Sunday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Sunday, September 25, 2022
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54 comments
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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Oooopps.
Pretty safe to say these guys aren’t in the running for the Nobel Prize for Policing.
And is now about to become very very well off.
There is a reason for this. In general, a woman’s voice is not as threatening as a man’s. Imagine for a second if you inquired “Siri, will you open the front door for me please?” And it answered in Hal’s voice, “I’m sorry Dave, I can not open the pod bay door.”
Shit… I know I’d freak out.
@OzarkHillbilly: My dad set the GPS directions voice to Homer Simpson’s voice at one point, and my mom refused to get in the car till he changed it.
@Jon: Someone, maybe the “Bowling Alone” author, has commented on how television characters lessen our need for social interaction with real people. They are friends of a sort, but always beautiful, always funny, completely undemanding, and when you get tired of them you can walk away with no emotional aftereffects.
So what happens when our Siris and Alexas can engage in witty banter, ask you sympathetically how it is going at work, or tell you about a book they just know you would like?
@MarkedMan: Heh, my Amazon Echo thingy already tries book recommendations, it just mostly seems to be stuff I don’t care about; random new releases, best-sellers, and things of that nature.
And I catch myself all the time saying “please” and “thank you” when giving it commands; I like to tell myself it’s just me re-enforcing the good habit of *always* saying “please” and “thank you” irrespective of to whom (or what) I’m talking, but I have my suspicions …
“I will explain to the Russians what is happening in Russian, Fifty-five thousand Russian soldiers died in this war in six months. Tens of thousands are wounded and maimed. Want more? No? Then protest. Fight back. Run away. Or surrender to Ukrainian captivity.
“These are the options for you to survive.”
– Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy
@Jon: HA! If I were ever to have one, I’d probably opt for the Norman Bates option.
Which is one of the many reasons I will never have such a thing.
@Jon:
Whoa. Yet another reason not to own an Alexa. I’m the kind of guy who listens to a ball game on the radio and turns the volume all the way down at the first syllable of a commercial. I can’t imagine not throwing an Alexa across the room if it started piping up with one on its own.
@MarkedMan: Eh, commercials don’t bother me. It’s how the stations make money so they can show me the soccer or baseball or whatever for free (on my end at least). I’ve mostly learned to tune ’em out. Same with the Echo occasionally recommending books; it only happens in the context of something else I’ve asked it to do (mostly timers, alarms, or weather anymore) and never completely out of the blue. I’d guess there’s a way to turn it off, but honestly that seems like more trouble than just letting it speak its piece 🙂
My 15-year-old nephew was killed last night in an auto accident.
https://twitter.com/PhillipsPOBrien/status/1574011211901026310
thread:
snip
snip
snip
@CSK: Oh my god, I’m so sorry.
@CSK: So sorry to hear this! Big hugs to you and your family. 🙁
@CSK:
Oh damn! So so so sorry to hear that. My thoughts are with your family.
@CSK:..terrible news…my sincere condolences to your family.
@Jon: @Jax: @EddieInCA: @Mister Bluster:
Thank you all so much. The cliche is true: It feels like a horrible dream.
@charon:
Relevant book:
https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/how-war-was-won
etc., etc.
@CSK: So sorry to hear
@OzarkHillbilly:
Only if she recovers. If she has any serious permanent injuries/disabilities from the
deliberate stupidity“accident,” she’ll only be able to afford the continuing care she needs.Maybe. 🙁
@CSK:
Jesus. That’s tough news to get.
@CSK:
Very sorry to hear that, my condolences to you and your family.
@MarkedMan: There will be a lot more people like the guy in Japan who entered into a virtual marriage with (IIRC) and anime character. 🙁
@MarkedMan: @Michael Reynolds: @Sleeping Dog:
Thank you. I appreciate it.
@CSK: I am truly sorry to hear this and my heart goes out to you and to his parents.
@Jon: I would guess that the recommendations that you get from Amazon Echo are of a kind with the emails that Amazon Kindle sends to my email box several times a day. The advantage to the emails over Echo is that I can delete them without even opening them. That puts me ahead, I think.
@CSK: I’m sorry to hear that. My condolences to you and your extended family at this tragedy.
@Steven L. Taylor: @Just nutha ignint cracker:
I very much appreciate your condolences.
@Just nutha ignint cracker: Heh, it’s not a competition 😉
And yeah, probably the same stuff but it only happens once, maybe twice, a month. Maybe not even that much; I don’t actually pay much attention. I can also stop it mid-nag by saying “no thanks” or “stop.” Overall it is dramatically less intrusive and/or annoying than I think y’all are taking it to be. It is more interesting (to me) in how I respond to it, not that it does it in the first place.
@CSK:
Really sorry to hear that.
@Moosebreath:
Thank you.
@CSK:
That’s so horrible.
My condolences to you and your family.
@CSK: I am so so sorry.
@JohnSF: @becca:
Thank you very much.
@CSK:
That’s awful. Sorry for your family’s loss.
@CSK: That’s horrible. I’m so sorry.
@Jon: I have no idea about the technology at all. Then again, the technology has no appeal for me whatsoever, either. I don’t see the utility.
@Beth: @Gustopher:
I appreciate it.
@CSK: Shit. So very sorry. Always a shock but 15 is way too young.
@CSK: Very sorry to hear such dreadful news.
@OzarkHillbilly: @SC_Birdflyte:
Thank you very much.
I rarely click on eMails unless I know where they are from. My curiosity got the best of me when an item from YELP! titled: Best Sports Bars Near Me in Carbondale, IL showed up at my In Box.
“Click”
The first listing was for a local swill hole that has TVs and they feature baseball and football games.
I can’t say much for YELP!’s targeting me with this as I haven’t been in the place since I was thrown out in 1983.
The next YELP! listing of local sports bars was…Taco Bell?!?. The Bell doesn’t even have a TV let alone sell alcohol.
I scrolled down to check a few more listings. Almost all of them are in neighboring towns and the local Pappa Johns has been closed for months and was always a carry out store. No TV or booze there either.
I just wonder who pays who for this kind of “advertising”?
There is–rightfully so–a lot of talk about China in OtB.
There are only a handful of us who have actually lived there and have an understanding of the culture.
While there are plenty of things that we would consider “wrong” about their culture, please remember that the Chinese government is, absolutely, not representative of the Chinese people.
@CSK: My deepest condolences to you and your family. May his memory be a blessing.
@Mikey:
Thank you.
…and for what?…just so they can kill the sons of other mothers…
@Mister Bluster:
Don’t have a clue.
I received the same type of email from Yelp but for Watertown NY. The last time I was to a sports bar was 2000 or 2001 and I was in Dallas TX at the time and only because it was the eating establishment for the hotel I was staying at.
Say, how ’bout dem Cubbies… 21.5 games back of the Cards in the last week of September. Some things, the more they change, the more they stay the same. 😉 😉 😉
@CSK: Sad, sad news. Best wishes.
This is just too on the nose:
Don’t be surprised if I post this again tomorrow.
@CSK: Sincere condolences to you and your family. Only 15? What a total shock.
@CSK:
Sorry for your loss, I hope his memory will be a blessing for you
@OzarkHillbilly:..Cubs…
it has been another long year. I am sure that if the Cubs were playing real baseball with no DH that they would have done better. I am certain that a pitch clock next year will make the game even worse. what is the penalty for not throwing the ball fast enough? besides me puking in my popcorn. at least I have 2016. my daddy lived to be 85 and never saw the Cubs win a World Series. His daddy, my grandfather, was 21 in 1908. they did not even have radio then. he had to read about it in the newspaper!
@CSK: Oh, geezus, I am so sorry to all those who must be devastated. Sincere condolences.