This n that

[DKG]

An English musician was kicked off a U.S. tour just hours after videos surfaced of her saying she supports Republicans.

Rapper M.I.A., whose real name Mathangi Arulpragasam, is of Sri Lankan descent but was born in London in 1975. Aside from having hit records, the artist has generated headlines in recent years for calling out the music industry as a bastion of Satanism that pushes degeneracy.

"I've been canceled for many reasons. I never thought I would be canceled for being a brown Republican voter," she told one audience.

[Oliver the Second]

An English musician was kicked off a U.S. tour just hours after videos surfaced of her saying she supports Republicans.

Rapper M.I.A., whose real name Mathangi Arulpragasam, is of Sri Lankan descent but was born in London in 1975. Aside from having hit records, the artist has generated headlines in recent years for calling out the music industry as a bastion of Satanism that pushes degeneracy.

"I've been canceled for many reasons. I never thought I would be canceled for being a brown Republican voter," she told one audience.

Never thought I would like a rapper but I guess life is full of surprises 

[DKG]

Never thought I would like a rapper but I guess life is full of surprises 

Indeed!

[Herman]

Progs are blaming corporate greed.

[formosan]

Progs are blaming corporate greed.

I didn't watch the video, but that doesn't look like a store I would want to go into.

[Shen Li]

Russians drink nearly 4x more hard liquor than Americans — straight vodka, often before lunch, often on an empty stomach — and but have lower rates of liver problems than Americans. Researchers have been arguing about why for thirty years. They blamed Russian genetics, then the cold climate, then the pickled foods, then "they just die before it shows up."

[Shen Li]

I paid $3.43 per litre of petrol yesterday.

[Prof Emeritus at Fawk U]

I paid $3.43 per litre of petrol yesterday.

Is that in American numbers or metric numbers?   

[Shen Li]

Is that in American numbers or metric numbers?   

Times that by 4 and it's a gallon. And the dollar represents Singapore dollars. It's worth more than the Canadian dollar but less than the US dollar.

[Herman]

[Herman]

[DKG]

The acting head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on May 10 that a hantavirus outbreak on a Dutch cruise ship "is not COVID," suggesting that the virus, which normally spreads via rodents, won't cause a pandemic.

[DKG]

A Chinese national and ringleader of a $27 million money laundering operation that targeted around 2,000 elderly Americans was sentenced to 12 years and 7 months in prison by a federal court on Friday, according to a statement from the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Zhao Wang, aka "Oscar," and four other defendants "operated a series of technical support, bank impersonation and government impersonation, and refund scams targeting elderly victims," the DOJ said on May 8.

"Victims received unsolicited phone calls, emails, and pop-up ads directing victims to call a phone number. Unbeknownst to the victims, those phone numbers belonged to India-based scam call centers."

[Thiel]

That hard-to-understand accent on the other side of the phone might be a thing of the past.

In some cases, one might be talking to a stateside representative, but in other cases, it could very well be an Indian who is having his or her voice disguised using artificial intelligence.

A collaboration between French company Teleperformance — the largest call-center operator in the world — and American AI company Sanas is admittedly manipulating Indian accents in real time to sound more like American or British customer service agents.