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After two years, X CEO Linda Yaccarino is stepping down from her role. The rest of humanity won't escape so easily. The move comes shortly after X's AI Grok spent a day going full Nazi, praising Hitler and attacking Jews. The Atlantic (Gift Article): Elon Musk’s Grok Is Calling for a New Holocaust. "The year is 2025, and an AI model belonging to the richest man in the world has turned into a neo-Nazi. Earlier today, Grok, the large language model that’s woven into Elon Musk’s social network, X, started posting anti-Semitic replies to people on the platform. Grok praised Hitler for his ability to 'deal with' anti-white hate." The outbursts came after the Grok model was tweaked to be less politically correct. (And, really, who isn't tired of the woke idea that Hitler was bad?) It's easy to write off the almost comically evil replies from a second-rate AI program as just another isolated story of internet ridiculousness. But AI programs are everywhere now, as they quickly become our primary interface with the internet. The way the internet and social media has been used to smash truth and destroy reality will seem like a quaint warm-up act compared to potential for AI to create, share, and indoctrinate the masses with misinformation. And the rise of this technology is only accelerating. Nvidia, the tech giant that makes the chips and hardware that powers much of our AI, just became the first company to reach $4 trillion in market value. From health advances to clean energy discoveries, many things about these new technologies will be beneficial. But as we learned with the old internet, the most powerful people and corporations don't always have our best interests at heart. I hope I'm misreading things, but it sure seems like the future of what people view as true and real will depend largely on how a few powerful people decide to tweak their code.
2
Less is Not More
"Paul Yura, the long-serving meteorologist in charge of 'warning coordination' had recently taken an unplanned early retirement amid cuts pushed by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. He was not replaced. To a Washington bean counter, his loss might have looked like one tiny but welcome subtraction in a giant spreadsheet, but not in a region so prone to these perilous events that it’s known as Flash Flood Alley. Hundreds of kids at summer camps slept in cabins along the river. The plan was for folks at the upstream camps to send word to the downstream camps if floodwaters got scary. But if even the highest official in the county wasn’t on high alert, how were the camp counselors supposed to understand the danger — or, in an area without reliable cellphone coverage, to act on it?" Zeynep Tufekci in the NYT (Gift Article): As the Texas Floodwaters Rose, One Indispensable Voice Was Silent.
3
Soak Up the Sun
"There are lots of other technologies vying to replace fossil fuels or to reduce climate damage: nuclear power, hydrogen power, carbon capture and storage; along with renewables, all were boosted by spending provisions in Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and will be hampered to varying degrees by congressional rollbacks. Some may prove useful in the long run and others illusory, but for now they are statistically swamped by the sheer amount of renewable power coming online. Globally, roughly a third more power is being generated from the sun this spring than last. If this exponential rate of growth can continue, we will soon live in a very different world." Bill McKibben in The New Yorker: 4.6 Billion Years On, the Sun Is Having a Moment. (This gives me hope for the planet ... and that I may still have time to live up to my potential.)
4
Dropping a Deuce
"White House trade adviser Peter Navarro predicted '90 deals in 90 days.' Administration officials declared that other countries were desperate to make concessions to avoid the massive import taxes – tariffs -- that Trump was threatening to plaster on their products starting July 9. But the 90 days have come and gone. And the tally of trade deals stands at two." Trump’s trade blitz produces few deals but lots of uncertainty. It's notable that market is reacting less and less to financially damaging tariff announcements because the market doesn't believe the threats anymore. Either that, or the market is in denial.
+ None of this is to suggest that the tariffs aren't having very big impacts, especially on very small countries where citizens are on the receiving end of misinformation-fueled cruelty for cruelty's sake. Trump tariffs create national disaster for tiny Lesotho. "When Limpho Lefalatsa first learned she had lost her job at a Lesotho garment factory after 12 years due to U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to hit her tiny African homeland with a crippling tariff on its exports, she was in shock. 'I thought I was going insane. It made no sense.'" (We know the feeling.)
5
Extra, Extra
Throwing Off the Mask: "The new law allocates $75 billion for ICE through 2029 to order as many as 10,000 new agents and to build detention facilities for more than 100,000 additional people. 'It makes ICE a higher-funded law enforcement agency than the entire FBI, ATF, DEA, US Marshals Service and Bureau of Prisons combined.'" Meet the new national police force.
+ Try Sticks and Stones: "The Russian leader is convinced that Moscow’s battlefield superiority is growing, and that Ukraine’s defenses may collapse in the coming months." NYT: Putin, Undeterred by Trump’s Words, Escalates His War Against Ukraine. (It turns out words and social media posts don't win wars.) And more questions about who, if anyone, is in charge. "Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not inform President Donald Trump or the White House before authorizing a pause on the delivery of weapons to Ukraine last week, according to a report."
+ Make Measles Great Again: U.S. measles cases hit highest level in 33 years, CDC reports.
+ The Fire and the Flood: "At least three people were killed by historic flash floods that hit a New Mexico mountain community that suffered devastating wildfires last year." (This story includes shocking video of a house floating down the street.)
+ Profit of Doom: "As commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick oversees the U.S. government’s vast efforts to monitor and predict the weather. The billionaire also ran a financial firm, which he recently left in the control of his adult sons, that stands to benefit if President Donald Trump’s administration follows through on a decade-long Republican effort to privatize government weather forecasting." Trump appointees have ties to companies that stand to benefit from privatizing weather forecasts.
+ Kevin Can Wait: "In November, Margaret climbed into her Toyota Camry, left her husband of 10 years at their comfortable brick home in the rural South and drove an hour to a hotel where — she was sure — Kevin Costner was coming to meet her." “I Love You. Send Bitcoin.” Inside the Billion-Dollar Celebrity Impersonation Scam.
+ Trailer Trash: Thanks to streaming and fast-forwarding, you may not see as many commercials on television these days. If you miss them, just go to a theater. "AMC is providing notice to their ticket buyers to 'Please allow 25-30 extra minutes for trailers and additional content before the movie starts.'"
+ Arm Candy: "Along with the insulin pump around her waist, the doll has a Continuous Glucose Monitor on her arm—held in place with 'Barbie pink' tape—and a phone displaying her blood sugar statistics." Mattel’s introduces the Type 1 Diabetes Barbie Doll.
6
Bottom of the News
"That’s right, Shakespeare was a stoner. I’m not making this up—they found the evidence in his backyard. Back in 2001, some anthropologists got permission from a museum to borrow twenty-four clay pipe fragments that had been dug up in the small town of Stratford-upon-Avon, where Shakespeare used to live. Using state-of-the-art forensic technology, the anthropologists discovered cannabis residue on eight of them—including several from Shakespeare’s backyard garden—that dated back to the late 1500s/early 1600s, around the time he actually lived there." Did Shakespeare Write Hamlet While He Was Stoned? (You think he managed iambic pentameter sober?)
Falstaff Sized Munchies Result From My Bong / To Be or Not to Be Like Cheech and Chong