The unimportant news thread

[Kalevala]

Vegan burgers are losing the US culture war over meat.



https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/sep/12/vegan-burgers-meat-vegetarian

I haven't tried any products like Beyond, etc. (and this has nothing to do with Pres. T being in office, etc.).  I've heard about products like theirs and others and felt uncomfortable with how they were created/made.  Going back years ago, I used to make a recipe from Moosewood Cookbook for a burger that (if I'm remembering correctly) contained things like lentils and walnuts (They also freeze well).  I enjoyed those--though they do have a tendency to fall apart easier than ones that you can find in the freezer section these days.  I've been tempted to revisit the recipe.  Tried Dr. Praeger's --the one that I had...well, to me it tasted like cardboard.  I do have a different variety of it which I should give it a go. 

There are a fair number of vegetarians, vegans and pescatarians in my neck of the woods.  I do love my veggies and have been cutting back on meat, so it doesn't sound like I fit in with the article's demographics.

In any event, not all hope is lost! 

K

[Todd]

From AI News: AI and Sustainability: Transforming Climate Action

From USA Today: The hidden environmental cost of generative AI and its toll on climate

It's still common to see catastrophists claim that AI represents some type of existential threat to humanity - presumably AI will morph into Skynet or a double WOPR with cheese, or some such - but here's a thought experiment: what if AI determines that AI represents an existential threat to not only ambulatory meatbags known as humans, but also to AI?  AI needs gobs o' energy, but as always, resources are limited, and exponential growth of AI would lead to a depletion of resources needed to power AI.  Would AI slow its own "growth"? 

Of course, there are people who see the technology as grossly oversold in terms of capability and see the current mania as a classic bubble driven partly by nearly two decades of expansionary monetary policy in all advanced economies and partly by good old fashioned Barnumism by leading executives and investors in the space.  Such folks are wrong, of course, and AI will be more socially transformative than the widespread adoption of modern water treatment.

[drogulus]

    A skull was found in China that shows that a sister species to Homo Sapiens may have emerged a million years ago. It's called Homo Longi and it's closely related to Neanderthals and modern humans.

[Todd]

From the WSJ via MSN: Debt Is Fueling the Next Wave of the AI Boom

[drogulus]

    Chinese Premier Premier Li Qiang sent a message to Trump. The message is 1) Xi Jinpeng is no longer in control and 2) China wants to return to the reform path favored by the party elders and 3) Trump is welcome to visit China.

    This happened while Li was supposedly sightseeing in NY and this message is the real reason he attended the UN assembly. The message was received by Trumpist mega-idiot Howard Lutnick. Apparently there were no regular idiots available to meet with Li on such short notice.

[Todd]

From Music Business Worldwide: Nearly a third of all tracks uploaded to Deezer are now fully AI-generated, says platform

[steve ridgway]

From Music Business Worldwide: Nearly a third of all tracks uploaded to Deezer are now fully AI-generated, says platform

Old music is real music .

[Todd]

From the BMJ: NHS pulls controversial blog on first cousin marriage—but expert argues that it was "factually based"

Um.

[Todd]

From AP: 'AI actor' Tilly Norwood stirs outrage in Hollywood

It's just a shame the technology didn't come soon enough to prevent Cara Delevingne from switching to "acting".  No doubt, AI will result in an ever-decreasing demand for extras and C-listers.  I'm already over it.  At least there's always dinner theater.

[Todd]

From the Beeb: French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu resigns after less than a month

Lecornu makes Truss look like a long-hauler.  My takeaway is that things are peachy in France.

[steve ridgway]

From the Beeb: French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu resigns after less than a month

Lecornu makes Truss look like a long-hauler.  My takeaway is that things are peachy in France.

Must be some reason why their migrants want to come here .

[Karl Henning]

Seen on Facebook:

In 1960, Bennett Cerf, the founder of Random House, slid a fifty-dollar bill across the table and dared Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, to do something most thought was impossible.

The bet was simple but difficult: write an engaging children's book from start to finish using only 50 different words.

Cerf didn't believe it could be done. At the time, that $50 wager was worth over $500 in today's money, showing how serious he was about the challenge.

Dr. Seuss accepted the bet. He was no stranger to writing with constraints, having previously written "The Cat in the Hat" with a limited vocabulary of 236 words, but this was a far more demanding task.

He worked tirelessly on the project, reportedly finding the strict limitation to be an immense creative struggle. He filled pages with drafts, searching for the right combination of his 50 chosen words to tell a complete story.

Finally, on August 12, 1960, the result was published: "Green Eggs and Ham."

The book used exactly 50 unique words, with 49 of them being just one syllable. Seuss not only won the bet but also created a literary masterpiece.

"Green Eggs and Ham" went on to become one of the best-selling and most beloved children's books in history, teaching generations of children to read through its clever repetition and simple rhymes.

#history #facts #DrSeuss #books

[LKB]

RIP Diane Keaton.

https://apnews.com/article/diane-keaton-dead-d2f890b961fb906cfbbbab4b7af309c6

[Todd]

Barron's published an article on the AI industry's circular financing (aka, round-tripping) a few days ago, but it is behind a paywall.  Don't worry, the worst that could happen is that one or more of the companies experience a financial crisis, leading to plummeting stock prices, evaporation of investment (which is currently driving GDP growth), a broader market crash, and then a recession.  But only Gloomy Gusses think this way.  AI is on track to either destroy humanity, or usher in a new Golden Age of unlimited, universal prosperity.  Cynics, far worse than Gloomy Gusses, may ponder that this could lead to chatbots using paid ads as a replicable, reliable revenue stream, to go with the not-quite-fully realized dream of truly personalized marketing and misinformation super-spreading. 

To be clear, I am team Golden Age.