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The False Romance of Russia – The Atlantic

Posted: December 13, 2019 at 6:52 pm


Read: Russias twin nostalgias

In his landmark 1981 book, Political Pilgrims: Travels of Western Intellectuals to the Soviet Union, China, and Cuba, Paul Hollander wrote of the hospitality showered on sympathetic Western visitors to the Communist world: the banquets in Moscow thrown for George Bernard Shaw, the feasts laid out for Mary McCarthy and Susan Sontag in North Vietnam. But his conclusion was that these performances were not the key to explaining why some Western intellectuals became enamored of communism. Far more important was their estrangement and alienation from their own cultures: Intellectuals critical of their own society proved highly susceptible to the claims put forward by the leaders and spokesmen of the societies they inspected in the course of these travels.

Hollander was writing about left-wing intellectuals in the 20th century, and many such people are still around, paying court to left-wing dictators in Venezuela or Bolivia who dislike America. There are also, in our society as in most others, quite a few people who are paid to help Americas enemies, or to spread their propaganda. There always have been.

But in the 21st century, we must also contend with a new phenomenon: right-wing intellectuals, now deeply critical of their own societies, who have begun paying court to right-wing dictators who dislike America. And their motives are curiously familiar. All around them, they see degeneracy, racial mixing, demographic change, political correctness, same-sex marriage, religious decline. The America that they actually inhabit no longer matches the white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant America that they remember, or think they remember. And so they have begun to look abroad, seeking to find the spiritually unified, ethnically pure nations that, they imagine, are morally stronger than their own. Nations, for example, such as Russia.

The pioneer of this search was Patrick Buchanan, the godfather of the modern so-called alt-right, whose feelings about foreign authoritarians shifted right about the time he started writing books with titles such as The Death of the West and Suicide of a Superpower. His columns pour scorn on modern America, a place he once described, with disgust, as a multicultural, multiethnic, multiracial, multilingual universal nation whose avatar is Barack Obama. Buchanans America is in demographic decline, has been swamped by beige and brown people, and has lost its virtue. The West, he has written, has succumbed to a sexual revolution of easy divorce, rampant promiscuity, pornography, homosexuality, feminism, abortion, same-sex marriage, euthanasia, assisted suicidethe displacement of Christian values by Hollywood values.

This litany of horrors isnt much different from what can be heard most nights on Fox News. Listen to Tucker Carlson. The American dream is dying, Carlson declared one recent evening, in a monologue that also referred to the dark age that we are living through. Carlson has also spent a lot of time on air reminiscing about how the United States was a better country than it is now in a lot of ways, back when it was more cohesive. And no wonder: Immigrants have plundered America, thanks to decadent and narcissistic politicians who refuse to defend the nation. You can read worse on the white-supremacist websites of the alt-rightdo pick up a copy of Ann Coulters Adios America: The Lefts Plan to Turn Our Country Into a Third World Hellholeor hear more extreme sentiments in some evangelical churches. Franklin Graham has declared, for example, that America is in deep trouble and on the verge of total moral and spiritual collapse.

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The False Romance of Russia - The Atlantic

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December 13th, 2019 at 6:52 pm

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Let’s All Revel in the Rightwing Outrage Over Greta Thunberg Being Named TIME’s Person of the Year – The Mary Sue

Posted: at 6:52 pm


If theres one guarantee around TIMEs Person of the Year, its that no matter who the magazine chooses, its bound to upset a lot of people. Despite the fact that the title is based on impact, not honor, dubbing someone person of the year still reads to most people as an endorsement.

The magazines Person of the Year for 2019 is Greta Thunberg, a choice that has sent all the worst people spiraling into major tantrum territory.

Donald Trump hasnt tweeted about Thunberg yet (Update: Yes he has),but its hard to imagine hes not fuming. Not only has he publicly mocked the young climate activist in the recent past, but he has a long history of being obsessed with TIME Magazine. He famously hung fake TIME covers featuring himself in his golf clubs. In 2012, he tweeted I knew last year that @TIME Magazine lost all credibility when they didnt include me in their Top 100. In 2013, when he wasnt on that list again, he called it a joke and stunt of a magazine. In 2015, when Angela Merkel was picked, he tweeted, I told you @TIME Magazine would never pick me as person of the year despite being the big favorite They picked person who is ruining Germany. In 2016, he actuallywas named Person of the Year but by 2017, he was back to pouting about it.

Before Trump the elder got around to commenting on Thunberg, his dopey son was more than eager to pick up the slack.

The Hong Kong protesters were on TIMEs shortlist and clearly, theirs is a cause that means a lot to Trump Jr. Just kidding, these are literally his only two tweets about Hong Kong since the protests started:

image: screenshot

Hes expressed even less support for the protesters than his father, who has said next to nothing on the issue.

Trump Jr. isnt the only person ranting about TIMEs Thunberg pick. Its a big day for terrible people sharing their garbage opinions online.

Former Trump aide Seb Gorka retweeted this one:

For the record, Thunberg is only the fifth individual woman or girl to be named person of the year in the 90-plus-year history of the title. But concern trolls are gonna troll, no matter what.

Whether or not you agree with this one magazines ultimately arbitrary assessment that Thunberg and what she represents deserve this recognitionand she herself notably does not!there are plenty of ways to express that that dont involve being a belligerent jerk to a teenager.

(image: Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images) Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!

The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.

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Let's All Revel in the Rightwing Outrage Over Greta Thunberg Being Named TIME's Person of the Year - The Mary Sue

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December 13th, 2019 at 6:52 pm

Posted in Ann Coulter

Tucker Carlson Hosts White Supremacist on Show – Patheos

Posted: at 6:52 pm


Tucker Carlson, who is beloved by white supremacists, hosted a political candidate on his show this week who also appears to be a white supremacist. Pete DAbrosca is running for a seat in Congress and has been widely praised by the most extreme right-wing figures and organizations, including InfoWars and VDARE.

Fox News Tucker Carlson recently hosted Pete DAbrosca, a congressional candidate who has ties to white nationalism and has supported the bigoted, anti-immigrant campaign of a group known as groypers, who are trolling conservative public events with anti-Semitic dog whistles and other hateful rhetoric.

Since DAbrosca announced his congressional bid and anti-immigrant platform over the summer, hes been lauded by far-right personalities and publications including Ann Coulter and the white nationalist publication VDare and appeared on the conspiracy theory outlet Infowars (which he had also appeared on before). In that most recent appearance, he agreed with the host that Democrats get elected through illegal voting and defended the leader of the groypers, a far-right media figure, Holocaust denier, and pro-segregation activist named Nick Fuentes who hosts America First on YouTube

Lets be blunt and call a spade a spade: Tucker Carlson is a white supremacist. He tries to cover it with veneer of mainstream conservatism, but it comes shining through far too often to be deniable.

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Tucker Carlson Hosts White Supremacist on Show - Patheos

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December 13th, 2019 at 6:52 pm

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American Jews know anti-Semitism is a problem on the right. Why are Jewish organizations increasingly letting it slide? – JTA News

Posted: at 6:52 pm


BERKELEY, Calif. (JTA) There are the makings of a rebellion brewing in the mainstream American Jewish community.

Its not a Jexodus, the rights quixotic dream that Jews will migrate en masse to the Republican Party.

It is a potential rebellion of the median Jew: pro-Israel, pro-two states and perfectly comfortable sitting among the 71 percent of Jews who voted for Hillary Clinton. The sort of Jew who isconcerned aboutleft-wing anti-Semitism on college campuses,but knows well enough to be more concerned aboutdeadly right-wing anti-Semitism.

The issue is simple: The Republican Party, from Donald Trump on down, has a huge anti-Semitism problem. Yet too many American Jewish organizations, which purport to represent the Jewish mainstream, are tiptoeing around it.

When pressed absolutely up against the wall, they might issue a timid plea to speak more carefully a mild rebuke that still usually comes wrapped in an insulating layer of gratitude for pro-Israel gestures.

Most Jews are not fools. We know there is a connection between the scare-mongering aboutSoros globalistsand cultural Marxists andcosmopolitan elites rhetoric that has become the conservative movements primary tool of political mobilization and the surge in anti-Semitic harassment, marginalization and violence that has plagued Jews in recent years.

Were tired of our own establishment organizations talking a big game about fighting anti-Semitism wherever it lies, only to supplicate themselves to a man and a party who has regularly and consistently trafficked in anti-Semitic tropes in pursuit of a political vision radically antagonistic to the values of American Jews.

The latest group to abdicate its duty? The American Jewish Committee.

Eyes fell on the AJC again this week afterPresident Trump, in remarks to the Israeli American Council, suggested that Jews arent nice people, would vote for him primarily to protect our own wealth and are disloyal to Israel. He even threw in an anti-Native American racial slur for good measure.

The AJC, which justinaugurated a social media campaign to Translate Hate,should have been especially attuned to what was happening here.

Trump has repeatedly hit on all of these anti-Semitic themes before. Hes complained thatJews wont back him because he doesnt want your money. Hes told American Jews that Israel is your country.

In many ways, Trumps IAC speech perfectly encapsulated the emerging conservative consensus about American Jews: Were disloyal to America in favor of our actual country, Israel, to which were also disloyal. Ann Coulter, at least, heard the message loud and clear:

Yet instead of a robust condemnation of yet another anti-Semitic indulgence from the president of the United States, the AJCs reply stood out from the rest of the Jewish community for adopting a tone that can only be described as groveling:

Well gosh, Id hate if Donald Trump hit a mine on the road to appealing to Jewish voters. He might get hurt!

Somehow a statement that purports to condemn Trumps anti-Semitism seemed to express more concern about Trumps well-being than that of the Jews. More than a few observers contrasted the wishy-washy response given to Trump with the AJCs considerably more robust reply to Rep. Ilhan Omars Benjamins remark:

The AJCs approach to Omar was not prefaced with sincere appreciation for her political accomplishments, nor couched in language that suggested they were primarily concerned with her well-being. She gets unadulterated scorn, and the AJC will never, ever let her forget it.

Apologists contend that kid gloves are warranted for the president because he and his party are pro-Israel unwavering, as the AJC gratuitously put it at the opening of its gentle admonishment.

The message? Being pro-Israel (or at least pro-Likud) isa get-out-of-anti-Semitism-free card. Groups like the AJC are sending the message that the correct positions on Israel will suffice to forgive any amount of anti-Semitism in America.

And Republicans have felt entitled to play that card, again and again, to wash away increasingly more brazen anti-Semitic indulgences.

Invite a Holocaust denier to the State of the Union, as Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., did?

Dont worry, hes a champion of Israel!

Say the Republican Party is controlled by the Jewish lobby, as former Minnesota congressman (and Trump-endorsed GOP Senate candidate) Jason Lewis did?

Its fine these are not my views about American support for Israel, period.

Even where other Jewish organizations have clearly and robustly condemned Republican anti-Semitism,the media (both Jewish and non-Jewish) routinely fails to follow up. There are no dogged demands for comment, no monthlong storylines about the GOPs anti-Semitism crisis.

Repeated instances of conservative anti-Semitic rhetoric are routinely glossed over and effectively forgiven even asRepublicans defiantly refuse to apologize for them. They spit in the face of the American Jewish majority, then have the chutzpah to call themselves defenders of the Jews and theyre allowed to get away with it largely without question.

Bari Weiss famously justified putting more intense focus onleft-wing anti-Semitismbecause it is supposedly more insidious than the right-wing variety: harder to spot, more easily integrated into reputable political, academic or media circles.

Yet we do not lack for organizing or editorials against left-wing anti-Semitism. If there is a form of anti-Semitism that has truly resisted consistent registration on the public radar, it is mainstream right-wing anti-Semitism.

On the mainstream right, we see conspiracy theories aboutJews buying Congressor trafficking migrants or orchestrating impeachment allowed to run rampant in the highest levels of government and in the most influential sectors of the media. And when they do predictably explode intovandalism, harassment or violence, few dare hold accountable the mainstream actors from political officials to Fox News mouthpieces who so eagerly served up the toxic stew.

Whats bizarre is thatthe AJCs own polling decisively demonstrates how far it has deviated from American Jewish priorities. This year, 78 percent of American Jews told the AJC that anti-Semitism on the extreme right represents a very or moderately serious threat, compared to 36 percent for the extreme left.

When it comes to attributing blame to political parties, the numbers are just as stark. Asked to assign responsibility for current levels of anti-Semitism on a 1-10 scale, Jews gave Republicans a median score of 7 compared to a 3 for Democrats.

When the political apparatuses of the American right from the president to Congress to Fox News repeatedly and regularly transmit anti-Semitic conspiracies of the worst sort, injecting them into American political discourse and normalizing them as a feature of American public life, it is not innocent. It needs a clarion response. We are screaming for the communal institutions that represent us to reflect this reality to reflect our reality when representing us on a political stage.

In fact, just this summer, the AJC expressed outrage at President Trumps comments today criticizing American Jews who support and vote for Democratic candidates, calling it shockingly divisive and unbecoming of the occupant of the highest elected office, and the comments inappropriate, unwelcome, and downright dangerous. What has changed since then? How is it that Trump can double-down on his anti-Semitism and get an effective green light on it?

The AJC needs to think very carefully about its future if it continues along this path. What is the use ofan organization that describes itself as the Jewish State Department if it stops reflecting the interests and preferences of most Jews? Increasingly Jews mainstream Jews are asking ourselves that very question.

In the meantime, American Jews will continue to fight anti-Semitism vigorously and unsparingly wherever it manifests. No distractions. No free passes. No timidity.

If the American Jewish Committee is interested in actually representing the American Jewish community, it should stand by us.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

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American Jews know anti-Semitism is a problem on the right. Why are Jewish organizations increasingly letting it slide? - JTA News

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December 13th, 2019 at 6:52 pm

Posted in Ann Coulter

POLITICO Playbook: Inside the Gridiron – Politico

Posted: at 6:52 pm


"To me, Chicago is a lot like the White House. They both have a large and vibrant Russian community," former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel said at the Gridiron winter dinner. | Scott Olson/Getty Images

A FEW FUNNIES from the GRIDIRON WINTER DINNER: RAHM EMANUEL: Here we are, on December 7, the day the president reminds us that Ukraine bombed Pearl Harbor Some more about me: Im Jewish, so like Elizabeth Warren, Im a member of the tribe. To me, Chicago is a lot like the White House. They both have a large and vibrant Russian community I see cameras are banned from this event, which explains why AOC is not here

HILLARY CLINTON is now saying many, many, many people are now asking her to run. So now lets cut to the chase: are any of those people from Wisconsin, Michigan or Pennsylvania? In fact, are any of them Democrats? Joe [Biden] says he cannot remember when hes had more fun on the campaign trail. Literally: he cannot remember

SEN. ROY BLUNT (R-MO.): Im really known by most of these reporters or at least referred to by most of these reporters as unnamed source Why is it in Washington everytime someone wants to do something nefarious they go incognito, they pick suggestive names like Deep Throat, or Carlos Danger, or Pierre Delecto, or Wolf Blitzer or Carl Leubsdorf. Names you couldnt possibly get any other way besides making them up.

NOT AT THE GRIDIRON THE PRESIDENT, last night in Hollywood, Fla., at the Israeli American Councils national meeting on a Middle East peace deal, via MERIDITH MCGRAW, who was with the president: I love deals and I was told the toughest of all deals is peace with Israel and the Palestinians. But if Jared Kushner can't do it, it can't be done." Meridiths story

-- MIAMI HERALD on the Florida GOP dinner TRUMP attended: He also pulled an unusual move, bringing on stage Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance and Maj. Mathew Golsteyn, who Trump pardoned last month for cases involving war crimes. Lorance was serving a 19-year sentence for ordering his soldiers shoot at unarmed men in Afghanistan, and Golsteyn was to stand trial for the 2010 extrajudicial killing of a suspected bomb maker. Miami Herald

THE SHOOTING IN PENSACOLA

-- WAPO: Investigation broadened in Pensacola Navy base shooting, by T.S. Strickland in Pensacola, Ellen Nakashima, Joby Warrick and Hannah Knowles: FBI officials broadened their probe Saturday into the deadly shooting rampage at a Navy flight school here amid reports that several of the gunmans Saudi compatriots took video footage as the attack was underway.

Law enforcement officials combed through the shooters belongings and social media accounts on Saturday while questioning six other Saudi nationals, at least some of them fellow students in the same Navy flight training program. Three of the Saudis were said to have taken cellphone video at the scene, according to a U.S. official familiar with investigation. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing probe. WaPo

-- AP/PENSACOLA: Official: Base shooter watched shooting videos before attack: The Saudi student who fatally shot three sailors at a U.S. naval base in Florida hosted a dinner party earlier in the week where he and three others watched videos of mass shootings, a U.S. official told The Associated Press on Saturday. AP

-- PENSACOLA NEWS JOURNAL on the victims: Airman Mohammed Sameh Hathaim, 19, from St. Petersburg, Florida. He enlisted July 18 and reported to the Recruit Training Command at Great Lakes, Illinois. He reported to Pensacola on Sept. 21 and had earned the Navy Basic Military Training Honor Graduate Ribbon.

Ensign Joshua Kaleb Watson, 23, from Coffee, Alabama. He was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis who was commissioned May 24 and reported for duty in Pensacola on Nov. 15. Airman Apprentice Cameron Scott Walters, 21, from Richmond Hill, Georgia. He enlisted Sept. 16 and also reported to the Recruit Training Command at Great Lakes before he reported to Pensacola on Nov. 24. PNJ

-- NYTS DAVID SANGER in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.: For Trump, Instinct After Florida Killings Is Simple: Protect Saudis: When a Saudi Air Force officer opened fire on his classmates at a naval base in Pensacola, Fla., on Friday, he killed three, wounded eight and exposed anew the strange dynamic between President Trump and the Saudi leadership: The presidents first instinct was to tamp down any suggestion that the Saudi government needed to be held to account.

Hours later, Mr. Trump announced on Twitter that he had received a condolence call from King Salman of Saudi Arabia, who clearly sought to ensure that the episode did not further fracture their relationship. On Saturday, leaving the White House for a trip here for a Republican fund-raiser and a speech on Israeli-American relations, Mr. Trump told reporters that they are devastated in Saudi Arabia, noting that the king will be involved in taking care of families and loved ones. He never used the word terrorism.

What was missing was any assurance that the Saudis would aid in the investigation, help identify the suspects motives, or answer the many questions about the vetting process for a coveted slot at one of the countrys premier schools for training allied officers. Or, more broadly, why the United States continues to train members of the Saudi military even as that same military faces credible accusations of repeated human rights abuses in Yemen, including the dropping of munitions that maximize civilian casualties.

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SUNDAY BEST NEW SCREENING OF FOREIGNERS ... CHRIS WALLACE spoke to DEFENSE SECRETARY MARK ESPER on FOX NEWS SUNDAY: ESPER: One of the first things I did yesterday, in the wake of this incident, was I spoke to my deputy secretary, the acting Navy secretary and others to say I want to immediately make sure we put out an advisory to all of our bases, installations and facilities and make sure we're taking all necessary precautions appropriate to the particular base to make sure our people are safe and secure. That's number one. Number two, I ask that we begin a review of what our screening procedures are with regard to foreign nationals coming to the United States.

ON THE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE KINGDOM GEORGE STEPAHANOPOULOS spoke to REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FLA.) on ABCS THIS WEEK: GAETZ: Of course, what happened in Pensacola has to inform on our ongoing relationship with Saudi Arabia. That is the message I directly delivered to the Saudi ambassador when she called to offer her condolences.

There are Saudis that are currently with us that are being investigated, and I made the point as clearly as I possibly could that we want no interference from the kingdom as it relates to Saudis that we have, and if there are Saudis that we do not have that may have been involved in any way in the planning, inspiration, financing or execution of this, that we expect Saudi intelligence to work with our government to find the people accountable and hold them responsible.

A message from BP:

NOW FOR IMPEACHMENT

-- NEW CHUCK TODD spoke to REP. JERRY NADLER (D-N.Y.) on NBCS MEET THE PRESS. NADLER said articles of impeachment coming THIS WEEK: There will be a lot of consultations, I assume, between members of the committee, with the House leadership, with members of the House. And we'll have to make those decisions. So we'll bring articles of impeachment, presumably, before the committee at some point later in the week.

-- PERHAPS A VOTE LATER, NADLER told DANA BASH on CNNS STATE OF THE UNION: BASH: Is it possible that you are going to vote on articles of impeachment this coming week? NADLER: It's possible. I don't know. BASH: Is that your goal? NADLER: My goal is to vote -- is to do this.... BASH: In terms of the timeline. NADLER: My goal is to do it as expeditiously, but as fairly as possible, depending how long it takes.

KYLE CHENEY and DARREN SAMUELSOHN: House Dems refresh Nixon-era impeachment report for Trump: The staff of the House Judiciary Committee on Saturday issued a historic report laying the groundwork to impeach President Donald Trump, outlining in Constitutional terms what the panel believes amounts to an impeachable offense.

Chairman Jerrold Nadler described the 55-page analysis as the heir to the only similar report produced by the Judiciary Committee, which was released during the impeachment proceedings against Richard Nixon. That document was updated during the Bill Clinton impeachment but not fully rewritten. The 55-page report

SCENE SETTER MARK LEIBOVICH and NICK FANDOS on NYT, A1: Behind the Scenes of Impeachment: Crammed Offices, Late Nights, Cold Pizza: In cramped spaces in the Rayburn and Longworth House Office Buildings, as well as the speakers suite, the final articles of impeachment are being incubated in the shadow of the Capitol dome. It is a frantic backstage tableau of Washington anthropology, populated by Judiciary and Intelligence Committee aides, lawmakers and counsels hunched over computer screens and yellow legal pads.

History can get cluttered sometimes. The rooms are littered with empty soda cans, pie leftover from Thanksgiving and boxes pulled from shelves containing files from past impeachments. There are recurrent calls for tech support, caffeine and blankets, because the rooms can get cold, like the pizza. With so much grand talk about constitutional duties and respecting the founders and honoring oaths, there is also the mundane and the workaday. NYT

ALSO FROM MATT GAETZ on THIS WEEK On RUDY GIULIANIS trip to UKRAINE: It is weird that he's over there. REP. MARK MEADOWS said this to DANA BASH on CNNS STATE OF THE UNION: I don't know that any role -- I don't know of any role that Rudy Giuliani is playing on behalf of the president of the United States. I think he's over there as a citizen. I think part of that is probably trying to clear his name.

SNEAK PEEK THE PRESIDENTS WEEK: Monday: PRESIDENT TRUMP will have lunch with VP MIKE PENCE, and will participate in a roundtable on empowering families with education choice Tuesday: THE PRESIDENT will travel to Hershey, Pa., for a political rally. Wednesday: THE PRESIDENT will go to the ceremonial swearing in of Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette, and he will host a Hanukkah reception.

Thursday: THE PRESIDENT will speak at the White House Summit on Child Care and Paid Leave: Supporting Americas Working Families, and will attend the Congressional Ball. Friday: The president of PARAGUAY will be at the White House.

A message from BP:

Good Sunday morning. SPOTTED: Hillary Clinton at Politics and Prose on Connecticut Avenue Saturday evening. Photos, via Kate Woodsome

HARTFORD COURANT FRONT PAGE: Low-profile prosecutor leads high-profile hunt: John Durham of Connecticut digs into origin of Trump collusion claims

A DAN DIAMOND CLASSIC: Medicare chief asked taxpayers to cover stolen jewelry: A top Trump health appointee sought to have taxpayers reimburse her for the costs of jewelry, clothing and other possessions, including a $5,900 Ivanka Trump-brand pendant, that were stolen while in her luggage during a work-related trip, according to documents obtained by POLITICO.

Seema Verma, who runs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, filed a $47,000 claim for lost property on Aug. 20, 2018, after her bags were stolen while she was giving a speech in San Francisco the prior month. The property was not insured, Verma wrote in her filing to the Health and Human Services department.

The federal health department ultimately reimbursed Verma $2,852.40 for her claim, a CMS spokesperson said. Vermas claim included $43,065 for about two dozen pieces of jewelry, based off an appraisal she'd received from a jeweler about three weeks after the theft. Among Verma's stolen jewelry was an Ivanka Trump-brand pendant, made of gold, prasiolite and diamonds, that Vermas jeweler valued at $5,900.

Vermas claim also included about $2,000 to cover the cost of her stolen clothes and another $2,000 to cover the cost of other stolen goods, including a $325 claim for moisturizer and a $349 claim for noise-cancelling headphones.

FRONT PAGE OF THE LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER: Bevin mum on contract to investigate Steve Beshear

2020 WATCH

-- WAPOS DAN BALZ: Will impeachment be forgotten by November 2020? Dont be so sure.

-- BOSTON GLOBES JAMES PINDELL: Tiny Dixville Notch may see its midnight tradition disappear: [W]ith the 2020 New Hampshire presidential primary less than 10 weeks away, it is increasingly likely that the Dixville Notch tradition is dead, victim of a shrinking population too small to meet the legal threshold of five residents to be a polling place.

It is what it is, said Tom Tillotson, one of four residents of Dixville Notch, the town moderator and son of the creator of the midnight voting concept in the unincorporated town. This is obviously not what I wanted to see happen.

The probable demise of the Dixville tradition comes as the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary is fading in other ways. The small house parties, face-to-face glad handing, and herculean efforts to secure endorsements from small-town officials have given way to national polls, cable-TV debates, and rock-star candidates who command arenas from day one. Boston Globe Front page PDF

-- WAPO: Mike Bloombergs money buys him a very different kind of campaign. And its a big one, by Isaac-Stanley Becker and Michael Scherer, with an Augusta, Ga., dateline: After two weeks in the presidential race, Mike Bloomberg now employs one of the largest campaign staff rosters, has spent more money on ads than all the top-polling Democrats combined and is simultaneously building out ground operations in 27 states.

But when the former New York mayor showed up to get the endorsement of Augusta Mayor Hardie Davis Jr. on Friday, only two of the 10 chairs initially placed before the lectern were occupied. When Bloomberg joked about his college years, saying he was one of the students who made the top half of the class possible, he was met by silence.

Youre supposed to laugh at that, folks, Bloomberg said to a room at the citys African American history museum filled mostly with staff and media. For a normal presidential campaign, such moments would be a worrying sign, a potentially viral metaphor for a struggling effort. But with the Bloomberg campaign, it is not at all clear what established rules apply, if any. Everything he is doing is so unlike what has been done for decades that it is difficult to decipher how voters will react. WaPo

THE PRESIDENTS SUNDAY THE PRESIDENT and first lady are scheduled to attend a Childrens Reception at 12:30 p.m. in the Blue Room.

PHOTO DU JOUR: A U.S. Marine stands in front of the USS Missouri on Saturday, during a ceremony to mark the 78th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. | Caleb Jones/AP Photo

TOP-ED KATIE HILL in the NYT: Its Not Over After All: I overcame the desperation I felt after stepping down from Congress, and Im still in the fight.

BONUS GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman (@dlippman):

-- Video Games and Online Chats Are Hunting Grounds for Sexual Predators, by NYTs Nellie Bowles and Michael H. Keller: Criminals are making virtual connections with children through gaming and social media platforms. One popular site warns visitors, Please be careful. NYT

-- Why Mike Posner Walked Across America, by Caitlin Giddings in Outside Magazine: Years after he took that pill in Ibiza, Grammy nominee Mike Posner left behind his life in L.A. to go on a 2,851-mile journey in search of... something. Heres what he learned about grief, motivation, struggle, and authenticity. Outside

-- The Epic Rise and Hard Fall of New Yorks Taxi King, by NYTs Brian M. Rosenthal: A Russian immigrant and a cabdrivers son who got his nickname by building the citys biggest fleet, [Evgeny A.] Freidman was a primary architect of some of the tactics used to build the bubble ... At the height of the market, he had accumulated $525 million in assets. He befriended the filmmaker Spike Lee, the baseball star Mo Vaughn and Mayor Bill de Blasio. His outsize antics and lavish spending often landed him on Page Six, the New York Posts gossip column. NYT

-- The Octopus from Outer Space, by James Ross Gardner in Seattle Met per Longreads.coms description: Gardner explores the Pacific Northwests evolving relationship with the octopus and how theyve gone from dangerous devil-fish bent on drowning unsuspecting sea goers to intensely curious, suction-cupped wonders. With nine brains one in their head and one in each of their eight arms octopuses are thought to be the most intelligent invertebrates on earth, capable of deep connection with humans. Seattle Met

-- The confession, by WaPos Peter Jamison in Bean Blossom, Ind.: Heil Trump and an anti-gay slur were scrawled on an Indiana church right after Trumps election. The investigation led to an unlikely suspect and the discovery of a hate crime hoax. WaPo

-- The New China Scare, by Fareed Zakaria in Foreign Affairs: The United States risks squandering the hard-won gains from four decades of engagement with China, encouraging Beijing to adopt confrontational policies of its own, and leading the worlds two largest economies into a treacherous conflict of unknown scale and scope that will inevitably cause decades of instability and insecurity. A cold war with China is likely to be much longer and more costly than the one with the Soviet Union, with an uncertain outcome. Foreign Affairs (hat tip: TheBrowser.com)

-- An Unbelievable Story of Rape, by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong in ProPublica and the Marshall Project in Dec. 2015: An 18-year-old said she was attacked at knifepoint. Then she said she made it up. Thats where our story begins. ProPublica

-- How Racism Ripples Through Rural Californias Pipes, by NYTs Jose A. Del Real in Teviston, Calif.: In the 20th century, Californias black farmworkers settled in waterless colonies. The history endures underground, through old pipes, dry wells and shoddy septic tanks. NYT

-- Hippie Inc: how the counterculture went corporate, by Nat Segnit in the Dec./Jan. issue of 1843 Magazine: Half a century on from the summer of love, marijuana is big business and mindfulness a workplace routine. Nat Segnit asks how the movement found itself at the heart of capitalism. 1843 (h/t Longform.org)

-- How Ring Went From Shark Tank Reject to Americas Scariest Surveillance Company, by Caroline Haskins in Vice: Amazon's Ring started from humble roots as a smart doorbell company called DoorBot. Now its surveilling the suburbs and partnering with police. Vice

-- The False Promise of Morning Routines, by The Atlantics Marina Koren: Why everyones mornings seem more productive than yours. Atlantic

-- Your Honor, Can I Tell The Whole Story? by Nick Chrastil in The Atavist: To read the transcript of Erin Hunters trial, which runs all of 81 pages and can be digested in half an hour, is to encounter a disregard for human dignity instrumental in producing the most sprawling system of incarceration in the world. Atavist (h/t Longform.org)

Send tips to Eli Okun and Garrett Ross at politicoplaybook@politico.com.

SPOTTED at a book party for Tom Rosenstiels book, Oppo: A Novel ($26.64 on Amazon): Ruth Marcus, E.J. Dionne, Luke Albee, John Podesta, Jon Leibowitz, Len Downie, Amanda Bennett, Mike McCurry, J.J. Yore, Alan Miller, John Gomperts, Tamera Luzzatto, David Leiter and Jon Haber.

SPOTTED at Microsofts Suhail Khans 50th birthday party at Union Stage at the Wharf on Saturday night: Grover Norquist, Jim Rowland, Glynda Becker, Wil Gravatt, Ximena Barreto, Susan Benhoff, Travis Korson, David Ferguson, Rebecca Furdek, Tania Mercado, Grace Morgan and Geoff Smith.

TRANSITION -- Anthony Ornato will be deputy chief of staff for operations at the White House. He previously was deputy assistant director for the Secret Service.

ENGAGED -- Kara Voght, a national politics reporter at Mother Jones, and Ben Cushing, a campaign representative at the Sierra Club, got engaged Saturday night at the Line Hotel. The couple, who met on Bumble, have been dating for two years. Pic

BIRTHDAYS: Ann Coulter is 58 Sabrina Siddiqui, WSJ reporter and CNN political analyst Kerri Kupec, director of public affairs at DOJ former World Bank President Jim Yong Kim is 6-0 Aaron Kissel, POLITICOs VP of product, is 45 (h/t Patrick Steel) APs Pablo Martinez Monsivais Debra Saunders, Las Vegas Review-Journal White House correspondent Judd Legum Brooke Lorenz, senior manager for communications at CBS Rachel Sklar Lizzie OLeary (h/ts Ben Chang) Marc Burstein, senior executive producer at ABC News POLITICOs Annie Yu and Danica Stanciu ... Ginny Badanes, director of strategic projects for cybersecurity and democracy at Microsoft ... Brie Sachse, managing director and head of state and local external affairs at Siemens ... Cayman Clevenger Nick Colvin

Elyse Perlmutter-Gumbiner, NBC News White House producer Jena Baker McNeil Preston Hill Steve Bouchard (h/t Jon Haber) former Rep. Ral Labrador (R-Idaho) is 52 Stephen Spaulding, elections counsel for the House Administration Committee ... Kevin Carski ... BBCs Samantha Granville ... P. Lynn Scarlett Honey Sharp (h/t son Daniel Lippman) Sylvester Okere Courtney Johnson Luis Rosero Karen Keller of FP1 Strategies and PLUS Communications B.R. McConnon of DDC Emily Leaman Solange Uwimana Alison (Matarazzo) Edwards Jen Minton Anna Miller Tom Bush Austin James Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is 66 Jeff Neubauer Jackie Gran Nancy Balz (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) Randy Altschuler is 49

Originally posted here:

POLITICO Playbook: Inside the Gridiron - Politico

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December 13th, 2019 at 6:52 pm

Posted in Ann Coulter

How our screen stories of the future went from flying cars to a darker version of now – The Conversation AU

Posted: at 6:51 pm


Fans of Ridley Scotts 1982 masterpiece Blade Runner returned to cinemas last month for an unusual milestone: history catching up with science fiction.

Blade Runner opens in Los Angeles, in November 2019. Furnaces burst flames into the perennial night and endless rain. Flying cars zoom by. The antihero film-noir detective, Deckard (Harrison Ford) has seen too much, drinks too much, and misses his mother between retiring replicants.

As in Back to the Future day, (October 21, 2015), which marked Marty McFlys journey into the future in the 1989 film, the Blade Runner screenings came with a flurry of discussion about what the filmmakers got right and wrong. Environmental collapse, yes. But where are our flying cars?

So: what now that the future is here?

Our current versions of near future stories - namely the television series Black Mirror (now on Netflix) and SBSs Years and Years - explore more extreme versions of the present.

Charlie Brookers Black Mirror is an anthology of standalone episodes, produced between 2011 and 2019, each set in a slightly different, undated, near future.

Years and Years, written by Russell T. Davies, bravely spans 2019 to 2034 with each episode leaping forward a few years through striking montages of fictional news events: the collapse of the European Union, the US leaving the United Nations, catastrophic flooding, mass migration, widespread homelessness.

We are in a very familiar world. The near is depicted in a realistic way through identifiable locations, documentary-style visuals, news footage, and lifelike dialogue.

Back in the real world, the future in the 21st century is unfolding in the palm of our hands. Elections are won and lost on social media, Sydney is covered in smoke. The rate at which technology is altering our lives is rivalled only by the rate were transforming our planet.

These shows explore these rates of change. In a 2016 episode of Black Mirror, Nosedive, every interpersonal interaction becomes a transaction: an extreme version of Uber Ratings with Chinas Social Credit System.

Read more: Chinas Social Credit System puts its people under pressure to be model citizens

Lacie (Bryce Dallas Howard) is an ambitious young professional excited by the opportunities higher ratings open up, such as discounts on luxury apartments, but being pleasant to her barista and workmates only gets her so far. So begins a perilous spiral of trying too hard to be liked, echoing the personality-as-product phenomenon of social media influencers around the world.

The standalone episode format of Black Mirror means it can be challenging to develop empathy for characters, consequently the interest often rests on the single concept or final twist. The episode Striking Vipers explores the possibility of extra-marital love between best mates in Virtual Reality; Hang the DJ envisions dating apps as an authoritarian apparatus.

Most episodes are neatly wrapped up for viewers to escape to for pure entertainment but also to escape from each dystopian possibility.

In Years and Years, we follow one Mancunian family over 19 years. The series opens with Trump re-elected for a second term. In the UK, the unconventional populist Four Star Party, led by straight-speaking Vivienne Rook (Emma Thompson), rides to success on the back of social instability.

Sci-fi concepts are introduced early on so we can explore their evolution and implications. In the first episode, teenager Bethany declares herself trans. As progressive parents, Stephen and Celeste immediately comfort their child, who they presume is transsexual.

Bethany shrugs, Im not transsexual Im transhuman. A concept not lost on Blade Runner fans who may be aware of transhumanist gatherings in Los Angeles in the 1980s, transhumanism is premised on the idea that humans have breached evolutionary constraints through science and technology. Biology is a restriction to the possibility of eternal life.

Read more: Super-intelligence and eternal life: transhumanism's faithful follow it blindly into a future for the elite

Disgust and dismay ensue from parents unable to comprehend why their child wants to rid her flesh and live forever as data. Through the course of the series we see how Bethanys transhuman ambitions influence her personal relationships, health, career trajectory, and political activism.

It even starts to feel normal.

Years and Years delicately resists portraying a dystopia, allowing room for technology to demonstrate a positive influence on society. Seor, the ubiquitous virtual assistant, connects the Lyons family whenever they wish. Like Alexa or Siri, Seor is always at hand to answer questions but more importantly, facilitates an intimacy that could easily be lost to technological isolation.

In 2029, grandmother Muriel digs up the dusty digital assistant Seor because she misses its company. By now, virtual assistants are embedded into the walls and omnipresent digital cloud but the Luddite grandmother resists.

I like having something to look at, Im not talking to the walls like Shirley Valentine, she says.

Its moments like these that remind us of our agency over technology and hint at its revolutionary potential to connect us all.

While classics like Blade Runner looked to the future to ignite our technological desires, near-future fiction reveals how new technologies are injected into our lives with little choice as to whether we should adopt them and little thought to their long-term appropriateness and sustainability.

These shows ask us to be critical of what might seem like minor developments in technology and politics. In an age of rapidly changing political landscapes and the climate catastrophe, it can feel like we are approaching the final frontier. In creating stories set in the near, instead of the far, future, science fiction provides valuable lessons for the present.

In other words: the choices we fail to stand up for in the near-future may prevent us from having a distant future at all.

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How our screen stories of the future went from flying cars to a darker version of now - The Conversation AU

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December 13th, 2019 at 6:51 pm

Posted in Transhumanism

Living in the real AI world – Covalence

Posted: at 6:51 pm


Photo by Frank V. via Unsplash

Alexa seems to know what I want to watch and when, Google search seems to know my wishes too when I search for my favorite restaurant online and perhaps even more interesting is that even the success of my 401(k) investments will ultimately be influenced by artificial intelligence (AI) that seemingly is becoming more real by the day.

There are a growing number of hedge fund managers even who rely on AI to outperform the market and to complete trades faster than our human mind can contemplate. They tend to exponentially outperform their non-AI counterparts with super-human ability.

So when one reads about the idea of an AI God that gained steam a couple of years ago, when self-driving car engineer Anthony Levandowski opened The Way of the Future Church, it seems as though the future has easily slipped into our present day-to-day activities in the blink of an eye.

According to The Way of the Future Churchs website, it is a movement about creating a peaceful and respectful transition of who is in charge of the planet from people to people plus machines. It is about something called the singularity point a point in time that is fast approaching when machine intelligence will surpass that of its human makers. Remember The Matrix trilogy, anyone?

The classic line by the films hero, Neo, comes to mind: Ever have that feeling where youre not sure if youre awake or dreaming? Thats a whole other Silicon Valley philosophy that we are merely in a simulation. But thats another topic, entirely.

The idea of people and machines being in charge, however, seems far from comforting and far removed from a Lutheran ideal of grace in removing God from the equation altogether.

This month Lutheran theologian Ted Peters dives into many of the thorny issues related to artificial intelligence and how some in the transhumanism community view it as a way of advancing our humanity beyond our physical bodies.

Countless movies and T.V. shows have taken on this topic including a popular Netflix series called Altered Carbon, where society simply views physical bodies as sleeves for ones uploaded consciousness that can be slotted over and over again into new bodies. Of course, there are problems and ethical dilemmas that give way to a dramatic story line.

Still, technology always seems to have a way making us feel smarter (thanks Google!) and almost invincible. That in its own right can be problematic, which is some of what Peters writes about this month.

Whether it is a new medical device, an app on your smart phone or even your Wifi connectivity, it is well worth remembering all have a piece of Gods very creation within it as do the technology developers who creatively make the invisible, visible every day.

Considering technology as our ultimate savior and life-giver sans God is what is at issue. Worshipping a powerful algorithmic God is short sighted too as we realize that even within the code itself there is the hand of a human being created in the image of a loving God who in turn supports the human intellect that ultimately wants to surpass itself.

Editor

Susan is an author with a long-time interest in religion and science. She currently edits Covalence, the Lutheran Alliance for Faith, Science and Technologys online magazine. She has written articles in The Lutheran and the Zygon Center for Religion and Science newsletter. Susan is a board member for the Center for Advanced Study of Religion and Science, the supporting organization for the Zygon Center and the Zygon Journal. She also co-wrote Our Bodies Are Selves with Dr. Philip Hefner and Dr. Ann Pederson.

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Living in the real AI world - Covalence

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December 13th, 2019 at 6:51 pm

Posted in Transhumanism

MuZero figures out chess, rules and all – Chessbase News

Posted: at 6:48 pm


12/12/2019 Just imagine you had a chess computer the auto-sensor kind. Would someone who had no knowledge of the game be able to work it out, just by moving pieces. Or imagine you are a very powerful computer. By looking at millions of images of chess games would you be able to figure out the rules and learn to play the game proficiently? The answer is yes because that has just been done by Google's Deep Mind team. For chess and 76 other games. It is interesting, and slightly disturbing. | Graphic: DeepMind

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In 1980 the first chess computer with an auto response board, the Chafitz ARB Sargon 2.5, was released. It was programmed by Dan and Kathe Spracklen and had a sensory board and magnet pieces. The magnets embedded in the pieces were all the same kind, so that the board could only detect whether there was a piece on the square or not. It would signal its moves with LEDs located on the corner of each square.

Chafitz ARB Sargon 2.5 | Photo:My Chess Computers

Some years after the release of this computer I visited the Spracklens in their home in San Diego, and one evening had an interesting discussion, especially with Kathy. What would happen, we wondered, if we set up a Sargon 2.5 in a jungle village where nobody knew chess. If we left the people alone with the permanently switched-on board and pieces, would they be able to figure out the game? If they lifted a piece, the LED on that square would light up; if they put it on another square that LED would light up briefly. If the move was legal, there would be a reassuring beep; the square of a piece of the opposite colour would light up, and if they picked up that piece another LED would light up. If the original move wasnt legal, the board would make an unpleasant sound.

Our question was: could they figure out, by trial and error, how chess was played? Kathy and I discussed it at length, over the Sargon board, and in the end came to the conclusion that it was impossible they could never figure out the game without human instructions. Chess is far too complex.

Now, three decades later, I have to modify our conclusion somewhat: maybe humans indeed cannot learn chess by pure trial and error, but computers can...

You remember how AlphaGo and AlphaZero were created, by Google's DeepMind division. The programs Leela and Fat Fritz were generated using the same principle: tell an AI program the rules of the game, how the pieces move, and then let it play millions of games against itself. The program draws its own conclusions about the game and starts to play master-level chess. In fact, it can be argued that these programs are the strongest entities to have ever played chess human or computer.

Now DeepMind has come up with a fairly atrocious (but scientifically fascinating) idea: instead of telling the AI software the rules of the game, just let it play, using trial and error. Let it teach itself the rules of the game, and in the process learn to play it professionally. DeepMind combined a tree-based search (where a tree is a data structure used for locating information from within a set) with a learning model. They called the project MuZero. The program must predict the quantities most relevant to game planning not just for chess, but for 57 different Atari games. The result: MuZero, we are told, matches the performance of AlphaZero in Go, chess, and shogi.

And this is how MuZero works (description from VenturBeat):

Fundamentally MuZero receives observations images of a Go board or Atari screen and transforms them into a hidden state. This hidden state is updated iteratively by a process that receives the previous state and a hypothetical next action, and at every step the model predicts the policy (e.g., the move to play), value function (e.g., the predicted winner), and immediate reward (e.g., the points scored by playing a move)."

Evaluation of MuZero throughout training in chess, shogi, Go, and Atari the y-axis shows Elo rating| Image: DeepMind

As the DeepMind researchers explain, one form of reinforcement learning the technique in which rewards drive an AI agent toward goals involves models. This form models a given environment as an intermediate step, using a state transition model that predicts the next step and a reward model that anticipates the reward. If you are interested in this subject you can read thearticle on VenturBeat,or visit the Deep Mind site. There you can read this paper on the general reinforcement learning algorithm that masters chess, shogi and Go through self-play. Here's an abstract:

The game of chess is the longest-studied domain in the history of artificial intelligence. The strongest programs are based on a combination of sophisticated search techniques, domain-specific adaptations, and handcrafted evaluation functions that have been refined by human experts over several decades. By contrast, the AlphaGo Zero program recently achieved superhuman performance in the game of Go by reinforcement learning from self-play. In this paper, we generalize this approach into a single AlphaZero algorithm that can achieve superhuman performance in many challenging games. Starting from random play and given no domain knowledge except the game rules, AlphaZero convincingly defeated a world champion program in the games of chess and shogi (Japanese chess), as well as Go.

That refers to the original AlphaGo development, which has now been extended to MuZero. Turns out it is possible not just to become highly proficient at a game by playing it a million times against yourself, but in fact it is possible to work out the rules of the game by trial and error.

I have just now learned about this development and need to think about the consequences discuss it with experts. My first somewhat flippant reaction to a member of the Deep Mind team: "What next? Show it a single chess piece and it figures out the whole game?"

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MuZero figures out chess, rules and all - Chessbase News

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December 13th, 2019 at 6:48 pm

Posted in Alphazero

From AR to AI: The emerging technologies marketers can explore to enable and disrupt – Marketing Tech

Posted: at 6:48 pm


The entire written works of mankind in all languages from the beginning of recorded history is around 50 petabytes. One petabyte is about 20 million four drawer filing cabinets filled with text. Google processes about 20 petabytes per day so in three days they would have processed everything we have written ever. Meanwhile, data centres now annually consume as much energy as Sweden. By 2025 theyll consume a fifth of all of Earths power.

For some, this is a revolution being able to store and recall information at the touch of a button. For others, it is 1984 with Big Brother being able to record and recall your every move. But just what can we expect from technology in the future be it within our working life or leisure time?

We are now in the fourth industrial revolution.Technologies will revolutionise, empower, turbo-charge life as we know it. From changing economies to helping cure illnesses, technology can already allow us to translate in real time while on business calls to turn on our heating remotely on our way home from work.

A new race of superhumans is coming with Alphabet owned, DeepMind having already shown us how these superhumans can outwit not only humans, but other lesser tech with AlphaZero, an Artificial Intelligence project set against Stockfish, a Japanese chess program. Not only did it beat the program, it showed an unnerving amount of human intuition about how it played. As the New York Times commented: intuitively and beautifully, with a romantic, attacking style. It played gambits.

Closer to home, organisations across the globe are using VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality), MR (mixed reality), XR (mixed reality environment) and VR/360 to create experiential customer/user experiences.

The value of the AR industry for video games is $11.6bn. However, it is also valued at $5.1bn in healthcare, $4.7bn in engineering and $7m in education far from the entertainment tech it once was it is now a power being utilised for the greater good. 5G has the potential to revolutionise allowing super high definition content to be delivered to mobile devices while super realistic AR and VR immersive experiences will transform our experience of education, news and entertainment.

So, if robots are now able to think quicker and sharper than us and predict our nuances, whats next and how can it be used from an organisational point of view? Artificial intelligence can already predict your personality simply by tracking your eyes. Findings show that peoples eye movements reveal whether they are sociable, conscientious or curious, with the algorithm software reliably recognising four of the big five personality traits neuroticism, extroversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness.

As Yuval Noah Harrari in Homo Deus comments, Soon, books will be able to read you while you read them. If Kindle is upgraded with face recognition and biometric sensors, it can know what made you laugh, what made you sad and what made you angry.

This means that job interviews can be undertaken with the blink of an eye (literally) as one scan of a computer could tell potential employers if the interviewee has the relevant traits for the job. Criminal psychologists can read those under scrutiny faster and help solve crimes quicker with biometric sensors pointing towards dishonesty and those lacking in empathy.

Knowledge is power. And technology can create this knowledge. From using biometrics and health statistics from your Fitbit and phone it can show your health predispositions, levels of fitness and wellbeing and personality traits and tendencies from sleep patterns and exercise and nutritional information.

However, it can also go one step further, your DNA and biometrics such as the speed of your heartbeat can indicate whether you have just had an increase in activity so that could mean physical, sexual or other types of excitement, your sugar levels can indicate lifestyle choices and harmful habits.

This could mean office politics are a thing of the past as HR managers could build teams based on DNA proven personalities as well as skill sets. And promotions could be scientific allowing those with more leadership personalities to be placed in leadership positions quicker and those with more subservient traits being part of a team.

With the development of neural lace, an ultra-thin mesh that can be implanted in the skull to monitor brain function, and eventually nano-technology we will be able to plug our own brains directly into the cloud allowing software to manage mundane high volume data processing and freeing our brains to think more creatively with significantly more power perhaps to the 1000x. Which as Singularity Hubs Raya Bidshahri points out raises the question, with all this enhancement, what does I feel like anymore?

From an organisational point of view, it could mean information and data we store such as recall and memory from meetings and research could automatically be downloaded freeing up more of our brain power to problem solve and allow us to think more creatively and smarter than our human form has ever allowed before.

So, what does this advancement of tech mean for the business of the future? Who really knows? However, what is sure is that whatever your business sector, size or region you should ensure you are at the very least aware of the latest advancements and always be ready to embrace them into your business, work with agencies that have an eye on the insights to the future, because sooner, exponentially sooner, the future will be now.

Whether you believe technology is the creator or all things good or all things evil, there is no doubt it will change our landscape forever. From our formative steps into the digital world to the leaps and bounds of the future, the force will be with you.

Interested in hearing leading global brands discuss subjects like this in person?

Find out more aboutDigital Marketing World Forum (#DMWF) Europe, London, North America, and Singapore.

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From AR to AI: The emerging technologies marketers can explore to enable and disrupt - Marketing Tech

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December 13th, 2019 at 6:48 pm

Posted in Alphazero

Hunterdon County Library welcomes digital borrowers to its new online reading rooms – NJ.com

Posted: at 6:47 pm


Residents of Hunterdon County no longer have to sacrifice the comfort of their bedrooms to enter a room carrying books that number in the thousands.

The Hunterdon County Library has digitized the concept of a physical reading room through the creation of specialized eReading Rooms, through which library card holders can browse and borrow over 5,000 Romance, Kids, Mystery or Teen ebooks or audiobooks from any major computer, tablet or mobile device.

Courtesy

Libby Explore page

Within the eReading rooms, each of these genres are broken down into a sub-genre to better direct readers to the source material for which they are searching.

For example, the Romance eReading Room includes titles categorized under New Romance, Highlander Romance and Paranormal Romance.

Courtesy

Paranormal Romance titles

All Hunterdon County residents with library cards can access these rooms from their own technological devices.

They can also access them via desktops available at any one of the three county libraries located in Clinton, Ringoes and Flemington or its seven affiliate libraries located in Bunnvale, Frenchtown, High Bridge, Holland, Readington, Tewksbury and Three Bridges.

The eReading Rooms are accessed through Libby, the one-tap reading application developed from OverDrive.

Courtesy

Libby landing page

According to Cortney Frank, emerging technologies librarian for the Adult Service Department at the county library headquarters in Flemington, eReading Rooms add more of a personal touch to the digital borrowing experience.

(It) mimics a physical space for you to be able to walk through and browse," Frank said. The digital checkouts are the same as the physical checkouts would be. (The eReading Rooms) treat the books like a physical item thats in your possession.

This personal touch is dually apparent in the weeks that Frank, who began working as a librarian for the county headquarters location in September, committed to creating the eReading Rooms.

Prior to launching the eReading Rooms in mid-October, Frank ran reports compiling lists of available ebooks and audiobooks and altered their organization to manually categorize them into the appropriate genres and sub-genres.

I took a look at what we have and tried to figure out a way to divvy it up and to service it to our patrons in a way that made sense and thats easy to digest," Frank said. It takes a little bit of extra legwork to place things in their categories, but I feel that its effective on the user-end, because you could just see everything that appeals to you, and browse, and find what youre looking for.

Frank added that she would also make adjustments if the reports seemed incomplete, or if they lacked various notable titles.

If I take a look at that list and I say, 'I think were missing some heavy hitters here, I can go back and manually add things (to the eReading Room)," Frank said.

The creation of the eReading Rooms mirrors the increasing number of Hunterdon County residents taking advantage of the libraries resources. The number of yearly checkouts from the county libraries and their affiliates has increased from 24,678 in 2014 to 76,671 in 2019, and, in the same timeframe, users borrowing books digitally from 4,539 to 18,596.

These numbers illustrate Franks description of digital lending as a growing trend that continues to gather momentum.

The day I rolled out the eReading Rooms, people were borrowing from it, Frank said. And as were promoting it more and spending a little bit more time on it, people are noticing, and theyre checking out more stuff. So its really gratifying to me to see how instant the response is."

Assistant Director for the Hunterdon County Library headquarters location Jennifer Winberry partially credited the success of the eReading Rooms to county residents increasing reluctance to physically check out books.

The big piece is you have to return (the book). You have to bring it back here, Winberry said.

Echoing Winberry, Frank described the digital borrowing experience as frictionless.

You can do it from home, you can do it without talking to anyone, and then, at the end of the lending period, this item just disappears from your device. We pull it back," Frank said.

Courtesy

Libby notifications page

According to Frank, the universal accessibility of eReading Rooms is especially enticing to homebound individuals.

Ive talked on the phone with people who physically arent able to come in anymore, but who are still avid readers," Winberry said. So I always ask, What is it that you like reading? Do I have your authors? Do I have what youre interested in? And if I dont, then I try to place orders that will satisfy their needs, and Ill go over the steps with them.

Winberry added that the eReading Rooms have the additional benefit of being available to users 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

(The eReading Rooms) are always open," Winberry said. "When we close early for snow, or on a day were not open, or midnight when youre up with the baby, theyre available.

While expressing an interest in increasing the number of books available in the eReading Rooms, Frank emphasized that their expansion is strictly dependent on whether or not there is an increasing demand for it from readers.

Demand is illustrated by the librarys holds list, or a list monitoring physical books, ebooks, and audiobooks requested by county residents that are either not available or accessible through the library or are currently checked out by other individuals.

So as (the eReading Rooms) gain popularity and we see more holds numbers that are really through the roof, then well have to figure out how to accommodate that in our budget and how to add more titles to the service, Frank explained.

Frank urged Hunterdon County residents interested in improving library resources including and beyond the eReading Rooms to complete the librarys online survey.

(The survey) is a big deal. I want to know, Am I picking titles that youre interested in? Is there something more that I could do to meet your needs? Frank said. I really can only cater to people who tell me what they want.

Despite her eagerness to better serve the public, Frank expressed her belief that the addition of digital content resources like eReading Rooms demonstrate a big piece of that.

Theres no late fees, theres no risk. So it really is just easy. The whole thing is intended to just be completely seamless and simple, Frank said.

Caroline Fassett can be reached at cfassett@njadvancemedia.com.

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Hunterdon County Library welcomes digital borrowers to its new online reading rooms - NJ.com

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December 13th, 2019 at 6:47 pm

Posted in Online Library


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