On the NPR puzzle show with Will Shortz this morning, the last question (usually the hardest) had as answer “wowie zowie” upon which the NPR host (forget her name) asked, rhetorically, when was the last time anyone heard the expression wowie zowie to which I joyously, shouted out, to no one in particular: “Last night!” Because my colleague Alex Field had his ipod playing in his car as we were driving back from Yosemite after a couple long hikes, and one of the albums played was The Mothers of Invention (i.e. Frank Zappa) and Wowie Zowie was the one song I thought was pretty decent. (Shockingly, dear reader, I had never actually heard what I am sure some sub-cult of true believers calls MOI before.) So, here’s to obscure forgotten phrases. [Correction: I was just listening, not actually on the show, which would have been fun!]
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Recent Posts
- Reading Nov-Dec 2025 and Jan 2026
- AI as an existential threat – Kevane preliminary draft
- “What can it do?” A living list of computational problems that deep learning/AI/neural nets can or seems likely to “do” (at varying cost and efficacy)
- Reading August-September 2025
- The typical popular sci-fi version of AI posing an existential risk?
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Friends of African Village Libraries (I post regularly here)- Visite du Centre de Lecture et d’Études de Béréba par le coordonnateur de ABVBF
- Animation d’une séance de lect ure à la bibliothèque de Bougounam
- Annual report for 2025 of partner organization in Burkina Faso ABVBF
- Actions récents de l’animateur de ABVBF, Burkina Faso
- Animation d’u e séance de discussion à la bibliothèque de Niankorodugou
- Rencontre d’une équipe de Amis des Bibliothèques de Villages du Burkina Faso (ABVBF) avec le DPEPPNF du Tuy
- Rapport de mission de l’équipe de ABVBF au CEG de Dossi
- Rapport de sortie à la bibliothèque de Dimikuy, Burkina Faso
- Rapport de sortie à la bibliothèque de Dohoun
- Préparation d’un don de livres CMH aux élèves du CEG de Dossi