Are We Taking AI Seriously Enough ???

According to Professor Stephen Hawking, the answer is "no":

One can imagine such technology outsmarting financial markets, out-inventing human researchers, out-manipulating human leaders, and developing weapons we cannot even understand. Whereas the short-term impact of AI depends on who controls it, the long-term impact depends on whether it can be controlled at all.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/stephen-hawking-transcendence-looks-at-the-implications-of-artificial-intelligence--but-are-we-taking-ai-seriously-enough-9313474.html

Anyone who thinks that we can control an intelligence that will be infinitely smarter than us is deluded. Yes, AI may do wonderful things, but the downside risk is incalculable. One way or another, it will make humans obsolete and unnecessary. Is that what we want?

Trailer Trash ???

It appears that our oligarchs want us all to move to trailer parks:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-01/1-3-homes-unaffordable-freddie-mac-prepares-enter-trailer-home-loan-market

Been there, done that. It's actually not so bad, but I think the prices have gone up since I lived there about 15 years ago. A decent mobile home now costs more than a house did not so long ago.

A lot of Germans have retired to campgrounds or trailer parks, but I think theirs are a bit more luxurious than ours:

http://sainthoward.blogspot.com/2013/11/germans-moving-to-campgrounds.html

Why Aren't We Protected ???

Obama ad-Dajjal appears to be protecting Ukraine, but right on our southern border he does nothing for us:

http://www.kvoa.com/news/n4t-investigators-rogue-mexican-army-troops-crossing-the-line/

Our entire military and DHS system is fubar. Why are we protecting oligarchs who want to loot Ukraine instead of protecting US borders and US citizens?

What the hell are we doing?

One Way To Fix Banks

One way to fix our banks would be to force them to only loan out money they actually have:

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2014-05-01/prominent-economists-call-end-fractional-reserve-banking

By the way, I find this part of the above article very provocative:

Interestingly, the Chicago Plan for full reserve banking came very close to passing in 1934. But the unfortunate death of one of its main Congressional sponsors – Senator Bronson M. Cutting  – in a plane crash reversed the momentum for the bill.

Here is a summary of what happened to Senator Cutting's plane:

http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19350506-0

... a report alleging that the tragedy was caused by malfunctioning navigational aides ... ???

Does that remind you of something?

Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown's plane apparently crashed because of "malfunctioning navigational aides":

http://www.aim.org/media-monitor/ron-browns-death-still-a-mystery/

And Senator Paul Wellstone also was killed in a mysterious plane crash that Professor Jim Fetzer claims was an actual assassination:

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/09/21/sen-paul-wellstone-more-proof-of-assassination/

Of course, not all plane crashes are the result of evil conspiracies. But when a crash changes the course of history and occurs under mysterious circumstances, we ought to make sure that it was not an assassination.

Don't we owe that to the victims ... and to ourselves?

By the way, MG Smedley Butler, USMC testified that he had been approached as part of a plot to assassinate FDR. That plot was being hatched before Senator Cutting's plane crashed. The point I want to make here is not that the two were necessarily related, but that if powerful forces were willing to kill the President I'm sure they would have had no qualms about causing a Senator's death to achieve their goals.

Charity For Corporations, None For The People

Congress does help someone - corporations, the new "persons":

http://www.testosteronepit.com/home/2014/4/30/do-nothing-congress-works-on-loopholes-for-ge-apple-and-othe.html

The charters of these corporations should be revoked.

But then they'd just set up shop somewhere else and still refuse to pay taxes.

India Is Closing Fast

China now has the world's largest economy, the US is second, and India is now is third and closing on us fast:

India is now the world’s third-largest economy, moving ahead of Japan, while the US remained the largest economy closely followed by China, latest figures have revealed. Significantly, China now has the largest share of the world’s expenditure for investment, ahead of the US.

“The relative rankings of the three Asian economies — China, India, and Indonesia — to the US doubled, while Brazil, Mexico and Russia increased by one-third or more,” according to data released today by the International Comparison Program (ICP), hosted by the World Bank Group.

http://thebricspost.com/india-pips-japan-as-worlds-3rd-largest-economy/

The G7 nations (including the US) still have relatively large economies, but they also have HUGE debts.

When Obama ad-Dajjal's Russia disaster is over, we will be living in a world completely dominated by the BRICS. Don't blame this just on Obama ad-Dajjal, because it is what the bankgangsters, corporations, and their accomplices in the one percent have been working toward for some time. He is merely their well paid, willing sock puppet.

Sign of the Times: Stealing Wire

Thieves stole 10,000 feet of copper wire from two Texas parks last weekend:

http://www.statesman.com/ap/ap/texas/thieves-steal-60k-of-copper-wire-from-texas-parks/nfmmL/

When I was working in Houston, one morning I came to work early. As I walked up the steps to my building, I was passed by a man coming down with something over his shoulder. As he disappeared into the darkness I realized that he had stolen a large rubber floor mat from the lobby. I let him keep it.

Houston has some of the largest churches in America, but it also has one of the largest homeless populations.

Desperate times make people do desperate things.