First Looks category archive

Der Spiegel spoke with Harvard Professor Ryan Enos about Donald Trump’s crusade against universities, particularly Harvard, America’s oldest institution of higher education. The interview is worth a read; here’s a tiny bit:

DER SPIEGEL: Why has Harvard become the main target?

Enos: I think there are three reasons. First, Trump is following the classic pattern of authoritarian leaders who want to destroy democracies. He is attacking the institutions of civil society that could potentially limit his power: judges, broadcasters – or, indeed, universities, as places of free thought. Second, Trump thought it would be popular to attack elite universities because parts of his electorate were critical of them. He miscalculated, but more on that later.

DER SPIEGEL: And third?

Enos: Donald Trump now harbors a personal grudge against our university because it openly opposes him. Harvard is the beacon of resistance against Trump. No other institution in the U.S. opposes him so openly. Trump wants to break this resistance.

__________________–

*With apologies to Tom Lehrer.

Simple-minded? It’s starting to look like it.

John Nosta points out that (emphasis added)

• An Apple study finds AI reasoning collapses as task complexity increases.
• LLMs often simulate logic without truly understanding it.
• Fluency isn’t thought, and while AI may sound smart, it can fail where it matters most.

Follow the link for a detailed exploration of each point he points out.

Also at the Idaho State Journal, Larry Gebhardt hears a rhyme.

Here’s a bit of his parsing of the poesy:

A Project 2025 tactic is to stop all Federal involvement in education, a shift to states’ rights and privatization. . . . .

Throughout history, tyrants and oligarchs have understood that their major enemy is an educated citizenry. Slaveholders prohibited the enslaved from learning to read. Nazis burned books. Putin and Xi censor the media. Big tech and well-funded political action spread mis- and disinformation. Ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny.

___________________-

*Mark Twain.

El Reg reports on the Midas Torch.

US Coast Guard and civilian vessels have rescued 22 sailors off the coast of Alaska after some of the electric cars they were transporting caught fire.

The good ship Morning Midas – a roll-on, roll-off ferry that was delivering 3,000 vehicles from Yantai, China, to Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico – is currently around 304 miles south of Adak, Alaska, the US Coast Guard tells us. The sailors on the vessel, operated by UK-based Zodiac Maritime, noticed the fire at around midnight UTC on 3 June and were unable to stop the conflagration. . . . .

Mrs. Betty Bowers tells a story from 2 Kings 2:23-24 (look it up).

Michelle Goldberg looks at the legacy of Elon Musk’s foray into mean for the sake of mean, with a focus on his gutting USAID. Here’s a tiny bit from her article:

Musk apparently did not anticipate that it would be bad public relations for the world’s richest man to take food and medicine from the world’s poorest children.

She goes on to wonder just why this might have been so.

Michael in Norfolk explains why, despite what Elon Musk and his minions may think, having a properly-funded Weather Bureau (to use the phrase that was common when I was a young ‘un) is a good thing.

Via Job’s Anger.

Off to drink liberally.

They get fiendlier every day.

Apparently, a portable drinking cup is now a “leak-proof hydration solution.”

(No, I can’t remember the specific product in that commercial. I wish I could, so I could make sure never to give them my money.)

Via Job’s Anger.

There have been some connectivity issues reaching this website tonight, but, as I write this, it appears that my most excellent hosting provider has resolved them.

Thom dissects the disinformation distributed by the Trump maladminstration to justify subjecting persons to lettres de cachet because, well, as near as I can figure it, being mean for the sake of mean is now a Republican family value.

The Philadelphia Phillies RSS feed seems to be broken, so I’ve removed it from the sidebar.

At Psychology Today Blogs, psychology professor Jonathan D. Raskin argues that RFK Jr.’s reckless and misinformed (disinformed?) statements about autism are–er–less than helpful. He writes that the “HHS Secretary’s lack of knowledge about autism places those with autism at risk.”

Raskin goes on to make three main points:

• People on the autism spectrum are best thought of as different, not disordered.
• Autism occurs on a spectrum and most people carrying the diagnosis live productive lives.
• RFK’s characterization of those with autism is dangerous.

Follow the link to learn what Kennedy said that prompted Raskin to write the article and to see a detailed exploration of the points cited above.