Sex robots will be "difficult to tell" from humans in as little as several years, a leading manufacturer has vowed.
1AM Dolls President, Brent Lawson, told Daily Star Online his company offer more than 30 bodies and 100 different face options.
This gives customers a chance to customise female, male or transgender dolls before they build their "fantasy partner" for them.
But incredibly, Brent believes AI technology is evolving so rapidly that sex robots are on course to match humans for their realism in just years.
He told Daily Star Online: "In my opinion, we are several years away before we have the ability to perfect not only the AI portion but the remaining technology that would make it difficult to tell human from a doll/robot.
"The robotics and AI portions have been getting a lot of coverage over the last few years, so the public is aware of the strides being made.
"Over the years I think we have made major strides in realism, but my hope for the coming years is more innovation.
"In my opinion, there is a lot of focus on AI and robotics, but other innovations have been overlooked such as reducing the doll’s weight.
Meanwhile, Instagram girls are beginning to get that "uncanny valley" feel. Take Katie Bell, twice recommended by Donald Douglas at American Power:
Her first Instagram post was on January 21, 2016, and was a video of her walking through a department store. The caption read "mood towards haters since '95."
She is an ambassador for Dan's company Ignite Cannabis Co.
A rather desultory set articles today, which is appropriate for a Sunday, after all the news is digested and shit out, requiring a bit of cleanup, before the new week's fresh hay.
The Justice Department shot down claims by former Trump national security adviser Mike Flynn’s lawyers that former FBI agent Peter Strzok and others at the bureau “set up” their client in a court filing.
Flynn’s attorneys alleged in a filing last week their client was trapped by Obama administration holdovers such as former FBI Director James Comey and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe in an effort to hobble newly elected President Trump, that Strzok and the other agent “ambushed” Flynn, and that Strzok and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page manipulated the FBI interview notes so they could claim Flynn had lied when he hadn’t.
"Each contention is divorced from the facts," federal prosecutors said in a 46-page filing Friday.
Hmm, that seems rather more of an opinion than a fact. Flynn's laywer, Sidney Powell, is also a former federal prosecutor, and as a private attorney, won big over Mueller bulldog Andrew Weissman (who engineered the Flynn prosecution) in the Enron case, with this judge, Emmett Sullivan. I rather suspect she is not wasting Judge Sullivan's time reviewing the evidence.
I think I'll let sundance at CTH introduce the next bit, that files from the Mueller investigation have been released via FOIA, and as one might suspect, they claimed to have suspected Trump, his friends and family of all kinds of bad things. They better have had to waste so much time and prosecutorial powers to not come up with anything. Jason and Jerry’s Big Adventure….
While a vertically and horizontally challenged member of congress named Jerry Nadler appeals for the details of the Mueller grand jury inquisition, a rather caffeinated fellow named Jason Leopold charges from his bunker at Buzzfeed to mount his final assault against General Douglas MacArthur….
"[Rick] Gates recalled a time on the campaign aircraft when candidate Trump said, 'get the emails.' [Michael] Flynn said he could use his intelligence sources to obtain the emails," investigators wrote in a summary of Gates' April 2018 interview with Mueller's team. Flynn was a foreign policy adviser on the campaign and became Trump's first national security adviser.
"Flynn had the most Russia contacts of anyone on the campaign and was in the best position to ask for the emails if they were out there," the investigators also wrote about Gates' interview.
Gates described in an interview with Mueller investigators last year how several close advisers to Trump, Trump's family members and Trump himself considered how to get the stolen documents and pushed the effort, according to investigators' summary.
One of the more remarkable aspects to the political weaponization of the intelligence apparatus was the complicity of specific journalists and specific outlets to advance the Russian collusion-conspiracy narrative.
Three of President Trump’s top advisers met with him in the Oval Office in May, determined to convince him that the new Ukrainian leader was an ally deserving of U.S. support. They had barely begun their pitch when Trump unloaded on them.... In Trump’s mind, the officials said, Ukraine’s entire leadership had colluded with the Democrats to undermine his 2016 presidential campaign. “They tried to take me down,” Trump railed.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry, the senior member of the group, assured Trump that the new Ukrainian president was different — a reformer in Trump’s mold who had even quoted President Ronald Reagan in his inaugural address, for which the three advisers had been present. But the harder they pushed in the Oval Office, the more Trump resisted. “They are horrible, corrupt people,” Trump told them....
“We could never quite understand it,” a former senior White House official said... “There were accusations that they had somehow worked with the Clinton campaign. There were accusations they’d hurt him. He just hated Ukraine.”....
Trump’s hatred, they concluded, was ingrained, irrational and possibly irreversible.
Actually, it's pretty clear that the previous Ukrainian government did, in fact, attempt to meddle in the US election in support of Hillary Clinton, and that probably colored Trump's feeling regarding Ukraine. And he still sent them more aid than the Obama administration.
. . . no impeachment should ever move forward without bipartisan support. That is a tall order in our age of hyperpartisan politics in which party loyalty leaves little room for neutrality. Proponents of the House vote argue it is only about procedures and not about innocence or guilt and that further investigation may well persuade some Republicans to place principle over party and vote for impeachment or some Democrats to vote against impeachment. While that is entirely possible, the House vote would seem to make such nonpartisan neutrality extremely unlikely.
Rather than squabble over the presidency, Congress can and should reassert its considerable constitutional powers. It could start by reclaiming the sole right to declare war and rediscovering its lawmaking authority, the latter of which it has ceded to executive branch bureaucrats out of laziness, cowardice, and general ineptitude in the face of genuinely difficult work. But there's little evidence the legislative branch has any intention of doing that.
Let me skip to the end: The Democratic-majority US House of Representatives, in partisan fashion, is all but certain to impeach President Donald Trump. The Republican-majority Senate, in partisan fashion, will almost certainly acquit him. And the net result will be that Democrats will have abused the US Constitution to satisfy political passions instead of approaching impeachment as the solemn act the framers intended.
. . . But Schiff is and was an anti-Trump partisan. There's no way he's the sort of person who would be chosen as a special counsel like Robert Mueller or Ken Starr. It's an entirely unbelievable characterization. It was better to have things out in the open with Nadler's highly partisan public sessions!
Schiff has since declared he will not seek testimony from the whistleblower, which Republicans believe is aimed at preventing GOP lawmakers from asking the whistleblower about his coordination with the intelligence panel.
Is there some reason why we the people are not entitled to that information? I want to know. Once you go into secrecy mode, you create suspicions about what you are trying to hide.
Energy Department spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes indicated Friday that Perry would not appear for the closed-door hearing but would consider testifying in a public session. Perry has already defied a subpoena from the committees for Ukraine-related documents.
“The Secretary will not partake in a secret star chamber inquisition where agency counsel is forbidden to be present,” Hynes said.
Fall has fallen with a vengeance. On Thursday it was 75 and humid, before a quick, but violent thunderstorm came through, and the temperature dropped sharply, to a low of 44 yesterday, and a low of 36 this morning, with clear skies, and mild winds.
The north winds from the front, and gusty winds yesterday left us with a blow out tide today. Unfortunately, I was unable to capitalize on it, and only found 4 sharks teeth.
There has been a massive chunk of cliff break loose and fall to the beach recently, well up past Matoaka. It would really be painful if it landed on you. I hope some nice teeth will wash out of it in time.
“There’s another reason,” Rush said in reference to his identity remaining secret. “Nobody would be impressed by this guy. He’s a kid — and I don’t mean to be insulting 30-year-olds. Do not misunderstand me here. But he’s not … When you hear ‘CIA agent,’ ’embedded CIA agent,’ you think, ‘Spy, national security!’ You think ‘grizzled veteran,’ not somebody who doesn’t shave but twice a week. He’d be totally unimpressive as an image witness.”
Ciaramella graduated from a high school that costs $30,000 a year to attend, received his undergraduate degree from Yale, and obtained a master’s from Harvard. A few years after graduation from that tony private high school, the youngster estimated to its alumni magazine of trips to 28 different countries (he admits he lost count).
When others provide you with the best education and pricey junkets to obscure parts of the globe, not getting the president you asked for might come as a terrible blow. So Ciaramella sought to rectify this injustice by anonymously peddling secondhand gossip — false in large part — designed to instigate another round of impeachment discussions. He did so by first going to Congressman Adam Schiff. When you seek to report a federal crime, go to the FBI. When you seek to gin up political trouble, go to Adam Schiff.
This came as the latest instance of the 33-year-old CIA employee using his government position for partisan, political ends. . . .
Here is what he said: “I was concerned by the call. [1] I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government’s support of Ukraine. [2] I realized that if Ukraine pursued an investigation into the Bidens and Burisma, it would likely be interpreted as a partisan play which would undoubtedly result in Ukraine losing the bipartisan support it has thus far maintained. This would all undermine U.S. national security. Following the call, I again reported my concerns to NSC’s lead counsel.”
The two portions preceded by my bracketed numbers are Vindman’s opinions. Let’s analyze what he said. It is important to remember that he was not speaking off-the-cuff or just responding to questions. This was a carefully prepared opening statement that had been closely vetted by lawyers and others.
Regarding his first opinion, he says, “I did not think it was proper…” That is pure opinion, not fact. Moreover, if it is improper to ask a foreign government to investigate a U.S. citizen, that would no doubt come as a big surprise to many in government.
Vindman’s statement is, in short, an unfounded and unsupported opinion. And the notion that the president could not properly ask a foreign country to investigate a U.S. citizen who may have engaged in illegal activity is nonsense; Joe Biden does not get a pass from investigation just because he is candidate for the nomination of his party.
There is nothing improper or illegal about an investigation into potentially illegal actions, much less anything that rises to the level of a high crime or misdemeanor. The notion that it does is so much tommyrot.
So, absent personal knowledge of a high crime or misdemeanor, Vindman’s first personal opinion is immaterial. I think most voters not swirling around in the vortex of Trump hatred care more about the opinions of the president and the secretary of State than those of a mid-level officer, at least on this topic.
Vindman’s second opinion is that if Ukraine investigated the Bidens as President Trump suggested, it would lose the support of Democrats in Congress. That may well be, but in addition to being a personal opinion, it is a pure political concern. It is properly the concern of the presidents of the United States and of Ukraine.
If he disagrees with the president’s approach and harbors a fear that Ukraine will lose Democrat votes if it investigates the Bidens, Vindman’s proper role is to give his best advice and then shut up. His proper role is not to volunteer to go before a congressional committee and complain about why he disagrees with the president.
He is likely protected from legal ramifications from showing up to testify, a former Army judge advocate told Military Times on Thursday. But it remains to be seen whether what he told legislators could get him charged with a crime ― and, of course, how his choice to rebel against his White House chain-of-command will affect his career.
“It’s not far-fetched,” Sean Timmons, a managing partner at Tully Rinckey, said. “It’s a murky issue.”
It comes down to whether Trump’s order was lawful, he said. If Trump was trying to prevent Vindman from sharing sensitive information, it could be. If he was trying to prevent testimony, period, it’s not.
The Military Whistleblower Protection Act prohibits government officials from interfering with a member of the military in communicating with Congress or an inspector general. Adding to the complexity is that the president gets to determine what is and isn’t classified.
Have I ever mentioned how much I hate keeping up with the day-to-day partisan warfare in D.C.? Many journalists crave such a diet, but I find it tedious, mainly because it’s “pack” reporting, everybody chasing the same story, whereas I prefer to find some little-noticed incident nobody else is covering and turn that into a story. All this to explain why I dread this “UkraineGate” impeachment carnival — the Beltway press corps will love it, but there’s no real fun to be had in trying to cover the same story that’s being covered by a thousand other reporters and drawing commentary from a thousand pundits. How can I possibly make any really valuable contribution to such a story? But never mind my personal problems, there’s a witch-hunt underway in Washington . . .
Today the DOJ files their surreply to the game-changing Flynn motion to compel Brady material filed by defense attorney Sidney Powell (full pdf below). Within the DOJ filing the prosecution generally makes four arguments:
The government had no legal obligation to provide exculpatory Brady material prior to the plea agreement (Nov 30th, 2017).
After the plea agreement the government had no legal obligation to provide exculpatory Brady material that was not directly related to the evidence about the charge of Flynn lying to investigators during the January 24th, 2017, interview.
The government uses odd language to claim a draft of the Flynn interview report (FD-302) does not exist prior to their Feb 10th construct: “Even if an earlier draft of the [302] once existed, there is no reason to believe it would materially differ” from the agents’ notes. Sounds sketchy, like they know an earlier draft does likely exist.
The government severely understates the conflict of interest created by the DOJ using the leverage of an incorrectly completed FARA submission to pressure the Flynn plea.
Flynn’s attorney Sidney Powell will now be allowed to file a sur-surreply to the position of the DOJ prosecutors.
♦Taking the #4 bullet-point first, the DOJ is being profoundly obtuse. Flynn’s original defense lawyers (firm: Covington, Kelner, Anthony, and Langton Inc.) were the attorneys who advised Flynn on how to complete the FARA paperwork/filing. When the DOJ threatened to use the FARA filing as evidence against Flynn, in essence the DOJ was accusing Covington of manufacturing false documentation.
Deborah Ann Woll was born on February 7, 1985 in Brooklyn, New York. Her father is an architect and her mother, Cathy Woll, is a teacher at the Berkeley Carroll School. She is of German and Irish descent. She attended the Packer Collegiate Institute for high school, and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from USC School of Dramatic Arts at the University of Southern California. She also trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London.
Woll's boyfriend E.J. Scott has choroideremia, a condition that ultimately results in blindness; Woll uses her celebrity status to help raise awareness of the disease. Woll has said that Scott's bravery in fighting his disability has inspired courage in her own battle with celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder caused by an intolerance to gluten.
Woll is also very enthusiastic about playing Dungeons & Dragons, being interviewed by D&D Beyond as well as guest starring in the 45th episode of Critical Role's second campaign as a small gnome girl named Twiggy
This Halloween, a Pennsylvania photographer and filmmaker is offering a public service announcement about a frightful creature threatening the commonwealth.
In the spoof horror movie trailer, a full moon rises over dark woods as swarms of winged insects fly across the sky and a shadowy figure crunches over the corpses of dead spotted lanternflies. A question appears on screen: How many did you kill today?
Mike Allebach, owner of Allebach Photography, said he was inspired to make “The Spotted Lanternfly Massacre” after finding them inside his Montgomery County studio last month.
“We were just stomping on these things outside and it kind of hit me, like, what if stomping on these was a horror movie?” Allebach said. “And then I just had to run with it.”
Nonfarm payrolls rose by 128,000 in October as the U.S. economy overcame the weight of the GM autoworkers’ strike and created jobs at a pace well above expectations.
Even with a decline of 42,000 in the motor vehicles and parts industry, the pace of new jobs well exceeded the estimate of 75,000 from economists surveyed by Dow Jones. The loss of jobs came due to the General Motors strike that has since been settled. That 42,000 job loss itself was less than the 50,000 or more that many economists had been anticipating.
The unemployment rate ticked higher to 3.6%, in line with estimates, but remains around the lowest in 50 years. A more encompassing measure that includes discouraged workers and those holding part-time positions for economic reasons also edged up to 7%.
The unemployment rate for African Americans nudged down to a record low 5.4%. Also, the total employment level as measured in the household survey jumped to 158.5 million, also a new high.
The pace of average hourly earnings picked up a bit, rising 0.1% to a year-over-year 3% gain, also in line with estimates. The average work week was unchanged at 34.4 hours.
The recession Democrats long for will just have to wait.
While border apprehensions of illegal immigrants have reached a decade high, they did not hit the projected 1 million in 2019, leading experts to believe that the Trump administration has finally made good on its promise to stop the surge.
“The crisis is over,” said analyst Steven Kopits in a new report on the just-released fiscal year 2019 border crossing data.
Kopits, the president of Princeton Policy Advisors of Pennington, New Jersey, said the summer to fall drop in expected apprehensions followed the Trump administration’s success in getting Mexico and other Central American countries to help with the crisis.
“President Trump is due credit for the reduction in apprehensions,” said Kopits’s report, shared with Secrets.
He said that Trump’s “pressure” on Mexico to help stop the flood of migrants rushing through to the U.S. border “has led Mexico to take effective steps to prevent Central American migrant families from transiting to the U.S. border.”
U.S. officials, in announcing Customs and Border Protection data this week, said that the crisis is not over and by apprehending 851,507 on the southwest border, the numbers show that.
But Kopits noted that the number trailed off after the administration stepped up its efforts on the border, and they are having a significant impact in stopping the surge of illegal immigrants.
It's not over, but significant inroads are being made. Either that, or most of the people who want to escape Latin America are already here.
There is no doubt that Donald Trump would like to exact political revenge on those behind the Russia probe, and it is fair to be skeptical of his Department of Justice. But it would be a mistake to reflexively dismiss the inquiry, which is led by US Attorney John Durham and overseen by Attorney General William Barr. The public deserves an accounting of what occurred. And given the intrusion of the nation’s intelligence’s services into domestic politics, a failure to learn lessons and enact safeguards could leave future candidates, especially on the left, vulnerable to similar investigations.
A number of former high-level Obama administration officials could fall into the investigative crosshairs of U.S. Attorney John Durham's team as his probe into the handling of the Russia investigation rises to the level of a criminal inquiry.
The elevation in status means the U.S. attorney for Connecticut will be able to subpoena witnesses, file charges and impanel grand juries.
"You do not impanel a grand jury at this point unless you are going to indict," a source familiar with the investigation told Fox News. "Durham is at a point where he knows he has crimes and now the question is how many people were involved and they have a pretty good idea of that group of people and what the charges can be and whether or not they can get some cooperators."
“I think they were complicit in working with the whistleblower to come forward with his complaint and start this entire impeachment inquiry,” he said.
“I think that’s why Adam Schiff is so protective of the whistleblowers[sic] because he is concerned about the truth that will come out if we get access to him,” McCaul continued.
McCaul doubled down on his accusations by continuing to accuse Schiff of collusion and said the Democrats’ evidence doesn’t rise to the level of impeachment.
McCaul doubled down on his accusations by continuing to accuse Schiff of collusion and said the Democrats’ evidence doesn’t rise to the level of impeachment.
“The best evidence is the [Ukraine] phone call itself, which I don’t think is worthy of an impeachment proceeding,” he said. “My theory is that Adam Schiff and his staff had access to the whistleblower and were complicit with this complaint being filed, which started this entire charade — this entire impeachment inquiry.”That’s why Adam Schiff is so protective of the whistleblowers[sic] because he is concerned about the truth that will come out if we get access to him,” McCaul continued.
POMPEO: What I know is I was on the call, I listened to the call. I thought the way the president handled it was appropriate. We were incredibly focused on a couple of simple things with respect to Ukraine strategy. And we’ve executed on that. And don’t forget, Martha, this is the administration that provided defensive weapon systems to Ukraine. The previous administration —
MACCALLUM: That’s true.
POMPEO: — I couldn’t tell you why, I couldn’t answer if it’s because of Hunter Biden, that Barack Obama and Vice President Biden didn’t give weapons to Ukraine. They’ll have to answer for that. Maybe — maybe I just don’t have the full story.
"... that he did not believe Trump had discussed anything illegal during the conversation. 'I want to be clear, I was not concerned that anything illegal was discussed,' former NSC Senior Director for European Affairs Tim Morrison testified today.... Morrison testified that Ukrainian officials were not even aware that certain military funding had been delayed by the Trump administration until late August 2019, more than a month after the Trump-Zelensky call, casting doubt on allegations that Trump somehow conveyed an illegal quid pro quo demand during the July 25 call. 'I have no reason to believe the Ukrainians had any knowledge of the [military funding] review until August 28, 2019,' Morrison said.. . .
That's quite an important time line!
July 25 — Trump talks to Zelensky
August 12 — Schiff coordinates with the whistleblower
August 28 — Schiff reveals that the funding to Ukraine is held up, and Zelensky (according to Morrison) first learns this fact
He’s still testifying as I write this, and of course everything the media has is due to selective leaks, so take all of it with a grain of salt. But given Tim Morrison’s importance as a witness, it’s a cinch we’ll be hearing him testify ourselves at a public hearing soon.
One would think Pelosi and Schiff would want to keep an unpredictable witness like Bolton testifying in secret until they know what he’s going to say. Granted, he’s on the outs with Trump. But he’s also been a loyal soldier for the GOP for a long time. Knifing Trump would turn a lot of his friends into enemies. And besides, Bolton’s always seemed to enjoy knifing his adversaries via whispers to the media, not out in the open in front of a mic. Maybe he won’t be as helpful to Democrats as people suspect.
An Iranian beauty queen has been pleading on social media for asylum in the Philippines for two weeks, sparking international concern for her safety.
Bahareh Zare Bahari, 31, who represented Iran in the 2018 Miss Intercontinental pageant, has reportedly been stranded at Manila airport in the Philippines for the past two weeks. Immigration authorities in Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport detained her when she was entering the country from Dubai.
Bahari, a dentistry student in the Philippines, has been documenting her stay at the airport through live streams on Facebook that have received thousands of views.
In a video posted on Saturday, she pleaded to the Philippines government to grant her asylum.
“I have a message for President Duterte,” she said in the video. “Please help me, please. Philippines not safe for me anymore … Please hear me.”
According to a statement from the Philippines government, Bahari is “wanted for an assault and battery” and was “intercepted” when her name appeared on Interpol’s red notice, which said Bahari was a “Iranian fugitive.”
Since Bahari’s story made international headlines, she made another appearance on her Facebook Live on Tuesday thanking her followers and supporters. But she said she has concerns for her safety even in the Philippines.
“Philippines is not safe for me now,” she said. “I wish I can move to other countries. I would like to ask other countries to help me move there.”
She said that if sent back to Iran, she would face “long prison sentences, at least 25 years,” and “rape and beating.” She said as someone who lived in the Philippines for six years, she was expecting the Philippines government to show her support.
We should accept asylum claims from all hot women, particularly those from political enemies.
