On this week's Slate Culture Gabfest, the critics discuss the mysterious new podcast S-Town, from the creators of Serial and This American Life, centered around a brilliant clock repairer stranded in an Alabama town. The podcast improves upon the Serial format--but is it satisfying? Next, Aisha Harris joins the show to talk about Ghost in the Shell, an adaptation of the 1995 anime movie of the same name. The film has drawn criticism for casting Scarlett Johansson as an originally Japanese character, but are the movie's problems the result of whitewashing, or is it just plain bad? Finally, the gabbers cover the controversy of Mike Pence's refusal to eat alone with any woman who is not his wife.

It's not only the mainstream artists of today's music who are calling out President Donald Trump. Rock legend David Byrne of Talking Heads fame has slammed Trump's proposal to eliminate federal funding for arts agencies such as the National Endowment for the Arts. The musician posted an essay on his website, writing, "The Trump administration and their Republican allies hope to eliminate funding for a number of federal arts organizations. This is a political move." Byrne understands the arts can be considered as "superfluous by many and fluffy and indulgent by others" but still believes that it is one of the "best investments the government can make."

The light bulb flickers inside the old elevator that creaks as it takes you to the eighth floor of the 1960s-era building, tucked away in a corner of Mile End that was Montreal's garment industry a half century ago. Walk down the dank corridor and into the office of Landr's. The contrast is striking: White, shiny and minimalist, the space embodies the new economy. Its 70 employees are young, educated and casually dressed. The juxtaposition of the office space housing the four-year-old audio technology firm inside the aging building is an easy metaphor for how the Quebec government hopes to inject new life into its economy by kick-starting the artificial intelligence (AI) industry.

Our announcement this week that we'll invest $5 million in the newly formed Vector Institute is the latest example of our work with Canada's thriving artificial intelligence community. When the Toronto-based AI research organization approached us for help, we were quick to join in, along with Google and some of Canada's top corporations. We've worked for years to drive technology that supports AI. And Vector's other sponsors in areas like finance, healthcare and automotive are prime candidates for implementing GPU deep learning to create smarter, more efficient products for their large customer base. It's also a great opportunity for us to expand our activities in the key Canadian market. We opened our first Canadian office in Toronto in 2015, and we're turning it into a hub for top AI talent.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is racing fast with booming start-ups, in terms of popularity and wide acceptability for its immense possibilities to boost productivity and propel economic growth. Every industry, be it e-commerce or education or fashion, is trying to introduce AI in every way conceivable to get the desired results. Prakash Mallya, Managing Director, Intel South Asia, shared his insight into Artificial Intelligence and talked about India's need for the same, on the sidelines of an event to mark Intel AI Day. "We conceptualized the AI Day a few months ago to bring together different industries, even communities and ecosystems to talk about Artificial Intelligence. Intel's point of view is that other than this one obvious reason, the event can also serve as an opportunity to seek and receive feedback on the same, hold discussions with ecosystems on how we can work jointly to accelerate the implementation or usage of AI and transform lives of every individual in the country," he said.

The Commander of the US Air Force's Air Mobility Command wants to develop "Star Trek" electronic cloaking technologies to protect military aircraft. General Carlton Everhart has called for Silicon Valley technology companies, specialists at the Pentagon's new innovation office and the wider defense industry to build something capable of altering a plane's radar image, to either hide it completely or trick the system into thinking it's in an entirely different location. One of Air Mobility Command's responsibilities is refuelling US armed forces aircraft in mid-air. General Everhart says he'd like to see both brand new and bulkier, first-generation Air Mobility Command aircraft receive the treatment, which he believes will have the dual-benefit of also keeping fighter jets hidden from enemies. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph.

Scientists might soon take the most important portrait in the history of the universe: a picture of the centre of our galaxy. Observatories all around the world are being linked up and turned towards one specific part of the universe, getting an image of a black hole that is thought to be swirling there. That work has just begun and will run into next week, and might shed light on the darkest and most mysterious part of physics. From the International Space Station, Expedition 42 Flight Engineer Terry W. Virts took this photograph of the Gulf of Mexico and U.S. Gulf Coast at sunset This image of an area on the surface of Mars, approximately 1.5 by 3 kilometers in size, shows frosted gullies on a south-facing slope within a crater. The image was taken by Nasa's HiRISE camera, which is mounted on its Mars Reconaissance Orbiter The Soyuz TMA-15M rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, Nov. 24, 2014, carrying three new astronauts to the International Space Station. It also took caviar, ready for the satellite's inhabitants to celebrate the holidays X-rays stream off the sun in this image showing observations from by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, overlaid on a picture taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) This near-infrared color image shows a specular reflection, or sunglint, off of a hydrocarbon lake named Kivu Lacus on Saturn's moon Titan Although Mimas and Pandora, shown here, both orbit Saturn, they are very different moons.

Amazon has agreed to refund $70 million worth of in-app purchases made by children without their parents' knowledge or authorisation. The company was taken to court by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) back in 2014 for failing to clearly inform parents that apps that are free to download from its app store can still allow in-app purchases. A US federal judge ruled in the FTC's favour, and Amazon appealed the decision last year. The firm was found to have failed to provide enough protective measures to prevent Amazon device users from unwittingly spending money. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph.

In Miami Beach, they call it "sunny-day flooding." You'll be hanging out downtown under clear blue skies--only to see, whoa, the streets slowly filling with water. Miami Beach, Florida, is a coastal city built on porous limestone, so as climate change melts polar ice into the oceans, water is literally pushed up out of the ground. "It's an eerie, scary, unnerving feeling, like something out of a sci-fi movie," says Philip Levine, mayor of the city of 90,000. On days when Miami Beach actually gets a coastal storm, it can see a 2-foot flood.

The present wave of automation, driven by artificial intelligence (AI) – the development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence – is creating a gap between current legislation and new laws necessary for an emerging workplace reality, states a report published today by the International Bar Association Global Employment Institute (IBA GEI). Gerlind Wisskirchen, IBA GEI Vice Chair for Multinationals and coordinator of the report, commented: 'Certainly, technological revolution is not new, but in past times it has been gradual. What is new about the present revolution is the alacrity with which change is occurring, and the broadness of impact being brought about by AI and robotics. Jobs at all levels in society presently undertaken by humans are at risk of being reassigned to robots or AI, and the legislation once in place to protect the rights of human workers may be no longer fit for purpose, in some cases.' She added:'The AI phenomenon is on an exponential curve, while legislation is doing its best on an incremental basis.