Friends to the End.2

“We really did have everything, didn’t we?” — Dr. Randall Mindy (Don’t Look Up)

Increasingly, in conversations with friends and associates, as well as from reports by social scientists, I am coming to believe that the Covid pandemic has had a hidden but devastating impact on our collective mental health.

Whether we consider ourselves introverts or extroverts, humans are inherently social creatures. We may not want to admit it, but we need regular contact with each other. Without it, our hopes shrivel and our dreams die.

But during the pandemic we became accustomed to being alone, isolated and living our lives by remote control.

With this in mind, today I’m republishing an edited version of an essay I wrote on this topic a year ago, when we were first emerging from the worst of the pandemic. It feels as accurate today to me as it did then.

***

According to Dutch sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst (2009), prior to the pandemic we were replacing half of our social network every seven years. Of course that was back in the times when there were many mores social opportunities.

So I wonder how that figure has fared over the past two years. Though many made efforts to reconnect with old friends through group zoom calls and other virtual tools including social media, Covid-19 created a vast social desert. It seems obvious that new relationships were hard to come by for most of us .

Meanwhile, one of the main points in an article in the Atlantic called, “It’s Your Friends Who Break Your Heart,” is that we need our friends now more than ever.

Friend love is often overlooked in our literature and films, but the love provided by friends plays at least as big a role as family in most people’s lives.

Furthermore, a large and growing number of Americans are single and living alone — for them friends may constitute their entire family.

I said I wouldn’t watch “Don’t Look Up” twice but I did anyways — the film with Jennifer Lawrence and Leonard DiCaprio about the impending end of the world.

The concluding scene where the main characters gather with a handful of friends for dinner as the killer asteroid closes in on earth is emblematic of everything I’ve said above about friendships, both new and old.

How would you choose to spend your final moments under such circumstances? Anyone who answers “alone” is lying.

The Solution? Connect. Keep making friends. Renew friendships that have atrophied. Rebuild your social network. Make new friends. Maybe it’s easy for you, maybe it’s hard, but keep at it. In the final analysis, that may be the only way that we as a species will avoid that catastrophic last scene anyway.

LINKS:

• It’s Your Friends Who Break Your Heart — The older we get, the more we need our friends—and the harder it is to keep them (Atlantic)

• FDA moves to ease restrictions on blood donations for men who have sex with men (NPR)

• ‘I have no enemies, at least’: Where Santos really stands in the House GOP (Politico)

• Yes, everyone has classified documents. The system is out of control. (Fareed Zakaria/WP)

• Trump secretly donated $1m to discredited Arizona election ‘audit’ (Guardian)

• National Archives Asks Ex-Presidents and Vice Presidents to Scour Their Files (NYT)

• Tyre Nichols video: Memphis authorities release footage from deadly traffic stop (Fox)

• What we know – and still don’t know – about what led to Tyre Nichols’ death (CNN)

• Suspect in Northern California farm shootings reportedly confesses, claims he was not in his right mind (NBC)

• Half Moon Bay suspect admits to shooting rampage, says he was bullied (WP)

• he FBI revealed it had secretly hacked and disrupted a prolific ransomware gang called Hive, a maneuver that allowed the bureau to thwart the group from collecting more than $130 million in ransomware demands from more than 300 victims. (Reuters)

• 'Everybody is cheating': Why this teacher has adopted an open ChatGPT policy (NPR)

• ChatGPT passes exams from law and business schools (CNN)

• Big Tech was moving cautiously on AI. Then came ChatGPT. (WP)

• A robot was scheduled to argue in court, then came the jail threats (NPR)

• Big Tech Is Really Bad at Firing People (Wired)

• What the mass tech layoffs mean for the U.S. economy (WP)

• Twitter has been sued in Germany by an anti-hate-speech organization and Jewish students to force Elon Musk’s company to block or remove antisemitic posts. Six examples of antisemitic comments reportedly detailed in the suit were all posted in the last three months, since Musk took over the platform. Laws against Holocaust denial and other speech hailing Nazis and supporting antisemitism are particularly strict in Germany. [HuffPost]

• Three men indicted in plot to kill Iranian-American journalist on U.S. soil (Politico)

• Bilal al-Sudani: US forces kill Islamic State Somalia leader in cave complex (BBC)

• Will U.K. Rejection of Scottish Gender Bill Bolster Independence Movement? (NYT)

• New barrage of Russian strikes in Ukraine kills at least 11 (AP)

• Russia has stepped up attempts to break through Ukraine's defenses with heavy fighting in the east of the country, underlining Kyiv's need of more Western weapons, Ukrainian officials said. (Reuters)

• Russia admits Putin pardoning convicts so they can join Wagner in Ukraine (Financial Times)

• Ukraine faces logistics hurdles ahead of tank deliveries (WP)

• Ukraine Corruption Scandal Stokes Longstanding Aid Concerns in U.S. (NYT)

• As fentanyl boomed, DEA removed Mexico director amid misconduct probe (WP)

• World champion says Rubik’s Cube and violin go hand in hand (AP)

• A new study identified ways to slow memory decline and lower dementia risk.

  Eating a balanced diet, exercising the mind and body regularly, having regular contact with others, and not drinking or smoking. The findings, published this week, add to other research that suggests a healthy lifestyle may help our brains age better. (WP)

• Pence Says He Hid Behind Classified Documents to Keep Women from Lusting After Him (New Yorker)

• U.S. Officials Announce Plans To Continue Pretending Brutal State-Sponsored Violence Not Supposed To Happen (The Onion)

 

News of the Day

Note: No essay today. Just the headlines, including six of the other tributes to Victor Navasky, truly a towering figure of American publishing, politics and culture.

LINKS:

• Russian strikes reported across Ukraine a day after German, U.S. tank deals (WP)

• How Biden Reluctantly Agreed to Send Tanks to Ukraine (NYT)

• U.S. Economic Growth Cooled Slightly Entering 2023 (WSJ)

• US economy beats expectations with 2.9% growth (Financial Times)

• Will the 2016 Election Ever End? (Atlantic)

• Yes, 2023 Is An Election Year. Here Are The Races To Watch. (538)

• 2023’s Biggest, Most Unusual Race Centers on Abortion and Democracy (NYT)

• Palestinians say Israeli troops kill 9 in West Bank raid (AP)

• Thousands of Australians marked the country's national day celebrations with rallies in support of Indigenous people, many of whom describe the anniversary of the day a British fleet sailed into Sydney Harbour as "Invasion Day." (Reuters)

• Rep. Adam Schiff announces run for U.S. Senate in California (WP)

• House Republicans are demanding sharp spending cuts in exchange for voting in favor of raising the debt ceiling this year, but they’ve suggested President Joe Biden should specify what exactly to cut in the federal budget. Their refusal to lay out a detailed plan is a result of the many internal disagreements within the narrow House GOP majority, as well as reluctance to propose cuts to popular domestic programs, including Social Security and Medicare. [HuffPost]

• Veterans of the Obama-era debt ceiling standoff on the current one: We may be doomed (Politico)

• Backlash grows against DeSantis decision to block AP class on Black history (WP)

• National Archives asks former presidents and vice presidents to check for classified and presidential documents (CNN)

• How classified documents became a schoolgirl's show and tell (AP)

• All 5 former Memphis police officers charged with murder in Tyre Nichols’ death, court records show (CNN)

• Google will stop letting political campaigns dodge its email spam filters. The company introduced the controversial exemption last year after Republican lawmakers blamed Gmail’s spam filters for poor fundraising performance. (WP)

• The number of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border dropped off dramatically from December to January following new rules that expel them back to Mexico, the Department of Homeland Security said. (Reuters)

• Layoffs Spread Beyond Tech Titans (WSJ)

• Taliban working on guidelines for women NGO workers: UN says (Al Jazeera)

• India/ Egypt: Ongoing human rights crisis in both countries must be addressed (Amnesty)

• Meet the man who unwittingly triggered the war over gas stoves (WP)

• Harvard neuroscientist: The ‘most underrated’ skill all successful people have—‘especially introverts’ (CNBC)

• Victor Navasky: An Avatar of the American Left, 1932–2023 (The Nation)

• Victor Navasky’s Vast Intellectual Universe (TNR)

• Victor Navasky, award-winning author and editor of the Nation, dies at 90 (The Guardian)

• Victor S. Navasky, a Leading Liberal Voice in Journalism, Dies at 90 (NYT)

• Remembering Victor Navasky, the Unflappable Ringmaster of “The Nation” (Mother Jones)

• Journalist Victor S. Navasky has died. For years, he led The Nation. (NPR)

• Scientists invented a melting liquid robot that can escape from a cage (WP)

• ChatGPT could make these jobs obsolete: ‘The wolf is at the door’ (NY Post)

• Sam Altman, the maker of ChatGPT, says the A.I. future is both awesome and terrifying. If it goes badly: ‘It’s lights-out for all of us’ (Fortune)

• 52 million years ago, strange primates lived in complete darkness in the Arctic (LiveScience)

• For the Beatles-obsessed, here are 3 never-before-seen photos from 1964 (NPR)

• Water From Splash Mountain Selling For Up To $1,000 On eBay After Ride Closes (The Onion)

 

Victor Navasky

Victor Navasky has died at the age of 90.

Few people had greater influence over my career or the careers of countless other progressive journalists than Victor. To me, he was a kindly father figure — even though he was only 15 years my senior — plus a mentor, a friend, a supporter, and a fellow conspirator.

He conspired with me and many, many others to value what truly matters in life — not just careers and ideas and politics and the affairs of state — but children, families, friendships, humor and our common decency as fellow human beings in a messed-up world.

Victor was editor and publisher of The Nation for a long time. In the 1980s he invited me onto the magazine’s editorial board, where I stayed for 30 years. 

Victor always seemed curious about everyone and everything. Once when he was visiting the Bay Area and arrived at a reception at the home of a mutual friend, Victor spied a copy of a home-made “magazine” with an article written by my oldest daughter, Laila, then aged 11.

The article in question was an interview with the legendary left-wing muckraker Jessica Mitford. Victor asked if I could get him a copy and before long, Laila’s interview had been reprinted in The Nation.

He told me that made her the youngest author in the history of the magazine, which has been around since 1865. Years later, Victor would often recount his conversation with Laila when he purchased her interview. Apparently, she tried to convince him that the voting age should be lowered so that kids as young as her could vote for president.

He got a kick out of that. “Write us an article,” he urged her.

In Manhattan, Victor and I usually met for breakfast at one of his favorite places around Gramercy Park. Out here we went to places like the Fog City Diner or the Faculty Club at U-C, Berkeley. I sent a stream of writers, stories and ideas his way and he introduced me to, well, the whole world of east coast progressivism.

We’d talk business, politics. but also at length about our families and our shared dreams for our children. He was a devoted husband and father. 

To me, Victor was the consummate New York gentleman as well as a wise old owl. There was always this certain twinkle in his eye. 

As for the editorial board, he never talked much in meetings; he’d just introduce a guest or two, and then sit back to enjoy our debates.

Over the years, he introduced me to an amazing array of authors, editors and intellectuals. When I was out with him in New York, it often seemed that he knew just about everybody in town.

Much more importantly, they all knew him back, and as far as I could tell, just about everybody who knew Victor loved Victor. 

I know I did.

He may be gone but his twinkle remains. 

LINKS:

• What Tanks Will Ukraine Get, and Why Does It Want Them? (Bloomberg)

• Will Ukraine Wind Up Making Territorial Concessions to Russia? (FA)

• Laid Off in Your Living Room: The Chaos of Remote Job Cuts (NYT)

• North Carolina doctor sues over abortion pill access, in test case of federal power (ABC)

• Classified records pose conundrum stretching back to Carter (AP)

• House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday said would refuse to seat Democratic Reps. Eric Swalwell and Adam Schiff of California on the House Intelligence Committee — pure political payback for Democrats removing extremist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) from committees in 2021. McCarthy claims the move is not political. [HuffPost]

• Republican Rep. Spartz opposes McCarthy effort to boot Democrats from committees (NBC)

• Facebook Will Reinstate Trump’s Account (WSJ)

• George Santos news – live: McCarthy admits congressman could be removed as GOP senator dubs him ‘bunny boiler’ (Independent)

• Archives weighs asking past presidents, VPs to look for classified items (WP)

• Leaders are meant to keep state secrets. Just not at home. (AP)

• Manchin Proposes ‘Easiest’ Social Security Fix In Response to Debt Ceiling — Would Biden Agree? (Yahoo)

• The Obscure New York Law That Could Dismantle Trump’s Empire (Daily Beast)

• Pope says homosexuality not a crime (AP)

• A recession might be coming. Here's what it could look like (NPR)

• Google, last week, joined a list of tech companies announcing layoffs as part of a strategy to prepare for an across-the-board decline in economic activity that could squeeze corporate profits. But recent data suggests that a recession may now be less likely. It could be that the layoffs are driven more by herd mentality and excessive pandemic hiring than economic conditions. [HuffPost]

• Google job cuts hit 1,800 employees in California, including 27 massage therapists (CNBC)

• Some Google employees found they were laid off only when their badge didn't let them into the office: "Inhuman" (BoingBoing)

• IBM To Cut 3,900 Jobs Amid Broader Tech Slowdown (WSJ)

• AmazonSmile's end is alarming, say nonprofits that benefited (AP)

• Calif. shootings shared an oddity: Both suspects were senior citizens (WP)

• ‘Shame on them’: Newsom goes after GOP on guns (Politico)

• ‘Tragedy Upon Tragedy’: January Brings Dozens of Mass Shootings So Far (NYT)

• A leader in gun control efforts, California confronts its limits (WP)

• Many dead as Afghanistan experiences coldest winter in years (BBC)

• How China became the world’s leading exporter of combat drones (Al Jazeera)

• Africa must fight against a slide towards strongman authoritarianismthat has resulted in a series of military coups and a clampdown on civil society in many countries, Sudanese-British billionaire Mo Ibrahim said. Ibrahim's foundation launched its Index of African Governance, which warned that advances in human development and economic opportunities were undermined by worsening security and widespread democratic backsliding. (Reuters)

• How ancient seeds from the Fertile Crescent could help save us from climate change (NPR)

• 600 square miles of ice just broke off from Antarctica (CNN)

• Potential Hidden Cause of Dementia Discovered (Neuroscience News)

• ‘No miracles needed’: Prof Mark Jacobson on how wind, sun and water can power the world (Guardian)

• A freelance writer says ChatGPT wrote a $600 article in just 30 seconds (Business Insider)

• The number of journalist deaths worldwide rose nearly 50% in 2022 from previous year (NPR)

• Trump missed an entire day of his golf club's senior championship tournament but claimed victory anyway (Yahoo)

• An ant’s sense of smell is so strong, it can sniff out cancer (WP)

• Victor Navasky, journalist and historian, dies at 90 (Politico)

• Employee Offering Suggestion At Meeting Slowly Grows Quieter And Quieter Until Eventually Squeaking ‘I Don’t Know’ (The Onion)

Guns Kill People

You knew the news had taken a turn to the absurd when the profiles of mass shooters now included six-year-old kids and elderly Asian men. 

Can anyone continue to defend the open access to guns our laws provide with a straight face after the most recent spate of massacres? 

These slaughters are happening somewhere in America every 14 hours or so. That’s so far beyond unacceptable that we have to ask ourselves, “Have we no shame?”

The news coverage doesn’t help matters. That one was done by a kid with special learning disabilities. Oh, that one was over a workplace grievance, apparently. And that other one? Possibly a man angry at his estranged wife.

None of that is what matters. Those conditions and motives have always existed and will always exist. They exist in other countries as well but the overwhelming majority of mass shootings happen here.

The NRA lobbyists and their client politicians oppose new restrictions on guns because, as they are fond of saying, “Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.”

The truth is people kill people but only one at a time; guns kill people many at a time. 

What’s indisputable is that not as many people would be able to kill as anywhere near as many people if we didn’t allow the possession of so many guns. 

And it matters. Because every life matters and every life lost to gun violence is an ineffable tragedy that does not need to keep happening.

Please tell that to your Congressperson.

***

Another absurd twist in this news cycle is that classified documents somehow made it to the home of former vice-president Mike Pence. Are you kidding me? Mike Pence? He’s gotta be the straightest by-the-book politician of the lot. This the same guy who won’t even have a business lunch alone with a woman who is not his wife.

It all goes to show that either some sort of sick, twisted Easter Bunny is hopping around from home to home of the former presidents and vice-presidents, leaving behind deposits of classified documents like jelly beans, or we need some serious reforms about who gets to take this stuff with them when they leave the office.

Or maybe, for that matter, we are way too zealous about classification to begin with. After all, this is all done on our tax dollar. Tell that to your Congressperson that one also.

Legally, one thing has become clear. No one — from Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump to Joe Biden to Mike Pence — will likely do jail time on this one. Meanwhile, has anyone thought to check Barach Obama’s digs lately? Or George W. Bush’s?

***

Now I’ve gotten those two big rants out of my system, I can turn calmly to the one truly edifying story today. It comes from NPR about the many refugee actors from the Nazis who had leading roles in Casablanca. Some of them surprised me and they may surprise you as well.

LINKS:

• New year brings a grim wave of mass killings across America (AP)

• California staggered by deadly back-to-back mass shootings (Reuters)

• California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) accused Fox News of “not doing a damn thing about gun safety, not a damn thing for decades” while visiting victims of the deadly mass shooting at a Monterey Park ballroom dance hall. [HuffPost]

• Seven people were killed and one critically injured in two related shootings at plant nurseries around Half Moon Bay, a small coastal town south of San Francisco, police said. (Reuters)

• Half Moon Bay attack was ‘workplace violence incident,’ officials say (WP)

• Half Moon Bay shooting suspect once tried to suffocate coworker, court records allege (SFC)

• In Iowa two students were killed, and a teacher was injured, in shooting at a Des Moines school. [AP]

• Already, in the first 24 days of the year, there have been at least 39 mass shootings nationwide, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research group that tracks gun violence and defines a mass shooting as an event in which four or more people are shot or killed. (Cal Today)

• Gun Violence Is America’s Never-Ending Plague (New Yorker)

• Classified documents found at Pence’s Indiana home (CNN)

• The White House said that a search by the Justice Department of President Joe Biden's home on Friday had been carried out after a "voluntary, proactive offer" by his personal lawyers to the department.  (Reuters)

• Central Question as Georgia Inquiry Wraps: Will Trump Face Criminal Charges? (NYT)

• ‘Decisions imminent’ in Trump election meddling case, Georgia prosecutor says (Guardian)

• Justice Department sues Google over its dominance in online advertising (WP)

• DOJ Sues Google, Seeking to Break Up Online Ad Business (WSJ)

• Read the full Justice Department lawsuit against Google (Politico)

• Four More Oath Keepers Members Convicted of Sedition in Second Trial (NYT)

• A Recession Is Not Inevitable (Atlantic)

• Walmart raises minimum wage as retail labor market remains tight (CNBC)

• Washington Post lays off 20 newsroom employees (WP)

• Is Cold War Inevitable? (FP)

• Germany to send Leopard tanks after rethink by Scholz (FT)

• U.S. Leans Toward Providing Abrams Tanks to Ukraine (WSJ)

• Zelensky shakes up Ukrainian government amid growing corruption scandal (CNN)

• VIDEO: Nationwide Blackout Plunges Pakistan Into Darkness (AP)

• The Doomsday Clock moves to 90 seconds to midnight, signaling more peril than ever (NPR)

• This Asteroid Has Survived For 4 Billion Years. That Could Be a Huge Problem (ScienceAlert)

• The real-life refugees of 'Casablanca' make it so much more than a love story (NPR)

• This Top-Secret Prototype Display Is Truly Groundbreaking (CNET)

• Promising gene therapy delivers treatment directly to brain (AP)

• The Earth’s inner core seems to be spinning more slowly. Scientists don’t know why, so this new finding is causing a lot of debate. But it’s not a sign of the end times — the same thing apparently started happening in the late 1960s, too. (WP)

• M&M's is taking “an indefinite pause” from the cartoon “spokescandies” it has used in ads since the mid-1990s, according to a message on the company's Twitter account ― apparently in response to what can only be described as, well, a meltdown by conservatives like Tucker Carlson. The company said it's realized that "even a candy's shoes can be polarizing." [HuffPost]

• Biden Claps In Amazement After FBI Agent Pulls Classified Document From Behind His Ear (The Onion)

LYRICS:

“The Scientist”

Songwriters: פורר טל / Buckland,jonathan Mark / Berryman,guy Rupert / Champion,william / Martin,christopher Anthony John

Come up to meet you, tell you I'm sorry
You don't know how lovely you are
I had to find you, tell you I need you
Tell you I set you apart

Tell me your secrets and ask me your questions
Oh, let's go back to the start
Running in circles, coming up tails
Heads on a science apart

Nobody said it was easy
It's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be this hard
Oh, take me back to the start

I was just guessing at numbers and figures
Pulling the puzzles apart
Questions of science, science and progress
Do not speak as loud as my heart
But tell me you love me, come back and haunt me
Oh, and I rush to the start
Running in circles, chasing our tails
Coming back as we are

Nobody said it was easy
Oh, it's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be so hard

I'm going back to the start 

Dumb Questions

 On Sunday afternoon, while trying to make polite conversation with my four-year-old granddaughter, I asked her a dumb question: “Did you have school this week?”

“No,” she replied sleepily. 

This surprised me so I followed up. “Why?” 

She got a faraway look. “I don’t know. It’s probably summer break.” 

It was at this point that I realized the problem. We were talking late on a Sunday afternoon, near the end of an active and eventful weekend, during which her family had hosted lots of visitors and also had gone on a beach outing.

From her perspective, she hadn’t been in school for any of that.. And at the age of four, she’s probably still in the process of working out what a week is, actually, and how it differs from a weekend.

As for the issue of whether it’s summer as or not right now, that may well be one of the disadvantages of growing up in California. You’re never quite sure what season it is out here.

The incident reminded me of exercises I used to conduct in my classes for journalism students on interviewing techniques. I’d recommend that reporters should always try to be aware of how the structure of their questions might influence and sometimes even dictate the answers they receive in return.

Of course, many reporters elicit specific answers deliberately, especially with bad guys. (Just watch “60 Minutes.”) 

But the best reporters try to elicit the truth, as opposed to the answer they want to hear. There’s often a very big difference.

Then again, it’s worth noting the unexpected value of simply asking dumb questions, in journalism or in life.

Which leads me back to the conversation I had with my granddaughter. Perhaps a smarter question would have been “What do you do at school?” But then I might never have learned that this is summer break.

LINKS:

• Seven shot dead in another mass shooting in Half Moon Bay, California (Reuters)

• Poland Could Send German Made Leopard Tanks To Ukraine (CNN)

• Is Germany Letting Ukraine Down? It’s Not That Simple (Bloomberg)

• Germany’s Reluctance on Tanks Stems From Its History and Its Politics (NYT)

• Zelenskiy promises to swiftly confront Ukraine corruption (Reuters)

• Ex-Russian Commander Explains Why Putin's Success in Ukraine Is Impossible (Newsweek)

• The likelihood that the United States is already in recession or will fall into one this year has dropped over the past three months to 56% from a nearly two-thirds possibility, according to a survey on business conditions. (Reuters)

• Meta has listed its entire 435,000-square-foot office in the 181 Fremont tower in San Francisco for sublease. (San Francisco Chronicle)

• Monterey Park suspect may have been targeting his ex-wife in the mass shooting, mayor says (NBC)

• Asian community reeling after Lunar New Year shooting (AP)

• California’s strict gun laws don’t eliminate violence, but they have helped (WP)

• Microsoft to Invest $10 Billion in OpenAI, the Creator of ChatGPT (NYT)

• Teaching In The Age Of AI Means Getting Creative (538)

• On what would have been the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision, the White House is increasing protections in the face of growing abortion bans. Vice President Kamala Harris announced President Joe Biden’s decision to sign a presidential memorandum to protect medication abortion during a speech in Florida. [HuffPost]

• Santos’s financial woes pile up, threatening his political career (The Hill)

• Majority of New Yorkers want Santos to resign, new poll shows (Politico)

• How Kevin McCarthy Forged an Ironclad Bond With Marjorie Taylor Greene (NYT)

• Fox News' defense in defamation suit invokes debunked election-fraud claims (NPR)

• Ex-prosecutor calls for new investigation into Brett Kavanaugh over bombshell documentary revelation (Salon)

• Four Oath Keepers found guilty of Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy (WP)

• Could Ultrasound Replace the Stethoscope? (New Yorker)

• Antidepressants can cause ‘emotional blunting’, study shows (Guardian)

• Afghanistan professor on girls' education: 'Men must stand up for women' (BBC)

• Afghan Girls Cling to Dreams as Taliban Continue Education Ban (VoA)

• Taliban militias break into the homes of female university students seeking brides (El Pais)

• Afghanistan: 'We're not giving up the fight' (DW)

• China makes Lunar New Year appeal to Taliban to protect citizens in Afghanistan (SCMP)

• India has blocked the airing of a BBC documentary which questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership during the 2002 Gujarat riots, saying that even sharing of any clips via social media is barred.  (Reuters)

• How Arizona, California and other states are trying to generate a whole new water supply (The Hill)

• Antarctic: Giant iceberg breaks away in front of UK station (BBC)

• Covid, flu, RSV declining in hospitals as ‘tripledemic’ threat fades (WP)

• He Was the Last Pick of the Draft. He Became the 49ers’ Savior. (WSJ)

• Merriam-Webster buys Wordle-style hit game Quordle (BBC)

• These 5 Traces of Ancient Ancestors Still Exist in Human Bodies Today (ScienceAlert)

• Man Spends Long Day At Work Waiting To Go Home And Be Lonely (The Onion)

Lyrics

“For A Day Like Today”

By Lee Hazlewood 

There's a dream I've been saving for a day like today
Yellow trees, Indian waters flowing softly on their way
There's a dove in the treetops singing peace on the wind
Again again and again

It's just a dream I've been saving for a day like today
There's some hope I've been saving for a day like today

Love will come, love will conquer every heart that beats today
And it may not be perfect, but at least we can try
You and I, you and I, you and I

It's just some hope I've been saving for a day like today
There's a song I've been saving for a day like today

And the words tell a story of our youngens far away
Bring them home, sings the chorus, for they're much too young to die
Must they die, must they die, must they die
It's just a song I've been saving for a day like today
Bring them home, sings the chorus, for they're much too young to die
Must they die, must they die, must they die

It's just a song I've been saving for a day like today
Just a dream I've been saving for a day like today
Just some hope I've been saving for a day like today

New(s) Reads

 LINKS:

• Debt Ceiling Looms Over Capitol as Congress Returns to Work (WSJ)

• Democrats may have to bend on negotiations with GOP on debt ceiling (The Hill)

• Manchin says it’s a ‘mistake’ for White House to want Democrats to address debt ceiling without GOP (CNN)

• Bipartisan U.S. lawmakers preparing plan to avert debt-ceiling crisis (Reuters)

• DOJ search of Biden's Delaware home results in more seized documents (Politico)

• New Brett Kavanaugh Sexual Assault Allegations Revealed in Secret Sundance Doc (Daily Beast)

• ‘I hope this triggers outrage’: surprise Brett Kavanaugh documentary premieres at Sundance (Guardian)

• Takeaways from Sundance’s secret Brett Kavanaugh documentary (WP)

• Inside the battle for the future of Amazon (Vox)

• What Happens When AI Has Read Everything? (Atlantic)

• ChatGPT passed a Wharton MBA exam and it’s still in its infancy. One professor is sounding the alarm (Fortune)

• The Getty Family’s Trust Issues (New Yorker)

• Attacks on U.S. Jews and gays accelerate as hate speech grows on Twitter (WP)

• Monterey Park shooting: 10 killed at Lunar New Year celebration, suspect dead from apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound (CBS)

• Baton Rouge nightclub shooting injures 12 (CNN)

• Japan was the future but it's stuck in the past (BBC)

• Iranian currency falls to record low amid isolation and sanctions (Reuters)

• This butterfly was once thought extinct. Now it’s off the endangered species list (CNN)

• Mathematicians Roll Dice and Get Rock-Paper-Scissors (Quanta)

• Berkeley Scientists Discover Secret to Waking Up Alert and Refreshed (SciTechDaily)

• Here’s the No. 1 phrase used in successful relationships, say psychologists who studied 40,000 couples (CNBC)

• Girl asks police to run DNA test on Christmas cookie for evidence of Santa Claus (NPR)

• Bleary-Eyed, Stuporous Houseguest Assures Host That He Slept Great (The Onion)

Comes Now the Robot

That new AI sensation, ChatGPT, is exciting the tech community and scaring everybody else, so I decided to take a closer look at it.

My intent was to see how up-to-date its content-scraping capacity is at present and the answer became obvious rather quickly.

When I asked the app to write a report on the status of Afghan women, it stated that “Afghan women have faced many challenges throughout the country's history, but they have made significant strides in recent years.” No mention at all of highly publicized moves by the Taliban to virtually ban women from all roles in public life, including jobs or the ability to get an education.

This was a bit perplexing, so I asked the app to produce a current “top news stories” report. Here is how it responded:

“I am sorry, I am a language model and I don't have access to the current news stories. My knowledge cut off is 2021, I can give you information about the events that happened before that date. Can I help you with anything else?”

So there you have one key weakness of the app. In case any teachers out there are worried about students using ChatGPT to “write” essays, I suggest including a recent news hook as part of the assignment. At least for now, the app’s essay writing tool won’t be able to access any updates from the past couple years.

To confirm this assumption, I asked the app about the late Queen Elizabeth. Here is what it reported back:

“Queen Elizabeth II's reign began on February 6, 1952 and is currently ongoing. She is the longest-reigning current monarch in the world, having surpassed the previous record held by her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria…”

Actually, as anyone not hiding in Tora Bora knows, the queen passed away last September 8th.

Even a cheating student would catch that one, presumably, so requiring more subtle news updates in your assignment is advisable.

The concerns over cheating aside, I’m sure there are many creative uses of AI in a classroom setting, and maybe even for journalsts. I’ll try to look into that in a future column.

LINKS:

• ChatGPT isn’t coming. It’s here (CNN)

• How ChatGPT Will Destabilize White-Collar Work (Atlantic)

• Google called on cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin in ChatGPT fightback after issuing a 'code red', report says (Business Insider)

• Google is freaking out about ChatGPT (The Verge)

• A College Student Created an App to Detect If Essays Were Written by ChatGPT (Gizmodo)

• How to Detect OpenAI’s ChatGPT Output (Medium)

• 10 killed in mass shooting in Monterey Park dance studio (LAT)

• Allies Fail to Agree on Sending Tanks to Ukraine (NYT)

• Ukraine war: Zelensky adviser says West’s 'indecision' is killing Ukrainians (BBC)

• Russia has amassed a shadow fleet to ship its oil around sanctions (NPR)

• US designates Russian Wagner mercenary force a crime organisation (Al Jazeera)

• Months after Russian invasion, Meta is tweaking its content policies (WP)

• Yellen warns of ‘global financial crisis’ if US debt limit agreement isn’t reached (CNN)

• McCarthy tries to get out of his box on debt ceiling (The Hill)

• In conservative states, abortion opponents push back on Republicans (Politico)

• How much ad money did Elon Musk chase away? Spending among Twitter’s top 30 advertisers fell 42% to an estimated $53.8 million for November and December after Elon Musk bought the social-media platform, according to a report that research firm Pathmatics. (Reuters)

• Elon Musk takes witness stand to defend Tesla buyout tweets (AP)

• Google employees scramble for answers after layoffs hit long-tenured and recently promoted employees (CNBC)

• Tech Layoffs Shock Young Workers. The Older People? Not So Much. (NYT)

• What the Tech and Media Layoffs Are Really Telling Us About the Economy (Atlantic)

• The price of eggs is up an astounding amount, and while the top U.S. producer says it’s because avian flu decreased supply, a farm group urged the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the possibility of price gouging. (Reuters)

• Inside the Supreme Court Inquiry: Seized Phones, Affidavits and Distrust (NYT)

• Elizabeth Holmes made an ‘attempt to flee the country’ after her conviction, prosecutors say (CNN)

• Protests in Stockholm, including Koran-burning, draw strong condemnation from Turkey (Reuters)

• Afghan girls and women made focus of International Education Day (UNESCO) 

• ‘Better than finding gold’: towers’ remains may rewrite history of English civil war (Guardian)

• When scientists tagged a curious seal, he led them to signs of a potential climate disaster (WP)

• America Forgot the 1918 Flu. Will We Also Forget Covid? (WSJ)

• Chicago Field Museum Director Uses Titanosaur Skull To Hold Parking Space In Snow (The Onion)

LYRICS:

“Braille”

Written by Lisa Margaret Hannigan

For you, I leave my light on
To do its best against the storm.
And you came in like the tide and
I knew that we could keep each other warm.

You bring crocosmia and fuschias,
And I, I sing your name into the night.
A king of salt and stones, your compass,
It swings from you to me tonight.

We'll swim without a word between us,
Our breath held in.
We reel in love in the ocean,
Braille on our skin, on our skin

I fill a glass with what you've gathered
They wilt against the window pane
In the morning sees you off with nets to scatter
You will come in with the tide again

We swim without a word between us
Our breath held in
We read enough in the rush of
Braille on our skin, on our skin

We swim without a word between us,
Our breath held in.
We read enough in the rush of

Braille on our skin, on our skin.