richardmurray's Content - Page 6 - African American Literature Book Club

richardmurray

Title: all time favorite plus size pieces
Artist: Lisa Tillman Pritchard < https://www.etsy.com/shop/ltpartllc1/ , https://www.tiktok.com/@ltpartllc>

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richardmurray

My R&A - response and articles

I start with the title. One of the problems with the USA is the lie that the UA is a united place with a united peoples. In his own article he successfully proves how tribal the usa is.

But, the word isn't abandoned. The federal government of the USA in different times gambled and all the gambles failed to return what was needed to secure tomorrow.

The Federal government of the usa gambled: it could build up financial rivals [ england/germany/spain/italy/france/korea/japan/china/india/israel ] to create intergovernmental organizations centered on the usa while maintain a financial dominance as when world war two ended, it could make laws adding races into the usa while merging races to each other and the races will embrace each other positively based on a love of the state, it could grant the fiscal operators [shareholders/owners/bankers] full leeway and their fiscal desire will create untold wealth for all.

All the gambles failed to reach why they were made.

The rivals were given a black check plus resources to reboot absent the challenge of starting from the bottom while not having a need to pay for military expenditures but the usa economy wasn't able to stay on top across the board.

All races in the usa [women/blacks/muslims/lesbians] have a financially prosperous one percent, but most communities have only grown their fiscal poor who live tribally from other fiscal poor people, and with ever growing resentment.

The business sector protected itself and positioned itself to be secure regardless of its failure or quality, ala all the industries in the usa that have collapsed in the usa at an ever increasing ratio, but didn't lift up all peoples in the usa.

But the key is, all three gambles could had worked. What was the errors.

The usa funneled welfare checks and money on a simple condition to rivals in foreign countries who guaranteed to be yesmen for intergovernmental organizations totally allegiant to the usa but didn't use their unearned advantage to make the international organizations have more quality. The rivals loved the international organizations to make profit and have controls over weaker governments or former dominions but to actually improve other countries, a kind of pay it forward, europe/japan/china/india/israel didn't do, even though they were given an advantage by the usa in the way they don't give others.

Yes, blacks/native americans/lesbians/women/muslims/asians and all other groups in the usa that didn't have opportunity or potency have members in each group who financially have prospered because the federal laws forced financially wealthy white/male/christian/hetero/european people to share to those not them, but those who were granted opportunity haven't improved their communities and have simply joined financially wealthy white men creating three tiers of tribalism between the many have nots plus between the have nots side the have's plus between the many haves. While the usa keeps adding more peoples into the fiscally poor populace, growing violent sentiments.

Giving the financial community in the usa carte blanche saved it from its own mismanagement which is a betrayal of free market capitalism, but the financially community in the usa no matter how many times it is saved keeps being mismanaged and now relies on the military power of the usa side the intergovernmental organizations mandatory for the bureaucracy to work absent more violence to maintain a cycle of mismanagement from us business and bailouts from the federal government.

The article is correct, the FDR era ended with Reagan, the Reagan era is ending. Biden is trying to guide it somewhere but I see biden more as a jimmy carter, the last fdr president than ronald reagan, the president who started a new era. The problem with Biden in a general way is his centrism. Centrism at its heart is status quo, maintaining the bureaucracy, but the problem is the bureaucracy isn't fitting the populace it governs and requires radical change to do so

Why America Abandoned the Greatest Economy in History

Was the country’s turn toward free-market fundamentalism driven by race, class, or something else? Yes.

By Rogé Karma

Illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Barry James Gilmour / Getty; Kean Collection / Getty; Library of Congress / Getty.

NOVEMBER 25, 2023, 6:30 AM ET

If there is one statistic that best captures the transformation of the American economy over the past half century, it may be this: Of Americans born in 1940, 92 percent went on to earn more than their parents; among those born in 1980, just 50 percent did. Over the course of a few decades, the chances of achieving the American dream went from a near-guarantee to a coin flip.

What happened?

One answer is that American voters abandoned the system that worked for their grandparents. From the 1940s through the ’70s, sometimes called the New Deal era, U.S. law and policy were engineered to ensure strong unions, high taxes on the rich, huge public investments, and an expanding social safety net. Inequality shrank as the economy boomed. But by the end of that period, the economy was faltering, and voters turned against the postwar consensus. Ronald Reagan took office promising to restore growth by paring back government, slashing taxes on the rich and corporations, and gutting business regulations and antitrust enforcement. The idea, famously, was that a rising tide would lift all boats. Instead, inequality soared while living standards stagnated and life expectancy fell behind that of peer countries. No other advanced economy pivoted quite as sharply to free-market economics as the United States, and none experienced as sharp a reversal in income, mobility, and public-health trends as America did. Today, a child born in Norway or the United Kingdom has a far better chance of outearning their parents than one born in the U.S.

This story has been extensively documented. But a nagging puzzle remains. Why did America abandon the New Deal so decisively? And why did so many voters and politicians embrace the free-market consensus that replaced it?

Since 2016, policy makers, scholars, and journalists have been scrambling to answer those questions as they seek to make sense of the rise of Donald Trump—who declared, in 2015, “The American dream is dead”—and the seething discontent in American life. Three main theories have emerged, each with its own account of how we got here and what it might take to change course. One theory holds that the story is fundamentally about the white backlash to civil-rights legislation. Another pins more blame on the Democratic Party’s cultural elitism. And the third focuses on the role of global crises beyond any political party’s control. Each theory is incomplete on its own. Taken together, they go a long way toward making sense of the political and economic uncertainty we’re living through.

"The american landscape was once graced with resplendent public swimming pools, some big enough to hold thousands of swimmers at a time,” writes Heather McGee, the former president of the think tank Demos, in her 2021 book, The Sum of Us. In many places, however, the pools were also whites-only. Then came desegregation. Rather than open up the pools to their Black neighbors, white communities decided to simply close them for everyone. For McGhee, that is a microcosm of the changes to America’s political economy over the past half century: White Americans were willing to make their own lives materially worse rather than share public goods with Black Americans.

From the 1930s until the late ’60s, Democrats dominated national politics. They used their power to pass sweeping progressive legislation that transformed the American economy. But their coalition, which included southern Dixiecrats as well as northern liberals, fractured after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Richard Nixon’s “southern strategy” exploited that rift and changed the electoral map. Since then, no Democratic presidential candidate has won a majority of the white vote.

Crucially, the civil-rights revolution also changed white Americans’ economic attitudes. In 1956, 65 percent of white people said they believed the government ought to guarantee a job to anyone who wanted one and to provide a minimum standard of living. By 1964, that number had sunk to 35 percent. Ronald Reagan eventually channeled that backlash into a free-market message by casting high taxes and generous social programs as funneling money from hardworking (white) Americans to undeserving (Black) “welfare queens.” In this telling, which has become popular on the left, Democrats are the tragic heroes. The mid-century economy was built on racial suppression and torn apart by racial progress. Economic inequality was the price liberals paid to do what was right on race.

The New York Times writer David Leonhardt is less inclined to let liberals off the hook. His new book, Ours Was the Shining Future, contends that the fracturing of the New Deal coalition was about more than race. Through the ’50s, the left was rooted in a broad working-class movement focused on material interests. But at the turn of the ’60s, a New Left emerged that was dominated by well-off college students. These activists were less concerned with economic demands than issues like nuclear disarmament, women’s rights, and the war in Vietnam. Their methods were not those of institutional politics but civil disobedience and protest. The rise of the New Left, Leonhardt argues, accelerated the exodus of white working-class voters from the Democratic coalition.

Robert F. Kennedy emerges as an unlikely hero in this telling. Although Kennedy was a committed supporter of civil rights, he recognized that Democrats were alienating their working-class base. As a primary candidate in 1968, he emphasized the need to restore “law and order” and took shots at the New Left, opposing draft exemptions for college students. As a result of these and other centrist stances, Kennedy was criticized by the liberal press—even as he won key primary victories on the strength of his support from both white and Black working-class voters.

But Kennedy was assassinated in June that year, and the political path he represented died with him. That November, Nixon, a Republican, narrowly won the White House. In the process, he reached the same conclusion that Kennedy had: The Democrats had lost touch with the working class, leaving millions of voters up for grabs. In the 1972 election, Nixon portrayed his opponent, George McGovern, as the candidate of the “three A’s”—acid, abortion, and amnesty (the latter referring to draft dodgers). He went after Democrats for being soft on crime and unpatriotic. On Election Day, he won the largest landslide since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936. For Leonhardt, that was the moment when the New Deal coalition shattered. From then on, as the Democratic Party continued to reflect the views of college graduates and professionals, it would lose more and more working-class voters.

McGhee’s and Leonhardt’s accounts might appear to be in tension, echoing the “race versus class” debate that followed Trump’s victory in 2016. In fact, they’re complementary. As the economist Thomas Piketty has shown, since the’60s, left-leaning parties in most Western countries, not just the U.S., have become dominated by college-educated voters and lost working-class support. But nowhere in Europe was the backlash quite as immediate and intense as it was in the U.S. A major difference, of course, is the country’s unique racial history.

The 1972 election might have fractured the Democratic coalition, but that still doesn’t explain the rise of free-market conservatism. The new Republican majority did not arrive with a radical economic agenda. Nixon combined social conservatism with a version of New Deal economics. His administration increased funding for Social Security and food stamps, raised the capital-gains tax, and created the Environmental Protection Agency. Meanwhile, laissez-faire economics remained unpopular. Polls from the ’70s found that most Republicans believed that taxes and benefits should remain at present levels, and anti-tax ballot initiatives failed in several states by wide margins. Even Reagan largely avoided talking about tax cuts during his failed 1976 presidential campaign. The story of America’s economic pivot still has a missing piece.

According to the economic historian Gary Gerstle’s 2022 book, The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order, that piece is the severe economic crisis of the mid-’70s. The 1973 Arab oil embargo sent inflation spiraling out of control. Not long afterward, the economy plunged into recession. Median family income was significantly lower in 1979 than it had been at the beginning of the decade, adjusting for inflation. “These changing economic circumstances, coming on the heels of the divisions over race and Vietnam, broke apart the New Deal order,” Gerstle writes. (Leonhardt also discusses the economic shocks of the ’70s, but they play a less central role in his analysis.)

Free-market ideas had been circulating among a small cadre of academics and business leaders for decades—most notably the University of Chicago economist Milton Friedman. The ’70s crisis provided a perfect opening to translate them into public policy, and Reagan was the perfect messenger. “Government is not the solution to our problem,” he declared in his 1981 inaugural address. “Government is the problem.”

Part of Reagan’s genius was that the message meant different things to different constituencies. For southern whites, government was forcing school desegregation. For the religious right, government was licensing abortion and preventing prayer in schools. And for working-class voters who bought Reagan’s pitch, a bloated federal government was behind their plummeting economic fortunes. At the same time, Reagan’s message tapped into genuine shortcomings with the economic status quo. The Johnson administration’s heavy spending had helped ignite inflation, and Nixon’s attempt at price controls had failed to quell it. The generous contracts won by auto unions made it hard for American manufacturers to compete with nonunionized Japanese ones. After a decade of pain, most Americans now favored cutting taxes. The public was ready for something different.

They got it. The top marginal income-tax rate was 70 percent when Reagan took office and 28 percent when he left. Union membership shriveled. Deregulation led to an explosion of the financial sector, and Reagan’s Supreme Court appointments set the stage for decades of consequential pro-business rulings. None of this, Gerstle argues, was preordained. The political tumult of the ’60s helped crack the Democrats’ electoral coalition, but it took the unusual confluence of a major economic crisis and a talented political communicator to create a new consensus. By the ’90s, Democrats had accommodated themselves to the core tenets of the Reagan revolution. President Bill Clinton further deregulated the financial sector, pushed through the North American Free Trade Agreement, and signed a bill designed to “end welfare as we know it.” Echoing Reagan, in his 1996 State of the Union address, Clinton conceded: “The era of big government is over.”

Today, we seem to be living through another inflection point in American politics—one that in some ways resembles the ’60s and ’70s. Then and now, previously durable coalitions collapsed, new issues surged to the fore, and policies once considered radical became mainstream. Political leaders in both parties no longer feel the same need to bow at the altar of free markets and small government. But, also like the ’70s, the current moment is defined by a sense of unresolved contestation. Although many old ideas have lost their hold, they have yet to be replaced by a new economic consensus. The old order is crumbling, but a new one has yet to be born.

The Biden administration and its allies are trying to change that. Since taking office, President Joe Biden has pursued an ambitious policy agenda designed to transform the U.S. economy and taken overt shots at Reagan’s legacy. “Milton Friedman isn’t running the show anymore,” Biden quipped in 2020. Yet an economic paradigm is only as strong as the political coalition that backs it. Unlike Nixon, Biden has not figured out how to cleave apart his opponents’ coalition. And unlike Reagan, he hasn’t hit upon the kind of grand political narrative needed to forge a new one. Current polling suggests that he may struggle to win reelection.

Meanwhile, the Republican Party struggles to muster any coherent economic agenda. A handful of Republican senators, including J. D. Vance, Marco Rubio, and Josh Hawley, have embraced economic populism to some degree, but they remain a minority within their party.

The path out of our chaotic present to a new political-economic consensus is hard to imagine. But that has always been true of moments of transition. In the early ’70s, no one could have predicted that a combination of social upheaval, economic crisis, and political talent was about to usher in a brand-new economic era. Perhaps the same is true today. The Reagan revolution is never coming back. Neither is the New Deal order that came before it. Whatever comes next will be something new.

URL
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/new-deal-us-economy-american-dream/676051/

THE HARD TRUTH ABOUT IMMIGRATION

If the United States wants to reduce inequality, it’s going to need to take an honest look at a contentious issue.

By David Leonhardt

OCTOBER 23, 2023

his bill that we will sign today is not a revolutionary bill,” President Lyndon B. Johnson said as he put his signature on the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, at the base of the Statue of Liberty. “It does not affect the lives of millions.” All that the bill would do, he explained, was repair the flawed criteria for deciding who could enter the country. “This bill says simply that from this day forth those wishing to immigrate to America shall be admitted on the basis of their skills and their close relationship to those already here.”

Edward Kennedy, the 33-year-old senator who had shepherded the bill through the Senate, went even further in promising that its effects would be modest. Some opponents argued that the bill would lead to a large increase in immigration, but those claims were false, Kennedy said. They were “highly emotional, irrational, and with little foundation in fact,” he announced in a Senate hearing, and “out of line with the obligations of responsible citizenship.” Emanuel Celler, the bill’s champion in the House, made the same promises. “Do we appreciably increase our population, as it were, by the passage of this bill?” Celler said. “The answer is emphatically no.”

Johnson, Kennedy, Celler and the new law’s other advocates turned out to be entirely wrong about this. The 1965 bill sparked a decades-long immigration wave. As a percentage of the United States population, this modern wave has been similar in size to the immigration wave of the late 1800s and early 1900s. In terms of the sheer number of people moving to a single country, the modern American immigration wave may be the largest in history. The year Johnson signed the immigration bill, 297,000 immigrants legally entered the United States. Two years later, the number reached 362,000. It continued rising in subsequent decades, and by 1989 exceeded 1 million.

....

URL
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/10/us-immigration-policy-1965-act/675724/

Milton Friedman Was Wrong

The famed economist’s “shareholder theory” provides corporations with too much room to violate consumers’ rights and trust.

By Eric Posner

On Monday, the Business Roundtable, a group that represents CEOs of big corporations, declared that it had changed its mind about the “purpose of a corporation.” That purpose is no longer to maximize profits for shareholders, but to benefit other “stakeholders” as well, including employees, customers, and citizens.

While the statement is a welcome repudiation of a highly influential but spurious theory of corporate responsibility, this new philosophy will not likely change the way corporations behave. The only way to force corporations to act in the public interest is to subject them to legal regulation.

The shareholder theory is usually credited to Milton Friedman, the University of Chicago economist and Nobel laureate. In a famous 1970 New York Times article, Friedman argued that because the CEO is an “employee” of the shareholders, he or she must act in their interest, which is to give them the highest return possible. Friedman pointed out that if a CEO acts otherwise—let’s say, donates corporate funds to an environmental cause or to an anti-poverty program—the CEO must get those funds from customers (through higher prices), workers (through lower wages), or shareholders (through lower returns). But then the CEO is just imposing a “tax” on other people, and using the funds for a social cause that he or she has no particular expertise in. It would be better to let customers, workers, or investors use that money to make their own charitable contributions if they wish to.

...

URL
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/milton-friedman-shareholder-wrong/596545/

richardmurray

Celebrating the Flickr x Black Women Photographers Grant 2023 Finalists and Recipient
NOVEMBER 22, 2023
We are delighted to announce the recipient and runner-ups of the the Flickr x Black Women Photographers [ https://blackwomenphotographers.com/ ] grant! The goal of this $2,500 grant is to help one photographer that is part of both Black Women Photographers and Flickr further their photography practice. Plus, ten more talented individuals are granted a one-year Flickr Pro membership and a one-year SmugMug Pro membership!

As part of their grant application, participants were asked to share a photo that aligns with the theme, “Light in Motion”. This theme was inspired by Edwina Hay [

Grant Recipient: Genesis Falls – “Children at Play”

Congratulations to Genesis Falls [ https://www.flickr.com/photos/199066659@N05/ ] – the recipient of this $2,500 grant! Genesis is a contemporary portrait photographer who lives and works in Chicago, Illinois. She uses her love for black/white film to demonstrate feelings and emotion through her lens. Capturing people at some of their purest moments.

When asked about the winning photo she says, “It stands out to me not only because of the subjects, but the visual way the light is streaming through the water.” We agree!

Runners-up:
So many amazing photos were submitted for the Flickr x BWP grant. Here’s our ten runners-up!

Ngadi Smart – “Family”

Ayesha Kazim – “Mirage”

Michelle Vinbaineashe – “Motheo”

Julia Holcomb – “Bubbles”

Melissa Joen –

Alexis Brown – “Road to the Phoenix”

Gabrielle Morse – “In my motion”

Kamerin Chambers – “Lost in thought”

Bria Woods – “Fourth of July Fireworks”

bria-woods-fourth-of-july-Helotes-fireworks-03JUL22-10.JPG

Marcia Williams – “Nura”

On November 22nd, This Week in Photo’s [ https://thisweekinphoto.com/ ] Frederick Van Johnson and Edwina Hay, joined us for a very special episode of SmugMug Live [

] to celebrate everyone’s entries to the grant. Please take a moment to appreciate their work. If you’re interested in joining the Black Women Photographers community, we invite you to learn more [ https://blackwomenphotographers.com/ ] and request to join the group on Flickr. [

URL
https://blog.flickr.net/en/2023/11/22/celebrating-the-flickr-x-black-women-photographers-grant-2023-finalists-and-recipient/

richardmurray

International Sweethearts of Rhythm ; started at piney woods [ https://pineywoods.org/ ]

if you know a link to recordings for the following groups please share

Eddie Durham's All-Star Girl Orchestra

Harlem Playgirls

Darlings of Rhythm

richardmurray

My R&A - response and articles

Well.. this topic goes into fiscal capitalism: its modern form in the usa + emitted to the remainder of humanity from the usa, the management of industries in the usa, individual wealth or living standards in the us, the prosequences or consequences of complete ownership in fiscal capitalism or the alternatives to complete ownership. ... but to be briefest, from the crafts of the oldest humans or the walls of kemet to the empire of mars, arts + crafts are best shared when totally public, ala library. But within private homes, complete ownership is best for all arts or crafts.

Christopher Nolan Says Streaming-Only Content Is a ‘Danger’ and Can ‘Get Taken Down,’ Guillermo del Toro Calls Owning Physical Media a ‘Responsibility’

By Zack Sharf

Christopher Nolan made headlines earlier this month when he took a playful jab at streaming platforms while discussing the upcoming home release of “Oppenheimer.” The atomic bomb drama, which grossed a staggering $950 million in theaters worldwide, is hitting Blu-ray and other digital platforms this month. Nolan said at a recent “Oppenheimer” screening that it’s important to own the film on Blu-ray so that “no evil streaming service can come steal it from you.”

“It was a joke when I said it. But nothing’s a joke when it’s transcribed onto the internet,” Nolan recently told The Washington Post [ https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2023/11/17/christopher-nolan-oppenheimer-style-session/ ] in a follow-up interview.

“There is a danger, these days, that if things only exist in the streaming version they do get taken down, they come and go,” the director added.

Streamers have become notoriously known in the last year for pulling original titles from their platforms in order to license them out elsewhere and open up potential revenue streams. When such titles are streaming-only offerings, their removal makes it impossible to view the films elsewhere. Such was the case this year with the Disney+ movie “Crater,” for instance. The streaming-only family adventure was pulled from Disney+ in June and could not be viewed anywhere until it was reissued as a digital release months later in September. For Nolan, owning physical media is the only way to combat such streaming trends.

Guillermo del Toro agrees, having shared Nolan’s recent quotes on X (formerly Twitter) and adding his own commentary on the issue.

“Physical media is almost a Fahrenheit 451 (where people memorized entire books and thus became the book they loved) level of responsibility,” del Toro wrote to his followers. “If you own a great 4K HD, Blu-ray, DVD etc etc of a film or films you love…you are the custodian of those films for generations to come.”

Nolan previously said that he has spent months preparing “Oppenheimer” for home release so that the Blu-ray version of the film sounds and looks as pristine as the film’s theatrical release.

“Obviously ‘Oppenheimer’ has been quite a ride for us and now it is time for me to release a home version of the film. I’ve been working very hard on it for months,” Nolan said. “I’m known for my love of theatrical and put my whole life into that, but, the truth is, the way the film goes out at home is equally important.”

“‘The Dark Knight’ was one of the first films where we formatted it specially for Blu-ray release because it was a new form at the time,” he continued. “And in the case of ‘Oppenheimer,’ we put a lot of care and attention into the Blu-ray version… and trying to translate the photography and the sound, putting that into the digital realm with a version you can buy and own at home and put on a shelf so no evil streaming service can come steal it from you.”

U.R.L.

https://variety.com/2023/film/news/christopher-nolan-streaming-films-danger-risk-pulled-1235802476/

richardmurray

Title: the powergothgirls
Artist: GDbee < https://gdbee.store/ > aka Prinnay
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richardmurray

Title: the jungle
Artist: Lisa Tillman Pritchard < https://www.etsy.com/shop/ltpartllc1/ , https://www.tiktok.com/@ltpartllc>

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richardmurray

Title: such beautiful and delicate flowers
Artist: Lisa Tillman Pritchard < https://www.etsy.com/shop/ltpartllc1/ , https://www.tiktok.com/@ltpartllc>

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richardmurray

Title: striped sleeves
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richardmurray

Title: streetteam [ Art group streetteam.bigcartel includes Shawn Alleyne]
Artist: shawn alleyne < Pyroglyphics Studio > OR < https://www.deviantart.com/pyroglyphics1 >

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richardmurray

Title: rhododendrons katana
Artist: GDbee < https://gdbee.store/ > aka Prinnay
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richardmurray

Title: Pink
Artist: Lisa Tillman Pritchard < https://www.etsy.com/shop/ltpartllc1/ , https://www.tiktok.com/@ltpartllc>

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richardmurray

Title: jimmy hendrix
Artist: shawn alleyne < Pyroglyphics Studio > OR < https://www.deviantart.com/pyroglyphics1 >

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richardmurray

Title: feel the fire
Artist: shawn alleyne < Pyroglyphics Studio > OR < https://www.deviantart.com/pyroglyphics1 >

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richardmurray

A Call for Submissions
for the Killens Review of Arts & Letters
Spring 2024

All That We Carry: Where Do We Go From Here?

Deadline: Friday, December 1, 2023

The Killens Review of Arts & Letters is a peer-reviewed journal that welcomes Black writers and artists whose work speaks to the general public and to an intergenerational range of readers represented throughout the African diaspora. For the Spring 2024 issue of the Killens Review, we are seeking short stories, essays, creative nonfiction, poetry, art, and photography. Inspired by questions posed by Dr. Tiya Miles, eminent historian and creative writer, and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we are soliciting content that reflects how Black creatives from all parts of the world move forward when all around us is in disarray. Specifically, we ask that you submit original writing or art that explores the themes of legacy, memory, inheritance, and/or radical hope (or pessimism), with an orientation toward the future and future generations of Black peoples.

Application

https://centerforblackliterature.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/CFP_Killens-Review-Spring-2024.pdf

richardmurray

forum post
- November 18, 2023
- Report

richardmurray

My R&A - response and articles

The article title is terrible. Bill gates didn't say everyone will have an AI powered personal assisstant. He said , and I quote:" anyone who’s online will be able to have a personal assistant powered by artificial intelligence that’s far beyond today’s technology"

Human beings who are fiscally poor are somebodies. And the people who are online are not a measure of humanity. Again most people are not online.

Bill Gates predicts everyone will have an AI-powered personal assistant within 5 years—whether they work in an office or not: ‘They will utterly change how we live’

Chloe Taylor

Fri, November 10, 2023 at 7:58 AM EST·4 min read

Artificial intelligence might be dividing experts when it comes to its potential to destroy mankind or force people out of their jobs—but according to Bill Gates, it’s going to land us all with our very own executive assistant in less than a decade.

In a post to his official blog on Thursday, the billionaire Microsoft cofounder said that even in 2023, “software is still pretty dumb”—but he predicted that this would “change completely” within the next five years.

Instead of having multiple different apps on our devices to carry out different tasks, he said, users would simply need to tell their device, in everyday language, what they want to do. That’s where so-called AI-powered “agents” will step in, Gates said.

“In the near future, anyone who’s online will be able to have a personal assistant powered by artificial intelligence that’s far beyond today’s technology,” he wrote. “Agents are smarter. They’re proactive—capable of making suggestions before you ask for them.”

These personal assistants, capable of carrying out different tasks across different apps, will continuously improve over time as they get to know their users, according to Gates. For example, if you were planning a trip, existing chatbots might only be able to identify hotels that fit within your budget—but an agent will know what time of year you’ll be traveling and whether you always seek out new destinations or prefer to return to the same place.

“When asked, it will recommend things to do based on your interests and propensity for adventure, and it will book reservations at the types of restaurants you would enjoy,” Gates said. “If you want this kind of deeply personalized planning today, you need to pay a travel agent and spend time telling them what you want.”

AI agents will also drastically overhaul our productivity, Gates added.

Microsoft and Google are among the plethora of firms already competing to develop productivity-boosting AI with their virtual assistants Copilot and Bard. But according to Gates, the AI agents of the future will “do even more” than those productivity tools.

“If you have an idea for a business, an agent will help you write up a business plan, create a presentation for it, and even generate images of what your product might look like,” he predicted. “Companies will be able to make agents available for their employees to consult directly and be part of every meeting so they can answer questions.”

Since the phenomenal rise of OpenAI’s generative AI chatbot ChatGPT, billions of dollars have been poured into the development of artificial intelligence.

But while the likes of Microsoft, Google, Baidu, and Elon Musk’s xAI are all competing to produce the most disruptive artificial intelligence model, Gates speculated that no single company will dominate the agents business. However, he noted that most of the AI agents of the future would likely be something individuals will have to pay for.

“[But] if the number of companies that have started working on AI just this year is any indication, there will be an exceptional amount of competition, which will make agents very inexpensive,” he said. “Today, agents are embedded in other software like word processors and spreadsheets, but eventually they’ll operate on their own. Whether you work in an office or not, your agent will be able to help you in the same way that personal assistants support executives today.”

Ultimately, agents will be able to assist their users with “virtually any activity and any area of life,” Gates insisted.

“If your friend just had surgery, your agent will offer to send flowers and be able to order them for you,” he wrote. “If you tell it you’d like to catch up with your old college roommate, it will work with their agent to find a time to get together, and just before you arrive, it will remind you that their oldest child just started college at the local university.”

Gates has previously spoken about how he believes the AI revolution will lead to everyone having their own “white-collar” personal assistants—and he isn’t the only technologist to have made that prediction.

Earlier this year, internet inventor Tim Berners-Lee told CNBC’s Beyond the Valley podcast that AI would be able to access our data and step into the role of personal assistant.

Meanwhile, Google DeepMind cofounder Mustafa Suleyman said in a September interview that he believed everybody would have their own AI-powered personal assistant within five years.

URL

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bill-gates-predicts-everyone-ai-125827903.html

Basically the Murdoch clan to increase evaluation of their media kingdom, a fallen empire, is selling their data to the computer headmasters for a fee. As Murdoch owns dow jones and other institutions with a century of content, I can see how vital this is to the headmasters.

News Corp beats Street estimates, touts generative AI efforts
Chavi Mehta
Updated Thu, November 9, 2023 at 5:40 PM EST·2 min read

By Chavi Mehta

(Reuters) -Media conglomerate News Corp beat Wall Street targets for first-quarter revenue and profit on Thursday and said it was in advanced talks to strike deals on the use of its content for generative artificial intelligence(AI).

The company's Chief Executive Robert Thomson has been a vocal proponent of having generative AI companies pay for using its content to train their large language models. He has also touted the technology's potential to help reduce costs.

"We are actively working to make the most of our premium content for AI and are engaged in advanced discussions that we expect to bring significant revenue to the company," Thomson said in a statement.

These efforts add to the company's push to improve profitability and grow key assets such as Dow Jones.

Thomson said that News Corp, which is a part of media baron Rupert Murdoch's empire and includes the Wall Street Journal and Sunday Times, is "assiduously" reviewing the company structure.

The company faces renewed activist investor pressure to restructure itself, including a push to spin off some of its assets, following Murdoch's retirement from News Corp and Fox Corp boards in September.

Murdoch is the majority shareholder of a Reno, Nevada-based family trust that owns 39% of News Corp's voting shares.

"Investors clearly do not like (the company structure) as the stock has an estimated 35%-40% conglomerate discount embedded in the current stock price," said Craig Huber, analyst at Huber Research Partners.

Revenue in the quarter ending Sept. 30 was $2.50 billion, compared with estimates of $2.49 billion, according to Visible Alpha. Adjusted profit per share was 16 cents, above estimates of 12 cents.

Revenue at the Dow Jones business grew 4% to $537 million, boosted by a 14% rise in professional data services, while revenue at its Digital Real Estate Services unit, which operates Realtor.com, fell about 4%.

URL

https://www.yahoo.com/news/finance/news/news-corp-beats-quarterly-revenue-212051188.html

richardmurray

Who is the First Woman? Meet our new graphic novel hero!
Artemis [ https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis/ ] is the first step in the next era of human exploration. This time when we go to the Moon, we’re staying, to study and learn more than ever before. We’ll test new technologies and prepare for our next giant leap – sending astronauts to Mars.

With today’s release of our graphic novel First Woman: NASA’s Promise for Humanity [ https://www.nasa.gov/CallieFirst/ ; free to read: ] you don’t have to wait to join us on an inspiring adventure in space.

Meet Commander Callie Rodriguez, the first woman to explore the Moon – at least in the comic book universe.

In Issue No. 1: Dream to Reality, Callie, her robot sidekick RT, and a team of other astronauts are living and working on the Moon in the not-too-distant future. Like any good, inquisitive robot, RT asks Callie how he came to be – not just on the Moon after a harrowing experience stowed in the Orion capsule – but about their origin story, if you will.

From her childhood aspirations of space travel to being selected as an astronaut candidate, Callie takes us on her trailblazing journey to the Moon.

As they venture out to check on a problem at a lunar crater, Callie shares with RT and the crew that she was captivated by space as a kid, and how time in her father’s autobody shop piqued her interest in building things and going places.

Callie learned at a young age that knowledge is gained through both success and failure in the classroom and on the field.

Through disappointment, setbacks, and personal tragedy, Callie pursues her passions and eventually achieves her lifelong dream of becoming an astronaut – a road inspired by the real lives of many NASA astronauts living and working in space today.

Callie''s official page
free to read or listen
https://www.nasa.gov/CallieFirst/

Video Trailer

First Book Audio

NASA · First Woman Issue No. 1: Dream to Reality

URL
https://nasa.tumblr.com/post/663314232247549952/who-is-the-first-woman-meet-our-new-graphic-novel

Episode 2 cover page, use links above to read or listen to more

Ask Mission Control agents a question
https://nasa.tumblr.com/ask
more about them

https://nasa.tumblr.com/post/733440614660767744/whats-it-like-to-work-in-nasas-mission-control

richardmurray

We’re back with the Kobo Writing Life Indie Cover Contest, 2023 edition! This is a great chance to show off your best cover of 2023 and vote for your other favourites (or your own – no judgement here!). The four winners, one in each genre category, will receive an amazing suite of prizes: a Kobo Clara 2E, promotional opportunities, and, of course, bragging rights and recognition!

Check out 2021’s winners here! [ https://kobowritinglife.com/2022/01/10/2021-kwl-indie-cover-contest-and-the-winner-is/ ]

There will be two weeks to submit your cover. The submission period starts TODAY, November 1st, and closes at 11:59pm EST on November 17th. Once all submissions have been received, the KWL team will begin the jurying process!

Our expert team of merchandisers and marketers will select six covers from each genre to feature on four shortlists, for a total of 24 shortlisted covers. Voting will then be open to the public, and YOU, the author and reader community, will select the overall winners: one from each genre category of Romance, Mystery, and Sci-fi & Fantasy!

For your cover to be eligible:

Your book must be uploaded directly through Kobo Writing Life

Have a publication date or planned publication date in 2023 (January 1st 2023 – December 31st 2023)

Be categorized in one of the following four genre groups: Romance, General Fiction & Non-fiction, Mystery & Suspense, or Science Fiction & Fantasy

Notes:

This contest is open to titles of all languages.

This contest is open worldwide.

Any sub-genre is eligible for submission.

One entry per author. Authors with multiple pen names are subject to the one entry per author ruling as well, i.e., if you have two pen names, you cannot submit 2 entries; the maximum submission number remains 1 title per individual.

Only winners in certain regions will be able to receive a Kobo Clara 2E as a prize. If you reside in one of the ineligible regions, you will be provided with an alternative prize package.

Any submissions that do not follow the above rules and requirements will not be eligible for participation in the contest.

Rules and regulations subject to change at the behest of the Kobo Writing Life team.

If you have any questions, please contact us at writinglife@kobo.com.

SUBMIT YOUR COVERS HERE! [ https://forms.office.com/r/nTw7KXMccb ]

Important Dates:

SUBMISSION PERIOD: November 1st – 17th at 11:59PM EST

KWL TEAM JURYING PERIOD: November 20th – 24th

SHORTLISTS ANNOUNCED, VOTING BEGINS: November 27th

VOTING PERIOD ENDS: December 15th at 11:59PM EST

WINNERS ANNOUNCED: week of December 18th

URL

https://kobowritinglife.com/2023/11/01/announcing-the-kobo-writing-life-2023-indie-cover-contest/

richardmurray

@Milton @Mel Hopkins check this out
- November 7, 2023
- 1
- Report

richardmurray

Angela Bassett visits the Ilê Aiyê headquarters and dances alongside Taís Araujo
Actresses are in the capital of Bahia for the Liberatum Festival
By gshow

Angela Bassett and Taís Araujo visit Ilê Aiyê — Photo: Lucas Ramos/Brazil News

Confirmed presence at the Liberatum Festival starting on Friday (3), in Salvador, Bahia, actress Angela Bassett is already enjoying the capital of Bahia.

On the afternoon of this Thursday (2), she visited the headquarters of the Ilê Aiyê Afro bloc, met those responsible for the cultural group and was symbolically crowned.

Furthermore, he had fun alongside actress Taís Araujo , with whom he danced to the sound of the drums.

"It's the most beautiful thing in the world, I've been an admirer of Angela for many years, it's beautiful to meet her, to see her getting to know the culture of Brazil, she's excited, it was very beautiful", said Taís, in a chat with gshow . "A day to never forget! Thank you very much, Salvador. Thank you very much to Ilê Aiyê and Dete Lima for giving me the honor of being dressed by you", she added on Instagram.

Angela Basset has fun and dances alongside Taís Araújo- a video is present at the URL linked below

Other famous Brazilians are also there, such as actress Luana Xavier, singer Majur and influencer Hugo Gloss.

From tomorrow until the 5th, Angela, Taís and all the guests will focus on Liberatum, which acts as an international platform to defend equality, diversity and inclusion and takes place for the first time in Brazil after 13 editions around the world.

With free programming and open to the public, anyone who stops by will be able to watch the panels with appearances by great world stars, such as Viola Davis, Angela Bassett and Debbie Harry, and great stars of Brazilian cinema and music, such as Taís Araújo, Seu Jorge and Karol Conká.

Angela Bassett visits Ilê Aiyê — Photo: Lucas Ramos/Brazil News

Angela Bassett and Majur visit Ilê Aiyê — Photo: Lucas Ramos/Brazil News

Angela Bassett visits Ilê Aiyê — Photo: Lucas Ramos/Brazil News

URL
https://gshow.globo.com/tudo-mais/tv-e-famosos/noticia/angela-basset-visita-a-sede-do-ile-aiye-e-danca-ao-lado-de-tais-araujo.ghtml

richardmurray

Title: all trees near me
Artist: GDbee < https://gdbee.store/ > aka Prinnay
Prior post

https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2501&type=status
GDBee Post
https://aalbc.com/tc/search/?&q=gdbee&type=core_statuses_status&quick=1&author=richardmurray&search_and_or=or&sortby=newest

richardmurray

Fright-ing poems

richardmurray

Zelensky Hit With Double Blow from European Ally

Story by David Brennan

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is facing a growing challenge in Central Europe as populist leaders—including the newly elected prime minister of Slovakia—push back against European Union-NATO military assistance for Kyiv.

On Thursday, Ukraine-skeptic Prime Minister Robert Fico—fresh off his victory in last month's parliamentary election—said that Slovakia would no longer provide military aid to Ukraine. Fico is following through on campaign trail vows to push for negotiations with Moscow and an immediate end to the Kremlin's war.

"I will support zero military aid to Ukraine," Fico said. "An immediate halt to military operations is the best solution we have for Ukraine," the prime minister added, noting that Bratislava would continue to send humanitarian supplies to the country. "The EU should change from an arms supplier to a peacemaker," Fico said.

Fico added that he would push back against any sanctions on Russia that he deems harmful to Bratislava. "I will not vote for any sanctions against Russia, unless we see analyses of their impact on Slovakia," he said. "If there are to be such sanctions that will harm us, like most sanctions have, I can see no reason to support them."

Newsweek has contacted the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry by email to request comment.

Fico's election has raised the prospect that Slovakia will join Hungary and its Prime Minister Viktor Orban as a spoiler in the EU's ongoing measures against Moscow.

Alena Kudzko, vice president for policy and programming at the GLOBSEC think tank in Bratislava, has told Newsweek that Fico has been known for his pragmatism throughout his long political career.

"He will not support Russia for the sake of supporting Russia, he will not support Orban for the sake of supporting Orban, and he will not support the EU or NATO for the sake of supporting the EU or NATO," Kudzko said.

"If it's necessary, he very may well go along with EU and NATO decisions," she added. "But, of course, he may make sure that he is bargaining hard and that he's able to get certain concessions for Slovakia that are useful for him at home."

Slovakia is one of the smallest nations in NATO and the EU, but the unanimity decision-making process of both blocs gives Bratislava significant influence. Even one nation—Hungary—has caused significant discord within the two bodies, and EU-NATO officials may now be facing a doubled challenge.

Oleksandr Merezhko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and the chair of the body's foreign affairs committee, told Newsweek that Fico's announcement "is not a pleasant development, and we might be dealing with a 'mini-Orban.'

"But Slovakia was not the biggest provider of aid to Ukraine anyway," he added. "At the same time, I hope that Slovakia's democratic opposition is strong enough not to let Fico turn this country into Hungary."

Despite its small size, the pre-Fico Slovakian government provided a significant amount of military aid to Ukraine. Ammunition, armored vehicles, artillery pieces and even fighter jets have made their way eastwards from Bratislava since February 2022, with former Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad declaring weapons delivery as "the right thing" to do.

When asked Thursday about Fico's decision, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: "Slovakia did not have such a big share in the supply of weapons, so it will hardly affect the entire process."

URL

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/zelensky-hit-with-double-blow-from-european-ally/ar-AA1iWzuu

My Thoughts

The two key important points. Fico won votes saying he would stop aid to Ukraine and desires only an end. People in his government are pulling for a minority position in the country to continue to support ukraine with military aid.

These two points lead to a simple truth. The war in Ukraine is being led by an agenda against the will of the majority in europe. The majority in Europe if in control would had let russia annex ukraine. And this would had been over. But Biden chose to step in as a war lord. He will not aid ukraine to defeat Russia but he will arm ukraine to resist russia enough to maintain a war. This is an ancient strategy.