You know what we need to do? Throw open the borders. Import some of this vibrant cultural diversity. What could go wrong?
Jan 062023
Jan 042023
A couple of tweets showing the spectacular state of American cities today…
Someone needs a tazin’…
— Clown World ™ 🤡 (@ClownWorld_) January 4, 2023
And New York City? Don’t go there.
New York City Grocery Stores right now …
2023 is so far🔥🔥🔥
🔊music …😰 pic.twitter.com/sUFfmJVGpJ
— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) January 3, 2023
Here’s a fun related article:
Remote Work Is Poised to Devastate America’s Cities
People no longer *need* to live in big cities quite as much as they used to. The pandemic helped this process along by forcing people to work from home; and once people – and businesses – realized that people could work from *anywhere* and not have to deal with commutes and the nightmare that is the urban area, a lot of people *wanted* to bail out of big cities. Turns out Poop Central, AKA San Francisco, is seeing a *lot* of empty offices as people pull the D-rings and flee that rathole.
Dec 312022
Saw these at the local Barnes & Noble a few days ago:
Honestly, I’m kinda torn between “yay, my books on a shelf” and “so… how many are actually gonna sell?”
Dec 312022
Maybe I’m being optimistic with the title to this post; Biden, Harris, Tate and all the rest might all rise to the challenge. But it’s a high bar:
The lawsuit from this should prove to be lucrative.
Dec 262022
We’re clearly being led by the very, very best:
The War on Merit Takes a Bizarre Turn
For years, two administrators at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) have been withholding notifications of National Merit awards from the school’s families, most of them Asian, thus denying students the right to use those awards to boost their college-admission prospects and earn scholarships. This episode has emerged amid the school district’s new strategy of “equal outcomes for every student, without exception.” School administrators, for instance, have implemented an “equitable grading” policy that eliminates zeros, gives students a grade of 50 percent just for showing up, and assigns a cryptic code of “NTI” for assignments not turned in.
Spectacular.
I have hopes that the lawyers sure to be hired by the families involves *are* fans of merit and are the best at what they do so they can sue this high school and its administration into oblivion.
Dec 242022
So yesterday the former head of Roscosmos decided that the thing to do was hold a birthday party for himself in a city under occupation.
Russia’s notorious former space chief Rogozin wounded in shelling
Dmitry Rogozin – who has called for the extermination of Ukraine – was in Russian-occupied Donetsk, but someone ratted him out to the Ukrainians who launched some artillery at him. They didn’t kill him, but they did get him with some shrapnel. If wholly unverified rumors are to be believed… wounded rather more than previously suggested:
Apologies, here is the proper link.https://t.co/M7bxF2vyFT
— Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) December 23, 2022
It should be pointed out that Rogozin got into “Twitter spat” with Musk back in May, threatening him for supplying Ukrainians with Starlink terminals. Determine for yourself it if would be “ironic” or “poetic justice” or “downright hilarious” if Starlink was used to transmit intelligence on Rogozin’s location or to aim ordnance.
Dec 232022
A McDonalds in Texas is fully automated (except, of course, for the people maintaining the machines). Expect to see more of these… especially in places with legally mandated high minimum wages. So much for “entry level” jobs…
Welcome to the First Ever McDonald’s Where You’re Served by Robots—In Texas
@foodiemunster @McDonald’s has a new test concept
Dec 232022
Here’s something interesting…
AI-Created Comic Has Been Deemed Ineligible for Copyright Protection
If AI created art is ineligible for copyright protection, that’ll set up a roadblock to the forthcoming artpoclypse. It isn’t complete protection, of course… I’m sure there’s some spectrum between “eligible” and “ineligible.” How much manual tinkering a bit of AI-art needs is yet to be determined.
Also… it appears that the US Copyright Office believes that copyright protection is available only for art created by humans. Right now that’s fair… but in the future, probably not. AI might change from an unthinking tool to actual entities, with civil rights and all that. Someone twenty years from now might get bored and genetically tinker with Bonobos or Bottlenose and uplift them to full human sentience; at which point granting *their* personhood would mean that any art they create should merit their copyright.
Dec 212022
I did not wake up this morning seeking or expecting to get another cat. Well, here we are:
Billy and his two siblings are strays who caught the attention of some friends who decided to rescue them. Given that the temperature will shortly be Damned Cold, the rescue effort was decided upon quickly. Unfortunately, one got away (hopes are that he/she will be picked up tomorrow), but two are now safely indoors. Above is “Billy” at the vet getting the first of several checkups and procedures. Fortunately he was found to be free of feline AIDS and leukemia, but he has an upper respiratory infection. Consequently he’s currently in quarantine. But all looks promising. He was a fur coated razorblade when first picked up (yes, there was blood), but he has calmed down a lot.
Yes, he looks a lot like Speedbump.
Dec 212022
A Grand Total Of 20 People Showed Up To A Brittney Griner ‘Homecoming’ Celebration In Waco, ESPN Doesn’t Seem Happy About It
The video below shows part of the “celebration.” It’s sad (and yet hilarious) in the way that Kirk Cameron’s Subway birthday party was sad (and yet hilarious).