James Barker Downbound
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Seeking Peace through AI Slop
Unlike our regular home in the Lou, here at the cabin, it is quiet and still at night. No skittering of rodents here like in years past, just the occasional cycling of the fridge. Lying awake, trying to fall asleep there is nothing to prevent me from doing so except for the hamster wheel whirling in my brain. It is often tempting to reach out and seek help outside oneself, when as often the problem lies within. Still peace and enlightenment are often elusive and false gods abound.
One such duplicitous deity is AI. I must admit that I myself have been AI-curious. This post exhibits several instances of its use. The original photo above and on the left was first taken at the Royal Ontario Museum. Processing through Photoshop added the blue rays emanating from the statue. WordPress used this picture as a prompt and generated the associated video that for some reason paired Asian art with ancient Egyptian. A friend recently directed me to a new arrival to the ever-expanding AI pantheon, Halupedia is an interactive, satirical online encyclopedia where every article is generated on the spot by artificial intelligence. Instead of hosting a database of real knowledge, the website creates fake facts, fabricated scholars, and imaginary places, all written in a highly convincing, scholarly tone. The following is an example.
The Chauvinist Doctrine of Unnecessary Gesticulation emerged in the late 18th century, primarily within the hushed halls of academia and the increasingly formal salons of the era. Its foundational tenets proposed that any movement of the hands, arms, or torso beyond the absolute minimum required for subsistence constituted an affront to reason and a deliberate attempt to mislead the observer. Proponents argued that clear thought manifested in a still frame, and that any deviation was a sign of internal chaos or worse, a perfidious attempt to mask a lack of genuine intellect with performative dynamism.
Algoma Discovery
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Things I Know
These colorful Korean words hold knowledge and insights collected from people across Ontario. At public workshops, hundreds of participants decorated their words in Hangeul (the Korean writing system), and artist Ik-Joong Kang arranged their contributions into this vibrant mosaic. Kang added the outlines of traditional Korean porcelain vessels, linking everyday ideas to representations of balance, harmony, and history. This work celebrates knowledge of people and shares this collective wisdom, echoing the intended purpose of Hangeul as a script for all.
Yesterday, we were visited by UPS. I got some meds. This stereotypically fit deliveryman was attired in the standard brown summertime uniform, shorts with short sleeve shirt. Appropriate attire for the day’s temperature, especially for one so active, but unfortunately inappropriate for our cabin’s micro clime. Don’t get me wrong, it was warm enough, because I greeted him in shorts and a t-shirt too, but inappropriate because of the latest addition to our environment, mosquitoes. Up until yesterday, they were not bad. In fact, before this week, they were nonexistent, but the wind had died yesterday, and these newly hatched pests were voracious. We were both furiously swatting ourselves, all the while Anne yammered on obliviously with the kitchen door wide open. 🦟 😡 🦟
His first comments were about the road. He asked us who maintained the road, but what he was really asking was who isn’t maintaining it. He had just scratched up the paint of his UPS truck on all of the overgrown brush while driving down the quarter mile from pavement and he knew that the road only got worse the further you went. He didn’t mind that, but he is also a local volunteer fireman and had attended to the next-next-door cabin fire a couple of years back. The thought of scratching up his fire truck seemed to bother him more. His hint was clear, brush your road. By now, he was swatting up a storm, when he mentioned that West Nile virus had arrived. He said that four horses had died from the disease. At that point I fled inside and closed the door.
Toronto Transit Commission
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Dancing Crane Reopens
Last year, when we returned to the UP for the summer, we were disappointed to learn that the Dancing Crane had closed permanently. The story that we got was that the couple who had founded the place had filed for divorce and the coffee shop was a casualty of that process. This year though the Dancing Crane reopened. The story that I got was that the couple’s daughter is leading this revival. The grand reopening was last week, but with our cabin’s reopening going on, we were too busy to attend. This week, while making a garbage run up the hill, we swung by the coffee shop only to find that it is closed on Tuesdays. Our bad luck, but we will be back. The geodesic dome that has been a long-time part of this shop and has received a colorful redressing.