Aha. In Frank Herbert's novel DUNE, Paul Atreides is an insufferable little prat who decides that if he pretends to be emperor of the universe hard enough, everyone else will just go along.
And speaking of Timothée Chalamet...
BREAKING: Anthropic CEO says AI may or may not destroy all life on Earth if they don't make their next round of venture funding.
I'm calling it now. It's only a matter of time before some poor, innocent schmuck gets beaten to a pulp because he's wearing glasses and people think he's a pervert clandestinely filming someone.
Lewandowski had better keep an eye on his nostrils if he knows what's good for him...
Gawain! Now there was a chap with a good head on his shoulders.
One of the Knights of the Round Table was named Gareth. That hits my ear really bizarrely. It's like finding out that there was a pharaoh named Mitch.
I will say this about Copilot: it is unbelievably effective at creating a mountain of redundant work when you have to manually fix everything that it messes up.
Man, the "Wellness Industry" is so incredibly dodgy. Whenever I see some B-list celebrity flogging a wonder supplement, I automatically assume that the active ingredients are eye of newt, claw of toad, and possibly a hint of turpentine.
Hey! Payday and someone has reached out to commission an original drawing. A fine start for a Friday.
At some point, Meta’s standard “Oops!” Legal defense isn’t going to wash. That’s going to be interesting…
MIDSOMMAR is not a horror film. It’s a satire that uses a mix of folk horror and Bergman tropes to skewer both insular communities and self-centered academics.
Sumer is icumen in!
Coffee prepped for morning, litter boxes cleaned, kitchen cleaned, bathrooms...not appalling.
I'm a glamorous chap, I am.
There's something dark and horrendous about the grim fact that a majority of the people who make the decisions that govern our lives are all malevolent and nuts.
Now when you say "in" do you mean...
...uh...I'm going to defer to learned counsel on this matter.
Thomas the Tank Engine came to a dreadful end doing the Leeds-Bradford run, you know...
The poor lad was simply chuffed to bits.
The two types of people:
A: Ah! It's brisk today. Sun's out, a little wind...a good day for a walk.
B: YOU ARE A MONSTER AND ABOMINABLE. I'M GOING SOMEPLACE WHERE IT ISN'T FREEZING.
I know why a certain type of manager loves AI so much. It is that for them their primary metric of productivity is *visibility*. They are productive because they are SEEN to constantly be in meetings. They love AI because it produces...MORE. It doesn't matter if it is good or profitable...it's MORE.
Okay, I knew that she'd gotten the sack, but her new job title practically made me spit out my drink.
Is "The Shield of the Americas" a rather patriotic contraceptive device?
"You know the rules here! You can pick your friends and pick your nose but you CANNOT pick your friend's nose!"
Fast forward to 2026...
Boy, I tell you, you spend a couple of hours in meetings and what happens? The DHS Secretary gets the ignominious sack.
This is a first-rate excuse to recommend this barking mad joy of a film.
A collection of lovely books: "The Anatomy of Melancholy" by Robert Burton, "An Instance of the Fingerpost" by Iain Pears, "Songs of the Northern Seas" Egaeus Press, "The Code of the Woosters" by P.G. Wodehouse, Three novels by John Wyndham - The Day of the Triffids, The Midwich Cuckoos, and The Chrysalids, "Mordew" by Alex Pheby, "Ducks, Newburyport" by Lucy Ellmann
This sort of thing is catnip to me.
Someone asked me what it would take to get me to go back to the office. I replied:
"An office. A room with a desk, windows, and a door that I am permitted to shut if I'm on the phone with the Subcontinent or need to focus to complete a task."
That guy gives me the blues. I heard an interview with him recorded well before he went barking mad and he was lucid, sharp, and funny. Something turned his brains into banana pudding.
OMG. "The Rod Blagojevich".
I am not going to read anything funnier than this today.
A dreadful business, like picking a favorite child. I'll do a "pick and mix"
• Macbeth
• Hamlet
• King Lear
• Romeo and Juliet
• Richard III
• Coriolanus (I know this is a left-field choice but I will defend this play with my dying breath.)
I misread Kristi Noem as "Kristi Nemo" and now I can't stop picturing her conversion of the Nautilus into her ultra-luxe "Shagging Sub".
Before anyone misreads this as a defense of Claude, think of this as me sounding the alarm to be extremely careful and critical of *everything* that you read online these days.
Everyone who is sharing the post about Claude committing war crimes which was apparently generated by Claude — you are perfectly demonstrating the weaponization of confirmation bias. People are remarkably easy to persuade to believe in things that align with their preconceived notions.
