Bits
#web https://letsblock.it Remove low-quality content and useless nags, focus on what matters.
How the internet reshaped itself around Google’s search algorithms — and into a world where websites look the same. #web https://www.theverge.com/c/23998379/google-search-seo-algorithm-webpage-optimization
the line between benign content and spam [is becoming] increasingly blurry – a situation that will surely worsen in the wake of #generative #AI https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/google_search_results_spam/
At this point, our average #AI bro, reborn from Cryptohell, will chime in and teach us that this is just the beginning and that very soon, we won’t be able to tell the difference anymore. Well played, AI bro! But you’re off-topic. We can tell now and we need to not fool ourselves that others won’t notice. https://ia.net/topics/ai-art-is-the-new-stock-image
Sound & Music
Here are some major touchpoints from the #cowpunk catalog to be found on #bandcamp from genre originators, to fast followers and regional spin-offs, to artists proudly self-identifying with the genre today. https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/cowpunk-album-guide
Yamaha channeling some Teenage Engineering #synth https://usa.yamaha.com/products/music_production/music-production-studios/seqtrak/index.html
it does evoke winds whipping over lonely plains, scratchy 45s booming out of shotgun shacks, and the vertigo-induced melancholy of being at the center of a giant landscape. Move over, Midwestern emo: this is Southwestern ambient. #bandcamp https://daily.bandcamp.com/album-of-the-day/cowboy-sadness-selected-jambient-works-vol-1-review
On one level it’s impressive that Spotify can perfectly capture my musical taste in a series of data points, and regurgitate it to me in a series of weekly playlists. But as good as it has gotten, I can’t remember the last time it pointed me to something I never expected I would like, but ultimately fell totally in love with. #music #culture #ai https://www.platformer.news/why-pitchfork-died/
Politics & Economics
“My biggest gripe about urbanization is it’s essentially unplanned except for one thing: commerce. That’s planned. Poverty is a design issue. It’s a failure to accommodate everybody. By design, cities should include every single individual who lives there.” #solarpunk https://1ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newyorker.com%2Fculture%2Fthe-new-yorker-interview%2Fdickson-despommier-wants-our-cities-to-be-like-forests
two million square kilometres of land and water #canada #trc https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/nunavut-trudeau-sign-devolution-argreement-1.7086272