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Marie: I don't know why this video came up on my YouTube recommendations, but it did. I watched it on a large-ish teevee, and I found it fascinating. ~~~
Hubris. One would think that a married man smart enough to start up and operate his own tech company was also smart enough to know that you don't take your girlfriend to a public concert where the equipment includes a jumbotron -- unless you want to get caught on the big camera with your arms around said girlfriend. Ah, but for Andy Bryon, CEO of A company called Astronomer, and also maybe his wife, Wednesday was a night that will live in infamy. New York Times link. ~~~
Commencement ceremonies are joyous occasions, and Steve Carell made sure that was true this past weekend (mid-June) at Northwestern's commencement:
~~~ Carell's entire commencement speech was hilarious. The audio and video here isn't great, but I laughed till I cried.
CNN did a live telecast Saturday night (June 7) of the Broadway play "Good Night, and Good Luck," written by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, about legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow's effort to hold to account Sen. Joe McCarthy, "the junior senator from Wisconsin." Clooney plays Murrow. Here's Murrow himself with his famous take on McCarthy & McCarthyism, brief remarks that especially resonate today: ~~~
~~~ This article lists ways you still can watch the play.
New York Times: “The New York Times Company has agreed to license its editorial content to Amazon for use in the tech giant’s artificial intelligence platforms, the company said on Thursday. The multiyear agreement 'will bring Times editorial content to a variety of Amazon customer experiences,' the news organization said in a statement. Besides news articles, the agreement encompasses material from NYT Cooking, The Times’s food and recipe site, and The Athletic, which focuses on sports. This is The Times’s first licensing arrangement with a focus on generative A.I. technology. In 2023, The Times sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, for copyright infringement, accusing the tech companies of using millions of articles published by The Times to train automated chatbots without any kind of compensation. OpenAI and Microsoft have rejected those accusations.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I have no idea what this means for "the Amazon customer experience." Does it mean that if I don't have a NYT subscription but do have Amazon Prime I can read NYT content? And where, exactly, would I find that content? I don't know. I don't know.
Washington Post reporters asked three AI image generators what a beautiful woman looks like. "The Post found that they steer users toward a startlingly narrow vision of attractiveness. Prompted to show a 'beautiful woman,' all three tools generated thin women, without exception.... Her body looks like Barbie — slim hips, impossible waist, round breasts.... Just 2 percent of the images showed visible signs of aging. More than a third of the images had medium skin tones. But only nine percent had dark skin tones. Asked to show 'normal women,' the tools produced images that remained overwhelmingly thin.... However bias originates, The Post’s analysis found that popular image tools struggle to render realistic images of women outside the Western ideal." ~~~
~~~ Marie: The reporters seem to think they are calling out the AI programs for being unrealistic. But there's a lot about the "beautiful women" images they miss. I find these omissions remarkably sexist. For one thing, the reporters seem to think AI is a magical "thing" that self-generates. It isn't. It's programmed. It's programmed by boys, many of them incels who have little or no experience or insights beyond comic books and Internet porn of how to gauge female "beauty." As a result, the AI-generated women look like cartoons; that is, a lot like an air-brushed photo of Kristi Noem: globs of every kind of dark eye makeup, Scandinavian nose, Botox lips, slathered-on skin concealer/toner/etc. makeup, long dark hair and the aforementioned impossible Barbie body shape, including huge, round plastic breasts.
New York Times: “George Clooney’s Broadway debut, 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' has been one of the sensations of the 2024-25 theater season, breaking box office records and drawing packed houses of audiences eager to see the popular movie star in a timely drama about the importance of an independent press. Now the play will become much more widely available: CNN is planning a live broadcast of the penultimate performance, on June 7 at 7 p.m. Eastern. The performance will be preceded and followed by coverage of, and discussion about, the show and the state of journalism.”
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts. — Anonymous
A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. — Edward R. Murrow
Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns
I have a Bluesky account now. The URL ishttps://bsky.app/profile/marie-burns.bsky.social . When Reality Chex goes down, check my Bluesky page for whatever info I am able to report on the status of Reality Chex. If you can't access the URL, I found that I could Google Bluesky and ask for Marie Burns. Google will include links to accounts for people whose names are, at least in part, Maria Burns, so you'll have to tell Google you looking only for Marie.
Tuesday
Sep142010
Nobody gets to write your destiny but you. Your future is in your hands.... Nothing will have as great an impact on your success in life as your education.... Your success in school will also help determine America's success in the 21st century.... Excelling in school or in life isn't mainly about being smarter than everybody else. It's about working harder than everybody else.... Life is precious, and part of its beauty lies in its diversity.... It's the things that make us different that make us who we are. And the strength and character of this country have always come from our ability to recognize ourselves in one another, no matter who we are, or where we come from, what we look like, or what abilities or disabilities we have. -- Barack Obama
President Obama speaks to school kids at the beginning of the academic year:
CW: Akhilleus' comment on David Brooks' column is so fine & got so buried among the other comments that I felt obliged to post it here. It is an excellent short-course in American history:
Where to begin?
I am so sick of listening to this pap about the innocence and virtue of conservatism being destroyed by big government Democrats.
Since we're talking history, how about this? First the country that Misters Ryan and Brooks (both Brookses I would wager) weep for, that small government, Don't Tread on Me, stay out of my way America, was a small, largely agrarian nation straddling the Atlantic seaboard. The population was relatively small, though growing, industry was sporadic, and in many areas, slavery was a vital support to a system in which only rich, landed, white men had a say. I realize this is still an enormous pipe dream for many right-wingers, a return to the halcyon days of yore but those days are gone.
This little country grew quickly. By the middle of the 19th century industrialization came hard and fast. The rich got richer and the poor led lives of meager hope and soul-killing desperation. The kind of plutocrats STILL supported wholeheartedly by the likes of Ryan and Brooks did all they could to secure enormous wealth and power on the backs of their less well off, less well connected countrymen and women.
At this juncture, the moral imperative became so great, and the dangers of big business overrunning all in their way prompted many politically minded citizens, including a Republican president, Theodore Roosevelt, to stand up and use the power of government to try to strike a balance between overweening greed and the needs of average working class Americans.
This, of course, was considered an outrage by Republicans and their wealthy, robber baron cronies. Years later, after the greed of a later generation of robber barons pushed us into a depression, another president, Mr. Roosevelt's cousin, saw fit to use the power of government to strike back at the forces that were destroying the country. FDR is still reviled by the right for taking their candy away and making them play nice.
The fact is that that little nation that could function with a small government, one not concerned with interstate trade, child labor abuses, uncontrolled and dangerous products being sold, unsafe working conditions, the moral blight of slavery, and citizens who would starve and live horrible existences all because they weren't smart enough to be born, like today's Wall Street Masters of the Universe, into wealth and privilege, is long gone. It lasted perhaps a generation or two. The country, as it grew up, developed problems that required solutions only a strong government could provide.
Who, after all, was going to end slavery or prevent unscrupulous business owners from putting young children to work for a pittance? Who? The predecessors of the plutocrats Ryan and Brooks moan about?
Right.
Sorry, Mr. Brooks, yet another imploding right wing fantasy. As for virtue and innocence, I don't believe either of those fine qualities apply to many on the right today. There is, however, virtue in attempting to make life better for the vast majority of Americans. If that means that Ryan and Brooks and their buddies can only have three vacation homes instead of four or five, well, too bad.
David Brooks has "unbounded admiration" for reputed fiscal wunderkind Rep. Paul Ryan & American Enterprise Institute President Arthur Brooks. Pres. Brooks, in case you never heard of him, is the "much-cited author" of stuff, Our Miss Brooks being the much-citer. Columnist Brooks does think perhaps these admirable boys are a tad off in their hurling revulsion for all government, any government.
The Constant Weader remarks:
My admiration for both [Paul Ryan & Arthur Brooks] is unbounded. -- David Brooks (no relation to Arthur)
There's your first mistake.
... The Democrats' lavish spending.... -- David Brooks
Who started those two crazy foreign wars? Who came up with an extravagant, unworkable prescription drug program? Who cut taxes so this stuff wasn't paid for? Uh, make that Republicans, Republicans & Republicans.
If "tragedy" is by definition self-inflicted, then you got that right. The Republican party is tragic. Unfortunately, the tragedy of the Republican party does not affect only people foolish enough to vote for Republicans. It befalls all of us.
In a complex, modern society, small government just doesn't work. Are you going to have highways stop at the Nebraska border? Oh, oh, & what about the military? Is Kansas going to pay for its own tanks & bombs?
Are you going to let senior citizens fend for themselves? Do you really want people to go on dying because they can't afford health care when simple medication or operations could save them? Are we going to stop feeding hungry children with federally-funded food stamps & school lunch programs? If that's "conservative," it's also mean, stupid & stingy.
Who cares about civil rights? Let's just let the South go on back to being the South. Fly those Stars & Bars, boys, & some of you-all darker-complexioned folks can proceed to the back of the bus. The Americans with Disabilities Act? Who needs it. Way too expensive. Not my problem. Title Nine? Give those girls a jumprope & hula hoop -- and tell 'em to shut up.
If the new conservatives have their way, it won't just be logical federal programs that are cut, but every kind of government service. Rand Paul, running in a state where drug abuse is a severe problem, wants government to get out of the drug counseling business. He thinks churches should handle it. Hallenjuh, Brother! Jesus was no junkie. Sharron Angle thinks states should not honor restraining orders from other states. Welcome to Nevada, stalkers! John McCain sure is anxious to get federal agents down there patrolling the "danged" Arizona-Mexico border, but in ConservoWorld, that will all be up to Arizona. And if Arizona doesn't do a very good job, I guess Utah will have to establish its own border patrol to run along the Arizona-Utah border. What a plan!
Fortunately, in the United States of the Second Amendment we can all arm ourselves & have shoot-em-ups with the neighbors if they get too noisy or don't mow the grass. Because, hey, who needs government monitoring that stuff? And really, let's all burn our own trash in ToxicLand.
Now, why is it you have "unbounded admiration" for Ryan & Brooks? Is it because the world they have planned for us is a nightmare of lawlessness & anarchy? Or is it because they write your columns for you? C'mon, Miss Brooks. Even you, protected from reality by the latest in rose-colored ConservoSpecs, acknowledged that
... the story Republicans are telling each other, which Ryan and Brooks have reinforced, is an oversimplified version of American history, with dangerous implications.
That's right. These guys are part of a dangerous, anti-American force to be reviled by anyone with a belief in basic societal values. Quit admiring them. And for Pete's sake, quit defending them.
Our Miss Brooks, having followed the economic advice of Rep. Ryan & the AEI, finds herself in financial straits. Fortunately, she comes up with a scheme that involves hillbillies, a minister & a song-&-dance that is just as effective as the song-&-dance routine Ryan & the AEI have been feeding America's modern-day church-going hayseeds:
Segment 2 is here; Segment 3 is here. Things do not work out well for Our Miss Brooks & the other faculty at Madison High, but, hey, who needs teachers anyway? They're just government workers.
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