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The Ledes

Thursday, July 3, 2025

CNBC: “Job growth proved better than expected in June, as the labor market showed surprising resilience and likely taking a July interest rate cut off the table. Nonfarm payrolls increased a seasonally adjusted 147,000 for the month, higher than the estimate for 110,000 and just above the upwardly revised 144,000 in May, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday. April’s tally also saw a small upward revision, now at 158,000 following an 11,000 increase.... Though the jobless rates fell [to 4.1%], it was due largely to a decrease in those working or looking for jobs.”

Washington Post: “A warehouse storing fireworks in Northern California exploded on Tuesday, leaving seven people missing and two injured as explosions continued into Wednesday evening, officials said. Dramatic video footage captured by KCRA 3 News, a Sacramento broadcaster, showed smoke pouring from the building’s roof before a massive explosion created a fireball that seemed to engulf much of the warehouse, accompanied by an echoing boom. Hundreds of fireworks appeared to be going off and were sparkling within the smoke. Photos of the aftermath showed multiple destroyed buildings and a large area covered in gray ash.” ~~~

The Wires

The Ledes

Wednesday, July 2, 2025

New York Times: “The Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, who emerged from the backwoods of Louisiana to become a television evangelist with global reach, preaching about an eternal struggle between good and evil and warning of the temptations of the flesh, a theme that played out in his own life in a sex scandal, died on July 1. He was 90.” ~~~

~~~ For another sort of obituary, see Akhilleus' commentary near the end of yesterday's thread.

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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.”

No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land. -- Magna Carta ~~~

~~~ New York Times: “Bought for $27.50 after World War II, the faint, water stained manuscript in the library of Harvard Law School had attracted relatively little attention since it arrived there in 1946. That is about to change. Two British academics, one of whom happened on the manuscript by chance, have discovered that it is an original 1300 version — not a copy, as long thought — of Magna Carta, the medieval document that helped establish some of the world’s most cherished liberties. It is one of just seven such documents from that date still in existence.... A 710-year-old version of Magna Carta was sold in 2007 for $21.3 million.... First issued in 1215, it put into writing a set of concessions won by rebellious barons from a recalcitrant King John of England — or Bad King John, as he became known in folklore. He later revoked the charter, but his son, Henry III, issued amended versions, the last one in 1225, and Henry’s son, Edward I, in turn confirmed the 1225 version in 1297 and again in 1300.”

Page Links

Tuesday

Dec242019

Christmas Day 2019

King's College, Cambridge, Boys' Choir sings "Once in Royal David's City":

U.S. Navy Band: Senior Chief Petty Officer Keith Arneson, banjo; Petty Officer 1st Class Joe Friedman, guitar. Dueling "Jingle Bells.":

Rufus Wainwright & 1,500 Canadian sing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" at the Hearn Generating Station in Toronto:

When we lived in Florence, Italy, we bought a small black-and-white TV for our apartment on the Via de' Cerretani, a couple of blocks from the Duomo. It was on that cheap little box with its tinny audio that I watched in awe the opening ceremony of the 1998 Nagano Olympics. As someone we deplore might say, "There's never been anything like it." In this case, for me, that was true. A complication: Click to play the video; then click to play on YouTube:

My candidate for the Worst Christmas Song Ever is Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You." Well, it can be worse!

In a nod to climate change, let's not forget Leon Redbone & Dr. John's "Frosty the Snowman":

It wouldn't be Christmas without the Drifters:

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Reader Comments (6)

Decision:

Should I pretend I was taking a day off from RC to celebrate Christmas undistracted by the Pretender's latest Festivus tweet, and by doing so leave myself open to accusations of surly disregard of my esteemed cyber-friends, or...

....how about just a couple of quick peeks, one morning, one tonight, and the expressed wish that you all have a very pleasant day with friends, family or in your own fine company.

Merry Christmas.

December 25, 2019 |

Ken Winkes

Love all those videos––such a treat this morning. I'll add another old poem of mine–holding our breath before the war in Iraq that we knew was coming.

CHRISTMAS MORNING: 2002

In Trieste: Old men with sad stories gather every afternoon
In the seaside coffee shops

And here in Hamden, a Connecticut town
Covered this Christmas morning by a cold
Blanket of newly fallen snow,

Its people sleep late, so exhausted after weeks
Of frantic preparation;
Its children scramble down under
A tree’s bounty wrapped up with ribbons and bows.

One can see far across the field now
To the old barn whose roof glistens white against an ashen sky,
Its beams and timbers from an 18th century Vermont structure,
Standing barren and empty for decades
Like some glorious ancient memorial.

Oh, and look! Here comes the dog that belongs to the
Old man down the road who lost his wife to cancer
Not too long ago––see how his paws leave their signature
But not for long–––

And somewhere someone is singing carols while someone
Else is stuffing a bird while others are saying their prayers;
Someone has just died.

Outside it is so still it’s as though
All of us are holding our breath waiting for
The New Year to envelop us with a blanket
Of warmth, of safety, of hope.

And in Trieste old men with sad stories gather every
Afternoon in the seaside coffee shops.

December 25, 2019 |

PD Pepe

For most Americans today is Christmas, but for one newly declared "Florida Man" it is and will always be Festivus. The airing of the grievances has begun and will continue.

It adds a new dimension to the unending "A Florida man..." crazy news stories.

December 25, 2019 |

Bobby Lee

Always look forward to viewing the "White Christmas" 'toon/tune? Wouldn't be Christmas without those reindeer and Santa. (Also the Gnus! at any time!).

Wonderful holiday wishes to Bea McCrab and the RC gang!

December 25, 2019 |

MAG

Is it sacrilegious of me to be working in the yard today, getting rid of
grass and moving the borders? It's so warm (50 degrees) just can't
help it.
A Merry Christmas to one and all here on RC. Or as they say at
trump properties, fleas navidad. Or was that lice, can't remember.

December 25, 2019 |

Forrest Morris

@Forrest: I think it was bedbugs, but fleas is close enough. My Michigan family is also nonplussed by the weather.

Happy Christmas to all. My son’s first present to me was to sing the 9am service, I having sung the “midnight” service and gotten to bed around 2. First Christmas morning in a long time that I have woken up human.

December 25, 2019 |

NiskyGuy

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