A good one from New York Magazine on the Opioid Crisis, and why it is different (and not so different) this time.

The Poison We Pick

This nation pioneered modern life. Now epic numbers of Americans are killing themselves with opioids to escape it.

Like Jimmy Buffett said:  Don’t ever forget that you just may wind up being wrong.  From the blog A Wealth of Common Sense:

The Curse of Intelligence

“… The smarter you are, the better you are at constructing a narrative that supports your beliefs, rationalizing and framing the data to fit your argument or point of view.”

How To Become A Centaur

The old story of AI is about human brains working against silicon brains. The new story of IA will be about human brains working with silicon brains. As it turns out, most of the world is the opposite of a chess game: Non-zero-sum — both players can win.

From Statista:

Only 22 countries have never been invaded by Britain

Pulled most of my photos from Instagram.

SAMSUNG

An interview with Hunter Thompson from the Paris Review, from 2000:

Hunter S. Thompson, The Art of Journalism No. 1

Been a fan of David Parnas’ perspective on technology for a long time.  Found this one in an recent CACM that is worth reading in this time of AI / ML activity.  May require CACM subscription.

INSIDE RISKS

The Real Risks of Artificial Intelligence

By David Lorge Parnas
Communications of the ACM, Vol. 60 No. 10, Pages 27-31
10.1145/3132724

A good article from 2015 about Russian internet trolling.  This was written before the subject got tangled up in presidential politics.  The picture here is a bigger one.  One way to view it is that this is traditional propaganda, aimed at weakening an opponent (us).  It’s not about one candidate and it’s not about one party.  It is about spreading chaos in our society.

The Agency

Was listening to WWOZ and heard this Tricentennial Music Moment about Charity Hospital.  A great part of New Orleans (and American) history that has all too sad an ending.  I still think a hospital like Charity in every major city in the US could solve all of our healthcare problems.  Many things would have to change in the US for that to happen.