Status-Q

I wrote a post back in July called 'The AI Heat Pump', about how AI systems can expand small amounts of text into larger amounts and condense larger amounts back into small amounts again, simply burning energy and introducing the odd inaccuracy as they go.

So my thanks to John Naughton for introducing me to Tom Fishburne's site 'Marketoonist' via this cartoon:

A couple of years later, everyone's talking about 'agentic systems', and he has a nice update on this theme:

It's a great site, especially if you've been involved in technology, or marketing, or both.  Take a look at more of the cartoons here.  

And they're not just pictures, BTW, there are posts behind them, if you click through.

This is rather nicely done - a fun two minutes.

(If your browser or email program doesn't show the clip above, here's a direct link.)

This is an old joke, but I've only just heard it.

"What did the Buddhist say to the hot-dog vendor?"

"Make me one with everything."

And then, somebody's later addition...

The hot-dog vendor makes him his hot-dog with all the trimmings, and says, "That'll be $7.50."

The Buddhist reaches into his saffron robes, extracts a $20 note, hands it over, and starts eating. The vendor turns to the next customer... but the Buddhist interrupts him. "What about my change?"

The vendor is unperturbed.

"Change comes from within."

It's good to have something to make you laugh at the start of your day. Today, I was particularly taken by this article on a UK government website:

It wasn't the headline that made me laugh, of course - that's pretty serious. No, what caught my attention (thanks to mhoye on Mastodon) was further down, where they offer the general public some advice on how the they can help mitigate the situation:

Fabulous! Yes, it's those emails from granny that are really emptying the reservoirs! Free up some hard disk space and the rivers will flow freely again! I particularly like the use of the word 'pressure'.

So I'm now left contemplating a set of possibilities, in increasingly worrying order:

• This was put in as a joke, to test whether the editor actually read the article before publishing it, or...
• The article was actually written using ChatGPT, or...
• We actually have people this foolish working for our government agencies and publishing recommendations on their behalf.

Mmm....

Bill Bailey, a couple of years ago, though some of his comments are rather poignant today:

(Direct Link to YouTube)

We have some Heath Robinson cartoons which we still very much enjoy, but for which no longer have the wall space, and so have given them away.

I thought, though, that other Status-Q readers might enjoy them too. (Click for larger versions.)

The oral tradition has long been an important part of preserving human culture, and it is perhaps especially at this time of year that we're conscious of works of music and literature that have been handed down through the ages.

While I was showering this morning, for example, I found myself singing a cheerful seasonal song which my brain had kindly preserved for me, almost intact, for more than half a century, but I just couldn't remember the first line. It was only as I was towelling myself down, that it came back to me.

"Christmas, Christmas, in Smurfing Land"

Anyone else grow up in the 70s?

Continuing the theme of Good Stuff Spotted on Mastodon, this comes from Natasha Jay:

There was a young man
From Cork who got limericks
And Haikus confused.

From Phil Giammattei's Mastodon feed...

Lord, grant me the acumen to automate the tasks that do not require my personal attention,
the strength to avoid automating the tasks that do,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

(Thanks to Rupert Curwen for reposting.)

This cafe in Zutphen, Netherlands, is of my way of thinking...