A writer signing their name as “Jenka” on Medium describes a Midjourney experiment to envision selfie photos throughout history, which gave the subjects big smiles, making them all look American.
Smiling is not a universal language; the big, confident grin is uniquely American, Jenka says. Eastern Europeans see someone who smiles all the time as foolish or dishonest.
Jenka quotes French-American journalist Camille Baker, who writes about a woman Baker calls “Sofiya:”
“The expectation was, you have to smile eight hours a day,” [Sofiya says]. A 41-year-old Russian émigré who had been living in the United States for the past decade, Sofiya “was a proficient English speaker,” Baker writes, but it was in her job as a bank teller that she “came face-to-face with her deficiency in speaking ‘American.’ This other English language, made up of not just words but also facial expressions and habits of conversation subtle enough to feel imagined. Smiling almost constantly was at the core of her duties as a teller. As she smiled at one customer after another, she would wince inwardly at how silly it felt. There was no reason to smile at her clients, she thought, since there was nothing particularly funny or heartwarming about their interactions. And her face hurt.”
This Disturbing Theory Explains Pixar’s Cars.
By Jason Torchinsky at Jalopnik.
Things I saw around the neighborhood
I wonder whether the new Wordpress version handles untitled blog posts better than previous versions. Such a simple thing, but it’s what eventually drove me off the platform.
My latest: $61B Broadcom-VMware merger is probably toast, says legal expert. The British Competition and Markets Authority launched an in-depth investigation of the deal Wednesday. Some 60% of M&As die once the CMA gets its hooks into them.
Five years ago today: I got hungry for a sweet before bedtime so I ventured out of my hotel at about 11 pm and found this Starbucks. It was closed.
Things I saw while walking the dog
Minnie and I saw this display at a house we walked past yesterday.
Police had a warrant for drug trafficking and kidnapping. They destroyed his front door and driveway gate, “lost” $400 of cash they took, and ogled a lemon pound cake, according to a report by Ashley Belanger on Ars Technica.
Afroman later released songs and music videos about the incident, entitled “Lemon Pound Cake” and “Will You Help Me Repair My Door.” The videos went viral. The officers allege they face embarrassment, ridicule, humiliation, and loss of reputation.
Afroman was never charged with a crime. The officers should be charged with criminal ignorance of the Streisand Effect.
I tried Grammarly yesterday and I like it a lot
Shower thought: What’s the deal with Velcro, anyway? How long has it been around?
It would be funny if this was a 3,400-year-old rickroll. Hear the Oldest Song in the World: A Sumerian Hymn Written 3,400 Years Ago
Logseq vs. Obsidian: First impressions
I just pledged $53 to the Kickstarter for Cory Doctorow’s upcoming novel, “Red Team Blues.” In pledging, I’m supporting the excellent work Cory (who is on Mastodon as @pluralistic@mamot.fr) does on his blog and podcast, which are free.
The $53 pledge gets me a nice hardcover, which I might donate to the local library, because I’m an ebook guy. Backers at that level also get an audiobook, and an ebook too. The audiobook and ebook are DRM-free, which will surprise nobody who follows Cory.
A pledge of $1,000 or more lets you name a character in the sequel, and $3,000 or more gets you—check this out!—a deluxe hardcover with a secret compartment.
More info from Cory: Kickstarting the Red Team Blues audiobook, which Amazon won’t sell
I’ve read an advance copy of the novel. It’s terrific. Very suspenseful!
What does a Mandalorian like to eat with curds? This is the whey.
How do Jewish Mandalorians expresses dismay? They say “Oy vey.”
How do Spanish Mandalorians express strong approval: “¡Olé! ¡olé!”
How does a Mandalorian respond to being kicked off social media for telling too many bad jokes? “I could do this all day.”
Good negotiating advice from @lex Friedman: Negotiation is a conversation.
Eliot Higgins, who founded Bellingcat, an investigative journalism organization, said he intended the sequence of 50 images as satire. The sequence included a chain of images that showed Trump breaking out of prison and going to McDonald’s, writes Chris Stokel-Walker for Buzzfeed News
Seems to me to be a bad idea for a journalist to do anything to jeopardize their credibility. Journalists shouldn’t intentionally create deepfakes–not even as a joke, which this seems to have been–or do April Fool’s Day practical jokes, or appear in fictional movies as themselves.
Reading about logseq as a possible alternative to Obsidian. Or maybe complementary?