A Florida man wound up in jail after a trip to a Subway restaurant did not go as expected.On Tuesday afternoon‚ Alberto De Barros‚ 54‚ drove to a Subway in Stuart‚ a city of over 17‚000 residents located along Florida's southeastern coast. After De Barros received his order‚ he expressed disappointment that "his sandwich was not separated‚" a probable cause affidavit said.De Barros then got into "a brief verbal exchange" with the employee who made it‚ the document said‚ before engaging in other "disruptive" behavior. At that point‚ the employee informed De Barros that she would no longer serve him.De Barros did not immediately leave the establishment. In fact‚ the affidavit indicated that‚ while placing a call to an unknown recipient‚ De Barros picked up his sandwich and threw it at the employee‚ striking her "in her mid to lower body section." De Barros then apparently stormed out. The employee followed him and‚ with her cellphone in hand‚ filmed his "demeanor" and his license plate. She contacted the sheriff's office and her store manager.Deputies arrived at the scene at around 5 p.m. and viewed surveillance footage‚ which seemed to corroborate the employee's summary of events. A deputy who saw the footage said De Barros did "swipe the sandwich off the counter which subsequently strikes" the employee‚ the National Desk reported.Deputies also went to De Barros' home to investigate the incident. There‚ De Barros "admitted" to throwing the sandwich but claimed he thought he threw it "at the counter instead of" the employee‚ an arrest report said.The suspect "was upset over his sandwich not being cut and advised he called the store manager in response to the service he received‚ attempting to resolve the issue‚" the report added.It is unclear which kind of sandwich De Barros ordered.De Barros was arrested and charged with misdemeanor battery. He later paid $1‚000 to bond out of custody. His arraignment is scheduled for February 1.The New York Post reached out to Subway for comment but apparently has not yet received a response.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors‚ sign up for our newsletters‚ and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Hertz Global Holdings announced Thursday that it plans to trim its electric vehicle fleet‚ citing high repair costs‚ and reinvest in gas-powered vehicles.In Hertz’s regulatory filing on Thursday‚ the company stated that it will sell 20‚000 EVs. The announcement comes after the car rental firm committed to making 25% of its fleet electric by the end of 2024. The company has since pulled back on that goal. It also previously agreed to purchase 100‚000 Teslas by the end of 2022 and 65‚000 Polestar vehicles over the next five years.Approximately 80% of the car rental firm’s EV fleet are Tesla vehicles‚ and Hertz plans to sell some of those vehicles. Its used car website lists over 700 EVs for sale‚ including Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles‚ BMW’s i3‚ and Chevrolet’s Bolt‚ the New York Post reported. The funds from the sales‚ which should be complete by 2025‚ will be used to purchase more gas-powered cars.The company claimed that the collision and damage repair costs associated with EVs are more significant than with gas-powered vehicles. In a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing‚ Hertz wrote‚ “Expenses related to collision and damage‚ primarily associated with EVs‚ remained high in the quarter.” During a recent analyst call‚ Hertz CEO Stephen Scherr stated‚ “[C]ollision and damage repairs on an EV can often run about twice that associated with a comparable combustion engine vehicle.”“Remember‚ in the likes of GM and other [automakers]‚ there’s decades of establishment of a broad national parts supply network‚” Scherr continued. “There’s an aftermarket of parts that is there‚ that is less mature‚ obviously‚ in the context of Tesla.”He noted that Hertz is in “very direct engagement” with Tesla regarding parts procurement.“The MSRP declines in EVs over the course of 2023‚ driven primarily by Tesla‚ have driven the fair market value of our EVs lower as compared to last year‚ such that a salvage creates a larger loss and‚ therefore‚ greater burden‚” Scherr said.Hertz anticipates roughly $245 million of incremental depreciation expenses from the EV sales in the fourth quarter of 2023.The company noted that it will still offer EVs to its customers as it works to increase the fleet’s profitability.According to Kelley Blue Book‚ Americans purchased nearly 1.2 million EVs in 2023‚ making up 7.6% of all new vehicle sales.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors‚ sign up for our newsletters‚ and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

An Ohio mother was arrested Monday for passing her little girl off as a moribund cancer patient for years in order to scam anyone keen to help‚ according to the Noble County Sheriff's Office. Pamela Reed of Pleasant City has been charged with theft by deception‚ a felony of the fourth degree. The NCSO and Noble County Children's Services received a tip on Jan. 4 concerning the con. The elementary school nurse at the victim's school tipped off detectives after she discovered Reed's daughter was not blind in her right eye as Reed had claimed‚ reported the New York Post. The nurse contacted the child's provider who revealed‚ "AR did not have cancer or leukemia‚ and she never had cancer or leukemia." Sheriff Jason Mackie‚ detectives‚ and Noble County Children's Services subsequently launched an investigation into the claim‚ discovering the child was cancer-free. In addition to providing the school with false medical documents‚ charging documents alleged that Reed shaved the victim's head‚ subjected her constant blood tests‚ fed her anti-seizure medication‚ and caused her to miss over 280 hours of school in the 2023-2024 year already. Even the victim's sister appears to have been misled into thinking the girl had cancer. Among Reed's many shakedowns was a hog roast and bake sale on Oct. 21‚ claiming all proceeds would go to benefit her 7-year-old daughter's supposed "Acute Myeloid Leukemia journey." Reed also raised money through a since-deleted GoFundMe campaign. Investigators later discovered that one local organization had provided the family with roughly $8‚000 to help with medical bills. Reed has been posting to social media about her daughter's fake condition since at least October 2017‚ drumming up sympathy and donations and even going so far as to sell merchandise in her daughter's name. In one instance‚ she prompted the now-8-year-old victim to say in a video that she hated cancer. In September‚ Reed claimed‚ "Due to all the horrible chemotherapy Addey has a few discolored teeth....and was made fun of by a few kids for them." "Today has been a rough day mentally for our warrior and the last few days have had some new pains that we are hoping is just that‚ pain and no more spread‚" Reed wrote in a Dec. 31 post. "Tuesday starts another 10 weeks of an even harder treatment and so many other medicines‚" Reed wrote just before her arrest. "No child should have to fight his hard for anything‚u as parents are the ones who handle all the hard stuff." On numerous occasions‚ Reed claimed her daughter was receiving treatment at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus‚ Ohio. The 41-year-old mother was arrested on Jan. 8‚ then taken to the Noble County Jail where the NCSO indicated she admitted "that she had exaggerated and fabricated medical conditions to receive monetary donations from local organizations." Reed reportedly told authorities she kept up the scam "because she liked the support given as a result." The Post indicated it remains unclear whether Reed's husband was in on the scheme‚ but noted her two children were removed from the home. Judge Jennifer Arnold of the Noble County Court set Reed's bond at $50‚000. "We are extremely proud of the Children’s Services staff along with law enforcement collaborative efforts to quickly act for safety these children‚" Mackie and Noble County Children's Services said in a joint statement. "Child abuse and neglect isn't always cut and dry‚ cookie cutter scenarios. If you as a professional or as a member of our community feel like something just isn’t quite right‚ don't hesitate‚ make the report." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors‚ sign up for our newsletters‚ and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Chicago O'Hare International Airport is one of the biggest airports in the country‚ and it has a little secret: it’s housing illegal immigrants — hundreds of them. Dave Rubin plays a secretly taken video showing row upon row of migrants' beds hidden behind curtains at the airport. “It’s an airport‚” the anonymous cameraman mutters in shock as he walks down a hallway lined with black curtains concealing the chaos. “Congratulations‚ sanctuary city of Chicago‚” mocks Dave. “Does that seem good to you? Does that seem just to you? Does that seem like something that you want your tax dollars to pay for?” “We are at this prescient moment right now where we're about to choose‚ and you better choose carefully; otherwise we will get exactly what we deserve‚” he warns. To see the disturbing footage of Chicago O'Hare International Airport‚ watch the clip below. Want more from Dave Rubin?To enjoy more honest conversations‚ free speech‚ and big ideas with Dave Rubin‚ subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America‚ defend the Constitution‚ and live the American dream.

A North Carolina police officer thanked both God and his friend — a chaplain trained in martial arts — that he was still alive after a desperate suspect with a long rap sheet placed him in a choke hold‚ bodycam footage indicates.Last October‚ Scott Wilkos‚ a retired firefighter who now volunteers with Emergency Chaplains in Durham County‚ decided to celebrate his 52nd birthday in the best way he knew how: riding along with Durham Police Officer J.T. Rose‚ a friend he has known for more than eight years.Wilkos rode shotgun on that fall day as Rose went about his usual patrol. At one point‚ the two spotted a vehicle apparently traveling more than 100 mph. Without engaging in a high-speed chase‚ Rose went after the vehicle. He and Wilkos soon found it crashed along a 15-501 exit ramp near Cornwallis Road in Durham.At that point‚ Rose went to arrest the suspect‚ later identified as 35-year-old Demario Holman‚ who had exited the vehicle. "Get on the ground! Get on the ground!" Rose yelled‚ bodycam video revealed. "Do it now. Get on the ground. Get on the ground. Face down‚ get on the ground."Despite those repeated commands‚ Holman apparently chose not to cooperate. Instead‚ he allegedly physically attacked Rose and managed to overpower him."He had one arm around my neck‚ the other arm going for my gun‚" Rose later told another officer.Wilkos‚ who has been practicing jiujitsu for decades‚ saw that Rose "was in real trouble" and sprang into action. He came up behind the suspect and wrestled him away from Rose — perhaps just in time. Rose may have been on the brink of losing consciousness."Thank God he intervened quickly enough‚" Rose said of Wilkos‚ who seemed to be in the right place at the right time."I gotta stop letting you ride with me‚" Rose joked affectionately. In all‚ Rose suffered an apparent knee injury‚ and Wilkos suffered an injury to his hand after the suspect allegedly bit him during the struggle.Holman also endured a laceration on his elbow‚ but first responders believe that injury occurred during the crash. Holman was reportedly not wearing a seatbelt at the time. When asked at the scene of the crash why he was so eager to evade capture‚ Holman replied‚ "Go look in the car. You'll see." Inside the car‚ investigators reportedly found a loaded assault rifle as well as two bags of marijuana and a bag of white powder.Holman‚ who already has a history of drug-related offenses‚ has now been charged with several more. He has also been charged with many other crimes‚ including assault on a law enforcement officer with serious injury and possession of firearm by a felon.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors‚ sign up for our newsletters‚ and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

A Minnesota doctor – who is also a poison expert – has been charged with murder after his wife was fatally poisoned. The Mayo Clinic resident faces up to life in prison if convicted of murdering his wife.Dr. Connor Fitzgerald Bowman‚ 30‚ was indicted last week on one count of first-degree murder and another count of second-degree murder‚ according to the Olmsted County Attorney’s Office in Minnesota. "The Grand Jury found probable cause that Mr. Bowman intentionally and with premeditation was responsible for her death‚" Olmstead County Attorney Mark Ostrem said in a statement.Bowman had initially been charged with second-degree murder.Bowman was arrested on Oct. 20‚ 2023‚ in connection with the deadly poisoning of his wife‚ Dr. Betty Bowman – a 32-year-old pharmacist who also worked at the Mayo Clinic. The complaint says Betty Bowman was admitted to the hospital with "severe gastrointestinal distress and dehydration where her condition deteriorated rapidly" on Aug. 16‚ 2023. Betty reportedly began experiencing the issues after drinking with her husband at home and originally believed her symptoms to be from food poisoning. "Victim experienced cardiac issues‚ fluid in her lungs‚ and eventually organ failure‚" court documents state. "Victim was taken in for surgery to remove a portion of her colon after it was discovered it contained necrotic tissue."Betty died at St. Mary's Hospital on Aug. 20. An online obituary said Betty died following a "sudden onset autoimmune and infectious illness."Investigators determined that Betty died from "the toxic effect of colchicine" – a medicine primarily used to prevent gout. There are purportedly no records of Betty suffering from gout or being prescribed colchicine‚ according to the criminal complaint. Court documents say Bowman made potentially damning internet searches – including researching colchicine online. CBS News reported‚ "Six days before Betty’s hospitalization‚ the complaint states he converted her weight to kilograms and multiplied it by 0.8. This conversion — 0.8 mg/kg — gets the lethal dosage rate for colchicine."Bowman's browsing history from Aug. 5‚ 2023‚ showed searches for "internet browsing history: can it be used in court?" and "Police track package delivery." The Mayo Clinic resident also allegedly arranged to have Betty "cremated immediately." However‚ the Southeast Minnesota Medical Examiner’s Office put the kibosh on the cremation request "after learning of possible suspicious circumstances‚" according to the complaint.The criminal complaint states that Bowman attempted to cancel his wife's autopsy and allegedly asked investigators if the toxicology analysis would be "more thorough" than those conducted at the hospital.Bowman used his hospital credentials to view the electronic health record of his dead wife‚ according to the complaint.The complaint states a woman contacted the medical examiner's office to tell authorities that the Bowmans "were having marital issues and were talking about a divorce following infidelity."Another woman claimed that Bowman said that he was going to receive a $500‚000 life insurance payout as a result of his wife’s sudden death‚ the complaint reads. Bowman had attended pharmacy school‚ worked in poison control in Kansas‚ and was in medical school.A GoFundMe page raising funds for the legal fees and other bills facing the mother of the deceased woman celebrated Betty as "a light to so many people and words cannot express how much she will be missed."Bowman remains at the Olmsted County Adult Detention Center in lieu of $2 million bail with conditions or $5 million bail for unconditional release.Bowman is expected to be arraigned on Jan. 16.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors‚ sign up for our newsletters‚ and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here! Minnesota doctor accused of fatally poisoning his wife www.youtube.com

Sen. John Kennedy (R) declared victory on Wednesday over news that Charnelle Marie Bjelkengren's federal judicial nomination is not being renewed.Last January‚ Kennedy stumped Bjelkengren during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing when he asked her basic questions about the Constitution. Bjelkengren serves on the Spokane County Superior Court‚ and President Joe Biden had nominated her for a federal district court position.At that infamous hearing‚ Bjelkengren could not explain the content of Article II and Article V of the U.S. Constitution. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) reflected on the hearing days later‚ saying that Bjelkengren had "flunked" questions on basic civics subjects that "high schoolers across America learn each year."Bjelkengren's nomination expired at the end of 2023 because‚ even though it was advanced out of committee‚ the full Senate never voted on it. Biden could have renominated Bjelkengren‚ but her name was absent from the list of the re-nominations that Biden submitted to the Senate this week. That means Bjelkengren will not serve on the federal judiciary.Kennedy celebrated the development."Biden sent us a nominee who didn't know the basics of the U.S. Constitution. Judge Bjelkengren is right to bow out‚" he said. "Unfortunately‚ Biden just keeps trying to put unqualified people on the bench — for life. People who don't know the law have no business running our courtrooms." — (@) Bjelkengren‚ meanwhile‚ revealed that she asked Biden not to re-submit her name for nomination. "I asked the President not to re-nominate me due to the uncertainty of my confirmation‚ and in order to advance the important work of the federal judiciary‚" she said in a statement. "My hope is for the swift confirmation of the next nominee.""I care deeply about justice‚ Spokane County Superior Court‚ the people of Spokane County and Washington State‚" she added. "In the last year and a half‚ while I navigated the nomination process‚ it was taxing on both a personal and professional level. I am eager to refocus all of my energy and efforts on the good work my colleagues and I do on a daily basis‚ in Spokane County." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors‚ sign up for our newsletters‚ and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Three or four months into the pandemic‚ depending on how one counts such things‚ the OpenAI corporation released its GPT-3 language model. Now there is GPT-4‚ which is an automated system for generating texts that are difficult to distinguish from those from a human being in response to prompts and questions. It consists of a machine learning model with 175 billion parameters built on a vast corpus of data‚ including petabytes of information stored by Common Crawl‚ a nonprofit that provides a free archive of the content of the public internet. Alan Turing originally conceived of a text-based imitation game as a way of thinking about our criteria for assigning intelligence to candidate machines. If something can pass what we now call the Turing test‚ if it can consistently and sustainably convince us that we are texting with an intelligent being‚ then we have no good reason to deny that it counts as intelligent. It shouldn’t matter that it doesn’t have a body like ours or wasn’t born of a human mother. If it passes‚ it is entitled to the kind of value and moral consideration we would assign to any other intelligent being. Turing’s test was intended to remove irrelevant conditions on our judgments regarding the physical features‚ material composition‚ etc.‚ of the interlocutors. Large language models‚ like GPT-4‚ are likely to be a central part of projects to build artificial general intelligence systems for reasons Turing foresaw. While many philosophers were impressed by the power of GPT-3 in the summer of 2020‚ they focused on its consequences for traditional philosophical questions about intelligence‚ cognition‚ and the like. For me‚ GPT-3 represented a hack that potentially undermined the kind of writing-intensive course that had served as the backbone of my teaching for two decades. I was less worried about whether it's genuinely intelligent and more concerned about whether the development of these tools would make us less intelligent. GPT-4 is impressive and has impressed the media. While it’s difficult to know how much clever public relations efforts shape contemporary media coverage of a new technology‚ there is something important about these systems independent of the usual Californian hype. The effects of LLMs of this kind are probably significant‚ with implications in a range of contexts from obvious commercial applications to the less obvious effects on our psychological well-being‚ relationships‚ political discourse‚ social inequality‚ child development‚ care for the elderly‚ and education. We are becoming increasingly sensitive to the ways that technology changes society. Reshaping culture The philosopher Bruno Latour argued that technology is “society made robust.” But rather than being simply the projection of culture onto the physical world‚ technology has reshaped culture‚ society‚ and politics. Whereas mobile telephony had unexpected effects on love‚ friendships‚ and politics‚ LLMs will change the traditional relationship between writing and thinking. The initial effects will be obvious to teachers as we head into the coming school year. AI is looming over the education system‚ and while LLMs have received relatively little attention‚ classroom teachers will soon see the early stages of what promises to be a transformation in our relationship to writing. In teaching‚ modern philosophers take written texts as the basis for what to do in lectures and discussions in the classroom. In addition‚ most contemporary philosophers aim to help their students to learn the craft of producing thoughtful and rationally persuasive essays. In some sense‚ the ultimate goal of the creators of LLMs is to imitate someone who has mastered this craft. Like most of my colleagues who teach in the humanities‚ philosophers are generally convinced that writing and thinking are connected. In some sense‚ the creators of GPT-4 share that view. However‚ the first difference is that most teachers would not regard the student in their classrooms as a large weighted network whose nodes are pieces of text. Instead‚ the student is regarded as using the text as a vehicle for articulating and testing his ideas. Students are not being trained to produce passable text as an output. Instead‚ the process of writing is intended to be an aid to thinking. We teach students to write because unaided thinking is limited and writing is a way of educating a student in the inner conversation that is the heart of thoughtful reflection. As a practical matter‚ it is difficult to maintain lengthy and complex chains of reasoning without the external scaffolding of a stable text. The development of writing has permitted philosophy‚ law‚ mathematics‚ and other complex argumentative endeavors to develop beyond the oral traditions of the past. Unaided oral traditions can contain valuable insights‚ but they allow only a limited level of articulation and complication in the development of arguments. It is for this reason that we teach students how to research the content of their essays‚ how to develop and construct an argument‚ how to write an outline‚ then a draft‚ then the progressive stages of editing‚ how to cull the extraneous and keep the essential. At each stage‚ the student must make decisions. These judgments happen as part of the students' thinking about what they have written. The process of judgment places us in relation to the draft on the screen or on paper. In a way‚ the student’s essay becomes an interlocutor‚ a conversation partner the student builds as he goes. The text‚ like the student’s own thinking‚ should be an unsettled work in progress. By contrast‚ an LLM takes the vast corpus of work already done and produces a finished product that looks close enough to what we would expect from educated human writers. The LLM predicts what a likely response to the question or prompt would look like‚ given the corpus it has at its disposal. Teachers aim to cultivate the ability to write well in part because this signals the ability to think well. Put simply‚ learning to write has helped generations of students to improve their ability to think. Essays‚ research papers‚ and the grades associated with them are a way (albeit an imperfect way) that potential employers can know something about the quality of student thinking. The grades that students receive in humanities courses depends‚ in large part‚ on the quality of their written work. And this is where AI begins to change the game. For example‚ Jasper AI is marketing its GPT-4-based software heavily this summer (other free services are also increasingly accessible). While Jasper AI is not explicitly mentioning students in its marketing materials‚ it is difficult to believe that academic writing is not one of its target markets. By the end of 2024‚ if we continue with business as usual in writing-intensive courses‚ I expect that faculty across North America will see student “work” that has been generated by LLMs. While some colleagues have already reported what they suspect are AI-generated essays‚ it will be pointless (for a range of reasons) to attempt to police the use of LLMs. Since the release of GPT-3‚ the marketing push and the friendly‚ accessible interface of services like Jasper means they will influence our teaching noticeably and very soon. Testing the AI I tried giving some of these systems standard topics that one might assign in an introductory ethics course‚ and the results were similar to the kind of work I would expect from first-year college students‚ written in grammatical English with (mostly) appropriate word choice and some convincing development of arguments. Generally‚ the system accurately represented the philosophical positions under consideration. What it said about Kant’s categorical imperative or Mill’s utilitarianism‚ for example‚ was accurate. And a discussion of weaknesses in Rawlsian liberalism generated by GPT-4 was stunningly good. Running a small sample of the outputs through plagiarism detection software produced no red flags for me. After a little editing‚ GPT-4 produced a copy that would receive at least a B+ in one of our large introductory ethics lecture courses. I thought perhaps I could foil the AI with some quirky‚ idiosyncratic assignments. It turns out that the system was also pretty good‚ certainly as good as a mediocre undergraduate student‚ at generating passable paragraphs that could be strung together to produce the kinds of essays that might ordinarily get a C+ or a B-. Simply being creative with one’s assignments or avoiding standard topics will not prevent students from using LLMs. Students have long been tempted by services that write essays for them‚ and plagiarism is a constant and annoying feature of undergraduate teaching‚ but this is different. The LLM marks the end for standard writing-intensive college courses. The use of an LLM has the potential to disconnect students from the traditional process of writing and research in ways that will inevitably reshape their thinking. At the very least‚ these tools will require us to reconsider the mechanics of writing-intensive courses. How should we proceed? Should we concentrate on handwritten in-class assignments? Should we design more sophisticated writing projects? Multiple drafts? A new tool for the classroom? Perhaps we should teach them to work with these tools? One can imagine that Silicon Valley boosters might argue that the change will be salutary. Perhaps these tools will realign our attitudes to writing in the same way that calculators changed the way we think about mathematics. The ability to simply compute arithmetical operations is not a highly valued skill. Perhaps the ability to compose a coherent paragraph from grammatical sentences will also fade into the background as our concerns with writing aspire to more elevated and rarer skills. Perhaps there will be new ways to cultivate our students’ capacity to engage in the kinds of sophisticated reasoning that writing has made possible. I see no reason to be optimistic. Conceivably‚ LLMs will be a solution for certain kinds of tedious and unrewarding tasks and will benefit certain kinds of students. One can imagine AI systems helping a gifted biology student who struggles to organize results into a passable research paper or a non-native speaker of English whose scientific research simply needs to be written up into a coherent article. For writing that serves an expository function – what we might call functional writing – the LLM may be a valuable tool. The effects of technology on education have been mixed. The internet is a paradise for autodidacts but an abyss for everyone else. The promised convenience and economies of scale that were supposed to come with online education have failed to deliver high-quality education for most students but have been an undeniably valuable resource for highly motivated and intelligent students around the world. Access is great‚ but if access to information were all that were required‚ a library card would be as good as a college education. Online learning and its malcontents By June 2020‚ it was becoming clear to teachers at various levels that the pandemic disruption would continue and that many of our students would face serious setbacks as they struggled to complete their coursework without being physically present in the classroom. The costs of the decision to switch to online teaching during the pandemic are now clear. As usual‚ those who were disproportionately affected are those who were already disadvantaged in various ways beforehand. In practice‚ technology is not a panacea in education. Contrary to the rhetoric of boosters‚ we now know that online education fails to adequately replace the traditional craft of teaching in embodied and meaningful social contexts. By April 2020‚ Eric Winsberg and I had argued publicly that the decision to close schools for more than eight weeks was not supported by epidemiological evidence and was traditionally thought to be a very costly response to epidemics. One of the reasons that we and others were ignored was the assumption that online education could fill the gap. We now know that this did not happen. The consensus response to the pandemic separated teachers and students in ways that made the mediating role of technology obvious. Zoom forced new modes of interaction and new habits on us in ways that changed the “classroom” for teachers and students alike. Zoom teaching is difficult to do well‚ and most of us stumbled. In March and April 2020‚ the disruptive shift left many formerly talented teachers adrift‚ and as we now see‚ it doomed large numbers of students to failure. Teaching during the pandemic‚ it became clear that technology was reshaping education in ways that would be difficult to undo. Most students and faculty were miserable in Zoomworld‚ but some version of it will likely hang over many of us for the foreseeable future. Technological mediation is not new‚ of course‚ but the Zoom classroom is its most drastic form. Like Zoom‚ the appearance of LLMs in education will serve as a disruptive technological mediation. Zoom broke the traditional classroom in ways that we are still unpacking. LLMs will change the way we think about the relationship between writing and thinking in the classroom. In their white paper‚ the creators of GPT-3 flagged what they saw as some of the harmful consequences of its release. They concentrate on the widely discussed worries about bias and fairness in AI with respect to gender and race. However‚ they briefly indicate the potential misuse of GPT-3 in “misinformation‚ spam‚ phishing‚ abuse of legal and governmental processes‚ fraudulent academic essay writing and social engineering pre-texting.” The authors explain why they were relatively unconcerned about the use of their system by malicious state-sponsored and other groups‚ but they left the problem of fraudulent academic essay writing undiscussed and did not appreciate its significance for the traditional project of education. Now that the LLM has arrived‚ it’s necessary for faculty to change the way we evaluate student written work in our courses and‚ more importantly‚ to rethink the role of writing in education. My first independent teaching assignment was a course in environmental ethics that I taught during a sweaty summer in 1999. In some ways‚ the advent of LLMs puts me right back into the position of being a novice teacher. The first hurdle involves figuring out what is expected of students in a philosophy course. How should they study for exams? How would they be evaluated? And how should they write a philosophy paper? In 1999 they heard me say that a philosophy paper is not like a book report; it’s also not an expression of one’s opinions or experiences. So if it’s not about reporting on what others have said about the way the world is‚ and if it’s not about how one feels about the way the world is‚ what is it? “There are facts‚ and there are opinions‚” one student confidently insisted. “There’s nothing else to write about.” I saw my task as a novice teacher to be the cultivation of students’ ability to produce a rationally persuasive defense of a claim. This is one of the virtues of analytic philosophy. At our best‚ we analytic philosophers help students learn how to generate and evaluate arguments‚ become sharper reasoners‚ and‚ in time and with care‚ better thinkers all around. In the age of the LLM‚ we will not be able to rely on written exercises to make the work of thinking happen. We will also find that writing skills that previously served as reliable signals of the virtues we associate with thinking can no longer do so. Of course‚ it’s those intellectual virtues‚ not the hundreds of thousands of student papers‚ that we really care about.

Can you make an explicitly Christian film that doesn’t indulge in sappy‚ Hallmark melodrama and clumsy preachiness? Last year‚ Angel Studios answered that question with the gritty and compelling “Sound of Freedom.” Thanks in part to an innovative‚ grassroots marketing campaign‚ the Jim Caviezel-starring police procedural dazzled even secular critics and grossed $243 million on an $80 million budget‚ making it one of the most successful independent movies of all time. For its follow-up‚ Angel Studios seems to have stuck to the same winning formula: Prioritize telling a great story‚ and the evangelizing will take care of itself. The result is the sci-fi drama “The Shift.” Brock Heasley’s directorial debut cleverly takes the well-known concept of the multiverse and uses it to retell the story of Job. The movie centers on Kevin Garner (Kristoffer Polaha)‚ a man who is approached by a mysterious figure known only as the Benefactor (Neal McDonough) about a job. When Kevin refuses‚ the Benefactor has him "shifted" to a parallel universe‚ a dystopian‚ authoritarian regime in which the Bible is forbidden. Here “The Shift” establishes its simple but very effective premise: Can Kevin return to his own universe and the love of his life‚ Molly (Elizabeth Tabish)? Like Job‚ Kevin must endure a lengthy test of misery in which his family‚ wealth‚ and health hang in the balance. What keeps Kevin going in his attempts to beat the Benefactor (strongly implied to be Satan himself) is his deep faith in God‚ which makes his struggle resonate emotionally with anyone bearing a heavy cross. Much of the movie’s power comes from its incredibly talented cast. McDonough steals the show with his deliciously sinister villain‚ making it easy for the viewer to imagine this is what it would be like to meet Satan face-to-face. Kristoffer Polaha makes for a great leading man‚ conveying significant likeability and charm while still communicating his heavy burdens. The cast is rounded out by rising stars like Elizabeth Tabish ("The Chosen”) and beloved actors like Sean Astin (“The Lord of the Rings”)‚ John Billingsly (“Star Trek: Enterprise”)‚ and Nolan North (“Uncharted”). While many Christian films explore religious themes with all the nuance of a megachurch’s Easter light show‚ at times “The Shift” errs on the side of being too subtle. We’re never quite sure how literally to take the biblical parallels here‚ nor are we certain whether the evil embodied by the Benefactor is truly supernatural. But this is a minor gripe in light of the movie’s many virtues‚ which should earn even more goodwill from an audience so starved for quality Christian entertainment. “The Shift” may not hit the world in the same way “Sound of Freedom” did‚ but it does testify to an exciting future for both Angel Studios and faith-based filmmaking.

The series has received critical acclaim and has grown in popularity since it debuted in October 2000 The post Curb Your Enthusiasm Final Season Trailer Shows Larry David in Mid-Season Form appeared first on Best Classic Bands.