Most of the time we can look at AI slop and cringe but what about the other times?
This is my review of Tombstone Brewing Reilly’s Dry Irish Stout:
Mayor: There must be some way to determine public sentiment…
No seriously. Bowling Green, KY recently experimented with AI slop to figure out how to create a “vision” for the town’s growth until 2050. City and state planners do this sort of thing all the time.
When Doug Gorman, elected leader of the county that includes Bowling Green, took office in 2023, it was the fastest-growing city in the state and projected to double in size by 2050, but it lacked a plan for how that growth would unfold. Gorman had a meeting with Sam Ford, a local consultant who had worked with the surveying platform Pol.is, which uses machine learning to gather opinions from large groups of people.
They “needed a vision” for the anticipated growth, Ford says. The two convened a group of volunteers with experience in eight areas: economic development, talent, housing, public health, quality of life, tourism, storytelling, and infrastructure. They built a plan to use Pol.is to help write a 25-year plan for the city. The platform is just one of several new technologies used in Europe and increasingly in the US to help make sure that local governance is informed by public opinion.
Anticipate more people moving in, you might have to adjust your planning to accommodate more people. Its basic governance, assuming you accept the idea of local governance as a general rule.
Right? Who am I talking to? “In libertopia, everyone’s house has its own diesel generator because there will be no electric grid without blah blah blah blah….” Fine how did it work out?
Over the month that it was live, 7,890 residents participated, and 2,000 people submitted their own ideas. An AI-powered tool from Google Jigsaw then analyzed the data to find what people agreed and disagreed on.
Experts on democracy technologies who were not involved in the project say this level of participation—about 10% of the city’s residents—was impressive.
“That is a lot,” says Archon Fung, director of the Ash Center for Innovation and Democratic Governance at the Harvard Kennedy School. A local election might see a 25% turnout, he says, and that requires nothing more than filling out a ballot.
Seriously? Half of these had to be dick pics, right?
The volunteers running the experiment were not completely hands-off. Submitted ideas were screened according to a moderation policy, and redundant ideas were not posted. Ford says that 51% of ideas were published, and 31% were deemed redundant. About 6% of ideas were not posted because they were either completely off-topic or contained a personal attack.
I am very disappointed in you, Kentucky.
OH OH OH oh wait this is just Reilly. Not…O’Reilly . I picked the wrong glass for this one, not realizing it was relatively low in alcohol. A pint glass is more appropriate for something like this but its not a huge deal. This is not really an attempted Guinness clone, but its pretty straightforward in its approach to the style. All is appropriate but not remarkable: heavy coffee notes, good body but light enough to drink in four gulps with a shot of whiskey between gulps 2 and 3, if you are so inclined. Tombstone Brewing Reilly’s Dry Irish Stout: 3.5/5
The Grift is strong with them.
Like the experts themselves I have no idea what that jumble of words means.
I kinda tapped out at ‘city planners’. I am fairly sure that most formal education curricula includes beating self awareness out of the students.
I once commented on one of those walking/biking city plans that the planner was obviously not an old person with arthritis. I was dismissed with a curt ‘fuck you. No one has any use for people like you anyway’. That was decades ago. I wonder what that person’s opinion is these days.
Logan’s Run indeed.
Local utopians ripped out a bunch of parking spaces to put in bike lanes around here.
Because the single mother of two is definitely going to strap the kids on the bike when she has to go get them some medicine at 11 pm in the middle of January instead of driving.
Also, fuck those local businesses and their patrons.
They mean experts get paid. They all always mean experts get paid.
Utopian is exactly the right word. They will never get to the level of bike use they try to inflict on everyone.
It is BS like that which killed Sacramento’s downtown, which, once upon a time, was quite nice.
But they had to change to one-way streets, open air plazas, bike lanes, and so on. None of which actually help stores or shoppers, restaurants and businesses. No, it kills parking, funnels traffic away, the plazas become havens for homeless and unemployed, which in turns turns off young mothers and old people, and so on.
One-way streets have been out of favor for decades. Their only intent is to speed traffic. If they were claiming some other benefit to businesses or visitors, they were lying.
Plazas can be nice but if they’re attracting bums, you probably have a bum problem, not a plaza problem.
Plazas attract both bums and destroy parking. They are a menace.
“Self-selection is not an adequate way to represent the opinions of a public,” says James Fishkin, a political scientist at Stanford who’s known for developing a process he calls deliberative polling, in which a representative sample of a population’s residents are brought together for a weekend, paid about $300 each for their participation, and asked to deliberate in small groups. Other methods, used in some European governments, use jury-style groups of residents to make public policy decisions.
Excellent. Press-ganged Planning and Zoning will make our cities liveable.
I sort of agree with the general principle – people who _want_ to be involved with this stuff are generally someone with some personal hobby horse. Bike lanes! Public transit! Housing density!
Of a piece with “I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the telephone directory than by the Harvard University faculty.”
I’m just not sure how much better his technique is.
I suggest we select the people for these participants by knocking on everyone’s door, then drafting the people who looked out the window, saw some asshole with a clipboard standing on the stoop and went back to what they were doing. The chairman is the old guy who actually answered the door holding a shotgun.
Chairman Mauser?
Self selection v. Sample filtered by experts (“representative”). Which is more democratic?
All is appropriate but not remarkable: heavy coffee notes, good body but light enough to drink in four gulps with a shot of whiskey between gulps 2 and 3, if you are so inclined. Tombstone Brewing Reilly’s Dry Irish Stout: 3.5/5
Sounds OK.
Sounds like a week where MS didn’t have to take one for the team.
White girls have a collective sad.
Not much of a stout fan, myself (too much like hot tar these days, thick and don’t taste good.) But I would drink this.
White girls have a collective sad.
Fuck em.
…what?
Sounds OK.
Its a safe bet,
“You can’t make policy based on a tweet,” says Beth Simone Noveck, who directs a lab that studies democracy and technology at Northeastern University. As she points out, residents were voting on 140-character ideas, and those now need to be formed into real policies.
We don’t even know if the people who tweeted these ideas have public planning degrees.
Do then even know whether he people who tweeted were bots or not?
Or a multiplicity of socks?
What I know of Bowling Green is that it has a factory I was not keen on touring and then loved that I had done it. XY “birthed” a Corvette.
I know nothing about city planning. What I do know is what I like as a tourist:
cute downtown
roundabouts
pretty flowers
specialty cafes and shops (I mean, if Hamilton, Missouri can do it, Bowling Green can too and man cannot live on Corvettes alone, although I’m willing to try)
As for the other categories, I can’t approach those as a tourist.
Anyway. I need to brag on myself.
Ebooks have been able to do popup footnotes since forever, but I’ve never done them because it requires a different flavor of software (EPUB2 v EPUB3). That software was not always compatible with all the ebook reading apps available at the time. Also, there were lots of competing ebook formats at the time. Now that the field has narrowed to one format (EPUB) and everybody’s platforms have pretty much settled in to be able to accommodate the “new” one (ahem, 2011), I decided to bite the bullet and try my hand at this. I succeeded! I’m flush with feelings of accomplishment right now.
About 2 1/2 hours west of Bowling Green is the National Quilt Museum in Paducah.
Yeah but it is only sew sew
Attendance has been down- they’re hanging by a thread.
I see you two jokers are cut from the same fabric.
Can they patch up their differences?
I’ve been in Paducah twice and wanted to go there. It was closed both times.
We went there to see it. Wife went to Hancock’s and then decided to skip the museum afterwards.
Add a water view. Something like San Antonio’s Riverwalk? Nice spot to relax after paying tribute to Travis, Bowie and Crockett.
Randy Travis, David Bowie, and Charley Crockett?
James Crockett
I don’t hike or bike, but having trails–NOT BIKE LANES WITH CAR TRAFFIC–would also be a draw.
Sonny Crockett
My town does pretty good with some walk/bike trails along the lakeshore, views of various waterfalls, and stuff. Even the “rail trails” which don’t really go anywhere are fun.
The few bike lanes with traffic, yeah not so great. Idiotically, they added one going up a steep hill towards a college campus. OK, then.
A bit of trivia: while the Alamo is where the famous last stand occurred, the cremated remains of the defenders are interred at the San Fernando Cathedral, about a ten-minute walk away.
Other bit of trivia: while in the tourist district of San Antonio, the local restaurants will add a free scoop of ice cream to your dessert if you ask to have it “Alamo’d.”
I almost bailed at roundabouts, but soldiered on.
With you, counselor Dean.
Bowling Green
Well-done!
I’m keen on getting re(?)-into copyediting, editing, etc, and perhaps transcription. I did SEO editing, which involved mostly rewrites with parameters during my side-gig working for online casinos, mostly, but I really know nothing else of that world. And I stopped that maybe in ’18 or so.
Your computery-acronyms are novel to me. Much shit to learn. But kinda OT! I have a day-long neuro exam thingy for vocational rehab next week to find strengths /weaknesses. They’ve told me my med issues + my writing+ abilities put me in a kinda special pocket. Serious research into gov transcription work and more was undertaken. (It didn’t last long, but I did it. Enough to see possibilities.)
Congrats! And enjoy the accomplishment.
roundabouts
Aaaaand they’re off!
Yes!
I salute the optimism of the traffic engineers and cityplanners who thought to themselves “people are too stupid to handle a 4 way stop. I’ve got the perfect solution: a one-way donut with yield signs!”
The biggest one I’ve been in is the five lane round about in the heart of Milan. I actually made it to the right exit.
Next: Roundabouts equipped with cameras monitoring for merging violations. Because the city needs more revenue
I learned to drive with a 1988 Merc 190E. My stepdad paid $400 at an insurance auction.
Anyone care to guess why I love roundabouts?
Of a piece with “I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the telephone directory than by the Harvard University faculty.”
Anybody who actually wants the job should be automatically disqualified.
Joking aside, I have been toying with the idea of government officials being chosen by lottery for a long time. The self selection problem guarantees the worst candidates.
This is a wild idea, but maybe instead of trying to centrally plan the growth of your city and thereby suffocating the very dynamism that likely attracted the growth in the first place, you implement policies that allow people to go about their business without violating the rights of others, providing courts to address any conflicts that arise, and let things sort themselves out?
BUT THE DOWN TOWN! It needs revitalization! No one wants to go there! That’s where I want them to go!
When I lived in Spokane there was some new bullshit initiative to revitalize downtown about every 5 years or so since they built out Riverfront Park for Expo ’74. I don’t check in on the local news there much anymore, but before I moved, they were still paying off the muni bonds for the Riverpark Square mall that the built about 5 years before malls went the way of disco.
Heh. I was at Expo ’74!
Houston enters the chat.
If Houston could be picked up and moved somewhere else with a climate that is habitable, I might consider it.
“It is pronounced House-ton, Sir!”
THAT CRAZY TALK. AND BY CRAZY TALK, MEAN. . . .
Um….where’s STEVE SMITH?
War on objective reality
A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from enacting a policy that bans the use of “X” marker used by many nonbinary people on passports as well as the changing of gender markers.
In an executive order signed in January, the president used a narrow definition of the sexes instead of a broader conception of gender. The order says a person is male or female and it rejects the idea that someone can transition from the sex assigned at birth to another gender. The framing is in line with many conservatives’ views but at odds with major medical groups and policies under former President Joe Biden.
U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, sided with the American Civil Liberties Union’s motion for a preliminary injunction, which stays the action while the lawsuit plays out.
They should stamp passports with, “Not for use as identification.”
I don’t have a passport to reference, but my Real ID-compliant Texas driver license says “Sex: M” The word “gender” appears nowhere on the document.
Kinky
The New Nobility must not have their privileges revoked.
It’s at odds with major medical groups. Would those be the same groups that have been exposed for incredibly shoddy, if not outright dishonest, studies in this field?
The same groups advocating for the mutilation of children?
It is probably at odds with every country outside of Europe
It is probably at odds with every country outside of Europe
You can say that again.
“It’s an entirely different kind of flying, altogether.”
“It’s an entirely different kind of flying.”
wut?
After you chop it off you no longer have sex. You’re left with gender
It’s almost like they know you can’t “change sex”. But the narrative requires them to soldier on even with gibberish.
The “assigned at birth” drives me nuts. Like the kid sprouts a dick in the birth canal.
The obstetrician/midwife flips a coin. 🙄
Like the kid sprouts a dick in the birth canal.
Doctors and parents look at the new-born and decide what sex to assign to it, duh.
“The Executive Order and the Passport Policy on their face classify passport applicants on the basis of sex and thus must be reviewed under intermediate judicial scrutiny,” Kobick wrote. “That standard requires the government to demonstrate that its actions are substantially related to an important governmental interest. The government has failed to meet this standard.”
Like it or not, that passport is not for the individual’s discretionary social signalling, it is a government document intended to identify and track the holder. In fact, I think your passport is government property.
Doncha love how policy on gender signaling gets intermediate scrutiny, but gun laws get lesser scrutiny?
Seems like things have been getting better since Bruen.
Except in commie run states.
I have my appointment to talk to the judge Friday.
I have this pipe dream that means I can just then go next door and pick up the permit afterwards – but that’s absurd.
Do they want City McCityface? Because this is how you get it.
That is a really city opinion, man!
I feel bad. Right above my smoker underneath the deck, a bird laid three eggs. Hopefully the smoke doesnt deter her to come back.
I had great success with my wood burning setup and getting ready to move it over to the pellet smoker to finish
From the links…
Moj sez
We finally have a good use case for the Osprey?
Welp. Now Mom’s driving. She’s not much worse than she was before, a little herky jerky, but I was worried about foot strength and reaction time.
Meesa hungry!
I prefer malt vinegar.
“They “needed a vision” for the anticipated growth, Ford says.”
As the leader, isn’t that supposed to be his vision?
LOL wut?
It occurs to me that the same kind of people that think everyone should live a certain way and love it are the same kind of people in a sense that blast their fucking music while they pump gas. Guess what fuckhead? I dont care what you think about how I should live and I dont want to hear your shitty music.
The same people that don’t put the empty shopping cart in the shopping cart row. Best to steer clear.
Tar tar sauce is an UnFood. It destroys everything it touches.
I thought that was yellow mustard
You shut your green mouthparts, RJ
How are you on Steak Tar Tar?
https://www.thedrive.com/news/subaru-designed-a-u-shaped-airbag-for-cyclists-on-the-2025-forester
🏳️🌈🚴♂️
Trannies: “Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.” – Theodore Dalrymple
The tranny campaign is a very transparent deliberate effort at exactly that. They know fully well it is horseshit, that is why they chose it. It has been shockingly successful because the vast majority of humanity are idiots and cowards. It seems incomprehensible to me that so many people have allowed this horror to be perpetrated on their children. I suppose too many have become accustomed to the idea that their own children, to some degree or other, are owned by the state.
Rhetorical questions for this crowd: Who owns you? Does the individual serve the state or the other way about?
I think it was Sowell I heard point out that we refer to people (individuals) but the marxist refers to ‘the people’ (collective, abstract idea).
the vast majority of humanity are idiots and cowards
Which is why we can’t have nice things.
Won’t somebody weep for the (shuffles cards) old farts’ cars?
DETROIT (Reuters) -General Motors’ Buick was on a roll. Sales for the once-stodgy brand were up 39% in the first quarter with a refreshed lineup of compact SUVs including the Envision, Encore GX, and the Envista, its top-selling SUV for under $30,000.
Then President Trump’s tariffs hit.
Buick’s three most popular models are made outside the U.S. The Envista and Encore GX are both built in South Korea, while the Envision SUV is made in China.
Buick’s market share in the U.S. has jumped from 0.8% in 2022 to 1.1% in 2024 and 1.6% in the first quarter of 2025, according to data from Edmunds.com.
Funny how the UAW bigwigs don’t jump all over GM for moving those good-paying jobs overseas.
On the fence of quite a few parking lots here are signs saying “Foreign Cars Must Park In Back”. Pointing out that some “foreign” cars have more work and assembly done on them in the US than the “domestic” cars doesn’t seem to matter.
I bet that there Envision is a fine reliable ride. There’s no way I’d shell out new automobile money for a Chinese made SUV.
On the fence of quite a few parking lots here are signs saying “Foreign Cars Must Park In Back”.
No shit? That’s a blast from the past.
Today I discovered OpenSCAD. Using a text-based scripting language to build a CAD file seems odd, but in playing with it, I’ve realized that for the sort of models I want to make, it would be better as I’m typically just merging or subtracting platonic solids. I’m going to see if I can’t make a bracket to attach my grow light to the rim of the larger pot.