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☆ The Handmaid’s Tale, 1984 and other books are flying off the shelves after the election
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-07 | by ( Erika Tulfo | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

(CNN) – Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a novel set in a totalitarian society, has shot to the top of Amazon’s bestselling books list following Donald Trump’s reelection. Former president Trump clinched a victory against Vice President Kamala Harris in Tuesday’s election, securing a second term, non-consecutive after he lost in 2020. “The Handmaid’s Tale” takes place in a theocratic, male-dominated future America where the US Constitution is suspended, media is censored and women (the titular “handmaids”) are forced to bear children for the ruling class. Many have harnessed comparisons to Atwood’s classic in the lead-up to the election, particularly around the topic of reproductive rights. Calm drew attention on social media after airing ads that gave viewers “30 seconds of silence” amid continuous election coverage.

Persons: – Margaret Atwood’s “, ”, Donald Trump’s, Trump, Kamala Harris, Harris, Roe, Wade, handmaids, Barack Obama, Valerie Jarrett, Joe Biden’s, Hillary Clinton, Atwood, X, It’s, Brett Kavanaugh’s, George Orwell’s “, Ray Bradbury’s, Melania Organizations: CNN, Barnes, Trump, US Supreme, MSNBC, Apple Locations: skyrocketing, Tuesday’s, America

☆ Opinion: Google’s AI blunder over images reveals a much bigger problem
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-09 | by ( Rizwan Virk | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

When asked, Gemini politely refused in some instances to generate images of historically White people, such as the Vikings. In the image space, if you asked previous AI image generators for an image of a CEO or a doctor, they initially almost always showed images of White males. Google announced its Gemini AI chatbot was pausing the generation of people in images after concerns were raised that it was creating historically inaccurate images. What makes censorship and manipulation worse with AI is that today’s AI already has a well-known hallucination problem. It may be a portent of what’s to come with AI and Big Tech leading us into Orwellian territory.

Persons: Rizwan Virk, X, Dave, I’m, OpenAI’s, Gemini, Google’s, Pope, Sundar Pichai, we’ve, ”, didn’t, Michael M, George Orwell’s “, “ Organizations: Labs, MIT, Physics, Eastern, Arizona State University’s College of Global Futures, Center for Science, CNN, HAL, Google, Vikings, Fox News Digital, Gemini, Getty, Big Tech, Microsoft, Apple Locations: zenentrepreneur.com, White, German

☆ Your Next 10 Steps After Watching the New ‘Napoleon’ Film
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( Victor Mather | More About Victor Mather | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Since you’re already in Paris to see that horse, stop by the Louvre for one of Jacques-Louis David’s masterworks: “Le Sacre de Napoléon” (1807). Far from a stock figure, he is a fully realized person in the novel, displaying egotism, anger and a liking for snuff. If that famously thick book is too much, there are several film versions. Herbert Lom plays Napoleon in a 1956 Hollywood film starring Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda. And Prokofiev wrote an opera that was last seen at the Met in 2008, but is readily available on streaming services.

Persons: Jacques, Louis David’s, Napoléon ”, Napoleon, Pope, Read, Leo Tolstoy’s, ” Napoleon, Herbert Lom, Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Prokofiev, William Thackeray’s, George Orwell’s Organizations: Louvre, Notre Dame, Times, Met Locations: Paris, Moscow, Hollywood, Le

☆ Ron DeSantis just notched a win in court. But the judge says he still violated a prosecutor’s free speech rights.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Marc Caputo | Marc Caputo Is A Senior National Political Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +15 min

In a statement posted on Twitter, DeSantis' office lauded the ruling without addressing those nuances. By suspending Warren, DeSantis also elevated the Democrat’s political profile in his own party. And no one in Hillsborough County was charged with violating that state law when Warren was the county prosecutor. Court testimony from DeSantis administration officials showed that the abortion letter was the major cause of Warren's suspension. Abortion was the only issue mentioned in the first draft of DeSantis' suspension order.

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