Recent kwiples

Monday 29th of April 2024

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Artificial intelligence The China-US AI research gap has continued to widen, with Chinese institutions producing 4.5 times as many papers than American institutions since 2010, and significantly more than the US, India, UK, and Germany combined. Moreover, China is significantly leading in areas with implications for security and geopolitics, such as surveillance, autonomy,  scene understanding, and object detection. Nathan Benaich and Ian Hogarth, State of AI Report 2022, Key Themes © 2023 Kwiple.com
Children Statistically, kids are safer from mass shootings in a meatpacking plant than in a school. Maybe they'll lose a limb, but hey, they'll probably survive. … Best of all, they're cheap  and their brains haven't developed enough to form unions! Arguments advanced by a lobbyist for water-downed child labor laws like those being passed in many Republican-led states, as represented in an April 26, 2023, cartoon by Jen Sorensen © 2023 Kwiple.com
China China will never realize its full potential — in a hyper-connected, digitized, deep,  dual-use, semiconductor-powered world — unless it understands that establishing and maintaining trust is now the single most important competitive advantage any country or company can have. And Beijing is failing in that endeavor. Thomas Friedman, New York Times, April 14, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
China There's no question China has been trying to crack down on the internet. Good luck! That’s sort of like trying to nail jello to the wall. Bill Clinton, 2000 speech on China Trade Bill urging Congress to admit China into the World Trade Organization © 2023 Kwiple.com
The Cold War In the Cold War it was relatively easy to say that this fighter jet is a weapon and that that phone is a tool. But when we install the ability to sense, digitize, connect, process, learn, share and act into more and more things — from your GPS-enabled phone to your car to your toaster to your favorite app — they all become dual use, either weapons or  tools depending on who controls the software running them and who owns the data that they spin off. Today, it’s just a few lines of code that separate autonomous cars from autonomous weapons. Thomas Friedman, New York Times, Apr. 14, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Freedom of speech The argument from the  “marketplace of ideas” model of free speech works only if the underlying disposition of the society is to accept the force of reason over the power of irrational resentment and prejudice. If the society is divided, however, then a demogogic politician can exploit  the division by using language to sow fear, accentuate prejudice, and call for revenge against members of hated groups. Attempting to counter such rhetoric with reason is akin to using a pamphlet against a pistol. Jason Stanley, How Fascism Works © 2023 Kwiple.com
Global warming US investors’ enthusiasm for green investments has begun to wane in the face of repeated attacks on “woke capitalism” by Republicans, in a growing contrast to the billions still pouring into sustainable strategies in Europe. Funds marketed with a sustainable label were hit with $12.4bn in net outflows in the US in the past 12 months even as green funds in Europe added $126.3bn, according to the data provider Morningstar. Financial Times, April 28, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Hunger We were told four years ago that 17 million people went to bed hungry each night. Well, that was probably true. They were all on a diet. Ronald Reagan, 1964 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Infrastructure … some 900 cities and towns in China are now served by high-speed rail, which makes travel to even remote communities incredibly cheap, easy and comfortable. In the last 23 years America has built exactly one sort-of-high-speed rail line, the Acela, serving 15 stops between Washington, D.C., and Boston. Think about that: 900 to 15. Thomas Friedman, New York Times, April 14, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Journalism I can’t think of a profession that relies more on osmosis, and just being around other people, than journalism. … the best journalism school is overhearing journalists doing their jobs. Mark Leibovich © 2023 Kwiple.com
Journalism I just returned from visiting China for the first time since Covid struck. Being back in Beijing was a reminder of my first rule of journalism: If you don't go, you don't know. Thomas Friedman, New York Times, April 14, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Count votes in Congress by: 1. Calculating a Member's Proportional Vote (MPV) for each member, as follows: MPV = SPNP / NLRS where: SPNP = State's Percentage of the National Population NLRS = Number of Legislators Representing the State (in that legislature) 2. Totaling “yes” MPVs and “no” MPVs 3. Passing if total MPV is more than 50 OTHERWISE Abolish the Senate © 2019 Kwiple.com
Native Americans A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one, and that high sanction of his destruction has been an enormous factor in promoting Indian massacres. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man. Richard H. Pratt, founder and superintendent of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School,  the famous government-run boarding school where Native American children who were forcibly removed from their familes were sent to erase vestiges of their tribal culture by being taught to act like whites © 2023 Kwiple.com
Nukes I want to lob one into the men's room of the Kremlin and make sure I hit it. Barry Goldwater, 1964 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Post-2022 Senate shituation 15 states (Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming) 2020 population: 40,737,128 Senators: 30 Republicans 1 Senator per 1,357,904 people — 1 state (California) 2022 population: 39,995,077 Senators: 2 Democrats 1 Senator per 19,997,539 people 19,997,539 / 1,357,904 = 14.7, therefore: average 15er's vote is worth nearly 15 times a Californian's, a Californian's vote is worth less than 7% of an average 15er's — 1 state (Wyoming) 2022 population = 579,495, therefore: 1 Senator per 289,748 Wyomians, a Wyomian's vote is worth 69 times a Californian's, a Californian's vote is worth 1.4% of a Wyomian's  © 2023 Kwiple.com
Presidency One word sums up probably the reponsibility of any vice president, and that one word is “to be prepared”. Dan Quayle © 2023 Kwiple.com
Punt returners say Chop me down before I kill again Sign posted on a tree by students at Claremont College in response to Ronald Reagan's claim that “Eighty percent of air pollution comes not from chimneys and auto exhaust pipes, but from plants and trees” © 2023 Kwiple.com
Punt returners say It certainly will be if you are still around. Oscar Levant responding to George Gershwin, who said, “I wonder if my music will be played a hundred years from now” © 2023 Kwiple.com
Selfie Don’t compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative. Joe Biden © 2023 Kwiple.com
Sleepers at the wheel say Every Justice seeks to follow high ethical standards, and the Judicial Conference's Code of Conduct provides a current and uniform source of guidance designed with specific reference to the needs and obligations of the federal judiciary. John Roberts, albeit in 2011, about members of his Supreme Court © 2023 Kwiple.com
Sleepers at the wheel say I have complete confidence in the capability of my colleagues to determine when recusal is warranted. They are jurists of exceptional integrity and experience whose character and fitness have been examined through a rigorous appointment and confirmation process. I know that they each give careful consideration to any recusal questions that arise in the course of their judicial duties. John Roberts, albeit in 2011, about members of his Supreme Court © 2023 Kwiple.com
Snapshot If you put that man's brain in a bumblebee, it would fly backwards. Dan Quayle portrayed by Molly Ivins © 2023 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Always a bride, never a bridesmaid. Elizabeth Taylor portrayed by Oscar Levant © 2023 Kwiple.com
Soviet Union Throughout its existence, the Soviet state destroyed people and destroyed any memory of the destruction. Sergei Lebedev, quoted in Financial Times, April 10, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Tech bros say Fake it ’til you make it. Adage/ethos © 2023 Kwiple.com
Trust The new, new thing has a lot to do with the increasingly important role that trust, and its absence, plays in international relations, now that so many goods and services that the United States and China sell to one another are digital, and therefore dual use — meaning they can be both a weapon and a tool.  Just when trust has become more important than ever between the U.S. and China, it also has become scarcer than ever. Bad trend. Thomas Friedman, New York Times, April 14, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
 
Trust What America essentially told … rising Chinese high-tech firms, was this: “When Chinese companies were just selling us shallow goods [single-use products like “shoes, socks, shirts and solar panels”], we didn’t care if your political system was authoritarian, libertarian or vegetarian; we were just buying your shallow goods. But when you want to sell us ‘deep goods’— goods that are dual use and will go deep into our homes, bedrooms, industries, chatbots  and urban infrastructure — we don't have enough trust to buy them. So, we are going to ban Huawei and instead pay more to buy our 5G telecom systems from Scandinavian companies we do trust: Ericsson and Nokia.”  Thomas Friedman, New York Times, Apr. 14, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com