The Pedantic Professor

Hahahahahahahahaha!

The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.

One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc

So let's review:

Two fed judges put Trump on notice that he had to partially fund SNAP for November, and could choose to fully fund it.

Then Trump and his admin did their bad faith dance.

That pissed off one of the judges, who ordered Trump to fully pay SNAP by Friday...which Trump has appealed.

Republican politicians can commit all the crimes they want and victimize as many people as they want because right after they are convicted Trump pardons every single one of them. Every Republican politician is above the law and can do whatever they want. Total immunity.

Once upon a time, the richest Americans worried that if conditions got bad enough all the poors might just rise up against them, and so they avoided getting *too* obvious with their exploitation.

Today's crop just brags about it.

AI Is Supercharging the War on Libraries, Education, and Human Knowledge "Fascism and AI, whether or not they have the same goals, they sure are working to accelerate one another."

The long-running ideological war on libraries, education, and government workers is not separate from AI boosterism. It is the same ideological war on human knowledge and expertise. In some cases AI is being used to directly supercharge this effort:

www.404media.co/ai-is-superc...

Trump and Republicans found billions of dollars to send to Argentina.

But they’re not willing to work to find the money to help people afford their health care premiums, keep hospitals and clinics open, or ensure people can afford groceries.

This is a really hard day and I want to just add as WIRED's politics editor -- WIRED's politics reporting isn't going anywhere. We are very much here and won't stop.

Please continue to read and support us - canceling your subscription to WIRED is not standing in solidarity with our journalists.

I am once again reminding you that you can get recipes and crossword puzzles elsewhere

Here's another bit of conventional wisdom Zohran completely blew away: His speech was at well above a 10th-grade level. It was complex, erudite, punctuated by deep and fluent references. You don't have to condescend to voters with baby talk! Part of re-establishing norms is speaking like an adult.

Bad AI supplanting human expertise is an issue that transcends any one field, but man—not many people on earth whose knowledge and dedication deserves respect like LIBRARIANS.

I remember watching it as a kid in the 80's as it was on Saturday mornings after cartoons. I turned it off pretty quickly.

Stop sharing AI slop.

It's one thing if you don't know or just made a mistake. No need to breathe down someones neck b/c its harder to tell nowadays.

But if you do know (ESPECIALLY IF YOU DO KNOW) even if you're posting it to make fun of it or sharing it unironically... consider not doing that.

Elon Musk is boosting the British right - and this shows how Elon Musk is boosting the British right - and this shows how

Vital piece of investigative reporting from Sky. They've uncovered the X algorithm which feeds users extremist right wing material from the moment they join the site. It is a far-right radicalisation engine, by design.

news.sky.com/story/the-x-...

Trump Humiliation Worsens as Fresh Info Reveals Scale of GOP Losses The results showed that Democrats don’t have to choose between attacking Trump and highlighting the economy. In fact, they are often inseparable.

The dramatic repudiation of Trump this week wrecks a number of absurd narratives the media has pushed lately. In the runup to the election, NYT pieces kept telling us Dems were overly obsessed with attacking Trump.

That dumb idea now lies in ruins. 1/

(new piece)
newrepublic.com/article/2027...

I went a third of a century accepting, on the testimony of a cartoon, that coyotes chase roadrunners before I ever saw the real thing.

Hitting a Child ‘Works.’ But Only for the Parent’s Body, and Neuroscience Explains Why. This Substack is reader-supported.

So many parents ask me how to stop hitting their children. First, you have to understand what’s really happening in your body. Hitting doesn’t “work” because it teaches a child anything. It “works” because it temporarily calms YOU.

open.substack.com/pub/drstacey...

Seems fine and normal

An American Tail poster with lil ol mouse immigrant Fievel

It’s hard to believe but there was a cartoon about an immigrant mouse and it was seen as totally fine and not controversial and not woke because it was an aspirational and nice thing about America that people could come here and find a better life

Beshear: Let me be clear. The president has both the funding and the authority to fund snap during a shutdown. In fact, every other president in every other shutdown has done so. People going hungry in this instance is a choice that this president has made.

Screencap reading: "OpenAI dispelled suggestions that it’s changing its terms around legal and medical advice. In a statement to CTVNews.ca, it said “this is not a new change to our terms. ChatGPT has never been a substitute for professional legal or medical advice, but it will continue to be a great resource to help people understand legal and health information.” The AI research company updated its usage policies on Oct. 29 to clarify that users of ChatGPT can’t use the service for “tailored advice that requires a license, such as legal or medical advice, without appropriate involvement by a licensed professional.”"

Wow -- look at OpenAI trying to shift responsibility to the users:

🧵>>

www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/art...

Hahahaha! Rep. Tim Burchett has said a lot of out of touch stuff but dadgummit this might take the cake

This really hasn’t gotten enough attention this week.

@wired.com #ICE
www.wired.com/story/fbi-wa...

FBI Warns of Criminals Posing as ICE, Urges Agents to ID Themselves In a bulletin to law enforcement agencies, the FBI said criminal impersonators are exploiting ICE’s image and urged nationwide coordination to distinguish real operations from fakes.

FBI says criminals are posing as masked ICE agents. Who except for everyone could have predicted this?

A political party tries to court your vote. A fascist regime tries to keep you from voting.

The ADL has decided to treat fascists as allies and progressives as enemies. For a group that is tasked with protecting American Jews, that is a world historic fuck up.

I will never forgive these people for their moral decrepitude.

Misery loves company.

Double woohoo for Mayor-elect @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social! His campaign showed that when we fight for bold policies like universal child care that make life more affordable for working families, we can win big.

Californians made their voices heard: Republicans' unprecedented mid-year redistricting power grab will not go unanswered.

Prop 50 was passed by voters on a ballot — not by a phone call from the President. Now, we've got a more level playing field to ensure fairer midterms.

1. Look, Zohran Mamdani is not the future of the Democratic Party.

I know this is true, because the same was said of Eric Adams. New York City’s outgoing mayor did not live up to his billing. Its incoming mayor (presumably) is almost certainly not going to live up to his.