“Which, a) sort of casually disregards the entire existence of things like “tone” as they apply to the storytelling intent of a piece of media and, b) Lucasfilms has never tried to pitch people on a reality show about how cool it would be to get blown up by the Death Star.”
The scene recalled an observation of the Scythian philosopher Anacharsis, who divided people into three categories: the living, the dead, and those at sea.
Ian Urbina
If you read one long-form piece of journalism this week (and you should) I would recommend “The Crimes Behind the Seafood” in The New Yorker.
Aside for the small discussion at the end with Taylor Lorenz about having someone watch your social media streams for you (which I understand, but never hope to need) the discussion about Section 8 housing, its history, and the bureaucratic nightmare that it is for the most precarious people was maddening. So many of us are just a step away from being homeless. We all need to do better.
I spent most of today grading papers and prepping for my comp exams, which start tomorrow. I didn’t spend much time online and only posted two humorous things on Facebook. I’m going to need a really good reason to put those social media apps back on my phone.
Nobody ever questioned where that database holding 10,000 hours of Olive Garden commercials was located. Now we have ChatGPT teaching kindergarteners. This is the most important read: AI Causes Real Harm. Let’s Focus on That over the End-of-Humanity Hype “Magic 8 Balls that we can play with by framing the prompts we send them as questions such that we can make sense of their output as answers.”
Barrels of drinking water for migrants walking through Texas have disappeared it’s so easy to automatically suspect someone of spiteful behavior. We’re driven by us vs them in so many more ways that we forget that these are actual people whom we exploit with impunity and perhaps deserve at the very least to not die
The Latest Trend on Yachts? Submersibles Good. Gooooood. Feel the power course through your veins! It took three reporters to write this ass-licking advertorial. The Oceangate disaster doesn’t make an appearance until paragraph 11.
media_log is a collection of media that I’ve consumed throughout the day – not in bite-size, headline-only, hot-take form as per social media, but actually reading the article and having a thought. Since taking the social media apps off my phone, I’m being more intentional with how I spend my attention.
I’ve been moving my research notes and memos into Obsidian. I like the simple Markdown files that are kept on my computer first, then synched, and the wiki-style linking between notes and topics. Also, moving the notes is a great way to review them before my exams start on Monday.
The most important story:
Police stage ‘chilling’ raid on Marion County newspaper, seizing computers, records and cellphones “The search warrant, signed by Marion County District Court Magistrate Judge Laura Viar, appears to violate federal law that provides protections against searching and seizing materials from journalists. The law requires law enforcement to subpoena materials instead. Viar didn’t respond to a request to comment for this story or explain why she would authorize a potentially illegal raid.”
The constitutional case that Donald Trump is already banned from being president. A look at that argument those “conservative lawyers” (so it must be true!) are making about the 14th Amendment. It’s soothing to think so, but my expectations are low.
Texas questions rights of a fetus after a prison guard who had a stillborn baby sues There is some possibility for this to bite Texas in the Lone Star. The idea of “personhood” cannot be applied to women carrying the fetus and not individuals threatening There is so much structural sexism on display in this piece–most importantly, not believing women about their own bodies– that we almost see the scaffolding that allowed the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Was Bigfoot seen in Pennsylvania last year? Witnesses say ‘yes’ Obviously.
Penn State gender pay gap is among worst compared to public Big Ten schools, federal data show They mention the pay increase of the female president but not the pay of the football coach even though they keep saying “Big Ten.” (Coach’s salary in 2022? $7 million.) WE ARE, I guess.
A slightly sadistic experiment aims to find out why heat drives up global conflict “In other words, does extreme heat trigger a psychological effect that is driving up the violence?” I’m curious if the increased aggravation that people feel because of the heat is because of our social conditioning against sweat. Is that increased aggression a Western, white issue? The growing cultural preference for Western-style aesthetics is a problem. There was an article about sweat yesterday, I’ll have to find it. Got it -> We Must Learn to Love Our Sweat
media_log is a collection of media that I’ve consumed throughout the day – not in bite-size, headline-only, hot-take form as per social media, but actually reading the article and having a thought. Since taking the social media apps off my phone, I’m being more intentional with how I spend my attention.
Why Does This Racist Keep Getting Silicon Valley Money?
Required reading if you keep hearing the name “Richard Hanania” bandied around and want to learn about the next high-profile “totally not a racist anymore” bro is. I would hate watch the white nationalist and eugenics-loving billionaire fight for conch as they grunt their IQs at each other while the ashes of civilization dust their sweaty, Botoxed brows.
Zoom’s Changing Stances on AI and User Data has Faculty Alarmed
Why is only “faculty alarmed?” Oh because it’s a good business decision to outsource all of the intellectual work your scholars do. Zoom’s new TOS probably has a broad view of consent. Remember the CAN-SPAM Act that put that “Unsubscribe” in all those emails? Whatever happened to opt-in as the default? Fun fact: I had a meeting this morning and the “Accept the new TOS” note came up and I could either be late for my meeting and read it, or click “Accept” because that’s what we always do.
How should we remember Trinity Site, where the first nuclear bomb was tested?
An interesting look at the physical Trinity Site (not the conceptual idea we have collectively in our heads.) This led me to the FAQ on the Trinity Site Open House website, where the question on the dangers of residual radiation is second to last at number 25, right above whether or not marijuana was allowed on the site (it is not.) Incidentally, the question of whether or not you can bring your firearm is number 8 on the list. (No. “Leave them at home.”).
Seeing a new David Brooks column the same day I listened to the If Books Could Kill podcast on “On Bullshit” is … chef’s kiss!
Vivek Ramaswamy Has a Gimmick That Republicans Are Sure to Love
“Ramaswamy’s call to raise the voting age is a novelty policy for a novelty candidate. And yet it tells us something about the Republican electorate, and thus the Republican Party, that the eye-catching gimmick of an ambitious politician is a plan to disenfranchise millions of American voters.” Republican voters will never love you.
Biden’s risky Persian Gulf bet
“‘We’re talking about using the lives of US service-members as a deterrent,’ Emma Ashford, a researcher at the Stimson Center, told Vox.” Isn’t that what we always do?
There’s No Shame in Flaking
I had a friend that used to call me “Croissant” I flaked so much.
media_log is a collection of media that I’ve consumed throughout the day – not in bite-size, headline-only, hot-take form as per social media, but actually reading the article and having a thought. Since taking the social media apps off my phone, I’m being more intentional with how I spend my attention.
You’re not implying that these two people are ‘rogue animals,’ are you? What a terrible fucking headline! I think every news organization needs to show its headlines and blurbs to a select group of diverse people before letting any of its copy editors’ (or interns’) ClevErnEss out into the world. Cripes!
media_log is a collection of media that I’ve consumed throughout the day – not in bite-size, headline-only, hot-take form as per social media, but actually reading the article and having a thought. Since taking the social media apps off my phone, I’m being more intentional with how I spend my attention.
Hot take: One of the reasons I don’t care for YouTube shorts, besides the fact that I can’t filter them out of my subscription page, is that there is no easy way to see what channel it’s from.
Who Was Fernando Villavicencio?
I feel stupid for not knowing who this man was before he was assassinated.
Never Tweet
I like Charlie Warzel’s take on this subpoena and what prosecutors could be looking for, though the idea that it’s a technicality to cover all bases seems more likely. I don’t know how many more “smoking guns” need to be found to get this guy gone. Scroll fast past the main image if you don’t want to choke on your beverage.
Pottstown’s ‘Chicken Hill’ a central character in new James McBride novel
Shout-out to Pottstown and the Pottstown Regional Public Library for their help with James McBride’s new novel, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store.
After decades, a tribe’s vision for a new marine sanctuary could be coming true
Co-managing sanctuaries and sacred spaces with the indigenous populations is long overdue and a step in the right direction. Scientific knowledge can only be enhanced with a historical record of the land and its living things, as well as a respect for the interconnectivity of our ecology. Learn more about the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary at chumashsanctuary.org.
The Local-News Crisis Is Weirdly Easy to Solve
A great overview of the power and necessity of local news. I am quietly skeptical if federal funding would ever jump-start local news again–so much depends upon the local population engaging with the local news–we need so much more than “Patch” websites and Facebook.
media_log is a collection of media that I’ve consumed throughout the day – not in bite-size, headline-only, hot-take form as per social media, but actually reading the article and having a thought. Since taking the social media apps off my phone, I’m being more intentional with how I spend my attention.
Why Televising the Trump Trial Is a Bad Idea
I think it’s important that Nick Akerman compared it immediately to a Mafia trial. And I think he’s right. I think anybody that calls for this child to be televised it’s just looking for ratings, a cash cow, and not thinking about the integrity of the process.
A boy on the autism spectrum struggled with a haircut. His barber saved the day
I love this story! And I am also glad Ree was able to get a diagnosis for her son, Jackson. There’s a history of autism being ignored in Black children. I hope she also has the support she needs
Author Charlotte Ng @pronounced_ing on the Prosecraft situation:
“I hate to break it to anyone thinking of paying for this kind of service, but there’s a limit to what data can teach you about writing. It’s hard to make it in the writing world! But you get better at it by reading & writing & thinking more. Not by faux data analysis.”
I feel like one of the worst lessons being learned by new writers (and it comes from traditional and self-pub marketing) is that the way to write is by gaming the market. That may be the way to sell, but it ain’t the way to write.
The Supreme Court just handed gun groups a rare defeat
The only point of allowing this is for bud-bros who beat their families to be able to buy more guns. Fuck every maker of these killing kits.
Billy Porter says he had to sell his house because of the strikes, offers a “**** you” to Bob Iger Billy Porter has done the work and should be paid fairly. Exploitative, tabloid media makes you think all actors and artists are rich. They are mostly not.
One Froggy Evening – the birth of Michigan J. Frog via @TSting18
Hidden Brain podcast – You 2.0 How to Break Out of a Rut
Turns out that the middle of things is tough. But if you can set some markers and smaller goals, you can make it through.
5-4 podcast – Harisiades v. Shaughnessy
A case that reminds us that the rights in the U.S. Constitution also apply to non-citizen, legal residents…until they don’t.
Ridley Scott Regrets Not Directing Blade Runner Sequel
I love the Blade Runner 2049 we have and realize I’ve not watched Alien: Covenant yet. Also, AV Club saying 2049 is better than the original is just plain stupid. Different eras, subgenres, everything. Comparing apples and batteries.
The Prosecraft Controversy
Dunno, fren. If you want to know how many words are in a memoir, then look at memoirs, not 25,000 different books. I happened to be on “Twitter the X” when this started and it’s down to directly benefiting (lo its tilt or not) off of someone else’s work without their consent and compensation. Also, I don’t know why you would want to sound like another author outside of marketing purposes, I guess.
Conspiracy theories: how social media can help them spread and even spark violence introduces us to the author’s research in how conspiracy theories are spread. What I’m interested in is how I can work this idea into my class discussion of discourse communities. I think this is a good way to connect it to our later technology conversation.
America Already Has An AI Underclass
“In the coming era of AI, can the people doing the tech industry’s grunt work ever be seen and treated not as tireless machines but simply as what they are—human?”
“The program might write multiple recipes for chocolate cake, which a rater ranks and edits.” Does anyone make the cake?
“the machine-learning company Hugging Face” the fuck?
“there’s nothing flexible about precarity”
There’s nothing more I can say that these quotes don’t already convey.
I did not know they made a film based on this chapter from Dracula, but I’m going to try to get to see The Last Voyage of the Demeter before my exams start.
Zoom Returns to the Office
I think there’s a way to make an adjustment without requiring people to be in the office and that’s Zoom Communal spaces- like Zoom sessions with four to five people online working together occasionally chatting and helping each other stay on task. I don’t know why employees don’t do this or maybe they do co-working all the time and companies just need to justify the high rental rates they’re paying for office space.
Seven Books That Will Make You Put Down Your Phone
I will check some of these out now that I took social media off my phone.
The Loneliness Epidemic
A generation of kids who stayed home alone because their parents didn’t make enough money for child care is part of this. Also, Reagan, it’s always Reagan.
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