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☆ Chinese students have developed a $40 set of lips that couples can use for 'long-distance kissing'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Aditi Bharade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A remote kissing device, complete with a pair of 3D lips, is on sale in China for about $40. It appears to mimic the pressure, movement and heat of a partner's lips, the SCMP reported. The silicon device, complete with a set of 3D lips, is meant to imitate the pressure, movement, and heat of a partner's lips, the South China Morning Post reported Friday. The device, which is being sold on the Chinese online retail platform Taobao as a "long-distance lovers miracle kissing device," costs 260 Chinese yuan, or about $38, for one individual set of lips and about $79 for a pair. Listing for the remote "kissing device" on Taobao.

The technology that printed the Gutenberg Bible in 1455 made abstract human thought communicable generally and rapidly. Whereas the printing press caused a profusion of modern human thought, the new technology achieves its distillation and elaboration. In the process, it creates a gap between human knowledge and human understanding. The new technology is known as generative artificial intelligence; GPT stands for Generative Pre-Trained Transformer. As its capacities become broader, they will redefine human knowledge, accelerate changes in the fabric of our reality, and reorganize politics and society.

☆ This Chinese kissing device lets you smooch over the internet
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( Nectar Gan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

The device, advertised as a way to let long-distance couples share “real” physical intimacy, is causing a buzz among Chinese social media users, who have reacted with both intrigue and shock. To send a kiss, users need to download a mobile phone app and plug the device into their phone’s charging port. After pairing with their partners in the app, couples can start a video call and transmit replicas of their smooches to each other. The kissing device is advertised as a way to share physical intimacy between long-distance couples. While advertised for long-distance relationships, the Chinese device also allows users to pair up anonymously with strangers in the “kissing square” function of the app.

☆ Factbox: Prize-winning reporter Seymour Hersh no stranger to controversy
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Journalist Seymour Hersh speaks at the Al Jazeera Forum "Media and the Middle East - Beyond the Headlines" in Doha April 1, 2007. REUTERS/Fadi Al-AssaadFeb 9 (Reuters) - Pulitzer Prize-winning U.S. reporter Seymour Hersh said this week that U.S. Navy divers, in a CIA operation ordered by President Joe Biden, planted explosives that destroyed three Russian gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea last September. The White House dismissed Hersh's report, which relied on a single source to support its claim about the destruction of the Nordstream pipelines, as "utterly false and complete fiction." Here are some key events in Hersh's career:- Hersh in 1969 exposed the massacre of South Vietnamese villagers by U.S. troops in the hamlet of My Lai. Both governments denied Hersh's allegations that Pakistan had been holding bin Laden prisoner and knew about the raid in advance.

☆ Fact Check-No evidence Henry Kissinger ever said ‘control foods and you control the people’
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

There is no evidence a quote attributed to veteran U.S. diplomat Henry Kissinger on controlling the food supply to control people is true, and it appears to have first appeared on a satirical website. A spokesperson for Kissinger told Reuters the quote is untrue. “Control oil and you control nations. Articles authored by Kissinger, his speeches and interviews can be found on his website (www.henryakissinger.com/). There is no evidence that Henry Kissinger said this quotation.The earliest online iteration appears to be a 2011 article by a satirical website.

☆ Biden's Cabinet is sticking around, bucking the turnover trend of his predecessors
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Peter Nicholas | Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Carol-Lee-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

By early 2019, Trump had cycled through seven of 15 Cabinet secretaries and was on his third chief of staff. A White House official said Mayorkas would fight any such attempt and has no wish to step down. The durability of Biden’s Cabinet is something of a surprise. Going back decades, presidents have steadily concentrated power in the White House, at the Cabinet’s expense, historians say. Some Cabinet secretaries have felt marginalized as presidents stocked the West Wing with trusted advisers and usurped the prerogatives of Cabinet members who had thought they were brought in to run things.

☆ Mike Pompeo says Trump had a 'nutty' plan for him to serve as both secretary of defense and secretary of state simultaneously: book
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Pompeo said Trump floated the idea of him serving as secretary of state and defense secretary, per his new memoir. In July 2020, Trump told Mark Meadows that he wanted his secretary of state to have a "dual hat," per Pompeo. Pompeo made the revelation as he explores a potential 2024 White House campaign against his ex-boss. According to Pompeo's book, Trump told Meadows that Esper was "not going to make it" for much longer while helming the Defense Department. That July, Trump told Meadows that he wanted his secretary of state to have a "dual hat" and "take on leading the department of defense as an additional duty," per Pompeo.

☆ The Davos Crowd Sees Republicans as the Enemy
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Walter Russell Mead | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Walter Russell Mead is the Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship at Hudson Institute, the Global View Columnist at The Wall Street Journal and the James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College in New York. He is also a member of Aspen Institute Italy and board member of Aspenia. Before joining Hudson, Mr. Mead was a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations as the Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy. He has authored numerous books, including the widely-recognized Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World (Alfred A. Knopf, 2004). Mr. Mead’s next book is entitled The Arc of A Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Future of the Jewish People.

☆ Helicopter crash near Kyiv kills Ukraine's interior minister and at least 17 others
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Holly Ellyatt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger attends a luncheon at the US State Department in Washington, DC, on December 1, 2022. Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on Tuesday said Russia must be given the opportunity to one day rejoin the international system following any peace deal in Ukraine and dialogue with the country must be ongoing. "This may seem very hollow to nations that have been under Russian pressure for much of the Cold War period," Kissinger told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, via video link. However, he said it was important to avoid an escalation of conflict between Russia and the West as a result of it feeling the war had become "against Russia itself." He also expressed admiration for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the "heroic conduct of the Ukrainian people."

☆ Russia needs the opportunity to rejoin an international system after any peace deal, Kissinger says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Jenni Reid | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger attends a luncheon at the US State Department in Washington, DC, on December 1, 2022. Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on Tuesday said Russia must be given the opportunity to one day rejoin the international system following any peace deal in Ukraine and dialogue with the country must be ongoing. However, he said it was important to avoid an escalation of conflict between Russia and the West as a result of it feeling the war had become "against Russia itself." Kissinger was criticized by a Ukrainian politician in May when he suggested Ukraine should cede some land to Russia to achieve a peace deal. Kissinger was secretary of state between 1973 and 1977 under presidents Nixon and Ford, and served as national security advisor between 1969 and 1975.

☆ Just one G-7 leader will join the Davos elite this year as regular people battle cost-of-living crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Jenni Reid | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The Congress Center, the venue for the World Economic Forum (WEF), center, in Davos, Switzerland, on Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023. It is not the first time the summit has been sparsely attended by leaders from the powerful political union. That included former U.S. leader Donald Trump, who attended twice during his one term in office, unlike his predecessor Barack Obama, who never attended. His own predecessor, Angela Merkel, was a regular Davos presence during her 16-year term, most recently challenging the increasing "own interests first" mentality of some nations in 2019. "I expect it is partly reputational risks, given the current situation, of enjoying the high life in Davos," he said.

[1/4] Portraits of Nobel Peace Prize laureates, including of Henry Kissinger, are seen in the meeting room where the Norwegian Nobel Committee holds its meetings at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway, January 3, 2023. Nominations to the Peace Prize remain secret for 50 years. Le Duc Tho refused the Peace Prize on the grounds peace had not yet been established. Two out of the five members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee - all now dead - resigned in protest. "The prize was given to Kissinger for having gotten the U.S. out of Vietnam ... without any peaceful solution in South Vietnam," he said.

☆ An oil historian explains China's impact on a key Russian oil product — which is now trading far below the EU's price cap
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

In December, a $60-per-barrel price cap was established to limit how much cash Moscow could pull in from oil exports. But the country's key oil product is trading far below that level, which in one sense makes the cap moot. Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, speaks to workers while visiting the Rosneft oil refinery in the Black Sea port of Tuapse, southern Russia. But to Gregory Brew, a Kissinger Visiting Scholar at Yale, rather than being a direct consequence of any sanction measure, the steep discount reflects the easing global market. It isn't about what Russia can produce or how badly it's revenue is impacted by sanctions, but instead the focus should be on what kind of market Russia will be operating in.

☆ Bernard Kalb, longtime foreign affairs newsman, dies at 100
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

“You have a historical memory to call upon and you see the trust of American foreign policy and other foreign policy,” he said. “Anything that hurts America’s credibility, hurts America.”New York Times columnist William Safire praised the resignation. “In his final official act, Bernard Kalb rose above ‘State Department spokesman’ to become the spokesman for all Americans who respect and demand the truth,” Safire wrote. At CBS Marvin and Bernard were known as “The Kalbs,” but Bernard lived somewhat in the shadow of his younger brother. One widely circulated, but apocryphal, story had their mother calling the CBS foreign desk in New York and saying: “Hello, this is Marvin Kalb’s mother.

☆ Bernard Kalb, former CNN anchor and correspondent for NBC and CBS, is dead at 100
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-08 | by ( Jon Passantino | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —Bernard Kalb, the long-time journalist and founding anchor of CNN’s “Reliable Sources” program, died on Sunday at his home in North Bethesda, Maryland, his family said. Kalb’s death was caused by complications from a recent fall, his younger brother, Marvin Kalb, told CNN by phone. Kalb then became the first anchor of CNN’s “Reliable Sources” program from 1992 to 1998. “We were so fortunate to have Bernie host Reliable Sources from its launch and during all those years. “We are all grateful for the many years we have been able to spend with a truly remarkable human being,” Marvin Kalb told CNN.

☆ U.S.-China tensions: There's desire for a 'timeout,' but not for change, says research organization
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailU.S.-China tensions: There's desire for a 'timeout,' but not for change, says research organizationRobert Daly of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States says the two countries have "stopped moving in a destructive direction" but there's "no evidence" of a change in strategy.

☆ CIOs Nominate Their Favorite Reads of 2022
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Tom Loftus | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +9 min

Chief information officers, ever alert to any development in a field that only hurtles forward, largely reflected that alacrity in their choice of reading during 2022. PREVIEWChris Bedi, chief digital information officer, ServiceNow Inc. Photo: IBM Corp.Ron Guerrier, chief information officer, HP Inc. Photo: Cisco Systems Inc.Fletcher Previn, chief information officer, Cisco Systems Inc. Photo: Home Depot Inc.Fahim Siddiqui, chief information officer, Home Depot Inc.

☆ Kissinger Sees a Global Leadership Vacuum
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Walter Russell Mead | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Is the quality of world leadership declining just as humanity’s need for great leadership has become more urgent than ever? As I learned over a long lunch this month, Henry Kissinger thinks that is exactly where things stand, and he worries that civilization may be imperiled as a result. Worry comes naturally to Mr. Kissinger. His first book, “A World Restored” (1957), laid out some basic ideas that dominate his thinking to this day. Mr. Kissinger believes that only a handful of people at any given time understand the complicated architecture of a viable world order, and that an even smaller number have the gifts of leadership required to create, defend or reform the delicate international framework that makes even partial peace possible.

☆ It's time for a negotiated peace in Ukraine, Kissinger says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-18 | by ( Guy Faulconbridge | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

MOSCOW, Dec 18 (Reuters) - The time is approaching for a negotiated peace in Ukraine to reduce the risk of another devastating world war, but dreams of breaking up Russia could unleash nuclear chaos, veteran U.S. diplomat Henry Kissinger said. Ukraine says every Russian soldier must leave its territory, including Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. "The time is approaching to build on the strategic changes which have already been accomplished and to integrate them into a new structure towards achieving peace through negotiation," Kissinger wrote in The Spectator magazine. "A peace process should link Ukraine to NATO, however expressed. The conflict in eastern Ukraine began in 2014 after a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine's Maidan Revolution and Russia annexed Crimea, with Russian-backed separatist forces fighting Ukraine's armed forces in eastern Ukraine.

☆ Global Tensions Spur a Sea Change in Japan
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Walter Russell Mead | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Elizabeth Holmes, the founder and CEO of Theranos, the failed blood-testing company at the center of her downfall, will be sentenced Friday. Holmes was convicted in January of four counts of fraud for misleading Theranos investors about the company's technology and its financial health. Theranos had simply repurposed commercially available blood analysis technology to run on smaller amounts of blood, The Wall Street Journal revealed in October 2015. During Holmes’ trial, former employees testified that Theranos would also frequently delete erroneous results from its tests to make its machines appear more accurate. Holmes said Balwani lied to her about the company's financial models and subjected her to intimate partner abuse.

☆ China isn't 'really willing' to cut Putin loose: Research organization
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailChina may try to create some distance from Russia but won't cut Putin loose: Research organizationRobert Daly of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States says "China has been supporting the Russian invasion, it likes to say that it's neutral but that clearly hasn't been the case. In recent weeks, however, we've seen a change."

☆ Britain’s Decline From Winston Churchill to Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Walter Russell Mead | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ U.S., Chinese foreign ministers to meet as Taiwan tensions rise
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( Humeyra Pamuk | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in New York on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly. The meeting comes days after Biden said U.S forces would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, drawing an angry response from China that said it sent the wrong signal to those seeking an independent Taiwan. In a phone call with Biden in July, China's leader Xi Jinping warned about Taiwan, saying "those who play with fire will perish by it." Beijing has long-vowed to bring Taiwan under its control and has not ruled out the use of force to do so. "This is the Chinese people's will and determination," he said according to China's Foreign Ministry.

☆ Walter Russell Mead — Opinion Columnist, Global View at The Wall Street Journal
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Walter Russell Mead | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Walter Russell MeadWalter Russell Mead is the Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship at Hudson Institute, the Global View Columnist at The Wall Street Journal and the James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College in New York. He is also a member of Aspen Institute Italy and board member of Aspenia. Before joining Hudson, Mr. Mead was a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations as the Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy. He has authored numerous books, including the widely-recognized Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World (Alfred A. Knopf, 2004). Mr. Mead’s next book is entitled The Arc of A Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Future of the Jewish People.

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