The answer if you are into free speech is actually obvious enough that everyone is getting it. A specific intervention to appease one political party is precisely the type of media bias that free speech advocates are most worried about. It's not a big deal if the media has a known authorial voice (think Fox News) but it looks bad if that is from a supposedly neutral platform that is supposed to allow engagement.
Comments, observations and thoughts from two bloggers on applied statistics, higher education and epidemiology. Joseph is an associate professor. Mark is a professional statistician and former math teacher.
Monday, May 15, 2023
Today in free speech heroes
The answer if you are into free speech is actually obvious enough that everyone is getting it. A specific intervention to appease one political party is precisely the type of media bias that free speech advocates are most worried about. It's not a big deal if the media has a known authorial voice (think Fox News) but it looks bad if that is from a supposedly neutral platform that is supposed to allow engagement.
Friday, May 12, 2023
Weekend viewing -- VICE News Presents: Cult of Elon
If you're interested in Elon Musk as a cultural phenomenon (and if you're not and you're a regular reader, we've wasted a lot of your time), you'll want to take a look at this documentary, available for free on the ad-supported service Tubi.*
It mainly consists of intercut clips of fans and critics talking to the camera. Though you can probably guess which side I tend to agree with, the fan interviews provide a useful glimpse into why the bond between Musk and his followers is so strong.
* Tubi will be showing up prominently in future installments of our business of streaming thread.What people are finally realizing about Tesla is that its success depends on its online propaganda machine more than anything else. If you control the high ground of the internet, you can meme perception into reality.
— E.W. Niedermeyer (@Tweetermeyer) May 5, 2023
That's why this film matters:https://t.co/UejWPjCETE
Thursday, May 11, 2023
Thusday Tweets -- today's word is "Omphaloskepsis"
It would have been a busy Monday morning for the public editor 😂 https://t.co/3UQJuhr79R
— Margaret Sullivan (@Sulliview) May 7, 2023
Those who follow this sort of thing will remember that Sullivan did a stint as NYT public editor. She was great, but the paper didn't listen to a damned thing she said, which was a great loss for them and for us.
This is just disgraceful for the @nytimes to publish.
— Jon Walker (@JonWalkerDC) May 6, 2023
The paper got basically the correct response of "sir this is a Wendy's" when you demand someone publish your rant at a place it doesn't belong. https://t.co/pS1RpqD2qY
NYT reporter @anniekarni calls Nancy Mace "savvy and irreverent" for accusing the Bidens of running a prostitution ring.
— Dan Froomkin/PressWatchers.org (@froomkin) May 9, 2023
Does anyone there realize just how fucked up that is? https://t.co/EaQ6MGCS2Z pic.twitter.com/3TR8DzFHxb
thoughtYou'll never guess which paper this is in.
— James Fallows (@JamesFallows) May 9, 2023
Meta-point: *No* election is sure thing 18 months out.
—Summer 2011, despite Bin Laden assas, Obama was >10 pts down in approve/disapp ratings. https://t.co/Hms0nT0uNi
Spoiler: in 2012 he won
-Almost as bad for Reagan 1983
C'mon pic.twitter.com/jHH3BDm3se
You also might be inclined to believe this not because you “hate Elizabeth Holmes,” but rather because she did in fact perpetrate an elaborate scheme to defraud investors, as established by a mountain of bulletproof journalism, federal investigations and a criminal trial. pic.twitter.com/hSfFCjlKAi
— Sam Baker (@sam_baker) May 7, 2023
You'll have to take my work on this but when I first saw this Elizabeth vs. Liz Holmes, I also thought about a rehabilitation piece on Manson, though I have to admit pitchbot did it better than I would have.
Chuck Manson Wants You to Forget About Charles
— New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) May 8, 2023
The scraggly beard is gone. So is the swastika tattoo . As the convicted cult leader awaits prison, he has adopted a new persona: devoted father.
...should have been the central theme of the story, not the two people she is said to be. As Chozick writes, "she truly believes that she could have — and, in fact, she still could — change the world."
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) May 8, 2023
Here's a gift link. Should be no paywall. 2/2 https://t.co/9a0NyIbXqZ
My understanding about editing -- based on a brief, 40-year stint -- is that if you think your reporter got rolled by a profile subject, then you either spike the piece or you overhaul it. And at least, you excise the first-person omphaloskepsis*
— Bill Grueskin (@BGrueskin) May 7, 2023
*(learned this from @ericuman) pic.twitter.com/hDhS6uovBw
Don’t read the puff piece about Elizabeth Holmes published in @nytimes today. Instead, read this brilliant (free) piece by @jeremyfaust.https://t.co/TO7CSnMeYV pic.twitter.com/GxPzuAAf01
— Megan Ranney MD MPH 🌻 (@meganranney) May 8, 2023
Let's check in on Elon.
Perhaps Tucker thought the best way to bond with Musk was to lie about a business agreement.
Tucker announces he is partnering with Elon Musk and bringing his live show to Twitter. pic.twitter.com/zTnxGlQOcq
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) May 9, 2023
Kinda hard when the owner reinstated every conspiracy theorist, insurrectionist, Russian propagandist and racist who was permanently banned, and now spends every day interacting with and putting 138 million sets of eyeballs on their accounts. pic.twitter.com/cScQr0NLrO
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) May 8, 2023
This gets weirder by the moment
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 8, 2023
Experts say far-right extremism within the Latino community stems from three sources: Hispanic Americans who identify as white; the spread of online misinformation; and anti-Black, antisemitic views among U.S. Latinos that are rarely openly discussed https://t.co/mKp2H14GlD
— Bruno J. Navarro (@Bruno_J_Navarro) May 7, 2023
Very moderate guy Elon Musk liked this MTG tweet pic.twitter.com/HoxzIUW9D0
— Thor Benson (@thor_benson) May 7, 2023
Destruction of blue-checks has 98% destroyed Twitter's value as news-event sensory network.
— James Fallows (@JamesFallows) May 8, 2023
The checks never mattered to check-holders. They mattered to let everyone else know, when news happened: Who was a real weather service, real news agency, real public official.
Gone now
Dear followers: I am not paying for a check mark. It just magically reappeared.
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) May 10, 2023
The culture wars have reached the point where far right advocates are desperate for something to be offended about.
This is vile: In Tennessee, a teacher planned a Mother's Day lesson that was sensitive to kids without moms. Activists smeared her as a groomer. The lesson was canceled.
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) May 9, 2023
Incredibly, one of the books they objected to is about a bear who raises goslings! https://t.co/V5qHsu98vW
"None of the counter-protestors the Post spoke to seemed to have
attended SM North or had children attend the school, but one man said he
pays taxes to the school district."
Shawnee Mission North students walk out in protest over teacher's anti-'woke' op-ed https://t.co/cFoKtv3jJT
— Shawnee Mission Post (@shawmissionpost) May 10, 2023
I've been meaning to do a post on how self-interest no longer explains the actions of these people.
In Kansas, wind power supplies around 45% of the electricity generated in-state. But at least 5 counties have recently placed moratoriums or bans on new wind or solar projects, joining 18 others that already restricted wind development. https://t.co/DMnPVoxHIn
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) May 8, 2023
These tactics are politically self-destructive. Somerset County, where Bernards Twp is located, was a GOP bastion before Trump, home of Christie Whitman and Steve Forbes. Then nonsense like this started. Every county elected official is now a Democrat. https://t.co/1evTKIYuHt
— Julie Roginsky (@julieroginsky) May 6, 2023
I know we said we were going to lay off Ron for a while, but how often do we get to do a monorail tweet?
Disney has the most heavily used monorail system in the world that has safety transported 50 million people, but now Desantis’s new “ inspectors” have the ability to shut down the main means of transport between the parks anytime they feel like it. https://t.co/uPEweFQ4Eh
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) May 7, 2023
As we said before, the biggest political impact of Dobbs lies in the secondary and tertiary effects.
Another example of how far anti-abortion laws can be stretched to punish women: In Dec, an Alabama woman was thrown in jail for exposing her fetus to drugs — but she **wasn’t pregnant.**
— Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) May 8, 2023
The “suspicion” of pregnancy was enough to put her behind bars.https://t.co/98ymKToEPp
New commercial during the Trump rally broadcast. The guy who personally recommended ivermectin to Trump has invented a supplement to ward off spike proteins that can supposedly infect your body, which are being shedded by vaccinated people into others. pic.twitter.com/UI7XxQIspL
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 27, 2023
Church of Christ without Christ
Guy at Trump rally says he doesn’t believe in God but has a Christian conservative worldview and wants to be a history teacher. pic.twitter.com/VyPTy3e2hG
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 27, 2023
Wiki -- Bryan Lee Slaton is a former pastor and American politician. Slaton represented the 2nd District in the Texas House of Representatives from 2021 to 2023.
MAGA Rep Bryan Slaton—who intro’d a bill mandating death for women seeking abortion because his Biblical morals apparently command it—has resigned after investigators found he had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a teen staffer after getting her drunk😑
— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@QasimRashid) May 8, 2023
This is the GOP. pic.twitter.com/MKrJKA7GcJ
One of the reasons I think we need more Christians in politics (actual Christians).
Critiquing a gun-related bill today, TX Rep. James Talarico—a Presbyterian seminarian—rejected 'thoughts and prayers' rhetoric.
— Jack Jenkins (@jackmjenkins) May 10, 2023
"There is something profoundly cynical about asking God to solve a problem that we're not willing to solve ourselves. God moves, God works through us." pic.twitter.com/dBFdr20nen
Russian stooges are back in the news. It's a retro thing, you know, like vinyl.
He’s not just a conspiracy theorist. He’s completely lost his mind. And the one he had before he lost it wasn’t great. Complete Manchurian Candidate chaos agent. https://t.co/xwV1Av3no9
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) May 9, 2023
This one from our friends at the PayPal mafia.
Just Russian propaganda nonstop from this fella. https://t.co/5Amhq2m9gw
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) May 5, 2023
Apparently, Robin Hanson is still a thing. I hadn't heard from him for a while and I'd assumed he was just a frozen head by this point.
Me before reading: "this study, like ~every study, will detect no effect on all-cause mortality because that needs a crazy big sample size"
— Alyssa Vance (@alyssamvance) May 7, 2023
After reading: "this study, like ~every study, detected no effect on all-cause mortality because that needs a crazy big sample size" https://t.co/5zTskB0XMd
Agree.
Some locations in Navajo country are so remote, that voters must travel 200 miles round trip just to vote. It’s time to bring polling sites to the reservation. Agree? pic.twitter.com/W2YoMoeQaU
— Lakota Man (@LakotaMan1) May 4, 2023
Back on the Sparta debunking beat.
In some ways this episode is the most Spartan thing ever: they talk tough, fail miserably and are somehow remembered as badasses anyway by folks who don't bother to do the damn research and ask the simple question "*then* what happened?"
— Bret Devereaux (@BretDevereaux) May 7, 2023
I did some research and this checks out.
This is really bad.my favorite part of the Spartan state is when they were turned into an open air museum for upper-class Romans to gawk at cause they wore goofy hats and did silly things.
— Freak of Nurture (@khankayso) May 6, 2023
ironically, this probably did more to keep the legends of Sparta alive than anything else.
These local newsrooms will be abandoned and replaced by Sinclair’s “The National Desk,” a nationally-distributed news show. https://t.co/fy4jNC1VaW
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) May 1, 2023
Let's stop by and visit with Grady.
I disagree with every one of his claims, so there’s that. https://t.co/lsctin4au3
— Grady Booch (@Grady_Booch) May 8, 2023
Indeed.
— Grady Booch (@Grady_Booch) May 8, 2023
To be clear, contemporary LLMs are architecturally incapable of reasoning. https://t.co/O8KynFrvs9
TBH, this is really cool (assuming we can count on the quality).
Now, let’s do this for the human connectome. https://t.co/6P6jeol9R0
— Grady Booch (@Grady_Booch) May 10, 2023
Wednesday, May 10, 2023
What the experts used to say about streaming -- part 1
Lots of examples to follow, but before we get into the state of the industry, here are a few notes on what pundits and analysts were saying eight or ten years ago.
This was a subsidized narrative
The standard narrative of the streaming industry was by and large created by the industry and fed journalists who mostly accepted it without question despite numerous dubious and in some cases factually challenged claims. The discussion was heavily influenced by astounding marketing and PR budgets. Netflix alone was spending billions a year just on marketing. Disney was even more. Throw in Apple TV, HBO Max, Peacock, Paramount, Quibi, not to mention smaller players like Britbox. All of this money combined with the bubble mentality and hype economy of the teens produced a deeply distorted, narrative-based picture of the industry.
So what were the main points of the narrative?
"In the end there can be only one"
Conventional wisdom was heavily invested in the King of the Hill assumption. Within a fairly short time a front runner would emerge and from then on dominate the industry much as Google dominate search. This was very similar to what we were hearing about ride-sharing despite having even less justification in terms of barriers to entry.
Netflix was supposed to be well on its way to dominance because of first mover advantage and because it was building a content library so massive that it would not be at all dependent on the major Studios for content in a few years. This claim would have been absurd even if it hadn't actually been a lie. Each of the studios had highly valuable IP going back almost a century thanks to their lobbyist s constantly pushing back copyright protection. Add to this the constant new production and there was no way Netflix could have possibly caught up if it had even been trying, which as it turns out it wasn't, at least not at the time.
In one of the biggest and most successful lies of omission from any major company in the past couple of decades, Netflix had managed to convince virtually every journalist working east of the Mississippi and quite a few here in Hollywood that it actually owned shows like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black. In reality the company at that point wasn't buying anything. All they were doing was acquiring exclusive distribution rights for 5 or 10 years. Basically they were pulling the old scam of convincing investors they owned what they were merely renting. Eventually, word got out and Netflix started acquiring rights to some, though not all, of their originals.
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this part of the story is that the journalist s who had been made fools of for years didn't seem to mind.
In addition to having what was soon to be the most valuable content library in the industry, Netflix also had an insurmountable lead both in the amount of data and in their ability to harness it. Lots of cracks in this claim as well, some going back for years.
No one uses old tech
Another popular theory claimed that the studios had screwed up, perhaps fatally, by allowing Netflix to license their properties like Friends, Seinfeld, etc. for billions of dollars. The end result would be that Netflix had better established its brand while the properties would be far less valuable than they would have been had the studios held them out of circulation. (This of course runs counter to everything we know about this kind of intellectual property, but we'll get back to that.)
Next time: the premature obituary of the ad-based model.
Tuesday, May 9, 2023
Everything you used to hear about streaming was wrong. Now it's only most things.
I'll try not to be too much of a dick about this, but there are going to be a lot of I told you sos in the upcoming thread on the state of streaming and I'm not going to pretend that I'm not enjoying myself at least a little bit.
The immediate impetus was this episode of the Daily featuring NYT media reporter John Koblin discussing the writers' strike. It's reasonably informative if you haven't been following the story, but it was far more interesting part (at least for me) as a revision of what we've been hearing from the paper for the past decade.
The thing you have to keep prominently top of mind while trying to follow this story is that, with the exception of streaming being big, the standard narrative was wrong in every particular from revenue streams to business models to the quality of the IP to the winners and losers. That narrative has crashed so badly in the past half dozen or so years that even its most faithful adherents (a group that very much includes the New York Times) are starting to quietly back away from many of its major tenets.
Among the points being conceded are the wisdom of flooding the market with expensive programming, and the business logic behind combining binge friendly shows with no-commitment subscriptions, which always made about as much sense as letting people take doggy bags into an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Some of the points still being ignored include the rise of the ad-based streaming model which had long been declared dead, the fact that the most popular shows and profitable business models of the past few years did not come from the streaming sector, and the grossly exaggerated roll that original programming continues to hold in these discussions.
You would probably get the impression from listening to this that people mainly watch originals. The industry has, by this point, spent tens of billions of dollars in marketing and PR (yes, billions) to get reporters to believe this but the numbers do not back it up. People still mainly watch licensed shows like NCIS or the Big Bang Theory.
It's worth noting that when Koblin compares the economics of broadcast syndication to that of streaming, he leaves out that we are often talking about the same shows. Along similar lines, at around 24:00, you'll notice the omission of Taylor Sheridan when talking about big show runners. Taylor's Yellowstone is arguably the biggest thing to hit television in years, but in direct contradiction to the standard narrative, it comes from basic cable.
I realize I'm throwing out a lots of assertions here but we'll have lots of supporting evidence coming. If you're interested in the business of television, this should be an interesting discussion. If not, check back with us late next week.
Monday, May 8, 2023
When they get to the part about nobody seeing this coming
If you follow the news on the writers' strike, you're going to be hearing a lot about the business of streaming, including how unsustainable the current level of production of big budget scripted shows is. We'll be diving into this and other issues (I've got at least a half dozen posts in the works and a few more reposts, not to mention the possibility that Joseph might want to chime in), but for now here's a reminder that the problems that the NYT et al. are now discovering weren't exactly unforeseen.
(Pay close attention to reason 2. We'll definitely be hearing more about that one.)
Monday, August 31, 2015
Arguments for a content bubble
For example, living in LA, I frequently run into people in the entertainment industry. One of the topics that has come up a lot over the past few years is the possibility of a bubble in scripted television. Given all that we've written on related topics here at the blog, I was sure I had addressed the content bubble at some point, but I can't find any mention of the term in the archives.
One of the great pleasures of having a long running blog is the ability, from time to time, to point at a news story and say "you heard it here first." Unfortunately, in order to do that, you actually have to post the stuff you meant to. John Landgraf, the head of FX network and one of the sharpest executives in television has a very good interview on the subject of content bubbles and rather than "I told you so," all I get to say is "I wish I'd written that."
But, better late than never, here are the reasons I suspect we have a content bubble:
1. The audience for scripted entertainment is, at best, stable. It grows with the population and with overseas viewers but it shrinks as other forms of entertainment grab market share. Add to this fierce competition for ad revenue and inescapable constraints on time, and you have an extremely hard bound on potential growth.
2. Content accumulates. While movies and series tend to lose value over time, they never entirely go away. Some shows sustain considerable repeat viewers. Some manage to attract new audiences. This is true across platforms. Netflix built an entire ad campaign around the fact that they have acquired rights to stream Friends. Given this constant accumulation, at some point, old content has got to start at least marginally cannibalizing the market for new content.
3. Everybody's got to have a show of their very own. (And I do mean everybody.) I suspect that this has more to do executive dick-measuring than with cost/benefit analysis but the official rationale is that viewers who want to see your show will have to watch your channel, subscribe to your service or buy your gaming system. While than can work under certain conditions, proponents usually fail to consider the lottery-ticket like odds of having a show popular enough to make it work. And yet...
4. Everybody's buying more lottery tickets. The sheer volume of scripted television being pumped out across every platform is stunning.
5. Money is no object. We are seeing unprecedented amounts of money paid for original and even second run content.
For me, spending unprecedented amounts of money to make unprecedented volume of product for a market that is largely flat is almost by definition unsustainable. Ken Levine takes a different view and I tend to give a great deal of weight to his opinions, but, as I said before, Langraf is one of the best executives out there and I think he's on to something.
Friday, May 5, 2023
Deferred Thursday Tweets -- sometimes it's easier to sell the solution people know they don't understand
About possible end runs around the debt ceiling. I have no inside information, but my guess is that premium bonds are a more likely route than the platinum coin. Why? Because nobody understands premium bonds, while people think — wrongly — that they understand the coin 1/
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) May 3, 2023
If it stopped there, it would be as if Treasury was paying its bills by printing money. But Fed would almost surely remove the newly created monetary base by selling bonds. (That's "sterilization" when we do foreign exchange intervention). 2/
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) May 3, 2023
Depressing to see the WaPo report as fact — not even a "some economists say" — the claim that minting the coin would be inflationary 1/ https://t.co/k7lQNbFmIl
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) May 4, 2023
An important aspect of the crisis is that the hostage-takers' demands are so politically toxic that the people making them are simultaneously denying them, which is allowing Biden an opportunity to indulge in a little snark.
I hear House Republicans out on TV saying they would never vote to cut veterans’ benefits.
— President Biden (@POTUS) May 2, 2023
In case there’s any confusion, I made a little chart that could help them out. pic.twitter.com/SVvamK3KC2
Biden has lived up to his two main promises to voters, observes @jbview ..no kidding. most accomplished president in decades https://t.co/w580NRYVcK via @opinion
— Jennifer "Pro-privacy" Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) April 25, 2023
Speaking of old guys who are still goddamn sharp.
Not the odds, but the stakes. @DanRather: "A horse race confers an equivalence upon all candidates. The only detail that matters is who is going to win — not all that might be lost. To view America through that lens today is an exercise in the absurd." https://t.co/WpFEMxQrZu
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) April 30, 2023
"Polarization becomes a way to talk about politics without talking about politics at all..."
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) April 30, 2023
That's it exactly. Explains why "we're so polarized" is so popular with the press. From an interview @PaulHRosenberg did with scholar @kreissdaniel.https://t.co/etVmaf5BJN pic.twitter.com/S67UoHlsto
I've always felt the Kennedys (with the possible exception of Ted) were overrated, but they still deserve better than this clown.
Crypto does have a biodiverse ecosystem just like a septic tank. https://t.co/S76Ns3220f
— Stephen Diehl (@smdiehl) May 3, 2023
This is just plain nuts on multiple levels. I could make "it sounded better in Russian" jokes, but this is just pathetic - and if he were capable of knowing why, it would even be despicable. https://t.co/HZt6rdMhrc
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) May 3, 2023
Because when Putin tells us something about the war, we know that it’s always completely accurate with no hidden agenda. pic.twitter.com/mGHx4l5CDW
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) May 4, 2023
While on the subject of Ukraine...
Maybe Kaitlan Collins can ask what interviewers like Farage won’t when Trump claims he will end the war in 24 hours - Exactly how? Cause it’s clear to me he means to cut off aid to force a surrender: “A lot of it has to do with the money .. with the military that we’re giving.” pic.twitter.com/K2wUXApDy5
— Ron Filipkowski🇺🇸 (@RonFilipkowski) May 3, 2023
good stuff from @owillis on how weird it is that Trump tossing a reporter's phone didn't make news for more than a month https://t.co/q9F4SvU7Kr pic.twitter.com/Ex51Tnt2qm
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 3, 2023
NYT pitchbot should start charging a licensing fee.
Donald Trump is on trial for rape. Here’s why that’s good news for Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/9P4KnbH79E
— A.J. Bauer (@ajbauer) April 29, 2023
The very fact that CPAC meets in Hungary makes further comment superfluous, but we won't let that stop us.
Our foreign and trade policy with respect to Hungary should reflect the fact that their government is actively seeking to tamper with our election. And it should reflect that for the next 5.5 years at a minimum. https://t.co/Pz3aekEWDN
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) May 4, 2023
The kids are alright (and that bothers certain people).
To be fair, they can still be good citizens as long as their teachers don't encourage that sort of thing.I wonder why Republicans are losing Gen Z voters by landslide numbers. pic.twitter.com/zPGNSnlvdc
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) April 30, 2023
Texas outlawed action civics so now it's against the law for students to participate in hands-on civics projects or interact with elected officials. It's all part of an effort on the right to limit what citizenship means https://t.co/TgJ4wHKYN4
— Jennifer Berkshire (@BisforBerkshire) May 1, 2023
Holy shit. The Texas Senate just passed a bill to give Greg Abbott’s handpicked Sec. of State the power to overturn elections in the 3rd biggest county in the U.S.
— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) May 2, 2023
Republicans weaponizing 2020 election lies to rig elections. This is a HUGE story. pic.twitter.com/FyTBalEttM
SCOTUS Tweets
Roy Wood Jr, "Do you understand how rich you have to be to buy a supreme court -- a black one, on top of that! There's only two in stock. And he owns half the inventory. We can all see Clarence Thomas, but he belongs to billionaire Harlan Crowe. And that's what an NFT is." pic.twitter.com/5EwzwciScQ
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) April 30, 2023
Another twist to the Clarence Thomas story: accepting unreported private school tuition from a billionaire would be problematic even if Thomas were operating on a judges salary. But Ginni Thomas was pulling in big bucks from right wing groups.
— Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) May 4, 2023
This tweet was from this afternoon, three hours before tonight’s Thomas ethics story https://t.co/aufxv7gMMn
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) May 5, 2023
“Alfonse Capone has long been passionate about the importance of quality policing and giving back to the brave men of the Chicago Police Department. It is unfortunate that anyone would cast his payments to patrolmen in a partisan light.” https://t.co/w0mMatTEtI
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) May 4, 2023
In case you’ve forgotten who Paoletta is, a helpful visual aid: https://t.co/OlHwVGwpIw pic.twitter.com/ADWLEFSmDG
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) May 4, 2023
Why don't we play a game of solitaire...
Many people who used to work for Clarence Thomas have come forward to confirm that he is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being they’ve ever known in their life.
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) May 5, 2023
While we're on the subject of Republican ratfcking: https://t.co/mReJ1O2Qq2
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) May 4, 2023
Briefly checking in on the Tucker defenestration.
This text is emblematic of Carlson’s rhetorical strategy on his every show: overtly pushes hate, racism, encouraging brutality, but then he rhetorically stands back from it, as if to say, but of course, I am a good person and am not advocating this very thing I relentlessly push. pic.twitter.com/ylzgd8DlCq
— 𝙼𝚊𝚡𝚒𝚖𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚗 𝙿𝚘𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛 (@maxapotter) May 3, 2023
This is not how white men fight https://t.co/qJNvgGVbJ8
— Roy Wood Jr- Ex Jedi (@roywoodjr) May 4, 2023
Meanwhile in Muskworld.
$TSLA $TSLAQ The Realization.
— Zero Shorts (@zeroshorts) April 29, 2023
"What if Tesla Is…Just a Car Company?
Rather than looking like one of the world’s fast-growing tech giants, which is how it was valued by investors, it now looks more like a car company." https://t.co/4i9RJTu77F
"Now more than a year later, there still are no signed agreements and little apparent progress. In fact, the authority’s board hasn’t heard from The Boring Co. since December, when it sent a draft development agreement to the tunneling firm." $TSLAhttps://t.co/vWmg4f6Ch4
— Suspected Saboteur (@ShortingIsFun) April 30, 2023
BREAKING: Twitter CEO Elon Musk is hit with more devastating news as an electronic privacy expert declares that Musk will likely be investigated by the Federal Trade Commission over his Twitter Blue stunt because Musk used “deceptive marketing” when he pretended that celebrities… pic.twitter.com/frj88UmAtl
— Omar Rivero (@OmarRiverosays) April 29, 2023
On the eve of #PressFreedom day Elon Musk has threatened to re-assign @NPR's twitter account and their audience of 8.8million followers to "another company" or "individual." https://t.co/f3aoc4B3vr
— The Sparrow Project (@sparrowmedia) May 3, 2023
The Las Vegas Loop is the kind of clownery that you can only expect from a city that has three different unconnected monorails and whose top mobility priority is getting people lost in casinoshttps://t.co/wX4Or5aAeS
— E.W. Niedermeyer (@Tweetermeyer) May 4, 2023
Elon Musk went from being the Henry Ford of our generation (admired carmaker, brilliant salesman) to being the Henry Ford of our generation (conspiracy theorist, Nazi-enabler)
— Frank Lesser (@sadmonsters) May 3, 2023
On a more general note, important threads from possibly the most important journalist on the EV beat.
I know this is what people want to hear, but the author hand-waves away an entire universe of supply chain and affordability issues with little more than "things will work themselves out, trust me." https://t.co/ZAfZJgClix
— E.W. Niedermeyer (@Tweetermeyer) May 4, 2023
Could we stop pretending that the road tripping experience in an $80k EV is any more important than, say, how many Gs the Corvette can pull on a skidpad?
— E.W. Niedermeyer (@Tweetermeyer) April 30, 2023
This is a niche wealthy person hobby issue, not a decisive factor in the future of the panet.
None of these things mean anything to people outside the economic and cultural elite. Plenty of people ignore all of these things, they're just the kind of people Paul and his ilk never engage with. https://t.co/f8yHrMZq0B
— E.W. Niedermeyer (@Tweetermeyer) May 3, 2023
If you're looking for a situation where the smugly condescending elite are pushing their interests onto the fundamentally uninterested masses, look past all the "woke" stuff and look at the things Paul is talking about. I say this as someone who doesn't hate EVs, fake meat, or AI
— E.W. Niedermeyer (@Tweetermeyer) May 3, 2023
“It’s like a spork — not the best fork, not the best spoon."
— Shannon Osaka (@shannonosaka) May 4, 2023
But it CAN be the best way to get some hesitant folks to convert to plug-in driving. I wrote about my favorite EV gateway drug, the plug-in hybrid. https://t.co/X2JqIyVLD3
Great thread on the tech behind the tech.
🔋Here's a story about a battery.🔋
— Ed Conway (@EdConwaySky) April 30, 2023
It may not look like much.
Looks a lot like, well, a battery.
But this is no normal battery. It's a little bit of history. pic.twitter.com/jFwHGbFoj4
We need to talk more about framing.
This piece is a good example of how decent reporting can be undone by ludicrous framing.
— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) May 4, 2023
“A small group of non-experts say caffeine is bad and should be regulated, while basically all experts think they’re nuts” should not be framed as a open question about health. https://t.co/1K7tBAVPh2
More on regurgitative AI.
“You might not believe me, but this is AI generated” no I believe you babe https://t.co/bMY28fcVEt pic.twitter.com/wPDAqCSjLr
— Tom Zohar (@TomZohar) May 1, 2023
Zero is also a reasonable value for the chance that contemporary AIs have feelings and can suffer and can experience joy. https://t.co/dACALZCVvx
— Grady Booch (@Grady_Booch) May 1, 2023
— Grady Booch (@Grady_Booch) May 5, 2023
All kidding aside.
Grady Booch (@Grady_Booch) is reading about AI, neuroscience, and what it means to be human and has generously shared his carefully curated reading list.
— Željko Obrenović (@zeljko_obren) May 2, 2023
To help navigate this list of 369 books, I've created a simple searchable visual index herehttps://t.co/SXQ2mPXdpS https://t.co/Z8Ui2EDAhN pic.twitter.com/HlgYRlL5Ci
Leaked Google document: “We Have No Moat, And Neither Does OpenAI”
— Simon Willison (@simonw) May 4, 2023
The most interesting thing I've read recently about LLMs - a purportedly leaked document from a researcher at Google talking about the huge strategic impact open source models are havinghttps://t.co/q2lsjTHKGS
Thursday, May 4, 2023
The Snows of May
Some more notes on the weather...
First off, when this post goes up on the blog, it will be snowing in the mountains to the east.
Snow levels could level to about 4,000 to 4,500 feet; areas with elevations above 6,000 feet could see 4 to 8 inches of snow, with localized areas getting 14 inches.(I believe they got a bit more to the north.)
April ended with a brief heat wave that had people worried about flooding because there are still over a million foot acres waiting to come down...
... but as has happened so often this year, we seem to have caught another lucky break.
California's May forecast could limit dangerous snowmelt by Grace Toohey
I don't want to dismiss the danger of upcoming floods or the damage we've seen so far, but we've managed to avoid the kind of deluge that the Central Valley is historically prone to. As natural disasters go, the events of the past few months have been minor and we desperately needed the water.Even though March 2023 was the second hottest March globally since record keeping began, temperatures in California have remained below historical averages — a trend that officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say will continue at least through next month.
“We’re actually favoring below-normal temperatures for a lot of the state,” said Scott Handel, a meteorologist with NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.
“You have that high snowpack in a lot of the West, including California, and also higher-than-normal soil moisture, and at the same time there’s below-normal temperatures in the ocean right off the coast of California — all of those factors should conspire to limit the chances of above-normal temperatures for [California],” Handel said.
Parts of California’s Central Valley continue to battle flooding after an extremely wet winter. While state water officials have warned residents of treacherous conditions this spring and summer due to increased river flows, NOAA’s outlook raised hopes that the so-called Big Melt might be milder than initially forecast.
“We’re not seeing any very warm periods that would cause concern just yet, and the hope is that when we do see those, or if we do see those, that they will be later in the season when the snowpack isn’t quite as large,” said Andrew Schwartz, lead scientist at UC Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Laboratory. “I would say things are looking pretty optimistic in terms of keeping any type of flooding — and the severity of that flooding — light.”
Many Californians with dry wells face long wait for fixes by Ian James
In a neighborhood surrounded by almond orchards and citrus groves southeast of Fresno, large plastic cisterns occupy the yards of many homes, and residents have learned to ration water until the next tanker truck arrives.
Even after major storms have boosted California rivers and reservoirs, many in the unincorporated community of Tombstone Territory continue to rely on state-funded water deliveries. Some of their wells went dry last year, while others have been coping with dry wells for as long as three years....
Groundwater depletion has progressively worsened through both wet and dry periods in the Central Valley, and accelerated over the last three years as heavy pumping sent aquifer levels plunging to new lows.
One of the encouraging signs I've noticed this year was that people (the government, journalists, the public at large) are finally getting serious about getting as much water as possible back into the ground. Historically, California infrastructure was built to get as much rain water into the ocean as quickly as possible, an approach that was short-sighted even before climate change kicked in.
Though it may seem counterintuitive, I get the feeling that the recent abundance of water has actually made folks out West think more seriously about conservation and management. The long drought seemed to produce a sense of learned helplessness -- why bother? -- but this winter has reminded us that the only thing worse than doing without is knowing that you're doing without because of wasted opportunity.Wednesday, May 3, 2023
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" -- Neom was just the beginning for MBS
“Let’s talk about something other than women driving. The NEOM project, the futuristic city that he (the crown prince) plans to invest half a trillion dollars in. What if it goes wrong? It could bankrupt the country.”Jamal Khashoggi, June 2017
A gateway to another world: #TheMukaab will be the world’s first immersive, experiential destination. Large enough to hold 20 Empire State Buildings, the global icon will feature innovative technologies to transport you to new worlds.#NewMurabbahttps://t.co/5R4DqQdPyS pic.twitter.com/vr9M8cTI1I
— Public Investment Fund (@PIF_en) February 16, 2023
As mentioned before, we live in a time of mad kings, megalomaniacal sociopaths granted dangerous power through wealth and/or political position, prone to wild schemes of empire and grandeur. Even in this crowded field, the ruler of Saudi Arabia manages to stand out, particularly with his willingness to burn through even the impressive coffers of his country building futuristic boondoggles.
He's like a self-funding Elon Musk.
Space pods and flying dragons: How Saudi Arabia wants to transform its capital
Nadeen Ebrahim and Dalya Al Masri
At the heart of the project is the "Mukaab," a 400-meter (1,312-foot) high, 400-meter wide and 400-meter-long cube that is big enough to fit 20 Empire State buildings. It offers "an immersive experience" with landscapes changing from outer space to green vistas, according to Public Investment Fund (PIF), the MBS-led $620-billion sovereign wealth fund. The project is due to be completed in 2030.
..."Back in the day, you would have negative discussions about Saudi Arabia affiliated to human rights abuses," said Andreas Krieg, research fellow at the King's College London Institute of Middle Eastern Studies. "But now they're trying to push new narratives of being a country of development and one that can build futuristic cities."
...But some have questioned whether the project will even come to fruition. Saudi Arabia has announced similar mega projects in the past, work on which has been slow.
In 2021, MBS announced his $500 billion futuristic Neom city in the northwest of the country, with promises of robot maids, flying taxis, and a giant artificial moon. And last year, he unveiled a giant linear city, the Line, which aimed to stretch over 106 miles and house 9 million people.
...
"The more absurd and futuristic these projects get, the more I can't help but imagine how much more dystopian everything surrounding them will be," wrote Dana Ahmed, a Gulf researcher at Amnesty International, on Twitter.
Saudi officials have insisted that work on the projects is going ahead as planned.
Tuesday, May 2, 2023
Monday, May 1, 2023
Marketplace -- brought to you by American Public Media and the good people at the Koch Foundation [Updated]
Before we get started, I just want to go on the record with this: Marketplace is the best daily news show on public radio by a clear margin. Smart, clear, willing to push back against bullshit, attentive to the entire country, but some bad habits are so wide-spread and so entrenched that even the best journalists lapse.
From Why is it so hard for Congress to deal with the national debt? by Kimberly Adams.
And for all the complexities of the U.S. economy, if Congress really wants to address this, the broad solutions are fairly simple.
“On one hand, you can reduce certain types of spending that hopefully will not have these other negative consequences, like increasing poverty, increasing inequality, etc., etc.,” said Mariely Lopez-Santana, who teaches government and politics at George Mason University. “But on the other hand, you just need more money, right? And how do you get more money? By taxing certain types of people. So in that way, the solution might seem very basic.”
But of course, the political pain comes when you have to decide who loses benefits and who pays more in taxes.
“You have politicians who are all incentivized to go home to their constituents and say, ‘Look at all of the goodies I brought you out of the federal coffers,'” said EJ Antoni, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
Promoting more economic growth can ease deficits, but to make a meaningful dent in the debt, Antoni said both parties need to make hard choices about popular programs like defense spending.
“But on top of that, we also need to have some very serious conversations about entitlements,” he added. This means Social Security, Medicare — the things politicians and their constituents don’t like messing with.
The reporter spoke with sources from two institutions, both coming from virtually identical perspectives, both (particularly Heritage) with somewhat checkered histories, and both funded in the past by the Koch brothers. Predictably, (to paraphrase Dorothy Parker) the range of policy suggestions ran the gamut from A to B, hitting the same old talking points that have been in heavy rotation even before anyone had heard of Simpson-Bowles, hard choices and "very serious conversations about entitlements."
Adams (usually a very good reporter) could have provided some context, pointing out that tax increases poll well with pretty much every group except Republican politicians, or that one party has a much better track on the deficit and it's not the one that gets a lot of support from George Mason University or the Heritage Foundation,
Heritage is now just another nest of kooks. And before you say "well, it was always like that" - no, it wasn't. You might not have liked the views it espoused, but it wasn't this. Over 40 years, I've agreed and disagreed with Heritage - but it's no longer a serious place. https://t.co/zJxohje0Ul
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) May 30, 2023
Friday, April 28, 2023
The prize for best analogy of the week goes to Matt Levine
Actually last week but I'm playing catch-up.
From the April 19th newsletter [emphasis added]
But yesterday’s hearing undermines my view. There are members of Congress who seem to think that crypto is valuable and innovative, that the SEC is stifling innovation, etc., all the stuff that was standard in 2021 and that retreated after the high-profile crypto frauds and failures in 2022. Ahead of the hearing, all the Republicans on the committee sent Gensler a letter “slamming the Commission’s approach to digital asset regulation and attempts to force digital asset trading platforms to ‘come in and register’ under the ill-fitting national securities exchange (NSE) framework.” “To date,” they write, “the SEC has forced digital asset market participants into regulatory frameworks that are neither compatible with the underlying technology nor applicable because the firms’ activities do not involve an offering of securities.”
...
Third, there was pushback against Gensler for not owning or using crypto. “It is hard to understand something without using it,” writes Anthony Pompliano. “The idea that we have regulators who are actively making rules for something that they have never used seems confusing.”
This seems like a simple mistake. Nobody asks the administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration if she has ever used meth. “How can you regulate meth if you have never used meth” is a non sequitur. “How can you understand meth if you have never used meth,” similarly, has easy answers: You can look at the science and sociology of how it affects people, decide that it’s bad, and regulate it accordingly.
Thursday, April 27, 2023
Thursday Tweets -- Elmo and Sneetches
When we first started mocking the "great news for DeSantis" meme, we were taking a fairly controversial position. Then the winds started to shift and it turned into something of a victory lap, reminding people that we were here first. Now, though, everybody is jumping on the bandwagon, which means:
1. It's not much fun anymore.
2. Pundits are starting to move from prematurely declaring DeSantis the inevitable nominee to prematurely declaring his campaign doomed, which in black swan season is just asking for it.
So no more Ron for a while. Fortunately, we have plenty of Tucker and Elon to fill the gap.
Before we get to the reaction to the defenestration, take a minute to watch this clip and remind yourself of the level of crazy TC was feeding to his viewers.
Tucker Carlson is releasing a documentary called, ‘Oh Canada,’ which seems to be making the case that we should invade Canada to liberate them from their tyrannical government. pic.twitter.com/REwJ9GK48n
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 20, 2023
Tuck was always quick to stand up for his country. That country happened to be Russia but the principle remains the same.
Where will @TuckerCarlson land after Fox bounced his ass? First job offer already in from @RT_com. Because of course.https://t.co/QUMte82MxN
— Joe Conason (@JoeConason) April 24, 2023
The US military leaders cheer while the Russian military leaders mourn. pic.twitter.com/MmWmQS5Hhx
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 26, 2023
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov is upset about Tucker’s firing. For some reason. pic.twitter.com/XgBhaoJfEm
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 26, 2023
“Tucker, come join us. You don’t have to be afraid of taking the piss out of Biden here.”
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) April 26, 2023
Kremlin media rends its clothes for Tucker Carlson—and extends an invitation.
My latest. https://t.co/pJAWudEydC
So @DickMorrisTweet had a lot to say about firing of @TuckerCarlson. It's always wise to assume Dick is 99% wrong, in this case about the reasons why Murdoch bounced Tucker. https://t.co/vk0w64pnm8
— Joe Conason (@JoeConason) April 25, 2023
There is no one so despicable on the far right that you can't find a loon on the left to defend them.
Amazingly, @TheProspect, the last place i had a fulltime journalism gig and where I opened the first DC office, wrote a tribute piece to Tucker Carlson, critic of corporate America and anti-war populist, many people are saying. LOL https://t.co/9H6JnLVSXx
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 26, 2023
The progressive case for Tucker Carlson is not good https://t.co/kD34tKFGh1
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) April 26, 2023
Here's the American Prospect piece on Tucker Carlson that produced this editor's note, promising to "earn back whatever trust has been lost." https://t.co/E0sYHae3zq I recommend reading both. via @froomkin https://t.co/PBS4Fe9byK
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) April 26, 2023
Yes, Rupert Murdoch killed the First Amendment by firing Tucker. I’m sure you’re right. pic.twitter.com/rULFz8icvM
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 26, 2023
Loads of charming details.
Seems pretty likely she’s the senior Fox executive he called the c-word, as described here: https://t.co/l2XsacXCkh
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) April 26, 2023
Not a great idea!
SCOTUS News (though not technically 'News')
From 1789–1891, Congress exercised complete control over #SCOTUS’s docket. The Court couldn’t pick and choose cases—or issues to resolve within those cases. If it had jurisdiction over an appeal, it *had* to hear it. Discretion came in baby steps in 1891, then giant ones in 1925.
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) April 26, 2023
As noted elsewhere on Twitter, who would have thought we'd have two SCOTUS justices mired in financial scandals and neither of them is named Kavanaugh.
We must deliver an ensemble apology to the late Justice Abe Fortas, who was squeezed off the Supreme Court over financial issues that are penny-ante accusations compared to what's going on today. https://t.co/vOXuwaOtlZ
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) April 26, 2023
More for the bad NYT framing file.
How exactly is the sitting president running for reelection "defying" his (presumptive) opponent who he handily beat in the last election? This is the kind of bullshit, inaccurate language @nytimes uses over and over to twist the narrative frame in favor of the GOP pic.twitter.com/9NaImPFZVt
— Evan Sutton (@3vanSutton) April 26, 2023
Apparently, running for a second term, as allowed by the US Constitution = being unwilling to let go of power (like certain past presidents)
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) April 25, 2023
Defying tradition, Biden seeks second term.
— New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) April 26, 2023
An American must be at least 36 years old to have participated in a presidential election in which the Republican candidate got more votes.
— David Frum (@davidfrum) April 26, 2023
He or she must be at least 52 to have participated in two. https://t.co/94wrSCsEVB
His family must be so proud.Tommy Tuberville and Marsha Blackburn: "We are the dumbest members of the Senate."
— Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) April 26, 2023
Ron Johnson: "Hold my Schlitz." https://t.co/zJU5PhqXCS
Some bullshit artists, including @RobertKennedyJr himself, are now pretending he's "not anti-vaccine." They're lying. His lethal, mendacious campaign dates back to 2005, when @Salon and @RollingStone had to retract his anti-vax "investigation."https://t.co/GjO2NBngIt
— Joe Conason (@JoeConason) April 26, 2023
Joe McCarthy -> RFK -> RFK jr. -> Roger Stone
Totally a progressive pic.twitter.com/R9FSUhbw6Y
— Benjamin Dixon (@BenjaminPDixon) April 26, 2023
Because Tennessee went so well for them.
In central Missoula, residents of Montana's 100th House district are now subject to taxation without representation https://t.co/pAycX7PwLu
— Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) April 26, 2023
Excellent thread, particularly about carriage fees.
1/ I want to share a bit about Fox News, advertisers, revenue and accountability.
— Angelo Carusone (@GoAngelo) March 31, 2020
Let me first start by saying that, Fox News is actually suffering quite severely on the advertiser front. (The next chart will illustrate just how badly)...
At which point I'm contractually obliged to mention...
We've been through this before, but
— Mark Palko (@MarkPalko1) April 22, 2023
RABBIT EARS
Better HD and more channels than basic cable.
Helps fight media consolidation.
No carriage fees going to Fox.
And did I mention it's free TV?
To understand the dysfunction of the current anti-abortion movement, you
have to remember that, while many of the members are motivated by
deeply held beliefs about the nature of human life, probably more are
driven by exposure to decades of horrifying disinformation.
Trump says Democrats “believe in abortion on demand in the 9th month of pregnancy. Even executing babies after birth! Beyond birth, executing the baby!” pic.twitter.com/TvRhvpFAgr
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 23, 2023
“I wanted to address my senators, Cruz and Cornyn.. I would like for them to know that what happened to me is a direct result of the policies they support. I nearly died on their watch and I may have been robbed of the opportunity to have children in the future” pic.twitter.com/rq8Rt0lmSa
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 26, 2023
What “pro-life” laws look like on the ground: go wait in your car in the parking lot until you start to bleed out and then come back to us.https://t.co/GSvinjZkQC
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) April 26, 2023
Checking in on Elon.
There’s a profound message about the nature of capitalism that the world’s richest man is this stupid pic.twitter.com/19QPxojPK9
— Michael A. Cohen (NOT TRUMP’S FORMER FIXER) (@speechboy71) April 23, 2023
I wrote about a new achievement in capitalism history: Getting celebrities from every walk of life imaginable to forcefully deny that they paid for your product on the same weekend, because they find it embarrassing https://t.co/kXmwqenFq1
— Alex Kirshner (@alex_kirshner) April 23, 2023
For just 27 cents a day, less than the price of a cup of coffee, you can help feed this South African billionaire and his family.
— New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) April 21, 2023
It's like a bad reboot of Sneetches where, after removing stars becomes the cool thing to do, Sylvester McMonkey McBean starts kidnapping the elite sneetches and forcing them into the star restorer. https://t.co/tse9MmD0qD
— Mark Palko (@MarkPalko1) April 23, 2023
Of all the burns delivered to Elon over the check mark fiasco -- and there have been many -- this may be the best of them all.
Elmo will miss you, little blue check mark. But don’t worry everybody, Elmo is still Elmo! ❤️
— Elmo (@elmo) April 20, 2023
Elon being a deepfake would explain a lot.
A man died bc he believed @elonmusk’s lies about Tesla’s self driving capability and the best defense his lawyers could come up with is that Musk can’t remember what he said/it might’ve been a deepfake. https://t.co/OKoBK2DfZi
— Linette Lopez (@lopezlinette) April 27, 2023
The latest from ProPublica.
Read this entire thing with my jaw on the floor. Absolutely insane.
— Haley Britzky (@halbritz) April 26, 2023
As Rail Profits Soar, Blocked Crossings Force Kids to Crawl Under Trains to Get to Schoolhttps://t.co/nfOMCg7dnJ
Back on the AI beat.
Again, consent is such a difficult concept for some men.
— Grady Booch (@Grady_Booch) April 26, 2023
Make opt-in the default, people; not opt-out.https://t.co/rdXRuBSXTm
At least they had the sensitivity to not name this large language model the Word Organizer Pretrained Resource https://t.co/KvpssbaVy6 pic.twitter.com/Z6khcsOMR0
— Grady Booch (@Grady_Booch) April 27, 2023
You come across the most unexpected conversations on Twitter.
HOW TO TELL IF A SUIT IS BESPOKE
— derek guy (@dieworkwear) April 26, 2023
This suit makes me sad bc it's an example of the many ways custom tailoring shops upsell or misrepresent their services. On their site, this tailor says their suits are handmade and bespoke. But that's not really true. Here's how to tell 🧵 https://t.co/BVWRjEBwtm
132 is the sum of all the 2-digit numbers made from its digits. It is the smallest such number. pic.twitter.com/a6T1WJq290
— Fermat's Library (@fermatslibrary) April 26, 2023
I didn't read the article so I can't recommend it, but I love the clip.
Why do apes like to spin in circles? A new study suggests it might be for the same reasons people do: They enjoy the dizzy buzz that comes with it, possibly even in pursuit of altered mental states. https://t.co/gIjJHxwKjQ pic.twitter.com/TN3jyZGELn
— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 26, 2023