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

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). ↵

6/ The shocking refugee crises this created hardly registered, either. The US public was well aware of it by reporters and the Democratic senate. But this not only didn't affect Nixon, it had no effect either on Kissinger—famously, himself a refugee from a genocidal regime. ↵

5/ Nixon and Kissinger weren't unaware of the cable; they ignored it, mocked it, and spited its author. They were openly contemptuous of the suffering, and generated remarkable pretzel logic. And anyway, they just needed things to stay intact until the big China visit. ↵

4/ Not all Americans, though. The US consulate in Dhaka was well aware of what was going on from the very beginning. And in a remarkable move, they took advantage of the newly-created "Dissent Channel" to protest US policy, led by Consul General Archer Blood. ↵

8/ What is not lost—indeed, drives—Bass is that Kissinger and Blood were the same age, but while Kissinger floated through untouched, Blood paid for his bravery with his career, as so often happens to people of conscience. This book is his memorial. ↵

10/ For this, we can thank Nixon for his recordings in the White House. These provide the records for Bass to lay out in their own words what would otherwise be a literally unbelievable tale of mendacity and terribleness. ↵

9/ The book is a bit long, and can feel repetitive. The general contours, after all, are established early. Its motive force is the quote after quote from Nixon and Kissinger—often the latter in supplication to the former—that expresses their utter hatred and inhumanity . ↵

12/ When you have democratic US supporting dictator-led Pakistan suppressing a popular vote (in East Pakistan) and opposing democratic India which gets support of Communist Russia while opposing Communist China while Islamic countries are banding together… ↵

11/ From a more global perspective, it also lays to rest any notion of "consistency" in foreign policy. What constitutes an internal affair and what an external one? Do we push democracy or also lie with dictators? What are a country's policies? ↵

14/ Thus, Kissinger's Realpolitik may end up being the clearest, or most convenient, means of understanding policy. But Kissinger the theoretician takes back seat to Kissinger the human, who both led and enabled Nixon to horrifying decisions that spilled the blood of millions. •

13/ and the highly principled arguments for Bangladesh are made by dissident-suppressing India and Russia, while China fears its own breakaway (Taiwan) while America was formed from a similar argument as Bangladesh…it's all a bit head-spinning. ↵

1/ A remarkable book that uses the singular titular document to unlock a much bigger, mostly overlooked story: the US's role in the birth of Bangladesh. Bass argues that Nixon and Kissinger's treatment of Bangladesh has been forgotten by history but shouldn't be. ↵
#BookReview

@inthehands
Here, take a look at the tutorials linked from here:
https://cs.brown.edu/courses/csci1730/2023/smol.html
They're explicitly offered in multiple syntaxes, to show that the underlying ideas are essentially the same. Each tutorial is quite short (5-10 mins max), so you can get a sense of how they play out…

We've already got several universities using it (and finding problems in their student understanding!). The whole tutor is built entirely around known misconceptions and fixing them.
@dabeaz

@inthehands @dabeaz Nice, thanks! I've been wanting to spend more time studying Swift's notion of ownership, and this clearly plays in with that.

Think about all the intro programming texts you've read that begin with mutation. Now think how many of them explained aliasing in the context of shared mutable state. (Pretty close to zero, I'm guessing, unless you've written a book…)

We have a whole tutor to help with this! Want to take a peek?

@inthehands @pelavarre Though once you get past some threshold, I think teaching poorly is not easy and teaching well is not too hard. <-;