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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

Friday

Aug052016

Humayun Khan

** "The Tragedy of Humayun Khan." Michael Hirsh in Politico Magazine: "There is a photograph of Maj. Gen. John Batiste, eyes brimming with tears after the memorial ceremony for Capt. Humayun Khan in Baqubah, Iraq, on June 11, 2004, three days following Khan’s death.... Batiste was in the receiving line after the ceremony, he recalls, and he choked up because he had come to realize the man they were burying that day ... was one of the finest soldiers under his command." -- CW

Dana Pittard, in a Washington Post op-ed: "I was ... Capt. Humayun Khan’s combat brigade commander in Diyala province, Iraq, in 2004. I came to know Humayun after taking command of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, in Germany in 2002.... Humayun died trying to save the lives of innocent Iraqis. His brave effort to approach the vehicle probably saved American lives as well.... I join all those who stand in support of the Khan family. This family is our family, and any attack on this wonderful American Gold Star family is an attack on all patriotic and loyal Americans who have sacrificed to make our country great. Any politically or racially motivated attack on the Khans is despicable and un-American.... I am a Republican.... I’m going to vote my conscience ... this year." -- CW

By Akhilleus

It's useful to compare the actions of Captain Humayon Khan with the man who has been trying to make political gains off the pain and suffering of his parents. Khan died because he ran headlong into a clear and present danger. No soldier operating in that theater could mistake the possible outcome of an unknown vehicle speeding toward American military personnel. Nonetheless, Khan faced down this attack in order to save others under his command, as unselfish and heroic an act as one could find in the craziness of a war zone.

Now measure Khan's unselfish bravery with the craven opportunism and viciously pursued self interest of Donald Trump who would no more put himself in mortal danger for another human being than he would resist the opportunity to try to somehow take personal advantage of their sacrifice. Trump's lifelong cowardly penchant for pushing others under the bus in order to ensure his own survival is a defining trait in his life story as it remains an essential component of his campaign.

I'm not suggesting that I, or any of us, would have had the guts and astounding sense of duty it took to compel Captain Khan's actions, but I will bet there are few of us who , after the fact, would try to make personal gains off his death, belittle his family, and allow our vile surrogates to question not only his religion and ethnicity, but to attack his patriotism and loyalty to the country for which he had just made the ultimate sacrifice.

And I can't think of anyone, apart from a mentally incompetent person who would then complain that his making billions of dollars was a sacrifice as well.

The problem with Trump is that there have been so many of these incidents of the clarity of his fecklessness and greed that something this astounding becomes somewhat less obvious a lesson for American voters than it should be.

Trump is not only unfit to be president, he is astonishingly unfit for the company of decent men and women of any nation, anywhere.

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Reader Comments (2)

"Trump's lifelong cowardly penchant for pushing others under the bus in order to ensure his own survival is a defining trait in his life story as it remains an essential component of his campaign."

That is an understatement. Born into a rich family, having successfully ducked the draft, Trump has never had to worry about his own survival. He pushes people under the bus for his own aggrandizement.

August 5, 2016 |

Hineni47

Beautifully expressed.
And much appreciated.
Thank you, Akhilleus.

August 5, 2016 |

Ophelia M.

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