l.a. looks or magic sharker

From our friends at Lewis & Quark (a.k.a. AI Weirdness, previously), we discover what results when a neural network is given the task of naming bespoke nail polish colours, with the help of a group of manicure enthusiasts contributing their name collection to the cause. Via my OED subscription earlier this week, I learnt that in 1999 a new portmanteau was put forward in the form of artilect, from artificial and intellect, but never really caught on.  Should we do something about that?  In any case, some of our favourites (many with a rather inexplicable gothic bias) included:

• Ink Flame
• Bloshing Glip
• Batberry
• Space Holly
• Fire Splat
• Murder Earth
• Gold Be Tangeling
• Social Mace
• Twilight Mashery

Be sure and visit the site to see more and learn about the machine learning methodology and to even order a few select nail polishes named by their AI.

alien and sedition acts

The four bills passed into law on this day by the Federalist Party dominated US congress of 1798 made it more difficult for immigrants to acquire citizenship, granted the president the discretion to deport or imprison immigrants deemed a threat to national security and criminalised statements critical of the federal government.
Critics successfully argued that the acts were too onerous and persecuted those who disagreed with the Federalists or their values, codified at the time as a counter-measure to revolutionary fervour in France and the rest of Europe that was seen now as a threat to the newly-minted republic, and were three-quarters repealed during the Democrat-Republican administration of Thomas Jefferson. Remaining in statute, the Aliens Enemies Act was invoked during World War II to intern mostly Americans with Japanese heritage but also Germans and Italians and is still part of US code.

reichsgesetzblatt

On this day in 1933, the German Reich passed a law outlawing the formation of new political parties, making the National Socialist German Workers’ Party the sole and de facto and unopposed ruling power and effectively ending parliamentary democracy in the country. The legislative branch, rendering itself redundant under extreme duress with some going into exile and many others imprisoned, ceded control to the executive, the chancellor and his cabinet ministers of justice and of interior affairs.

it’s a total sign of disrespect for our country

It boggles the imagination to guess how this might be spun or buried by distraction—perhaps the release of the petulant man-baby’s tax returns or the pee-tapes, but one unsettling coincidence, call and response that came out of the indictment of twelve Russian GRU (Main Intelligence Directorate, Гла́вное разве́дывательное управле́ние) agents for meddling in the democratic process—specifically and with standing in the US 2016 presidential election—is that when Trump dared the Russians to recover the missing email traffic of his rival, the Russians seemed to comply and deliver.
Scarier than the fact that some think that the condemnation of foreign actors exonerates Trump and any Americans involved in the campaign is that we knew about the timing of this request and attack at the time it was happening. The revelation of this indictment occurred on the anniversary of the disclosure that there was a secret audio recording system in Nixon’s White House.  At one of his Nürnberg rallies (which unfortunately have continued a-pace in support of his re-election and those loyal to his nihilistic agenda) on 27 July 2016, Trump said, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the thirty-thousand emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press,” following up this statement with a tweet. Though not addressing whether Russian operatives were responding directly to an order or invitation by Trump, within twenty-four hours Clinton’s servers were compromised