AIs Won’t Command Us to Obey. They Will Seduce Us.

(FEE) – I just finished listening to Stephen Wolfram’s  three-part podcast titled “The Future of AI and Civilization.” If you have any interest in Artificial Intelligence and are not familiar with Wolfram’s work, you should look into it. Genius polymath, creator of Mathematica, Wolfram|Alpha and the Wolfram Language, the author of A New Kind of Science, and the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research, Wolfram is probably the smartest guy I’ve ever met. The Slow Seduction What makes his stream-of-consciousness podcast so fascinating is listening to Wolfram think out loud about where…

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Five Peculiar Soviet Cartoons for the Holidays

(EAN) – Since it’s that time of year again, readers with (or without) an interest in the Soviet Union could use recommendations for Soviet cartoons to watch over the holidays that are the antithesis of the usual Santa-Claus fare. An outlet for entertainment, propaganda, social commentary and artistic expression, animation was a huge business in the USSR. Arguably, animated films can tell more about the Soviet Union than some history books. Many of them continue to exert vast cultural influence to this day. The list below attempts to look beyond…

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US Foreign Aid: Bad for America, Bad for the World

(Garrison) – Ahead of a vote in the United Nations’ General Assembly on a resolution condemning US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital,  president Donald Trump and UN ambassador Nikki Haley threatened states voting for the resolution with the loss of US financial aid. “We’re watching those votes” said Trump. “Let them vote against us, we’ll save a lot. We don’t care. But this isn’t like it used to be where they could vote against you and then you pay them hundreds of millions of dollars and nobody knows what…

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Open Immigration Is Good for the Health of People and the Economy

(FEE) – What do Albert Einstein, Salvador Dali, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Freddie Mercury have in common? They were all refugees who made extraordinary contributions to their fields. Societies who welcome refugees and migrants benefit from their contributions and the jobs they create. Opening our doors to migrants, rather than detaining them on Manus Island or elsewhere, would make us far wealthier.Detaining Refugees Australia and the West have a troubled history of dealing with refugees, largely because of community concerns about their impact. From the 80,000 refugee visas issued annually…

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US Life Expectancy Drops for Second Year in a Row as Drug Deaths Spike

United States (Sputnik) – Health researchers are ringing the alarm as life expectancy in the US dropped for the second year in a row, a trend that has ended the steady rise of longevity that started in 1963. The cause? The opioid epidemic, among other things. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, a baby born in the United States in 2016 can expect to live 78.6 years — a decline of almost a month compared to 2015 and two months compared to 2014. “One undeniable culprit is the opioid epidemic, which is cutting down young adults at alarming and increasing…

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A ‘Detainee of All Eras’: The Prominent Case of Egyptian Activist Alaa Abdelfattah

Egyptian Activist and Blogger Alaa Abdelfattah. Source: screenshot from Youtube video. (GV) – Egypt’s wide-scale systematic arrests of political dissidents have allowed for full government control over a country of more than 100 million citizens. Orchestrated by Egyptian President Abdelfattah El Sisi, the imprisonment of opposition bloggers and political activists has become daily news, turning justice into a political arena pitting opponents against the regime. The case of Egyptian tech-savvy and political activist Alaa Abdelfattah has recently stirred an outrage because Abdelfattah has been imprisoned since 2013 and yet he now faces new…

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Tracking Santa and more – DARPA Continue’s HO HO HO-liday Team-Up

(DARPA) – DARPA’s High-speed Optimized Handling of Holiday Operations (HO HO HO) initiative is celebrating its fourth anniversary this year, and the Agency is proud to continue its tradition of sharing breakthrough technologies to help Santa Claus and his elves more quickly and efficiently complete their holiday duties. This year, Santa and his North Pole crew have been granted special access to research tools from the following DARPA programs: Wearable prototype technologies from the Targeted Neuroplasticity Training (TNT) program to help Santa more quickly and effectively prepare for his big night TNT seeks to identify…

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DEA Operation Played Hidden Role in the Disappearance of Five Innocent Mexicans

Monterrey, Mexico (ProPublica) – At about 2 a.m. on April 21, 2010, a convoy of gunmen working for the Zetas drug cartel, one of the most violent drug trafficking organizations in the world, rolled into Monterrey, Mexico, a wealthy, bustling city considered that country’s commercial capital. With brazen efficiency, they set up roadblocks at all major thoroughfares, then sent a convoy of sport utility vehicles downtown, encircling a Holiday Inn. The heavily armed men, some wearing ski masks, swarmed into the hotel’s lobby and rushed directly to the fifth floor, bursting into…

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After Moore, the Deluge

United States (OW) – The defeat of Roy Moore in the Alabama senate race tells us something about voters. Women — especially black women — made the difference. Some 57 percent of Alabamian women voted against Moore, while 56 percent of mostly white men stuck with him. That also tells us something about the Grand Old Pedophile Party (no need to say more). The election raised the national consciousness about the sexual predation, harassment, and assault that’s still woven deep into the fabric of our society. It starts with demeaning…

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A Looming Crisis for Turkey’s President

(FPIF) – Viewed one way, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan looks unassailable. He weathered last year’s coup attempt, jailed more than 50,000 opponents, fired more than 100,000 civil servants, beheaded the once powerful Turkish military, eviscerated much of his parliamentary opposition, dismissed almost half of the county’s elected officials, and rammed through a constitutional referendum that will make him an all-powerful executive following the 2019 election. In the meantime, a seemingly never-ending state of emergency allows him to rule by decree. So why is the man running scared? Because the…

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