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This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here. Imagine turning your reading history into a treasure map. By feeding a list of your favorite books and movies to an AI assistant, you can uncover hidden patterns in what you love. From your subconscious attraction to unreliable narrators to your love for stories that begin at the end, you may be surprised by what an AI assistant can reveal. Building a personal taste atlas helps you understand your reading self better. It can also surface blind spots in your cultural diet and point you toward unexplored literary territories youre likely to love. Why analyze your preferences? This isnt just another recommendation engine. Netflix or Amazon may suggest what to watch or buy next based on viewing history, but a taste atlas goes much deeper. It analyzes themes, narrative structures, and emotional resonance across media formats. It can reveal connections between novels you adore and foreign films youve never heard of, or help you articulate why certain stories stick with you while others dont. You can tune the atlas by adjusting the info and examples you give it. You can customize the analysis with your prompts, asking for particular kinds of observations or recommendations. With AIs help, you can map out your own universe of awesome. As you scout out gaps in your reading or movie watching, you can discover authors and films that expand your horizons. Start by gathering your favorites You need to provide an AI assistant with a list of at least 10-15 titles that resonate with you for meaningful insights; 30+ is better. Here are the fastest ways to gather them. Physical books or DVDs: snap a photo of your bookshelf. AI can read the titles. Or write a list of titles on paper. AI assistants can read handwriting surprisingly well. Digital readers: refer to your Kindle library, your read shelf on Goodreads, listen history on Audible, timeline on Libby, or any doc or spreadsheet you maintain with your favorites. Streaming: Apps like Likewise, Sofa, Listy, Listium, Letterboxd, Trakt, and Reelgood let you compile lists of favorites. You can use those collections to train your AI assistant. Use your voice: If talking jogs your memory, use conversation mode in ChatGPT, Claude, Googles Gemini, or Microsofts CoPilot. Let the AI interview you about your favorite books or movies. Scan award lists: If you cant think of favorites, check a list of Oscar-winning movies or book awards for reminders of what youve enjoyed. Criteria: Consider titles you often revisit or recommend. Include recent favorites and older resonant ones. Give extra weight to those that provoked emotion, changed your perspective, or prompted action. Ideally, note not just the title but one or more aspects of a work that particularly resonated. Prompt AI to analyze your list Once you’ve compiled your list, use your preferred AI tool to uncover patterns in your literary tastes. Prompt the AI assistant for insights to advance your self-understanding. After that, ask it to help you discover more books/movies you’ll love. Start by writing a detailed prompt to elicit a thorough, subtle analysis of your taste in books or movies. Heres an example you can adopt or adapt: You are a perceptive literary critic and cultural analyst with deep knowledge of literature across genres and cultures. Carefully analyze the attached list of my favorite books for patterns. Think deeply about connections between titles and topics that might not be immediately apparent. Where you notice interesting patterns, explain your reasoning and cite specific examples. Please analyze this list of my favorite books. Create a detailed literary taste profile that identifies: Core Elements: Primary themes and topics Genre preferences and style patterns Narrative approaches and structure choices Character types and relationships Tone and emotional range Upload a file with your list or paste it. Which AI tool to use? ChatGPT 4o worked well for me in importing Google Docs and PDFs with my favorites. Its analysis and recommendations were nuanced and helpful. Limitation: Occasionally, it suggested authors who were already in my existing lists, despite being prompted not to. Claude Pro provided an excellent overview of the kinds of books Ive selected for the book group I facilitate over the past eight years. It helped identify gaps in our reading list and offered useful suggestions for future titles. Limitation: Some documents I tried to import, like my Readwise reading highlights, were too large to fit in a Claude Project I created for my taste atlas. Gemini 2.0 Experimental Advanced, Googles newest model, was an excellent voice partner in analyzing my current reading interests. Limitation: 2.0 couldnt yet import documents, but Gemini 1.5 could. It helpfully analyzed the Google Doc with my complete Readwise Highlights archive. Use either free or premium AI tools for this analysis. For long book lists or extensive highlights, use a pro model for nuanced analysis. Expand your taste horizons Once an AI tool has analyzed your book or movie preferences, prompt it to suggest new authors and titles. Ask about specific connections between the titles you liked and its recommendations, so you understand the rationale. Cultural leaps: Ask AI to identify authors who write like your favorites but in different languages or cultures. Whats missing? Try a prompt about negative space what authors, titles, topics or genres are missing from your favorites. What notable titles might stretch your literary horizons?
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Presidents’ Day always falls on the third Monday of February, which, this year, is February 17. At the federal government level, the holiday is called Washington’s Birthday, which was its original name and which used to be celebrated on February 22, George Washington’s actual birthday. But in 1971, Congress enacted the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, providing federal workers and others with three-day weekends, and Washington’s Bday observance got swept up with that. The idea behind the holiday’s new name was to create a day that paid tribute to the office of the presidency. For many Americans, Presidents’ Day is a long weekend and an opportunity for holiday shopping dealsthis year, however, massive nationwide demonstrations are scheduled under the rubric, “Not My President’s Day” in protest of the Trump administration’s alarming power grab and attempts to overhaul the federal government. The demonstrations are organized by the #50501 Movement50 protests, 50 states, 1 movement”fighting to uphold the Constitution and end executive overreach” and protest “the anti-democratic and illegal actions of the Trump administration and its plutocratic allies” (Elon Musk, anyone?). The idea for the movement’s name came from the subreddit community, Reddit r/50501, and spread rapidly across social media. So far, #50501 has already pulled off more than 80 peaceful protests in all 50 states since Trump took office, according to the movement’s website. Information about where the nationwide protests and street marches are planned can be found here upon entering your city or state. Now, heres a look at whats open and closed on Monday, from the stock market to banks, supermarkets, and stores. Are financial markets open on Presidents’ Day? The Nasdaq, New York Stock Exchange, and U.S. bond markets are all closed. Will mail be delivered on Presidents’ Day? The U.S. Postal Service post offices will be closed and won’t be delivering regular mail or packages, though USPS priority mail will. However, UPS will be open for business as usual, while FedEx has modified service, so check for availability in your area. Are banks open on Presidents’ Day? Banks will be closed, but you should still be able to access your bank’s service online and via your local ATMs. Are schools open on Presidents’ Day? Public schools and most private schools will be closed for the federal holiday. Are restaurants and fast-food chains open on Presidents’ Day? Most major casual-dining and fast-food chains are open plus most sit-down restaurantsit’s a great shopping day, after all. That said, their hours may be reduced, so it’s always a good idea to call ahead or check individual websites. Are grocery stores open on Presidents’ Day? Most regional supermarket chains should be open, though some with reduced hours; ditto, your local grocery stores. Trader Joe’s, Aldi, and Costco are all open. Are stores open on Presidents’ Day? This is a big day for retailers, with many having weekend-long sales. Looking for a little retail therapy? Walmart, Macy’s, West Elm, Nordstrom, Walmart, and Best Buy are having major sales, while Amazon has an entire section on its home page dedicated to its Presidents’ Day bargains. Are pharmacies open on Presidents’ Day? CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid are all open, although they may have reduced hours of operation. Check your pharmacy’s website for more information.
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E-Commerce
For now, Priesters will have to stick to its famous pecans in Fort Payne, Alabama. But maybe not for long. Priesters Pecans, an Alabama staple, is one of more than half a dozen sites across the state slated to receive millions of dollars in federal funding to expand access to chargers for electric vehicles. Across the country, the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law under then-President Joe Biden, is set to provide $5 billion to states for projects that expand the nations EV charging infrastructure. But in a Feb. 6 letter, a Trump administration official notified state directors of transportation that, effectively, they cant spend it. The Federal Highway Administration rescinded guidance on the funds, which had been allocated by Congress, and is also immediately suspending the approval of all State Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Deployment plans for all fiscal years, the letter said. Therefore, effective immediately, no new obligations may occur under the NEVI Formula Program until the updated final NEVI Formula Program Guidance is issued and new State plans are submitted and approved. POLITICO reported on Wednesday that a DOT spokesman said in an email that states were free to use a small portion of the fundingabout $400 millionbecause that was money the states had already obligated, or awarded to subcontractors. But that would still leave close to 90% of the funding up in the air. Even before the administration had issued its letter, some Republican-led states, including Alabama, had already announced pauses to their states implementation of the national EV charging program. In response to Unleashing American Energy, one of several Executive Orders that President Trump signed on January 20, 2025, the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs has paused the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Program as of January 28, 2025, the Alabama agency responsible for implementing NEVI posted on its website. In addition, for applications for funding that were originally due on March 17, 2025, ADECA has closed the application window until further notice. Despite the announcement by the Trump administration, however, legal experts and those familiar with the electric charging program at issue say the president does not have the power to permanently nix the NEVI program. NEVI funding was appropriated by Congress as part of the bipartisan infrastructure law, and it cannot be canceled by the executive branch, said Elizabeth Turnbull, director of policy and regulatory affairs at the Alliance for Transportation Electrification, a trade group for the electric vehicle industry. Its not clear that the secretary of transportation has the authority to revoke states NEVI plans, and its quite clear that the executive branch lacks the authority to withhold the funding for any sustained period. So, we expect recent executive branch actions to be successfully challenged in court. Even under the most aggressive arguments for a strong executive branch, the Supreme Court has stated clearly that the Constitution gives Congress the sole authority to appropriate and legislate. Lawmakers, too, have weighed in on the legality of the Trump administrations NEVI directive, saying officials acted with blatant disregard for the law. In a letter to administration officials, Democratic members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works urged the Department of Transportation to retract its Feb. 6 letter and implement the law according to your responsibilities. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r
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