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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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Friday
Jun202014

The Longest Day

Today is the summer solstice, but Friday was probably the longest day for me. Here's what went wrong.

Reality Chex went down.

My gmail account went down.

My Twitter account went down.

My debit card has "unusual activity" on it, so I can't use it.

The movers showed up -- a surprise -- & left a lot of stuff strewn about the yard, which I have to shlep into the basement tomorrow. I can barely move through the house because it's full of boxes.

My back went out.

My Damned Cat (that's her name) disappeared.

Usually I can only manage three things going wrong at once. For some reason I'm doing okay today. I guess none of these things is too terrible or too unexpected. Life is complicated.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (6)

CW,
When your day was done, I hope you rested with a beverage of your choice, found a comfy place for your back, rested.
Murphy sure hung around you Friday.
Hope My Damned Cat shows up tomorrow. It'll be loaded with fleas... sigh...

May I ask the region you are moving to?

Hoping it is in one of The Enlightened States of the Union.
Maybe tomorrow will be better.
mae finch

June 21, 2014 | Unregistered Commentermae finch

Jeebus, Marie! I am so sorry (plagiarizing Judith Viorst) to hear about your "terrible, awful, horrible, very bad day!" Give me the word and I will fly down to Florida to hunt for My Damned Cat and help you do some wonderful back exercises! With my icky back, I will not be able to help you lift boxes though.

I get the idea that you are one of the self-sufficient women (like moi) who thinks she has to do everything herself. Well, you do not! You already do the work of 10 women, and you need some competent helpers to get you outta your home and on the road--AFTER you have found My Damned Cat, of course. Like Mae Finch, I wonder where you are moving---and hope it is a lovely BLUE state! Or at least very purple!

Yes, life is complicated, but your loyal fans are worried about you!

June 21, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterKate Madison

You are an amazing woman! You appear to be––once again––operating solo and although I don't understand how you do it all I admire your tenacity and obviously your strength except now your back is out. We here on RC would gladly forego our daily bread and let you re-group for as long as you have to. You need to take care of yourself. As for MDC, I understand that they can sense a move and for some reason leave themselves. In my case it's happened twice. Good luck with that and with everything else––it's a blessing you have s sense of humor.

June 21, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

CW,
I was wondering (only half seriously) if the "null" I was getting for the RC site was a Walker/Christie/RGA show of displeasure for all of the coverage yesterday. I could even imagine them going after the gmail, Twitter, and debit card. Far more believable than shutting down traffic lanes.

But getting the movers to show up early? I don't think they have that kind of pull.

I know first-hand the frustration of hiring professional movers who don't do as good a job as you do. My recommendation (which you already know) is to safeguard the important stuff, then plant yourself in a prime location with a clipboard and supervise, supervise, supervise.

Best wishes!

June 21, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterNiskyGuy

Ouof! The once in a blue moon SNAFU-fecta!
The good news, following such a day of Murphy's Law on steroids, is that everything else will look like UP from there!

June 21, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterMAG

Friday the 13th came on the 20th. It happens. New digs must be in the northern clime (few basements in the southland). Glad things seem to be settling down and returning to predictability.

June 21, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer
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