"It’s easy to assume that we sit at the pinnacle of human knowledge and achievement. Zettabytes of information are just a click away..."

"... we jet halfway across the world in hours; we talk to anyone, anywhere, all while satellites circle the globe, DNA is sequenced and spliced and small packets of electrochemical energy hum with power at our disposal. And yet archaeology consistently turns up hints of ancient accomplishments, buried for centuries. Just this year, researchers have discovered poisons used by early Homo sapiens, wooden tools carved by early hominins, well-engineered Maya plazas, terraces and other architectural feats and a centuries-old board game...."

From "How Did Greek Fire Work? And 6 Other Lost Inventions" (NYT)(a gift link, like all NYT links now).

I think I'm seeing "zettabytes" for the first time. What is a zettabyte?

"I felt completely alienated from the other students and underappreciated in general."

"Recently I came upon a programme I saved for a 1956 run of Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt at the Playhouse’s West Balcony Theatre in Pasadena. I remember desperately wanting to play Peer Gynt, but I was cast in two small parts: 'slave' and 'ugly boy'.... Besides [me and Gene Hackman], the people at the Playhouse were all beautiful. These tall, perfect blond guys like Robert Redford, 'walking surfboards,' as the actor and screenwriter Buck Henry used to say, the kind of guys who’d get cast on Bonanza. They were always wearing fake guns in holsters in the hallway at school, and they would practise drawing their weapons. That was a leading man. We were character actors, and that was just fine with us. To be frank, we were snobs...."

Writes Dustin Hoffman, in "Dustin Hoffman: Duvall, Hackman and our wild 1960s in New York/In 1958, a terrified Hoffman arrived in Manhattan to try and make it as an actor. In an extract from his new memoir, he recounts a thrilling decade of odd jobs, partying with Robert Duvall and sleeping on Gene Hackman’s kitchen floor" (London Times).

Sunrise.

Asked about UFOs, Trump raves about handsome pilots.

"I'm not too much of a believer, but I sat in the Oval Office, first term and a little bit second term, meeting with Air Force pilots that are really good, solid people. These are not people that you would say are conspiracy theorists. They don't even know what it means. But they're great, great pilots. Young, handsome. They have beautiful, nice flat tops. I'd like to have a haircut just like them. They look perfect, like Tom Cruise. … They're thin, you know, very thin and very everything. And… they're the real deal. And they've told me things that are very strange."

Quoted in "10 takeaways from Trump's 60 Minutes interview: Why GOP lost the midterms, what went wrong on immigration and more" (CBS).

I just want to know if the aliens are good-looking. And which A-list celebrity they most resemble. I'm on a Nicolas Cage kick this month, so I hope they look like Nicolas Cage....

"One of his favourite places to meet women was said to have been Golden Bridge, an elite Kundalini yoga studio..."

"Brand swiftly became a favourite with the instructor, Tej Kaur Khalsa, a distinctive-looking elderly woman who wore a turban and white, flowing dresses.... Monique Reymond [attended a class and remembers] the crowd of students went silent with anticipation as Khalsa took to the stage.... 'And the first words out of Tej’s mouth were, "Does anybody have a hair tie for Russell?"' she said. Reymond remembered the class frantically searching their handbags to be the one to present Brand with the hair tie. 'Russell Brand’s hair was contained. Russell Brand — I don’t know that he was contained,' she added, describing how Brand frequently became involved with women in the class. 'He was sharp and funny and there were many people that responded to that. There were other people who did not and found the whole thing to be really disturbing. There were people who found it upsetting that Tej would allow someone to use her class as a dating app.'"

From "Inside Russell Brand’s Hollywood bubble, where nobody could say no/His fame soared after he married one of the world’s biggest pop stars, but former insiders reveal a world of tantrums, sexual excess and troubling rumours" (London Times).

UPDATE: "Russell Brand jailed for ten years for rape and sexual assaults — as it happened/The judge criticised the actor’s ‘staggering arrogance’ as he was sentenced for one rape and three sexual assaults" (London Times):

Donald Trump on "60 Minutes."

Here's Douthat's "10 takeaways from Trump's 60 Minutes interview: Why GOP lost the midterms, what went wrong on immigration and more" (CBS).

"But what has felt particularly foreign was how much she had shared with the chatbot, and how much she had kept from them."

"Bowen had always shared every detail of her life, no matter how small: the arguments with her roommates, what she ate for dinner. Before the chatbot appeared to wedge itself between them, such an important decision about her medication would have undoubtedly come up. 'Once she had ChatGPT,' Qun said, 'she didn’t talk to us as much.'"

From "She Trusted ChatGPT With Her Medication Decisions. It Cost Her Everything. The chatbot helped a woman taper off a lifesaving drug and hide the plan from her doctors" (NYT).

"First dubbed the 'Cry Baby' pedal, Casher also recorded a demo for instrument stores showcasing how to use the pedal..."

"... as well as an accompanying single. Both the pedal and the single failed to catch on with the music-playing public upon release in 1967. However, Frank Zappa, who used the wah-wah pedal in 1966 when Casher sat in with the Mothers of Invention, gifted a pedal to Jimi Hendrix, solidifying the wah-wah's place in music history soon after...."

From "DEL CASHER, GUITARIST WHO INVENTED THE WAH-WAH PEDAL, DEAD AT 88/Musician and inventor who played with artists like Elvis Presley, Gene Autry, and Frank Zappa died Oct. 1 after cancer battle" (Rolling Stone).

"What happened today?"

ADDED: The video identifies itself as "Made with AI/Sounds or visuals were altered or fully generated." Mental note: Everything good is fake.

ALSO: I tested my "Everything good is fake" hypothesis on Grok, and it told me that's "too strong," because "Real versions of those moments still happen all the time; they’re just harder to find in the algorithm because they tend to be messier, less optimized, and less consistently produced. The AI ones are often cleaner, more consistent, and engineered to hit the emotional beats efficiently."

That made me think of how fiction works on us — I was recently entranced by the first 9 minutes of the movie "Moonstruck." I realized that I was invested in the story and the characters in a deep way. Everything was so clear and effective. So strategic. That's fiction. Of course, it's fake.

Sunrise.

Rob Sand... the new governor of Iowa... the ex-model.

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A post shared by Rob Sand for Iowa (@robsandia)

"I am pleased to announce that the Great Dana White, a violent Fighter and Warrior, has been offered the job of Press Secretary of the United States."

Wrote President Trump, quoted in "UFC’s Dana White says he will meet Trump on Monday to discuss press secretary offer/Trump’s previous press secretary, Katie Zacharia, left the role in October after just five days on the job" (NBC).

Violent!

I think first of physical force, and it seemed like a crazy word choice, but on consulting the OED, I see that there are a number of "senses relating to strength or severity" including "Of speech or writing: indicative or expressive of strong emotion (now esp. anger, hatred, etc.); fervent, impassioned." And: "Of a person, a person's disposition or support for a cause, etc.: passionate; vehement; characterized by or exhibiting a lack of moderation in action or conduct."

And perhaps that's exactly what Trump wants in a person who will speak for him to the press. If he wants a "Fighter and Warrior," why not someone who conveys strong emotion — vehement, passionate emotion?

"In 2018, there was still a sense that Trump was an aberration or a fluke; that he’d gotten lucky in 2016 and Democrats could double down on who they were already..."

"... and end MAGA without changing much themselves. Democrats won power in 2018 and 2020 and wielded it so unconvincingly and alienatingly that Trump and his movement roared back, stronger and more dangerous, than ever. The Democratic Party that emerged from that bruising is chastened in a way its predecessor wasn’t. Democrats know they need to appeal to voters who mistrust them. They are not as liable to mistake Trump’s unpopularity for their popularity. All they have won is a chance to prove themselves. And so they may be more willing to learn lessons that this election had to teach."

Writes Ezra Klein, in "A Stake Through the Heart of Trump’s Red Map" (NYT).

I understand why they make headlines like that but it's SO out of line with the tone and substance of the article.

"sometimes it’s easy to feel a little dehumanized in a heated sexual situation and i appreciated his pausing for me to collect myself."

I'm reading "Read the Text Messages at the Center of the Cornell Rape Inquiry After a Cornell student said fraternity members had sexually assaulted her, university investigators amassed a trove of communications from the student and the men she accused"

That's in the NYT, where it's always a gift link. Read everything in context, but I'll excerpt one more thing:

"Yes, so sorry once again and I agree with it just being an insane night and appreciate your forgiveness - and right, with due time it can be something to laugh about privately. Yeah there were two Scotty’s haha"/"i think we all have a soul bond now cause very few people can say they’ve had an experience like that. while it’s good to keep it away from the public i don’t think it’s something to feel ashamed of in private. thank god there are two scotty’s that was literally the trippiest part of the night...."

"I know I shouldn't say that. But it's just a feeling."

Dave Chappelle: “Ever since that guy Charlie Kirk got murdered, and I shouldn’t say this publicly but…. I feel better.” This isn’t even comedy. It’s just sick… https://t.co/SuW8zeF58p

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) November 8, 2026

Real Trump and Fake Trump confront the reality of "Talafreako."

In an interview airing Sunday on 60 Minutes, correspondent Ross Douthat asks President Trump: If it took six months of not insulting the Democrats to get a deal done, do you think you could do it? https://t.co/PJO8fLfl6C

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) November 7, 2026

 

“That’s Senator Talafreako.” https://t.co/QWMTGgGL5S

— James Talarico (@jamestalarico) November 8, 2026