href weekly | March 3 – 9

Bits

love this application of https://www.tiktok.com/@thereiruinedit/video/7341212496226995499

We have to keep our heads about us because when opportunities do arise to voice our concerns, or propose alternatives, we need to be able to calmly and clearly describe the future we’d rather have instead. https://cohost.org/mtrc/post/4279028-ai-is-already-better

“the equivalent of adding a new heavily industrialized country, like Sweden or Germany, to the planet.” https://newrepublic.com/article/179538/environment-artificial-intelligence-water-energy

Unlimited AI-generated practice problems and answers https://www.wolframalpha.com/problem-generator/

“Don’t bookmark. Download. Hard drives are cheap. Fill them up with everything you think you might need to consult, watch, read, listen to, or cite in the future.” https://ubu.com

“Ransomware also tends to be the bill collector for technical debt.” https://www.bl.uk/home/british-library-cyber-incident-review-8-march-2024.pdf

According to a new study by University of California Riverside researchers, roughly two weeks of training for GPT-3 consumed about 700,000 liters of freshwater. The global AI demand is projected by 2027 to account for 4.2-6.6 billion cubic meters of water withdrawal, which is more than the total annual water withdrawal of Denmark or half of the United Kingdom. https://www.noemamag.com/thirsty-bots-are-drinking-our-scarce-water/

Music & Sound

ambient.garden is a musical landscape in a website. The music is laid out in a landscape which can be explored, either interactively, or automatically when the autopilot is left on.

Politics & Economics

“the relatively new revenue source for landlords across Canada has been a major cause of housing financialization, where is treated as a commodity, or a vehicle for profit and investment, rather than a social good.” https://thewalrus.ca/airbnbs-canadian-housing/

More than 20 communities in Manitoba and nearly 70 northern communities nationwide are fly-in only for most of the year, and rely on a window lasting just six to eight weeks in the winter to import their annual supply of food, fuel, medical supplies, construction materials and other vital infrastructure on a network of roads built from ice and snow. https://thenarwhal.ca/manitoba-ice-road-emergency/

 

href weekly | Feb 25 – Mar 2

Bits

Your ass is showing .. N.S. government scraps Coastal Protection Act https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/coastal-protection-act-environment-tim-halman-climate-change-1.7125745

Music & Sound

a collection of six short stories about the strange and twisted ways we interact with the internet, and with each other. The stories take on digital appropriation, toxic positivity, a self-help podcast for people who hate self-help and a talking chicken. Each immersive episode is packed with intimate and jarring stories that are both completely familiar and somehow confoundingly alien. It’s like Black Mirror for your ears. https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/1033-limited-capacity