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:

 

 

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.

 Posted by at 8:46 am
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
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
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.

 

 Posted by at 11:57 pm
Dec 212022
 

The great majority of the time when someone says “there aught to be a law,” there really aughtn’t. But a law I’d get behind: any new bill in Congress must be read, in it entirety, on the floor of the House and Senate by those who wrote and co-sponsored it before it is allowed to come up to vote. Only those who sat there and listened to at least 75% of the reading would be allowed to vote on the bill; those who weren’t there are automatically registered as “no” votes. This would have the effect of making bills *vastly* smaller than the bloated monstrosities they’ve become.

Take, for example, the latest budget. The R. Lee Ermey bit at the end wholly encapsulates things.

 Posted by at 3:58 am
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
Dec 192022
 

Artwork circa 1983 depicting the Bell BAT (“Bell Advanced Tiltrotor”… so… ummm… the “Bell Bell Advanced Tiltrotor”) single-seat small military tiltrotor designed to compete in the LHX program. It is shown here in two modes. The nearest aircraft is in full forward flight; the aircraft in the background is hovering. Both are in the process of firing unknown anti-tank missiles at a column of Soviet armor.

 Posted by at 10:27 am
Dec 192022
 

So today twitter posted a new rule:

It’s a little odd, to be sure. But at a glance, a *lot* of people read that and started screeching about how this is against EU law, how they are outraged, how this is a violation of free speech how they are – yet again – going to quit Twitter and go somewhere else (Mastodon seems to be the popular choice). But as is traditional for these sort of folk, they didn’t actually bother to read the whole thing:

 

 

we will remove accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms and content that contains links

 

That’s… pretty clear. It’s not, as many of these brain damaged morons seem to suggest, a rule that prevents casual linking to other sites, but a rule against setting up accounts solely for promoting other platforms. Is that a little strange? Maybe. But I have noticed that whenever I go to a movie theater and look at the *insanely* high prices for popcorn and soda, there is often also a sign that says “outside food and drink are prohibited.” I’m pretty sure if you went into a McDonalds and nailed a poster for Wendys on the wall, they might object. Send a “shop at Target” marching band into Walmart, and you might find yourself asked to leave.

 

How many of the people freaking out are really that dumb, and how many are just using performative outrage, I can’t say. But in either case, these are people who aren’t useful or beneficial in public discourse. So if they want to wander off to some self-segregated niche like Mastodon… hey, great. Twitter was supposed to utterly collapse within days of Elon Musk taking over; so far it seems to be running just fine. A lot of objectively awful people have been suspended for *clear* TOS violations, and they have discovered the wonders of being treated like everyone else.

 

I have wondered if Elon bought Twitter simply to shut it down. That may still be the case, and if so, it would be a net benefit to mankind… so long as TikTok and Instagram and all the rest go down as well. Perhaps he is just screwing around with Twitter before he pulls the plug… might as well, I suppose.

 Posted by at 6:38 am