I'm betting you're not sick of stories about the rise and impact of sports gambling. It's a bet that I'm making blindly, which is rare these days when just about every event has a betting line. Most of the recent sports betting headlines have been about the scandal involving Shohei Ohtani's translator. But there's a much bigger and more straightforward story here. It's about leagues, lobbyists, and lawmakers removing the gambling guardrails and unleashing a massive marketing effort that pushes gambling to sports fans everywhere. Leagues used to avoid betting, but now there are teams in Las Vegas and there's even "a Caesar’s sportsbook operates within the very arena where the Wizards and Capitals play." Brands like Disney once treated gambling like a plague, but now their ESPN is in the bookie business, talking about odds and taking bets in their own branded app. The house always wins, so the mouse wants in. I don't want to pretend that betting on sports isn't fun. The point is that it's so fun that it can be addictive. The old hurdles to placing a bet are gone. Now, all the forces that were obstacles have become fuel. If you really need to make a wager, bet on this: Society is in for a bad beat. The rapid transition to making bets integral to the viewing experience is going to have a negative impact on us. Alex Shephard in TNR: Our Entire Society Is Becoming Addicted to Sports Gambling. 2Take This with a Pinch of SaltThere's a group of influencers for almost everything. One of these groups leads the anti-diet movement. The idea is that society is too focused on health and that leads to fat shaming and everyone should eat what they want. And guess who decided that this highly-processed message should be a brought to the increasingly wider masses? Big Food. WaPo (Gift Article): As obesity rises, Big Food and dietitians push ‘anti-diet’ advice. "General Mills has toured the country touting anti-diet research it claims proves the harms of 'food shaming.' It has showered giveaways on registered dietitians who promote its cereals online with the hashtag DerailTheShame, and sponsored influencers who promote its sugary snacks. The company has also enlisted a team of lobbyists and pushed back against federal policies that would add health information to food labels." These guys would sell cynicism, but it's too healthy for their portfolio. 3What to Expect When You're Deflecting"A little before 9 a.m. on Tuesday, an engineer named Matthew Gallelli crouched on the deck of a decommissioned aircraft carrier in San Francisco Bay, pulled on a pair of ear protectors, and flipped a switch. A few seconds later, a device resembling a snow maker began to rumble, then produced a great and deafening hiss. A fine mist of tiny aerosol particles shot from its mouth, traveling hundreds of feet through the air." It's an early test of a strategy that's a longshot to work. But we may need it to. NYT (Gift Article): Warming Is Getting Worse. So They Just Tested a Way to Deflect the Sun. At least someone is dealing with climate change with deflection instead of the usual repression. 4Going Cold Turkers"The Amazon story is a stark reminder that 'artificial intelligence' still often requires armies of human babysitters to work properly. Amazon even has an entire business unit known as Amazon Turk devoted to helping other companies do just that — train and operate AI systems. Thousands of freelancers around the world count themselves as 'MTurkers,' and the unit is named after the story of the Mechanical Turk, an 18th-century chess-playing contraption that was secretly controlled by a man hiding inside." Bloomberg (Gift Article): Amazon's AI Stores Seemed Too Magical. And They Were. "The 1,000 contractors in India working on the company’s Just Walk Out technology offer a stark reminder that AI isn’t always what it seems." 5Extra, ExtraTaiwan Quake: Taiwan rocked by 7.4 magnitude earthquake, leaving at least 9 dead and nearly 1,000 injured. Here are some photos from the worst earthquake to hit the island in 25 years. Quartz: Taiwan's deadly earthquake stopped chipmaking at TSMC. The plant was only down for a brief time, but the earthquake was a reminder of how much of our chip-driven supply chain could go offline with one really bad event. 6Bottom of the News"Earlier this year, Germany's environment ministry suggested there should be stricter limits on importing trophies from hunting animals. Botswana's President Mokgweetsi Masisi told German media this would only impoverish people in his country. He said elephant numbers had exploded as a result of conservation efforts, and hunting helped keep them in check." All of which leads us to this rather unexpected diplomacy-related headline. Botswana threatens to send 20,000 elephants to Germany.
|
