The impetus for these latest discussions came from Britain, which on Sunday endorsed the idea that the I.M.F. should revalue its gold reserves to reflect current market prices, using the estimated $32 billion increase on its balance sheet to write off most of the debts of 38 of the world's poorest countries.
But perhaps the most peculiar talking point to come out of these discussions comes from Daily Caller editor Scott Greer who suggests college students should "expose themselves to viewpoints that genuinely offend them" since "Colleges are supposed to be places where the marketplace of ideas can flourish and young minds can come in contact with a host of different ideas and a myriad viewpoints".
"On the CBS television network," he added, "we think that informed discussion comes from our news programming".
Much of this agitated discussion came from those who viewed themselves as progressive or even left-wing.
Looked at in this light, grinding on about a two-war scenario involving unspeakable Iraqis and deranged North Koreans comes to look uncomfortably like a displacement activity.One of the latest contributions to this whole discussion comes from Michael O'Hanlon, a defence analyst at another policy-wonks' haven, the Brookings Institution.
One more point before switching to bullets and soundbites: the most concise description of (narrow) AI that emerged during the hour long discussion came from Tractable founder Alexandre Dalyac, who summed it up thus: "Algorithms compared to humans can usually tend to solve scale, speed or accuracy issues".
According to APTN, the discussion came from a group called News Stories that Matter to or May Impact RCMP, which has more than 1,000 members.
On the 3rd party issue, the fascinating thing is that I am hearing very little of this discussion coming from my lefty friends, who the conventional wisdom would leap to assume would likely be talking about it.
The genesis of that discussion came from the atrocious "And So It Goes" and the decent "What If," which we hoped would usher in something resembling hope for the genre, even if neither was going to be the next "You've Got Mail" or even the next "Never Been Kissed".
First, the intervention only directly involved a few participants, and the further spread of discussion came from within the community.
