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Richard Stonefield – Leguan

Richard Stonefield - Leguan

Richard Stonefield is a Hungarian electronic musician, born in Budapest May 19, 1977. He specializes in the fields of Psychill – Chillgressive – Chill Out – Ambient – Chillstep – Chilltrap – Trance.

This piece called Leguan is from Richard’s “Sand in the Wind” album release:

video
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Keep up with Richard Stonefield:

https://richardstonefield.bandcamp.com/album/cloudfields-24-bit

https://www.facebook.com/richardstonefieldmusic

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA2eYL7Qd9NdOCleKanwqjA

Note:

His music seems to delve into atmospheric and possibly experimental soundscapes, given the track names and album titles like “Stardust Adventure” from an earlier release in 2021. This suggests an interest in creating immersive, perhaps narrative-driven music that might evoke feelings of exploration, wonder, or introspection.

The themes in his music (like “Sanctum” or “Wormhole”) could imply an interest or inspiration from science fiction or theoretical physics, suggesting a potential for his music to be used in media like films or video games that explore similar themes.

Given the release platforms like Bandcamp, Richard Stonefield likely appeals to an audience interested in niche genres of music where listeners seek out unique auditory experiences rather than mainstream hits. His work might be appreciated in communities that value DIY ethics, ambient music, or those with a penchant for space and science fiction.

Richard Stonefield’s work under Astropilot Music might indicate a focus on space-themed or electronic ambient music, aligning with the aesthetic of exploring or piloting through cosmic landscapes, which is a common theme in electronic music.

If you’re looking for Richard’s music, you’d find it on platforms like Bandcamp, where he often shares his work directly with fans, offering high-quality audio formats and sometimes exclusive content. His approach to music seems to align with creators who value depth, atmosphere, and possibly the exploration of existential or cosmic themes through sound.




 

Frederick Hubbard Gwynne

Frederick Hubbard Gwynne

Frederick Hubbard Gwynne — Petty Officer Third Class Fred Gwynne of the US Navy: Veteran of The Battle of Saipan and the Battle of Tinian.

Frederick Hubbard Gwynne was born in New York City on July 10, 1926. Fred enlisted in the US Navy and in 1944 he served as a Radioman Third Class on a submarine chaser in the Pacific Theater. A veteran of both the Battle of Saipan and the Battle of Tinian, Gwynne was honorably discharged in 1948 with the rank of Petty Officer Third Class.

According to the Veterans Administration: “After the war, Fred attended Harvard University. An aspiring painter, Gwynne drew cartoons for the “The Harvard Lampoon,” and later became president of the publication. Upon graduation in 1951, he returned to New York and worked several jobs, such as creating commercial artwork and copywriting at the J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency.

Gwynne’s first big break came in 1961 when he was cast in the role of police officer Francis Muldoon on the comedy series “Car 54, Where Are You?” The show aired until 1963; the following year, he was cast as Herman Munster in the popular syndication favorite “The Munsters.”

A regular on Broadway – Fred was cast as Big Daddy in the 1974 Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”. His final on-screen role was that of Judge Chamberlain Haller in the 1992 film “My Cousin Vinny,” the end of an acting career that spanned 42 years.” – VA News October 13, 2022.

 

Petty Officer Third Class Fred Gwynne passed away on July 2, 1993 at the age of 66 years old. He lies in rest at Sandy Mount United Methodist Church Cemetery in Finksburg, Maryland. Lest We Forget.




 

Artificial Intelligence as a tool for oppression and deception

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence can be used as a tool for oppression and deception — Annual reporting by the non-profit organization Freedom House shows that internet freedom has been declining globally for 13 consecutive years. What’s new about the report’s latest installment, “The Repressive Power of Artificial Intelligence,” is in its title. AI has been used by governments all over the world to restrict freedom of speech and abuse opposition.

This oppression is both direct and indirect. Directly, AI models supercharge the detection and removal of prohibited speech online. Dissenting opinions cannot spread when they are shut off so quickly. AI-based facial recognition can also help identify protesters, making it unsafe for them to have any of their images shared on social media.

Indirectly, AI advances oppressive goals by spreading misinformation. Two factors play an important role here. First, chatbots and other AI-based tools enable automation that cost-effectively distributes large volumes of false information across platforms. Secondly, AI tools can generate fake images, videos, and audio content that distort reality. These fabrications promote general distrust in publicly available information even when identified as fake. Distrust, in turn, makes people incapable of coordinated action.

Read the full report on Freedom on the Net 2023




 

No Labels party certified for 2024 election

No Labels party

by Nicole Girten, Daily Montanan — February 19, 2024

The No Labels party has been certified for the 2024 election according to the Montana Secretary of State’s office.

The party seeks to create “a unity ticket to run in 2024 if the two parties [Republicans and Democrats] select unreasonably divisive presidential nominees,” according to the party’s website. The organization listed allies in congress including Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D- Ariz., and Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La.

Manchin was rumored to be a potential presidential candidate for the party, but he said Friday he wouldn’t be running, as reported by Politico.

The No Labels party in Montana is a minor party, alongside the Green Party, meaning candidates will only appear on the general election ballot. The party needed at least 5,000 signatures to appear on the ballot, or 5% of the total vote cast for the successful candidate for the same office at the last general election – whichever qualification it met first.

The national No Labels organization sent the Montana branch $243,000 in July of last year, which the party spent on signature gathering efforts through Texas-based Advanced Micro Targeting.

David Bell, president of insurance company ALPS and board chairperson for the Mansfield Center at the University of Montana, was listed as the party’s treasurer in the state but was not immediately available on Monday for comment. No Labels did not respond to emailed questions in time for publication.

Daily Montanan is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.

Daily Montanan maintains editorial independence.

Contact Editor Darrell Ehrlick for questions: info@dailymontanan.com. Follow Daily Montanan on Facebook and Twitter.




 

Google: DEI is the new Eugenics

Google: DEI is the new Eugenics

Google: DEI is the new Eugenics — I can’t remember exactly what day I quit using Google, but I do know that somewhere back in 2008-2010 I was using different search full-time.

It’s well known that Google’s search results reflect the personal opinions of Google and it’s employees; it doesn’t necessarily show facts, science, or objective results, and it’s been this way since the early 00’s.

When I learned of Google’s latest racism gaff I wasn’t surprised:

Google says it has temporarily suspended the ability of Gemini, its flagship generative AI suite of models, to generate images of people while it works on updating the “technology” (code for toning down the DEI) to improve the historical accuracy of outputs involving depictions of humans.

Gemini … When prompted to show images of a Black person, the AI offers to show images that “celebrate the diversity and achievement of Black people.”

I guess that when the Gemini AI was asked to show a picture of a White person, it said it could not fulfill the request because it “reinforces harmful stereotypes and generalizations about people based on their race.”

After multiple tests White people appeared to be the only racial category that Gemini refused to show.

The primary take-away here is that Google has a racism problem, or rather Google’s engineers have a racism problem.

The problem isn’t a new one because as you see, an earlier AI image classification tool made by Google caused outrage, back in 2015, when it misclassified black men as gorillas. The company promised to fix the issue but, as Wired reported a few years later, its ‘fix’ was a pure workaround: With Google simply blocking the tech from recognizing gorillas at all.

As long as there are humans writing the code and doing the math, going forward, our so-called artificial intelligence will still continue to be artificial, but will have nothing to do with intelligence.

There’s nothing at all intelligent about racism.

Paris-based venture capitalist Michael Jackson branded Google’s AI as “a nonsensical DEI parody”.

Bias will always rear it’s ugly head as long as there are programmers or engineers that have an opinion … on anything … because Generative AI tools produce outputs based on training data and other parameters, such as model weights.

Running off the societal rails in this country is nothing new.

DEI is the new Eugenics —

Eugenics was the set of beliefs and practices which aimed to improve the genetic quality of the human population, it played a significant role in the history and culture of the United States from the late 19th century into the mid-20th century. The cause became increasingly promoted by intellectuals of the Progressive Era.

DEI will prove itself to be a failed attempt at improving the quality of the human population, just like Eugenics did back in the day.

History repeats itself because people have forgotten that we already had a Progressive Era.

DEI is just as racist as Eugenics was … and here we have the likes of Google buying into a bill of goods that serves absolutely no good purpose. Any ideology that rejects portions of a population in an attempt to improve on a society is doomed to failure.

It’s not just Google either:

We can even see Microsoft running off the rails:

If you use grammar check on Microsoft word you will encounter even more nonsense.

It flags everything from “‘mankind” to “father and mother”. It doesn’t like the use of brother or sister instead telling you that it’s more inclusive to say sibling.

It doesn’t like terms like waitress or waiter. It’s more inclusive to say server. Things like that. It has an entire check for inclusivity and any term others might find offensive.

Our world is full of brothers and sisters, white people and black people, waiters and waitresses, husbands and wives. These are the things that makes the world go ’round.

Your exclusion of any of these things makes you so much less inclusive than those who include them. Your DEI is totally worthless and a waste of time. It causes much more division and goes to show just how intolerant those who claim to be tolerant are.

You can’t lift someone up by putting someone else down. This is the sort of thing that your average high school bully does. It’s tyranny, it’s abhorrent, and it’s unacceptable … just like Eugenics was.

I didn’t quit Google because it was racist, I quit Google because I got tired of it telling me what I liked or not. I got tired of Google showing me things that it wanted me to see, and not the things that I actually wanted to see. I quit Google because it was a worthless search for any kind of genuine science or research. I’m thinking that maybe someone should let Google in on the fact that Pseudoscience is not science.

Looking back, I’m glad I quit Google when I did, because Google has never gotten better … only worse (I had no idea of just how racist Google would become).

As the case is with Google today and it’s blatant racism, and not too unlike how Eugenics was back in the day, developing and maintaining derogatory social constructs will do nothing to advance society as a whole. As a society, we didn’t learn the lesson of Eugenics, so now we have to go back and take the class again.

Lets just hope that this time we won’t fail the class, because if we do, we’ll be going down this same path 100 years from now.

sourced:

Fox Business – Wikipedia
Eugenics
Gilded Age
Wired