Notices by Reginald Braithwaite (raganwald@social.bau-ha.us)

Not about to write 10,000 words on how iOS 26 marks the death of Apple's human interface leadership or whatever. But this just happened and it made me laugh. Did anyone try iOS 26 on an iPad Mini? How do I use this? I can't see the word it wants me to correct!

“I cannot trust them as a reliable partner, no."
—The Honourable Marjorie Michel, Canada’s Minister of Health

In an interview, Ms Michel said that the issues with misinformation in the U.S. are "a big preoccupation," and a reason that Canada needs to look to other like-minded countries.

This schism is not good for citizens on either side of the 49th parallel. And it’s not our fault in any way, shape, or form.

In the 1960s, my mother took my sister and me to Africa for the first time. For reasons, I was not vaccinated against Smallpox, so my mother had to collect a lot of documentation and special letters to permit me to enter countries that were trying to eradicate it worldwide.

Every time we crossed a border, we went through special screening: America, my past is your near future.

@jacob "When you're a CEO holding an AI hammer, every problem looks like your wedding tackle."

Ironically, Elon Musk has figured out how to sell AI.

He’s telling everyone who will listen—plus everyone on that human centipede simulator he calls 𝕏—that for a monthly subscription, you get 72 virgin digital mail-order brides you can design yourself.

Once again, despite all our lofty ideals, sex is the thing that sells, and it doesn’t need buzzwordification to sell itself.

“They're only principles if they make you say no to things that you would like to do. Otherwise, they are just sparkling theatre.”
—@PavelASamsonov

I formulate this as, “Values are measured by whether you value them more than other things you value.”

I dunno about you, but when I put my Bible Literalist hat on, I read that the rainbow was a deliberate act of God after the flood, and it symbolizes God's mercy and the end of His judgment upon the earth.

Now if you start getting judgy and removing rainbow crosswalks, seems to me you're working for the other guy.

@pluralistic One evening I went into the Jazz department of Sam the Record Man in Toronto. I asked for an obscure album from a long-disbanded fusion group. The clerk, who was also a musician and part-time public radio DJ, shook his head: "I've sold you enough Dead Jazz. Go out, listen to some live musicians, and come back for their albums."

You'd think this kind of thing only happens in movies, but yes, there are people who get that Art requires supporting artists.

@dgar

Once again I call on Dr. Julius Nyerere, first President of Tanzania, to explain today's headline. When accused of running "a democracy in name only," he replied:

> The US is also a one-party state. But with typical American extravagance, they have two of them.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/democrat-socialist

Nice people live here.

When we listen to Bach, we hear contrapuntal music. Can machines generate contrapuntal music we find pleasing? Yes. Is it art? No, because there is nothing but the music. We do not connect with the ecstasy that Bach felt at the perfection of God, ecstasy that infused even exercises he wrote for pupils.

When I play Bach badly, I connect with a human soul feeling the most profound connection to meaning. Contrapuntal music without an artist may be pleasurable, but it cannot be art.

/end

The reason art can only be created by humans and not machines is that art is a relationship between artist and those who experience the art.

The point isn't that sunflowers are pretty. It's that we see what Van Gogh saw, and this makes a connection not to flowers, but to the the tortured artist finding beauty.

1/

Oh hey, a thing happened, and I'm pretending it's no big deal. I passed my flight test by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin.

Feeling the gratitude to all the @SOSAGlidingClub instructors who volunteer their time every season to build the club and sport for future generations.

#gliding

@inthehands I agree with you, people of colour know exactly what life is like when any police officer can stop you for any reason, and execute you if you are smoking a joint or shoplift a cigar. They know what life is like if you have to line up for 12+ hours to vote while being intimidated by armed whites and it being illegal to distribute water to those in line.

Madness!

https://www.desertaerospace.com/microjets

#gliding

@jmeowmeow We should ditch that word.

@mhoye https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Louis-du-Ha!_Ha!

And yes, the exclamation marks are part of the name.

@FlashMobOfOne @dannotdaniel Sign on a church near my club: “Gratitude is what turns what you have into enough.”

And enough is the mortal enemy of hyper-capitalism.

@josephcox Signage on television is more permissive.