Golden Globes 2023

Hollywood stars returned in their droves to the Golden Globe Awards on Tuesday, wearing a variety of eye-catching outfits on the red carpet.


Speculation that few celebrities would show up this year due to the controversy surrounding the Globes proved largely unfounded - with a few exceptions.


Some stars were notable by their absence - Tom Cruise and Brendan Fraser have previously distanced themselves from the voting body behind the Globes and did not attend.


But most of the nominees and guests who showed up the Beverley Hilton hotel in Los Angeles were happy to pose for photos as they walked the red carpet ahead of the ceremony.

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US actress Jennifer Coolidge won best TV supporting actress for The White Lotus



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Pose star Billy Porter was one of the category presenters at this year's ceremony



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Anya Taylor-Joy, pictured with Malcolm McRae, was nominated for best supporting actress for The Menu



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British actor Eddie Redmayne was nominated for best supporting actor for The Good Nurse, in which he starred opposite Jessica Chastain



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Actress Jenna Ortega, who recently appeared in the hugely popular Netflix series Wednesday, handed out an award



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Glass Onion director Rian Johnson was seen bowing down to Decision To Leave director Park Chan-wook on the red carpet



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The Flight Attendant star Kaley Cuoco, who is expecting a child with her partner, US actor Tom Pelphrey



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Awards favourite Viola Davis was nominated for her performance in The Woman King



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Pinocchio director Guillermo del Toro walked the red carpet with his wife Kim Morgan, and later won best animated feature for Pinochhio



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Actress Laverne Cox wore a vintage blue and gold gown on the red carpet



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Julia Garner has starred in Inventing Anna, but it was her performance in Ozark which won her a Golden Globe



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Jamie Lee Curtis and Irish actor Barry Keoghan, two actors in the supporting categories, cosied up on the red carpet



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Angela Bassett won best supporting actress for her performance in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Dog In Snow

 

Curing Death

As science continues to move closer to a cure for death, the richest people will benefit the most.

If billionaires like Jeff Bezos live forever, their wealth and power compound longer, experts say.

Money drives the search for immortality.

The quest to cure death is a rich person’s game. And that doesn’t seem likely to change any time soon, which worries some experts in case humans ever figure out how to achieve immortality.

As science continues to push the possibilities of living longer—and living better longer—that science is often driven by funded research. And who better to provide a blank check than mega-billionaires like Jeff Bezos? Indeed, last year, the founder and former CEO of Amazon made a hefty investment in Altos Labs, a biotech startup focused on “cellular rejuvenation programming to restore cell health and resilience, with the goal of reversing disease to transform medicine.”

So, if the rich can live longer, the rich can get richer longer, compounding the already imbalanced spectrum of money, power, and control, experts argue in a new Financial Times article.

“The longer you’re around, the more your wealth compounds, and the wealthier you are, the more political influence you have,” Christopher Wareham, a bioethicist at Utrecht University, tells FT. The science of longevity will only widen existing gaps, he says.

Make no mistake, the effort to slow down aging isn’t slowing down. The Institute for Aging Research at New York’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine claims we’ve moved beyond hope in turning anti-aging into reality, and we now sit “at the point between having promise and realizing it.”

The Financial Times article notes that private funding far outpaces public funding in the anti-aging research. So, if all the proponents of anti-aging research outlive their dreams—a big if at this point in time, but a goal many have—the first ones to benefit from said science will undoubtedly be those funding the research, like Bezos. And if mega-billionaires have all the insights in not only adopting anti-aging science, but then licensing that science out to the masses, not only do the rich get richer, but the rich get richer for... forever.

Of course, a democratized solution to anti-aging will help the masses, but the rich can still compound their wealth and power, a byproduct worthy of a philosophical discussion.

Play with Me

 

Lizzo Offers Fresh Take

Grammy-winning singer Lizzo offered a "fresh take" on cancel culture on Twitter Sunday, arguing that the term is no longer being correctly applied.

"This may be a random time to say this but it’s on my heart.. cancel culture is appropriation," Lizzo tweeted. "There was real outrage from truly marginalized people and now it’s become trendy, misused and misdirected. I hope we can phase out of this & focus our outrage on the real problems."

Mumford & Sons co-founder Winston Marshall called it a "fresh take." Marshall experienced what it was like to be "canceled" last year when he tweeted his support for an anti-Antifa book. The backlash became so deafening that the banjo player decided to leave the band.

Several commenters agreed with Lizzo's description, arguing that while cancel culture used to mean consequences for individuals who may have deserved it, it is now being weaponized against good people that simply made mistakes. Others said it was effectively silencing those who have different opinions.

"Absolutely," user Jessica Ballinger tweeted. "There are very real issues that warrant outrage… I sometimes wonder if cancel culture stems from people feeling impotent against those bigger issues, so they go after simpler targets to feel better about themselves, like they did something."  READ MORE...

Models of Color

 

Congresswoman Blasts MSNBC

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., hit back at MSNBC on Sunday over what she called a "hit piece" that she argued tried to paint her as a "white supremacist."

Luna quoted a column, written by MSNBC opinion columnist Julio Ricardo Varela, in a tweet and said it was pushing a "twisted lie."

"'It’s important that we journalists avoid placing too much emphasis on a representative of Mexican descent who’s signed on to a political movement that began with the demonization of Mexicans," he wrote in the piece.

Edie Heipel, a member of Luna's communications team, posted a screenshot of her email after searching an NBC universal email to see if the writer had reached out for comment.

DEMOCRATS WRONGFULLY ASSUME THAT HISPANICS WOULD SUPPORT THEM: REP. ANNA PAULINA LUNA

"When @MSNBC publishes a bogus hit piece on @realannapaulina and you check to see if they reached out for comment like responsible journalists…," Heipel wrote.

Varela didn't return a request for comment.  READ MORE...

Dominate Females

 

Woman Who Joined ISIS Wants to Return to US

A woman who left Alabama to join the Islamic State in 2014 now says she regrets her actions and is hoping to return to the United States.

"If I need to sit in prison, and do my time, I will do it.… I won’t fight against it," Hoda Muthana, now 28, told The News Movement from the Roj detention camp in Syria, according to The Associated Press. "I’m hoping my government looks at me as someone young at the time and naive."

Muthana, who was born in New Jersey to Yemeni immigrants and was raised in Alabama, ran away from home at the age of 20 to join ISIS. Raised in a conservative Muslim household, she told her family she was going on a school trip but instead flew to Turkey and crossed into Syria using funds from secretly cashed tuition checks.

Once she arrived in Syria, Muthana says she was detained in a guest house reserved for unmarried women and children.  READ MORE...

Cows & Dogs

 

Cat Pals

Republican Freedom Caucus

The Freedom Caucus, also known as the House Freedom Caucus, is a congressional caucus consisting of conservative Republican members of the United States House of Representatives. It is generally considered to be the most conservative and farthest-right bloc within the House Republican Conference.  

The caucus was formed in January 2015 by a group of conservatives and Tea Party movement members, with the aim of pushing the Republican leadership to the right.  Its first chairman, Jim Jordan, described the caucus as a "smaller, more cohesive, more agile and more active" group of conservative representatives.

The caucus is positioned right-wing to far-right on the political spectrum, with some members holding right-wing populist beliefs, such as opposition to immigration reform.   The group takes hardline conservative positions and favors social conservativism and small government.  The group sought dozens of times to repeal the Affordable Care Act.  

Established as an ultra-conservative alternative to the Republican Study Committee, the group initially emphasized fiscal conservatism and concerns about House rules, favoring budget cuts and a decentralization of power within the House of Representatives.  

Later, the Freedom Caucus shifted its emphasis to loyalty to Donald Trump and became what Politico described as "more populist and nationalist, but less bound by policy principles".  The caucus includes some members who are libertarians.  The caucus supports House candidates through its PAC, the House Freedom Fund.  SOURCE:  Wikipedia

Ten Tech Trends

 

BEIJING, Jan. 5, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Baidu Research, a leading AI research lab initiated by Baidu, today released its predictions for the top 10 technology trends of 2023, including big models, digital-real convergence, virtual-real symbiosis, autonomous driving, robotics, scientific computing, quantum computing, privacy computing, ethics in technology, and sustainability.

Baidu will also showcase its latest tech innovations, including those that are on the top tech trends list for the year, at its annual AI developer conference Baidu Create on January 10, 2023.

"As the application threshold of AI core technologies continues to lower, and the application effectiveness continues to improve, the world is ready for historic change," said Dr. Haifeng Wang, CTO of Baidu and Head of Baidu Research. "This is the fourth consecutive year that Baidu Research has released its top 10 technology trends outlook. Over the past four years, AI has become a founding pillar of technological development."

"The future digital society will be built on advanced intelligent networks, the Internet of Things, blockchain, and other new forms of infrastructure, with natural human-computer interaction and AI serving as a key interaction platform. Virtual-real symbiosis technology will merge the physical and digital worlds, enhancing our experiences and capabilities in both realms," said Dr. Qinping Zhao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Honorary Chairman of the Industry of Virtual Reality Alliance.

"One of the most crucial fundamental technologies in the Fourth Industrial Revolution is AI. Synergized with autonomous driving, green computing, and life sciences, AI offers significant development opportunities," said Dr. Yaqin Zhang, Chair Professor of AI Science at Tsinghua University, and Dean of Institute for AI Industry Research of Tsinghua University (AIR).

Here are Baidu Research's Top 10 Tech Trends for 2023. The full report is available here: http://research.baidu.com/Blog/index-view?id=178

Trend 1: Big Model Building – Big models for industries emerge, providing intelligent upgrades across a wide range of sectors.

Trend 2: Digital-Real Convergence - The increasing demand for AI infrastructure drives deeper integration of digital technology with the real economy.

Trend 3: Virtual-Real Symbiosis - Web 3.0 technology creates a new type of online space, leading to disruptive innovation in the metaverse industry.

Trend 4: Autonomous Driving - Autonomous driving sees new upgrades, leading progress in intelligent transportation.

Trend 5: Robotics - The use of industrial robotics accelerates, addressing labor shortages.

Trend 6: Scientific Computing - AI technology has become a valuable research aid, transforming the paradigm of multidisciplinary research.

Trend 7: Quantum Computing - Breakthroughs in core technologies continue to drive the industrialization of quantum computing.

Trend 8: Privacy Computing - Privacy computing platforms enable data interoperability while balancing value creation with security and trust

Trend 9: Ethics in Technology - Explainable AI technology promotes "mutual trust," making reliable and controllable technology a new competitive advantage.

Trend 10: Sustainability - The focus on green, low-carbon, and sustainable energy grows, with key breakthroughs in edge computing and advanced computing.

Republican Party Decline

As 2021 crashed to a close amid alarming new numbers of omicron cases in the US, we wanted to take a step back and ask, how healthy is America’s democracy? Now that the anniversary of the January 6 storming of the Capitol is close at hand, we wanted to take a look at the year in terms of how the Republican Party is living up to its own boastful moniker as the party of family values. This was, after all, the year when a Republican president urged his followers to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell”.

The oft-repeated phrase is that Republicans are pro-life only until birth. That accusation seemed justified when Republicans failed to vote in favour of the child tax credit and the child and dependent care tax credit in the stimulus package introduced by President Biden. This at a time when the United States ranks as one of the worst for child poverty among the world’s rich nations. American child poverty rates are worse than in Mexico and six times times those of Finland. Alas, Republicans seem more eager to act like children than to actually help them.

Family values, of course, have no real party affiliation and the majority of Americans believe that being good people, and treating people with dignity and kindness, still matters. Our children learn from our actions. So it has been particularly distressing to witness the many unseemly antics of many senior Republicans this year.

Representative Lauren Boebert, of Colorado, is a gun rights activist and adherent of Donald Trump. She has riffed on fellow Representative Ilhan Omar’s ethnicity — she was born in Mogadishu — and joked about a bomb in a backpack. For her part, Omar commented that Boebert “thinks bigotry gets her clout.” Boebert also refers to Covid vaccines as “Fauci Ouchies”, in a year where hundreds of thousands of Americans have died from Covid. Of course, the comment led to a whole line of “Fauci Ouchie” merchandise.

And can we ever forget Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia (pictured above), and the video of her shouting harassing comments through the letter box of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Congressional office? Greene challenged her to a debate, shouting that Cortez should put her “big girl diapers on”. This was almost as dignified as Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona, who posted a cartoon video of himself wielding a sword at President Joe Biden, and killing Ocasio-Cortez.  READ MORE...

Understanding 5G

A data-driven "fourth industrial revolution" has long been predicted. Now, the backbone for that platform is finally becoming a reality. The long-promised benefits of cyber-physical industrial systems are within sight.

The year 2019 will be remembered as the year that true cellular connectivity for the Internet of Things (IoT) finally got going. Nowadays not a week goes by without a new announcement of a new 4G NB-IoT / LTE-M network rollout. Yet the future for industry is already racing towards the fifth generation (5G) of wireless communication technology.

5G promises lightning-fast speed, barely noticeable latency (or communication response time) and vastly increased capacity. All four major U.S. carriers have green-lighted test networks and partial implementations in some cities.

The benefits of marrying the physical world with digital technologies have been discussed for what seems like a generation. Many industries could use the intelligence gleaned from connected systems to gain critical insights about their operations and how to make improvements that will make a genuine difference to their bottom line. While 4G is already creating dramatic improvements for industries around the world, it’s 5G that’s creating the greater buzz.

Data alone is not enough
Jani Vilenius, Director of Research and Technology at Sandvik, says that data is already driving industry around the world: “Everyone is already collecting, and to a certain extent using data. But improved connectivity is needed to truly utilize the data and add business value. When we add more Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, and voice/image recognition into everyday systems, the bandwidth requirements mean 5G is inevitable to leverage the new capabilities.”

Industry 4.0 was supposed to bring about these benefits, but up until now there’s been a crucial element missing. Turning the idea of a collaborative, adaptive, real-time industrial digital system into a reality needs a truly agile communications infrastructure.

Beyond incremental improvement
You can be forgiven for thinking the move from 4G to 5G is merely about incremental speed improvements, with little need for all the hype. After all, the 4G/LTE (Long Term Evolution) communications architecture of today has hooked up approximately 3 billion mobile devices.

But in truth, the difference between 4G and 5G is not like comparing one iPhone model with the next, it’s more like comparing a horse and buggy to an electric race car.

Yes, 3G and 4G technology is most often equated with smartphones. That’s because the systems were designed for voice and mobile data respectively. And while it’s true that 5G’s dramatic speed increases will mean so much more than just higher-quality streaming and lightning quick downloads, the fact that it’s been designed from the ground up for data connectivity will be the game changer.

Faster connectivity and low-to-no latency will unlock operational benefits in every industry on the planet. Up until now there has been only talk, but with test systems now in place, those operational benefits are becoming clear.

Taking the connected factory to the next level
In a market reliant on data-intensive machine applications, the higher speeds and low latency of 5G is required for the effective use of autonomous robotics technology, wearables and virtual reality.

Unlike previous jumps in levels of technology in industry, 5G won’t fundamentally redesign the production line. But what it will do is offer manufacturers an opportunity to build smart factories that can adapt to changing market conditions.

The increasing capabilities of smart devices and the factories that make them won’t just impact competition within a set industry. As competition shifts from product-based to system-based, formerly clear industry boundaries will be blurred. Traditional manufacturing companies may soon find they are competing as part of a much broader automation industry, for example.

Healthcare: Enabling remote surgery
The low latency of 5G is set to revolutionize the healthcare industry, most notably in the operating theater. Experienced surgeons can advise more junior colleagues via a video connection or could even operate the surgical device remotely. You could be forgiven for thinking this sounds unlikely, yet it’s already happened.

In early 2019, the world’s first live surgery via remote assistance took place successfully in China. An experienced surgeon inserted a stimulation device in the brain of a Parkinson's patient. The almost instantaneous latency of 2 milliseconds allowed the surgeon to accurately conduct the procedure as if they were right next to the patient, whereas in fact they were 3,000 kilometers away. The latency resembles surgery using a traditional cabled monitor solution.
Autonomous technology on the road and underground

The improvements to network latency will give applications and devices the ability to communicate in close-to real-time. This should ease the safety concerns of autonomous vehicles, providing them the ability to constantly communicate with the ever-changing environment around them.

This of course will have significant impact on mining operations, something Sandvik is aware of. Already, Sandvik has signed an agreement with Nokia to further develop solutions based on private LTE and 5G technology, much of which will take place at the Sandvik test mine in Tampere, Finland.

“Our focus to date has been on private LTE technology, which offers speed, latency, reliability and privacy benefits over Wi-Fi. It’s one of the technologies our customers are asking for now,” explains Vilenius. The benefit to Sandvik in focusing on LTE is simple. (LTE stands for Long-term Evolution and isn’t as much a technology as it is the path followed to achieve 4G speeds). Customer demand is there, and the hardware can easily be upgraded to 5G when the time comes.  READ MORE...

Who Are The Republicans Trying to Fool???

The Republican Party has spent the last week posturing among themselves for power that they appear to have lost sight of what they have been elected to do...

All this has done is given more power to the Democrats and Mainstream Media that the GOP hasn't got the slightest idea how to govern or what is best for the American People.

Fighting for power is not a very good sign of UNITY...  nor does it convey the fact that during the next two years, the GOP will spend more time fighting among itself than trying to pass legislation...

Two months from now when the House Freedom Caucus does not like what their party is doing in the House, are they going to play games again and pull off another power struggle or maybe propose that the Speaker should be replaced?

While I don't like the Democrat's plan of action...  at least they have a plan of action and are united...