Discussion of death and afterlife
I've never bought into the whole heaven/hell thing. But I do believe in reincarnation, having remembered details about a couple of past lives -- details I had no way of knowing about (and this was before the internet). Later in life, my young niece relayed to me details of how she died in a previous life (at around the age of 4) -- something we still talk about to this day. I don't know for certain what happens when we die, but I've never been able to explain what I, and others, have experienced...
Evaluating the Evidence for #Reincarnation: Can deceased people somehow be reborn in a different body?
by Steven Taylor, December 2021
• There are many cases of young children who report very specific details of an apparent past life, which are later verified.
• Some claim that children's reports of past lives could be the result of fraud, imagination, or embellishment.
• One striking case of past-life recall is Ryan Hammons, who made 55 very specific statements about a previous life that were verified.
@AutisticMumTo3 @jmiers230 I know what you meant, I’m just pointing out kids today are way safer on the internet than not. People try to blame it for all the world’s problems & it does contribute somewhat, but we have the choice to turn off the computer & do something else. All the programs out there help keep kids safer, but they also keep kids from critical thinking. I mean after the 20th Nigerian Prince emailed me, I kinda figured out on my own it was a scam
"Strong indications" Putin decided to give separatists in Ukraine missile that downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014, say Dutch investigators https://cnn.it/3Xv50h3
Google and Microsoft's race to add AI chatbots to search results comes loaded with risk; Bing shows results in a sidebar with citations, something Google lacks (Parmy Olson/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-02-08/ai-chatbot-race-between-microsoft-google-is-loaded-with-risk
http://www.techmeme.com/230208/p28#a230208p28
Last night I watched my wife, an assistant professor, spend 30 minutes Googling and practicing the pronunciation of the names of all 25+ students in the graduate class she's teaching.
Rep. Comer, R-KY, just confidently mangled the pronunciation of the names of three of the four witnesses at the Congressional hearing he's chairing today.
Committee chair Rep. James Comer, R-KY, gives extensive lip service to Elon Musk, who he said "has pledged to allow Americans' voices to be heard, not quashed."
Friendly reminder that my colleague @drewharwell is one of several journalists whose accounts are *still* locked by Musk, simply for reporting on Musk's ban of @elonjet.
T-Mobile making unsupportable claims about fixed cellular wireless broadband.
https://potsandpansbyccg.com/2023/02/08/how-good-is-fwa-wireless/
To be perfectly clear: There is zero evidence of collusion between Twitter and the government to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story. Even "Twitter files" author Matt Taibbi acknowledged this. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/02/08/live-updates-hunter-biden-laptop-censorship-hearing/#link-XWMNMKWRVRHY5A4I3CLT26ACLA
The right has been complaining about social media "censorship" for years. One problem: The First Amendment applies to the government, not private firms.
This hearing marks an evolution in the GOP's strategy: alleging "collusion" between Big Tech and Biden. Story by @cqz & @cristianolima: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/02/08/house-republicans-twitter-files-collusion/
Alibaba says it is developing a ChatGPT-style AI tool, currently in internal testing, confirming a news report; Baidu announced its Ernie chatbot on February 6 (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/technology/alibaba-says-it-is-developing-chatgpt-ai-tool-2023-02-08/
http://www.techmeme.com/230208/p25#a230208p25
Google's announcements and demos today, by Prabhakar Raghavan at an event in Paris, fill in more detail to Sundar Pichai's blog post Monday announcing its new AI chatbot, called Bard, which hinted that AI features will be coming to Google search soon. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/02/06/google-bard-chatbot/
Surface rupture in the aftermath of the #earthquakes in #Turkey showing lateral (strike-slip) movement to the left:
"The increased pressure from Republicans has resulted in tech companies 'bending over backward' to accommodate content from right-wing accounts for fear of political reprisal. 'The fact that … people are continuing to bang this drum that there’s anti-conservative bias is really unfortunate, really confusing, and just not true'"
@cqz @cristianolima https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/02/08/house-republicans-twitter-files-collusion/
“The decision to cut people who built the foundation that supports Google’s open source and cloud successes seems incredibly shortsighted.”
https://www.infoworld.com/article/3686511/google-blew-it-with-open-source-layoffs.html
Google details AI updates: expanding multisearch globally on mobile, new features for EV drivers, Lens translation, and updates to Translate (Jay Peters/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/8/23589886/google-search-maps-translate-features-updates-live-from-paris-event
http://www.techmeme.com/230208/p24#a230208p24
Republicans are determined to convince Americans that Big Tech colluded with Democrats to bury the laptop story ahead of the election — evidence be damned. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/twitter-files-hearing-gop-hunter-biden-obsession-1234675292/
Not posted for agreement, if you share please leave my commentary intact, terms and conditions apply.
Like practically every other man, and every other human being regardless of gender, I'm strong in some ways, weak in others. Saying "strong men are ..." anything in particular is part of the problem: it carries with it the implication that men must be strong, in every way and all the time. Well, I feel good when I'm strong, but I'm trying really hard to learn not to beat myself up about weakness. That does nobody any good, not me and not the other people who want me in the world.
Same for other men: our ruthless enforcement of arbitrary rules of masculinity has a lot to do with why we have much higher rates of alcoholism and suicide. I went too far down that road once in my life. I'm not doing it again, and I'm not pushing anyone else down it either.
The older I get, the more I believe there's no real difference between "good man" and "good person who happens to be a man." Good *people* are protective and loving—when they need to be, and also capable of acknowledging when they themselves need protection and love. Good people also, of course, refrain from abuse and spite. When they feel themselves going in that direction, they try to understand what's driving their anger, and open up to the people who love them. The alternative is bottling it up until they lash out, at which point they're no longer good.
Mr. Aleczander's heart is in the right place, I'm sure. I don't criticize him or any man for struggling to reconcile ancient ideas of manhood with overall human decency. Let's all just try not to repeat the same mistakes.
Bing's AI chatbot says Tom Hanks may have broken the Watergate scandal when he was 15
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/02/07/microsoft-bing-chatgpt/ @geoffreyfowler
"It’s hard to imagine a TikTok closely controlled by Chinese censors, for instance, sending 5 million viewers to …someone giving the Chinese balloon two upraised middle fingers …Or allowing hashtags like #chinesespyballoon to surpass 90 million views."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/02/07/tiktok-china-balloon-algorithm/