Archive for 2023

HMM: Google Deepmind Gemini Is the World’s Best AI. “Gemini gets us closer to AGI. AGI = artificial general intelligence = a machine that performs at the level of an average (median) human.”

HE MAKES A STRONG ARGUMENT:

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Stellantis cutting back SUV production, citing California emissions rules. “Stellantis said on Wednesday it is seeking to void a 2019 California emissions deal in which rival automakers agreed to voluntarily cut emissions beyond levels stipulated by the then-Trump administration. Separately, the automaker also said on Thursday its Toledo, Ohio, assembly plant that builds the Jeep Wrangler will move from an alternative work schedule to a traditional two-shift operation. Both moves will result in job losses but the company did not have a precise figure.”

TYPICAL NGO BEHAVIOR, ALAS:

“The Red Cross certainly wouldn’t be the first elite mainstream institution to dent its brand due to hostility towards Israel. It is about as common today as sand on a beach.”

WSJ LISTED ‘CANCELING’ AS ONE OF THE TOP POLITICS BOOKS OF 2023: More at the end of the latest post for the Eternally Radical Idea.

FIGHT THE POWER — STICK IT TO THE MAN: WATCH: Plane with ‘Harvard hates Jews’ banner seen flying over college campuses. “A group claiming to represent Jewish students said they hired a plane carrying the message ‘Harvard hates Jews’ to circle over Harvard and other Ivy League campuses over the next ‘several days.’ . . . According to a statement sent to Boston 25, the student group says this in response to ‘the runaway antisemitism’ on the university’s campus.”

THE ECONOMY IS BOOMING: Luxury Stores Are Bursting With Unsold Stuff. “The slowdown has left brands’ own stores, independent boutiques and e-commerce retailers stuffed with unsold stock. The boss of online luxury goods seller MyTheresa said the company is experiencing “the worst market conditions since 2008,” and had 44% more inventory by the end of its latest quarter than a year earlier. Burberry is buying back unsold products from department stores.”

SHE DOESN’T LOOK LIKE A MAGA TYPE, BUT I’M TOLD BY ALL THE BEST PEOPLE THAT THEY’RE THE THREAT: Woman arrested for pouring gasoline, trying to burn down Martin Luther King Jr.’s birth home. “Police said they have arrested 26-year-old Laneisha Shantrice Henderson and charged her with criminal attempt arson and criminal attempt interference with government property.”

Plus: “Police say two tourists from Utah who were in the area saw Henderson pouring gasoline on the home and interrupted her. . . . Video from a witness shared with Channel 2′s Michael Doudna shows a woman dressed in all black pouring gasoline on the windows and in the bushes of the home. Atlanta Fire Department Battalion Chief Jerry DeBerry said had the witnesses not intervened, the house could have been burned to the ground in moments.”

Black woman dressed as Antifa tries to burn MLK birth home, is stopped by a white guy from Utah and two off-duty cops. But if she’d gotten away with it and those bystanders hadn’t been there, the press would be telling us it was yet another example of white-supremacist domestic terrorism.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Sports journalism utterly sucks: Deadspin ‘blackface’ debacle proves it. “Now sports journalism is filled with midwit wannabe politicos, leftist ideologues and talentless influencer types (sometimes all three in one individual), and they all think they’re better and smarter than the audience they’re paid to entertain.”

Which is funny, because they’re not better and smarter than most anyone.

TEXAS: Suspect In Six Murders Out On Bail Thanks To Soros-Backed Group. “When news dropped about the six-body Austin-San Antonio murder spree, I thought “Should I do a post on that?”, but didn’t see any political angle. But now one has come to light: The accused spree killer was previously out on bail thanks to yet another George Soros-funded ‘criminal reform’ group.”

REMINDER: CBS: Americans need an extra $11,400 today just to afford the basics. “The typical American household must spend an additional $11,434 annually just to maintain the same standard of living they enjoyed in January of 2021, right before inflation soared to 40-year highs, according to a recent analysis of government data.”

Huh. What happened in January 2021?