Wednesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Wednesday, July 24, 2024
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44 comments
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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The Florida headline of the day- Florida 3-year-old fatally shot at birthday party
In another thread, it was pointed out “The Marion Barry theory of politics (which DJT follows flawlessly) is king:
1. What are they saying on the Streets?
2. Repeat it back to them
I think the Marion Berry philosophy changed upon his release from prison to:
“No hookers. No blow. Just good government!”
And he won re-election.
The headline of the day- A store clerk stole a $1 million lottery ticket, authorities say
Well, Elon Musk has now backed down from his $45 million/month pledge to Trump.
Trump is suing to try to block campaign funds from being “transferred” from the Biden/Harris campaign to the Harris campaign, but at least one FEC commissioner says it’s completely legal.
Contrast that to Harris setting fundraising records.
Not a great news day for Trump and it’s still very, very early in the day.
@Bill Jempty: Man, that’s sad.
My first instinct is to be snarky and reflect that it is too bad there weren’t any good three-year-olds with a gun there to prevent the problem.
Quickly followed by a note that there were four mass shootings just on Sunday in the U.S. (this doesn’t qualify because not enough people were shot).
Maybe lame-duck Biden will help put us in a position to start getting rid of the sea of guns in this country.
@Bill Jempty: Some days…
Beware, a new Time Bandits is coming to a TV near you. Unlike most remakes, it actually sounds pretty good, and faithful to the zany Gilliam spirit of the original. I am definitely gonna watch it.
@The Q:
By the narrowest margin in the city’s history. 56-42 may seem like a lot, but this is DC we’re talking about. The Dem typically wins upward of 70+%, assuming a Republican is even running, which is not always the case.
@OzarkHillbilly: I read that they had planned a sequel in the 1980s, but it was cut short by David Rappaport’s suicide. Nowadays people tend to view the film along with Brazil and Baron Munchausen as a thematic trilogy.
And damn, I hope they never remake Brazil. That film was absolute lightning-in-a-bottle and the purest distillation of Gilliam’s weird genius.
@Tony W:
This may have something to do with Xlon’s change of heart.
News from Texas:
Texas licenses Power Slap, the no-defense combat sport, amid safety concerns
Isn’t this just sissified Bare Knuckle Boxing?
My brothers and I used to slap fight as kids. Involved spitting in our hands and slapping each other. Mom did not approve.
About AI, I’m aware generative AI ins only the latest development in the field, and that AI overall has been in use for quite some time now.
What makes the large language models of generative AI notable is that 1) they employ a more natural conversation style (not entirely natural*), and 2) they’re the AI tech the public has direct contact with.
Another thing is that big AI deficiencies or blunders will naturally make the news, while useful applications behind the scenes are less likely to even be noticed. Contrast “ChatGPT makes up legal cases in brief filed in court,” with “ChatGPT helps attorney summarize a difficult argument.”
This is largely universal. There were no major news reports on fuel efficiency gains of the 737 MAX, but plenty and then some of the crashes and door plug incident.
And this is not necessarily a bad thing. The MCAS, as deployed without sufficient training, was dangerous (among other concerns such as charging extra for necessary redundant sensors). It was important to wake up the FAA to act and for Boeing to fix the effing problem.
Some of the stories told of AI, like it incorporates social biases (such as AI systems used to determine bail setting higher amounts or remand disproportionately for minorities), point to actual problems. And they’re not all that dissimilar from stories told about the early widespread adoption of computers (I recall one about a bill for $0.00 received monthly, threatening penalties and interest if left unpaid, until the customer in question mailed back a check for zero dollars and zero cents). This did not mean computers weren’t helping with accounts, payrolls, taxes, inventories, planning, etc. in business.
@Kathy:
Maybe someday I will find AI useful, but right now it is a big pain for me in regards to Zoom. They are early adopters of AI and it has been a nightmare for me. First, the privacy concerns of having meetings recorded verbatim and summarized inhibits discourse and invites legal challenges. Secondly, meeting administration increases exponentially if one tries to use the AI features. I hate it.
Horizon is streaming. We watched it. First: confusion. What the hell did Costner think he was doing? Then: pity and embarrassment. How could he show this mess to the public? It’s simply incompetent. All the focus on its box office obscured the fact that this is absolutely incoherent, amateurish and I would think, humiliating.
@Kathy:
I suspect Elon’s controlling nature contributed to the decline of EVs. The biggest problem was charging infrastructure. Tesla had it, no one else really did. So people became discouraged with EVs in general, and now it’s biting Elon in the ass. That embarrassing pick-up truck didn’t help, either. Or the fact that Tesla’s workmanship is still shit. Or the way Elon lies about features. Or his failure to come up with new models. Or his change of career from investor to buffoon.
Elon has enshittified Tesla. How very tech bro.
My musings about Trump are centered upon who he will choose as his human tools for his current campaign and possible re-election.
For example, he chose Javanaka to be his primary minders and sounding blocks the first time around. They were also his “civil” ambassadors to the world and US. At first, he listened to them and experienced public servants, but eventually he found a close inner circle that would support his desire to be unfettered by civility and norms. Most of those folks quit or have convicted of crimes.
He chose Vance to get Silicon Valley support and money and no more. I mean, look at how much respect he had for Pence.
@Michael Reynolds:
His daughter seems to have really destroyed his brain.
ETA: The next thing on my reading journey (I’m really bored today) happened to be this:
https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/elon-musk-reveals-why-hes-a-transphobe
@Scott: I had an older brother who beat me up all the time. At least until I beat him up. All of a sudden he wasn’t interested in fighting anymore..
A buddy of mine had 3 older brothers who would gang up on him. One day Ken saw them coming and took off running. Ran around the corner of the garage where he had helpfully staged a shovel and waited for the first to come around. Caught him full in the face with the flat of the blade and knocked him out. The 2nd one saw that and said, “Not meeeeee!” and took off in the other direction. The 3rd saw Ken with the menacing shovel and the prone body at his feet and he too decided that discretion was the better part of valor.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Ken is my hero.
I think I’ve mentioned before, (and not just in the name thread), that I was massively bullied throughout school and it didn’t stop until high school when I came in wearing all black except for my blue Docs and inch thick wallet chain. I punched the first person that called me a slur in the face. All 6 feet and 150 pounds of crying, screaming lunatic. I just kept on doing that (and throwing chairs at teachers) until it mostly stopped. Senior year a friends little brother, a freshman, tried to get in on the game during finals and I beat his ass. I got to finish my finals before I was suspended.
@Skookum:
I’ve never used Zoom (really, not even during the trump pandemic*), so I wouldn’t know how AI has changed it.
I’ve found two useful things to do with generative AI: search, and summarizing texts. I’ve also payed with image generation.
It’s not bad, but there are many caveats. It has trouble telling jokes or sarcasm from real information, for instance. Sometimes it’s really clear it regurgitates content without evaluating it in any way. Not that it claims to evaluate it, but it’s kind of one what expects from “Intelligence.”
On the other hand, it does get some obscure references now and then. Often it can deduce, or identify at any rate, the right context. And it’s very tolerant of my typos (in fact, it might do wonders for spell checking in that sense).
There was a letter to the editor in my local semi-pro newspaper that I think deserves wider circulation. Via Gilbert, Sullivan, and one Lawrence Bialla:
@gVOR10:
Small edit. Change: “He’s very well acquainted with matters mathematical.” To: “He’s very unacquainted with matters mathematical.”
I think it preserves the meter.
@The Q:
Fewer hookers. Less blow. Maybe some good government.
I can hardly wait for the elevator pitch for this new SciFi blockbuster movie.
Now personally, given just how much I enjoyed amphetamines (especially when combined with cigarettes and caffeine) in my college days, I’m going to have to pass on being part of the research team.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cocaine-sharks-test-positive-drug-brazil-scientists-study/
Sharks off Brazil test positive for cocaine…
scored.
@Beth:
Parenting 101, Chapter One: never excommunicate the kid. It’s OK to want to at times. In fact, it’s inevitable. But you never give up on the kid. Full stop.
@Michael Reynolds:
Yes, but Xeon appears to make the late Steve Jobs appear as a model parent, eh?
@Michael Reynolds: Is it paying for itself? Turning a profit? There’s still truth to Menkin’s adage that no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. Maybe that’s true for underestimating their taste, too.
We can’t all be geniuses, and most of us never reach income levels where having a refined palate pays off. You may have to accept that you live among philistines. (This issue will become clearer on or about the first Wednesday in November.)
@Michael Reynolds:
I’m not sure it’s really a truck and not some kind of refrigerator.
@Kathy: Ok, time to be pedantically annoying.
The line in question in the Major Generals song is: “I’m very well acquainted too with matters mathematical” (It goes on “I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical”
So, to me, neither of the lines scans right, because they are missing the “too” syllable. It seems like a noise word, and it kind of is, but it gets the meter right.
I have been onstage (in the chorus) for very, very many performances of the original.
@OzarkHillbilly: Ken is lucky that he didn’t take his brother’s head off. I admire people with that level of coordination. If I’d ever hit someone with the flat of the shovel blade, I’d probably have killed them (and then spent the rest of my, probably foreshortened, life wondering if it hadn’t really been intentional).
@Gustopher: Either way, he’d been able enough the first time around that people were willing to risk it.
@Beth:
@Michael Reynolds:
@Flat Earth Luddite:
I wouldn’t be surprised that someone concerned with the number of children he has, would turn out not to love or care much for his children. Perhaps other than how many grandchildren they will provide.
@Jay L Gischer: Yeah, a fair number of the lines didn’t scan, but that’s a common rookie/impromptu mistake. Writing parody that scans correctly is pretty labor intensive.
@Michael Reynolds:
I think the best thing my butthole narcissist parents ever did for me was showing me what awful narcissists they were. My dad told me (and the rest of us) that I ruined his life when he walked away from us. Apparently I have a step-sister now (dafuq)? My mom tried to nuke me with two of the most vile emails I have ever seen in my life. I had the temerity to stand up for myself and be mad that she refused to come to my name change. She wasn’t as direct as my dad ways, but she said the same thing. She’s a big old Joanne style transphobe. Lol, she liked to claim that she’s a hippy and that trans people deserve happiness, but not if her kid was or anyone else.
@Kathy:
I fundamentally don’t understand people that have that many kids. I mean, I know it’s all about their own ego, even the religious nut types. Like, I can understand having up to about 4 kids. That’s a lot for me personally, but I realized/learned way to late that I shouldn’t have had any kids because of what my parents did to me. But I’m sure there are plenty of normal people who a have like 4 kids and can treat them all fairly and give everyone enough attention, enough of the time. (I will say, mixed marriages/step-kids are an entirely different story, unless it’s like Nick Canon and Musk getting married to each other).
For something lighter, supermarket tourism.
We used to visit supermarkets in the US whenever we traveled there. There were multiple differences with Mexican supermarkets. For instance, the US ones did not sell clothes, sheets, towels, pillows, appliances, cookware, etc. Only food, some cleaning products, some toys, and some had pharmacies.
Focusing on food, though, back in the 70s and 80s US stores had much more variety of just about everything. For instance, yogurt that came in flavors other than plain and strawberry. More than one brand of salty snacks, and different kinds of them. Many more flavors of soda, and many varieties of sugar free soda. and lots more.
I didn’t travel much in the 90s and 2000s. By the 2010s, the differences were far less stark. Partly because Mexico joined the GATT (now the WTO) in the early 90s, plus NAFTA, opened up the country to more consumer goods of all kinds.
There are still differences, but more of regional preferences. For instance, there are no sour cream and onion chips here.
@Kathy:
The only thing I’m looking forward to about my potential relocation is that the UK seems to have a muuuuuuuuch better selection of potato chips. The US is lacking on that front. Oddly enough though, I don’t like sour cream & onion chips. I’d rather just dip chips in sour cream.
Speaking of which, on sunday I took a giant edible and ended up eating cherries that I dipped in sour cream. That was phenomenal.
Amen.
@Michael Reynolds:
What do you expect from an actor who went from Dances with Wolves to Waterworld?
@Skookum: @Skookum:
When I go to my grave, I hope it can be said I never used AI, got drunk as an adult*, watched Benny Hill or Professional Wrestling**.
*- When 15, I drank lots of champagne at my brother Charlie’s wedding. Don’t remember if I overdid it.
**- Watching Friends, Gunsmoke, or an Elvis Presley movie would have been on that list before my recent hospital stay.
@Kathy:
My local Albertson’s has cookware and appliances on sale, petty big selection. (Also a pharmacy and several aisles of pharmacy stuff).
@Beth:
I have a similar mother, a narcissist who I lost faith in when I was 11. My sister, on her death bed, refused to meet with her. My (step)father is a genuinely good man, a soldier, but I destroyed that relationship with my, let’s say, shenanigans. Mea culpa. My mother lives with husband number four in France. My dad is in care, brain mostly gone, yet he’s sweet and everyone loves him, charming despite an empty memory.
The best thing we’ve done for our kids is model a good marriage. Words that, believe me, no one who knew me when, including me, ever imagined me writing.
Kamala Harris showing her foreign policy chops.
North, South, what’s difference in a Korea