Monday, September 9, 2024 | Memex 1.1

Stoned

Taken on the north shore of Galway Bay, with the ‘moonscape’ of the Burren in the distance. The cairn was built by an unknown person or persons. But it begged to be photographed!

Quote of the day

“Anyone can make a political argument so convincing that he or she no longer sees its flaws.”

Musical alternative to the morning news on the radio

Chet Atkins, Leo Kottke and Doc Watson | Last Steam Locomotive

Link

A truly beautiful example of the emerging qualities of three great guitarists when you put them together.

Long reading of the day

There is no such thing as a ‘woke mind virus’

Striking essay by Dan Williams on the pernicious idea that if people disagree with you they must be suffering from the cerebral equivalent of Covid.

In recent years, talk of the “woke mind virus” has itself gone viral among right-wing culture warriors. In a recent interview, Elon Musk claimed that the mind virus had even killed his child. What he meant wasn’t that it actually killed his child—they’re still very much alive—but that his child is transgender and thus apparently dead to him.

According to Musk, he was “basically tricked into signing documents” allowing his child to take puberty blockers, which “are basically sterilization drugs.” The experience radicalized him: “I vowed to destroy the woke mind virus after this.”

The only polite term for this delusion is “horseshit.” Or, as Williams puts it:

Ideas, including bad ones, are not contagious viruses of the mind. This metaphor rests on a false picture of human psychology and social behavior that serves to demonize, not understand. In doing so, it poisons public discourse, increases polarization, and hampers our collective capacity to understand the world and each other.

Great essay. Worth reading if you are as irritated by culture wars as I am.

So tech giants aren’t above the law after all

Yesterday’s Observer column

On August 24, a private jet belonging to a Russian tech billionaire landed at Le Bourget airport, northeast of Paris, where French judicial police were waiting for him. He was arrested and taken in for questioning. Four days later, he was indicted on 12 charges, including alleged complicity in the distribution of child abuse material and drug trafficking. He was banned from leaving France and placed under “judicial surveillance,” which requires him to report to the gendarmes twice a week until further notice.

The mogul in question, Pavel Durov, is a tech entrepreneur who collects nationalities the way others collect air miles. It turns out that one of his nationalities is French, generously granted in 2021 by French President Emmanuel Macron. Durov is also, it seems, a fitness fanatic with a gruelling daily regimen. “After eight hours of sleep,” the Financial Times reports, “he starts his day ‘without exception’ with 200 push-ups, 100 sit-ups and an ice bath. He drinks, smokes, eats no sugar or meat and finds time for meditation.” When he’s not busy with these demanding activities, he’s also found time to father more than 100 children as a sperm donor and rival Elon Musk as a free-speech extremist.

Media profiles of Durov recall Churchill’s famous description of Russia as “a riddle wrapped in a mystery within an enigma.” Durov left Russia after the Facebook clone he founded with his brother Nikolai in 2006 led to conflict with the Kremlin…

Later…

This of the New York Times:

Telegram has become a global sewer of criminal activity, disinformation, child abuse material, terrorism and racial incitement, according to a four-month investigation by The New York Times that analyzed more than 3.2 million Telegram messages from more than 16,000 channels. The company, which offers features that allow criminals, terrorists and scammers to organize at scale and evade law enforcement, has looked the other way as illegal and extremist activities flourished openly on the app.

The extent to which Telegram has been inundated with such content has not been previously reported. The Times’ investigation found 1,500 channels run by white supremacists coordinating activity among nearly a million people around the world. At least two dozen channels sold weapons. At least 22 channels with more than 70,000 followers advertised MDMA, cocaine, heroin and other drugs for delivery to more than 20 countries.

And this fascinating account of Politics about how the French authorities surrounded Durov.

My everyday book

**Intel’s problems in a nutshell:

Intel doesn’t have the best production

Intel doesn’t design the best chips

Intel is out of the race in AI

Damning summary from Ben Thompson, who has long given Intel the benefit of the doubt.

Link blog

Something I noticed while drinking from the internet firehose.

Churchill: The Naked Truth

He made quite an impression during his time as a guest of two presidents. The chief doorman at the White House recalled that “Mr. Churchill wore no clothes in his room most of the day.” Churchill’s bodyguard noted how President Franklin Roosevelt knocked on the door of the prime minister’s suite during Churchill’s first visit to the White House in December 1941, only to find “Winston Churchill completely naked, a drink in one hand, a cigar in the other.” Roosevelt, clearly upset, offered to leave, but Churchill refused: “You see, Mr. President, I have nothing to hide.” The two leaders then spoke for an hour.

From The Economist’s review of Mr. Churchill in the White House by Robert Schmuhl.

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