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luzribeiro posting in

Let's keep this simple.

First thing he wants: To secure the Arctic against Russian encroachment.
What is the sane way to get it: Work with Europe and Denmark on cooperation, strengthen NATO presence, and invest jointly in security and infrastructure in Greenland.
Knowing this is Trump, what is likelier to happen: He damages relations with Europe, bullies allies, and treats Greenland like a real estate deal. Even if US leverage in the Arctic increases short term, the long term damage to trust and alliances helps Russia more than it hurts it.

Next thing he wants: Greenland’s resources (rare earths, minerals, future energy, and shipping routes).
What is the sane way to get it: Long term investment, partnerships with Greenlandic authorities, respect for environmental limits, and shared economic benefits.
What is likelier to happen: Crude pressure on Denmark, zero regard for local consent, and a resource grab mentality that fuels backlash and pushes Greenland and Europe away from the US. Again, Russia (and China) wins long-term.

Next thing he wants: A Nobel Peace Prize.
Well, he's not getting it.
Why he will not get it: You do not win a peace prize by antagonizing allies, undermining institutions, and treating diplomacy as a personal transaction. Even real deals get discounted when they are paired with chaos and threats. An no, he hasn't stopped 8+ wars.

Anything else he wants:
Control of Arctic shipping lanes, keeping China out of the region, and a domestic political win he can sell as “strong leadership” (that last bit might sell to the dumb MAGA crowd, mind you). Greenland is useful to him less as a place, and more as a symbol of power and dominance.

And I won't even begin on the stupidity of the "one boat arrives 500 years ago" pseudo-argument. That's just beyond idiotic.

rebeccmeister

The first day of the spring semester is always a little funny for me, because it's a Tuesday and usually I teach labs on Tuesdays, but I don't want to start the semester with a lab.

Instead I get to do fun things like get my syllabus photocopied and Muppet-flail about how very soon my time will no longer belong to me.

canyonwalker

I'm in Phoenix for a few days. On business travel. I left home after lunch yesterday— yes, traveling for work on a holiday, not my favorite— and got to my hotel at 6:30pm local time. My flight was pretty much on time, and hailing a ride to the hotel was reasonably fast as rush hour traffic was light on the holiday.

My schedule of in-person meetings is light. I've only got 2 on the calendar, one today and one tomorrow, despite trying for 4 or 5. As a result of the light schedule I thought maybe I'd avail myself of the hotel's many pools and hot tubs. ...Well, hot tubs, anyway, as the winter weather in Phoenix (highs in the low 70s) is not quite warm enough for the pool. But last night after dinner I felt tired and decided I'd just relax in my room instead of going out for a soak. Well, there's always tonight for a soak.

rolanni

Monday, condensed

The Long Back Yard

1 Monday morning. Snowing lightly. And the sound of chainsaws from next door.

I expect it will be my turn when and if the guys get here with the equipment since they have to take down two big pines for me.

In the meantime, since I don't have any work to do today, I'm sitting in the comfy chair in the window in my office with the happy light on, dictating this note to the world.

How's everybody doing today?

2 My mission today, aside from staying away from chainsaws and falling logs, is to change out the cat fountains, and catch up with friends at Front and Main this afternoon.

I will also, today, or tomorrow, be posting Explanatory Notes to the Read-Along thread on Splinter Universe, explaining why I fell off the wagon, and offering some insights to the rest of Agent of Change and Conflict of Honors.

I am now reading Carpe Diem, aka Val Con and Miri go to Madison, Maine, which I'll note that they arrived there before we did. We finished Carpe and mailed it to our editor before we made our own migration to Maine, where we fetched up in Skowhegan, which is right handy to Madison. The first time we drove through Madison's shopping district, I said to Steve, "This looks really familiar." And he laughed at me, the rat. Which is when the penny dropped, and I said, "It's real?"

3 Well. That's a different look. I purely hate taking down trees, and, yes, I know that these were in fact very sick trees, and a danger to the house in the next high wind, and that the top of one had already (previous to our tenancy) snapped off in a windstorm, but -- still.

Trees.

4 So, that was a nice visit before the group splits for winter vacations. Front and Main has an amazing lobby. There was a woman at one of the tables all set up with her papers and her laptop, and honestly I think she's on to something. The tomato-veggie-lentil soup was very good, and so was the company.

Went to the grocery after, but forgot to go to the hardware store. Ah, well. I'll be out again tomorrow.

I believe I will putter for the rest of the day. Maybe make a frittata and see how that goes. I should freeze the second pork chop so I have something to draw on; I let the freezer get a little low. I made a fresh batch of hummus a couple days ago, so that's not quite gone. Maybe some time this week I can bake bread. Oh! And I can finally finish my second glass piece.

So this is what people who don't write books do. Wow.

Still snowing, just enough to be pretty.

While the tree guys were doing their thing, Firefly and Tali went back to Steve's office, but Rook vanished, so he missed the play-by-play. When I came home, he had a lot to say about how the trees are gone, Mom, while he was sitting on my lap, banging his head on my chin. I think we've managed to agree that it was probably for the best, since he's had a wee dram of dry food and wandered off to the bedroom window.

And so, the midday report.
* * * * *
The Long Back Yard:

#
Tuesday. Sunny and cold. Trash and recycling are at the curb. The space where the trees used to be is noticeable, but not raw, thanks to the snow.

Breakfast was leftover soup. Lunch with either be leftover frittata or leftover pork and sauerkraut. Prolly pork; frittata will go better in the evening, after needlework.

I have errands this morning, because! not only did I forget I needed to go to the hardware store yesterday, and even though I was there, I forgot to pick up my meds, so back to the grocery for me.

I woke up at 5, and said to Tali, who happened to be sleeping next to me at that time, "I don't have to get up now." She knocked her head into my chin -- I'm not sure if she picked that piece of communication up from Rook or he from her -- and started to purr. And I went back to sleep.

I thought I was going to update the Read-Along blog last night, but I wasn't able to get into Splinter Universe. That's been fixed, so I can get with that today. Instead of updating, last night I carried on with Carpe Diem, where I've just now gotten to the point where Val Con is introducing his kin's theme songs to Miri.

And that's what I've got this morning.

What's everybody doing today?

tyger

I am ready for window installation!!! :D

Getting the actual furniture moved today sucked because it was so humid and the second you thought about doing anything that required even a tiny bit of moving things, instant sweatball. Ugh. So gross.

( I get a little rambly about it. )

As things currently stand I don't have anywhere to set up my desktop right now, so I'm on the new travel computer, which is okay. Really missing my screens, but Must Be Patient, it'll be fiiiine.

...and on a completely different note, Sushi knocked the red pen I'm working on off my side table overnight, and I haven't been able to find it. :/ Got out a green one and have been using that, but it's frustrating I wasn't able to finish with the red first! It's probably under the couch somewhere but uh there is VERY little ability for me to find it given the current furniture rearrangement, so it's gonna have to wait. Boo!

Anyway! Time for bed. The window people are arriving at 7:30am (allegedly), so I will need to be awake and at least dressed by then. Which is very early for a me!

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: Birthplace

larryhammer

For Poetry ~~Monday~~ Tuesday (because spent yesterday hiking in the mountains), another Francis:

Hallelujah: A Sestina, Robert Francis

A wind’s word, the Hebrew Hallelujah.
I wonder they never gave it to a boy
(Hal for short) boy with wind-wild hair.
It means Praise God, as well it should since praise
Is what God’s for. Why didn’t they call my father
Hallelujah instead of Ebenezer?

Eben, of course, but christened Ebenezer,
Product of Nova Scotia (hallelujah).
Daniel, a country doctor, was his father
And my father his tenth and final boy.
A baby and last, he had a baby’s praise:
Red petticoats, red cheeks, and crow-black hair.

A boy has little to say about his hair
And little about a name like Ebenezer
Except that you can shorten either. Praise
God for that, for that shout Hallelujah.
Shout Hallelujah for everything a boy
Can be that is not his father or grandfather.

But then, before you know it, he is a father
Too and passing on his brand of hair
To one more perfectly defenseless boy,
Dubbing him John or James or Ebenezer
But never, so far as I know, Hallelujah,
As if God didn’t need quite that much praise.

But what I’m coming to; Could I ever praise
My father half enough for being a father
Who let me be myself? Sing Hallelujah.
Preacher he was with a prophet’s head of hair
And what but a prophet’s name was Ebenezer,
However little I guessed it as a boy?

Outlandish names of course are never a boy’s
Choice. And it takes some time to learn to praise.
Stone of Help is the meaning of Ebenezer.
Stone of Help; what fitter name for my father?
Always the Stone of Help however his hair
Might graduate from black to Hallelujah.

Such is the old drama of boy and father.
Praise from a grayhead now with thinning hair.
Sing Ebenezer, Robert, sing Hallelujah!

---L.

Subject quote from Don't You (Forget About Me), Simple Minds.

sententiae_antiquae_feed

Posted by Joel

https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2026/01/20/the-beginning-of-his-trouble-characterizing-achilles-in-iliad-11/

https://sententiaeantiquae.com/?p=64987

Book 11 of the Iliad is one of those battle books that often get lost in conversations about the whole. But the poem does contribute critically to the plot: enough of the prominent Greeks are wounded that the battle begins to turn definitively in the Trojans’ favor. Achilles, watching from the sidelines, notices, and sends Patroklos to investigate. Nestor tells Patroklos a rather long story to persuade him to either convince Achilles to return to war or to lead the Myrmidons to battle in Achilles’ place.

These contributions to the plot make Iliad 11 essential. But the book has some other, more nuanced aspects as well. As I discussed in the first post on book 11, the wounding of heroes, particularly Diomedes, engages with extra-Iliadic traditions in fascinating ways. The book also advances the epic’s strategy of deferring Achilles’ appearance. This time, however, Achilles appears briefly. And what we make of his actions changes how we approach his character.

We find Achilles eagerly watching the action, despite the fact that it is taking place on the other side of the Achaean fortifications.

Homer, Iliad 11.596-615

“So they were struggling like a burning fire
And Neleus’ horses were bringing Nestor out of the war,
Covered in sweat as they also drove Makhaon, the shepherd of the host.
Shining Achilles recognized him when he saw him.
For he was standing on the stern of his huge-hulled ship,
Watching the terrible conflict and the lamentable retreat.
He quickly turned to his companion Patroklos and spoke
To him next to the ship. He heard as he came from their dwelling
Like Ares himself, and this was the beginning of his trouble.

So, the brave son of Menoitios spoke first:
Why are you calling me, Achilles? What need do you have of me?

Swift footed Achilles spoke to him in answer:

“Shining son of Menoitios, most cherished to my own heart,
Now I think that the Achaeans are about to stand begging
Around my knees. For a need comes upon them, and it is no longer tolerable.

But come, now Patroklos dear to Zeus, go ask Nestor
Who that man is he leads wounded from the war.
Certainly he looks from this angle in every way like Makhaon,
Asclepius’ son, bit I cannot see the man’s eyes,
Since the horses raced past me in their eager stride.”

῝Ως οἳ μὲν μάρναντο δέμας πυρὸς αἰθομένοιο·
Νέστορα δ’ ἐκ πολέμοιο φέρον Νηλήϊαι ἵπποι
ἱδρῶσαι, ἦγον δὲ Μαχάονα ποιμένα λαῶν.
τὸν δὲ ἰδὼν ἐνόησε ποδάρκης δῖος ᾿Αχιλλεύς·
ἑστήκει γὰρ ἐπὶ πρυμνῇ μεγακήτεϊ νηῒ
εἰσορόων πόνον αἰπὺν ἰῶκά τε δακρυόεσσαν.
αἶψα δ’ ἑταῖρον ἑὸν Πατροκλῆα προσέειπε
φθεγξάμενος παρὰ νηός· ὃ δὲ κλισίηθεν ἀκούσας
ἔκμολεν ἶσος ῎Αρηϊ, κακοῦ δ’ ἄρα οἱ πέλεν ἀρχή.
τὸν πρότερος προσέειπε Μενοιτίου ἄλκιμος υἱός·
τίπτέ με κικλήσκεις ᾿Αχιλεῦ; τί δέ σε χρεὼ ἐμεῖο;
τὸν δ’ ἀπαμειβόμενος προσέφη πόδας ὠκὺς ᾿Αχιλλεύς·
δῖε Μενοιτιάδη τῷ ἐμῷ κεχαρισμένε θυμῷ
νῦν ὀΐω περὶ γούνατ’ ἐμὰ στήσεσθαι ᾿Αχαιοὺς
λισσομένους· χρειὼ γὰρ ἱκάνεται οὐκέτ’ ἀνεκτός.
ἀλλ’ ἴθι νῦν Πάτροκλε Διῒ φίλε Νέστορ’ ἔρειο
ὅν τινα τοῦτον ἄγει βεβλημένον ἐκ πολέμοιο·
ἤτοι μὲν τά γ’ ὄπισθε Μαχάονι πάντα ἔοικε
τῷ ᾿Ασκληπιάδῃ, ἀτὰρ οὐκ ἴδον ὄμματα φωτός·
ἵπποι γάρ με παρήϊξαν πρόσσω μεμαυῖαι.

There are some interesting responses from ancient scholars. Variously, they see Achilles’ viewing of the battle as an indication of his character and a creation of suspense.

Schol Tb ad Hom. Il. 11. 600-1 ex

“Achilles is shown to be a lover of war here by his viewing of the battle. Still, the poet crafts this in anticipation for Achilles’ return.”

τὸ φιλοπόλεμον ᾿Αχιλλέως ἐνδείκνυται τῷ θεωρεῖν τὴν μάχην. ἅμα δὲ καὶ ᾠκονόμησε ταύτην ὁ ποιητὴς πρὸς τὴν ἔξοδον ᾿Αχιλλέως.

There is also interest in the action Achilles takes here:

Schol. T ad Hom. Il. 11.611 ex

“It is strange that [Achilles] sends [Patroklos] out to the scene of someone wounded”

ἄτοπον γάρ ἐστιν εἰς τὴν σκηνὴν τοῦ τρωθέντος ἀποστέλλειν αὐτόν.

But many comments attend to the brief narrative foreshadowing “and that was the beginning of evil for him” (κακοῦ δ’ ἄρα οἱ πέλεν ἀρχή).

Schol. bT ad Hom. Il. 11.605 ex

“The declaration makes the audience eager to learn what this evil might be. The poet creates this with a brief indication. If he had done more, he would have ruined the order of events and weakened the poem.”

ἀναπτεροῖ τὸν ἀκροατὴν ἡ ἀναφώνησις ἐπειγόμενον μαθεῖν, τί τὸ κακὸν ἦν. προσοχὴν δὲ ἐργάζεται διὰ βραχείας ἐνδείξεως· εἰ γὰρ πλέον ἐπεξειργάσατο, διέφθειρεν ἂν τὸν ἑξῆς λόγον καὶ ἀπήμβλυνε τὴν ποίησιν.

These comments on Achilles’ character show something of a limited understanding. There is an argument to be made throughout the Iliad that when characters who are not engaged in the conflict are watching the battle they function in part as stand-ins for the external audience, helping us to see the action in a different way. In this, I think about the function of the chorus in Greek tragedy—the choruses are far from neutral parties in Athenian drama, but they are nonetheless capable of acting as vehicles between the main story and the audience. Achilles, standing on the stern of his ship, watching with interest both helps us remember that these events are extraordinary and provides us with a few moments respite from the conflict.

Achilles, however, is not like any other character: when he watches, his interest is something altogether different. His stance in part reminds me of those moments when Zeus retreats to watch the battle from somewhere else. A primary difference is that Achilles’ interest is not neutral: as he himself expresses in this passage, the increased suffering of the Achaeans makes it likely that they will appeal to them again. Indeed, ancient scholars have commented on Achilles standing and watching the battle as evidence of his love of war (he just likes to watch fighting, I guess) or his love of honor (is he rooting for the Achaeans to suffer more quickly so that they will offer him more to return?)

As is usually the case, the ambiguity of the scene is part of the point. While Achilles does say that the Greeks will be begging him soon, he swore an oath not to return to battle until the fire reaches his ships in Iliad 9. That recent action makes it difficult to argue that Achilles is simply waiting to be compensated or glorified. He is concerned about a particular person being injured and wants to know what is actually happening in the conflict. Achilles’ limited knowledge here echoes that part of him that is not super human: his knowledge of others’ deaths and fates. Indeed, this scene’s narrative commentary “and it was the beginning of his trouble” points to the limits of human knowledge. The irony we as the audience know is that Achilles prayed for the Achaeans to suffer to make up for his dishonor and he is just now about to send his own cherished Patroklos out there to become part of the comeuppance.

As Jinyo Kim writes in her 2001 book The Pity of Achilles, the hero’s watching of the conflict is a confirmation of Achilles’ concern for the Greeks: the primary arguments that moved him in the earlier embassy (see especially 103-113). She notes that Achilles’ language about how dire the situation is (λισσομένους· χρειὼ γὰρ ἱκάνεται οὐκέτ’ ἀνεκτός) repeats what Nestor said in the previous book. As Kim notes, Achilles knows the situation is bad and does not need to send Patroklos to confirm it. Instead, he is demonstrating a concern for others that is consonant with his characterization in book 9 and his final turn to empathy in book 24.

Objections to this argument will point out that Achilles himself remains distant: Kim argues that Patroklos here begins to function as a ritual replacement for Achilles in book 11, rather than 16. I think this argument works well to help us understand that Achilles is showing his concern for the Achaeans through Patroklos because he is constrained by the oath he took at the end of book 9. Achilles looks like he is cruel and Nestor expresses criticism to that effect. But Patroklos anticipates this when he says to Nestor: “Divine old man, you know what kind of guy that terrible man is. He would quickly blame the blameless” (εὖ δὲ σὺ οἶσθα γεραιὲ διοτρεφές, οἷος ἐκεῖνος / δεινὸς ἀνήρ· τάχα κεν καὶ ἀναίτιον αἰτιόῳτο (11.653-654). A scholiast explains Patroklos’ comments as somewhat self-defensive: “He is pointing to Achilles’ irascibility, gaining for himself some pardon for not persuading him” ἐπιτείνει δὲ αὐτοῦ τὸ θυμικόν, συγγνώμην ἑαυτῷ ποριζόμενος τοῦ μὴ πεῖσαι αὐτόν, Schol. bT Ad Hom. Il. 11.654).

But I suspect that there is something more personal. The adjective deinos—which famously can mean ‘terrible, marvelous, amazing’—is only applied to mortals in limited conditions in the Iliad. At its root, it is related to verbs of fear and amazement. Gods leaving or entering battle often receive this description, but Helen uses it in addressing Priam in book 3 (171). There’s a familiar sense to this personal use, indicating that the speaker is full of amazement and confusion at the target’s behavior. Patroklos not understand Achilles’ behavior, just as the members of the Embassy in book 9 are confused.

Achilles and Ajax red figure vase playing a game — Two handled amphora with Achilles and Ajax, c. 520 BCE, Museum of Fine Arts,

https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2026/01/20/the-beginning-of-his-trouble-characterizing-achilles-in-iliad-11/

https://sententiaeantiquae.com/?p=64987

james_davis_nicoll

One of Canada's great missteps was not mining the border. The other was not building intermediate range nuclear-armed missiles.

james_davis_nicoll

November 25, 2026 would have been Poul Anderson’s 100th birthday. As there is no guarantee any of us will see November 25, 2026, I’ll borrow an idea from Tom Lehrer’s That Was the Year That Was and start writing something appropriately celebratory now.

Homeward By Starlight

Improve your sword and sorcery through inspirational verisimilitude!

On Thud and Blunder by Poul Anderson

princessofgeeks

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Current Mood: geeky

bruce_schneier_feed

Posted by Bruce Schneier

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/01/could-chatgpt-convince-you-to-buy-something.html

https://www.schneier.com/?p=71484

Eighteen months ago, it was plausible that artificial intelligence might take a different path than social media. Back then, AI’s development hadn’t consolidated under a small number of big tech firms. Nor had it capitalized on consumer attention, surveilling users and delivering ads.

Unfortunately, the AI industry is now taking a page from the social media playbook and has set its sights on monetizing consumer attention. When OpenAI launched its ChatGPT Search feature in late 2024 and its browser, ChatGPT Atlas, in October 2025, it kicked off a race to capture online behavioral data to power advertising. It’s part of a yearslong turnabout by OpenAI, whose CEO Sam Altman once called the combination of ads and AI “unsettling” and now promises that ads can be deployed in AI apps while preserving trust. The rampant speculation among OpenAI users who believe they see paid placements in ChatGPT responses suggests they are not convinced.

In 2024, AI search company Perplexity started experimenting with ads in its offerings. A few months after that, Microsoft introduced ads to its Copilot AI. Google’s AI Mode for search now increasingly features ads, as does Amazon’s Rufus chatbot. OpenAI announced on Jan. 16, 2026, that it will soon begin testing ads in the unpaid version of ChatGPT.

As a security expert and data scientist, we see these examples as harbingers of a future where AI companies profit from manipulating their users’ behavior for the benefit of their advertisers and investors. It’s also a reminder that time to steer the direction of AI development away from private exploitation and toward public benefit is quickly running out.

The functionality of ChatGPT Search and its Atlas browser is not really new. Meta, commercial AI competitor Perplexity and even ChatGPT itself have had similar AI search features for years, and both Google and Microsoft beat OpenAI to the punch by integrating AI with their browsers. But OpenAI’s business positioning signals a shift.

We believe the ChatGPT Search and Atlas announcements are worrisome because there is really only one way to make money on search: the advertising model pioneered ruthlessly by Google.

Advertising model

Ruled a monopolist in U.S. federal court, Google has earned more than US$1.6 trillion in advertising revenue since 2001. You may think of Google as a web search company, or a streaming video company (YouTube), or an email company (Gmail), or a mobile phone company (Android, Pixel), or maybe even an AI company (Gemini). But those products are ancillary to Google’s bottom line. The advertising segment typically accounts for 80% to 90% of its total revenue. Everything else is there to collect users’ data and direct users’ attention to its advertising revenue stream.

After two decades in this monopoly position, Google’s search product is much more tuned to the company’s needs than those of its users. When Google Search first arrived decades ago, it was revelatory in its ability to instantly find useful information across the still-nascent web. In 2025, its search result pages are dominated by low-quality and often AI-generated content, spam sites that exist solely to drive traffic to Amazon sales—a tactic known as affiliate marketing—and paid ad placements, which at times are indistinguishable from organic results.

Plenty of advertisers and observers seem to think AI-powered advertising is the future of the ad business.

Highly persuasive

Paid advertising in AI search, and AI models generally, could look very different from traditional web search. It has the potential to influence your thinking, spending patterns and even personal beliefs in much more subtle ways. Because AI can engage in active dialogue, addressing your specific questions, concerns and ideas rather than just filtering static content, its potential for influence is much greater. It’s like the difference between reading a textbook and having a conversation with its author.

Imagine you’re conversing with your AI agent about an upcoming vacation. Did it recommend a particular airline or hotel chain because they really are best for you, or does the company get a kickback for every mention? If you ask about a political issue, does the model bias its answer based on which political party has paid the company a fee, or based on the bias of the model’s corporate owners?

There is mounting evidence that AI models are at least as effective as people at persuading users to do things. A December 2023 meta-analysis of 121 randomized trials reported that AI models are as good as humans at shifting people’s perceptions, attitudes and behaviors. A more recent meta-analysis of eight studies similarly concluded there was “no significant overall difference in persuasive performance between (large language models) and humans.”

This influence may go well beyond shaping what products you buy or who you vote for. As with the field of search engine optimization, the incentive for humans to perform for AI models might shape the way people write and communicate with each other. How we express ourselves online is likely to be increasingly directed to win the attention of AIs and earn placement in the responses they return to users.

A different way forward

Much of this is discouraging, but there is much that can be done to change it.

First, it’s important to recognize that today’s AI is fundamentally untrustworthy, for the same reasons that search engines and social media platforms are.

The problem is not the technology itself; fast ways to find information and communicate with friends and family can be wonderful capabilities. The problem is the priorities of the corporations who own these platforms and for whose benefit they are operated. Recognize that you don’t have control over what data is fed to the AI, who it is shared with and how it is used. It’s important to keep that in mind when you connect devices and services to AI platforms, ask them questions, or consider buying or doing the things they suggest.

There is also a lot that people can demand of governments to restrain harmful corporate uses of AI. In the U.S., Congress could enshrine consumers’ rights to control their own personal data, as the EU already has. It could also create a data protection enforcement agency, as essentially every other developed nation has.

Governments worldwide could invest in Public AI—models built by public agencies offered universally for public benefit and transparently under public oversight. They could also restrict how corporations can collude to exploit people using AI, for example by barring advertisements for dangerous products such as cigarettes and requiring disclosure of paid endorsements.

Every technology company seeks to differentiate itself from competitors, particularly in an era when yesterday’s groundbreaking AI quickly becomes a commodity that will run on any kid’s phone. One differentiator is in building a trustworthy service. It remains to be seen whether companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic can sustain profitable businesses on the back of subscription AI services like the premium editions of ChatGPT, Plus and Pro, and Claude Pro. If they are going to continue convincing consumers and businesses to pay for these premium services, they will need to build trust.

That will require making real commitments to consumers on transparency, privacy, reliability and security that are followed through consistently and verifiably.

And while no one knows what the future business models for AI will be, we can be certain that consumers do not want to be exploited by AI, secretly or otherwise.

This essay was written with Nathan E. Sanders, and originally appeared in The Conversation.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/01/could-chatgpt-convince-you-to-buy-something.html

https://www.schneier.com/?p=71484

spikedluv

I hit Walmart while I was downtown and Stewart’s on the way home.

I did a load of laundry, hand-washed dishes, went for a walk with Pip and the dogs, cut up chicken for the dogs' meals, and scooped kitty litter.

I made a pumpkin pie because mom asked me to. (I make it in a small shell, so put some of the pumpkin filling in a small pyrex dish. I took her that dish. She had it when I made it before Thanksgiving and really enjoyed it.)

I went with one of my own teas again this morning, Celestial Seasonings’ Mandarin Orange Spice. This blend combined the tart flavor of mandarin oranges with aromatic spices, cloves, and coriender to create a bright. lively brew that transports tea drinkers to exotic destinations with every sip. I wouldn’t say I was transported anywhere, but it tasted good.

My stomach tried to rebel on me again this morning. ( cutting for those who don't care to read )

We went to Texas Roadhouse with friends for supper, yay! I managed to write ~300 words on my SFBB fic and Zoo Tampa was my background tv in the evening. I wish I’d gotten more written, but between going downtown, visiting mom, and eating out, there wasn’t much time for it.

Temps started out at 19.4(F) and dropped to 15.6 before I left the house! There was sun in the morning, but then it was overcast. Temps reached 27.3. The roads were good in the morning, but the wind picked up, so we ran into some snow blown into the road on our way to Texas Roadhouse.

Mom Update:

Mom was doing ~okay when I saw her. She seemed tired. She’d already eaten, but even so she had some of the pumpkin pie filling I took her. Sister A was there when I arrived and Ian showed up after. Her BFF showed up later in the afternoon and Sister S was there when I called in the evening. She had a nice string of visitors, which she likes.

heartsways posting in

scans_daily

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princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: ecstatic

tamaranth

2026/012: Troth — E H Lupton

“Don’t be so bourgeois, darling. You’re a powerful magician and your lover is a retired god. Of course things are going to be a bit unusual.”
“It’s terrifying.”
“Eh, bien?” Mariah made a dismissive French noise. “It’s love. It’s supposed to be terrifying.” [p. 191]

Third in the series, and the last (for now) of the novels that focus on Ulysses and Sam. It begins with the two moving into a new apartment together, and meeting the neighbours (Vikram and Sita) who have a ghost problem -- and, it turns out, a connection to Sam's family.

Both Ulysses and Sam are growing up.( Read more... )

Current Mood: cheerful

icon_uk posting in

scans_daily

In the comments to these weekly posts (and only these posts), it's your chance to go as off topic as you like.

Talk about non-comics stuff, thread derail, and just generally chat among yourselves.

The intent of these posts is to chat and have some fun and, sure, vent a little as required. Reasoned debate is fine, as always, but if you have to ask if something is going over the line, think carefully before posting please.

Normal board rules about conduct and behaviour still apply, of course.

It's been suggested that, if discussing spoilers for recent media events, it might be advisable to consider using the rot13 method to prevent other members seeing spoilers in passing.

The world situation is the world situation. If you're following the news, you know it as much as I do, if you're not, then there are better sources than scans_daily. But please, no doomscrolling, for your own sake.

Well... yes... the world is... isn't it?

Dolly Parton celebrated her 80th birthday (All hail one of the few utterly admirable people around) and it was also the anniversary of Edgar Alen Poe's birth too. I suspect there's a cosmic balance involved in that.

To my own eternal shame I managed to overlook that the 1966 Batman show had it's 60's anniversary last Monday

Disney made something of a tactical error when they asked on Threads for people to post Disney memes about their current mood. Remember a few years back when Elmo asked "How is everyone doing today?" on Twitter and there was a deluge of what social anxiety? Imagine that, but with anger and frustration

Starfleet Academy debuted with two episodes with the anticipated rigmarole from fans and "fans".

No art is above criticism, but the level of vitriol that got sprayed at this show was like a firehose often from those who hadn't watched it and never planned to. I'm not sure what was the worst of it: Was it the racist comments? The sexist comments? The fat shaming? The many combinations of two or more of those?

Was it a perfect show? No, of course not. It's a new show, with a new cast, and a LOT of stuff to shovel into it's premiere episodes. But I thought it showed promise, Sandro Rosta's Caleb is a bit of a dick at the moment (but it pretty enough in a Power Rangers sort of a way to get away with it for maybe one more episode), Holly Hunter is both tiny and imposing, Karim Diané's Kraaag is my favourite Klingon in years, and Gina Yashere's Lura Thok is fantastic! And I love the many easter eggs dotted around the place (There's a passing shot of a Brikar, an Exocomp student, and a scene-stealing extra as a Kelpien who has Doug Jones "Bob Fosse-like" Saru arms swinging thing down to an absolute T so when they're in a scene you NOTICE!)

If you're wanting an even handed but generally positive approach to Trek, I'd suggest the "Trek Culture" YT channel, where their "Ups and Downs" reviews are geeky as hell, but in the FUN way.

I think my biggest gripe was the shiny new "Trek Franchise" opening logo has some lovely new models of the main starships from each series (With the Defiant for DS9), but omits the Protostar and the Cerritos, which just seems rude!

conuly

I held the bannister and I got it

I sat down to look for it

I took it with me because I could not find it

Damn splinter!

erinptah

Spent the weekend at the 51st CWRU Sci-Fi Movie Marathon.

Like last year, I used the OpenVibe app to auto-crosspost my liveblogging to both Mastodon and Bluesky. The app has threading now! So these are in slightly-longer chunks of text than last year, because I could split a longer reaction across multiple threads and post them all at once.

…But the overall text is shorter, in part because I swear the breaks between movies were seriously cut down this year. There was a lot of “I had a longer thought here, but the next thing is already starting, so I have to finish typing as fast as possible (with my coat draped over my phone so the light isn’t bothering everyone else) and hit send.”

( Special Message From James Gunn. “I regret that I can’t be with you all in Cleveland tonight…” )

dine

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heathercoxrichardson_feed

Posted by Heather Cox Richardson

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-19-2026

Late last night, Nick Schifrin of PBS NewsHour posted on social media that the staff of the U.S. National Security Council had sent to European ambassadors in Washington a message that President Donald J. Trump had already sent to Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre of Norway. The message read:

“Dear Jonas: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you! President DJT”

Faisal Islam of the BBC voiced the incredulity rippling across social media in the wake of Schifrin’s post, writing: “Even by the standards of the past week, like others, I struggle to comprehend how the below letter on Greenland/Nobel might be real, although it appears to come from the account of a respected PBS journalist… this is what I meant by beyond precedent, parody and reality….” Later, Islam confirmed on live TV that the letter was real and posted on X: “Incredible… the story is actually not a parody.”

International affairs journalist Anne Applebaum noted in The Atlantic the childish grammar in the message, and pointed out—again—that the Norwegian Nobel Committee is not the same thing as the Norwegian government, and neither of them is Denmark, a different country. She also noted that Trump did not, in fact, end eight wars, that Greenland has been Danish for centuries, that many “written documents” establish Danish sovereignty there, that Trump has done nothing for NATO, and that European NATO members increased defense spending out of concern over Russia’s increasing threat.

This note, she writes, “should be the last straw.” It proves that “Donald Trump now genuinely lives in a different reality, one in which neither grammar nor history nor the normal rules of human interaction now affect him. Also, he really is maniacally, unhealthily obsessive about the Nobel Prize.” Applebaum implored Republicans in Congress “to stop Trump from acting out his fantasy in Greenland and doing permanent damage to American interests.” “They owe it to the American people,” she writes, “and to the world.”

Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s doctor Jonathan Reiner agreed: “This letter, and the fact that the president directed that it be distributed to other European countries, should trigger a bipartisan congressional inquiry into presidential fitness.”

Today three top American Catholic cardinals, Blase Cupich of Chicago, Robert McElroy of Washington, D.C., and Joseph Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, issued a joint statement warning the Trump administration that its military action in Venezuela, threats against Greenland, and cuts to foreign aid risk bringing vast suffering to the world. Nicole Winfield and Giovanna Dell’Orto of the Associated Press reported that the cardinals spoke up after a meeting at the Vatican in which several fellow cardinals expressed alarm about the administration’s actions. Cupich said that when the U.S. can be portrayed as saying “‘might makes right’—that’s a troublesome development. There’s the rule of law that should be followed.”

“We are watching one of the wildest things a nation-state has ever done,” journalist Garrett Graff wrote: “A superpower is [dying by] suicide because the [Republican] Congress is too cowardly to stand up to the Mad King. This is one of the wildest moments in all of geopolitics ever.”

In just a year since his second inauguration, Trump has torn apart the work that took almost a century of struggle and painstaking negotiations from the world’s best diplomats to build. Since World War II, generations of world leaders, often led by the United States, created an international order designed to prevent future world wars. They worked out rules to defend peoples and nations from the aggressions of neighboring countries, and tried to guarantee that global trade, bolstered by freedom of the seas, would create a rising standard of living that would weaken the ability of demagogues to create loyal followings.

In August 1941, four months before the U.S. entered World War II, U.S. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill and their advisors laid out principles for an international system that could prevent future world wars. In a document called the Atlantic Charter, they agreed that countries should not invade each other and therefore the world should work toward disarmament, and that international cooperation and trade thanks to freedom of the seas would help to knit the world together with rising prosperity and human rights.

The war killed about 36.5 million Europeans, 19 million of them civilians, and left many of those who had survived homeless or living in refugee camps. In its wake, in 1945, representatives of the 47 countries that made up the Allies in World War II, along with the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, and newly liberated Denmark and Argentina, formed the United Nations as a key part of an international order based on rules on which nations agreed, rather than the idea that might makes right, which had twice in just over twenty years brought wars that involved the globe.

Four years later, many of those same nations came together to resist Soviet aggression, prevent the revival of European militarism, and guarantee international cooperation across the Atlantic Ocean. France, the U.K., Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg formed a defensive military alliance with the U.S., Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland to make up the twelve original signatories to the North Atlantic Treaty. In it, the countries that made up the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) reaffirmed “their desire to live in peace with all peoples and all governments” and their determination “to safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilisation of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law.”

They vowed that any attack on one of the signatories would be considered an attack on all, thus deterring war by promising strong retaliation. This system of collective defense has stabilized the world for 75 years. Thirty-two countries are now members, sharing intelligence, training, tactics, equipment, and agreements for use of airspace and bases. In 2024, NATO countries reaffirmed their commitment and said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had “gravely undermined global security.”

And therein lies the rub. The post–World War II rules-based international order prevents authoritarians from grabbing land and resources that belong to other countries. But Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, for example, is eager to dismantle NATO and complete his grab of Ukraine’s eastern industrial regions.

Trump has taken the side of rising autocrats and taken aim at the rules-based international order with his insistence that the U.S. must control the Western Hemisphere. In service to that plan, he has propped up Argentina’s right-wing president Javier Milei and endorsed right-wing Honduran president Nasry Asfura, helping his election by pardoning former president Juan Orlando Hernández, a leading member of Asfura’s political party, who was serving 45 years in prison in the U.S. for drug trafficking. Trump ousted Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and seized control of much of Venezuela’s oil, the profits of which are going to an account in Qatar that Trump himself controls.

This week, Trump has launched a direct assault on the international order that has stabilized the world since 1945. He is trying to form his own “Board of Peace,” apparently to replace the United Nations. A draft charter for that institution gives Trump the presidency, the right to choose his successor, veto power over any actions, and control of the $1 billion fee permanent members are required to pay. In a letter to prospective members, Trump boasted that the Board of Peace is “the most impressive and consequential Board ever assembled,” and that “there has never been anything like it!” Those on it would, he said, “lead by example, and brilliantly invest in a secure and prosperous future for generations to come.”

The Kremlin says Putin, whose war on Ukraine has now lasted almost four years and who has been shunned from international organizations since his indictment by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, has received an invitation to that Board of Peace. So has Putin’s closest ally, President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, who Ivana Kottasová and Anna Chernova of CNN note has been called “Europe’s last dictator.” Also invited are Hungary’s prime minister and Putin ally Viktor Orbán as well as Javier Milei.

And now Trump is announcing to our allies that he has the right to seize another country.

Trump’s increasing frenzy is likely coming at least in part from increasing pressure over the fact the Department of Justice is now a full month past the date it was required by law to release all of the Epstein files. Another investigation will be in the news as well, as former special counsel Jack Smith testifies publicly later this week about Trump’s role in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Smith told the House Judiciary Committee in December that he believed a jury would have found Trump guilty on four felony counts related to his actions.

Smith knows what happened, and Trump knows that Smith knows what happened.

Trump’s fury over the Nobel Peace Prize last night was likely fueled as well by the national celebration today of an American who did receive that prize: the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. The Nobel Prize Committee awarded King the prize in 1964 for his nonviolent struggle for civil rights for the Black population in the U.S. He accepted it “with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind,” affirming what now seems like a prescient rebuke to a president sixty years later, saying that “what self-centered men have torn down men other-centered can build up.”

Trump did not acknowledge Martin Luther King Jr. Day this year.

While the walls are clearly closing in on Trump’s ability to see beyond himself, he and his loyalists are being egged on in their demand for the seizure of Greenland by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who is publicly calling for a return to a might-makes-right world. On Sean Hannity’s show on the Fox News Channel today, Miller ignored the strength of NATO in maintaining global security as he insisted only the U.S. could protect Greenland.

He also ignored the crucial fact that the rules-based international order has been instrumental in increasing U.S.—as well as global—prosperity since 1945. With his claim that “American dollars, American treasure, American blood, American ingenuity is what keeps Europe safe and the free world safe,” Miller is erasing the genius of the generations before us. It is not the U.S. that has kept the world safe and kept standards of living rising: it is our alliances and the cooperation of the strongest nations in the world, working together, to prevent wannabe dictators from dividing the world among themselves.

Miller is not an elected official. Appointed by Trump and with a reasonable expectation that Trump will pardon him for any crimes he commits, Miller is insulated both from the rule of law and, crucially, from the will of voters. The Republican congress members Applebaum called on to stop Trump are not similarly insulated.

Tonight Danish troops—the same troops who stood shoulder to shoulder with U.S. troops in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021—arrived in Greenland to defend the island from the United States of America.

—

Notes:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/trump-letter-to-norway/685676/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/22/honduras-elections-leftist-party-libre

https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/19/europe/putin-board-of-peace-gaza-trump-intl

https://www.icc-cpi.int/defendant/vladimir-vladimirovich-putin

https://www.nato.int/en/about-us/official-texts-and-resources/official-texts/1941/08/14/the-atlantic-charter

https://www.nato.int/en/about-us/nato-history/a-short-history-of-nato

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1964/summary/

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1964/king/acceptance-speech/

https://eng.belta.by/president/view/trumps-letter-to-lukashenko-full-text-and-what-it-means-175942-2026/

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/us-catholic-cardinals-urge-trump-administration-embrace-moral-129346423