memfree

But people in China certainly seem to think this is an example of AI. China Digital Times reports that it wasn’t just the same-sex image that was altered, but the distributor did also cut out some straight sex scenes from the film... As one user implies, the AI is a more sophisticated and “terrifying” form of censorship because smart viewers have figured out ways to get around obvious censorship or can tell the difference, but that’s much harder with AI. Here’s a smattering of some of the comments, sarcasm implied on the last one:

...in the future, we won’t even be able to tell if we’re watching the original film or not.

...This is nauseating because it not only interferes with the integrity of the plot, it disrespects the sexual orientation of the actors....

...Awesome! Next, let’s use one-click AI to re-release “Brokeback Mountain,” “God’s Own Country,” “Lan Yu,” and “Happy Together” as “restored” hetero romances...

I made this up because I was hungry. It worked pretty well, but the bouillon made it a bit too salty.

Ingredients: chicken, noodles, bouillon, vegetables, cheese, onion, garlic, sour cream, spices.

1. Grab a handful of noodles and place in small pot, then cover with water.
2. Start boiling noodles on high while adding bullion.
3. Chop up some onions and garlic and add to pot with whatever veg (I used 1/2 lb frozen green beans). Add more veg than visually makes sense because the noodles will get bigger). Reduce heat.
4. Chop up leftover chicken -- including skin -- and throw in pot. If you have fussy kids, chop skin small enough that it'll blend in. I had leftover rotisserie.
5. Add some cheese and spices once the chicken is warmed up. I used cheddar for color and Herbes de Provence.
6. Turn off heat and gently stir in some sour cream to cool it down. Don't go overboard. Serve in bowl with a grind of pepper on top. Eat with spoon.

Authorities are investigating whether Tyler Robinson, suspected of killing Charlie Kirk, believed Kirk's views on gender identity were "hateful" to people like Robinson's transgender roommate, six sources familiar with the case tell Axios.

• The latest: Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) confirmed Sunday on ABC News' "This Week" that Robinson lived with a romantic partner who was undergoing a gender transition.

• Robinson's roommate is cooperating with authorities, Cox said, but Robinson is not and has not confessed to Kirk's killing.

• The roommate was "aghast" at the slaying when speaking to investigators and shared electronic messages sent by Robinson, one of the sources said.
• "That's what happened? Oh my God, no," the roommate said, according to the source. "Here are all the messages."

Edit: archive: https://archive.ph/tA3jp

I'm pretty sure the largest contribution to whatever greatness the U.S. ever had was due to lack of competition after WWII with the side benefit of imported talent (like Nazi rocket scientists) at that time.

That said, even before WWII we had things like the Civilian Conservation Corps that spent government money to create jobs for erosion control, parks improvement, and the like as a means of mitigating the Great Depression. We taxed the wealthy's income at 63% (later 90%) and paid government employees well.

So WWII ended and U.S. factories were intact while those in Europe were in ruins, but here come the returning G.I.s, getting government support to go to college and buy suburban homes (if you were white). The U.S. got a jump start on industry, science, and technology. We still had the awful state run institutions that hid orphans, disabled, and mentally ill away from the public, so it wasn't a paradise, but I'm not sure abandoning these people to live on the streets is much better, it simply costs less.

All this time, white collar workers tended to work for one company for their whole career, but getting a government job was a good deal. The government wanted to offer competitive salaries (plus paid vacation time, pension, and health care) to attract talent. Industry could outbid a government job, but some people might object to one company or another for personal or ethical reasons, while feeling like the government was a good cause to do good work. I'm not sure, but I feel like Vietnam-era stuff hurt the public opinion of the government.

Anyway, somewhere around the time people started job switching and pensions became less stable, it feels like the government became less interested in setting a standard wage that would let people thrive. Am I wrong? Am I looking at the past with rose tinted glasses?

It feels like better public projects got done when it was government employees rather than subcontractors. It feels like the government went from paying people a fair wage to announcing they were going to cut costs by hiring contractors, but then paid the same amount to have 3rd party workers get much less money while the contractor took a nice slice for themselves.

I distinctly remember NAFTA coming into being and politicians talking about how much cheaper things would be when we could import more easily, and I was thinking "Who wants 'cheap' when this will close your factories?" Turns out, people love 'cheap' more than a decent job or a fair wage.

Meanwhile, I'm wishing the government was investing in more stuff and in its struggling citizens. I don't want the government forcing children into career paths, but I think it'd be nice if it said, "Hey! We think we'll need more doctors soon, so we'll pay for your school if you want to do that." It'd be nice if the government paid a good salary to do things like trash disposal, street cleaning, or whatever. More well paid government jobs would make for better wage competition in the rest of the market, would it not? And would it not work better the more government employees there were?

I'm obviously not an economist nor historian, so feel free to shoot me down where I've got things wrong.

When I can't sleep, I food prep. I decided to share today's results. I've made this vegetarian enchilada recipe before, and found the process for roasting poblanos inferior. I also modified the enchilada ingredients, and wanted a more powerfully poblano sauce. It tasted better before I added too many ingredients, so tonight I experimented by making something more like the title recipe above.

First I roasted the poblanos whole in the oven broiler. Using a gas stove burner or a grill outside also works. Next was the messy part of skinning and seeding them after they had a chance to cool a little in a bag. Image of the result:

I then added everything except sour cream and blended. Food processors or any blender works for this. I used an immersion blender.

After blending, I took a little out before adding sour cream so I could use it in guacamole, which I suddenly decided I should make. So, back to the blender and onto the guac.

I used store bought salsa fresca, more garlic, and red onion. Since guacamole goes bad quickly, I only used 2 avocados and mashed by hand (not blender).

After a good mash, I added lime juice, mixed, then cilantro last so I could stir it in without smashing the delicate leaves. And done! We'll have nachos with guacamole today and use sauce for some unknown dinner.

Excerpts:

Gopaulchan and colleagues selected three women-owned farms in Colombia that grow similar strains of cocoa. Two of the farms produced fine chocolate while the third made bulk chocolate. The researchers measured temperature and pH changes in the fermenting beans and took molecular snapshots of microbes present at each stage of the process.

The researchers put together combinations of bacteria and yeasts and fermented small batches of beans in the lab. Ali and a panel of other expert tasters confirmed that the lab-fermented beans had notes of orange blossom, citrus, berry, tropical fruit and flowers characteristic of fine chocolates from the two Colombian farms and a sample from Madagascar. The lab mix was missing caramel, nut and light wood flavors, and had more grassy notes than the fine chocolates did.

Artificially constructed microbe communities might make too much of the aromatic compounds that flavor the fine chocolates, Dudley says. “Humans have a very sharp boundary for what tastes really good and what tastes awful. And the yeast make the amount of those compounds at exactly that boundary of what humans think is palatable.” Messing with the mixes could cross the line.

Scientists tested lab-grown Escherichia coli biofilms in various environments, including on microplastics, on tiny glass fragments and in cell culture media. They found that pathogens in the plastisphere not only grew faster—reconfirming earlier research—but, importantly, were harder to kill when treated with several different antibiotics. The effects “were significantly larger than what we were expecting,” says Zaman, who was senior author of the study.

So how do antibiotic resistance genes arise on microplastics in the first place? A July study in Scientific Reports investigates one theory: antibiotics can cling to microplastics, too. The study’s authors showed that common antibiotics, such as amoxicillin and tetracycline, stuck to microplastics—and that, the older the microplastics were, the more readily the antibiotics attached to them. As they age, microplastics become rougher and more electrostatic, which makes them even better at trapping antibiotics. The combination of antibiotics and pathogenic bacteria biofilms on microplastics could theoretically drive the evolution of antimicrobial resistance.

While the firing may be challenged in courts, even going up to the Supreme Court, Trump’s firing of Cook puts the central bank of the world’s largest economy in uncharted waters.

For example, it’s unknown whether Cook would have to leave the Fed’s board immediately, and if so, will Trump have the opportunity to nominate someone else to fill her seat.

Per Rachael Maddow, the President does not have the legal authority to fire Cook, but of course we'll have to see who does what.

If Donald Trump was actually serious about fighting crime in cities like Chicago, he, along with his congressional Republicans, would not be cutting over $800 million in public safety and crime prevention grants nationally, including cutting $158 million in funding to Illinois for violence prevention programs that deploy trained outreach workers to deescalate conflict on our streets. Cutting $71 million in law enforcement grants to Illinois, direct money for police departments through programs like Project Safe Neighborhoods, the state and local Antiterrorism Training Program, and the Rural Violent Crime Reduction Initiative, cutting $137 million in child protection measures in Illinois that protect our kids against abuse and neglect.

Trump is defunding the police.

Earlier today in the Oval Office, Donald Trump looked at the assembled cameras and asked for me personally to say, "Mr. President, can you do us the honor of protecting our city?" Instead, I say, "Mr. President, do not come to Chicago."

You are neither wanted here nor needed here. Your remarks about this effort over the last several weeks have betrayed a continuing slip in your mental faculties and are not fit for the auspicious office that you occupy.

Techspot has a table of some known bad VPNs, and concludes:

The report does not speculate heavily on Qihoo 360's motives for concealing ownership of so many free VPN apps, an approach that likely helped boost downloads while avoiding reputational risks. The company, which has well-documented ties to Beijing's communist regime, may have pursued this strategy to minimize costs and maintain deniability.

For more details on the security issues, this is about the same paper: https://cyberinsider.com/vpn-apps-used-by-millions-contain-shared-keys-and-hidden-backdoors/

House Speaker Dustin Burrows told lawmakers that members who broke quorum could only leave the House chamber upon agreeing in writing to be released into the custody of a Texas Department of Public Safety officer tasked with ensuring their return when the House reconvenes at 10 a.m. Wednesday.

Collier, in a text message to the Star-Telegram, said she “did not agree to sign their permission slip to have a DPS officer assigned to follow me around” and said she is not free to leave the Capitol.

"President Trump has decided to withdraw the United States from UNESCO – which supports woke, divisive cultural and social causes that are totally out-of-step with the commonsense policies that Americans voted for in November," White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said.

UNESCO was one of several international bodies Trump withdrew from during his first term, along with the World Health Organization, the Paris Agreement global climate change accord and the U.N. Human Rights Council. During his second term, he has largely reinstated those steps.