The 177th Block: Jobs for poets!
But you might be sleeping with the devil
This week…
Your reading time is about 6 minutes. Let’s start.
Canada continues to deal with diplomatic fallout after allegations of a link between agents of the government of India and the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Canada, for the most part, seems to fly under the radar where international affairs are concerned – but a quick research shows otherwise. Here are some diplomatic dispute the country has dealt with:
2023: China’s attempts to interfere in Canadian elections
2018-2021: China's imprisonment of Michael Kovrig an Michael Spavor
2020: Iranian military's destruction of flight PS752
2018: Saudi Arabia dispute over the human rights record, where diplomatic relations was only restored on this summer
2016: Abu Sayyaf abductions and beheading of Canadians Robert Hall and John Ridsdel in the Philippines
Everything you need to know about the India-Canada spat in an analysis by Rhea Mogul for CNN here.
And now, a selection of top stories on my radar, a few personal recommendations, and the chart of the week.
ICYMI: The Previous Block showcased stories from the subcontinent and encouraged readers to diversify media consumption. CORRECTION NOTICE: None notified. With TikToks, memes and Musk comments, Argentina election battle goes viral
Anna-Catherine Brigida and Candelaria Grimberg for Reuters:
Taking a page out of the playbooks of former U.S. President Donald Trump and Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro, [Javier Milei] has waged a guerrilla-style campaign online against his more established political rivals. His acid-tongued diatribes and theatrical rallies are easy to edit into soundbites or viral clips.
The economist and former TV pundit, who sports wild hair and leather jackets, has hit a nerve with voters angry at triple-digit inflation, rising poverty and a looming recession. That's put him ahead of Peronist economy minister Sergio Massa and conservative ex-security minister Patricia Bullrich in opinion polls and gave him a shock first-place finish in an open primary vote in August.
He has also gained online fans overseas, including controversial American news pundit Tucker Carlson, Bolsonaro, and social-media-to-Tesla magnate Elon Musk.
Why Silicon Valley’s biggest AI developers are hiring poets
Andrew Deck for Rest of World:
The investment could have dividends for AI firms, according to Dan Brown, a professor at the University of Waterloo who researches computational creativity. “If you can properly generate tabloid headlines in French, that’s one thing. But if [a product] can replicate [Victor] Hugo’s style or somebody famous, that gets a different kind of credibility,” he told Rest of World. “Replicating classical language forms is a way of looking prestigious.”
There is a reason many of the first regularly published stories written by AI were football recaps and financial news reports. These are types of writing that often follow easily replicable formats, and rarely require originality. Poetry, meanwhile, is often judged by its ability to weave imagery in surprising ways or conjure a certain mood.
Social media firms ‘not ready to tackle misinformation’ during global elections
Hibaq Farah for The Guardian:
Social media companies are not ready to tackle misinformation during elections due to take place around the world in 2024 because of language barriers, experts warn.
Global Coalition for Tech Justice, a movement of civil society leaders and survivors of tech harms, is calling on leading big tech companies, including Google, TikTo k, Meta and X, to ensure that their platforms are equipped to protect democracy and safety during votes next year.
In 2024, 2 billion people are due to vote in more than 50 elections, including in the US, India and the EU.
What I read, listen, and watch…
I’m reading a paper about jamais vu from the winners of the 2023 Ig Nobel Prize in Literature. A group of researchers from France, the UK, Malaysia and Finland studied the sensations people feel when they repeat a single word many, many, many, many, many times.
I’m listening to an Endless Thread’s episode on the online legacy of ‘To Catch a Predator.’
I’m watching Accented Cinema’s Yang Zhang’s video essay on how an Indian film captivated China.
Other curious links:
“No neutrality in espionage: Why is Malaysia tangled up in a spying case in Norway?” by Munira Mustaffa for The Interpreter.
“Indigenous people in Brazil shed tears of joy as the Supreme Court enshrines their land rights” by Diane Jeantet and Eléonore Hughes for AP.
“South African hominin fossils were sent into space and scientists are enraged” by Dipuo Winnie Kgotleng and Robyn Pickering for The Conversation. “There is no scientific reason for allowing these fossils to travel to space. No new knowledge has been generated, and no community, either local or international, has been engaged in this science.”
“El debate emergente (y necesario) sobre la descolonización” por Carolina Rodríguez Mayo y Edward Salazar Celis en El País.
« Papa n’a pas toujours raison » par Isabelle Hachey dans La Presse. « Le mouvement One Million March for Children était soutenu, entre autres, par des musulmans ultraconservateurs, par des exaltés de la droite religieuse et par des sympathisants du convoi de la liberté. Il y avait là un joyeux mélange ... C’est pas beau, ça ? »
Chart of the week
For Statista, Florian Zandt visualises the most prevalent forms of cyber crimes:
And one more thing
From Simon Owen’s newsletter:
The New York Times is nudging its reporters to write what it calls “enhanced” bios that will appear on their author pages.
In the past, The New York Times has been uncomfortable with its reporters growing their own personal brands — that’s why it banned them from launching personal newsletters without written permission — but now it's recognizing that a personal brand is a form of currency in a world of AI-generated content slop.
Read more:
