THE WORLD had changed, or at least United States President Donald Trump’s world has, given he has switched to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s side, more than a little bit.
Some things are obvious: people need fuel, the Republicans need votes, and Trump needs to win, something, anything and it’s not going to be with Iran or Ukraine.
By working with Putin, Trump he can start to swing things his way, before the midterm elections wipe outs out his supporters.
Political leaders must do the best they can and not prioritize self-interest. History will remember what is done or not done, not what the leader claims to have done.
How will history remember your leaders and what should you do about making sure the leaders were the best they could be?
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A hot hack
A recent strange story told of numerous internet connected fridges and freezers being hacked and their temperatures being sent so high that all their contents were spoilt.
A number of trivial questions arise including why are fridges connected to the internet and why do they have the capacity to reach 50°C?
There are more serious questions as to what is the limit to these hacks and how can they be prevented. Adjusting the temperature of a fridge is annoying and wasteful but what if the temperature in a hospital operating room was raised to 50°C or all of the lights were turned off?
It is best to make sure that internet controls can be turned off easily and immediately if there are similar events. We need to make sure our connected laziness doesn’t let everything get out of our control.
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Is my accent wrong?
When I speak to customer services I wonder if I am talking to a person or an AI device? Being able to tell may be important.
The first indicator is the accent, is it “local” or difficult to understand, which is more likely to be a human as this is a poorly paid job.
If you can’t decide then switch to a different language, given that most people can at least say “Je m’appelle Dennis” or an equivalent and see what the response is. AI seems good with many languages.
A new approach I have tried is asking an obscure question such as, “What color is a dacca banana?” Although since I have used that I am sure AI now knows it is red. You will have to find your own odd questions.
I’d rather be ignored by a person than AI.
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History repeats and so it should
It might not surprise most people, but again the Nobel Peace Prize has gone to a worthy person, Navi Pillay, who has devoted her life to peace by protecting human rights through her work with the International Criminal Court (ICC) and in many other ways.
Another potential Nobel Peace laureate, in his own opinion, was Donald Trump but did he make any contribution to peace via this International Criminal Court?
Till recently he may have just been a coffee break conversation topic there but now just hours after the announcement his administration has imposed more sanctions on the ICC. This is the adult version of taking your football home because someone else scored a goal and you couldn’t claim all the credit.
The Peace Prize goes to people who help bring peace to the world, rather than those that say they do while starting another war./PN
