Sarah A. Hoyt's Blog, page 17

Today

Today we thank the Lord for men who will march and die to stand between the desolation of war and home. For men who believe they were entrusted a precious legacy and will fight to preserve it.

And we pray to Him — and vow to do what we can to make it so — for leaders who hold American lives precious and don’t spend them profligately.

And we remember.

That is all.

Everybody Wants To Rule The Memes

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The Price of The Gift

There is a price for “gifts”. This is a given of fairy lore, of course, but it’s also a known thing of the human brain.

As humans our period of having our every wish catered to is limited, and frankly I think we learn early that our wishes and needs won’t be perfectly met. After all, I remember as a mother having to ignore my babies as they fussed once I knew they were clean and fed. Why would I do that? Because what they wanted was play and the limitations of my own adult world wouldn’...

Up in the Air

Imagine you are atop a cliff, and must leap to another. Below you there’s a chasm.

Your only chance is to leap for it. Which means there’s a moment where you’re suspended in the air. Between peaks. You could just go down hard. Lost. Done.

All you can do is keep your jump, keep your form, keep going.

Right now the US, and to an extent the world (because buckos, if we don’t make it, they’re just as cooked) is suspended in the middle of that jump.

If we fail the chasm is deep and ...

AI Thievery and the End of Humanity by Ing

AI Thievery and the End of Humanity by Ing

AI technology came seemingly out of nowhere just a hot minute ago, and suddenly it’s everywhere—and it seems like it’s either the end of the world or a dawning utopia depending on who you listen to.

A family member sent me this article the other day, and it got me thinking about how people on both sides of the AI debate are getting it wrong. And also at least a little bit right. Perspective: My books were used without permission to train AI mo...

A Tsunami By Any Other Name

Do I HAVE to put up my “AI is going to destroy the novel market” decorations already? I still have my “AI is going to ruin science decorations” up.

Some X-brainiac last week — same brainiac who keeps banging the little drum for “you’re all contributing to the death of culture by not paying enough to artists” (Buyers and sellers, how does that work, even?) — said if a writer used AI for covers, obviously he/she was also using it for novels and “their entire catalogue is suspect.”

Head....

Tiger, Tiger, Waking Bright

This is a review of King Harv’s Bengal Tiger High Caffeine coffee.

*Full disclosure: King Harv’s Imperial coffees sends me coffee now and then. They don’t require (or even hint) I should review them in return. My guess is they send them to e in hopes it will fuel writing.

I, on the other hand, feel obliged to do a review of my favorites in hopes they’ll roast some more excellent coffee. – SAH*

It is a little known fact that when William Blake penned:

Tyger! Tyger! burning brigh...

Tell me, How Do You Meme?

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I Know When I Don’t See It

What is art, a man said and washed his hands….

Okay, fine, he said “what is the truth” or at least that’s an interpretation. What actually happened was a guy was asked “What is art” and said “I’ll be d*mned if I can tell you, but I know it when I see it.”

This has been made fun of by Academics, Intellectuals and other people who are formally wedded to just so stories and theory, but in the end it is the only way to identify art. Humans know art when they see it. Or hear it. Or read it...

You Lays Down Your Bet

Excuse me, I must make a point. It might not be the most popular point in the world, but it is a point that must be done.

A lot of you seem to be running with “Well, even if Soviet propaganda made us unreasonably scared of nuclear war, this is to the good because it prevented a nuclear war.”

Um…. it sure did. Or at least it prevented us from doing a first strike… Which honestly given the presidents we had those years was probably not very likely.

On the other hand, it also prevent...