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INAUGURATION 2029

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.”

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.”

NPR lists all of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winners. Poynter lists the prizes awarded in journalism as well as the finalists in these categories.

 

Contact Marie

Email Marie at constantweader@gmail.com

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Monday
Oct252010

The Commentariat -- October 26

We've got to get the government out of government. -- A U.S. Senator in a "Rocky & Bullwinkle" segment, ca. 1962

Ian Urbina of the New York Times: "Tea Party members have started challenging voter registration applications and have announced plans to question any individual voters at the polls whom they suspect of being ineligible. In response, liberal groups and voting rights advocates are sounding the alarm, claiming that such strategies are scare tactics intended to suppress minority and poor voters." ...

... There Is Something in that Tea They're Drinking. Colorado Republican Senate nominee Ken Buck "disagree[s] strongly with the concept of separation of church and state." He also thinks it horrible that President Obama calls the White House holiday tree a "holiday tree":

Robert Reich on why Democrats move to the center after a loss & Republicans don't. "Democrats think in terms of programs, policies, and particular pieces of legislation.... Republicans think in terms of simple ideas, themes, and movements.... Republicans are also more disciplined (ask yourself which party attracts authoritarian personalities and which attracts anti-authoritarians).... Republicans are cynical about politics.... Democrats are idealistic about politics.... Message to Obama: Whatever happens November 2, don’t move to the center."

Peter Baker of the New York Times follows Bill Clinton on the campaign trail: "Where Mr. Obama was the popular fresh figure in the party vanquishing the Clinton dynasty in 2008, today Mr. Clinton is the most popular politician on the campaign circuit coming to the rescue of an embattled president. Gone is the bitter party elder flummoxed at the success of an inexperienced upstart; back is the happy warrior rousing crowds once again, fighting again a battle he once lost and at the same time polishing his own legacy."

Jay Heflin of The Hill: "Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) Neil Barofsky on Monday released a sobering account on how the program helped save Wall Street but has done little for Main Street." A pdf of Barofsky's report is here. ...

... OR, as Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge puts it, "SIGTARP calls out Tim Geithner on various violations including data manipulation, lack of transparency, 'cruel' cynicism, and gross incompetence." Durden cites a few significant passages of Barofsky's report. You don't need to be a genius to understand what Barofsky means.

Sam Hananel of the AP: "Less than halfway through his first term, President Barack Obama has appointed more openly gay officials than any other president in history. Gay activists say the estimate of more than 150 appointments so far -- from agency heads and commission members to policy officials and senior staffers -- surpasses the previous high of about 140 reached during two full terms under President Bill Clinton."

I Am So Much Better than the Rest of You Schmucks. Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: on Monday, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who successfully campaigned to get the City Council to change the term-limits law to allow him to serve three terms, "said he would vote to restore a limit of two terms, down from three, and to ban the City Council from rewriting the rule for sitting elected officials.... The results of the ballot initiative would not affect Mr. Bloomberg, but would affect his successors. During a news conference, the mayor said that the term-limits initiative, which will appear on the back of the paper ballots on Nov. 2, was imperfect and badly designed, but that he would support it anyway."

Miriam Jordan of the Wall Street Journal: "Arizona has attracted more than $3.6 million of donations to help defend its law to crack down on illegal immigration, with one whopping contribution—and thousands of smaller ones—from out of state. Timothy Mellon, an heir to a Pittsburgh steel and banking dynasty, has donated $1.5 million to a legal-defense fund established by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer...."

Paul Farhi of the Washington Post seems pretty skeptical about every aspect of Jon Stewart's upcoming "Rally to Restore Sanity," including the host. ...

... Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "... a group of younger, web-savvy feds are planning to march on Saturday in defense of their coworkers on the sidelines of Jon Stewart's 'Rally to Restore Sanity.' Organizers of the 'Government Doesn't Suck March' ... were inspired in part by last week's Washington Post poll that revealed widespread negative perceptions of federal workers."

In Iraq, Torture Con'd. AP: "Field reports from the Iraq war published by WikiLeaks show that, despite Obama's public commitment to eschew torture, U.S. forces turned detainees over to Iraqi forces even after signs of abuse. Documents also show that U.S. interrogators continued to question Iraqi detainees, some of whom were still recovering from injuries or whose wounds were still visible after being held by Iraqi security forces. 'We have not turned a blind eye,' U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Monday, noting that one of the reasons why U.S. troops were still in Iraq was to carry out human rights training with Iraqi security forces." ...

... Larry King talks to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange:

Harry Reid intends to steal this election if he can't win it outright. -- Cleta Mitchell, attorney for Sharron Angle

... Las Vegas Sun: "A national advocacy organization for immigrants is launching a Spanish-language media blitz in Nevada today in an attempt to use a recent stream of anti-illegal immigration ads from Sharron Angle’s campaign as a reason for Hispanics to vote.... The sixty-second spots – 154 of them – will air on Spanish-language radio from now until Election Day...." ...

... Sharron Angle's latest fearmongering, racist ad:

Shailagh Murray of the Washington Post: "Gritty and stoic, [Majority Leader Harry] Reid embodies Nevada's paradoxical relationship with the federal government, a can't-live-with-him, can't-live without-him dilemma that has turned his quest for a fifth Senate term into the fight of his long career. Win or lose, most of Reid's elections have been decided by whisker-thin margins and his battle against tea party star Sharron Angle figures to be another. But the dynamics of this one are different. Never before has Nevada been so tired of Reid - and yet so dependent on him."

Ben Stein, who is an obnoxious, first-class jerk, writes a commentary in the Atlanta Dispatch saying Republican Senatorial nominee Joe Miller is a bigger one. Stein, a Yale Law grad (or so he says), doesn't believe Miller is really a fellow alum. Stein supports M-U-R-K-O-W-S-K-I.

Jon Stewart's news team covers "NPR Staffing Decision 2010":

Larry King interviews Lillian McEwen, a former girlfriend of Clarence Thomas:

Tom Cohen of CNN: "Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was a binge drinker who had a pornography habit or fetish in the 1980s, then changed radically when he stopped drinking alcohol, his former girlfriend told CNN on Monday."

Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post writes about the attempts of the Army Stryker unit to defend one of the alleged murders-for-sport of Afghans. "The attempts ... are detailed in previously undisclosed audio recordings made by a photojournalist embedded with the unit.... For a full, unedited audio of the Stryker Brigade's trip, click on the links: http://cdn.washingtonpost.com/media/podcast/audio/fullstrykeraudio1.mp3; and http://cdn.washingtonpost.com/media/podcast/audio/fullstrykeraudio2.mp3; and http://cdn.washingtonpost.com/media/podcast/audio/fullstrykeraudio3.mp3. The recordings also raise questions about why Army commanders did not take those suspicions seriously and failed to notice broader signs of trouble in the platoon until a member of the unit, under investigation for hashish use, tipped off military police."

From the Creepy News Department: Damien Cave of the New York Times: "Floridians frequently become famous either for heinous crimes or odd achievements.... Rarely, however, do the two intersect,... Jennifer Mee ... was the 'hiccup girl' of 2007 — the teenager from Tampa whose nonstop hiccups, up to 50 times a minute for six weeks, caught the attention of the nation. Now she is back in the spotlight, facing murder charges. The police in St. Petersburg say Ms. Mee, 19, lured Shannon Griffin, 22, to a home there on Saturday, where two male accomplices ... tried to rob him. When Mr. Griffin resisted, he was shot four times and killed, the police said."

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