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Books/Literature (General/Chat)

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  • Sci-fi author Neal Stephenson wants AIs fighting AIs so those most fit to live with us survive

    05/16/2025 9:19:12 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 11 replies
    The Register ^ | Fri 16 May 2025 | iconSimon Sharwood
    Fears surrendering to GenAI makes humans less competitiveScience fiction author Neal Stephenson has suggested AIs should be allowed to fight other AIs, because evolution brings balance to ecosystems, but also thinks humans should stop using AI before it dumbs down our species. Stephenson coined the term “metaverse” in his 1992 classic “Snow Crash”, and his 1999 epic “Cryptonomicon” envisioned digital currencies and the encryption needed to make them possible. The prescience of those works, and the cracking yarns he spins, mean he is in demand as both a novelist and thinker. T. Rex had to worry about getting gored...
  • Making an audio book from a published book

    05/16/2025 8:14:42 AM PDT · by bluescape · 21 replies
    I'm looking for a service or app that will take a book in text form and make an audiobook of it. I know there are some quality voice generators now days. I'm just looking for one that is legit and not too expensive. I reread a large number of books I loved from years ago but many aren't in audio format. More are getting converted all the time but I'd use a good app for some others if it had good feedback.
  • Trump will pardon Diddy if rapper convicted: Suge Knight

    05/16/2025 5:23:21 AM PDT · by dennisw · 37 replies
    The Hill ^ | - 05/14/25 | by Filip Timotija
    “I still feel that Puffy’s gonna be all right and have a fair shot at it, because Puffy didn’t — he’s not a dummy,” Knight said Tuesday evening, while calling into NewsNation’s “CUOMO.” “I’m quite sure somebody’s going to talk to those jurors and convince one or two of them — that’s all you need, is one,” he told host Chris Cuomo. “So, at the end of the day, it’s going to be a real exciting situation, but I think he’s going to be all right.” Cuomo asked Knight, who is serving a 28-year prison sentence in California for voluntary...
  • The enduring charm of King Solomon’s Mines

    05/12/2025 11:02:12 AM PDT · by Borges · 39 replies
    The Spectator ^ | 1/27/2025 | Alec Marsh
    How many people under 40 in Britain today do you think have read H. Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines? Five, six… 50? It’s hard to know. If you’re lucky – or unlucky, depending on your point of view – you might have bumped into the 1985 film version with Richard Chamberlain, Sharon Stone and Herbert Lom in the unloved crevices of the TV schedule when only insomniacs or household spiders are deemed to be a risk. I ask the question because this year marks 100 years since the death of Sir Henry Rider Haggard as he was then, having been...
  • The Inherent Leftism of National Socialism

    05/10/2025 5:21:56 AM PDT · by Olympiad Fisherman · 17 replies
    Jacob Pursely - You Tube Channel ^ | 5/10/2025 | Jacob Pursely
    Dr. R. Mark Musser shows the result of a non-biblical worldview that was inherent within National Socialism wherein elements of radical environmentalism, veganism, green sustainability, euthanasia, eugenics, transhumanism, and Social Darwinian biology and ecology all played a very surprising role in what otherwise became known as the Holocaust.
  • Do Androids Dream of Fake Books?

    05/09/2025 3:32:53 PM PDT · by Angelino97 · 42 replies
    Chronicles ^ | May 9, 2025 | Alexander G. Rubio
    Recently, I learned of two phenomena: that people today actually publish books almost entirely written by artificial intelligence and that AI programs, rather than admitting ignorance, may sometimes “hallucinate” a plausible sounding answer. I’ve now experienced both. My journey into Münchhausen’s AI Syndrome began with my own very flawed human memory. Many years ago I read a short science fiction story in an old anthology that is now long lost. It made a deep impression on me, but I’m unable to recall the title or author. Suddenly the thought struck me, perhaps Elon Musk’s synthetic AI brainchild Grok could collate...
  • Before He Became a Sci-Fi Legend, Gene Wolfe Helped Invent Pringles

    05/09/2025 2:09:14 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 18 replies
    Food & Wine ^ | May 7, 2025 | Christopher Michel
    “The Melville of science fiction” had a hand in bringing 1968’s most technologically advanced potato chip to the world.Plenty of writers have made certain foods or drinks iconic: Marcel Proust had his Madeleines, Hemingway his namesake Daiquiri. C.S. Lewis made kids who’d never tried it crave Turkish Delight. But there may be only one writer who helped create an iconic snack available in grocery stores everywhere: Gene Wolfe. This largely unheralded genius allowed generations worldwide to enjoy the Pringles Potato Crisp. How Gene Wolfe helped create Pringles Before he became a critically acclaimed writer of the Book of the...
  • AG Letitia James heckled over mortgage fraud case at town hall: ‘Apologize to Donald Trump’

    05/09/2025 3:55:50 AM PDT · by Libloather · 23 replies
    NY Post ^ | 5/08/25 | Hannah Fierick, Shane Galvin
    New York State Attorney General Letitia James was heckled by a Trump supporter at a community hearing where she claimed the freshly opened federal criminal probe into her alleged mortgage fraud is “baseless.” James was interrupted at a community impact hearing in Westchester on Thursday night, just hours after the Trump administration opened a formal criminal probe into James over the alleged mortgage fraud involving her Brooklyn and Virginia properties. “Apologize to Donald Trump for wasting millions of dollars in the state of New York,” the MAGA booster shouted from the audience. The interruption was met with a chorus of...
  • AI decodes title and author of charred, still-rolled scroll after nearly 2,000 years

    05/06/2025 1:04:57 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 17 replies
    Interesting Engineering ^ | May 06, 2025 | Staff
    Nearly 2,000 years after it was buried in Mount Vesuvius ash, a charred Roman scroll has revealed its author and title without even being unrolled. Title revealed on PHerc. 172 using ink detection model. - Vesuvius Challenge The scroll, named PHerc. 172, is one of hundreds unearthed in the ancient Roman town of Herculaneum, which was entombed in volcanic debris when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, one of history’s most infamous eruptions The scroll was scanned in July at Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron facility in Oxfordshire. Unusually, traces of ink appeared in the X-ray images, enabling...
  • Why We Still Need "The Feminine Mystique"

    05/05/2025 3:27:10 PM PDT · by CondoleezzaProtege · 33 replies
    Books & Culture ^ | July 2014 | Katelyn Beaty
    Shauna Niequist's mom had spent almost all of her adult life being a pastor's wife, mother, and homemaker. She excelled in all of these roles. But 17 years in, she walked into a counselor's office and said, "I don't know who I am anymore. Something has to change." Through counseling, friendships, and prayer, says Niequist, her mother unearthed the gifts and passions that had drawn her to a social work degree. "I found my voice in my 40s and my vocation in my 50s..." Betty Friedan would have been proud. Surprised, too, perhaps, to see her ideas—dissected and debated for...
  • 2025 Marvel Pride Variant Covers Revealed

    05/05/2025 9:34:06 AM PDT · by Angelino97 · 28 replies
    File770 ^ | May 5, 2025 | Mike Glyer
    Marvel Comics’ Pride celebration returns this June with six all-new Pride Variant Covers drawn by superstar cover artist Meghan Hetrick. For the fifth consecutive year, Marvel’s Pride Variant Covers spotlight the LGBTQIA+ community with stunning portraits of LGTQIA+ characters—ranging from iconic heroes to recently introduced breakout stars. The covers can be found on Deadpool #15, Exceptional X-Men #10, Immortal Thor #24, New Champions #6, Runaways #1, and X-Men #17 throughout June. The characters featured this year are: KITTY PRYDE, beloved X-Man and pillar of the mutant community! Kitty is currently guiding a trio of new mutants in the critically-accalaimed Exceptional...
  • Stealing ‘Abundance’

    05/04/2025 8:52:21 AM PDT · by MtnClimber · 2 replies
    Commonplace ^ | 28 Apr, 2025 | David A. Cowan
    Conservatives, not liberals, are best positioned to build—and in many cases, are already doing so. The Democratic Party is in total disarray. Its exhausted leadership has struggled to focus on any single front to concentrate its fire on the new administration, while AOC and Gavin Newsom do their warmups for the 2028 primaries. DOGE cuts and trade wars could give Democrats a launchpad for retaking the House in 2026, but it does not give them a positive platform in any meaningful sense. Perhaps that is why a new book from Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson has captured the policy world’s...
  • Where Did Odysseus Really Travel to in Homer’s Odyssey?

    05/03/2025 3:35:51 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 54 replies
    Greek Reporter ^ | May 3, 2025 | Caleb Howells
    In the seventh century BCE, the Greek poet Homer wrote the Odyssey. This fascinating tale of adventure and loss would captivate readers for centuries, even millennia. It tells the story of Odysseus attempting to travel home after the Trojan War. One of the most intriguing things about this lengthy poem is that there is significant controversy surrounding the locations mentioned throughout. Based on the best available evidence, where did Odysseus really travel to in the Odyssey? Does the Odyssey take place all over the Mediterranean? The most common belief is that the Odyssey takes place over a very large area....
  • Writer's Guild: My novel, rewritten.

    04/24/2025 6:20:16 PM PDT · by Lazamataz · 57 replies
    Original Material | 4/24/2025 | By Laz A. Mataz
    Hey folks. Some time back I submitted the first few chapters of a book I'm writing (with an idea initially created by a friend). I had a few reviews, but the one that I found most useful was a private email, outside of Free Republic, that started: "I made it to page 28. Not gonna sugar coat this... it was a slog. " ...and, frankly, it was. When I re-read it, it was almost horrible. No real conflict to speak of. Chapters that simply made NO sense to the overall arc. So I re-wrote it. I punched it up quite...
  • New audiobook release: Propaganda, by Edward Bernays

    04/24/2025 7:41:56 AM PDT · by ProgressingAmerica · 10 replies
    PGA Weblog ^ | 4/24/25
    Today we have a new audio book release, this time from Edward Bernays with his 1928 work "Propaganda". Download the audio here. There is a lot to learn about progressivism in this book. Among other things (prior post on this) Bernays believed the following items which were captions on a newer reprint cover: As civilization has become more complex, and as the need for invisible government has been increasingly demonstrated, the technical means have been invented and developed by which opinion may be regimented(Page 39)Nowadays the successors of the rulers, those whose position or ability gives them power, can no...
  • The Gathering Storm

    04/23/2025 7:01:55 PM PDT · by Mean Daddy · 8 replies
    Amazon ^ | April 23, 2025 | Scott Mann & Sarah Adams
    What you don't know that you NEED to know. The Gathering Storm is a groundbreaking initiative addressing the critical gaps in our nation’s preparedness for emerging terror threats following the botched Afghanistan withdrawal. Through an unprecedented public-private partnership, this project fosters collaboration across federal, state, and local levels to identify threats and implement best practices. We have partnered with the top Global War on Terror intelligence professionals and special operations veterans to inform YOU on the potential for a terrorist attack in YOUR community. The mission of The Gathering Storm is not to create fear as happens in legacy media...
  • How the Media Completely Dropped the Ball in Questioning Lockdowns and Mandates, with David Zweig

    04/22/2025 1:05:13 PM PDT · by CondoleezzaProtege · 11 replies
    Megyn is joined by David Zweig, journalist and author of An Abundance of Caution…
  • Creatively Disabled Authors and the AI Crutch

    04/18/2025 8:43:33 AM PDT · by Angelino97 · 16 replies
    Chronicles ^ | April 17, 2025 | Pedro Gonzalez
    Writing a novel is hard. Writing one in a month is insane. Unless you are William Faulkner, who wrote As I Lay Dying in six weeks, between the hours of midnight and four in the morning. Indeed, the author himself claimed, “I set out deliberately to write a tour-de-force. Before I ever put pen to paper and set down the first word I knew what the last word would be and almost where the last period would fall.” Faulker said he did not change a word in the end. Some might say Faulkner was touched by the Divine. Lucky him!...
  • Karmelo Anthony's mother says family has been "under attack"

    04/17/2025 2:00:40 PM PDT · by Racketeer · 66 replies
    X ^ | April 17, 2025 | Colin Rugg
    Karmelo Anthony's mother says family has been "under attack," that her daughter has been afraid to sleep in her own bed, and that her husband's "mental health is deteriorating day by day."
  • AI Threatens Creators’ Livelihoods, Experts Say

    04/16/2025 12:50:15 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 19 replies
    Publisher Weekly ^ | Apr 16, 2025 | Ed Nawotka
    A panel of experts gathered in Washington D.C. last week to discuss how their creative industries are coping with technological disruption cited AI as the latest challenge in a decades-long struggle to maintain sustainable careers in the digital era. The panel was part of "The Story Starts With Us," a day-long forum that addressed the threat generative AI poses to copyright law and the creative industries. It was co-hosted by the Association of American Publishers and the Copyright Alliance. The panel was moderated by Alex Reisner, a freelance journalist and contributing writer for The Atlantic who has written extensively about...