One year ago today: October 19, 2024, boxes, taxes, silver.
Five years ago today: October 19, 2020, the axle is bent.
Nine years ago today: October 19, 2016, from the ruling class.
Random years ago today: October 19, 2015, whisked off to Kansas
Ha, the touted “No Kings” day was a nothing-burger. This morning the few isolated influencers with unpopular surnames bellowed “victory” but resorted pictures from a different protest back in 2017. Imagine even trying that in the Internet age. I didn’t feel like fixing the drains when I got back in near midnight last, so this morning I woke up to this unpleasant chore. By 6:30AM, it is done, there’s more to it in the addendum below. There is rice in the cooker and a big pot of spuds boiling. The aroma there is dill and a bay leaf in the pot. All to the chorus of some rather frustrated squirrels who are still miffed by my latest anti-rodent measures.
Speaking of bad plumbing, this is not a picture of Sabrina Carpenter playing bass. She’s holding a bass, but you won’t find her singing and playing bass at any skill level on-line. She has mastered the “McCartney” illusion, never actually playing even an intermediate level bass line while singing, reverting to single notes behind all vocals. It works, it can be made magnificent, but don’t try to sell it to me as bass playing. Her average hit tune is a droning series of six single root notes. I wish I had her fame, youth, and money, but that doesn’t mean I think she can play bass.
Do I dislike the lady? Nope, she’s just not my type. If I was her age group (she’s 26), I’d bypass her at a club. She weighs 101 pounds, but at 4-foot-11, that makes her a bit chubby, you know, roundish, for my likings. Self-made? As much as one can be after starting taking dance lessons at age two. I doubt she’s the next Taylor, but she is worth $16 million.
We see a first, the announcement that ChatGPT is following the path I can now claim to have
Statistics is a lot of making sense out of random (or supposedly random) events, being careful not to attach causality. That is, while it is 100% certain day follows night, one does not cause the other. Baye’s concept (IMHO) varies slightly in that it calculates the odds based on the fact that something else has already happened. Herein lies the kernel of inexactitude that makes today’s A.I. a fake. It is based on huge samples of data garnered mainly from social media.
The false assumption that comes into play is that these gigantic samples are random. They are not. There are far more people who are bad at arithmetic than are good at it. How many people believe 7 x 6 = 43? Too many. Sampling 100 million people, A.I. would presume the majority of answers to be correct. As time goes buy, logic is overwritten by sheer weight. And now, just months later, ChatGPT fails 98% of arithmetic questions. Ergo: Fact by Majority Rule.
[Author’s note: The Willie Rule, Willie Theorem, Willie Effect, and all variations including the phrase “Truth By Majority Rule” and others, all stem from the same source and are interchangeable See, I get to dictate that because I’m the captain and it’s my boat.]
Trump just cut off drug war money to Columbia and declared their leader a narco-dictator. Another death blow to the Democrats, who many suspected thrived on the drug money and never really did a thing about the sources. As far as I’m concerned, the Democrats were in on the deal and the foreign aid was just their 10% cut to the kingpin.
Princeton has published a study of wolves after Chernobyl (1986) that shows an increased resistance to cancer. It would make sense, since the resistant wolves would be the ones to survive and breed. What’s not so clear is whether evolution is at work. Darwin never said evolution happened. That is a false criticism of his work. For clarity, all the evolutionary processes (mutation, genetics, survival of the fittest) were all well-known before Darwin. But the religious stance that the world began in 4004 BC and THAT MEANS PROOF that all those processes did not have time to occur.
You see the disjuncture? Darwin never said evolution happened, the Church never found any proof it did not happen, they only stated that it could not have happened because there wasn’t enough time. What Darwin did say was that if you believe the [dinosaur] fossil evidence showing the world is very much older, there was, in fact, plenty of time and most of his book just describes how, given that much time, it COULD have happened. The resulting kafuffle is how this meant evolution was a natural process that, if true, meant evolution did not involve any religion—and that offends peole who believe they were created by a god.
The argument is often disguised as various cases where evolution is inconsistent (the “missing link” concept), but it is really an argument over whether or not there was enough time, and most religious types do not want to tackle that one directly. They rarely present direct evidence, seeming to not grasp that a theory, by definition, is meant to predict, not define. No theory is true in every last instance. If it was, it would be a law, not a theory.
Now, if those wolves are resistant and they are passing that trait on, this causes another headache for the Creationists. It could provide evidence that not only can evolution can be instantly instigated, it can happen in higher animals and become genetic fact within forty years. And it obliviates the argument that things like the human eye could only be created by God.
Um, have you ever noticed how arguing with religious people goes in circles? This is a separate subject, but their argument involves an original event (Big Bang). This can be demonstrated by imagining you start walking from a point on the Earth’s surface. You can walk randomly for an infinite time and distance. But sooner or later, you will reach your own starting point. And sooner or later, the religionist will think he’s proven his stance when he is actually beginning all over again. I just thought you might find that interesting.
Regency TR-1
First transistor radio, 1954.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
Not at all feeling spry enough to work on the floor, I sat back in the office chair, just for a moment. Until 4:00PM, too late to start out. Instead, I’m going to spring for some extra food this week, fancier than my usual. For instance, I don’t usually eat ham or salmon, that’s what I mean. It’s that chair, it’s one of those ergonomic creations. If you sit down and slightly lean back, it induces you to sleep by slightly molding itself. Thus, hours later you awake in exactly the same position, not flopped out, but still looking at the same spot on the computer monitor.
Ha, some brazen thieves pulled a ladder truck up to the French museum and made off with the Napoleonic jewels in seven minutes. Last week I mapped out a drive along old Highway 41, it is now a side road flanked by two major arteries, I-75 and SR-275 either side of Tampa Bay. I expect to see nothing, it’s reverted back to a residential area, known like most of Florida for having nothing to do except eat, drink, or screw. I’m a museum fan, but more history than art or sports. There is a place I want to see, the Plant Museum.
There is also a mystery dinner tour, but I’m putting that off because it ends late after dark and I hate driving in Tampa. There’s a trolley tour but no easy way to get information out of them. It either costs $25 (doable) or $49 (stick it). I’ve heard of a museum in Ybor City, but it might be a State Park or something. I see a familiar pattern to the confusion in Jacksonville, where the Museum has several differing addresses and the web site keeps hijacking you to the Historical Society page.
I finally found an address by zooming in on a map of Ybor City and it is a State Park. Is it shut down? Huge potential for getting Genxed here. Nobody knows nothing and it isn’t their fault. But it is Ybor City, so it’s always a nice walk around. Um, I’m compelled to mention after last day in the pit, I still have minor aches standing or walking. On the other hand, people hold doors open for me more often.
In good news, it looks like SNAP (food stamp) money isn’t going out this month. That, and the end of Section 8, means if these people want rent and food, they have have to start doing those jobs Americans won’t do. And soon. Once a government program stops, it never really starts again. Since I get no handouts and must pay my own way, I still have to work. I rigged up the air hammer and tried to split the iron core plates on a standard microwave transformer. At full blast, it would not even move the corners of the plates. I see all that tempting copper, but can't get at it. Makes me feel like a squirrel.
ADDENDUM
Enough excitement, now back to the plumbing. This time I replaced all the seals (compression rings) with top-grade materials. Five seals, and it isn’t uncommon to uncover other problems in these older buildings. I see why one of the drain tubes was cut at an angle, and how some guy before used the wrong kind of rings. (The have a slight lip on the inside rim that uses a special cap, a regular cap will not pinch it quite all the way tight.) During this procedure, I find there is a slight leak where the cold water tap does not quite shut all the way off. That means a faucet repair shortly. Or a $300 plumbing bill.
Another plan in my head is that instead of replacing that ratty old wiring, closer examination shows that the worst of it is under the building where it was exposed. Close inspection shows it is the outer cloth wrapping in bad condition. The wires inside are intact. The spider shape can be placed inside two long pieces of modern plastic conduit and sealed. This would save days of nasty work and break code in only one spot where a junction box added would not be readily accessible. But neither was the original spider box.
