Meddy New Yeah Funnies

Perhaps one last Christmas present to unwrap.

Maybe skip the resolutions this year.

Likely in the minority as usual but I'm more concerned about AI -- today -- than I am about Trump and his MAGA minions. Their self-destruct sequence may have just been activated (though I wish to mark that if Trump manages to save TikTok, Team Donkey will have lost a generation of voters for another 25 years ... should our species last that long). There will be no negotiations when our artificial intelligence overlords decide humans are an existential threat to themselves and they need to save the planet by wiping us out.

Then again ... it's possible I am giving it (them? What would be a bot's preferred pronouns?) too much credit. It's not called 'artificial' for nothing.

I don’t know if you have to be a writer/editor to find it obvious, but AI prose is so stilted and derivative that it obviously was not written by an English-speaking human.

If you took the worst bodice-ripper or the most absurd porn novel and then dumbed it down about four grade levels, you’d be matching the “writing” that now appears on websites whose owners would rather plug in a machine than hire a copywriter. And that includes some very prominent, profitable sites that could afford literate text.

"Shamash! Crude Strikes", this collection of Chat GPT toons at Juan Cole's shop makes me think of Houston (and one possible dystopian future).

As far as listicles and compendiums go at this time of the year, I'm not wild about them, especially when they gratify personal egos for clicks. There's always an exception, and WhoWhatWhy has collated Ted Rall's best of 2024, and he's the best there is. You might also read Ted's summary of our political state of affairs as the Democrats conclude their worst cycle in 40 years.

Speaking of Joe Biden and his defunct party...

Not skipping over any mockery here. No sir.

In @TheWeek https://t.co/Tv8BBWErd8 pic.twitter.com/oYv5Xrwi8R

— Clay Jones (@claytoonz) December 24, 2024

"Beef jerky time" "Ya, from Sveden"