Posts by JamesGleick@zirk.us
(DIR) Post #Ahj9YXzHUjHL5vehiy by JamesGleick@zirk.us
2024-05-09T14:09:28Z
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If the bribe you’re soliciting is $1,000 in a paper bag, the FBI will arrest you. If it’s $1 billion in dark money, does that make it legal?https://wapo.st/3UBf4Fy
(DIR) Post #Ai7l7JdBDttYnmnY4e by JamesGleick@zirk.us
2024-05-21T18:19:30Z
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If only OpenAI were some kind of outlier. It’s the same all over: the tech giants take it for granted that what’s yours is theirs. Props to Scarlett Johansson for pushing back.https://boingboing.net/2024/05/20/scarlett-johansson-denied-openai-the-right-to-use-her-voice-for-chatgpt-they-used-it-anyway.html
(DIR) Post #AijTkLFhP2cLa00p1s by JamesGleick@zirk.us
2024-06-08T21:14:40Z
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Meta is deploying chatbots powered by AI to impersonate humans in its discussion groups. The chatbots make stuff up—that is their nature. One invents a nonexistent child. Another pretends to have nonexistent merchandise. It shouldn’t be necessary to explain how vile and poisonous this is, but Casey Fiesler spells it out:https://theconversation.com/ai-chatbots-are-intruding-into-online-communities-where-people-are-trying-to-connect-with-other-humans-229473#Meta #AI
(DIR) Post #Ail18Adi0HzpGCAlhg by JamesGleick@zirk.us
2024-06-09T16:49:57Z
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@stevesilberman I still don’t get it. It was right-wingers like Graham who appeased Hitler, just as Graham and his party are now appeasing Putin. What lesson does he expect us to draw?
(DIR) Post #AiphZtV1gJktK3fyeu by JamesGleick@zirk.us
2024-06-11T21:14:39Z
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“The thing with Sam Alito is that he doesn’t give a fuck. He is a seventy-something Fox News watcher and religious fundamentalist who happens to find himself in a position of immense and almost incomparable power over all of American society and he’s going to take that power to the limit to advance his own political preferences. He’s not even going to go through the motions of pretending that’s not the case.”Josh Marshall understands Alito all too well. Gift link:https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/resilience-part-2-or-thoughts-on-sam-alitos-dgaf-justicehood/sharetoken/Y8snIS0q4CvM
(DIR) Post #Aj6IBcs6kbon9laxsG by JamesGleick@zirk.us
2024-06-19T20:20:06Z
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This smells like a real story. The headline says “mystery fundraising firm,” but there’s no evidence of a fundraising firm. There is a Delaware LLC, apparently a ghost or a shell—no address except a post-office box—that has received $3.1 million in Trump campaign cash.Where did the money go then? Into thin air?https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/mystery-fundraising-firm-takes-millions-trump-campaign-rcna156755
(DIR) Post #AjB0NEYLPizuOIRvou by JamesGleick@zirk.us
2024-06-21T20:56:58Z
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Trump and Republicans Have Launched an Unprecedented Campaign of Deception to Poison the Presidential Race with Fake Videos and Lies about Bidenis what the NY Times means to say. Instead, they somehow manage to twist this into another story about Biden being old and vulnerable.https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/21/us/politics/biden-age-videos.html?smid=url-share
(DIR) Post #AjPRGvyLk2egSyesuO by JamesGleick@zirk.us
2024-06-28T22:11:32Z
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This is the #Scotus headline at talkingpointsmemo.com. I don't know why it isn't the headline at the NY Times and the Washington Post and everywhere else. It’s certainly accurate. The Supreme Court is granting itself powers not anticipated by the framers, who thought Congress and the executive branch had a role to play.https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/supreme-court-chevron-overrule-agency
(DIR) Post #AjStlryY22UJEqAdEG by JamesGleick@zirk.us
2024-06-30T20:24:53Z
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Literary sub-genre: Novel or play retells a classic from the perspective of a secondary character or characters. The new story tracks the the original but shifts some of its action offstage. The two versions intertwine, each now commenting on the other.Examples: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Tom Stoppard). James (Percival Everett).Are there others? There must be.
(DIR) Post #AjW5zcrEonuTKTxOam by JamesGleick@zirk.us
2024-07-01T20:11:35Z
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) continues to be the member of Congress who best demonstrates the qualities of leadership so badly needed by her party. She will not succeed in impeaching these Supreme Court justices, but she will shine a light on their corruption and lay down a marker for voters.Every Democrat should learn from her example.https://www.newsweek.com/supreme-court-justices-impeachment-aoc-1919728
(DIR) Post #Ak0df73LaCc4i63Xyi by JamesGleick@zirk.us
2024-07-16T22:36:10Z
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Trump’s phone call with (or, really, to) RFK Jr. is the unhinged rant of a crazy person. But you won’t know that without listening to the whole thing (which is painful). Journalists will try to make it make sense by quoting selectively.
(DIR) Post #AkVRcMIbGZtfZnrv9c by JamesGleick@zirk.us
2024-07-31T22:07:41Z
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“A lot of the journalists in this room are Black,” Donald Trump informed the National Association of Black Journalists today.
(DIR) Post #Akda2s0eLNI6LsIwcq by JamesGleick@zirk.us
2024-08-03T18:10:00Z
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@mekkaokereke @blogdiva @stux I feel that you and Stux are not talking about the same problem. Their example is an algorithm that tries to maximize engagement by reinforcing people’s opinions, pushing them to be more and more extreme, and thus increasing the differences between different people. (1/2)
(DIR) Post #Akda2sst5ifz45gGAK by JamesGleick@zirk.us
2024-08-03T18:10:00Z
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Lacking an algorithm, we on Mastodon can certainly divide ourselves into warring camps by choosing whom we follow and, as you say, our choice of admin can be a part of that process.But I don’t see how admins can have anything like the kind of motivation or power granted to the algorithms in commercial social media. (2/2)
(DIR) Post #AkrSrpGGF44zB1pefQ by JamesGleick@zirk.us
2024-08-11T15:17:37Z
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Let’s fix this, Washington Post. “Does DEI training discriminate against white people?” The answer is no.Diversity, equity, and inclusion are valuable goals. They benefit everyone. That’s almost self-evident.Attempts to rectify discrimination against disadvantaged groups is NEVER discrimination against the advantaged group.If some judges find otherwise, they will be wrong.https://wapo.st/4cmtGzm
(DIR) Post #Aks0eC4e1cymJg4Otk by JamesGleick@zirk.us
2024-08-11T21:38:39Z
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#Mastodon question.If someone you follow vanishes, leaving no trace, removed from your lists and bookmarks, what do you think happened? Did they decide to close their account? Were they blocked by your instance? Something else?
(DIR) Post #AkyChjD3eHFQLtDUPI by JamesGleick@zirk.us
2024-08-14T18:47:48Z
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The most horrific use of weapons of mass destruction in history took place seventy-nine years ago this month, when the U.S. detonated atomic bombs over #Hiroshima and, three days later, #Nagasaki. Two hundred thousand people were killed, either by blast and heat or, later, by burns and radiation poisoning. Many others were maimed and disfigured.What kind of person could think—as Musk and Trump do—that’s no big deal.https://boingboing.net/2024/08/13/musk-told-trump-that-hiroshima-and-nagasaki-bombings-not-as-scary-as-people-think-trump-thats-great.html
(DIR) Post #Al27rSd4QWT4gb2qe0 by JamesGleick@zirk.us
2024-08-16T17:46:45Z
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He really said this. Think about it.“We gave Miriam [Adelson, billionaire donor] the Presidential Medal of Freedom … It’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor— it’s actually much better because everyone gets the Congressional Medal, they’re soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they’re dead. She gets it and she’s a healthy beautiful woman.”https://wapo.st/3WR0Q4w
(DIR) Post #Al6JEGuA3m2B70xTxw by JamesGleick@zirk.us
2024-08-18T15:35:15Z
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“When you mention Jeffrey Epstein, sir, are you referring to the friend of Donald Trump who entertained him at parties, flew him on his jet, and procured young girls for him?” https://www.threads.net/@aaron.rupar/post/C-0EKzwgbDN
(DIR) Post #Al8469QargbGbsiZlo by JamesGleick@zirk.us
2024-08-19T15:24:26Z
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Here the NY Times assures us that it’s going to be all snark, all the time. They won’t even pretend to the neutral stance they used to espouse.