Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

bryce.lol @bryce.lol · 1h

A theory I like to irritate people with is that 90% of private members clubs only exist because many upwardly middle-class types can't find a dealer any other way. S**o H****e membership is basically an informal coke subscription service.

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bryce.lol @bryce.lol · 1h

Are people drinking less? Maybe, though surveys are less conclusive then than you might imagine ( yougov.co.uk/topics/consu... ).

Are people spending less on alcohol because they're buying toot instead? Based on the evidence of any UK town centre after 8pm on a Friday, I'm going to say probably.

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bryce.lol @bryce.lol · 2h

Dunno. I've read a lot over the years about a culture of moderation and harm reduction among the young and middle aged and very little about how four pints in a pub now cost the same as six rails of coke.

Hannah Fearn @hannahfearn.bsky.social · 13h

Why are the vibes so off with this government. The whole culture at the moment is about moderation and harm reduction, especially among the young and middle aged voters that Labour needs to cling on to if it's going to retain a coalition of support.

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Pubs to stay open until early hours in push for UK growth

Exclusive: Plans for England and Wales would help the ailing hospitality sector but have attracted criticism from health experts

www.theguardian.com

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bryce.lol @bryce.lol · 16h

The whole of the "Reporter Takes The Stage" section is exactly what you're looking for, though it's also worth looking into the ones that haven't aged too well, such as Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin.

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bryce.lol @bryce.lol · 16h

The Art of Fact is a great primer on all the most important ones.

books.google.co.uk/books/about/...

The Art of Fact

Learn how to be the best journalist you can be with what “could be the world’s most readable textbook” (Time Out New York).The Art of Fact is a historical treasury tracing literary journalism back to ...

books.google.co.uk

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bryce.lol @bryce.lol · 4d

The big idea is Siri but better? Amazing. If only Siri's maker, the one that spends $33bn a year on R&D, had thought of that.

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bryce.lol @bryce.lol · 4d

When the Jony Ive thing was first announced, the most optimistic available take was, "he won't just make an always-on ambient Microsoft Clippy with the form factor of a paperweight, he's a design genius" and six months later, here we are

Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 4d

Hahaha this device is never going to release, or if it does it will become notorious for its shittiness, like if pets.com released the N-GAGE

Multiple people familiar with the plans said OpenAI and Ive were working on a device roughly the size of a smartphone that users would communicate with through a camera, microphone and speaker. One person suggested it might have multiple cameras.

The gadget is designed to sit on a desk or table but can also be carried around by the user. The Wall Street Journal previously reported some of the specifications around the device.

One person said the device would be “always on” rather than triggered by a word or prompt. The device’s sensors would gather data throughout the day that would help to build its virtual assistant’s “memory”.

OpenAI and Ive are seeking to build a more powerful and useful machine. But two people familiar with the project said that settling on the device's "voice" and its mannerisms were
a challenge.
One issue is ensuring the device only chimes in when useful, preventing it from talking too much or not knowing when to finish the conversation - an ongoing issue with ChatGPT.
"The concept is that you should have a friend who's a computer who isn't your weird AI girlfriend... like [Apple's digital voice assistant] Siri but better,
" said one person
who was briefed on the plans. OpenAI was looking for "ways for it to be accessible but not intrusive"

OpenAI's device will be entering a difficult market. Friend, an AI companion worn as a pendant around your neck, has been criticised for being "creepy" and having a
"snarky" personality. An Al pin made by Humane, a company that Altman personally invested in, has been scrapped.
Still, OpenAI has been on a hiring spree to build its hardware business. Its acquisition of io brought in more than 20 former Apple hardware employees poached by Ive from his alma mater. It has also recruited at least a dozen other Apple device experts this year, according to LinkedIn accounts.

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bryce.lol @bryce.lol · 4d

Once you take into account the available means and the potential motives, it's honestly quite surprising that every day nearly everywhere in America doesn't look like the last scene of Reservoir Dogs.

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bryce.lol @bryce.lol · 4d

America has surprisingly little gun crime.

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bryce.lol @bryce.lol · 4d

Fuck off, Richard.

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bryce.lol @bryce.lol · 5d

A Riyadh Improv Troupe would be an interesting concept.

"Can I get a suggestion from the audience?"
"No."

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bryce.lol @bryce.lol · 5d

Genuinely a bit sad to be reminded of Paul Merton, a guy who had a spark but slid into comfortable work and let himself rot from inside out, a genX memento mori

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bryce.lol @bryce.lol · 7d

Not sure I've ever witnessed a news cycle so incomprehensible and inconsequential as Elon Musk's Royal Society membership.

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bryce.lol @bryce.lol · 8d

It was for a thing.*

* Cultivating my nihilism.

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bryce.lol @bryce.lol · 8d

I read a techbro's blog by yesterday that listed the AI applications they wanted. The very first entry was, "a camera app that makes my bad iPhone photos look like they were taken on a Leica" and oh sweet simpleton child, there is so much about this world you've chosen not to learn.

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bryce.lol @bryce.lol · 8d

The use cases won't disappear (kid's TV slop, video game textures, low budget SFX, the most grim forms of nonconsensual porn the worst people in the world can imagine) but this "here's a video of squirrels playing basketball" stuff will have a very welcome death after a short and meaningless life.

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bryce.lol @bryce.lol · 8d

I've been watching a lot of AI video recently. No matter the generator they all have the same milky movements and weightless, frictionless, otiose zombification. They're dead media and I think, once the novelty burns out, they'll be as culturally enduring as Magic Eye stereograms.

Ethan Mollick @emollick.bsky.social · 8d

My test of any new AI video model is whether it can make an otter using wifi on an airplane

Here is Sora 2 doing a nature documentary... 1980s music video... a thriller... 50s low budget SciFi film... a safety video.. a film noir... anime... 90s video game cutscene... a French arthouse film

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bryce.lol @bryce.lol · 9d

Welcome to the Substainability Spotters Club. One of my favourites is from the Journal of Sustainability Education:

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bryce.lol @bryce.lol · 9d

What's happening with the double negative at the back of that headline? What am I avoiding?

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bryce.lol @bryce.lol · 9d

If the internet has taught me anything today, it's that they used to sell live lobster at Walmart. Cultural norms are already in chaos.

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bryce.lol @bryce.lol · 9d

King. Whatever.

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bryce.lol @bryce.lol · 9d

The most Brexit thing a person can do is sing "Home of The Picky Bits / Home of The Picky Bits / Three for Eight Pound" to the tune of God Save The Queen.

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bryce.lol @bryce.lol · 10d

Good luck with this. At the moment, scanning a QR code with Google Lens gives you pictures of other QR codes below an explanation of what a QR code is.

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bryce.lol @bryce.lol · 10d

Dundee Syndrome. (Intense self loathing, yet violently intolerant of any criticism)

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bryce.lol @bryce.lol · 10d

Just once, I'd like someone to buy me a field so I could look at donkeys.

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