Literally A Good Idea | beetleypete

Excuse the weak pun, but I really do think this is a good idea. With libraries facing funding cuts, and rural communities having to travel to towns or cities to use libraries, this retired schoolteacher in Italy decided to create his own mobile library to serve the area he lives in.

Source: Literally A Good Idea | beetleypete

♫ I’m In A Different World ♫ (Happy Birthday David!) | Filosofa’s Word

Today’s song by the Four Tops is a one I play every year on this day to celebrate the birthday of our dear friend, David, aka Lord David Michael Prosser.  David likely wouldn’t appreciate me telling you exactly how old he is today, but I do delight in telling that he is 139 days older than I am, and I take great delight in reminding him of that fact every year on this date!!!  David loves this song, and when I played it a few years ago, I declared it would be the song of the day on January 18th from then on!

Source: ♫ I’m In A Different World ♫ (Happy Birthday David!) | Filosofa’s Word

कहानी / Story – Kaushal Kishore

 

हर कहानी नहीं पहुंचती 

अपने अंजाम तक; 

कुछ को छोड़ दिया जाता है 

जान बूझकर अधूरा, 

ताकि बनी रहे आगे

उसमें रुचि और प्रत्याशा…

✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️

Not every story 

reaches its conclusion; 

some are deliberately 

left incomplete, 

leaving room for lingering 

interest and anticipation…

*

–Kaushal Kishore 

Source: कहानी / Story – Kaushal Kishore

Merchant: The fake George Carlin comedy special is everything that’s wrong with AI right now – Los Angeles Times

I knew it was going to be bad. By the time I sat down to watch the thing, much of the internet was already furious that a “state-of-the-art-entertainment AI” called Dudesy had generated an hourlong comedy special in the style of George Carlin, without the consent of the late comic’s horrified family. But I wasn’t prepared for it to be so bad.

The special, tastefully titled “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead,” is one of the most unpleasant things ostensibly produced for entertainment purposes that I have ever sat through. It’s a stroll through an uncanny valley of Carlin’s comedy, an audio program in which a serviceable replica of the familiar raspy voice delivers “jokes” on topics from mass shootings to Taylor Swift to artificial intelligence.

It’s all set to an unsettling rotating gallery of AI-generated images that roughly correlate to whatever Carlin’s simulacrum is discussing. When the Carlin voice is hitting on the malign influence of money in politics, there’s a bizarre diagram of politicians being bought off, with figures labeled “The guluar citizen” and “Liolbolist”; when AI Carlin says the you-know-what “has hit the fan,” a hyper-stylized brown tube protrudes from one…

Source: Merchant: The fake George Carlin comedy special is everything that’s wrong with AI right now – Los Angeles Times

Medicine for Israeli hostages and Palestinians arrives in Gaza under deal struck by Qatar – Egypt Independent

CNN  —  Medicine for Israeli hostages and Palestinians has entered Gaza, Qatar said Wednesday, after the Gulf nation brokered a deal between Israel and Hamas to provide vital medication to the war-torn enclave.

The agreement mediated by Qatar Tuesday will see medication delivered to Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza in exchange for medicine and humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians…

Source: Medicine for Israeli hostages and Palestinians arrives in Gaza under deal struck by Qatar – Egypt Independent