"I Helped Design The Election Simulation 'Parlor Game' Rebekah Mercer Got, And It's Not What You Think"

TD:

How was your Monday? Mine was odd. Have you ever seen a news story where you know the reports are getting things wrong? This is like that, but on steroids. In fact, this was a story in which not only were the basic points wrong, but the wrongness started to go viral.

...

First off, no, this was not a game for rich evil billionaires to relive the election and the joys of playing with the populace. This was actually in response to the 2016 election, and how the role the internet played in that election took a lot of people -- especially in Silicon Valley -- by surprise. The founders of Scout.ai, Brett Horvath and Berit Anderson, thought it might be useful to do some scenario planning to game out how tech might impact future elections, as a way to think through the potential challenges and pitfalls that might eat away at democracy. The founders of Scout recently spun out Guardians.ai to deal with the problem directly and protect pro-democracy groups around the globe from information warfare and cyber attacks. The idea behind the Machine Learning President was to use the game to get people to think about these issues, and to prepare for potential abuses of the system, while also thinking through ways that technology could be used for good -- to protect democracy.

Results from the Gates "Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching initiative "

Rand:

Overall, however, the initiative did not achieve its goals for student achievement or graduation, particularly for LIM students.

With minor exceptions, by 2014–2015, student achievement, access to effective teaching, and dropout rates were not dramatically better than they were for similar sites that did not participate in the Intensive Partnerships initiative.

One summary:

“From 2009 through 2016, total IP [Intensive Partnership] spending (i.e., expenditures that could be directly associated with the components of the IP initiative) across the seven sites was $575 million.” In addition, Rand estimates that the cost of staff time to conduct the evaluations to measure effectiveness totaled about $73 million in 2014-15, a single year of the program. Assuming that this staff time cost was the same across the 7 years of the program they examined, the total cost of this initiative exceeded $1 billion. The Gates Foundation paid $212 million of this cost, with the rest being covered primarily by “site funds,” which I believe means local tax dollars. The federal government also contributed a significant portion of the funding.

So what did we get for $1 billion? Not much.

More here.

Fortnite has earned "more than $1.2 billion in revenue"

"Unlike 2016’s free-to-play hit Pokémon Go, whose revenue declined after a blockbuster launch, Fortnite revenue has continued to increase eight months after launch"

Land Rover cake; Lacquered dolphin skull; Solo cups in Star Wars

Land Rover 70th Anniversary cake. We were discussing the project and how we could get it realized for about a month. Then it took a week to create this project Stages: 1- we made a 3D model on the computer, 2- we prepared drawings for cutting chocolate cars out of chocolate plates, 3- I made plates of tempered chocolate (they were of different color), 4- we cut chocolate cars, 5- we put all the cars together, 6- I made the cake, 7- the last stage – photo shooting (we devoted a lot of time to it). Of course, the most important part is the cake itself. I was working on its recipe individually. I wanted to create a cake that would meet modern trends. It’s a cherry cheesecake with Sakura tea. The crunchy layer is made of caramelized pecans and dried cherries; almond sponge with lemon zest; berry confit ; berry cremeux; the last layer is cheese mousse. This cake doesn’t contain cream and is very low in fat and sugar. . Торт на юбилей компании Land Rover специально для журнала ONELIFE Land Rover @landrover. Мы обсуждали проект и его реализацию около месяца. Затем у меня была всего неделя на его реализацию, поэтому работали практически круглосуточно. Этапы: 1- 3D-модель на компьютере, 2- подготовка чертежей для резки на фрезеровочном станке, 3- подготовка пластин из шоколада разного цвета, 4- нарезка плоскостей, 5- сборка композиции вместе, 6 - приготовление торта, 7 - последний этап - фото и видеосьемка, которые длились около 15 часов. Конечно очень важная часть для меня это - рецепт. Я хотела создать торт, который бы соответствовал современным тенденциям, поэтому здесь нет сливок, низкое содержание сахара и жиров. Это вишневый чизкейк с чаем Сакуры. Хрустящий слой изготовлен из карамелизированных орехов пекан и сушенной вишни; миндальная бисквит с лимонной цедрой; ягодное конфи; ягодное кремю; последний слой - сырный мусс. Для меня было большой честью готовить этот торт специально для юбилея Land Rover. . . @dinarakasko #dinarakasko #okmycake #pastryinspiration #chocolatejewels #pastryart #cake #kharkov #харьков #chefsofinstagram #gastroart #art #pastryart #chefstalk #pastry #chefs #geometry #instadessert #foodcreation #foodartchefs #foodporn #beautifulcuisine #

A post shared by Dinara Kasko (@dinarakasko) on Jun 25, 2018 at 8:46am PDT

"It’s Easy To Scam Your Way Into Free Hotel Stays By Pretending To Be An Instagram Star"

BF:

If her name sounds familiar, it’s probably because you've already heard of @wanderingggirl before: It’s the handle of an Instagram influencer with 63,000 followers who turned out to be a total fake, a persona created by a team at digital marketing agency Mediakix. They curated a glamorous feed of stock photos and bought followers as an experiment to see how easy it would be to get brand endorsement deals with a fabricated account.

Mediakix came clean to the press last summer about its stunt to make a point about how far a fake influencer could go and show how brands and advertisers aren’t savvy about looking out for fake followers or fake engagement on Instagram. It expected Instagram to shut down @wanderingggirl after it went public about the hoax — but it didn’t. So Mediakix decided to keep going, this time with the travel industry.

Thanos copter

Available for preorder from Mattel.

"In a High-Stakes Environmental Whodunit, Many Clues Point to China"

NYT:

Last month, scientists disclosed a global pollution mystery: a surprise rise in emissions of an outlawed industrial gas that destroys the atmosphere’s protective ozone layer.

...

Interviews, documents and advertisements collected by The New York Times and independent investigators indicate that a major source — possibly the overwhelming one — is factories in China that have ignored a global ban