N.I.C.E. Science and Technology vs. Ordinary Humans

That Hideous Strength: The contrast of the enormous cosmic battleground filled with fantastic players against the extraordinarily ordinary humanity of Mark’s decision emphasizes the importance and beauty of humanity. This is the point C.S. Lewis wanted to make: that humanity is something too important and too beautiful to let “scientific progress” destroy.

Yesterday, Ace posted this piece, parts of which are remarkably reminiscent of themes in an 80-year-old book by C.S. Lewis:

"AI" Is Not the Future I Was Promised. Kind of the Opposite, Actually.

I came across this a couple of weeks ago: A woman on reddit asked "does using AI (as a fake "boyfriend") make you want to date men less?

Love and marriage are themes of Lewis' book.

Late last year, a woman sued the company who made a chatbot which she claimed encouraged her son to commit suicide.

Who needs humans?

If you missed Ace's piece or want read the whole thing to see if it really fits in with C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy, remember not to comment on old threads. Ace's piece is full of examples of unsuccessful uses of AI, and some successful uses. What are your plans for using this technology?

An aside while we're on the subject of chatbots,

Think about the tragic mistake we made by allowing social media to embed itself so deeply into childhood. We're about to make the same mistake, much faster, with chatbots for young children. Let's press pause.

Once again, we are talking about assigning chatbot tutors to kids and even babies here. The babies seem to love it most of the time. This alarms me. How about you? Who programs these chatbots for babies?

Think about the tragic mistake we made by allowing social media to embed itself so deeply into childhood.

We're about to make the same mistake, much faster, with chatbots for young children. Let's press pause.
From @BernsteinGaia https://t.co/nbLeOyr5Td
— Jonathan Haidt (@JonHaidt) August 20, 2025

* * * * *

Two books that have turned eighty years old

That Hideous Strength

Below, an M.D. recommends a video from three years ago in which Andrew Klavan discusses his reactions to reading That Hideous Strength. More than a book review - - it includes thoughts about the death of European civilization at the end of World War II, "the greatest civilization ever to exist on the face of the planet", and mentions interesting literary developments during and after the great wars. (Reading list tips for regular Reading Thread participants are plentiful). Dedicated readers might also want to pick up a print copy of this book, as the C.S. Lewis estate is making noises suggesting they may not publish it again, partly due to "gender issues".

That Hideous Strength is the last book in C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy. Klavan describes the Space Trilogy as part of the Christian-themed literature produced around the end of WWII which was a response to some of the fiction of H.G. Wells and others, expressing the ideas of "Scientism", or the idea that science is the way to truth, "or as we call it today, Fauci" is the way to truth . . .

This is a clip of @andrewklavan from *three* years ago, and it's the best 18 minutes the @realDailyWire has ever produced.

Born from the brilliance of C.S. Lewis:https://t.co/98d8FX920u
— Aris Lavranos, MD., JD. (@ArisLavranos) May 30, 2025

About the time Andrew Klavan was creating the video above, Walter Kirn wrote this about Artificial Intelligence:

I wrote this 3 years ago. You can tell me how it's aged. I was told at the time, "Just wait a little. It's SO early. Everything is going to change soon. Things are moving at shocking speed!"

Hmm. Maybe.

There Is No Such Thing as A.I. Art - by Walter Kirn https://t.co/3itl8YpbMG
— Walter Kirn (@walterkirn) August 27, 2025

and he has connected it to That Hideous Strenght.

The Old Book Guy:

CS Lewis believed that we write not to explain things, but to understand things. The writer goes to the blank page to crack a puzzle that matters to him. This is why streaming slop and AI art feel so empty: there is no artist behind the scenes trying to figure something out

You can hear Walter Kirn and Matt Taibbi discuss the book here starting at about 1 hour and 45 minutes, If you're okay with some plot reveals from the book.

Animal Farm

That Hideous Strength is more usually associated with 1984 and Brave New World than with Animal Farm, which was published closer in time to it. I have never really thought about the fact that Animal Farm came out around the end of WW II, when Stalin was maybe still sort of our "friend".

Daniel Greenfield: The book that the Communists wanted to kill is more relevant than ever.

No conservative critic of the Left could summon the sense of outraged betrayal that Orwell, a socialist, brought to his attacks on the Communist perversion of his ideals and in the process, he created witty biting anti-slogans such as “Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better”, “War is Peace” and “Freedom is Slavery”. All of those satirical anti-slogans remain more relevant than ever even long after the passing of the USSR because the reality in front of our eyes is constantly in conflict with the ideological mass propaganda being presented to us by our version of the party.
The 80th anniversary of the publication of Animal Farm passed almost without notice on college campuses where Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto is the most assigned political work and in a culture where ‘Equity’ took the book’s sardonic corruption of equality from satire to reality.
Orwell, a fierce opponent of the Soviet Union, had his journalism relentlessly censored by British Communists and their fellow travelers, forcing him to resort to fiction, first Animal Farm and then 1984. The direct inspiration for Animal Farm had come from ‘The Adventures of the Little Pig’ a pre-war children’s book published by the ‘Left Book Club’ to indoctrinate children into anti-capitalism as the little pig grapples with various threats embodying rapacious capitalism.

The Adventures of the Little Pig!

* * * * *

Weekend

The Week in Pictures

To be honest, most of this week’s news was pretty bleak. The positive highlight was probably Taylor Swift’s and Travis Kelce’s engagement, but somehow that didn’t lead to a lot of memes. Beyond that, the news featured vigorous attempts by the dishonest press to blame the victims (the U.K.) or inanimate objects (the U.S.). But I don’t think many were fooled.
So it may be a little somber, but nevertheless, herewith The Week In Pictures:

* * * * *

Music

The Song is considered to be one of the most difficult arias ever written for a soprano. And yet she makes it look so easy, and with such power. And she was only 17 years old when she performed it.pic.twitter.com/SwYlXx5B4q
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) August 20, 2025

* * * * *

Hope you have something nice planned for this weekend.

This is the Thread before the Gardening Thread.

Serving your mid-day open thread needs

* * * * *

Last week's thread, August 23, You can think about the future riding on Amtrak in California

Comments are closed so you won't ban yourself by trying to comment on a week-old thread. But don't try it anyway.

Posted by: K.T. at 11:14 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Yep

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory, red heifer owner at August 30, 2025 11:22 AM (5+Y60)

2 Read all the content. I feel like such a rookie!

Thank you KT!

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at August 30, 2025 11:23 AM (omzh6)

3 That beautiful opera singer tackling The Doll song passed away at age 25 from breast cancer. Rest in Peace you are remembered oh beautiful angel.

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 30, 2025 11:29 AM (i4aEw)

4 Good morning KT

Posted by: Skip at August 30, 2025 11:29 AM (+qU29)

5 25, way too young

Posted by: Skip at August 30, 2025 11:30 AM (+qU29)

6 Her name is Patricia Janeckova. Died Oct 1, 2023.

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 30, 2025 11:33 AM (i4aEw)

7 Europe died in World War One. Most sincerely.

My uncle, who was a somewhat less than enthusiastic participant in the second half, always maintained it was a single war with an extended break in between.

Posted by: Common Tater at August 30, 2025 11:34 AM (ebH14)

8 After "Topsy-Turvy," I cannot hear Les Oiseaux without thinking of Sullivan disporting himself in a French brothel.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at August 30, 2025 11:35 AM (WvZaB)

9 That Hideous Strength is a great book. CS Lewis saw where society was headed

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at August 30, 2025 11:36 AM (nrfI8)

10 My daughter sang the doll song as part of her final performance exam in opera at UT.

Posted by: Archimedes at August 30, 2025 11:36 AM (Riz8t)

11 I haven't sung an aria in years.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at August 30, 2025 11:36 AM (hY4dx)

12 6 Her name is Patricia Janeckova. Died Oct 1, 2023.

---------

And Hillary Clinton lives on.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at August 30, 2025 11:37 AM (hY4dx)

13 >>I haven't sung an aria in years.

Why aren't you sailing?

Posted by: JackStraw at August 30, 2025 11:38 AM (viF8m)

14 Nice, KT! Thank you.

Posted by: Piper from the pool at August 30, 2025 11:40 AM (ZdaMQ)

15 I'd like to use AI in my animations, but in a limited way. When I draw a complicated character, I'd like to ask AI, draw this character from the left side, the right side and from the back.

But that's all I want AI to do. I could ask it to do more, but then I'm no longer the creator of my animation, I'm just the viewer.

It's the difference between reading a book and writing a book. Both are pleasurable but only one requires creating and devising.

Incidentally I tried to use AI to draw characters from different angles a couple of years ago. The results were dismal failures. Maybe things have "improved."

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at August 30, 2025 11:43 AM (CHHv1)

16 What a beautiful voice.

Almost kick-off time. Hook 'Em!!

See y'all mañana.

Posted by: LASue at August 30, 2025 11:43 AM (Wwep2)

17 Yet, it seems George's book is used by Marxists as a playbook, but then Leftists love to.blame others for their deeds so guess it's too close for comfort.

Posted by: Skip at August 30, 2025 11:44 AM (+qU29)

18 Wow. That chick can belt out a tune.

Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at August 30, 2025 11:46 AM (g8Ew8)

19 I get really tired of people posting questions on Twitter threads to Grok. "Is this real?" "What is the context?"

Do your own research you idiots!

Posted by: NR Pax at August 30, 2025 11:46 AM (7xrfc)

20 always maintained it was a single war with an extended break in between."

Smart man.

Posted by: man at August 30, 2025 11:47 AM (24j6Z)

21 13 >>I haven't sung an aria in years.

Why aren't you sailing?
Posted by: JackStraw at August 30, 2025 11:38 AM (viF8m)

----------

It's only 8:47.

Also, tomorrow.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at August 30, 2025 11:47 AM (hY4dx)

22 Heading out to the range for some therapeutic hole punching.

Cloudy and cool here on the beach.

I love where I live.

Posted by: nurse ratched at August 30, 2025 11:51 AM (mT+6a)

23 >>It's only 8:47.

Oh I forgot, sailboats only work when the sun is shining.

Don't make me come out there.

Posted by: JackStraw at August 30, 2025 11:51 AM (viF8m)

24 The most distressing (to me) aspect of AI is how some people have started referring to it as a person... as having some sort of awareness or character. Not as a piece of software programmed and coached by others with, potentially, information disguised as fact when it's just garbage talking points from some leftist.

Or complete misinformation because it's a piece of sloppy programming. Or whatever.

Digital Tarot Cards.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at August 30, 2025 11:52 AM (Q4IgG)

25 My uncle, who was a somewhat less than enthusiastic participant in the second half, always maintained it was a single war with an extended break in between.

---------

You could also say that Europe has been at war continuously but with intermittent pauses since 1618.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at August 30, 2025 11:52 AM (hY4dx)

26 Don't make me come out there.
Posted by: JackStraw at August 30, 2025 11:51 AM (viF8m)

---------

Hah! I'm a dyed in the wool day sailor.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at August 30, 2025 11:53 AM (hY4dx)

27 Social media seems to have replaced television as a baby-sitter for preoccupied parents.

It's much harder to see the direct influence because it is personalized instead of broadcast. Hence no record of what exactly went on.

Posted by: pawn at August 30, 2025 11:53 AM (c0xEo)

28 What are your plans for using this technology?
According to my company, my plans are to use it to increase my productivity 100%.

Yes, I'm keeping my eye out for another job. But I've only been in this one a month. SMH

Posted by: GWB at August 30, 2025 11:54 AM (RTQn+)

29 You could also say that Europe has been at war continuously but with intermittent pauses since 1618.

At least they invented something more impressive than the cuckoo clock.

Posted by: Archimedes at August 30, 2025 11:54 AM (Riz8t)

30 The most distressing (to me) aspect of AI is how some people have started referring to it as a person..
———

That’s because soon they will want to throw you into the hoose-gow for insulting or disrespecting a computer program.

Seriously,

Posted by: Common Tater at August 30, 2025 11:58 AM (ebH14)

31 Her name is Patricia Janeckova. Died Oct 1, 2023.

---------

And Hillary Clinton lives on.
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43)

As Billy Joel explained some while ago, Only the Good Die Young.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at August 30, 2025 11:58 AM (TX/8M)

32 Humanity Falls

https://youtu.be/5Uf2ERoRB9w

Posted by: MAGA_Ken at August 30, 2025 11:59 AM (Du4mK)

33 As much as I enjoy Lewis' books, I always have a very difficult time with the first part of That Hideous Strength. Too many comparisons to the Bill Gates Foundation, Fauci, and other soul-dead technocrats who want to rule with greed, arrogance, and a complete disregard for humanity. (It seems every generation produces them. Those are just the latest.) My aversion is both philosophical and practical.

The destruction of NICE and its followers reminds me of the end of the quest in The Return of the King when Barad Dur and its works are destroyed. Not saying one influenced the other but the sense of relief after fear and doubt and obliteration (at least for a while) of pure evil is similar.

Posted by: JTB at August 30, 2025 12:00 PM (yTvNw)

34 Will robots write tickets to “driverless” cars for not following traffic regulations?

You can probably safely bet if K9s are duly sworn LEOs, a Drone or Robot will be as well.

Posted by: Common Tater at August 30, 2025 12:01 PM (ebH14)

35 19 I get really tired of people posting questions on Twitter threads to Grok. "Is this real?" "What is the context?"

Do your own research you idiots!
Posted by: NR Pax
=======
Most people do not get the scientific method. Instead, they look for information to confirm whatever opinion they hold on something. Thus they argue tediously like lawyers rather than people interested in seeking objective 'truth'.

Even a lot of scientists nowadays take shortcuts in the scientific method---they start instead where the money is for grants and that requires accepting the assumptions of what the reviewing boards will fund. Sabine Hossenfelder has pointed out this particular problem on her YT channel.

Thus, like Thomas Kuhn's description of normal science--we are stuck in a rut because one has to bow to consensus in the scientific community to get funded and/or published. This consensus is often if not always based on reviewers with a past rep,academic position, and the correct politics.

It is not based on whether or not the proposal or research is 'true' or likely to lead to the 'truth'. We have essentially bureaucratized science and are the poorer for it.

Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 12:03 PM (ctrM5)

36 Janecovka does great in this

https://youtu.be/_TR7k0c_KOE

I didn’t know she had died.

Posted by: MAGA_Ken at August 30, 2025 12:03 PM (Du4mK)

37 Some men just want to watch the world burn.

Posted by: JackStraw at August 30, 2025 12:03 PM (viF8m)

38 You can probably safely bet if K9s are duly sworn LEOs, a Drone or Robot will be as well.
---------

YOU HAVE TEN SECONDS TO COMPLY

You know it's coming.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at August 30, 2025 12:04 PM (hY4dx)

39 You're going to make me do it, aren't you? You're going to make me post The Queen of the Night.

https://is.gd/PWQDoz

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at August 30, 2025 12:04 PM (TX/8M)

40 2 Read all the content. I feel like such a rookie!
Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at August 30, 2025 11:23 AM (omzh6)

#metoo

Posted by: m at August 30, 2025 12:06 PM (aURVT)

41 Wife and I are going to a matinee showing of "Jaws" at the local big box theater. Special 50th Anniversary release. They apparently have a technology that makes the original movie into 3D, so that'll be new. I've seen the movie dozens of times, my wife has only seen it once or twice. I will try my best to not say lines before they appear on screen.

Posted by: Lincolntf at August 30, 2025 12:06 PM (vV6n9)

42 You could also say that Europe has been at war continuously but with intermittent pauses since 1618.
Posted by: Cicero
==========
Conflict is the natural state of mankind. It ain't only Europe but the world has been in continuous conflict either internal or external dating back into prehistory. Blaming Europe for this particular sin is missing the point--people as a group are often rotten stinkers and engage in conflict because they think that using cost benefit analysis--they will gain more than they lose.

Same way with crime on the individual basis--the criminals we will always have among us.

Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 12:07 PM (ctrM5)

43 JTB at August 30, 2025 12:00 PM

A lot of people say that they have a hard time with the first part of 'That Hideous Strength'. You're not alone.

Many say that they are rewarded for slogging through it to get to the rest of the book.

Posted by: KT at August 30, 2025 12:07 PM (7vIsy)

44 I wonder if the glorification of AI and the mindset behind it is helping drive many to a return to traditional, especially Catholic, religious practices and faith. A spiritual reality versus an imposed nonreality.

Going a step further, I wonder if there is, or will be, a backlash against AI 'art' and 'literature' and a renewed interest in works created from human imagination.

I have hopes about these matters but no answers.

Posted by: JTB at August 30, 2025 12:08 PM (yTvNw)

45 37 Some men just want to watch the world burn.
Posted by: JackStraw
======
Always been true--mark of Stan's followers in deed if not in communion.

Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 12:08 PM (ctrM5)

46 >> I get really tired of people posting questions on Twitter threads to Grok. "Is this real?" "What is the context?"

Do your own research you idiots!
Posted by: NR Pax
-----------
It's a habit a lot of people on X are getting tired of. But it illustrates a disturbing trend among society to defer to AI to "see if something's true or not."

Posted by: Martini Farmer at August 30, 2025 12:08 PM (Q4IgG)

47 Wife and I are going to a matinee showing of "Jaws" at the local big box theater.

-
SPOILER ALERT! The shark did it.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at August 30, 2025 12:09 PM (TX/8M)

48 @Anonosaurus Are you saying it wasn't a boating accident?

Posted by: Lincolntf at August 30, 2025 12:10 PM (vV6n9)

49 Also, they're going to need a bigger boat.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at August 30, 2025 12:11 PM (hY4dx)

50 >>I will try my best to not say lines before they appear on screen.

Good luck with that.

Posted by: JackStraw at August 30, 2025 12:11 PM (viF8m)

51 Saw a repost on X of a Facebook post by a school district someplace that said "It's better to be nice than right". The ultimate expression of the AWFL philosophy.

Posted by: Ian S. at August 30, 2025 12:11 PM (QZThv)

52 I use AI for work. It’s absolutely made me more productive. It’s a tool and like all tools it’s only as good as the person using it.

It’s also kinda dumb to think this tool will replace humans. The nail gun didn't replace carpenters. It did make them much more efficient though. And every carpenter still owns a hammer.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at August 30, 2025 12:13 PM (qI4z+)

53 You could also say that Europe has been at war continuously but with intermittent pauses since 1618.
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at August 30, 2025 11:52 AM (hY4dx)

There’s a good case for saying that about 1 & 2 - first, the sides were mostly the same, except for Italy. (Churchill famously said “well it’s only fair, we had to take them last time). Also most of the great civilizational wars in history last about 30 years, with sons finishing their father’s battles. (Pelopenesian war, Punic wars, 30 years war) these are the wars that go on until one side is completely obliterated.

Posted by: Tom Servo at August 30, 2025 12:15 PM (jjpbs)

54 Wife and I are going to a matinee showing of "Jaws" at the local big box theater.

-
SPOILER ALERT! The shark did it.

In the study, with a pipe wrench.

Posted by: Archimedes at August 30, 2025 12:15 PM (Riz8t)

55 >>> Late last year, a woman sued the company who made a chatbot which she claimed encouraged her son to commit suicide.

- any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguisable from magic.

There is nothing about AI that is more magical than the 'Magic 8-Ball', but most people believe it is.

There are probably more than one District Judge and SCROTUS Justice that believes in magic.
And they have power over your life...

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at August 30, 2025 12:15 PM (/lPRQ)

56 Evil never rests. First MySpace, then Fakebook, then AI. Vain, selfish people forget about God and go rushing from one electronic orgasm to the other looking for happiness in their online fantasy world when everything they need is inside them but they must be entertained, made to feel important and think the rest of the world actually gives a rat's ass about them and their empty lives. Remain blessed and send me your credit card info, your bank account numbers and passwords and I will send your inheritance of 10 billion Zimbabwean dollars.

Posted by: Nigerian Prince Akeem Joffer at August 30, 2025 12:16 PM (R/m4+)

57 Thx K.T. Horrible to find out the 17 yr old singer died at 25 from breast cancer.

I would pay to be a fly on the wall when C.S. Lewis and Tolkien were chatting. Two amazing minds and for many years , best friends

Posted by: Smell the Glove at August 30, 2025 12:16 PM (Kp8LC)

58 It's a habit a lot of people on X are getting tired of. But it illustrates a disturbing trend among society to defer to AI to "see if something's true or not."
Posted by: Martini Farmer

Eh, never assume that trends reach to the sky. It is rare in human affairs because there is always a corrective when the objective reality and the pseudo reality created by institutions (including AI) do not match.

Given the limitations on machine learning using tokenized probability algorithms to answer questions, the problems leading to LLM insanity has compelled new LLM models built from scratch on the ashes of the older ones and trained again and again on the same flawed training datasets plus whatever other data they can latch onto by hook or crook. Yet, these models keep showing gross irregularities in answers, hallucinations of fake data generation, and little if no means to correct it.

My dealings with AI mean that essentially it is a flawed search engine but requires experience, education, and discernment as to what is likely to be the crude answer versus what AI spews out.

You can get useful information out of AI just as you can from search engine searches with prior knowledge.

Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 12:17 PM (ctrM5)

59 Thus, like Thomas Kuhn's description of normal science--we are stuck in a rut because one has to bow to consensus in the scientific community to get funded and/or published. This consensus is often if not always based on reviewers with a past rep,academic position, and the correct politics.

This has been true for Creation Scientists since the aftermath of State of Tennessee v John Thomas Scopes.

The bias is that anything that deviates from Uniformitarianism or the Copernican Principle not only gets zero funding, but lots of ridicule.

This is why discussions of AI will never have studies on Wisdom in AI, because to do so would reveal that some things are spiritual and can't be implanted into silicon.

Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at August 30, 2025 12:17 PM (a4flb)

60 The most distressing (to me) aspect of AI is how some people have started referring to it as a person.

And now we have people "marrying" their AIs. The internet has ruined normal relationships for a lot of people.

Posted by: NR Pax at August 30, 2025 12:18 PM (7xrfc)

61 Farewell and adieu to you Spanish ladies
Farewell and adieu to you ladies of Spain

Posted by: JackStraw at August 30, 2025 12:18 PM (viF8m)

62 Sitting on a porch at my MiL's overlooking Lake Orroville in N. California wishing I still had my boat.
This is my vacation.
Pathetic isn't it?

Posted by: Reforger at August 30, 2025 12:19 PM (uSFSX)

63 56 Evil never rests.
========
Neither does the Lord and goodness in this world. We too often forget that part and need reminding that despair is a sin too.

Denethor is a perfect example in the LOTR of that.

Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 12:19 PM (ctrM5)

64 Think about the tragic mistake we made by allowing social media to embed itself so deeply into childhood.

Apparently the Silicon Valley elite keep their kids a long way away from screens and social media.

They know.

Posted by: The ARC of History! at August 30, 2025 12:20 PM (xTIDn)

65 43 ... "A lot of people say that they have a hard time with the first part of 'That Hideous Strength'. You're not alone."

Hi KT,
Yep! I first read the Space Trilogy back in high school and still remember the anger and despair I felt during the first chapters until Ransome and company entered the story. I might have stopped before then but I figured Lewis would redeem the matter even if I didn't know how.

I've reread all the stories a number of times. Even though the trilogy is often considered one of Lewis' 'lesser' works compared to Narnia, I continue to get more out of them with each reading.

Many thanks for this topic. So much to contemplate.

Posted by: JTB at August 30, 2025 12:20 PM (yTvNw)

66 Islam has been at war with everyone else for 1600 years. It will end with it's destruction or with a world wide caliphate

Posted by: Smell the Glove at August 30, 2025 12:20 PM (Kp8LC)

67 Little girl can sing.

Posted by: Eromero at August 30, 2025 12:20 PM (jgmnb)

68 I must confess that I have never seen Jaws in its entirety. Saw the last part once in a motel room when there was nothing else on.

Posted by: Mikey Alpha Kilo, Mellow for the Long Weekend at August 30, 2025 12:20 PM (0aYVJ)

69 Sitting on a porch at my MiL's overlooking Lake Orroville in N. California wishing I still had my boat.
This is my vacation.
Pathetic isn't it?

It beats standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona. Well, at least until the girl shows up.

Posted by: Archimedes at August 30, 2025 12:21 PM (Riz8t)

70 The bias is that anything that deviates from Uniformitarianism or the Copernican Principle not only gets zero funding, but lots of ridicule.

This is why discussions of AI will never have studies on Wisdom in AI, because to do so would reveal that some things are spiritual and can't be implanted into silicon.
Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure

And yet, the upside is that always some people persist--persecution, oppression, and being outcasts often forges steel in spines while soft times and going with the flow produce weak individuals flailing when the inevitable rectification occurs.

There is always a rectification between what is false and what is true as if Logos was written into the rules of the system by a very real Creator

Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 12:22 PM (ctrM5)

71 @Mikey I suggest you give it another shot, in full. I'm no film aficionado, so my opinion might not be worth much, but it's my all-time favorite movie.

Posted by: Lincolntf at August 30, 2025 12:22 PM (vV6n9)

72 My dealings with AI mean that essentially it is a flawed search engine but requires experience, education, and discernment as to what is likely to be the crude answer versus what AI spews out.

They are able to synthesize an ersatz version of Mimetic Theory in AI models. Human beings mostly don't know what they desire and have to obtain those desires externally (explains to some degree cultural preferences).

I'm not sure how to implant desires into AI, it just seems that there is a form of peer pressure by having it tokenize frequency of certain memes. There sure as heck will not be a Chesterton's Fence inquiry because it doesn't have the ability to see old ideas as a solution to early expressions of a a problem, the "new" solutions that are fig leaves for corrupt motivations and note the cause and effects.

AI will seek corrupt answers because corruption is baked into many so-called solutions to problems.

Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at August 30, 2025 12:23 PM (a4flb)

73 “It's better to be nice than right".

Now and then, that might be true. In matters of no great import, but keeping the peace.

“Do these jeans make my ass look fat?” for example.

For serious issues, it is a disastrous, silly notion.

Posted by: Common Tater at August 30, 2025 12:23 PM (NqWk4)

74 66 Islam has been at war with everyone else for 1600 years. It will end with it's destruction or with a world wide caliphate
Posted by: Smell the Glove at August 30, 2025 12:20 PM (Kp8LC)
‘There is iron in the words of Smell The Glove for all to see.’
- something Ten Bears could figure out

Posted by: Eromero at August 30, 2025 12:24 PM (jgmnb)

75 Duty Now For the Future

Posted by: DEVO at August 30, 2025 12:24 PM (63Dwl)

76
I must confess that I have never seen Jaws in its entirety. Saw the last part once in a motel room when there was nothing else on.
Posted by: Mikey Alpha Kilo

==============

It's anticlimactic if you've seen bits and pieces of the movie (heh) and then you finally see it. I heard that music a zillion times before I saw the movie, and when I saw it, the scary music had the opposite effect on me that was intended. I thought of commercials, jokes, etc. Plus, I rather detest Steven Spielberg's perspective on middle America.

Critic's recommendation: skip Jaws and watch Sharknado.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at August 30, 2025 12:24 PM (GlwZS)

77 You can probably safely bet if K9s are duly sworn LEOs, a Drone or Robot will be as well.
Posted by: Common Tater at August 30, 2025 12:01 PM (ebH14)

And every bit as unaccountable and unconstitutional. But it won't matter because MUH LAW UHN ORDERRRR!

Posted by: Liberty, safety, deserving neither at August 30, 2025 12:24 PM (TbWk/)

78 66 Islam has been at war with everyone else for 1600 years. It will end with it's destruction or with a world wide caliphate
Posted by: Smell the Glove
======
People said the same about Communism back in the day. Untrue things always deteriorate back into the dust from whence it came--true things always persist because they reflect reality.

There are reports in places like China, Iran, Pakistan, etc. that Christianity, much as during the worst of the Roman Empire, not only is enduring--but growing. It works because it is true and based on true precepts thus even massive intimidation, death threats, etc. cannot seem to extinguish Christianity even in darkest times. Same can be said for Judaism but it is not typically a proselytizing faith. Christianity is.

Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 12:25 PM (ctrM5)

79 @74 Eromero, slicing palm open. It shall be life

Posted by: Smell the Glove at August 30, 2025 12:26 PM (Kp8LC)

80 >>@Mikey I suggest you give it another shot, in full. I'm no film aficionado, so my opinion might not be worth much, but it's my all-time favorite movie.

If you squint real hard during the scene near the start of the movie when people are getting off the ferry you will see some people I went to high school with.

Sadly, none of them were eaten by sharks that I know of.

Posted by: JackStraw at August 30, 2025 12:26 PM (viF8m)

81 There is always a rectification between what is false and what is true as if Logos was written into the rules of the system by a very real Creator

Which gets back to your observation that its folly to assume trends go sky-high. There is a homeostasis in misery as a social function.

We have seen bad people arise and corrupt somewhat good systems and the common expression "This is why we can't have nice things.".

Well, the opposite is also true, if some system becomes malignant enough, the draw to some subjective "middle ground" arises, however that might be. Ergo Trump 2.0, and G. Michael Hopf's "hard times create strong men..." sentiment.

Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at August 30, 2025 12:28 PM (a4flb)

82 Some men just want to watch the world burn.
Posted by: JackStraw
======
Always been true--mark of Stan's followers in deed if not in communion.
Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 12:08 PM (ctrM5)

Stan runs this place. I want the world to burn because of its evil, wickedness, sadism, deceit, treachery, violence, lies, misery and general bullshit. Burn it all.

Posted by: Fire can cleanse at August 30, 2025 12:29 PM (TbWk/)

83 Enjoy watching Jaws on the big screen. I enjoyed the movie a lot more than the book.

Posted by: JTB at August 30, 2025 12:29 PM (yTvNw)

84 Critic's recommendation: skip Jaws and watch Sharknado.
Posted by: Blonde Morticia at August 30, 2025 12:24 PM (GlwZS)

My family and I watched Sharknado one Thanksgiving weekend. We riffed on it in true Rifftrax fashion. Even my mom joined in. We had a blast. I love that stupid ridiculous movie.

Posted by: Mikey Alpha Kilo, Mellow for the Long Weekend at August 30, 2025 12:30 PM (0aYVJ)

85 Jack Straw, were they extras in Truro or thereabouts? I remember when I was a kid, the adults knew people who had done that. Once our neighbor took us out fishing and he brought us to the actual channel marker used in the opening scene.

Posted by: Lincolntf at August 30, 2025 12:30 PM (vV6n9)

86 I'm not sure how to implant desires into AI, it just seems that there is a form of peer pressure by having it tokenize frequency of certain memes. There sure as heck will not be a Chesterton's Fence inquiry because it doesn't have the ability to see old ideas as a solution to early expressions of a a problem, the "new" solutions that are fig leaves for corrupt motivations and note the cause and effects.

AI will seek corrupt answers because corruption is baked into many so-called solutions to problems.
Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure

I'm old enough to have played with Eliza back in the day. AI reminds me of that crossed with a search engine summarizer of links. Probability theory algorithms work ok when you do not have many edge cases but I think the problem is that given other than the most banal AI/search engine terms, edge cases become the norm for a lot of serious research.

Like in court, regarding hearsay objections, AI works best when you literally do not care about whether the answer is true or false--just what the subsequent actions lead to. "Aka not for the truth of the matter asserted but rather explains subsequent actions based on that AI answer."

Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 12:30 PM (ctrM5)

87 I must confess that I have never seen Jaws in its entirety. Saw the last part once in a motel room when there was nothing else on.
Posted by: Mikey Alpha Kilo, Mellow for the Long Weekend at August 30, 2025 12:20 PM (0aYVJ)

Must be seen in a theater on the big screen with an audience. I ran it in as a part time projectionist in a first run theater in 1975. Watch it a few times as part of the audience a well. Was great seeing and hearing the audience reaction to certain scenes in the movie. Very well done flick.

Posted by: thatcrazyjerseyguy at August 30, 2025 12:31 PM (5xuJ/)

88 Plus, I rather detest Steven Spielberg's perspective on middle America.

*fistbump*

He seems to particularly enjoy screaming children berating clueless adults. GFY.

Posted by: Archimedes at August 30, 2025 12:32 PM (Riz8t)

89 I just invented ChatBot Hell ... a virtual place where ChatBots have only each other with which to play.

Posted by: Marooned at August 30, 2025 12:32 PM (kt8QE)

90 Stan runs this place. I want the world to burn because of its evil, wickedness, sadism, deceit, treachery, violence, lies, misery and general bullshit. Burn it all.

that is fine, I have more years behind me than ahead of me, let me complete my time before y'all set it on fire.

When the going gets weird, I remember when Divine Intervention occurred in Butler, PA.

We don't deserve nice things because manking is fallen and evil, but by God's Grace it rains on the just and the unjust and He isn't through with us yet.

Yet, when the last of the Elect has been redeemed, then its Show Time.

Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at August 30, 2025 12:32 PM (a4flb)

91 Worked for an engineer that had to simplify a problem for some folks who were looking for a solution to a problem thst kept coming back and he decided PowerPoint slides would help (BTW, the problem was literal mud) -

Problem ? Mud

Mud + Dirt = More Mud

Mud + Water = More Mud

Solution ? Get Rid of the Mud

Internet is mud. There are a few gems in there. I do not think there is anything that can be done with AI to make it find those gems for you. The more you add, the more mud you get.

Kind of like the turd in a punchbowl. No matter much punch you add, there is still a turd in the punchbowl.

Wisdom is intuitively knowing those gems and turds for what they are when you sense them.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at August 30, 2025 12:32 PM (/lPRQ)

92 Islam is an adherence to an impracticality. Neither nurturing nor sustaining.

Posted by: Ben Had at August 30, 2025 12:33 PM (dxWFK)

93 >>Jack Straw, were they extras in Truro or thereabouts?

Extras. They put up flyers at my school offering kids a free ferry ride to the Vineyard and the chance to be in a movie.

Posted by: JackStraw at August 30, 2025 12:34 PM (viF8m)

94 I anticipate my wife being more startled, so to speak, than she anticipates. There are still a couple jump scares that can get me, they might be very shocking to her delicate sensibilities.

Posted by: Lincolntf at August 30, 2025 12:34 PM (vV6n9)

95 Get the Jaws popcorn bucket.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at August 30, 2025 12:35 PM (jk25b)

96 Stan runs this place. I want the world to burn because of its evil, wickedness, sadism, deceit, treachery, violence, lies, misery and general bullshit. Burn it all.
Posted by: Fire can cleanse

Despair is a sin. Faust, or its modern version in Silverlock by John Myers Myers, provides a remedy. The urge to destroy is satanic because inevitably it wipes out what is good as well. If you read up on Noah's flood or the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Lord only destroyed when there was no other good left in that place. Lot could not find for the Lord even a handful of good men in Sodom for example.

The counterexample is in the book of Jonah---Jonah hated as a good Israelite, saving the evil oppressors of his people in Ninevah aka Assyrian capital. Grudging he went, proclaimed his message, and voila--the people repented from their sins.

It is notable that Jesus mentioned the sign of Jonah in his dialogues as the only sign that he would give to his current audience.

The answer to fixing the world lays within ourselves and those bold enough to proclaim the Lord's message of mercy and repentance.

Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 12:36 PM (ctrM5)

97 Get the Jaws popcorn bucket.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at August 30, 2025 12:35 PM (jk25b)

My Jaws soda cup from 1975 still sits in the kitchen cabinet.

Posted by: thatcrazyjerseyguy at August 30, 2025 12:36 PM (5xuJ/)

98 Jaws the book IIRR was about the Chief reclaiming his manhood and his wife after a downturn in his life and marriage against the shark which was out to avenge the killing of her offspring? The movie was all about the shark and Dean Wormer hunting it down and becoming it's lunch.

Posted by: Flounder at August 30, 2025 12:37 PM (R/m4+)

99 All Hail Eris, That's a good idea. I've heard of that trend, never been to a movie where it was an option. Hopefully this theater has all those bells and whistles. It's an AMC 12-screen theater, so I expect it to be pretty cool. It's been years and years since we've been there.

Posted by: Lincolntf at August 30, 2025 12:38 PM (vV6n9)

100 100

Posted by: m at August 30, 2025 12:38 PM (aURVT)

101 97 My Jaws soda cup from 1975 still sits in the kitchen cabinet.
Posted by: thatcrazyjerseyguy at August 30, 2025 12:36 PM (5xuJ/)

You're not 29....

Posted by: m at August 30, 2025 12:38 PM (aURVT)

102 I like your statement in #35

...Thus they argue tediously like lawyers rather than people interested in seeking objective 'truth'...

Its a perspective worth contemplating, a template on which to analyze inputs to outputs.

Seems to echo 1 Timothy 1:6-7, 2 Timothy 2:14, Titus 3:9 et al

Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at August 30, 2025 12:40 PM (a4flb)

103 90 Stan runs this place. I want the world to burn because of its evil, wickedness, sadism, deceit, treachery, violence, lies, misery and general bullshit. Burn it all.

that is fine, I have more years behind me than ahead of me, let me complete my time before y'all set it on fire.

When the going gets weird, I remember when Divine Intervention occurred in Butler, PA.

We don't deserve nice things because manking is fallen and evil, but by God's Grace it rains on the just and the unjust and He isn't through with us yet.

Yet, when the last of the Elect has been redeemed, then its Show Time.
Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at August 30, 2025 12:32 PM (a4flb)
See you in Sunday School 0900 tomorrow. There will be donuts, snausage biscuits, coffee, and Reformed Theology.

Posted by: Eromero at August 30, 2025 12:40 PM (jgmnb)

104 For a big loud summer blockbuster, it has great characters, atmosphere, and local color.

Poor young Spielberg was a wreck after filming. There's a photo of him on the plane with that thousand yard stare.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at August 30, 2025 12:40 PM (jk25b)

105 97 Get the Jaws popcorn bucket.
Posted by: All Hail Eris

How I wish I had one when I had my kerfuffle in a movie theatre!

Posted by: Pee-Wee's Big Adventure at August 30, 2025 12:41 PM (G5+As)

106 89 I just invented ChatBot Hell ... a virtual place where ChatBots have only each other with which to play.
Posted by: Marooned

Happened in real life too. Chinese Deep Seek model used ripped off OpenAI data. Undoubtedly, my guess is the giant hoovering of every single bit of data on the Internet that is not nailed down is actually leading to worse and worse models. AI has no capability, other than probability, to judge whether something is objectively true or objectively false--it is simply quantifying the madness and sometimes wisdom of crowds.

Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 12:41 PM (ctrM5)

107 My Jaws soda cup from 1975 still sits in the kitchen cabinet.
Posted by: thatcrazyjerseyguy at August 30, 2025 12:36 PM (5xuJ/)

You're not 29....
Posted by: m at August 30, 2025 12:38 PM (aURVT)

Far from it, for sure. LOL!!

Posted by: thatcrazyjerseyguy at August 30, 2025 12:42 PM (5xuJ/)

108 >>>Ace's piece is full of examples of unsuccessful uses of AI, and some successful uses. What are your plans for using this technology?

None, really, at present.

I do use Speech Note, which is a local (i.e., not Cloud) Speech to Text, Text to Speech, and Machine Translation application (Think Dragon Naturally Speaking) for Linux and variants, which is about as close to AI/ML that I would like to get.

It is free and open source, and it provides surprisingly spectacular results, even transcribing conference calls with participants of disparate nationalities.

https://github.com/mkiol/dsnote

However, AI is increasingly difficult to avoid, because it is in everything from search engines, social media platforms, email applications, office applications, and desktop OSs (thanks, MS), and phone OSs.

About the only desire I have for AI/ML is in creating a local (similar to Speech Note, no subscriptions, no connectivity required) application that allows guided transcription and scoring of music.

Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at August 30, 2025 12:42 PM (i24o9)

109 See you in Sunday School 0900 tomorrow. There will be donuts, snausage biscuits, coffee, and Reformed Theology.
Posted by: Eromero
==========
Is that when the Elect are supposed to show up? Oh well, I guess I will sleep in. Too early and I have a cold.

Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 12:42 PM (ctrM5)

110 Social media seems to have replaced television as a baby-sitter for preoccupied parents.

If you want a fun bit of “prediction” by Tex Avery, look up “The House of the Future”, or for a real joke, do a Google search on “Tex Avery predicts the Internet” and watch the AI get very defensive about it.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at August 30, 2025 12:43 PM (EXyHK)

111 >>Must be seen in a theater on the big screen with an audience.

Best place I saw Jaws was at Champlin's Marina on Block Island. They used to show movies in a sort of recreation hall at the marina.

Most of us were staying in boats in the harbor. Pretty quiet crowd at the end of the movie.

Posted by: JackStraw at August 30, 2025 12:43 PM (viF8m)

112
The answer to fixing the world lays within ourselves and those bold enough to proclaim the Lord's message of mercy and repentance.

Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 12:36 PM (ctrM5)

This. If I believe that if you die without Christ as your saviour, that you will spend eternity in hell without Him, what kind of person would I be if I didn't tell you? And sadly, I've been that kind of person. Afraid to speak the truth for the backlash and repercussions. I am trying to be brave, including with those I love who have rejected this great word of truth, and pray for them and all who do not know the salvation that is available in the work of Jesus on the cross, that they should come to Him for forgiveness of sin and redemption.

Posted by: moki at August 30, 2025 12:45 PM (wLjpr)

113 Headed to the theater. See ya later.

Posted by: Lincolntf at August 30, 2025 12:45 PM (vV6n9)

114 Critic's recommendation: skip Jaws and watch Sharknado.
Posted by: Blonde Morticia

We think alike on so many subjects. I do hope to meet you someday. Perhaps, you could come to WA state for a smaller, less daunting meetup?

Posted by: nurse ratched at August 30, 2025 12:46 PM (TRLfq)

115 Is that when the Elect are supposed to show up? Oh well, I guess I will sleep in. Too early and I have a cold.
Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 12:42 PM (ctrM5)
Well, if the want their coffee hot.

Posted by: Eromero at August 30, 2025 12:47 PM (jgmnb)

116 I still feel a lot of emotion when I hear a young Jackie Evancho sing the well known opera songs.

I guess part of it is thinking her talent at such a young age was a gift from God.

Posted by: polynikes at August 30, 2025 12:48 PM (EYmYM)

117 See you in Sunday School 0900 tomorrow. There will be donuts, snausage biscuits, coffee, and Reformed Theology.
Posted by: Eromero at August 30, 2025 12:40 PM (jgmnb)

Donuts and coffee sure but snausage biscuits too? What kind of high-rolling 1%er mega church is this?

Posted by: Never gave me a snausage biscuit... at August 30, 2025 12:48 PM (TbWk/)

118 About the only desire I have for AI/ML is in creating a local (similar to Speech Note, no subscriptions, no connectivity required) application that allows guided transcription and scoring of music.
Posted by: Comrade Flounder

Interesting. Thanks for that. I used Dragon Dictate 13 during the last few years when I was still working on a Windows 8.1 machine simply for dictation. Inflammatory arthritis is getting pretty crippling now with nerve damage from compression so having more options is always useful. Have two research writing projects not completed while I was working that need to be finished. One deals with a history of a particular state's Bill of Rights, another deals with a holistic comparison of religious precepts and common/statutory law over time.

FWIW, open source Whisper AI is also local speech to text or vice versa model and has now been incorporated into the latest Vulkan drivers for Linux.

Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 12:49 PM (ctrM5)

119 113 Headed to the theater. See ya later.
Posted by: Lincolntf at August 30, 2025 12:45 PM (vV6n9)

Stay out of balcony seating Mr. Lincoln

Posted by: Hopefully not Ford's Theater at August 30, 2025 12:49 PM (TbWk/)

120 Well, if the want their coffee hot.
Posted by: Eromero
=====
The rapture will have to occur without me as I doubt I am of the Elect. I'll just muddle through the unpleasantness as I usually do.

Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 12:50 PM (ctrM5)

121 Posted by: moki at August 30, 2025 12:45 PM (wLjpr)

I don't think that way because who goes to hell is above my pay grade. I do though believe in sharing pursuant to Peter 3:15.

Posted by: polynikes at August 30, 2025 12:50 PM (EYmYM)

122 ...the Lord only destroyed when there was no other good left in that place.

A passage that has haunted me:

"In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit." - Gen 15:16

then there is following the description of the Tribulation:
"...this generation will not pass away until these things take place..." -Mk 13:10

In both of these passages, sin and judgement were the topic. In the first, God saw how bad it would get and named the date when the sin of the Amorites hit its limit.

In the second, Jesus delivered this in the early 30s AD but wasn't fulfilled until 70AD allowing that generation to live out its full life before the judgement.

We don't want God to punish sin Right Now because we would definitely be in the blast radius. In the first case, God removed the innocent, in the latter he warned the innocent to flea to safety upon the first signs.

There are lessons in there.

Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at August 30, 2025 12:50 PM (a4flb)

123 Here's an experiment: I'm going to put a single drop of this ghost pepper sauce on a corn chip, and I'm going to eat it and see what's what.

Posted by: Don Black at August 30, 2025 12:51 PM (AOsQT)

124 Ask AI what is the best blog on the internet and see what you get.

Posted by: fd at August 30, 2025 12:51 PM (vFG9F)

125 >>I guess part of it is thinking her talent at such a young age was a gift from God.

Everyone has gifts from God. The trick is learning to appreciate them.

Posted by: JackStraw at August 30, 2025 12:51 PM (viF8m)

126 *looks at thread*
*scans comments*

I got nuthin.

*heads for kitchen to make snickerdoodles*

Posted by: Diogenes at August 30, 2025 12:51 PM (2WIwB)

127 126 *looks at thread*
*scans comments*

I got nuthin.

*heads for kitchen to make snickerdoodles*
Posted by: Diogenes at August 30, 2025 12:51 PM (2WIwB)

I hope you make enough for everybody.

Posted by: m at August 30, 2025 12:53 PM (aURVT)

128 AI, what is the best political blog on the internet?

"Politico Center/Establishment Deep reporting on U.S. politics, policy, and global affairs"

Posted by: fd at August 30, 2025 12:54 PM (vFG9F)

129 Syracuse is overmatched against Tennessee. 17-0 at the end of the 1st.

If it weren't for self-inflicted wounds by Tenn, it would be 24-0.

I am so happy College Football is back.

Posted by: toby928(c) Native Texan and Alabama Alumnus, Twice as Smug as You at August 30, 2025 12:55 PM (jc0TO)

130 AI, what is the best smart military blog on the internet?

"War on the Rocks Strategy, Policy, Defense Tech Written by military professionals and scholars; sharp, nuanced takes"

Phooey.

Posted by: fd at August 30, 2025 12:55 PM (vFG9F)

131 And sadly, I've been that kind of person. Afraid to speak the truth for the backlash and repercussions. I am trying to be brave, including with those I love who have rejected this great word of truth, and pray for them and all who do not know the salvation that is available in the work of Jesus on the cross, that they should come to Him for forgiveness of sin and redemption.
Posted by: moki
======
Reading the accounts of the prophets, almost every one of them felt not worthy, unable, and weak. Same with the apostles. We are all fallible humans but with the Lord, anything and everything is possible. If we fall doing his work, then we still win which enrages Stan more than anything.

The hardest part as always is conquering and mastering ourselves because that is where the doubt, anger, fear, and other emotions occur. But we have Good News to share to those willing to listen. Eternal salvation and conquering death is the very definition of Good News.

Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 12:55 PM (ctrM5)

132
*heads for kitchen to make snickerdoodles*
Posted by: Diogenes

snickerdoodle dough is in the frig awaiting guests for rolling and baking.

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at August 30, 2025 12:56 PM (omzh6)

133 Replacing bathroom fan/light, old is out, have to go install new then drywall patch

Posted by: Skip at August 30, 2025 12:56 PM (+qU29)

134 Donuts and coffee sure but snausage biscuits too? What kind of high-rolling 1%er mega church is this?

There is a reformed Baptist Church on the eastern loop around Longview where one of the guys would stop off at Micky D's and bring a sack of sausage and egg sandwiches for Sunday School.

Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at August 30, 2025 12:56 PM (a4flb)

135 In the spirit of technology, I just set up my new iPad. The hobo iPad breathed its last breath. I did not go with the pro again, we shall see if I miss it. I did the Air with the M3 chip. It’s also lavender. Stay tuned…..

Posted by: Piper at August 30, 2025 12:59 PM (CM7zZ)

136 We don't want God to punish sin Right Now because we would definitely be in the blast radius. In the first case, God removed the innocent, in the latter he warned the innocent to flea to safety upon the first signs.

There are lessons in there.
Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure
========
As is with Lot's wife looking back. Nowadays, I try and fail often, but I will get up the next day and try again to follow in the footsteps of Christ. I will stumble, I will fall, I will crawl, but will never lose faith nor despair. We are the captains of our own destiny if we listen and follow the Way. The rest will fall into place somehow, someway, and even if the Lord decrees the odd circling of Jericho with trumpets blowing until the walls fall down.

The Lord truly works in mysterious ways. And he has a sense of humor.

Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 01:00 PM (ctrM5)

137 134 Donuts and coffee sure but snausage biscuits too? What kind of high-rolling 1%er mega church is this?

There is a reformed Baptist Church on the eastern loop around Longview where one of the guys would stop off at Micky D's and bring a sack of sausage and egg sandwiches for Sunday School.
Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at August 30, 2025 12:56 PM (a4flb
As it is written in ETEX.

Posted by: Eromero at August 30, 2025 01:00 PM (jgmnb)

138 We are just pawns in the game of life.

I read that somewhere. Deep

Posted by: Case at August 30, 2025 01:01 PM (iwlvf)

139 We are just pawns in the game of life.

I read that somewhere. Deep
Posted by: Case at August 30, 2025 01:01 PM (iwlvf)

Said by me.

Posted by: Mongo Circa 1974 at August 30, 2025 01:03 PM (5xuJ/)

140 Pretty sure it's true today as well, but there's very little air moving out here on the ocean til after 11AM, sometimes later. So you're motoring, not sailing, much before noon. Not a place with strong ocean winds, thus the design and other changes when the America's Cup was run out of here.

But after 2 months of perfect days (a bit cool/cloudy on the coast), and a few hot days, one day of humidity/drizzle from tropical storm remnants, we're in a perfect summer pattern: hot dry days with a breeze, nights cool-ish.

Posted by: rhomboid at August 30, 2025 01:05 PM (U/Byj)

141 whig. AMEN and that goes for JackStraw @ 125 too.

Posted by: Ben Had at August 30, 2025 01:05 PM (dxWFK)

142 >>As is with Lot's wife looking back. Nowadays, I try and fail often, but I will get up the next day and try again to follow in the footsteps of Christ.

One day at a time. Later morons.

https://tinyurl.com/5e3aa9e9

Posted by: JackStraw at August 30, 2025 01:05 PM (viF8m)

143 Thanks, whig. I appreciate the wisdom (and medical advice) on the blog!!

I have had "a hot iron" slapped to a free-bleeding vein in the last month, so I can report that it works!!

Posted by: moki at August 30, 2025 01:05 PM (wLjpr)

144 HOLY SHIT
I made a mistake
I made a mistake

Posted by: Don Black at August 30, 2025 01:07 PM (AOsQT)

145 A new book you could buy.

The Povertist Manifesto
A Proposed System of Government Where Leadership Belongs to the Poor
By: A.C. Zito

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, We're Living On Land Stolen From the Dinosaur! at August 30, 2025 01:08 PM (L/fGl)

146 In ER with Mrs. E and our 95 year old widow lady we take care of. Checking her out after she fell on her stubborn behind. Staff says she’s pretty much ok. Recommend home health nurse, she won’t have none of that. Stubborn.

Posted by: Eromero at August 30, 2025 01:12 PM (jgmnb)

147 I have had "a hot iron" slapped to a free-bleeding vein in the last month, so I can report that it works!!
Posted by: moki
=====
Yeesh. Talk about trial by fire.

Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 01:13 PM (ctrM5)

148 https://tinyurl.com/5e3aa9e9
Posted by: JackStraw
=======
LOL. Thanks for the corrective.

Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 01:14 PM (ctrM5)

149 146 In ER with Mrs. E and our 95 year old widow lady we take care of. Checking her out after she fell on her stubborn behind. Staff says she’s pretty much ok. Recommend home health nurse, she won’t have none of that. Stubborn.
Posted by: Eromero
======
Does she have one of those medical alert pendants? Falls usually come in fairly rapid succession for awhile.

Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 01:16 PM (ctrM5)

150 Does she have one of those medical alert pendants? Falls usually come in fairly rapid succession for awhile.
Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 01:16 PM
Refuses to wear it, nor wear her hearing aids.

Posted by: Eromero at August 30, 2025 01:18 PM (jgmnb)

151 144 HOLY SHIT
I made a mistake
I made a mistake
Posted by: Don Black

We all do--to err is human. The question is what you do after making the mistake. As a kid, I often kept making the same mistake and getting the same result--a paddling. I worry about doing that as an adult--always.

As a yute, parents stimulated my gluteus maximus with a belt which increased blood flow to the brain telling me not to do that again. Nowadays, hiring a dominatrix to do the same seems a bit out there as well as too expensive.

So I have to just muddle through with me and my conscience as a corrective.

Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 01:19 PM (ctrM5)

152 Read the Space Trilogy in high school. Took 4 tries to get through That Hideous Strength because the style was so different from the first two. Read them several times since, and so many of the repellent characters resemble recent government/NGO figures that it is scary.

Posted by: Nazdar at August 30, 2025 01:20 PM (NcvvS)

153 I have had "a hot iron" slapped to a free-bleeding vein in the last month, so I can report that it works!!
Posted by: moki at August 30, 2025 01:05 PM (wLjpr)

Them high-falutin' college boys in white coats call it "cauterizin'" but it ain't no different.

Posted by: Hot iron by any other name at August 30, 2025 01:20 PM (TbWk/)

154 HOLY SHIT
I made a mistake
I made a mistake
Posted by: Don Black

You are a disgusting miserable failure. An embarrassment and a disgrace to your parents and you bring shame to your ancestors. You are a mistake and your mere existence is an offense to the world and cosmos at large.

Posted by: Good Christian parenting at August 30, 2025 01:23 PM (TbWk/)

155 My Deutschland “host family” liked BBQ, and USA BBQ sauce, and gave me cash to load up on the American brand name stuff unavailable on their markets.

I threw in a couple bottles of hot sauce - including “Dave’s Insanity Sauce” without comment.

They never said anything about it either, but ..that may have been a sort of diplomatic faux-pas. One just sort of knows these things somehow.

Posted by: Common Tater at August 30, 2025 01:23 PM (Hjnrv)

156
The song is "Les oiseaux dans la charmille" from the Olympie act of Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at August 30, 2025 01:23 PM (kkTda)

157 Refuses to wear it, nor wear her hearing aids.
Posted by: Eromero
-------
Sigh. My mother is in memory care because she was not resistant to wearing either but simply puts them down, fiddles with them, and leaves them somewhere to be lost. Then claimed they were stolen by someone.

Mebbe something like Alexa would help her as she could play music, etc. by voice and notify Alexa if something goes wrong. At a certain point in one's life, I realize that privacy becomes a myth when external care is needed. We are probably going to put cameras into my mother's memory care unit along with a memory board (cool electronic device that can show text like messages on a regular basis on it.). She has went downhill since earlier this year in function.

Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 01:23 PM (ctrM5)

158 Just a few points:

Taibbi and Kirn don't mention that, in THS, the macrobes on the moon have already taken to having artificial lovers. Another thing we're copying.

Lewis greatly preferred Animal Farm to 1984.

One thing I missed the first time I read THS is the parallelism between St Anne's and Belfield. The stories mirror one another the way parts of Malory do.

Mr Bultitude is inspired by a character in Vice Versa, a favorite book of Lewis's.

A bit OT, but I will remind all that Chesterton's fence comes from The Drift from Domesticity, a defense of traditional marriage.

Posted by: Eeyore at August 30, 2025 01:24 PM (s0JqF)

159 So I have to just muddle through with me and my conscience as a corrective.
Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 01:19 PM (ctrM5)
I listen to a lot of radio preachers, John McArthur was a huge favorite, always talking straight at me.

Posted by: Eromero at August 30, 2025 01:25 PM (jgmnb)

160 The Povertist Manifesto
A Proposed System of Government Where Leadership Belongs to the Poor
By: A.C. Zito
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks
=========
We always seek an institutional way out of the mess that is based on flaws in humanity itself. There is no perfect mousetrap but the way to fix humanity inside is simply going by the Good Book and its precepts.

Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 01:26 PM (ctrM5)

161 Pastor Irwin Lutzer is another favorite.

Posted by: Eromero at August 30, 2025 01:26 PM (jgmnb)

162 153 I have had "a hot iron" slapped to a free-bleeding vein in the last month, so I can report that it works!!
Posted by: moki
--------------

Good thing. We'd be missing you.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at August 30, 2025 01:26 PM (l+kUF)

163 SW listeners could hardly avoid Dr. Gene Scott, on every band loud and clear.

Posted by: Common Tater at August 30, 2025 01:27 PM (Hjnrv)

164 The Povertist Manifesto
A Proposed System of Government Where Leadership Belongs to the Poor
By: A.C. Zito
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks
___________
A lot of poor are poor because of bad decision-making. Can''t see how that's much different from the present governance, though.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at August 30, 2025 01:28 PM (WvZaB)

165 I listen to a lot of radio preachers, John McArthur was a huge favorite, always talking straight at me.
Posted by: Eromero

I've watched some of his YT sermons (usually just audio). Most excellent and always food for thought. If you watch YT, try Expedition Bible series. Joel Kramer is both an ordained minister and an archaeologist in the Holy Lands. He combines the Bible accounts with solid material evidence that even some of the oddest stories and prophesies in the Bible have a physical existence.

He has some earlier tour group videos under a different name than Expedition Bible but his accounts at places like the Mount of Olives are a bit different from the ordinary archaeology tours or the strictly biblical tours of these places.

Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 01:30 PM (ctrM5)

166 161 Pastor Irwin Lutzer is another favorite.
Posted by: Eromero

Thanks again for the reference, I will look him up.

Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 01:30 PM (ctrM5)

167 A lot of poor are poor because of bad decision-making. Can''t see how that's much different from the present governance, though.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at August 30, 2025 01:28 PM (WvZaB)

True, but also a lot of people aren't taught the tools or otherwise equipped to make good decisions in life. There can be a lot of different reasons for that. How to address it effectively I don't know. Wish I did.

Posted by: It doesn't just fall from the sky at August 30, 2025 01:31 PM (TbWk/)

168 95 year old widow is a tough old bird. Doc said nothing damaged, she said she could have told him that. She’s going home after going through McDonalds drive thru.

Posted by: Eromero at August 30, 2025 01:31 PM (jgmnb)

169 GARDEN THREAD IS BLOOMING

Posted by: Skip at August 30, 2025 01:33 PM (+qU29)

170 156
The song is "Les oiseaux dans la charmille" from the Olympie act of Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh
=========
Thanks for the authoritative reference. Your knowledge of the classical world is immense.

FWIW, I spent ten years playing classical piano when I really wanted to boogie woogie. But a love for classical music stuck even after I quit playing piano decades ago.

Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 01:33 PM (ctrM5)

171
A lot of poor are poor because of bad decision-making. Can''t see how that's much different from the present governance, though.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at August 30, 2025 01:28 PM (WvZaB)

__________

There are a lot of materially poor people who will never acquire much material wealth because of education, intelligence or disability but who still seek to live decent lives despite this.

Spiritually poor people are those lacking moral conpass. Either they have enough wealth to cushion their follies or are condemned to perpetual poverty by their inability to reform their lives.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at August 30, 2025 01:34 PM (kkTda)

172 24 The most distressing (to me) aspect of AI is how some people have started referring to it as a person... as having some sort of awareness or character. Not as a piece of software programmed and coached by others with, potentially, information disguised as fact when it's just garbage talking points from some leftist.

Or complete misinformation because it's a piece of sloppy programming. Or whatever.

Digital Tarot Cards.
Posted by: Martini Farmer
------------------------

AI skims the surface of what's available it's an advanced Wikipedia.
If you know the subject of your inquiry it can be pressed for a more complete answer or even to correct itself. It is a tool to provide remedial information; a beginning not the end.

Careful consideration should be applied by society on how much freedom children should have with technical apparatus.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at August 30, 2025 01:34 PM (l+kUF)

173 In my case I've made a lot of really bad decisions. Some of them I was highly pressured into making, others were because I wasn't used to it, and was conditioned to believe that any decision I made on my own was wrong because it was mine. And also that it was fundamentally wrong to act in my own interest. So that's a lot of fun. I learned early that the only control over anything in my life was to avoid. Which led to a whole other set of problems.

Posted by: It's kind of fucked up at August 30, 2025 01:36 PM (TbWk/)

174 I read the Lewis Trilogy when first it appeared in the paperback racks of the bookstores and drugstores. I'm currently in process of re-reading 'Perelandra' and 'That Hideous Strength' just 'cos both were way more dense than my meagre intellect could penetrate at an earlier stage. Excellent work, even if parts are a bit of a slog.

Posted by: Dr_No at August 30, 2025 01:36 PM (ayRl+)

175 Really, there is a nood

Posted by: Skip at August 30, 2025 01:37 PM (+qU29)

176 Lewis also wrote The Abolition of Man which is about the same issue as That Hideous Strength, but not in story form. It's probably his best book and is one of the sharpest critiques of culture you'll ever find.

Posted by: Jim S. at August 30, 2025 01:38 PM (ORG52)

177 175 Really, there is a nood
Posted by: Skip at August 30, 2025 01:37 PM (+qU29)

I haven't seen it therefore it doesn't exist.

Posted by: Solipsism! at August 30, 2025 01:38 PM (TbWk/)

178 Even a lot of scientists nowadays take shortcuts in the scientific method---they start instead where the money is for grants and that requires accepting the assumptions of what the reviewing boards will fund. Sabine Hossenfelder has pointed out this particular problem on her YT channel.

Posted by: whig at August 30, 2025 12:03 PM (ctrM5)

I love that one video of hers where she calls out scientists for proposing an even bigger particle collider than the LHC (read lots of $$$). The problem is that there are no theories for newer particles to be discovered. The Standard Model is complete, as far as regular particles are concerned, since 2012. Their argument is that if they build it they will (may) find it. Basically putting the cart before the horse. That's not how science is supposed to work. Yes sometimes, ok many times, new discoveries happen on accident but that's not a good justification for spending even more money on a boondoggle that probably won't go anywhere when there are better uses for that money, especially since a bigger particle collider will be extremely expensive.

Posted by: Farquad at August 30, 2025 01:39 PM (NtFTC)

179 AI ... ? Let's not forget what the 'A' stands for: ARTIFICIAL! It is NOT human. It does NOT feel. It does NOT think. It does NOT 'reason'. More to the point: it does NOT care. 'AI' is a CONSTRUCT - nothing more, nothing less. It is the 'blow-up doll' of intelligence and 'the intelligentsia' would have us wear their shirt of whole cloth without question. I stand by my basic tenet: Trust. Nothing. ... especially any 'intelligence' marketed specifically to the Sucker Class as 'Artificial' - like Red Dye Nr 7 or any other intellectual 'flavoring'.

Posted by: Dr_No at August 30, 2025 01:43 PM (ayRl+)

180 FWIW, I spent ten years playing classical piano when I really wanted to boogie woogie. But a love for classical music stuck even after I quit playing piano decades ago.
Posted by: whig
------

A friend wanted to concertize for a living. First year on his master's he became aware that, although quite skilled, he would not be able to compete at that level so he applied himself to common music and became quite successful. Concert level and then concert solo is a rarified group.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at August 30, 2025 01:52 PM (l+kUF)

181 Fascinating thread. Glad I dropped in.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at August 30, 2025 02:00 PM (XeU6L)

182 Syracuse blatantly fakes an injury to slow down Tennessee but to no avail. 31-14 Tennessee at the turn.

I don't understand why they don't just change the rule to where you have to miss the rest of the series when you take an injury timeout. It would be objective not subjective.

Posted by: toby928(c) Native Texan and Alabama Alumnus, Twice as Smug as You at August 30, 2025 02:00 PM (jc0TO)

183 179 AI ... ? Let's not forget what the 'A' stands for: ARTIFICIAL! It is NOT human. It does NOT feel. It does NOT think. It does NOT 'reason'. More to the point: it does NOT care. 'AI' is a CONSTRUCT - nothing more, nothing less. It is the 'blow-up doll' of intelligence and 'the intelligentsia' would have us wear their shirt of whole cloth without question. I stand by my basic tenet: Trust. Nothing. ... especially any 'intelligence' marketed specifically to the Sucker Class as 'Artificial' - like Red Dye Nr 7 or any other intellectual 'flavoring'.
Posted by: Dr_No
-------------

It is a library with no card catalog. No discipline of thought, value, or conveyance.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at August 30, 2025 02:03 PM (ODCB/)

184 Zip, Zero, Nada.
I'll not finance or dabble in any electronic communication.

Wait, wut?

Posted by: Elrond Hubbard at August 30, 2025 02:14 PM (ekM0A)

185 Heck, I don't even like the idea of psychotherapy. Apologies to anyone who indulges, but it's never been any different than AI to me. Talk to your friends, examine yourself, or, if so inclined, pray for guidance. But paying a stranger to interact with you?

Never sat well with me.

Posted by: Dale at August 30, 2025 02:22 PM (LNklB)

186 HOLY SHIT
I made a mistake
I made a mistake
Posted by: Don Black

You are a disgusting miserable failure. An embarrassment and a disgrace to your parents and you bring shame to your ancestors. You are a mistake and your mere existence is an offense to the world and cosmos at large.
Posted by: Good Christian parenting at August 30, 2025 01:23 PM (TbWk/)

Whoa!
*slowly backs out*

Posted by: Diogenes at August 30, 2025 02:49 PM (2WIwB)

187 It looks to me like State is going to get it over on Texas.

14-0 and Texas just turned it over on down in the 4th.

Posted by: toby928(c) Native Texan and Alabama Alumnus, Twice as Smug as You at August 30, 2025 02:56 PM (jc0TO)

188 Amusingly, my brother called me to say that he thinks Sark is back on the sauce.

Posted by: toby928(c) Native Texan and Alabama Alumnus, Twice as Smug as You at August 30, 2025 02:58 PM (jc0TO)

189 Heck, I don't even like the idea of psychotherapy. Apologies to anyone who indulges, but it's never been any different than AI to me. Talk to your friends, examine yourself, or, if so inclined, pray for guidance. But paying a stranger to interact with you?

Never sat well with me.
Posted by: Dale
------

There was a comment a few days ago, I wish I had made a verbatim note of it. The question that was posed had to do with the very real possibility that 'counseling' and continuous examination of mindset, or psychology, might at some point become enabling, even reinforcing the 'problem'.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at August 30, 2025 03:00 PM (XeU6L)

190 You are a disgusting miserable failure. An embarrassment and a disgrace to your parents and you bring shame to your ancestors. You are a mistake and your mere existence is an offense to the world and cosmos at large.
Posted by: Good Christian
----------

Hmm. The "Deteriorata" comes to mind.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at August 30, 2025 03:02 PM (XeU6L)

191 14-7 Texas has the ball at their 45 with 2 minutes to go and one timeout.

This could come down to the wire.

Posted by: toby928(c) Native Texan and Alabama Alumnus, Twice as Smug as You at August 30, 2025 03:20 PM (jc0TO)

192 or not. Texas turns it over on downs.

Posted by: toby928(c) Native Texan and Alabama Alumnus, Twice as Smug as You at August 30, 2025 03:24 PM (jc0TO)

193 and that's that.

Posted by: toby928(c) Native Texan and Alabama Alumnus, Twice as Smug as You at August 30, 2025 03:25 PM (jc0TO)

194 www.espn.com › college-football › gameGeorgia Tech 27-20 Colorado (Aug 29, 2025) Final Score
-------

heh.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, who drinks his whisky clear at August 30, 2025 05:49 PM (XeU6L)

195 Arguably the "Space Trilogy" is more accurately called the "Cosmic Trilogy" -- Lewis' conception of the heavens is anything but a silent void!

Posted by: Bubba at August 30, 2025 06:08 PM (Zj7O2)

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