Yesterday, Microsoft released VASA-1, which uses AI to generate video of people talking that is generated by nothing more than an audio clip and a still image. From an article on Ars Technica: The VASA framework (short for “Visual Affective Skills Animator”) uses machine learning … | Continue reading
For those of a certain age, the spectacle of the OJ Simpson trial in the mid 1990s was the start of reality TV. From the LA Times obituary: The enduring image from the days immediately after the slayings would be the Bronco cruising down eerily empty freeways, trailed by a fleet … | Continue reading
I watched this whole game last night. What a moment for college sports to witness this. She has been doing this for four years now and as her college career comes to an end this March, folks need to take a step back and appreciate the moment. Similar to what Jay Bilas recently wr … | Continue reading
Nice write up on the Apple Vision Pro – https://spyglass.org/eye-dont-have-vision-pro-yet/ | Continue reading
I had a fun little interaction with my iPhone, Messages, Apple Maps, Car Play, and Siri last night that sublimely illustrates how far Siri has fallen behind. The scenario: My wife took a drive last night to drop off one of our cars to my son who goes to college nearby. The plan w … | Continue reading
Jon Stewart is returning to ‘The Daily Show’ on Mondays for the next year or more, and will also be Executive Producer of the show. This is wonderful news. From Oliver Darcy at CNN: The comedian, who during his 16-year run as host of the Comedy Central program established it as a … | Continue reading
I’m a life long New England Patriots fan. I grew up in Boston. I have rooted for my home town Boston and New England teams for my whole life, even though I have not lived there for a long time. From the time I started watching the Patriots – when they played at rickety old Schaef … | Continue reading
As our country’s political apparatus continues to reflect well known parodies from both written media and television, a certain orange grifter is doing everything he can to delay and circumvent the multitude of legal indictments that are facing him, including the federal cases br … | Continue reading
Norman Lear passed yesterday. He was one of the most important and influential television producers of all time, single handedly responsible for all time classic shows like”All In The Family“, “The Jeffersons“, “Maude“, “Good Times“, and “Sanford and Son“, to name a few. There ha … | Continue reading
Amazing time capsule video of R.E.M. making their national TV debut on the Late Show with David Letterman in October 1983. On this appearance, they played two of their earliest hits – ‘Radio Free Europe’ (off of their first album Murmur) and ‘So. Central Rain’ (off of their secon … | Continue reading
After Sept 11, 2001, it is a known fact that the US Government ratcheted up the surveillance on all activities around this country. Even beyond the 2013 Edward Snowden leaks that first set a spotlight on this sort of Government surveillance, I think people sort of ignored the rea … | Continue reading
As you may know, folks in England are bonkers about soccer/football. If you want to get a good sense of how much they love their hometown teams, and how football is so engrained in their culture, go watch “Welcome to Wrexham” or “Sunderland ‘Till I Die“. And just to illustrate th … | Continue reading
Stories like this validate to me that behind the walls of the old money Robber Barrons of years gone by are some astounding pieces of history that are waiting to be discovered and shared. A guy named Alex Clausen – a map dealer – was parusing a virtual estate sale for Gordon and … | Continue reading
Sometimes, it becomes apparent to me that this part of the site is basically the equivalant of screaming into the void. I basically did not post anything here for almost three months and nothing seemed to change. As they say, if a tree falls in the forest and no one was there, di … | Continue reading
Back in 2005, David Foster Wallace (DFW) gave the commencement speech at Kenyon College in Gambier, OH. As with many things that DFW did, it took on a life and legend of its own. Here is the speech set to a whiteboard session authored by Mark Wooding, who runs the After Skool You … | Continue reading
The amount of preparation and practice that Cruise and the film team did ahead of the final shots of some of his most iconic stunt scenes is pretty insane. For the big motorcycle jump scene in the most recent movie “Dead Reckoning”, they created a replica ramp in England where Cr … | Continue reading
A legend amongst legends. His appeal crossed generations for over 70 years as he sang with everyone from Celine Dion to Amy Winehouse to Lady Gaga. Reading his obituary is like a time capsule of the past 97 years. I knew he served in World War II but had no idea that he was on th … | Continue reading
Joey Chestnut once again won the annual 4th of July Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating contest, downing 62 hot dogs in 10 minutes. Over the years, the performance of the professional eaters participating in the annual Hot Dog eating event have shown a remarkable level of improvement (if you … | Continue reading
My activity on Twitter from the week ending 07-03-2023, just in case you may be interested. | Continue reading
My activity on Twitter from the week ending 06-26-2023, just in case you may be interested. | Continue reading
Rick Astley and the Blossoms covering “The Smiths” at Glastonbury Music Festival is just what we all need these days. They pretty much crush it. Apparently, he and the Blossoms did a full set of 16 songs from “The Smiths” and I am here for all of them. Related: See Rick Astley co … | Continue reading
To start, you turn on the movie “The Wizard of Oz”, turn the volume down, and wait for the the MGM lion to roar (some say you wait for the third roar). At that point, you fire up Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” album and keep the audio on. From there, you sit back and watch … | Continue reading
My activity on Twitter from the week ending 06-19-2023, just in case you may be interested. | Continue reading
My activity on Twitter from the week ending 06-12-2023, just in case you may be interested. | Continue reading
We lost rock legend David Bowie way too soon, however there is not a shortage of footage of the rock icon to remind us how supremely cool and influential he was. At the Wende Museum in Culver City, CA is a very intimate collection of photos of Bowie as he traveled by train, boat … | Continue reading
My activity on Twitter from the week ending 06-05-2023, just in case you may be interested. | Continue reading
An interesting thing transpired this week out in the San Diego market. Major League Baseball teams here in the US have traditionally relied on local networks to broadcast the majority of their games to the fans in the team’s region of the country. So, for example, I live in the N … | Continue reading
My activity on Twitter from the week ending 05 25, 2023, just incase you may be interested. | Continue reading
Several years ago, when out in Los Angeles, we took a ride over to see the original Brady Bunch house. From the outside, it ‘felt’ surprisingly small and if you did not know the significance of the structure, you would probably miss it in it’s non-descript neighborhood nestled ne … | Continue reading
On an average day, with an average golfer, the odds of hitting a hole in one is about 12,500 to 1. For professional golfers, the odds of a hole in one fall significantly to 3,000 to 1. Most hole in one shots are similar – the ball, which is 1.68″ in diameter, lands on the green, … | Continue reading
Continuing with my high level of interest (obsession?) with the wreck of the Titanic (for whatever reason, I just can’t take in enough detail about the topic), some very high detail digital scans of the wreck site were released yesterday, showing it in amazing detail. It is so de … | Continue reading
The 2022-23 season in the English National League (England’s 5th tier football league) has been defined by the phenomenal race at the top of the table between Wrexham AFC and Notts County. As good as Wrexham was this season, Notts County was equal to the task, keeping everyone in … | Continue reading
I admit it. I jumped onto the Wrexham AFC bandwagon as soon as I heard about Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney purchasing the club, and then went head first all in after watching the wonderful 1st season of their documentary “Welcome to Wrexham”. I started following Wrexham on ESP … | Continue reading
I am just a sucker for these types of stories – where footage of a seminal event is unearthed. As long as I can remember, the story of the Titanic checked all the boxes for me, way before James Cameron’s movie of the same name was released. So when the Woods Hole Oceanographic In … | Continue reading
This is – ‘chef’s kiss’ – perfect. John Waters touring his apartment back in 1986. “I collect paintings of murderesses. This is one of the Manson Girls – Susan Atkins – who is a Jesus freak now” “I collect fake meat. I have fake meat all over the house. It makes people very nervo … | Continue reading