Bad Questions 1: "Are you pregnant?"
Digging deeper down this rabbit hole — and by that I mean, more results on Google — brought up more of the same. “Never, EVER ask” and “you should never ask a woman when her baby is due unless you’re her gynecologist or you’re pretty sure you’re the baby in question’s father.” I read…
Repost: William Brooks, "Does ‘the West’ Still Exist?"
On a more nitpicky, “who cares?’ level, the so-called West is now associated with New Zealand, Japan, Israel and other countries that are East on a traditional, Euro/US-centric map. This West/East division perpetuates that these maps are more accurate than others. West is a cardinal…
Are smartphones making our breath worse? And TWO reposts!
Now, when people wait, they don't have to look around to find something to make themselves busy with or pass time. Smartphone is always there. Few people would reach for a pack of gum in boredom.
In Defense of Filming Crime
So I say we should be ashamed of the crime rates and apartheid of St. Louis, where this man managed to murder and walk the streets for hours. We should be more ashamed of the media that pushes this content on us. And we should be even more ashamed of the social media that prioritizes clicks over mental health, wanting us to see content we explicitly do not want to see, just because it gets a reaction. We should never shame the bystandards of horror for their natural reactions. After all, most of us would do the same.
Repost: Eric Schmidt, "Why Technology Will Define the Future of Geopolitics"
If necessity is the mother of invention, war is the midwife of innovation. Speaking to Ukrainians on a visit to Kyiv in the fall of 2022, I heard from many that the first months of the war were the most productive of their lives. The United States’ last truly global war—World War II—led to the widespread adoption of penicillin, a revolution in nuclear technology, and a breakthrough in computer science. Now, the United States must innovate in peacetime, faster than ever before. By failing to do so, it is eroding its ability to deter—and, if necessary, to fight and win—the next war.
Repost: Jason Crawford, "Can submarines swim?"
Did any science fiction predict that when AI arrived, it would be unreliable, often illogical, and frequently bullshitting? Usually in fiction, if the AI says something factually incorrect or illogical, that is a deep portent of something very wrong: the AI is sick, or turning evil. But in 2023, it appears to be the normal state of operation of AI chatbots such as ChatGPT or “Sydney”.
Modern Etiquette for Max Efficiency: Restaurants
Society lost it’s etiquette. We need to bring it back.
Citation Needed
Citations at the end are the, “OH! NOW I GET IT!" of writing.
Bad Teachers (Are More Influential)
Even with all the kind and great people in this beautiful world, a rotten minority can ruin it. The lesson is to ignore the rotten people and focus on the kind. I must have missed this lesson.