I finished the audiobook edition of Co-Intelligence by Ethan Mollick. It is an excellent overview on how LLMs will likely evolve and be used in business, education, and more generally. The audiobook edition is fantastic. And at only 4.5 hours long. It's not much longer than some podcasts that get released these days! Highly recommended.
British poet Felicia Dorothea Hemans died #OTD in 1835.
Some of her most famous poems include "Casabianca," which begins with the memorable line "The boy stood on the burning deck," and "The Homes of England," which celebrates the virtues of home and family. Hemans also wrote historical and romantic poetry, drawing inspiration from literature, history, and mythology.
Natsume Sōseki's novel Light and Darkness (明暗, Mei An) begins to be serialized in the Tokyo and Osaka editions of the newspaper Asahi Shimbun, but will remain unfinished at the author's death on December 9, aged 49.
The fourth chapter of Stardust: Labyrinth is out! After the minor setback in the third chapter, the group ventures deeper into the eponymous labyrinth, and the sheer scale of the complex becomes apparent...
Hacked: The Secrets Behind Cyber Attacks by Jessica Barker, 2024
In this book, cybersecurity expert Jessica Barker uncovers how hackers are weaponizing cutting-edge tactics and technologies to target individuals and organizations, before showing how you can safeguard yourself against any potential attacks and how to react if you do become a target.
Dance with me until the moon hides its face,
And the sun attempts to quicken the pace.
From the sunlight, the vampire turns his face,
And dancers twirl to the light’s frenzied pace.
Just like TOKYO VICE, TOKYO NOIR is more of an intertwined anthology than the straightforward narrative you might expect. And amidst investigative adventurism and journalistic exposes of Japanese political scandals is a story surprisingly focused on personal tragedy.
The resignations and disciplinary actions come after it was revealed that certain authors and books—including R.F. Kuang's hit novel Babel—had been inexplicably deemed not eligible for the Hugo at Worldcon 2023 in Chengdu, China.
Géopolitique de la mode : Vers de nouveaux modèles
Sophie Kurkdjian analyse ces différentes évolutions, devenue phénomène global qui, au-delà de sa quête de créativité et d'innovation, doit repenser tout son système. Rattrapée par la surproduction et la surconsommation, la mode se trouve aujourd'hui aux prises avec des défis sociaux et environnementaux qui conditionnent son avenir.
The Turkish British writer Elif Shafak has published 19 books, many of which are bestsellers, and her novels have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the RSL Ondaatje Prize and the Women's Prize for Fiction. Yet she's also one of Turkish literature's most attacked authors, the victim of a campaign that started with fringe nationalist groups and has now been taken up by individuals associated with the ruling Justice and Development Party. Kaya Genç writes for The Dial about how this case is part of a wider trend in President Erdoğan's "new Turkey."
(Some) ignorant leftbros: "Class first! No idpol!"
Scholars of right wing politics/economics: "All these right-wing thinkers are much more comfortable thinking about the blurred lines between sexual and economic politics than many thinkers on the left. And they understand that Keynesianism rests on a certain kind of sexual contract. Any challenge to this order—whether it be an escalation of wage or benefit claims, or the flight from sexual normativity, or unmarried women claiming welfare benefits—disrupts the fiscal and monetary calculus on which Keynesianism rests."
Above remark from "The Extravagances of Neoliberalism", an interview of Melinda Cooper (author of "Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public Finance") by Benjamin Kunkel, in The Baffler.
I wonder if property prices dropped in Brighton & Hove dropped after Peter James started writing his Roy Grace novels. It seems everyone is a serial killer, victim or career criminal who lives there. #books#reading#crimefiction
Really enjoyed The Bone Harp by Victoria Goddard. It diverges a bit from The Lays of the Hearth-Fire series in that it's more abstract and set in a different world. The language is lyrical and free, with a lot of alliteration, pleasant, like a lullaby -- it's definitely a slow burn, if you like that (I do).
I really enjoyed the sprawling sense of imagination and the thoughtful details woven throughout the story.
"There were weavers who learned to capture the sky into impossible fabrics, so the people went garbed in sunsets and moonrises, in the blue of a mountain morning, the starry field of a winter midnight. There were glassblowers who created bells and bellflowers as delicate as Klara’s hoarfrost, gardens of glittering jewels where there had never been aught before but stone."
"Someone caught the winds in jewelled nets, and created symphonies of storms over the mountains. Someone sang the city into hills and towers, plunging pools and hanging gardens, and then spun bridges at dizzying heights between them."
Victoria Goddard has become one of my favorite fantasy authors. The Hands of the Emperor is one of my favorite books (it is about found family, empathy, kindness, being a foreigner/outsider). Her writing is a balm for troubled times and worth returning to time and again for solace.
Dutch poet, literary critic, & essayist Albert Verwey was born #OTD in 1865.
Verwey was a central figure in the Dutch literary movement known as the Tachtigers, which sought to revolutionize Dutch poetry by emphasizing individualism, emotion, and innovative language and form. The Tachtigers rejected the conventional poetic styles & themes of their time, advocating for a more personal and introspective approach to poetry.
Two of the most important pages from a book (“They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-45” by Milton Mayer) that I often revisit. What is on these pages has always been the case in the U.S. #books#bookstodon#vote
Old News but Worth Mentioning: Resignations, Censures Follow in Wake of Hugo Awards Controversy (www.publishersweekly.com)
The resignations and disciplinary actions come after it was revealed that certain authors and books—including R.F. Kuang's hit novel Babel—had been inexplicably deemed not eligible for the Hugo at Worldcon 2023 in Chengdu, China.