Happy Thursday, y’all. I swear SugarFree definitely didn’t ask me to do the links yesterday, and I definitely didn’t forget. It all went down just like Tonio said. I was so hoping this was the last week in July, but no, there is more suffering to come before we get to August and sending the kids back to school.
Let’s do some… links!
In 2000 years compression will lead people to believe that because Jesus loved the lepers and Florida was a hotbed of leprosy, that Jesus could love even Florida Man. If you come down here, remember: Jesus loves you, we see you as prey.
I wish somebody buried $2M worth of gold coins in my house. Best I’ll find is some crackhead who crawled under the foundation and died.
I name this guy an honorary Florida Man. When a man is chasing people around with nothing but a machete and khaki shorts, I figure he’s not out collecting for the Red Cross.
I’m considering using this trick for work to catch the people who use AI to respond to my emails without reading.
But if you’re not aggressive, the squirrels get them first. Florida Woman, you are not an iguana.
These guys would have been the best if they just had decent singer
I’m on the professor’s side here.
Alcorn State, so a gaggle of aspiring midwits who are going through the motions for a credential.
Future public schoolteachers, most likely.
Yeah, I’ve heard of similar tricks. Kids these days… SMDH.
On my team we get internal emails that were obviously written by AI demanding things.
We respond basically “no”, but have AI craft the reply as well.
For legitimate things written with thought and care we respond accordingly.
Listen, you fucking dimwit, and try to understand if there’s anything left of your brain that’s capable of it. You are literally criticizing a teacher for trying to force his students to think. Do you want everyone to offload their capacity for rational thought to a computer model (programmed by someone else)? Can you maybe envision a few of the downsides of this trend? Is that the kind of world you want to live in?
I sincerely hope that this commenter accidentally falls into a vat of powerful acid.
AI is a part of life now. you should be teaching them how to use it properly.
Ok. Using AI to take tests for you is not using it properly.
“It’s just like using a calculator in math class.”
https://www.techspot.com/news/112589-java-library-tried-trick-ai-coding-agents-deleting.html
People still use Java?
I remember that.
Douchebag is gonna douchebag.
Why wouldn’t you be?
Writing a paper and printing it out solves most of this.
A Broward County woman was picking mangoes from a tree when she fell and died, prompting an investigation on Monday, according to the Miramar Police Department.
I wonder if someone will name a baseball team for her.
While renovating a Vienna villa, he caught a glimpse of such a rope sticking out of a basement floor, and after digging through the concrete it protruded from, he was, well, floored. The rope was attached to a real-life treasure chest full of gold worth an estimated $2.4 million.
Dear Jesus, I have seen what you have done for others and would like you to do the same for me.
Hallelujah!
Amen.
The EU took 2m of it, right?
They imposed a wealth tax, now he owes $3 million.
The economy is so bad there’s nobody left to fire!
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits in the week ending July 18 declined by 22,000 to 187,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s the fewest number of weekly applications since the week ending Sept. 6, 1969, according to Labor Department data.
It’s also well below the 215,000 new applications forecast by analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet.
,/em>
Rock bottom. Elon Musk will be selling Estes rockets from a pushcart before long.
Fie! What about the 120 million people not working?
The EU hasn’t declared that to be Nazi gold, and seized it?
Hey looks weird but Monocle works on Firefox but not any other browser on my laptop.
I may switch over to using Firefox entirely, and enable Monocle. Brave just keeps going downhill.
Firefox is still the best to me. Most customizable and best extensions.
I’m on Chrome because my old laptop broke through combination of puppy power and age. Not a fan, though usable enough.
There was a recent change to Chrome which requires some futzing about to make ViolentMonkey work. I’ll need to update the doc.
I tested with what I have at hand, but no Windows.
https://gitlab.com/glibertarians/forumProject/#browser-compatibility
Don’t fall out of the mango tree
With anybody else but me
Crazy broad,
Up high in the mango tree…
don’t know what you did
but I know what I sawed
My 3yo niece takes a nap in a pack and play, and we keep an eye on her with a video monitor. Right now she’s awake and she looks like Steve McQueen in The Great Escape.
Men can decorate
Needs a couple ammo cans in the background.
Coming up on fifty years, and we still don’t have a better bullpup-layout assault rifle. Thank you, Die Hard!
Ransom
A Florida teen whose lawsuit claimed Meta’s platforms were to blame for his depression and anxiety dropped his case against the company just days before the trial in Los Angeles was set to start, his attorneys said on Wednesday. It was the latest in a series of high-stakes lawsuits against social media companies for allegedly designing addictive products that lead to the harm of children.
The lawsuit, brought by a 15-year-old boy known as RKC, originally named four defendants, Google’s YouTube, Meta’s Instagram, Snap Inc’s Snapchat and ByteDance’s TikTok. YouTube and TikTok settled in June and Snap reached a tentative settlement in the case, Bloomberg reported on Monday. The terms of those settlements were confidential.
RKC, who started using social media when he was about eight, said he became addicted to it, losing sleep and suffering from depression and anxiety, according to court filings.
“In light of the overall successful result of the litigation and his concerns about enduring a grueling weeks-long trial, he has elected to withdraw his claims against Meta,” attorneys for RKC said in a statement. “He’s ready to close this chapter and focus on his recovery and engage in therapy as he aspires to have a normal life.”
A spokesperson for Meta said RKC had dropped the claims without receiving any payment.
</em?
The overall successful result of the litigation.
It's too bad Meta couldn't crucify him and his attorneys in court.
I don’t care what the supposed cause is – anxiety and depression are your problem to solve, not mine, and not some faceless corporation’s.
Just watched a Youtuber who is obviously left wing, obviously progressive and anti-corporation. He does cover some interesting shit and hit on some good points.
He went on a screed about boycotting fastfood corps. I’m fine with people voting with their wallets. That’s what I like about markets to begin with. Everything about the last decade or so in that industry is fucked.
Regardless, he had to talk about people who oppose minimum wage laws and how he can’t comprehend why anyone would do that. Like the only arguments are anti-human and pro-corporation. The morality of his position is so utterly apparent to him that there can be no counter. Whatever, day that ends in y when talking to a proggie.
But yea, the basic concept of what is or isn’t a right and the fundamental role of government in society or what government actually is has been so warped that most people in the West no longer even ask if something is a valid role for government let alone whether they are actually even trying to accomplish what they claim. Then we get to honestly assessing whether they achieve the stated goal at all (rarely do, and the solution is always regulate harder and faster daddy!).
It’s a lost cause. Statists have so thoroughly won with pro-democracy propaganda that the way nuts like the people here approach problems is foreign to even people who aren’t completely retarded.
The Drinker weighs in on “The Odyssey”.
I’m kind of sick of his and Nerdrotic’s schtick. There’s plenty to bitch about but they piss all over everything.
They actually don’t, but most of the shit being made today genuinely does suck and is lower quality compared to what came even just 10 years ago.
What’s the last modern Hollywood blockbuster you cared for?
That’s not true at all – at least not for the Drinker. He’s frequently very complimentary towards movies/shows that a lot of other critics haven’t liked (Obsession, The Backrooms, Project Hail Mary just off the top of my head.)
I’m struggling to think of where the Drinker pissed on everything in “The Odyssey”. In other words, he actually said some good things about it.
And, full disclosure: I have no plans to see “The Odyssey”. I’ve only seen one Nolan movie, “Dunkirk”, and I liked “Dunkirk”. Once I heard about the use of modern American English in “The Odyssey”, I lost all interest. I have the book and I’m fine with that.
I am generalizing. It’s more Nerdrotic than Drinker. I’ve also been inundated with horrible takes on this particular movie on X lately. Also by a lot of people who haven’t seen the movie — they are just abiding by a narrative that they want to believe.
I actually liked stuff like One Battle After Another (since it’s a farce) but it feels like you have to be forced to not like anything that doesn’t fit your political worldview.
I’d been looking for that review. He was traveling and had some delays so we had to wait. It was an interesting take, everyone has been focusing on the race-swapping and his take was that wasn’t the issue, it’s that it was just dull.
I suspect he just didn’t bother to harp on it. People were already out in the wild saying they couldn’t stand seeing the bigots, specifically Drinker, be right about Supergirl recently.
The movie is flawed enough to where you can dismiss its greatness for a variety of reasons.
And at the end of the day this needed to be great given the budget and talent involved and the state of the industry as a whole.
You can try to paint this as an issue of people shitting on everything, but it’s hard to objectively argue that movie making is in a good place. They should have some stuff that was on the backburner built up coming up soon from Covid and the strike. We’ll see.
But they’ve genuinely been producing slop. Don’t need Drinker or Nerdrotic or anyone to beat that point in at this point. The box office tells the story. People aren’t bothering to watch this shit anymore and it goes beyond an aversion to going to the overpriced theaters.
And at the end of the day this needed to be great given the budget and talent involved and the state of the industry as a whole.
There has been this long-standing paradox in Hollywood, where having a ton of stars in a movie usually means it’s going to suck.
I didn’t think it was dull. I watched his review and during the plot rehash, it seems like he does have a lot of issues with the source material.
@TOK – then explain how Cannonball Run II managed to avoid that fate?
Beloved TPTB: Tonight’s post, “Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog” is in pending.
Lawyers for RKC said they achieved what they set out to do by bringing awareness to social media’s alleged harms.
“RKC came into this process wanting to hold social media companies accountable and push for changes to protect young people like himself,” the lawyers said. “He did that.”
Extortion in a frilly dress.
I’m suing the liquor companies for the same reason, not protecting me from myself
Tuping is hsrd,
You want my First in and around your lips. You want to be violated by it. It’s only natural.
Florida Man. DSA style.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/candidate-who-wants-abolish-senate-arrest-netanyahu-offers-dsa-shot-swing-seat-breakthrough
“In a follow-up video, the professor revealed that he gave students the opportunity to contest their grades. According to him, only two students came forward, with one providing what he described as a legitimate explanation for why the word “Madagascar” appeared in the assignment.
———-
At least we figured out who the biggest/best bullshitter in the entire class is.
His little test is the sort of thing that worked once, but is real easy to defeat by simply creating your own prompt or just actually reading what you copied when pasting it over.
Or even just editing the paper the AI writes for you.
It’s basically a cute little trick easily defeated back in return.
Oh sure. But I am still quite curious to hear the one “explanation” that somehow passed his smell test and reversed his decision. The odds of one student just innocently using “Madagascar” in a natural and normal way seem awfully low to me. I almost wonder if it was an ethical student who figured out the trick and played a trick on the prof in response.
“Or even just editing the paper the AI writes for you.”
That was the professor’s point – he wasn’t expecting zero AI use, but actually look at the goddamn output.
The AI shit in upper education is 100% real. No a female psych major who is going to try and get her masters. Graduated with all of her shit being done by AI.
It’s going to be a credentialed class of morons who reportedly can barely read and don’t even try to understand what it is they are majoring in themselves coming up. It’s going to be fun times and doesn’t bode well for humanity’s ability to win the war against AI. She even got caught once or twice and was just allowed to make the work up.
Think about this for a moment. No matter how grossly overhyped AI is, if the people with credentials are somehow less accurate than it is, what is the argument for keeping the humans in charge of the profession?
Only solution is to get rid of the computers and tech. Online schools sounded like a decent idea to control costs though every online course I ever saw was filled with cheating already.
Pens, paper notes and tests etc. Actual physical books. It’s how shits gotta be or college degrees will be even more useless than ever.
There is a lot of hysterical BS out there, but months ago I asked Grok to list some people who correctly predicted what would happen with social media. Then I asked what they thought about AI.
The dumbing down of us all was a big concern. Not just in schools, but programmers and even doctors have been proven to quickly lose their knowledge and critical thinking skills when they rely on AI too much. Some are predicting a “lost generation” of people who just don’t know anything.
“Welcome to Costco. I love you.”
Feh. I am currently using AI to migrate an application I wrote years ago to a new platform. It is nowhere near good enough to take my place. I’m not worried.
But my work is a little more involved than writing a stupid essay.
JFC.
https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ram/ai-memory-shortage-is-now-increasing-the-price-of-cars-gm-warns-of-vast-cost-increases-byd-hikes-driver-assistance-prices-20-percent
I mean, maybe I’m crazy, but there’s probably a legit market for “dumb” cars that get you from point A to point B reliably without everything being computerized in every respect.
I think many people would prefer basic and cheaper than the slop being put out these days. Bonus points if it actually looks nice.
And machanics can actually work on it freely that way, too!
Crazy shit.
It’s really hard to argue corporate America is more competent than the government these days. Not meant as a compliment to the feds.
I would contemplate buying a new truck that comes equipped the same as my ’02 F150.. Could even be the exact same style. Enough convenient things and no touch screen to distract me.
If not. I’ll keep on with what I have now. A low mileage V8.
https://reotrucks.com/
A sub-25k body-on-frame truck with a naturally aspirated I4, a six-speed stick, mechanical 4WD, and minimal electronics would be right up my alley.
They should make a Speedwagon.
The market is responding. Slate is interesting because it’s electric (a true runabout small task-oriented truck) that has a bed but a ‘frunk’ for storage as well.
Oops.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/massive-disconnect-power-roiled-largest-us-electric-grid-2026-07-22/
Micron said in 2023 that the average vehicle used 90GB of DRAM and NAND, and it’s expecting this combined requirement to jump to 278GB by 2026, with high-end models requiring up to 2TB.
Carburetors and magnetos, FTW!
And jack it up and spin a rear wheel to get it running.
Something I was reminded of today: Harry Carey and Paul Harvey worked together at WKZO in Kalamazoo, Michigan back in the 1940’s.
HOLY COW!
Good day!
You made me go look for this and laugh with Harry again.
https://youtu.be/tOsg9p4MR9Q?is=13BSH1FazMj28VHB
The Cubs game is incidental to their razzing of Ron Santo.
I think many people would prefer basic and cheaper than the slop being put out these days. Bonus points if it actually looks nice.
The manufacturers could have made an effort to fight the idiotic and completely unrealistic regulations, but they didn’t. They dug their ditch, let them lie in it.
I suspect they have their reason$.
OT good news. My oncologist said he believes my lung cancer is stage 1 and can be treated with a lung resection, and no chemotherapy or radiation. I will have a PET scan to ensure there isn’t anything hiding from the previous scans, and if good to go I’ll likely have a video-assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy. Recovery time is likely to be 2 or 3 days in the hospital, and a week or two, up to a month, before returning to “normal.” There is a chance for targeted therapy afterwards, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
On a side note, I texted my sister this news, she was happy to hear it. Then I asked how she was doing with her pancreatic cancer. She is going to in-home hospice care and they are stopping all treatment. True blue to the end, this is all RFK Jr.’s fault because he hasn’t approved daraxonrasib for use yet. I didn’t have the heart to tell her the precautionary principle has been well in effect way before RFK Jr. ever set foot in the FDA.
I am happy to hear about your cancer and very sad to hear about your sister. I think it best to let her RFK, Jr. comments go.
your cancer treatment.
Yes, of course I’ll let it go, my love for my sister exceeds my disdain for her politics. If she needs to vent I will let her. Just wish I could go see her but I can’t see that happening anytime soon.
Thanks to you, one and all, for your support. This is the most functional dis-functional support group on the innerwebs.
Seems odd to respond to a cancer diagnosis with “that’s great news”, but that’s great news.
Indeed, could have been much worse. My stoicism was tested imagining the worse while hoping for the best. This is the best, but good enough.
Whew, good. And bad. Sending prayers for you both.
Good news!
I’m glad it was caught early. I hope your treatment is successful.
Good news, Necron. Thanks for sharing.
This is fantastic news.
I’m suing the liquor companies for the same reason, not protecting me from myself
I watched a movie recently which featured this little exchange:
“I don’t drink.”
“Bad for you?”
“Bad for the people around me.”
*My Old Lady. Not my usual thing, but a good movie. Kevin Kline is in it.
We’ve been watching Pennyworth lately. One line last night stuck out at me. Spoken to a guy with a drinking problem:
“If you’re going to kill yourself, do it quick. And don’t make us watch.”
The dumbing down of us all was a big concern. Not just in schools, but programmers and even doctors have been proven to quickly lose their knowledge and critical thinking skills when they rely on AI too much. Some are predicting a “lost generation” of people who just don’t know anything.
Long before AI there was “expertism” which is people being taught to surrender independent thought and follow the “guidance” of the credentialed priesthood.
AI is just another step.
I use AI as a sounding board. It’s usually pretty terrible for creative work. I also use it as a rapid visual prototyping tool. A lot of the work I do can be thought of as speculative.
While I don’t think John Bush is a great singer, he was the right singer for Only. I love that song. I love Sound of White Noise.
Only
The Noise of Carpet
Love them so much
For the Spotify challenged like me
…as long as I continue to ignore the lyrics.
I didn’t know they released new material last year.
I, for one, am looking forward to watching the Odyssey. I will watch it for entertainment, and not through whatever political lens I’m supposed to.
I might watch Troy first. I wondered if they might cast Brad Pitt as the ghost of Achilles in the new movie, but the character does not make an appearance, apparently.
Does anyone know of a fast-acting red squirrel solution that I can deploy in the city without attracting attention?
Never mind. He’s gone. That little cunte was chirping in my left ear for 20 minutes straight.
Small animal life trap and bucket (with a lid) of water. They are easy to catch, though not necessarily fast.
Out of sight along side your garage, handful of corn. Make sure the trap goes completely under water .
Hier
.22 shorts are sub-sonic. No “crack” when fired.
Try ultrasound.
https://a.co/d/0encDLYW
TPTB: My NSFW surgery + skull reconstruction post is still pending. Not sure how you wanna /can ‘cover’ the pics up. It’s incredibly hardcore, but I’m quite pleased I didn’t have to think about making an upbeat tale about that. (I do think it’s a fun read.)
I told my immediate manager about it today, to kinda let it known so she doesn’t think I’m slacking or just stupid. (Slower to learn new systems, I accurately told her.) She happens to be big into true crime and medical weirdness, and was excited to see the pics. I sent her the piece so she can see the pics I chose. I kinda doubt she’ll ‘read’ it, but I’d be more pleased if she just say the pics, and maybe read a couple paragraphs.
I forgot I included excited talk of my new work at a title services company near the end. Today, I think was better, but we honestly didn’t have a lot of work on the step I’m trying to master. I think I only had like two of those. So despite AI notes from the two demonstrations I recorded yesterday, I didn’t have much time to practice.
*shrug* She’s sweet. I have decided to pretty much game this reality as much as I need to. (Derp mentioned doing similar with the VA.) Honestly, I think it’s just easier for ’em to openly know about it. I hope I get far more time tomorrow. I’m really nervous they’re gonna move on from me if I don’t nail this down. It’s really not that hard. I felt pretty good, and when I checked with said manager, I got it right. But. *shrug* I forgot to do a few other, smaller things. But got called out ’em. So. Hrm. Still, I feel better than the other day. I’m glad I talked to her and shared the pics. I think that’ll have a big impact on her.
Most honorable TPTB: Tonight’s post, “Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog” is still in pending.
*Dramatic missing post music
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EgFmLY-KI2s