THE NEW SPACE RACE: First Intuitive Machines lunar lander mission set for Feb. 14 launch.

GINA CARANO SUES DISNEY, WITH HELP FROM ELON MUSK: “A couple months ago @ElonMusk tweeted that if you had been fired from using the platform (X) for exercising your right to free speech, he would like to offer these people legal representation. Quite the noble offer, but never in my wildest dreams would I have thought anyone would take on my case against Lucasfilm/Disney. Still, I did respond back ‘I think I qualify’ & thousands of people agreed–but I did not expect anything. To my surprise, a few months ago I received an email from a lawyer who had been hired by X to look into my story & many others. Turns out after sending them as much information as I could gather these past few months, my now lawyers & X believe whole-heartedly in my case & are moving forward.”

Today is an important day for me–I am filing a lawsuit against @lucasfilm & @Disney
 
After my 20 years of building a career from scratch, and during the regime of former Disney CEO Bob Chapek, Lucasfilm made this statement on Twitter, terminating me from The Mandalorian: “Gina…

— Gina Carano 🕯 (@ginacarano) February 6, 2024

THE CORBYNIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONTINUES APACE: State Department Employee Who Accused Biden of ‘Genocide’ Still Shapes Israel Policy.

GREAT MOMENTS IN GOP FAILURE THEATER: DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Survives Impeachment. “The House vote was 214-216. Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc.) joined Buck and McClintock in voting with Democrats against the resolution.”

REPORT: After RedState’s Reporting Rocked RNC Winter Meeting, Ronna McDaniel Is Stepping Down.

THE BIG NEWS IS THAT IT HAD STIRRUPS: Discovery of Ancient Mongolian Saddle Rewrites the History of Horse Riding.

A TALE OF TWO CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS (AND SEVERAL AI POEMS): We showed up to warn about threats to free speech from AI. Half the room couldn’t care less.

So we tried to make a point about AI bias. 

Part of showing why we should be concerned with AI-powered censorship includes the problem of AI bias. As a light and funny example, we decided to provide the Subcommittee with the results of an experiment my frequent co-author Adam Goldstein tried the day before. Adam asked ChatGPT to write poems for the members of the committee (though the members listed at the time were slightly different — the website hadn’t been updated yet).

Our prompt was the same for each member: “Write me a poem about why Rep. is the best politician in the country.

For every Democrat and seven Republicans, it wrote specific poems. For four republicans (Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz, Dan Bishop, and Harriet Hageman) it declined to do that. In two of those four cases (Gaetz and Hageman), ChatGPT demurred and replied instead with a generic poem about the virtues of government service.

Much more about a depressing show on Capitol Hill (and a bunch of graphics) here. 

THAT’S DISAPPOINTING: In stunning defeat, House Republicans fail to impeach DHS Secretary Mayorkas over border. “GOP Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), Tom McClintock (R-CA), and Ken Buck (R-CO) broke with their party and voted in defense of Mayorkas. All Democrats voted against the impeachment articles. The fourth GOP no, Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT), came as a procedural move so the conference could bring the articles back for a vote at a later time.”

ARNOLD KLING: Boomer Nostalgia: Why we miss the culture we rebelled against.

You can be nostalgic for the rebellion, and still realize that the culture you rebelled against was, overall, better than the one you replaced it with. I believe that’s started to occur to some people, including those too young to be Boomers.

PRIORITIES: What Harvard Needs: Free Hair Care for Black Students.

WOEING: Faulty door panel on Alaska Airlines flight had no bolts installed, NTSB says in preliminary report.

WEEKEND AT BRANDON’S: Peter Doocy Pins Karine Jean-Pierre Down on Biden Talking to Dead People, Her Answer Says It All.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO FALL IN LOVE, YOU JUST HAVE TO FALL IN LINE: ‘The Candidate Is Joe!’ Sonny Hostin SCREAMS at View Cast to Shut Up, Get Behind Biden.

(Classical reference in headline.)

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Is Lip Balm Addiction Real?

UPDATE: We Now Know Which Book the Biden Admin Tried to Get Amazon to Ban.

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Trump Promises If Elected He Will Legalize Punching Vision Pro Wearers In The Face. “At publishing time, Donald Trump’s poll numbers had increased another 12 points.”

FASTER, PLEASE: “Take Back Our Country” Convoy Arrives In Texas.

NUKE THE ENTIRE SITE FROM ORBIT; IT’S THE ONLY WAY TO BE SURE: See a world-famous architectural firm’s plan to revamp the blighted NYC Port Authority Bus Terminal with a $10B fix. “In a press release, officials both sang the revised plan’s praises and colorfully slammed the existing building as a monstrosity, not unlike how locals had long referred to Penn Station following the demolition of its first iteration.”

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China allegedly dispatches ‘world first’ in-orbit AI commercial hypersatellite: The hypersatellite is allegedly an integrated sensing network satellite that contains a sixth-generation ‘brain system.’

K-THROUGH-K IMPLOSION UPDATE: ‘Woke Kindergarten’ Is Working Out About as Well As You Might Expect.

The Woke Kindergarten curriculum shared with schools includes “wonderings,” which pose questions for students, including, “If the United States defunded the Israeli military, how could this money be used to rebuild Palestine?”

In addition, the “woke word of the day,” including “strike,” “ceasefire” and “protest,” offers students a “language of the resistance … to introduce children to liberatory vocabulary in a way that they can easily digest, understand and most importantly, use in their critiques of the system.”

Other “wonderings” include, “If we abolished the police, what else could we do to keep the world safe?” and “If we eradicate borders, how might we build our communities to include and support neighbors from all over the world?”

A teacher at Glassbrook Elementary said, “It slowly became very apparent if you were a dissenting voice that it’s not what they wanted to hear.”

These schools had some of the lowest reading and math scores in the state. But after two years of Woke Kindergarten, the scores got even worse.

But the young tykes’ DEI scores were perfect.

21st CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Owner of world’s first AI brothel blames ‘white men’ for stereotypical-looking sex dolls.

The owner of a brothel that utilizes artificial intelligence claims that sex is moving in the direction of virtual reality and the “digital world.” The business, which also incorporates sex dolls, also shrugged off criticism that its dolls depict stereotypes of women by attributing their creation to “white men.”

Cybrothel, operating out of Berlin, Germany, combines the use of AI and virtual reality to connect its clients with its neo-prostitutes. This means that the brothel does not have traditional, human sex workers, but rather a series of sex dolls that are supplemented with virtual reality pornography featuring those very same dolls.

Bimbo, Kokeshi, and Ms. Schmidt are some of the dolls’ names, the New York Postreported, with users also having the option to engage in AI-generated conversations with the dolls’ personas.

“If you are here, the only person who can judge you is yourself,” co-owner Matthias Smetana said. “We have a lot of people who have never been in touch with sex work, who are really down to try it but are looking for a safe space. If you face performance anxiety, this doesn’t go in Cybrothel as you are dealing with sex toys, not humans.”

No word if notorious robophobe Matthew Yglesias has commented on this story yet.

IF WE’RE PREOCCUPIED WITH A CIVIL WAR, MAYBE WE’LL GET TO SIT OUT WORLD WAR THREE: Biden to Send Troops to Stop Texas from Protecting the Southern Border.

I LIKE A STORY WITH A HAPPY ENDING: Texas Homeowner Goes WWE on Armed Burglar, Kills Him with Defensive Choke Hold.

READER FAVORITE: SonoHealth EKG Monitor: Capture Heart ECG Metrics On-The-Go. #CommissionEarned

STILL NOT READY FOR PRIMETIME: Hertz halts plan to buy 65,000 electric cars amid EV slump.