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INAUGURATION 2029

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.”

 

Contact Marie

Email Marie at constantweader@gmail.com

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Wednesday
Jan222014

All Our Presidents Are Losers

As noted in today's Commentariat, Peter Beinert thinks he has picked a winner for the Republican presidential nomination: "Don't laugh, Beinert writes in the Atlantic, "Rand Paul is the 2016 Republican frontrunner.... He has built-in advantages in Iowa and New Hampshire, a party moving in his direction, and formidable fundraising potential."

I suppose Paul could win the GOP nomination, but he will not be the next President of the United States. Here's why:

At the 1952 Democratic convention, John F. Kennedy lost to Estes Kefauver in balloting for the vice-presidential nomination.

 

Lyndon Johnson lost three elections. In 1941 he ran for a special election for the U.S. Senate & lost to Texas Gov. Pappy O'Daniel. “Landslide Lyndon” ran for the Senate again in 1948, and though he lost at the ballot box, he “won” through voter fraud. At the 1960 Democratic convention, Johnson lost the presidential nomination to Kennedy on the first ballot.

 

Richard Nixon of course lost the presidency to Kennedy that year, and lost the governorship of California to incumbent Pat Brown (Jerry's father) two years later.

 

Jerry Ford never lost an election before he became president, but he also was never elected president. Nixon had appointed him vice president to replace Spiro Agnew, who resigned after pleading no-contest to criminal charges. When Ford did run for president, he lost.

 

Jimmy Carter came in third in a primary race for governor of Georgia in 1966.

 

Ronald Reagan lost in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 1976.

 

George Bush I ran for the U.S. Senate in 1964 & lost in the general election. He lost to Democrat Lloyd Bentsen in another Senate bid in 1970. He lost a presidential primary bid to Reagan in 1980.

 

Bill Clinton lost a Congressional bid in 1974. After being elected governor of Arkansas in 1978, he lost a re-election bid in 1980.

 

George W. Bush lost a Congressional race in 1978.

 

Barack Obama lost a Congressional primary race (by a margin of two to one!) in 2000.

 

Rand Paul has never lost an election.

 

Comments Off

Reader Comments (5)

Frank Rich: "As I’ve said before — and before Christie’s fall — the front-runner for that nomination, at this early date at least, is Rand Paul." The 'Centrist' Republicans fall....

There's more on O'Donnell, too at: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/01/mcdonnell-and-christie-rise-and-fall-together.html

January 23, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterMAG

Marie,

Wow. Great review of presidential candidates.

I welcome Li'l Randy as the GOP nominee. Unless the Democrats pass over Hillary for Jeremiah Wright, that election would be a referendum on Teabagging in the 21st Century. It probably wouldn't put a stake in their hearts (they have none), but it would give everyone a chance to see exactly how small their real power base is and might be enough to pull the party back into the orbit of reason. No one could say, if he lost, that he wasn't the guy the "real conservatives" wanted.

There would be plenty of Romney and Rove Republicans who would hold their nose and vote for the little shit but I believe (at least I hope) that independents would run the other way. He may get a boost from Daddy's libertarian followers, but I'm guessing that Randy is too fragile for the rough and tumble of what will be a year long election run. As Charlie Pierce likes to say, there's a five minute rule in effect for both Pauls and there are beaucoup opportunities over the course of a year to say stupid things. Just look at the Rat. And he wasn't nearly as crazy or extreme as Li'l Randy.

So bring it on.

January 23, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Hillary is sittin' pretty. Does she have the wisdom to not sell-out the masses to the corporate 1%?

January 23, 2014 | Unregistered Commentercitizen625

@citizen625: I haven't seen much evidence she does. And as we well know, Mister Hillary was and is a master sell-out artiste.

Marie

January 23, 2014 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Re: The betting line; I would not rule out a Rand win in 2016; let's see what transpires in the next couple of years. Young people are a fickle bunch in my opinion and the "urge to get yours" might entice more than one young voter to pull the voting handle of self-interest.

January 23, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterJJG
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