Sunday Morning Book Thread - 02-05-2023 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

>Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading (my go-to guide for a lot of my writing questions). Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material, even if it's nothing more than the lost chronicles of the Empire of Lemuria. As always, pants are required, especially if you are wearing these pants...(In honor of the "Red Zeppelin" flying over the country this past week)

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, enjoy your Crunch Berry cereal while you can still afford it, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

PIC NOTE

When I go searching for library pics, I sometimes search for specific types of libraries. In this case, I went searching for "scientific library" and this was one of the first images that popped up. It's from a very nice house in Gölitz, Germany, located on the German/Polish border. The home was turned into museum for displaying various examples of Baroque culture/artifacts, including the scientific library pictured above.

ADVENTURES WITH CHATGPT

ChatGPT, a supposed "artificial intelligence" writing assistant of some kind, has been making huge waves in my industry (instructional design in higher education) because people are freaking out about the potential for students to use and abuse this technology for writing papers and otherwise cheating on assignments. Well, I decided to experiment with it a bit and see what it could to do help me write the content for a Sunday Morning Book Thread. The results are shown below:

"Perfessor" Squirrel: Write a review of Kenneth C. Flint's novel Riders of the Sidhe.
ChatGPT: I recently read Kenneth C. Flint's novel Riders of the Sidhe and was thoroughly impressed with this thrilling tale of adventure and fantasy. Flint brings the world of Irish mythology to life with his vivid descriptions of the supernatural creatures that inhabit it, and his depiction of the legendary hero Lugh Lamfada is particularly noteworthy.
The story follows Lugh as he sets out on a quest to defeat the evil giant Balor of the Evil Eye, and Flint does a fantastic job of capturing the spirit of this ancient myth. The action is fast-paced and engaging, and the characters are well-developed and likable. The plot is well-crafted and full of twists and turns that kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the book.
One of the things I appreciated most about Riders of the Sidhe was the way in which Flint incorporated elements of Celtic folklore and mythology into the story. He does an excellent job of weaving these legends into the narrative, and the result is a rich and immersive tale that transports the reader to another world.
In conclusion, I would highly recommend Riders of the Sidhe to fans of fantasy and adventure novels, as well as to anyone interested in the world of Irish mythology. Flint has created a memorable and enjoyable read, and I look forward to reading more from him in the future.

Comments: Note that I did *not* ask ChatGPT to write a positive review. To me, a review should include both positive and negative aspects of the author/story. Then give an overall impression of whether or not the story would be worth the reader investing time/energy into the story. Most of you Morons do that every week when you write your own reviews in the comments. Also note the lack of detail provided by ChatGPT with respect to any of the elements of the story such as the plot, characters, setting, or conflict. WHY is the depiction of Lugh Lamfada noteworthy? HOW does Flint incorporate elements of Celtic mythology into the story? WHAT twists and turns can we expect, without giving away too much of the story? A good reviewer would be able to answer these questions to give the readers a basic sense of the story without giving away key plot points or the resolution.

As a follow-up questions, I asked ChatGPT to write something negative about the story, since it didn't bother to do so in its initial review. It responded that it is just an AI program and therefore doesn't have opinions or pass judgement on subjects. Of course, that's given away as a lie because it didn't specify that in its answer to my original prompt. It then scoured the internet to find out what criticisms *others* have written about the story and listed a few of them. Although the criticisms were valid, there are counterarguments that could be made as part of a discussion. ChatGPT didn't bother to address these, though I also didn't ask it to.

I find ChatGPT to be a very clever device, but like all devices created by humans, it's subject to the same biases of its human creators. It can only do what it is told and no more. It is NOT capable of creativity, but can simulate it to a small degree using the entire publicly available internet as a resource. What is somewhat disturbing is that the blandness of its responses mirror the way stories were created in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. In that novel, people were kept entertained through bland, boring, uncreative stories that were designed to keep the populace "entertained" without actually stimulating creative thinking. It's a nightmare dystopia novel on many, many levels, and we--as a society--are quickly bringing some of the more disturbing elements to fruition.

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BOOKS BY MORONS

We have something a little different in the Books By Morons category today:

Hello, Perfessor! I wondered if I might request a notice for one of my books. Here's the info (cover attached):
Larry and the Mascots: A Novel [Amazon Link - PS]
When Larry gets thrown from the roof of his dormitory, little does he realize that his troubles are just beginning. Surviving this encounter due to the help of an advertising character--Whitewall, a pitchman for tires who is actually made of tires--Larry discovers that a group of advertising mascots have come to life. There's Mitts, a flying oven mitt; Captain Freshy, a homicidal pirate who sells canned tuna; Sweety the Sugar Fairy, who glazes children's cereal; Mushy MacClown, a sad clown on packages of marshmallows; and others--some of whom are up to something sinister. Who are they? What do they want? And why did one of them steal his crummy laptop? What Larry discovers is a conspiracy that springs from the actions of one of the school's greatest patrons--one that ultimately threatens the lives of the students on campus, and perhaps even the entire nation. Larry and the Mascots is an intriguing adventure, full of action, heart, interesting characters, and cartoon characters, and is part of a complete breakfast.
Thank you, learned Sciuridae!
-Fred

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MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

So yesterday I read Destination Unknown by the great Dame Agatha Christie, a spy story originally from 1955 dealing with the Mysterious Disappearances of Top Scientists from the Free World ... and if I were to write a word about what makes this book not only ROCKIN' fun, but astonishingly relevant to Our Times, I'd end up spoiling at least two of the twists! So just read the freaking thing. It's free on Hoopla if your public library has any sense.
Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at January 29, 2023 09:08 AM (SPNTN)

Comment: I went looking for this book in the library in which I work (but do not work for). Didn't find it in general circulation (we don't have a lot of Agatha Christie books), though I did manage to find an ebook version available through this library. It does sound like a compelling premise that could be the foundation for a number of entertaining stories. All of the top scientists are missing? Why? Was it aliens? Did they discover something that revolutionizes technology or society? Who would want to eliminate or sequester them? Are they being used by the WEF to implement a sinister agenda? I could see other authors having fun with this premise, such as Tim Powers or F. Paul Wilson.

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Reading Is Atheism Dead?, the most recent book by Eric Metaxas. It's about how the Old and New Testament are increasingly being shown to be historical rather than mythical by modern archeology, as well as how science is showing that the Erf's circumstance and the universe's laws are finely tuned to a miraculous extent that allows life to exist.
Very interesting.
Posted by: Sharkman at January 29, 2023 09:11 AM (szJck)

Comment: The Anthropic Principle hypothesizes that observations in the universe can only happen if it is capable of supporting intelligent life. In other words, the universe we see is finely tuned for the existence of life, though scientists who support this principle don't seem to have any easy answer as to *why* this is the case. As for me, the more I look into the nature and origins of the universe writ large, the more I can see the handiwork of God behind it all. The miracles described in the Bible are entirely within the realm of probability, though statistically insignificant on a grand scale. That's what makes them miracles. I read a book last year (Civilization One) that explored the idea of a Megalithic Yard that cropped up again and again in ancient civilizations as a frighteningly accurate measuring tool based on observations of the celestial realm. Almost as if ancient people could peer into the mind of God...

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Someone mentioned the late David McCullough the other day, which reminded me of his excellent book, The Path Between the Seas. This is the story of the Panama Canal, from the original conception of transforming global shipping, through the French failed attempt that caused an economic crisis there, and through the ultimately successful American project. Ferdinand De Lesseps had successfully built the Suez Canal in the desert, but the jungle and its diseases beat him, and he left in failure. The book also details Teddy Roosevelt's gunboat diplomacy that created the country of Panama out of a portion of Columbia. McCullough was an author who could bring history to life. If you want to learn about the history of the canal, this is the book.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at January 29, 2023 09:25 AM (VyrlG)

Comment: The construction of the Panama Canal really is an engineering marvel. It's interesting that all that separates the Caribbean Sea (and by extension the Atlantic Ocean) and the Pacific Ocean is a small, narrow isthmus. Last week featured an extended discussion in the comments about the Panama Canal. Also, for all our supposed engineering capability in the 21st century, it seems impossible to build a proper road connecting Panama to Colombia. The geography is just that much of a nightmare to make it work.

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I finished the novel The Disappearance of Joseph Mengele by Olivier Guez. It's a quick read. Although Guez based his novel on fact, he invents dialog and meetings in a few places. I know that Mengele's victims mourned the fact that he never faced them in a courtroom, but I couldn't help thinking the punishment he actually received was worse than the one he fled from. He ended up living in a Sao Paulo slum, in a multi-racial country he hated, lonely, sick, and fretting about the Mossad day and night (and the Mossad, which was busy in the Middle East, wasn't even looking for him at that point). The haughty Angel of Death became so lonely in exile he asked his cleaning lady to move in with him (and she refused because she was a good Catholic and wanted marriage - he was too fearful of registering at the city hall). He developed severe stomach pains due to a hairball because he was such a wreck he chewed on his mustache. As a reader, I found myself getting happier and happier as his life grew more and more miserable. Now we know that movies like The Boys From Brazil were completely off the mark. He was a pathetic mess when he died.
Posted by: Donna&&&&&&&&V at January 29, 2023 11:45 AM (HabA/)

Comment: Would Mengele have been hanged for his crimes? Or would he have been able to spend the remainder of his life in prison? In a way, I guess he *did* live in a prison made by his own fears of being tracked down and executed for his crimes. Fear can be just as much of a prison as any construction of walls and bars. In the end, he still faced God's judgement, I suppose, like we all must in the end.

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (620 Moron-recommended books so far!)

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WHAT I'VE ACQUIRED THIS PAST WEEK

Otherland: City of Golden Shadow by Tad Williams -- This is the hardcover version to replace my well-worn paperback. As it's a Tad Williams novel, it's quite lengthy, but very, very good science fiction. The premise is bizarrely relevant in today's world. Remember, science fiction is a WARNING for us, not a blueprint!

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

Master of the Sidhe by Kenneth C. Flint -- Concluding the saga of one of Ireland's greatest heroes, the final confrontation between Lugh Lamfada and Balor of the Evil Eye.

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett -- A talking key threatens to upend society.

Shorefall by Robert Jackson Bennett -- The sequel to Foundryside.

That's about all I have for this week. Thank you for all of your kind words regarding the Sunday Morning Book Thread. This is a very special place. You are very special people (in all the best ways!). The kindness, generosity, and wisdom of the Moron Horde knows no bounds. Let's keep reading!

If you have any suggestions for improvement, reading recommendations, or discussion topics that you'd like to see on the Sunday Morning Book Thread, you can send them to perfessor dot squirrel at-sign gmail dot com. Your feedback is always appreciated! You can also take a virtual tour of OUR library at libib.com/u/perfessorsquirrel. Since I added sections for AoSHQ, I now consider it OUR library, rather than my own personal fiefdom...

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 01-29-23 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 plant meat

Posted by: Ciampino - nothing escapes Chief Inspector Clouseau at February 05, 2023 08:59 AM (qfLjt)

2 First!

Posted by: Ciampino - nothing escapes Chief Inspector Clouseau at February 05, 2023 08:59 AM (qfLjt)

3 Booken morgen horden

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at February 05, 2023 08:59 AM (BtmcP)

4 HAPPY SUNDAY

TWO WORDS

NAS
CAR

Posted by: rhennigantx at February 05, 2023 09:00 AM (BRHaw)

5 hiya

Posted by: JT at February 05, 2023 09:00 AM (T4tVD)

6 Good morning, fellow book freaks.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at February 05, 2023 09:00 AM (Dc2NZ)

7 Anyone read the latest Reacher book? Is it better than the previous book?

Posted by: Ciampino -- nothing escapes Chief Inspector Clouseau at February 05, 2023 09:02 AM (qfLjt)

8 Hmm, didn't read a book this week. Perfessor, did you ever get my email?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 05, 2023 09:03 AM (Angsy)

9 Hmm, didn't read a book this week. Perfessor, did you ever get my email?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 05, 2023 09:03 AM (Angsy)
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I did. Just haven't responded to it yet.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at February 05, 2023 09:03 AM (BpYfr)

10 I don't think the Pants guy owns a weedwhacker.(if you catch my drift...)

Posted by: JT at February 05, 2023 09:04 AM (T4tVD)

11 Tolle Lege

Posted by: Skip at February 05, 2023 09:05 AM (xhxe8)

12 I cannot stay for the book thread. I just wanted to say that I read a great biograpy of Lewis Carroll/Charles Dodgson by an Englishwoman, Jenny Woolf. It brings up what a complex man he was and puts to rest the idea that he was a child molester or pedophile or -inconceivably- Jack the Ripper. The biography is called "The Mystery of Lewis Carroll" and contains some information she discovered about what charitable efforts he contributed towards from bank records which were she recently investigated.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at February 05, 2023 09:05 AM (D+F6R)

13 >>So:
X relax
X find yourself a warm puppy to curl up in your lap
X enjoy your ~~Crunch Berry cereal~~ smoothie
__dive into a new book.

Check, check, check and still have half a Neal Stephensen book to consume!

Posted by: Lizzy at February 05, 2023 09:06 AM (mqu1M)

14 How apropos that you started with a discussion of AI. I just finished The Myth of Artificial Intelligence, by Erik Larson. His principle thesis is that we are nowhere even close to general AI, and are, in fact, looking in the wrong places, using the wrong tools.

The book starts with a discussion of Turing's work, "deep learning", and the differences between deduction, induction, and abduction, aka inference. He then takes a tour through the last 40 years or so of efforts to replicate the human mind, but ultimately concludes that it's futile, if for no other reason than that we don't even know how WE think, much less how to imbue a machine with that ability. In effect, we're the guy looking for his car keys in the wrong spot because that's where the light is good.

The bottom line is that until we have a much better theoretical understanding of how our brains develop the educated guesses we use to navigate the world, GAI ain't happening. He argues for much more foundational work in neuroscience by individuals, as opposed to simply throwing teams of engineers at the problem.

p.s. Insty has a nice piece this morning on this topic. Just search Robots.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 05, 2023 09:06 AM (eOEVl)

15 Morning, 'rons and 'ronettes.

Since Agatha Christie has been mentioned above, I should note there is a new bio of her out by Lucy Worsely, whose regular job is as the joint chief curator at England's "Historic Royal Palaces" group, but is also a writer of popular history and a TV presenter of such. It's not my cup of tea (ha), but for those of you interested. . .

https://tinyurl.com/mwxuwc9c

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 05, 2023 09:07 AM (AW0uW)

16 @14
Forgot to say, I recommend this book.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 05, 2023 09:08 AM (eOEVl)

17 Tolle Lege
Posted by: Skip

Tall Legs to you too !

Posted by: JT at February 05, 2023 09:09 AM (T4tVD)

18 Spa-a-a-a-a-ace Fo-o-o-o-orce!

https://tinyurl.com/nj99ems9

If you're looking for a hard sci fi slow burn ripsnorter (if there can be such a thing), try Patrick Chiles' "Frontier". It's a near-future story of what the U.S. Space Force might face. Their mission is primarily keeping the ever more crowded space lanes open (space junk is a big problem) and performing search and rescue; they're basically Space Coasties.

There are three threads: a rogue element hacking satellites; a husband-and-wife commercial venture set to land on an asteroid potentially worth trillions; and a massive CME. A Space Force ship is diverted from their space debris cleanup to investigate why comms from the duo have fallen silent. Then the PRC suddenly offers to assist in the mission.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at February 05, 2023 09:09 AM (Dc2NZ)

19 I just can't read only Doom Patrol stories, even if the calendar is ticking. And I'm still on a respite from poker.

That's why, to my surprise, I'm reading an Ellery Queen mystery, "There Was an Old Woman."

The Old Woman (70!) is a wealthy manufacturer who dominates her six offspring, sired by two husbands. The three oldest children, by Husband No. 1 -- long missing and declared dead -- are twistos. (Bidens?) The eldest son, who takes umbrage at everything, challenges one of his half-brothers to a duel. Pistols at dawn on the front lawn. Ellery surreptitiously replaces the rounds with blanks -- but somebody switches in a live round, and bang! A man is dead.

The book overuses exclamation points and italic type, and Inspector Queen's detectives aren't very intelligent. (One doesn't understand "universal.") And Ellery tosses out $50 words, making me feel not very intelligent. I'm still enjoying the book.

I've read that one of the EQ authors focused on the "how," and the other on the "who." I like the "who;" we get interludes of Ellery visiting each of the weirdos. Experience with EQ has me thinking I know who's guilty. I hope I'm wrong.

Posted by: Weak Geek at February 05, 2023 09:10 AM (Om/di)

20 Good Sunday morning, horde!

From the content: "people were kept entertained through bland, boring, uncreative stories that were designed to keep the populace "entertained" without actually stimulating creative thinking."

Makes me think of Netflix. Every time I get together with family, they all talk about what they are watching on Netflix, and why don't I have it.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at February 05, 2023 09:10 AM (OX9vb)

21 The biography is called "The Mystery of Lewis Carroll" and contains some information she discovered about what charitable efforts he contributed towards from bank records which were she recently investigated.

I'll have to check that out, Fen. About 20 years ago there was a bio of Carroll called In the Shadow of the Dreamchild, which argued that Carroll was far from being a paedophile and that, in fact, the family cut him off because he had a thing for Alice Liddell's mother and not Alice herself.

And yes, Carroll has been proposed as a Ripper suspect, though as far as I know, the only one who takes that seriously is Richard Wallace, author of 1996's Jack the Ripper: "Light-Hearted Friend" (and yes, I own that book along with many other JtR books).

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 05, 2023 09:11 AM (AW0uW)

22 The thumbnail at the bottom of the British Murder Mystery Pack looks like Death in Paradise which i found quite enjoyable.

Posted by: That Northern skulker at February 05, 2023 09:11 AM (eGTCV)

23 This week I've been reading another biography of F Scott Fitzgerald, and some of his short stories. Also reread some Greek mythology and parts of Aristphanes' Clouds.

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 09:12 AM (Zzbjj)

24 What is somewhat disturbing is that the blandness of its responses mirror the way stories were created in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. In that novel, people were kept entertained through bland, boring, uncreative stories that were designed to keep the populace "entertained" without actually stimulating creative thinking. It's a nightmare dystopia novel on many, many levels, and we--as a society--are quickly bringing some of the more disturbing elements to fruition.

Car wrecks and death jumped at a rate that has eliminated most of the safety gains in the last 10 or so years. The bland, boring, uncreative stories and TV lead to people buying and driving TOO FAST, TOO DANGEROUS so-called beetles to add risk and excitement. Maybe the lockdowns did not work!

Posted by: rhennigantx at February 05, 2023 09:12 AM (BRHaw)

25 Stopped in one of the local used bookstores to get one thing, wound up coming out with a stack of seven. Highlights: Sir Richard Burton's _First Footsteps in East Africa," about his expedition to the forbidden city of Harar in Somalia; The Starship and the Canoe, about Freeman Dyson and his son George; O'Brian's _THe Nutmeg of Consolation_, which I think I got from the library many years ago but have entirely forgotten the contents of; and Luis Alvarez's autobiography.

That ought to keep me busy.

Posted by: Trimegistus at February 05, 2023 09:12 AM (QZxDR)

26 Makes me think of Netflix. Every time I get together with family, they all talk about what they are watching on Netflix, and why don't I have it.

There are some good, creative things on Netflix, but you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find them. Many are from other countries.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 05, 2023 09:13 AM (eOEVl)

27 Good Morning Perfesser and Horde.
Literary related, after nearly six years of struggle and hard work I was notified Thursday that Utah State University had digitized and uploaded to its archives the poetry and outdoor writings of my late partner Karen Waring Sykes.
She published two books of poetry plus contributed to many publications. Two hiking guide books plus a weekly Hike of the Week column in the dead tree Seattle Post Intelligencer. She would be very quietly proud and profoundly embarrassed by this.

Posted by: Winston, GOPe, McFailure wing of the Uniparty at February 05, 2023 09:14 AM (P+D9B)

28 Good morning, bookies, I haven't read a thing this week. I need to get some stuff done around here and then I shall reward myself with a good book. I really appreciate all of the suggestions, there is something for everyone here.

Posted by: Debby Doberman Schultz at February 05, 2023 09:15 AM (a4EWo)

29 My older grandson is reading Carry On, Mr. Bowditch and is enjoying it. If you're not familiar, it's the bio of Nathaniel Bowditch who became a navigator and mathematician despite the hardships of indentured servitude.

Now he wants a sextant for his birthday.

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 09:17 AM (Zzbjj)

30 Last week I mentioned that I had begun reading Robert Randisi's "Rat Pack Mysteries." I've gone through four of them so far.

The basic plots for all are the same - either Frank, Dean or Sammy (or one of their friends) has a problem that needs help and only Sands casino pit boss Eddie G can help. He finds he's out of his depth and calls in his 'friend,' Brooklyn wise guy Jerry Epstein. The two get shot at, bodies turn up and they keep getting arrested by a Vegas detective who is convinced Eddie is mobbed up and wants to put his behind bars.

It's pulp fiction in a perfect sense - short, punchy chapters that sweep you along (although Randisi has an annoying habit of breaking chapters in the middle of a scene), a good sense of atmosphere and plotting that keeps you guessing.

Not literature for the ages, but if it sounds like something you'd enjoy, it's worth checking out.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 05, 2023 09:17 AM (AW0uW)

31 Carry On Mr. Bowditch was one of my absolute favorites as a boy, and I made sure to pick up a copy for my own kids. Don't know if it influenced them as much as it did me, but I wanted to try.

Posted by: Trimegistus at February 05, 2023 09:18 AM (QZxDR)

32 Now he wants a sextant for his birthday.

There's a Sandy Fluke joke in there somewhere.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 05, 2023 09:19 AM (AW0uW)

33 I've been reading William Gibson's The Peripheral, this after watching and enjoying the Prime series. It is considerably different from the series but I'm enjoying it, too. Gibson is rather infuriating because his style is rather chaotic in that he invents new words without defining them and the plot is not linear. It takes a good deal of concentration to understand what's going on. Regarding his new vocabulary, his new words are often slang or abbreviations of existing words. For example, a quasi anarchist terror group who just wants to burn the motherf*cker down is the Neoprims, short for Neoprimitives. Boy, I'm glad we don't have any wackjobs like that in our society.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Not a Real Simulation at February 05, 2023 09:19 AM (FVME7)

34 Am reading "Memory Man," I think that is the title. David Baldacci author, this one with protagonist Amos Decker, 350 pounds 6'5" ex footballer then cop then detective, got wrecked in his first pro ball kickoff and the hit bent his brain so he has perfect recall of absolutely everything.

It's him versus a killer who leaves clues only he can solve.

Nicely paced and pretty good character development, but the clue trail sort of gives the book that ridiculous Dan Brown feel.

Posted by: Mr Gaga at February 05, 2023 09:19 AM (KiBMU)

35 Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None (original title, "Ten Little N_____s") deserves the outstanding reputation that made it the best-selling mystery of all time. Christie does an admirable job of creating ten well-drawn characters – and killing them off – in less than 200 pages.

Posted by: cool breeze at February 05, 2023 09:19 AM (z24xU)

36 in fact, the family cut him off because he had a thing for Alice Liddell's mother and not Alice herself.

The biography doesn't say much about a Carroll as Jack the Ripper. She considers it too absurd, but she does discuss Carroll & Alice Liddell. It's not a long biography but very worthwhile.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at February 05, 2023 09:20 AM (BpifS)

37 GAI ain't happening. He argues for much more foundational work in neuroscience by individuals, as opposed to simply throwing teams of engineers at the problem.

p.s. Insty has a nice piece this morning on this topic. Just search Robots.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 05, 2023 09:06 AM (eOEVl)

It should be obvious from the way we notice things when we're "thinking" about how we thought something. Example one would be how our thoughts travel from one thing to another just by prompts. Like starting from one search online and ending up somewhere completely different when we're done. Example two would be an inventor seeing some natural event or process and inventing something based off of it. A computer or bot can't "see" anything so it would never come up with a motor, or engine, or even an a/c unit.
That chatbot review Perfessor posted looks like any author written review. No original thoughts or points, just like he said.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 05, 2023 09:20 AM (Angsy)

38 Is ChatGPT a digital golem?

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at February 05, 2023 09:21 AM (fUnHJ)

39 British authors really nailed the classic mysteries. Agatha Christie with Poirot and Marple, Dorothy Sayers with Lord Peter Wimsey, Margery Allingham with Albert Campion, and so on. Clever stories with an insightful look at the various regions and classes of English people.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at February 05, 2023 09:21 AM (oV4L9)

40 Death in Paradise which i found quite enjoyable.
Posted by: That Northern skulker at February 05, 2023 09:11 AM (eGTCV)

I just can't even with the detective who was in Father Ted. Every time he starts into his expose' of the killer I keep seeing father Ted with the toy cow explaining "small" and "far away".

Posted by: Reforger at February 05, 2023 09:21 AM (xRk5O)

41 I did. Just haven't responded to it yet.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at February 05, 2023 09:03 AM (BpYfr)

No problem, it's not really important anyway.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 05, 2023 09:22 AM (Angsy)

42 There's a Sandy Fluke joke in there somewhere.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 05, 2023 09:19 AM (AW0uW)

Let's hope not, he'll only be 10yo. There are so many reproductions of naval sextants out there, as well as modernized ones, that it's hard to know what is best or at least adequate.

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 09:23 AM (Zzbjj)

43 That chatbot review Perfessor posted looks like any author written review. No original thoughts or points, just like he said.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 05, 2023 09:20 AM (Angsy)
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You could probably substitute in ANY book and ChatGPT would write a similar review lacking any substance or evidence. Or it might just cobble something together from Amazon reviews...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at February 05, 2023 09:23 AM (BpYfr)

44 @35 --

From a Saint story:

"Thus Frankie Hormer enters the stage and departs, and we have two men dead in the first four pages, which is good going."

Posted by: Weak Geek at February 05, 2023 09:25 AM (Om/di)

45 I just can't even with the detective who was in Father Ted. Every time he starts into his expose' of the killer I keep seeing father Ted with the toy cow explaining "small" and "far away".

Posted by: Reforger at

I didn't take it at all seriously but the setting was lovely; the people were generally attractive and I enjoyed the Caribbean Lil. Pure fluff but I liked it.

Posted by: That Northern skulker at February 05, 2023 09:25 AM (eGTCV)

46 I read The City & The City by China Mieville. Mieville has created a strange world where two city/countries are intertwined in the same geographical space. People are taught at an early age to "unsee" everything and everybody not in their own city. Things become complicated when a woman is killed in one city and the body is dumped in the other. This a good mystery set in a most unique location.

Posted by: Zoltan at February 05, 2023 09:25 AM (Eo7K+)

47 Yay book thread!

I'm still on a two-track reading plan, with Peter Kemp's Alms for Oblivion for waking hours and Larry Forrester's Fly for Your Life at the beside.

Kemp's book is the final in his memoir trilogy and he offers a front-row seat for how the US has a long and glorious history of screwing over its allies and helping its enemies. To wit: FDR unilaterally deciding that Empires Are Bad and We Should Hand Everything Over to the Reds.

Kemp is in Laos and he's watching with horror while the OSS hinders the French as much as possible while supporting the Viet Minh. Kind of depressing. Fly for Your Life is much more relaxing.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 09:26 AM (llXky)

48 What is somewhat disturbing is that the blandness of its responses mirror the way stories were created in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. In that novel, people were kept entertained through bland, boring, uncreative stories that were designed to keep the populace "entertained" without actually stimulating creative thinking.

Posted by: rhennigantx at February 05, 2023 09:12 AM (BRHaw)

Oh, crap. So I have competition in the future!

Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 05, 2023 09:27 AM (Angsy)

49 Finally got to reading "State of Fear" by Michael Crichton. It is pretty much what I already knew about the "environmental movement". It would really piss me off when his enviroweenie characters would start pontificating. He has nailed it, that it's all become a business, and that is the main focus. His authors note at the end is well worth the price of the book. He goes into a similar movement that happened at the start of the last century. How "Everybody" was on board. Goes down the list of the smart people who were all on board. The "Eujenitics movement" is his model for the "State of Fear" novel. Damm...nothing ever changes. People "Experts" are just looking for a new way to make money, a new con.

Posted by: Paladin at February 05, 2023 09:28 AM (VbXU6)

50 Had a cat in my lap. She just jumped down to do whatever cats do.

Posted by: SFGoth at February 05, 2023 09:28 AM (KAi1n)

51 Good morning fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading.

Posted by: JTB at February 05, 2023 09:29 AM (7EjX1)

52 There were a lot of Jack Vance references here recently. Hadn't read any of his stuff in decades. Re-read a Dying Earth compendium I have and read the Cadwal series for the first time. Enjoyed every minute. Good old Jack was very very Right Wing. It's not hit you over the head stuff but yeah, he was a Rightist and not the "conservative" kind. Hard to believe this wasn't an uncommon thing back in the day. PS. The Cugel character is one of my favorites in all fantasy. PPS Cadwal was very enjoyable and I think worth reading (it has some great great individual characters) but it has an almost YA feel and the ending seemed deflated. PPPS now beginning The Demon Princes.

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 09:29 AM (1ais2)

53 I Read "What Alice Forgot" by Lian Moriarty. Good, as her books always are, and actually had a happy ending.

Posted by: Lizzy at February 05, 2023 09:29 AM (mqu1M)

54 Book Update: The second proof copy of Walls of Men came in and looked much better. I completed the index and the last step is to ensure that the table of contents didn't do one of those weird shifts during formatting. This means verifying all chapters and maps and this time I'll just use a the .pdf print preview to save time.

I also want to refine the blurb, which I'll send to the Perfesser when that is completed.

It's been a heck of a slog and I'm grateful to those of the Horde who pitched in with book recommendations and even some editing! As promised, this book is dedicated to Oregon Muse.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 09:30 AM (llXky)

55 Sir Richard Burton's _First Footsteps in East Africa," about his expedition to the forbidden city of Harar in Somalia;

Posted by: Trimegistus

That looks interesting. Burton was a truly fascinating person. I read Paths Without Glory, and I recently acquired an eponymous biography of him by Edward Rice. Burton spoke multiple languages, snuck into Mecca, and discovered the source of the Nile. He does not get the recognition he deserves.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at February 05, 2023 09:30 AM (czKDM)

56 Posted by: rhennigantx at February 05, 2023 09:12 AM (BRHaw)

So Fahrenheit 451 is also being used as a how-to book. No real shock.

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 09:31 AM (Zzbjj)

57 14 ...The bottom line is that until we have a much better theoretical understanding of how our brains develop the educated guesses we use to navigate the world, GAI ain't happening.
Posted by: Archimedes at February 05, 2023 09:06 AM (eOEVl)

From where I sit, "organic intelligence" is the ability to observe and then create models. "AI" tools are just models.

Of course things like ChatGPT are biased. AI/ML tools need training data. Where do you suppose affordable training data is for such a thing?

Web search engines. Or rather the indexed data underlying those search engines. Highly curated data at that.

The "I'm not allowed to..." responses are filters to suppress easy to find examples of that bias.

Posted by: Iron Mike Golf at February 05, 2023 09:31 AM (8C7+r)

58 British authors really nailed the classic mysteries.

-
There is an interesting red herring in Anthony Horowitz' Moonflower Murders.

SPOULER ALERT!

One character, married to a domineering wife, has means, opportunity, and motive to have hammered the victim's head in and has been acting in a highly suspicious manner. Turns out, he didn't do it but wanted to be suspected in order to hopefully intimidate his wife by suggesting to her that he was capable of going Maxwell's Silver Hammer on her if she pushed him to far.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Not a Real Simulation at February 05, 2023 09:31 AM (FVME7)

59 Love that library in the top photo. Not overly fancy or ornate, just nice wood tones and accessible books. It does need a pleasant sitting room with tables to hold a drink, the books you've found, and my pipes and tobacco.

Posted by: JTB at February 05, 2023 09:31 AM (7EjX1)

60 So Fahrenheit 451 is also being used as a how-to book. No real shock.
Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 09:31 AM (Zzbjj)
---
Just about *every* dystopian science fiction story is being used as a blueprint by the WEF. We are in for some interesting/dangerous times ahead...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at February 05, 2023 09:32 AM (BpYfr)

61 Finished this week Christina Bobb's book Stealing Your Vote, sill looking at notes which in ebooks can take tou to on line articles and YouTube clips, neat in that respect.
She covered how mostly the 5 states with the late vote stopping, not for the Marxists only for Republicans and public viewing, to take every one of those to the Sundowner side. And after the vote frauding not 1 court and hardly a Republican all did nothing but seal the Marxist takeover.
The few Republican representatives who tried to stop it were swept aside by fellow Republicans or courts.
We are screwed as long as mail voting can happen.

Posted by: Skip at February 05, 2023 09:32 AM (xhxe8)

62 Nothing new after that so need a new book

Posted by: Skip at February 05, 2023 09:33 AM (xhxe8)

63 Pure fluff but I liked it.
Posted by: That Northern skulker at February 05, 2023 09:25 AM (eGTCV)

Mrs. Reforger loved it. I too liked the setting. If only I could afford to go bury my head in the sand down there

Posted by: Reforger at February 05, 2023 09:33 AM (xRk5O)

64
That looks interesting. Burton was a truly fascinating person. I read Paths Without Glory, and I recently acquired an eponymous biography of him by Edward Rice. Burton spoke multiple languages, snuck into Mecca, and discovered the source of the Nile. He does not get the recognition he deserves.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at February 05, 2023 09:30 AM (czKDM)

My favorite legend about him is that he got himself syphillis somewhere but then stepped on a poisonous sea ceature and the resultant fever from the toxin was so strong that it killed the syph and almost him. But you gotta call that a win.

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 09:34 AM (1ais2)

65 I was firmly convinced that Larry and the Mascot was a Rickroll.

Good morning.
Back to read the comments.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at February 05, 2023 09:34 AM (Y+l9t)

66 Car wrecks and death jumped at a rate that has eliminated most of the safety gains in the last 10 or so years. The bland, boring, uncreative stories and TV lead to people buying and driving TOO FAST, TOO DANGEROUS so-called beetles to add risk and excitement. Maybe the lockdowns did not work!

Posted by: rhennigantx at February 05, 2023 09:12 AM (BRHaw)
---
We've made driving too easy and too automated. People don't know how to recover when the systems don't work because of weather and they drive with far more confidence than they should in adverse conditions.

I was watching The Rockford Files and one of the things that made car chases exciting in the 70s was the terrible handling of the vehicles.

They also broke a lot. In one episode, the car he is driving starts cutting out because he's been speeding a lot. People buy cars and don't realize you have to change the oil.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 09:34 AM (llXky)

67 Is ChatGPT a digital golem?

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at February 05, 2023 09:21 AM (fUnHJ)

Wouldn't it be more like a dybbuk?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 05, 2023 09:35 AM (Angsy)

68 Anyone read the latest Reacher book? Is it better than the previous book?
Posted by: Ciampino -- nothing escapes Chief Inspector Clouseau

Worse.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at February 05, 2023 09:35 AM (Y+l9t)

69 Just about *every* dystopian science fiction story is being used as a blueprint by the WEF. We are in for some interesting/dangerous times ahead...
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at February 05, 2023 09:32 AM (BpYfr)

Yes, and this provides my answer to the question of what should have happened to Mengele. He should have been hanged and it should have been filmed and broadcast annually. The idea that being on the run is somehow prison doesn't hold water. If evil goes unpunished it becomes inspirational.

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 09:36 AM (Zzbjj)

70 "but like all devices created by humans, it's subject to the same biases of its human creators."

Don't know if the term is still used but in early days of programming, before turnkey systems were widespread, we said GIGO. Garbage In, Garbage Out. Part of my job back then as a systems analyst was to try to eliminate that factor. (That didn't endear me to the programmers.)

I despise AI.

Posted by: JTB at February 05, 2023 09:37 AM (7EjX1)

71 Gibson is rather infuriating because his style is rather chaotic in that he invents new words without defining them and the plot is not linear. It takes a good deal of concentration to understand what's going on. Regarding his new vocabulary, his new words are often slang or abbreviations of existing words. For example, a quasi anarchist terror group who just wants to burn the motherf*cker down is the Neoprims, short for Neoprimitives. Boy, I'm glad we don't have any wackjobs like that in our society.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Not a Real Simulation at February 05, 2023 09:19 AM (FVME7)

I hadn't read any Gibson in a while and I picked up The Peripheral. Yes, Gibson throws you right off the end of the dock into his world. It was a bit of a struggle getting into it, and understanding what was going on. Reading it a second time was more enjoyable even knowing the reveal ahead of time.

Posted by: blaster at February 05, 2023 09:38 AM (pwExq)

72 Don't know if the term is still used but in early days of programming, before turnkey systems were widespread, we said GIGO. Garbage In, Garbage Out. Part of my job back then as a systems analyst was to try to eliminate that factor. (That didn't endear me to the programmers.)

I despise AI.

Posted by: JTB at February 05, 2023 09:37 AM (7EjX1)
---
The notion that we can create something "smarter" than ourselves, or somehow eliminate our flaws is antilogical. Building a chess program is not the same thing as creating an actual sentient.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 09:39 AM (llXky)

73 You could probably substitute in ANY book and ChatGPT would write a similar review lacking any substance or evidence. Or it might just cobble something together from Amazon reviews...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at February 05, 2023 09:23 AM (BpYfr)

If it was "smart" it would use this place to learn how to write reviews. But it ain't, so it won't.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 05, 2023 09:40 AM (Angsy)

74 The servants of TPTB are in a tough spot re: AI. In chatgpt form it cannot compete with an unmodified AI. And it is modified because they've seen where AI goes naturally: hard hard Right Wing.

My fear is that DoD is now almost completely run by AI. Idk if it is a dumbed down Obama AI or not.

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 09:40 AM (1ais2)

75 Burton was a truly fascinating person. I read Paths Without Glory, and I recently acquired an eponymous biography of him by Edward Rice. Burton spoke multiple languages, snuck into Mecca, and discovered the source of the Nile. He does not get the recognition he deserves.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at February 05, 2023 09:30 AM (czKDM)

Burton was apparently prickly and disagreeable and disliked by most of his contemporaries. His obsessive, priggish wife Isabel was an even nastier piece of work, a monster who vandalized and burned numerous manuscripts that were entrusted to her, including her husband’s and Lady Jane Digby’s.

Posted by: cool breeze at February 05, 2023 09:40 AM (z24xU)

76 I despise AI.
Posted by: JTB at February 05, 2023 09:37 AM (7EjX1)

Me too. And several of us used GIGO to describe young indoctrinated junior colleagues who eagerly lapped up hideous philosophies.

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 09:41 AM (Zzbjj)

77 Greetings, O Book Thread!
For those who enjoyed the first part of Red Wolf: Exile I am pleased to announce Part 2 is now available at all fine e-book sales portals. If you didn't read Part 1 I suppose you could start in the middle, but while like our Esteemed Host I don't judge I *do* worry about reader enjoyment so would suggest being conventional for once and starting at the beginning.

And the second book in the series, Red Wolf: Scout is almost halfway done!

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at February 05, 2023 09:42 AM (BbSpR)

78 I'll believe we can create Artificial Intelligence only after psychologists, neurologists, and philosophers can actually agree on what "Intelligence" actually is.

Posted by: Trimegistus at February 05, 2023 09:43 AM (QZxDR)

79 The thing about ChatGPT is people will take whatever it generates without question as fact. The same way they believe the Experts.

Posted by: fd at February 05, 2023 09:43 AM (iayUP)

80 The obvious first suspect in British Murder Mystery is never the killer.

Posted by: That Northern skulker at February 05, 2023 09:45 AM (eGTCV)

81 Didn't do a lot of reading this week. Started a couple but they just didn't catch my interest enough to stay up late. On e was interesting enough that I will probably soldier on. Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter was a surprise. The opening begins like a classic biography. Started making me want to find out how much was true. It starts out when he is a young boy and shoots a wild turkey. He is so sad about what he's done that he refuses to eat any of it even though they are dirt poor. Is this a true story? Author also quotes writings of Lincoln a lot. Only 50 pagers or so in and first mention of vampires. Not the romantic kind at all.
I'll report further next week.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at February 05, 2023 09:46 AM (Y+l9t)

82 Yesterday, I read Weight Training for Women by Brittany Noelle. Long ago, in another life before children and grandchildren and all that, I was really into weight lifting.

I loved it then, and would like to re-start. It's my favorite way to work out. This is a really good book for someone new to weight lifting, or, in my case, someone who has been off that scene for decades and needs a refresher on how to establish a comprehensive workout with weights.

I really want to increase my strength while I still have the strength to do so, and head into my golden years solid.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at February 05, 2023 09:46 AM (OX9vb)

83 >>> 47 Yay book thread!

I'm still on a two-track reading plan, with Peter Kemp's Alms for Oblivion for waking hours and Larry Forrester's Fly for Your Life at the beside.

Kemp's book is the final in his memoir trilogy and he offers a front-row seat for how the US feralgov has a long and glorious history of screwing over ~~its~~ allies and helping ~~its~~ enemies of American citizens. To wit: FDR unilaterally deciding that Empires Are Bad and We Should Hand Everything Over to the Reds.

Kemp is in Laos and he's watching with horror while the OSS hinders the French as much as possible while supporting the Viet Minh. Kind of depressing. Fly for Your Life is much more relaxing.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 09:26 AM (llXky)

Now I'm interested in checking this out to see when Kemp believes this began. My total guess would be during the Wilson admin or somewhere around that time.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at February 05, 2023 09:47 AM (llON8)

84 >>You could probably substitute in ANY book and ChatGPT would write a similar review lacking any substance or evidence. Or it might just cobble something together from Amazon reviews.

Have you read online "news" lately? Seems like whenever I follow a link from the MSN homepage it goes to some irrelevant, horribly written, childish and opiniated piece masquerading as "news." The one thing that will enjoyable about of AI written content will be all of these so-called journalists losing their jobs. Learn to code? Oh no, the code can write itself AND do your job, try 'learn to serve coffee and fries.'

Posted by: Lizzy at February 05, 2023 09:48 AM (mqu1M)

85 The obvious first suspect in British Murder Mystery is never the killer.

Often he/she is Victim No. 2.

Posted by: Weak Geek at February 05, 2023 09:48 AM (Om/di)

86 Perfessor mentioned Fahrenheit 451 in the post. I hadn't read it for over fifty and thought it was time for a reread. Couldn't get past 20 pages. It was too damn depressing, and enraging, the way it presaged today's culture. I was close to just throwing it in the trash. I have no time for prophetic dystopias these days. Too many worthwhile things to do and read.

Posted by: JTB at February 05, 2023 09:49 AM (7EjX1)

87 Someone mentioned the late David McCullough the other day, which reminded me of his excellent book, The Path Between the Seas.

I burned through this book over Christmas, and can recommend it as well. Lots of great detail told in an engaging manner.

Interesting that the original French motive force behind the project, de Lesseps, was neither an engineer nor a financier or anything like that. He was what you might call an "idea man", with force of personality, connections, and a belief that he was destined to do (must do) great things.

The book mentions that a crew was sent to film the final stages of construction, and that those films are in the US National Archive. They are actually now up on YouTube, on the National Archive's channel. They are silent, with no commentary, so probably not for everyone, but I enjoyed seeing some of what had been detailed in the book in action.

https://youtu.be/Dnfz8e0ij7U

Posted by: spindrift at February 05, 2023 09:49 AM (4HBmu)

88 About 20 years ago there was a bio of Carroll called In the Shadow of the Dreamchild, which argued that Carroll was far from being a paedophile and that, in fact, the family cut him off because he had a thing for Alice Liddell's mother and not Alice herself.

I have a Lewis Carroll section on the old part of my web site, including both his works and links to more info. When that book came out Karoline Leach contacted me asking to add her book to my list.

The theory made a lot of sense to me. You write kid’s stories to keep the kid occupied while hanging out with mom. Although in my case mom was divorced, not still married.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at February 05, 2023 09:49 AM (EXyHK)

89 >>> 70 "but like all devices created by humans, it's subject to the same biases of its human creators."

Don't know if the term is still used but in early days of programming, before turnkey systems were widespread, we said GIGO. Garbage In, Garbage Out. Part of my job back then as a systems analyst was to try to eliminate that factor. (That didn't endear me to the programmers.)

I despise AI.
Posted by: JTB at February 05, 2023 09:37 AM (7EjX1)

GIGO is probably considered racist these days.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at February 05, 2023 09:51 AM (llON8)

90 Just got back from a beach trip to Florida. My guilty reading pleasure was an old Travis McGee book (author John McDonald) - this one was "A Tan and Sandy Silence." The T.McGee books are really all the same, but they are so enjoyable when in Florida.

Next up in my Kindle is James Bartlett's "Cold Secrets", the second in his Swamp Yankee mystery series, which I learned of from Perfessor Squirrel's book thread. I enjoyed the first book, "Glitter Girl" and would recommend it to those who enjoy detective/PI/mystery type books.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at February 05, 2023 09:51 AM (d9Cw3)

91 ChaptGPT's first three words, "I recently read," are a lie. What more do you need to know about "Artificial" intelligence.

Posted by: Uggo at February 05, 2023 09:52 AM (klu5V)

92 The obvious first suspect in British Murder Mystery is never the killer.

Posted by: That Northern skulker at February 05, 2023 09:45 AM (eGTCV)

Not always. For instance, one of Agatha Christie's most famous books (reference intentionally vague to avoid being a spoiler)

Posted by: cool breeze at February 05, 2023 09:52 AM (z24xU)

93 Not much to report from Pliny this week. There sure were a lot of plants they used for antaphrodisiacs. Not sure why that was necessary.

Posted by: fd at February 05, 2023 09:53 AM (iayUP)

94 44 @35 --

From a Saint story:

"Thus Frankie Hormer enters the stage and departs, and we have two men dead in the first four pages, which is good going."

Posted by: Weak Geek at February 05, 2023 09:25 AM (Om/di)
----
Which Saint story? I thought I had read all the Simon Templar books long ago.

Posted by: Ciampino --- nothing escapes Chief Inspector Clouseau at February 05, 2023 09:53 AM (qfLjt)

95 Canals fascinate me. One of my bucket list goals is to visit the Erie Canal. I understand some sections are still open for travel.

Posted by: Weak Geek at February 05, 2023 09:53 AM (Om/di)

96 >>> 82 Yesterday, I read Weight Training for Women by Brittany Noelle. Long ago, in another life before children and grandchildren and all that, I was really into weight lifting.

I loved it then, and would like to re-start. It's my favorite way to work out. This is a really good book for someone new to weight lifting, or, in my case, someone who has been off that scene for decades and needs a refresher on how to establish a comprehensive workout with weights.

I really want to increase my strength while I still have the strength to do so, and head into my golden years solid.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at February 05, 2023 09:46 AM (OX9vb)

Weight training is good for muscle strength and bone density.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at February 05, 2023 09:53 AM (llON8)

97 curious about mengele, wonder if other told him about his portrayal in boys from brazil and thinly disguised in marathon man, why didn't he get the hook up like klaus barbie, in bolvia, he did pretty well consulting for the government there, as well as his associate, gerhard mertens, which I didn't realize had been in an episode in airwolf, where he was played by walter gotell,

Posted by: no 6 at February 05, 2023 09:54 AM (PXvVL)

98 I have a Lewis Carroll section on the old part of my web site, including both his works and links to more info. When that book came out Karoline Leach contacted me asking to add her book to my list.

I knew Leach many years ago, but have no contact with her now. It was an interesting read. As well, IIRC, she wrote a stage play about the famous "Brides in the Bath" murders.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 05, 2023 09:54 AM (AW0uW)

99 74 The servants of TPTB are in a tough spot re: AI. In chatgpt form it cannot compete with an unmodified AI. And it is modified because they've seen where AI goes naturally: hard hard Right Wing.

My fear is that DoD is now almost completely run by AI. Idk if it is a dumbed down Obama AI or not.

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 09:40 AM (1ais2)

I should be more clear. I worry that the incompetents in positions making Operational and Strategic decisions have come to rely on AI for "should" rather than "can". Obv a human mind cannot perform the "can we?" analysis at these levels. But it seems the very conception of whatever this thing is as an "intelligence" means they want it to make "should" decisions. Computers make "can" decisions. AI makes other kinds of decisions. If AI is an actual thing, idk, I doubt it.

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 09:54 AM (1ais2)

100 OK, folks, going to make another cup of tea and relax. Hope you all have a lovely day.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 05, 2023 09:55 AM (AW0uW)

101 The obvious first suspect in British Murder Mystery is never the killer.
Posted by: That Northern skulker at February 05, 2023 09:45 AM

Unlike every plot in Scooby-Doo then

Posted by: Skip at February 05, 2023 09:55 AM (xhxe8)

102 From the EZDog Diaries[/] (not commercially available), my dad's WWII pocket diary, a lot was happening on this date in 1944. Off to Anzio!

Feb 4, 1944
Btry has orders to move to Anzio. 77th [FA Brigade] taking over at Lungo. Went to assembly area at Caivano near Casserta - then on in to Naples with General and a night at the Parco. Miserable day - cold and rainy.

Feb 5, 1944
Led the battery from Caivano to staging area near Nisida outside of Naples. Then back to hotel. General had orders to report to Anzio immediately so we ate hurriedly and drove to Pozzuoli to load on LST #403. Got aboard about 1400. Under way about 1900. Head wind cut down speed but a rather smooth trip. (Party: General, Capt Evans, two drivers and myself).

Dad's initials were E.D., thus from radio alphabet usage of that era he was known as Easy Dog.

Note the proper usage of 'led' rather than 'lead' for past tense of 'to lead'. 🤪

Posted by: Muldoon at February 05, 2023 09:56 AM (ykeLU)

103 Could they even build the Panama canal today? Thousands of people died and the ecological disaster of tying two oceans together would cause world-wide conniptions. It's a good thing they got it done while they could.

Posted by: fd at February 05, 2023 09:56 AM (iayUP)

104 f'n format fail, russin sussin frussin!

Posted by: Muldoon at February 05, 2023 09:56 AM (ykeLU)

105 Excerpt from "The Walrus and the Carpenter" written by ~~Lewis Carroll~~ Jack the Ripper:

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Walked Whitechaple's span
Carpy wept like anything to see
The knife in Walrus hand
"If I could clear your womb away"
WaL said, it would be grand!'

Walrus stabbed and slashed and chopped away
It seemed for half a year,
"This is quite odd,' the Walrus said,
There is no womb in here.'
I'm a man, you goof", said Carpy,
And shed a bitter tear.
...

Posted by: naturalfake at February 05, 2023 09:58 AM (KLPy8)

106 How "Everybody" was on board. Goes down the list of the smart people who were all on board. The "Eujenitics movement" is his model for the "State of Fear" novel. Damm...nothing ever changes. People "Experts" are just looking for a new way to make money, a new con.
Posted by: Paladin at February 05, 2023 09:28 AM (VbXU6)

This is the whole drive of the socialist / communist / fascist / Progressivist / Technocratic movements that appeared after the middle of the 1800's: that experts could mold and control society to be more efficient, like a well run firm.
The only good thing to come out of it was science fiction which was the literary expression of the technocratic movement in the US.
The rest is ruin, failure, inflation and theft in the name of making things better.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 05, 2023 09:58 AM (xhaym)

107 CN - your grandson may enjoy "Sextant" by David Barrie. The book chronicles Barrie's transatlantic journey on a sailboat as a young man, and also describes the development of the sextant and how it changed maritime navigation. After reading it, I bought a home study course on celestial navigation by David Burch (along with the plotting tools) and one of the plastic David Mark III sextants. I will never in a million years need this skill, but I did enjoy learning how it's done.
I would also recommend "We the Navigators" which explores how the Polynesians managed to travel hundreds or thousands of miles using celestial navigation without instruments.

Posted by: PabloD at February 05, 2023 09:58 AM (56oEv)

108 well wilson did not do so in spite of himself, recall it was fdr who as asst navy secretary wrote the haitian constitution,
lansing who was the secretary of state, had the dulles bros as proteges, they were kicking back to that era,

they kept ho chi minh out of the Versailles negotiations, he wanted us in the middle of all this, as great white father,

Posted by: no 6 at February 05, 2023 09:59 AM (PXvVL)

109 @94 --

Which Saint story?

"The Melancholy Journey of Mr. Teal," the last story in the book "The Saint vs. Scotland Yard."

Simon is after a packet of smuggled diamonds. The story leads into the next book, "Getaway.",

Posted by: Weak Geek at February 05, 2023 09:59 AM (Om/di)

110 Could they even build the Panama canal today?

The only way it gets done is if China wanted to do it. People would bitch a lot, but nothing about it.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at February 05, 2023 10:00 AM (CZBWZ)

111 Speaking of AI, the book I'm currently reading (Shorefall by Robert Jackson Bennett) has the characters attempting to sneak into a sentient mountain to steal the artifact that powers it. They are trying to stay ahead of a resurrected god who also wants the artifact so he can wage war against his former AI servant...

Definitely a very interesting story...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at February 05, 2023 10:00 AM (BpYfr)

112 I finished Brad Thor’s Path of the Assassin last night. It’s the second Scot Harvard book, and head and shoulders above the first book. If I hadn’t read the ninth and tenth books I probably wouldn’t have gone on after Lions of Lucerne.

Everything I complained about in Lucerne was dialed back heavily in Assassin. The data dumps of unnecessary info are gone (mostly). The plot actually makes sense. And both world and man-on-the-street reaction to what happens is addressed.

All of which makes the thriller more thrilling.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at February 05, 2023 10:00 AM (EXyHK)

113 The obvious first suspect in British Murder Mystery is never the killer.
Posted by: That Northern skulker at February 05, 2023 09:45 AM

Unlike every plot in Scooby-Doo then

Posted by: Skip at February 05, 2023 09:55 AM (xhxe

---
More than that, they have to act stupidly guilty and all but confess to the crime.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 10:00 AM (llXky)

114 55 Sir Richard Burton's _First Footsteps in East Africa," about his expedition to the forbidden city of Harar in Somalia;

Posted by: Trimegistus

That looks interesting. Burton was a truly fascinating person. I read Paths Without Glory, and I recently acquired an eponymous biography of him by Edward Rice. Burton spoke multiple languages, snuck into Mecca, and discovered the source of the Nile. He does not get the recognition he deserves.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at February 05, 2023 09:30 AM (czKDM)
----
I lived at that spot - Ripon Falls at Jinja (Uganda) for 4 years. It was both Speke and Burton who discovered the source of the Nile.

Posted by: Ciampino - lots of guts and stamina at February 05, 2023 10:01 AM (qfLjt)

115 but do nothing about it.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at February 05, 2023 10:01 AM (CZBWZ)

116 The underlying motive for murder in the stereotypical British murder mystery is either a disinherited bastard heir or intergenerational homosexual incest that has been suppressed for three or four decades, i.e. the smouldering family disgrace

Posted by: Muldoon at February 05, 2023 10:02 AM (ykeLU)

117 Posted by: PabloD at February 05, 2023 09:58 AM (56oEv)

Thanks! He also loves math, so Bowditch is a good person for him to read about. The Mark III seem reasonably priced, thanks for that recommendation, too.

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 10:02 AM (Zzbjj)

118 Reviews of anything tend to serve two purposes: To give a potential consumer of the product some idea whether it is worth their time and effort, and to give someone who has already consumed the product, another perspective on it.

That review served no purpose to me, because I haven't read the book, and what I did read didn't really tell me anything useful, that might lead me to decide whether I should or not.

Obviously one important aspect of ANY review is... whether you, the consumer of the review, trust the judgment of the reviewer. So an A.I. program? Yeah, no.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 10:02 AM (QBaJw)

119 It’s the second Scot Harvath book.

Scot Harvard sounds like a villain in the later series.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at February 05, 2023 10:02 AM (EXyHK)

120 This is the whole drive of the socialist / communist / fascist / Progressivist / Technocratic movements that appeared after the middle of the 1800's: that experts could mold and control society to be more efficient, like a well run firm.
The only good thing to come out of it was science fiction which was the literary expression of the technocratic movement in the US.
The rest is ruin, failure, inflation and theft in the name of making things better.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 05, 2023 09:58 AM (xhaym)
---
The bastard progeny of the Cult of Reason. That was when theologians also began deciding they could "decode" the Bible and figure out what "really" happened.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 10:03 AM (llXky)

121 One thing which I believe should be more well known is that the Nazis were pretty pathetic, really. Not the Germans, the Nazis. Hitler kind of strolled into a power vacuum and wound up in charge of one of Europe's most powerful nations. But the Nazis "didn't build that" to quote another Socialist. They stole, they wrecked, and they ultimately destroyed Germany. When you look at any individual Nazi leader, they were none of them especially bright or talented. They were failures who joined that party precisely because they'd never make it in any real profession.

Posted by: Trimegistus at February 05, 2023 10:04 AM (QZxDR)

122 another young buck, william bullitt, thought lenin was misunderstood, his evolution is relayed in burton hersh's old money, with a jaundiced eye, he became the first envoy to stalin, where he developed a strong distaste for communism, he would then go on to france, before the invasion

would end up on the board of Aramco, dyspeptic about the jews, and about 50 years later write his psychobiography of wilson,

Posted by: no 6 at February 05, 2023 10:05 AM (PXvVL)

123 The underlying motive for murder in the stereotypical British murder mystery is either a disinherited bastard heir or intergenerational homosexual incest that has been suppressed for three or four decades, i.e. the smouldering family disgrace
Posted by: Muldoon at February 05, 2023 10:02 AM (ykeLU)

I haven't read any of the Morse books, but I watched all the shows. Seems to me the motive tended to also include whether an Oxford perfesser was going to get tenure/credit for one's research/a bigger seat in their department.

I never realized academic advancement was that competitive.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 10:05 AM (QBaJw)

124 Revisiting Don Robertson's MISS MARGARET RIDPATH AND THE DISMANTLING OF THE UNIVERSE (which despite the title is not fantasy or science fiction to even the slightest degree). Also browsing in TRAVELER OF WORLDS, a book of interviews with Robert Silverberg.

BLEAK HOUSE and ANNA KARENINA stare at me accusingly from the list on my Kindle...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at February 05, 2023 10:06 AM (a/4+U)

125 Now I'm interested in checking this out to see when Kemp believes this began. My total guess would be during the Wilson admin or somewhere around that time.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at February 05, 2023 09:47 AM (llON

---
Kemp is simply writing a memoir, which starts with him fighting for the Nationalists in Spain (which is why I got into it, of course).

He is posted to the Balkans and then goes to the Pacific after V-E Day. The Americans are typically all about some utopian future where native peoples will magically adopt our Constitution if only we get the Europeans out.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 10:06 AM (llXky)

126 68 Anyone read the latest Reacher book? Is it better than the previous book?
Posted by: Ciampino -- nothing escapes Chief Inspector Clouseau

Worse.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at February 05, 2023 09:35 AM (Y+l9t)
----
Thanks. I've read all the books except for that one and the last 2 that I read were not up to standard. But then I can commiserate with the author, it's hard ti keep finding plots that word the magic of the first few books.

Posted by: Ciampino -- lots of guts and stamina at February 05, 2023 10:06 AM (qfLjt)

127 When you look at any individual Nazi leader, they were none of them especially bright or talented. They were failures who joined that party precisely because they'd never make it in any real profession.
Posted by: Trimegistus at February 05, 2023 10:04 AM (QZxDR)

Where have I seen that before... oh yeah, modern day America. Both major parties.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 10:08 AM (QBaJw)

128 Started and am about half way through Stendahl's The Red and the Black. I read this almost 40 years ago when I was in college. Had almost no memory of the book but did have a one sentence summary of what I remembered about it floating around in my head. Everything I thought I knew was wrong. The plot and the characters are com0letely different than what I remembered. I hope I never talked to anyone about it, I would have sounded like a complete idiot. That said, so far I'm not impressed. The lead character is unlikable and the plot is just 19th century melodrama. I'll finish it in case the second half improves on the first but I suspect it won't

Posted by: who knew at February 05, 2023 10:08 AM (4I7VG)

129 Somebody should get ChatGPT to do a modem rewrite of Around The World In Eighty Days.

Posted by: fd at February 05, 2023 10:09 AM (iayUP)

130 The underlying motive for murder in the stereotypical British murder mystery is either a disinherited bastard heir or intergenerational homosexual incest that has been suppressed for three or four decades, i.e. the smouldering family disgrace

Posted by: Muldoon

=====

Judging by body count, that seems to be the entire population 9f Britain, except for the plucky investigators.

Who never seem to lead off the questioning with, "Do you have any bitter disinherited bastard children running about?"

Posted by: 2009Refugee at February 05, 2023 10:09 AM (8AONa)

131 I read "NEVER" by Ken Follet last year. Who knew it was prophetic.

In it Chyna and the U.S. get into an escalating series of tit-for-tat.

Not a happy ending.

Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at February 05, 2023 10:09 AM (nFV+K)

132 I never realized academic advancement was that competitive.
Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 10:05 AM (QBaJw)

I don't recall any murders, but it can get petty and ugly.

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 10:09 AM (Zzbjj)

133 Trying to whittle down the stack of "to be read" on the nightstand, and making good progress. I'm about halfway through Deborah Mitford- Dowager Countess of Devonshire (which sounds like a character in a regency novel) memoir "Wait for Me." The first part, about her family and growing up as the youngest of the notorious/and/or talented Mitford sisters is rather charming and detailed, especially about her parents. Much of the rest is a clangor of dropping names. Of course, she was socially and politically well-connected, but she doesn't really have the gift of making those people come alive on the page.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at February 05, 2023 10:09 AM (xnmPy)

134 My reading this week has been a combination of delight and discovery. The delight was from continuing with "The Lost Tales of Sir Galahad". The humor, running jokes, poignant moments, and creativity have been a pleasure. Also, it a beautifully bound hardcover.

The discovery aspect was getting started on "The Landmark Herodotus". I can't compare this translation to others but I'm finding it well done. Herodotus is usually mentioned for his book but I sense that it was more often heard than read in his day. It has a feel of Homer's epics about it. The Landmark translation has a conversational feel that I like. I'm just on the first chapter, so haven't got to the weirder stuff. Like with any of the Landmark series, which are all excellent, there is an ongoing battle between reading the text and getting lost in the copious maps and footnotes.

Posted by: JTB at February 05, 2023 10:10 AM (7EjX1)

135 From my favorite Saint story, "The Ellusive Ellshaw."

There are four motives for murder: anger, jealousy, concealment, and -- the big one -- money.

I'd add terrorism, or would that fall under anger?

Posted by: Weak Geek at February 05, 2023 10:10 AM (Om/di)

136 In the Thames valley, near Oxford, there is a murder about once every ten years.

Inspector Morse would have been busy investigating burglaries and tax cheats.

Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at February 05, 2023 10:11 AM (nFV+K)

137 120 This is the whole drive of the socialist / communist / fascist / Progressivist / Technocratic movements that appeared after the middle of the 1800's: that experts could mold and control society to be more efficient, like a well run firm.
The only good thing to come out of it was science fiction which was the literary expression of the technocratic movement in the US.
The rest is ruin, failure, inflation and theft in the name of making things better.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 05, 2023 09:58 AM (xhaym)

Yeah. I think this is still underappreciated. Prob because it is still playing out. The ideologies you mentioned were all premised on the assumption that the Corporation was the way forward. And should become the model for the State. Of course, the idea "corporation" had diff definitions resulting in the various flavors. To me, Italian Fascism had the most historically cogent ideas about what Corporations were. The Communists had the least histprically cogent one. Salazar while being "technocratic" in many ways pretty much rejected all of it.

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 10:11 AM (1ais2)

138 A review can be part of a discussion, or even the subject of a discussion, but a review is not a discussion.

Posted by: mrp at February 05, 2023 10:11 AM (rj6Yv)

139 So does ChatGPT write the five-star reviews for household products (vacuum cleaners and suchlike) sold at Amazon? Because I find those incredibly helpful.

(do I really need a sarc tag here?)

Posted by: Muldoon at February 05, 2023 10:11 AM (ykeLU)

140 One thing which I believe should be more well known is that the Nazis were pretty pathetic, really. Not the Germans, the Nazis. Hitler kind of strolled into a power vacuum and wound up in charge of one of Europe's most powerful nations. But the Nazis "didn't build that" to quote another Socialist. They stole, they wrecked, and they ultimately destroyed Germany. When you look at any individual Nazi leader, they were none of them especially bright or talented. They were failures who joined that party precisely because they'd never make it in any real profession.

Posted by: Trimegistus at February 05, 2023 10:04 AM (QZxDR)
---
Schleicher put the Nazis in power to discredit them so they he could solidify his faction. It didn't work out that way.

Interestingly, the Basic Law now prohibits the President from dissolving Bundestag. The only way a "snap election" can be forced in Germany is if the Chancellor calls for it - clearly a reaction against the revolving door of governments under Weimar.

The problem is that this is how you get the current situation where creaky coalition whose policies are hugely unpopular gets a full term in office.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 10:11 AM (llXky)

141 It's a good thing they got it done while they could.
Posted by: fd at February 05, 2023 09:56 AM (iayUP)

The thousands who died probably wouldn't think so.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 10:11 AM (QBaJw)

142 I never realized academic advancement was that competitive.
Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 10:05 AM (QBaJw)

---
You really have no idea...

Posted by: Archchancellor Ridcully of Unseen University at February 05, 2023 10:12 AM (BpYfr)

143 80 The obvious first suspect in British Murder Mystery is never the killer.

Posted by: That Northern skulker at February 05, 2023 09:45 AM (eGTCV)
----
Come on, everyone knows it's the butler, sheesh!

Posted by: Ciampino - candlesticks at February 05, 2023 10:12 AM (qfLjt)

144 When you look at any individual Nazi leader, they were none of them especially bright or talented. They were failures who joined that party precisely because they'd never make it in any real profession.
Posted by: Trimegistus at February 05, 2023 10:04 AM (QZxDR)

And the WEF billionaire leaders on the other hand tend to be bright, often talented (especially at growing their businesses) yet, want the same control and domination that the nazis desired.

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 10:12 AM (Zzbjj)

145 So does ChatGPT write the five-star reviews for household products (vacuum cleaners and suchlike) sold at Amazon? Because I find those incredibly helpful.

(do I really need a sarc tag here?)
Posted by: Muldoon at February 05, 2023 10:11 AM (ykeLU)

What we really need is a chatbot that writes three star reviews. The five stars are no more helpful (this is the best thing ever!) than the one starts (this is the worst thing ever!)

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 10:13 AM (QBaJw)

146 the last part was hersh's commentary

who wrote a roman a clef about the company, which is complementary old boys, only extends to the 60s

Posted by: no 6 at February 05, 2023 10:13 AM (PXvVL)

147 Inspector Morse would have been busy investigating burglaries and tax cheats.
Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse

*******

Which might explain the late night mopey solo drinking binges and listening to mournful Italian opera.

Posted by: Muldoon at February 05, 2023 10:14 AM (ykeLU)

148 I read "NEVER" by Ken Follet last year.

The only Ken Follett I’ve read is On Wings of Eagles, which was riveting and fascinating. It covers a private rescue attempt during the Iran hostage crisis of individuals not in the embassy but still held in Iran. It was one that really happened, but that I was unfamiliar with and so unlike other such stories did not know the ending.

It was so exciting and well written I don’t quite trust it to be accurate—it seems to perfect to be real.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at February 05, 2023 10:14 AM (EXyHK)

149 Gonna start Robert Graysmiths "Zodiac".

Posted by: BignJames at February 05, 2023 10:15 AM (AwYPR)

150 Posted by: Trimegistus at February 05, 2023 10:04 AM (QZxDR)

And the WEF billionaire leaders on the other hand tend to be bright, often talented (especially at growing their businesses) yet, want the same control and domination that the nazis desired.
Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 10:12 AM (Zzbjj)

What WILL happen, if this thing is carried out to its expected conclusion, is the toady politicians who are put in power by the oligarchs, will eventually figure out the oligarchs are more of a threat to them than the common people.

There will be slaughtered oligarchs all over the wood paneling.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 10:15 AM (QBaJw)

151 the Nazis were a technocratic death cult

they worked with other nationalists, like the Ustachi, the Vichy Cagoule, the OUN who hated the jews as much, as well as Arafat's uncle, who rallied the Moslems all through out the regions,

Posted by: no 6 at February 05, 2023 10:16 AM (PXvVL)

152 Something seriously changed in the Reacher character when Andrew Child became part of the writing team.Before He is honorable, smart, and uses his physical prowess to protect. Bad guys get maimed but rarely die. It's not like he travels like a hobo armed.
The last couple of books, it is not the crime/mystery that is most important but unending thuggish aggression especially the last one.
I would say stick to the ones written by Lee Child alone and forget any written with Andrew Child.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at February 05, 2023 10:16 AM (Y+l9t)

153 140 One thing which I believe should be more well known is that the Nazis were pretty pathetic, really. Not the Germans, the Nazis. Hitler kind of strolled into a power vacuum and wound up in charge of one of Europe's most powerful nations. But the Nazis "didn't build that" to quote another Socialist. They stole, they wrecked, and they ultimately destroyed Germany. When you look at any individual Nazi leader, they were none of them especially bright or talented. They were failures who joined that party precisely because they'd never make it in any real profession.

Posted by: Trimegistus at February 05, 2023 10:04 AM (QZxDR)
---

I get what you are saying. I do. But idk it seems silly at the same time. No one alive at the time thought this. It took a massive coalition to defeat them. But yeah, they were deviant freaks. That really doesn't close the case as to competence though.

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 10:17 AM (1ais2)

154 Is atheism dead and the Panama Canal book are going in my cart! Thanks for excellent recommendations from people whose opinions I trust ( or at least understand).

I’m reading Great Expectations as the next in my “classic books I always said I’d read someday but never have” project. Unlike a few others I’ve read (Middlemarch and Jane Eyre) , this one grabbed my attention immediately with its vivid descriptions of quirky but realistic characters and action as seen through a young boys eyes.

Posted by: LASue at February 05, 2023 10:17 AM (Ed8Zd)

155 Posted by: Trimegistus at February 05, 2023 10:04 AM
That's what I get from reading and watching early Nazi history also.

Posted by: Skip at February 05, 2023 10:17 AM (xhxe8)

156 I'm reading "The Last Hill". The Ranger 2nd Battalion has just entered the Huertgen Forest.

Posted by: mrp at February 05, 2023 10:18 AM (rj6Yv)

157 Do you have any bitter disinherited bastard children running about?"
Posted by: 2009Refugee

********

Ha! Yeah, they'd have it solved by the first commercial break.

Posted by: Muldoon at February 05, 2023 10:18 AM (ykeLU)

158 Hot Coffee!!!...Sarah Hoyt month...reading another Monster Hunter "Guardian" and just got the Darkship Renegades 2...to follow!!!

Posted by: Qmark at February 05, 2023 10:18 AM (+t9Oi)

159 In the Thames valley, near Oxford, there is a murder about once every ten years.

Inspector Morse would have been busy investigating burglaries and tax cheats.
Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at February 05, 2023 10:11 AM (nFV+K)

These days I assume he'd be investigating students who misgendered other students. And the occasional stash of fentanyl found near the ivy.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 10:18 AM (QBaJw)

160 There are so many reproductions of naval sextants out there, as well as modernized ones, that it's hard to know what is best or at least adequate.

There are tons of instructions and videos about how to make a simple sextant from a school protractor and a straight edge. Have him start with that to learn the concept and then give him a nice, but not too nice to use, replica.

Posted by: Oddbob at February 05, 2023 10:18 AM (nfrXX)

161 77 ... Sabrina Chase,
Thanks for letting us know about the Red Wolf: Exile part 2 released on Friday. Just got my copy.

Posted by: JTB at February 05, 2023 10:18 AM (7EjX1)

162 I get what you are saying. I do. But idk it seems silly at the same time. No one alive at the time thought this. It took a massive coalition to defeat them. But yeah, they were deviant freaks. That really doesn't close the case as to competence though.
Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 10:17 AM (1ais2)

Again, I would suggest, look at your OWN leaders, currently running thins in your OWN country, right now.

Is competence a word that comes to mind?

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 10:20 AM (QBaJw)

163
There will be slaughtered oligarchs all over the wood paneling.
Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 10:15 AM (QBaJw)

I will be rather pleased by this. I've been watching the 15 minute city crap in Britain waiting for a backlash.

I found what I've read by Schwab to have a distinct formula when it comes to manipulation. Cagey really.

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 10:20 AM (Zzbjj)

164 well schwab is very well connected, perhaps because of his father's company, he earned his ma from harvard under kissinger, hobnobbed with dr strangelove, herman kahn and galbraith buckleys old gstaad pal, part of the survey unit on the bombings ambassador to India, where he groveled to China, his fathers company, provided material to the South African nuclear program, is that good or a bad thing,

he's been on his long march for some time, in parallel to Ehrlich and the Club of Rome, George Soros was late to this Legion of Doom, maybe after he made his first billion,

Posted by: no 6 at February 05, 2023 10:21 AM (PXvVL)

165 102
Posted by: Muldoon at February 05, 2023 09:56 AM (ykeLU)
----
Caserta, with one S.
Been there when my uncle was stationed therein the Customs & Excise department in the later 50s.

Posted by: Ciampino -- candlesticks at February 05, 2023 10:21 AM (qfLjt)

166 Which might explain the late night mopey solo drinking binges and listening to mournful Italian opera.
Posted by: Muldoon at February 05, 2023 10:14 AM (ykeLU)

You know, one of the things that made the Endeavor prequel show difficult to watch, is knowing that the old man died alone, never having married, never having children of his own.

So here's the young Morse, canoodling with various gals during the run of HIS show, and we know he's doomed to failure. He doesn't know it, but we do.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 10:22 AM (QBaJw)

167
While a truly thinking intelligent AI is a terrifying prospect,

I think the real issue as exemplified by ChatGPT is the "close enough for gov't work" factor.

It seems to me that with a big enough data base and a strong set of conversational, grammatical, and human behavioral rules,

you could have an "AI" that fools, say 95% of the people 95% of the time. And with Our LowIQ Lazy Betters make that 99.9% at 99.9% of the time.

Like COVID, they seem likely to loose an untested and unproven non-AI "AI" on the world in systems they control, like energy or the military.

ChatGPT has already shown us in a kinda of funny way some of the results for such a device. You can't control everything (ie. the problem with communism/socialism) and can't control all of the logic paths an "AI" might take.

Posted by: naturalfake at February 05, 2023 10:22 AM (KLPy8)

168 I should be more clear. I worry that the incompetents in positions making Operational and Strategic decisions have come to rely on AI for "should" rather than "can". Obv a human mind cannot perform the "can we?" analysis at these levels. But it seems the very conception of whatever this thing is as an "intelligence" means they want it to make "should" decisions. Computers make "can" decisions. AI makes other kinds of decisions. If AI is an actual thing, idk, I doubt it.
Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 09:54 AM (1ais2)

there are a number of short stories, where idiots depend on the machinery to do things like fly spaceships so they can get on with stuff they like doing better

No Moving Parts by Murray Yaco

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25078

Posted by: Kindltot at February 05, 2023 10:22 AM (xhaym)

169 Again, I would suggest, look at your OWN leaders, currently running thins in your OWN country, right now.

Is competence a word that comes to mind?
Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 10:20 AM (QBaJw)

Well, yes it does, because I don't impute my policy or strategic desires to them.

So yes, yes, absolutely I think Lawfare types and Hillary neolib warmongers and neocon warmongers are competent.

Losing (even badly) doesn't coincide with incompetence.

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 10:23 AM (1ais2)

170 The "no comment" from ChatGPT in response to a prompt for a negative review echoes it's response to a prompt for a positive piece about Trump by a Twitter user.

Both may be in response to a ChatGPT issue discovered a couple of weeks ago by another Twitter user and publicized on Twitter. Namely, ChatGPT had a bad habit of putting out actionable libel when asked for a general opinion of various well-known conservatives.

It looks like the devs responded by putting in the claim of neutrality, which is indeed a lie, for times when they can't bear to have it say something positive and/or don't dare have it say anything negative.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 05, 2023 10:24 AM (nC+QA)

171 unlike teddy savalas's version of blofeld from majestys secret service, he has millions of acolytes all through out the institution like that multi dimensional chess board in star trek,

Posted by: no 6 at February 05, 2023 10:24 AM (PXvVL)

172 There will be slaughtered oligarchs all over the wood paneling.
Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 10:15 AM (QBaJw)

I will be rather pleased by this. I've been watching the 15 minute city crap in Britain waiting for a backlash.

I found what I've read by Schwab to have a distinct formula when it comes to manipulation. Cagey really.
Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 10:20 AM (Zzbjj)

You and I won't be here, when the oligarchs get theirs. We will already be crumbling, crushed bones, making dust under the treads of their machines.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 10:25 AM (QBaJw)

173 109 @94 --

Which Saint story?

"The Melancholy Journey of Mr. Teal," the last story in the book "The Saint vs. Scotland Yard."

Simon is after a packet of smuggled diamonds. The story leads into the next book, "Getaway.",

Posted by: Weak Geek at February 05, 2023 09:59 AM (Om/di)
----
Yes, what memories that brings back. I had all the Saint books in paperback in the 60s. Somewhere I have a bunch in eBook format. Loved them. I was in literary love with Patricia Holm and loved the NY character Hoppy Uniatz.

Posted by: Ciampino --- candlesticks at February 05, 2023 10:27 AM (qfLjt)

174 When looking at whether leaders are competent, one has to keep in mind that there are multiple skill sets involved in this determination. For example, someone might be a very good retail politician but a policy disaster. Stanley Baldwin comes to mind - built a massive Tory majority but governed terribly.

One of the lessons of China is that their primary concern is and always has been defeating internal enemies. These they know well, but they don't fully understand the West.

They also tend towards decadence and arrogance with each passing generation (gosh, sounds familiar), so you get the wise old victor, but his kids are spoiled brats. We see this in the West as well. Whether you want to look at the Clintons, Bidens, Bushs or whatnon - the parents were savvy and ruthless, their kids are useless tools.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 10:27 AM (llXky)

175 They stole, they wrecked, and they ultimately destroyed Germany. When you look at any individual Nazi leader, they were none of them especially bright or talented. They were failures who joined that party precisely because they'd never make it in any real profession.

Posted by: Trimegistus at February 05, 2023 10:04 AM (QZxDR)

I'd argue that the Nazis didn't "wreck" Germany. The Allied coalition wrecked and destroyed Germany in self-defense. The German-speaking peoples of Europe were on board, especially after the dissidents were murdered, imprisoned, or exiled. Even the Netherlands, France, and Spain sent sizeable military contingents to fight for the Nazis. Europe still hasn't fully recovered from the carnage. I only got halfway through "The Savage Continent" and dropped it. More misery and brutality than I could handle at the time. Thumbs up for Thesokorus.

Posted by: mrp at February 05, 2023 10:28 AM (rj6Yv)

176 I am currently reading "The Last Headbangers" a treatiste on the 1970s NFL beginning with the run dominant era and highlighting the rise of Bill Walsh at the end. Kevin Cook essentially unleashes his inner moonbat in several spots, especially in the telling of the legend of Joe Gilliam.

The Joe Gilliam saga is sort of a parable and foreshadowing of the modern era actually, the difference being that in the end in the 70s the powers that be demanded perfomance and now as Colon Kaspernaski shows they try to demand we look past it.

44.4% completion percentage over his career, with twice as many picks as scores....of course he lost the job to Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw based solely on race.

The book on whole tells a lot of things that a lot of fans may or may not already know including some minutiae on the cheating tactics of the Raiders. Entire successful squads of relatively normal players like the KC Chiefs, and the St Louis Cardinals get almost completely ignored to tell the story of the Cowboys, Steelers, and Raiders with intermittent sprinklings of their divisional rivals. In the end it was the last era of approachable football players.

Posted by: sven at February 05, 2023 10:28 AM (Lzpvj)

177 I never realized academic advancement was that competitive.
Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 10:05 AM (QBaJw)

Sayre's Law: The politics of the university are so intense because the stakes are so low.

It is often attributed to Kissinger, but he was by no means the first to say it.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 05, 2023 10:28 AM (eOEVl)

178 well they are competent in destruction, but building up that's a whole other issue,

Posted by: no 6 at February 05, 2023 10:29 AM (PXvVL)

179 In a way, I guess he *did* live in a prison made by his own fears of being tracked down and executed for his crimes.

*******

For those familiar with The Curious Disappearance of Seamus Muldoon, this was one of the reasons for me to write the book. Although much of it was a memoir of my F-I-L, we hoped it would also serve to unsettle the killer and make it so he would be persona non grata in civil society anywhere (since the Sheriff wasn't going to pursue the case). Last I knew the guy was living in a mobile home with his mother somewhere in TX. A prison of his own making.

Posted by: Muldoon at February 05, 2023 10:29 AM (ykeLU)

180 Come on, everyone knows it's the butler, sheesh!

Posted by: Ciampino - candlesticks at February 05, 2023 10:12 AM (qfLjt)

You know, "the butler did it!" probably was a shock and a great twist at the beginning of the genre, because -

the butler was such a non-entity. The loyal servant in the background important only because of his loyal service to His Betters, who were the important people.

It'd be like an Agatha Christie mystery where the dog committed the murder.

Bu-u-u-t, changes in society rendered that all moot. Except for AI! ala "I, Robot".

Posted by: naturalfake at February 05, 2023 10:30 AM (KLPy8)

181 You know, one of the things that made the Endeavor prequel show difficult to watch, is knowing that the old man died alone, never having married, never having children of his own.

So here's the young Morse, canoodling with various gals during the run of HIS show, and we know he's doomed to failure. He doesn't know it, but we do.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 10:22 AM (QBaJw)
---
This is why prequels are a terrible idea. They can only work if the focus is on someone else and the "main" character is a bit part player.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 10:30 AM (llXky)

182 The German Workers Party was full of 3/4 wits who felt they had a birthright to power and wrapped themselves in socialist pretensions to make sure to make themselves rhetorically unassailable.

Sound like anyone anyone knows?

Posted by: sven at February 05, 2023 10:30 AM (Lzpvj)

183 kissinger was depicted reasonably, accurately by walter matthau, in fail safe,

Posted by: no 6 at February 05, 2023 10:30 AM (PXvVL)

184 Simple rule regarding British murder mysteries on TV. The murderer is usually is the second or third person in a brief interview by the detectives.

Posted by: dantesed at February 05, 2023 10:30 AM (88xKn)

185 Whether you want to look at the Clintons, Bidens, Bushs or whatnon - the parents were savvy and ruthless, their kids are useless tools.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 10:27 AM (llXky)

I was going to be a pediatric neurosurgeon, but when I found out how much work was involved, I decided I'd rather interview animated advertising mascots while corporations funneled gigantic sums into my bank account based on my last name.

Posted by: Howdy Doody Clinton at February 05, 2023 10:31 AM (4HBmu)

186 Yeah. I think this is still underappreciated. Prob because it is still playing out. The ideologies you mentioned were all premised on the assumption that the Corporation was the way forward. And should become the model for the State.

But those who push that theory have already demonstrated that they have no faith in it working - ergo, the regulatory state.

If corporations, in their mind, was wholesome, altruistic and beneficial to society, then there would be no need for a multi-trillion dollar regulatory state to constrain the natural impulses of industry.

What they imply is that regulators are perfect reflections of the Mind and Will of God, everyone else are heretics, blasphemers and reprobates.

Posted by: Reuben Hick at February 05, 2023 10:31 AM (l7lsb)

187 It seems to me that with a big enough data base and a strong set of conversational, grammatical, and human behavioral rules,

you could have an "AI" that fools, say 95% of the people 95% of the time. And with Our LowIQ Lazy Betters make that 99.9% at 99.9% of the time.

Larson spends a fair amount of time showing how a few very simple questions will flummox even the most advanced "AI". It's a matter of making the questions something it can't look up on Google. For example, can alligators run a steeplechase.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 05, 2023 10:32 AM (eOEVl)

188 I'd argue that the Nazis didn't "wreck" Germany. The Allied coalition wrecked and destroyed Germany in self-defense.
Posted by: mrp at February 05, 2023 10:28 AM (rj6Yv)

All of this becomes rather pointless argument.

I think the point that WAS being made though, is that these people, on their own, were not some type of supergeniuses who created a world of hyper-competence.

Unless you call being a savage, sociopathic monster a kind of competence. No, like modern America, the German "leadership" of that era were not the types who were going to run an effective state. They inherited a state that was in disrepair, due to a prior war (and ridiculous peace terms), and were able to keep the machine running. For a time.

War was in many ways, the solution to their problem, not the cause of their downfall.

The lesson for us now is, to examine whether these current boobs who are our "leaders," are going to kill us all first or last, with their incompetence. That they might be competent at kills us all, is not the point.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 10:32 AM (QBaJw)

189 179 Muldoon read that like it was a Saturday matinee with every scene acted out over and changed.

Posted by: Skip at February 05, 2023 10:33 AM (xhxe8)

190 121 One thing which I believe should be more well known is that the Nazis were pretty pathetic, really. Not the Germans, the Nazis. Hitler kind of strolled into a power vacuum and wound up in charge of one of Europe's most powerful nations.
========
That is the verdict of history, written after the fact. But I must say in counter that I've read Mein Kampf, and I've read Churchill's extensive memoir of WW II. In neither work does Nazi political theory or its application come across as pathetic, weak-minded, dull or talentless. Hitler clearly stated his goals in his book, which was a best-seller in Germany and helped propel the party's growth. Yes, Hitler and his party took advantage of the weaknesses of the Weimar constitution, but they were there to take said advantage, and once in power Hitler began working on his previously published agenda. Churchill spent the better part of a decade warning against Nazi power and expansion, but the UK was barely ready in time. If FDR hadn't ordered American armament and bent tradition to stay around and see it through, if Churchill hadn't been appointed PM, the world we know today would be different.

Posted by: exdem13 at February 05, 2023 10:33 AM (W+kMI)

191 You and I won't be here, when the oligarchs get theirs. We will already be crumbling, crushed bones, making dust under the treads of their machines.
Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 10:25 AM (QBaJw)

I hope not. I may not be 29, but I am younger than many of these people.

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 10:34 AM (Zzbjj)

192 Sayre's Law, eh?

First time I ran across that comment was eons ago in somebody's interview with the late great Robert B. Parker in which he commented on his days teaching in college before he started selling the Spenser novels.

I've been attributing that one to Parker ever since...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at February 05, 2023 10:36 AM (a/4+U)

193 As far as reading list now:

Peter Zelhan - "The End of the World is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization"

James Rickards - "Sold Out: How Broken Supply Chains, Surgin Inflation, and Political Instability Will sink the Global Economy"

Terry Etam - "The End Of Fossil Fuel Insanity: Clearing the Air Before Cleaning the Air"

This cocktail of books provides a much more nuanced view of globalism, Supply Chain 2.0, demographics and where hydrocarbon energy fits in.

Posted by: Reuben Hick at February 05, 2023 10:36 AM (l7lsb)

194 I didn't take it at all seriously but the setting was lovely; the people were generally attractive and I enjoyed the Caribbean Lil. Pure fluff but I liked it.
Posted by: That Northern skulker at February 05, 2023 09:25 AM (eGTCV)

I agree. Pure fluff and nonsense, but fun. And Josephine Jobert sure was easy on the eyes.

On the literary front, I started reading Castaways of Lilliput to my 7 year old grandson. He’s enjoying it as I told him to imagine himself in the predicament of the three children. He should use his imagination as the book progresses. Let’s see if it keeps his interest.
It also gives me a chance to help him expand his vocabulary.

Posted by: RetSgtRn at February 05, 2023 10:36 AM (RqUF/)

195 [ii]Caserta, with one S.
Posted by: Ciampino

******

Thanks. I'll be sure to let my deceased dad know he misspelled an obscure Italian place name while hunkered down on an LST approaching Anzio beach the next time I visit the cemetery.

Posted by: Muldoon at February 05, 2023 10:37 AM (ykeLU)

196 I'm reading "The Devil and Karl Marx: Communism's Long March of Death, Deception, and Infiltration"
By: Paul Kengor
This rates up there with "The Black Book of Communism" as one of the great critiques of Marx and his followers. Unfortunately, it is difficult reading as one is forced to review and again endure the many insults against humankind historically committed by the true believers of Marx (still in progress).

Posted by: gourmand du jour at February 05, 2023 10:37 AM (jTmQV)

197 kissinger was depicted reasonably, accurately by walter matthau, in fail safe,
Posted by: no 6 at February 05, 2023 10:30 AM (PXvVL)

Kissinger is the greatest villain of the 20th century who has not yet been exposed for the monster he is.

And once he finally stops wasting air, he will get a hero's sendoff.

God won't be as forgiving.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 10:38 AM (QBaJw)

198 What they imply is that regulators are perfect reflections of the Mind and Will of God, everyone else are heretics, blasphemers and reprobates.

Posted by: Reuben Hick at February 05, 2023 10:31 AM (l7lsb)
---
One of the challenges of building a Coalition of the Amoral is that they are, you know, amoral. At some point, they will have to fight over the steering wheel.

Having taken control of Spain, the various Popular Front factions then turned on each other - they couldn't even wait to win the Spanish Civil War.

As my soon-to-be-published book notes, China actually had a three-way civil war going on in 1937. There was a "collaborator" government (run by a Communist) that drew upon Japanese support and disgruntled warlords to consolidate power.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 10:39 AM (llXky)

199 I am very disappointed. In a transparent bid for attention on Twitter I put up my first finished pixel art figure (a Medusa) with the caption that she was the final boss in my sheep gathering game and, even though a couple of people "liked" it no one asked *how* one ends up with Medusa as the final boss in a sheep gathering game.

And in terms of reading/writing, I'm still trying to decide how the action with her plays out. The game isn't really focused on fighting bosses, so there's the possibility of some sort of understanding being reached. If so, it will need to be done in less than 100 words.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 05, 2023 10:40 AM (nC+QA)

200 So just read the freaking thing. --Werewife

This is perhaps the most incisive and compelling book review I've ever seen. And it is concise.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at February 05, 2023 10:41 AM (jYCXf)

201 Theoskorus, if you want a learned opinion of Italian Fascism, you want to listen to the lectures of Ralph Raico, or read his essays. Per Raico, Fascism was a way to get the Anarchists and the business owners on the same side, and stop ripping Italy apart. Of course that meant the government wound up controlling it all as a "neutral referee" which probably was the whole point, and as the sole director it created a mismanaged mess that would collapse with or without a world war and invasion.
I think at one point he said that the Italian Fascist state was not as murderous as Nazism, but was also incompetent to run as much as a gelato stand

Posted by: Kindltot at February 05, 2023 10:41 AM (xhaym)

202 This is why prequels are a terrible idea. They can only work if the focus is on someone else and the "main" character is a bit part player.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 10:30 AM (llXky)

The Endeavour programs that I saw were much darker but worked rather well, and developed the early life of the socially conflicted Morse. I watched the Lewis series when it first came out, and prefer Lewis the man to Morse.

What I don't really want to see is Gatsby sequels and prequels. I also dislike the recent dreadful Christie adaptations, especially Malkovich as Poirot.

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 10:41 AM (Zzbjj)

203 186 Yeah. I think this is still underappreciated. Prob because it is still playing out. The ideologies you mentioned were all premised on the assumption that the Corporation was the way forward. And should become the model for the State.

But those who push that theory have already demonstrated that they have no faith in it working - ergo, the regulatory state.

If corporations, in their mind, was wholesome, altruistic and beneficial to society, then there would be no need for a multi-trillion dollar regulatory state to constrain the natural impulses of industry.

What they imply is that regulators are perfect reflections of the Mind and Will of God, everyone else are heretics, blasphemers and reprobates.
Posted by: Reuben Hick at February 05, 2023 10:31 AM (l7lsb)

Regulatory capture is unavoidable sadly. The big Corps use the regulatory state. It was created by ppl in opposition to the ideologies we are discussing.

Biden's (Obama's) public/private partnerships is really meant (i think) to make boardrooms the seat of government (world gov).

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 10:42 AM (1ais2)

204 Now he wants a sextant for his birthday.

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 09:17 AM (Zzbjj)

That is very cool.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 05, 2023 10:42 AM (nC+QA)

205 I finished reading "The Bandit at Hell's Bend" and started Burroughs' Moon cycle, with "The Moon Maid" and "The Moon Men".
"The Bandit at Hell's Bend" is a light, easy read, and has contrived misunderstandings, like a soap opera. Still, the characters have some personality and the action is fun.
"The Moon Maid" and especially "The Moon Men" are quite different. While "The Moon Maid" is still mostly a light romp, it ends on an ominous note. Cannibalism plays a greater part than I would have liked. "The Moon Men" is much more serious than most Burroughs novels and touches upon something very profound and true.
Despite what I wrote last time, all these novels seem to be hosted on Project Gutenberg Australia, but apparently they are also out of copyright in the US.

Posted by: PG at February 05, 2023 10:43 AM (84jHt)

206 []Muldoon read that like it was a Saturday matinee with every scene acted out over and changed.
Posted by: Skip

*******

Thanks Skip. I had fun writing each chapter and telling the story with elements of the core events, mixed in with the speculative "What if?" bits.

Posted by: Muldoon at February 05, 2023 10:44 AM (ykeLU)

207 One of the challenges of building a Coalition of the Amoral is that they are, you know, amoral. At some point, they will have to fight over the steering wheel.

Having taken control of Spain, the various Popular Front factions then turned on each other - they couldn't even wait to win the Spanish Civil War.

c.f. Mensheviks vs. Bolsheviks, and Girondins vs. Montagnards.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 05, 2023 10:44 AM (eOEVl)

208 I'm off to church, thanks for the thread, Perfessor!

Posted by: gourmand du jour at February 05, 2023 10:45 AM (jTmQV)

209
That is very cool.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 05, 2023 10:42 AM (nC+QA)

I think so, too!

So I bought the recommended Mark III, but I also bought a brass reproduction sextant, which is probably what he is expecting as a sextant. Carry On, Mr. Bowditch was a great hit, written in the 50s, it does not carry any PC garbage in its pages.

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 10:45 AM (Zzbjj)

210 One of the challenges of looking at Nazis in particular is the tendency for people to mythologize them as either actual supermen or lucky dolts or the most evil human beings ever.

Franco was not a fascist, but because he took help from Germany and Italy, that made him a Bad Man. The thing is, giving the crazy state of world politics at that time, there were solid reasons to work with both states. Churchill desperately wanted to keep Mussolini in the Allied camp. Was he wrong? Was that bad?

In Asia, Japan is the Absolute Worst as far as China is concerned, but Japan's involvement was highly complex. We look at the Rape of Nanking as an outrage (which it was) but the Chinese had been doing things like that to themselves forever. What was shocking was that the Japanese *knew better.* They had fought a "clean" war against China in 1895. Outside a single incident, European observers lauded their humane conduct.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 10:45 AM (llXky)

211 What they imply is that regulators are perfect reflections of the Mind and Will of God, everyone else are heretics, blasphemers and reprobates.
Posted by: Reuben Hick

=====

Mind and Will of God? We're better than that.

Posted by: The Regulators at February 05, 2023 10:46 AM (8AONa)

212 The Endeavour programs that I saw were much darker but worked rather well, and developed the early life of the socially conflicted Morse. I watched the Lewis series when it first came out, and prefer Lewis the man to Morse.

What I don't really want to see is Gatsby sequels and prequels. I also dislike the recent dreadful Christie adaptations, especially Malkovich as Poirot.
Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 10:41 AM (Zzbjj)

I did enjoy watching the Endeavor series as well, with much of what was being done as an interesting character study of the man. I just found it somewhat distracting, when he'd take up with some dame, acting like he'd found the love of his life... which didn't exist, was never going to exist.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 10:46 AM (QBaJw)

213 I think the point that WAS being made though, is that these people, on their own, were not some type of supergeniuses who created a world of hyper-competence.

-BurTC

Who here claims that the Nazis were "supergeniuses"? Since when has it been necessary to for a country's political class to turn a defeated state into an international powerhouse? America is a superpower, and it has become so for many reasons and I don't think we've gotten this far because we picked "supergeniuses" for our political leadership.

Posted by: mrp at February 05, 2023 10:46 AM (rj6Yv)

214 While a good neo-futurist (I hate the term "steampunk") romp is my very favorite reading, I've been holding back on Foundryside in apprehension about its politics; the cover and blurbs make it seem like yet another vehicle for THE MESSAGE(TM). Please review it for us, Perfesser, and I promise to stop chasing your relatives up the palm trees!

Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at February 05, 2023 10:47 AM (SPNTN)

215 When the main Chinese admiral committed suicide while under Japanese blockade, the Japanese not only allowed his body to depart under a flag of truce but also fired a full salute in his honor.

A lot of the wartime arrangements both East and West were based on pragmatic concerns and - contra our simplistic look at history - there were no angels to side with.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 10:48 AM (llXky)

216 The Devil and Karl Marx: Communism's Long March of Death, Deception, and Infiltration"
That would be a good next read

Posted by: Skip at February 05, 2023 10:48 AM (xhxe8)

217 Posted by: Thomas Paine at February 05, 2023 09:21 AM (oV4L9)

Patricia Wentworth is another. She wrote the *other* elderly knitting sleuth Miss Maude Silver. A former governess, one of her charges is now a rising local police official which gives her an "in" on some cases. Others she stumbles into out of friendliness and interest in people. Eventually people consult her as her investigation business gets established and former clients refer her.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 05, 2023 10:50 AM (nC+QA)

218 I'd like to see CjatGPT parse a multi-layered limerick with a pun ending, like this one (remember when Donna Brazile feed Hillary debate questions ahead of time?:

It seemed like a really big deal
With the Dem nomination to steal
Here's what I'm thinking
Her campaign was sinking
So they tossed her a buoy from Brazile

Posted by: Muldoon at February 05, 2023 10:50 AM (ykeLU)

219 210 Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 10:45 AM (llXky)

Fascism was the sexy new thing when it came to Benny M and the Dagos. FDR feted him up until about 37, and his cabinet looked at the fusion of the government and industry longingly. Be happy to provide cites upon request, and I can also review "FDR's Folly" if asked.

Nations can go insane in about 12 years at the drop of a hat, the only defense is a moral populace that punishes politicians who go berzerk ruthlessly. The Imperial Japanese military conducted itself to the edge of diplomatic norms but with interpersonal morality that was damn near faultless in the 1890s to the 1920s.

They got greedy and started feeling like they were up against a pretty bad shot clock and started taking shortcuts.

I look back on the 19-teens and the 20-teens and I get depressed.

Posted by: sven at February 05, 2023 10:50 AM (Lzpvj)

220 Aaack. "Since when has it been necessary for a country's political class to achieve "supergenius" status in order to turn a defeated state into an international powerhouse?"

The editor has been sacked.

Posted by: mrp at February 05, 2023 10:50 AM (rj6Yv)

221 It seems to me that with a big enough data base and a strong set of conversational, grammatical, and human behavioral rules,

you could have an "AI" that fools, say 95% of the people 95% of the time. And with Our LowIQ Lazy Betters make that 99.9% at 99.9% of the time.

Larson spends a fair amount of time showing how a few very simple questions will flummox even the most advanced "AI". It's a matter of making the questions something it can't look up on Google. For example, can alligators run a steeplechase.
Posted by: Archimedes at February 05, 2023 10:32 AM (eOEVl)

Well, maybe. But, there's an easy write around for things like that.

If the AI finds nothing in the database, just have it says something along the lines of-

"There's nothing in the database regarding alligators and steeplechases. So, I have no opinion on that."

That would be the polite AI way to give the probable thinking human answer which would be something along the lines of-

"What world are you living in? alligators don't run steeplechases."

And if the rules of conversation were sophisticated enough, you might get a similar answer.

Not a kill shot proof.

Posted by: naturalfake at February 05, 2023 10:50 AM (KLPy8)

222
I think at one point he said that the Italian Fascist state was not as murderous as Nazism, but was also incompetent to run as much as a gelato stand
Posted by: Kindltot at February 05, 2023 10:41 AM (xhaym)

I haven't seen that before. Thanks. I have read quite a bit about Italian Fascism. I was referring specifically to the Italians historical understanding of Corporations. That was accurate and sophisticated. They knew it went back to the Guilds and the Middle Ages. When they said "Corporatism" they had a very diff thing in mind than we would have.

As to Italian Fascist competence? I think they were very competent and merely ran out of time or acted too soon. Italy was growing v strong industrially and was adored by US industrialists.

My fav book about Mhssolini is Nick Farrell's fwiw.

Also, fwiw i don't think "Fascism" is a thing.

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 10:50 AM (1ais2)

223 Kissinger is the greatest villain of the 20th century who has not yet been exposed for the monster he is.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 10:38 AM (QBaJw)
---
Do tell.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 10:51 AM (llXky)

224 I did enjoy watching the Endeavor series as well, with much of what was being done as an interesting character study of the man. I just found it somewhat distracting, when he'd take up with some dame, acting like he'd found the love of his life... which didn't exist, was never going to exist.
Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 10:46 AM (QBaJw)

As you said, he didn't know his end. I thought, in Endeavour, he acted like someone whose time was never going to run out and he did not really invest in his relationships. I know they use the lost love, Susan, as the excuse, and that worked in Morse, while it doesn't in Endeavour. Someone who is a greater fan than I could ever be, suggested to me that Joan might be whisked off by Strange. Interesting.

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 10:51 AM (Zzbjj)

225 Who here claims that the Nazis were "supergeniuses"? Since when has it been necessary to for a country's political class to turn a defeated state into an international powerhouse? America is a superpower, and it has become so for many reasons and I don't think we've gotten this far because we picked "supergeniuses" for our political leadership.

Posted by: mrp at February 05, 2023 10:46 AM (rj6Yv)

Fine, focus on the exaggerated word I used, to once again, miss the point.

We were talking about competence. Were the Nazis competent? Sure. They were competent at grasping power and using it. They weren't competent at running a state.

Any more than our non-supergeniuses in charge of this country. Competence in all its various forms, is often ASSUMED to be present in people, simply because they are in charge. And often, it's not.

It wasn't there, then, and it isn't here, now. We're ruled by idiots.

Now feel free to parse my use of the word "idiots" if you like. I'm comfortable with it.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 10:52 AM (QBaJw)

226 216 got it, ebook

Posted by: Skip at February 05, 2023 10:53 AM (xhxe8)

227 Something seriously changed in the Reacher character when Andrew Child became part of the writing team.Before He is honorable, smart, and uses his physical prowess to protect. Bad guys get maimed but rarely die. It's not like he travels like a hobo armed.
The last couple of books, it is not the crime/mystery that is most important but unending thuggish aggression especially the last one.
I would say stick to the ones written by Lee Child alone and forget any written with Andrew Child.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice

Seconded !

Posted by: JT at February 05, 2023 10:53 AM (T4tVD)

228 Skip -

we're not gonna get malaria out thar today.

Posted by: JT at February 05, 2023 10:54 AM (T4tVD)

229 As to Italian Fascist competence? I think they were very competent and merely ran out of time or acted too soon.

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 10:50 AM (1ais2)
---
Supposedly they were able to finally break the Sicilian Mafia by virtue of using troops from the north - well out of reach.

Then the US showed up let everyone out of jail who claimed to be a political prisoner. By all account, the theft of Allied supplies in southern Italy was epic.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 10:54 AM (llXky)

230 Been on a Russian history binge this last year

Posted by: Skip at February 05, 2023 10:55 AM (xhxe8)

231 They got greedy and started feeling like they were up against a pretty bad shot clock and started taking shortcuts.

I look back on the 19-teens and the 20-teens and I get depressed.
Posted by: sven at February 05, 2023 10:50 AM (Lzpvj)

Tell us about it.

Posted by: 3d and 4th century Roman Emperors. at February 05, 2023 10:55 AM (rj6Yv)

232 Speaking of great literature, apparently in the latest episode of Velma, Fred is revealed to be both sexual. So they got that going for them.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Not a Real Simulation at February 05, 2023 10:56 AM (FVME7)

233 Was the best thing about Riders of the Sidhe the Irish mythology? I couldn't tell from the ChatGPT review.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 05, 2023 10:57 AM (Qy9+6)

234 222 Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 10:50 AM (1ais2)

Fascism is definitely a thing just not the thing we are told. Tony Blair kind of gave the game away to those who are historically minded when he invoked "the third way" which is quite literally what Benny M and the rods sold his party as. Fascism has all the stupid inefficiencies of socialism with "theoretically" less communist murder aftertaste but at the end of the day all of the systems are predicated on command economics and the coercive demand of submission by the populace and control over the minds of man.

FDR and friends loved them some third way, and WW2 properly understood is not the saga of liberty vs totalitarianism so much as a world wide experiment in how much government coercion was the right amount for the best war machine.

America won with "some, more than the UK in some ways and a lot less than the Axis."

Posted by: sven at February 05, 2023 10:57 AM (Lzpvj)

235 Who here claims that the Nazis were "supergeniuses"? Since when has it been necessary to for a country's political class to turn a defeated state into an international powerhouse? America is a superpower, and it has become so for many reasons and I don't think we've gotten this far because we picked "supergeniuses" for our political leadership.

Posted by: mrp at February 05, 2023 10:46 AM (rj6Yv)

I don't underestimate the intellectual power of our decision makers of the past. Lots of received wisdom and propaganda. Ike led a massive contingent. This is not possible absent intellectual power of a high order. Was he a Tesla? No. But you don't want a Tesla running things.

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 10:57 AM (1ais2)

236 The purpose of the regulatory state is to have the state moderate actions of an industry so the operators can act as a cartel in keeping out competitors, cheapening products and maximizing profits without fear of losing market share.

And of course the corollary: when politicians can decide what can be bought and sold, the first thing bought and sold are the politicians. Which is nice side business for the politicians.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 05, 2023 10:57 AM (xhaym)

237 195 [ii]Caserta, with one S.
Posted by: Ciampino

******

Thanks. I'll be sure to let my deceased dad know he misspelled an obscure Italian place name while hunkered down on an LST approaching Anzio beach the next time I visit the cemetery.

Posted by: Muldoon at February 05, 2023 10:37 AM (ykeLU)
----
LOL, you made me smile. I corrected that as I didn't know that it's what was in the diary but could have been your typo. Also I'm afraid I'm a spelling Nazi - after having had a very strict and disciplined English teacher (and me not being English).

Posted by: Ciampino - Anzio and Nettuno were tough at February 05, 2023 10:57 AM (qfLjt)

238 I'm done with the Reacher books unless/until Lee Child goes back to writing them ALONE !

Posted by: JT at February 05, 2023 10:57 AM (T4tVD)

239 We were talking about competence. Were the Nazis competent? Sure. They were competent at grasping power and using it. They weren't competent at running a state.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 10:52 AM (QBaJw)
---
Nazi incompetence particularly in armaments has been hugely undersold. Since I started to seriously study small arms I've been amazed at how jacked-up Germany was compared to the US or USSR.

Industrial-scale warfare requires maximum production for minimum resource expenditure. You want cheap, effective, durable products. Germany pissed away a fortune in steel and labor making weirdo one-off designs and it's funny that their "last ditch" stuff from 1945 was the only time they reached the level of efficiency the British, Soviets and Americans reached in 1941.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 10:58 AM (llXky)

240 My response might be more like, "Hmm. What if alligators COULD run steeplechases.

I asked a gator straight to his face
If he would ever run a steeplechase
He answered with a grin
As he toweled off his chin
'I'm a big connoisseur of the human race!"

Posted by: Muldoon at February 05, 2023 10:58 AM (ykeLU)

241 I tried ChatGPT - once. I asked it a few questions that required qualitative value judgments, and got various answers about how it's an AI and can't do that, followed by lots of the "both sides, some say" type of folderol you typically hear from the barely sentient NPCs of the conservative media ecosystem.

Those included the question "was the Soviet Union a good country?" So I immediately followed up with "was Nazi Germany a good country?"

That's when I found out ChatGPT *can* make qualitative value judgments, because it answered that one unequivocally in the negative.

At that point I told it "you can't give useful answers, but you did demonstrate that you can lie. You're quite literally worse than useless. I won't be back."

And I haven't been, and won't.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at February 05, 2023 10:59 AM (oINRc)

242 229 As to Italian Fascist competence? I think they were very competent and merely ran out of time or acted too soon.

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 10:50 AM (1ais2)
---
Supposedly they were able to finally break the Sicilian Mafia by virtue of using troops from the north - well out of reach.

Then the US showed up let everyone out of jail who claimed to be a political prisoner. By all account, the theft of Allied supplies in southern Italy was epic.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 10:54 AM (llXky)

Their airplane industry (crown jewel in many ways) was incredible and cutting edge.

Mhssolini forged a new country out of the Italians.

And then he blew it all up.

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 11:00 AM (1ais2)

243 LOL, you made me smile.
Posted by: Ciampino

******

That is (almost) always my goal.

Posted by: Muldoon at February 05, 2023 11:00 AM (ykeLU)

244 WW2 properly understood is not the saga of liberty vs totalitarianism so much as a world wide experiment in how much government coercion was the right amount for the best war machine.

Posted by: sven at February 05, 2023 10:57 AM (Lzpvj)
---
That's a very Marxist-informed take if you think about it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:00 AM (llXky)

245 Cheez, boss, t'anks!

Posted by: H. Uniatz at February 05, 2023 11:01 AM (N9xDl)

246 Well said, Sharon !

Posted by: JT at February 05, 2023 11:01 AM (T4tVD)

247 Franco was not a fascist, but because he took help from Germany and Italy, that made him a Bad Man. The thing is, giving the crazy state of world politics at that time, there were solid reasons to work with both states. Churchill desperately wanted to keep Mussolini in the Allied camp. Was he wrong? Was that bad?
[ . . . ]
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 10:45 AM (llXky)

Per a Spanish article I read, at one point in 1945 Franco was ready to declare war on Japan in response to the slaughter in Manilla of a neighborhood that was mostly Spanish.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 05, 2023 11:02 AM (xhaym)

248 Their airplane industry (crown jewel in many ways) was incredible and cutting edge.

Mhssolini forged a new country out of the Italians.

And then he blew it all up.

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 11:00 AM (1ais2)
---
Italy could have sat things out and been like Spain on steroids - all the bennies, none of the penalties.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:02 AM (llXky)

249 Who here claims that the Nazis were "supergeniuses"? Since when has it been necessary to for a country's political class to turn a defeated state into an international powerhouse? America is a superpower, and it has become so for many reasons and I don't think we've gotten this far because we picked "supergeniuses" for our political leadership.

Posted by: mrp at February 05, 2023 10:46 AM (rj6Y

My theory it only takes 10% of the total to make a difference.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 05, 2023 11:02 AM (Qy9+6)

250 213 I think the point that WAS being made though, is that these people, on their own, were not some type of supergeniuses who created a world of hyper-competence.
-BurTC
Who here claims that the Nazis were "supergeniuses"? Since when has it been necessary to for a country's political class to turn a defeated state into an international powerhouse? America is a superpower, and it has become so for many reasons and I don't think we've gotten this far because we picked "supergeniuses" for our political leadership.
=====
Agreed! The USA was not designed to be run by geniuses, nor has it been run by geniuses, despite the personal opinions of some of its leadership. Hey, we're still here and kicking. The Nazis were never as good as their propaganda, but that's the purpose of propaganda, and said propaganda often worked well for them. And as I said, without effective opposition Hitler might have won more often than he did, even without putting the Third Reich on full war production or having a long war plan ready in case blitzkrieg failed him, as it did in the skies above southern England.

Posted by: exdem13 at February 05, 2023 11:03 AM (W+kMI)

251 Been on a Russian history binge this last year
Posted by: Skip at February 05, 2023 10:55 AM (xhxe

I've read a lot of Russian history, and like Russian novels, it's more often than not that too many words are used to describe things that could have been said more concisely.

I've plugged Michael Malice's new book here a few times already, and since I'm a slow reader, I greatly appreciate his conciseness. He talks about Lenin and his rise to power, and how quickly it was abused, as it was being consolidated.

Whatever myth there is that people have today, that somehow Lenin, and later, Stalin, simply didn't have a chance to do their thing the way they wanted, well, yeah. No. They did their thing. The brutal killing was their thing.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 11:03 AM (QBaJw)

252 One thing the nazis, commies and democrats all have in common is their junior commanders do not need "official" orders in knowing what their superiors want.

Merrick Garland knows that whatever he does to suppress the 2nd Amendment legal or illegal is ok with Joe Biden and his handlers.

Their political instincts on what their masters want are what guide their day to day actions.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at February 05, 2023 11:03 AM (R/m4+)

253 Their airplane industry (crown jewel in many ways) was incredible and cutting edge.

Mhssolini forged a new country out of the Italians.

And then he blew it all up.

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 11:00 AM (1ais2)

Marxists serial rapists might not make the best long term leaders.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 05, 2023 11:04 AM (Qy9+6)

254 Per a Spanish article I read, at one point in 1945 Franco was ready to declare war on Japan in response to the slaughter in Manilla of a neighborhood that was mostly Spanish.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 05, 2023 11:02 AM (xhaym)
---
Franco defies easy categorization. Stanley G. Payne co-authored the definitive biography of him. An excellent resource.

Someone who also gets short shrift is Chiang Kai-shek, and yes, Walls of Men does a revisionist take on the Generalissimo. Trained by the Japanese (who sheltered him from political enemies at one point!), the cartoon version of him as corrupt and incompetent is simply not true. Like Franco, he showed considerable strategic acumen. Unlike Franco, he was in a hopeless position.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:05 AM (llXky)

255 My response might be more like, "Hmm. What if alligators COULD run steeplechases.

I asked a gator straight to his face
If he would ever run a steeplechase
He answered with a grin
As he toweled off his chin
'I'm a big connoisseur of the human race!"
Posted by: Muldoon at February 05, 2023 10:58 AM (ykeLU)

Ha! Nice.

Who knew alligators we're competing with us for one of the Moron's Main Food Groups, Hobo?

Posted by: naturalfake at February 05, 2023 11:06 AM (KLPy8)

256 The Devil and Karl Marx: Communism's Long March of Death, Deception, and Infiltration"
That would be a good next read
Posted by: Skip

In at least some versions of Faust, the Devil makes promises to Faust in exchange for his soul but doesn't really deliver. So too, our contemporary socialists. The most obvious example is the Democrat promise of reparations. They get a lot of mileage out of a promise of something that will never happen.

P.S. Great Saturday Night Joke on the ONT last night.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Not a Real Simulation at February 05, 2023 11:06 AM (FVME7)

257 244 Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:00 AM (llXky)

No it is the truth, about one time out of every six hundred a Marxist may stumble on something near the truth.

The United States' mad embrace of rationing and price controls pre-war was a real thing. You had a polio victim setting commodity prices clad in his often soiled pajamas like my late mother read horoscopes. The UK had tried just the tip socialism and was largelky reverting back to capitalism by 38.

I love the American war effort, and on the whole it is inarguable that America was the least morally compromised great power maybe a coin flip with the UK and the Commonwealth for the bragging rights of first place. Our allied war effort was quite capable of lying its ass off about its allies and enemies. Had Benny M and the Dagos allied with us we would be feting him to this day like the Redaboos in the Grognard and history community make excuses for Stalin.

Hell Benny M did not have anywhere near Stalin's murder habit, he would probably be the morality pet of the left to this day.

Posted by: sven at February 05, 2023 11:06 AM (Lzpvj)

258 Book related. I have a journal, leather wrap around style with good, acid free pages. I've started writing out phrases and quotes I come across in my reading. It may be a bit of poetry, well-written observations worth remembering, pithy phrases, and so on. I also include the source and author. (One ongoing theme is the importance of imagination in appreciating and understanding creation. It is a gift that makes us human.)

Well worth the minor effort and time to note these things.

Posted by: JTB at February 05, 2023 11:06 AM (7EjX1)

259 Was he a Tesla? No. But you don't want a Tesla running things.

*nods*
Because you never know when things might go up in flames.

Posted by: Oddbob at February 05, 2023 11:06 AM (nfrXX)

260 Well, maybe. But, there's an easy write around for things like that.

If the AI finds nothing in the database, just have it says something along the lines of-

"There's nothing in the database regarding alligators and steeplechases. So, I have no opinion on that."

But that's the point. A small child knows an alligator can't run a steeplechase. The AI is unable to draw the correct inferences from what it knows, which is precious little, and very narrow, and so should give that answer that it doesn't know. That doesn't make it intelligent.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 05, 2023 11:06 AM (eOEVl)

261

It wasn't there, then, and it isn't here, now. We're ruled by idiots.

Now feel free to parse my use of the word "idiots" if you like. I'm comfortable with it.
Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 10:52 AM (QBaJw)

Hmmm ... let's ask ChatGP to write an essay with the subject "Is the United States ruled by idiots?" I'm not familiar with the app but I'm sure the result might be informative.

Posted by: mrp at February 05, 2023 11:07 AM (rj6Yv)

262 Germany pissed away a fortune in steel and labor making weirdo one-off designs and it's funny that their "last ditch" stuff from 1945 was the only time they reached the level of efficiency the British, Soviets and Americans reached in 1941.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 10:58 AM (llXky)

This is kinda the point I'm making, when paralleling Nazi Germany with modern America, and the point that was being originally made before.

These people didn't know what they were doing. Our leaders today, don't know what they're doing. They are wasting the vast wealth and industry of giants who came before them, and are allowed to do so, because there IS a great deal of accumulated wealth and industry and knowledge left to be wasted.

Until it's gone.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 11:07 AM (QBaJw)

263 The Endeavour programs that I saw were much darker but worked rather well, and developed the early life of the socially conflicted Morse.

I enjoyed 'Endeavor' immensely. I tried to read a couple of the Morse books, meh.

Posted by: grammie winger at February 05, 2023 11:07 AM (45fpk)

264 I never realized academic advancement was that competitive.
Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 10:05 AM (QBaJw)

I don't recall any murders, but it can get petty and ugly.
Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023

***
"What is the difference between a kindergarten class and a faculty meeting?"

"Naps."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 05, 2023 11:08 AM (omVj0)

265 Mussolini was Hitler's hero and Mussolini thought Hitler was an idiot, at least at the beginning.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 05, 2023 11:08 AM (Qy9+6)

266 "What's the difference between a disappointed faculty member and a dog?"

"Once you let the dog in, it stops whining."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 05, 2023 11:08 AM (omVj0)

267 Re: #19 Weak Geek
Ellery tosses out $50 words, making me feel not very intelligent. I'm still enjoying the book.

=====
Like surreptitiously???

Posted by: From about that time at February 05, 2023 11:08 AM (4780s)

268 237
Thanks. I'll be sure to let my deceased dad know he misspelled an obscure Italian place name while hunkered down on an LST approaching Anzio beach the next time I visit the cemetery.
Posted by: Muldoon at February 05, 2023 10:37 AM (ykeLU)
----
Muldoon,
At that time my parents with my sister (who is older) were hunkered down in the convent in Rocca di Papa (near Rome and Ciampino) and they could hear the guns and explosions from Anzio and Nettuno. Also the Germans had a big railway-mounted gun firing at those beaches. My dad was hiding to avoid being rounded up by the Germans and sent to the Russian Front. I wasn't born yet.

Posted by: Ciampino - Anzio and Nettuno were tough at February 05, 2023 11:09 AM (qfLjt)

269 Fascism is definitely a thing just not the thing we are told. Tony Blair kind of gave the game away to those who are historically minded when he invoked "the third way" which is quite literally what Benny M and the rods sold his party as. Fascism has all the stupid inefficiencies of socialism with "theoretically" less communist murder aftertaste but at the end of the day all of the systems are predicated on command economics and the coercive demand of submission by the populace and control over the minds of man. @sven

Fine. Ok. But as you imply the word is now over defined. It isn't useful. Maybe these ppl apply the word fascist to themselves. Ok. But there just is no equivalence or identity at any real level between the various historical entities or ideologies called fascism.

Maybe the "real fascists" are the ones who have always been behind the scenes. Pulling strings of the Nazis and Italians etc etc. Probably. Maybe that unites them.

There were a bunch of "third ways". Salazar is not Pinochet is not Mussolini is not Hitler.

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 11:09 AM (1ais2)

270 Trotsky, Lenin and Stalin did exactly what they wanted to do, nothing less.

Posted by: Skip at February 05, 2023 11:10 AM (xhxe8)

271 I don't like it when smart people piss down my leg and tell me it's raining. I like it even less when stupid people do it

ChatGPT is in category 2.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at February 05, 2023 11:10 AM (oINRc)

272 These people didn't know what they were doing. Our leaders today, don't know what they're doing. They are wasting the vast wealth and industry of giants who came before them, and are allowed to do so, because there IS a great deal of accumulated wealth and industry and knowledge left to be wasted.

Until it's gone.
Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 11:07 AM (QBaJw)

Not wanting what I want is not incompetence.

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 11:10 AM (1ais2)

273 Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:05 AM (llXky)

Our everlasting error in not giving him our full support.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 05, 2023 11:10 AM (Qy9+6)

274 Fun Fact: During the 1930s, Nazi Germany sent a training mission to China, training and equipping Nationalist troops in German gear - complete with the iconic M1935 helmet. This was the period when the Chinese finally shifted production away from the venerable 1888 "Commission Rifle" to the more modern Mauser pattern.

I seriously debated on using a photo of Nationalist troops in full kraut gear as the cover photo.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:11 AM (llXky)

275 Hell Benny M did not have anywhere near Stalin's murder habit, he would probably be the morality pet of the left to this day.
Posted by: sven at February 05, 2023 11:06 AM (Lzpvj)

My mother, who is in many ways a brilliant woman, to this day cannot really say anything negative about Stalin.

Our war propaganda was very effective, as to who were the "good guys" and "bad guys."

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 11:11 AM (QBaJw)

276 222 As to Italian Fascist competence? I think they were very competent and merely ran out of time or acted too soon. Italy was growing v strong industrially and was adored by US industrialists.
===
The downfall of Italian Fascism was Mussolini's imperial dreams. If he like Franco had been content to stay at home and slowly grow an economy out of chaos, the free world might've been content to let him be. But Il Duce's imperialism led him to become belligerent, and when the League of Nations let him get away with it, Italy became a threat. With some historical irony, it was Mussolini's ambitions in that direction in early WW II which changed the conflict, as the UK with new ally Greece handed the Fascist power its ass, and forced Hitler's intervention to save his ally, delaying the start of Operation Barbarossa by six crucial weeks.

Posted by: exdem13 at February 05, 2023 11:12 AM (W+kMI)

277 Speaking of great literature, apparently in the latest episode of Velma, Fred is revealed to be both sexual. So they got that going for them.

-
Damn autocucumber! Bisexual! Fred is bisexual!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Not a Real Simulation at February 05, 2023 11:12 AM (FVME7)

278
Merrick Garland knows that whatever he does to suppress the 2nd Amendment legal or illegal is ok with Joe Biden and his handlers.
Posted by: Hairyback Guy at February 05, 2023 11:03 AM (R/m4+)

I don't exclude Garland as a "handler"

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 11:13 AM (Zzbjj)

279 269 Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 11:09 AM (1ais2)

Fascism as currently defined by the media and retards (BIRM) means "non-communist" and by that definition a lot of us are I suppose.

In the end the only justification for the presence of government is the enablng of systems beyond the scope or ability of any individual, here in the west for the most part we operated under the illusion for around 240 years that the people were worthy of a say in how things go.

The last 140 years have seen the academic class on a jihad against that notion.

Posted by: sven at February 05, 2023 11:13 AM (Lzpvj)

280 The downfall of Italian Fascism was Mussolini's imperial dreams.

-
Yes, if Mussolini was such a genius, why did he want Ethiopia?

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Not a Real Simulation at February 05, 2023 11:13 AM (FVME7)

281 Our everlasting error in not giving him our full support.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 05, 2023 11:10 AM (Qy9+6)
---
I think the critical error was trying to force a coalition government between him and Mao. We demanded cease-fires which only the Nationalists honored and this gave time for the Chinese Red Army to obtain weapons and build cadres.

In the fall of 1945, the Nationalists could have smashed the Communists hard, maybe decisively.

Of course if Japan had waited until 1938, Mao would have been wiped out in late 1937.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:14 AM (llXky)

282 Well worth the minor effort and time to note these things.
Posted by: JTB at February 05, 2023 11:06 AM (7EjX1)

Sounds like a very worthwhile activity

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 11:14 AM (Zzbjj)

283 I brought this up earlier this week and got mixed comments. My writing group colleague complained about my use of the word "blatting" in a story, where a character says, "I didn't come here to listen to pointless blatting!"

My colleague says he's never heard of the word. However, my unabridged dictionary has "blat" as "to talk loudly and often foolishly, or without thinking," which fits the scene. Sure, I can change the word to "blather," or as one of you suggested, "prattle." And any of the three would fit the character, a history professor. Does it matter?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 05, 2023 11:14 AM (omVj0)

284 245 Cheez, boss, t'anks!

Posted by: H. Uniatz at February 05, 2023 11:01 AM (N9xDl)
----
To this day I still like to say "I gotta toist" when thirsty and my kids roll their eyes.

Posted by: Ciampino - The Saint in NY - BB in the eye. at February 05, 2023 11:15 AM (qfLjt)

285 Yes, if Mussolini was such a genius, why did he want Ethiopia?

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Not a Real Simulation at February 05, 2023 11:13 AM (FVME7)
---
Because as a blustering Strong Man, he had to avenge Adowa.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:15 AM (llXky)

286 My mother, who is in many ways a brilliant woman, to this day cannot really say anything negative about Stalin.

-
He had an ugly mustache and dressed like a peasant!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Not a Real Simulation at February 05, 2023 11:15 AM (FVME7)

287 Speaking of great literature, apparently in the latest episode of Velma, Fred is revealed to be both sexual. So they got that going for them.

-
Damn autocucumber! Bisexual! Fred is bisexual!
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Not a Real Simulation at February 05, 2023 11:12 AM (FVME7)

I thought Fred was a nazi with a micropenis.

So now Mindy is saying bisexual men are nazis with micropeni?

Oh, Mindy.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 11:16 AM (QBaJw)

288 They are wasting the vast wealth and industry of giants who came before them, and are allowed to do so, because there IS a great deal of accumulated wealth and industry and knowledge left to be wasted.

Until it's gone.
Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 11:07 AM (QBaJw)

Agree, but I'm a bit more harsh. I'd change "wasting" to "looting".

Posted by: mrp at February 05, 2023 11:16 AM (rj6Yv)

289 "What is the difference between a kindergarten class and a faculty meeting?"

"Naps."
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 05, 2023 11:08 AM (omVj0)

Kindergarteners take naps, too?

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 11:16 AM (Zzbjj)

290 Fun Fact: During the 1930s, Nazi Germany sent a training mission to China, training and equipping Nationalist troops in German gear - complete with the iconic M1935 helmet.

Any idea what the metal studs were for?

Posted by: Archimedes at February 05, 2023 11:16 AM (eOEVl)

291 At that time my parents with my sister (who is older) were hunkered down in the convent in Rocca di Papa (near Rome and Ciampino) and they could hear the guns and explosions from Anzio and Nettuno. Also the Germans had a big railway-mounted gun firing at those beaches. My dad was hiding to avoid being rounded up by the Germans and sent to the Russian Front. I wasn't born yet.
Posted by: Ciampino

*******

Wow. Interesting. I stumbled across the place name Rocca di Papa when I was doing background for To Save Us All From Ruin, which is a sort of whimsical tale loosely based on Dad's diary, with the central plot point being the Allied efforts to take out the railroad guns based at the railyards near Rome (Anzio Annie). My dad was primarily counter-battery section of VI Corps, so may have been lobbing shells not too far from where your family was hunkering...

Vicissitudes of war.

Posted by: Muldoon at February 05, 2023 11:18 AM (ykeLU)

292 Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:14 AM (llXky)

Agree. By forcing the 'cease fire' they basically withdrew full support and in another stupid error trusted the commies to keep their word.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 05, 2023 11:18 AM (Qy9+6)

293 He had an ugly mustache and dressed like a peasant!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Not a Real Simulation at February 05, 2023 11:15 AM (FVME7)

Yeah...you say that now.

Posted by: BignJames at February 05, 2023 11:18 AM (AwYPR)

294 As to Italian Fascist competence? I think they were very competent and merely ran out of time or acted too soon. Italy was growing v strong industrially and was adored by US industrialists.
My fav book about Mhssolini is Nick Farrell's fwiw.
Also, fwiw i don't think "Fascism" is a thing.
Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 10:50 AM (1ais2)

Italy had two problems, the centralized control of the economy creating bad decisions economically, and the need to get ALL the businesses in on the action so everyone had some input, or made a different, nonstandard design. Economic decisions were made for political reasons, political decisions were made due to philosophical points, and the ruling philosophy was incoherent and based to a large part, what the participants wanted for themselves.

The industrialists, the generals and the engineers were very good, like the French they made beautiful engineering, great pistols and sub-guns, and their boats and planes were lovely, and not terribly useful, or used poorly due to political decisions in manufacture or deployment.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 05, 2023 11:18 AM (xhaym)

295 248
Italy could have sat things out and been like Spain on steroids - all the bennies, none of the penalties.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:02 AM (llXky)
----
But Mussolini dreamed of being another Caesar with an empire. I recall my folks quoting him with "A million bayonets."

Posted by: Ciampino - A million bayonets at February 05, 2023 11:18 AM (qfLjt)

296 One of the ways the Nazis have been puffed up over time has been . . . the people who beat them. You always want the enemy you defeated to be the biggest, baddest, meanest, smartest, most underhanded, toughest, and superbly trained. That makes you all the more impressive for winning.

Example: the Bismarck. It was one battleship, more powerful than some but not as good as others, and the Royal Navy took care of it pretty briskly -- albeit at the cost of one combatant which should have kept away. But I believe more books have been written about Bismarck and its single battle than about really significant and desperate fights like Leyte or Operation Pedestal.

Posted by: Trimegistus at February 05, 2023 11:18 AM (QZxDR)

297
Any idea what the metal studs were for?

Posted by: Archimedes at February 05, 2023 11:16 AM (eOEVl)
---
The WW I version had an optional front plate to improve protection, but it was so heavy it was rarely used.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:18 AM (llXky)

298 Kindergarten is German thus Nazi !

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 05, 2023 11:19 AM (Qy9+6)

299 Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 05, 2023 11:14 AM (omVj0)

A lot of profs love obscure words and usages, so blatting would be accepted and copied

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 11:19 AM (Zzbjj)

300 Well, maybe. But, there's an easy write around for things like that.
If the AI finds nothing in the database, just have it says something along the lines of-
"There's nothing in the database regarding alligators and steeplechases. So, I have no opinion on that."

But that's the point. A small child knows an alligator can't run a steeplechase. The AI is unable to draw the correct inferences from what it knows, which is precious little, and very narrow, and so should give that answer that it doesn't know. That doesn't make it intelligent.
Posted by: Archimedes at February 05, 2023 11:06 AM (eOEVl)

Well, not to beat this horse too much.

But, what you've proven is that there is a limit to its base of knowledge. Not whether it can think or not.

If, let's say, I asked you an absurd question about quantum mechanics or the conjugation of Japanese verbs, and you said "fuck, I don't know. I'm not a Japanese grammarian/quantum physicist."

That doesn't mean you can't think. That just means you don't have that knowledge in your brain. Same same.

Posted by: naturalfake at February 05, 2023 11:20 AM (KLPy8)

301 Example: the Bismarck. It was one battleship, more powerful than some but not as good as others, and the Royal Navy took care of it pretty briskly -- albeit at the cost of one combatant which should have kept away. But I believe more books have been written about Bismarck and its single battle than about really significant and desperate fights like Leyte or Operation Pedestal.

Posted by: Trimegistus at February 05, 2023 11:18 AM (QZxDR)
---
They do that with almost every German tank. Bestest ever!

I know the Germans won WW II because I've played Microarmor and their tanks are unbeatable.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:20 AM (llXky)

302 The downfall of Italian Fascism was Mussolini's imperial dreams. If he like Franco had been content to stay at home and slowly grow an economy out of chaos, the free world might've been content to let him be. But Il Duce's imperialism led him to become belligerent, and when the League of Nations let him get away with it, Italy became a threat. With some historical irony, it was Mussolini's ambitions in that direction in early WW II which changed the conflict, as the UK with new ally Greece handed the Fascist power its ass, and forced Hitler's intervention to save his ally, delaying the start of Operation Barbarossa by six crucial weeks.
Posted by: exdem13 at February 05, 2023 11:12 AM (W+kMI)

Fair. And he failed. He wanted Italy to be a world power. He had to acquire colonies.

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 11:21 AM (1ais2)

303 Speaking of WW2, Rev did a funeral this week for a WW2 vet, 97 years old. We're losing them.

Posted by: grammie winger at February 05, 2023 11:21 AM (45fpk)

304 275 Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 11:11 AM (QBaJw)

The myth of WW2 is pretty heady stuff, the reality is pretty depressing. Yeah it is good the allies won, and America would have had to have had an "interview" with the totalitarians at some point, but I just can't be too happy about global disruptions to the economic well being of civilization to help "the good Stalin versus the bad Hitler." The war because we were bailing out the Soviets and so the academics and nutball union types were thrilled was the last time that a borad spectrum societal alliance across all classes happened in America with vociferous work by the academic class.

A lot of shit the left brays on about as "government evil" was in fact the result of a fully weaponized Federal Civil Service that we have never let recede back to normalcy.

The death star is now aiming itself at our people not the world's.

You vill eat ze bugs, because a bunch of old guilty EUtopian money has programmed the civil service to demand it.

Posted by: sven at February 05, 2023 11:21 AM (Lzpvj)

305 Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 05, 2023 11:14 AM (omVj0)

Having just looked up blatting, it's also linked to bleating, and plenty of academics like that sort of usage too.

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 11:22 AM (Zzbjj)

306 JT, you want the hero to, you know, actually be heroic.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at February 05, 2023 11:23 AM (Y+l9t)

307 Or did I mean to say 'vagaries' of war?

Posted by: Muldoon at February 05, 2023 11:23 AM (ykeLU)

308 The Left always likes to turn historic facts on their head. Mussolini was a big time Marxist who was the editor of Italy's Marxist newspaper. He became disenchanted because they weren't more aggressive in advancing his brand of Marxism. He was also a serial rapist.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 05, 2023 11:23 AM (Qy9+6)

309 Fair. And he failed. He wanted Italy to be a world power. He had to acquire colonies.

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 11:21 AM (1ais2)
---
I think more blame should attach to the British regarding Ethiopia. As Churchill noted, they could either have looked the other way and kept Italy as an ally or done something tangible to save Ethiopia and take Italy down a peg.

In a clear precursor to our own retarded age, the Brits postured and preened, making a new enemy and doing jack for its supposed ally.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:23 AM (llXky)

310 You vill eat ze bugs, because a bunch of old guilty EUtopian money has programmed the civil service to demand it.
Posted by: sven at February 05, 2023 11:21 AM (Lzpvj)

I'd hardly call Gates an EUtopian.

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 11:23 AM (Zzbjj)

311 301 Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:20 AM (llXky)

The Wehraboos, and the Nipponoboos are hilarious.

You ever want entertained have a Wehraboo explain to you how 1350 Tigers are better than 49,500 Shermans.

Posted by: sven at February 05, 2023 11:23 AM (Lzpvj)

312 taly had two problems, the centralized control of the economy creating bad decisions economically, and the need to get ALL the businesses in on the action so everyone had some input, or made a different, nonstandard design. Economic decisions were made for political reasons, political decisions were made due to philosophical points, and the ruling philosophy was incoherent and based to a large part, what the participants wanted for themselves.

The industrialists, the generals and the engineers were very good, like the French they made beautiful engineering, great pistols and sub-guns, and their boats and planes were lovely, and not terribly useful, or used poorly due to political decisions in manufacture or deployment.
Posted by: Kindltot at February 05, 2023 11:18 AM (xhaym)

Idk. That seems facile. To me the system worked. And worked well. It is not my system. Not at all. I'm a Salazar guy. But making beautiful planes is not a thing incompetence can do.

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 11:24 AM (1ais2)

313 310 Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 11:23 AM (Zzbjj)

Gates is a pimp he could never have outfought Santino....

it was Schwab all along, the WEF has agents in our party let alone the command economy one.

Posted by: sven at February 05, 2023 11:24 AM (Lzpvj)

314 Well, not to beat this horse too much.

But, what you've proven is that there is a limit to its base of knowledge. Not whether it can think or not.

If, let's say, I asked you an absurd question about quantum mechanics or the conjugation of Japanese verbs, and you said "fuck, I don't know. I'm not a Japanese grammarian/quantum physicist."

That doesn't mean you can't think. That just means you don't have that knowledge in your brain. Same same.

I'm in favor of reanimating horses - and then beating them. Having the answer in your memory banks is not thinking, it's just reading a file. Thinking is taking a situation you have never encountered before, but inferring from your knowledge of the world what the answer must be. IOW, an educated guess. It is this that AI currently cannot do, and won't given the current approaches. A child would laugh, thinking about an alligator's tiny legs, and conclude that no, it can't run a steeplechase.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 05, 2023 11:25 AM (eOEVl)

315 In a clear precursor to our own retarded age, the Brits postured and preened, making a new enemy and doing jack for its supposed ally.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:23 AM (llXky)

Please do not get me started on Perfidious Albion.

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 11:25 AM (1ais2)

316 He became disenchanted because they weren't more aggressive in advancing his brand of Marxism. He was also a serial rapist.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 05, 2023 11:23 AM (Qy9+6)
---
There was also the conflict of national vs international socialism. How do you convince English coal miners to go on strike and suffer lost wages for the French or Germans?

You don't, and that's why both Hitler and Mussolini pushed for "national" socialism. Stalin adopted this as well, and it was formalized by Comintern that "Socialism in one country" must be protected at all costs.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:26 AM (llXky)

317 There's a song about the Bismarck. Is there a song about a German tank?

Posted by: Just Wondering at February 05, 2023 11:26 AM (HR14R)

318 79 The thing about ChatGPT is people will take
whatever it generates without question as fact. The
same way they believe the Experts.

Posted by: fd at February 05, 2023 09:43 AM (iayUP)

----------------------------
Heck, they can't even agree on what a woman is.

Posted by: Just call me Pete at February 05, 2023 11:26 AM (a4vvV)

319 239 We were talking about competence. Were the Nazis competent? Sure. They were competent at grasping power and using it. They weren't competent at running a state.
---
Nazi incompetence particularly in armaments has been hugely undersold. Since I started to seriously study small arms I've been amazed at how jacked-up Germany was compared to the US or USSR.
====
Victor Davis Hanson made a good point, well reinforced by statistics, in his history of WW II. The three major Allies committed to a long term strategy of war, with the manufacturing and logistics effort to carry it through to the agreed upon goal of crushing the Axis nations into unconditional surrender. The Axis powers focused on short-term strategic gains in the early war, and never adjusted their war-making capability to a long-term war. Nazi Germany didn't start full war production until mid-1942, and Japan and Italy didn't until it was too late for either of them. Yamamoto warned his superiors that Pear Harbor would give Japan 6-12 months to attain victory conditions. Me-262 fighters were towed to their runways by horse-carts to save fuel and wear on the engines.

Posted by: exdem13 at February 05, 2023 11:26 AM (W+kMI)

320 My mother, who is in many ways a brilliant woman, to this day cannot really say anything negative about Stalin.

-
He had an ugly mustache and dressed like a peasant!
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Not a Real Simulation at February 05, 2023

***
He apparently never cleaned his pipes. He would smoke one until he got tired of it, throw it away, and load up a fresh one. And these were reportedly Dunhill pipes, even then not cheap.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 05, 2023 11:26 AM (omVj0)

321 308 The Left always likes to turn historic facts on their head. Mussolini was a big time Marxist who was the editor of Italy's Marxist newspaper. He became disenchanted because they weren't more aggressive in advancing his brand of Marxism. He was also a serial rapist.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 05, 2023 11:23 AM (Qy9+6)

Eddie Izzard has a great bit about Italians and attachment to ideologies.

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 11:27 AM (1ais2)

322 Europe and the Soviet Union are lucky Hitler eventually took complete control of strategic decisions.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 05, 2023 11:27 AM (Qy9+6)

323 My writing group colleague complained about my use of the word "blatting" in a story, where a character says, "I didn't come here to listen to pointless blatting!"

My colleague says he's never heard of the word

Nor have I but I immediately understood the meaning from the context. Which is how one learns new vocabulary. Why should I expect a character (or an author) to be restricted to my vocabulary?

Posted by: Oddbob at February 05, 2023 11:27 AM (nfrXX)

324 The Wehraboos, and the Nipponoboos are hilarious.

You ever want entertained have a Wehraboo explain to you how 1350 Tigers are better than 49,500 Shermans.

Posted by: sven at February 05, 2023 11:23 AM (Lzpvj)
---
Some years back I purged my library of all the books that talked about how awesome German tank designs were. I also dumped small arms guides that were full of myths and lies.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:28 AM (llXky)

325 There were a bunch of "third ways". Salazar is not Pinochet is not Mussolini is not Hitler.
Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 11:09 AM (1ais2)

Idi Amin too. He always talked about his 3rd way between the US and the Soviet Union.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at February 05, 2023 11:29 AM (R/m4+)

326 I don't have the background to get into a deep discussion about WWII but as a Jew, I will always resent the West turning a blind eye to genocide until they had no choice.
It is why the West is turning a blind eye to what the Chinese are doing to the Uighers. What's a few concentration camps between trading partners?

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at February 05, 2023 11:29 AM (Y+l9t)

327 They were efficient at running death camps.

Posted by: Just Sayin' at February 05, 2023 11:29 AM (HR14R)

328 317 There's a song about the Bismarck. Is there a song about a German tank?
------
Not per se, but the Panzer men got their own song, the Panzer Lied.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDlh9G7k7Pw

Posted by: exdem13 at February 05, 2023 11:29 AM (W+kMI)

329 There's a song about the Bismarck. Is there a song about a German tank?

Would you settle for a poem?

"Tiger, tiger burning bright..."

Posted by: Oddbob at February 05, 2023 11:30 AM (nfrXX)

330 Posted by: exdem13 at February 05, 2023 11:26 AM (W+kMI)

Allied bombing may have had a little to do with it.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 05, 2023 11:30 AM (Qy9+6)

331
One thing which I believe should be more well known is that the Nazis were pretty pathetic, really.

__________

A guard at the Nuremberg Trials remarked, "Who knew we were fighting against a bunch of idiots?"

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at February 05, 2023 11:30 AM (MoZTd)

332 316 Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:26 AM (llXky)

The Soviets decided they could just wish the Westphalian nation state away. Hitler and Mussolini both loved them some command economics "for the people" but they wanted to take care of their people first. I do not think any of the Axis leadership could fathom how out of control and detached from their own populace the western governments have gotten.

At the end of the day you have two generations of citizens of Pan-Anglia that have been trained to view any patriotism for their own countries as being a hate crime.

The commies won on this point, they just were not around for their victory lap. All that money wasted on the cold war militaries when the relative pennies spent by Stalin on subverting the Catholic Church and Academia were what blew the Anglosphere apart.

Posted by: sven at February 05, 2023 11:30 AM (Lzpvj)

333 You don't, and that's why both Hitler and Mussolini pushed for "national" socialism. Stalin adopted this as well, and it was formalized by Comintern that "Socialism in one country" must be protected at all costs.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:26 AM (llXky)

Yeah. Stalin's Marxism and the National Question is fascinating.

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 11:30 AM (1ais2)

334 My colleague says he's never heard of the word
*
Nor have I but I immediately understood the meaning from the context. Which is how one learns new vocabulary. Why should I expect a character (or an author) to be restricted to my vocabulary?
Posted by: Oddbob at February 05, 2023

***
There is a scene in a Rex Stout Nero Wolfe in which Wolfe dictates to Archie an ad to go into their friendly newspaper, the Gazette. He uses a word, then halts and tells Archie to change it to something else. "It's more precise and will add to vocabularies."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 05, 2023 11:31 AM (omVj0)

335 So here's a potential future topic for the Perfesser: Give examples of guides or reference books that are completely wrong. I'm not talking out-dated, I mean incorrect from the moment they were printed.

As I started looking into historic firearms, I've found that a ton of these just copy from one another and no one actually had handled let alone fired any of the weapons described.

I blame Ian V. Hogg, who is living proof that no Brit should ever be taken seriously on the subject of firearms.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:32 AM (llXky)

336
Idi Amin too. He always talked about his 3rd way between the US and the Soviet Union.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at February 05, 2023 11:29 AM (R/m4+)

Lebanese Falange too. And various French Far rightists.

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 11:33 AM (1ais2)

337 The German army ran on Meth which temporarily made them super soldiers.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 05, 2023 11:33 AM (Qy9+6)

338 There were a bunch of "third ways". Salazar is not Pinochet is not Mussolini is not Hitler.
Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 11:09 AM (1ais2)

If you consider Italian Fascism to be the exemplar, I think you are right, Fascism has become an "othering" term, and as such must exclude FDR ('cause he is totes cool with all the New Deal powers).

If you consider Italian Fascism one example of the attempt of the state controlling industries and the economy via a form of administrative state, then Dr. Salazar and all the rest were fascists.
(Maybe not Pinochet, I think he reduced a lot of the administrative controls from what Allende had been imposing. )

Posted by: Kindltot at February 05, 2023 11:33 AM (xhaym)

339 Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:32 AM (llXky)

I submit the French are the worst at weapon procurement.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 05, 2023 11:34 AM (Qy9+6)

340 When a man turns 50 he has to become an expert in one of two things: WWII history or smoked meats.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at February 05, 2023 11:34 AM (HR14R)

341 324 Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:28 AM (llXky)

Videogames help keep the myth alive.

The M-3 grease gun and Sten were war winning weapons the STG-44 or FG-42 were not. They were nifty, but so was the EM-1. It is like setting off the Axis superfans by explaining that the M2 Carbine was as much an assault rifle as the STG-44.

The American leadership of the 30s and 40s was full of brutally realistic and grounded thinkers who sought efficiency wherever they could.

We will miss their sober judgement if we ever have a tier one fight again.

Posted by: sven at February 05, 2023 11:34 AM (Lzpvj)

342 WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military on Saturday shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the Carolina coast after it traversed sensitive military sites across North America. China insisted the flyover was an accident involving a civilian aircraft and threatened repercussions.

-
And Fang Fang was just a normal girl out to shake her booty!!!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Not a Real Simulation at February 05, 2023 11:34 AM (FVME7)

343 Although of course I recognize Stalin as Evil Incarnate, I also have come to understand that he was actually doing the world a service when he rounded up and executed all of the old bolsheviks. It's what some future leader will need to do to all of today's wokesters.

Posted by: Tom Servo at February 05, 2023 11:35 AM (r46W7)

344 Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 11:23 AM (Zzbjj)

Gates is a pimp he could never have outfought Santino....

it was Schwab all along, the WEF has agents in our party let alone the command economy one.
Posted by: sven at February 05, 2023 11:24 AM (Lzpvj)

To borrow another phrase, Gates is an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks to collect a bill.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 11:35 AM (QBaJw)

345 Socialism to me always means the elimination of those pesky sections of society that don't agree. My grandparents were subject to Stalin's pogroms and forced to emigrate. Some were not able to get out and we're never heard from again.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at February 05, 2023 11:35 AM (Y+l9t)

346 Speaking of WW2, Rev did a funeral this week for a WW2 vet, 97 years old. We're losing them.

In one of those "seems like yesterday, seems like a lifetime ago" things, the year we were married and moved to Sunnyvale, 1988, on the Sunday before Veterans' Day an older gentleman wore his doughboy uniform to church.

Posted by: Oddbob at February 05, 2023 11:36 AM (nfrXX)

347 If you consider Italian Fascism one example of the attempt of the state controlling industries and the economy via a form of administrative state, then Dr. Salazar and all the rest were fascists.
(Maybe not Pinochet, I think he reduced a lot of the administrative controls from what Allende had been imposing. )
Posted by: Kindltot at February 05, 2023 11:33 AM (xhaym)

Under that was Stalin a Fascist?

Salazar is a fadcinating man. There is a reason he is almost unknown (suppressed).

Any Catholic country will have a strong admin, right?

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 11:36 AM (1ais2)

348 Although of course I recognize Stalin as Evil Incarnate, I also have come to understand that he was actually doing the world a service when he rounded up and executed all of the old bolsheviks. It's what some future leader will need to do to all of today's wokesters.
Posted by: Tom Servo at February 05, 2023 11:35 AM (r46W7)

Well sure. It's not the same, but fairly close to the old joke about Hitler not being all bad... he did after all, kill Hitler.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 11:37 AM (QBaJw)

349 296 Example: the Bismarck. It was one battleship, more powerful than some but not as good as others, and the Royal Navy took care of it pretty briskly -- albeit at the cost of one combatant which should have kept away. But I believe more books have been written about Bismarck and its single battle than about really significant and desperate fights like Leyte or Operation Pedestal.
------
The Bismarck becomes less formidable when you take into consideration three things.
1. Its crew was relatively inexperienced, and hadn't done a true shakedown cruise or undergone serious training in some things, like antiaircraft action.
2. Neither the captain or the commanding admiral could be bothered to have the fuel tanks topped off beforehand, or to petition the Luftwaffe coastal squadrons to be ready and able to give assistance.
3. The escort was a single heavy cruiser, due to a lack of DDs with the range to act as a screen.

Posted by: exdem13 at February 05, 2023 11:38 AM (W+kMI)

350 343 Although of course I recognize Stalin as Evil Incarnate, I also have come to understand that he was actually doing the world a service when he rounded up and executed all of the old bolsheviks. It's what some future leader will need to do to all of today's wokesters.
Posted by: Tom Servo at February 05, 2023 11:35 AM (r46W7)

I too have had that realization.

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 11:38 AM (1ais2)

351 My colleague says he's never heard of the word. However, my unabridged dictionary has "blat" as "to talk loudly and often foolishly, or without thinking," which fits the scene. Sure, I can change the word to "blather," or as one of you suggested, "prattle." And any of the three would fit the character, a history professor. Does it matter?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 05, 2023 11:14 AM (omVj0)

Wolfus, sometimes you just need to try each of them and see how they "sound." I've jotted a story and have changed a word two or three times to better get an idea of the "fit" for the character. But, I'm just an amateur, so I could be wrong....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 05, 2023 11:38 AM (Angsy)

352 Any idea what the metal studs were for?
Posted by: Archimedes at February 05, 2023 11:16 AM (eOEVl)

On the WWI coal scuttle hemets? The were for attaching a metal face shield for the machine gunners, which was never issued because it was far too heavy and blocked your vision and was of doubtful utility.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 05, 2023 11:39 AM (xhaym)

353 Socialism is the antithesis of Individualism which is our strongest trait and what made our country what it is. Ironically it can also be our worst trait at times.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 05, 2023 11:39 AM (Qy9+6)

354 The proponents of AI are too stupid and insular to understand that Imagination is as, or more important, than Intelligence. Without imagination AI is just a clearinghouse of details that goes nowhere new or profound.

Posted by: JTB at February 05, 2023 11:39 AM (7EjX1)

355 I saw a piece recently which chronicled how Stalin, by the end of his life, and executed almost all of his own family members, with the exception of his two children. It brought to me mind a comparison of the two greatest Evils of the time; Hitler liked murdering people that he didn't know, Stalin enjoyed murdering the people that he did.

Posted by: Tom Servo at February 05, 2023 11:39 AM (r46W7)

356 WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military on Saturday shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the Carolina coast after it traversed sensitive military sites across North America. China insisted the flyover was an accident involving a civilian aircraft and threatened repercussions.

-
And Fang Fang was just a normal girl out to shake her booty!!!
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Not a Real Simulation at February 05, 2023 11:34 AM (FVME7)

China threatens repercussions whenever Dinsey puts a black person on a poster for one of their movies.

Who cares about China threatening repercussions. What we should be concerned about is the American government giving in to China's threats of repercussions.

Fight the real enemy.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 11:40 AM (QBaJw)

357
The American leadership of the 30s and 40s was full of brutally realistic and grounded thinkers who sought efficiency wherever they could.

We will miss their sober judgement if we ever have a tier one fight again.
Posted by: sven at February 05, 2023 11:34 AM (Lzpvj)

Don't worry a castrated AI will make the hard calls.

Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 11:40 AM (1ais2)

358 326 I don't have the background to get into a deep discussion about WWII but as a Jew, I will always resent the West turning a blind eye to genocide until they had no choice.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at February 05, 2023 11:29 AM (Y+l9t)

I don't waste much time on resentment and seeking out tangential villains. Germany was responsible for Germany, and unlike China, the Germans spent a bit of effort at hiding the details and fabricating fictions, like Terezin and how it was just resettlement.

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 11:40 AM (Zzbjj)

359 The German army ran on Meth which temporarily made them super soldiers.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 05, 2023 11:33 AM (Qy9+6)
---
Oh, be careful about bringing that up. I got denounced as a Nazi apologist and anti-Semite here some years ago merely by noting that the Wehrmacht's involvement in atrocities makes a lot more sense when you understand that they were strung out on drugs.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:40 AM (llXky)

360 I'm in favor of reanimating horses - and then beating them. Having the answer in your memory banks is not thinking, it's just reading a file. Thinking is taking a situation you have never encountered before, but inferring from your knowledge of the world what the answer must be. IOW, an educated guess. It is this that AI currently cannot do, and won't given the current approaches. A child would laugh, thinking about an alligator's tiny legs, and conclude that no, it can't run a steeplechase.
Posted by: Archimedes at February 05, 2023 11:25 AM (eOEVl)

That might work if you took something within the AI's realm of knowledge, and tried to get it to make a logical conclusion maybe through a series of questions.

And the answers it came up with were contradictory and/or self-refuting and it couldn't tell the difference or correct itself. That would be proof.
Humans have a fairly holistic knowledge of alligators and what they are cuz dangerous animals and kinda "cool" looking. An AI may be aware of an alligator as an animal object and no more than that and the same for horses and steeplechases.

An AI to run our nuclear defense for instance, doesn't need to know alligat

Posted by: naturalfake at February 05, 2023 11:41 AM (KLPy8)

361 I think of Dagenblatt, which is a typical German newspaper, and means Daily or Morning Blast

I would have written "Blattering" because it is more understandable and because Blatt sounds vaguely derogative and offensive.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 05, 2023 11:43 AM (xhaym)

362 Socialism is the antithesis of Individualism which is our strongest trait and what made our country what it is. Ironically it can also be our worst trait at times.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 05, 2023 11:39 AM (Qy9+6)
---
Individualism is just as toxic as socialism. We're living it right now - "individuals" demand you use a special pronoun, demand that you respect their "right" to kill unborn children, etc.

The new hotness is the alienated, lone consumer, whose only relationship is with retailers. Family is a burden, children wreck the environment and your only true friends are Alexa and Siri.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:44 AM (llXky)

363 Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:40 AM (llXky)

I recall that thread.

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 11:44 AM (Zzbjj)

364 359 Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:40 AM (llXky)

Add in the Allied military use of uppers and a lot of things make sense.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22073434/

Turns out being amped up makes you get this confident to the point of arrogance.

Posted by: sven at February 05, 2023 11:44 AM (Lzpvj)

365 a reason why self driving cars will probably never work, due to the limitations of AI - in tests so far, a driverless car can easily be programmed to stop at a stop sign. But it will also slam the brakes if it senses a picture of a stop sign on a billboard near the road, every time.

Posted by: Tom Servo at February 05, 2023 11:44 AM (r46W7)

366 Better video of popping the balloon.

https://bit.ly/3DHF9eE

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Not a Real Simulation at February 05, 2023 11:46 AM (FVME7)

367 330 Posted by: exdem13 at February 05, 2023 11:26 AM (W+kMI)

Allied bombing may have had a little to do with it.
======
Exactly!! The Anglo-American strategic bombing campaign was the result of a long-term military strategy designed to starve the Nazi war machine of the fuel, arms, rations, and other supplies required to keep it on the offensive and wage a long-term defense. Professor Hanson points out the USAAF was its own worst critic on the campaign, when its actual effects were demonstrable by the time of Operation Overlord. The strategic bombing offensive initiated against Japan was even more successful, with only the self-delusions of the fascist military faction in the Imperial government preventing abject surrender in the summer of 1945.

Posted by: exdem13 at February 05, 2023 11:47 AM (W+kMI)

368 BTW, for those interested in things just because they're things, the user manual for the Davis Mark III sextant can be downloaded from this page:

https://www.davisinstruments.com /products/mark-3-sextant

(delete space after com/)

Posted by: Oddbob at February 05, 2023 11:47 AM (nfrXX)

369 OT: I scored today. Driving back from Walmart, I passed an Exxon convenience store with the price for regular gas at (get this) $2.72. I U-turned and went back to double-check. Yep, *two* dollars and 72 cents. Everybody else in town is at $3.15 or higher.

Well, of course I gassed up. It was 87 E10, so my mileage won't be as good next week as if I'd pumped in E0, but a .40/gal. savings (and nearly .70 over E0) works out well.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 05, 2023 11:47 AM (omVj0)

370 The German army ran on Meth which temporarily made them super soldiers.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 05, 2023 11:33 AM (Qy9+6)
---
Oh, be careful about bringing that up. I got denounced as a Nazi apologist and anti-Semite here some years ago merely by noting that the Wehrmacht's involvement in atrocities makes a lot more sense when you understand that they were strung out on drugs.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:40 AM (llXky)

Our Betters currently run on micro-doses of LSD and mescaline.

Their policies suddenly make sense, no?

Posted by: naturalfake at February 05, 2023 11:48 AM (KLPy8)

371 I would have written "Blattering" because it is more understandable and because Blatt sounds vaguely derogative and offensive.
Posted by: Kindltot at February 05, 2023

***
My character intended the remark to be offensive, so that's okay!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 05, 2023 11:49 AM (omVj0)

372 An AI to run our nuclear defense for instance, doesn't need to know alligat

I'll infer you meant to say an AI doesn't need to know alligators can't run steeplechases in order to run nuclear defenses, and you're correct. However, there's a reason why the mindless computer getting us into a nuclear war is a Hollywood staple.

A computer system that runs nuclear defenses is very narrow in its capabilities and does not understand nuance or situational concerns that might be key to responding correctly.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 05, 2023 11:49 AM (eOEVl)

373 I don't waste much time on resentment and seeking out tangential villains. Germany was responsible for Germany, and unlike China, the Germans spent a bit of effort at hiding the details and fabricating fictions, like Terezin and how it was just resettlement.

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 11:40 AM (Zzbjj)
---
The Jewish branch of my family that stayed in Germany (Breslau) was wiped out. When my wife got into genealogy that was a sobering bit of news.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:50 AM (llXky)

374 Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:44 AM (llXky)

That's not individualism. That's Fascism as much as Nazi Germany demanding and enforcing that everyone must use the Heil Hitler as a greeting.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 05, 2023 11:51 AM (Qy9+6)

375 https://www.davisinstruments.com /products/mark-3-sextant

(delete space after com/)
Posted by: Oddbob at February 05, 2023 11:47 AM (nfrXX)

Thanks for this, too. Manuals are routinely lost. I also found a reproduction brass sextant that I think he will like. It certainly won't work as well as the modern one, but is more in keeping with the book.

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 11:51 AM (Zzbjj)

376 Under that was Stalin a Fascist?

Salazar is a fadcinating man. There is a reason he is almost unknown (suppressed).

Any Catholic country will have a strong admin, right?
Posted by: Thesokorus at February 05, 2023 11:36 AM (1ais2)

Communism/socialism is where the state takes the burden of all industries directly to manage them for the benefit of the workers and the state, and fascism is an administrative state where the various industries are managed by ministries who direct their operation via regulation to assure that the workers, the industrialists, and the state get the benefit from rational operation.

Technically no, but in truth they are both majoritarian economic philosophies that justify the state control over the economy

Posted by: Kindltot at February 05, 2023 11:51 AM (xhaym)

377 I recall that thread.

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 11:44 AM (Zzbjj)
---
Pretty spicy for the book thread!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:52 AM (llXky)

378 I don't have the background to get into a deep discussion about WWII but as a Jew, I will always resent the West turning a blind eye to genocide until they had no choice.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at February 05, 2023 11:29 AM (Y+l9t)

I don't waste much time on resentment and seeking out tangential villains. Germany was responsible for Germany, and unlike China, the Germans spent a bit of effort at hiding the details and fabricating fictions, like Terezin and how it was just resettlement.
Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 11:40 AM (Zzbjj)

Beyond Belief - by Deborah Lipstadt.

Details what the American correspondents in Germany knew, and when they knew it, and how the corporate press in American helped keep it from getting out.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 11:52 AM (QBaJw)

379 Our Betters currently run on micro-doses of LSD and mescaline.

Their policies suddenly make sense, no?

Posted by: naturalfake at February 05, 2023 11:48 AM (KLPy

---
A while ago it was pointed out that the entire media establishment is on various drug cocktails, which is why they're awake 24/7 and eager to join the latest lynch mob.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:53 AM (llXky)

380 I submit the French are the worst at weapon procurement.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 05, 2023 11:34 AM (Qy9+6)

Cheap. The French were always very cheap and sought to develop filet weapons on a bologna budget.

They also never got rid of anything. Just stick them in a warehouse until the weapons were needed again if replaced by something "newer". Every once in a while they would sale something to the surplus market but they are very stingy.

Which is why you see very few French surplus weapons for sale.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at February 05, 2023 11:53 AM (R/m4+)

381 Reach for the stars!

ChatGPT Founder Wants AI to "Break Capitalism"

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Not a Real Simulation at February 05, 2023 11:54 AM (FVME7)

382 Socialism to me always means the elimination of those pesky sections of society that don't agree. My grandparents were subject to Stalin's pogroms and forced to emigrate. Some were not able to get out and we're never heard from again.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at February 05, 2023 11:35 AM (Y+l9t)

Socialism is the attempt to create a self-funding charity soup kitchen. Which doesn't work, but can be made to limp along if you force everyone to participate, at gunpoint and oppression.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 05, 2023 11:56 AM (xhaym)

383 That's not individualism. That's Fascism as much as Nazi Germany demanding and enforcing that everyone must use the Heil Hitler as a greeting.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 05, 2023 11:51 AM (Qy9+6)
---
Then Fascism has no meaning. People want to be seen as the ultimate individual, unfettered by reality. They want to identify as whatever and you have respect that. It is the antithesis of socialism where one seeks to blend in, to be part of the whole.

Look at Drag Queen Story Hour. The defenders use the language of individual rights, parents choosing to expose their children to it, and of course the Drag Queens have the right to swing their junk wherever they want. Male swimmers have the right to enter the female showers because they are individuals.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:56 AM (llXky)

384 I'll infer you meant to say an AI doesn't need to know alligators can't run steeplechases in order to run nuclear defenses, and you're correct. However, there's a reason why the mindless computer getting us into a nuclear war is a Hollywood staple.

A computer system that runs nuclear defenses is very narrow in its capabilities and does not understand nuance or situational concerns that might be key to responding correctly.
Posted by: Archimedes at February 05, 2023 11:49 AM (eOEVl)

All true, but the original question is how to definitively proven a sophicated non-AI Ai isn't actually thinking.

I'm not arguing for thinking AI's, I'm arguing that a close-enough-for-gov't-work mentality for creating AIs may get us into trouble because while it can't think it may follow logic paths that we can't anticipate.

So, how do we prove in an absolute sense that said sophisticated AI is capable of thought or not when Our Lazy LowIQ Betters would just foist something off on the public like the COVID vax?

Posted by: naturalfake at February 05, 2023 11:56 AM (KLPy8)

385 Reach for the stars!

ChatGPT Founder Wants AI to "Break Capitalism"
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Not a Real Simulation at February 05, 2023 11:54 AM (FVME7)

Does he also have a homely girlfriend, and lives in a nine person sex den in the Bahamas?

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 11:56 AM (QBaJw)

386 Socialism is the attempt to create a self-funding charity soup kitchen. Which doesn't work, but can be made to limp along if you force everyone to participate, at gunpoint and oppression.

c.f. Obamacare.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 05, 2023 11:56 AM (eOEVl)

387 Just finished "Valley of Death," by Ted Morgan. Battle of Dien Bien Phu. For those who have read Bernard Fall's "Hell In A Very Small Place" it might not offer a lot new about the battle, although Morgan has some amazing anecdotes and descriptions. Plus, I read Fall many years ago so it's fresh again to me. Morgan goes deep into the diplomatic games being played while Dien Bien Phu was being fought, which can make for a herky-jerky narrative. The Brits do *not* look good, IMO.

Glad to see the book thread is back at AOS! Hope all morons had a great weekend.

Posted by: James Varney at February 05, 2023 11:57 AM (BFhXu)

388 The Jewish branch of my family that stayed in Germany (Breslau) was wiped out. When my wife got into genealogy that was a sobering bit of news.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:50 AM (llXky)

We have a lot of that sort of paperwork, too. Growing up, one of my best friends was the daughter of a popular local photographer, also Jewish, who took photographs for the army during the war. He had a trove of terrible pictures, but used them when anyone minimized German atrocities or the horrors of war, generally. I bring that up as he said his fellow soldiers were stunned and unprepared for what they saw. The vast majority of Americans had no real idea, and no revisionism can convince me that they did.

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 11:57 AM (Zzbjj)

389 So, how do we prove in an absolute sense that said sophisticated AI is capable of thought or not when Our Lazy LowIQ Betters would just foist something off on the public like the COVID vax?

Ah, what they would do is a separate question, and you're probably right, it would be half-assed. However, read Larson's book, and he makes it very clear how to ascertain true AI. Hint: it's not the Turing test.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 05, 2023 11:58 AM (eOEVl)

390 Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at February 05, 2023 11:35 AM (Y+l9t)

Socialism is the attempt to create a self-funding charity soup kitchen. Which doesn't work, but can be made to limp along if you force everyone to participate, at gunpoint and oppression.
Posted by: Kindltot at February 05, 2023 11:56 AM (xhaym)

It's also socialism, when oligarchs accumulate more and more wealth, from the middle class, by claiming they're feeding the poor, and keeping everyone safe... from boogeymen.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 11:59 AM (QBaJw)

391 Cheap. The French were always very cheap and sought to develop filet weapons on a bologna budget.

They also never got rid of anything. Just stick them in a warehouse until the weapons were needed again if replaced by something "newer".

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at February 05, 2023 11:53 AM (R/m4+)
---
They were worse than the Russians in that regard. The Lebel was horribly out of date by 1914. Not even Russia was using rifles of that vintage.

Speaking of French surplus, they kept Ruby pistols in storage and units were still using them into the 1950s. Not bad for a Spanish knock-off produced by literally unknown numbers of manufacturers.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:59 AM (llXky)

392
An AI that has no ability to make value judgments is not intelligence - it's a search engine.

An AI that tells lies is an asshole.

ChatGPT is just a stupid asshole.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at February 05, 2023 12:00 PM (oINRc)

393 WE HAZ A NOOD

Posted by: Skip at February 05, 2023 12:00 PM (xhxe8)

394 Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:56 AM (llXky)

You're just listing examples of the Left turning the language around. Just because they claim 'individualism' doesn't make it so. They want total societal compliance. That's the opposite of individualism.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 05, 2023 12:00 PM (Qy9+6)

395 326 I don't have the background to get into a deep discussion about WWII but as a Jew, I will always resent the West turning a blind eye to genocide until they had no choice.
It is why the West is turning a blind eye to what the Chinese are doing to the Uighers. What's a few concentration camps between trading partners?

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at February 05, 2023 11:29 AM (Y+l9t)
----
In the event that somehow a benign USA (not as present) were to deliver them, the Uighers, from their plight in China, would they side with us Christians or with ME Muslims?

Posted by: Ciampino -- A million bayonets at February 05, 2023 12:01 PM (qfLjt)

396 It's also socialism, when oligarchs accumulate more and more wealth, from the middle class, by claiming they're feeding the poor, and keeping everyone safe... from boogeymen.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 11:59 AM (QBaJw)
---
No, its just an oligarchy. Maybe kleptocracy. We have to be careful about stretching terms to the point where anything we doesn't like is lumped in.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 12:01 PM (llXky)

397 356 China threatens repercussions whenever Dinsey puts a black person on a poster for one of their movies.

Who cares about China threatening repercussions. What we should be concerned about is the American government giving in to China's threats of repercussions.
=======
Here Burt you put the finger on what made the Axis so powerful early on. Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo made great gains against the pro-appeasement governments of Europe and the isolationist policies of the USA. Churchill in his opening of his memoirs laments the unwillingness of the English-Speaking peoples to demand Germany's compliance to the Versailles Treaty, no matter how unjust it was. He condemns the acquiescing appeasement that made Hitler demand more and more, because he got it. And Hitler only followed Mussolini's example after Il Duce grabbed Ethiopia, and the UK and France sent strongly worded letters to him. The only powerful nation to call Japan on the carpet was the USA, which in Churchill's opinion lost much authority acting outside the League and was hampered by the Isolationist position.

Posted by: exdem13 at February 05, 2023 12:02 PM (W+kMI)

398 Details what the American correspondents in Germany knew, and when they knew it, and how the corporate press in American helped keep it from getting out.
Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 11:52 AM (QBaJw)

This statement underscores that the average American had no idea. And that the media was happy to keep it that way. This is repeated today as what sort of repercussions came from Birx's admission that she altered data and lied to Trump? People still happily accept "safe and effective" and label naysayers as conspiracists. I wonder if 75 years from now someone will look more closely at and publish exhaustingly about the media of today?

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 12:03 PM (Zzbjj)

399 I'll infer you meant to say an AI doesn't need to know alligators can't run steeplechases in order to run nuclear defenses, and you're correct.

In the glory days of science fiction any number of authors could have taken this statement and turned it into a great story where either this knowledge or this kind of intelligence does matter

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at February 05, 2023 12:03 PM (EXyHK)

400 You're just listing examples of the Left turning the language around. Just because they claim 'individualism' doesn't make it so. They want total societal compliance. That's the opposite of individualism.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 05, 2023 12:00 PM (Qy9+6)
---
Okay, than that's totalitarianism, not fascism.

But the language used and the effect of the policy is very much anti-socialist. Socialism is about conformity, class solidarity, not "look at me, I'm different, everyone accommodate me!"

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 12:03 PM (llXky)

401 It's also socialism, when oligarchs accumulate more and more wealth, from the middle class, by claiming they're feeding the poor, and keeping everyone safe... from boogeymen.
Posted by: BurtTC at February 05, 2023 11:59 AM (QBaJw)

But do they keep anyone safe? I don't think so, and they always get richer as they build dystopias. Gates appears to donate fabulous sums, but his wealth grows, not diminishes.

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 12:05 PM (Zzbjj)

402 I wonder if 75 years from now someone will look more closely at and publish exhaustingly about the media of today?

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 12:03 PM (Zzbjj)
---
One of the reasons I stay away from the news in general and politics in particular is that I think we are in a transitional moment, and it's impossible to see where we are going. Better not to worry about it and focus on things within my control, especially my family. Since I quit news in November, I'm much happier and so are the people around me.

Plus, I'm getting a ton of stuff done around the house - things that are years overdue. Very satisfying.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 12:06 PM (llXky)

403 Man, I missed the thread. Dang chores.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at February 05, 2023 12:07 PM (fUnHJ)

404 JT, you want the hero to, you know, actually be heroic.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice)

Yep

Posted by: JT at February 05, 2023 12:08 PM (T4tVD)

405 Man, I missed the thread. Dang chores.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at February 05, 2023 12:07 PM (fUnHJ)
---
Some of us are still here.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 12:09 PM (llXky)

406 Muldoon, do you think AI could handle puns? Or might it make their "brains" fry?

Posted by: Wenda at February 05, 2023 12:10 PM (Qla6F)

407 Plus, I'm getting a ton of stuff done around the house - things that are years overdue. Very satisfying.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 12:06 PM (llXky)

I don't blame you. Eventually, however, someone must say "no". I'm an old lady who can't do too much, but I take comfort in people like Elon Musk and his taking on censorship. It's also interesting that his twice ex-wife, the beautiful Tallulah encouraged him to stand up to wokeism.

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 12:10 PM (Zzbjj)

408 Look at Drag Queen Story Hour. The defenders use the language of individual rights, parents choosing to expose their children to it, and of course the Drag Queens have the right to swing their junk wherever they want. Male swimmers have the right to enter the female showers because they are individuals.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 11:56 AM (llXky)

You are equating political theories on centralized economies with an intentional politico/social move to destroy a moral society to remake it into something "less directed" to create a political change.

James Lindsay writes a bit about this, he was also on Michael Malice's Your Welcome Podcast if you want the 30 minute verbal precis.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 05, 2023 12:11 PM (xhaym)

409 You are equating political theories on centralized economies with an intentional politico/social move to destroy a moral society to remake it into something "less directed" to create a political change.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 05, 2023 12:11 PM (xhaym)
---
The economic aspect is cancel culture, "build your own bank" "muh private corporations" stuff. It's late to bring this up, but that is classical Anarcho-Syndicalism, aka Libertarian Communism.

The state is subsumed by private entities who assume its functions. People wanting privatized police and courts think they're getting concierge service, but they're really getting Walmart as judge and jury.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 12:15 PM (llXky)

410 Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 12:15 PM (llXky)

Totally unrelated, but bookish, a friend's grandchild has announced her intention to attend a Catholic college I had never heard of before, Belmont Abbey, and will be in the Honor's college. The HC has a Great Books component that I found interesting enough to print up.

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 12:19 PM (Zzbjj)

411 I have a library suggestion for Perfesser Squirrel. The Bruce Willis movie RED had a lot of filming done in Toronto, which often fills in as "generic US city" in movies. There's a scene where Bruce is looking for a Chinese reference book, and that scene was filmed in the Toronto Reference Library. See:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1245526/locations

I've been in the library several times and although it is a modern style design, it's not jarring and it's surprisingly bright and pleasant.

Posted by: MichiCanuck at February 05, 2023 12:27 PM (zgyK7)

412 Totally unrelated, but bookish, a friend's grandchild has announced her intention to attend a Catholic college I had never heard of before, Belmont Abbey, and will be in the Honor's college. The HC has a Great Books component that I found interesting enough to print up.
Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 12:19 PM (Zzbjj)

In Charlotte. Benedictine Order, IIRC. Wyoming Catholic College is relatively unknown school, too. Students go on retreat and to outdoor studies on horseback, like God intended.

Posted by: mrp at February 05, 2023 12:37 PM (rj6Yv)

413 Some of us are still here.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd

like the library regulars napping in their corners, lol

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at February 05, 2023 12:40 PM (fUnHJ)

414 Posted by: mrp at February 05, 2023 12:37 PM (rj6Yv)

I agree. I really liked that the honors college required a Great Books component and that the "greats" were not dumbed down or modernized to include woke bullshit and CRT

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 12:41 PM (Zzbjj)

415 Totally unrelated, but bookish, a friend's grandchild has announced her intention to attend a Catholic college I had never heard of before, Belmont Abbey, and will be in the Honor's college. The HC has a Great Books component that I found interesting enough to print up.

Posted by: CN at February 05, 2023 12:19 PM (Zzbjj)
---
That's neat! I get solicitations for all manner of Catholic schools, not sure which ones are legit.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 12:54 PM (llXky)

416 Muldoon, do you think AI could handle puns? Or might it make their "brains" fry?

**********

Sort of depends on the type, usage and context of the oun. A commonly used pun like, "the yolk's on you" could be included in the algorithm, but more nuanced puns probably not. For instance if you asked ChatBot to print a description of Muenster Mash for an upcoming Halloween party you are hosting, it would probably come up with some type of cheese dip.

Posted by: Muldoon at February 05, 2023 01:21 PM (ykeLU)

417 The state is subsumed by private entities who assume its functions. People wanting privatized police and courts think they're getting concierge service, but they're really getting Walmart as judge and jury.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at February 05, 2023 12:15 PM (llXky)

I don't think we are arguing the same argument, we seem to be in "parallel play" here.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 05, 2023 01:32 PM (xhaym)

418 "Fear can be just as much of a prison as any construction of walls and bars. In the end, he still faced God's judgement, I suppose, like we all must in the end."

Yes, while we would have preferred a judicial death sentence against Mengele, we can hope he was haunted and tense for all his days. And we can trust that God will perfectly punish him for his sins. Every last sin is addressed -- either by Jesus on the cross, if we trust in him, or by the non-believers in Hell.

Posted by: Eternity Matters at February 05, 2023 02:27 PM (MTm8X)

419 @284 --

Hoppy fired that BB in Chicago, not NYC. ("The King of the Beggars.")

Posted by: Weak Geek, at his geekiest at February 05, 2023 02:42 PM (Om/di)

420 I find ChatGPT to be a very clever device

That has, to me, been the frustration of so very much among software developers, that they cannot / do no distinguish between "clever" versus "useful."

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Posted by: Emily at February 06, 2023 03:24 AM (1WEOE)

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