IT'S YOUR DECISION

You could learn about "The Turk," a fake chess-playing machine from the 1770s (human pretending to be machine)



OR

You could chat with "Cleverbot," an AI website built in the hopes of passing the "Turing Test" (machine pretending to be human)



IT'S YOUR DECISION!!!

Bonus: read this amazing 2007 article from Discover Magazine in which two chatbots chat with each other!

Sample from article (A= A.L.I.C.E. and J= Jabberwacky)

A: Who is your favorite philosopher

J: Can’t say. I’m not very much into philosophy.

A: Can a book have no title?

J: Of course.

A: Blimey.

J: Are you British?

A: Does it seem like that? I was born in America.

J: You are definitely flirting!

SECOND PRINTING

Dear Owl-face,

Factory Hollow Press is amazing. A second printing of my chapbook, Fireproof Swan, is currently in production, and will be available in the near future! I am excited to get more copies of this book out in the world- the FHP team makes a habit of creating impossibly beautiful books, and this one is no exception, with its French Flaps, heavy paper-stock, and gorgeous end-papers.

Factory Hollow recently released their first full-length book, the incredible book-length poem Crash Dome by Alex Phillips. The poem is ambitious and lovely, and the production is typically breath-taking. From of the back of the book: "That from the twenty-six letters of our alphabet this book could be born is a miracle, a heartbreakingly glorious one that demands it be read, and talked about, and marveled over, and, like all true miracles, doesn't give a damn if it isn't." -- Mary Ruefle




Lastly, here's the hip hop owl. Enjoy!

Westward Ho!

This blog has dissolved into summer. I apologize. I blame 1) The World Cup, and 2) writing poems. I just got back from Florida, the land of golf carts. I just got back from a store called "Discount Hotel Supplies" and that's what it sells. We just got a full-length mirror, and the cat stood in front of it, grooming himself. He is a genius. I feel like summer is nearly over, but actually it isn't.

I bought a plane ticket! I will be in the Northwest! I will be reading on August 19th in Port Townsend at the Northwind Arts Center with Heather Christle. This will be my first hometown reading, and I am kind of excited about it.

Here is what Port Townsend looks like if you are a dolphin cam.

THE BAUMER

Every week and a half or so, I remember that I haven't checked out Mark Baumer's "official #1 'I am walking across America' blog" for a while. Which is great, because it's amazing to have a week's worth of photographs and words describing his walk across the country. I think his blog might be my favorite use of blog technology.

PRODUCE

I am sitting within Logan International Airport in beautiful Boston, MA. Yesterday in Northampton, Maurice Dubois saw me on the street and gave me three radishes he had grown. Today in the little convenience store by the bus station, there was a shopping cart full of FREE LOCAL ORGANIC PRODUCE. Northampton is awesome. It is my spiritual home. Now I will go back to Atlanta and I will sit in my apartment and write poems.

Above is a map of New York City created by Eric Fischer that defines the city in terms of who took photographs of it and posted them on Flickr. Red means tourists, blue means locals. Yellow means it was impossible to tell. See similar maps of different cities here.

GLENN GOULD

This is a great short piece by Glenn Gould about recording, performance, and technology.

"I was making an unnecessarily rhetorical statement about the music, simply as a consequence of having attempted to project it in very spacious acoustic environments."