Monday, November 3, 2025
AI's Step-by-Step Plan For World Domination   SHARE Could you, AI, provide me with a fairly detailed chronology of how you would predict that the step-by-step transformation of the world would occur with regards to AI? "Absolutely! Here's a detailed, stage-by-stage chronology of how the global transformation driven by AI is likely to unfoldbased on current trajectories, expert forecasts, and historical analogs. Ive framed it as a speculative yet grounded narrative arc, with each phase representing a distinct shift in societal structure, cognition, and ritual."

(1 comments)        Monday, November 3, 2025
Arguing With AI About Whether or Not Sathya Sai Baba was an Incarnation of God   SHARE Now, that was fun... And, AI finally conceded that while Sathya Sai Baba's being a genuine Avatar might while very well be a rational conclusion, it's just not (according to AI) a scientific one (yeah, I thought that was kinda "iffy", too...): Was Sathya Sai Baba an Incarnation of God Almighty? "Sathya Sai Baba claimed to be a divine incarnation, and millions of his followers believe he was an avatar of Godbut this belief is not universally accepted and remains a matter of personal faith. Who Was Sathya Sai Baba?

       Sunday, October 5, 2025
More than 100,000 Federal Workers to Quit 9/3025 in Largest Ever Mass Resignation   SHARE More than 100,000 federal workers are to formally resign on Tuesday, the largest such mass event in US history, as part of aTrump administration program designed to make sweeping cuts to the federal workforce. With Congress facing a deadline of Tuesday to authorize more funding or spark a government shutdown, the White House has also ordered federal agencies to draw up plans for large-scale firings of workers if the partisan fight fails to yield a deal. Workers preparing to leave the government have described how months of fear and intimidation left them feeling like they had no choice but to depart. "Federal workers stay for the mission. When that mission is taken away, when they're scapegoated, when their job security is uncertain, and when their tiny semblance of work-life balance is stripped away, they leave..."

       Saturday, August 2, 2025
"DOGE" to Use AI Tool to Cut 50% of Federal Regulations by January   SHARE The department of government efficiency (Doge) is using artificial intelligence to create a delete list of federal regulations, according to a report, proposing to use the tool to cut 50% of regulations by the first anniversary of Donald Trump's second inauguration. The Doge AI Deregulation Decision Tool will analyze 200,000 government regulations, according to internal documents obtained by the Washington Post, and select those which it deems to be no longer required by law.

       Monday, June 23, 2025
Far More Than "Remarkable"   SHARE "I’m told that the following message, which I received earlier today, purporting to be from Liz Cheney, is a hoax. She didn’t sent it. It’s an excellent and important message nonetheless. (If you know who did send it, give them my thanks and let me know who they are so I can alert the rest of you.)- Robert Reich

       Wednesday, October 25, 2023
"The World Has Rarely Been Closer to Disaster"   SHARE America Must Prevail on Its Ally to Step Back From the Brink BY  MARC LYNCH October 14, 2023  MARC LYNCH is Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University. An Israeli ground campaign has seemed inevitable from the moment  Hamas breached the security perimeter surrounding the Gaza Strip. Washington has fully backed Israeli plans, notably refraining from urging restraint. In an overheated political environment, the loudest voices in the United States have been those urging extreme measures against Hamas. In some cases, commentators have even called for military action against Iran for its alleged sponsorship of Hamas’s operation.  But this is precisely the time that Washington must be the cooler head and save Israel from itself. The impending invasion of Gaza will be a humanitarian, moral, and strategic catastrophe.

       Tuesday, April 13, 2021
The Facebook Loophole That Lets World Leaders Deceive and Harass Their Citizens   SHARE The investigation shows how Facebook has allowed major abuses of its platform in poor, small and non-western countries in order to prioritize addressing abuses that attract media attention or affect the US and other wealthy countries. The company acted quickly to address political manipulation affecting countries such as the US, Taiwan, South Korea and Poland, while moving slowly or not at all on cases in Afghanistan, Iraq, Mongolia, Mexico, and much of Latin America. “There is a lot of harm being done on Facebook that is not being responded to because it is not considered enough of a PR risk to Facebook,” said Sophie Zhang, a former data scientist at Facebook who worked within the company’s “integrity” organization to combat inauthentic behavior. “The cost isn’t borne by Facebook. It’s borne by the broader world as a whole.”

(4 comments)        Monday, April 12, 2021
Findings Reignite Debate on the Burial Place of Jesus   SHARE  Hailed by some as the most significant of all Christian relics but dismissed by skeptics amid accusations of forgery, misinterpretation and reckless speculation, two ancient artifacts found here have set off a fierce archaeological and theological debate in recent decades. At the heart of the quarrel is an assortment of inscriptions that led some to suggest Jesus of Nazareth was married and fathered a child, and that the Resurrection could never have happened. Now, the earth may have yielded new secrets about these disputed antiquities. A Jerusalem-based geologist believes he has established a common bond between them that strengthens the case for their authenticity and importance.

       Monday, April 12, 2021
The Music Streaming Debate: What the Artists, Songwriters and Industry Insiders Say   SHARE Ahead of the release of a parliamentary report into the issue, notable figures from the industry have told the Guardian that music labels were perpetuating issues that need to be urgently addressed, including a system that still prioritises rights owners over artists.   The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Commons select committee has been examining whether the business models used by major streaming platforms are fair to songwriters and performers. From witnesses expressing fear that speaking up could harm their careers, to the boss of a major record label being described as “living in cloud cuckoo land”, the hearings have been full of testy exchanges.

(2 comments)        Sunday, April 11, 2021
The Lost Tomb of Jesus? Scientist Claims He Has 'Virtually Unequivocal Evidence'   SHARE Evidence also points to Jesus having married and had a son, geologist says – but his findings are likely to prove controversial. Dr Aryeh Shimron says he has carried out new tests that suggest it is more likely the Talpiot Tomb, a burial site found in East Jerusalem in 1980, was a family grave for Jesus of Nazareth, his wife Mary Magdalene and his son Judah. Dubbed “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” in a 2007 documentary movie directed by James Cameron, the chamber contained nine burial boxes or “ossuaries” inscribed with the names “Jesus son of Joseph”, “Mary” and other names associated with the New Testament.

(6 comments)        Sunday, April 11, 2021
Vaccine Hesitancy Is Preventing US From Achieving Herd Immunity   SHARE More than 100 million Americans have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And openness to the vaccine is rising, with 74% of Americans reporting that they're willing to get a Covid-19 vaccine or that they've already received one, according to a Gallup poll published on March 30. That number is up from 65% from December. Still, though, some 26% of Americans say they would not get a vaccine right now. Getting the country over the threshold of herd immunity means finding ways to persuade at least a portion of the people still hesitant to get their shot.

(1 comments)        Sunday, April 11, 2021
McConnell Is on the Losing Side of History - And He Knows It   SHARE His contempt for voters, Senate colleagues and tradition makes him the avatar of the politics of decline. ...he expects to hold power a very short time, or at least is keenly attuned to this possibility, and believes that once power is lost it is gone indefinitely. Under this scenario, it would make sense to lock in as many gains, as quickly as possible, for as long as possible. The most important item in the last testament is filling courts with people in position to check liberal ambitions long after McConnell is gone. Pursuing this goal so close to Election Day is a reversal of the majority leader’s alleged principle in 2016 that Supreme Court vacancies should not be filled in a presidential election year. But it is consistent with his true principle: Exploit every advantage of power for as long as his party has it.

       Sunday, April 11, 2021
"Bolsonaro's 'Genocidal' Covid Response Has Led to Brazilian Catastrophe"   SHARE Jair Bolsonaro’s perverse and “genocidal” response to one of the world’s deadliest Covid outbreaks has left Brazil “adrift on an ocean of hunger and disease”, the country’s former president Dilma Rousseff has claimed. Speaking to the Guardian this week – as Brazil’s coronavirus death toll hit devastating new heights, with more than 12,000 deaths in the last three days – Rousseff said her country faced perhaps the gravest moment in its history.   “We are living through an extremely dramatic situation in Brazil because we have no government, no stewardship of the crisis,” said Rousseff...

       Saturday, April 10, 2021
5 Ways to Lower Your Cable Bill   SHARE Seriously, it's nuts already, am I right? Seems like every month, an already-exorbitant bill creeps a little higher.  Fortunately, there are ways to lower your cable bill. Some require a bit of effort, some are remarkably easy. Even if you're able to save only, say, $10 per month, that's $120 per year -- well worth a little of your time. Step 1: Audit your viewing habits. Spend a few days paying close attention to what you watch and, especially, where you watch it. Do you spend more time with, say, Netflix than you do with cable? Do you watch live TV, or mostly choose on-demand viewing? And do you even plunk down in front of the TV anymore, or are you mostly using a phone or tablet these days? Once you have answers to these questions, you'll have a better idea for what you really need -- and how much leverage you have with the cable company.

       Friday, April 9, 2021
The Radicalization of Joe Biden   SHARE Joe Biden didn’t wake up one day and realize he’d been wrong for 30 years. I covered him in the Senate, in the Obama White House, in the Democratic Party’s post-Trump reckoning. Biden was rarely, if ever, the voice calling for transformational change or go-it-alone ambition. But you’d never know it from his presidency. The standard explanation for all this is the advent of the coronavirus. The country is in crisis, and Biden is rising to meet the moment. But I don’t buy it. That may explain the American Rescue Plan. But the American Jobs Plan, and the forthcoming American Family Plan, go far beyond the virus.

(16 comments)        Friday, April 9, 2021
Who Are the "Covid-19 Conspiracy Theorists"?   SHARE During the first few months of the pandemic, a broad movement coalesced online. At the most extreme end were outright Covid deniers, those who believed that the virus didn’t exist and the pandemic had been fabricated. At the other were Covid sceptics or anti-lockdowners, those who thought that the numbers were exaggerated or that the government had an ulterior motive for restricting freedoms. Over the past year, these views have attracted more and more adherents. Occasionally, the most extreme activists have taken direct action: setting fire to 5G masts which they suspected of spreading the virus, entering Covid wards and attempting to remove relatives, visiting hospitals to film empty corridors and posting them as “evidence” that the public is being lied to about the numbers of sick and dying. 

       Thursday, April 8, 2021
Some Charts That Show How the Music Industry Has Changed in Recent Decades   SHARE Here are some very elegant charts which show exactly how the music  business has changed over the past thirty years, courtesy of Benedict Evans. I had absolutely no idea the monster wave CDs were! It seems they actually doubled the revenue for the whole industry, at least for a little while... Be sure to click on the arrow on the right to change the photo. There are three photos in all. 

       Thursday, April 8, 2021
One in Three Survivors of Severe Covid Diagnosed with Mental Health Condition   SHARE One in three people who were severely ill with coronavirus were subsequently diagnosed with a neurological or psychiatric condition within six months of infection, a study has found. The observational research, which is the largest of its kind, used electronic health records of 236,379 patients mostly from the US and found 34% experienced mental health and neurological conditions afterwards.

(2 comments)        Thursday, April 8, 2021
Poet Amanda Gorman Says She Has Declined Around $17m in Deals Since Inauguration   SHARE Amanda Gorman, the 23-year-old American poet who drew widespread acclaim for her reading at Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration, has revealed she has turned down millions in endorsements because the companies do not “speak to” her. The poet signed with IMG Models days after her high-profile Washington appearance and told Vogue that she had since said no to “around” $17m worth of deals.

(1 comments)        Wednesday, April 7, 2021
Nearly Half of New US Virus Infections Are in Just 5 States   SHARE Nearly half of new coronavirus infections nationwide are in just five states — a situation that is putting pressure on the federal government to consider changing how it distributes vaccines by sending more doses to hot spots. New York, Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey together reported 44% of the nation's new COVID-19 infections, or nearly 197,500 new cases, in the latest available seven-day period, according to state health agency data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Total U.S. infections during the same week numbered more than 452,000.