The passion for destruction is also a creative passion
~Michael Bakunin in The Savage God
"Unquestioned teleological bullshit" — Martin Lenz (Groningen) on a recent account of progress in philosophy
Joker dominated Oscar nominations because it captures our age perfectly
Some of the critiques of Joker are understandable but these complaints miss the forest for the trees.
How to be anonymous in the age of surveillance - Cory Doctorow - The Seattle Times: “Cory Doctorow’s sunglasses are seemingly ordinary. But they are far from it when seen on security footage, where his face is transformed into a glowing white orb. At his local credit union, bemused tellers spot the curious sight on nearby monitors and sometimes ask, “What’s going on with your head?” said Doctorow, chuckling. The frames of his sunglasses, from Chicago-based eyewear line Reflectacles, are made of a material that reflects the infrared light found in surveillance cameras and represents a fringe movement of privacy advocates experimenting with clothes, ornate makeup and accessories as a defense against some surveillance technologies. Some wearers are propelled by the desire to opt out of what has been called “surveillance capitalism” — an economy that churns human experiences into data for profit — while others fear government invasion of privacy…
Today, artificial intelligence (AI) technology, such as facial recognition, has become more widespread in public and private spaces — including schools, retail stores, airports, concert venues and even to unlock the newest iPhones. Civil-liberty groups concerned about the potential for misuse have urged politicians to regulate the systems. A recent Washington Post investigation, for instance, revealed FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents used facial recognition to scan millions of Americans’ driver’s licenses without their knowledge to identify suspects and undocumented immigrants…”
How “The Irishman” De-Aged Its Stars With Artificial Intelligence
When it came to de-aging De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino for The Irishman, the $140 million Netflix production opted for a specific kind of fountain of youth, created from artificial-intelligence software, first-of-its-kind motion-capture technology, and an experimental three-camera rigging system that rendered the Oscar-winning trio of septuagenarian actors as eerily smooth-skinned incarnations of their younger selves. – New York Magazine
What's on in Sydney: January 18-19
Wondering what to do next? Here's your guide to what's happening in Sydney this weekend and beyond.
Home surveillance captures rare footage of five mountain lions together in California
Home surveillance captures rare footage of five mountain lions together in California
Liberal elites’ secret weapon is conservative family values.
A new study by Brad Wilcox and Wendy Wang at the Institute for Family Studies lays out the real picture.
“When it comes to their own families,” the authors discovered, “California elites with kids overwhelmingly ‘live right’ in private, giving their children the benefit of growing up in a two-parent family.”
Wilcox and Wang reveal granular data showing “that some of the most elite neighborhoods in the state — including several in Hollywood and San Francisco — have virtually no single parents.”
This is a far bigger story than Hollywood’s message vs. Hollywood’s lifestyle, of course. Across the country, Americans in the upper class are much more likely to profess liberalized teachings on family and marriage while personally practicing conservative family values. Wilcox and Wang just happened to get the data for California.
When Writers Become Perfume Consultants On Twitter
Well, one writer: Rachel Syme, who, every once in a while, calls herself the Perfume Genie – and people on Twitter ask her for recommendations. She thinks, “When people are saying, I want to smell like this, they’re actually thinking, I want to appear like this to myself, which is a really interesting prompt because I think a lot of people are saying, oh, I want everybody to think I’m glamorous or take me seriously – but people aren’t going to know that through your perfume.” – NPR
Worldwide Movie Box Office Breaks Record In 2019
This is the first time worldwide exceeds $42B and the first theinternational box officeclimbs past $30B. The results come in a year when domestic dipped by 4%. – Deadline
Nope – Reading Won’t Make You Better! (But That’s Not Why To Do It)
These studies miss a bigger point by implying that reading fiction is, at its best, a tidy cause-and-effect process. Enter intellectually weak and benighted, exit emotionally toned and trim, as if a novel were the psychological equivalent of kettlebells or a Peloton bike. Fiction’s strength, though, is that it delivers not order and clear direction, but mess and evocations of our unsteady state of being. – Washington Post
Inside Google’s Quest for Millions of Medical Records Wall Street Journal. Abbreviated non-paywalled: Google can view millions of patient health records in most states Axios. Thank God I am not in an HMO or PPO…..
Inside Google’s Quest for Millions of Medical Records Wall Street Journal. Abbreviated non-paywalled: Google can view millions of patient health records in most states Axios. Thank God I am not in an HMO or PPO…..