Yeah, it’s a weak opener, but I couldn’t get any more clever. Bill McKibben’s most recent post, reprinted here in today in “Tomgram”, is a bite sized mouthful, likely to send daddy drunk and mumbling into the night…
…McKibben’s nimble break down of NASA climatologist James Hansen’s most recent
But while the uproar has swayed much of the public to Johansson's defense at a time when #genAI is increasingly under scrutiny, this may not quite be an open-and-shut case should she decide to sue . Read the breakdown from @M_F_Rose in her latest article:
The release of @OpenAI's new digital assistant "Sky" stirred controversy after actress Scarlett Johansson alleged that the company had infringed on her rights by using a soundalike voice of hers after she'd declined to voice it herself.
Just saw @MargotSusca fantastic interview with @adamconover about the death of local news at the hands of hedge funds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N21YfWy0-bA A theme I have written about *a lot*. Like this blog post from 2018: https://wetmachine.com/tales-of-the-sausage-factory/we-need-to-fix-the-news-media-not-just-social-media-part-i/ This has been a long time in the making.
I wrote yesterday on the terrifying escalation of antisemitism in Canada, citing events just over past week. Now there is more: last night a firebomb attempt at a Vancouver synagogue. Daily antisemitic incidents is who we are now.
https://www.jewishvancouver.com/important-community-updates-may-20-2024
https://x.com/mgeist/status/1796233336203194446
David,
Thanks.
I had already read the McKibben piece twice and was trying to figure out what to say about it.
In the meantime, here’s a link to the 350.org site that’s focusing on Hansen’s magic number of 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (explained in article)
http://www.350.org/
McKibben is The Man on this issue. Here in LA, we rallied hard for his “STEP IT UP ’07” event and more recent public discussions at the LA Library. My images are printed in his recent call to action:FIGHT GLOBAL WARMING NOW, a straight up primer on the issue.
Oddly enough, since I’ve begun working for Discovery, I occasionally get something almost like hate-mail, accusing me and others of being anti-American and Anti-Oil, due to our promotion of alt-energy technologies. It’s astonishing that in light of work like McKibben’s and Hansen’s, there are still many- a diminishing but vocal lot- who call this a hoax. For the rest of us, the beat goes on….
“It’s not just the economy. We’ve gone through swoons before. It’s that gas at $4 a gallon means we’re running out, at least of the cheap stuff that built our sprawling society. It’s that when we try to turn corn into gas, it sends the price of a loaf of bread shooting upwards and starts food riots on three continents. It’s that everything is so inextricably tied together. It’s that, all of a sudden, those grim Club of Rome types who, way back in the 1970s, went on and on about the ”limits to growth“ suddenly seem… how best to put it, right.”
Shall we parse this? First some reports project that 60% of the current price of oil is speculation. Second, go to CBOT. The price of corn and the price of wheat are not linked. The link of the cost of bread is the cost of transport, ie the diesel, not the cost of a bushel of corn. The diversion and conversion of corn to ethanol is not the cause of a rise in bread prices. It is however the cause of a rise in corn and corn byproducts.
A lack of critical thinking.
JohnMcC,
What is COBT?
The assertion that the price of corn and wheat are not linked seems dubious, especially over a few seasons in ecological zones & soils where corn & wheat are substitutable. And obviously they are substitutable as food.
Have you any regression analysis to support your assertion?