This is a very engrossing film about the always-fascinating topic of artificial intelligence. There was not a moment when I was not totally absorbed in the story. It is hard to describe without giving too much away so I will just stick to what is shown in the trailer and already discussed extensively in the media.
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I have written before about the case of Barrett Brown, a 34-year old journalist that the US government decided to throw the book at because he, in the manner of Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, exposed some of its wrongdoings. He is now in prison, serving a sentence of 63 months.
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The Affordable Car Act or Obamacare consisted of two parts to assist people getting affordable health insurance. For those who earned above a certain income level, they provided a subsidy in the form of a tax credit to reduce the effective cost to the consumer of the insurance premiums that they could purchase on the insurance exchanges. Last month’s Supreme Court decision settled the issue as to whether federal–run exchanges were also allowed to provide such subsidies by saying that they were.
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Although the legalization of same-sex marriage is a huge advance, it has been pointed out that one is still allowed to discriminate against members of the LGBT community when it comes to employment, housing, and others areas of life where it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of sex, race, or national origin. This was seen as the next frontier in achieving equal rights.
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Martin Longman argues that Jeb Bush seems out of his depth when it comes to knowing what to do about Donald Trump. That seems to be a common for the Republican party as a whole but it is more dangerous for the presumed front-runner and establishment candidate to have such an unpredictable element in the contest.
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports that 2014 was the warmest year on record.
In 2014, the most essential indicators of Earth’s changing climate continued to reflect trends of a warming planet, with several markers such as rising land and ocean temperature, sea levels and greenhouse gases ─ setting new records.
…The report, compiled by NOAA’s Center for Weather and Climate at the National Centers for Environmental Information is based on contributions from 413 scientists from 58 countries around the world.
…The report’s climate indicators show patterns, changes and trends of the global climate system. Examples of the indicators include various types of greenhouse gases; temperatures throughout the atmosphere, ocean, and land; cloud cover; sea level; ocean salinity; sea ice extent; and snow cover. The indicators often reflect many thousands of measurements from multiple independent datasets.
The conventional wisdom on the 2016 presidential race seemed to be settling into the media narrative of a romantic metaphor, that what we are seeing is the supporters of each of the two major parties having a fling with the one who has swept them off their feet with his dashing attitude (Donald Trump for Republicans, Bernie Sanders for the Democrats) before they settle down later with the more boring, sedate, and reliable partner (Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton). Parallels are being drawn to Herman Cain and Howard Dean to suggest that Trump and Sanders will also fade away.
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Like many a parent, when my children were little, I must have read the book Goodnight Moon to them about a million times. As with all such books that required multiple readings, in order to stave off the boredom of repetition, over time I developed a dramatic style and became so absorbed in the theatrical effects that I never noticed all the major problems with the room that The Ugly Volvo points out regarding the nursery room.
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In yesterday’s press conference held by president Obama, much of the attention was naturally paid to the deal reached with Iran. But for reasons that mystify me, US presidents are often asked about other things that have nothing to do with their role in office and, even more mystifyingly, actually answer them instead of asking why the hell they are being asked such random questions.
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Glenn Greenwald writes that he and First Look Media, the parent company that publishes The Intercept that he and others write for, has announced a $60,000 matching gift to help Chelsea Manning in her legal defense. We should never forget Manning’s heroic actions and revelations that preceded those of Edward Snowden, and had such a major positive impact. Her release of the video that showed a US gunship mercilessly and gleefully mowing down Iraqi civilians in the street in broad daylight horrified the world and exposed the brutality of the US occupation.
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