Better Than Friday - 180
Gooood evening everyone, hope all is groovy.
All goes fine here. Editing a review for Dune.
Hope you have a very nice weekend.
1. Book that comes highly recommended - Buddha's Little Finger by Victor Pelevin
Pelevin is an enigmatic/reclusive Russian author who has apparently captured the tone of the absurd state of things over there. I believe he may have predicted current events as well, to some degree.
Spoiler alert: I thought Dune was great.
Here's some info on Herbert's inspiration, which included warring Turkic Tribes against the Russians in the 19th Century.
3. Best Places to read in Paris
Holy hell, that Bibliotheque Nationale room...
4. "AI Just KILLED Traditional Language Learning (ChatGPT)"
Yes, I know - You're sick to death of hearing about this thing. Me too.
But this is the first unbelievably helpful use I've discovered for this thing.
You can write in the language you're learning, and it will correct it for you.
That's massive.
On the flip side, here's a great article on the moral bankruptcy of Chatgpt by my friend and patron Aysha Taryam.
God help us if this thing goes South.
Did you know that, in the lore of Dune, there was a historical event called 'the Butlerian Jihad' in which mankind waged war against machines?
5. Romanian Folk Dance - Bartok
Haunting little piece...Very short, but those last few notes of piano keys gave me the chills.
Pelican
Comments (4)
Def recommend reading Dune Messiah, brings the plot of the first book into greater context and has a magnificent ending. Messiah just gives the whole story another layer of depth that is mindblowing.
Pelevan's The Life of Insects is quirky, lyrical, and beautiful.
Yeah, A.I. and language apps are killing the English language teaching industry, man. It's going to happen quickly too: learners of English and other languages are catching onto this quickly. It's amazing tech, but do you think this is "real writing," Cliff? Anyone else? Even paraphrasing apps . . . they're being used a LOT by high school and university students. A.I. is very possibly the end of academic integrity (which is probably for the best haha! - I think academia needs a real hard fall for self-correction). Those reading spots . . . I have a friend who's moving to Paris. So jealous!
Buttes Chaumont is also a great place to read in Paris