We Hunted The Mammoth
I‘ve been using Google’s Deep Dream software (via Dreamscope) to conduct research into the mystery wrapped in an enigma held desperately in place with hairspray that is Donald Trump’s hair
My conclusions: It’s not a wig, nor is it an elaborate combover.
It’s DogSlugs, mostly. And eyes.
His face is kind of messed up, too.
Then again, that’s pretty much the result I get every time I use Deep Dream to research anything.
More Trump research after the jump.
So the new Reddit CEO — returning co-founder Steve “Spez” Huffman — announced the site’s much-anticipated new content guidelines today, and to say that they are disappointing is a bit of an understatement.
Essentially, he told the site’s many varieties of bigots that they could continue to spout their various bigotries on Reddit without repercussions, so long as they didn’t actually threaten to, you know, go out and murder or otherwise physically harm people whose sexual preferences or skin color or religion (or whatever) didn’t meet their approval.
Only now the bigots will be posting on Reddit s dime.
Hoping to capitalize on the popularity of its Deep Dream neural network software, Google has announced that starting on Monday it will fold Google Street View into the Deep Dream project. “All images now up on Google Street View will now be processed using Deep Dream,” Google spokeswoman Florilla Panganaban explained. “Deep Dream Street View will allow users to see how many Slugdogs they may encounter in any neighborhood they plan to visit.”
Here are some examples of what to expect when Google makes the big change.
Apparently looking to score clicks from controversy, Men’s Rights douchebag-in-chief Paul Elam has resorted to an old tactic of his: acting like the world’s biggest asshole. This time he’s attempting to gin up traffic on the backs of Bill Cosby’s 40-plus accusers.
In a post on A Voice for Men yesterday that is repugnant even by his standards, Elam asks if the women who say Cosby drugged and raped them are really victims, or “just a bunch of drug whoring star fuckers?”
Lovers of cinematic catastrophe, rejoice!
Facing accusations of fraud, douchebaggery, and skull abandonment in the wake of a split with his estranged “filmmaking” partner Jordan Owen, the formerly bald film auteur Davis Aurini has released a 38-minute “Rough Draft Preview” of his version of The Sarkeesian effect.
I‘ve long been obsessed with the bizarrely over-the-top cover art for 1950s men’s “adventure” magazines, in which muscular, often shirtless men face off against an assortment of unlikely animal enemies — from armies of “giant turtles” to squads of flying squirrels. (You can find an assortment of notable covers here.)
More recently, I’ve become obsessed with Google’s Deep Dream software, which can turn any picture you toss at it into a creepy acid nightmare filled with strange Dogslug creatures and a strange surplus of eyes.
And now that I’ve found a handy web interface for the Deep Dream software, I decided to combine these two obsessions into one. The results were, well, interesting.
As you may recall, the recent week of hate and abuse directed at Reddit CEO Ellen Pao, which led to her becoming ex-Reddit-CEO Ellen Pao, was triggered by the firing of a popular admin Victoria Taylor, one of the few people on Reddit’s staff who actually seemed to respond to user concerns. The firing was said to be an example of Pao’s supposed “incompetence,” a sign that she didn’t really understand Reddit or Reddit culture — and that she needed to go.
One problem with this line of argument was that there was never ever any proof that Pao was responsible for firing Taylor.
And now it seems pretty clear that she wasn’t. Over the weekend, Reddit co-founder and Chairman of the Board Alexis Ohanian seemed to admit, albeit somewhat obliquely, that he was the person responsible for the firing, commenting on Reddit that
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam celebrates the simple pleasures of
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread-and Thou
Reddit’s MGTOW contingent has a somewhat different notion of what constitutes the good life. It involves a motorcycle in one’s bedroom.
Most conspiracy theorists are surprisingly uncreative in their choice of villains, blaming all the ills in the world on one or more alleged evildoers in a fairly short list: the Jews, the government, the Illuminati, space aliens, and a handful of other familiar suspects.
One Men’s Rights activist wants to add a few more names to the list: the women’s magazines Glamour, Allure, Self, Vogue, and, most terrifyingly, Teen Vogue.
The misogyny of many of those who badgered Ellen Pao out of her CEO position at Reddit was about as subtle as an explosive fart at a dinner party. And it’s not exactly difficult to find evidence of widespread racism directed at her as well.
There was the whole “Chairman Pao” thing, for example, and the blatantly racist “humor” that it unleashed:
