Opinion

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Pulling the plug on AI

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These days, it’s getting harder to tell what’s real and what’s not, both in words and images. Thanks to technological advances coming so fast it makes one’s head spin, software programs can now convincingly duplicate voices, falsely enhance or create totally realistic-looking landscapes that never existed with people who were never there, and even show “live” images of actors, politicians and others speaking or moving that are completely fabricated but are very hard to detect as deceptions.
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The Crossleys

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This past week I realized that I neglected the Crossleys when writing recently about local champions. Though the Museum has some of their items are on exhibit, I forgot them, You may not recall Winn Crossley (1905-1982), Ethel Crossley (1906-2003), or their daughter, Marian (1933-2003).
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Lege gets to work in fourth special session

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The Texas Legislature, conceived as a part-time body to meet every other year for 140 days, is now in its record fifth session (counting the regular session). When the impeachment trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is included, legislators have been in Austin pretty much the entire year, as the Texas Tribune noted. While legislators are paid just $7,200 a year in salary, per diem payments — meant to cover their expenses while in Austin — have mounted. If the fourth special session goes a full 30 days, taxpayers will have spent $4.8 million keeping lawmakers in Austin.
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A Local Photographer Long Ago

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Do you enjoy viewing old photos? Have you seen any printed on heavy cardboard, probably before 1930? Recently I found such a photo of my maternal grandfather with his parents and siblings. I calculated the date as before 1910, since his baby sister was born in February of 1909. She was still a baby in the photo. At the bottom of the photo is printed “J.S. McMillan” and beneath that, “Madisonville, Texas”.