Day: August 11, 2023

Merit to the Garland: Hunter Biden special prosecutor appointment

Political earthquake Friday.. ? Or just a small shake..

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday said the federal prosecutor who has filed criminal charges against President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, would get additional authority to investigate whether the son engaged in improper business dealings.

Garland’s elevation of prosecutor David Weiss to special counsel comes as Republicans in Congress threaten an impeachment inquiry into unproven claims that Biden benefited from his son’s business ventures.

Covid cases suddenly skyrocket

Right now cases globally rise 80%​.. but deaths currently fall 57%..

Right now cases globally rise 80%.. but deaths currently fall 57%..

The WHO declared in May that Covid is no longer a global health emergency, but has warned that the virus will continue to circulate and mutate, causing occasional spikes in infections, hospitalisations and deaths.

In its weekly update, the UN agency said that nations reported nearly 1.5 million new cases from July 10 to August 6, an 80 percent increase compared to the previous 28 days.

However the number of deaths fell by 57 percent to 2,500.

The WHO warned that the reported number of cases and deaths do not reflect the true numbers, in part because countries carry out far less testing and monitoring than during earlier stages of the pandemic.

Many of the new cases came in the Western Pacific region, which saw infections jump by 137 percent, the WHO said.

Scientists may be on brink of discovering fifth force of nature!

Dr Mitesh Patel, from Imperial College London, said: “We’re talking about a fifth force because we can’t necessarily explain the behaviour [in these experiments] with the four we know about.”

The data comes from experiments at the Fermilab US particle accelerator facility, which explored how subatomic particles called muons – similar to electrons but about 200 times heavier – move in a magnetic field.

Patel says the muons behave a bit like a child’s spinning top, in rotating around the axis of the magnetic field. However, as the muons move, they wobble. The frequency of that wobble can be predicted by the standard model.

— Read on www.theguardian.com/science/2023/aug/11/scientists-fifth-force-nature

News Corp using AI to produce 3,000 Australian local news stories a week

Okay.. are we good with this? Are we comfortable with this?

Are we fine and dandy with AI technology reporting on local news sports and weather ?

This is not testing ground anymore it’s happening. We are about to be on a collision with destiny .. what will the ole yellow gum shoes think? The beat reporters that found truth?

But who killed journalism? AI technology? Or maybe lousy journalism killed journalism.

Poor reporting. Poor quality. 7th grade writing that is no better now than kindergarten.

If reporters are mad at AI, they need to find a mirror and take a good look..

News Corp Australia is producing 3,000 articles a week using generative artificial intelligence, executive chair Michael Miller has revealed.

Miller told the World News Media Congress in Taipei that a team of four staff use the technology to generate thousands of local stories each week on weather, fuel prices and traffic conditions, according to a report in Mediaweek.

The unit, Data Local, is led by News Corp’s data journalism editor Peter Judd and many of the stories carry his byline.
— Read on www.theguardian.com/media/2023/aug/01/news-corp-ai-chat-gpt-stories

Facial recognition in Detroit to remain in use after police commissioners vote despite errors

Ultimately the vote failed and the technology will continue to be used–despite innocent people being swept up in error by technology..

By a vote of 5-3 Thursday night with two people abstaining, a measure to suspend the use of facial recognition for a year was shot down.

The technology has come under fire this week after a lawsuit filed against the department claims facial recognition led to the false arrest of a Detroit woman who was 8 months pregnant.
— Read on www.wxyz.com/news/facial-recognition-technology-in-detroit-to-remain-in-use-after-commissioners-vote

They are going to try again!

Hollywood is still on hold but talks are resuming. No one seems to hold much hope for them to bring back the industry yet..

The WGA and the AMPTP have agreed to resume bargaining for a deal that could end the guild’s ongoing strike.

In a message to members Thursday, the guild said that Carol Lombardini, president of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, “has asked the WGA Negotiating Committee to meet with AMPTP negotiators on Friday. We expect the AMPTP to provide responses to WGA proposals.”

“Our committee returns to the bargaining table ready to make a fair deal, knowing the unified WGA membership stands behind us and buoyed by the ongoing support of our union allies,” the guild said.