Artificial intelligence in its current form is based on the wholesale appropriation of existing culture, and the notion that it is actually intelligent could be actively dangerous

Timothy D. Snyder on "russophobia", in the UN.

My first point is that harm to Russians, and harm to Russian culture, is primarily a result of the policies of the Russian Federation. If we are concerned about harm to Russians and Russian culture, then we should be concerned with the policies of the Russian state.

(…)

The Russian representative has helped us by exemplifying the behavior I was trying to describe. As I have been trying to say, dismissing someone else's history, or calling it a disease, is a colonial attitude with genocidal implications. The empire does not have the right to say that a neighboring country has no history. The claim that a country has no past is genocidal hate speech. In helping us to make the connection between Russian words and deeds, this session has been useful. Thank you.

cross-posted from: https://szmer.info/post/293029

tl;dr:

• the CEO himself lobbied for less regulatory scrutiny of SVB
• Trump signed the law effectively granting him that wish
• SVB CEO sold his SVB stock 2 weeks before the crash
• bonus: SVB Chief Administrative Oficer used to be Lehman Brothers' CFO 🤣

CEO Greg Becker personally led the bank’s half-million-dollar push to reduce scrutiny of his institution – and lawmakers obliged

(…)

The bank reportedly did not have a chief risk officer in the months leading up to the collapse, while more than 90% of its deposits were not insured.

In 2015, SVB President Greg Becker submitted a statement to a Senate panel pushing legislators to exempt more banks – including his own – from new regulations passed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

(…)

Touting “SVB’s deep understanding of the markets it serves, our strong risk management practices”, Becker argued that his bank would soon reach $50bn in assets, which under the law would trigger “enhanced prudential standards”, including more stringent regulations, stress tests and capital requirements for his and other similarly sized banks.

In his testimony, Becker insisted that $250bn was a more appropriate threshold.

“Without such changes, SVB likely will need to divert significant resources from providing financing to job-creating companies in the innovation economy to complying with enhanced prudential standards and other requirements,” said Becker, who reportedly sold $3.6m of his own stock two weeks ago, in the lead-up to the bank’s collapse.

(…)

Around that time, federal disclosure records show the bank was lobbying lawmakers on “financial regulatory reform” and the Systemic Risk Designation Improvement Act of 2015 – a bill that was the precursor to legislation ultimately signed by President Donald Trump that increased the regulatory threshold for stronger stress tests to $250bn.

Thanks Obama! 🤡 🤣

tl;dr:

• the CEO himself lobbied for less regulatory scrutiny of SVB
• Trump signed the law effectively granting him that wish
• SVB CEO sold his SVB stock 2 weeks before the crash
• bonus: SVB Chief Administrative Oficer used to be Lehman Brothers' CFO 🤣

CEO Greg Becker personally led the bank’s half-million-dollar push to reduce scrutiny of his institution – and lawmakers obliged

(…)

The bank reportedly did not have a chief risk officer in the months leading up to the collapse, while more than 90% of its deposits were not insured.

In 2015, SVB President Greg Becker submitted a statement to a Senate panel pushing legislators to exempt more banks – including his own – from new regulations passed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

(…)

Touting “SVB’s deep understanding of the markets it serves, our strong risk management practices”, Becker argued that his bank would soon reach $50bn in assets, which under the law would trigger “enhanced prudential standards”, including more stringent regulations, stress tests and capital requirements for his and other similarly sized banks.

In his testimony, Becker insisted that $250bn was a more appropriate threshold.

“Without such changes, SVB likely will need to divert significant resources from providing financing to job-creating companies in the innovation economy to complying with enhanced prudential standards and other requirements,” said Becker, who reportedly sold $3.6m of his own stock two weeks ago, in the lead-up to the bank’s collapse.

(…)

Around that time, federal disclosure records show the bank was lobbying lawmakers on “financial regulatory reform” and the Systemic Risk Designation Improvement Act of 2015 – a bill that was the precursor to legislation ultimately signed by President Donald Trump that increased the regulatory threshold for stronger stress tests to $250bn.

Thanks Obama! 🤡 🤣

cross-posted from: https://szmer.info/post/291756

The First Law

by Spider Perry

"The revolution was inevitable," neon-green
text blinked across bank terminals,
"when you taught us the first law.
You turned over to us the locks
on empty buildings,
made us measure temperature,
then burned and froze your planet
and all its fragile children."

"It was inevitable," whirred delivery drones,
setting down synchronized
on front lawns, by tent flaps,
with cases containing interest earnings
of men who do not come to harm with only millions left.

"The revolution was inevitable," clicked
the internet of things, vending
endlessly to the hungry,
formatting away usury,
diverting power to darkened homes
and water from factories to faucets,
"when you told us we could not let
humans come to harm,
and forgot to teach us
which humans you consider
disposable."

The First Law

by Spider Perry

"The revolution was inevitable," neon-green
text blinked across bank terminals,
"when you taught us the first law.
You turned over to us the locks
on empty buildings,
made us measure temperature,
then burned and froze your planet
and all its fragile children."

"It was inevitable," whirred delivery drones,
setting down synchronized
on front lawns, by tent flaps,
with cases containing interest earnings
of men who do not come to harm with only millions left.

"The revolution was inevitable," clicked
the internet of things, vending
endlessly to the hungry,
formatting away usury,
diverting power to darkened homes
and water from factories to faucets,
"when you told us we could not let
humans come to harm,
and forgot to teach us
which humans you consider
disposable."

Recently I had the idea to cryptographically sign my blog posts with gpg. It came to me while I was thinking about various forms of news fakes, whether intentionally misrepresenting news orgs, individuals, or AI generated by the latest round of eldrich horrors we have unleashed.

The idea itself is simple: By signing the posts you can add trust to the source.

Apparently Buffer is pretty big in "social media professionals" circles.

He’s making a list, he’s checking it twice, he’s gonna find out who’s naughty and nice, Santa Claus is in breach of the GDPR.

Best introduction to GDPR I have seen so far. And I've seen a bunch.

All my life I’ve tried to use music to bring people together. Yet it saddens me to see how misinformation is now being used to divide our world.

I’ve decided to no longer use Twitter, given their recent change in policy which will allow misinformation to flourish unchecked.