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sauromatian
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Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2023 4:09 am

Tszii wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Oh, yea. Tolerances are all over the place. Its also easy to encapsulate every place, thing and sometimes person, into a cartoon.

Of course, I cant hear my neighbors surface planer running from his garage. Anything less sound proof would cause a sign to go up in my yard. Which makes my perspective a cartoon to some I am sure.

A cartoon is not necessarily malicious. For instance, the later productions of Tom & Jerry are based upon the Native American wisdom of Rat-With-Bow-Tie & Cat-Who-Smiles-Too-Much (totemistic spirit animals whose interactions are moral guidelines for ordinary humans), another example being the singing frog in a time capsule (from a traditional African story about how to remove paint from a frog).

One could apply these lessons to everyday life by comparing the singing of the frog to the noise from your neighbor's garage. Will it sing for the police if you make a noise complaint? Perhaps not. Better to follow the path of the humble animals of the field who shake hands instead.

Or we could look at the heroic deeds of Daffy Duck, avenger of slights. Many cartoons starring this character had their source in a few of Aesop's Fables which in turn are thought to have been inspired by the Assyrian cuneiform proverbs of Ahikar. These are described by Prinn in De Vermis Mysteriis as "a humming which becomes a throbbing which becomes an uncontrollable urge."

Your neighbor wants to tell you all about how loud his wood planer can get. He's gonna scream & shout it, but Daffy is whispering to you that there is another way. What would your neighbor's planer sound like with his head in it instead of lumber? How evenly surfaced could it make his skull? Daffy wants to know. Daffy demands a sacrifice.

Tszii
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Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2023 7:59 am

Touché!

mbassoc2003
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Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2023 4:15 pm

sauromatian wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:California & New York have low gun violence & low suicide rates, so let's all move there.

That’s because they are all happy and healthy people. They live outdoors most of the year, share everything with everyone, and all the shops give everything away for free. This are the utopias that American youth want everyone in the US to have the benefit of experiencing. Who needs guns with all the love these cities have to offer?

This week I've been mostly eating . . . The white ones with the little red flecks in them.

Skullhammer
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Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2023 6:15 pm

mbassoc2003 wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:That’s because they are all happy and healthy people. They live outdoors most of the year, share everything with everyone, and all the shops give everything away for free. This are the utopias that American youth want everyone in the US to have the benefit of experiencing. Who needs guns with all the love these cities have to offer?

Ha! With the amount of gaslighting that Americans receive on a daily basis, it wasn’t until you wrote “ the shops give everything away for free”, that I realized you were being sarcastic :).

Tszii
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Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2023 5:16 pm

I finished re-watching Deadwood on HBO. Its been a long time since the first time I saw it. Its was an amazing show. Its a travesty it ended so abruptly. I dont think such a show or movie could be made like that today. Even if it was, the perfect casting, practical set and horses, historical characters and plain writing talent doesnt seem to exist. Deadwood is profanity ladened Shakespeare, a history lesson and an illustration of how brutal life was not that long ago. It also gave me a laugh when I launched Cowboy Bebop later and saw an advisory for smoking. Anyway, its a great show if you havent seen it, and a good re-watch if you do that sort of thing.

sauromatian
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Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2023 6:18 am

Tszii wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:I dont think such a show or movie could be made like that today.

I happen to know the secret to making a good western, but first, maybe you can help me out with a sci-fi combat mechanic. Say there's a spaceship making a bombing run at twice the speed of light. It's moving in a straight line, parallel to a tangent of the planet's surface, & will fly close to the planet. To an observer on the planet with an array of telescopes, the spaceship will first appear when it is directly overhead & closest to the observer (presumably when it is dropping its bombs), so there is no way for the defending observer to stop the bombing itself. The spaceship will then appear to have a double image: one image of the spaceship appears to move back in time, in the direction from whence it came (as the light it reflected while approaching is moving at only the speed of light), & the other image will appear to move in the direction in which it is actually moving.

The image of the spaceship which appears to move backward in time will also appear to be moving at the actual speed of the spaceship, twice the speed of light. But the image of the forward-moving spaceship will appear to be moving at only two-thirds the speed of light (or one-third its actual speed), since the light (reflected from the spaceship) which reaches the observer is doing so from an increasing distance, & thus with a delay. So the defending observer may track the enemy spaceship by measuring the speed of the backward-in-time-image in comparison to the slower speed of the forward-in-time image. Such information could then be used to help plan a counterattack.

So my question is, could the spaceship alter its speed in any way to confuse the observer? That is, if it changes speed after dropping its bombs while closest to the target (the observer), could it appear to be going faster than it really is? If it could, the observer might not be able to tell which of the double images is the forward-in-time image, the image which shows the true path of the spaceship. Or have I mis-calculated something?

Tszii
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Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2023 11:25 am

sauromatian wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:
I happen to know the secret to making a good western, but first, maybe you can help me out with a sci-fi combat mechanic. Say there's a spaceship making a bombing run at twice the speed of light. It's moving in a straight line, parallel to a tangent of the planet's surface, & will fly close to the planet. To an observer on the planet with an array of telescopes, the spaceship will first appear when it is directly overhead & closest to the observer (presumably when it is dropping its bombs), so there is no way for the defending observer to stop the bombing itself. The spaceship will then appear to have a double image: one image of the spaceship appears to move back in time, in the direction from whence it came (as the light it reflected while approaching is moving at only the speed of light), & the other image will appear to move in the direction in which it is actually moving.

The image of the spaceship which appears to move backward in time will also appear to be moving at the actual speed of the spaceship, twice the speed of light. But the image of the forward-moving spaceship will appear to be moving at only two-thirds the speed of light (or one-third its actual speed), since the light (reflected from the spaceship) which reaches the observer is doing so from an increasing distance, & thus with a delay. So the defending observer may track the enemy spaceship by measuring the speed of the backward-in-time-image in comparison to the slower speed of the forward-in-time image. Such information could then be used to help plan a counterattack.

So my question is, could the spaceship alter its speed in any way to confuse the observer? That is, if it changes speed after dropping its bombs while closest to the target (the observer), could it appear to be going faster than it really is? If it could, the observer might not be able to tell which of the double images is the forward-in-time image, the image which shows the true path of the spaceship. Or have I mis-calculated something?

This is weird. :D

sauromatian
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Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2023 2:04 pm

Tszii wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:This is weird. :D

I knew it! I should have carried the 2 in the tens place...

sauromatian
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Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2023 5:19 pm

I think there's been some discussion of AI-generated content here before, & now it's affecting our access to quality television programming, even the acclaimed Drew Barrymore show. So I thought it would be worthwhile to look at how bot-made content is currently present on the web. The first quote is from a text that's been available for AI-scraping for quite a while already:

Buckaroo Banzai Script
'Later, in PRESIDENT WIDMARK's hospital room. PRESIDENT WIDMARK is
strapped into some kind of rotating frame, surrounded by medical equipment.

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE:
   It's... it's not Buckaroo Banzai _per se_, Mr. President.
   It's his _men_. Foreigners, some of them! Or their names have
   been changed. Their _true_ backgrounds are shrouded in secrecy!
   Now, all I'm saying is that this jet car belongs in the hands
   of Defense. I mean, uh... if the Banzai Institute doesn't want
   to sell it to us, then we're gonna have to _take_ it from them!
   In, uh, the national interest, of course.'

So that's what the AI had to work with. Here is what an AI working for a major news outlet produced recently:

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/12/warren- ... raine.html
'WASHINGTON — Sen. Elizabeth Warren called for a probe Tuesday following a claim that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk curbed a Ukrainian military operation aimed at Russia’s Black Sea fleet last year by limiting access to SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network, a report said.

“Congress needs to investigate what’s happened here, and whether we have adequate tools to make sure foreign policy is conducted by the government and not by one billionaire,” Warren, D-Mass., said Monday, according to Bloomberg.'

So what do you think? Should CNBC's AI-driven content creator be eligible to receive a copyright for this, or is it too close to the original?

Tszii
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Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2023 10:19 am

Anyone think we have a black Monday in store?

I am just mentally trying to prepare myself for the worst based on intelligent people I don't know and the gas in my GI. :)

If we do have one, I wouldn't say "I knew it." I thought they would raise rates when Trump was elected and was about six years off.

mbassoc2003
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Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2023 3:57 am

I’d say when a nation votes itself a government to print itself infinite money and then racks up more debt in three months than ever existed on the planet for the first nineteen centuries, you’d be pretty much on the brink of economic collapse.

The last thing you want to be holding right now is debt, especially if that debt is tied to a real asset that sits on the balance book of some lender.

There is nothing anyone can do to take away the pain of those who do not understand what is happening in the world around them. But it’s not like they can claim they couldn’t see this coming 15 years ago when they set the value of the dollar at zero and began inflating the dollar into oblivion.

When a population asks for cheap everything, and free everything, eventually someone has to pay, which is cool if you were the one who got rich cheap and now have real stuff of value, but it sucks if you didn’t ask the question, ‘Where does all this money come from?’ And now end up losing assets encumbered by debt, and dollar denominated investments.

Still, we can hide all this economic devastation with a good old global war, and just make everyone terrified and thankful to be alive. Then they won’t complain when they lose everything they’ve ever worked for. We can blame it all on ‘the war’. They may well end up owning nothing, but at least they will be happy.

This week I've been mostly eating . . . The white ones with the little red flecks in them.

sauromatian
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Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2023 5:20 am

mbassoc2003 wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:a good old global war

Everyone expects the Chinese to start it by attacking Taiwan, but China might want to engage with the USA elsewhere first. If China wins against the USA, they can subsequently negotiate unification with Taiwan on their own terms.

Syria has been talking to China, supposedly for construction contracts. But what happens if a Chinese army shows up in Syria? The USA has troops there too. China would have a long supply chain if they started a war with the USA in Syria, but one which avoids our Navy (China to Russia to Iran across the Caspian Sea, with the weak link being from Iran to Syria across Iraq).

Everyone also says that if China attacks Taiwan, they would be sabotaging their own economy, because they will disrupt the flow of their own trade in the Pacific. If China attacks the USA in Syria & Iraq instead, they can avoid disrupting trade in the Pacific.

Therefore, we should look out for Chinese "construction workers" with "construction equipment" in Syria.

benjoshua
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Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2023 7:52 pm

China's economy is in trouble right now according to a number of news reports. GDP is down and decreasing, unemployment rates among young people is bad, etc... This development could lead China's leadership to retract its aggressiveness OR use military action(s) to distract from the policies that caused these economic problems. Lots of people predicted the great World Wars wouldn't happen because economies were so intertwined, so I'm not making that prediction. Several years ago I read the book China Goes Global, the Partial Power by David Shambaugh, and one of the conclusions was that China wasn't that much of a threat unless they believed they were a power (hence the title). Whether they are genuinely a threat or not, Chinese history show them rising fast over and over but then collapsing fast due to leadership issues. At one time hundreds of years ago they had great ships which travelled as far as Africa until the leader which led such efforts died and his successor had all the ships destroyed, or something like that. Remember too, they invented paper and gun powder first, but couldn't capitalize primarily due to leadership issues. The centralized planning of their economy just doesn't work well.

On the other hand, unemployment in the US is extremely low, inflation has decreased considerably, wages have increased about 4% on average, and consumer sentiment is rising. The stock market hasn't done that bad either over the past year. And when you consider what's going on economically in most other countries, we've got it good. Still, for way too many people in the US, life is barely tolerable. Rents and groceries are rising to the point that one little car repair or sickness can destroy what little they have left. It's not French Revolution bad, but it feels like that for a growing group. It's this disparity that worries me more than China or Russia. :?

Truth is worth finding and life is too short to work for money.

Sir Kill Alot
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Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2023 11:55 pm

Apologies upfront for the rambling... China is already on a war footing. They have imported 12% more oil this year along with record amounts of grain. Two vital resources necessary for war. Their Strategic Petroleum Reserve is well on its way to reaching a 90 day supply level. Something necessary to feed the war machine. They have updated their military recruitment rules for the first time since 2001 to make it easier to draft people. I would hazard a guess that within a year , China will make a play for Taiwan. America, with its military supplies dwindling due to us throwing everything into Ukraine, will not be in a good enough position to deter them. TSMC, the only reason America really cares about that island, won't have its 40+billion AZ fabrication plant done until 2025. I don't think China will let that plant come online before making a move. China has record amounts of young people doing nothing (unemployed) and are ratcheting up nationalism to 11 (see Huawei phone release). They've been doing military exercises targeting Taiwan for close to 2 years now and are pouring billions of dollars into their military buildup. (second only to the U.S.). You distract a populace from their dire everyday lives by going to war. If the Chinese economy implodes (which it may already be doing), war will be very close behind.

-SKA

sauromatian
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Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2023 7:13 am

Sir Kill Alot wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:America, with its military supplies dwindling due to us throwing everything into Ukraine, will not be in a good enough position to deter them. TSMC, the only reason America really cares about that island, won't have its 40+billion AZ fabrication plant done until 2025. I don't think China will let that plant come online before making a move.

It's not looking like TSMC really wants the AZ chip plant. Contractors have been talking about difficulties verging on sabotage by the TSMC people, & I'm not sure I could really blame TSMC. Look at it from their perspective: "Let's make Taiwan less competitive by giving America similar factories. Then, America will have no qualms about turning our nation into a shooting gallery for their proxy war with China. Taiwan could enjoy becoming the next Okinawa."

Sir Kill Alot
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Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2023 12:12 pm

sauromatian wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:
It's not looking like TSMC really wants the AZ chip plant. Contractors have been talking about difficulties verging on sabotage by the TSMC people, & I'm not sure I could really blame TSMC. Look at it from their perspective: "Let's make Taiwan less competitive by giving America similar factories. Then, America will have no qualms about turning our nation into a shooting gallery for their proxy war with China. Taiwan could enjoy becoming the next Okinawa."

At the end of the day, TSMC exists to make money. Bombs falling on Taiwan will put a serious dent in their ability to do so. It would be suicidal for China but other countries have done far worse for less gain. The island would fare better if TSMC doesn't complete the plant because advanced chips is something the world cannot live without and more countries would partake in its protection. Either way, it will be a complete shit show. I filled up my car yesterday at $4/gallon, that was the cheapest grade, (this administration and its lack of caring for the little people is crazy) but if China has its way, anything with a microprocessor in it, will be through the roof in cost.

-SKA

Tszii
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Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2023 4:11 pm

Sir Kill Alot wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Apologies upfront for the rambling...

-SKA

I love rambling in general, and about current events in particular. :)

sauromatian
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Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2023 11:44 pm

Sir Kill Alot wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:anything with a microprocessor in it, will be through the roof in cost.

Do you ever use LED lightbulbs? Those are supposed to have a microchip in each one, since the economy depends on selling more & more computers every year. Everything must have a microchip, whether it is part of "the internet of things" that no one wants or not.

I read about a kind of toaster made from the '30s-'80s, with a wire that extends into the middle of the bread. When the wire gets to a certain temperature, it expands to trigger the springs & turn off. It's a much simpler system than we have today (with a timer dial), but one which adjusts for the size/composition/temperature of the bread to deliver a similarly toasted result, all without performing calculations.

There are many old designs we could return to which use simpler or fewer electronics. Given how oversold computers are today, maybe it would be an improvement.

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