Swarovski AX Visio, billed as first "smart binoculars," names species and tracks location.
Last week, Austria-based Swarovski Optik introduced the AX Visio 10x32 binoculars, which the company says can identify over 9,000 species of birds and mammals using image recognition technology. The company is calling the product the world's first "smart binoculars," and they come with a hefty price tag—$4,799.
Kevin Kiley @KevinKileyCA
·
It's official. Gavin Newsom's war on workers has just been taken national by Biden and Julie Su. They've announced an "Independent Contractor" rule based on California's notorious AB 5 law. It will put millions of Americans out of work.
Here are some of the reviews AB 5 received… Show more
1:28 PM · Jan 9, 2024
That's a conservative estimate. Since 2022, there are 57.3 million Americans who consider themselves freelancers, independent contractors, self-employed, or entrepreneurs. The legacy media's tendency to lump all of these categories under the "gig" economy simply frames it in people's minds as technology or rideshare; but these are your dental hygienist, your child's soccer coach, fabricators, farriers, and home health care providers, to name just a few. Over 600 professions have been identified that would be upended or outright eliminated when this DOL IC Rule takes effect. //
The Independent Contractor Rule was recorded in the federal register on January 10, 2024, and is scheduled to take effect on March 10, 2024. It is 339 pages of essentially the Department of Labor justifying why independent contractors should not be allowed to exist. The rule acts from the premise that independent contractors have no right to determine whether they are independent or an employee. It is the DOL's job to do that for you. //
The term "economic reality" appears 345 times within the Rule as one of the means to deny an independent contractor their right to earn money as they choose. It's positively chilling, and if Americans refused to pay attention when California independent professionals raised the alarm on AB5, then they very well need to pay attention now. //
Kevin Kiley @KevinKileyCA
·
We are using every possible tool to stop the Biden-Su "Independent Contractor" rule from destroying the livelihoods of millions of Americans:
First, I'm introducing legislation under the Congressional Review Act to nullify it. This is a fast-track procedure for overriding an… Show more
11:16 AM · Jan 12, 2024
In many ways, Johnson didn’t bail out Democrats from a tough political predicament as much as he did his own Republican members.
Climate change is big news these days, from melting mountain glaciers to warming seas. But is the buildup of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere leading to a crisis?
That was the question at the core of a recent Oxford-style debate called Intelligence Squared U.S. The series is based on the Intelligence Squared program that began in London in 2002. Three experts argue in favor of a motion; three others argue against it.
In this debate, the proposition was: "Global Warming Is Not a Crisis." In a vote before the debate, about 30 percent of the audience agreed with the motion, while 57 percent were against and 13 percent undecided. The debate seemed to affect a number of people: Afterward, about 46 percent agreed with the motion, roughly 42 percent were opposed and about 12 percent were undecided.
- FOR: Michael Crichton, Richard S. Lindzen, Philip Stott
- AGAINST: Brenda Ekwurzel, Gavin Schmidt, Richard C.J. Somerville
Regardless of its form, Big Tech’s prolonged addiction to censorship reveals a market failure. In other industries, the remedy would be competition. If barred from one road on the way to work, why not take another? Due to network effects and myriad anti-competitive practices, a small number of successful social media companies today function as oligopolies, able to work together to throttle your access to all viable roads at their discretion. Twitter bypassed the censorship problem because an eccentric billionaire mortgaged himself for his beliefs. We should not expect more calvary like Elon Musk in the Silicon Valley. //
Perhaps the most important assumption in these questions that could decide this case is, whose speech is whose on social media? When Grandma posts on Facebook, does the statement belong to her as the author or to the website as a publisher whose algorithm inserted it into your feed? NetChoice argues that Grandma’s story belongs to Facebook and, therefore, Facebook receives First Amendment rights for choosing to feature or censor her comments through its editorial discretion. //
However, even if the vast majority of Americans are incorrect and social media websites can claim your speech as their own to protect their right to censor, these companies are hypocrites every time they invoke what is called Section 230 to protect themselves. This is a 1996 statute meant to shield nascent online platforms from the liabilities of being a publisher. For example, if something illegal was posted on Myspace, the website was protected because it was not Myspace’s speech.
Yet today, Big Tech is telling us that they deserve to have it both ways—that posts on social media are simultaneously the platforms’ (to benefit from First Amendment protections) and not the platforms’ (to benefit from Section 230 protections).
If no other institution, logic, or physical law of the universe has this sort of bold inconsistency, I am skeptical of Big Tech’s entitlement to it. Only last year, Google was in the Supreme Court arguing that YouTube’s targeted recommendations to users were not editorial speech and, therefore, merited Section 230 protections, contradicting this year’s NetChoice legal arguments.
“Hungarians told me over and over, ‘the rhetoric coming out of the United States reminds us of our Soviet era,’” Bradley-Farrell recalled. “And the more I dug into that, the more that I realized that the things that we’re dealing with here and the so-called progressive agenda, the woke agenda, the Biden administration, they’re directly out of the playbook of communism,” she says.
As a deeply religious and freedom-loving nation, Hungary—which came out from under Soviet oppression in 1991—has long looked to America as a “light on a … hill,” Bradley-Farrell says. But Hungary is not a model for America because “America and our Constitution, our founding, is the model for the world,” she says.
However, “our Hungarian friends, the people that care about us, are saying, ‘Hey, your rhetoric is communist. You guys need to wake up, because you’re about to lose what we loved about you.’”
In her new book, “Last Warning to the West: Hungary’s Triumph Over Communism and the Woke Agenda,” Bradley-Farrell outlines a road map for how America can change course and learn from our friends in Hungary at this moment in history.
Just 23% of Haley supporters say they would vote for Trump in a matchup with Biden. The plurality of Haley supporters, 43%, would vote for Biden instead. //
Chris Paige
2 hours ago
Nope, you're reading that poll wrong: what it says is that Haley's supporters are Ds who either will not or cannot admit they're Ds. The last thing we should want as a nominee is someone who is preferred by Biden voters (you're guaranteeing ZERO enthusiasm &, even if by some miracle you win, you're guaranteeing that she'll be a RINO in office). These people don't agree w/ us on anything, so why should we put them in office? Better to run them out of the party for the same reason & in the same way that the Whigs always lost & the GOP won - trying to hold the pro slavery Whigs in the party was just doomed to failure; we had to get rid of them & we need to get rid of Haley's people. This is addition by subtraction (just like when we rid ourselves of pro slavery Whigs). //
afeblue32
2 hours ago
All that tells me is 1) Democrats are looking for anyone else, and 2) Nikki Haley appeals to Democrats.
Current and elected members of the Guatemalan Congress have reported that they have been intimidated and are currently being preassured by US Embassy personnel with visa removals, business blockades and other sanctions if they do not vote to elect a specific candidate as Speaker of the House. They have gone as far as using an employee of UN-Women to communicate that the US knows where they and their families live. //
It's interesting that Jovel says "they have gone as far as using an employee of UN-Women to communicate that the US knows where they and their families live," given that Attorney General Porras has been working to dismantle institutional corruption involving the UN. //
Mike Lee @BasedMikeLee
·
Why is @CBP holding Alejandro Giammatei for questioning at the airport in Miami? Could it have anything to do with this administration’s chronic disdain for his father, the conservative former president of Guatemala, who completed his term of office today?
Last edited
10:25 PM · Jan 14, 2024 //
Former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell added that the younger Giammattei had an approved form to enter the United States when he left Guatemala.
He had an approved form. But today, his status changed when he landed in Miami. Did @PowerUSAID ask for his late denial? Did the U.S. Embassy? Did Todd Robinson?
For this 2024 refresh, I tested, re-tested, tasted and built box-forts with more than 21 meal delivery services, ranging from plant-based to protein-packed, fresh to flash-frozen.
My conclusion? There’s truly a meal kit for everyone, many with exclusive New York Post deals running all the time for new users and specials for true meal kit masters. They range in skill level just as much as they range in dietary preferences, price and serving size to fit every household.
The Federal Aviation Administration is actively recruiting workers who suffer “severe intellectual” disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website.
LordP666 said:
I think everyone is vastly overthinking AI.
In my opinion all we need are smart individual devices with built in AI.
Take a smart lamp - all it needs to know is it's name, it must recognize your voice, and what it must do:
Lampy McLampface, Level 2
That's it! If a thief breaks in he can suck eggs because he can't turn on a lamp or anything else. He can steal the lamp, but again...eggs, because Lampy will miss his owner and never turn on for anyone else.
How about a car? A thief gets in the car and he says Fordy McFordface "Start", and Fordy says "screw you thief, you are not the boss of me" and starts honking his horn while locking the doors.
Smart devices need to be more like very loyal dogs. ///
Best a/i comment ever
jester6
2 hours ago
One thing that always makes me chuckle is the folks on the left will do something that breaks the social contract (like block traffic, or heckle, or spray paint a building) and still expect their oppoents will still abide by the social contract.
"Don't f'in touch me, don't f'in touch me"
He is lucky they didn't throw a punch.
The Federal Aviation Administration is actively recruiting workers who suffer "severe intellectual" disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website.
"Targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the Federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring," the FAA’s website states. "They include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism."
The initiative is part of the FAA’s "Diversity and Inclusion" hiring plan, which claims "diversity is integral to achieving FAA's mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel across our nation and beyond." The FAA’s website shows the agency’s guidelines on diversity hiring were last updated on March 23, 2022. //
At what, precisely, does the FAA plan to put these people to work doing? It's safe to assume that by "severe intellectual disability," one means at best a substandard IQ, if not an outright inability to function in any organized workplace; //
The FAA - who I remind you, is responsible for ensuring safe air travel - is planning to ramp up hiring of those with "psychiatric disabilities." What kind of psychiatric disabilities? Sociopathy, I would posit, is a psychiatric disability, as is schizophrenia or "other psychotic disorders," bipolar disorder, or manic-depressive disorder. Surely the FAA isn't going to be hiring people with these kinds of disorders to do, well, anything the FAA needs done?
Has our federal government gone absolutely bonkers?
Let's Debug is a diagnostic tool/website to help figure out why you might not be able to issue a certificate for Let's Encrypt™.
If one drop was $1, the national debt would fill an Olympic pool... 4000 feet deep...
KilRoy-db
3 days ago
Fill a tractor trailer with 18,000# of $100. bills it would take 1225 of them to carry 1 trillion
dollars.
So it would take 41,650 truck loads of hundred dollar bills for 34 trillion dollars.
MIND BLOWING THE AMOUNT WE PISS AWAY FOR SHITTY PROJECTS.......
Otpkr2 coyotewise
2 hours ago edited
Sorry, but that just won't wash in terms of facts. "Alcohol" drag engines actually run on methanol with a significant percentage of "additives" to increase the volatility, thus, energy release. In the parlance it is known as "moon juice".
Auto fuel is ethanol and an "extender" of petroleum based gasoline with some noticeable deficiencies - primary among those being corrosivity to metal engines and parts. Ethanol is a boondoggle of epic proportions. So called "bio-diesel" is similar in terms of effective fuels for actual usage. Both are a kind of an equivalent to Kwanza - a government invention without merit, foundation, or actual substance. Both are great ways to obfuscate useless and expensive government initiatives with unduly loud claims and unicorn flatulence.
Since the highest court in the land determined that abortion law would be sent back to the states, the Texas law cannot be found in Constitutional conflict. After the initial case was set to be dismissed, Truong appealed to the 5th Circuit, and when his case failed there, it went before SCOTUS. The case is rather scattershot, with defendants named including the state's Republican Governor Greg Abbott, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, and former President Donald Trump. Others are also named, and this is where the case unraveled.
Also named as defendants are five of the Justices -- Thomas, Kavanaugh, Alito, Gorsuch, and Barrett -- all of whom recused themselves, as well as Chief Justice Roberts. This means that the remaining three justices are not enough for a quorum to take place. This also means that the case reverts to the 5th District court decision, which was a resounding rebuke.
In that dismissal, the court recognized the frivolousness of the case, with the unanimous decision citing:
Contrary to MacTruong’s assertion otherwise, the district court was entitled to dismiss the action sua sponte upon a finding that the action was frivolous.
Practical rc scripting very short tutorial
The init system of FreeBSD is quite different to the Linux. There is no concept of symbolic link of the init script to each run level and no run level. All you have is one big long list of init scripts and very simple way to administer these scripts. If you want some further readings, check out the original paper on rc.d system.
Here is a short tutorial, hopefully someone will find it useful. If you need to know more in depth, check out the FreeBSD document.
Beginners may find it difficult to relate the facts from the formal documentation on the BSD rc.d framework with the practical tasks of rc.d scripting. In this article, we consider a few typical cases of increasing complexity, show rc.d features suited for each case, and discuss how they work. Such an examination should provide reference points for further study of the design and efficient application of rc.d.