Link list: Articles and other links of interest
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In praise of (some) compartmentalization — Cory Doctorow @pluralistic on how he gets so much work done, living with chronic pain, living with global anxiety, flow, Derek Thompson’s theory of familiar surprises, AI and its fundamental conservatism — “… by definition, AI tries to make a future that is similar to the past, because all it can do is extrapolate from previous data” — “passive flow”/“shitty flow”/“zombie flow” and “social media scroll-trances.”
Cory: “These are anxious times. I don't know anyone who feels good right now. Particularly this week, as the Strait of Epstein emergency gets progressively worse, and there's this January 2020 sense of the crisis on the horizon, hitting one country after another. Last week, Australia got its last shipment of fossil fuels. This week, restaurants in India are all shuttered because of gas rationing. People who understand these things better than I do tell me that even if Trump strokes out tonight and Hegseth overdoes the autoerotic asphyxiation, it'll be months, possibly years, before things get back to ‘normal’ (‘normal!’).
“Any time I think about this stuff for even a few minutes, I start to feel that covid-a-comin', early-2020 feeling, only it's worse this time around, because I literally couldn't imagine what covid would mean when it got here, and now I know.”
I just read Trump and autoerotic asphyxiation in am eyeball flyby.
But really, in Germany I don't really notice the the effects of the situation.
I don't need to drive often, so don't directly give a shit about gas prices. Many do tho.
My car wrangler has not raised prices since Iran was attacked.
And other stuff didn't get more expensive immediately regarding shipping cost.
But I buy less things than average I guess. -
I just read Trump and autoerotic asphyxiation in am eyeball flyby.
But really, in Germany I don't really notice the the effects of the situation.
I don't need to drive often, so don't directly give a shit about gas prices. Many do tho.
My car wrangler has not raised prices since Iran was attacked.
And other stuff didn't get more expensive immediately regarding shipping cost.
But I buy less things than average I guess.@lasagne @pluralistic Here in the US, for me, the effects are limited to news headlines — for now. But Cory's metaphor for the approach of Covid is apt; more precisely, it feels like February 2020, when nothing has changed for me personally — yet — but something is coming and it's going to be bad.
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Richardson (continued)
“Just as there is a blueprint for destroying democracy, there is also one for rebuilding it. ‘Let us now and here highly resolve to resume the country’s interrupted march along the path of real progress, of real justice, of real equality for all of our citizens, great and small,’ New York governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt said to the delegates at the Democratic National Convention in 1932 as American democracy struggled to resist fascism.“‘Out of every crisis, every tribulation, every disaster, mankind rises with some share of greater knowledge, of higher decency, of purer purpose,’ FDR said. ‘Today we shall have come through a period of loose thinking, descending morals, an era of selfishness, among individual men and women and among Nations…. Let us be frank in acknowledgment of the truth that many amongst us have made obeisance to Mammon, that the profits of speculation, the easy road without toil, have lured us from the old barricades. To return to higher standards we must abandon the false prophets and seek new leaders of our own choosing.’
“‘I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people,’ FDR concluded. ‘Let us all here assembled constitute ourselves prophets of a new order of competence and of courage. This is more than a political campaign; it is a call to arms. Give me your help, not to win votes alone, but to win in this crusade to restore America to its own people
@mitch It's absolutely worth remembering that FDR's administration faced a real threat of a fascist takeover financed and planned by oligarchs, one of whom was Prescott Bush, the father of one future president and grandfather on another.
These people don't think in terms of political changes. They think in GENERATIONAL terms. Their children, and their children's children, have been involved in the same project for over a century now: to take completely control of the U.S. by controlling money.
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@mitch It's absolutely worth remembering that FDR's administration faced a real threat of a fascist takeover financed and planned by oligarchs, one of whom was Prescott Bush, the father of one future president and grandfather on another.
These people don't think in terms of political changes. They think in GENERATIONAL terms. Their children, and their children's children, have been involved in the same project for over a century now: to take completely control of the U.S. by controlling money.
@mitch https://www.openculture.com/2019/05/when-american-financiers-and-business-leaders-plotted-to-overthrow-franklin-d-roosevelt.html
None of these wealthy/connected people (like Prescott Bush, a Senator with established Nazi business connections) were prosecuted for plotting a fascist takeover. Their money kept piling up; the heirs of the people and corporations involved have now succeeded in their fascist takeover.
If the United States survives this, we MUST prosecute this time. All of them. Otherwise, their heirs, like the Trump spawn, will just put the U.S. through all of this again.
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“I think talented journalists like Ronan Farrow had a chance to do some new reporting on where AI is now, what impact it will have on the economy and society, and they instead wrote an article about personality quirks and office drama.”
@mitch both. Writers are doing BOTH.
The expose gathered extensive documentation of Sam Altman’s lying at critical ethical junctures. Calling it ‘personality quirks and office drama’ is itself trying to undo the strength of their article’s case against Altman.
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@lasagne @pluralistic Here in the US, for me, the effects are limited to news headlines — for now. But Cory's metaphor for the approach of Covid is apt; more precisely, it feels like February 2020, when nothing has changed for me personally — yet — but something is coming and it's going to be bad.
@mitch @lasagne @pluralistic It's bad. My wife has a significant birthday coming up in September and we'd been planning a trip to Japan (we haven't been there since 2010). Only now, it ain't gonna happen unless there's a miracle because the price of aviation fuel is already through the roof and if this goes on the cost of flights will be 3x to 5x what it was at the same time last year.
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@mitch @lasagne @pluralistic It's bad. My wife has a significant birthday coming up in September and we'd been planning a trip to Japan (we haven't been there since 2010). Only now, it ain't gonna happen unless there's a miracle because the price of aviation fuel is already through the roof and if this goes on the cost of flights will be 3x to 5x what it was at the same time last year.
@cstross @lasagne @pluralistic I'm sorry you will have to miss your trip. From what I'm reading, there's no "if this goes on." As I understand it, the last ships to have crossed the Strait of Hormuz are now reaching Europe. I'd love to be wrong about all this, and maybe I am. The last 25 years have made me humble about no longer being the guy who reads a lot of news and thinks that makes me an expert.
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@cstross @lasagne @pluralistic I'm sorry you will have to miss your trip. From what I'm reading, there's no "if this goes on." As I understand it, the last ships to have crossed the Strait of Hormuz are now reaching Europe. I'd love to be wrong about all this, and maybe I am. The last 25 years have made me humble about no longer being the guy who reads a lot of news and thinks that makes me an expert.
@mitch @lasagne @pluralistic Four months is *in principle* long enough for the crisis to plateau and begin to ramp back down *if* all sides come to an agreement in the next couple of weeks. Which is all I can hope for at this point. Spoiler: I don't expect anything within spitting distance of sane from the Trump administration these days, even if it's something as obvious as putting down the baseball bat they're whacking themselves in the nuts with.
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@mitch @lasagne @pluralistic Four months is *in principle* long enough for the crisis to plateau and begin to ramp back down *if* all sides come to an agreement in the next couple of weeks. Which is all I can hope for at this point. Spoiler: I don't expect anything within spitting distance of sane from the Trump administration these days, even if it's something as obvious as putting down the baseball bat they're whacking themselves in the nuts with.
@cstross @mitch @lasagne @pluralistic I think Trump's next strategy is to hold his breath until he turns blue,
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@mitch @lasagne @pluralistic It's bad. My wife has a significant birthday coming up in September and we'd been planning a trip to Japan (we haven't been there since 2010). Only now, it ain't gonna happen unless there's a miracle because the price of aviation fuel is already through the roof and if this goes on the cost of flights will be 3x to 5x what it was at the same time last year.
@cstross @mitch @lasagne @pluralistic My wife and I are also trying to get to Japan this fall for our delayed honeymoon but yeah the prices are insane...she's pretty set on it though so I guess we're just going to pay for it (lucky for us she makes decent money...i do not.)
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@cstross @mitch @lasagne @pluralistic I think Trump's next strategy is to hold his breath until he turns blue,
@rrb @cstross @mitch @lasagne @pluralistic He'll pass out before he dies. He always does.
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@cstross @mitch @lasagne @pluralistic I think Trump's next strategy is to hold his breath until he turns blue,
@rrb @cstross @mitch @lasagne @pluralistic going Avatar?
( Or Smurf?) -
@rrb @cstross @mitch @lasagne @pluralistic He'll pass out before he dies. He always does.
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@cstross @mitch @lasagne @pluralistic I think Trump's next strategy is to hold his breath until he turns blue,
@rrb @cstross @mitch @lasagne @pluralistic I believe the canonical version would be “thcream and thcream and thcream till I’m thick”
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@mitch @lasagne @pluralistic Four months is *in principle* long enough for the crisis to plateau and begin to ramp back down *if* all sides come to an agreement in the next couple of weeks. Which is all I can hope for at this point. Spoiler: I don't expect anything within spitting distance of sane from the Trump administration these days, even if it's something as obvious as putting down the baseball bat they're whacking themselves in the nuts with.
@cstross @mitch @lasagne @pluralistic it’s the guy who ruined casinos, so I think the bat in question is a feature, not a bug to him and his entourage.
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@rrb @cstross @mitch @lasagne @pluralistic I believe the canonical version would be “thcream and thcream and thcream till I’m thick”
@klepsydra @cstross @mitch @lasagne @pluralistic I've always found him to be a bit thick.
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@klepsydra @cstross @mitch @lasagne @pluralistic I've always found him to be a bit thick.
@rrb @cstross @mitch @lasagne @pluralistic I can’t believe I overlooked the opportunity to call him Orange Elizabeth Bott.
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@mitch @lasagne @pluralistic It's bad. My wife has a significant birthday coming up in September and we'd been planning a trip to Japan (we haven't been there since 2010). Only now, it ain't gonna happen unless there's a miracle because the price of aviation fuel is already through the roof and if this goes on the cost of flights will be 3x to 5x what it was at the same time last year.
@cstross @mitch @lasagne @pluralistic
It's like Leto has destroyed all the spice and we're all marooned on separate worlds until he dies.
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@mitch @lasagne @pluralistic Four months is *in principle* long enough for the crisis to plateau and begin to ramp back down *if* all sides come to an agreement in the next couple of weeks. Which is all I can hope for at this point. Spoiler: I don't expect anything within spitting distance of sane from the Trump administration these days, even if it's something as obvious as putting down the baseball bat they're whacking themselves in the nuts with.
@cstross @mitch @lasagne @pluralistic I've been told by some TikTok videos that not smashing one's balls repeatedly with a baseball bat is woke. Which we all know is bad or something.
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@rrb @cstross @mitch @lasagne @pluralistic I can’t believe I overlooked the opportunity to call him Orange Elizabeth Bott.
@klepsydra @rrb @cstross @mitch @lasagne @pluralistic But wasn't Elizabeth Bott a thinker?
