2024 archive
Left Unsaid 0
Writing at the Las Vegas Sun, Mark Peckham notes a curious omission.
American Taliban 0
Thom discusses the danger posed by right-wing evangelical they-call-themselves Christians.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Yet another “responsible gun owner” indulges in a random act of politeness.
The Party of Flaw and Disorder 0
In related news, Republicans announce plans to end the rule of law, at least insofar as it applies to Donald Trump.
No Place To Hide 0
The EFF explores how some car manufacturers’ are tracking your movements and selling their findings. Needless to say, the EFF thinks oversight is required. Here’s a bit of the article.
Car manufacturers including General Motors, Kia, Subaru, and Mitsubishi have some form of services or apps that collect, maintain, and distribute your connected car data to insurance companies. Insurance companies spend thousands of dollars purchasing your car data to factor in these “select insights” about your driving behavior. Those insights are then factored into your “risk score,” which can potentially spike your insurance premiums.
Afterthought:
It’s ironic, is it not?
Many persons sweat bullets about government surveillance, which has rules and regulations (and is nowhere nearly so extensive as some would have us believe), then run nekkid through industrial for profit tracking of their day-to-day activities.
Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! 0
Seth notes that “it’s amazing when the actual news intrudes on Fox’s talking points.”
This New Gilded Age, the Snaring Economy Dept. 0
When you run the numbers, it sure begins to look as if the “gig economy” is a rigged economy.
Behind the Curtain 0
At the Inky, Jenice Armstrong explores explodes four myths that she has heard repeated by Trump’s supporters, myths which she thinks may be eroding support for Biden the crucial voting demographic of black voters.
Here one of them; follow the link for the others (emphasis in the original):
Trump is a successful businessman.
Reality
Trump certainly gives off the air of being a successful businessman. However, a review of his tax returns by the New York Times found that his businesses take in hundreds of millions annually, yet “rack up chronic losses.” The Times reported that from 1985 to 1994, Trump’s businesses lost more than a billion dollars. When compared with other high-income earners during that period, the Times found that Trump “appears to have lost more money than nearly any other individual American taxpayer.” The former president’s business prowess is an illusion.
A Tune for the Times 0
Mangy notes that “irony is not dead.”
Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0
Indiana University law professor Michael Mattioli, reacting to the recent kerfuffle of OpenAI’s attempt to steal mimic Scarlett Johansson’s voice, raises an interesting question:
- Why are Silicon Valley Tech Bros expending so much energy trying to create AI bots that sound human, when other more efficient ways of interacting with computers have worked very nicely for decades?
Here’s a tiny bit of his answer (emphasis added):
There’s also an echo of the ancient quest to commune with eternity, to grasp immortality, woven into AI chatbots like Sky. The pyramids served as eternal vessels for a pharaoh’s spirit; what is lifelike AI if not an attempt to capture and channel a human being’s essential nature?
(Or could it be that they just want to make their fantasies of being Captain Kirk sitting the captain’s chair saying, “Computer . . . .” come to life?)
Aside:
Speaking of AI, security maven Bruce Schneier thinks that AI will make phishing attempts even less fishy and even harder to detect.