Escaping the AI Vampire Castle

...AI generated children’s stories. This is just part of a flood of scammy AI books on Amazon. The AI children’s books advertised on my Kindle combine titles that have an English-as-a-second-language vibe, vaguely Manga style cover illustrations and author names such as “Leanor Varelade” that either yield no search results or are close to the names of real people (Leonor Varela is a Chilean actress). In short these books are what you would get if you...

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The Blue Bear

...of that trip, disjointed and frozen in amber. 1) I had a Little Dot comic book (presumably purchased to keep me quiet on the trip) which just fascinated me. 2) I had to sleep on a couch under the gaze of a stuffed moose head, which was absolutely terrifying. Clutching the Little Dot book helped the terrors to some extent. 3) I remember meeting my great-grandparents at what I assume was their front door. I remember that I stood the height of my gr...

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103 Ugly Little Greens with Mia Wasilevich

...ant on “Master Chef” and “Top Chef.” She is also the author of a brand new book, “Ugly Little Greens: Gourmet Dishes Crafted from Foraged Ingredients.” During the show we discuss: How she got started cooking. Mia’s new book Ugly Little Greens. Eating invasives. Working with mustard. Elderflower ghee. Nettle aid. Mallow. Currants. Working with acorns. Lambsquarters. Meal planning. Fish sauce. James Townsend and Two Fat Ladies. Mia’s website Transit...

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My Favorite Podcasts

...ence, the fact is that I’m not that type of person. I’m also not the audio book type, so when I’m working I like to listen to podcasts. Here’s a selection of what I subscribe to: C-Realm Podcast This is the first podcast I ever subscribed to and it’s my favorite. It’s hard to pin down exactly what this show is about other than that the “C” stands for “consciousness,” but in no way would I call it “new age.” The topics vary widely, everything from...

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Root Simple: 2015 in Review

...affiliate got a lot of comments (Our Amazon Problem) as did my post on Facebook distraction (Is Facebook Useful?). How-to posts I really wish that I could do more how-to posts, but the fact is that they are the most time consuming. We did manage to do a few good ones: Stuff you Learn When the Power Goes Out (with El Niño storms approaching, it’s time to review this one), Restoring a Built-In Ironing Board, Three Things I’ve Learned from Baking Bre...

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