This AI-based beauty contest must've been rigged in more ways than one

An AI-generated Muslim woman became the first winner of an AI-based beauty pageant:

CNN reports that the world’s first AI beauty pageant has concluded with the crowning of Kenza Layli, an entirely AI-generated Moroccan Muslim lifestyle influencer. Organized by Fanvue, an influencer platform for both AI and human creators, the Miss AI contest opened in the spring and attracted entries from approximately 1,500 AI programmers worldwide.

Kenza Layli, the winning AI contestant, was created by Myriam Bessa, founder of the Phoenix AI agency. As the creator of the winning entry, Bessa will receive a $5,000 cash prize, support on the Fanvue platform, and the services of a publicist to raise Layli’s profile. The runners-up in the competition were AI contestants Lalina Valina from France and Olivia C of Portugal.

I'm sure this was no accident. So now AI is being exploited for normalizing the Religion of Peace and pushing its agendas, subtle or otherwise. It only takes the flavor out of such farces, which do not replace real beauty pageants, and only suggest AI is being used for political propaganda instead of fun pastimes.

HILLARY CLINTON'S PRIVATE SERVER

According to the Daily Beast (August 12, 2015):

Underlying all this is the question of why Hillary Clinton decided to employ her own private email and server to handle so much of her official State Department business. This is, to say the least, highly irregular—not to mention a violation of numerous U.S. government rules and regulations—so there had to be a compelling reason to do this. What was it?

There are only so many reasons that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would have been using a private server in the first place.  A few possibilities:

(1) paranoia about "the vast right wing conspiracy"

(2) to hide something untoward — something personal or political

(3) distrust of the Obama administration

(4) to hide something about her health — perhaps the brain incident and her drinking.

Additional reading from Number of Classified Emails on Hillary’s Private Server Grows to 60:

The number of emails containing classified information that went through Hillary Clinton’s private server has grown to 60, according to the State Department. And that number is likely to grow as the investigation plows through the 30,000 emails Clinton didn’t delete.

THE LAST DAY — AND THE SITE IS DOWN

Figures!

From WTOP:

WASHINGTON -- On the last day to sign up for health care, the federal government's site HealthCare.gov is down.

At 5 a.m., the site said, "The system isn't available at the moment. We are currently performing maintenance. Please try again later."

"HealthCare.gov regularly nightly maintenance window has been extended."...

Another epic fail!

EPIC FAIL: THE OBAMACARE WEB SITE

The ObamaCare web site now has been condemned by Consumer Reports:

The Obamacare program's flagship website is so error-prone and user-unfriendly that Consumer Reports magazine has thrown up its hands in disgust, advising readers to 'stay away from Healthcare.gov for at least another month if you can.'

[...]

Before October 1 [the launch date of the ObamaCare web site], the magazine was a major booster of President Obama's health insurance overhaul plan, devoting several pages in its latest issue to an optimistic ‘step-by-step guide.'...

The word is out now — and not only on conservative web sites and other outlets.

How much of Obama's Teflon coating has been ruined? Cult followers are obdurate and intransigent.

YET ANOTHER CIVIL RIGHT?

The insanity just keeps on coming:

Pennsylvanians on public assistance now have a new 'civil right' -- free cell phones. Meanwhile, the rest of us get to pay higher cell bills as a result.

Recently, a federal government program called the Universal Service Fund came to the Keystone State and some residents are thrilled because it means they can enjoy 250 minutes a month and a handset for free, just because they don't have the money to pay for it....

And the idea of free telecommunication services for those who cannot afford to pay for those services doesn't end with cell phones. According to the article cited above:

Between 14 million and 24 million Americans lack access to broadband, "and immediate prospects for deployment to them are bleak," the FCC said in a report last year. "Many of these Americans are poor or live in rural areas that will remain unserved without reform of the universal service program and other changes," the report said.

But who says that cheap or free broadband is anything more than a luxury?

Well, another Obama flunkie, Rahm Emanuel, that's who. As we reported in June , the new mayor of Chicago was all excited to proclaim the wonderful news of free internet service to poor kids in Chicago's worst neighborhoods. And how could Mayor Emanuel pay for this new 'civil right'? Well, because the federal government extorted the money from Comcast when it wanted to buy NBC-Universal....And who is going to pay for this gift? Well, of course the rest of us poor saps who actually pay our bills.

America turned into one gigantic welfare state!

OBAMA DOESN'T UNDERSTAND THE GRAVITY OF THE OFFICE

Obama is obsessed with his mobile device, the BlackBerry. From this source:

Those who follow Obama on a regular basis know the president-elect is constantly on the addictive e-mail device. The Secret Service, as well as Obama lawyers, are concerned it could easily be hacked and are demanding the new president hand over the BlackBerry before he moves into the White House. In an interview with CNBC Wednesday, Obama made clear he's not giving it up without a fight. "They're going to pry it out of my hands," the president-elect said. "You know, this town's full of lawyers. I don't know if you've noticed and they have a lot opinions. So I'm still in a scuffle around that, but it look, it's the hardest thing about being president....

He refuses to give up his that Blackberry:

Despite legal and security hurdles, president-elect Barack Obama says he has a plan to retain his beloved Blackberry once he moves into the White House next week....

Off all the matters our chief executive and commander-in-chief will have do deal with as President of the United States during wartime and an economic crisis, Obama is concerned about his BlackBerry? How absurd!

The man is not in touch with reality.

As stated in the first link above:

Mr. Obama isn't acting as a grown up if he makes a fuss over keeping his blackberry.

CNet: Tech News as reported by "Progressives"

Balanced reporting from Declan McCullah, who purports to be a tech news writer at CNet. The headline -- Obama, not McCain or Clinton, votes for electronic privacy -- captures the flava.

A U.S. Senate vote that took place two hours ago reveals how much three of our leading presidential candidates are committed to electronic privacy and the rule of law.

Barack Obama passes the test. John McCain failed. Hillary Clinton gets an incomplete.

The vote was on an amendment to deny AT&T and other telecommunications companies legal immunity if they are proven in court to have violated federal privacy law by opening their networks to the National Security Agency...

Quick quiz: which candidate does he favor?

Immediately after 9/11, when said wiretaps occurred, I don't recall many media types railing against the U.S. Government's invasions of privacy. It was perfectly obvious that the feds would begin (and the public was demanding) interception of calls leaving or entering the country if they were connected to known terrorist enclaves.

Furthermore, it is patently a legal practice, considering every time we leave or enter the country, we are subject to warrant-less search and seizure of property.

It's called "Customs". Perhaps Mr. McCullah's heard of it.

I wonder how Mr. Partisan Tech Reporter could distinguish an electronic Customs bureau from a physical one.

As for the constitutionality of FISA, it strikes any serious observer as counterintuitive (putting it kindly) that the Commander-in-Chief can order terrorist camps in Afghanistan pulverized with bunker-busters... but can't listen to a phone call from the same camp to a safe-house in New Jersey!

Put simply: your right to privacy ends at the border. An international flight should put the question to rest for Mr. McCullah.

Also see: National Defense 101: A public service for "Progressives"

5-MILE LASERS THAT BURN THINGS. THINGS LIKE TERRORISTS

This appeared in the Hot Air headlines earlier this week, and is hereby rescued in all of its sheer awesomeness:

TRW Systems in Redondo Beach, Calif., for instance, is working on a portable chemical laser (which produces a beam from the energy released in the reaction of two or more chemicals) that could be carried into battle by a unit of only three men. Aimed like a rifle, it would silently burn a fatal, quarter-inch-wide hole in the body of an enemy soldier up to five miles away. "Once you've got him in your sights," says a TRW engineer, "you've got him. There are no misses."

The Danger Room article goes on to point out that defense companies have been promising us these things for three decades, and that we shouldn't expect any field-operated laser rifles any time soon. Which is kind of like giving a kitten a cute little ball of string and then taking it away, all while pointing and laughing. Sadists.

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]