daring-rss

Ann Telnaes, from her personal site (alas) on Substack:

I’ve worked for the Washington Post since 2008 as an editorial
cartoonist. I have had editorial feedback and productive
conversations — and some differences — about cartoons I have
submitted for publication, but in all that time I’ve never had a
cartoon killed because of who or what I chose to aim my pen at.
Until now.

The cartoon that was killed criticizes the billionaire tech and
media chief executives who have been doing their best to curry
favor with incoming President-elect Trump. There have been
multiple articles recently about these men with lucrative
government contracts and an interest in eliminating regulations
making their way to Mar-a-lago. The group in the cartoon included
Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook & Meta founder and CEO, Sam Altman/OpenAI
CEO, Patrick Soon-Shiong/LA Times publisher, the Walt Disney
Company/ABC News, and Jeff Bezos/Washington Post owner. […]

As an editorial cartoonist, my job is to hold powerful people and
institutions accountable. For the first time, my editor prevented
me from doing that critical job. So I have decided to leave the
Post. I doubt my decision will cause much of a stir and that it
will be dismissed because I’m just a cartoonist. But I will not
stop holding truth to power through my cartooning, because as they
say, “Democracy dies in darkness”.

The only thing wrong with the cartoon is that she drew it too soon to include Tim Cook. The cartoon isn’t even particularly scathing. It shows these moguls as offering money to Trump — which they are! What a bizarre decision by Telnaes’s editors.

This isn’t a sign that the Washington Post has taken another turn for the worse. It’s simply proof of what many of us wrote before the election, when Bezos kiboshed the Post editorial board’s endorsement of Kamala Harris. In one fell swoop that decision collapsed the entirety of The Washington Post’s editorial integrity. This Telnaes fiasco is just more proof. More will follow until Bezos sells.

 ★ 

Ann Telnaes, from her personal site (alas) on Substack:

I’ve worked for the Washington Post since 2008 as an editorial
cartoonist. I have had editorial feedback and productive
conversations — and some differences — about cartoons I have
submitted for publication, but in all that time I’ve never had a
cartoon killed because of who or what I chose to aim my pen at.
Until now.

The cartoon that was killed criticizes the billionaire tech and
media chief executives who have been doing their best to curry
favor with incoming President-elect Trump. There have been
multiple articles recently about these men with lucrative
government contracts and an interest in eliminating regulations
making their way to Mar-a-lago. The group in the cartoon included
Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook & Meta founder and CEO, Sam Altman/OpenAI
CEO, Patrick Soon-Shiong/LA Times publisher, the Walt Disney
Company/ABC News, and Jeff Bezos/Washington Post owner. […]

As an editorial cartoonist, my job is to hold powerful people and
institutions accountable. For the first time, my editor prevented
me from doing that critical job. So I have decided to leave the
Post. I doubt my decision will cause much of a stir and that it
will be dismissed because I’m just a cartoonist. But I will not
stop holding truth to power through my cartooning, because as they
say, “Democracy dies in darkness”.

The only thing wrong with the cartoon is that she drew it too soon to include Tim Cook. The cartoon isn’t even particularly scathing. It shows these moguls as offering money to Trump — which they are! What a bizarre decision by Telnaes’s editors.

This isn’t a sign that the Washington Post has taken another turn for the worse. It’s simply proof of what many of us wrote before the election, when Bezos kiboshed the Post editorial board’s endorsement of Kamala Harris. In one fell swoop that decision collapsed the entirety of The Washington Post’s editorial integrity. This Telnaes fiasco is just more proof. More will follow until Bezos sells.

Read More 

Kelly Hooper, reporting for Politico on 9 January 2021:

The Biden Inaugural Committee on Saturday released its list of donors, which included Google, Microsoft, Boeing and several other major corporations. The list contains all contributors who donated more than $200 to President-elect Joe Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration ceremony and related activities.

That website is now defunct, and the “bideninaugural.org” domain redirects (for the next 17 days) to “www.whitehouse.gov”, but Internet Archive has a capture from Inauguration Day, 20 January 2021.

Apple is not listed, and while there is a “Tim Cook” on the list, he’s listed as residing in Michigan.

All “great American traditions” have to start somewhere, and perhaps Tim Cook — the one from California, by way of Alabama — believes the great American tradition of donating money to presidential inaugural committees is only beginning now. Or, giving him the benefit of the doubt, perhaps he only saw fit to contribute $199 to Biden’s inauguration and thus wasn’t listed, and bumped his donation by $999,801 this time. You know, for “unity”.

 ★ 

Kelly Hooper, reporting for Politico on 9 January 2021:

The Biden Inaugural Committee on Saturday released its list of donors, which included Google, Microsoft, Boeing and several other major corporations. The list contains all contributors who donated more than $200 to President-elect Joe Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration ceremony and related activities.

That website is now defunct, and the “bideninaugural.org” domain redirects (for the next 17 days) to “www.whitehouse.gov”, but Internet Archive has a capture from Inauguration Day, 20 January 2021.

Apple is not listed, and while there is a “Tim Cook” on the list, he’s listed as residing in Michigan.

All “great American traditions” have to start somewhere, and perhaps Tim Cook — the one from California, by way of Alabama — believes the great American tradition of donating money to presidential inaugural committees is only beginning now. Or, giving him the benefit of the doubt, perhaps he only saw fit to contribute $199 to Biden’s inauguration and thus wasn’t listed, and bumped his donation by $999,801 this time. You know, for “unity”.

Read More 

Hard not to think of this clip today, re: an egomaniacal villain, whose worldview is frozen several decades in the past, setting the terms for an extortion racket.

 ★ 

Hard not to think of this clip today, re: an egomaniacal villain, whose worldview is frozen several decades in the past, setting the terms for an extortion racket.

Read More 

Fascinating piece by Ben Cohen for The Wall Street Journal (News+ link):

And there are two things I learned about the EUV tool I saw that I
can’t get out of my head:

ASML teamed up with a German optical company to develop mirrors
so flat that if they were scaled up to the size of Germany
itself, their largest imperfection would be less than a
millimeter.
The precision of EUV machines is comparable to directing a
laser beam from your house and hitting a ping-pong ball on the
moon.

It took decades for these absurdly sophisticated machines to make
their way from labs to fabs. And until recently, it wasn’t clear
if the company’s audacious bet on EUV lithography would ever pay
off. In 2012, ASML was strapped for cash and sold a 23% equity
stake to Intel, Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor
Manufacturing, which meant its biggest customers were literally
invested in the company’s success.

ASML soon ramped up production — very, very slowly. The company
delivered the first EUV system in 2010. Not until 2020 did it
deliver the 100th. And last year was a busy one: ASML shipped a
total of 42 EUV machines.

The piece is also a profile of one ASML engineer, Brienna Hall, who is one of a small cadre of frontline support engineers who keep these machines operating perfectly. The article’s headline, though, is bizarrely framed to suggest that she’s the only such support engineer in the world. The weird headline distracts from an otherwise fascinating story.

 ★ 

Fascinating piece by Ben Cohen for The Wall Street Journal (News+ link):

And there are two things I learned about the EUV tool I saw that I
can’t get out of my head:

ASML teamed up with a German optical company to develop mirrors
so flat that if they were scaled up to the size of Germany
itself, their largest imperfection would be less than a
millimeter.

The precision of EUV machines is comparable to directing a
laser beam from your house and hitting a ping-pong ball on the
moon.

It took decades for these absurdly sophisticated machines to make
their way from labs to fabs. And until recently, it wasn’t clear
if the company’s audacious bet on EUV lithography would ever pay
off. In 2012, ASML was strapped for cash and sold a 23% equity
stake to Intel, Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor
Manufacturing, which meant its biggest customers were literally
invested in the company’s success.

ASML soon ramped up production — very, very slowly. The company
delivered the first EUV system in 2010. Not until 2020 did it
deliver the 100th. And last year was a busy one: ASML shipped a
total of 42 EUV machines.

The piece is also a profile of one ASML engineer, Brienna Hall, who is one of a small cadre of frontline support engineers who keep these machines operating perfectly. The article’s headline, though, is bizarrely framed to suggest that she’s the only such support engineer in the world. The weird headline distracts from an otherwise fascinating story.

Read More 

Axios co-founder Mike Allen:

Apple CEO Tim Cook will personally donate $1 million to
President-elect Trump’s inaugural committee, sources with
knowledge of the donation tell Axios. […]

Cook, a proud Alabama native, believes the inauguration is a
great American tradition, and is donating to the inauguration in
the spirit of unity, the sources said. The company is not
expected to give.

Donald Trump tried to overthrow the legitimate results of the 2020 election to remain in office, and as part of his efforts, inspired a violent mob of insurrectionists to invade the U.S. Capitol and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.

 ★ 

Axios co-founder Mike Allen:

Apple CEO Tim Cook will personally donate $1 million to
President-elect Trump’s inaugural committee, sources with
knowledge of the donation tell Axios. […]

Cook, a proud Alabama native, believes the inauguration is a
great American tradition, and is donating to the inauguration in
the spirit of unity, the sources said. The company is not
expected to give.

Donald Trump tried to overthrow the legitimate results of the 2020 election to remain in office, and as part of his efforts, inspired a violent mob of insurrectionists to invade the U.S. Capitol and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.

Read More 

Speaking of Simon Willison, I great enjoyed this post from his week, with some of the self-imposed principles he follows writing his excellent eponymous blog. Amongst them:

I always include the names of the people who created the
content I am linking to, if I can figure that out. Credit is
really important, and it’s also useful for myself because I can
later search for someone’s name and find other interesting
things they have created that I linked to in the past. If I’ve
linked to someone’s work three or more times I also try to
notice and upgrade them to a dedicated tag. […]
If the original author reads my post, I want them to feel good
about it. I know from my own experience that often when you
publish something online the silence can be deafening. Knowing
that someone else read, appreciated, understood and then shared
your work can be very pleasant.
A slightly self-involved concern I have is that I like to prove
that I’ve read it. This is more for me than for anyone else: I
don’t like to recommend something if I’ve not read that thing
myself, and sticking in a detail that shows I read past the
first paragraph helps keep me honest about that.

Every step of the way, I found myself nodding my head, thinking to myself, I do that too! — right down to creating tags for people after I’ve mentioned their work or simply credited their bylines a few times. (The difference is that Willison seemingly isn’t a procrastinator, and I am, so my decades of tagging aren’t yet exposed to anyone but me.)

Then I got to this:

There are a lot of great link blogs out there, but the one that
has influenced me the most in how I approach my own is John
Gruber’s Daring Fireball. I really like the way he mixes
commentary, quotations and value-added relevant information.

And now it doesn’t seem quite as amazing that I was nodding my head in agreement with each of his guidelines. But, call me biased, it’s still a hell of a good start to a blogging rulebook.

 ★ 

Speaking of Simon Willison, I great enjoyed this post from his week, with some of the self-imposed principles he follows writing his excellent eponymous blog. Amongst them:

I always include the names of the people who created the
content I am linking to, if I can figure that out. Credit is
really important, and it’s also useful for myself because I can
later search for someone’s name and find other interesting
things they have created that I linked to in the past. If I’ve
linked to someone’s work three or more times I also try to
notice and upgrade them to a dedicated tag. […]
If the original author reads my post, I want them to feel good
about it. I know from my own experience that often when you
publish something online the silence can be deafening. Knowing
that someone else read, appreciated, understood and then shared
your work can be very pleasant.
A slightly self-involved concern I have is that I like to prove
that I’ve read it. This is more for me than for anyone else: I
don’t like to recommend something if I’ve not read that thing
myself, and sticking in a detail that shows I read past the
first paragraph helps keep me honest about that.

Every step of the way, I found myself nodding my head, thinking to myself, I do that too! — right down to creating tags for people after I’ve mentioned their work or simply credited their bylines a few times. (The difference is that Willison seemingly isn’t a procrastinator, and I am, so my decades of tagging aren’t yet exposed to anyone but me.)

Then I got to this:

There are a lot of great link blogs out there, but the one that
has influenced me the most in how I approach my own is John
Gruber’s Daring Fireball. I really like the way he mixes
commentary, quotations and value-added relevant information.

And now it doesn’t seem quite as amazing that I was nodding my head in agreement with each of his guidelines. But, call me biased, it’s still a hell of a good start to a blogging rulebook.

Read More 

Simon Willison:

A lot has happened in the world of Large Language Models over
the course of 2024. Here’s a review of things we figured out about
the field in the past twelve months, plus my attempt at
identifying key themes and pivotal moments. […]

I think telling people that this whole field is environmentally
catastrophic plagiarism machines that constantly make things up is
doing those people a disservice, no matter how much truth that
represents. There is genuine value to be had here, but getting to
that value is unintuitive and needs guidance.

Those of us who understand this stuff have a duty to help everyone
else figure it out.

Nobody is doing a better job of that than Willison. I learned so much from reading this piece — I bet you will too.

 ★ 

Simon Willison:

A lot has happened in the world of Large Language Models over
the course of 2024. Here’s a review of things we figured out about
the field in the past twelve months, plus my attempt at
identifying key themes and pivotal moments. […]

I think telling people that this whole field is environmentally
catastrophic plagiarism machines that constantly make things up is
doing those people a disservice, no matter how much truth that
represents. There is genuine value to be had here, but getting to
that value is unintuitive and needs guidance.

Those of us who understand this stuff have a duty to help everyone
else figure it out.

Nobody is doing a better job of that than Willison. I learned so much from reading this piece — I bet you will too.

Read More 

There are metaphors, and then there are metaphors.

Happy New Year.

 ★ 

There are metaphors, and then there are metaphors.

Happy New Year.

Read More 

Turn articles into podcasts and listen on the go. Email any article, and our AI transforms it into human-like narration, delivered straight to your private podcast feed. Whether it’s a long read or a quick blog post, enjoy it hands-free on any podcast app. Perfect for commutes, workouts, or just unwinding.

Sign up for free and start listening today. New users get $2 in credits to try it out — no commitment.

Built by an indie developer passionate about great audio experiences. Try it at Listen Later.

 ★ 

Turn articles into podcasts and listen on the go. Email any article, and our AI transforms it into human-like narration, delivered straight to your private podcast feed. Whether it’s a long read or a quick blog post, enjoy it hands-free on any podcast app. Perfect for commutes, workouts, or just unwinding.

Sign up for free and start listening today. New users get $2 in credits to try it out — no commitment.

Built by an indie developer passionate about great audio experiences. Try it at Listen Later.

Read More 

Hartley Charlton, MacRumors:

Apple TV+ is set to be available to stream for free from Saturday,
January 4 to Sunday, January 5, providing its full catalog with no
subscription fee. Following a series of teasers, Apple today
confirmed the free weekend on social media, building anticipation
for new releases early in 2025 such as the second season of
Severance. Simply open the Apple TV app to watch for free.

Bizarrely, the only place Apple announced this seems to be on X and Instagram. Not a word on Apple Newsroom, for example.

Apple TV+ has an abundance of great shows (but a relative dearth of good original movies, with Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon being the standout exception). I wouldn’t hesitate to argue that the average quality of an Apple TV+ original show is higher than that for any other streaming platform. It really is the new HBO. But for one weekend of free viewing I can easily name my two favorites, both of which I think will stand the test of time and long be remembered: Severance and Slow Horses.

 ★ 

Hartley Charlton, MacRumors:

Apple TV+ is set to be available to stream for free from Saturday,
January 4 to Sunday, January 5, providing its full catalog with no
subscription fee. Following a series of teasers, Apple today
confirmed the free weekend on social media, building anticipation
for new releases early in 2025 such as the second season of
Severance. Simply open the Apple TV app to watch for free.

Bizarrely, the only place Apple announced this seems to be on X and Instagram. Not a word on Apple Newsroom, for example.

Apple TV+ has an abundance of great shows (but a relative dearth of good original movies, with Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon being the standout exception). I wouldn’t hesitate to argue that the average quality of an Apple TV+ original show is higher than that for any other streaming platform. It really is the new HBO. But for one weekend of free viewing I can easily name my two favorites, both of which I think will stand the test of time and long be remembered: Severance and Slow Horses.

Read More