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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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Saturday
Mar162013

The Commentariat -- March 17, 2013

Faith & Begorrah! I've been working so hard I forgot it was St. Paddy's Day. No corned beef and green beer at our house this year. Also, another day of next to no posting for me. I should be getting back to normal-ish Monday. -- CW

** David Taylor of BBC News: "Declassified tapes of President Lyndon Johnson's telephone calls provide a fresh insight into his world. Among the revelations - he planned a dramatic entry into the 1968 Democratic Convention to re-join the presidential race. And he caught Richard Nixon sabotaging the Vietnam peace talks... but said nothing."

Andrew O'Hehir in Salon on a progressive view of the papacy. Hint. It's a fraud! Thanks to contributor Barbarossa for the link. A very interesting perspective.

Right Wing World

The Perfect Couple. "Senator Ted Cruz of Texas introduced Sarah Palin on Saturday, crediting her for his election." -- New York Times. AP photo.Sarah Wheaton of the New York Times: "Sarah Palin's ... reception at a large gathering of conservatives on Saturday underscored her enduring popularity with the right. In a speech here, she offered zingers for the Republican base but also a strenuous defense of her Tea Party friends who are challenging the Republican establishment." ...

... Rebecca Schoenkopf of Wonkette sorta liveblogged Palin's speech, so if you just happened to miss it, Schoenkopf's re-cap is mighty helpful.

Jillian Rayfield of Salon: "A panel hosted by the Tea Party Patriots, intended to teach CPAC attendees how to fight back against charges that they are racist, devolved quickly into the crowd shouting down a liberal black woman who repeatedly tried to ask questions." CW: we're not racists; we just think black people should be grateful to slaveholders for feeding & clothing them. Yes, both these views were sincerely expressed during the panel discussion. The ungrateful slaves guy is Scott Terry, & apparently one of his fave books is "Slavery Defended," which convinced him that slavery was "a moral good." ...

... So then after a white guy screams at a black guy, they throw the black guy out.

Pretend President Paul Wins Another Election. Emily Schultheis & James Hohmann of Politico: "Rand Paul edged out Marco Rubio in the presidential straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference Saturday, reinforcing their standing as the preeminent favorites of the Republican base heading into 2016. Sen. Paul (R-Ky.) received 25 percent and Sen. Rubio (R-Fla.) 23 percent of the 2,930 votes cast by attendees at the conference. Former Sen. Rick Santorum finished third, with 8 percent."

Jonathan Martin of Politico: "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker acknowledged in an interview Friday that he’s open to a presidential bid and pointedly declined to pledge to serve a full four-year term if he’s reelected next year." CW: I also am open to a presidential bid. If elected, I will serve. I hope most of you are polished your oaths of office, too. (You'd better. You won't get much help from CJ Roberts.)

Comments Off

Reader Comments (5)

A perfect read for St. Pat's Day: "How John Ford fought McCarthyism with 'The Quiet Man,' in the New Republic:

"Then there was the tediousness in front of him, another industry skirmish over blacklists, un-American activities, and McCarthyism. This one would last until 2 a.m. At issue: written loyalty oaths, and a recall vote of SDG president Joseph L. Mankiewicz, whom Cecil B. DeMille wanted ousted for refusing to institute oaths to guild members. Hollywood’s political climate was fearful and desperate. Ford himself, a Truman supporter, New Dealer, and U.S. Navy commander (legit, too, not a celebrity toss), now sat on the board of the right-wing Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals alongside conservative actors Ward Bond and John Wayne, both Ford protégés. The MPA’s pamphlets were written by Ayn Rand. Attack-dog gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, who was fed smear information by J. Edgar Hoover, was a member, too. Ford regularly, and publicly, referred to Bond as an “oaf.” That Wayne had ducked military service during the war appalled him. Yet in times like this, a movement conservative like Bond, who threw parties at his house for Senator Joseph McCarthy, actually had the political say-so to make or break careers. The FBI had labeled Ford “long a fellow traveller” and possible Communist Party member for supporting the left in the Spanish Civil War, and cited Ford’s donations to what they determined to be Communist Party front groups, like the John Steinbeck Committee for Agricultural Workers. Even a John Ford needed a Ward Bond now."

March 17, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

Here's the link to above article:

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112666/john-fords-quiet-man-subversive-st-patricks-day-staple

March 17, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

A couple of informative graphs about the care of us wrinklies and the impact on health care: http://my.firedoglake.com/tomthumb/2013/03/16/two-myths/

March 17, 2013 | Unregistered Commentercowichan's opinion

No green beer here (would interfere with my merlot and dark chocolate diet), but it is an occasion for putting a Riverdance DVD in the slot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1vqciHiWBM

March 17, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer

This is bad, very bad. How could the EU finance minsisters be so clueless? Oh ...wait...

March 17, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterDaveS
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