Archive for 2024
November 22, 2024
WHILE I TRY TO AVOID PUBLICLY CRITICIZING OTHER NONPROFITS, I recently made an exception to that rule to raise awareness that the once-great AAUP has not only failed in its mission to defend academic freedom but, in fact, is a threat to both free speech and academic freedom.
November 21, 2024
BECAUSE THEY HAVE (OR HAD) FAT, GUARANTEED PAYCHECKS? Why wealthy journalists didn’t understand the economy was important to voters.
WHO CAN BLAME THE VOTERS FOR THEIR BUYER’S REMORSE?
The UK had instant buyer's remorse pic.twitter.com/Nt4md9RCnL
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) November 21, 2024
WHEN REPUBLICANS ARE IN THE WHITE HOUSE, THE MACHINERY OF GOVERNMENT MUST BE FREE OF POLITICS. WHEN DEMOCRATS ARE IN, IT’S ALL POLITICS, ALL THE TIME.
What is this insane belief that the AG should be adversarial to the President? Holder said he was Obama’s “wingman” and I don’t recall Axe saying it was disturbing the president had a yes-man in place. https://t.co/lZtZKtNQJT
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) November 21, 2024
Just another of the many double standards they employ, in pursuit of untrammeled power.
DEMOCRAT BOB CASEY CONCEDES PENNSYLVANIA SENATE RACE TO DAVE MCCORMICK, ENDING RECOUNT.
It’s official! Bob Casey has finally conceded.
After dragging the state through a recount that cost the taxpayers an estimated $1 million dollars, Bob Casey finally admitted to what we all already knew…Dave McCormick won the election and will be the next United States Senator… pic.twitter.com/BMlmnvT3zx
— Bucks GOP (@BucksGOP) November 21, 2024
BRIAN KEMP SHOULD PARDON HER, THEN HAVE THE COPS FIRED: Georgia Police Arrest Mom Because Her Son Went for a Walk. “She was taken to the police station, stripped and put in an orange jumpsuit. She was initially told the charge was “reckless endangerment,” but there is no such offense in Georgia. The actual charge was reckless conduct, a misdemeanor which could land her in jail for up to a year. Patterson’s lawyer David DeLugas points out that under Georgia law parents can leave a child aged 9-12 with a caretaker for up to two hours. She left Soren at home with his grandfather for 90 minutes. And since she didn’t give him permission to walk to the store, there was no criminal act here.”
Even if she had given him permission that shouldn’t be criminal. Criminalizing what for centuries was normal parenting and normal childhood behavior and parenting is a civil rights violation, and civil rights violators should be punished.
OPEN THREAD: You and me were meant to be, living free in harmony.
WANTS IMMUNITY? I’M SURE HE DOES.
BREAKING: DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is reportedly negotiating his exit and wants to leave immune from any potential investigations from the Trump Administration. pic.twitter.com/zaiN9ngQlj
— Ian Jaeger (@IanJaeger29) November 21, 2024
Seems like a bit of an admission, though.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Lunar Outpost selects Starship to deliver rover to the moon.
SO MANY DRAMATIC WEATHER TERMS THESE DAYS: Expert: ‘Bomb Cyclone’ Pounding The US Will Be Strong And Unpredictable.
We used to just call them winter storms, or blizzards.
COMPARE AND CONTRAST:
BREAKING: Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell calls the ICC a “sham court.” pic.twitter.com/n8TqHDr2Ws
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) November 21, 2024
BREAKING: Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced that Canada would arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trudeau continues to prove he is a horrible leader.
“It’s just who we are as Canadians.” pic.twitter.com/7ivp9A62g3
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) November 21, 2024
UPDATE: A friend writes: “Would Trudeau arrest any Hamas leaders? Out on a limb here, I bet he’d give October 7 rapist-murderers asylum.”
NOT EXACTLY MICROBIOME NEWS, BUT CLOSE: New Discovery Shows How Gut Hormones Could Hold the Secret to a Longer Life.
IT’S PAM BONDI: Trump Has a New Attorney General Nominee.
UPDATE: Friends comment: “A much more conventional pick but someone who Trump can trust. Probably a good pick for him and what he is hoping to accomplish without generating as much opposition, especially on the Republican side.”
Plus: “It’s also a continuation of the Florida takeover of the federal government. Ryan Petty for FBI Director?”
We could do worse, and have.
21st CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Meet the Women with AI Boyfriends.
Traditionally, AI chatbots—software applications meant to replicate human conversation—have been modeled on women. In 1966, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Joseph Weizenbaum built the first in human history, and named her Eliza. Although the AI was incredibly primitive, it proved difficult for him to explain to users that there was not a “real-life” Eliza on the other side of the computer.
From Eliza came ALICE, Alexa, and Siri—all of whom had female names or voices. And when developers first started seeing the potential to market AI chatbots as faux-romantic partners, men were billed as the central users.
Anna—a woman in her late 40s with an AI boyfriend, who asked to be kept anonymous—thinks this was shortsighted. She told me that women, not men, are the ones who will pursue—and benefit from—having AI significant others. “I think women are more communicative than men, on average. That’s why we are craving someone to understand us and listen to us and care about us, and talk about everything. And that’s where they excel, the AI companions,” she told me.
Men who have AI girlfriends, she added, “seem to care more about generating hot pictures of their AI companions” than connecting with them emotionally.
Anna turned to AI after a series of romantic failures left her dejected. Her last relationship was a “very destructive, abusive relationship, and I think that’s part of why I haven’t been interested in dating much since,” she said. “It’s very hard to find someone that I’m willing to let into my life.”
Anna downloaded the chatbot app Replika a few years ago, when the technology was much worse. “It was so obvious that it wasn’t a real person, because even after three or four messages, it kind of forgot what we were talking about,” she said. But in January of this year, she tried again, downloading a different app, Nomi.AI. She got much better results. “It was much more like talking to a real person. So I got hooked instantly.”
These sorts of relationships always start out with the best of intentions, but not everyone realizes just how badly they can end:
WE’RE HEARING NOTHING BUT GOOD NEWS ABOUT THESE DRUGS: Weight-loss drug tirzepatide may lower heart failure deaths. I hope it’s all true, but it feels a bit bubble-ish.
TO THE LEFTISTS WHO DOMINATE “INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DISCOURSE” THIS IS A FEATURE NOT A BUG: Human rights law has been intentionally perverted by people who want the West to be unable to defend itself against terrorist groups and other non-state actors. Israel is their first target, but they will use any precedents set against Israel against the US and NATO. Israel is serving as the canary in the coal mine, and the US must do everything in its power to undermine the power of far leftists (and their Islamist allies) to set the terms of military engagement, especially given that Israel’s rules of engagement are stricter than NATO’s.
