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The Magic Art of Disappearance

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  On Tuesday evening, March 25 in Somerville, Massachusetts, Turkish national Rumeysa Ozturk was on her way to meet friends at an Iftar dinner, where they would break their Ramadan fast. It turns out she would never make it to the gathering, according to her attorney. Instead, the 30-year-old was arrested and physically restrained by immigration officers near her apartment, close to Tufts University’s Somerville campus where she was a PhD student, lawyer Mahsa Khanbabai told CNN. Thank goodness for security cameras, the all-seeing eyes of today’s digital age, that we were witness to the act of an official kidnapping. That was how CNN and other news outlets were able to publicize Ozturk’s arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. While no charges have been filed against Ozturk, according to her attorney, Ozturk’s visa status has been terminated, according to a statement released Thursday by Tufts President Sunil Kumar. A federal judge in Boston issued an or...
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The Screaming Goat Speaks.

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 A while back I saw a video on YouTube complaining that Microsoft's CoPilot AI feature was essentially the equivalent of a "screaming goat" video, implying that the program was to him, a useless irritating feature that he found no use at all in his work. The man was a writer, like me, but unlike me, he still had the talent, tenacity and determination to not rely upon artificial intelligence to fill in the gaps in his writing. Here is a link to the video I am referencing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYVPThx7yss This article seeks to illuminate that scenario. I'll start it with my entry into Copilot: Me: This program is described as a screaming goat video, meaning that you're an essentially useless feature. Prove me wrong in 500 words or less using layman's language. Copilot: I get it—there's skepticism when it comes to AI, especially when it seems like a flashy addition rather than a meaningful tool. But let me show you why I aim to be far more than j...
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How could the US President be removed using the 25th Amendment in the Constitution?

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Lately, a lot of hay has been made considering the mental disposition of Donald J Trump, our current president. Just listen to a speech of his where he wanders off topic, often delivering a series of rambling diatribes leading an audience - for instance, the Justice Department, recently - to question what purpose the event was attempting to fulfill. Many people have pointed to events like this, outright mental slips, and other policy declarations, such as the annexation of Greenland, Canada, and the Panama Canal into statehood to sound the alarm concerning the President's state of mind.  Often the mention of the 25th Amendment is brought up in discussions. It is what is left to invoke when impeachment won't prove useful in removing a tyrant whose party controls all three branches of our constitutional government, as is the case with this one. The 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution outlines the procedures for replacing the president in cases of death, resignation, remo...
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Russia’s war with Ukraine - A Timeline of the conflict starting with the Russian Invasion

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  During a contentious meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office on February 28, Trump and Vice President JD Vance accused Zelensky of being insufficiently grateful for U.S. support to Ukraine in the war with Russia. Zelensky “is not ready for Peace,” Trump wrote on social media. He said Zelensky had “disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office” and “can come back when he is ready for Peace.” Zelensky spoke with several European leaders afterward,  with many of them expressing unequivocal solidarity . In an interview on Friday night with Fox News, Zelensky said he thought the relationship between the two countries could still be salvaged. If you are like me, you find the meeting both surprising and a bit distasteful, as the tone of the exchange on the part of our leaders appeared to be very confrontational. While right-wing-leaning news sources seemed to paint a picture of a disrespectful Ukrainian leader, one such ...
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From Praise to Pejorative and Back: Understanding the Shift in Perception surrounding the word, “Woke”

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  Full disclosure: this post was created with assistance from an AI application. Steps have been made to ensure that all statements made are accurate and factual. The term "woke" originated within African American Vernacular English (AAVE) as a slang term meaning to be awake or aware, particularly to social injustice and racial inequality. Over time, this term has evolved in the public lexicon, shifting from a positive affirmation to a frequently used pejorative, especially among those with more right-leaning ideologies. Despite this, the term retains its original significance for many, representing a heightened awareness of social issues. The Positive Origins of "Woke" In its earliest usage, "woke" was a call to consciousness. It urged individuals to stay alert to the realities of systemic oppression. It gained widespread use in the 2010s during the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, where it encouraged solidarity and activism. To be "wok...
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Explaining the Electoral College to a Student

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 This is an interaction between ChatGPT and myself. It's quick and dirty, better stuff will be forthcoming! Me: Explain the Electoral College to me as it pertains to electing the President as if I were in Elementary School. ChatGPT: Sure! Imagine your school is having a big vote to decide on a class president, but instead of counting every single vote from every student, the teachers from each classroom get to vote based on what their students want. Each classroom has a different number of students, just like each state has a different number of people. Bigger classrooms (or states) get more votes, and smaller ones get fewer votes. These special votes are called electoral votes . When students vote for their favorite class president, their teacher collects all the votes from that classroom and then decides who to give the classroom’s electoral votes to. Most of the time, the teacher gives all the votes to the student who got the most votes in that classroom, just like most...
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ChatGPT in 2028!

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  First a little bit of background. The following question has been floating around in my head for a while. I had read articles by various pundits and thinkers over the years about the idea of an AI controlled government. Following this last Presidential election, the gears in my head began to spin again, especially in light of how much progress has been done in AI. So, I finally bit the bullet, logged into my computer, logged into the app and asked, the following: If a LLM (such as yourself) or another AI platform were elected President of the U.S., what kind of an administration would it run? Format the response for a blog post. What If an AI Was Elected President of the U.S.? Imagine waking up one day to discover that an AI—like the one you’re reading now—has just been elected President of the United States. It sounds like something out of a science fiction movie, right? But with technology moving so fast, it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility. So, what wou...
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