Quote:Social Studies Grad Antony Blinken '84 Nominated for Secretary of State
November 24, 2020

Antony Blinken, Biden's nominee for Secretary of State, graduated from Social Studies in 1984! His thesis title suggests a possible career in international relations: "The Formulation of East-West Policy in West: A Case Study of the Trans-Siberian Natural Gas Pipeline."

Harvard Univ

(02-27-2023, 09:55 PM)EndtheMadnessNow Wrote: BIAD -  That Toon spilled my coffee! 


@Ninurta  - That's just ridiculous. I'd say you're definitely on the FB insurgent blacklist. Some say that's a badge of honor. I see the same censorship crap on Twitter.

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(02-25-2023, 04:14 AM)EndtheMadnessNow Wrote: Putin: The special operation will continue for as long as it takes to victory. Stay frosty...

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In the aftermath of Ivory Leaf the President agreed that we needed a system of procedures and hardware that would allow him to send his Vice-President (or some other designated constitutional successor) into cyberspace, to keep him safe from attack yet able to execute informed civilian control of the government if the President were to disappear. During the summer of 1982, Major North and I gave this matter some thought, and on September 8, I briefed my conclusions to the President. Thus was born the project we shall call Partridge. The details remain sensitive, but at its heart Partridge was a plan to support the President in the oval office while providing his successor with the ability to disappear — not just personally, but with the staff and information systems needed to conduct the nation's business in times of trouble. The resulting system was expensive in terms of bureaucratic bloodshed and money, but by the end of Reagan's term, the U.S. government did not need to fear a disabling decapitation in the midst of a crisis.

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During all of these unfolding events, not a nuclear shot had been fired, except on the briefing screens of the leaders involved. Iwr]' Leaf hzd just been an exercise. Partridge provided a stable and secure environment during the closing days of the Cold War. Our leaders were able to negotiate and to decide without fear of decapitation.

Quote:The Swiss National Bank has reported an annual loss of $141.54 billion

Previously, the Swiss National Bank lost $148.4 billion (142.2 billion Swiss francs) since the start of 2022. The central bank's foreign investments dropped in value amid rising interest rates and a stronger Swiss franc.

This is the largest loss the bank sustained in 115 years. However, it doesn't face bankruptcy due to its ability to print money.

The central bank lost $147.3 billion (141 billion Swiss francs) on its foreign currency positions, and $1.1 billion (1.1 billion Swiss francs) was lost in Gold holdings.

Quote:Mindblowing: advances in brain tech spur push for 'neuro-rights'

The South American nation Chile is aiming to be the world's first to legally protect citizens' "neuro-rights," with lawmakers expected to pass a constitutional reform blocking technology that seeks to "increase, diminish or disturb" people's mental integrity without their consent.

"If this technology manages to read (your mind), before even you're aware of what you're thinking," he told AFP, "it could write emotions into your brain: life stories that aren't yours and that your brain won't be able to distinguish whether they were yours or the product of designers."

The Chilean bill contains four main fields of legislation: guarding the human mind's data, or neuro-data; fixing limits to the neuro-technology of reading and especially writing in brains; setting an equitable distribution and access to these technologies; and putting limits on neuro-algorithms.

The science has opened the possibility of designing hybrid humans with artificially enhanced cognitive abilities.