What could *possibly* go wrong?

 AARRRGH, Crazy, critters, dumbassery, Gah., Hmm..., news, politics, science, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jan 092023
 

Here’s your new “zombie apocalypse writing prompt:”

Study using mosquitoes to deliver vaccines has Chinese researchers buzzing

In an article published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications on December 16, researchers said they had developed new technology that can turn a mosquito into a flying vaccine carrier to immunise animals in the wild.

Oh, goodie. Commie scientists studying ways to deliver vaccines, drugs, plagues, manmade horrors beyond your comprehension, etc. via skeeters.

The ChiComs have already announced that they are working on genetic weapons to target specific ethnic groups for everything from death to dumbing-down. This seems like a decent enough way to deliver such a weapon in certain geographic regions.

 

Now, is the idea of immunizing wild animals against pandemics a good one?  Quite possibly. Is the use of skeeters to do this a good idea? Possibly. Would I trust anything produced by people who think that Mao and his policies were good ideas? Not a chance in hell, Skippy. If you buy into socialism, you’ve demonstrated a sufficient lack of critical thinking skills and judgement that you should be kept far away from anything more scientifically complex than a wooden block.

 Posted by at 11:34 pm

“Chrome Lords”

 art, awesomeness, history, Hmm..., science, science fiction, youtube  No Responses »
Jan 072023
 

The title of this YouTube video claims that “Chrome Lords” was a 1988 movie that ripped off “RoboCop” and “Terminator.” But in fact “Chrome Lords” never existed. The video is ten minutes of “stills” from a movie that never was… all the images were produced by an AI. And other than places where it looks like AI/CGI, it *does* rather look like one of those schlocky 1980’s crapfest movies. So, well done. But here’s the thing… give it a few years (5? 10? 20?) and someone will have an AI take a few text prompts and spit out a full script, feed these images and the new script into another AI… and shazam, “Chrome Lords” will exist as an actual 90 minute horrible movie. But who – if anyone – will own the copyright?

 

 Posted by at 11:53 pm

Is there a polymer chemist in the house?

 AARRRGH, aircraft, art, Hmm..., models, science  No Responses »
Jan 032023
 

Something like 15-20 years ago I bought a 1/18 scale P-47D “Ultimate Soldier” toy. This line of large scale accurate fighter planes was sort of peak Golden Age Of Toys For Adults, even though they sold for a reasonable price at WalMart. They make great display pieces even without structural modifications or repainting, but they are generally screaming for such.

 

Anyway, the P-47D spent years on a shelf in my shop in Utah. From time to time it caught direct sunlight. This discolored the paint *slightly,* but it turned the originally crystal clear canopies milky white. I’ve left them in the dark for some years to see if that would help… nope. I boiled them… nope. I nuked them, if perhaps briefly, with UV; no change. Anybody got any ideas? Why did this happen? How can it be reversed? Scrubbing has shown that this is not a surface feature, but seems to be throughout the plastic.

At some point, recasting them with crystal clear resin might be the only solution, but it’s not one I’m fond of. None of the other canopies did this, so it would seem these two pieces of plastic came from a bad batch.

 Posted by at 8:56 pm

Robo McDonalds

 awesomeness, Hmm..., news, politics, science  No Responses »
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

♬ Jingle Bell Rock – Bobby Helms

 

 

 Posted by at 8:17 pm

AI art loses copyright

 art, Hmm..., news, science  No Responses »
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.

 Posted by at 9:44 am

Kinda like university students going on strike

 art, Crazy, Hmm..., Meh., news, politics, science  No Responses »
Dec 192022
 

Artists stage mass protest against AI-generated artwork on ArtStation

 

At best they’ll *slightly* delay the development and deployment of AI that will render them utterly obsolete. Welcome to being just like everybody else.

So wouldn’t it make sense, rather than *not* producing art right now, to instead take this time to crank out as much art, and the best art, so that they can to try to maximize their income potential while they actually can? Artists are no more going to prevent the introduction of AI art than factory workers prevented automation.

 Posted by at 11:37 pm

Cities going blue

 Hmm..., science, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Dec 082022
 

Not politically, literally:

 

The Great Purpling

 

I’ve noticed a number of streetlights around here pumping out a distinctly blue/purple light for a while now. It’s disconcerting… it’s not an unpleasant color, but it’s *different,* and everything looks funny under it. I thought it was a choice, but it turns out it’s a manufacturing flaw.

 

 Posted by at 10:21 am

I’d like to see a breakdown…

 awesomeness, Hmm..., news, science, youtube  No Responses »
Dec 062022
 

… of just what constitutes this garbage. What fraction is paper? How much plastic? And how much is just sticks and weeds, stuff not normally considered “garbage” in the ecosystem?

 

 

In any event, this mechanism seems to be working quite well. I wonder if it could be made actually productive, though, rather than just harm-reducing: instead of shipping the garbage off to be landfilled somewhere, run it directly into an incinerator. Use the heat and the water to spin a turbine; use the turbine to drive a generator. Use the generator to power not only the mechanism, but feed excess power – if any – into the grid.

 Posted by at 7:15 pm
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