Make It Rain (maybe) & AI Lie Detectors
Can we really control the weather? Also, even if AI can detect lies, is that a good thing?
Featured Articles
The New Gods of Weather Can Make Rain on Demand—or So They Want You to Believe
Wired • 30 July 2024 • ~5600 words
Have you ever wondered if we could really control the weather? This piece from Wired explores the intriguing world of cloud seeding, where countries like the UAE pour (pun intended) millions into technology that claims to make rain on demand. With a mix of science, ambition, and skepticism, the article digs into whether these efforts can truly deliver or are just a mirage.
For the UAE, so keen to project its technological prowess around the region and the world, it’s almost irrelevant whether cloud seeding works. There’s soft power in being seen to be able to bend the weather to your will. . .
My Mom Says She Loves Me. AI Says She’s Lying.
The Atlantic • 29 July 2024 • ~3000 words
It was only last week when we featured an excellent article about polygraphs (and much more) and how unreliable they are. Despite that, it’s a 2 billion-dollar industry that is still growing, as evidenced by this article. The author writes about the rise of AI-based lie detection tools, including one named Coyote, and assesses their reliability. At the same time, we get to explore both the promise and pitfalls of relying on technology to discern truth from deception in our everyday interactions.
Lying is essential. It lubricates our daily interactions, sparing us from one another’s harshest opinions. It helps people work together even when they don’t agree and enables those with less power to protect themselves by blending in with the tribe. Exposing every lie would threaten the very concept of a self, because the version of ourselves we show the world is inherently selective. A world without lying would be a world without privacy.
Other Recommended Reading
Cutting a Diamond: In the Truck with the SNY Crew
Notebook by MUBI • 30 July 2024 • ~3100 words
How can a baseball broadcast feel like a cinematic experience? This article takes you behind the scenes with the SNY (SportsNet New York) crew, showcasing their approach to capturing Mets games. It highlights how they blend the art of filmmaking with sports broadcast, creating a unique viewing experience that resonates with both baseball fans and cinephiles alike.
The twin spectacles of baseball and cinema share a parallel timeline, from their nascence in the late 19th century to their mass-media dominance in the middle-20th—and, regrettably, their loosening hold on the popular imagination in the new millennium. Although doomsayers at the ballpark and the multiplex tout the decline of these sacred artforms, each season finds DeMarsico and company pushing their practice to new heights, reconfiguring the tropes of mainstream sports broadcasting into a fresh and vital visual language.
My Mother, the Gambler
New Yorker • 29 July 2024 • ~5700 words
This article from The New Yorker is a very personal exploration of family dynamics and how they shape us. It is a bittersweet piece of writing that delves into themes of superstition, loyalty, poverty, addiction, and the struggles of a family caught in a cycle of hope and disappointment.
“Risk everything” had always been her motto. And she seemed to understand that this was exactly what I was doing in choosing to become an artist.
The Rise of the Influencer Chefs
The Nation • 30 July 2024 • ~3300 words
Is the rise of influencer chefs changing how we engage with cooking, shifting the focus from finished dishes to the artistry of preparation? This piece explores how platforms like TikTok and Instagram transform culinary entertainment, emphasizing skill and the joy of cooking over traditional formats. We also learn about documentaries like Menus-Plaisirs-Les Troisgros, which share this emphasis on the mechanics and labor of cooking, as opposed to the mythmaking of chef-focused shows.
The new food TV . . . is not instructional in the manner of traditional cooking content. On the contrary, it’s aggressively anti-instructional, and seeks instead to celebrate skill.
How M. Night Shyamalan Came Back From the Dead
The Atlantic • 30 July 2024 • ~4300 words
M. Night Shyamalan’s journey in Hollywood has been anything but straightforward, from the heights of "The Sixth Sense" to the lows following "The Village." In this piece, we explore how Shyamalan reinvented himself and his storytelling approach, finding new life in a changing industry, all the while navigating the complexities of his own creative identity. If you're curious about the man behind the famous twists and turns, this profile looks at his evolution.
Shyamalan, by contrast, makes original movies, even as his name on the marquee promises something reliable: horror that is self-consciously over-the-top, even campy—plus an explosive finale. Moviegoers, once irked by his predictability, now seem to appreciate him for it.
