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Created
Tue, 04/04/2023 - 10:42

Imagine coming across, on a reasonably serious site, an article that starts along the lines of:

After observing the generative AI space for a while, I feel I have to ask: does ChatGPT (and other LLM-based chatbots)… actually gablergh? And if I am honest with myself, I cannot but conclude that it sure does seem so, to some extent!

I know this sounds sensationalist. It does undermine some of our strongly held assumptions and beliefs about what does “to gablergh” actually mean — and what classes of entities can, in fact, be said to gablergh at all. Since gablerghing is such a crucial part of what many feel it means to be human, this is also certainly going to ruffle some feathers!

Created
Tue, 04/04/2023 - 09:29
For those unaware, the Sirens of Audio is a podcast focused on the huge amount of audio dramas that have expanded the universe of Doctor Who during the 21st century. Although unaffiliated with the Doctor Who Club of Australia, it is run by two former members of its executive committee who have been able to leverage that time at the coal face to build a rapport with the stars of the series, whom the cornucopia of audio dramas continue to bring into our lives. I wax nostalgic because their initial event, featuring Australia’s own Janet Fielding — aka Tegan Jovanka,… Continue reading
Created
Tue, 04/04/2023 - 09:10
‘If it’s innocent, why delete it?’ The anonymous Facebook page buying ads to support pro-Graham candidates in the Unite executive elections was deleted hours after Skwawkbox exposed it on Monday. The page, named ‘Executive Council Elections’, had originally been set up in December under the name ‘The Manifesto’, but re-named to buy a string of […]
Created
Tue, 04/04/2023 - 08:47

Staff at the University of Sydney staged their eighth day of strike action on Friday. It followed the biggest mass meeting of the campaign so far where more than 700 members voted to reject Management’s latest offer and to hold two more days of strike action.

The post Historic strike campaign at Sydney Uni wins sick pay for casuals, but fights on for quality education and pay appeared first on Solidarity Online.

Created
Tue, 04/04/2023 - 08:30
Obviously, he did look inside the boxes. This is the story that just broke: In the classified documents case, federal investigators have gathered new and significant evidence that after the subpoena was delivered, Trump looked through the contents of some of the boxes of documents in his home, apparently out of a desire to keep certain things in his possession, the people familiar with the investigationsaid. Investigators now suspect, based on witness statements, security camera footage, and other documentary evidence, that boxes including classified material were moved from a Mar-a-Lago storage area after the subpoena was served, and that Trump personally examined at least some of those boxes, these people said. While Trump’s team returned some documents with classified markings in response to the subpoena, a later FBI search found more than 100 additional classified items that had not been turned over.
Created
Tue, 04/04/2023 - 08:00
Imagine that: Sixty percent of Americans approve of the indictment of former President Donald Trump, according to a new CNN Poll conducted by SSRS following the news that a New York grand jury voted to charge him in connection with hush money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. About three-quarters of Americans say politics played at least some role in the decision to indict Trump, including 52% who said it played a major role. Independents largely line up in support of the indictment – 62% approve of it and 38% disapprove. Democrats are near universal in their support for the indictment (94% approve, including 71% who strongly approve of the indictment), with Republicans less unified in opposition (79% disapprove, with 54% strongly disapproving). While views on the indictment are split along party lines, the poll finds that majorities across major demographic divides all approve of the decision to indict the former president.
Created
Tue, 04/04/2023 - 06:55
Starmer’s unfitness as leader didn’t just emerge when he conned his way into Labour top job, at least according to survey of staff during his tenure as DPP Keir Starmer and his acolytes like to make much about the fact that he was the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) before becoming an MP and therefore […]
Created
Tue, 04/04/2023 - 06:30
I didn’t know they still existed but apparently, the Blue Dogs and the “Problem Solvers” caucus are getting ready to screw up the Democratic strategy for dealing with the debt ceiling by giving away the store. (That’s what they always do — don’t kid yourself.) This is a very bad idea: A group of House Democrats is secretly crafting a fallback plan to avoid an economy-rattling debt default. The White House wants no part of it. The rogue band of moderate Democrats has spent weeks constructing a break-glass deal with centrist Republicans in case the country goes all the way to the brink on the debt ceiling. As the summertime deadline for action approaches, they’re worried a prolonged standoff could lead to fiscal disaster. But Biden officials and party leaders, however, see it far differently and are bristling at the attempts at a compromise, according to four lawmakers familiar with the discussions. Their party’s message to those plotting centrists: Your efforts are unlikely to succeed and risk hurting our goal of a clean debt ceiling increase.
Created
Tue, 04/04/2023 - 06:00

As groups like the Finance and Society Network make clear, banking and finance are too important to be left to financial economists and industry lobbyists. We all need to take some interest in what the powerful do and how they do it. These days this also extends to the huge ecosystem of alternative finance, fintech and decentralised finance (DeFi). Most people’s experience of this at the moment probably extends little further than lurid headlines trumpeting the huge sums made and lost (currently mainly lost) in cryptocurrency. There is, however, a lot more at stake than one might at first think.

Like any focus of fevered speculative activity, cryptocurrency has attracted its fair share of hyperbole and misinformation. In a recent paper in Cambridge Journal of Economics I try to look past this and consider the multiple issues involved.

The post The future of money and banking’s crypto reserve drain problem appeared first on Progress in Political Economy (PPE).

Created
Tue, 04/04/2023 - 05:17

Christo Grozev of the US government-sponsored Bellingcat endorsed the terror attack that killed a Russian war reporter and injured many others during a public event in St. Petersburg. He also defended Ukraine’s attempt to assassinate a Russian philosopher because he was a “propagandist.” In the hours that followed the April 2, 2023 bombing of a cafe in St. Petersburg, Russia, Christo Grozev of the US government-funded Bellingcat outlet defended the terror attack that killed a war reporter and wounded 30 others. […]

The post “Legitimate target” — Bellingcat defends terror attack at St. Petersburg cafe appeared first on The Grayzone.

Created
Tue, 04/04/2023 - 05:00
This is just sad: Mike Pence might harbor deep-seated resentment toward Donald Trump for his handling of Jan. 6. But it’s Nikki Haley who really gets under the Pence camp’s skin. Inside Pence’s orbit, staffers have begun privately complaining about a presidential contender who, like Pence, is polling in single digits — distressed that Haley is drawing what they view as more favorable media coverage than the former vice president receives. In recent weeks, they fumed about coverage that painted her as a fiscal conservative at a donor retreat in Florida and didn’t fully capture what they described as her tepid reception at CPAC, where Pence previously drew headlines for getting booed. The animosity hasn’t quite reached the level of hostilities between Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar in the 2020 Democratic primary, and Pence staffers appear to spend more time thinking about Haley than vice versa. But the tension surfacing between them has all the makings of the first, real undercard feud of 2024.