Weekend Links

 Note: I’m out of town this weekend with limited Interest access, so this may be the only post I publish for a couple of days.

LINKS:

• Attorney General Garland appoints a special counsel in Hunter Biden probe (NBC)

• Judge Chutkan says Trump’s right to free speech in January 6 case is ‘not absolute’ (CNN)

• Judge warns Trump: ‘Inflammatory’ statements about election case could speed trial (Politico)

• Trump reacts with fury to proposed 2 January trial date in special counsel’s 2020 election case (Independent)

• Death Toll Soars in Maui, as Rescue Crews Scour Decimated Town (NYT)

• How did the Maui fire start? What we know about the cause of the Lahaina blaze (CBS)

• US forecasters said they expect a more dangerous Atlantic storm season than previously projected, raising their Atlantic hurricane outlook due to high sea surface temperatures. (Reuters)

• Racing to Stop Trump, Republicans Descend on the Iowa State Fair (NYT)

• Illinois Supreme Court upholds state’s assault-style weapons ban (CNN)

• California just opened the floodgates for self-driving cars (WP)

• Striking Writers and Studios Agree to Restart Negotiations (NYT)

• Prolonged drought deepens Afghanistan's humanitarian crisis (Reuters)

• Two years after fall of Kabul, tens of thousands of Afghans languish in limbo waiting for US visas (AP)

• The World Has No Choice But to Work With the Taliban (Foreign Affairs)

• Authoritarians are on the march (Economist)

• Ukraine sacks army recruitment chiefs in anti-graft shakeup (Reuters)

• Ecuador holds 6 Colombians in slaying of presidential candidate as violence weighs on nation (AP)

• New study shows 18% productivity decline by those working from home (TechSpot)

• The ‘Godfather of AI’ Has a Hopeful Plan for Keeping Future AI Friendly (Wired)

• AI Causes Real Harm. Let’s Focus on That over the End-of-Humanity Hype (Scientific American)

• AI can be a force for good or ill in society, so everyone must shape it, not just the ‘tech guys’ (Guardian)

• Hospital bosses love AI. Doctors and nurses are worried. (WP)

• Man Forced To Venture Pretty Far Into Wilds Of Internet To Have Opinion Confirmed (The Onion)

The Cliff

I’m afraid that the wildfire disaster that has befallen Maui may be a harbinger of what awaits the entire global population in the era of human-caused climate change. A number of desperate people were forced to jump into the ocean to escape the flames because there was nowhere else for them to go.

As extreme weather events proliferate everywhere, the massive fires, storms, floods, droughts, heat, cold, wind and volcano eruptions are pocking the face of the planet like an adolescent with pimples, and in this case the scarring may be permanent.

It’s been clear for decades that the only tool left to human civilization to combat the climate change we’ve caused is mitigation. It’s much too late for prevention, and the concept of reversing global warming is barely theoretical at best.

But it may not be too late to limit the damage. How? Our societies have to forge agreements on some pretty severe limits on conventional energy production that so far have proven impossible to attain.

For now we may be able to comfort ourselves (falsely) that the problem is elsewhere. But the warning signs have been flashing red all around us for 50 years now. The ultimate question is whether we will finally develop the collective sense to save ourselves before the only choice remaining is to jump off that final cliff.

LINKS:

• Deadly wildfires burning across Maui prompt evacuations (CNN)

• At least 55 killed in Hawaii wildfires, Maui officials say (WP, various)

• Unprecedented levels of damage from storms this year is upending US towns and the insurance industry (AP)

• Iran moves 5 Americans to house arrest, lawyer says, in possible first step in their release (CBS)

• How Ukrainian sea drones work - and why they terrify the Russian fleet (Independent)

• Slow counteroffensive darkens mood in Ukraine (WP)

• Taliban's War on Drugs Going Strong, for Now (VoA)

• Picket Line Regulars Bolster Solidarity Among Writers As WGA Strike Hits 100 Days (Deadline)

• Bill Barr defends DOJ's election case against Trump (MSNBC)

• Clarence Thomas’ 38 Vacations: The Other Billionaires Who Have Treated the Supreme Court Justice to Luxury Travel (ProPublica)

• A Woman Was Attacked by a Snake That Fell From the Sky. Then a Hawk Dived In. (NYT)

• South Korea authorities evacuated more than 10,000 people and closed schools in flood-hit areas as tropical storm Khanun swept over the peninsula. (Reuters)

• Speed of approach to critical levels of climate change as dangerous to our survival as reaching those critical levels (Phys.org)

• Supermarket AI meal planner app suggests recipe that would create chlorine gas (Guardian)

• An author says AI is ‘writing’ unauthorized books being sold under her name on Amazon (CNN)

• Hari Kunzru on the Threat (and Promise) of AI for Novelists (GQ)

• Meet Jen, Futureverse’s New Text-to-Music AI Generator (Billboard)

• Google, Universal Music in talks for deal on AI 'deepfakes' (Financial Times)

• News outlets demand new rules for AI training data (The Verge)

• AI can hear what you're typing over Zoom with 93 per cent accuracy (New Scientist)

• There’s Never Been A Better Time To Be Rich In America, So Why Aren’t Poor People Happy For Them? (The Onion)

 

Conversing With Teens

 From 2012.

In the event you are not a parent of teenagers, here is what it is like when you are driving them across town, as they listen to music on their iPhones.

"How was school today?"

(no answer) 

Then one of them removes a headphone and says, "Wassup?"

"How was your school day, today?"

"Cool. Nothin' much."

Headphones back in place, they retreat again from your grasp.

A few blocks later, you forget and say something else, like, "You know, I heard on NPR that..." and start telling them about a news story that might interest them.

"Wassup?" one of them says anew.

"It's okay, I just...never mind."

As you continue driving on in silence, hearing the songs blasting into their headphones, worrying about long-term hearing damage, suddenly one of them turns off their music and sweetly turns to you.

"How was your day, Dad?"

That is unexpected, so you stumble at first.

"Well, I was busy. No, not really busy. I mean, I drove your sister to the SPCA camp, early. Then I came back home and went back to sleep. Had some strange dreams, actually. Woke up, did some work. Posted to my tech blog. Then I heard this story on NPR..."

As you ramble on, keeping an eye on the traffic in front of you, you slowly realize he has replaced his headphones and no longer is listening to you.

"Nothing special, in the end," you hear yourself sign off.

LINKS:

TOP STORY TODAY: Court Records Reveal Names of Active East Bay Priests Accused of Abuse (KQED)

• Wildfires burning across Maui prompt evacuations (CNN)

• Ecuadorian presidential candidate Villavicencio shot dead in attack (Al Jazeera)

• Dianne Feinstein went to the hospital after a 'minor fall' at home, spokesperson says (NBC)

• Fulton County district attorney is likely to present her case against Trump to grand jury next week (CNN)

• Previously Secret Memo Laid Out Strategy for Trump to Overturn Biden’s Win )NYT)

• Please, House Republicans, Be Crazy Enough to Impeach Joe Biden (TNR)

• In the Ohio GOP’s scam referendum, the majority backed majority rule (WP)

• American woman, child freed after being kidnapped in Haiti last month (ABC)

• Lyft wants to kill surge pricing (TechCrunch)

• Historic Supreme Court case could imperil the entire US tax code (The Hill)

• Long-term drought and near-term heat wave take toll on Arizona's desert ecology (NBC)

• Latin American Countries Aim to Curb Amazon Deforestation (WSJ)

• The Hollywood writers' strike marks 100 days with contract talks stalled (Reuters)

• A New, Chilling Secret About the Manhattan Project Has Just Been Made Public (Slate)

• S.F. may not recover from pandemic population decline (SFC)

• The Taliban Won but These Afghans Fought On (NYT)

• How one Afghan family made the perilous journey across the U.S.-Mexico border (NPR)

• AI Is Building Highly Effective Antibodies That Humans Can’t Even Imagine (Wired)

• Pope warns against potential dangers of artificial intelligence (Reuters)

• AI hysteria is a distraction: algorithms already sow disinformation in Africa (Guardian)

• What does it take to get AI to work like a scientist? (Ars Technica)

• It Kind Of Sweet CEO Thinks He Doing Good Job (The Onion)

Getting It Right (Reporter's Notebook)

I published the first version of this essay 11 years ago this week.

If they were all added up. I wonder how many people I've interviewed in my career. How many people's stories I've collected. How many quotes I've selected.

You'd think it would all boil down to a formula, but it doesn't. Everyone is different; everyone's story is unique.

These days I do a few interviews in person each week, a few others by phone, and a few others by email. The author interviews I do for an ebook distributor start with a phone interview, followed by a Q&A in email.

That way there's no need to take notes or use a recorder, nor are there any worries about misquoting someone.

Still, even when the structure of an interview falls into a familiar pattern, because you are having a similar conversation to others about similar topics or ideas, the unique ways people see the world and tell their stories reshapes even familiar territory into new terrain.

That's one reason I like being a journalist, always finding out new things, always challenging my own assumptions. Being exposed to multiple perspectives on all kinds of things keeps me from falling into a rut of unexamined thinking, or descending into the echo chamber of group-think.

At least I hope it does.

While it might seem to some that the interviews I used to do of famous and prominent people for bigger publications like Rolling Stone or Salon about weighty topics might have been more important types of work than my current short blog profiles of startups or ebook authors.

I don't see it that way. A person's story is their story, whether they are powerful or unknown, whether the narrative seems complex or relatively simple.

There's nothing simple about a life -- any life.

It's an honor when someone lets you in on their dreams, their hopes, and their fears. To be entrusted at whatever level with the opportunity to write about someone else is a feeling I never get tired of, and try to never abuse.

As journalists, we tell other peoples' stories; often they will never do that for themselves.

Every keystroke is like the beating of a heart. The rhythm of life, emerging in words, joining other words into the narrative river.

Good or bad, nice or mean, dead or alive, these lives have mattered, and those of us who've witnessed them have an obligation to history to try and get these stories right.

Every time I post a new piece online, which averages about once a day, I hope that I get it right. Nothing bothers me more than hearing I made a mistake -- luckily these usually are minor and can be easily corrected, but they still bother me.

I'm not here to make mistakes. I'm here to get the story right.

LINKS:

• Voters in Ohio reject GOP-backed proposal that would have made it tougher to protect abortion rights (AP)

• G.O.P. Contenders Feed Voter Distrust in Courts, Schools and Military (NYT)

• Donald Trump's Remarks About Mike Pence Could be His Undoing (Newsweek)

• Trump Indictment Mystery: Where Is Mark Meadows? (WSJ)

• Trump argues proposed limits on 2020 election case evidence violate free speech (Reuters)

• DeSantis replaces campaign manager as he struggles to catch up to Trump (Politico)

• Thousands of flights are delayed after severe storms disrupt air travel (CNN)

• Biden is creating a new national monument near the Grand Canyon (NPR)

• As writers’ strike nears 100-day mark, a potential deal with Hollywood studios is nowhere in sight (CNN)

• The Legal Assault on Corporate Diversity Efforts Has Begun (WSJ)

• Why fathers should take parental leave (Axios)

• Bursting ice dam in Alaska highlights risks of glacial flooding (AP)

• The world must unite now to halt the Taliban’s repression of Afghan women and girls (Guardian)

• Russians tied to Putin or military sidestep sanctions, drawing protests (WP)

• Ukraine declares war on Russia’s Black Sea shipping (Politico)

• Meet the hackers who are trying to make AI go rogue (WP)

• U.S. public opinion is evenly split on AI (Axios)

• AI regulation is taking shape, but startups are being left out (The Verge)

• 5 ChatGPT Prompts To Validate A Business Idea (Forbes)

• This AI Could Zero In On the Origins of Mystery Cancers (Daily Beast)

• The Pac-12 implosion is latest example of the farce that is college sports (WP)

• Nepotism Blamed After Untrained Runner Completes ‘Slowest-Ever’ 100-Meter (The Onion)

 

Slivers of Time

 (From three years ago.)

I spent many years walking beaches seeking little slivers of polished seaggass. White, green, blue, bluegreen, brown, amber, even red, they are the remainders of bottles and other glass objects left by the tides after salt, sun, sand, waves and time have had their way with them.

My collection, which ultimately contained thousands of pieces, filled several large jars and bottles. Eventually, I started giving it away to my grandchildren and a few friends. Like everything else you collect in life, you can't take it with you.

Walking next to the surf for hours at a time was also for me a time to think, mostly about problems that have no solutions. But walk I did all over beaches in the U.S., Mexico, South America, Asia, the South Pacific, the Caribbean, Australia, on islands and the edges of continents of almost every ocean on the planet.

I collected more than seaglass at beaches -- driftwood, shells, stones, lures -- anything that drifted in from the sea. I once found a note in a bottle. Another time, bags of marijuana. On a few occasions,  coins, some quite old.

All of the collections are mostly gone now, like my other possessions. Only the memories of finding those treasures remain.

LINKS:

• Judge dismisses Trump’s countersuit against E Jean Carroll that claimed she defamed him (Guardian)

• Trump Faces Looming Threat of Racketeering Charges in Georgia Case (WSJ)

• Judge overseeing Trump documents case criticizes special counsel (Axios)

• The Justice Department faces its biggest test in its history with the election conspiracy case against Trump (AP)

• A prominent conservative writer, lionized by Silicon Valley billionaires and a U.S. senator, used a pen name for years to write for white supremacist publications and was a formative voice during the rise of the racist “alt-right,” HuffPost's Christopher Mathias reports. [HuffPost]

• Abortion Drives Ohio Election on Amending the State Constitution (NYT)

• Donald Trump gloats about USA’s Women’s World Cup elimination (Guardian)

• Anguish in Camelot: Kennedy Campaign Roils Storied Political Family (NYT)

• Wind Industry in Crisis as Problems Mount (WSJ)

• With a fast burst of sea level rise, New Orleans’s outer defenses are drowning (WP)

• Are G.O.P. Voters Tiring of the War on ‘Wokeness’? (NYT)

• West African leaders will meet Thursday after Niger’s junta defies key deadline and shuts airspace (AP)

• What Is Happening in Niger? What to Know About the Coup (WSJ)

• U.S. imports from China plummet as relations remain tense (WP)

• Ukraine says woman detained in Zelensky assassination plot (The Hill)

• Russia's air force is barely able to leave its own airspace because Ukraine's defenses are so strong, UK intel says (Insider)

• Ukraine Plans to 'Liberate Black Sea' With Naval Drones (Newsweek)

• France may soon overtake Russia as the world’s No. 2 arms exporter (France24)

• Zoom can now train its A.I. using some customer data, according to updated terms (CNBC)

• Dungeons & Dragons tells illustrators to stop using AI to generate artwork for fantasy franchise (AP)

• Don’t quit your day job: Generative AI and the end of programming (Venture Beat)

• 47% of Warren Buffett's $375 Billion Portfolio Is Invested in 3 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks (Motley Fool)

• Putting the AI in orgAnIzing (Politico)

• How hospitals are using A.I. to fight doctor burnout (CNBC)

• Microsoft AI Red Team building future of safer AI (Microsoft)

• AI language models are rife with political biases (MIT TR)

• Sheet Placed Over Dianne Feinstein Between Votes (The Onion)

Pretty

I saw a friend yesterday. We went to a cafe, a new one to me that she found by researching online. She told me it was a surprise. We talked. We ate our food. We talked some more. It was warm enough to leave our jackets aside but not so warm to be sleeveless, which she was.

My friend is pretty. She is 35 and special on many levels, and I love spending time with her. It made yesterday a very nice day for me. This was the first time in six months that we’ve seen each other.

She’s a bit sad right now but that will soon change, I trust. She deserves happiness. We all do.

After she dropped me back home and we hugged goodbye, I suddenly remembered something about a girlfriend I had 20 years ago. When she was in the bathroom, getting ready to join me in bed, I would lay on her side of the bed warming it up.

She said I was like a furnace because I was so warm. That always stuck with me and it made me feel special. She also said my belly was like a pillow. That made me feel good too, when I probably should actually have been thinking about losing some weight. 

So many women have made so many men feel good so much of our lives. But too much of the time we act like jerks.

You know what I miss most now? Having someone curl up beside me, her head on my shoulder, and me being her furnace. And serving as her pillow.

But luckily there are many kinds of love. Early in my second marriage, we had a son. I used to carry him around and sing a song to him. It was often playing in the background on our CD player. It’s by the Cranberries and has simple lyrics. The only real line is “You’re so pretty.”

He’s a big strapping man now. I wonder if he remembers. In my eyes he is perfect.

LINKS:

• Trump: Pence has ‘gone to the Dark Side’ (Politico)

• Pence confirms he took notes on Trump about overturning election (The Hill)

• Pence disputes Trump team's characterization of lead-up to Jan. 6 (CBS)

• Pence would be ‘best witness’ in Trump election conspiracy trial, attorney says (Guardian)

• Awkwardness in Trump’s circle: Top aides could be trial witnesses (WP)

• Barr says Trump prosecution is a "legitimate case" (Face the Nation)

• Clarence Thomas’s $267,230 R.V. and the Friend Who Financed It (NYT)

• At least 28 killed in passenger train crash in Pakistan (WP)

• Retired colonel says this one fact could make sea drones a game changer (CNN)

• Ukraine’s elite forces rely on technology to strike behind enemy lines (WP)

• Russia mounts a massive missile and drone attack against Ukraine following its retaliation promise (Politico)

• The US must honor its promises to Afghanistan’s women journalists (The Hill)

• Taliban bans girl students from attending school beyond third grade (Independent)

• A Shrinking Footprint in Africa for France, the Former Colonizer That Stayed (NYT)

• How Drugs Are Destroying the Amazon (Foreign Policy)

• Wizards of the Coast updating artist guidelines after AI art found in ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ book (Geek Wire)

• The big bottleneck for AI: a shortage of powerful chips (CNN)

• Simone Biles dazzles in first competition since Tokyo Olympics (Al Jazeera)

• ‘Monster hunters’ needed for biggest Loch Ness search in 50 years (WP)

• Mom Thinks You’d Enjoy Restaurant She Can’t Remember Name Of Right Now (The Onion)

Today’s Lyrics

“Pretty” by the Cranberries

You're so pretty the way you are
You're so pretty the way you are
And you have no reason
To be so insolent to me
You're so pretty the way you are

La, la
You got to say it if you want to
But you won't change me

La, la
You got to say it if you want to
But you won't change me

You're so pretty the way you are
You're so pretty the way you are
And you have no reason
To be so insolent to me
You're so pretty the way you are

La, la
You got to say it if you want to
But you won't change me
La, la
You got to say it if you want to

But you won't change me 

New(s)

LINKS:

• Feds alert judge to Trump’s ‘If you go after me, I’m coming after you!’ post (Politico)

• Trump's New Threat Crosses a Line: Ex-Prosecutor (Newsweek)

• Gravity of new Trump charges scrambles GOP politics (The Hill)

• Mike Pence Has Reached His Fork in the Road (NYT)

• In a Reversal, A.P. Psychology May Be Allowed in Florida Schools After All (NYT)

• Texas judge temporarily lifts abortion ban for complicated pregnancies (WP)

• Bigoted, antisemitic, gross: Rudy Giuliani finds an even lower low (Guardian)

• FDA approves first oral drug for postpartum depression (WP)

• The evidence on remote work is changing (NPR)

• Remote work is killing productivity, the experts and CEOs say—except it just surged the most in nearly 3 years (Fortune)

• The Problem With ‘Why Do People Live in Phoenix?’ (Atlantic)

• A Republican 2024 Climate Strategy: More Drilling, Less Clean Energy (NYT)

• Ukraine hits Russian oil tanker with sea drone hours after attacking naval base (CNN)

• Why Sweden and Denmark are having a crisis over the Koran (Reuters)

• Amazon deforestation hits six-year low (The Hill)

• Climate change threatens Germany's fairy tale forests (NPR)

• Taliban Shuts Down Offices Of Prominent Iranian Charity Amid Tensions With Tehran (Radio Free Europe)

• AI Won’t Replace Humans — But Humans With AI Will Replace Humans Without AI (Harvard Business Review)

• Large-scale AI language systems display an emergent ability to reason by analogy (Nature)

• Is artificial intelligence a threat to journalism or will the technology destroy itself? (Guardian)

• Disheartened Man Expected At Least One Text While Checking Phone After Flight (The Onion)