Every now and then, a piece of technology doesn’t just work—it shows off.That’s what happened this hurricane season when Google’s new AI weather model outperformed some of the world’s most respected forecasting systems. As reported by Ars Technica [¹], Google DeepMind’s “GraphCast” didn’t just hold its own—it often beat traditional…
Tag: don macleod
Humor
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“Raspberry Parade” and Other Hits We’ve Been Singing Wrong for Decades
I was flipping through the TV the other day and landed on MTV. Actual music videos — imagine that. And there was Prince, strutting through a purple haze of 80s glory, singing what I have confidently introduced on radio stations as “Raspberry Parade.” Except, of course, it’s “Raspberry Beret.” Early…
Culture
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Breaking Wind Breaking News Humans Can Breathe Through Their Butts Now
For years, “butt science” was the stuff of bathroom humor and bad tabloid headlines. Now it’s in Med, a serious medical journal, and yes—it’s official: scientists have tested enteral ventilation, aka breathing through the rectum, in humans. And it’s safe. You couldn’t invent a story more perfectly engineered for the…
Culture
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When the Car Goes, Everything Goes-The Economic Warning No One’s Talking About
If you want to know how the American economy is really doing, don’t look at the stock market. Look at the parking lots behind the repo yards. Tow trucks are working overtime again across the country. The numbers are grim: analysts at CURepossession, using Recovery Database Network data, project that…
Culture
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The President’s Daughter Eliza Monroe Hay Who Came Home After 185 Years
When Barbara VornDick lifted a yellowed letter from a gray archival box at William & Mary, she didn’t expect to feel a voice grab her by the collar. The handwriting was frantic, the words desperate. “I am now in distress, in ill health, & in a foreign country,” the writer…
AI
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Your Digital Shadow Has a Rap Sheet and Advertisers Know It
The headline almost sounds like a Black Mirror episode that didn’t make it to air: AI companies are training their systems on crime data to sell ads more effectively. Yes, you read that right. The same information that used to live in dusty police databases—arrests, mugshots, court records, neighborhood stats—is…
Insects
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The Bug That Made It Past Customs — Almost
It started with a box of radicchio. One of thousands that pass through the Port of San Luis every week. But this one had a passenger. During a routine inspection, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s agricultural specialists found something they’d never seen before — a leafhopper called Osbornellus sallus. For…
Media
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The Founders Didn’t Predict TikTok—But They Did Predict Demagogues
If you missed it, The Atlantic just kicked off a 250-year gut check on the American experiment, and Fintan O’Toole opened with a hard truth: our debates about the Founders often sound like a ventriloquist act. We move our lips to say what we want to hear. The package is…
Apocalypse
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Phase Zero – The War That’s Already Started (And We’re Pretending It Hasn’t)
I’ve read a lot of headlines designed to shock. Most don’t stick. But this one from The U.S. Sun stopped me cold: Russia is in “Phase Zero” of World War III. Not “preparing for.” Not “considering.” Already in it. The term comes from the Institute for the Study of War…
AI
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The Great AI News Heist
There’s a strange kind of zombie apocalypse happening online — not with brains, but with bylines. Across the web, forgotten newspaper URLs are being snatched up, revived, and repurposed into glossy, AI-generated “news sites.” They look real. They sound real. They even cite real people. The only thing missing? Humans….