There is no argument that can logically be made that the AR-15 should be produced or should have ever been produced.
No hunter in their right mind would ever use the weapon because it would tear apart the meat the hunter was trying to gather in the first place.
This is a weapon of war. Period. Police should not even be allowed to have these weapons! The manufacturer should be out of business, and all existing guns should be confiscated and either destroyed or sold to the US military.
At Waco rally, Trump defends Jan. 6 insurrectionists and blasts the prosecutors investigating him
The words and images from the former president’s rally yesterday are deeply concerning. He and his antigovernment co-speakers and followers are attempting to normalize and glorify political violence.
Let us all be warned. This moment is drastically different than the 2016 campaign or anything done or said since then. The only outcome of a campaign like this is intense violence and hatred between citizens that have more in common than not.
And to the senators that twice had an opportunity to prevent something like this from ever happening again but chose party over country, I hope you are able to find your pocket Constitution and refresh your memory of who you serve and why you hold your position.
We are in real trouble here.
Supporters make case for Mehlville Proposition E
I feel that it is our duty as citizens to support our public schools to help make them exceptional. Unfortunately, this has not historically been the way citizens of Oakville and Mehlville have felt about their public schools.
Granted, none of our children have attended our public high school. To be blunt, it is simply not good enough. It pales in comparison to the public high schools my wife and I attended in the Chicago area in the 90’s, public schools in other parts of the St. Louis area today, and the vast number of private schools in the area.
Even while paying an arm and a leg for private school, I still support providing more funding to our public school district. Public education is important. It is fundamental. It changes lives.
Missouri Senate gives first-round approval to transgender youth health care and sports ban
What the Republican-dominated Missouri legislature is doing to transgender minors is unforgivable.
These human-phobic officials do not represent the majority of Missouri citizens in St. Louis and Kansas City and have disqualified themselves from leading anyone.
Missouri, we do not need to live like this. There are better leaders, better humans to represent us.
We must do better!
Let’s set the stage. You are a risk executive at a large commercial bank, and you receive a news alert that Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank are going into receivership.
You immediately turn to the device at your desk or in your hand or on your wrist and ask it to create data visualizations in Power BI showing your bank’s commitment and outstanding balance exposure to those two banks in relation to your overall portfolio.
You then ask it to embed those visualizations in a PowerPoint presentation with your notes from the meeting that just ended with other senior executives at the bank. You also ask it to write an executive summary, attach your presentation, and create and send an email with the two outputs to the executive team.
Knowing that you and the team will need more details, you then ask Microsoft Excel to create spreadsheets with information like which borrowers are impacted, what are the commitment details for facilities in the top 10 impacted industries, and what are the outstanding loan balances by loan officer and risk rating.
With the additional details in hand and the executive team on the same page, you ask Microsoft Teams to schedule a high-priority meeting with heads of each business unit that appeared in the Excel output to bring the wider team into the loop.
Today, this kind of response would take many hours and more likely several days to organize and complete, but if the promise of Microsoft 365 Copilot holds true, all of this could be done in minutes. Talk about a game-changer!
Of course, for all of this to work, the information you use to train the AI models must be well-defined in the context of your business. Each data point must have a business definition that is specific and unique, and these definitions need to be accessible to the models.
This is where I see one of the biggest challenges for making data from online transaction processing systems available to AI modeling tools. In my experience, very few systems have consistent naming conventions and certainly do not include detailed business definitions within the product’s metadata. Without those business definitions, it is difficult enough for a human to understand the data they query from a system. How can we expect anything more from a AI model? This change in system design should begin immediately to take advantage of what looks to be an incredible shift in the way we are able to work.
This former Microsoft Office programmer could not be more excited about what we are going to be able to do with Copilot. Let’s go!
Making the Social Web a Better Place: ActivityPub for WordPress Joins the Automattic Family
This acquisition may not seem like a big deal at the moment, but I think it’s huge! When you think about the vast number of websites that run on WordPress, you begin to realize the possibilities of websites communicating with each other on a common protocol and users communicating across the internet with one identity.
I use ActivityPub for WordPress on Probstisms and am excited to see its progress now that it has the backing of Automattic’s support.
Trump Says His Arrest Is Imminent and Calls for Protests, Echoing Jan. 6
And this is why the former president is completely unfit for any office of honor and should have no access to social media platforms.
Kuo: Apple to Launch Redesigned HomePod With 7-Inch Display in 2024
I really struggle with why Apple has ignored an obvious market to further embed Siri in homes around the world. No one wants to set up a Mac or iPad in their kitchen as a dedicated device anymore (if they ever did).
This seems really simple to me. Put together the user stories for a visual experience between iOS on an iPad and the CarPlay interface. Make the interface voice-forward like the HomePod. Do the market research to see where people are already placing their Amazon and Google devices, and make an insanely great experience.
None of Apple’s devices have been first to market. They’ve just been better than anything else. Get back to making great products. Think different!
Scaling Up Media Literacy Education Is a Big Challenge: 4 Steps to Get Started
Media Literacy is a hugely important skill that should be at the foundation of all curriculum around the country.
I was bummed to not travel to SXSW EDU with Donnell, but it’s great to see her in print!