Sunday Morning Reading

Silver linings, taking stock, a revival of the Avant-Garde, and the future of chocolate all in this week’s Sunday Morning Reading to Share

Weekends used to be for taking a breath. That seems so long ago it’s tough to measure it conventionally as it somehow sadly just slipped away. Even so, there’s still time to share some Sunday Morning Reading.

Artificial Intelligence remains on the tip of all the digital tongues these days, though it’s yet to show any real promise that I’ve seen. Except for those who got in early on the cash grab. Steven Levy has an interesting piece, Tech Leaders Once Cried For AI Regulation. Now the Message is ‘Slow Down.’ Sounds like the cash isn’t as easy to grab as much as it used to be.

Speaking of AI, Chris Castle has an interesting piece on Music Technology Policy called Has The Ship Sailed On The Myth of “Responsible AI”? I’m not even sure it ever qualified for myth status, but whatever it is, that ship is out of the harbor. Hat Tip to Stan Stewart.

Kyle Chayka thinks The Dumbphone Is Real. This comes as so many blame smartphones for the decline of civilization among other smaller sins. Call me when every company in the world no longer begs you to pay your bills online, you can reach your doctor’s office via a phone, or tech companies (including those that make dumb phones don’t put you through hell trying to get techncial support from a person. I’ll take that call on my smartphone.

Most things get recycled. Including art movements. Helen Shaw takes a look at one such revival/remount in The Avant-Garfde Is Back On The Launchpad about the Wooster Group’s remounting of Richard Foreman’s Symphony of Rats.

Jamelle Bouie’s When Politicians Invoke the Founding Fathers, Remember This is interesting. First, because the title changed from when it first appeared in The New York Times. Originally it was The Founding Fathers Don’t Have the Answers To Every Question. I wrote about that here. My points remain, so does Bouie’s (which are excellent). The headline writing still suffers.

Richard Stengel suggests that 2024 election coverage should be free and out from behind paywalls. He makes a good argument in Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls.

One of my favorite writers, NatashaMH gets quite poignant and, protestations aside, quite brave in doing so, in The Distance Between a Breath And Sadness. I think we should all learn how to better measure that distance.

David Todd McCarty uncharacteristically goes Searching for Silver Linings.

And to close things out on a bitter sweet note, Isable Fattal takes a look at The Future of Chocolate. It’s a summary for articles about the future of chocolate as she tells us to savor our favorites whlle we can. Apparently, yet another in a long line of sweet life things where we need to measure the difference between a breath and sadness because there may not be a silver lining.

If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

Sunday Morning Reading

The world seems a bit crazier each week when the calendar flips to Sunday. In the lead up to a ‘sun eating’ total solar eclipse perhaps a bit more so. Don’t gamble on things settling down after it passes. Regardless, here’s some Sunday Morning Reading to share.

According to Bertrand Russell “fear is the main source of superstition.” That may well be true. David Todd McCarty takes a look at The Disparity Between Fear and Progress.

Kyle Orland in Ars Technica tells us that Google Might Make Users Pay for AI Features in Search Results. I can’t imagine anything less intelligent.

Speaking of AI, NatashaMH wonders Will We Ever Be Ready for the Future? Have we ever?

Getting back to creativity in the real world, textile artist Minga Opazo explores being confident, finding solutions, and balancing research with your artistic practice in Engaging With The World In Your Work. Hat tip to Stan Stewart.

On the politics beat, Robert Faturechi, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski of ProPublica take a look at what appears to be another in a long line of Trump scams, this time with his last minute bond bailout. Ethical concerns abound in Trump’s Lawyers Told The Court No One Wold Give Him a Bond. Then He Got A Lifeline, But They Didn’t Tell The Judges. Too bad ethics don’t matter much anymore.

One thing about the political beat is that most of what we see and read is re-packaging things most of us already know. Details do matter, but not after the orange bull has wrecked the China shop. Lachlan Cartwright tells us What I Saw At The National Enquirer During Trump’s Rise. A too late, but good read.

Our Entire Society Is Becoming Addicted to Sports Gambling says Alex Shephard. I’m sure everyone saw this coming once the Supreme Court gave gambling the go ahead. Don’t forget, someone paid off Justice Kavanaugh’s gambling debts as he was being groomed for the bench.

To close things out, here’s a bit of history about solar eclipses from Leah Sarnoff in ‘The Sun Has Been Eaten’: Inside The History and Mystery of Total Solar Eclipses.

Sunday Morning Reading

The price of chocolate is through the roof and even ideas seem to be melting away in some fashion or the other in this Easter edition of Sunday Morning Reading.

The price of chocolate is through the roof and even ideas seem to be melting away in some fashion or the other in this Easter edition of Sunday Morning Reading.

Leading off this Easter Sunday morning it appears the price of cocoa is soaring leading to worry for chocolate makers and chocolate lovers. Aliina Selyukh covers it in Pricier Easter Bunnies and Eggs. Half-Dipped Kit Kats. What’s Up with Chocolate?

Much of this week’s news was dominated by the Baltimore maritime disaster at the Francis Scott Key Bridge. This is an fascinating take from Will Bunch: A Ship Crashed Into a Baltimore Bridge and Demolished the Lies About Immigration.

Less fascinating perhaps, but also timely, A.W Ohlheiser says The Slow Death of Twitter Is Measured in Disasters Like the Baltimore Bridge Collapse.

David Todd McCarty tackles the power and the mystery of ideas in The Idea of Things.

Moving into the poltical world Marc O. De Girolami may be late to the party but he’s correct when he says Something Other Than Originalism Explains This Supreme Court.

Perhaps the most important political piece written this week comes from Chris Quinn, editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Check out Our Tump Reporting Upsets Some Reades But There Aren’t Two Sides To Facts: Letter From the Editor. Better yet, forward it on to the editor, publishers, and programmers of your local media sources.

Andres Marantz wonders Why We Can’t Stop Arguing About Whether Trump Is A Facist. It begs the question as to who is arguing this anymore, but it’s a good read.

Will Knight takes a look Inside The Creation of the World’s Most Powerful Open Source AI Model.

Meanwhile Erik Hoel says A.I.-Generated Garbage Is Polluting Our Culture.

And to round out this week’s edition, Catherine Rampbell tells us The Internet Was Supposed To Make Humanity Smarter. It’s Failing.

Sunday Morning Reading

The line between Winter and Spring can be as confusing as it is normal. That fine line between confusing/normal runs through most this week’s Sunday Morning Reading. Enjoy!

It’s a Spring Sunday morning in Chicago. Nippy temps frustrate the daffodils that keep brushing off the snowflakes. As confusing as the weather may be, it’s also quite normal. That fine line between confusing/normal runs through a lot of this week’s Sunday Morning Reading. Mostly tech, some music, some marketing, some fear, and a troll or two, Enjoy!

The big tech news this week was the U.S. going after Apple as a monopoly. It’s brought out the the explainers and turned legions of Apple fan boys into anti-trust lawyers. Even the lawyers are going to need lawyers to figure this one out in my view. One of the best early inning reactions to this was from Jason Snell at Six Colors in U.S. versus Apple: A First Reaction.

When Marketing is everything, everything eventually gets reductive. Doc Searls of The Cluetrain Manifesto fame tackles this in Getting Us Wrong, a piece from December that recently resurfaced in my feeds and is always a timely read. So too is The Cluetrain Manifesto.

The Disparity Between Fear And Progress by David Todd McCarty strikes a chord (actually chords) that I think many of us hear vibrating these days.

Grim Tales, Fairy Dusts And All That Makes Us Gullible At Bedtime by NatashaMH jumps into the space between wanting to know and suspending disbelief. An interesting troll on it’s own.

Social Media always seems to be at war with itself over most things, misinformation being one in a long list. I’m not sure Social Media presents more or less of that than other means of socialization, but Scott Duke Kominers and Jesse Shapiro think It’s Time To Give Up On Ending Social Media’s Misinformation Problem.

Joan Westenberg thinks the creator economy is a dead end for most creators. Is there an alternative? Check out The Creator Economy Trap: Why Building On Someone Else’s Platform Is A Dead End.

Musician and composer Stan Stewart thinks it’s dangerous to explain something before he does it, but he does so anyway in I’ve Got Some Explaining To Do. With all that’s going on in the world there’s something cooking up inside of Stan and I’m looking forward to the music that comes from this.

Christopher Mims spent a couple of weeks using AI tools to do his work and comes out convinced we’re on the cusp of a ‘Cognitive Revolution.’ As he puts it: “Here’s my verdict: The last time I had an experience this eye-opening and transformative was after I bought my first smartphone.” Check out his thoughts in Want To Know If AI Will Take Your Job? I Tried Using It To Replace Myself.

Sunday Morning Reading

It’s a Sunday morning of a somewhat lost, yet restorative weekend. Simultaneous with spring daffodils starting to bloom, the cast from my recent gig, The Lehman Trilogy, made a suprise trip from Memphis to Chicago to visit for the weekend. Made we think and feel deeply. Made me laugh. It was glorious. Bonds don’t get any deeper. I needed that. That said, and still recovering, here’s some Sunday Morning Reading to share.

First up David Todd McCarty is searching for the answers on why we do the things we do in Frittering Away What’s Left of Eternity. Terrific piece with no frittering. Resonated with me when it was published earlier this week. After this weekend it resonates with stronger vibrations.

Radley Balko delves into The War On the Woke in an excellent piece The War on the Woke Trumps the Truth for Heterodox Thinkers.

Sarah Jones takes a look at The Exvangelicals Searching for Political Change. I think she coined “Exvangelical.” Regardless of the label credit, its meaning sticks.

Jim Sciutto sees current global tensions as a 1939 Moment in his new book The Return of The Great Powers. Russia, China and the Next World War. I’m looking forward to reading it. You should too. In the meantime, David Smith talks about Sciutto’s book in ‘A 1939 Moment’: Jim Sciutto On Russia, China and the Threat of War.

Once a teacher always a teacher. I grew up in a family of teachers. NatahsMH in The Blind Leading the Blind recounts her experiences of teaching young ones what it’s like to experience being disabled for only an hour. I’m not talking comedy, but here’s the punch line: “And you experienced being disabled for one hour. Imagine a lifetime. Now go design the world a better, smarter place.”

It’s been 10 years? On the anniversary David Pierce wonders Who Killed Google Reader? I remember that death. The internet remains, but there’s a hole left by it.

Sunday Morning Reading

Some Sunday Morning Reading as the time shifts and some are racing against the clock to turn back the hands of time in our political and social lives. Yes, some politics but also some history and some tech today.

Laughter may be the best medicine, but not when it can be used against us. Fintain O’Toole in the New York Review of Books takes a look at how cruel humor can be used as a weapon. Laugh Riot is an excellent if not troubling (also long) read.

(Side note: some folks get upset at links I offer here that are behind paywalls or require registration. I get it. Two thoughts: Writers deserve to get paid. Also, there are only a gazillion ways around circumventing these kinds of things on the Internet. Use your smarts.)

Taylor Lorenz offers up The Word ‘Viral’ Has Lost Its Meaning. I think she’s correct.

The use of Artificial Intelligence continues to baffle. Charles Bethea takes a look at The Terrifying A.I. Scam That Uses Your Loved One’s Voice.

Speaking of baffling tech, Steven Aquino takes a look at How Smart Home Technology Made My Home More Accessible. Why do I say baffling? Steven’s post isn’t, but in the potential gold mine and boon for those with accessibility issues that is Smart Home Tech, no one has gotten this right yet. When it works it’s great. When it doesn’t it’s a mess.

Apparently back in 2022 the US was quite nervous that Putin would launch a nuke towards Ukraine. Check out Jim Sciutto’s piece Exclusive: US Prepared ‘Rigoursly’ for potential Russian Nuclear Strike in Ukraine in 2022. It’s a good read, although I’m not sure why it’s an exclusive as I recall most of us being worried about this.

Josh Kovensky in Talking Points Memo takes us Inside A Secret Society of Prominent Right-Wing Christian Men Prepping for a ‘National Divorce.’

Sascha Pare tells us that Scientists Just Discovered A Massive Reservoir Of Helium Beneath Minnesota. Sounds like the Iron Range might be getting a new nickname.

And returning back to time, David Todd McCarty is searching for answers. I think we all are. Well worth your time to read Frittering Away What’s Left of Eternity.

Sunday Morning Reading

Still bouncing back and through some health issues, but it’s Sunday and we’re approaching the start of the baseball season. So here’s some Sunday Morning Reading to share.

David Todd McCarty wonders how we convince friends and family that they’re wrong and we’re right in today’s mixed up world in Those Closest To Us. My hunch is that’s becoming no longer possible.

The Internet is as mixed up and crazy as everything else in the world these days. Was it always? Joan Westenberg published a zine that you can download for free called I Miss The Internet: a zine. I’d grab a copy if I were you.

The bills always come due. But this one might never get paid. Christopher Mims takes a look at the growing problem of technical debt in The Invisible $1.52 Trillion Problem: Clunky Old Software.

It didn’t take long for someone to create an AI worm. Makes one wonder where the good guys are who might use AI to beat this stuff back. Matt Burgess sounds the alarm in Here Come the AI Worms.

Sports analytics has been the latest craze for quite some time now. With the Major League Baseball season just around the corner, some are concerned that AI will eventually overwhelm the new wave of analysts and the games. The AP has this report from Jimmy Golen, Sports Analytics May Be Outnumbered When It Comes to Artificial Intelligence.

And from the tech future to the tech past, check out American’s Last Morse-Code Station by Saahil Desai.

Sunday Morning Reading

Playing a bit of catch up after a week off due to some health issues and travel to visit the grandkids, so here’s some Sunday Morning Reading to catch up on and share as the world continues its wobbly spin.

Context is Everything. I concur with NatashaMH. Cat piss and all.

Trigger me this: John Mellencamp says that one way to combat our US problem with guns is to start showing the carange on the news. Daniel Kreps tells us about it in John Mellencamp on How To End Gun Violence: ‘Show America the Carnage.’ I think Mellencamp is right.

Teri Kanefield has a nice rundown on Why Some Prefer Oligarchy and What’s Russia Got To Do, Got To Do With It? If you don’t follow Teri’s stuff, you should.

Michel Schwirtz and Adam Entous writing for The New York Times put out an explosive piece on The Spy War: How The CIA Secretly Helps Ukraine Fight Putin. It’s not explosive for the content because those who need to know these things already do. What’s intriguing is that when info like this hits the Main Stream Media, there’s always a motive. The question is whose?

James Carville writes a piece for The Bulwark entitled A Crusade for Something Noble. If the title triggers you, read the article. If the subject matter doesn’t trigger you, well… let’s just say don’t say you weren’t warned.

Christopher Mims says AI means It’s The End of the Web As We Know It. I think he’s right, but have we ever really known this moving target?

David Dreams of Everything is a nice piece of introspection from David Todd McCarthy. Also check out his piece Fish Or Cut Bait.

Sunday Morning Reading

Sunday Morning Reading is taking a hiatus this week as I’m spending time with the grandkids and most of my reading has been with my grandson.

Sunday Morning Reading will be back next week. Carry on.

If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

Sunday Morning Reading

Here’s some Sunday Morning Reading to share on a day when the political world is fixated on diatribes about age, infirmity, and a tottering judicial system that’s too long in the tooth and already rotted out with decay. Meanwhile a majority of eyeballs are getting ready to tune all of that out and watch some talented young athletes bash each other’s brains out on a playing field, hoping for a moment of glory. But hey, you can always do some reading.

First up, Clare Malone wonders Is The Media Prepared for An Extinction Level Event? The short answer is no. But read the article. It’s good.

And speaking of bordering on extinction, David Brooks in The New York Times pens an interesting piece titled Trump Came for Their Party But Took Over Their Souls.A bit like that old axiom about shutting barn doors after the horses have galloped away, but worth a read.

Smart Is Not Always Wise, says David Todd McCarty. He’s right. I may have linked to this already, but it’s worth you catching up to if you haven’t yet. Also check out The Scale of Evil Things. Smart and wise.

One of the mysteries of our time is how so many got suckered into so much bullshit thinking about things that used to feel like touchstones in our lives. In this piece, Reed Galen is talking about religion. The scary thing is how spot on the title is: Hiding in Plain Sight.

NatashaMH thinks she needs to be fucked up in order to be creative in her piece The Fucked Up Creative. Here’s to being fucked up if that’s the case.

Back on the politics beat, but also the fucked up beat, Ronald Brownstein talks about the non-secret plans the decaying orange turd has if he gets elected again in Trump’s ‘Knock on the Door’. We can’t say we didn’t see it coming this time around.

The Apple Vision Pro continues to dominate tech talk and here are a couple of interesting takes from this second week of that beta project’s life in the wild. Apple Vision Pro Review: Eyes on the Future by Jason Snell of Six Colors and Christopher Mim’s analysis that Apple’s New Face Computer Is For Work.

And finally to close out the morning here’s a look at How Steinbeck Used The Diary as a Tool of Discipline, A Hedge Against Self Doubt, and a Pacemaker for the Heartbeat of Creative Work by Maria Popova. No AI or fancy tech required.