August, 2025 archive
Establishmentarians 0
Via The Sacramento Bee, Bryan Clark takes a look behind the robes of America’s establishmentarians. A snippet; follow the link for context.
Also, too . . . .
Stray Thought 0
As I watch the ads for sports gambling on my telly vision, I can’t help but wonder whether the prospect of a new Black Sox scandal might be more than a mere farfetched fantasy.
Sporadic Bloggery 0
Family matters, and it does.
Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0
Impartial and objective? Per Cornelia C. Walther, “, , , a new study has exposed an unsettling paradox at the core of our assumptions. Involving analysis of nine different LLMs and nearly a half-million prompts, the research shows that these supposedly impartial systems change their fundamental ethical decisions based on a single demographic detail.”
Details at the link.
Emoluments 0
Farron runs the numbers.
A Question of Identity 0
Honest to Betsy, you can’t make this stuff up.
Lies and Lying Liars 0
Apparently, the Trump maladministration believes that, if they don’t talk about it, it didn’t happen.
The Privatization Scam 0
Emma talks with Whitney Wimbish about how private prisons are profiteering from Donald Trump’s campaign against brown people immigrants.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
A quite pedestrian pedestrian case of politeness.
Guns and stupid, guns and stupid.
They go together like love and Cupid.
Let me tell you brother,
You can’t have one without the other.
Devolution, Reprise 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Matthew Facciani writes about an AI TikTok account that fooled millions into thinking it was real life human being and suggests some steps we can take–not as individuals, but as polity–to protect against such fakery.
He makes three main points:
- The viral “MAGA Megan” TikTok showed clear AI traits yet still fooled large audiences.
- AI fakes spread by aligning with identity, leveraging networks, and gaming algorithms.
- Combating AI misinformation requires media literacy, awareness or our biases, and platform action.
Methinks this a valuable and timely read, especially as Big Tech seems determined to stuff AI down our throats, as illustrated by yesterday’s post about the Zuckerborg.