But wait, should we believe it?

An artificial intelligence warning AI researchers about the dangers of AI sounds like the setup of a delightful B movie, but truth is often stranger than fiction.

A professor and a fellow at the University of Oxford came face to face with that reality when they invited an AI to participate in a debate at the Oxford Union on, you guessed it, the ethics of AI. Specifically, as Dr. Alex Connock and Professor Andrew Stephen explain in the Conversation, the prompt was "This house believes that AI will never be ethical." The AI, it seems, agreed. //

So what should we make of this apparent warning from the silicon realm? Thankfully, not too much. That's because the AI also argued the counterpoint: "AI will be ethical."

"When I look at the way the tech world is going, I see a clear path to a future where AI is used to create something that is better than the best human beings," it continued.

The machines, it would appear, aren't ready to take over quite yet.

Here’s a Fun Number of the Day. I just ran a Web search for “how many federal agencies are there” — and the Internet extruded the number FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SIX (456).

Which may or may not be even close to enough. Behold Wikipedia’s “list of federal agencies in the United States.” Which offers the following hilarious explanation of government’s explanation:

“Legislative definitions of a federal agency are varied, and even contradictory. The official United States Government Manual offers no definition.

“While the Administrative Procedure Act definition of ‘agency’ applies to most executive branch agencies, Congress may define an agency however it chooses in enabling legislation, and subsequent litigation, often involving the Freedom of Information Act and the Government in the Sunshine Act.

“These further cloud attempts to enumerate a list of agencies.”

So government bureaucrats are incapable of defining what they’re building and expanding. But they’re building and expanding all of it anyway. //

“In 1900, there (were) 11 million Americans employed on farms – and 2,900 employed by the USDA. A century later there are 3 million employed on farms – and 105,000 employed by the USDA.” //

Because government does nothing better than redundancy and waste.

While Stern describes the situation in a grossly dishonest way, he reveals the true issue. The argument is about who controls what your children are taught in the way of values. Should you, as a parent, be required to pay taxes to support and send your children to a mandatory system of schooling that indoctrinates your children on issues of race and sexuality and even governance that you find appalling?

Or can you opt-out?

Along the way, Stern confuses the concept of “public education” with a system of state-funded schools. Those things are not the same. Under the case debated by the Supreme Court, a parent can send their child to a state-funded school if they wish. Stern would take that freedom of choice away. In other words, he endorses the position of Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia gubernatorial campaign.

Corey A. DeAngelis
@DeAngelisCorey
Terry McAuliffe: "I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach."

9:58 PM · Oct 26, 2021

Not all airlines follow this sequential pattern. Some are more scattered – and of course, it is not as easy when fleets keep changing. And some airlines have taken a more light-hearted approach. Icelandic airline WOW Air, for example, chose a lovely family series for some of its A320s and A321s – with registrations TF-SIS. TF-BRO. TF-MOM, TF-DAD, TF-KID, and TF-SON (TF is, of course, the prefix code for Iceland).

JERUSALEM, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Israeli researchers said on Saturday they found that a three-shot course of the Pfizer/BioNTech (PFE.N), (22UAy.DE) COVID-19 vaccine provided significant protection against the new Omicron variant.

The findings were similar to those presented by BioNTech and Pfizer earlier in the week, which were an early signal that booster shots could be key to protect against infection from the newly identified variant.

The study, carried out by Sheba Medical Center and the Health Ministry's Central Virology Laboratory, compared the blood of 20 people who had received two vaccine doses 5-6 months earlier to the same number of individuals who had received a booster a month before.

Nayib Bukele 🇸🇻
@nayibbukele
US taxpayers should know that their government is using their money to fund communist movements against a democratic elected (and with a 90% approval rating) government in El Salvador.

It’s not working though 😂

The people of El Salvador won’t go back to that terrible past.
3:27 PM · Dec 12, 2021 //

Nayib Bukele 🇸🇻
@nayibbukele
False accusations?

Is it false that Jean Manes asked me to release Neto Muyshondt (captured in video giving tens of thousands of US dollars to gang members)?

Do you want me to continue?
Brian A. Nichols
@WHAAsstSecty
We condemn @nayibbukele's false accusations against @POTUS and other U.S. government officials, including Ambassador Manes and current Charge d'Affaires Brendan O'Brien.
3:45 PM · Dec 9, 2021 //

What has the US government got itself wrapped up in here? Let’s also note that Bukele, whatever the complaints against him, has actually dramatically decreased the murder rate in El Salvador, and until the pandemic hit, their GDP was rising as well.

I say that to say that the US position here doesn’t make any sense. We work with less than perfect leaders in countries all over the world, including actual dictators. But it’s El Salvador that we want to try to bully over a guy who appears to be legitimately in jail for working with the narcos? Notice that the US has not questioned the validity of charges against Muyshondt. So what exactly is going on here?

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) VigiAccess database lists adverse reactions (ADRs) reported by people after taking a drug or vaccine. It does not confirm that medicinal products or their active ingredients caused any observed symptoms. //

The Facebook user who shared the graph says: “So would you rather take the WHO drug that has just over 5,000 adverse events reported over 20 years or the one the WHO reports has had nearly 2,500,000 adverse events reported in less than 2 years? Asking for a friend… #AxTheVax #MedicalFreedom #WeWillNotComply”

The “WHO drug” they are referring to is ivermectin, which has been written about in numerous previous fact checks //

Firstly, ivermectin is not a “WHO drug” – //

Secondly, although the figures collated in the chart appear to be accurate as of the date it was created (Nov. 12, 2021), VigiAccess data – a web-based tool for searching the WHO’s global database (VigiBase) – only shows potential side effects that have been reported to its Programme for International Drug Monitoring (WHO PIDM) (see the FAQ section www.vigiaccess.org ).

A WHO spokesperson told Reuters in an email: “Information in VigiAccess on potential side effects should not be interpreted as meaning that the medicinal product or its active substance either caused the observed effect or is unsafe to use. Confirming a causal link is a complex process that requires a thorough scientific assessment and detailed evaluation of all available data. The information on this website, therefore, does not reflect any confirmed link between a medicinal product and a side effect.”

They added: “VigiAccess cannot be used to compare the safety profiles of different medicinal products… and VigiAccess cannot provide sufficient context to make such comparisons possible.”

Time Magazine isn’t exactly known for being a news outlet with a lot of love for the good guy. It often awards its “Person of the Year” title to people who are in vogue on the left.

This is the magazine that declared Adolf Hitler was the winner in 1938, then named Joseph Stalin the winner the very next year. In 2011, they named “the protester” the person of the year, and then Greta Thunberg in 2019. To be sure, they’ve put their fair share of Republicans on the cover for the award, but they do it with pretty much all presidents, and being on the cover doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be kind.

But this year they actually made the right decision, and while I would say it was the obvious choice, Time doesn’t always go with who they should.

This year it’s Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, and in this day and age, I’m more than thrilled to see this as their decision. //

This is the man who aspires to save our planet and get us a new one to inhabit: clown, genius, edgelord, visionary, industrialist, showman, cad; a madcap hybrid of Thomas Edison, P.T. Barnum, Andrew Carnegie and Watchmen’s Doctor Manhattan, the brooding, blue-skinned man-god who invents electric cars and moves to Mars. //

What I like is that for the first time in a long time, the “Person of the Year” is someone who is someone who is taking us forward, not backward and that the person doing it is just as weird and human as you are. Musk is the richest man in the world, he’s the CEO of companies that are breaking ground in futuristic tech, but he’s just as liable to fire off a tweet containing an anti-woke meme as he is to create a reusable rocket.

Too often I’m looking around and see people suggest that regression is the way to a better life. They say that sending people into space is a bad idea when we have people in need here on Earth. They push failed governmental systems as the way to achieve a better life. Hell, they even continue to bring back old properties and slap new coats of paint on them.

One wonders how French would have reacted had he met the real Jesus during His time on the earth. The One Who, long before Twitter, said mean things. The One Who had no problem flipping over tables and using a whip to send people running. The One Who alone was given the authority to judge humanity individually and collectively. The One to Whom sinners and prostitutes flocked because He gave them the love “polite” society denied. It’s no stretch to envision French going full Pharisee on Jesus. As to how Jesus would respond … while French’s condescending elitist fluff and nonsense is fair territory for criticism, aside from that? Not for me to say.

Other than to bring up Jude 1:9.

9 But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”[a]

a. Jude 1:9 Jude is alluding to the Jewish Testament of Moses (approximately the first century a.d.).