…noting that the last/next laugh may be his tomorrow.
Hugh Atkins forwarded news of his latest video styling — and I think you’ll enjoy it:
Tom has been a Balloon Juice writer since 2010.
This post is in: Election 2016, Marco Polo Rubio 2016, Open Threads
…noting that the last/next laugh may be his tomorrow.
Hugh Atkins forwarded news of his latest video styling — and I think you’ll enjoy it:
This post is in: Hillary Clinton 2016, The War On Women, Women's Rights Are Human Rights
Reading Ann Laurie’s post reminded me of the obvious: being aware of the experience of others takes constant effort. And, (as I wrote about one example here), the failure to do so amidst white male self-assumed universality leads to harm in just about any domain — more for those dismissed, but non-zero for the presumed pre-MOTUs as well.
With that as pre-amble, check out this from CNN Money:
All virtual assistants have to deal with inappropriate comments and questions. From seasoned vets like Siri and Google Now, to the rash of new specialists with names like Amy, Molly, Mia and Robin.
When Microsoft launched Cortana in 2014, a good chunk of early queries were about her sex life, according to Microsoft’s Deborah Harrison.
It turns out people feel very comfortable talking freely with text and voice assistants. Humanizing the bots with names, faked emotions, personalities and genders (mostly female) helps build trust with users.
Microsoft has its corporate head in the right place, at least on this one:
Cortana is clearly identified as a woman. She has a female avatar and is voiced by human woman Jen Taylor. But the writers are conscious about avoiding female-assistant stereotypes. Cortana isn’t self-deprecating and avoids saying sorry.
“We wanted to be very careful that she didn’t feel subservient in any way … or that we would set up a dynamic we didn’t want to perpetuate socially,” said Harrison.
But the ‘bros and any MRA/PUA trogs need not worry. The market will make sure that their all too familiar sex/power fantasies will find their representation in our brave new era.
Not all assistants will take the same firm approach. Robin Labs, which makes a voice-assistant for drivers, thinks there might be a market customizing personalities. CEO Ilya Eckstein says there is a high demand for an assistant personality that’s “more intimate-slash-submissive with sexual undertones.”
All of which to say is that it’s easy to call out, say, Chris Christie, when he talks of beating Hilary Clinton’s rear end. As all here know, it’s far harder to combat the influence of the jabs and gestures that pervade daily life, well below the level of explicit speech, up to and including the robot in your GPS.
How this post may be read in the context of Hilary Clinton’s candidacy and (some of) its discontents? You make the call.
Image: Jan Van Eyck, The Arnolfini Wedding, 1434.
A Grace Note To Ann Laurie’s Post BelowPost + Comments (104)
This post is in: Music
How is this not the soundtrack for ¿Jeb?’s campaign?
I suppose, given the offer within the song of to “help build this wall,” The Donald might want to borrow a verse or two.
Not watching the Stupor Bowl tonight (though TBH, I might sneak a couple of glances, but it’s not an event in this particular keep). I will, no doubt, continue to search out good snark on last night’s GOP debate, or, as I like to think of it, Community Theater of the Damned. So use this thread for more fun at their deserving expense, or for a tally of alternatives to watching neurons collide at Levi Stadium, or for whatever floats your approved aquatic recreation device.
I’m Sure This Has Occurred To All Of You Before Me, But…Post + Comments (40)
This post is in: Science & Technology, Shameless self promotion
Hey, all: if you’ve got a moment this afternoon, I’ll be talking with Ira Flatow on Science Friday about The Hunt for Vulcan in the context of last week’s announcement about Planet Nine.
I’ll be on in the second hour, starting at around 3:20 ET, maybe a couple of ticks before, and rabbiting on with Ira until about 3:38. Some NPR stations fecklessly omit the second hour of Science Friday, so check local listings. You can always catch it live or later at the Science Friday site.
While there may be better ways to spend 18 minutes of your life…there are surely worse ones too. Come on down if you’ve time and the inclination.
Image: Poster for the film, The Radio King, 1922.
Programming Note/Self Aggrandizement — Vulcan/Planet Nine EditionPost + Comments (50)
This post is in: Immigration, Republican Stupidity, The Brown Enemy Within, Vote Like Your Country Depends On It, Our Failed Political Establishment, The Failed Obama Administration (Only Took Two Weeks), Their Motto: Apocalypse Now
I really do think the Democrats would have a lock on election success if only Obama would say publicly that drinking Drano(hemlock?) is a bad idea.
For the latest on that score, check this out:
Most Americans say they back a plan that would allow certain illegal immigrants to stay in the country, but support for the idea slips when President Barack Obama’s name is attached to the question, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Sixty-one percent of Americans supported Obama’s plan — which shields some undocumented immigrants from deportation — when they were not told Obama had taken the action, according to the poll released Wednesday. While half of Republicans rejected the plan when described this way, 42 percent of Republicans supported it.
Told that the idea was Obama’s, though…and this happened:
Support fell to 54 percent overall, with only 31 percent of Republicans supporting it and 62 percent opposing the measures.
I guess that the fact that almost a third of Republicans still managed to hang on to their view exceeds my expectations. But a 20 percent swing attributable only to the horror at lining up with the Kenyan Moooslim Socialist Usurper is a measure of the triumph of the worst elements in our polity. They’ve managed to make agreement with even the most mild of sensible ideas an existential horror for too many. (See criminal justice reform for another reminder.)
As long as that prevails (and it looks like it will for quite a while) we’ve got problems. And the urgent need to elect a Democrat to the Presidency this November.
Res Ipsa Loquitur: Obama Derangement/Immigration EditionPost + Comments (31)
This post is in: Science & Technology
There be dragons out there, waaaaay out there, in the dark, off the edge of the map.
Or rather, a virtuoso combination of observation and mathematical modeling has led to an exciting, in some ways joyously old-school prediction. Orbital oddities identified in a handful of distant Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) were subjected to the same kind of inquiry that allowed 19th century astronomers to infer Neptune from Uranus’s behavior, in what was widely understood to be a triumph of Isaac Newton’s “System of the World.”
The new analysis, by two Caltech astronomers, theoretician Konstantin Batygin and the observer and Slayer-of-Pluto Michael Brown, has led to a broad outline of what to expect — a ~10 Earth mass planet travelling a very eccentric orbit that never comes closer to the sun than ~250 Earth-Sun distances, a unit of measure known as the Astronomical Unit.
I’m sure many of you saw the news about this last week. Alexandra Witze in Nature had a good write-up, as did Alan Burdick in The New Yorker. (For those (quite a few) on the blog with the urge to read the original Batygin-Brown paper — go here.)
I couldn’t be more excited by the news. I sometimes forget what an extraordinary run of solar system exploration I’ve been privileged to witness. The variety we’ve found exists in our near-environment has leapt unbelievably, just in the last two or three decades, and the richness and complexity of our own solar system is allowing us to make more sense of the process of planet and planetary system formation as more and more data emerges about exo-systems.
But for all that excitement, there’s something special about a new major planet. As I write in The Hunt for Vulcan [Shameless Plug Here], the idea of a whole new world joining the neighborhood had enormous romantic power in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Arguably, given our present immersion in the imagined reality of multiple worlds, that romance cuts deeper still today.
But. ButButButButBut….it’s important to remember that a prediction, no matter how well supported, how seemingly necessary, isn’t the same thing as proof, as the discovery itself. That’s what I tried to say in this essay on the subject. A sample:
In 1846, the discovery of Neptune turned Le Verrier into a celebrity; for a time, he was the most famous man of science in the world. He went on an international tour and seized the moment to rise to the top of power in the highly contentious and hierarchical world of French astronomy. Batygin and Brown are taking a much more measured tack with Planet Nine—and for good reason. “We felt quite cautious about making the statement we made,” Batygin says. Why such concern? Because, he says, “immediately after the detection of Neptune spurious claims of planets in outer solar system began to surface. We didn’t want to be another red herring.”
It wasn’t just the distant reaches of the solar system that tripped people up:
The only problem being, of course, that Vulcan was never there.
I’m much more hopeful for Batygin and Brown’s Planet Nine, but hopeful don’t pay the rent — or, as Batygin told me:
“If Newton is right, then I think we’re in pretty good shape,” says Batyagin. “We’re after a real physical effect that needs explanation. The dynamics of our model are persuasive.” And yet, he adds, that’s not enough. “Until Planet Nine is caught on camera it does not count as being real. All we have now is an echo.”
There’s a surfeit of terrestrial crazy to weigh us down. It’s a relief, I find, to look up and out, and contemplate the ordered mysteries that so thoroughly dwarf Comrade Trump’s Yuuuuuggggge self conceit.
Images: William Blake, Isaac Newton, 1795
Johannes Vermeer, The Astronomer, c. 1668
This post is in: Crazification Factor, Crock Pot Craziness, Bring on the Brawndo!, Bring On The Meteor, Clown Shoes, Fuck Yeah!, General Stupidity, Looks Like I Picked the Wrong Week to Stop Sniffing Glue, Meth Laboratories of Democracy, Peak Wingnut Was a Lie!, Somewhere a Village is Missing its Idiot, Teabagger Stupidity, Their Motto: Apocalypse Now
Because I could(n’t resist):
SHARE UPDATE BURNS OREGON! CHRISTIANS THE BATTLE TRUMPET HAS BEEN SOUNDED TIME TO RISE! CALL TO ACTION SEND IN THE TROOPS TO STAND WITH US IN BURNS OREGON!
Posted by Blaine Cooper on Sunday, January 17, 2016
Just to ram the point home: if I were those guys I’d think long and hard about the story of Nadab and Abihu. False prophets do not usually achieve happy endings. A sheepish withdrawal is by far their best outcome…which would let them get back (continue) to fleece their flock.
But I’ll say this: those big horns are not that easy to blow. Kudos for that at least.