caucus99percent

free-range politics, organic community

Happy Friday everyone. I hope everybody is doing well. Post any photos, memes, or music you like.

With all the recent problems in the aircraft and airline industry in the news these days, I thought since I haven't been to the San Diego Air and Space Museum in a half dozen years, a visit was in order. I'm happy to say, while I was there no door plugs blew out, no panels fell off, no engines flamed out and no emergency landings were required. It wasn't all rainbows and lollypops though, as they once again managed to lose my luggage.

Spirit of St Louis

It wasn't all that long ago that a corporation having admitted to a criminal felony would have its charter pulled and be shut down. That idea now seems quaint, at least when it applies to Wall Street.

Note: I wrote the gist of this piece, below the fold, yesterday morning and left it untitled. When I came in from doing yard work around dinner time I found that Antony Blinken had made this shocking statement, and that lead me to the introduction and my title.

The King's Jester has spoken: King of the Mountain

Blinken says that Ukraine will be joining NATO. Under Article 5, this means that an attack on Ukraine will be considered an attack on the United States. If you want World War 3, vote Biden in November.

Source: X

AI? I'm Not Impressed

Matt Taibbi has recently written a couple of articles about AI which made me pay attention. The first started with talking about how Google's AI tool, Gemini, made images which were wrong, but racially diverse! Like everyone, Taibbi thought something like, 'Yea this is bad, but it won't affect me...' Until it did. Right away. He stopped examining the issues with Gemini's images and asked Gemini a question about himself. And it gave him a list of a few things he supposedly did which he actually never did. It mixed up true statements and writings with things it had, apparently, made up. It credited him with articles he never wrote; articles which no-one ever wrote because they didn't exist. And that is both maddening and scary for everyone.

This make me laugh in a rueful way: from https://chappatte.com/en/images/ai-and-future-work

Taibbi's second article, about AI and the website Naked Capitalism hit me even harder. I realized that I had recently experienced some of the same AI mistakes, although I hadn't understood at the time that those mistakes were the result of AI.

The US/CIA warmongers are treading a dangerous path at the blessing of congress
and the executive branches of government. And monied interests.

-
There appears to be one tug alongside the container ship at the moment.
A fire boat is just below the stranded vessel. There are 3 crane barges
working in the debris area to the north. They have opened a small channel
under the bridge in that area. Several CG boats scattered around upstream
and downstream. The crew is still onboard running ship systems and helping
assist vessels. This is a graphic of current activity.