Good! That's the right attitude, Gen Z. It's the very one the adults in the room should have had for the Internet when it was introduced. We are STILL without basic protections from stalking, hacking, etc. Silicon Valley and the Media keep gleefully talking about all of the humans that AI will replace and just like Cheadle in the Space Jam scene, these wealthy shitheads love to brag about what their plans are. Stay skeptical about artificialintelligence, GenZ.
Song Review(s): Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros featuring the Wolfpack - “Artificial Flowers,” “Friend of the Devil,” “Big Boss Man,” “Me and My Uncle” and “Shakedown Street” (Live, Dec. 17, 2023)
“I thought I remembered that one better than I did,” Bob Weir told the audience after yelping and slashing his way through a rough-and-tumble rendition of “Artificial Flowers” that found him forgetting lyrics; stopping and starting over; and generally embarrassing himself as he opened his Dec. 17 concert with Wolf Bros featuring the Wolfpack that was livestreamed from New York State.
Maybe things improved in the mid- to late-moments of the first and second sets. Perhaps they did not. In any event, the five-song giveaway epitomized a band having a bad night.
Bassist Don Was and drummer Jay Lane emerged after the solo-acoustic disaster to add skittering rhythm to “Friend of the Devil.” But with amateurish, wildly off-key vocals and an almost comical acoustic-guitar solo from Weir, the rhythm section’s presence didn’t really matter.
The addition of Jeff Chimenti’s piano on “Big Boss Man” resulted in the Bros actually sounding like a semi-professional band despite Weir’s clangy, abrasive electric-guitar tone.
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Chimenti and Barry Sless overlaid sprightly solos on piano and pedal-steel guitar, respectively, during “Me and My Uncle. But the sloppy underpinning rendered their efforts for naught.
Which led to a poorly-sung, 10-piece rendition of “Shakedown Street,” on which the Wolfpack seemed to still be working on its horn and string arrangements. The music was therefore pockmarked with so many quiet holes, the buzz of the monitors bled into the livestream feed.
Grade card: Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros featuring the Wolfpack - “Artificial Flowers,” “Friend of the Devil,” “Big Boss Man,” “Me and My Uncle” and “Shakedown Street” (Live - 12/17/23) - F/D/C+/C/C-
If you ever wondered what came before Steven Spielberg took over the reins of A.I. Artificial Intelligence, this is the video for you: a chronicle of all the attempts that Kubrick made to invent a story based on Super-Toys: 1) Brian Aldiss, 2) Bob Shaw, 3) Brian Aldiss, 4) Ian Watson, 5) Arthur C. Clarke, 6) Ian Watson, 7) Arthur C. Clarke, 8) Stanley Kubrick, 9) Sara Maitland, 10) Steven Spielberg. Followed by my theory on why the project wasn't made (besides the obvious reason, that is).
The sixth and final episode of my series Cracking the Kube is out now. Enjoy!
So Oppenheimer really went and blew up Hollywood as the ultimate form of marketing huh? Check Mate Barbie.
(But for real, support the bloody strike, it’s way more important than not getting to see Hugh Jackman as Wolwerine as soon as you hoped. It may very well be the last stance of this proportion we’ll ever take against artificial intelligence and the right to earn an actual living doing actual art).
Hey so remember how grocery prices suddenly jackknifed during lockdown and never went back down?
Well turns out the companies would have done that shit either way and had been steadily price-fixing for the last decade!
Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson just announced more than $40 million in court-ordained Fuck You money from massive swaths of food production companies are to be paid out to households earning at or below 175% of the federal poverty level ($25.5k for 1 person, $34.5k for 2 people households) before Dec 31st of this year. Happy Holidays.
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"The bottom line here is that my legal team took on two large corporate price-fixing conspiracies that increased the cost for groceries for Washington families. We've prevailed, and as a result, we are sending checks to over 400,000 Washington households."
Cannot stress enough the extent of the conspiracies he's talking about here. 15 out of the total 19 chicken producers got nailed in this lawsuit. Not the total number of conspirators, mind, just the ones who left enough evidence for the AG to kick their ass in so expedient a manner. Make no mistake, all 19 were in on it. The court case against the rest of them has been delayed until October of next year, though. None of them are making it out unscathed.
Tuna didn't escape antitrust horseshit either, because the CEOs of Starkist, Chicken of the Sea, and Bumblebee Tuna had a fucking group chat where they complained that the price of tuna was "too low" and they agreed to artificially inflate the price.
“What’s so maddening about the conduct of these companies is the reason that they engaged in this price-fixing conspiracy was greed. They wanted to make money."
So anyway the AG who nailed their asses to the wall and continues to do so is running for governor. If you live in Washington, could be worth your vote when primary season rolls around.
Microsoft and Siemens are joining forces to usher in a new era of human-machine collaboration.
The result of the collaboration is the Siemens Industrial Copilot, a powerful AI assistant designed to enhance collaboration between humans and machines in the manufacturing sector. The tool enables rapid generation, optimisation, and debugging of complex automation code, significantly reducing simulation times from weeks to minutes.
At the core of this collaboration is the integration of Siemens Industrial Copilot with Microsoft Teams, connecting design engineers, frontline workers, and various teams across business functions. This integration simplifies virtual collaboration, empowering professionals with new AI-powered tools and simplifying tasks that previously required extensive time and effort.
Empowering industries with Generative AI
Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft, expressed the immense potential of this collaboration, stating: “With this next generation of AI, we have a unique opportunity to accelerate innovation across the entire industrial sector.”
Siemens CEO Roland Busch echoed this sentiment; emphasising the revolutionary impact on design, development, manufacturing, and operations.
The companies envision AI copilots becoming integral in industries such as manufacturing, infrastructure, transportation, and healthcare.
Schaeffler AG – a leading automotive supplier – is already embracing generative AI, enabling engineers to generate reliable code for industrial automation systems. Siemens Industrial Copilot will work to reduce downtimes.
Facilitating virtual collaboration
To facilitate virtual collaboration, Siemens and Microsoft are launching Teamcenter for Microsoft Teams; an application that utilises generative AI to connect functions across the product design and manufacturing lifecycle.
This integration will allow millions of workers who previously lacked access to Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) tools to contribute seamlessly to the design and manufacturing processes.
The collaboration between Microsoft and Siemens looks set to be an excellent case study of how AI empowers industries and professionals, revolutionising traditional workflows and fostering global innovation.
(Photo by Sezer Arslan on Unsplash)
See also: Bob Briski, DEPT®: A dive into the future of AI-powered experiences
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Writing and drawing while being human and using a thumb
Human brains have the ability to be imaginative and creative. This ability is used, for example, when you imagine that a flat tire could happen and then, after checking the spare tire for soundness, you creatively pack the car so that if you do have a flat you don’t need to remove all of your luggage to get to the spare. Imagination and creativity are used in any “if this then that” kind of…