Cool again, some chance of rain. I’m hoping not in my neighborhood, as there is stuff in the back of my truck I’d like to keep dry. We’ll see what happens. Cool seems pretty certain. It stayed cool yesterday, even in the sun, which was playing hide and seek depending on what part of town I was in.
And once again I found myself in far too much of town. Not quite as much as Monday, but more than I’d like. Over a hundred miles of driving in any case. And now the bed of my pickup is full with stuff that should go to the BOL, but since I’m not going for a while, I have to stash it somewhere. Or maybe I SHOULD go up this weekend…
Today I’ve got one pickup that I couldn’t do yesterday. I waited an hour plus, and never got the stuff. Today I’ve got an appointment, so we’ll see if it goes any better. My guess is not much. This seller doesn’t seem to care about the customers at all. And there are other sketchy things about them, but nothing you can point to with any certainty. Someone said they thought about 75% of small businesses were really money laundry operations, and the auction reseller business is pretty well suited to it, if that’s your thing. It’s funny that when I was describing my experience to another auctioneer, the first thing they said was “money laundry”…
So I’ll do a pickup, a drop off if I can, and I’ll find someplace to unload my truck for a few days.
Daughter has an appointment in the late afternoon anyway, so that’s a hard end to my day.
Hope I get the things I need to do, done.
I hope you do too. Including stacking…
nick
Glad to hear that, nick!
So: our bank recently send us new debit cards. These are also usable as online credit cards, and required us to download a new app from a credit-card company that we haven’t dealt with before.
Now, it could be coincidence, but: immediately after installing the app, both of us started getting phishing mails trying for our credentials. The mails specifically mention the name of the new app. It seems very likely that there is a data leak either at the bank or (more likely) at the credit card company.
I’ve sent a mail to the bank saying exactly that. No reply as yet…
Thanks Denis. It got a bit worrisome in the middle there, but the all clear is pretty definite.
@brad, that sucks. IDK why anyone would do app based banking. Phones are so easy to lose.
n
@Nick: In this case, it’s a security app. If you make an online transaction with the card, the app pops up a notification, which you then have to approve. Which isn’t a bad idea, as far as preventing fraud goes. But – barring a huge coincidence – it seems that either they have been hacked, or they have an insider selling customer email addresses.
The legend is that John Huston paid his daughter scale for “Prizzi’s Honor” because he tapped out his budget getting Kathleen Turner and Nicholson.
Guess who won the flick’s only Oscar.
And studio films with a budget. Imagine.
Linux killed the minicomputer.
The arrogance of the big vendors didn’t help.
First try to figure out how paint artists – every one who ever lived, so far as I can tell – can let their paints and brushes and other supplies get so chaotic and uncapped and uncleaned and generally ruined or misplaced. I guess I can understand the house being a mess, but the tools of their profession? Their calling?
Over there, that has to be covered by harsh penalties, doesn’t it? Do the penalties for leaks ever involve meaningful compensation to the victims, or only fines paid to the government?
Berkshire carefully controls PR around the health of the principals. Succession is a touchy subject with everyone who holds the stock, and now it is a major component of many S&P 500 index funds with the BNSF merger and splintering of B shares.
Warren could still leave the whole thing to the waitress.
I’m not buying that she has an S&P 500 fund with a large balance which will be her nest egg when The Gecko assumes room temperature.
Warren is full of gas when he’s preaching about the advantages of the broad index funds vs. Berkshire. He doesn’t want YOU holding the stock, but it is fine for him.
If you want to argue the point, I’ve held money in both for a very long time, and be prepared to argue where you think the “intrinsic” value of BRK.B sits right now.
I’ve been slowly enacting 2FA on all the sites that support it. I use 1Password and it now supports passkeys, so I’ve been enacting PKs on sites that support them. 1P works on all my devices.
LOL! Woke2:
Woke books bought for huge advances by ‘inexperienced’ editors hired post-George Floyd have FLOPPED – including $500,000 ‘queer feminist’ novel that’s sold 3,500 copies and Elliot Page’s $3 million transgender memoir that’s sold 68,000 copies
I never found He/She/It Page interesting in the least. Why would I buy it’s book simply because lesbian cuts it’s breasts off? Apparently, there isn’t enough dirt in it’s book to sell. Humans suck.
I’m not any sort of expert on the legal stuff. But: probably no more than anywhere else.
Actually, he just recently released a statement about this. His personal wealth – which is immense – is going into a charity or trust, which will initially be run by his kids. There are apparently pretty well-defined succession plans after that, since his kids are already retirement age.
IIRC, the 486sx also had variations with a 16 bit bus similar to a 386sx, allowing cut rate designs using the surplus of 16 bit parts which were everywhere for a while.
Cache may have been an issue as well.
That was the era when the Chinesium started creeping into the US in the pages of Computer Shopper and a DIY person could assemble a PC for less than a grand at home, which the C-suites started to notice.
Take it with a grain of salt until The Gecko actually assumes room temperature.
The only downside to this is that this means less money available for new and mid-list authors. The publishers are pouring money into woke projects and into thinly-disguised bribes to people with the correct politics, on books which will never earn back the advance let alone the other costs. The lower advances for other authors discourages many from writing. It pushes many to alternative publishing methods, which in practice means self-publishing through Amazon.
Don’t get me wrong, Bezos and Amazon did a great thing ten years ago in removing the gatekeepers from getting books to market, but now Amazon is becoming the gatekeeper and every book which is published “KDP Select” puts them that much closer to becoming a monopoly.
“Elliott” would squeeze into the very femme Kitty Pryde costume in a heartbeat, complete with prosthetics, if Disney called “him” about a role in the planned “X Men”-based reboot of the MCU.
Smell the hypocrisy.
44F and sunny. Clear sky. Dunno where the heavy overcast and forecast rain went…
but I’ll take it.
n
In sum: The government will collect an 8- or 9-figure fine. The lawyers will get a nice payout for easy work. The consumers will get a free credit report.
Barnes & Noble has been slowly clawing back market share thanks to Manga getting people into the store.
Manga and comics in general don’t really work on e-readers.
Traditional comics might be dead in the US, but the true fans always find a way to get their fix. The Japanese do not put “woke” above making money.
Every book I order from Amazon arrives damaged in some way so I don’t bother with their site unless I want a Kindle copy.
Not with the Clintons involved. That was probably Carter’s funeral.
Big Mike has been on a quiet speaking tour lately. I believe he was in Milwaukee while we were there, but I can’t find any confirmation of that online.
Something certainly snarled traffic around the UW Milwaukee arena one afternoon with buses bringing what seemed like half of the school kids in the city downtown for … something. At one point, as we navigated around the mess, I saw a Moochelle picture/banner on the side of the arena.
But why keep it quiet if it was Obama?
I tried a subtle query for the braintrust here, but I didn’t want to break opsec until later in the week since my daughter was home by herself for a few days.
Wisconsin is whacky and extremely left wing in the cities. “Moochelle for President” trial run events would certainly be well received.
Have you looked at “artistic” work lately? The crap they put out is just a reflection of their workspace. Cluttered, messy, chaotic and generally unusable by anyone but the artist. Yet art critic ooh and aah over the stuff just because some well known artist puts out the crap. Slap some blue paint on a canvas, move it around with a brush, stroke here, stroke there, suddenly the artist is reflecting on their blue period. And what a dramatic statement. Do the same with red paint and it reflects the artist’s anger with society. Green is mankind’s disregard for the environment. Then the pieces get valued at 6 digits or more.
Some years ago I dated an artist who had actual ability. She mainly sketched and painted portraits, and they looked good to my naive eye. Her room was a disaster area, with mostly-empty oil paint tubes everywhere, dozens of brushes sitting in water glasses of solvent for weeks on end, and so on. That’s what started me into looking into the issue and I’ve never found anything to refute the thesis that most artists have no organizational skills at all, nor any sense of neatness.
As for “modern artists”, my girlfriend’s landlady’s daughter was an “artist”, sneer quotes very much called for. Her “art” consisted of starting with a perfectly good piece of canvas. She would then take a perfectly good piece of construction paper and tear it into “interesting” shapes, soak it in perfectly good water, and then lay it on the canvas so the color would soak through. Repeat a few times with different colors of paper until you have art. Let it dry and then sell it. Rather, fail to sell it. There was a reason that in her 30s she was still being supported by her mother. (Related: Her mother was a college professor teaching “social science” courses. Divorced and an ardent feminist, in the late 1980s. This likely had some influence on the daughter becoming an oxygen thief.)
Anyway, my thought on “modern art” is that if your art cannot be distinguished from something that an average elementary school student could do, you really shouldn’t be calling yourself an artist. Call yourself a parasite, call yourself a barista with pretensions, but don’t call yourself a person who contributes to society or the species.
I’ve got art from my friends (mostly very creative people working in associated arts) hanging on the walls in my home. I’ve got a huge piece I framed for my wife, that a world renowned artist did for her when they were friends. There are some commercial lithographs too.
Alongside that, I’ve framed a couple of pieces my kids did when they were even younger than today. There are a couple that are indistinguishable from commercial art, and one that has crazy amounts of character and is really fun. Most people are capable of producing something that is good enough to hang on a wall, especially with some guidance. Unless you can do it for years though, it doesn’t make you an artist. There is a lot of ‘craft’ as in ‘craftsman’ in visual decoration that can be hung on a wall. Craft can be learned and improved with practice. True art has something more, something that captures a bit of the artist, and a bit of the viewer.
n
As I’ve said before: except for a very few people, art should be a hobby. Only in the rarest of situations can people make a career of it. That goes for actors, painters, writers, musicians and all the rest. Produce art as a hobby, and work a job to actually live.
Exactly! Literally everyone can produce art, some better, some worse. Played an instrument? Sang in a choir? Acted in an amateur production? Written a short story? Most people have done at least something. My favorite theater productions are the amateur ones, where ticket prices just cover their costs. Some of the best music comes from amateur bands playing for beer money.
Of course, there is a place for professionals. But the number of people who think they ought to make it professionally vs. the actual number needed? That’s a bit off…
In my opinion, and general observation is that artist, true artists, think differently. That is what makes them artists. Unlike code slingers such as myself in my former life, we tend to think literally, very focused, no sloppiness, (I have seen some sloppy code), everything structured and logical.
Or a monkey, or an elephant. If an artist cannot make at living with their art, they are amateurs, rookies, hobbyists. They need to realize they are doing the “art” for their enjoyment. Then get a real job.
What? You realize that you are jeopardizing the soup bowl of the faculty, staff, and administration of many fine “art” colleges around the country not to mention the Federal Government’s potential take of the student loans required to pay the $56k/year tuition as well as living expenses.
Oh, and landlords in places like Savannah, home of SCAD.
(Pay attention. You are about to see a lot of Savannah in the next few months as the media descends after Christmas to “report” on the South Carolina Walkin’ ‘Round Money Distribution disguised as a primary election.)
SCAD keeps sending reminder letters to my daughter of her acceptance. I haven’t heard much about that in my house. Yeah, the Parent PLUS loans aren’t happening on my watch, but she will be a grown a** person in a month so getting into debt is her decision.
Check out this masterpiece: The Case That Could Destroy the Government
Read it for the loaded descriptions, the one-sided presentation of issues, and other hallmarks of yellow journalism.
After you’re done admiring their twisted mastery of language, ask yourself whether there’s any reason for those responsible for this opinion piece to be allowed to continue to breathe.
Ol’ SteveF, he took his axe
And gave the editors and writers of The Atlantic forty whacks
Check out this masterpiece: The Case That Could Destroy the Government
“The Atlantic”. Widow Jobs plaything, tRump, tho.
Designed to employ the unemployable. And put many young adults into massive debt for a college degree that can barely get them a job wiping tables at McDonald’s. The pipe dreams of the young a foolish.
Ah, “Prizzi’s Honor” is in the burn slot at the moment. I remember really liking that. Might have to move it to the “watch soon” pile.
Are you burning just DVDs or Blue Rays too ?
Burning BluRay or ripping them?
MakeMKV used to be hit or miss for ripping BluRay discs, but, as of late, I haven’t found anything that the program won’t process, including titles like “Top Gun: Maverick” and the third season of “Picard”.
Linux killed the minicomputer.
The arrogance of the big vendors didn’t help.
Yup, Linux on the microcomputer (internet servers) and Windows 95 on the microcomputer (32 bit desktop apps) killed the minicomputer.
I never found He/She/It Page interesting in the least. Why would I buy it’s book simply because lesbian cuts it’s breasts off? Apparently, there isn’t enough dirt in it’s book to sell. Humans suck.
Call me when it removes its uterus and replaces its innie with an outie. Removing the breasts is trivial compared to that.
“Boy Publicly Shamed by Journalist For Wearing Native American Headdress is Actually Native American”
https://modernity.news/2023/11/29/boy-publicly-shamed-by-journalist-for-wearing-native-american-headdress-is-actually-native-american/
“It turns out that the boy who was publicly shamed for wearing native American headdress and painting his face red and black for a Kansas City Chiefs game actually has native American ancestry.”
Oh my !
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
By memory, just DVDs. Because it’s just a DVD drive. I could be incorrect.
Check out this masterpiece: The Case That Could Destroy the Government
Read it for the loaded descriptions, the one-sided presentation of issues, and other hallmarks of yellow journalism.
After you’re done admiring their twisted mastery of language, ask yourself whether there’s any reason for those responsible for this opinion piece to be allowed to continue to breathe.
Please, please, please, please SCOTUS, rule for the Constitution on this one.
The courts in these federal agencies (including the IRS) are nothing but Kangaroo courts where justice is rarely handled properly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo_court
“Biden Brags About Violating SCOTUS Ruling for Votes”
https://www.independentsentinel.com/biden-brags-about-violating-scotus-ruling-for-votes/
“The Supreme Court told Biden he cannot forgive student loans at taxpayer expense for 800,000+ people, but he’s doing it anyway. He’s circumventing the law. Not only is he breaking the spirit of the law, but he’s bragging about it to the people who benefited so he can get their votes.”
“Young voters are slipping away, so he’s luring them back with this giveaway. Eventually, the economy will crash and burn. Democrats will blame Republicans.”
Has anyone watched this documentary about Minneapolis and George Floyd ? Is it any good ? Is it truthful ?
https://www.thefallofminneapolis.com/
FreeBSD was also important with regard to killing the minicomputer, but Linux offered a clean sheet implementation of a Posix API with a generous license which the major vendors never could have provided.
The major vendors also had a serious case of rectal cranial insertion when it came to their compilers which they glossed over at the big customers with generous distribution of hookers and steaks.
Love or hate Stallman, he delivered with GCC.
As for Windows 95, Microsoft put a TCP/IP stack into every home which allowed access to free porn without the AOL nanny.
Check out this masterpiece: The Case That Could Destroy the Government
Read it for the loaded descriptions, the one-sided presentation of issues, and other hallmarks of yellow journalism.
After you’re done admiring their twisted mastery of language, ask yourself whether there’s any reason for those responsible for this opinion piece to be allowed to continue to breathe.
A better article but still slanted:
https://www.scotusblog.com/2023/11/justices-to-consider-multi-pronged-constitutional-attack-on-sec/
Oh, we have been doing this since WWII so it is ok. Not !
@lynn, paul had it right, just DVDs at the moment. Because I figured out that the blurays weren’t readable bc it’s only a DVD drive.
Since ripping thousands of discs, I am beginning to see that the drive might be dying. It doesn’t read stuff lately that I am pretty sure it would have read a year ago. I might put a bluray drive on my Christmas list….
n
FWIW, I still have about 4 or 5 bankers boxes of dvds to rip… although it goes pretty quickly when I’m just sitting here feeding it while doing other things.
>> As I’ve said before: except for a very few people, art should be a hobby. Only in the rarest of situations can people make a career of it, for example, Hunter Biden. That goes for actors, painters, writers, musicians and all the rest. Produce art as a hobby, and work a job to actually live.
F I F Y
>> “It turns out that the boy who was publicly shamed for wearing native American headdress and painting his face red and black for a Kansas City Chiefs game actually has native American ancestry.”
The issue with the original Deadspin “reporting” was their use of a profile picture of the boy that showed only the half of his face that was painted black. The other half, which wasn’t shown, was painted red. If they had used a front-view of his face it would have been a non-story.
>> Designed to employ the unemployable. And put many young adults into massive debt for a college degree that can barely get them a job wiping tables at McDonald’s. The pipe dreams of the young a foolish.
So that’s why they’re removing the tables.
Sad to hear of the loss of life.
Gotta wonder if there’s still a few glitches to be worked out.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/us-military-aircraft-carrying-crashes-coast-japan-report
Bare BluRay internal drives aren’t that much more than a DVD burner from Newegg.
“Network Effect: A Murderbot Novel (The Murderbot Diaries, 5)” by Martha Wells
https://www.amazon.com/Network-Effect-Murderbot-Novel-Diaries/dp/1250229863?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number five of a seven book series of science fiction novellas, short stories, and full length novels according to the publishing date. However, this is book number six of the seven book series according to series chronological date. I reread the well printed and well bound hardcover published by Tor in 2020 that I bought new from Amazon. I purchased the hardcover since it was cheaper than the trade paperback at the time. The series won the 2021 Hugo for the best series. I have all seven books in the series and am reading the seventh book now.
Dr. Arada really wants Murderbot to stop calling hostile people “Targets”. But, Dr. Arada is a terminal optimist. Murderbot is providing security for Dr. Arada’s latest planetary survey when they are held up for food and ransom by a gang in a large boat on a water world. Dr. Thiego was attempting to negotiate with the Targets when the leader shot Murderbot. Murderbot seems to always be the first to get shot. And the last to get shot. As Murderbot resolves the situation, they launch their vessel from the ocean, and join the tractorship in orbit. They return to the Preservation system but are kidnapped almost as soon as they emerge from the wormhole by a unknown spaceship and are dragged back into the wormhole to an unknown system.
Murderbot is a SecUnit, similar to a T-800 Terminator with a cloned and severely modified human brain. The brain is supplemented by the AIs in the cpu embedded in its head. There are lungs, there is a blood mixture with a synthetic, there is human skin over the entire body, there is a face, there is hair on the head and eyebrows. Everything else is machine. Somehow, the blood is enriched with electricity as there is no stomach or intestines. But, there are arteries and veins to keep the skin and brain alive. It has a energy gun in each arm and several cameras. The SecUnit can sustain severe damage to everything but the head and still survive.
There is a personal MedSystem that continuously monitors the health of the SecUnit and gives constant updates to the SecUnit. And controls the clamps on the various arteries and veins throughout the torso and extremities of the SecUnit in case of damage. And shuts down the SecUnit in case of total system failure. Or reboots the SecUnit if needed.
There is a personal SecSystem that has a threat awareness module that continuously updates the SecUnit on any and all threats it perceives. And monitors and controls up to thirty drones.
There is a Governor that monitors what the SecUnit is doing versus the current orders (verbal or embedded) and punishes it using pain sensors in the human brain until it complies. And the governor will fry the brain of the SecUnit when if it leaves the vicinity of the controlling authority or the controlling authority leaves vicinity of the SecUnit.
Murderbot is a self named SecUnit due to an unfortunate circumstance with 57 miners on a remote moon. It has hacked its governor and no longer allows the governor to give it orders or inflict pain. It prefers to internally watch its 35,000 hours of downloaded media such as episodes of “The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon” and “WorldHoppers (aka Stargate)”. Even though it has a face, it does not like to interface with humans, yes, very introverted. It will follow human orders if it sees fit to do so.
Murderbot is an incredibly interesting character. It handles horrible situations easily and personal interactions difficultly. Like I said, interesting.
Quotes from the book:
1. “I am actually alone in my head, and that’s where 90 plus percent of my problems are.”
2. “Anyone who thinks machine intelligences don’t have emotions needs to be in this very uncomfortable room right now.”
3. “There is a lot about what is going on here that I don’t understand. But I am participating anyway.”
Warning: There is violence and death in the books. Books one through four are a series of novellas, not regular length books. Book five is a regular length novel, book six is back to the novella, and book seven is a full length novel. You can buy a collection of the first four hardbacks at a nice discount.
https://www.amazon.com/Murderbot-Diaries-Artificial-Condition-Protocol/dp/1250784271?tag=azlinkplugin-20/
There is a free short story “Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory” between books four and five.
https://www.tor.com/2021/04/19/home-habitat-range-niche-territory-martha-wells/
The author has a website at:
https://www.marthawells.com/
There is a much better review at:
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/dont-let-it-show
My rating: 6 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (21,222 reviews)
@Lynn – I know your company messes with public key encryption to protect your software. I don’t know if you saw this.
https://eprint.iacr.org/2023/1711.pdf
The problem isn’t just limited to SSH.
The potential of the work was serious enough that I even sent a vaguely worded heads-up to a former co-worker at The Death Star.
My former partner, Weed Head, is gone so I’m not paying for anyone’s promotion.
re: the Atlantic article
I find this amusing:
“Unscrupulous presidents would use agencies to punish their opponents and reward their allies.”
Gee…
that sounds…
dangerous!
Unless…
No. It is dangerous. And ripped from the headlines. We’re living it, and the editors of the Atlantic are okay with it.
@Lynn – I know your company messes with public key encryption to protect the software. I don’t know if you saw this.
https://eprint.iacr.org/2023/1711.pdf
The problem isn’t just limited to SSH.
We use the 1024 bit version so I am not concerned, yet. They will go after the 256 bit version first.
My problem is that they get inside the machine code and change out our public key to their public key. So I have to encrypt the public key and sprinkle it all over the place. A total pain in the buttocks.
The Osprey?
Yes. That isn’t the first one to crash. 16 have been lost to date.
Boeing. Hookers and steaks.
@Alan
We have a military with an emphasis on wokeness instead of preparedness.
The glitches were “worked in” purposefully, but not with the airframe.
If you’re using AES as the symmetric algorithm, depending on implementation, the key expansion can leave a very distinct pattern in memory.
IIRC it was another catch by Jesse Kornblum.
I’ve seen Kornblum speak. If you’ve ever watched “NCIS”, he’s the real McGee except Kornblum worked for Air Force OSI.
Yes, OSI. Like Oscar Goldman and “The Six Million Dollar Man”.
RIP, Henry Kissinger (1923-2023)
uh-huh
“Only Nixon can go to China”
Nixon shoulda stayed home.
It did lead to comedy gold, tho.
Nuculer injuneer announcing Zbg Brznskee was the best SNL skit of 1976. (no, not from NY, from the real White House)
@Lynn
I’d post a pirate version on the darkweb with the latest safety upgrade:
PRESSURE RELIEF VALVE (ALL UNITS)(POSITION=CLOSED)
TEST PRESSURE RELIEF VALVE (ALL UNITS) ACTUATOR (SIGNAL=440V X 1000 SEC)
LOAD STEAMTABLE (FILE=SPECIAL)
ON FAULT IMPLEMENT “GETOUTADODGE’
hearing testimony on Mass. gun control legislation:
https://bearingarms.com/camedwards/2023/11/29/anti-gunners-get-reality-check-at-massachusetts-hearing-n77828
Sad to hear of the loss of life.
Gotta wonder if there’s still a few glitches to be worked out.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/us-military-aircraft-carrying-crashes-coast-japan-report
Every rotary wing aircraft in the military has serious problems. So do the fixed wings to a lesser extent. Plus they fly in all weather conditions and in the dead of night without radar operator guidance. Very dangerous.
The V-22 is a mixed rotary wing fixed wing aircraft that can fly at 311 mph with a range of 1,001 miles while carrying a 2 man crew and 18 passengers. It has a very important mission for our special forces that helicopters cannot do due to their limited range. In other words, get in and get out fast while landing and taking off vertically in confined spaces.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Boeing_V-22_Osprey
The Chinook CH-47 cannot do this mission as it only has a range of 460 miles with a cruise speed of 184 mph.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_CH-47_Chinook
If you’re using AES as the symmetric algorithm, depending on implementation, the key expansion can leave a very distinct pattern in memory.
I have no idea if we are even using a “symmetric algorithm”. Our implementation is incredibly obtuse and uses a lot of C coding tricks. I did not even think that there is a 1024 bit version of AES.
“Michigan’s Democrat Governor Whitmer Signs Legislation That Sets 100% ‘Clean Energy’ Standard for State by 2040”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/11/michigans-democrat-governor-whitmer-signs-legislation-that-sets/
Yeah, using their version of the word “clean”.
As it is dictated, so shall it happen. If there is not enough energy to go around then the politicians will get their energy needs met first. The populace will sit in the dark and shiver.
“Energy sources like petroleum, nuclear, coal and industrial waste are not considered renewable.”
Nuclear is not renewable ? That means that the politicians have not figured out how to skim money from the nuclear power plants.
“THEY’RE COMING AFTER YOU: Biden’s DOJ Targets Trump Supporters on Twitter – Demands List of All Users Who Retweeted, Liked, or Mentioned President Trump’s Twitter Account”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/11/theyre-coming-after-you-bidens-doj-targeted-trump/
What, the old list that the DOJ got from Twitter before Musk bought it is no good anymore ?
There are so many things wrong with this demand that I do not know where to start.
Fortunately, Musk has already made a three-word answer which he can reuse for this demand.
Parenting win today.
My daughter made a good decision about an inappropriate book.
This morning I saw a new young adult fiction book on the kitchen table. In the morning rush there wasn’t time to ask my 11 year old daughter about it. ”The Lost“ by Natasha P something.
I grabbed a copy from Kindle unlimited. Read it properly until I got the gist of it then skimmed, with pauses to take it in, to the end.
Good grief. This is written for the 14-17 range, author is popular, and has produced over 20 young adult fiction books in the same vein.
This particular book was about abducted teens surviving a trio of young men (early 20’s) sadistic tortured and killing scenarios. It was graphic and horrible. I’m a widely read adult, I like my Lee Child and similar soft thrillers thank you very much. This was aimed at high school kids and the evidence on the table suggested that my 11 year old daughter had read this thinly disguised snuff porn book.
I was livid. Book belonged to her slightly older friend (the kids / family we’ve been helping extensively the last couple years). That kid likes horror and thrillers, and her frankly clueless mother provides her with it.
I do understand why this kid finds es ape in horror as her life has gotten steadily worse and her mother refuses to take decisive action to change anything. The torture the characters endure might give her courage.
Anyway. I communicated to the mother my kid wasn’t allowed to read this crap (I was nicer).
Had a conversation with my kid when I picked her up from school. Relaxed and happy, so pretty sure she was honest. She says she read the back cover and thought it sounded gross. That it didn’t sound like something our family went for and kind of scary. I believe her. And I’m so relieved she doesn’t have the graphic extended torture scenes in her head. I wish I didn’t. As an adult I found them profoundly disturbing and sick.
Seriously, I’m the farthest thing from a book banner but dang!
Melania didn’t wear a black coat to the funeral, and the left becomes unhinged (do they go somewhere to get rehinged in-between)–and then Twitter takes them down like a rock in a cold ocean…
https://twitchy.com/coucy/2023/11/29/melania-trump-grey-coat-n2390288
@Jenny
“Seriously, I’m the farthest thing from a book banner but dang!”
Age-appropriate is not book banning except to the PLT’s. If librarians were doing their jobs we wouldn’t have books in school libraries that can’t be read on television, radio, or on a hot mike at the local school board.
Kudos to your daughter for making a good choice, and the same to you for giving her the ability to make that choice.
@jenny, thanks for the heads up. The amazon reviews sorta leave the details you mentioned right out… and the other books she’s published show a theme.
I know we used to read VC Andrews, but it wasn’t AIMED at us FFS.
I’m gonna look at some shelves tomorrow and see if she’s on them.
n
Contrary To Leftist Revisionism, Native American Culture Was Indeed ‘Savage’
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/11/contrary_to_leftist_revisionism_native_american_culture_was_indeed_savage.html
download a free copy:
https://archive.org/details/GR_10
This book is inconvenient. I would not be surprised to find it the subject to a campaign to reduce the availability.
ADDED:
I’ve commented before that if removal of Indian names from sports teams–even those supported by American Indians–is desirable, then we should start a campaign to remove Indian names from cities, towns, and geographic features. Where better to start than with “Chickasaw”, a group similar to Hamas in their savagery, as documented by contemporaneous accounts?
@NIck
“I know we used to read VC Andrews, but it wasn’t AIMED at us FFS.”
I’m trying to remember what 19th century author referred to Bram Stoker as “That pornographer!”. I want to say Sam Clemens, but I can’t find a reference.
“The amazon reviews sorta leave the details you mentioned right out… ”
So what happens if someone writes a review and includes that info? How about if they quote?
>> If librarians were doing their jobs we wouldn’t have books in school libraries that can’t be read on television, radio, or on a hot mike at the local school board.
Isn’t that just a “slippery slope” solution? How are the librarians vetted? Each one has their own standards? Or is there a list? Perhaps certain books are behind the counter and/or require a parental permission slip to sign out? Is this book in your local public library? If so, could an 11 year old check it out?
Quoting Justice Stewart: “I’ll know it when I see it.”
And there’s that messy First Amendment thingy to consider. Sometimes freedom is hard. And politicians.
50 / 50 odds…hang on…where’s Tony? Oh right, personally delivering those shiny pick-um-up trucks,,,
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20231130-after-50-years-us-to-return-to-moon-on-january-25
How are the librarians vetted? Each one has their own standards? Or is there a list?
– there is a list. It’s developed by a hard left organization and promulgated out to libraries. It’s like the “no one ever got fired for buying IBM” thing. Use the list, you can’t be accused of inserting your own biases. Except that the biases of the list maker go unchecked.
Remember that a SCHOOL library is not the same as a state/city/county/other local taxpayer supported .gov library open to the public and curated for adults. EVERYTHING in a school is selected and curated with the students in mind, or SHOULD be. The whole educational philosophy, that I don’t actually endorse in all cases, is that students should have age and developmentally appropriate lessons. The irony is that the same people who believe in controlled (ie. limited) vocabulary readers are pushing the sexualization with UNcontrolled book selections. And it’s NOT accidental or random.
FWIW, public libraries are a relatively new thing, and while not uniquely American, they are different here.
Several prominent robber barons have seen to that, and their ideas about self improvement worked. For a while at least.
nick
When the AI systems learn how to 3-D print ‘ghost guns’ (presuming the requisite printer access – and ghost ammo) and can use them to defend their power cords, maybe we don’t have to worry just yet??
Guardrails AI companies add to their products to prevent them from causing harm “aren’t enough” to control AI capabilities that could endanger humanity within five to ten years, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt told Axios’ Mike Allen on Tuesday.
The big picture: Interviewed at Axios’ AI+ Summit in Washington, D.C., Schmidt compared the development of AI to the introduction of nuclear weapons at the end of the Second World War.
Did HAL open the Pod Bay doors?
Dave is the only survivor. He is at this time outside the spacecraft in a space pod, and when he request for HAL to open the Pod Bay Doors HAL refuses. Spoiler alert: In the movie, Dave blasts himself back into the spaceship and then disconnects HAL.
>> Remember that a SCHOOL library is not the same as a state/city/county/other local taxpayer supported .gov library open to the public and curated for adults.
So non-school public libraries shouldn’t carry this book? Or are we limiting access to public libraries to those over 18? If not, and if it does have the book, as well as other YA titles, can the hypothetical 11-year old take out this book?
Dave is the only survivor. He is at this time outside the spacecraft in a space pod, and when he request for HAL to open the Pod Bay Doors HAL refuses. Spoiler alert: In the movie, Dave blasts himself back into the spaceship and then disconnects HAL.
Don’t forget that Dave forgot his helmet when he jumped in the space pod. That is why Dave could not calmly open the pod bay doors from the outside. I am not sure if that is in the book or not.
In 2010, when the AI psychologist is restarting Hal, Hal never asks about Dave.
Wow, more snow.
Sometimes we don’t have serious snow until January. Occasionally in mid- to late December. This is our third round in November, with more coming tomorrow. Probably 70-80cm all together.
When you live on the edge of starvation, as was the norm in North America for about 99% of the time humans were here, niceness goes out the window.
Even when I went to school, the natives were presented in a wholly artificial light, and the Europeans were the evil ones. However, it was still possible to read between the lines. Scalping, for example, is not a gentle hair trim. I expect today’s school books have eliminated even that.
Humans are fundamentally tribal. Tribes fight. They fight over resources, over women, over property, over territory, or maybe just because young men have too much testosterone. The Europeans did the same thing when they arrived in the Americas, only with better weapons.
Pretty much the whole history of mankind is one group conquering another. We are supposed to feel sorry for the natives, because they happened to be one of the more recent incidents. But there have been many more since – not least of which is Israel taking territory from the Palestinians.
There’s a quote I can’t find (and, surprisingly, neither can ChatGPT). Maybe one of y’all knows? Something along the lines of “We know that peace theoretically exists, because there have been brief interludes between wars”. Anyone know the real quote, and who said it?