#and while tech stuff works in some peoples' paradigms it's not for everyone

[mariacallous]

Until the dramatic departure of OpenAI’s cofounder and CEO Sam Altman on Friday, Mira Murati was its chief technology officer—but you could also call her its minister of truth. In addition to heading the teams that develop tools such as ChatGPT and Dall-E, it’s been her job to make sure those products don’t mislead people, show bias, or snuff out humanity altogether.

This interview was conducted in July 2023 for WIRED’s cover story on OpenAI. It is being published today after Sam Altman’s sudden departure to provide a glimpse at the thinking of the powerful AI company’s new boss.

Steven Levy: How did you come to join OpenAI?

Mira Murati: My background is in engineering, and I worked in aerospace, automotive, VR, and AR. Both in my time at Tesla [where she shepherded the Model X], and at a VR company [Leap Motion] I was doing applications of AI in the real world. I very quickly believed that AGI would be the last and most important major technology that we built, and I wanted to be at the heart of it. Open AI was the only organization at the time that was incentivized to work on the capabilities of AI technology and also make sure that it goes well. When I joined in 2018, I began working on our supercomputing strategy and managing a couple of research teams.

What moments stand out to you as key milestones during your tenure here?

There are so many big-deal moments, it’s hard to remember. We live in the future, and we see crazy things every day. But I do remember GPT-3 being able to translate. I speak Italian, Albanian, and English. I remember just creating pair prompts of English and Italian. And all of a sudden, even though we never trained it to translate in Italian, it could do it fairly well.

You were at OpenAI early enough to be there when it changed from a pure nonprofit to reorganizing so that a for-profit entity lived inside the structure. How did you feel about that?

It was not something that was done lightly. To really understand how to make our models better and safer, you need to deploy them at scale. That costs a lot of money. It requires you to have a business plan, because your generous nonprofit donors aren't going to give billions like investors would. As far as I know, there's no other structure like this. The key thing was protecting the mission of the nonprofit.

That might be tricky since you partner so deeply with a big tech company. Do you feel your mission is aligned with Microsoft’s?

In the sense that they believe that this is our mission.

But that's not their mission.

No, that's not their mission. But it was important for the investor to actually believe that it’s our mission.

When you joined in 2018, OpenAI was mainly a research lab. While you still do research, you’re now very much a product company. Has that changed the culture?

It has definitely changed the company a lot. I feel like almost every year, there's some sort of paradigm shift where we have to reconsider how we're doing things. It is kind of like an evolution. What's more obvious now to everyone is this need for continuous adaptation in society, helping bring this technology to the world in a responsible way, and helping society adapt to this change. That wasn't necessarily obvious five years ago, when we were just doing stuff in our lab. But putting GPT-3 in an API, in working with customers and developers, helped us build this muscle of understanding the potential that the technology has to change things in the real world, often in ways that are different than what we predict.

You were involved in Dall-E. Because it outputs imagery, you had to consider different things than a text model, including who owns the images that the model draws upon. What were your fears and how successful you think you were?

Obviously, we did a ton of red-teaming. I remember it being a source of joy, levity, and fun. People came up with all these like creative, crazy prompts. We decided to make it available in labs, as an easy way for people to interact with the technology and learn about it. And also to think about policy implications and about how Dall-E can affect products and social media or other things out there. We also worked a lot with creatives, to get their input along the way, because we see it internally as a tool that really enhances creativity, as opposed to replacing it. Initially there was speculation that AI would first automate a bunch of jobs, and creativity was the area where we humans had a monopoly. But we've seen that these AI models actually have a potential to really be creative. When you see artists play with Dall-E, the outputs are really magnificent.

Since OpenAI has released its products, there have been questions about their immediate impact in things like copyright, plagiarism, and jobs. By putting things like GPT-4 in the wild, it’s almost like you’re forcing the public to deal with those issues. Was that intentional?

Definitely. It's actually very important to figure out how to bring it out there in a way that's safe and responsible, and helps people integrate it into their workflow. It’s going to change entire industries; people have compared it to electricity or the printing press. And so it's very important to start actually integrating it in every layer of society and think about things like copyright laws, privacy, governance and regulation. We have to make sure that people really experience for themselves what this technology is capable of versus reading about it in some press release, especially as the technological progress continues to be so rapid. It's futile to resist it. I think it's important to embrace it and figure out how it's going to go well.

Are you convinced that that's the optimal way to move us toward AGI?

I haven't come up with a better way than iterative deployments to figure out how you get this continuous adaptation and feedback from the real end feeding back into the technology to make it more robust to these use cases. It’s very important to do this now, while the stakes are still low. As we get closer to AGI, it's probably going to evolve again, and our deployment strategy will change as we get closer to it.

[wunkolo]

Hey, this might be a weird thing to ask, but...What sort of job do you have?

It sounds like you’re somewhere in tech, which is what I was originally studying a while back before having to drop for financial reasons.

I had decided to rule out programming-related jobs due to general scumminess from the industry exposure I got (crunch, low pay, poor employee communication, companies feeling super unethical/profit focused), but it’s extremely possible I just had bad experiences and need to look around deeper or in different specialties

I’m in a weird position in life right now where I’m trying to determine a main job industry to work in, and since I’m now in a big city, I was wondering if you might have ideas/advice of more safe and comfortable areas of the tech industry to work

What sort of job do you have?

I’m not sure what the word would be for what I do right now but more generally I am working on a game engine! It mixes a lot of tech though, so lots of high performance computation and GPGPU work and graphics/rendering stuff and all that. It’s great and stimulating and is exactly in my field of interest. Has a good mix of low-level performance code and high-level concepts and mass-parallelism and lots of bleeding-edge tech. Lots of C++ and Vulkan and x86 assembly(and ARM for fun on the weekends).

I had decided to rule out programming-related jobs due to general scumminess from the industry exposure I got (crunch, low pay, poor employee communication, companies feeling super unethical/profit focused), but it’s extremely possible I just had bad experiences and need to look around deeper or in different specialties

My first job out of college was with a startup that was incredibly reactive to every industry buzzword and trend and would totally re-paradigm itself and lie to investors to get more money coming in. It was very volatile and very terrible. Every new potential investor meant the CEO was over-promising features as if we already had them and then forcing me to implement it in less than a week. He deferred peoples income, changed the paycycle the day before payday, lots of nastiness and dubiously legal things. I was fresh out of school and didn’t know my worth so they got me “on sale” too. Lots of scummy startups/companies will prey on new-grads to get cheap work out of a fresh unjaded mind. It was just an overall pretty bad experience fresh out of school but I had to take the job to be able to make enough steady income to move out of my parent’s place asap and it was the most immediately available stable income. A lot of people unfortunately and understandably have to bide through this kind of employment abuse sometimes due to situational financial needs and cannot afford to say No to a clearly toxic environment. If you’re in a position in your life where you can pick your work then absolutely spend the extra time to make sure you aren’t parking yourself into something toxic. Especially now, a lot of people will take what they can get and there is a whole new class of remote-work horror stories where employers will demand that everyone leave their camera on during work hours or must respond to messages within 45 seconds or less or face employment reconsiderations.

My second job ever is my current one and is much more better managed and I would use it as a good example of the total opposite on that spectrum.

I was wondering if you might have ideas/advice of more safe and comfortable areas of the tech industry to work

This is kinda difficult to answer as it’s hard to meter the entire temperament of an entire company or industry just from a job listing(Once you filter pass all the obvious 5-year-experience in 2-year-old tech sort of stuff). Some industries can be more stressful than others like game development may be a lot more “crunchy” and susceptible to mismanagement than maybe a company making inventory software or web-development. I don’t know enough about other industries to really speak for them but I suppose the more reactive industries are under more stress and mismanagement than others. Startups tend to “follow the money” and react much more to every little movement in the industry.

Regardless of industry, the interview process will usually expose you to some insight as to how the culture and temperament is at a company. When I applied to this new job, and I didn’t know exactly what I was getting into, I had two in-person interviews and a phone interview that allowed me to scope out the “culture” of the company while they were also scoping me out for a culture-fit. I spoke to the employees themselves, checked them out on glassdoor if available, researched them on reddit/twitter/etc, asked the right questions(ask about their project methodology like scrum/agile/kanban, some kind of task organization that tries to avoid crunch), reading the details of the job offer(like sneaking in little things that remove your right as a worker), knowing the labor laws of your state, and knowing when your company is trying to bend those laws. There are lots of methods to keep you safe and comfortable while employed by any industry.

I’d love if anyone else can comment on this post and provide insight on the temperament of their industry and red flags they saw during the interviewing process that just bleeds mismanagement for others to read 🙏

[randomnameless]

Thinking about magic in FE16, thanks to a SF post :

The TC in that post went by the basis that Archanea/Jugdral/Valentia mechanics about magic applied to Fodlan, which I personally don’t believe.

In the Naga verse, magic is tied to spirits/faeries living in the land.

However, in FE16, I think it is tied to Sothis and Nabateans.

Macuil’s bio hails him as a pioneering figure for and master of the magical arts. Does it mean that before Macuil, no one knew how to use magic in Fodlan ? Or they might have known some stuff, but Macuil theorised it.

Still, Morfis is known around as being that “metropolis of magic”. Did they learn their own way to perform magic, using another source? And yet, the Morfis squad we can recruit wears the traditional agarthian get-up (iirc?) so Agarthians went there to build their city or, the devs forgot about coding a specific get up for some battalions (kuddos for the mittelfrank one though i love it). 

Or maybe their knowledge of magic predates the Nemesis era, and one random Nabatean, just like Aubin who went in Dagda, decided to form a colony in Morfis and teach humans about magic. Maybe that random who went in Morfis was Macuil, idk.

Bar Morfis, we do not know if any other places outside of Fodlan developped magical arts, and if they developped it on their own or were helped, at the foundation, by a Nabatean.

Back to magic, the SF topic went on a recurrent take, saying that people who sucked in the Faith branch of magic didn’t have any attachment to the Church or didn’t believe in Sothis.

However, while I don’t know and can’t say why this branch of magic is called “Faith”, Linhardt, in his Flayn support, actually calls is “white magic” (idk how it is called in the jp script though!)

Linhardt: You are quite skilled in white magic, yes? My understanding is that you have a very high affinity for the art. Flayn: Yes, I do. I am confident in my abilities. I am glad of my abilities, for it is a way in which I am able to help others.

White magic is, per Flayn, a magic able to help others, or to support them. I know we have offensive white magic spells, but they kind of suck compared to “reason/black magic” ones. Maybe because the basis of white magic is to support, so using it to attack is a sort of failed hybridization of white and black magic.

It is also interesting because Linhardt, nerd as he is, knows that “Faith magic” is the same thing as “White Magic” and calls it by its name “white magic”.

So while “white magic” was turned into “faith magic”, someone’s proficiency to “white magic” isn’t really based on “Faith” or if you really love the Church and believe in the Goddess - else you’d have to make a case that Seteth doesn’t really believe in his mom because he doesn’t have “Faith” proficiency while Flayn does.

In Annette and Sylvain’s support chain, we see how Annette learns magic through formulas, and when someone uses magic (white and dark), we can see a weird vertical (?) circle, with I suppose, those formulas, being cast. When someone uses dark magic, the circle appears too, but on the ground, circling the caster, not in the air. 

Dark Magic being associated with Agarthians, it might be a remnant of the good’ol days where Nabateans and humans worked together, they taught Agarthians how to use magic, and those guys customized it (to use the more powerful dark magic).

(Funny how one can suppose that if FE16 mages don’t use tomes, maybe in the other verses the formulas are inscribed on tomes?)

Agartha uses of magi-tech (some sort of magic + technology) is also shown in the Titanus who, despite attacking on physical defense unlike their Nabatean counterparts, also have an Aegis shield to reduce ranged damages (a more practical version of the anti-magic armor the Nabateans equipped their golems with). With magical basic teachings provided by Nabateans, humans managed to develop their own brand of magic.

Following this, it means that without Nabateans/Sothis and her lizards, there’d be no magic in FE16 (or in the Fodlan world)?

As I pointed out above, Morfis is a big question mark, and given how Nabateans scattered around the world per the devs, I cannot affirm that humans managed to discover/find/use magic on their own or not.

Still, we have two instances where it is suggered that Nabateans have a special relation to magic and/or are pure magical being.

First, in CF’s last chapter, again with one of Linhardt’s comments:

Linhardt: What? Her howl as unadulterated magic. I didn't know such a display of power was possible.

Rhea’s roar is “unadultered magic” meaning 1) Linhardt thinks magic exist in both forms, adultered and unadultered, the adultered version is the one humans use? He thought it was impossible to “display” this power, unadultered magic + 2) if a roar can covey “pure” magic to golems, either Nabateans can master magic very well and this was the only way Rhea found to power up far away golems, or, most plausible, a Nabatean is a magical being, its roars are pure magic and its blood is a catalyst to enable people to use magic?

Which brings me to the second point, Hanneman (Linhardt’s teacher!) and Alois’ support convo:

Hanneman: Well, if I'm completely honest, you're less of a student and more of an experiment. You have no Crest, but you might be able to learn magic... despite our early results. And the potential magical ability of those who lack a Crest is precisely what I hope to research. Alois: That's a surprise. A Crest scholar researching people without Crests? Hanneman: When studying Crests, it is also important to understand the effects of their absence. After all, the very reason for all of my research is to grant the power of a Crest to anyone who desires it. If it is in fact possible to increase the magical potential of people lacking a Crest, then I find myself one step closer to my goal. Hence my experiments with you are quite valuable to my research. Alois: Ah, that's wonderful! What a great man you are, Professor Hanneman. Truly, a man among men! Why, if I could prove it's possible to use magic without a Crest, what an honor that would be! Please, use me as you see fit! I won't let you down, I promise!

Crestless people have more difficulties to learn magic to the point where Alois claims that he’d be honoured to demonstrate that it’s possible to use magic without a crest.

It’d go with Macuil and the Nabateans’ motto of helping humans to use magic - for every humans, not for the few ones they blood-bonded with (I don’t think they were expectig a Nemesis and his Dudes to happen). 

And yet, after the Nemesis incident, people with crests became a common-ish occurence in the world, so the paradigm shifted - magic wasn’t thought as something everyone could use, but something only crested people could use because it’s easier for them to do so because they have Nabatean DNA/blood. 

Meaning that being part Nabatean, Full-blooded Nabatean or even having a drop of their blood impacts one’s ability to use magic - it’s usage isn’t exclusively granted to crested people, but damn if it isn’t easier to use it with lizard genes. I can only hope Morfis’ people were badass normals who mastered magic without using some kind of shortcut like the people of Fodlan did.

Do we know what is the source of magic in Fodlan? Nope. I can only suppose it is tied with Nabateans, and Sothis herself.

We don’t have any clues or evidences of magic existing in Fodlan before Sothis’ fall, but we don’t know a thing about that time. Magic is used in “foreign” countries, Morfis is an exemple, but it might have been influenced by a Nabatean.

Still, given how Nabateans are “magical” beings of blood and flesh, having been created from Sothis’ own blood, Sothis herself might have been “full” of magic and magic is implicitely tied, in the continent of Fodlan, to Nabateans.

Tl;Dr : In FE16, magic comes from space.

[thecloserkin]

book review: Mira Grant, Feed (2010)

Genre: Sci-Fi

Is it the main pairing: Yes

Is it canon: No

Is it explicit: No

Is it endgame: Yes

Is it shippable: Hell to the yes

Bottom line: Creepily Codependent Siblings Survive the Zombie Apocalypse! They are adopted but the way they refer to each other as “my brother” and “my sister” when they could have used given names instead? I am here for it. While tight plotting is not one of this book’s strengths, you should slog through the infodumps to the ending which packs one hydrogen bomb of an emotional wallop.

This is the first book in the “Newsflash” trilogy about a pair of journalists, Georgia and Shaun Mason, who begin by blogging out of their parents’ basement and end by uncovering a vast governmental conspiracy subtended by various alphabet-soup agencies. The zombie apocalypse itself happened 23 years ago, and it happened the way these things invariably happen: Scientists try to cure cancer/the common cold, unleash freak virus on humanity, cue end of the world as we know it. Georgia and Shaun are the paradigmic products of this remade world: They, like many children born in and around the chaos of the outbreak, were orphans. On their adoption papers their birthdays are given as the same day—an arbitrary made-up date, but it makes them twins even if George is def a few months older. She acts older too, acting as the business brains of their fledgling journalistic operation while Shaun’s job is to “poke dead things with sticks” and look good while doing it. There is a performative aspect to Shaun’s mugging for the camera and flirting with anything in a skirt. He’s doing it because outrageous behavior garners them more hits, obviously, but he’s also doing it for George who gets a kick out of watching him charm the pants off people. She is bemused but not remotely threatened. George is all-business all the time, emotionally guarded and wary of physical contact, and one time when someone tried to hug her Shaun smoothly stepped up to intercept the hug to spare her the discomfort of enduring it. I SCREAMED. Note that George doesn’t mind being touched if it’s Shaun doing it:

I shuddered. Shaun caught the gesture and put a hand at the small of my back, steadying me. I flashed him a smile.

Shaun put a hand on my knee, steadying me, and I covered it with my own.

These small moments of tenderness punctuate an endearingly banterful sibling rapport. This is them reacting to the news of their big break—they’ve been tapped to cover the presidential campaign of an idealistic Wyoming senator:

Shaun was sure we’d get it. I was sure we wouldn’t. Now, staring at the monitor, Shaun said, “George?” “Yeah?” “You owe me twenty bucks.”

This is George shooing Shaun out of her room so she can change her clothes:

I pointed to the door. “Get out. There’s about to be nudity, and you’ll just complicate things.” “Finally, adult content! Should I turn the webcams on?”

This is big sister Georgia mocking Shaun for his youthful indiscretions:

”Remember how pissed you got when we had to do all that reading about the Rising back in sixth grade? I thought you were going to get us both expelled.”

In conclusion I love them sfm they are perfect.

As an aside, the people tagging this book “horror” on Goodreads have either not read the book (which is legit, TBR piles are a thing) or don’t understand what horror is? It’s like they saw the word “zombies” and just auto-completed the genre. What defines horror is not blood, gore, or violence but the fear and loss of agency engendered by that violence. That’s why so many horror film protagonists are women, who experience loss of agency in large and small ways on a daily basis and must learn to survive in the face of it; it’s cathartic to watch them take back control. The point of this digression is that THIS IS NOT A HORROR NOVEL. It’s not about that kind of fear!!! This is a political thriller so buckle in kids we’re going for a ride.

Twenty-three years ago during the outbreak, Georgia and Shaun’s parents lost their eight-year-old biological son. He was bitten by the neighbors’ dog. This was before it was widely understood that the virus could jump between mammalian species, and that anything surpassing the 40 pound threshold was susceptible to its effects. The dog weighed over 40 pounds. The Masons, who were award-winning reporters in their own right, dealt with their grief by channeling their emotional resources into chasing the news ratings. They continued to be phenomenally successful journalists as well as shitty parents to Shaun and Georgia, whom they seem to have adopted entirely for publicity purposes. The narrative invites us to draw the comparison between George and Shaun, who have chosen to pursue this career out of a thirst for THE TRUTH, and their parents who have less lofty motivations. Not to put too fine a point on it but their parents are mercenary motherfuckers. These kids survived their childhood by building an emotional bunker that they never learned to climb out of. This line from the very first chapter is so telling because they’re out in the field and Shaun is being chased by a zombie right?:

I screamed, images of my inevitable future as an only child filling my mind.

When Shaun’s in mortal peril, Georgia doesn’t think of him as “the center of my universe”— which he is—she thinks of the void that would result in the loss of her brother. That’s how they fit together, that’s what they are to each other, and all the other stuff is layered on top of the shared trauma of their childhood. Ffs they even have a ritual for administering each other’s blood tests—you know that thing at wedding toasts where the bride and groom loop their arms together and tip the champagne flute into the other’s mouth? Like that:

Moving with synchronicity born of long practice, we broke the biohazard seals and popped the plastic lids off our testing units

So the protocol for taking blood tests, which everyone has to do all day long to prove they’re not infected, is to come into the foyer/antechamber/vestibule one at a time and once you test clean you proceed into the building while the next person cycles into the chamber. That way, if anyone is found to be infected, they can be isolated. Georgia and Shaun have never once complied with this rule:

Our next-door-neighbor used to call Child Protective Services every six months because our folks wouldn’t stop us from coming in together. But what’s the point of life if you can’t take risks now and then, like coming into the damn house with your brother?

Implying that if one of them ever got bitten by a zombie the other one would rather spend the rest of their short life trapped in a garage with the shambling corpse of their sibling than die in their sleep at a ripe old age. Talk about ride or die.

I said before that this presidential campaign, this is their big break as much as it is the candidate’s. Up till now George and Shaun have been blogging under the umbrella of news aggregation entities (sort of like how BuzzFeed and HuffPost and Medium are populated by user-generated content that isn’t necessarily making the content creator an appreciable pile of money), but now they’ve finally landed the story that will let them strike out on their own. One of the sharpest things about this book is how it depicts journalism as a job, and a tough one to do right. Nashville does the same thing for the music industry, and as over-the-top as that show is, it shows you the nuts and bolts of success in a profession where practitioners are supposedly driven by “passion” alone. Here the distribution of labor is skewed pretty heavily towards George:

I get the administrative junk that Shaun’s too much of a jerk and Buffy’s too much of a flake to deal with.

Buffy is their business partner and some kind of auteur hacker + tech whiz. Shaun is the public face of their media brand. But make no mistake, George is the heart and soul and brains of this operation. You see her business acumen in drive-by observations like “Replacing that much equipment would kill our operating budget for months,” or when she talks about i n s u r a n c e. And George talks about insurance a lot. She mentions how a certain camera covered in zombie body fluids is an insurance write-off, how being present in designated high-risk zones during certain times of day can triple your insurance premium, how a certain treatment for her chronic vision condition isn’t covered by health insurance. I … just wanna point out that the human race has survived a flippin’ zombie apocalypse, but the United States remains wedded to private for-profit health insurance where who and what are “covered” remains a game of Russian roulette?!! Whoever said it was “easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism” was onto something. This society is functioning cohesively enough that elections are a thing (thus, nation-states are still a thing). If you want to tell me our fragmented, inefficient, fee-for service model of paying for medical care that routinely bankrupts & kills our citizens has weathered the end of civlization and emerged intact from its ashes, you better look me dead in the eye and bring receipts.

What’s really impressive about Georgia is she’ll rattle off exactly what kind of activities (those forbidden by her journalistic licensing) will invalidate her life insurance if she’s stupid enough to get killed while doing them. From which I surmise that she and Shaun are both covered by pretty hefty policies of which they are each other’s sole beneficiary. Which makes sense, they’re in a dangerous line of work, but I feel like it’s a poor investment since whoever was left behind would be doing their damnedest to climb into the grave next to their sibling lol.

Another little requirement of the household insurance—since we leave safe zones all the time in order to do our jobs, we have to be able to prove we’ve been properly sterilized, and that means logged computer verification of our sterilizations.

George is talking about the AI that is apparently located in her showerhead that douses her with a bleach & antiseptic compound when she comes back from being in the field?? That sounds painful but what concerns me is the breathtaking scope of the Internet of Things’ penetration into her life. The AI is in the bathroom. It knows exactly where she’s been bc ofc her GPS location can be tracked via her phone, and it’s merrily sending packets of information off to …. somewhere, where it will doubtless be aggregated with all the data collected about George from other sources, and combed for patterns to predict future behavior. That’s how surveillance capitalism works. if this sounds chillingly familiar it’s because it’s already happening, it’s what the tech giants are already doing—gobbling up as much data about as many people in as many contexts as possible—and leveraging that data for profit. Privacy is a joke. George is not unaware of this, but what choice does she have? It’s either install the damn AI in her showerhead or get her parents’ homeowners’ insurance policy cancelled for being too “high risk.”

I want to circle back to George’s chronic medical condition for a sec. She’s got a disability—what’s a called a “reservoir condition” where the virus takes up residence in a body organ, in her case the retina—meaning essentially that she has zombie vision; she can see ridiculously well in low light situations but direct sunlight will blind her. She has to wear shades even indoors and is literally incapable of crying since her tear ducts are inoperative. So there’s a testy situation where a federal agent tries to get her to take off her sunglasses so he can verify her identity with a retinal scan right? And because they’re standing outside this is obviously a recipe for permanent blindness, quite aside from the fact you wouldn’t be able to get a valid scan anyway due to the virus over-dilating George pupils. But instead of checking George’s files, where her disability & its effects are prominently listed, this grunt insists on making her remove her glasses because Procedure. It’s a pretty tense moment. Shaun goes ballistic. He doesn’t physically threaten the dude, or insult his mom or anything. No, Shaun understands that he needs to make this pencil-pusher more afraid of the consequences of taking George’s glasses than of Not Following Procedure. And it works. YEET.

On the campaign trail the Senator’s aides arrange for sex-segregated hotel rooms but Shaun and George are having none of it:

On the few occasions when I’ve tried sleeping without Shaun in the next room, well, let’s just say that I can go a long way on a six-pack of Coke.

The ostensible reason the sleeping arrangements need to be reshuffled is, Buffy can’t sleep without a nightlight and George’s eyes can’t tolerate a nightlight. Clearly the real reason is George and Shaun are c l i n g y and codependent as FUCK. One night after a zombie attack and the long grueling hours of cleanup/decontamination that followed it, they actually climb into the same bed—I guess this room only had a double instead of two singles?? The scene the next morning, the two of them having predictably overslept:

“Fuck a duck, Buffy, what are you trying to do, blind her?” … Shaun, clad only in his boxer shorts, staring at an unrepentant Buffy.

So Shaun’s beef with Buffy is not that she barged in on them while they were asleep & half-naked but that she opened the curtains, thereby triggering a painful migraine for George’s sensitive eyes. Buffy explains she didn’t shake them awake because they both sleep armed, lmao. George’s disability and Shaun’s practiced ability to help her maneuver around it (like a trusty prosthetic, he’s an extension of herself) serves to highlight how in this partnership they are one unit and they know each other inside out. This is them after their close shave with the dunce who tried to take George’s glasses:

“Fuck you, too,” I muttered as Shaun got his arm around me and hoisted me away from the barn. “You kiss our mother with that mouth?” “Our mother and you both, dickhead. Give me my sunglasses.”

And this is George waking up in their hotel room, eyes squeezed shut against the glare of multiple computer screens:

He touched my hand with the tips of his fingers before he pressed my sunglasses against my palm.

This is absurdly, spine-tinglingly intimate. First he touches her hand with the tip of his fingers, the most fleeting of touches to let her know it’s him, and then he presses the glasses into her palm to restore her agency so she can, you know, open her eyes. And that earlier scene with him guiding her by the elbow in broad daylight!!! I’M NOT CRYING YOU’RE CRYING

Sometimes I can hardly believe that George and Shaun are twenty-three years old. When I was twenty-three I … was not adulting half so well as these kids. But then, giving their barbarous upbringing, that’s not surprising; my parents loved and nurtured me. When I look at George and Shaun and the successful business they’ve built and the professional relationships they’ve cultivated and their expertise and their bravery I just feel this proud parental glow you know?

I want to say a word about Senator Ryman before we move onto spoiler territory. There’s a big controversy initially about whether the Senator is “genuine” or not (spoiler alert: he is). But what does that even mean, genuine? He’s a good egg, sure, but what are his policies, none of which are explored in depth except his support for horse farms??? I’m not kidding. In a world where any animal weighing over 40 pounds is a zombie outbreak waiting to happen, it’s a controversial position to say people should be able to keep pets in residential zones. Here is how George describes our Candidate:

He’s like a big, friendly Boy Scout who just woke up one day and decided to become the President of the United States of America.

I see two major problems with this: One, they say “Personnel is Policy” so who the hell is he planning to appoint to key Cabinet positions and can he trust them to pursue rather than undermine his objectives (and does he even have a deep enough bench of people to draw on)? Two, the Boy Scouts of America are not exactly, er, unproblematic, and while it’s safe to say our faves are always problematic, I think “Boy Scout” is shorthand here for “no skeletons in his closet,” which again puts the focus squarely on his personal qualities rather than what policies he espouses. It’s great that he hasn’t cheated on his wife or his taxes. But morality and ethics are not the same thing:

Morals are how you treat people you know. Ethics are how you treat people you don’t know. Your morality is what makes you a good spouse/friend … Your ethics are what makes you a good politician … Morality dictates that you take care of your family, friends and even acquaintances first … For a large society—a society where you can’t know everyone—to work, ethics must come before morality, or ethics and morality must have a great deal of overlap. By acting morally, you must be able to act ethically.

I think we can all agree that this does not describe how our society is currently constituted, and it doesn’t describe George and Shaun’s America either. So this narrow fixation on whether individual candidates are “genuine” or corrupt imo kinda misses the point. George says:

I haven’t even been able to find proof that his campaign received funding from the tobacco companies, and everyone’s campaign receives funding from the tobacco companies.

I don’t want to undersell how important it is the guy is not taking tobacco money. But is he also eschewing Wall Street money, Big Pharma money, defense contractor money? How could George possibly have time to investigate all this dark money if she is supposed to be covering the actual campaign? Seems like it would be a lot easier to reform the campaign finance laws than to vet every single single candidate’s funding sources.

I think one reason the Senator is long on identity & personal charisma and short on policy is that he’s up against an opponent whose base of support is millenarian-fundamentalist “the Rapture is here, we’re all going to hell”:

it was either Ryman’s brand of “we should all get along while we’re here,” or Tate’s hellfire and damnation.

If that is the main faultline in society, I guess half the voters don’t really wanna hear how a given politician is planning to make a material difference in their lives, since they’ve already got eyes on the prize aka the next life.

So there you have it. George and Shaun are scrappy independent muckrakers digging for the truth. Time and again their allegiance to that holy grail overrides their concern for trivial aims like idk personal safety. There’s a vast, shady conspiracy afoot, and as our heroes get closer to it they start getting shot at. They lose comrades. None of this deters them because they are after THE TRUTH. Oh wait there is in fact one thing George values more than the truth:

”You’re more interested in your brother than figuring out the truth?” “Shaun’s the only thing that concerns me more than the truth does.”

And later:

The sight of him was enough to make my heart beat faster and my throat get tight. I knew he was wearing Kevlar underneath his clothes, but Kevlar wouldn’t protect him from a headshot.

Her first concern is always, always, for him.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

George gets infected. That’s the denouement. George is infected and Shaun has to shoot her before she turns all the way. Every single person who makes it to this scene is just bawling by the end of it:

His lips brushed the top of my head as he bent forward and pressed them to my hair. I wanted to yell at him to get away from me, but I didn’t. The barrel of the gun remained a cool, constant pressure on the back of my neck. When I turned, when I stopped being me, he would end it. He loved me enough to end it. Has any girl ever been luckier than I am?

The reassuring pressure of the gun on the base of her neck??? Has there been a more romantic moment in cinematic history??? I THINK NOT. Shaun is a crack shot—he’s the kind of guy who caresses his guns, names them after pretty women, causes his sister to grouse about digging through a suitcaseful of his weaponry to find her clothes—and yet here he is using his gun to kill the woman he loves most in the world.

It was supposed to be Shaun. They both took it as a given that Shaun would be the one to die first. Now he has to find a reason to continue living other than the obvious (vengeance). Stay tuned for the next installment, narrated by Shaun!

[theliterateape]

Commie Puke-Faced Panty-Waisted Girly Man

by Don Hall

New comment from Ed Parker on They Learned it from the Wolverines:

It's hard to believe that one author can be so twisted, so wrong, and so proud of it in one article. "Soyboy" doesn't describe him well enough. Don Hall is what GenXers would call a MANGINA. But we Boomers used to call guys like this Commie Puke-Faced Panty-Waisted Girly Men. I suppose it would be pointless to argue that the frame-up on Kavanaugh had nothing to do with any reality outside of Whoopi Goldberg's psychosis, or that the obvious fraud of the recent election was nothing more than the installation of a Chinese puppet by a Chinese-owned Congress, or even that the remake of Red Dawn was censored by the Chinese, as it originally portrayed them as the invaders. Facts don't matter to thong-wearing pajama boys. As a spew, this article was a decent attempt to be obnoxious without being factual, but Donny's efforts were all in vain anyway, as his target audience doesn't read, can't think, and functions primarily on "feewings" manipulated so well in his Public Fool System edumakayshun. I'm sure he's very proud of himself, as any hocker that manages to crawl all the way up the side of a toilet bowl would be, but the intelligent reading public will just flush him down the swirly of irrelevance from whence he came, and where he should have stayed. All you've got is snark, Donny boy, and you're not even very good at that.

Dear Ed—

We at LiterateApe.com don't get too many comments on our articles despite our impressive (at least to us) average 98K unique reads per year, so yours stood out. It also stood out because, in terms of kind of brilliant takedowns, yours is quite the feat.

In 236 words, you manage to include some excellent Trumpian putdowns (soyboy, MANGINA, thong-wearing pajama boy, hocker that manages to crawl all the way up the side of a toilet bowl, and the classic Commie Puke-Faced Panty-Waisted Girly Man), you also adhere to some fantastic (but erroneous) GOP talking points like a champ! "Kavanaugh was framed." "Biden is an illegitimate president because Trump really won." "The Chinese are defrauding our elections (as opposed to the Russians)."

All unleashed due to my observation that guys like you have been pining away for your "Wolverine" moment since we all were in high school, desperately clinging to the possibility that we, too, could avenge Harry Dean Stanton while looking like a teen heartthrob.

I could simply ignore your comment. I could answer it in the comments section. But, no, Ed. You deserve better. You deserve more.

Throughout history, humans have not handled new technologies well. Gutenberg's printing press has been implicated in the Reformation, the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution, all of which had profound effects on their eras. The shift from an earth-centered to a sun-centered universe were unintended consequences in the printing press era. This influx of books, pamphlets, and ideas destroyed the existing paradigm and those in power at the time did not respond well. Excommunications, torture, executions followed the spread of information previously gated from the rabble.

436 years later, Bell received his patent for the telephone. Give or take fifty years or so and a large percentage of American households contained a phone. All of a sudden, when tempers flared and your neighbor needed to be insulted or wrangled, you no longer had to leave your home, walk to his house, and confront him face-to-face. Now, sans the brief time to diffuse the rage, you could pick up the phone, call him, and tell him what a MANGINA he was in an instant.

In the onslaught of the Information Age, we now have the internet. No longer even required to know the neighbor you get to insult, everyone is a neighbor by proximity to a computer screen and some broadband. Instantaneous outrage, immediate written bitchslapping.

This, like the fallout from every invention of new technology in communication indicates, is not the end of all things. It is us getting used to new ways to engage and, because we are humans, fucking it up for a while until the newness wears out.

In the nascent days of digital communication, I found some fun in trolling some people. I recall creating a fake character—Kaufman—and trolling the Chicago Improv Message Board. It was pointless, it was antagonistic, it was a series of namecalling and juvenile bullshit. On the other hand, I was in my twenties and, like all people in their twenties, a bit stupid.

I am, however, curious about grown people who continue to engage with online communication in the same manner.

Specific to your comment, Ed, I can say that the insults are like throwing a basketball at an armless kid. Just bounces off and I stare at you wondering what else you have for me. I've been called a Nazi and a racist by some on the Extreme Left ("The Woke") and that doesn't bother me because it isn't any different than calling me a Unicorn or a Bowl of Potatoes. I'm obviously not those things so why would it bother me?

I can't speak for being a "soyboy" as I'm not entirely certain what that means but I can say I dig meat. Not sure what a MANGINA is but I applaud the creation of the word. I might very well be a MANGINA.

I'm definitely not a Commie. I'm no more in favor of the "Oppressor/Oppressed" binary of Marxist thought than I am a racist. Binary is too simplistic in my opinion. I may be Puke-Faced (subjective), I wear boxer shorts so no panty-waist, and I'm thinking that you see "Girly Man" as a derogatory but I see it as being feminist (which I am).

Still, pretty creative stuff and you managed to evoke "libtard" without using it so my hat goes off to you.

You, by your choices of real info, present yourself as a member of the Alt-Right Tribe and so your insults are pointless and juvenile (like mine were when I was a 22-year old "Kaufman").

The meat of your comment centers on three issues we can disagree about but could use a bit of genuine conversation.

I understand how someone would see the Kavanaugh accusations as merely a "He Said/She Said" situation. The Whoopi Goldberg thing misses me but I can see how someone might disagree that Brett is a rapist. While I don't believe all women in these cases, I believe these women so we'll just have to leave it at that.

As for your contention that the presidential election was fraudulent ("that the obvious fraud of the recent election was nothing more than the installation of a Chinese puppet by a Chinese-owned Congress"), man, there's so much actual data available that disputes everything in that excerpt it's hard to take you seriously. You seem to be a True Believer and I've found that talking to you and your type is more like beating my forehead up against a building or giant rock than dialogue.

Keep in mind, the fact that your comment sort proves the point of my article doesn't mean I dismiss you entirely. I have friends and family who believe in the concept of Christianity and I don't relegate them to idiot status due to the fairy tale to which they ascribe.

As for the remake of Red Dawn I have no opinion on it either way so you may very well be correct that it was censored by the Chinese government. They tend to do that on the regular with Western film so it would not be a big surprise.

My curiosity comes back to why you would feel it necessary or worth your valuable time to write those 236 words?

I suppose one could also ask what pragmatic purpose I had in writing the article in question and my response would be for entertainment purposes in general. I found the idea of men my age being slowly indoctrinated by the pop culture of our youth fascinating. I remembered that the Milius version of Red Dawn was in line with the "Trust the Military/Distrust the Government" propaganda of the Reagan years. In terms of pragmatics, I suppose I thought this was interesting enough to pen and publish. I could be wrong.

What pragmatic purpose would you, Ed, say justifies your response in writing? You don't know me. I don't know you. You decided that the article was so enraging that you needed to respond, not on your own social platforms, but on mine so there must be a reason other than sheer spite?

The landscape of our current version of the same culture wars we Americans have been fighting since the founding of the country aren't that different from the days of incendiary pamphlets distributed by Patrick Henry. The difference, I think, comes into play in the immediacy of response (which eliminates the time to calm your "feewings" and focus your thoughts) and the vast reach the internet provides.

I can't make too many assumptions about you, Ed. I could assume that working IT at Sears for years (which, these days resembles working at a Blockbuster Video as a tech support guy) left you feeling cheated by life. I could assume you sat there in your Sears polo shirt imagining the coming Red Dawn and how you could be a Wolverine yourself—fighting for the freedoms of "real Americans" against the Commie Puke-Faced Panty Waisted Girly Men. I could assume your sad existence led you to open your own firearms school and wear t-shirts that declare your fealty to "Beer & Guns & Bacon & Freedom".

I could but I won't.

I find that kind of assuming makes an ass out of you. You might be a great guy. Or not. I can guarantee you are far more than your online vitriol. Most people are more than what we can see on the surface.

Ask yourself, Ed—why? Why even bother when you know how meaningless and empty your screed will be? Is it a sort of bragging for your friends to see and applaud? “You sure told that pussy what’s what, Ed!”

Is this the person you hoped you’d be when you became the age you’re at now? If not, what went wrong and is it too late to change course?

[coin-news-blog]

How Did You Get Into Bitcoin? Crypto Twitter Responds

New Post has been published on https://coinmakers.tech/news/how-did-you-get-into-bitcoin-crypto-twitter-responds

How Did You Get Into Bitcoin? Crypto Twitter Responds

How Did You Get Into Bitcoin? Crypto Twitter Responds

Everybody loves a story. When it comes to how people first got into cryptocurrency, there’s no exception. Crypto Twitter (CT) is full of humorous, thought-provoking, and unexpected tales of diving down the Satoshi rabbit hole, and the reasons for entering the space are as diverse as the people themselves.

Reasons for Getting Into Bitcoin

Trawling CT, one can find many scattered gemstones and nuggets of interest about people’s discovery of Bitcoin. Recently there have been a few prominent threads asking for folks to share how they first became interested in crypto, and the reasons given fall into a few broadly defined categories. First, there’s the philosophical angle. Libertarian-minded individuals realized they could keep their own money and help to subvert the war-mongering, abusive Keynesian economic powers that be. Second, there’s the pure convenience approach, where, “hey, the stuff just works, so I’m going to use it.” There’s the tech angle and entrepreneurial angle, for those who saw the burgeoning growth of a new and lucrative industry. And finally there’s the straight “show me the money” crowd. Some tweets illustrate a little bit of everything, as well as the random, haphazard circumstances that often come into play.

The Libertarian Angle

There’s something extremely exciting, hopeful and uplifting about mantras of “bitcoin not bombs” and the prospect of real economic sovereignty. Many previously uninitiated folks found in crypto an invigorating and simple freedom. The realization that this is what money was always meant to be, and a tool to achieve greater individual freedom and quality of life for everyone. User @DougFMoeller writes:

Bitcoin is freedom to interact.

When prompted with “What was it that excited you about cryptocurrency,” user Preston Thornburg replied it was “the premise of a global currency that sees no borders.”

Crypto by Convenience

On August 23 Mycrypto.com tweeted “How did you first get into crypto / blockchain? What made you stay?” @doerkadrian replied: “Open platforms without vetting or KYC restrictions. The momentum of the tech. And the welcoming community sucked me further in.” There are also certain business models in which relative anonymity and protecting real identities are important for workers, such as escort services and purchasing substances the state has deemed illegal.

Silk Road is an oft-mentioned inspiration as well, being that many governments of the world still have an obsession with caging and violating people for peaceful possession of plant life. It’s always convenient not to get your head smashed in by police when going about your private, daily business.

Even elected government officials are testing the waters, with Berkeley Councilmember and attorney Ben Bartlett purchasing cannabis for bitcoin cash in California on September 10. As news.Bitcoin.com reported, co-founder of financial platform Cred, Dan Schatt, noted at the event: “We are thrilled to build technology that solves real problems for customers, merchants, and politicians which will help usher in the next 100 million users of crypto.”

Great fun participating in yesterday’s live demonstration of how crypto-financial technology can benefit the cannabis industry! Produced by @ihaveCred and facilitated by @BlockAdCo @EvilleAlly @TranscendUs @RigelRobinson @UPAlliance Read more: https://t.co/ZUOTsevXDD

— Ben Bartlett (@BenBartlettCA) September 12, 2019

An Innovative New Industry

Some entrants to the holy church of crypto approached not in any sort of reverent, ideological way, and not even for simple convenience. They were practical observers of a burgeoning new tech industry bringing with it myriad innovation and opportunities.

User @TimC2468 tweeted:

Wife said to me in Dec 2013 that my Christmas present was for me to learn how to mine Bitcoin. I told her I would work it like my 2nd job. I no longer need to work now. Still with my wife.

Bitcoin.com’s Executive Chairman, Roger Ver, cites a plethora of factors influencing his initial investment back in 2011, with the tech behind the project being a central one:

The reasons I started investing in Bitcoin in 2011 are the exact same reasons I’m investing in Bitcoin Cash today. pic.twitter.com/OpOV7OKeGN

— Roger Ver (@rogerkver) September 5, 2018

Show Me the Money and Other Amusing Tales

Everybody likes to have money. After all, without it, there’s not a whole lot one can do to bring their visions to life. Visions of overthrowing existing financial systems, creating a tech startup, or even securing that long-awaited moon Lambo are pretty tough to realize without a little cash flow. Some of the commenters on Twitter are well aware of this, and aiming at beachside mojitos and beyond. Others are simply chewing the fat and sharing unique crypto tales in humorous and amusing fashion.

One user going by the name Koodge wrote:

Fell off a ladder and while recovering to go back to work i found the btc white paper. Took me several weeks to pull the trigger.

Some made a point of calling out the posters of “how did you get into crypto” prompts with tongue-in-cheek retorts like “None of your business, IRS” and “Nice try IRS.” Others sardonically lamented the moment they were lowered into the nether regions of crypto Twitter by their own fatal curiosity:

Freedom: A Common Thread

Whether one is interested in getting rich quick, entering a new field, or taking down banks and governments, a common theme emerges: freedom. Freedom to do business without intrusion from third parties, to build wealth, to support charities, and to sip tropical drinks while admiring a newly purchased sports car. Simple freedom of expression and speech. The version of the internet powered by bitcoin and blockchain have the potential to facilitate these things for all. This is something even folks from vastly different philosophical and socioeconomic backgrounds can appreciate.

Crypto is presented by many as a chance to share one’s story and vision more powerfully, and a unifying force where fiat money like USD so often disempowers. Escape from even that paradigm may be possible, as noted in a since-deleted tweet from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, where he stated:

Coincidentally, new technologies raise the possibility of unstoppable tax protests.

For those tired of paying for bombs, robbery of businesses, and violence against non-violent people everywhere, the potential holds great hope for the future of Bitcoin, and for the stories of individuals who love permissionless cash around the world.

Source: news.bitcoin

[nchyinotes]

the future of wikipedia (katherine maher & lucy crompton-reid)

February 3 2018

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-future-of-wikipedia-tickets-42271530285# 

Thoughts: So this was kind of my first foray into open knowledge/culture, and there were two parts to this day - the first was learning about wikidata and how to query it and contribute to it. This was pretty cool and actually what I had initially signed up for because I want to get out of my comfort zone/learn a new skill for research, but I did feel a little over my head haha. The second part I actually just found out about on the day, and stayed for. This was a talk about the future of Wikipedia, and it sounds pretty awesome tbh. I came in knowing nothing about Wikipedia, how it works as an organisation (it’s a non profit!), or how the site is maintained or who contributes, or what its missions are. Katherine is a great speaker. And while the talk was obviously very specific to Wikipedia, I think I was able to learn about all sorts of topics I’m interested in - how NGOs operate and are funded, how huge collaborative projects work, acknowledgment of and potential solutions to structural barriers that promote limited diversity in contributors of the collaborative projects, the bias that results from this, the impact of new technology, and their vision and belief in the public good of open knowledge. Was a very well spent day for me.

lucy

global movement for open knowledge

non profit

free and open access to info/knowledge = driver of social/cultural/economic development, fundamental right

work with cultural + educational organisations to enable them to contribute to a democratic understanding of the world

3 programs:

1) diversify editing community + content

not reaching + representing every community, voice, sum of human knowledge

gender gap, minorities

2) promoting open knowledge

3) education and learning

reach and impact?

metrics: people we reach, editors we have, ??

social bias + impact? how open knowledge genuinely improves society

katherine

wikimedia is based in san fran

300 people at the foundation, all over the world

“a world in which every single human can share in the sum of all knowledge” - aspirational statement, room for everyone to participate (+ create knowledge), not just consume

asymptotic, active

the more info on wikipedia, the better resource it’ll be

people who contribute to wikipedia, if they come with a partisan view over time become more neutral

wikidata (structured and linked data), wikimedia commons, DBpedia

populations are shrinking - japan, russia, europe - where wikimedia is well known + prominent

sub saharan africa

means of knowledge production hase been changing over time

the way we consume, faith / trust / research in institutions is on decline and shifting into influencers/personal trust networks, interfaces are changing (go beyond browser)

internet: info —> communication medium

native > additive experience in their lives

how do we want to evolve in response to the way world is changing?

hopes + fears for free knowledge

wikimedians

talked to experts (futurists, technologists, policy, arts, etc) - how they anticipate the change to be

what did we learn?

knowledge gaps + biases = highest concern

wikimedia doesn’t serve the entire world (language coverage, breadth of coverage, representative)

structural inequality prevents us from achieving ^ mission

who is creating the reliable sources that wikimedia relies on?

adapt to world’s changing knowledge needs

leverage new technology (video? open ML?)

more people in institutions (science, cultural, edu) want to join but dk how

direction:

becoming an essential infrastructure of the ecosystem of free knowledge

anyone who shares our vision will be able to join us (barriers)

knowledge as service - how to serve more people, ??

knowledge equity - ensure that info that exists doesn’t just have large numbers but a breadth and depth that is truly reflective of the world and serves it in a meaningful way

Panel

at a personal level, what do you want to see for open knowledge by 2030?

more people to know what open knowledge means

successful in communicating value of what this means to a broader audience

more entities participating, the more healthy the ecosystem is

—> advancing the concept of it

structural barriers that exist?

leisure time, literacy, gender inequity, marginalised communities are not usually secondary sources because historically haven’t been able to challenge dominant narrative — still replicating canon (way they evaluate sources, relies on means of knowledge production which is very traditional)

awareness, access (affordability)

where in that hierarchy do we sit?

balloons for the internet (some big tech companies ??)

incentivising local language production?

how to identify these gaps / barriers and breaking them down so more people can participate

notability? deletionism? guidelines as a community, when they’re appropriate? where to strike that balance to make sure it’s accurate + reliable, but also easy to contribute.

community conversation

oral citation? how to rely on this, which is far more prevalent than we give it affordance for

what does notability look like in a community, language, culture? their own validation methods within different areas?

NYT - considered newspaper of record? lawsuit in california by gay softball league of san Francisco. NYT wrote about the case, but never mentioned their ethnicity. everyone that wasn’t decided gay was POC. — active exclusion happening in sources we think are reliable. what are our paradigms for liability anyway? even though that was the crux of the issue of the case.

hidden, implicit bias

fake news

how we enable people to be more aware of bias (not our own, but in interpreting/analysing the media and recognising it)? how important that foundation has a educational ???

should wikipedia position itself as alternative to mainstream media?

wikipedia ranked more trustworthy than BBC, 1 survey, by 2 points —> horrifying

wikipedia relies on secondary sources. if trustworthiness in BBC declines, that’s bad for wikipedia!

i want you to use wikipedia, but you need to ask those questions and CHECK CITATIONS to become a participant and not a consumer - be a critical reader

what can we do to advocate on the need for media literacy, more funding for research??

engage with educators, learners (and not just uni) - how to google stuff, read + edit wikipedia

wales community!

investment in science community - impact of brexit?

wikimedia engaging in the culture community - partnership with cultural + educational institutions

how is scientific information actually diffused in society?

natural partner for us

how do we bring that community into the wikidata community?

corresponding investment in open science

working with researchers / research community

lots of communities struggle with open data structure, how to maintain catalogues, etc - we are building the tools that do that, but not thinking of it as tools beyond wikimedia. wiki base can be used as an asset by so many other institutions - more info to be available to the world, helping other orgs, etc. —> makes everything better for everyone

automation of content creation?

vietnamese - automated almost all stubs?

stub articles = incentives to create (what is this - short wikimedia article)

wikimedia is fundamentally a human pursuit

machines can augment human work in ways that can be quite helpful - washing machine

multilingual people!

entirety of the ecosystem and identify gaps across all language communities we have

who decides what those gaps are?

opp of wikidata to reveal that

resources - implicit in convo - the fact that there are so many resources invested in western world + global north, what do we need to do to create equity ?

tremendous asymmetry - agency, power in decision making

when they see problems, wikimedians are highly incentivised to make a change

all the more reason to have more voices in the room

1) "human project" - neural machine translation, challenges of ML and machine content creation. challenges of people knowing about machines involvement (turing test?)

ML already exists on wikipedia

how do we use it in a way that’s consistent with our values

3 things

it has to be open - difficult in AI, because transparency doesn’t mean much bc we can’t think the way machines do. intention, legibility, explainability - why was this software made, what should it achieve

inclusivity - biases in datasets we’re training. open, transparent around datasets using

can receive feedback from public

consent - making sure people working on projects consent to the way ML is being used in projects, know how/why it’s happening [ no one wants something being done to them]

2) future financial sustainability of the movement

71.6M USD to keep foundation running this year

very little money for world’s 5th most popular website

created an endowment in last two years - trying to raise significant one to protect it into the future

even if cannot build on it, want to keep it at least open

what resources we require to keep this running into future? gap between where we are and want to be? sustainability in long run?

model is amazing, no one owns it bc of open licensing, building a life long relationship with people for what wikimedia stands for

3) china

blocked in china

people don’t write in chinese only in china - from variety of places in the world

we want to be there for when we’re unblocked, ready + present for chinese public to have access in meaningful way

deliberately trying to effect policy in org to support the description of these things in public? significant portions of UK not represented in publicly meaningful sense. difficult for wikimedia to address that issue.

rural-urban gap in wikipedia bc of nature of secondary sources, media

concentrates around population density, where communities not urban are not represented

even within communities in city - marginalised communities are not recorded in

who creates culture? it just is, what we live.

stuart hall - nature of who creates culture and where it comes from, production of culture (high brow > the one we all live, which isn’t documented)

oral citation project in india - traditional game kids play, no ones ever written it down

daily lived culture is not good at documenting, haven’t found way to address this

reflection of the world

what does knowledge equity really mean? and how do we program for it?

when thinking about core articles, how to raise quality of those and to keep them relevant?

tool - ores?? to evaluate article quality

opp to see what those gaps are, assess in more automated way, based on verifiability (not just density of info)

build tools to help editors maintenance function, or where quality gaps are, so there’s a continuous effort to update + maintain them

can do this not just for one language, but for all

project tiger - with google. how to identify main drivers of traffic (specific pages etc), and make sure the quality is good, and point people to work on that.

worried about losing relevance in the future? things to do to stay relevant?

we don’t know why people leave / fall out of contributor pipe line

give ourselves metrics to be able to evaluate that, so we can focus on retention as priority

rateability -

no one knows that simple english wikipedia exists!

how it’s being utilised by third party reusers

the way we’re composing info so that it becomes reusable! that it offers a service - answers the question, solves the problem

broken connection - maintaining consistency between wikimedian + re users. complying with licensing terms?

Seeing the work you’ve done being credited - for retention.

why based in US?

affordances from a policy POV that do not exist in other places in the world (USA) - hosting controversial or illegal content

intermediary liability protections (nuisance lawsuit)

rotating figureheads of leadership?

awareness + participation

knowledge equity as a priority, yet to determine how that looks like and what changes we need to implement to get there

global secretariat that could be stationed around ??

recently identified 6 countries where there is gap between awareness and ??potential - india, nigeria, iraq

marketing - in language of the community, “awareness raising videos”, ads written by communities themselves

changing what we think contribution + dedication looks like?

data typology on wikipedia that presents different types of data ?? presenting as much info in symbolic / visual forms?

multimedia integration

blockchain?

generally don’t think it’s good for wikipedia (from engineers)

persistence of information - revision history, revisions

feels like a diversion from existing stack

lots of arab wikimedians to be are refugees, with videos, names, locations, sitting on so much data that they want to put on open source etc. lack workshops in camps, any way to get into camps?

how to seek external funding on migrant communities?

big funder didn’t recognise that digitisation of stuff and getting it onto wikipedia was cultural preservation

institutional POV: do they actually want us to come in?

cultural heritage component

wiki loves africa + wiki med + wiki deutschland - building offline editing environments?

when there’s momentum as a community —> generally leads to structure

[daynajackson-blog1]

Week 4 discussion question

This was a really good week of talking and gave me a lot to think about! My thoughts in response to a few points are within the bullet points in italics. 

What makes you not want to trust technology in the sense of automation? What could be done to ease this distrust?

If everything’s online, what stops people hacking into your house? How is it safe? How secure is it? Even pranks would be annoying if other people could access your house.

Don’t like the idea of technology interpreting human life

Ideas of tech superseding human intelligence, does smart tech dumb down humans

Where is the line between necessity and ease with regards to automation? 

Will there be a point where we rely too much on technology and then can’t do anything in the event of a power cut?

Case studies are showing that screens are bad, causing short sightedness especially in developmental stages, why would we then create a world where we have to use them more?

Does tech have adverse effect on social skills etc?

Bad to always be relying on something to entertain you

How much effect does tech have on quality of life? Is it actually a good effect?

The human race is capable of much more than just technology and faces in phones 

Screens only trigger a certain amount of the brain, not as much as experiencing life

We already trust a lot of technology, for example cars. We already expect a lot from technology, and there’s a lot that we already place trust in 

Does trusting automation tech then require as much of a paradigm shift as what it initially did for people to trust the first cars? Is trust something that can only be earned, not designed?

Distrust is socially created from ideas in the media? Kids that are being brought up with tech will have a very different perspective, just as we have different views to our parents

There’s a study of a robot dog interacting with old people and how that affects them mentally, there’s also one about a robot seal in Japan

Everything is essentially technology, for example wheelchairs. Tech is better if it’s being used for a purpose, not just for the sake of tech

Create a house for optimum economy - balance between smart tech, human interaction, quality of life

Humans are happy doing stuff, for example they like driving, so why change that

I imagine smart tech would ideally work like that scene in The Incredibles where Mr Incredible is driving but then needs to get into his super suit - his car auto drives while he gets changed, then he takes the wheel again

Hard to find balance between full automation and some automation/some human interaction because people are lazy?

Why are we doing UXUI (which, while not always, is mostly tech based) if we don’t trust technology?

Tech needs to diversify

Don’t look at how to automate a house, look at how people use a house

For example, a smart home in context of it’s users. If it makes a doctor more efficient and able to save more lives then that would be good? If it helps you survive to do better things then what’s wrong with it? (But why do only people doing some perceived good deserve it? if people are going to use it to be lazy is that not their own choice?)

An enjoyable and cool thing adds joy to peoples lives, so if smart tech does this is it really so bad? For example, wheelchairs work fine as they are but they always look sterile and like people are sick even if they’re perfectly independent, why can’t they look cool as well? This could be likened to the fact that tech works fine on it’s own, but if we can make it a cooler/easier/more convenient/more enjoyable experience then why shouldn’t we?

Though the discussion was mostly about why everyone distrusts technology, there were some really good points raised near the end about positive effects of smart tech, which I really valued. Throughout these discussions the point of looking into how to create an efficient home has been raised a few times. This would of course be a beneficial system to have and I considered aligning my project to these values, but decided against it simply because I am more interested in the future of this technology and how it will look as opposed to designing something that could already be a reality. 

[lenaglittleus]

Crush Your Workout With Joel Freeman’s Hardcore Motivational Playlist

You might not know it by looking at his aggressive rock playlist, but CORE DE FORCE co-creator Joel Freeman was actually raised by his parents on a steady diet of Jackson Browne, Steve Winwood, and the Grateful Dead.

“That type of rock was always in my head,” he says. “I got into the newer, hard rock when I went to college at Texas Tech.

“My roommate was a big rock guy also. We just kept going to all these concerts and it developed from there,” he says. “Then we moved to Olympia, Washington, right outside Seattle, so there you go; that was the grunge-rock world.”

Freeman has worn a lot of hats in the fitness world since he got his start manning the front desk of a gym at 19 years of age. He’s worked for the Department of Health in Washington State, as the marketing director at Los Angeles’ Gold’s Gym franchise, and has Elite Personal Trainer certifications from the American Fitness Association of America (AFAA) and the American Council on Exercise (ACE).

He joined the ranks of Beachbody Super Trainers with the release of CORE DE FORCE, a mixed martial-arts program that he developed alongside his friend Jericho McMatthews. But while his career has taken him in many different directions, his love of the almighty riff has never abated.

“If I’m going to do cardio, I might listen to something a little more electronic or techno with faster BPMs that gets your heart beating more,” he says. “But rock is my main love.”

Freeman already has a pre-defense of his recommended list of hardcore workout tunes. “Some of these artists that I listen to, some people might call them screaming rock, but there’s always a melody in there somewhere,” he says. “And that’s usually what gets me.”

Below, he walks us through a sample playlist that keeps him pumped up during his workouts.

Listen to the full Spotify playlist below, and follow Beachbody On Demand on Spotify for more great playlists to pair with any kind of workout. You can also check out what Jericho McMatthews and Tony Horton listen to while they exercise!

Joel Freeman’s Hardcore Motivational Playlist

“Hearts Burst Into Fire”

Artist: Bullet For My Valentine Album: Scream Aim Fire

“I love these guys. They do these rock ballads, and it’s great because it kind of takes you back to the glam rock of the late ’70s and early ’80s; Twisted Sister and stuff like that. But they bring it up a level. Some of their songs are eight minutes long. They bring a level of grit to it.”

“Rainbow in the Dark”

Artist: Corey Taylor Album: Ronnie James Dio: This Is Your Life

“Corey Taylor, he’s the lead singer of Slipknot and Stone Sour. I love his stuff. He re-did Dio’s ‘Rainbow in the Dark.’ I love the original by Dio, of course, but that was a great one.”

“Stillborn” (Featuring Ozzy Osbourne)

Artist: Black Label Society Album: The Blessed Hellride

“Zakk Wylde is just a guitar god. This song is absolutely phenomenal. I follow him on Instagram, and he always posts these videos called ‘The Running of the Scales.’ He practices every morning and every night. His commitment to his art is just phenomenal, and he can just play with such precision. He used to play for Ozzy, so it’s definitely an Ozzy sound. He just kills it with that.”

“Through the Fire and Flames”

Artist: DragonForce Album: Inhuman Rampage

“They are from the U.K., and the lead singer’s vocals are out of this world. It really reminds me of some of the older bands like Twisted Sister that I never got to see, but that I would have loved to. [They make] very melodic rock ballads, and there aren’t a lot of bands that do that anymore. I’ve seen them live a few times and they just go crazy onstage. It’s so much fun to watch.”

“Adrenalize”

Artist: In This Moment Album: Blood

“They are a rock band with a female lead singer, Maria [Brink]. I’ve followed them almost from day one. Her voice is just incredible. I could listen to her sing all day, because she can hit these notes that are just ridiculous. She can scream, and you think her lungs are going to explode, but then she can hit a note perfectly right after that. And with the band behind her, they have such an unbelievable sound. I listen to them a lot.”

“I’m Alive”

Artist: Shinedown Album: Avengers Assemble (Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture)

“If you told me I could only listen to one rock band for the rest of my life, it probably would be these guys. I’ve seen them at least half a dozen times. Their music is just really powerful. There’s a story in every single song, and I don’t want to say that’s rare, but it’s not as always that well done.”

“Breath”

Artist: Breaking Benjamin Album: Phobia

“These guys are very much like Shinedown in how they write. But the melody that they bring is so unique to just them. When a Breaking Benjamin song comes on, I instantly know it’s them.”

“Humans Being”

Artist: Van Halen Album: Twister: Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack

“‘Humans Being’ is one of my favorite Van Halen songs ever. Just the way the riffs start out and get nasty, which I absolutely love. I grew up in a small town in West Texas, and there weren’t a lot of radio stations out there. One of the only stations that came through was a classic rock station, so that was my introduction to Metallica, Van Halen, Cheap Trick, Ozzy, and Blue Öyster Cult.”

“Tragedy + Time”

Artist: Rise Against Album: The Black Market

“I love these guys. They’re rock, but it’s almost more of a older punk-rock thing. It has a harder edge to it, which I like. I don’t really want something super-punky. They always have a really good melody in the chorus.”

“Switchback”

Artist: Celldweller Album: Celldweller

“This has an industrial rock sound where they bring in more of a techno sound, which is pretty cool when you mix it with guitars. It’s not very often I hear a band that can do that well, and I think Celldweller does it pretty good. If I’m on my third set and I’m just dying, then I’ll put on something superheavy like Celldweller, and that definitely gets me amped up.”

“(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”

Artist: Blue Öyster Cult Album: Agents of Fortune

“[This song] is so iconic! It’s not a karaoke song, but it’s equivalent to a generic karaoke song. When ‘(Don’t Fear) The Reaper’ comes on, everyone knows the song. You can attribute so much American pop culture to this song. I saw these guys live with Kansas and Styx—they were phenomenal.”

“Hater”

Artist: Korn Album: The Paradigm Shift

“Again, I followed these guys for a long time. I love their unique sound and their bass. [This song] will definitely get me going anytime. I feel like they continue to push their boundaries and find new ways to stay relevant and be original.”

“Lola Montez”

Artist: Volbeat Album: Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies

“They are one of my newer [favorites]… I should say newer because they’ve been around since early 2000s. They’re a Danish metal band, and their album from 2010, Beyond Hell/Above Heaven, it was the first one that I ever heard.

“I Smell A Massacre”

Artist: Butcher Babies Album: Goliath

“This one is definitely on the extreme side. It’s two girl lead singers with their band behind them. It’s not something I would listen to in the car very much. I would listen to it if I’m on my last set and I’m dying. It’s truly extreme, heavy metal screaming rock. When I’m just wiped, and I need every ounce of energy to get through this, that’s when ‘Butcher Babies’ comes on. The heaviest of the heavy in my playlist is what I’m going to be looking for at that point.”

“The Motherload”

Artist: Mastodon Album: Once More ‘Round the Sun

“It’s interesting, they’re almost an alternative rock band in a way. They’re heavy metal, but still have a really cool, newer wave sound. It might just be that the lead singer’s voice isn’t that gritty. He almost has an Ozzy sound to him, I would say. They’re still pretty hardcore in the music, but I like the melodies.”

“Stardust”

Artist: Gemini Syndrome Album: Lux

“They’re a newer group. They didn’t really hit until late 2014, but they’re really cool.”

“Spoonman”

Artist: Soundgarden Album: Superunknown

“I love Chris Cornell. I absolutely love his new stuff. He did Soundgarden, and I loved when he was in Audioslave. Anything he does, I’m a fan of.”

“My Hero”

Artist: Foo Fighters Album: The Colour and The Shape

“You want to talk about a range of what Foo Fighters do when it comes to songs. ‘My Hero’ is on this playlist, but some of their other songs are so different. I just really respect them as artists, and I love Dave Grohl’s voice, as well.”

“Ratfinks, Suicide Tanks and Cannibal Girls”

Artist: White Zombie Album: Beavis and Butt-Head Do America

“What got me listening to White Zombie is when the Beavis and Butt-Head Do America movie came out. It’s the scene where Beavis and Butthead are tripping in the desert, and they’re hallucinating, and that song came on and I went, ‘Whoa! What is that?’ I went and found it and I’ve been a White Zombie fan ever since.”

“Emotionless”

Artist: Red Sun Rising Album: Polyester Zeal

“They’re fairly new to the rock scene. Very talented guys, really melodic, which is what gets me in there. It starts out really cool, it’s got a slow, sexy sound, and then it just goes off. Anything that is heavy metal is going to get me going. It’s what I always listen to. I listen to the classic rock station still, and I’ll listen to an EDM song if I’m doing something more cardio based, but, basically, when I set out on my own in college, it’s been rock ever since.”

from News About Health https://www.beachbody.com/beachbodyblog/fitness/workout-playlist-joel-freeman-weights