“As society stares down the barrel of what is almost certainly just the beginning of these advances in generative AI, there are reasonable and technologically feasible interventions that can be used to help mitigate these abuses. As a computer scientist who specializes in image forensics, I believe that a key method is watermarking.”
“Walmart is planning to build out a nationwide electric vehicle charging network at thousands of its stores, including Sam’s Club locations. The company says it plans to have the network built by 2030″.
“But this particular fracas over Bud Light grows from a deeper history of consumer politics, and it has an amusing resonance given the crucial role beer—or not drinking beer—has played in the past successes of the LGBTQ movement. In fact, part of the reason Bud Light (and its parent company, Anheuser-Busch InBev) embraces—and is embraced by—queer beer drinkers is thanks to a historic boycott of one of its rivals, the Coors Brewing Company.”
“Take a tour of Northern Ireland—with a little help from the ‘Derry Girls’”.
“So if I’m evaluating a new government program and it improves the life of a working class person by $10, that’s a benefit of $32.70. If I take away $10 from an upper middle class person to pay for it, the cost is $2.30. Instead of a cost-benefit of zero, I have a whopping positive cost-benefit of $30.40.”
“Fine, I admit it. Elon Musk is ruining Twitter.”
“[Boban] Marjanović is only the second player in league history to spend full seasons with all three NBA franchises in Texas.”
Please stop singing along to “I Will Always Love You” when you attend The Bodyguard.
“Try this on for size: The Trash Pandas led 3–0 heading into the seventh and final inning of the game, having not allowed a hit. They went on to lose that game 7–5, still not having allowed a hit. “You can’t predict baseball” is a bit of a cliché; baseball has been around for more than 150 years. All of this has happened before and all of this will happen again. But allowing seven runs while preserving a no-hitter? That’s worthy of detailed examination.”
RIP, Al Jaffee, legendary cartoonist for MAD Magazine. Mark Evanier adds a few words.
RIP, Hobie Landrith, original member of the New York Mets.
“Collecting sculptures of dictators and Nazi knick-knacks reveals more than bad taste, which, unfortunately, still cannot be counted as a crime. It is downright creepy. The reason it is creepy is that it shows an unwholesome fascination with power and domination. Crow might earnestly think he is buying this stuff to provide some kind of object lesson about the perils of tyranny, but there is an unavoidable suggestion of idolatry and vulgar power-worship just under the surface. The reason such objects would be impressive and interesting to a person like this and to his guests is that they are almost occult talismans: they are fetish objects, redolent of the power of evil.”
“By more than two-to-one, Americans say medication abortion should be legal in their state”.
“Flush with $80 billion in new funding, the IRS is aiming to ramp up audits of wealthy taxpayers and large corporations”.
“Certainly, abortion bans aren’t as unpopular as defunding the police, though it’s precisely the vagueness of that latter phrase that makes it hard to pin the precise level of support. But the dynamic is the same. Republicans can make that claim — the Democrats want to defund — all they want. Democrats simply deny it and, in most cases, for better or worse, are actually pushing for various increases in spending on police. But on abortion, the crooked judges Republicans spent a generation pushing into the federal judiciary keep coming up with new strategies for back-door or even front-door ways to push through new bans.”
“But treating “faithfulness” as the chief value of an adaptation is a creative dead end. It turns all adaptations into a pass/fail test, a series of exam questions in which a “faithful” adaptation is correct and anything else is an error. The adaptation becomes a Highlights magazine activity sheet with two side-by-side “spot the difference” pictures, asking viewers to circle each upside-down ice-cream cone or missing minor character with a red crayon.”
“What No Labels can’t seem to reckon with is that there are a host of burning issues in today’s America that come down to binary choices.”
“Republicans Are Silent On The Abortion Pill Ruling, Despite Confirming The Judge Behind It”.
RIP, Anne Perry, prolific crime writer who as a teenager helped murder her friend’s mother; the movie Heavenly Creatures was based on that.
RIP, Mary Quant, British fashion designer who is credited with designing the miniskirt and hotpants.
“So yes, a six-pack of not-woke beer might cost you a hefty $34.31, or almost $6 per can, but you can’t deny the value! And that’s not including the stupid T-shirt they try to get you to buy in the process”.
Regarding “not-woke” beer, we’ll see if someone actually does go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. This one could be very close.
The IRS sent me a letter this year demanding that I prove my identity before they would process my return and give me my money back. So I had to totally surrender my identity items and even a face scan to some private contractor who will probably be hacked tomorrow. There oughtta be a law. Meanwhile, they never explained what the problem was with my simple little return. After some research it appears that I committed a mortal sin by arranging an IRA withdrawal so that my refund would be a nice round number.
LESSON: Unless you want a trip to IRS hell never arrange a simple round number refund. I am still waiting for mine two months later.