I was recently at a work training event. Despite being in a very specialized field, my boss had us sign up for courses that were for general business. The course was 4 sessions long and for each session there were 3 choices and we got to choose which ones to take. There was a session on AI for business. Even though I knew their discussion of AI would not have anything to do with how it is deployed in my field I decided that was better than the other offerings for that part of the program. Most of the other participants were public sector workers and one woman shared how she worked for a county and they were running a pilot program using AI to keep company with the elderly. After the usual Glib thoughts about what a fucking waste of tax payer money that sounded like, it made me remember the subject of today’s post ‘Robot and Frank’ (2012).
In the Near Future friendly robots are used to keep the elderly company and take care of them. Frank, played by Frank Langella, is an elderly man who has lost his wife and is perhaps starting down the road to dementia. His kids, played by James Marsden and Live Tyler, want to have their dad taken care of but don’t really want that intrude on their lives, because people are selfish assholes. So they buy him one of these new fangled robot caregivers. If I’m remembering correctly (I watched this movie like 5 years ago) Frank’s kids didn’t know he used to be a master thief. The robot is there to make Frank feel better and Frank convinces the robot that what would make him feel better is to do one last job. Hijinx ensue, but not in a pratfall kind of way. This is a pretty ‘Indie’ kind of film. It’s worth a watch.
Besides the anecdote shared above, I was further spurred to write this article by finding out the Director of ‘Robot and Frank’ is the director of Disney’s Marvel’s ‘Thunderbolts*’ TM, in theaters now. (That Disney money should start rolling into the Glibfund now!)
I have to see that. It looks fun.
[Disney] give me free stuff!
Also, ‘Jewel thief’ is a mythical creature. High value, unique items are too easy to trace, too hard to fence and that world is small. Anyone who could be involved all know each other and the cops know who they all are.
Makes for fun stories though.
I don’t know if this guy is full of it or not, but it was a very entertaining read:
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Master-Jewel-Thief-Mason/dp/0375760717
They are not common, but they exist, as well as art thieves, and it’s easier to launder jewels than art. There is definately a black market and laundering industry for these materials. It’s not a profession you can just get into without first making the right connections, and most sales will be private below white market rate.
The black market in art is overwhelmingly in counterfeits. When a real masterpiece is stolen the theft gets reported and then….nothing. Someone with a lot of money has it in a private collection for the remainder of their life and they are the only ones that see it. That is a rare occurrence.
I think there was a high profile theft of that sort recently, wasn’t there?
Suthenboy:
On the flip side, I seem to recall seeing that a larger percentage than expected of museum stores is counterfeit. When you’re talking about something that’s been looted, lost, found again, sold, stolen, and buried, does it really matter?
I saw a really good documentary about a stolen painting that was found at an estate sale. A DeKoening worth about 5 million hanging on the back of a bathroom door, it had been stolen from a college library and was missing for decades.
Jewelry is generally regarded by professional criminals as being not worth the effort. You either take a huge loss on the fencing operation, or you sell the boodle back to the insurance company (if there is one involved). Either way, you’re looking at huge exposure for maybe 10% of insured value on stuff that’s probably not all that valuable to begin with.
If you’re a crackhead who needs fifty bucks for the next hit, and doesn’t have the wherewithal to stay out of jail anyway, this doesn’t apply.
It also doesn’t apply to large quantities of unset stones, which is why insurance companies specify some pretty heavy measures for securing such things (safes/vaults, alarms, CCTV, presence of guards, etc.)
“Jeweler’s Block” policies.
Never heard of this movie, but it looks interesting and had a good cast.
Almost sounds like an old Twilight Zone episode.
Off the top of my head, more a Ray Bradbury theater (The Electric Grandmother) and Black Mirror (Be Right Back) than Twilight Zone.
Twilight Zone did the same robot grandma story first.
rhywun:
Now I’m going to have to go through them and figure out the episode. Happen to know which run (original, 80s reboot, 02 reboot, or Peele reboot)?
It was an original, but I don’t know which season.
Season 3 Ep 35 I Sing the Body Electric.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734576/
ron73440:
Ok, I’ll feel better now. Same story, which is why my brain associated with the Ray Bradbury theater version. There was at least one other version of that story that came out, I remember watching it on Nickelodeon as a kid.
I didn’t know Bradbury wrote that episode of Twilight Zone.
He probably could have written more, The Illustrated Man was basically the show in book form.
ron73440:
Richard Matheson is the name that more people should think of when they hear Twilight Zone (and sci-fi in general). So many classic stories are his, and so few people recognize his name.
Somehow I feel liked I watched this when it came out, but barely remember it.
they were running a pilot program using AI to keep company with the elderly.
Do they play Global Thermonuclear War?
2012? Wow. There is at least one more modern issue they brought up: “My memory can be used against you.” Scott Adams brings this up when he talks about household robots.
Speaking of 2012, we’ve been watching a series from that time called “Lie to Me”. It’s loosely based on a psychologist who studies facial cues for deception and solves crimes and such. I like it because the tech doesn’t seem too dated, and there isn’t a “COVID” season (I hate those).
Prime had a comedy sci-fi series called Upload that I appreciated the way they guessed trends would go in the near (10-15) year future (protection was a button cam recording both parties giving consent, the old people all had vape lung instead of cancer, and every company had merged more).
Lie to me was fun and well acted.
A show with a similar premise is Poker Face. It stars Natasha Lyonne as a woman who can tell if someone is lying. It’s a murder of the week mystery program. She is on the run and goes from town to town and is somehow involved with crimes being committed. It has a 70’s series look and feel about it that I like.
Plus she drives around in a 69 Barracuda. I have a thing for the rough voiced Lyonne.
https://youtu.be/4x2NzusLAqk?si=g7fxRhmRGAwk26NL
That has Tim Roth, right?
Yes, that one.
I watched Frank Langella in Dracula last night. What a great movie. I will have to watch this too.
RJ, I don’t know if you saw my comment this AM, but Delicatessen and City of Lost Children are both on Tubi right now, hint hint!
I did a thing.
A client has a hand-drawn repeating motif throughout his book. I got tired of repeatedly inserting it the last time I did his books (he has 3 now). This time I decided to do something different.
I made a font out of it! No muss, no fuss. *Snoopy dance*
🥳
Yay creative solutions.
It’s a biography of The Artist Formerly Known As Prince?
(Well done! 👏🙂)
It’s actually a treatise on Wittgenstein. It’s the third of 3. He’s ancient, spends his time thinking about philosophy and logic, doesn’t really delve into theology, which makes him fascinated with ME because I talk about theology, so. Yeah.
Robotic regurgitation
Honda said it will reduce its planned EV investments by $21 billion, claiming that it’s doing so due to a slowdown in EV sales which isn’t actually happening.
Instead, it will focus on hybrids, which get 100% of their energy from fossil fuels, and which cause climate change and poison the air you breathe.
——-
Honda said that these gas-guzzling hybrids will “be introduced to market in 2027 onward,” which means they will continue driving on roads and polluting the Earth for decades, including after Honda’s 2050 carbon-neutrality target.
Honda’s previous plan for 30% by 2030 was already quite low compared to other global automakers, even after many of these companies have walked back their EV plans. Most of these other companies also cited the nonexistent slowdown in EV sales.
——-
Further, those regulations are likely not changing nearly enough to make up for Honda’s change in strategy here. Despite the protests of a former reality TV host and convicted felon (who is Constitutionally barred from holding office in the US, by the way), it is unlikely that already-filed regulations, which cover the period from 2027-2032, will be changed.
Blah blah fucking blah. Burn the heretics.
So do EV’s you fucking morons.
Well, Acktchually, there is some nuclear and hydroelectric in the grid supply.
🙂
“hybrids, which get 100% of their energy from fossil fuels”
So do electric cars. Fucking idiots, indeed.
It’s a scam. Who knew Paul Erlich was such a visionary…. I mean low-rent grifter.
You’re right, they are lying.
There is actually such a demand that they could make hundreds of millions in profit, but they hate the environment too much to do it.
ron, it’s clear that the people running a major company that’s been in business many, many years aren’t nearly as smart as this 20-something year old liberal arts major. (probably)
Who wrote that, Rachel Maddow? Sheesh.
Yup. Progs in a nutshell. No matter how much you do for them, it will never ever be enough.
Not true, if you shoot them in the back of the head with a high caliber pistol it is generally enough, if it isn’t a second shot will probably do the trick.
Well, I am proud to drive a Honda today.
I drive an 11 year old Civic and I’m keeping it until it won’t go anymore. That’s my second one (my oldest kid totaled my first one).
My youngest bought her first car, and it was a Honda SUV. She loves it.
I was told once you buy a Honda, you are a fan for life.
My wife’s car is an Acura.
I’ve had to have 10 minute discussions what brand that is with my Japanese friends. It’s not easy to explain in Japanese with my current level of fluency.
When selling at a loss of nearly $40k per unit, do you really want that vehicle line to be successful?
“a slowdown in EV sales which isn’t actually happening.”
Outside of China, it definitely is. The narrative is all “global EV sales are up”, which includes China.
And nobody knows what’s going on inside of China, because everybody lies about the economy there.
We’ve recently been watching Rescue Me which was made way back in 2004, and somehow I never heard of it until recently even though it ran seven seasons. It’s about a group of NYC firefighters after 9/11. Very un-PC. Susan Sarandon makes an appearance in the series too.
Denis Leary seemed perfect. I never watched it, however.
The Job was superior.
Ended too soon!
This is the way.
100% this, I loved The Job, but could not get into Rescue Me.
A lot of the same actors. I’ll have to check it out next.
@Gustave – The Job began before 9/11 occurred and wasn’t exactly a flattering projection of the NYPD (although, probably not far off reality). I understand why they pulled it.
If I were rich as Elon Musk, I’d have original Turners stolen fore me and then display them prominently.
“Man, this is a really convincing forgery, isn’t it?”
What are you going to do with Tina, Ted, and Ike?
I used to live up the road from Ike
He was room mates with Christian and Tex at the time.
Garbage in, garbage out
Climate has therefore become an increasingly important consideration in assessing credit score risk, right along with a consumer’s debt, income and collateral in the home, according to a new report from First Street, a climate risk assessment firm. The risks includes flood, wildfire and wind.
In a severe-weather year, projected annualized climate-driven foreclosures could result in $1.21 billion in bank losses this year, or 6.7% of all foreclosure credit losses, according to the report. Just 10 years from now, as weather events grow more frequent and more destructive, those credit losses could increase to $5.36 billion, representing nearly 30% of foreclosure losses.
If lenders start factoring climate into their underwriting, then a consumer’s credit score could fall or even rise depending on the risk to their property. The former would result in higher borrowing costs. The study notes that lender losses today are primarily in just three states: California, Florida and Louisiana.
There is nothing global warming can’t do.
Why? Lenders have FedGov backstop this particular risk.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Flood_Insurance_Program
If you got rid of this particular piece of subsidizing the rich you would force people to purchase private flood insurance priced at the market. Lenders require flood insurance on homes in flood zones.
I mention Paul Ehrlich above. The left is awash in grifters. I saw mention of Malcolm Caldwell this morning…I had forgotten about that guy. Those two are the poster children for the left, the cynical grifters and the gullible useful idiots.
That this global warming scam has gone as far as it has is amazing to me. I guess everyone wants in on the grift.
We are not a civilized species.
Floods never happened before humans showed up and wrecked the planet.
So… a “climate risk assessment” firm says we need more “climate risk assessments”? Color me shocked.
In other news — server manufacturers want to sell more servers, restaurants want people to go out to restaurants more and governments want everyone on the dole so they can control them. News at 11.
If I’m remembering correctly (I watched this movie like 5 years ago) Frank’s kids didn’t know he used to be a master thief. The robot is there to make Frank feel better and Frank convinces the robot that what would make him feel better is to do one last job. Hijinx ensue, but not in a pratfall kind of way. This is a pretty ‘Indie’ kind of film. It’s worth a watch.
I watched the trailer. This looks good.
NA –
Thanks! That’s something I’ve been working on in practice. I wish I had more space to dryfire, I’d set up some similar drills in my living room…
As it turned out, the problem was being caused by the reach adjustment set screw in the trigger. The trigger wasn’t resetting enough to engage the disconnector in DA mode. I pulled the set screw out on both my Shadow 2s, cleaned them with acetone, slathered them in Vibra-Tite VC-3, and reinstalled them with a half-turn of slack. We’ll see how they hold up during practice this weekend.
Plumber was supposed to show up yesterday…a no show. He got hung up on another job. Oh well, that is how plumbing goes. Tub fixture is giving me grief and adding 30 bucks to the water bill. I have taken the thing apart about 5 times, replaced all the guts twice….still a problem.
I am convinced plumbing systems are all put together by guys that expect to never have to come back and fix it. They chicken-shit it to death and then leave. All of the interior plumbing in this house is copper and sweated in, no cut off valves on anything. I have put cut offs on all of the sinks and water heater. I have not done the tub fixtures or hose bibs. I am gonna have this guy put them in on this tub. I suppose I could do it myself but…as long as he is here.
He still has not showed up. I did nothing yesterday waiting on him…God, I hope not again today. He called and said he was on his way, so where is he?
I have a love/hate relationship with plumbing.
Who would plumb a system without cutoff valves?
Every contractor in the world?
You live in the same place long enough they will leak even if you don’t use them. You want them, but you only want what you need.
For example my antique house has one pipe steam heat. The water feed valve for the boiler decided to leak and fill the whole system with water which is a ticket to a flood. Fortunately I caught it before that point.
The biggest problem here is that with the copper line and sweated fittings I refuse to put open flame inside the walls. There is fiberglass insulation but also lots of the paper pulp stuff too. Having sparks or open flame around that stuff is very dangerous. A single spark can smolder for days before catching and you have no idea it is happening.
Aparently the pros have some kind of much safer way of working on that now. My preferred method is hacksaw, flared and threaded fittings, shutoff valve. All threads and compression stuff. All threaded fittings.
Inside the wall, I understand your hesitance. My lines are all copper – but they’re exposed either in the basement or under the sink, with the exception of the shower/tub lines which are instide a wall that doesn’t have insulation (from the sound of it).
The plumbing oddity in my house is that in addition to copper supply, I have copper drains.
Yeah, my plumber who is pretty “old school” now crimps his copper lines as well. The only issue is access for the crimping tool.
Access to this tub is through the wall in the back of a bedroom closet. I cut out a 5’x3′ hole in the back of the closet and made a framed panel to cover it. Undo one latch, remove panel and access is easy-peasy. Now I need to do the other one.
Had an outside faucet crack over the winter. It cracked inside the wall of course, so had to have drywall and insulation replaced and etc. There are now access panels from inside to those faucets and shutoff valves. Only one leaked, but I had the second one fixed also. I can shut off every fall when we are done using outside water before the freezes come.
Just ordered something else from Amazon I would have been happy to buy locally IF I COULD FIND IT.
This seems to be a chicken and egg problem. The more people buy from Amazon, the less local merchants are willing to stock.
*fuel line for weedeater. Now I have to cross my fingers and hope it’s right.
Interesting. Too small for an auto parts store?
Yes, I have noticed the stock with local merchants has dramatically reduced both in quantity and variety. I dont really have any problem with it. For parts just make sure you match model numbers and watch a yootoob on how to. I dont really have a problem with it.
Too small for an auto parts store?
3/32 ID, 3/16 OD, I think, and it’s a weird plastic.
watch a yootoob on how to
I hunted down a couple of Chickanic videos the other day. Very helpful, unlike the majority of youtube knowitalls who seem to omit the most important parts.
Yeah, when I was looking at swapping out the head unit on Mrs. Dean’s FJ, seems like how-to the videos started with “After you’ve removed the dash, it’s really easy.” Yeah, fuck that.
Where the WP accidentally makes a point it never intended to make.
White House officials wanted to put federal workers ‘in trauma.’ It’s working.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2025/05/20/federal-workers-trump-mental-health/
https://archive.vn/b5FP7
Nobody in the private sector has ever been laid off?
Also they talk about the scale of the layoff. As if there was some close working relationship between the NPS and NIH and they shouldn’t be treated as two distinct entities.
Also the obligatory how they sacrificed to work for the public. If their skillset is so desirable in the private sector they shouldn’t have any issues finding employment.
But the point I’m getting is they are all crazy and regularly seeing mental health professionals even before OMB. I don’t think that was the WP’s intent.
This bullshit pisses me off so much. Government employment is not a sacrifice, it’s a sinecure. At every stage of the game, federal government employment offers better salaries, MUCH better benefits, less oversight, and fewer deliverables, when compared to similar private sector employment.
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2025/05/20/trump-on-massie-i-think-he-should-be-voted-out-of-office/83745274007/
“I think he’s a grandstander, frankly,” Trump told reporters. “I think he should be voted out of office and I just don’t think he understands government.”
Imma have to send more money to the Massie campaign fund.
I just don’t think he understands government.
There’s a lot of that going around.
One of the greatest ironies of all of this was prior to November 2024, the GOP and Trump constantly talked about Biden’s deficits and inflation increasing but yet are doing the exact same thing the previous administration has done which is increase our spending which increases inflation. I’m starting to think that maybe the GOP and Trump aren’t as principled as they appear to be.
Trump leagues better than Harris but still cringed when I voted for him because I knew that while he talked big, when backed against the wall, he’ll spend us (like the previous administrations) into oblivion. And it also proved my point that I made in 2016 that MAGA and Progressives are two different sides of the coin.
Nationalist vs. Internationalist Progressives.
Trump is doing some good things on the regulatory and foreign policy fronts.
On spending, though, he’s just as bad as I feared. I mean, he was the guy enthusiastically promoting the trillion dollar COVID spending spree, so . . . .
With decreasing the regulatory state, I’ll give him that but damn why does he have to throw a mini tantrum whenever he doesn’t get what he wants? Everyone knows Massie’s deal and what he is about, so why even threaten to primary him?
We need more women in leadership positions in order to detoxify the work environment. https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/sf-startup-onetaste-trial-starts-ugly-testimony-20335727.php
“it ran workshops on “orgasmic meditation,” a 15-minute practice where a partner strokes a woman’s clitoris”
They made a “happy ending” for women and got rich off it. Hats off.
It does sound like the kind of place prominent forest lawyer STEVE SMITH should look into.
STEVE SMITH READY TO HALP!
“ One former worker, Max, reportedly said they witnessed Cherwitz attribute a profit dip at OneTaste’s New York City branch to sexual tension between two employees before sending the two off to have sex during a sales meeting. Max’s friend — and the partner of one of the employees sent to have sex — broke down as they waited, Max reportedly testified.”
What a cuck. Literally.
Since it’s written with the SFGate style guide I’m not sure if “Max” or “They” is/are biologically male or female.
Retired 4-star admiral Robert Burke convicted in bribery scheme
Once again the Russian military leadership shows how far the US has to catch up.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/retired-4-star-admiral-robert-burke-convicted-bribery-scheme/
Awwww. 🐻
https://fox5sandiego.com/news/local-news/photos-abandoned-baby-bear-cub-thriving-after-month-of-care-at-ramona-wildlife-center/
Sean is late.