The new laws sought to break the aristocratic hold on high office by removing their influence. Candidates for Archon were now chosen by lot from the Council of 500. A system of ostracism was introduced to prevent accumulation of power. Any senior official deemed to be corrupt could be banished for ten years by a vote of the Assembly. Other changes included limiting the power of the Areopagas to appeal for murder trials, and transferring supervision of the conduct of government to the Council of 500.
This great Athenian democracy thrived through the time of Pericles 462-429 B.C, but was degraded during the Peloponnesian War, which ended in 404. The Athenians were defeated by Sparta and would never again experience the great democracy they had invented.
If we agree that the definition of democracy is anything we want it to be, then I suppose America has a democracy, but it’s funny how the term has be used by feminist types to suggest the Greeks didn’t have a democracy because women couldn’t vote. In their view, only contemporary America would meet the true definition. How absurd! Democracies are defined by the ability of people to have a say in government, not whether one class or the other has equal rights.
A political system will only be strong if informed citizens vote. That is citizens who are intelligent enough and motivated enough to analyze the issues before voting. Those who vote without knowledge of the issues or support candidates because they are told who to support are corrupt. Quality government comes from quality votes, not the number of them.
Tulsi Gabbard: Fire More Than 100 for Sex Chats
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard moved to seek out and fire employees involved in group chats in which explicit behavior allegedly was discussed.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard moved to seek out and fire employees involved in group chats in which explicit behavior allegedly was discussed.
National Security Agency agents held lurid sex chats on the NSA's sensitive Intelink messaging program "featuring wide-ranging discussions of sex, kink, polyamory, and castration," City Journal reported Tuesday.
Officials told ABC News that more than 100 intelligence community employees will be terminated and have their security clearances revoked.
"This behavior is unacceptable and those involved WILL be held accountable," Gabbard wrote Monday on X. "These disgusting chat groups were immediately shut down when @POTUS issued his EO ending the DEI insanity the Biden Admin was obsessed with. Our IC must be focused on our core mission: ensuring the safety."
"APPLE SHOULD GET RID OF DEI RULES, NOT JUST MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO THEM. DEI WAS A HOAX THAT HAS BEEN VERY BAD FOR OUR COUNTRY. DEI IS GONE!!!" Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tuesday's vote at the iPhone maker's annual meeting was seen as a test of shareholder views about the value of DEI programs, which many companies added or beefed up starting in 2020 amid the Black Lives Matter movement.
Proponents of the proposal against DEI argued that recent legal changes meant Apple would see an increase in discrimination cases if it continued such policies.
Father Murray to Newsmax: Pope Francis 'Forged His Own Path'
With Pope Francis in declining health and reportedly nearing death, the Roman Catholic Church has begun to cast its gaze to his replacement and what it might want in a new Holy See, which Father Gerald Murray told Newsmax is a "big question."
With Pope Francis in declining health and reportedly nearing death, the Roman Catholic Church has begun to cast its gaze to his replacement and what it might want in a new Holy See, which Father Gerald Murray told Newsmax is a "big question."
Murray, a priest in the Archdiocese of New York, joined "National Report" speaking about the Pope's condition but also looking ahead to the characteristics of a new Pope given that Francis "forged his own path."
The Romans, after their defeat an Cannae, adopted a plan of avoiding large scale battles against Hannibal and only attacked him on a small scale when they were sure they could win. They put a great deal of effort into preventing reinforcements, which proved to be an important factor in their ultimate success. The most serious attempt at reinforcement occurred in 207 when Hannibal’s brother Hasdrubal tried to move an army down the west side of the Apennines and link up with him. Hasdrubal was trapped by the Romans and killed. It must have been disheartening for Hannibal, after waiting eleven years for reinforcements, to have his brother’s head tossed into his camp as a signal that no help would be coming.
Reinforcements were critical because, as time went by, Hannibal had fewer and fewer of his original troops and more local mercenaries. He found himself trapped in Bruttium because his army was Bruttian and they refused to fight outside their district. Then, in 203, with the Romans attacking Carthage directly, Hannibal left Italy to help in the defense of his homeland.
There’s a visual component to the new Alexa, as well. On Amazon’s Echo Show smart displays, Alexa+ powers photo galleries and other personalized content feeds. A new “For You” panel displays timely updates based on a user’s interests, in addition to widgets like smart home controls.
Predictably, Alexa+ integrates tightly with Amazon’s broader smart home ecosystem. Users can say a command to have Alexa play music from Amazon Music on a supported smart device connected to the same Wi-Fi network, or have a Fire TV device skip to a particular scene in a movie or TV show.
Of course, AI is a notorious hallucinator. Amazon asserts that Alexa+ is accurate and reliable, but we’ll have to see whether those claims hold up when the new experience launches later this year.
The company described this type of shopping as using your voice to shop in a sort of “stream of consciousness”-style chat.
The upgraded Alexa+ experience will ship in March as an upgrade to existing Alexa devices. The service will be $19.99 per month but is free for all Prime members.
It’s obvious from the chart that the Greeks were a couple of hundred years ahead of the Romans in developing their culture. In 625, when the Romans were living in mud huts and working at draining the swamp that would become the Forum, the Athenians were already 125 years removed from establishing their colonies in Italy and well on the way toward defining a unique and advanced culture. Architecture forms were well developed, large sculptures were being produced, and pottery had already passed through its orientalizing period. The polis had become a mature political system as it broke new ground in human rights and political participation. At the same time, the Greek army had evolved advanced battle tactics including use of the Phalanx.
Since the early kings were not wealthy, their attempts at power were overcome by military leaders who excelled at forming superior tactics. Without money kings could not buy power. The isolation of the Aegean and its geography was also a factor because it prevented foreign threats and the influence foreign invaders could exert on evolving Greek political systems.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect was the simplicity of Greek life. The Greeks looked at the world through an intellectual lens: embracing science, mathematics, philosophy, and the arts, rather than pure wealth building. Greek philosophy dictated that possessions were not the route to happiness in life and that logic demanded equality among free people. The Greeks believed that all possess inherent rights to justice, participation in government, and equality under law.
Ultimately Rome would come to dominate Greece because its unity and the power derived from it would overcome the Greeks independence. In this case, Greek philosophy was the liability because it kept the Greeks form creating a powerful empire which could compete against Rome.
In July 2023, the EU and U.S. agreed on a new “Data Privacy Framework,” allowing data transfers as long as particular privacy guarantees and protections were made. Microsoft nonetheless last year announced plans to keep all European cloud customers’ personal data within the EU.
Kyle Wiggers is a senior reporter at TechCrunch with a special interest in artificial intelligence. His writing has appeared in VentureBeat and Digital Trends, as well as a range of gadget blogs including Android Police, Android Authority, Droid-Life, and XDA-Developers. He lives in Brooklyn with his partner, a piano educator, and dabbles in piano himself. occasionally — if mostly unsuccessfully.
Plus, users can now use the three-dot menu to request a refresh of their information.
For instance, if you removed content about yourself from a website and Search hasn’t been updated to reflect this, you can request a refresh so that Google’s systems will “recrawl” the page to obtain the latest information.
To use the feature, you need to complete a form to provide your contact information to allow Google to check if it matches the information on a Search results page. You can choose to receive notifications if Google finds results with your information.
The company notes that your information is not shared or used to personalize your experience across Google products.
Were all Romans barbarians because the games in the Coliseum were barbaric? I doubt it. Like any society, the Romans must have had a range of ethical and moral standards among the people. There must have been those who considered violence against human beings barbaric. We can’t say how many or what percentage, but any society includes those who oppose violence.
Now we come to the present day to ponder the following statement: “If there are barbarians now, then we have not become more civilized.” Alas, we can readily observe them operating in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Isn’t cutting off the hands of thieves, like the Saudis do, barbaric? This modern age, like the past, has a range of moral behavior from the “very civilized” of the west to “very uncivilized’ in some other parts of the world. I bet the majority of Americans would say we are the most civilized nation on the planet. After all, we’ve taken being civilized to the limit. We not only won’t kill people, we won’t insult them. In contemporary America, calling a person “fat” is uncivilized.
Why the Roman Republic Failed and What It Means to Us - Part V (last in the series)
We have talked about the fall of the Republic and the reasons for it, but have not analyzed what it means to us. To find meaning, we have to consider the problems of Rome and see if they apply today.
As we have said in previous posts, the central revolutionary drivers in the Republic were poor governance leading to a power vacuum, class instability, and the army as a kingmaker. Which of these issues, if any, could destroy the American Political System? To answer this question, we have to squint into the future. The United States has only existed half as long as the Roman Republic so it could be stable for a long time yet. The fact that there are no serious problems now should not lead one to believe the coast is clear for the future, however. In another century or two the American Political System could die from fatigue like so many others have done in the past.
In the meantime, let us consider Rome’s problems directly. I see poor governance as an issue today; particularly if paired with class instability. I don’t see the military as a factor. The American Armed Forces have no tradition of opposition to our political system and the fact that they report to the President makes for a strong link to the national government.
Bureaucracy is a risk factor. Max Weber considered bureaucracy as one of the great evils of the modern capitalist society. He saw its dangers as the de-personalization of humanity and the rise of a structure designed to serve its own interests rather than those of policy makers. The more socialist the society, the more bureaucratic it must become -- interesting in light of the current debate over the role of government put forward by the Obama administration. Because bureaucracy can’t be undone, it threatens to use up dollars that should go to recipients of the programs the bureaucracy was created to help.
Caesar Against Vercingetorix – The Siege of Alesia
In 52 B.C. Julius Caesar, near the end of his war against Gaul, had one great enemy left in his path – Vercingetorix. The latter was a young Arvernian - charismatic, confident, and incited against Rome. Expelled from Gergovia, for being too rash, Vercingetorix raised an army on his own, and assumed the role of commander. His strategy against Caesar was simple -- use superior cavalry to harass the Romans and drive them away. Caesar, understanding his own weakness, compensated by recruiting Germans to strengthen his own cavalry units. Then, after a series of reversals, Vercingetorix was forced to retreat to the walled city of Alesia for protection. Alesia had a five mile perimeter wall six feet high with a trench in front of it. The surrounding terrain favored the defenders because it was uneven with many hills and small rivers.
!summarize #facebook #tomilahren #dating #men #women
!summarize #cathode #patent #battery #tesla
The new laws sought to break the aristocratic hold on high office by removing their influence. Candidates for Archon were now chosen by lot from the Council of 500. A system of ostracism was introduced to prevent accumulation of power. Any senior official deemed to be corrupt could be banished for ten years by a vote of the Assembly. Other changes included limiting the power of the Areopagas to appeal for murder trials, and transferring supervision of the conduct of government to the Council of 500.
This great Athenian democracy thrived through the time of Pericles 462-429 B.C, but was degraded during the Peloponnesian War, which ended in 404. The Athenians were defeated by Sparta and would never again experience the great democracy they had invented.
If we agree that the definition of democracy is anything we want it to be, then I suppose America has a democracy, but it’s funny how the term has be used by feminist types to suggest the Greeks didn’t have a democracy because women couldn’t vote. In their view, only contemporary America would meet the true definition. How absurd! Democracies are defined by the ability of people to have a say in government, not whether one class or the other has equal rights.
A political system will only be strong if informed citizens vote. That is citizens who are intelligent enough and motivated enough to analyze the issues before voting. Those who vote without knowledge of the issues or support candidates because they are told who to support are corrupt. Quality government comes from quality votes, not the number of them.
Tulsi Gabbard: Fire More Than 100 for Sex Chats
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard moved to seek out and fire employees involved in group chats in which explicit behavior allegedly was discussed.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard moved to seek out and fire employees involved in group chats in which explicit behavior allegedly was discussed.
National Security Agency agents held lurid sex chats on the NSA's sensitive Intelink messaging program "featuring wide-ranging discussions of sex, kink, polyamory, and castration," City Journal reported Tuesday.
Officials told ABC News that more than 100 intelligence community employees will be terminated and have their security clearances revoked.
"This behavior is unacceptable and those involved WILL be held accountable," Gabbard wrote Monday on X. "These disgusting chat groups were immediately shut down when @POTUS issued his EO ending the DEI insanity the Biden Admin was obsessed with. Our IC must be focused on our core mission: ensuring the safety."
!summarize #nymets #marcusstroman #nyyankees #injuries #springtraining
!summarize #joedipenza #quantum #silence #philosophy
"APPLE SHOULD GET RID OF DEI RULES, NOT JUST MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO THEM. DEI WAS A HOAX THAT HAS BEEN VERY BAD FOR OUR COUNTRY. DEI IS GONE!!!" Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tuesday's vote at the iPhone maker's annual meeting was seen as a test of shareholder views about the value of DEI programs, which many companies added or beefed up starting in 2020 amid the Black Lives Matter movement.
Proponents of the proposal against DEI argued that recent legal changes meant Apple would see an increase in discrimination cases if it continued such policies.
!summarize #politics #jamescarvelle #megynkelly #democrats #republicans
!summarize #tesla #fsd #china #tsla
!summarize #jobs #unemployment #china #factories
Father Murray to Newsmax: Pope Francis 'Forged His Own Path'
With Pope Francis in declining health and reportedly nearing death, the Roman Catholic Church has begun to cast its gaze to his replacement and what it might want in a new Holy See, which Father Gerald Murray told Newsmax is a "big question."
With Pope Francis in declining health and reportedly nearing death, the Roman Catholic Church has begun to cast its gaze to his replacement and what it might want in a new Holy See, which Father Gerald Murray told Newsmax is a "big question."
Murray, a priest in the Archdiocese of New York, joined "National Report" speaking about the Pope's condition but also looking ahead to the characteristics of a new Pope given that Francis "forged his own path."
The Romans, after their defeat an Cannae, adopted a plan of avoiding large scale battles against Hannibal and only attacked him on a small scale when they were sure they could win. They put a great deal of effort into preventing reinforcements, which proved to be an important factor in their ultimate success. The most serious attempt at reinforcement occurred in 207 when Hannibal’s brother Hasdrubal tried to move an army down the west side of the Apennines and link up with him. Hasdrubal was trapped by the Romans and killed. It must have been disheartening for Hannibal, after waiting eleven years for reinforcements, to have his brother’s head tossed into his camp as a signal that no help would be coming.
Reinforcements were critical because, as time went by, Hannibal had fewer and fewer of his original troops and more local mercenaries. He found himself trapped in Bruttium because his army was Bruttian and they refused to fight outside their district. Then, in 203, with the Romans attacking Carthage directly, Hannibal left Italy to help in the defense of his homeland.
There’s a visual component to the new Alexa, as well. On Amazon’s Echo Show smart displays, Alexa+ powers photo galleries and other personalized content feeds. A new “For You” panel displays timely updates based on a user’s interests, in addition to widgets like smart home controls.
Predictably, Alexa+ integrates tightly with Amazon’s broader smart home ecosystem. Users can say a command to have Alexa play music from Amazon Music on a supported smart device connected to the same Wi-Fi network, or have a Fire TV device skip to a particular scene in a movie or TV show.
!summarize #technology #games #virtualworlds #vr
Of course, AI is a notorious hallucinator. Amazon asserts that Alexa+ is accurate and reliable, but we’ll have to see whether those claims hold up when the new experience launches later this year.
!summarize #life #success #Motivation #time #death
!summarize #joevitale #success #life #motivation #personaldevelopment
The company described this type of shopping as using your voice to shop in a sort of “stream of consciousness”-style chat.
The upgraded Alexa+ experience will ship in March as an upgrade to existing Alexa devices. The service will be $19.99 per month but is free for all Prime members.
It’s obvious from the chart that the Greeks were a couple of hundred years ahead of the Romans in developing their culture. In 625, when the Romans were living in mud huts and working at draining the swamp that would become the Forum, the Athenians were already 125 years removed from establishing their colonies in Italy and well on the way toward defining a unique and advanced culture. Architecture forms were well developed, large sculptures were being produced, and pottery had already passed through its orientalizing period. The polis had become a mature political system as it broke new ground in human rights and political participation. At the same time, the Greek army had evolved advanced battle tactics including use of the Phalanx.
!summarize #mindset #japan #life #philosophy
Since the early kings were not wealthy, their attempts at power were overcome by military leaders who excelled at forming superior tactics. Without money kings could not buy power. The isolation of the Aegean and its geography was also a factor because it prevented foreign threats and the influence foreign invaders could exert on evolving Greek political systems.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect was the simplicity of Greek life. The Greeks looked at the world through an intellectual lens: embracing science, mathematics, philosophy, and the arts, rather than pure wealth building. Greek philosophy dictated that possessions were not the route to happiness in life and that logic demanded equality among free people. The Greeks believed that all possess inherent rights to justice, participation in government, and equality under law.
!summarize #mlb #Pitcher #wins #300game
!summarize #trump #50cents #politics #music
Ultimately Rome would come to dominate Greece because its unity and the power derived from it would overcome the Greeks independence. In this case, Greek philosophy was the liability because it kept the Greeks form creating a powerful empire which could compete against Rome.
In July 2023, the EU and U.S. agreed on a new “Data Privacy Framework,” allowing data transfers as long as particular privacy guarantees and protections were made. Microsoft nonetheless last year announced plans to keep all European cloud customers’ personal data within the EU.
Kyle Wiggers is a senior reporter at TechCrunch with a special interest in artificial intelligence. His writing has appeared in VentureBeat and Digital Trends, as well as a range of gadget blogs including Android Police, Android Authority, Droid-Life, and XDA-Developers. He lives in Brooklyn with his partner, a piano educator, and dabbles in piano himself. occasionally — if mostly unsuccessfully.
Plus, users can now use the three-dot menu to request a refresh of their information.
For instance, if you removed content about yourself from a website and Search hasn’t been updated to reflect this, you can request a refresh so that Google’s systems will “recrawl” the page to obtain the latest information.
To use the feature, you need to complete a form to provide your contact information to allow Google to check if it matches the information on a Search results page. You can choose to receive notifications if Google finds results with your information.
The company notes that your information is not shared or used to personalize your experience across Google products.
!summarize #connecticut #state #senate #specialelection #politics
Were all Romans barbarians because the games in the Coliseum were barbaric? I doubt it. Like any society, the Romans must have had a range of ethical and moral standards among the people. There must have been those who considered violence against human beings barbaric. We can’t say how many or what percentage, but any society includes those who oppose violence.
Now we come to the present day to ponder the following statement: “If there are barbarians now, then we have not become more civilized.” Alas, we can readily observe them operating in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Isn’t cutting off the hands of thieves, like the Saudis do, barbaric? This modern age, like the past, has a range of moral behavior from the “very civilized” of the west to “very uncivilized’ in some other parts of the world. I bet the majority of Americans would say we are the most civilized nation on the planet. After all, we’ve taken being civilized to the limit. We not only won’t kill people, we won’t insult them. In contemporary America, calling a person “fat” is uncivilized.
Why the Roman Republic Failed and What It Means to Us - Part V (last in the series)
We have talked about the fall of the Republic and the reasons for it, but have not analyzed what it means to us. To find meaning, we have to consider the problems of Rome and see if they apply today.
As we have said in previous posts, the central revolutionary drivers in the Republic were poor governance leading to a power vacuum, class instability, and the army as a kingmaker. Which of these issues, if any, could destroy the American Political System? To answer this question, we have to squint into the future. The United States has only existed half as long as the Roman Republic so it could be stable for a long time yet. The fact that there are no serious problems now should not lead one to believe the coast is clear for the future, however. In another century or two the American Political System could die from fatigue like so many others have done in the past.
!summarize #lawsuit #ap #media #whitehouse
!summarize #humanoid #Robotics #labor
!summarize #carljung #worry #fear #shadow #insecurities
!summarize #dontdie #longevity #life
!summarize #gangs #neighborhood #newyorkcity #crime
!summarize #elonmusk #doge #trump #budget #spending
!summarize #nolanarenado #nyyankees #mlb #trade #stlouis #cardinals
In the meantime, let us consider Rome’s problems directly. I see poor governance as an issue today; particularly if paired with class instability. I don’t see the military as a factor. The American Armed Forces have no tradition of opposition to our political system and the fact that they report to the President makes for a strong link to the national government.
Bureaucracy is a risk factor. Max Weber considered bureaucracy as one of the great evils of the modern capitalist society. He saw its dangers as the de-personalization of humanity and the rise of a structure designed to serve its own interests rather than those of policy makers. The more socialist the society, the more bureaucratic it must become -- interesting in light of the current debate over the role of government put forward by the Obama administration. Because bureaucracy can’t be undone, it threatens to use up dollars that should go to recipients of the programs the bureaucracy was created to help.
!summarize #money #wnba #salaries #players
Caesar Against Vercingetorix – The Siege of Alesia
In 52 B.C. Julius Caesar, near the end of his war against Gaul, had one great enemy left in his path – Vercingetorix. The latter was a young Arvernian - charismatic, confident, and incited against Rome. Expelled from Gergovia, for being too rash, Vercingetorix raised an army on his own, and assumed the role of commander. His strategy against Caesar was simple -- use superior cavalry to harass the Romans and drive them away. Caesar, understanding his own weakness, compensated by recruiting Germans to strengthen his own cavalry units. Then, after a series of reversals, Vercingetorix was forced to retreat to the walled city of Alesia for protection. Alesia had a five mile perimeter wall six feet high with a trench in front of it. The surrounding terrain favored the defenders because it was uneven with many hills and small rivers.
!summarize #relationships #dating #emotions