the cambridge analytica is getting a little more interesting but unlike channel 4 i find it hard to take nix's puffery at face value. have they already forgotten the whistleblower's story about how they set up fake offices in cambridge just to impress steve bannon? it's very likely nix is just rolling out the 'our brand is crisis' pitch to suit his would-be client. the way these secret recordings are being built up into a breathlessly reported scandal reminds me of project veritas
kinch posted:for some reason the news stories I've seen are calling this new development a data breach when it looks like CA just violated facebook's ToS?
yeah. it was a third party, an academic called kogan, who collected the data legitimately and then sold it to CA in violation of the ToS.
Petrol posted:i think the importance of social media is overblown by journalists for the simple reason that it's had such a massive impact on their industry, which they in turn think is far more important than it really is. not to say propaganda isnt effective or media isnt important at all, just that material reality is fundamental rather than the stories told about it
the fake reality is still pretty important
*Curtis, A. (Director). (n.d.). Hypernormalisation.
winebaby posted:Petrol posted:i think the importance of social media is overblown by journalists for the simple reason that it's had such a massive impact on their industry, which they in turn think is far more important than it really is. not to say propaganda isnt effective or media isnt important at all, just that material reality is fundamental rather than the stories told about it
the fake reality is still pretty important
*Curtis, A. (Director). (n.d.). Hypernormalisation.
Lol. The thing is, the 'fake reality' IS important, insofar as that's what culture is - the collective dream/nightmare. In this regard I think Takashi Murakami's description of postwar Japanese culture as 'superflat' is more telling than anything Curtis talks about. The post-9/11 retreat of mainstream western culture into what was previously considered children's media (superheroes, video games etc) is indicative of a similar malaise.
tears posted:
lots to unpack here
shapes posted:4 fucking mailbombs to black families in Austin,
i wondered why i hadnt been seeing more news stories about something like this happening in the US, but because it was in the US i hadnt bothered actually reading any of the stories i did see to find out why
• President Donald Trump tweeted: "Austin bombing suspect is dead. Great job by law enforcement and all concerned!"
"I am not that politically inclined. I view myself as a conservative, but I don't think I have enough information to defend my stance as well as it should be defended," a description of the writer reads. "The reasons I am taking this class is because I want to understand the US government, and I hope that it will help me clarify my stance, and then defend it."
le_nelson_mandela_face posted:The blog espouses some political beliefs, including entries describing why the author believes gay marriage should not be legalized and why the United States should do away with sex offender registration.
"I am not that politically inclined. I view myself as a conservative, but I don't think I have enough information to defend my stance as well as it should be defended," a description of the writer reads. "The reasons I am taking this class is because I want to understand the US government, and I hope that it will help me clarify my stance, and then defend it."
first as tragedy then as farce lmao. Industrial Society and Its Future and then this dude.
the guy who wrote this is the Hersh of foot fetishists. truly incredible work https://t.co/mlJYOyvqAe
— Business Industry CEO 🍋 (@ByYourLogic) March 21, 2018
I once read a great wealth of books - my favorite authors have been John Grisham and Tom Clancy.
just another reddit intellectual
Petrol posted:https://www.channel4.com/news/cambridge-analytica-revealed-trumps-election-consultants-filmed-saying-they-use-bribes-and-sex-workers-to-entrap-politicians-investigationthe cambridge analytica is getting a little more interesting but unlike channel 4 i find it hard to take nix's puffery at face value. have they already forgotten the whistleblower's story about how they set up fake offices in cambridge just to impress steve bannon? it's very likely nix is just rolling out the 'our brand is crisis' pitch to suit his would-be client. the way these secret recordings are being built up into a breathlessly reported scandal reminds me of project veritas
just getting back to this for a moment, finally ran across some healthy skepticism: http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-cambridge-analytica-20180321-story.html
As he tries to make sense of it all, David Karpf, a professor at George Washington University who specializes in digital advocacy, says Cambridge Analytica is looking less like a mischievous genius than a mischievous amateur. He compares the firm's alleged Facebook intrusion to burglars who set out to rob a vault full of diamonds and end up hauling home a bag full of worthless cubic zirconia.
"But even if the robbers only got junk out of it, it is still a crime," Karpf said. "And it is still concerning that the vault was so easy to rob."
he's wrong afaik, it wasn't a crime for CA to buy the data, but it's still a funny metaphor
jansenist_drugstore posted:a hedge fund billionaire who built his fortune creating a formula of algorithms and equations for investing that only a select group of math geniuses understands.
lol yeah i love how that explanation is taken at face value as though it's never been used to cover for flagrant corruption before
xipe posted:John fucking Bolton for Security fucking Advisor
You know, at least imperialists in the 19th century had to do complex political maneuvering to manufacture a casus belli. Now, I don't think Americans could produce a diplomat worth a 1/100 of what Bismarck was, nor do they need to, since apparently all you have to do is point to some dumbass professors who had "pwd123" as their password and claim mass espionage. imagine having to sit in a class in 2200 about 21st century diplomacy and inter-state relations lol nothx.
I also wonder if Bolton in his new position will change anything, as he doesn’t seem like much of a facts & figures guy and role creep seems like a big problem for the White House right now. Like, he probably doesn’t give a fuck about demolishing a future target for university-educated labor exploitation if he gets to bomb some Persians, and his superior skill at Washington maneuvering might crowd out anyone still focused on those forecasts. There’s still time for Trump to make a fool out of me as an Internet prognosticator on a forum of ~20 people
Petrol posted:jansenist_drugstore posted:a hedge fund billionaire who built his fortune creating a formula of algorithms and equations for investing that only a select group of math geniuses understands.
lol yeah i love how that explanation is taken at face value as though it's never been used to cover for flagrant corruption before
The idea that traders at big-name houses are math whiz computer-model savants, instead of intramural sports dunces from rich families poking away at terminals set up to facilitate cons they don’t understand, is one of those ideas you’d think even liberals in the news media would have tossed out after the 2007 crash, out of envy if nothing else
I suppose it’s because the finance industry press is at its own unique level of coziness and ass-kissing about the qualifications of its subjects, maybe even beating out reporters in Washington, D.C. In finance news, those written about can make bad calls, be the wrong person for that particular job or maybe be out of touch and past their glory days, but usually, even the known convicted con-artist criminals with forged credentials are treated as geniuses
cars posted:Petrol posted:
jansenist_drugstore posted:
a hedge fund billionaire who built his fortune creating a formula of algorithms and equations for investing that only a select group of math geniuses understands.
lol yeah i love how that explanation is taken at face value as though it's never been used to cover for flagrant corruption before
The idea that traders at big-name houses are math whiz computer-model savants, instead of intramural sports dunces from rich families poking away at terminals set up to facilitate cons they don’t understand, is one of those ideas you’d think even liberals in the news media would have tossed out after the 2007 crash, out of envy if nothing else
I suppose it’s because the finance industry press is at its own unique level of coziness and ass-kissing about the qualifications of its subjects, maybe even beating out reporters in Washington, D.C. In finance news, those written about can make bad calls, be the wrong person for that particular job or maybe be out of touch and past their glory days, but usually, even the known convicted con-artist criminals with forged credentials are treated as geniuses
back when I was at the heart of the beast of this bullshit, i did find out that there are some math whiz computer-model savants, but they don't do trading themselves. there are traders (getting phased out of existence as much as possible and replaced with algorithms), but they are definitely not the math people. traders in the 21st c are absolutely just salesmen (i did not encounter a female trader). i've gotten into this in detail in other posts, but their job is primarily calling up "the buy-side", i.e. the investment portfolio managers at pension funds, sovereign funds, hedge funds, wherever, and trying to convince them to buy a thing because They Have Such A Hot Deal Right Now.
"I actually knew Apple was going to tank so I bought up a bunch at 120 at open and I can sell it to you for that right now. It's already at 124 and going up. What do you say??? What are you, some kind of cuck??? HAHAHA I knew it I got your balls!!! Ok trade in!!! Thanks a lot Chuck see you at the bar tonight." (Investment banks are no longer allowed to officially make money on their own trades ("proprietary trading"), but they can make money off of this sort of thing.)
Anyway blow it all up, obviously
drwhat posted:back when I was at the heart of the beast of this bullshit, i did find out that there are some math whiz computer-model savants, but they don't do trading themselves
yeah thats also what i found out.