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Sesame is the first voice assistant I've ever wanted to talk to more than once
Sean Hollister, The Verge, 2025/02/28

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I just spent half an hour in conversation with this AI created by a company called Sesame using a 'Conversational Speech Model' based on soma Llama models. There are some obvious weaknesses still but it did keep me engaged for the full half hour - it did quite well working with me through my thoughts on Mark Carney's Value(s), which I have been reading. I should have recorded the discussion (it doesn't save the recordings or transcripts, though of course I could have just used a screen recorder). It didn't work on Firefox (probably an issue with permissions).

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En-ROADS
Climate Interactive, 2025/02/28

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As Alan Levine reports, "En‑ROADS is a global climate simulator that allows users to explore the impact that dozens of policies - such as electrifying transport, pricing carbon, and improving agricultural practices - have on hundreds of factors like energy prices, temperature, air quality, and sea level rise." I tried out a number of scenarios on it and found it useful to visualize potential futures - but also felt a bit locked in by the assumptions of the simulation (for example, the subsidies on coal & oil can only be increased a little bit (and we don't see what the actual values are), carbon-dioxide removal seems to have an outsized influence, electrification can only be subsidized, not taxed, etc). Do take the time to read the documentation.

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5 ways marketers can beat attention recession - Think with Google
Think With Google, 2025/02/28

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This article is directed toward marketers and 'brands' rather than to people, but educators will find the content (a bit) relevant. The assertion here is that the 'attention recession' is real and the article offers five suggestions (with an example for each) to break through:

• focus on value
• keep it brief
• encourage interactivity and community
• make it visual, and 
• be relevant

You wouldn't think these need to be spelled out, but in my work with academics I've encountered fierce resistance to each one of these five (often all at the same time) resulting in huge long one-way blocks of text that aren't useful or relevant.

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Government is not business
Chris Corrigan, 2025/02/28

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Chris Corrigan makes the case here that government is not, and should not be treated like, a business. I mean, after all, if government were a business, then business probably could not afford all the services governments currently provide them mostly for free. For example (from Corrigan): society "provides them with educated talent, and serviced environments in which they can establish their operations." And "companies largely don't have to worry about how their employees get to work." Further, "when economies change or companies go bankrupt, governments are the one that care for the aftermath." The people who conflate government and business, says Corrigan, are "charlatans." And he warns, "the same nonsense may be coming to Canada again too. The metaphors of managing government like a business or, God forbid, a household budget, are not only unhelpful, but they are fundamentally dangerous."

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We publish six to eight or so short posts every weekday linking to the best, most interesting and most important pieces of content in the field. Read more about what we cover. We also list papers and articles by Stephen Downes and his presentations from around the world.

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