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Comment Re:Strange. (Score 1) 42

He basically thinks they are ants to be stepped on.

You mean... he is not hindered by empathy to take difficult decisions. (/s)
One day we will learn in school that empathy is bad.

I am amazed by the number of people who took this comment seriously.
And wasted mod points to vote him down.

Seriously folks, you do not recognize sarcasm, even with a helpful /s tag?

And some of those who took it seriously AGREED with him.
Oh, the lulz...

Comment Same problem with mining equipment (Score 1) 167

You know those giant dump trucks that they use in open-pit mines?
They would make them bigger if they could just transport bigger tires by road. No matter how you orient the tire, it's just too wide or too tall to carry on a supply truck. And they use lots of tires, they get chewed up quickly...

Submission + - Google, Microsoft, Amazon Pledge Support for First Lady's AI Initiatives

theodp writes: Earlier this month, Business Insider and others reported that tech leaders Sam Altman, Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, Satya Nadella, Bill Gates and others lauded President Trump at a White House AI dinner, where the 30 guests were encouraged to speak and went around the table praising the president. Less covered were the commitments and millions of dollars pledged by Google, Microsoft, Amazon, IBM, and others to First Lady Melania Trump's AI education and workforce training initiatives at the dinner and earlier in the day at a White House AI Education Task Force meeting hosted by the First Lady.

Google, Microsoft, and Amazon also issued corporate blog posts detailing their support for the First Lady’s Presidential AI initiatives. "It’s an honor for me to be here and to support the First Lady’s [K-12] Presidential AI Challenge," said Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who pledged $150 million towards grants to support AI education and digital wellbeing, including $3 million to tech-backed nonprofit Code.org to transform its K-12 CS curriculum and integrate new AI features, as well as $2 million to the Flourish Fund to support nonprofits equipping youth aging out of the foster care system with tools to succeed in the workforce (foster care is a pet cause of the First Lady). "Through this initiative, you are inspiring young people to use technology in extraordinary ways."

Not to be outdone, Microsoft President Brad Smith detailed a sweeping set of new commitments to support the Presidential AI Challenge and the AI Education Executive Order made at the AI Education Task Force meeting, including $1.25 million in prizes for the Presidential AI Challenge that was announced by the First Lady in late August. Like Google, Microsoft is also supporting Code.org's AI pivot (via its $4B Microsoft Elevate AI training initiative) by funding the nonprofit's new Hour of AI, which Code.org President Cameron Willson told the First Lady would engage 25 million schoolchildren in December. And, in its response to the White House's AI Education Pledge to America's Youth, AWS VP of Global Education and US State and Local Government Kim Majerus posted that Amazon will support AI skills training for 4 million, including a contribution of up to $200,000 in AWS credits and $1.5 million in cash prizes to support the Presidential AI Challenge.

So, to paraphrase the old adage, "Happy president and president's wife, happy AI company life"?

Submission + - The Software Engineers Paid to Fix Vibe Coded Messes (404media.co)

alternative_right writes: I first noticed this trend in the form of a meme that was circulating on LinkedIn, sharing a screenshot of several profiles who advertised themselves as “vibe coding cleanup specialists.” I couldn’t confirm if the accounts in that screenshot were genuinely making an income by fixing vibe coded software, but the meme gained traction because of the inherent irony in the existence of such a job existing.

The alleged benefit of vibe coding, which refers to the practice of building software with AI-coding tools without much attention to the underlying code, is that it allows anyone to build a piece of software very quickly and easily. As we’ve previously reported, in reality, vibe coded projects could result in security issues or a recipe app that generates recipes for “Cyanide Ice Cream.” If the resulting software is so poor you need to hire a human specialist software engineer to come in and rewrite the vibe coded software, it defeats the entire purpose.

Comment Re:Incentive (Score 1, Insightful) 85

As an employee, what is my incentive for increased productivity?

Are those saved hours just going to be used to give me more work?

Are some portion of those saved hours going to be used to reduce my work week without reducing my pay?

Are those saved hours going to be used as a basis for increasing my pay?

Are those saved hours, across multiple employees, going to be used to justify eliminating one or more employees?

How do I, the employee benefit?

Is there isn't a clear benefit to employees, why would they bother?

If the only benefit is "you get to keep your job", well, that's just working under the daily crack of the whip. Doesn't seem like a nice place to work.

I'm glad you're not my employee.

Submission + - Florida plans to become first state to eliminate all childhood vaccine mandates (apnews.com)

skam240 writes: Florida plans to become the first state to eliminate vaccine mandates, a longtime cornerstone of public health policy for keeping schoolchildren and adults safe from infectious diseases.

State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, who announced the decision Wednesday, cast current requirements in schools and elsewhere as “immoral” intrusions on people’s rights that hamper parents’ ability to make health decisions for their children.

Florida’s move, a significant departure from decades of public policy and research that has shown vaccines to be safe and the most effective way to stop the spread of communicable diseases, especially among schoolchildren, is a notable embrace of the Trump administration’s public health agenda led by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist.

Submission + - Our Thumbs Could Explain Why Human Brains Became so Powerful (zmescience.com) 1

alternative_right writes: The researchers expected that longer thumbs would connect to the cerebellum, the brain’s coordination center. Instead, they found the strongest link was with the neocortex — the sprawling brain region that processes sensory information, plans actions, and fuels consciousness.

Dexterity didn’t just give our ancestors better grip; it demanded more advanced thinking. Dr Baker explained: “We imagine an evolutionary scenario in which a primate or human has become more intelligent, and with that comes the ability to think about action planning, think about what you are doing with your hands.”

Even when the scientists removed humans from the dataset, the pattern held across lemurs, monkeys, and apes. Long thumbs predicted large brains.

Submission + - Trump and RFK Jr. to Ban COVID-19 Vaccine 'Within Months' 4

ukoda writes: The Daily Beast has this worrying article:

The Trump administration will move to pull the COVID vaccine off the U.S. market “within months,” one of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s closest associates has told the Daily Beast.

Dr. Aseem Malhotra, a British cardiologist who has repeatedly claimed in the face of scientific consensus that the vaccines are more dangerous than the virus, told the Daily Beast that Kennedy’s stance is shared by “influential” members of President Donald Trump’s family. Like Kennedy himself, no Trumps hold any scientific qualifications.

Malhotra is a leading adviser to the controversial lobby group Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Action, which is seen as an external arm of Kennedy’s agenda as Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary.

He told the Beast that many of those closest to RFK Jr. have told him they “cannot understand” why the vaccine continues to be prescribed, and that a decision to remove the vaccine from the U.S. market pending further research will come “within months,” even if it is likely to cause “fear of chaos” and bring with it major legal ramifications.

Just glad I live in a country where the Covid vaccine is free and encouraged.

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