Good News and Bad News and Fake News  No, that lady isn't telling us what she thinks of the US government these days. Well, she might be, but that's not why she's there. The beautifully evocative photograph, for some reason titled Woman Seen from the Back, was created in 1862 by a genius named Onésipe-Gonsalve Aguado de las Marismas, which is a really impressive name. We welcome this amusing artwork to our Editorial page in order to announce the stunningly happy-making news (to this Editor, at any rate) that the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, bless its little cotton socks, has released 375,000 artworks for free, unrestricted use by the public. That includes snarky derivative artists like moi and Freewayriding. You hear that, buddy? It's open season! Guess what you're going to see even more of in the coming months?
What do you mean, you don't like art jokes? Pah!
Do you like science fiction jokes? We hope so, because we have a lot of them this week. This is partly because you didn't send in enough highbrow Stuff, and the Editor had to make do with old pulp fiction. This was also partly because of this month's Create topic, which is Artificial Intelligence. We have lots of that for you this week. There's also some news on the very latest thing in AI – the new frontier, so to speak. It's called Artificial Intuition. Watch out, your Alexa knew I was going to say that. . .
We're almost pure snark this week. FWR's exciting saga of Bjorn Bottlesson (wonder where he got that name from?) and Leatherpants the Lost (ditto) continues, and the plot's really thickening. The management suggests you read with caution. This much weirdness can cause dizziness, headaches, and a general sense of disorientation.
Willem's got another blast-from-the-past extinct creature. This is not Fake News. It's good archaeology.
Speaking of good archaeology, we've dug up another spiffy literary gem from the IoW. You won't believe what it is. If you don't feel it makes you smarter, yell at Bluebottle. He's in charge of IoW refunds.
Awix has done some very brave research. He actually sat through a porn movie for us. We know you will appreciate his dedication. You will also enjoy this review. Probably more than you would enjoy the movie. [SPOILER ALERT] Awix does tell you a bit about who put what, where – like a helicopter. . .
Come caption the picture. I leaned out the bathroom window in the cold air for 30 whole seconds to produce it. The University of Texas calls that one the 'Noble Effort' fallacy. At least it's a logical fallacy, if a bit underhanded.
Icy North's our guest quizmaster this week. So all of you people who don't do the quizzes when I make them up, remember: it's your duty to support Icy's endeavours. If you give him enough positive feedback, he might take over the job, leaving me free to prowl around in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I'm sure that's another logical fallacy, but I'm too lazy to look up that website again.
Read, enjoy, comment, send Stuff so you don't get so many cartoons. And stay out of snowstorms this week.
Dmitri Gheorgheni
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