DSmith_Tucson @DSmith_Tucson@mastodon.tucsonsentinel.com

In honor of Charles M. Schulz on what would have been his 100th birthday, my deskmate types away while waiting for me to finish the draft of my column. #Schulz100

A 19-year-old woman in Missouri is, according to the state, too young to watch the execution of her father - who was 19 when he was sentenced to death by the state of Missouri.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63770438

#deathpenalty #execution #criminaljustice

"Like all language models, Galactica is a mindless bot that cannot tell fact from fiction. Within hours, scientists were sharing its biased and incorrect results on social media." https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/11/18/1063487/meta-large-language-model-ai-only-survived-three-days-gpt-3-science

Been trying to keep an open mind about Post but, yeesh, it has a lot of warning signs right out of the gate, and I don't mean beta bugs. Comments run by OpenWeb? Investment by Marc Andreessen? No way to know who is reposting your content? No way to moderate comments on your posts?

It doesn't seem buggy, it seems structurally unsound in ways that will be hard to fix.

https://twitter.com/Chronotope/status/1596224339355262977
https://twitter.com/jayrosen_nyu/status/1596606967195533312

UPDATE: Trump admits he had dinner with Fuentes. Both the idea that Trump was unfamiliar with Fuentes and that he was FORCED to have dinner with him because Kanye brought him along is not credible. https://twitter.com/jonathanvswan/status/1596195825700544516

Thanks to Arizona voters for saving democracy, at least for the time being https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/opinion/report/112522_az_saves_democracy_op/thanks-arizona-voters-saving-democracy-least-time-being/
I have something serious to be thankful for and that's you, Arizona. You might have saved democracy in America. Voters here fixed bayonets and charged down Little Round Top, routing the rebel army right back toward the village of Gettysburg (metaphorically of course).
#Tucson #Arizona

Borderlands bear compilation from some of my remote cameras in extreme southern Arizona.
#noborderwall
This is my first Mastodon post!

Today, #Elmo is participating in a #conspiracy theory about a “#woke mind virus” which comes from the antisemitic theory of “cultural marxism” — which was created by “paleoconservative” “4th generation warfare” inventor #WilliamLind and his mentor, CNP founder #PaulWeyrich.

They moved to “woke” after several neo-nazi murder #manifestos used “cultural marxism.”
https://www.identitiesjournal.com/blog-collection/from-cultural-marxism-to-wokeism-the-repackaged-theory-of-left-wing-cultural-hegemony

This is absurd framing.

Elon Musk paid a fortune for Twitter and is now destroying it.

Sam Bankman-Fried started FTX and made billions — then drove FTX into bankruptcy.

The rule used to be: “You break it, you own it.”

Now, if you’re rich enough, it’s the opposite: “You own it, you can break it.”

Mike Pence may be talking to DOJ prosecutors investigating January 6.

I suspect Pence (and even Meadows) are more open to talking to the DOJ because grand jury testimony is secret and it would be harder for Trump to direct death threats toward them.

Also, Pence may want to run against Trump for president.

Adding: I do not disagree with everyone saying he is a coward. Yes, of course.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/23/us/politics/mike-pence-jan-6.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Just throwing it out there: Is Arizona a blue state? https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/opinion/report/112322_blue_state_az_op/just-throwing-it-out-there-arizona-blue-state/
Democrat Kris Mayes narrowly won the race for Arizona attorney general. Democrats won all the high-profile races across the state (which they haven't done since 1948). Republicans keep losing here. Is it a fluke or the new state of things?
#Tucson #Arizona

COVID-19 defemitely not created in a lab: New study: “Our paper recognizes that there are different possible origins, but the evidence towards zoonosis is overwhelming,” says co-author Danielle Anderson, a virologist at the University of Melbourne. The report, which includes an analysis that found the peer-reviewed literature overwhelmingly supports the zoonotic hypotheses, appeared in PNAS, October 2022. https://www.science.org/content/article/evidence-suggests-pandemic-came-nature-not-lab-panel-says?et_rid=49233188&et_cid=4500062 #covid #science

Feel like I've spent the day talking about bummer shit, so here is something amazing:

An Internet Archive collection of Curio Catalogs from the 30s/40s. Every single page is a banger. An incredible capture of a moment in time and kick-ass visual reference.

https://archive.org/details/iapsop_curio_catalogs

If only there had been signs…
---
RT @dandrezner
“[Sunak’s] predecessors were able to promote Brexit as a blow for British sovereignty or as a curb against uncontrolled immigration. Now, it is being judged on its economic impact — and being found sorely wanting.” https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/22/world/europe/uk-brexit-regret.html
https://twitter.com/dandrezner/status/1595268204938817536

Hard to imagine advertisers don’t want to put ads on a platform whose unpredictable owner continuously posts insults and explicit memes, where the entire brand protection team has quit or been fired and where “freedom of speech” means bringing back offensive and dangerous accounts despite advertiser warnings that doing so kills their trust in Twitter’s commitment to safety and inclusion
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/22/twitter-advertiser-exodus-musk/

The NIH finally got their SARS2 self-reporting tool off the ground. The data will be passed off to public health systems, which means case rates will likely reflect results reported through their system.

BOOST. SHARE. REPORT RESULTS.

https://makemytestcount.org/

Abe Hamadeh files lawsuit challenging Az election results, citing Maricopa County problems https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/112222_hamadeh_election_suit/abe-hamadeh-files-lawsuit-challenging-az-election-results-citing-maricopa-county-problems/
Abe Hamadeh, the Republican nominee for attorney general, filed a lawsuit late Tuesday alleging that Maricopa County officials bungled Election Day so severely that it cost him a victory in the race, which he lost by just 510 votes.

Pima County warns of rise in RSV, COVID & flu cases ahead of holiday weekend https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/112222_pima_rsv_holidays/pima-county-warns-rise-rsv-covid-flu-cases-ahead-holiday-weekend/
Respiratory viruses such as RSV, COVID-19 and the flu are spreading at higher rates than normal for this time of year, and people be cautious during Thanksgiving weekend, Pima County health officials said.