Dwarf planet song
This is pretty ridiculous and fun.
AI generated art is not copyrightable
According to a recent copyright application denial, AI generated art is not copyrightable. I highly suspect this will not be the end of the story as it brings up all kinds of questions about what it means to use increasingly more complex mechanisms to generate art.
Welcome to the (AI) Dungeon
Want to play some Dungeons and Dragon’s style adventuring, but don’t have time to set up the game night and campaign? Try AI Dungeon (also on Steam) created by Nick Walton, the founder and CEO of Latitude.
Nick Walton believes that AI will never fully replace humans in a creative capacity, but it can be the engine artists use to try out new ideas and spark creativity.
“There’s always going to be a really important place for humans defining what the experience is, what the story is, and what matters, but AI is essentially enabling every person to be a creative director of their own experience.” In other words, tech like this should be used to facilitate human creativity.
“Our goal is just to make it really easy for creators to build those types of experiences, and to continue to lower the barrier that it takes to build those.”
Most famous person from your town
Fascinating project that scans Wikipedia and reports the most famous person from just about any city and town on a big global map. Even my own tiny home town of about 3000 people had an entry. While many places have people famous for politics, sports, music, Nobel prize winners, and so forth, you might also discover that the most notable person from your town might have been a pretty terrible person – name recognition is fickle.
Father Mulcahy’s Sermon
“God created us so He could be here Himself – in the lives of those He created in His image”
Bahama’s Exumas
I think I have a new bucket list location. The Exumas (travel info here) are a district of the Bahamas, consisting of over 365 islands, also called cays. Renown for sapphire-blue waters, deserted cays, swimming pigs on Big Major Cay, and ultra-excusive resorts (like David Copperfield’s Musha Cay that rents for $50,000/night). It’s a real paradise on earth that draws people the world over.
Barilla pasta mix tapes
What do you do while waiting for your perfect pasta to cook? You could set a kitchen timer, but how about listening to Barilla’s spotify mixes that are timed to end exactly when your spaghetti, penne, linguine, rigatoni, fusilli, or other pasta is perfectly cooked? Just drop your pasta in, start the playlist, and your pasta is perfectly done when the music stops.
Maillardet Automaton
The Maillardet Automaton was a marvel of its time – and even amazing today. It was able to draw tremendously complex drawings. I can only imagine what people thought about it back in the 1800’s when it was created. It was so famous, exhibitions were held all over Europe.
It’s currently held in the Franklin Institute.
Own an island off the coast of Scotland
As of August 1, 2022, Scottish Pladda Island is for sale via Knight Frank. Besides the 27 acres of island, it also houses a working lighthouse, walled garden, lightkeepers house, various outbuildings, stone landing jetty, and even a helipad – for any offers in excess of £350,000 (approx. $426,000 USD).
There are some caveats. The lighthouse is still owned and operated by the Scottish Northern Lighthouse Board and they have right of servitude and access to the lighthouse and solar array for inspection, maintenance, repair, and renewal. They maintain right of access to tie up boats at the jetty and land helicopters. There is no power or water supply to the island. A well exists but the pump and storage tank must be replaced. None of the houses have been lived in for some time and renovations will be required.
However, for the cost of a house in a major city, you might just own your own Scottish island.
Checkout out the brochure and floorplans – or make your bid!
Past Participle mathematically
The past participle of ‘flew’ is ‘flown’ – but I’ve never seen it explained like this before.