Cerebral Organoid [436]
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Cerebral Organoid [436]
Greetings from the shed...
My dog is suspicious of AI. Almost as much as she is of politicians.
#TheAction
A sedentary week. I’ve taken a few trips out of the shed, but on the whole i’ve been playing catch up. A little audio/video editing and I’ve got back into transcribing old journals. With only dog walks and little in the way or serious exercise, I feel my body is punishing me. While moving some (many) kilos of water-softening salt I trapped a nerve in my back. I won’t bore you with the details. Suffice to say i’m shuffling around like an elderly relative after a few pints at a wedding reception thinking they know how ‘do the robot dance’.
Anyway, how are you? Comments and replies always welcome.
#ThePictures
One of the things I pieced together this week was a collection of clips I shot on my phone over a couple of visits to Baavet HQ, a farm in Wales, and the north of England last week. Should you ever want to make your own wool duvet, you now know how.
Bit late to this but i’m enjoying working my way though Lupin. I’ve just finished the second series. Watch it in French with subtitles as the dubbed version just sounds weird.
This is a real treat. Louis Armstrong recording "I Ain't Got Nobody" in 1959.
#TheWords
9,790 days ago I was in Calcutta on the roof of The Paragon hotel in Sudder St. Doesn’t look like it’s changed much. Back then it was somewhere volunteers for Calcutta rescue would live. We’d ambled in because it looked cheep. Here are my first impressions…
With all its colonial architecture, incredibly rundown and shambling, the place looks like something out of the film The Day After. Not many travellers around. Even here in the backpacker end of town. All the cashpoints were closed for maintenance or beyond economical repair. So what we have is what we have, till we explore further. Tomorrow should be a different story. After our early start in Bangkok I’m knackered. Shane and Dave are still out foraging for cash and I just bought some food with what was left after paying for the room.
Bangkok can at times be fragrant. Spices and flowers, incense and fruit. India has a whole new smellscape. The peaks and troughs are exaggerated. There are the highs of the street food venders with hot oil and samosas. And the lows of the pollution and grime. The highs of sandalwood as you pass a shrine, and the lows of this room. It smells sickness and dying. Friendly atmosphere though. Like we’re all in this together.
That same day I met Trevor Fisher, a nurse who was living in the hotel. And I tested out a brand new tape recorder I had bought before leaving Thailand. It was a £27 (possibly fake) Sony Walkman that made hissy recordings. I recorded us having a jam. I’ve shared it here before.
Anyway, I dropped him a note on birdsite this week. Telling him I knew where he was 9788 days ago. And he made this lovely video in response.
I love a bit of backstory. Also that me meeting him 26 years ago is a continuing journey of discovery. An ongoing learning experience. It’s good to reflect on these things. Reflection is an important, if not vital part of the learning process.
Here is what we recorded.
Click on this wonderful read discussing Louis Armstrongs legacy.
#TheSound
Need something to work out to? Try this…
In my list of podcasts to listen to are a bunch on AI and automation. In Machines We Trust is one of them
#TheConsumed
Flapjacks are my favourite kind of energy food. Especially for cycling. This article has a super simple recipe that I will no doubt add to. For starters I have a kilo of goji berries that i’m told are well past their sell by date. Six months perhaps. A few days ago I soaked a handful and ate them with no ill effect. I don’t believe the superfood hype. I think of them as just a red raisin. But there are some studies claiming they help prevent Alzheimers. Anyway, expect some goji-bars sometime soon.
#TheBody
After all this time focusing on the ‘grey matter’, it looks like there are unknown interesting things occurring in our ‘white matter’.
The most exciting health breakthroughs of 2023.
#TheThings
I’d struggle to pick my five most important things. But this video from a person who’s lived nomadically for decades has me thinking I probably need to consider objects that bring protection, warmth, comfort and security.
Check out the Quadlock website as their famous yearly sale is on. I recently lost/misplaced the phone grip (they sent me FOC) but it’s now only £8. The issue with visiting the site though is I have now seen their tripod selfie stick. WANT ONE. They make it too easy as they not only make great tried-and-tested products, everyone I have spoken to there is either really well trained, or naturally just lovely.
#TheThanks
Thank you to Stuart and Cloudient for looking after my email, plus Richard and Fishmedia for keeping my stories online.
And all of you, who pay $5/month to support this dispatch. If you are a supporter and would like me to mention a project of yours let me know.
If you are able to upgrade and become a paid supporter, I have some love here with your name on it.
#TheWeb
GCHQ fesses up at not knowing what the risks are with A.I. So I asked ChatGPT what it thought. It said that outside of privacy violations, prolific deep fakery, market volatility, weapons automation, uncontrollable self-aware systems, socioeconomic collapse and an existential risk to humanity, things should be fine if we trust our government to do the right thing. Oh — Hang on. I just read that las bit back.
How exciting. Mosquitos and jellyfish are heading north.
Should structured society as we know it collapse it will be good to know where your friends are. Check the Documentally community map to find out where your nearest safe house is. Add your own if it’s not there. Obviously supporting subscribers will have access to the offline map as when the time comes, Google will probably shift the pins to lay traps.
Public speaking terrifies me. Yet I still volunteer to stand up in front of people and tell stories. Thanks to David Hughs for the invite. :-)
I heard the title of this newsletter while standing in a queue in Trespass while getting a refund on a broken backpack. It sounded like two people were trying to grow a person outside a human body. That’s Peterborough for you.
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#TheEnd
As this week has flown by, next week I plan to make the most out of every waking hour and thus slow time to a more cognitively friendly speed.
If my trapped nerve breaks free I plan to head to Durham tomorrow ready for Sunday and The Bright Ideas Gathering. Might I see you there?
Till then, have a great week and ignore what you can’t control.
“Life is such unutterable hell, solely because it is sometimes beautiful. If we could only be miserable all the time, if there could be no such things as love or beauty or faith or hope, if I could be absolutely certain that my love would never be returned: how much more simple life would be. One could plod through the Siberian salt mines of existence without being bothered about happiness. Unfortunately the happiness is there. There is always the chance (about eight hundred and fifty to one) that another heart will come to mine. I can't help hoping, and keeping faith, and loving beauty. Quite frequently I am not so miserable as it would be wise to be.” ~ T.H. White
Stay calm,
See you out there.
Over…
Cerebral Organoid [436]
Do you know where Jennifer went after she wrapped "In Machines We Trust"?