Recent additions to the Heap… “Exaggerations, half-truths and outright lies will dominate our historical imagination and make it impossible to understand, and learn from, the past” — Daniel Bessner (Washington) on the decline of the historical profession “The algorithmic lens while giving us affordances has a certain number of blind spots… that we must be precise… that more data is better… that there is a single uniform truth to be found…” — Suresh Venkatasubramanian (Brown) is interviewed about developing the US Government’s Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights A philosophy course centered around paradoxes — taught by Patrick Greenough at St. Andrews “Contemporary analytical philosophy is in greater part interesting, valuable, and well done” — Crispin Wright (NYU/Stirling) is interviewed about philosophy and his work on objectivity, truth, vagueness, skepticism, and other topics “Like Gandhi, he believed that guarding power was bad for the powerful: segregation harmed the white man’s own soul.
Reading
Us vs. Them on steroids What drove our disloyal opposition to reject democracy for autocracy and authoritarian strongmen? Amanda Marcotte interviews Jared Yates Sexton whose new book, “The Midnight Kingdom: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis,” plumbs the depths of the Grand Old Personality disorder crowd. Growing up as he did in “a really problematic, radicalized environment” makes QAnon and other eschatological beliefs quite familar. “When you take a look at these ideas and these conspiracy theories, one of the things you start to realize is if you believe these things, if these actually build the world around you or the way that you interact with politics or even your neighbors or your day-to-day life, you’re living in literal terror,” Sexton tells Salon. “And when you feel that way, when you believe that you’re in the middle of a supernatural battle, you literally will do anything in order to protect yourself and the people around you.” It’s Us vs. Them on steroids.
Ipês e jatobás têm sido constantemente derrubados usando brechas de órgão estadual e falhas do Ministério do Meio Ambiente.
The post Com Bolsonaro, Ministério do Meio Ambiente abriu mão de área na Amazônia onde madeireiros derrubaram 45 mil caminhões de árvores appeared first on The Intercept.
David Tennant returns as Simon Yates in a special episode of There She Goes, filming now Doctor Who won’t be the only old project that David Tennant will be revisiting in 2023. Filming has started on a special episode of the BBC comedy drama There She Goes. David Tennant and Jessica Hynes (Human Nature/Family of […]
The post David Tennant Returns for There She Goes Special appeared first on Blogtor Who.
Yet another biofuel touted as possible winner. Is vegetable oil overhyped as an energy source?
"It's out of science fiction. How are they going to guess who’s going to be disruptive?” one leading campaigner asked Byline Times
Late last month, President Biden signed a bill that clears the way for $858 billion in Pentagon spending and nuclear weapons work at the Department of Energy in 2023. That’s far more than Washington anted up for military purposes at the height of the Korean or Vietnam wars or even during the peak years of the Cold War. In fact, the $80 billion increase from the 2022 Pentagon budget is in itself more than the military budgets of any country other than China. Meanwhile, a full accounting of all spending justified in the name of national security, including for homeland security, veterans’ care, and more, will certainly exceed $1.4 trillion. And mind you, those figures don’t even include the more... Read more
Source: What Price “Defense”? appeared first on TomDispatch.com.
There’s a lot of talk about friend-shoring and bringing industry back to the US and its allies, but the reality is quite different.
China's trade surplus reached US$877.6 billion for 2022, an increase of 30% of the already record high year of 2021. This is the biggest trade surplus ever achieved by one country in human history. Trade surplus with the US accounted for almost half at US$ 404 billion. pic.twitter.com/P37rbLGczI
— America-China Watcher (@PandemicTruther) January 14, 2023
The bottom line, right now, is that if the US went to war with China, the American (and Western) economies would virtually collapse.
The Albuquerque PD did The first few bullets fired through homes and buildings in Albuquerque, New Mexico beginning in early December appeared random. But by January 3, after multiple similar attacks, Albuquerque police Chief Harold Medina opened an investigation into what appeared to be a pattern. No one was injured in the shootings. On Monday, SWAT officers surrounded the home of a man they allege was the “mastermind” behind a conspiracy to attack Democratic officials’ homes. Suspect Solomon Pena, reports the Albuquerque Journal, “is a Republican who unsuccessfully ran for office in November, has made repeated claims that the election was rigged and appears to have attended the Jan. 6, 2021, riot in Washington, D.C.” Police allege Pena himself fired on at least one of the homes and that he hired four other men to commit the other shooting attacks against the homes of two county commissioners and two state legislators: Pena ran unsuccessfully in the House District 14 race and claimed on social media he should have won the election.
My longtime friend and former collaborative partner Craig Hockenberry bids a dignified adieu to Twitterific, Twitter, and his mom … and calls for a standards-based universal timeline. — The Shit Show
The post “A $44 billion version of MySpace.” appeared first on Zeldman on Web and Interaction Design.
Have you considered that I prefer them warm?
Have you considered that I don’t need to because it’s cold enough in my frigid, dead, frigid uterus?
Have you considered that I plan to have kids the old-fashioned way—with a broken condom and a man who seems “good enough”?
Have you considered that I’m considering adopting (a dog)?
Have you considered that I can’t because I sold them all already to get through my MFA program? What did I do with my MFA? None of your goddamn beeswax.
Have you considered that I’d be a horrible mother? I have no manners, as I’ll soon prove to you.
Have you considered that I’m only seven? In hamster years.
Have you considered that children don’t even pay taxes, so what’s the point?
Have you considered Halle Berry? I’ve said enough.
Have you considered that I don’t want kids, I only want succubi?
Have you considered freezing your kidneys? They look a bit overheated.
Iain Overton examines the lack of consequences for the Brexiters that promised us sunny uplands
Sam Bright investigates a murky aspect of our political system, where landlords fund private rental research and fossil fuel firms donate to environmental groups
New virtual writing groups for people working on dissertations in philosophy will be forming soon. Joshua Smart (Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville), once again, is organizing them. He writes in with the following information: Signups are open through Sunday, January 29th. To join, fill out a short survey at www.jasmartphilosophy.com/virtual-dissertation-groups. What it is: Virtual Dissertation Groups is a free service for those currently working on their doctoral dissertations in philosophy departments (or philosophy of science or the like). Since 2014, VDG has connected students from over 30 countries to provide peer feedback on dissertation work with a minimal time commitment. How it works: Each dissertator is placed in a group of three on the basis of a short survey about their project/area of work. Toward the end of each full month of the semester, one member will send some work (3k – 6k words) to the other two, who then return feedback in a week or so.
Former party staffer says Labour leader covered up allegations of sadistic and criminal abuse of domestic violence victims – and has still not even said a word to support the abused women A whistleblower who repeatedly warned Keir Starmer about alleged criminal abuse of domestic violence victims by a right-wing Labour MP’s staffer and lover […]
The timing is convenient coming just as Mastercard is piloting a biometric-authenticated payments system in the UK, which will require digital, not physical, wallets.
I use World Bank data to test Nitzan and Bichler's 'stagflation thesis' --- the idea that inflation in the midst of economic stagnation is the norm.
The post Is Stagflation the Norm? appeared first on Economics from the Top Down.
Plus, how you can boost the ethics of your 401(k).
First Minister tells Starmer to stop being a ‘pale imitation’ of the Tories and provide some actual opposition Nicola Sturgeon has derided Labour leader Keir Starmer’s ‘pale imitation’ of the Tories after the UK government trampled on Scottish autonomy to overrule Holyrood’s gender reform bill. Starmer has sided with the Tories against the bill, telling […]
What if the press reaction should Russia succeed in Ukraine is a big Emily Litella "Never mind"?
Writing about tragic theatre in 1910, Yeats mused on J. M. Synge’s Deirdre of the Sorrows (along with Racine, Titian, Molière and Japanese Noh theatre) to consider what it is makes the ‘art of the flood’. ‘Tragedy must always be a drowning and breaking of the dykes that separate man from man… it is upon […]
- by Aeon Video
Law enforcement agencies spent millions in taxpayer funds buying weapons from vendors cited for gun safety violations, a new analysis reveals.
The post California Police Are Buying Guns From Dealers With Troubling Records appeared first on The Intercept.