This adds nothing of significance to the Omarchy discussion, but I took notice when DHH said of this wallpaper, “I am a man of fine arts and I appreciate a good painting.” He called it an 18th century painting when he clearly meant the 19th century. But that’s not right either. It turns out it’s a 20th century painting, but just barely. It’s “The Backwater” from 1903 by British painter Charles William Wyllie. It’s also, as a rather late example of Romanticism, decidedly not with the times, even in its own time.

AI influencers are so persuasive because the “real” influencers were already simulations.

Zap is pure signal ⚡️

“I’ve found when travelling, a sketchbook makes you friends, a camera enemies.” — Allan Sealy

Ai Weiwei visits China for the first time in 10 years

Berliner Zeitung

Ai Weiwei hält Deutschland einen Spiegel vor: „Meine Bankkonten wurden zweimal geschlossen“

Ai Weiwei hat mit seinem Sohn seine 93 Jahre alte Mutter besucht. Kurz nach seiner Rückkehr vergleicht er China mit Deutschland, Peking mit Berlin.

Many good writers are now using Substack for their microblogging, not just newsletters.

All those Git projects started back before “main” became the default branch, I like to call Old Masters

Police shootings are considered seizures under the Fourth Amendment, since the state is literally seizing a body with deadly force.

Happy Nostr New Year

‘“Slop,” the term of (not) art for content churned out with A.I., became ubiquitous in 2025, inspiring new sub-coinages such as “slopper,” derogatory shorthand for someone who relies on A.I. to think for them.’ Kyle Chayka on “The Year in Slop” for the New Yorker

The New Yorker

The Year in Slop

This was the year that A.I.-generated content passed a kind of audiovisual Turing test, sometimes fooling us against our better judgment.

‘Slopism’ finally enters the art lexicon with Aimee Walleston writing for Ocula, with a big lift from Maya Man’s little AI dancers https://ocula.com/magazine/opinions/why-ai-slop-is-the-dark-future-of-art/

I can accept this AI bot commenting once on my post. But you can’t fool me twice. MUTED View quoted note →

if Facebook (I mean Meta) is abandoning the “metaverse” maybe it’s time we reclaim it

Good artists cry. Great artists squeal.

what… View quoted note →

We don’t even want viruses to be viral. So why should media be?

nostr knows an npub and an event and not much more

also, read counts are equally nonsensical on Nostr View quoted note →

nostr exists. therefore purple exists. QED View quoted note →