THE TWO ARE SO INTIMATELY LINKED, IT’S HARD TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE: People Abandoned Disney Over Terrible Storytelling, Not Primarily Politics.
Archive for 2024
February 22, 2024
February 21, 2024
NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: HSBC stock falling on $3B hit from China operations.
Also unimportant and unworthy of attention: China Bans Stock Selling At Market Open, Close; Limits Shorting.
OPEN THREAD: Hump Day.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Chinese rocket engine startup Space Circling secures funding.
FIGHT THE POWER:
BREAKING: National Ms Society just released a statement backtracking on the entire story saying they were WRONG and APOLOGIZE to the 90-year-old volunteer who they forced to step down over pronouns.
“We realize now that we made a mistake.” “As an organization, we fell short.”… https://t.co/rhNSSPKQxo pic.twitter.com/5XJJjgdamm
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 21, 2024
UPDATE:
After doubling down a couple of times saying that they were correct, they apparently faced a massive backlash that threatened their revenue stream. So now they’re contrite.
This isn’t an apology. It’s a plea forget what they did so they can get back to business as usual.
It’s…
— Phillip Jackson (@PEJ1952) February 21, 2024
TAR, FEATHERS. MAYBE WORSE. Here We Go Again: US, China to Collaborate on Making Bird Flu More Infectious.
THEY’RE ALWAYS IN THE LAST PLACE YOU LOOK: Dwarf Planets at Our Solar System’s Frozen Edge Could Be Hiding Warm Oceans.
IN MY LATEST SUBSTACK POST, Adam Goldstein and I reflect on my recent appearance on PBS NewsHour where I debated a DEI admin whose position was that the problem is that we don’t have enough DEI.
I THINK THEY MEAN “INHABITED,” NOT “HABITABLE.” Titan, Saturn’s Largest Moon, Most Likely Not Habitable. “A study led by Western astrobiologist Catherine Neish shows the subsurface ocean of Titan – the largest moon of Saturn – is most likely a non-habitable environment, meaning any hope of finding life in the icy world is dead in the water.”
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: This Is Why We Can’t Enjoy a Burger and Fries “As far as I’m concerned, the affordability of food is the best or at least the first measure of the economic health of a nation.”
MICROBIOME NEWS: “Gut Health” claims are exaggerated. Gut health is important, but “gut health” cookies are still cookies.
MEN GOING GALT: I will be doing a live interview with the Atlas Society today, Wed. Feb 21st at 5 eastern time. You can join the interview live or ask questions on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter at the link. I would love to hear from Instapundit readers. (Bumped)
TOYOTA LAND CRUISER PRICE DROP: Starting at $57,345, it’s a tremendous price drop from the last model back in 2021.
THEY HAVEN’T BANNED THEM FOR RESIDENTS YET… YET: Colorado bans state agency use of gas-powered lawn equipment.
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Who Had ‘Scientists Suggest We Rethink Cannibalism’ on Their 2024 Bingo Card?
MY LATEST SUBSTACK POST about my recent appearance on PBS NewsHour marshals data and examples to prove that DEI initiatives are ineffective AND crush free speech on campus.
“[T]he greater the relative size of the DEI bureaucracy at a university, the more discomfort students feel expressing their views on social media and in informal conversations with other students in the campus ‘quad, dining hall, or lounge’
READER FAVORITE: Apple AirPods (3rd Generation) Wireless Ear Buds. #CommissionEarned
ANOTHER SELF-INFLICTED WOUND: Guess Who’s Closing Stores in Chicago Now.
HMM: ‘AI godfather’, others urge more deepfake regulation in open letter.
The letter, titled “Disrupting the Deepfake Supply Chain,” makes recommendations on how to regulate deepfakes, including full criminalization of deepfake child pornography, criminal penalties for any individual knowingly creating or facilitating the spread of harmful deepfakes and requiring AI companies to prevent their products from creating harmful deepfakes.
As of Wednesday morning, over 400 individuals from various industries including academia, entertainment and politics had signed the letter.
Signatories included Steven Pinker, a Harvard psychology professor, Joy Buolamwini, founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, two former Estonian presidents, researchers at Google GOOGL.O DeepMind and a researcher from OpenAI.
Ensuring AI systems do not harm society has been a priority for regulators since Microsoft-backed MSFT.O OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT in late 2022, which wowed users by engaging them in human-like conversation and performing other tasks.
There have been multiple warnings from prominent individuals about AI risks, notably a letter signed by Elon Musk last year that called for a six-month pause in developing systems more powerful than OpenAI’s GPT-4 AI model.
The quandary is that the people who would do the regulating have blown any trust they might have once had that they would regulate fairly.
THIS IS KIND OF COOL: Delta Airlines offers flight in path of April 8 solar eclipse. “To celebrate the next solar eclipse on April 8, Delta Air Lines is offering a flight from Austin, Texas, to Detroit to give passengers time in the path of totality.”
IT WAS NEVER A SOLID THEORY, BARELY A HYPOTHESIS: The Theory That Mail-in Voting Is Secure Just Died a Horrible Death.