Mike Culpepper's blog about stuff that interests him.
British Columbia is banning the import of “red state” liquor from the US. I take it that “red state” means not-California, but all those deplorable places where they make Jack Daniels. Premier Eby may be thinking of America in terms of Hillbilly Cliché, but this is the opening salvo of a righteous Culture War! Harley-Davidson […]
Great Britain is in the middle of an election campaign right now. The ruling Conservative Party is expected to lose and Labour to form a new government. Rishi Sunak’s Tories may set a record for losing seats. If they come out of this vote with 150 seats, an all-time low for the party, they will […]
A little while back I wrote a piece about Artificial Intelligence and politics. Since then I’ve become aware of things I missed and there have been New Developments! The first AI candidate! (Well, technically, Max Headroom…) Let’s catch up: 1– The last post mentioned Dean Phillips, whose operative had a bot using Joe Biden’s voice […]
Talking Heads on TV have been saying that AI will be dangerous for democracy, but they are behind the times — political AI is already here. Pakistan for instance. The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, was booted out of office in 2022 by the Army (possibly in collusion with the CIA). Then he was […]
“Scandal” is a polite name for this mess which should result in a number of prosecutions and maybe jail time for the people who victimized sub-postmasters with prosecutions and jail time. Here’s what’s going on: In 1999, the British Post Office began using software supplied by Fujitsu for sub-post offices — rural and small-town offices […]
I had meant to do a piece on Armenia/Nagorno-Karabakh, but other world headlines took over. Maybe it’s time now. North Americans and Europeans tend to paint Armenia as an aggrieved nation, bullied by those around it, but this is only partly true. Armenia and Azerbaijan are small countries located at the meeting point of three […]
In 1964, two movies depicted a future disaster: the failure of safety measures leading to a nuclear catastrophe. Both were based on earlier books. Red Alert, a 1958 novel that was based on the notion that a single person — a far-Right lunatic, for instance — could cause Armageddon. This book’s film rights were purchased […]
Boris Johnson has resigned his seat. A Parliamentary investigation into his flouting of Covid rules has said he is guilty of lying to Parliament. The official report is due to be tabled this week and is expected to recommend sanctioning the former PM. Sanction might entail a suspension from Parliament and that might mean a […]
People are still talking about ChatBots and Artificial Intelligence. Some say humanity is doomed, and, well, there was this international conference by the Royal Aeronautical Society on future combat and Artificial Intelligence. Military officers from various nations discussed the topic. An American Lt.Colonel made this frightening statement: …one simulated test saw an AI-enabled drone tasked […]
Joseph Foreman, now known as Afroman, had a hit in 2000 with “Because I Got High“, a song about the perils of marijuana. Although Afroman has other recordings, that is the number that fired up his career. Some people are very opposed to marijuana and have laws against the plant. Afroman may have upset such […]