A painting of me
  • The New Yorker writes about Kumail Nanjiani. 

    I can’t wait till i’m profiled in the New Yorker. This article is really great. It’s funny that even when he’s being serious he’s also being funny.

    “She was unconscious, and she was hooked up to all these beeping machines, and I very clearly remember thinking, If she makes it out of this, I’m gonna marry her.” His voice caught. “I know that sounds cliché, and it’s actually kind of creepy and nonconsensual if you think about it too hard. But that was the thought I had.”

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  • The Dark Secret at the Heart of AI. 

    Starting in the summer of 2018, the European Union may require that companies be able to give users an explanation for decisions that automated systems reach. This might be impossible, even for systems that seem relatively simple on the surface, such as the apps and websites that use deep learning to serve ads or recommend songs. The computers that run those services have programmed themselves, and they have done it in ways we cannot understand. Even the engineers who build these apps cannot fully explain their behavior.

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  • Conservatives hated an uppity negro golfing President. 

    No President in American history has ever golfed more per week than Donald Trump. In his first 12 weeks in office Trump took a staggering 18 golf course trips. That’s unheard of. In his first 12 weeks in office, President Obama didn’t visit a single golf course. By the end of this year, it’s likely that Trump will have golfed more than President Obama has in his entire presidency.

    And that’s strange. It’s really strange. Because Donald Trump and other conservative pundits seemed to be deeply bothered by the times President Obama went out and golfed. It appeared to genuinely offend them. They obsessed over it.

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  • The Flagpole Sitta Lip Dub Turns 10. 

    Crazy how much time has passed. I remember when this came out. I wonder what everyone else in the video is up to now. (Jeff Rubin makes an appearance.)

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  • SuperBabies Don’t Cry. 

    I don’t know if she’ll ever do math calculations. I don’t know if she’ll ever read a book. I don’t know if she’ll ever live on her own. I don’t know what else I don’t know. I know that she has broken my heart and put it back together in a shape that is bigger than I knew was possible.

    (via Metafilter) #
  • The Portlandification of Pot. 

    But here in Portland, after 18 months of legalization, the lack of any negative impact on the economy or crime is a stark reminder of how absurd, and systemically racist, our federal drug policy is.

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  • No We Can't. 

    Rather than using OFA to engage millions of voters to turn up the heat on Congress, the president yoked his political fortunes to the unabashedly transactional style of politics advocated by his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. Health care reform — the centerpiece of his agenda — was no longer about mobilizing supporters to convince their friends, families and neighbors in all 50 states. It was about convincing 60 senators in Washington. It became about deals.

    A really great look at just how badly Obama and the democrats squandered his groundswell of support after he was elected. This is from 2010, but feels pertinent today.

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