May 13, 2013
"College Is A Lot Like.... School"
Posted by Cassandra at 05:48 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
January 14, 2013
Kids These Days...
They've got no respect for authority:
An IBM supercomputer had to have its memory wiped because its programmers could find no other way to stop him swearing.Artificial intelligence Watson, which famously won Jeopardy! against the game show's human champions, kept making obscene outbursts after memorising the contents of the Urban Dictionary.
... Eric Brown, the IBM research scientist in charge of tutoring Watson, had taught the computer the Urban Dictionary in an effort to make his communications seem more natural, Fortune reported.
...But while Watson hungrily scoffed as much knowledge as he was offered, Mr Brown, 45, found that that his microprocessor-based pupil had much more difficulty understanding the subleties of human communication.
It was after he started answering 'bullsh*t' back to human researchers that it was decided to pull the plug on attempts to teach Watson slang.
We suspect Watson understands the subtleties of human communication quite well.
Posted by Cassandra at 04:42 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
June 26, 2012
Bull's Eye for the "Pay Later" Guy
The NH Union Leader nails Obama's modus operandi:
Since when has this President taken personal responsibility for his actions, their effects or their costs? Every American ought to be able to see by now the pattern that he has repeated since he took office:1. Give sweeping speech proclaiming grand but vague vision.
2. Lowball the real cost of executing that vision and pay for much of it with debt.
3. If policies are enacted and then generate unintended consequences, blame the results on the previous administration.
4. If policy costs are shown to be more than the administration predicted, blame private sector “greed” and political obstruction.
Sometimes, the truth hurts:
The most recent estimate for the difference between the net present value of federal government liabilities and the net present value of future federal revenues is $200 trillion, nearly 13 times the debt as stated by the US Treasury. Notice that these figures, too, are incomplete, since they omit the unfunded liabilities of state and local governments, which are estimated to be around $38 trillion.These mind-boggling numbers represent nothing less than a vast claim by the generation currently retired or about to retire on their children and grandchildren, who are obligated by current law to find the money in the future, by submitting either to substantial increases in taxation or to drastic cuts in other forms of public expenditure.
To illustrate the magnitude of the problem, the economist Laurence Kotlikoff calculates that to eliminate the federal government’s fiscal gap would require either an immediate 64 per cent increase in all federal taxes or an immediate 40 per cent cut in all federal expenditures.
We've often heard various progressive pundits lament the fact that we are well on our way to being the first generation who will be poorer off than their parents and grandparents. Less often heard is any honest admission that this is the logical and inevitable consequence of progressive policies.
The system works as designed.
Posted by Cassandra at 07:42 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
May 23, 2012
Holy Sockpuppets, Batman!
Sacre bleu! Say it isn't so:
Did you hear the one about the New York state lawmakers who forgot about the First Amendment in the name of combating cyberbullying and “baseless political attacks”?Proposed legislation in both chambers would require New York-based websites, such as blogs and newspapers, to “remove any comments posted on his or her website by an anonymous poster unless such anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post.”
No votes on the measures have been taken. But unless the First Amendment is repealed, they stand no chance of surviving any constitutional scrutiny even if they were approved.
We are guessing Princess Leia in a Cheese Danish Bikini, Knut the Adorably Psychotic Gay Teen Bear, and a host of similarly regrettable monikers would not approve. Be that as it may, we humbly offer a stuffed marmoset by parcel post to the first commenter to spot the problem with the excerpted passage.
Posted by Cassandra at 12:10 PM | Comments (16) | TrackBack
April 12, 2012
Gawker Mag's Brave, Truth Telling Whistleblower
Quote of the day from the Fox Mole:
I am a weasel, a traitor, a sell-out and every bad word you can throw at me... but as of today, I am free, and I am ready to tell my story, which I wasn't able to fully do for the previous 36 hours.
We do not know about you people, but there is no one we trust more to bravely tell us the sordid truth about the tawdry state of the commodes at Faux News than a self-described weaselly, traitorous sell-out. If we didn't know better, we might suspect that the folks at Gawker were having a bit of self-defecating fun at our expense.
Will the evil empire ever pony up for some long overdue restroom renovations? Sadly, with the Fox Mole gone we may never know.
Who knows how many other game changing stories will go unrevealed and unreported?
Posted by Cassandra at 06:35 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack