On City Council, Dan Ryan Is A Farce

I’d intended to sit down today to write a post calling for City Council to impose a ban on councilors using messaging apps during meetings, including a ban on messaging via proxy through staffers. Instead, after listening to something Dan Ryan reportedly said during today’s session while I was out at breakfast, I’ve had a slight change of plans.

The Rot Inside Portland Real Estate

Earlier today, Portland Mercury reported on a series of group texts and chats in which local real estate dude Brian Owendoff was engaging during the recent City Council session debating who should be the next council President. Much of the focus, rightly, has been on Owendoff’s racist bullshit, but I just wanted to mention something.

Wondering About A.I.

Listening to this week’s news roundup edition of the Science Quickly podcast today, I heard a report by Eric Sullivan from the Consumer Electronics Show that bugged me. It’s about an exchange he had with music icon Stevie Wonder.

In Defense Of (The Word) Slop

Jim suggests that “there was slop before” large language models came along, citing Elan Ullendorff’s contention that “if something feels robotic or generic, it is those very qualities that make the work problematic, not the tools used”. I’ve quibbles.

On Process, Briefly

This isn’t something I particularly want to belabor, but after finishing the roundup post for IndieWeb Carnival from last October this weekend, I realized that it was the quintessential example of something I’ve talked about at least a couple of times here.

IndieWeb Carnival Roundup: On Ego

A Person And A Blog

These Go To Eleven

‘Quite Achievable’ For Whom?

On The Meaning Of Life: Dropped Down Halfway