On this day:
1600
Jacopo Peri’s Euridice, the earliest surviving opera, receives its première performance in Florence, signifying the beginning of the Baroque Period
1777
American Revolutionary War: General Sir Henry Clinton leads British forces in the capture of Continental Army Hudson River defenses in the Battle of Forts Clinton and Montgomery.
1789
French Revolution: Louis XVI returns to Paris from Versailles after being confronted by the Parisian women on 5 October
1945
Baseball: Billy Sianis and his pet billy goat are ejected from Wrigley Field during Game 4 of the 1945 World Series. (His curse leads to 71 years of World Series failure for Chicago.)
1973
Egypt launches a coordinated attack with Syria against Israel, leading to the Yom Kippur War.
1981
Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat is assassinated.
American Revolutionary War: General Sir Henry Clinton leads British forces in the capture of Continental Army Hudson River defenses in the Battle of Forts Clinton and Montgomery.
1789
French Revolution: Louis XVI returns to Paris from Versailles after being confronted by the Parisian women on 5 October
1945
Baseball: Billy Sianis and his pet billy goat are ejected from Wrigley Field during Game 4 of the 1945 World Series. (His curse leads to 71 years of World Series failure for Chicago.)
1973
Egypt launches a coordinated attack with Syria against Israel, leading to the Yom Kippur War.
1981
Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat is assassinated.
When I feed the hungry, they call me a saint. When I ask why people are hungry, they call me a communist. -Helder Camara, archbishop (1909-1999)
***
Buffett wrote an essay in 1999 on the new, exciting technology of the day: the internet. He noted that a technology can change the world, but that doesn't necessarily make it a smart investment.Using airplanes as an example, he explained that while air travel had fundamentally transformed society, 129 airline companies had filed for bankruptcy in the last 20 years. "The key to investing," Buffett explained, "is not assessing how much an industry is going to affect society, or how much it will grow, but rather determining the competitive advantage of any given company and, above all, the durability of that advantage."
***
Wall Street banks are pushing large law firms to cut fees, arguing that the business model that has enriched top lawyers for decades is not sustainable in an era of AI.
Morgan Stanley and Citigroup have told major law firms they want to set up new payment arrangements that would save them money.
“If the number of hours they’re working on a matter has come down because of AI . . . our expectation is for costs to come down significantly per transaction,” Adam Meshel, global head of legal at Citigroup, told the FT.
***
A former head of Germany's foreign intelligence service was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion that he had passed state secrets to a foreign intelligence service, the federal prosecutor's office said.
***
This year, the White Sox swept the Houston Astros in the Wild Card round, their first postseason series win since 2005. They are now 2-0 against Cleveland in their best of 5 playoff series.
***
***
Plague
Irkutsk Gov. Igor Kobzev wrote on Telegram that a resident, Darya Shipilova, "may have contracted a particularly dangerous infection," but did not specifically name pneumonic plague. That's like saying a swimmer died after being attacked "by a large fish" off a Florida beach.
Irkutsk Gov. Igor Kobzev wrote on Telegram that a resident, Darya Shipilova, "may have contracted a particularly dangerous infection," but did not specifically name pneumonic plague. That's like saying a swimmer died after being attacked "by a large fish" off a Florida beach.
Nearly 200 people have been placed under medical observation in Russia’s Irkutsk region in eastern Siberia over suspected exposure to plague, according to local media reports. One woman, Darya Shipilova, said by the Russians to be a lab researcher, has died.
This is the pneumonic (pulmonary) presentation of the bubonic plague. In a Russian lab worker. The bubonic plague.
The Russians started their bioweapons program the year after they signed the U.N. resolution to ban them. They worked for years on gain-of-function of Ebola, Anthrax, and smallpox, and efforts to combine high infectivity (like chickenpox) with those more deadly. More recent efforts tried to develop organisms for which the usually reliable anti-infective agents did not work. These are vicious weapons, indiscriminate and usually brutal and fatal. And socially disruptive. Plague in the Middle Ages killed over 33% of Europe's population, with each recurring episode.
If we poor citizens need to be reminded, these are terrible weapons, but they are wielded by terrible people. War is bad enough, but these are cataclysmic in concept, aimed at men, women, and children for the purpose of civilization destruction.
Nor are our hands clean. The Chinese lab at Wuhan had American medical--MEDICAL--support and then, when the murderous genie was out of the bottle, they, i.e., we, joined the mendacious Chinese autocrats and lied about it to our citizens and the world.
The Russians started their bioweapons program the year after they signed the U.N. resolution to ban them. They worked for years on gain-of-function of Ebola, Anthrax, and smallpox, and efforts to combine high infectivity (like chickenpox) with those more deadly. More recent efforts tried to develop organisms for which the usually reliable anti-infective agents did not work. These are vicious weapons, indiscriminate and usually brutal and fatal. And socially disruptive. Plague in the Middle Ages killed over 33% of Europe's population, with each recurring episode.
If we poor citizens need to be reminded, these are terrible weapons, but they are wielded by terrible people. War is bad enough, but these are cataclysmic in concept, aimed at men, women, and children for the purpose of civilization destruction.
Nor are our hands clean. The Chinese lab at Wuhan had American medical--MEDICAL--support and then, when the murderous genie was out of the bottle, they, i.e., we, joined the mendacious Chinese autocrats and lied about it to our citizens and the world.
If this kind of behaviour doesn't sour you on the promises of the average politician masquerading as an average guy with a good heart, it should. It should scare you witless. And you should scrutinize any power you cede to them. These people have nuclear weapons! And anyone who thinks that AI can be muzzled with "internal controls" is not paying attention.
The danger of the virus, the bacteria, the weapon, or the software is real and frightening, but it all starts with humans who create them, aim them, and pull the trigger.
Rules, agreements among caring men, will not be enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment