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Tyler Cowen: Too much misinformation? The issue is demand, not supply

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:43:42 GMT

With the U.S. presidential election a little more than a year away, candidates and voters are bracing themselves for an “explosion” of AI-generated misinformation. Adding to the fear is that many research programs intended to study and counter misinformation, facing accusations of bias, are shutting down.Given all this, I have a prediction: AI-generated misinformation will not be a major problem in the 2024 campaign. But that’s only because so many other forms of misinformation are already so rife.Speaking in economic terms, the problem with misinformation is demand, not supply. Consider, for example, the view that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump. To explain what happened in simple terms, there was a demand for this misinformation, namely from some aggrieved Trump supporters, and there was also a supply, most prominently from Trump himself. Supply met demand, the issue was focal and visceral, and the misinformation has continued to t...

Bethel student’s documentary contrasts two families’ attempts to cross the southern border

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:43:42 GMT

A new documentary produced by a Bethel University student brings attention to immigration issues through the perspectives of two different families.The documentary, titled “Border of Dreams” (“Frontera de Sueños” in Spanish), brings to focus the issue of U.S.-Mexico immigration by juxtaposing the lives of a Guatemalan family who tried to cross the border and failed and a Mexican family who successfully crossed the border and now live in the United States.Documentary editor and videographer Hana Ko shows children photos on her camera in the highlands of Guatemala. (Courtesy of “Border of Dreams”)The producer of the film, Soraya Keiser, is a print journalist by trade and managing editor at the Clarion, Bethel’s student news publication. Keiser originally went to Guatemala as part of Bethel’s Textura program for magazine production. The story she wrote there about the Guatemalan family is what eventually became the documentary.After the c...

Ask Amy: New neighbors endanger their children

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:43:42 GMT

Dear Amy: I have serious concerns about new neighbors, who moved in about a year ago. They have two young daughters.I suspect the mother is an alcoholic. Her actions are putting the girls in danger.On several occasions I and other neighbors have seen her drive erratically down our street, once with a little girl on her lap holding the steering wheel.Another time she had left the house and was chugging a bottle of wine outside. She was yelling about how she was free because the girls were alone inside: “Hooray, I’m free…!”The latest issue was most frightening.I was walking my dog and one of the little girls was naked and standing in the street.She was crying, saying that she could not find her mommy.I took her to her house and searched the home for the mother.The house was filthy and looked like it had been ransacked. There were no bed sheets on the beds and the kitchen was trashed.I was scared that something had happened.I ended up finding the mother curled in a bedroom corner with ...

Bridge: Oct. 8, 2023

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:43:42 GMT

A reader asks for an explanation of “fourth-suit” auctions, which often appear in my columns.Today’s auction went easily. North’s jump to three diamonds was forcing, as per his partnership agreement, and South had an easy 3NT bid. North may have considered acting again.Now say North had held A54,J,AQ8742,1042. He can’t jump to three diamonds, forcing — his hand isn’t strong enough to commit to game — but he wants to invite game. So North needs a way to invite and to force.Many players use a bid of the “fourth suit” to force. North would bid two hearts at his second turn, saying nothing about hearts but asking South to make a further descriptive bid. South would bid 2NT next, and North could then bid three diamonds, forcing.North-South might even reach six diamonds, a fair contract. But suppose South plays at 3NT, and West leads the deuce of hearts: jack, queen, ace. South has eight top tricks, and since he will be safe if d...

The U.S. Government Is Preparing for a Fentanyl WMD Attack

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:43:42 GMT

Last year, the White House publicly shot down a controversial proposal from Republican lawmakers to designate fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction, or WMD. Though President Joe Biden declined to issue the executive order granting the WMD designation, which would have come with extraordinary powers to combat the scourge, federal agencies — including the Department of Defense, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security — had already begun preparing for a fentanyl WMD attack as far back as 2018.Government documents obtained by The Intercept reveal that national security agencies have for years been advancing the narrative that the drug could pose a WMD threat, going so far as conducting military exercises in preparation for an attack by a fentanyl weapon.The push to declare fentanyl a WMD — and the security state approaching the drug that way even absent the declaration — has been a boon to federal agencies’ budgets. It’s not clear, however, that reimagining th...

Última hora del conflicto en Israel y Gaza en vivo: noticias de Hamas y más

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:43:42 GMT

Haz clic aquí para ver las entradas más recientesSoldados israelíes patrullan frente a una comisaría de Policía que fue escenario de una batalla tras una infiltración masiva de hombres armados de Hamas desde Gaza, en Sderot, Israel, el 8 de octubre de 2023. (Crédito: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.Source

3 charged in connection to thefts targeting businesses in Prince George’s Co.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:43:42 GMT

Prince George's County, Maryland, police have arrested three people who allegedly stole more than $10,000 from area businesses along Oxon Hill Road and Maryland Route 210 over less than a month. (Courtesy Prince George's County police)(Courtesy Prince George's County Police) Prince George's County, Maryland, police have arrested three people who allegedly stole more than $10,000 from area businesses along Oxon Hill Road and Maryland Route 210 over less than a month. (Courtesy Prince George's County police)(Courtesy Prince George's County Police) Police in Prince George’s County, Maryland, have arrested three people who allegedly stole more than $10,000 from area businesses along Oxon Hill Road and Maryland R...

$20K reward offered for info on escaped Richmond inmate

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:43:42 GMT

A $20,000 reward is being offered to anyone who provide information about a Virginia inmate who escaped custody in August.Authorities said 21-year-old Naseem Isaiah Roulack, also known as “Lil Nas,” fled Virginia Department of Corrections custody at Bon Secours St. Mary’s Hospital in Richmond.The original reward had been $10,000, which was set by the Montgomery County Police Department this week for information leading to an arrest of Roulack — who is also a suspect in last month’s armed carjacking in Gaithersburg, Maryland — before the U.S. Marshals Service doubled it.“This is a significant reward and one that we hope compels people to share additional, actionable information,” said Virginia Department of Corrections Director Chadwick Dotson, adding that bringing him back into custody is the department’s top priority.Roulack was serving a 13-year sentence on aggravated malicious wounding, grand larceny and hit and run charges.The U.S. Marsh...

Egyptian media say a policeman has opened fire at a tourist site, killing 2 Israeli tourists and an Egyptian

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:43:42 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian media say a policeman has opened fire at a tourist site, killing 2 Israeli tourists and an Egyptian.Source

La Policía de Florida detuvo a un joven de 19 años luego de se encontraran amenazas escritas de tiroteos durante una parada de tráfico de rutina

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:43:42 GMT

(CNN) — Las autoridades del sur de Florida dicen que arrestaron a un joven de 19 años esta semana después de que encontraron amenazas escritas de un tiroteo y otros ataques en su vehículo durante una parada de tráfico de rutina.Un agentel de Policía de Júpiter, Florida, detuvo a Henry Horton IV el 18 de septiembre por un faro apagado en la camioneta blanca que conducía, según una declaración jurada de causa probable de la oficina del Sheriff del condado de Palm Beach.Durante una búsqueda en el vehículo de Horton, el oficial encontró varias notas escritas a mano con un plan para comprar armas de fuego y “matar a todos en OHS (Okeechobee High School) con mis armas”, dice la declaración jurada de causa probable.Horton se graduó de la escuela secundaria, ubicada en el condado de Okeechobee, en mayo de 2022.Horton le dijo al agente que tenía problemas de salud mental previos y que había “estado teniendo múltiples pensamientos sobre el homicidio en masa y que quería ejecutarlos una ...