Child of Hope Uganda - Farm Life!

Take a wander round the Child of Hope farm with Moses, one of our Directors in Uganda. In this video, he shows off the tractor and irrigation system bought through grant funding, and introduces some of the pupils who volunteer their time to help out on the farm. Keep an eye out for a few rabbits, chicks and pigs along the way too!

The farm plays a big part in life at Child of Hope. It feeds pupils, teaches practical skills that will stay with them well beyond the classroom, and brings in income that goes straight back into the schools.

Want to help make more of this happen? You can support Child of Hope's work by making a donation, or by sponsoring a child from just £15 a month — covering education, healthcare and welfare for your sponsored child, and every child at Child of Hope.

www.childofhopeuganda.org

Supermarket giant Tesco weighs takeover bid for Majestic Wine

Tesco is exploring a surprise move to buy Majestic Wine Group, Britain's biggest specialist wine chain - a deal which would further expand the supermarket giant's retail footprint.

Sky News has learnt that Tesco is among the bidders participating in an auction of Majestic Wine.

A formal sale process kicked off several weeks ago, roughly six months after Majestic's owner, Fortress Investment Group, appointed bankers to explore its options for the business.

The value of a prospective deal was unclear this weekend, although analysts said that Majestic's recent performance meant a sale would generate hundreds of millions of pounds for its owners.

A number of other bidders are also involved in the process, although their identities were unclear on Saturday.

I really hope that things work out here - Majestic is my favourite place to buy wine. The Petersfield store is a real treat - bright & airy, well stocked, helpful staff, great deals - highly recommended if you're after stocking up the the vino! 

news.sky.com

BT agrees rescue deal to buy broadband operator TalkTalk

The UK's biggest broadband provider, BT, has agreed to buy rival operator TalkTalk to save the company from collapse.

The takeover would end of months of speculation over the future of TalkTalk and mean services for its millions of customers will continue as normal.

BT chief executive Alison Kirkby said it provided "a safety net" for those who rely on TalkTalk. The administrator said it also provided certainty for TalkTalk's 900 staff.

However, Virgin Media called the deal a "stitch up" which allows BT to "tighten its grip" over the market. The government has given itself the power to have the final say on the takeover, citing its importance to critical public services.

TalkTalk has 1.5 million retail customers and one million wholesale customers across the UK.

BT's Kirkby told the BBC's Today programme: "Two and a half million customers, including vulnerable households, and key emergency services might have lost their services if Talk Talk had failed, which it was on track to do.

Fed up of poor service from your Internet Service Provider? 
Contact Donline to find out about a better way.

www.bbc.co.uk

Apple says it’s tightening macOS ‘Full Disk Access’ controls due to new risks from AI agents

Days after a journalist claimed that Meta’s Muse app on Mac read their private messages — a claim that Meta disputed — Apple announced that it’s introducing additional controls around a setting called “Full Disk Access” on macOS. The feature was designed to allow backups to function properly, but AI agents have now increased “the risks associated with this level of access,” Apple said.

Apple’s statement comes shortly after Inc. columnist Jason Aten reported that Muse knew the content of his private messages — even though he claimed to have not given the AI agent permission. The report raised questions about the level of security and trust users have in desktop-based Artificial Intelligence, which can control things on their systems and read their files and messages.

The decision to limit the Mac feature also comes after a Wired report cited that a flaw in ChatGPT’s Mac app could have allowed hackers to access sensitive data.

AI agents that run on the desktop allow users to provide their respective apps with greater access to the files, messages, and other personal content on their computers by adjusting macOS settings.

www.techcrunch.com

Nadella has lost the plot calling Copilot an OS again - it’s a web app on Windows 11!

Satya Nadella has once again called Copilot a “new OS for work” when it is clearly an app, and that too a web app. As spotted by Windows Latest, this time the analogy comes in a leadership update, less than a week after Microsoft unveiled the latest Copilot, which was when the CEO first called Copilot an OS, at least on X.

"We’re building Copilot as a new OS for work that spans every model, every form factor, and every task. Today, we’re announcing our biggest update to Copilot to date"

I already have the “new” Copilot app on my PC, albeit without Home, Code, or Autopilot, because they are still not out yet. This app, however, is the replacement for the terribly named Microsoft 365 Copilot app, and you can get it too if you update it in the Microsoft Store.

Well, the thing Nadella keeps calling an OS is a regular Windows app, and when I went through the installation folder of build 154.0.4258.37, I found that copilotapp.exe is a rebranded Microsoft Edge launcher with a complete Chromium build behind it.

Microsoft is talking about a new operating system for work, but it’s actually an app on Windows 11 that runs in a browser. This is some Inception-level stuff! READ MORE...

www.windowslatest.com

Pygmalion’s Passion: A Christian argument against the use of AI

Andrew Caspersen writes: Long before the digital age, artists have pondered both the promise and peril of artificial intelligence. Homer’s Iliad described automaton tripods made by Hephaistos that might be confused with Elon Musk’s dream of putting an Optimus robot in every home. Ovid’s Metamorphoses tells of Pygmalion, disappointed in his marital prospects, carving his perfect woman and bringing her to life with the help of Venus. She was the first romantic chatbot, a reflection of Pygmalion’s self-love. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein warns us what can happen when scientific hubris puts the creation of life and intelligence in its crosshairs. More recently, we have Frank Herbert’s Dune, with the maxim “thou shall not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.”

Yet we are here, crafting such a machine. Many, perhaps the majority of us, have deep reservations about AI, yet struggle to explain why. We think it could create trouble but also see the great benefits. As a result, nearly all the arguments have been around the outcomes of AI. This is the modern approach - judging something by what it can do, rather than what it is.

If artificial intelligence were a tree, then nearly every discussion we are currently seeing concerns its fruits. An AI optimist predicts a cure for cancer, where a pessimist sees the elimination of the doctor-patient relationship. Mass prosperity! Or is it mass layoffs? For every rotten apple I spot, another sees a juicy golden delicious. How can we make sense of it all?

Arguing about the fruits is problematic. First, predictions are tricky business. Remember when social media was supposed to bring people together? Second, Christianity focuses on the means, not the ends. We care more about whether eggs are getting cracked than how tasty the future omelette may be.

Let’s go from the fruits to the branches. Are there certain features or applications of AI that are inherently wrong? Yes! Marc Barnes uses natural law to show why conversing with a chatbot is a corruption of inter-personal communion. D.C. Schindler explains the essential duplicity of AI, which tricks the subconscious into accepting its personhood.¹ These arguments reveal the rot in some of the branches of the AI tree.

They got me thinking: is there an argument against the tree itself, from the roots to the fruits? Perhaps it goes something like this.... READ MORE...

paulkingsnorth.substack.com

U2 at 50: How Bono's band became icons of rock by singing about God

 

On Saturday, 25th September 1976, four teenagers decided to get together to make music. Fifty years of faith-fuelled songs later, Steve Stockman charts the spiritual journey of Saint Bono and his band

When the annals of 20th and 21st Century Church history are written, many heroes of the faith will make the pages. Billy Graham, Mother Teresa and Pope Francis will be among those heralded as saints who changed the global face of Christianity. But the historians would be remiss if they didn't also include the one rock band who, over the course of 50 years, have used the currency of their fame to literally change the world, and have done it from the foundation of a Christian faith.

As they reach this landmark anniversary, now is a good time to stop and reflect on the impact U2 have had on the Church and indeed the world.

September 1976 was no golden age in rock history. The top 40 was littered with bland and anaemic pop: Abba, Bay City Rollers, The Wurzels and (dare I say it) Cliff Richard. Something needed to change, and thankfully it did! The next year would see punk rock and the new wave transform the doldrums of 70s pop and prog rock. The Sex Pistols, The Jam, The Stranglers and The Ramones all brought vibrant new life.

During this gestation period, four teenagers from Mount Temple School in Dublin were getting together in the drummer’s kitchen. There was something blowing in the north Dublin air that they would later describe in the song ‘Lucifer’s Hands’: “The spirit’s moving through a seaside town / I’m born again to the latest sound / New wave airwaves swirling around my heart.”

As we celebrate 50 years of U2, it is hard not to plumb the depths of their 2014 album, Songs of Innocence, to gain some insight into what went on in Larry Mullen’s kitchen. READ MORE...

www.premierchristianity.com