Notices by Shriram Krishnamurthi (shriramk@mastodon.social), page 3

Imagine designing a feature so awful and unwanted that random doctor's offices are getting yelled at and are having to put in defensive "please don't blame us" messages.

6/ Eventually she made her way to the Bronx, and now lives in Providence. She's strong of body and mind. The "1000 Year" Reich lasted ~13 years; that 7yo escapee has now lived ~13 times as long. The best possible response to pure evil. •

3.2/ His bravery was of course not rewarded, and he paid for it in many ways. He didn't ask for credit, either. He was only recognized near the very end of his life. He is apparently the only Japanese person recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations. ↵
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiune_Sugihara

3.1/ How did they get out? A Japanese diplomat in Lithuania saw what was happening. He put humanity ahead of the fact that he worked for an Axis power, handing out as many visas as he could. Thousands of Lithuanians, Poles and *Slavs owed their lives to him. ↵

2/ She grew up in Poland. They escaped in late 1939, fleeing mainly the Russians. Wait, Russians?!? That's right, today I met with a living witness to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. (Link if you don't know what that is.) ↵
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov%E2%80%93Ribbentrop_Pact

5/ In Shanghai, they were herded into a ghetto. Yes, there was a Jewish ghetto *in Shanghai* (read here). The Germans tried to get the Jews deported, but the Japanese wouldn't. She still speaks with great admiration for the Japanese. ↵
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Ghetto

4/ Anyway, the family got a visa in Lithuania. They made the dangerous passage across Siberia by train. From Vladivostok they took a boat to Japan. After a year there, Japan shipped them to Shanghai (remember, they occupied chunks of China). ↵
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Sino-Japanese_War

1/ Over the weekend there was a block party a short distance from my place for a lady who turned 90. That's notable enough, but in her case it's special because she's a Holocaust survivor. I chatted with her today and looked up some things. Remarkable story! Buckle in: ↵

One of the best airport announcements I've heard in a long time, at IAD airport today: "To passengers coming from Richmond at gate A2, if you left behind your … *doesn't manage to completely suppress chuckle* … wheelchair, please return to the gate."

@GreenSkyOverMe At least once every four years, that should be easy?

It was π-day, so I participated in a Pie-Your-Professor to raise funds for charity. Before-and-after. I'm next to the legendary, brilliant Thomas Goodwillie [Calculus of Functors, etc.].

(Non-Americans must rue that April has only 30 days, so their approximation is much worse.)

In the new BLR int'l terminal (of whose "bamboo" vibe I've seen little). I notice that I go "to" many places, but when it's BLR, I unconsciously say I'm going "back". So: I'm back! Though when my FA asked if I was back *home*, I smiled and said it's complicated. (-: #India24

2/ She does a good job of telling the long and unsuccessful history of facial recognition (I didn't realize Woody Bledsoe, who I always associated with theorem provers, was a pioneer), and how the availability of data and ML changed that. ↵

1/ For some years now, @kashhill has been a leading journalist on privacy and technology. Here she mainly tells the human story behind the facial recognition company Clearview (whom she brought to national attention). But there's much more to the book. ↵
#BookReview

4/ She points out that faces and other biometrics are essentially immutable and indelible, thus deserving greater protection. And she presents the many, many ways in which their traceability can be problematic. ↵

3/ She describes US state and national attempts to legislate on this matter, with rare successes but mostly failure, depicting the corporate, governmental, and non-profit methods of working and blocking. But the tech is so democratized, legislation seems to be the main hope. ↵

Them: What's your name?
Me: Shri.
Them: Oh, okay.

3/ But the book also highlights Nixon and Kissinger's absolute loathing for India and Indians. They speak of the country and people with bile, hatred, contempt, and deep prejudice, and have little more feeling for the Bengalis. Thus, these are cheap lives easily ignored. ↵

2/ The book is a chilling account of the US partnership with Pakistan's military leadership. The author's argument is that the US was so focused on "opening China", which was facilitated by Pakistan, that it was willing to overlook what he and others deem a genocide. ↵

7/ A remarkable set of characters makes appearances: Haig, Bush père, Sydney Schanberg (of later Killing Fields fame), Ted Kennedy, McCain père, and almost as comic relief, Chuck Yeager of all people (who may be the only one who gets some deserved comeuppance). ↵