Screengrab: Novara Media on fake, AI generated podcasts * For several weeks I’ve been aware of fake videos purporting to be talking head podcasts from pundits who, while I have my differences with them, get my respect as useful contributors … Read More »
My flawed but brilliant teacher, a recently deceased Andrew Cohen, spoke endlessly on ego, not in its Freudian sense of self-organising principle but in its everyday sense of arrogant self importance, as the obstacle to ‘enlightenment’. Ego in that sense, … Read More »
Could not the key be that mysterious human attribute – love – that like despair cannot be measured, that finds in every other living creature a part of oneself, just the inkling in our hearts that everyone is us and … Read More »
In comes Romeo, he’s moaning “You belong to me, I believe” And someone says, “You’re in the wrong place, my friend You’d better leave” In classrooms, workplaces and cults of marx-leninist or ‘spiritual’ stripe, I’ve spent my whole life feeling … Read More »
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master; If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same … This ‘semi sabbatical’ I keep … Read More »
The venality, corruption and cruelties of power, when these become our daily focus, can harden the heart. The risk of cynicism is ever present, especially for we who come bearing no solutions other than the non negotiable precursor that we … Read More »
Seen today in BTL commentary on a Naked Capitalism piece: Gestopholies, November 3, 2025 at 7:36 pm LOL. Stalin certainly did revive industrial policy in Russia, but he did it in a very flawed way. In order for no one … Read More »
Two items in my inbox caught my eye this morning. One, by Caitlin Johnstone, refers to a piece two days ago in Israel’s liberal Haaretz, under the self explanatory title, Israeli Settlers Filmed Torturing Lambs in a Palestinian-owned Pen in … Read More »
Levers Water is in the English Lake District, at the head of the Coppermines Valley above Coniston village. Originally a natural tarn, it was enlarged by a dam in 1717 to provide water and power to the nearby mines. Today, … Read More »
Today my inbox alerted me to 2500 cogently penned words on the holy grail of AGI, artificial general intelligence, as pursued by the West. Having posted twice on AI in January, using the example of DeepSeek to contrast the approaches … Read More »