Notices by James Gleick (jamesgleick@zirk.us), page 5

The NY Times catches up with Trump encouraging Russian aggression against NATO, and look how they minimize the story:

1. It’s old news. “… repeating a claim he has made previously …”
2. It’s just braggadocio. “… to highlight his negotiating skills …”
3. The first reaction quoted is not from the White House (¶6) but from Putin (¶4)—who promises never to invade anyone.
4. Trump says he caused “hundreds of billions” to be paid in. NYT doesn’t mention that this is a lie.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/10/us/politics/trump-nato-russia.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Uk0.dKTF.98bjZvA6foyi&smid=url-share

Did you ever believe that Hunter Biden took a #laptop full of incriminating information into a computer repair shop and abandoned it there? That the repair shop decided to examine its contents and transmit them to Rudy Giuliani and Steve Bannon?

Of course not. Because you have more common sense than reporters and editors at every major news organization.

The whole thing was a Russian disinformation op, in partnership with the GOP. And it's ongoing. Where's the press?

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/a-bigger-story-than-you-can-possibly-imagine/sharetoken/hLZyeijgDqrO

Dear New York Times et al,

“We now see that almost all of 2023 was dominated by a legal/political story that was not only bogus but — according to prosecutors’ filings and the discredited source’s own admission to federal authorities — was a plant by the Russian intelligence services. That’s real. That requires an explanation as to how that was ever allowed to happen. It requires some effort to prevent it from happening again.”

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/can-dc-reporters-overcome-their-trumper-shock-training/sharetoken/R1iJBpGI5cVE

What does Trump have in store for us? A militarized authoritarian regime; “an agenda of inhumanity on a scale we haven’t seen for generations”; deliberate disregard for the Constitution; dehumanization and cruelty toward the most vulnerable.

Full credit to the Washington Post.

https://wapo.st/48tFoGy

@lauren @KeithDevlin I can’t stop feeling that programming these bots to speak in the first person (“I apologize …”; “I rely on my training data and understanding …”) is a deceptive practice in itself.

It’s important to say what the court found Trump did. He didn’t just “manipulate his net worth.”

He deliberately falsified business records. He deliberately falsified financial statements.

He committed these frauds again and again, for many years.

Here’s Cory Doctorow’s (@pluralistic) essential manifesto. How it all got this bad; and why we don’t have to give up. Pretty much everyone needs to absorb this. #Enshittification

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/30/go-nuts-meine-kerle/

Republicans have a problem. They’re the dog that caught the car.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/make-no-mistake-the-house-gop-is-on-the-ropes-here/sharetoken/kpRGANu0O7yd

“As Bob Dylan might say, let us not talk falsely now. He really proposed a Muslim ban. He really did try to steal the vote in Georgia. He really did want the rioters to hang Mike Pence. He really did rape E. Jean Carroll.

"And he really is running for President to ‘terminate’ the Constitution.

"He is, in other words, an insurgent. In a sane legal system, he would be under house arrest awaiting trial.”

Constitutional scholar Garrett Epps is not mincing words.

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2024/02/05/its-not-just-the-border-the-trump-abbott-republican-nullification-crisis-is-here/

Imagine if we discovered that between 0.6 and 2.3 percent of all U.S. electricity is being diverted into a giant waste bin. Wouldn’t we fix that, pronto?

#crypto

https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=61364

Today with breathtaking clarity the political journalists of the New York Times show us they cannot rise to the challenge of this election. They will portray it as two candidates clashing, each calling the other a threat to democracy. “Reality Is at Stake” the headline reads—but these reporters will not tell us what the reality is, even though they know.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/06/us/politics/jan-6-trump-biden.html

@zenheathen @pluralistic “Time is a river that sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that mangles me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire.” (Borges)

I know this is an unpopular opinion, especially here on the open social web, but I really don’t think the longtime copyright protection for the Walt Disney mouse cartoon dampened American artistry or creativity.

What happening at the Supreme Court is a massive unresolved bribery scandal that implicates at least three justices, but sure, let’s talk about AI. https://mas.to/@carnage4life/111681282211287426

Using #ChapGPT to generate text for fun is one thing. Using ChatGPT to generate text that matters is a very bad idea. Using ChapGPT to generate text with legal force might be worst of all.

What these judges apparently don’t realize is that ChatGPT’s superpower is plausibility. Its errors are that much more difficult to catch. Its output often looks right even when it’s utterly wrong.

https://gizmodo.com/uk-judges-now-permitted-use-chatgpt-in-legal-rulings-1851093046

2023: Left the bad place; joined the open social web. Along with so many of you.

Here's a pair of speculative essays from the early days, when we wondered what #Twitter was and what it might become.
https://around.com/twitter-we-hardly-knew-ye/

Free will—yea or nay? A neuroscientist and geneticist sets out to rescue the beleaguered concept from its many deniers—including some famous physicists.

“We make decisions, we choose, we act. These are the fundamental truths of our existence and absolutely the most basic phenomenology of our lives. If science seems to be suggesting otherwise, the correct response is not to throw our hands up …"

Is he right? I say yes.

#FreeWill

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2024/01/18/the-fate-of-free-will-free-agents-kevin-mitchell/

How did a “half-insane rascal,” a “pathetic dunderhead,” a “nowhere fool,” a “big mouth” persuade millions of ordinary citizens to embrace his “doctrine of hatred” and make him absolute dictator of a once-great nation?

Michiko Kakutani reviewed Volker Ullrich’s account of Hitler’s ascent in September 2016. Remember September 2016?

Her review was brilliant. She never once names Trump, but he is present in every paragraph, and not by accident.

Gift link https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/28/books/hitler-ascent-volker-ullrich.html?mwgrp=a-mbar&unlocked_article_code=1.HU0.O7zW.BXZng_x14LIt&smid=url-share

I’m old enough to remember when Republicans worried about insidious Russian influence on Americans, subverting our foreign policy. They said leftists were secretly doing Russia’s bidding.

What would Reagan or McCain think now that it’s the entire Republican Party, in thrall to Trump and Putin, openly doing Russia’s bidding? https://sfba.social/@dangrsmind/111603903868183467

I’m an author and journalist, hopeful about the #TwitterMigration.

I write about science and technology and their cultural effects. My books include Chaos, The Information, and TimeTravel, as well as biographies of Richard Feynman and Isaac Newton.

I’m working on a history of the telephone.

#Introduction #authors #science #technology #Feynman #Newton #TimeTravel #Chaos #telephone