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Tuesday, July 11. 2023

Why AI will save the world

What does marriage have to do with capitalism?

Congratulations, a Man Just Won Miss Netherlands

Lobsters likely feel pain. Should we get them high before eating them?

It is pure statistical garbage when we are told what the average global temperature is and that it is a heat record

California Bans Spanish Over Nouns Having Only Two Gender Options

Why People Stop Using Drugs Like Ozempic. Drugs like semaglutide—better known as Ozempic or Wegovy—could be lifelong treatments for obesity, but what little data scientists have suggests that people don't stick with them for long.

LinkedIn Should End ‘Diversity in Recruiting’ Feature: “Discrimination by algorithm is still discrimination”

The drug war has been a failure, but is decriminalizing drugs even worse?

What is "meaningful work" anyway? Work is work.

'Pay your bills like adults!': Protesters take to White House after student debt ruling

Why Diversity Programs Fail, And what works better

Trainers tell us that people often respond to compulsory courses with anger and resistance—and many participants actually report more animosity toward other groups afterward.

VDH: Illegal Immigration and Western Spiritual Sickness - Enforcing the Law Has Become Abnormal

Israel: Civilians who shoot terrorists will no longer face interrogation, gun seizure

Bye Bye Paris: Chinese CO2 Emissions are Skyrocketing

A Stronger NATO for a More Dangerous World

I don't buy it

Pence says some 'just don't understand' why we must endlessly support Ukraine

Putin Held 3-Hour Meeting With Wagner Chief Days After Revolt

"Revolt"?

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 06:56 | Comments (43) | Trackbacks (0)

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It's amazing how hard our politicians work at keeping the voters polarized, and at keeping issues high-centered so that they cannot be solved. The student debt problem is emblematic of this. Forgive the debts completely ! No, pay your million dollar fair share, on your Starbucks job !

Anybody suggesting re-structuring the debts yet? Anybody suggesting that future loans going forward have reasonable interest charges, that start only after graduation, the way they used to? Anybody suggesting that applicants show reasonable evidence that they are serious about their degree path, serious about their studies, take them through the motions that normal adults have to show they are reputable and responsible before being loaned money? Nope.

#1 Aggie on 2023-07-11 09:21 (Reply)

Anybody suggesting that our government has no business in lending thousands of dollars to 18 YOs to go to college? Our government made this political and now we are surprised that they choose to use it politically? End it!!! Let students and parents figure this out themselves. Don't put taxpayers on the hook for more free stuff.

End all the useless degree programs that only lead to jobs at Starbucks. The only purpose most of these degree programs serve is to make money for the colleges.

#1.1 OneGuy on 2023-07-11 10:14 (Reply)

"'We have been here before. Only this time, the reality of our [her wife and her] student loan payments restarting looms large,' she said."

Her and her wife. Who saw that coming?

And the counter-protester is right: pay off your own f*cking loans.

#2 Maniac on 2023-07-11 09:32 (Reply)

QUOTE:

It is pure statistical garbage when we are told what the average global temperature is and that it is a heat record . . . A mathematician or statistical analyst would tell these people that is not a proper way to calculate the average annual temperature of anything because the weather stations aren't divided evenly.

That is certainly not required. And statistics is the very tool that allows us to combine spotty and imperfect data. The tradeoff with coverage is loss of precision. Absolute temperature has a high error margin due to having few stations in the polar extremes. However, the temperature anomaly has a much lower error margin, because it depends much less on the extent of station coverage.

#3 Zachriel on 2023-07-11 09:33 (Reply)

The Earth's Temperature

Munchie and the Bearman - podcast!
Currently: 57.47°F/14.15°C
Deviation: 0.27°F/0.15°C
Stations processed last hour: 55906
Last station processed: Lugplatz, Austria
Update time: 2023-07-11 15:14:15 UTC

https://temperature.global/

#3.1 Zachinoff on 2023-07-11 11:17 (Reply)

Unsold electric cars are piling up on dealer lots

https://www.axios.com/2023/07/10/unsold-electric-cars-are-piling-up-on-dealer-lots?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axioswhatsnext&stream=science

#4 feeblemind on 2023-07-11 09:34 (Reply)

re AI "Saving The World": When the Earth really needs saving (e.g., large asteroid impact, nearby gamma ray burst) ain't nothing going to help us at all. Just put your head between your legs and you know the rest. (Planetary colonization enthusiasts, if any exist by then, will have already learned what a fate worse than death can be like.)

re "Lobsters": Lobsters are bugs. Just eat them and enjoy them. They'd eat you, if things were turned around.

#5 Hairless Joe on 2023-07-11 09:52 (Reply)

AI is like the anti-terrorism laws passed after 9/11. Intended to do good things but too powerful and secret thus it encouraged and allowed terrible things. AI will be exploited to cause harm AND because it's "AI", which means totally opaque to 99.999% of the population you will never know what it is doing behind the scenes. AI will make a few people and organizations very rich and make the rest of us dirt poor and slaves.

#6 OneGuy on 2023-07-11 10:20 (Reply)

Are theatres turning off air-conditioning to suppress the box office for Sound of Freedom?

QUOTE:

I was skeptical that theater managers would deliberately turn away business, especially with a potential blockbuster on their hands. Summer blockbusters are how most theatres are able to stay in business. And theatre managers’ jobs depend on filling seats and staying out of the red.

But reports continue to proliferate of mysterious outages of air-conditioning in just one screen at multiplexes.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/07/are_theatres_turning_off_airconditioning_to_suppress_the_box_office_for_emsound_of_freedomem.html

#7 feeblemind on 2023-07-11 10:24 (Reply)

" people often respond to compulsory courses with anger and resistance"

Have you ever attended one of these courses or "talks"? Typically they are presented by someone of color who can barely speak cogently who are themselves racists and hate you and make no bones about hating you and spends the entire time explicitly verbally hating you. THAT is the training and if you don't like it they double down.

#8 OneGuy on 2023-07-11 10:27 (Reply)

Your being forced to sit through it is the point. It is not intended to convince but to humiliate you:

https://heidelblog.net/2015/02/the-purpose-of-political-correctness-is-to-humiliate/

#8.1 Ben David on 2023-07-11 11:43 (Reply)

Your being forced to sit through it is the point. It is not intended to convince but to humiliate you:

Brilliant thinking. I hadn't thought of it that way.

Hmmm.

And I had to send the Dalrymple quote on. Thanks for the link.

#8.1.1 feeblemind on 2023-07-11 12:00 (Reply)

The process is the punishment. You're exactly right, it's not designed to "fix" anything, it's designed to grind your face in it. If you work for a company that does this sort of crap it's past time to find a new job because the lunatics are running the asylum. Once the leftists get their foot in the door, it's all downhill as they invite more of their friends in, drive out the competent workers, and focus the business on something other than producing a profitable product. (Here's a hint: If they make any reference to "stakeholders", run.)

#8.1.2 Jerryskids on 2023-07-11 12:50 (Reply)

Putin Held 3-Hour Meeting With Wagner Chief Days After Revolt

Maybe a 3-hour torture session, but not a meeting.

#9 Tim on 2023-07-11 11:17 (Reply)

As a veteran of the corporate world, I have been in more than one three-hour torture session that was described as a meeting.

That said, at the time nobody started in on my fingernails or got that special electric shock machine out. I think the idea was to induce suicide.

#9.1 Hairless Joe on 2023-07-11 18:46 (Reply)

About 45 years ago I was stationed in Alaska. My wife was a Dental assistant. She applied for a job with a local dentist who needed an assistant. He told her that a "native Alaskan" had applied and by aw he had to hire her. BUT if she would please hold off looking elsewhere it was likely that within a week or two the "native Alaskan" woman would quit or stop showing up for work and THEN he would be able to hire her. He went on to say that typically the "native Alaskan" workers only stay on until they get their first paycheck and then they quit or stop showing up for work. This same scenario is not uncommon with all the minorities who find themselves under represented in various careers.

#10 JustMe on 2023-07-11 12:03 (Reply)

re Putin Held 3-Hour Meeting With Wagner Chief Days After Revolt

There isn't much to this article other than the assertion that there was a meeting.

It appears to have been a sympathetic 'clearing of the air' type of meeting,

If that's all it was, why was Prigozhin sent into exile with some of his men?

Will charges be brought against the Wagner group officer that ordered the downing of the Russian helicopters?

I dunno . . . this just doesn't sound right. Perhaps I am over thinking it?

#11 feeblemind on 2023-07-11 12:13 (Reply)

"I dunno . . . this just doesn't sound right. Perhaps I am over thinking it?"

When it comes to what we think Russia is up to these days, we are all overthinking.

#11.1 JJM on 2023-07-11 13:17 (Reply)

A stronger NATO = a more dangerous world.

#12 DeGaulle on 2023-07-11 12:33 (Reply)

We are living in an era where global temperatures are extremely beneficial to human life and well being. Almost perfect, could be a little better if it were a little warmer but almost perfect. We can grow enough food for 8 billion people, the weather is great, rain is sufficient, the climate is optimum. And would you believe it!!! The CO2 level is increasing slightly which is a HUGE boon to growing crops. We couldn't ask for better. It will change someday. Most likely a mini-ice age which will likely kill a billion or two people. But right now it could not be better.

#13 Anon on 2023-07-11 12:39 (Reply)

Someone once asked Lincoln: "How long should a man's legs be in proportion to his body?" and Lincoln replied: "I have not given the matter much consideration, but I should judge they ought to be long enough to reach from his body to the ground."

—

Anon: We are living in an era where global temperatures are extremely beneficial to human life and well being. Almost perfect

That doesn't address the claim above about the statistics of global warming. But to address your point, human civilization developed over several thousand years of relative climate stability. If the climate had been warmer and the sea level higher, cities would have formed in different places.

The problem is if the climate undergoes a dramatic change, then the infrastructure of civilization will be threatened. Some climate change is unavoidable, but the current warming trend is well beyond anything that would occur naturally.

#13.1 Zachriel on 2023-07-11 15:54 (Reply)

And yet, the climate today is near perfect. Needs just a little more warming to bring it to it's past grandeur but with luck the warming of the sun and the Milankovitch cycles it will be even better before it again goes into a cooling cycle and kills billions. Sadly all of this happens regardless of what man wishes or does. Our climate is beyond man's ability to alter for the better or the worse. The best we can do is that some grifter uses climate cycles to steal other peoples money and power. Just like ancient people threw virgins into volcanoes or cut the heart out of living sacrifices to claim to control the climate. Climate grifters are not a new thing...

#13.1.1 Anon on 2023-07-11 18:49 (Reply)

Anon: And yet, the climate today is near perfect.

Why, if sea levels were higher, then Miami would be under water; and if sea levels were lower, you’d have to walk too far to get to the beach. Obviously, sea levels are “near perfect.”

Anon: the Milankovitch cycles

Milankovitch cycles show a slight cooling trend, but the Earth’s surface is warming; consequently, Milankovitch cycles do not explain the anomalous warming trend.

#13.1.1.1 Zachriel on 2023-07-11 20:30 (Reply)

That's the tale the the climate change scammers tell, but there is precious little data to back it up, since most temperature reconstructions by proxy are totally unable to deal with max and min temps during those periods. At best they are some kind of local average from thousands of years ago.

We've had Little Ice Age (1300 AD through the 14th and 15th centuries.), Medieval Warm Period (900-1300 AD) all while "civilization" was developing and far more fragile than today.

#13.1.2 ruralcounsel on 2023-07-12 13:59 (Reply)

ruralcounsel: most temperature reconstructions by proxy are totally unable to deal with max and min temps during those periods.

Proxies can provide average temperatures during a period. While there is a lot unknown, it is not unknowable or totally unknown. Notably, you even point to changes in mean European temperatures in your very next paragraph.

ruralcounsel: We've had Little Ice Age (1300 AD through the 14th and 15th centuries.), Medieval Warm Period (900-1300 AD) all while "civilization" was developing and far more fragile than today.

Those periods show how even small changes in average temperatures can have broad affects on human society. As for fragility, the world is much more technological but also much more crowded, especially along vulnerable coastlines, with migration fraught with political and social difficulties.

#13.1.2.1 Zachriel on 2023-07-12 14:16 (Reply)

But to know things like "the current warming trend is well beyond anything that would occur naturally" you would need to know more than just averages because you are making a comparison with the past maximums and minimums.

It is an absurd statement.

#13.1.2.1.1 ruralcounsel on 2023-07-12 16:07 (Reply)

ruralcounsel: But to know things like "the current warming trend is well beyond anything that would occur naturally" you would need to know more than just averages

No. The average global temperature is a measure of the atmosphere's heat content, so average is the proper measure for "warming".

What the claim requires is resolution. Newer scientific advances allows for not just better temporal resolution, but spatial resolution. See Osman et al., Globally resolved surface temperatures since the Last Glacial Maximum, Nature 2021.

#13.1.2.1.1.1 Zachriel on 2023-07-12 16:54 (Reply)

re: Will AI save the world

I wouldn't rely on Marc Andreesen for an objective view of AI.

On a side note, it's funny that his example of devout Christians is Carrie Nation, a Progressive, do-gooder, Social Gospel,busy-body nutter. Prohibition was not a Christian movement. It was a Socialist Progressive movement.

#14 jack walter on 2023-07-11 12:47 (Reply)

Ottmar Edenhofer former IPCC official and professor of the Economics of Climate at the Technical University of Berlin

"One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy."
"Climate change policy is about how we redistribute de facto the world's wealth."

#15 indyjonesouthere on 2023-07-11 12:49 (Reply)

"Climate change policy is about how we redistribute de facto the world's wealth."

The ideologues who want to redistribute the world's wealth never quite seem to take on board the fact that the measures they want to implement would reduce that wealth dramatically.

#15.1 JJM on 2023-07-11 13:22 (Reply)

It is classic Marxism and WEF approved. You will own nothing and be happy. AGW has always been about power, control and MONEY.

#15.1.1 indyjonesouthere on 2023-07-11 15:13 (Reply)

I have a problem and looking for a solution. I like having a camera with me and a cell phone is "perfect" except in sunlight where it is useless. I cannot see what is on the screen. I can aim the camera at what I want to take a picture of and hope for the best but I can't see it. Same problem with my two small and easy to carry cameras. My larger SLR works fine because I peek through the viewfinder. How can I fix this? Doesn't everyone have this problem?

#16 SillyMe on 2023-07-11 13:05 (Reply)

Assuming you are serious, you have already answered your own question: Use the tool appropriate for the job and situation.

Now complain to me about the poor dynamic range of digital sensors and I'll give you an answer you really won't like.

#16.1 Hairless Joe on 2023-07-11 18:55 (Reply)

I love my SLR but I can't put it in my pocket. I like having a camera with me all the time. I used to carry my small camera all the time. But with the LED screen in bright daylight I literally cannot see what the camera sees. The picture is good I just can't see the screen clearly in the sunlight. AND in poor light or after dark the small camera is almost useless while the SLR does indeed still take good pictures. The phone takes good pictures even in low light conditions but in bright sunlight I can't see the screen.

#16.1.1 SillyMe on 2023-07-11 20:21 (Reply)

What the old man used to do when I was a kid to prepare live lobsters for the pot was to leave them in a pan full of white wine for about an hour before. The wine used to relax the lobsters, making the meat tender and delicious.

#17 Sixtyville on 2023-07-11 13:13 (Reply)

that is an excellent idea and since white wine is so cheap, I'm going to try it the next time I cook lobsters. The Pinot Grigio Adieu.

#17.1 Aggie on 2023-07-11 16:50 (Reply)

Expect an angry message from PETA, insisting that the use of Pinot Grigio (especially the cheap kind) is cruelty to bugs. At least, spring for a bottle of hideously over-oaked KJ Chardonnay.

#17.1.1 Hairless Joe on 2023-07-11 18:58 (Reply)

Might get them drunk too so the final drop isn't as painful.

#17.2 Maniac on 2023-07-12 09:37 (Reply)

"California Bans Spanish Over Nouns Having Only Two Gender Options"

Ha ha!

Good one, Babylon Bee!

#18 JJM on 2023-07-11 13:25 (Reply)

I clicked the link thinking it was a real story. I wouldn’t put anything past the commies in California.

#18.1 B. Hammer on 2023-07-11 15:01 (Reply)

Read this before it is disappeared.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/07/11/recipe-for-perfect-pancakes-3/#more-248738

#19 Anon on 2023-07-11 18:58 (Reply)

The covid pandemic was a planned pandemic to take down Trump. They forced tens of thousands of deaths in the U.S. as part of that plan. Seriously your government killed tens of thousands of you in an effort to destroy the Trump presidency and when that plan wasn't working as hoped for they used the Pandemic to enable massive election fraud. Do you seriously believe Biden got all those votes? More votes in some states and cities than they have voters. More mail in ballots for Biden than the total number of mail in ballots printed. This wasn't "just" the unions and a few NGO's doing this. This was an international effort to install a puppet president who would sell out his country. Time is running out for them and they are desperate. What will they do to stop Trump this time? DeSantis is bought and sold already but he is losing ground. Make no mistake time is running out for you too.

#20 Anon on 2023-07-11 20:33 (Reply)

Sadly, I have to agree with you about the pandemic and 2020 election. But I doubt that the people responsible are desperate, or even particularly worried. They've scammed and controlled the system, and there will never be an accounting.

#20.1 ruralcounsel on 2023-07-12 14:04 (Reply)

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Tuesday, July 11. 2023

Tuesday morning links