Friday Links!
I'm 64 today and have temporarily accumulated enough physical problems in the last 30 days to make an 80-year-old blush. We have a massive links drop this week.
Leading off this week, a riveting analysis: ‘My patient was happy with her partner of 25 years – then started a torrid affair’: a psychotherapist on why people cheat.
A tragic tale: ‘There’s a dangerous epidemic in boxing’: the tragic, cautionary tale of Paul Bamba.
Public service: Everything you need to know about bird flu.
If you want to know how an incompetent fool determines tariffs (that aren't actually in any way related to tariffs), I've got you: Trump’s ‘idiotic’ and flawed tariff calculations stun economists.
From DQ Iditarod correspondent Meg McReynolds: Chasing the Iditarod Through the Wilds of Alaska. Also, a very good girl: Meet Muppy, the World’s Smallest Sled Dog.
From Wally, and this is quite stupid: People Making AI Studio Ghibli Images Are Now Producing Fake Legal Letters to Go With Their Fake Art. Fantastic: Let Britain’s magical, mythical creatures inspire a patriotism untainted by politics. Award-nominated SF stories you can read: Analytical Laboratory Finalists.
C sent this to me and it's genuinely stunning: Excess Mortality Rate in Black Children Since 1950 in the United States: A 70-Year Population-Based Study of Racial Inequalities.
From Ken P., and we live in a police state now: Surveillance shows Tufts graduate student detained. It's dangerous and we're stuck with him, for now: Politics March 24, 2025 What Was the Plan Behind This Fake CDC Website? Leading, as always: Texas is poised to make measles a nationwide epidemic, public health experts say. This is concerning (because of the model's origins): DeepSeek-V3 now runs at 20 tokens per second on Mac Studio, and that’s a nightmare for OpenAI. Not today, clowns: I won't connect my dishwasher to your stupid cloud. Amazing! Three Hundred Years Later, a Tool from Isaac Newton Gets an Update. This is mildly encouraging: Facebook to stop targeting ads at UK woman after legal fight. Very cool: New Portal pinball table may be the closest we’re gonna get to Portal 3.
From C. Lee, and refer to my previous police state comment: Weekslong lockups of European tourists at US borders spark fears of traveling to America. Useful knowledge: Here’s what you need to know about your rights when entering the US. An excellent read (or listen): How empathy came to be seen as a weakness in conservative circles. This is incredible: DOGE to Fired CISA Staff: Email Us Your Personal Data. This is helpful: Trump’s ‘climate’ purge deleted a new extreme weather risk tool. We recreated it. Confessions: Did I Really Do That? Well, that's aggressive: Impaling for Love ― Bull-Headed Shrike. A fascinating bit of history: See you in the funny papers: How superhero comics tell the story of Jewish America. A terrific read: Inside RGG Studio: Ryosuke Horii and Eiji Hamatsu Share How the Like a Dragon Series Is Developed Quickly Without Sacrificing Quality.
AI (your email)
I received this from Sean R. after my AI post earlier this week:
As a longtime reader of your blog, I'm saddened to see you posting so much A.I. content of late.
Respectfully, there are in fact many reasons not to use A.I., from the blatant theft that powers so much of what they do (Miyazaki himself is opposed), to the ways this tech is destroying the livelihood of the creative class (of which I am a member), not to mention the environmental harms their giant data centers cause, and the ways in which they routinely hallucinate answers which can have serious consequences, especially if you're using them for medical purposes.
Beyond that, there's an inherent soullessness in even the best A.I. art and "writing," as it is the product of statistical regurgitation offering (at best) second-hand imitations of true insight and actual human experience.
Compare the image you shared with any frame of any Studio Ghibli film; while the art style is similar, what is being conveyed about the characters and their world is night and day. Empty calories compared to a home-cooked feast.
Reasonable people can disagree about the extent to which A.I. tools can be used ethically and effectively, but I don't think anyone can argue that there's any way to use these generative tools in particular without causing at least some harm.
I don't agree with everything Sean says, but I think he raises some substantial points, and I'm going to write about them next week.
Oh, the Humanity
Nintendo had their Switch 2 showcase today.
Wii? I knew it was going to be great from the first moment I saw it.
Wii U? I had a bad feeling. A very bad feeling.
Switch? I was on the hype train from minute one.
Three for three, in other words.
My initial reaction to the Switch 2? A disaster.
Besides the hardware changes (which were not insignificant but also not revolutionary):
1. Paid upgrades for better graphics on certain high-profile Switch 1 games you already own.
2. Game prices of $70-80 for first-party Nintendo titles.
3. Console price of $449 in the U.S.
If the console was announced at $349, almost everyone would have been pleased. At $449, it's going to be a very, very hard sell.
Incredibly, it could have been worse.
In Europe, the equivalent conversion to USD for both the UK and the European Union is $510.
I have an enormous amount of affection for Nintendo because of the hundreds of hours I spent playing games with Eli 23.8. It's a wonderful company.
And they've screwed up.
Tomorrow
Sean R. sent me an excellent email in response to Monday's post about ChatGPT 4.0, and I'm going to use it tomorrow. It raises some interesting and thoughtful points. The only reason I'm not doing it today is because of Nintendo's Switch 2 Showcase.
Framing
The framer called me on Friday. Here's what the game sheet looks like:
You can't see the color inside the wood unless you click on the image, but it's quite beautiful, and the weathered nature of the gamesheet turns it into a real piece of history. Family history, anyway, and Oxford history, too.
