College applications rise outside US as Trump cracks down on international students The U.S. remains the first choice for many international students, but institutions elsewhere are recognizing opportunity in the upheaval, and applicants are considering destinations they might have otherwise overlooked. The impact on U.S. universities — and the nation’s economy — may be significant. Data showing the extent of any impact will not be available until fall, said Mike Henniger, CEO of Illume Student Advisory Services, a consultancy that works with colleges in the U.S., Canada and Europe. “But the American brand has taken a massive hit, and the U.K. is the one that is benefiting,” he said. https://apnews.com/article/international-students-visas-trump-uk-dubai-6fd432398ce4c87f49a89c9c39421dec

I forgot the worst part. I was leaving and apparently crushed a garden lizard between the top of the door and the door frame. This was when I noticed the wasps. I was hoping its tail was just cut off but it was dead. It didn't look like a good omen so I found a stick and knocked it to the ground.

@Bernard said @Steve-Miller Many the time I saw rats on the subway tracks waiting for the train in the NYC subway system! Same on the London Underground. When a train approaches they vanish. Jack Russel dogs are our ratters though any small terrier like Border or Patterdale or Fox will have the natural instinct.

But not very many.

Another AI experiment. What Happened When I Tried to Replace Myself with ChatGPT in My English Classroom Piers Gelly on a Semester-Long Dive into the AI Discourse https://lithub.com/what-happened-when-i-tried-to-replace-myself-with-chatgpt-in-my-english-classroom/?user_id=66c4c06e5d78644b3aab4472

I did not find it as good as brining and gentle sautéing. They were a bit dry, but then I did not follow the directions precisely and they were fairly small pieces.

LOLOL and Texas related, of course.

"AI" as it's known may not go away, and it may be helpful to some people, but it will continue to be little more than an expensive, fancy-pants data retrieval system that steals copyrighted material for profitable ends. Hopefully, our lawmakers will do their job and make sure it is appropriately and strongly regulated and that they put a stop to the wholesale theft. The last copilot-generated search result I looked at (I always prefix my searches these days with "-ai -copilot" but I forgot this time) said something coherent followed by a parenthetical, "According to Wikipedia". Had me LOLing. I recommend the following opinion as a counter to the constant hype... https://unherd.com/2025/08/how-to-stopper-the-ai-genie/?lang=us But as recent tests and studies of LLMs have shown, this technology is not the pathway to AGI that we were promised. The hopes that “scaling”, “emergent properties” and “reasoning” would lead to AGI have all failed. The path to AGI lies elsewhere, if anywhere. As Yann LeCun, chief AI scientist at Meta, has said: “There’s absolutely no way that autoregressive LLMs… will reach human intelligence. It’s just not going to happen.”

Link to video

I think they did that last time too.

Some interesting reading here, which I will read in its entirety later ... https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273606710_The_rate_of_fading_of_natural_dyes

@wtg said in programs to watch via Channel 4. Trying to remember channel 4 stuff... 8 out of 10 cats Timeteam Drop the Dead Donkey Father Ted (you'll either love or hate this) Nothing currently

The Johnny Cash museum in Nashville is great; I learned a lot about him there.

Interesting. I guess it was an ancient and widespread practice.

I wish I had some! Italy is one of the top two places I'd like to go. The other is England and I have been there. I know it's not soon but I hope you'll tell us about it and post pictures!

Andy, stunning. Wow. Having lived on an idyllic, isolated island, I've found that the only practical downside is access to healthcare. There were plenty of situations where a person in HI would have to fly to Honolulu to see a specialist or have an operation. Although it you had that kind of money, I guess you'd be able to rent a private jet at the drop of a hat and it wouldn't be an issue.

Life is strange.