Notices by Kim Scheinberg (kims@mas.to), page 3

Before I took the gig speechwriting for the hedge fund manager, I used to think, "I wish all the people who read _The Wealth of Nations_ would read _The Theory of Moral Sentiments_ instead"

[After a few months in that gig, it became obvious that most of the people quoting from TWoN hadn't actually read that one either. But I digress]

TToMS distinguishing between the selfish desire for praise, and the more mature desire for being praiseworthy still informs the way I think about integrity today

@kjhealy
I may have misunderstood the assignment

James Randi is turning over in his grave

@lillyfinch
Great cartoom!

Expanding on the #alttext a bit

"A Michael de Adder cartoon

A soldier seen from the back is looking at a modified "Uncle Sam Wants You" army recruitment poster

In this version of the poster, Donald Trump's face has replaced Uncle Sam's face and the text reads:

I want you to use force against your fellow American"

@fabio Your point about the relative brutality of academia, especially for junior researchers, is very important.

I spent my early career (the most productive, high-energy years) at Bell Labs. The most important thing, aside from great colleagues and resources, that the Labs gave me was *freedom*. I spent my time actually doing research instead of writing grant proposals, teaching classes, serving on committees, and all the other distractions that eat the majority of a junior professor's time.

@ErikUden @catsalad
Get a [room] you two!

"Per Mark Gurman, Apple is preparing a live translation feature for AirPods powered by Apple Intelligence.

Here’s how it will work:

If an English speaker is hearing someone talk in Spanish, the iPhone will translate the speech and relay it to the user’s AirPods in English. The English speaker’s words, meanwhile, will be translated into Spanish and played back by the iPhone."

https://9to5mac.com/2025/06/07/ios-19-will-offer-yet-another-reason-to-wear-airpods-all-day/

Per Karen Russell, the only Big Beautiful Bill we'll ever need

I couldn't agree more

@JamesBazan
They owned it as recently as March, and unless you check the 13Fs every quarter, you won't know when they own it again

Plenty of those low-fee Vanguard index funds hold it, too. It's pretty f'n depressing

It'd be nice if, say, the New York State Teachers Retirement System heard from their members and were forced to sell the stock

https://fintel.io/so/us/geo#:~:text=Largest%20shareholders%20include%20BlackRock%2C%20Inc,Cooper%20Creek%20Partners%20Management%20Llc%20.

I don't mean to spoil the fun of everyone dunking on this, but...

If you are a retired teacher or a retired gov't employee with a pension or a managed 401k or IRA, there is a better than good chance that you are in fact an investor in private prisons, specifically GEO Group

It's been 9 years since I left the only job I ever loved and lost my best friend because of this. It was the right decision, but I still carry the scars

So the NYT then quotes, wtih an apparent straight face, the various excuses the model providers have for their systems getting it wrong:

George Will OTD nine years ago:

"The Caligulan malice with which Donald Trump administered Paul Ryan’s degradation is an object lesson in the price of abject capitulation to power."

Shamelessness is Trump's greatest superpower, but the inability of people and institutions to learn this lesson has to be a close second

Also... Caligulan malice? Is that shorthand for
"Fuck you and the horse you rode in on."?

@callisto @noondlyt
Couldn't agree more

Had Biden pardoned this guy and given him the same position, I'd be applauding

"He said he started a multimillion-dollar company that hired ex-offenders before becoming more active in prison reform"

This could be one of those rare times when Trump accidentally does something good. Alas if he's at all effective in his advocacy and reform, he'll be swiftly fired

Still, I'd love to see more of this from Dems

Really enjoyed David Gerard's amusing take on how programming with AI becomes like a gambling addiction for many.

"Large language models work the same way as a carnival psychic. Chatbots look smart by the Barnum Effect — which is where you read what’s actually a generic statement about people and you take it as being personally about you. The only intelligence there is yours."

"With ChatGPT, Sam Altman hit upon a way to use the Hook Model with a text generator. The unreliability and hallucinations themselves are the hook — the intermittent reward, to keep the user running prompts and hoping they’ll get a win this time."

"This is why you see previously normal techies start evangelising AI coding on LinkedIn or Hacker News like they saw a glimpse of God and they’ll keep paying for the chatbot tokens until they can just see a glimpse of Him again. And you have to as well. This is why they act like they joined a cult. Send ’em a copy of this post."

https://pivot-to-ai.com/2025/06/05/generative-ai-runs-on-gambling-addiction-just-one-more-prompt-bro/

@lauren
OG is just about the highest praise there is

And if you should ever decide to watch the show _Succession_ you'll have a better appreciation of its most cringe moment

[More than a dozen years ago, I needed my teen to translate when some kids yelled at me from a chairlift, "Skiing in jeans? That's so dope!"]

I feel like the only way Elon could truly damage Trump is to produce evidence that the assassination was staged

Everyone already knows that Trump's in the Epstein files, that he's a giant grifter, that the tariffs are a disaster, etc.

Even producing evidence that Trump asked him to rig the election would find the usual supporters and deniers and be a one-day story

But the assassination? I think it's one place where Trump is truly vulnerable

So if there's a god and you're listening...

@mattblaze
Back when we used Alexa, ours was set not to reply to our commands. A normal exchange went,

"Alexa, play Springsteen"
<Springsteen starts playing>
End of interaction

Then I stayed at a friend's house for a week, and their Alexa was programmed to reply, "Okay, playing Bruce Springsteen" before playing the music

Within a day or two, I found myself saying 'please' and 'thank you' to their Alexa

The robots are doing their level best instill civility in us. Undoubtedly for Reasons

@lauren
The fallout was inevitable but I didn't see this coming

I thought Giuliani (who surely has as much dirt on Trump as Musk does) would turn on Trump after Trump let him go bankrupt and stiffed him hundreds of thousands in legal fees. But Rudy kept quiet

And so I considered it likely that Musk and Trump would tacitly agree to a similar detente. Gotta be a case of Mutually Assured Destruction, no?

In any case, I'm pleasantly surprised

Not enough popcorn in the world for the Elon and Trump show

@glennf
I have one of these and bought another as a gift. I could not love them more

Flongs forever!