The Week in Meep: Behind the Scenes, Sumo in London, and RIP, June Lockhart... plus... SEA PEOPLES!
It's quite the grab bag
Here's a glimpse into my process below. I do use AI tools: primarily for editing and research.
I am a big user of em dashes — it’s what I like to do! Where do you think the AI got em dashes from in the first place?
There you go.
But sometimes… it’s just not worth it.
Trying to Wrangle AI to Not Mangle Text in Graphics — Difficulty Level: High
I’ve been using Gemini as a research tool. While working on my next Chicago post (it’s coming!), it served up a nice little table for me, and I thought: hey, maybe I can get a nice infographic out of this:
Notice something looks a little wonky under “July 2012”.
Here’s the full infographic:
Oh, wait, it also mispelled “businesses”. I just noticed that.
Thus it started:
It gave me the EXACT SAME INFOGRAPHIC, by the way.
And for a THIRD TIME, it gave me the same infographic.
So yeah, I’m going to keep making my own graphs and forget about infographics, because this is just awful.
Somebody… (NOT NAMING NAMES) had used one of these AI-generated infographics to promote their new report on LinkedIn, and I forebore from giving a complete critique of the graphic… but it had even worse problems than what you see above.
DO NOT USE THIS STUFF TO PROMOTE SERIOUS WORK.
Make your own graphics! Or find a tool that’s been trained to do it better! Something that will actually take the text and set it correctly, embed real graphs, etc. Rather than something that generates an AI image that will screw up every element - the graphs, the text, the fonts — it’s in the uncanny valley of PowerPoint presentation SmartArt.
Sumo in London
I mentioned Sumo in London in the October 12 Week in Meep… and Sumo has come and gone from London.
I leave you with this sole image:
And if you’re interested in more images from the Sumo event(s) (and videos!), here are the posts I did at my Sumo Stats substack:
11 Oct 2025: Happy September Win, Onosato... and Enjoy the London Trip! - this has some of the pre-London info
14 Oct 2025: London Sumo Spectacular! Starts Tomorrow, Oct 15! At the Royal Albert Hall! (With Where to Watch Online)
15 Oct 2025: More 2025 London Sumo Extras! October 15
18 Oct 2025: Even More 2025 London Sumo Extravaganza!
25 Oct 2025: 2025 London Sumo Extravaganza Wrap-Up!
Okay, one more, some designs made for the event: (plus one extra from an Art of Sumo exhibit):
RIP, June Lockhart at the grand age of 100!
America’s mom! (that goes to her IMDB listing)
She was known for many roles, but especially as the mom on TV shows like Lassie and Lost in Space.
Her last credit in IMDB was from 2021, as a voice actor, and her last live action appearance was in 2016…. wow!
You may be interested in some related Mortality with Meep posts (re: living to 100 or really old ages)
Apr 2022: Who Wants to Live Forever?
Jan 2025: In Memory of President Jimmy Carter, Current Holder of Longest-Lived U.S. President
Sep 2024: Ig Nobel 2024 Winner: The Secret to Long Life is Lying About Your Age...Or Not Reporting Your Death
Look, June Lockhart wasn’t lying about her age, so that’s okay. But that’s a fun bit of research anyway.
She was born in 1925, and you can see the probability of reaching age 100 was… still pretty low. Under 3% (from birth).
I was born in 1974, and the current projections are that the probability for me… from birth (I have to put in that caveat… because it’s not totally fair. I am 51, after all.) … over 5%, but less than 10%.
SEA PEOPLES!!!!
I just finished this audiobook:
You might find it interesting — I had always heard about the “Sea Peoples” marauding through the late Bronze Age, wiping out the Myceneans, and other civilizations of the time, leading to a few hundred years of a Dark Age in the areas where great cities had been built up… and then it took a while for it to get built up again (in the IRON AGE (cue hard rock.))
This book goes through the archaeological evidence of what happened to the eastern Mediterranean civilizations of the period, with all sorts of juicy correspondence between cities and nations. (Especially “why didn’t you send me a son to be my husband?! I told you I needed a king!”) We’re biased towards written history, obviously, as it’s more “legible” to us, but there are other details of how these groups traded and interacted with each other that can be inferred from the material goods dug up now.
Here is the official editorial description:
In 1177 B.C., marauding groups known only as the “Sea Peoples” invaded Egypt. The pharaoh’s army and navy managed to defeat them, but the victory so weakened Egypt that it soon slid into decline, as did most of the surrounding civilizations. After centuries of brilliance, the civilized world of the Bronze Age came to an abrupt and cataclysmic end. Kingdoms fell like dominoes over the course of just a few decades. No more Minoans or Mycenaeans. No more Trojans, Hittites, or Babylonians. The thriving economy and cultures of the late second millennium B.C., which had stretched from Greece to Egypt and Mesopotamia, suddenly ceased to exist, along with writing systems, technology, and monumental architecture. But the Sea Peoples alone could not have caused such widespread breakdown. How did it happen?
In this major new account of the causes of this “First Dark Ages,” Eric Cline tells the gripping story of how the end was brought about by multiple interconnected failures, ranging from invasion and revolt to earthquakes, drought, and the cutting of international trade routes. Bringing to life the vibrant multicultural world of these great civilizations, he draws a sweeping panorama of the empires and globalized peoples of the Late Bronze Age and shows that it was their very interdependence that hastened their dramatic collapse and ushered in a dark age that lasted centuries.
A compelling combination of narrative and the latest scholarship, 1177 B.C. sheds new light on the complex ties that gave rise to, and ultimately destroyed, the flourishing civilizations of the Late Bronze Age—and that set the stage for the emergence of classical Greece.
I think the editorial copy oversells it a little bit in that Cline is going to throw a bunch of the academic work that goes into supporting the various narratives… and that there is no definitive result. (Sorry).
Yes, there are “Sea Peoples”. No, they’re unlikely to be the sole cause for civilizational collapse at the time. Other things were going on, like climate change — evidently a long-lasting drought (which may also have spurred migration of various peoples) that has a slow cycle in the area (about 1500 years, iirc) may have been an issue. But the other problem is that some of the “outside barbarians” may not have been “Sea Peoples” at all.
Oh well.
Still, some of them came from the sea… because it’s a really convenient way to travel if your civilizations are bunched up around the Mediterranean.
I enjoyed it because it was filling in the older “pre-historical” periods with richer detail, and getting an idea of what really may have been going on with the Trojan War (which yes, something really did happen…. though probably not about Helen and Paris.)
But more than that, it gives you an idea of the multinational relations of the time.
Enjoy!
Comments are open.