There are at least some Duolingo courses that use AI voices exclusively and they are shit.

On the one hand, having an AI to talk to sounds like something that could be good. Getting a real person to talk to every user would be impossible. I just don’t think the technology is going to meet expectations any time soon.

Hope Florida is run by DeSantis’s wife has been involved in shady dealings.

The meeting marked an attempt by the board to provide clarity as House Republicans probe a $10 million donation that Hope Florida, a charity and welfare program spearheaded by First Lady Casey DeSantis, received from a Medicaid settlement in October. Lawmakers are now investigating whether the foundation funneled those millions to political campaigns against the failed ballot referendum to legalize recreational marijuana.

The foundation’s executive director, Erik Dellenback, announced his resignation a day after legislators grilled the foundation’s leaders about the donation funds during a House budget committee meeting.

The Tampa Bay Times reported that Hope Florida split the $10 million evenly between Secure Florida’s Future and Save Our Society from Drugs — organizations that promptly poured a collective $8.5 million into Keep Florida Clean, a political action committee created to defeat Amendment 3 and run by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ then-chief of staff James Uthmeier.

From the Tampa Bay Times article:

Weeks after the DeSantis administration steered $10 million from a Medicaid settlement to a charity spearheaded by the first lady, the Hope Florida Foundation sent $5 million apiece to two separate organizations that gave millions to a political committee waging an anti-marijuana campaign championed by the governor.

This isn’t as forward thinking as you’d want it to be.

For as much as they are abused, “IP laws” protect small and individual inventors, writers, composers, etc.

With no patent, copyright or trademark protections the billionaires will own or bury everything.

What is needed is to bring the laws back to their intended purpose.

The only thing keeping TSLA’s stock price so high is the perception that it’s a tech company. They’d have to replace Elon with another tech CEO that can spew bullshit about tech advances being right around the corner. That probably will not save it as a car company.

I’d rather see the company fail before Elon and other majority share holders can cash out.

It’s a measure of how much energy you can uselessly burn with other people’s money.

*citation needed

They don’t say where they get these numbers other than “two people” cited in a paywalled article.

Apple One has over 1 billion subscribers. I’m sure they can afford a loss leader like that.

The only way to know if this true is if Apple says so or they just stop producing content.

Libby link:

https://share.libbyapp.com/title/11693967

Anything I’m missing?

I’ll make a few predictions based on the trailer and the most formulaic movies of the past couple decades (at least).

• Nerdy/not-nerdy white boy protagonist. Probably, neglected or misunderstood and teased for his interest in Minecraft
• Smart-ass girl who is mean to boy but will eventually support and encourage him. Likely to have a deep knowledge of some subject that will play a critical roll.
• Big, oafish man-child who lacks confidence but will learn he has value—probably through physical strength—that will save the team at some point.
• Hero who has lost faith and confidence in himself and has given up the cause. Will have his faith restored by the children and find the strength to defeat or help the boy defeat the bad guy.

Edit: oh, snap I forgot:

• sassy black woman who provides comic relief and, possibly, motherly care and/or wisdom. Potential to become romantically entangled with oaf or hero.