PicoBlog

Like the the government-commissioned Gladstone Report on AI itself, there are two sections here. First I cover the Gladstone Report’s claims and arguments about the state of play, including what they learned talking to people inside the labs. I mostly agree with their picture and conclusions, both in terms of arguments and reported findings, however I already mostly agreed. If these arguments and this information is new to someone, and the form of a government-backed report helps them process it and take it seriously, this is good work.

It’s orgy week. That’s according to Whit Stillman’s 1990 film Metropolitan, which gives the name to the period between Christmas and New Year’s Day — especially for the intellectually voracious, emotionally vulnerable New York debutantes of the film. Both coming-of-age story and end-of-an-era elegy, Metropolitan is, perhaps, my favorite Christmas movie. In fact, we’ve made a tradition of watching it on the first Sunday of Advent to usher the season in.

In this article, I want to discuss three different versions of Dune, the maligned 1984 arthouse blockbuster that director David Lynch credits with convincing him to never make a movie again without having secured final cut.  In addition to sharing my impressions of the Theatrical Version (1984) and the Broadcast Version (1988), I will provide new insight into the revision history of the picture, particularly when it comes to the sadly unrealized 4-hour director’s cut that Lynch had wanted to release on video in the latter half of the 1980s.

It’s been difficult to read social media following the murder of Houston influencer Mercedes Morr, born Jenae Gagnier. I’m not going to link to or screenshot the comments in which she is called a “scammer” or a “whore” who deserved her fate. Trawling through them once was enough. What I can tell you is that Mercedes was clearly a business-savvy model whose good looks appear to have attracted a deranged killer.

I was at a literary gathering in Seattle when the news hit that David Foster Wallace had killed himself. The sudden grief was palpable. Two of my friends, epic fans of Wallace, wiped away tears. They were two men mourning the death of their favorite writer—another man in such emotional and mental distress that he’d felt his only option was to suicide.

I woke up to the news on social media this (Saturday) morning that the writer Gabe Hudson had passed away at the age of 52. I don’t know how many of you know Gabe Hudson or his work, but it strikes me that it’s all too common that the first time lots of people hear about a writer is upon their death. Gabe the person is gone now, but thanks to the work he has left behind, it is not too late to know and appreciate his unique spirit as so many of us did while he was living.

Last week, we began with fundamental concepts such as authority, its derivation from God, and its necessary parameters; the exact nature of papal power and its five inseparable qualities; the distinction between magisterium and jurisdiction; and the pope’s subjection to natural law and canon law. ncG1vNJzZmisopaxqsDIqKWsmZ6ewbp60q6ZrKyRmLhvr86mZqlnn6N6tbTEZqqcp6CaeqK6w2ajoqWZqcBuu8Vmp5qokaF6eIGS

California sober. If you haven’t heard the phrase before, “California sober” is a clever way to say, I’ve quit drinking or using drugs, but I still smoke pot. Because cannabis doesn’t count. Cannabis is medicine. Occasionally people who use the phrase extend it even further, usually to psychedelics. To be California sober, you see, is not to be sober at all. I kept thinking about California sobriety as I read Matthew Perry’s autopsy report, a tragic and depressing glimpse into the way far too many Americans live now.

Dear Readers, Good afternoon, and welcome to Off The Fence, a plump little newsletter to the UK’s Only Magazine. There’s a lot happening at the moment: Issue 17 is being finalised tomorrow, and should be with us very soon. Next week, we’ll barrage you with some details about this issue – there are a couple of outstanding features within.  So, now, more than ever, there’s never been a better time to subscribe to the magazine – you’ll get two pieces of post in a fortnight from a quarterly magazine, which really is very exciting indeed.