Opinions

With this feed reader I also let other bloggers, journalists and authors have their say. I also place some articles and posts in the category Bookmarks away; A few of them also go into my note box.

Hey folks, I just released a new video on YouTube, based on the blog post I dropped yesterday. I hope you'll give it a watch and subscribe!I discovered something unsettling at McDonald's that reveals a darker truth about our relationship with screens.Men order significantly... Read more
Published: 1 hour ago
Source: Joan Westenberg
Democracy is crumbling. Is Anyone Doing Anything? Sherrilyn Ifill has a list of what people are doing to counter the coup and more importantly, what you can do. I'm working on this one: “Make sure you have and can share good information”.... Read more
Published: 5 hours ago
Source: Jason Kottke (Kottke.org)
Five Former Treasury Secretaries: Our Democracy Is Under Siege. “[We're writing] this piece because we are alarmed about the risks of arbitrary & capricious political control of federal payments, which would be unlawful & corrosive to our democracy.”... Read more
Published: 5 hours ago
Source: Jason Kottke (Kottke.org)
Voting for the Mayor Who Promised to Blow Up the City Doesn't Mean I Approve of the Mayor Blowing Up the City. “I just wanted him to fix the old bowling alley like he promised in passing once.”... Read more
Published: 6 hours ago
Source: Jason Kottke (Kottke.org)
I spent a beautiful morning last week shooting some sunrise shots.... Read more
Published: 9 hours ago
Source: James Cussen (The Living Philosophy)
A few years ago I had already experimented with the Python Arcade library. Back then (2021) my attempts had fallen asleep because the thing still had too many glitches for my taste. But at the weekend I came across the first video of a planned tutorial series, and it promised that with the brand new version 3 of Arcade - released two weeks ago - the teething problems would finally be overcome. That made me curious, of course. But first a reminder: What is Arcade? Arcade is a free (MIT license) Python library that Paul Vincent Craven created about seven years ago out of frustration with the standstill at the time... Read more
Published: 11 hours ago
Source: Jörg Kantel (Schockwellenreiter)
Migration as the top issue of the election? An entire country is arguing about migration. And I'm actually wondering whether we haven't thrown up a gigantic smokescreen. Not that the issue is unimportant. But is it really that big? And more than that: aren't victims and their families being shamelessly abused as a reason? What are we actually thinking? And what do I think about this whole thing? The foreigners are taking everything away from us. I'm enthusiastic about our trainees. Among them is someone from North Africa and someone from the Middle East. When I heard about them... Read more
Published: 18 hours ago
Source: Henning Uhle
My weekly news: From targeted disinformation from Russia to the upheaval in the publishing industry to fake news and myths about wind energy. Also the coup in the USA that went almost unnoticed in the German media and a flood of mediocre content through the unreflective use of AI. This is exactly how “the Russians” use AI.... Read more
Published: 18 hours ago
Source: Stefan Pfeiffer
McDonald's discovered something unsettling when they rolled out their self-service kiosks. Well, unsettling for those of us who don't own shares in the Golden Arches: men ordered differently when facing a screen versus a human.One burger became two. The guardrails of social judgment vanished behind... Read more
Published: 1 day ago
Source: Joan Westenberg
Cats on cam and the evolution of The Living Philosophy... Read more
Published: 1 day ago
Source: James Cussen (The Living Philosophy)
The best way to start a presentation of balances is with the words: “Ladies and gentlemen, dear balances!” Confusion arose when I saw the name of a newly opened delivery service: “Galileo Pizza”. What does that mean? Spherical calzones in orbits instead of the classic … Continue reading →... Read more
Published: 1 day ago
Source: Chris Kurbjuhn
The trend to return to the office is increasing - but what is really behind it? In conversation with Prof. Dr. Peter M. Wald from the HTWK Leipzig, we discuss power, control and the real challenges of hybrid work at #9vor9. His thesis: There is no connection between performance and attendance.... Read more
Published: 1 day ago
Source: Stefan Pfeiffer
"We are the people, and we want there to be no law; ergo this will is the law, ergo in the name of the law there is no longer any law, ergo killed!" (Büchner, Danton's Death) There is a fundamental misunderstanding about democracy and popular sovereignty: that politics should always do what the people want, i.e. execute the 'will of the people'. But that is nonsense. Politics should not do exactly that, but act in the interest and for the benefit of the population. There is a difference. In other words: a parliament, a government is not the lackey of the people, but is run by... Read more
Published: 2 days ago
Source: Stefan Rose (Flying Boards)
Thoughts from a study of art, kids, and perception.... Read more
Published: 3 days ago
Source: Rob Walker (The Art of Noticing)
Energy from mushrooms: What sensors can do - Image by Digital Artist on PixabayYes, now Uhle is coming around the corner and saying that there is energy from mushrooms. And he means it completely seriously, the rascal. Nothing really surprises me anymore. I have already written about tweeting trees. And I have blogged about talking plants. Now energy from mushrooms. But let's be honest: Who doesn't think of hallucinogens and wild Goa parties and things like that? But - and regular readers should know me by this - it is completely different from the introduction. Energy from... Read more
Published: 3 days ago
Source: Henning Uhle
Federal election: Who to vote for and why? - Image by Stefan Schweihofer on PixabayIt's not long now until we finally have this damned federal election. If only Germany would take part for that long. Maybe the whole thing will collapse because there are enough politicians who have so alienated the immigrants that they have left. The right-wing radicals have achieved what they wanted. But an incredible number of companies can then simply close their doors without "THE FOREIGNERS". Against this background, we watch the time until the election. This miserable federal election is right around the corner. What strange political things there are... Read more
Published: 3 days ago
Source: Henning Uhle
Since my feed reader is still overflowing despite the effort from last week, I would like to recommend a few more video tutorials for this weekend. This time, it's about tutorials on image-generating artificial intelligence and, since I mainly use them to generate images for interactive stories, about my preferred engines for this, Twine and Ren'Py1. Scenario Scenario publishes shorter video tutorials on its own engine at irregular intervals and on completely unsorted topics. In addition to the above "Manage and Optimize Your Custom AI Models in Scenario", these were... Read more
Published: 3 days ago
Source: Jörg Kantel (Schockwellenreiter)
Published: 4 days ago
Source: Joan Westenberg
And another update from yesterday: The developers of Mozilla Thunderbird have released version 135.0 and thereby fixed security holes. Thunderbird itself points out this update. This procedure can also be started as usual via the Help > About Thunderbird menu. (My personal CERT by email.) Image: Thunderbird hunts Firefox, created with Scenario. Prompt: »illustration of a majestic thunderbird with colored feathers soaring above a mountain range during a bright sunset, hunting a red firefox«. Model: Flux Composition, Style: Expressive Comic Characters.... Read more
Published: 4 days ago
Source: Jörg Kantel (Schockwellenreiter)
Come on in and welcome to Manufactum! The headquarters is nearby, in the halls of the former Waltrop mine. Ikea for senior teachers, an organic store for odds and ends. As my bread knife was only worth scrap, I bought an excellent, not too expensive spare part from Opinel, which cuts through even the heaviest whole-food block from the organic store like a laser cutter, a pot of excellent Viennese shaving soap, a few odds and ends as well as 2-3 preserved snacks and a little something to give as a gift. Of course you can order all of this online. But here you have everything live and in color. You can examine it, hold it in your hand, try it, smell it. (The prices... Read more
Published: 5 days ago
Source: Stefan Rose (Flying Boards)
Terrible days right now. Not at work. All this political nonsense is really getting on my nerves - and scaring the hell out of me. What's going on over there in the USA just three weeks after the inauguration is a nightmare. There isn't a single day where a literal handful of bad news comes our way. Each one more crude than the last. It's crazy to think that all the nonsense that we previously dismissed as the babble of a big shot is suddenly being implemented - with a sledgehammer if necessary. Flying migrants to countries that are threatening to take in passengers... Read more
Published: 6 days ago
Source: Matthias Lausmann (Mr. Mess)
February 2025: Small Flowers... Read more
Published: 7 days ago
Source: Rob Walker (The Art of Noticing)
The election clock is ticking in 2025, but the CDU is stonewalling, Söder is egosurfing and the AfD is laughing. While Great Britain is sleeping off the Brexit hangover, China's AI models are training on European data - are US companies really hosting them "cleanly"? In the Blätter article, von Lucke predicts the collapse of democracy. The future seems to be negotiated between lobbyists, algorithms and paywalls.... Read more
Published: 8 days ago
Source: Stefan Pfeiffer
The first week of March?... Read more
Published: 8 days ago
Source: Johannes Kuhn (kopfzeiler.org)
Fear Merz's ideas! Historic moment: In the 1017th issue of "Splitterbrötchen" the picture of a Splitterbrötchen appears for the first time. I'm afraid that Maschinist paints a very accurate picture of the current situation. I just wanted to take a quick look, then I ... Continue reading →... Read more
Published: 8 days ago
Source: Chris Kurbjuhn
According to the internet, "Baby Shower" comes from the idea of ​​showering the expecting parents (traditionally the mother) with gifts, love, and good wishes before the baby arrives. The phrase likely became popular in the late 19th or early 20th century in the US, although similar customs of celebrating pregnancy and birth have existed in different cultures for centuries. I went to one today and it was wonderfully filling. + 4 photos, mostly of food.... Read more
Published: 9 days ago
Source: Chris Glass
The term loudness has at least two meanings. Firstly, it means volume, which is something that can be measured somewhat objectively, in the unit decibel. Secondly, it means loudness, which is more related to subjective perception. My first conscious contact with loudness was through my parents' stereo system. There was a loudness button. This raised the quiet tones at the edge of the hearing spectrum a little, i.e. the quiet low tones and the quiet high tones. This is intended to achieve a similar hearing impression at low volumes as at higher volumes. The mids could remain unamplified. There was something seductive about this button. Even at higher volumes, the sound... Read more
Published: 9 days ago
Source: Detlef Stern

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