A little derring-do
🧠 Taking risks makes you human · Will Freddie Get Indicted By The Feddie? · Blackburn Polled Well, O’Connell Didn’t · The Dragon · Repeat offender all-star · The Code review · Much more!
Good afternoon, everyone. Today we think about AI, wonder if Freddie will get… feddied, look at the results of the GOP picnic strawpoll, take safety measures on “The Dragon,” and promote this week’s repeat offender all-star. First time reading? Sign up here.
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Been thinking about AI a lot lately. What does it mean to be a person in a world in which many of the rote, knowledge accumulation/sorting tasks that define many of our work lives are better done by machines….
Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, “To escape boredom, man works either beyond what his usual needs require, or else he invents play, that is, work that is designed to quiet no need other than that for working in general”….
Joe Hudson, an executive coach in Silicon Valley for companies like Apple and OpenAI, tells Every (highly recommended publication) that knowledge work is dying and set to be replaced by wisdom work….
The new Mission:Impossible reckons with the question of AI some….
The plot revolves around a superintelligent computer attempting to take over the world’s entire nuclear payload in order to purge the Earth of all humans….
It relies on the “determinism” of human actions to carry out its directive….
Understanding this, Tom Cruise sets out to deliberately do “undeterministic” things in order to throw it off the trail….
He pleads with his enemies that the computer is depending on them hating him, and if they do the opposite, they can save the planet together….
In the end, through incredible feats of daring, (spoiler alert) the enemy is vanquished and, aside from a weird WEF-style lecture at the end about “being nice to each other,” you’re sufficiently reminded about what makes you a person and not a machine….
For one, no machine would advocate, much less predict, that Tom Cruise might hijack an airplane by clinging to the wheel well and knocking out the pilot midflight….
That’s decidedly “undeterministic” and risky behavior that a computing machine would not have the creativity or daring to recommend....
Kind of like me formatting this post differently than I have in the past….
“My mind is aglow with whirling, transient nodes of thought careening thru a cosmic vapor of invention….”
Zig-zag.
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🖋️ Edited by Megan Podsiedlik.
🔎 Will Freddie Get Indicted By The Feddie? CEO and Editor-in-Chief of the Tennessee Star, Michael Patrick Leahy, predicts that Mayor O’Connell will be indicted following an investigation into his administration's actions during May’s immigration enforcement operations in Nashville. “...Mayor Freddie O'Connell doxxed several members of law enforcement. That is a felony,” said Leahy at Saturday’s GOP Nashville picnic. “What we're going to see here now is the congressional investigation will recommend an investigation by the Department of Justice.”
Based on his professional experience, Leahy expects the case to go before a grand jury. If O’Connell is found to have interfered with the lawful activities of state and federal enforcement officials, the editor thinks it could be an opportunity for the Nashville GOP: “If you happen to be sitting on $10 million and you’re a conservative, I'm going to encourage you, right now, to think about running for mayor.”
🗳️ Blackburn Polled Well, O’Connell Didn’t Senator Marsha Blackburn came out on top as the Republican pick for governor over Representative John Rose in the GOP Nashville straw poll during the Republican party picnic in Centennial Park on Saturday. Ample turnout resulted in over 500 votes cast. Blackburn received about 64 percent of vote [345 votes], while Rose received 36 percent [195 votes]. Though he hasn’t announced an official run for governor, U.S. Representative Tim Burchett received one write-in vote.
A number of new and established coalitions were spotted at the event, including Latinos for Tennessee who have been critical of Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s response to immigration enforcement in Music City. "Latinos for Tennessee strongly supports immigrants and immigration into our country because it forms the bedrock of our greatness,” reads a statement released by Dina Piazza, the group’s Rutherford County President, on Saturday. “But just as important is respecting the rule of law, including enforcing existing immigration laws. Nashville Mayor O'Connell's decision to block federal officials from enforcing immigration laws puts the entire city of Nashville and Middle Tennessee at risk.”
The statement also accused O’Connell of prioritizing “partisan politics over the safety” and commended Representatives Andy Ogles and Mark Green’s call for an investigation: “On behalf of millions of Latinos here in Tennessee and across the country, who strongly support legal immigration and the rule of law, we urge O'Connell to cooperate with federal officials.”
🐉 The Dragon The last two weekends in Middle Tennessee have boasted ideal weather for a summer cruise with the windows open or the top down. If you’re looking for inspiration, the Pamphleteer has published a few of our favorite drives for blossom spotting and scenic sight seeing. That said, there is one route notorious for its risky, winding road: The Dragon.
The eleven-mile stretch along U.S. 129 between Knoxville and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Blount County is known for its 318 curves. According to the Blount County Sheriff's Office, 112 crashes involving 139 vehicles resulted in 47 injuries and 5 fatalities last summer. Hoodline reports that the BCSO and the Tennessee Highway patrol are joining forces in a concerted effort to encourage safety by deploying increased traffic enforcement along the route this year.
"What starts out as a beautiful drive or a fun afternoon ride can turn into a tragedy," said Blount County Sheriff James Berrong in a recent PSA. So far, there have been 30 crashes resulting in 13 injuries this year.
DEVELOPMENT
- Major permits issued for WeHo live music venue project (Post)
- Updates announced on former Starwood site (Post)
- 12South site eyed for project sells for $10.6M (Post)
- South Nashville auto dealership site sells for $13M (Post)
✹ REPEAT OFFENDER ALL-STAR OF THE DAY
Innocent men typically don't flee the law, and Tyson Oglesby is no exception. Recently retired Judge Cheryl Blackburn, whose mental acuity was brought into question in the years leading up to her stepping down, gave Oglesby suspended four and six-year sentences for prior convictions on cocaine and gun charges. (More Info)
✹ THE YEAR OF RECKONING GETS A RECKONING OF ITS OWN
It's taken half a decade for a project like The Code to come along. As any screener for a mid-tier film festival can attest, the COVID movie has become its own subgenre as budding indie filmmakers lean in on the melodrama or the anti-masker digs as they grasp yet fall far short of the profound. From wherever midsize city suburb they hail, they still yearn for that disappearing LA life. They want to prove they’ve mastered that in-crowd language and political sensibilities. And Kotlyarenko is clearly tired of their bullshit.
THINGS TO DO
View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown here.
📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.
🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.
👨🏻🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide.
TONIGHT
🪕 Kyle Tuttle's Bluegrass Monday @ Dee's Lounge, 6p, $10, Info
🎸 Timbo & Lonesome Country @ Jane's Hideaway, 8p, Info
+ modern take on classic country, bluegrass & hillbilly Jazz
🪕 Val Storey, Carl Jackson, Larry Cordle & New Monday @ Station Inn, 8p, $20, Info
💀 Grateful Monday @ Acme Feed & Seed, 7p, Free, Info
🕺 Motown Monday @ The 5 Spot, 9p, $5, Info
📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.
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Today's newsletter is brought to you by Megan Podsiedlik (Nashville), Jerod Hollyfield (Crowd Corner), Camelia Brennan (Local Noise), and Davis Hunt (everything else).