Language bots are no substitute for teaching children to speak and learn.
The post When Kids Talk to Machines appeared first on Nautilus.
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Get a load of this ridiculous nonsense: The GOP team’s practice was supposed to start at 6 a.m. But when NOTUS showed up around 5:52, the majority of the team was already on the field, their arms warm and their hamstrings loose. Most were wearing jerseys and gray baseball pants. The Democrats showed up in combinations of sweatpants, shorts, T-shirts and soccer jerseys. They looked like “The Bad News Bears” at the beginning of the movie. The Republicans look like the rich kids in “The Sandlot” — but with the gear and the game. They look like a real baseball team. The Democrats do not. As both teams prepare for the annual Congressional Baseball Game — a contest that oscillates between bipartisan goofiness and partisan combat, depending on the Congress — the two teams this year seem to be, if not on different planets, then at least in different leagues. Republicans are using the game to literally tee off on Democrats. Months of crack-of-dawn practices and buckets full of bruised baseballs can attest to their frustration — a frustration borne out of uncomfortable political realities. The party is divided.
The 21st Shangri-la Security Dialogue, held in Singapore between 31 May and 2 June, saw the United States’ Secretary of Defence unveil a new way to describe his country’s Asia-Pacific policy, and hold a bilateral meeting with his Chinese counterpart. China was unyielding on its “core interests”. Australian Defence Minister Marles embraced the “global rules-based Continue reading »
“When will you finish them?” These aren’t words you normally hear while waiting in line for a coffee in the Sydney CBD. They are words that you might find a former presidential aspirant and US ambassador to the UN writing on the side of an artillery shell during a visit to Israel. Clearly the cafe owner, Continue reading »
President Biden has now announced a ‘roadmap’ for Gaza that has been doing the rounds for weeks, and Australia has loyally supported it with a contribution of $A10 million. But much more time, money, and negotiations will be needed if the three-stage plan is to be a success. It would have done Prime Minister Albanese Continue reading »
When I think of Australia, the first things that pop into my mind are koalas and kangaroos. Those adorable marsupials are wooing travellers worldwide every year to the beautiful land. But travellers can also say hello to Giant Pandas in Australia. It is the only country in the Southern Hemisphere that hosts those cuddly animals Continue reading »
It’s been a month since I relocated to a new town. It’s been traumatic. The emotions have run wild and the somatic reactions strong. At the epicentre of this emotional firestorm is a deep, wounding sense of dislocation, of severed connections with people and place. As I began to reflect on all this, I found Continue reading »
The Canberra Press Gallery is not a homogenous group although its members do seem to suffer from a fair amount of groupthink; preference for gotchas and speculation about what might happen next in politics; and heavy dependence on leaks and drops for copy. One part of it – the Murdoch part – subsumes this into Continue reading »
With what passes for Australia’s population debate in the spotlight again, some history might prove illuminating, especially environmental history. The United Tasmania Group (UTG) formed on 23 March 1972 at Hobart Town Hall, under the leadership of botanist Richard Jones, as the threat to flood Lake Pedder reached a climax. The lake came under threat Continue reading »
This was the haunting title of a recent speech by UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell, at Chatham House in London. He speaks with knowledge, hoping to inspire faster action. The science is clear, as the latest IPCC report makes plain. We are now seeing what has been predicted. Simon speaks of “record-shattering heat Continue reading »
If convicted felon Donald Trump wins the US presidential election in November 2024 it will probably herald the end of America as the world and as Americans know it. And maybe ignite the Second American Civil War. Taking Trump at his rhetoric (never a terribly safe thing) here are a few of the sweeping changes Continue reading »
The US government-backed Ukrainian outlet “Data Journalism Agency” has just released a report attacking Americans as enemies for opposing military aid to Ukraine. The Grayzone is included alongside hundreds of others from both the political right and left. The new Ukrainian report, titled “Roller Coaster: From Trumpists to Communists. The forces in the U.S. impeding aid to Ukraine and how they do it,” intends to smear American politicians, journalists, and social media influencers as tools of Russia, writing: “Most of […]
The post The Grayzone targeted in US govt-backed ‘enemies of Ukraine’ list first appeared on The Grayzone.
The post The Grayzone targeted in US govt-backed ‘enemies of Ukraine’ list appeared first on The Grayzone.
For the second time, the IFC is bucking recommendations to offer money as reparations to people hurt at a chain of schools it invested in, Bridge International Academies.
The post World Bank Financing Arm Rejects Calls to Directly Compensate Victims of Harm at Kenya Schools appeared first on The Intercept.
Plus, a simple fix for clean energy, how to save a half-trillion dollars, and banks repossessing wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs.
Democrats overperform again Politico reported this morning: If last night’s election returns were going to provide any surprises, they weren’t supposed to come out of Ohio’s 6th Congressional District. In a special election race that got basically zero national attention, Republican state Sen. MICHAEL RULLI was thought certain to rout Democrat MICHAEL KRIPCHAK, a former Air Force officer and once-aspiring actor who quit a Youngstown-area restaurant job to run for Congress. DONALD TRUMP, after all, had won the blue-collar, mostly rural district previously represented by GOP Rep. BILL JOHNSON by 29 points in 2022. Furthermore, Rulli raised nearly 30 times more than Kripchak’s shoestring budget.
“Justice Alito’s Wife, in Secretly Recorded Conversation, Complains About Pride Flag” — Headline from the New York Times, 6/10/24
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Dear Martha-Ann,
I can’t say that I expected to hear from you during Pride month. So, imagine my surprise when, this week, you spilled to an undercover reporter that you’ve been feeling a little left out. It tugs at my heartstrings that you plan to stare wistfully “across the lagoon at the Pride flag for the next month” like some backward Jay Gatsby who has never been invited to a party and whose Daisy currently has her tongue down Jordan Baker’s throat.
American banana company Chiquita has been linked to civilian massacres in Colombia and ordered to pay $38 million in a historic judgment.
The post Chiquita Ordered to Pay $38 Million for Funding Colombian Death Squads appeared first on MintPress News.
Nearly 20 years after the Second Intifada, the Israeli military has resumed airstrikes in the West Bank — and killed 24 children.
The post Israel’s New Air War in the West Bank: Nearly Half of the Dead are Children appeared first on The Intercept.
Knee-jerk hysteria does not denote a confident party President Joe Biden’s son Hunter was found guilty in federal court of failing to properly fill out a form to buy a gun which he had in his possession for 11 days and never fired. Fair enough. What he did was against the law and a jury of his peers found him guilty. The case was solid. Biden was a drug addict back in 2018 at the time of his crime and he should have admitted it on that form. But people in the midst of an addiction crisis make bad decisions and often get on the wrong side of the law. Hunter Biden’s response to the verdict was to say that he was more grateful for the support of his family, friends and community than he was disappointed in the verdict. And he added “recovery is a gift from God and I am blessed to receive that gift one day at a time.” Joe Biden reiterated that he loves his son and always will and that he is proud of his recovery. He also said that he respects the outcome of the case and the judicial system. Both Bidens were restrained and solemn in the face of a serious legal outcome which, until recently, was simply expected from a president and his family.