerate being laughed at.

I don’t agree with the early part of this New Statesman article, but there are some good points in it, not unrelated to my post the other day.

Just heard the first ice-cream van of the year. Whaaaat???

I wish people wouldn’t post links to videos without warnings. You tap or click through to read something, and suddenly a video blares out. Most annoying.

I got lucky(?) in a prize draw at work, so tonight I’m going to the Brit Awards finals. Taking my daughter. I suspect she’ll get more out of it than me.

It was 30 years ago today, PJ Harvey tells us, that To Bring You My Love was released. Sounds as good as ever.

Give it a listen.

Looks like Amazon’s deal with Iain Banks’s estate to make a series out of Consider Phlebas is back on.

Pity it’s Amazon, but at least Adele is involved as an executive producer.

I remember Banksie saying all he wanted to see was the fight under the hovercraft, so let’s hope they leave that in.

Fascinating piece about how George Eliot seemingly wrote about AI. I disagree with this assertion, though:

Put simply: intelligence is not the same as consciousness.

…

But, for the avoidance of doubt, they are not the same thing. My own (simplified) view is that intelligence is the ability to achieve goals and consciousness is the phenomenon through which we experience qualia …

To my mind and understanding of the terms, there’s no intelligence without consciousness.

Having the first Creme Egg of the year with my coffee. Actually probably the first I’ve had in several years.

Artificial Intelligence is facing a crisis: humans are consuming far too many precious resources that AI needs to thrive. Every sip of water you take and every light you turn on could be sustaining the AI systems that uphold your digital conveniences.

Maybe not the thing that bothers me most about AI, but something that does bother me.

Have switched my blog to the Bayou Theme by Matt Langford, @Mtt. Liking the look. I’ll probably give it a few tweaks, but looking good so far.

Happy New Year, everyone. 2025 starts with London’s fireworks, and then, surprisingly, The Boomtown Rats on Hootenany.

Currently reading (and relatively close to finishing): Death’s End by Cixin Liu 📚

Oh, and Andy Murray’s going to be coaching Novak Djokovic.

‘Call a General Election’ is trending, with a parliamentary petition. ‘The country can’t stand another four years of this!’ I saw.

But… what is the ‘this’ they’re unhappy about? Labour have been in power for about five minutes, they haven’t had a chance to do anything yet. I don’t understand.

It’s the middle of November, why is this rose flowering and budding?

A tall rose plant with a yellow-white bloom and three buds, as well as at least one deadhead. Behind it is a wooden fence and a holly bush with berries.

Watching Channel 4’s Unreported World segment on cocaine smuggling into Spain by mini submarines from South America. And I can’t help thinking, just fucking legalise it. Regulate it, tax it. Take control out of the hands of gangsters. Everyone would be safer.

And not just cocaine, obviously.

Oh, America, what have you done? How has this happened?

Watched the Channel 4 documentary about Hope Not Hate’s undercover investigation: Undercover: Exposing the Far Right. Very good, compelling viewing, and important.

Just booked to see Fucked Up on Saturday. I saw them back in 2011. I haven’t paid that much attention since. But since they’re playing at Oslo, Hackney, just down the road, it would be rude not to go.

The local parakeets basically live in our garden now.