TIMELAPSE OF THE UNIVERSE: 13 Billion Years in 10 Minutes • Updated and...

https://youtu.be/QTQVZuBV9oA?is=qovXshk6K8d8-Ra6

The Revenge of the Philosophy Majors

…A.I. labs, and the related nonprofits around them, have been recruiting workers as versed in Consequentialism and John Stuart Mill as in neural networks and reinforcement learning. While a plain-vanilla philosophy degree remains as hard to monetize as ever, David Chalmers, a prominent philosopher of consciousness at N.Y.U., observes: “I think the demand for philosophers with A.I. training is, if anything, outstripping the supply right now. It’s an area I encourage students to go into. I think these issues with A.I. will be front and center for a good while.”

…

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/05/business/philosophy-majors-ai-jobs.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

A delightfully denigrating demotion of George W. and our seminal national "tax revolt"...

https://youtu.be/K1BaPETVOQA?si=2IKOZ_T9Wxw8gje5

But, my comment on aspersions the hosts cast towards American teeth, food, and nomenclature: 

@PhilOliver214

Bad dentition, inferior cuisine, funny names... 

I assume the irony is intentional, if not self-deprecatory. 

But yes, to be Canada wouldn't be so bad. No Kings, though.

Morning air

Curious visitor

“Living Tree” by Robert Morgan

It’s said they planted trees by graves
to soak up spirits of the dead
through roots into the growing wood.
The favorite in the burial yards
I knew was common juniper.
One could do worse than pass into
such a species. I like to think
that when I’m gone the chemicals
and yes the spirit that was me
might be searched out by subtle roots
and raised with sap through capillaries
into an upright, fragrant trunk,
and aromatic twigs and bark,
through needles bright as hoarfrost to
the sunlight for a century
or more, in wood repelling rot
and standing tall with monuments
and statues there on the far hill,
erect as truth, a testimony,
in ground that’s dignified by loss,
around a melancholy tree
that’s pointing toward infinity.

“Living Tree” by Robert Morgan from Dark Energy. © Penguin, 2014. Reprinted with permission.  

https://www.garrisonkeillor.com/radio/the-writers-almanac-for-tuesday-june-23-2026/

Really vital

The really vital question

AI may not have (or be) the answer, but it is fun to play with.

My next birthday tattoo

 With a little help from Gemini. It worked up my idea, from Sonnet 73 and Yogi:

 

 

Lightbulb moments

“While walking over fifty hours through unfamiliar territory, I began to think with increased clarity. Lightbulb moments became more regular, spurred on by being curious about the changing surroundings. Small, surprising details–a tombstone, an information sign hidden in the reeds, a clank of a gate–began to jump out at me. Step by step, the threads of history emerged, forming a rich tapestry. It was only by walking, by travelling at the natural human pace, that these unexpected revelations arrived. I saw so many things that I wouldn’t have done from a bike, car or library desk.”

— Eleanor: A 200-Mile Walk in Search of England's Lost Queen by Alice Loxton
https://a.co/04a9ogq7

Phil.Oliver@mtsu.edu

👣Solvitur ambulando

💭Sapere aude