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Sun, 04/02/2024 - 04:53
The biggest problem with Artificial Intelligence will be the way we use it, writes Dr Richard Hil. We’ve long been in a “mirror world” of hyper-reality, in which those old stalwarts of truth and reason have been mired in an algorithmic quagmire. This began well before the onset of generative AI. The internet, once quaintly Continue reading »
Created
Sun, 04/02/2024 - 04:52
Consider an ant nest in far flung outer Siberia. The significance of that nest to people walking the streets of Sydney is virtually nil. Multiply that level of insignificance a trillion times, as in almost infinitesimally insignificant. That, we know today, is a true indicator of planet Earth’s place in the universe. If the ant Continue reading »
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Sun, 04/02/2024 - 04:50
“This is precisely why Israel was taken to the International Court of Justice with the accusation that it is committing genocide,” said one legal expert. Palestinian officials on Wednesday demanded an international inquiry after the decomposing remains of dozens of blindfolded and handcuffed bodies were found at a northern Gaza school following the withdrawal of Continue reading »
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Sun, 04/02/2024 - 04:00
There was a time when the right wing railed against Michelle Obama for encouraging kids to eat their vegetables and go outside to play and had a complete meltdown over governments trying to stop kids from drinking so much sugary soda that there is now an epidemic of obesity among children. How dare the government deign to advise Americans about healthy eating. Just a couple of months ago there was a story that health experts were considering telling people that they should cut down on beer consumption and it resulted in this lovely retort: Needless to say, nobody is talking about shutting down the beer or soda pop industry or limiting Ted Cruz from drinking as much as he wants to. Get a load of what the freedom loving right is up to now. Yes, Florida is leading the way, once again: Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a press conference Friday that he opposes the promulgation of lab-grown meat in Florida. Discussing his opposition to implanting an environmental agenda on farmers, the governor noted that lawmakers are working through legislation to ban lab-grown meat production. “You need meat. OK?” the governor said.
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Sun, 04/02/2024 - 02:30
Insist it’s already bent Donald “91 Counts” Trump famously learned to attack, attack, attack from skeevy attorney Roy Cohn, and to worship himself from Norman Vincent Peale, the positive-thinking guru. Trump has navigated 77 years of his life and scammed his way to celebrity by demanding, whatever the truth of the fine mess he’s created, whatever the dirty deals he was involved in (look, here’s another), that reality bend to his will. He’s always the innocent, always the victim, always the victor. It’s not as if the Republican Party with the aid of its right-wing media allies wasn’t already far along the path to up-is-downism. It’s just that Trump’s natural flair for the scam fit so well with the party’s proclivities that he was able to wholly coopt the conservative movement. Now, with the U.S. economy firing on nearly all cylinders under Joe Biden in 2024, Trump will have to find another gear to sell his marks that it’s all going to shit. Have no doubt. He will. Politico: The U.S. economy just keeps getting better.
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Sun, 04/02/2024 - 01:00
How does anyone take the right seriously? Somewhere on Friday a TikTok video went by (if I find it again, I’ll post it) with a woman complaining that football intruding on her Taylor Swift concert ruined the experience for her. Why, why, she was all about Taylor and yet the camera kept cutting away to shots of Travis Kelce the football player. That’s just wrong! FOUND IT (3 P.M. EDT): She was lampooning the “keep Taylor out of my football game” crowd, obviously. Fox News is having a time of it as well, in a different way. The conspiracy theories Fox is spinning about the power couple are truly something to behold (New York Times): Of course, people are entitled to their opinions on celebrity political speech or the possible existence of a secret Pentagon diva lab. But if Fox News’s hosts truly believe that it’s irresponsible and dangerous to invite celebrities to weigh in on politics, they might want to turn their attention to … Fox News. Over the years, Fox has invited Gene Simmons, the bassist of Kiss, to talk about the handling of an Ebola outbreak.
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Sat, 03/02/2024 - 22:22

Of all European politicians who never led their countries, Jacques Delors and Wolfgang Schäuble had the greatest impact on Europe. Between them, the two men, who passed away within a day of each other in December, shaped today’s European Union, warts and all. ATHENS – Of all European politicians who never led their countries, Jacques Delors and Wolfgang […]

The post The Two Faces of the Euro: Jacques Delors and Wolfgang Schäuble – Project Syndicate Long Read appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.

Created
Sat, 03/02/2024 - 11:30
The cutest animal? Could be… A small mammal, native to the Eastern Himalayas and Southwestern China, has been born at Altina Wildlife Park in New South Wales Australia. Rani, Altina’s beautiful female red panda, at 9yrs of age, has proven to be an amazing and loving mother of her new little baby boy, born on the 17th December 2023! It’s unusual for an older inexperienced Red Panda to naturally be a good mother, so staff are excited and pleased with the progress. After three months gestation, cubs are born into a nest made of twigs and grass in the late spring and early summer. Newborn cubs are covered in thick grey fur and their eyes and ears are closed. Cubs will emerge from the nest at about three months of age but stay with their mother until the next breeding season starts. They are considered full-grown between 18 and 24 months and live on average, 8 to 10 years in the wild; up to 15 years in zoos. Red Pandas may live as long as 23 years. They show symptoms of age at around 12 to 14 years old and while females do not usually breed after age 12, males continue to be reproductively capable well into their later years.
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Sat, 03/02/2024 - 08:30
Donald Trump’s very specific form of manipulation We know about Trump’s psychotic behavior. He is a malignant, narcissistic, pathological liar. But he employs a specific manipulative strategy that actually has a name. But I didn’t know that there is a very specific diagnosis. Sidney Blumenthal in the Guardian explains: Time after time, with predictable regularity, never missing a beat, Donald Trump proclaims his innocence. He always denies that he has done anything wrong. The charge does not matter. He is blameless. But this is only the beginning of the pattern. Then, he attacks his accusers, or anyone involved in bringing him to account, usually of committing the identical offense of which he stands accused. But it is not enough for him to lash out. Then, he declares himself to be the victim. Whatever it is, he is falsely accused. But his self-dramatization as the wounded sufferer is only half his story: he insists that whoever has accused him is in fact the offender. He emerges triumphant, the martyr, the truth-teller, courageously unmasking the real villain. J’accuse! Trump’s pattern is textbook manipulation – literally.
Created
Sat, 03/02/2024 - 07:55

Greg Stoker is a former U.S. Army Special Operations member who left the military and became a committed anti-imperialist. Today, he joins MintCast to discuss Israel, Yemen, and the US role in the chaos.

The post The IDF’s Failing Gaza War, with ex-U.S. Special Forces’ Greg Stoker appeared first on MintPress News.