href weekly | June 2 – June 8 2025

Bits

mythcloud.eu explores the enduring power of shared stories and their relevance to our everyday lives. It is an open education resource developed as part of Erasmus+ project Digital Mythologies.

“It’s a symptom of a totalizing cultural paradigm in which passive consumption and regurgitation of content becomes the status quo.” https://www.404media.co/teachers-are-not-ok-ai-chatgpt/

“People are already trusting today’s friendly, patient, often insightful AIs for facts and guidance on nearly any issue, and they will be vulnerable to being misled and manipulated, whether by design or by emergent behavior.” What AI Thinks It Knows About You

“Developing a robust ethics, in other words, is participatory and cultural; rules have to be worked out in the complex context of the human experience, with a lot of trial and error. Maybe we should have known that commonsense rules, whether coded into a positronic brain or approximated by a large language model, wouldn’t instill machines with our every value.” What Isaac Asimov Reveals About Living with A.I.

“Deep learning can act as co-pilot. Without the eye of the humanist, though, you don’t stand a chance at decipherment.” https://longnow.org/ideas/the-codes-ai-cant-crack/

Gardening

“No class of beings have in any time past made so rapid a movement forward .. Our bondage will steal upon us noiselessly and by imperceptible approaches.” https://orionmagazine.org/article/natural-intelligence/

Travel

Love getting updates from my kids – they are working on Bornholm this month

Politics & Economics

Fascinating reporting on the role of shortwave #radio in the rise of far-right militias https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/articles/the-divided-dial-episode-2-you-must-form-your-militia-units

Why You Should Shop at Your Farmers Market This Summer https://thetyee.ca/News/2025/06/02/Why-Shop-Farmers-Market/

href weekly | May 26 – June 1 2025

Bits

Brock University’s Senate formally approved and adopted an ethical framework for educational technologies. https://mastodon.social/@rajiv@scholar.social/114597401223608167

Gardening

All my Spring seeds in the ground this week (bit later than usual this year) – garlic planted in October is thriving!

Film & Video

Tales From The Loop .. some compelling storytelling in these episodes

Music & Sound

fans rejoice .. a collection of 40 home recorded tapes https://archive.org/details/ajpa_20220828

“Segall has taken cues from pre-punk rock styles before—most notably on his eclectic 2018 record, Freedom’s Goblin—but on Possession they’re focused into a tight 10 songs. That brevity is effective. Stripped of filler, the album’s highlights hit harder, keeping them on target in a context where execution is especially important.” https://daily.bandcamp.com/album-of-the-day/ty-segall-possession-review

Humour

“And when you need to pass, you don’t need to yell, “WITNESS ME!” A simple honk of your horn is just fine.” https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-am-the-only-person-on-the-fury-road-who-still-drives-a-sensible-car