- I'm a Republican. What on Earth Is Wrong With My Party? (Time) "Trump’s most ardent supporters will continue to praise him for ignoring the social mores of political correctness. While I resent the stifling of free speech in an increasingly hypersensitive world, Trump is not a brave truth-teller; he’s the figurehead of our nation whose first year in office is most notable for his destructive casual cruelty. Republicans used to believe that individuals were responsible for exercising self-control. Why does the Commander-in-Chief get a pass?"
- Trump has revealed who he is. Now it’s our turn (WaPo) "On this issue, Trump has not earned a single benefit of the doubt. His racial demagoguery in the Central Park Five case . . . his attribution of Kenyan citizenship to Barack Obama . . . his references to Mexican migrants as rapists and murderers . . . his unconstitutional attempt at a Muslim ban . . . his moral equivocation following the deadly protests in Charlottesville . . . his statement, reported by the New York Times, that Nigerians would never 'go back to their huts' after seeing America . . . all of these constitute an elaborate pattern of bigotry. Trump makes off-hand racist comments, he promotes racist stereotypes and he incites racism as a political strategy. Trump has revealed who he is. Now we reveal who we are. The perfunctory criticisms, self-indicting silences, half-hearted defenses and obvious lies provided by most elected Republicans have been embarrassing and discrediting. Loyalty to Trump now consists of defending the indefensible. His advocates are becoming desensitized to moral corruption. They are losing the ability to believe in anything, even in their own courage. We have no idea how this struggle will unfold. But we know how it must end: with a president who raises our sights instead of lowering our standards."
- Trust in news media takes a hit during Trump presidency (AP) "But a year into Donald Trump's fact-bending, media-bashing presidency, Americans are increasingly confused about who can be trusted to tell them reliably what their government and their commander in chief are doing. Though Trump's habit of warping facts has had an impact, it's not just him."
BUSINESS/INVESTING:
- Mr. Amazon Steps Out (NYT) "But while Mr. Bezos — who at 53 is the world’s richest person, with a net worth of more than $100 billion — can afford virtually any luxury, obscurity is no longer among them."
- A.I. Has Arrived in Investing. Humans Are Still Dominating (NYT) "A.I. involves machine learning, in which a program updates itself as new information comes in. Whatever goal the program was created to achieve remains the same, but the problem-solving tools it uses keep changing and reflect the sum of the information it has to work with." and AI and the Productivity Paradox (WSJ-Paywall) "Artificial intelligence is now applied to tasks that not long ago were viewed as the exclusive domain of humans... But, at the same time, productivity growth has significantly declined over the past decade. Even after reaching a tipping point of market acceptance, it takes considerable time, often decades, for the new technologies and business models to be widely embraced by companies and industries across the economy, and only then will their benefits follow, including productivity growth."
- Most Millionaires Created Their Own Luck by Taking These 4 Approaches (It's Not About Working Hard) (Inc) "...luck certainly played its part, but that's because most millionaires (or billionaires) aggressively created it. What do I mean by that? Put some portion of your money and time in you. Consume smartly. Work to learn, not earn. Focus on results, not working a lot."
ENTERTAINMENT:
- Dolores O’Riordan, lead singer of the Cranberries, dies at 46 (WaPo) "The Cranberries, known for hits including 'Zombie' and 'Linger,' formed in 1990 in Limerick. Their 1993 debut album 'Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?' became a huge commercial success. Over the course of the band’s career, they’ve released seven studio albums and sold more than 40 million copies worldwide. O’Riordan’s trademark powerful, unique voice, with its yodels and Irish accent, came to characterize the band’s sound."
HEALTH:
- How Dirt Could Save Humanity From an Infectious Apocalypse (Wired) "One problem with antibiotic resistance is that, for most people, it remains abstract—right now its lethal impact is relatively small. Few of us have lost loved ones—yet. But that’s the future we are headed for. Brady is creating drugs from dirt. He’s certain that the world’s topsoils contain incredible, practically inexhaustible reservoirs of undiscovered antibiotics, the chemical weapons bacteria use to fend off other microorganisms."
GUILTY PLEASURES:
- Audiophilia Forever: An Expensive New Year’s Shopping Guide (New Yorker) "The entire system now cost north of eighty thousand dollars. I couldn’t buy it, but I was happy. I had heard something; a lot of things, actually. All this fussing makes a difference. You may not be able to afford it, but, if you can hear it, and it matters to you musically, then it matters emotionally, too. High-end audio is a luxury-class pursuit, but it’s not a fake, and it has many pleasures, if your ears are open to receiving them."
NEWS:
- U.S. Warned Jared Kushner About Wendi Deng Murdoch (WSJ-Paywall) "U.S. counterintelligence officials in early 2017 warned Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, that Wendi Deng Murdoch, a prominent Chinese-American businesswoman, could be using her close friendship with Mr. Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, to further the interests of the Chinese government, according to people familiar with the matter."
- Poll: GOP satisfaction with U.S. direction highest in 10 years (Axios) "61% of Republicans are satisfied with the direction of the country, the highest level of satisfaction in a decade, according to a new Gallup poll released Monday."
- Donald Trump gives the Iran nuclear deal a “last chance” (Economist) "This fresh reprieve for the Iran agreement—which on the campaign trail Mr Trump called 'the worst deal ever' and promised to tear up—highlights the dilemma faced by America’s closest allies, notably in Europe. But even as he swallowed his pride and signed off on an extension for the agreement for a further 120 days, the president said that he would still walk away from the deal if it is not toughened by allies and by Congress, and soon. To put it plainly, European allies have discovered that with a lot of pushing they can stop Mr Trump from pursuing what they consider disastrous foreign policies. What they cannot do is secure for him the concessions that he sees as necessary to make better, properly 'America First' policies."
TECHNOLOGY:
- Big Bets on A.I. Open a New Frontier for Chip Start-Ups, Too (NYT) "Because it’s a new market — and because there is such hunger for this new kind of processing power — many believe this is one of those rare opportunities when start-ups have a chance against entrenched giants."
- Computers are getting better than humans at reading (CNN) "Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Microsoft Corp. said their artificial intelligence programs have outscored humans on a reading comprehension test designed by researchers at Stanford University. 'This is the first time that a machine has outperformed humans on such a test,' Alibaba said Monday in a statement. Alibaba's deep neural network model scored 82.44 on the test on January 11, narrowly beating the 82.304 scored by the human participants. A day later, Microsoft's AI software also beat the human score, with a result of 82.650."
SOCIALIZED MEDICINE:
- Uninsured rose in 2017 (Axios) "Americans without health insurance ticked up 1.3 points in 2017, ending the year at 12.2%, according to the latest data from Gallup. That’s still a lot lower than it was before the Affordable Care Act’s coverage expansion took effect, but this is the biggest single-year increase under the ACA. That 1.3 point increase translates to about 3.2 million more uninsured people."
TRUMPTEL:
- Trump has kept many promises during his first year in office (AP) "But while he’s fallen short on many measures and has a strikingly thin legislative record, Trump has followed through on dozens of his campaign promises... Trump has nailed the tax overhaul, his only historic legislative accomplishment to date, won confirmation of a conservative Supreme Court justice and other federal judges, and used his executive powers with vigor to slice regulations and pull the U.S. away from international accords he assailed as a candidate."
BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:
- How Gore-Tex Went From Accident to Outdoor Essential (Wired) "Bob Gore wasn’t attempting to improve outerwear when he created Gore-Tex. He accidentally found that yanking Teflon filled it with air pockets. And not only that: The micropores that appeared in his 'expanded polytetrafluoroethylene' were 700 times larger than a water vapor molecule but 20,000 times smaller than a droplet. Gore reasoned that if you made a fabric out of ePTFE, you could block out rain while still venting steamy perspiration—with wind protection as a bonus."
- Lesotho Diamond Weighs More Than a Baseball (NYT) "High in the mountains of a small southern African kingdom, miners have unearthed one of the largest diamonds ever found, a glittering giant weighing 910 carats, or 6.4 ounces, and probably worth tens of millions of dollars."
TODAY'S SONG:
- Palmtree (Mandlebarth)
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