If there’s one thing authors love more than procrastinating, it’s praising one another. During the Renaissance, Thomas More’s Utopia got a proto-blurb from Erasmus (“divine wit”), while Shakespeare’s First Folio got one from Ben Jonson (“The wonder of our stage!”).
IN THE NEW living room, there is a marble fireplace with a large mantel that we're still trying to figure how to decorate. Currently, there is a large pelargonium in a terracotta pot on the lefthand side, as well as a tiny cutting from a larger epipremnum pictum argyraeus in a pot next to it.
Increasingly, we’re surrounded by fake people. Sometimes we know it and sometimes we don’t. They offer us customer service on Web sites, target us in video games, and fill our social-media feeds; they trade stocks and, with the help of systems such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, can write essays, articles, and e-mails. By no means are these A.I. systems up to all the tasks expected of a full-fledged person. But they excel in certain domains, and they’re branching out.
Meteorologically speaking, we're in the final month of spring, but time has got away from us and we never had the chance to fully appreciate this season that comes before our favourite. For it's at this time of year, that the earth awakens from its deep sleep, shedding the icy weight of winter's discontent.
FUTURE SHOCK. It’s a term that was first coined by Alvin Toffler in 1970 to describe the psychological disorientation and stress that people experience due to rapid changes in technology, society, and culture. And with the rapid advancements in AI, it’s becoming more relevant than ever before.
LAST WEEK I spoke about a need for change, to declutter and move away from maximalist tendencies and bright colours to a more subdued, neutral palette. Well, I may be changing my mind again, after seeing this bedside table (above) with its pile of books, bright pink table lamp and goldenrod-hued headboard in English Interior Designer Luke Edward Hall's Gloucestshire country home.
Neural networks have become shockingly good at generating natural-sounding text, on almost any subject. If I were a student, I’d be thrilled—let a chatbot write that five-page paper on Hamlet’s indecision!—but if I were a teacher I’d have mixed feelings. On the one hand, the quality of student essays is about to go through the roof. On the other, what’s the point of asking anyone to write anything anymore?
Steven Soderbergh is the rare filmmaker who views a sequel as a chance to do something different. In a moviemaking era suffused with safe and predictable follow-ups, Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Twelve remains a sterling example of a strange, surprising left turn from its predecessor’s formula.
IF YOU'RE ever in Edinburgh, remind me to tell you about a new little natural wine bar that just opened in the old hi-fi shop on Haddington. We stopped in late Tuesday night of last week, after P told me at the hotel that he'd made reservations. We ate some delicious snacks and a glass of Lamoresca Rosato for me, and P ordered a homemade soft drink.
ON AN ESPECIALLY grim day around here, there will always be someone who mutters well you don't live in Britain for the weather. And while that may be true, it's definitely cosy when you're sitting in someone's home for tea where it's bright and warm.
THE BEAUTIFUL sunshine streaming through the windows is at odds with this morning's news of more shelling in Ukraine and a plane crash in China. Every night for the past week, I have been falling asleep to dreams of war. The nights are frenetic and uneasy, the mornings much more calm with lucid thoughts over coffee, at least until the news cycle begins again ...
BEIJING-BORN Savi of @savislook's home was first featured here in our piece on the Camaleonda Sofa by Mario Bellini. The Weibo and YouTube influencer often gives glimpses of her home on her Instagram page and its filled with old-school vibes: 50s farmhouse meets mid-century modern with a nod to the 70s by way of an orange striped shag rug ...
YES, WE KNOW, it's only been officially autumn for a month, but with the nights drawing in so quickly now, the bright yellow leaves falling off the trees, the wet gloomy skies, and British Summer Time ending at the end of the month, we're already dreaming of sunnier times and warmer days. If the dark days of autumn and the dreary days of winter must be tolerated, then we'll do it with cosy evenings fireside, and also through plenty of daydreaming. These images, that came floating through our feed this week, of places around Mallorca are a perfect place to start ...
WHEN MY PARTNER and I first walked through the door of our prospective home, last October, the air was thick with a musty scent that I preferred not to place. It was clear that the carpet upstairs, which appeared to be the culprit, would have to go.
JANUARY IS A funny time: on the one hand, we're drawn to all-white and minimalistic interiors for the clean slate that they represent, and on the other, it's such a dreary month that anything colourful instantly lifts our mood and brightens these long dark winter days.
