THE NEW SPACE RACE: Japanese Mars mission launch delayed to 2026.
January 13, 2024
BUT THE SCIENCE WAS SETTLED: Seeing Blue at Night May Not Be What’s Keeping You Up After All.
THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST (ARE NOWHERE NEAR THIS CASE): Even Dems Wonder: WTF, Fani? “Fani Willis reportedly having a close personal relationship with the special prosecutor she hired for her case against former President Donald Trump has even Democrats lamenting the impropriety, bad optics, and presentation of political bias.”
BILL ACKMAN HASN’T BACKED DOWN:
The owner of Business Insider Mathias Döpfner engaged in plagiarism for his PhD « XJMR
How’s this for irony? https://t.co/cvG29DQFUq
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) January 13, 2024
SHRINKING IN FEAR: Shrinking in Fear: How PTSD Physically Alters the Brain’s Cerebellum.
SHOCKING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: Scientists discover dopamine at the heart of desire.
Well, in voles, though they make a pretty good model.
BIG BROTHER STRIKES: The Drunk-Driver Detection Tech That Could Soon Take Over Your Car.
WOEING: Cockpit window crack forces ANA Boeing flight in Japan to turn back. “A domestic All Nippon Airways (ANA) flight in Japan has returned to its departure airport after a crack was reported on the cockpit window during the flight. . . . The plane, a Boeing 737, landed back at Sapporo’s New Chitose airport at around 12:10 local time (3:10 GMT).”
THOSE ARE ROOKIE NUMBERS, YOU GOTTA BRING THOSE NUMBERS UP: 2023 Gun Sales Fourth Highest in History. “December was the 53rd straight month with 1 million or more background checks.”
READER FAVORITE: ComfiLife Gel Enhanced Seat Cushion for Desk Chair. #CommissionEarned
CRIMSON ON CRIMSON: Harvard Prof: On Second Thought, Our Extension School Doesn’t Suck. “Yeah, bull****. Hochschild let everyone know exactly what she thinks of HES students in her sneering and ad hominem rejoinder to Christopher Rufo’s legitimate criticisms of Harvard and Claudine Gay. The school’s HES Association certainly heard that message too despite Hochshild’s backtracking in the wake of criticism over her comment, and demanded a more formal and complete apology on Monday.”
UPDATE: From the comments: “What’s great is that what’s going on in the Gay humiliation, the Hochschild backtrack, and the Ackman/BI feud is going to result in the same outcome: the meltdown of prestige credentials, as the gas is let out of the soufflé and it’s all just a runny, messy puddle.”
Plus: “Harvard could have moved on from this weeks ago, but it’s Harvard people prolonging this, giving it more hang time, aggravating the embarrassment and damage. It’s a damn shame.”
BRAINDEAD BIDEN: There Is No Debate—There Will Be No Debates. “The Biden White House is already floating the trial balloons for refusing to debate Trump while concealing the real reason—they know Biden is not longer up to it. He can no longer do press conferences or one-on-one interview with friendly reporters.”
TWENTY MINUTES INTO THE FUTURE: Windows 12: Savior of PC makers, or just an apology for Windows 11? Looking into our crystal ball we can see the end of 2024 will be filled with … AI. So much AI.
WELL, YES: Boeing faces FAA audit after its 737 Max 9 plane’s door plug blew off mid-air: The FAA announced it is ‘increasing oversight’ of the company, a week after the incident. I mean, not super quick off the mark, but . . .
JOE BIDEN: A UNITER, NOT A DIVIDER! Now Democrats Are Accusing Joe Biden of Impeachable Offenses.
On Thursday, the United States joined with the United Kingdom in launching airstrikes in Yemen.
“Today, at my direction, U.S. military forces—together with the United Kingdom and with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands—successfully conducted strikes against a number of targets in Yemen used by Houthi rebels to endanger freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most vital waterways,” Biden said in a statement. “These strikes are in direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea—including the use of anti-ship ballistic missiles for the first time in history. These attacks have endangered U.S. personnel, civilian mariners, and our partners, jeopardized trade, and threatened freedom of navigation.”
There’s just one huge problem: Joe Biden never sought authorization from Congress. And now, lawmakers are blasting Biden for waging an unconstitutional act of war — including Democrats.
“[Joe Biden] is violating Article I of the Constitution by carrying out airstrikes in Yemen without congressional approval,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) said in a post on X/Twitter. “The American people are tired of endless war.”
“The President needs to come to Congress before launching a strike against the Houthis in Yemen and involving us in another middle east conflict,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) agreed. “That is Article I of the Constitution. I will stand up for that regardless of whether a Democrat or Republican is in the White House.”
RIDLEY SCOTT ON NAPOLEON’S BATTLE SCENES: “We wanted to do it without CGI.”
Industrial Light & Magic: Hold our pixels!
DEMOCRAT STILL PARTYING LIKE IT’S 1859: Jerry Nadler Slammed After Claiming ‘Many Illegal Immigrants’ Needed To Pick Vegetables.
OH, CANADA: As renewables fail, electrical grid in Alberta under stress in deep cold.
Meanwhile, back in the States: Will the Texas grid hold up in the freeze? Experts give their confidence scores.
JIM TREACHER: Did Somebody Really Make an AI George Carlin Album?
Hey, wait a second. Doesn’t Will Sasso do impressions?
Well, sort of…
He’s no Fred Travalena. But he can kinda sound like a bunch of people who are more famous than he is.
Does Will Sasso do a George Carlin impression? You know what, I’ll bet he does. I’ll bet that’s what you just heard. I’ll bet it’s no more an AI than Crow T. Robot is.
Here’s how you do it, folks:
Write an hour’s worth of middling Carlin-esque material. Deliver it in your middling Carlin-esque voice. Slap a purposely fake-sounding laugh track over it, and pair it with a bunch of AI-generated images.
Then claim it was all completely generated by an AI, created by some secret startup company that made you sign an NDA so you can’t talk about it. And if people want to know more, they gotta check out your dumb podcast.
Presto! Instant free publicity. Bad press is better than no press, right?
Gotta admit, as cynical as it is, it’s a clever reversal. Instead of an AI that makes you think it’s a human, it’s a human trying to make you think he’s an AI.
Sure, Max Headroom did it 40 frickin’ years ago, but…
Exit questions: “Which scenario is less ethical: Creating an AI to emulate a dead comedian for a cynical cash-grab? Or pretending you created an AI to emulate a dead comedian, also for a cynical cash-grab? Good work, Will Sasso. You proved artificial intelligence isn’t the only thing that can get a lot of press for being mediocre yet vaguely evil.”
NOW OUT FROM ROGER SIMON: American Refugees: The Untold Story of the Mass Migration from Blue to Red States.
