Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
When shown an animation generated by artificial intelligence, famed animator Hayao Miyazaki was not impressed. “I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself,” said the man behind movies like Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro, who was shown an AI-generated animation of a human-like being “walking on his head” using creepy movements…
Credit Ben Wiseman It’s not as if Donald Trump wants for self-amusement, but still I pity him the apparent end of his search for a secretary of state. He had such a blast with it. Luminary upon luminary genuflected before him. Oracle upon oracle plumbed the mists of his utterances. (“Just met with General Petraeus,” he…
Mike Pence.Photo: Darron Cummings/AP Indiana governor and Donald Trump running mate Mike Pence — notable for getting incensed at the animated Disney movie Mulan for being liberal propaganda that promoted the idea of women in the military — was once just a man getting incensed at the idea of working mothers allegedly stunting their children’s…
Time Magazine’s annual “Person of the Year” announcement is, year after year, grossly misunderstood. Time Magazine is clear on its sole criterion – “the person who had the greatest influence, for better or worse, on the events of the year” – yet, do a simple search on Twitter and you will find countless people who seem…
An inmate at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, in Ossining, N.Y. The New York Times analyzed thousands of parole decisions from the past few years and found that black prisoners in the state were at a marked disadvantage. Bryan Thomas for The New York Times Jaimie Davenport and Billy Cassell had their first hearings before the…
Russia’s new Iskander system can be armed with nuclear warheads and can fire either ballistic (pictured) or cruise missiles. The Iskander-M missile launcher was used during a military exercise last month by the Russian Eastern Military District’s 5th army at a firing range in Ussuriysk, Russia. Yuri Smityuk/TASS via Getty Images Russia’s new Iskander system…
Abdalrhman Ismail / Reuters This Is the End Women in Aleppo Choose Suicide Over Rape, Rebels Report Activists and rebels in the besieged city say mass executions have begun and children are burned alive as Assad’s Iranian- and Russian-backed forces move in. Editor’s Note: This story has been updated throughout. Troops loyal to Syrian dictator…
In media can have significant influence on how we perceive each other. The need for non-stereotypical, authentic representation in media has become abundantly clear, and calls not just for “diversity,” but for sensitive non-normative stories spun with authority that actually tell the truth and don’t exploit, have been getting louder. Still, it was hard to envision…
President-elect Donald Trump is interviewed Saturday by Chris Wallace of “Fox News Sunday” in Trump Tower in New York. (Richard Drew/AP) Global warming — “it’s a hoax.” Donald Trump has said that more than once. So it’s understandable that the request by the president-elect’s transition team for the names of individual Energy Department employees and…
NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump issued a single tweet blasting defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. at 8:30 a.m. on Monday. By lunchtime, he had wiped $4 billion off the company’s market value. Wall Street traders began dumping the company’s stock after Trump criticized its fighter jet program: “The F-35 program and cost is out…