AI Dinner, Blocking the Sun
Here’s something you don’t want to hear during your Thanksgiving dinner: “OK, who wants the third wing?” Hopefully, artificial intelligence is not yet powerful enough to add anatomical parts to creatures (other than a few human fingers), but I’m not pulling your leg about AI and Thanksgiving. A little bird told me that people are taking to AI-powered recipes like a Turducken to water. But you may be better off winging it than deploying a bird’s eye view of recipes from an LLM. Beware that Internet searches that used to take you to recipe sites are now being intercepted by AI summaries. The results may leave your guests flipping you the bird. Bloomberg (Gift Article): AI Slop Recipes Are Taking Over the Internet — And Thanksgiving Dinner. Sounds like a recipe for disaster. (I knew one of my family members added AI to their recipe when the valuation of their turkey soared to $10 billion.)
+ Looking to avoid politics at the dinner table this year? Forget it. The food itself is political. The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Culture War Comes to the Kitchen.
+ Trump adds two Thanksgiving turkeys to his long list of second-term pardons. (Following his usual tradition, he only pardoned the white meat.)
+ I’ll be going cold turkey and taking the rest of the week off unless something really crazy happens in the news. And, come on, what are the odds of that? Have a great Thanksgiving.
I Wanna Soak Up The Sun
“In theory, geoengineering could mean brightening marine clouds, or encouraging heat to bounce back into space by mirroring light off polar ice. The term has also been used to describe technology that removes carbon from the atmosphere, which is now widely accepted as a necessary tool to limit global warming. The most vexing technology is what’s broadly referred to as solar-radiation management—those reflective aerosols that could prevent the sun’s heat from reaching the Earth.” Some climate change mitigation ideas that seemed far-fetched (or even crazy) are being taken more seriously as the problem gets more severe. But if we don’t have the political will to do the simple stuff, are we gonna have the political will for the other ideas? The Atlantic (Gift Article): Who’s Ready to Think About Blocking Out the Sun?
+ Meanwhile, Trump EPA to abandon air pollution rule that would prevent thousands of U.S. deaths.
Adult Viewing
“Scientists have identified five major “epochs” of human brain development in one of the most comprehensive studies to date of how neural wiring changes from infancy to old age.” Brain has five ‘eras’, scientists say – with adult mode not starting until early 30s. (That seems optimistic.)
Asleep at the Wheel
A GOP-led senate committee is concerned about the high price of automobiles. Good! So they want to cut costs by getting rid of some safety mandates. Wait, what? WSJ (Gift Article): Senate Committee to Challenge Auto-Safety Mandates That Hurt ‘Affordability.’ (I can’t wait until we have self-driving government.)
Extra, Extra
Shock and Law: “Democratic lawmakers who appeared in a social media video urging U.S. troops to defy ‘illegal orders’ say the FBI has contacted them to begin scheduling interviews, signaling a possible inquiry into the matter. It would mark the second investigation tied to the video, coming a day after the Pentagon said it was reviewing Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona over potential violations of military law. The FBI and Pentagon actions come after President Donald Trump accused the lawmakers of sedition ‘punishable by DEATH’ in a social media post.” (Obeying the law when it comes to orders is literally on the plaque displayed at West Point.)
+ Peace by Piece: ABC News: US official says Ukrainian delegation has agreed with US on terms of potential peace deal. (Seems like an interested party is still missing from this agreement.) Meanwhile, who is Trump’s ‘drone guy’ Dan Driscoll, taking key role in Ukraine talks?
+ Jair 404: “Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been ordered to start serving his 27-year sentence in a 12 sq meter bedroom in a police base in the capital, Brasília, after his conviction for plotting a coup.” (Plotting coups, it turns out, is still frowned upon in certain democracies.)
+ More Vax Cracks: WaPo (Gift Article): Louisiana health official who halted state vaccine campaign tapped as CDC’s No. 2. (Things brings up an interesting Thanksgiving dinner topic for discussion: Are we all going to die soon?)
+ Mad Rush: Don’t say Trump never gets anything done. Next ‘Rush Hour’ Sequel From Brett Ratner Is Being Distributed By Paramount. (Read the details and it will all make perfect sense.)
+ Cheese Stakes: “In a Venn diagram of people deeply concerned about Michelin ratings and people deeply concerned about cheesesteaks, the overlap is not large. But both camps have been in an uproar since last week.” NYT (Gift Article): Michelin Honored the Cheesesteak. Not All Philadelphians Cheered.
+ Internal War(hol): “In recorded excerpts included in the TV report, the person in the recording, alleged to be Bally, says: ‘We have s— for f— poor people.’ The speaker then acknowledges rarely buying Campbell’s products, saying they are unhealthy.” Lawsuit alleges Campbell’s soup VP made racist comments and said its food is made for ‘poor people.’
Bottom of the News
“The email in question was certainly boring enough to be written by ChatGPT. But it was also boring enough to be written by a school administrator. We ran the text through two AI detection tools, and both determined that there was a 0% chance a computer wrote it … So why did this source think AI had written it? Because the email contained em dashes.” Joel Stein: Don’t Let AI Ruin the Em Dash.
+ Looking for a book to read this weekend? NYT (Gift Article): Which Notable Book Should I Read First?
