"Microsoft is spending more money on AI infrastructure than Germany and Israel spend on their military combined...Microsoft's allocation of resources to its AI infrastructure is approaching what Russia spends on its military." podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pro…

Yay me. I maxed the pretty easy Slate Vocab Quiz today. Can you do better than my 267? slate.com/news-and-polit…

Probably the only time that "ontological quandary" has been used in a comic strip. gocomics.com/calvinandhobbe…

What? No Bourée, Jethro Tull? classical-music.com/features/works…

Boo. One of my favorite podcasts, Prof G Markets, is taking a two-week vacation starting Monday. How dare they take my free content from me!

Acceptable. My 9/12, 386, on this week’s Slate News Quiz fell short of the Slatester but beat average score. Can you do better? slate.com/news-and-polit…

I’m so ignorant. That’s the lesson I’ve drawn after reading “Chaos: Making a New Science,” by James Glieck. Chaoticians have my deep respect. Now if only I could stop saying, “Huh?” I appreciated the passing references to #Mahler and Tom Lehrer.

Dilemma. Would love to have one of these, not that I can afford it, but I'd be afraid of damaging it while playing. Even a tiny ding.... taylorguitars.com/guitars/acoust…

More blood on the hands of anti-vaxxers and RFKJ. "After CDC shooting, its employees turn their anger to RFK Jr. and Trump." wapo.st/45NfS0M

Season 1 of Blue Lights, a police procedural set in present-day Belfast (BBC via BritBox), was very good, looking forward to S2.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S3 off to weak start. E1, new record set in techno-babble, and just-in-time temporary (?) victory over the Gorn was not believable. E2, a reprise of TOS’s Squire of Gothos episode, was cringeworthy. How did Uhura grow so much hair in only 3 months?

Words of wisdom from Calvin's Dad. gocomics.com/calvinandhobbe…

Now this is a bookstore. The Iliad, Hollywood.

Ana Vidović plays J.S. Bach - Partita in E-major (BWV 1006) LIVE youtu.be/HK-CRj-XL-E?si… via YouTube

Star Trek: SNW was very good in S1 and 2. In S3, three of the first four episodes have been duds. Any episode based on a holodeck starts with two strikes against, but I admit it was clever to explain the lack of one in TOS. The rest of E4 points to desperation in the writers room

This must have been a tough one. My not-great 8/12, 318, on this week’s Slate News Quiz beat average score but fell one point short of the Slatester. Can you do better? slate.com/news-and-polit…

Top 5 Boogie Woogie Women youtu.be/qkHDTIbJa4w?si… via YouTube

Black Beauty, a Duke Ellington song that works spectacularly well on acoustic guitar, if you're Guy Van Duser, whom I'll be seeing in concert on September 20 at Boulevard Music in Culver City. youtu.be/7ZtMRwiJY0U?si… via YouTube

Why can't I hit these chords cleanly? Hmm, must be my fingernails. (clip, clip, clip). No, that wasn't it.

It's been decades since I heard this. Many thanks to Shemekia Copeland on B.B. King's Bluesville, ch. 75 on SiriusXM. youtu.be/Lw2L_vGUMtE?si…