18/12 – 24/12/23 – Hampster, Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, Video Console and AI Warning

Merry Christmas. Welcome to Monday’s News on the March – The week that was in my digital world.
Warning: Content may be offensive or disturbing to some.

Best Hampster
Prose by A Girl Gone

There once was a hamster named Frederick. 
Frederick lived in a cage where he would spend all day doing his favorite thing which was
running on his little hamster wheel. 
He would run and run and run sometimes all day and night.
Sometimes though Frederick would just sit and stare out of the big window his
cage sat next to.
Off into the distance until his eyes glazed over and his little hamster heart would break. 

What Frederick wanted to do, what he really wanted to do, was fuck something.

Oh and here’s a Christmas message from A Girl Gone titled ‘The Gift That Keeps On Taking‘:

I got up from a one night stand once in the middle of the night and put the guy’s pants on. I ended up just keeping them and leaving mine after I caught the mistake. They were nice. $20 in the back pocket. What I’m saying is, Merry Christmas, everybody! 

Origins of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict Part I: to 1949
Video presentation by Henry Abrams

This condensed presentation is easily the most accessible, informative and impartial (less tunnel-visioned) I have seen about the history of this complex struggle. It’s masterfully done and an excellent example of effective presentation. I couldn’t recommend it more highly for people interested in expanding (or refining) their knowledge about the origins of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.

In History: The First Ever Video Game Console, 50 years on
Article at BBC Culture

Fifty years ago today (18th December, 2023), an episode of the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World introduced the Magnavox Odyssey, the world’s first ever home video games console. It was a basic but visionary design, and led to today’s multi-billion-pound industry.

The invention was the brainchild of Ralph Baer, a German-American engineer, who had been tinkering with the idea of interactive television games since the 1960s. With a small team he had developed multiple prototype consoles, before unleashing the Odyssey on an unsuspecting American public in 1972, the year before the BBC broadcast. (Read more here)

Tech Ethics Expert Warns of AI’s Potentially Dangerous Capabilities
Podcast excerpt at Powerful JRE

Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin run the Center for Humane Technology, a group dedicated initially to exposing the social and cultural horrors of social media. They produced the very popular (and still worth watching) documentary titled “The Social Dilemma” which showed how social media became, as Tristan quipped, “A race to the bottom of the brain stem.” Now they are also working on the dangers of AI as well. Both formerly involved in the early stages of building social media, so they have substantial insider and technical expertise.