Open Thread - 16 July 2026 - A Couple of Tidbits
A Couple of Tidbits
Been very busy and also feeling a bit sick lately (heat? dunno - but today's supposed to be cool and rainy, so we'll see). Therefore, I've not got a lot for today's Open Thread. But I do have a few tidbits!
Tidbit 1:
A young woman in Canada, a student at a high school in Montreal, got suspended for supporting Palestine! So much for free speech, eh? It was, of course, that she was against the wars and the genocide Israel is doing. And she posted a link to a reel by Lee Camp about October 7th. And those two things got her suspended.
Lee says:
That’s right. Apparently the first ever suspension in Montreal public schools (or perhaps even Canada’s public schools in general) due to reposting criticism of a country was because of …me. Wow. I’m more powerful than I realized.
But here’s the good news. After many people wrote to defend the student and protesters even showed up in freezing temperatures in March to demand the school system apologize, the student was vindicated.
What the heck?! Canada, how disappointing!
Protesters in support of the student, what the student wrote on her own private instragram account is on the little white protest sign (from the story at therover.ca here)
Tidbit 2:
How do you tell if you are reading AI? Most of the time, I think it's easy, at least online. But, maybe I'm reading it and don't even know at times that I'm doing that. I mean, one can easily detect AI stories on say, Quora. The pronouns are never correct, they switch from he to she and back again, details are often really weird, verbs can be strange. But what about in a supposedly serious article? Or if it's posted by a real person, like Hunter Biden, for example? Well, Ron Placone talks about that in his post: How to Spot AI Writing.
He goes into things I had never thought about, how AI structures writing, presenting points of view and so on. I'm not sure I can detect this kind of AI even with the helpful points he's made. But it's a start!
What do you think about AI and how to detect it? Got any tips?
Ok, Here's the open thread! What's up, whatcha doing? Reading? Thinking? Listening to? Remember, everything is interesting if you dive deep enough, so tell us about where you're diving!
Comments
Thursday!
I hope everyone has a good day. It will cool down and might rain here; good, because I don't have to work outside, I'll be going to my Mom's and back. Woot! Let us know what's up!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Thanks for the tidbits
.
It never ceases to amaze me how unintelligent AI can be.
I will not waste the time to parse whether content is generated
by a machine or not. Try to take everything with a fistful of salt.
(Really like salt)
We have the second day of wildfire smoke haze in the skies here.
(Thanks Canada) Hopefully the south winds will keep some of it at bay.
Hope you feel better and thanks for the OT.
Zionism is a social disease
I think you are right...
take everything with a fistful of salt. Obviously AI isn't to be trusted, not like it's being done to help the proletariat or poor or whatever. Heh.
That sucks about the smoke. We've had a few seasons here with smoke from Canada, or from California and Oregon fires. I remember one time the haze was so thick the sky was orange/pink. And breathing was not easy! Hope the southern winds keep the smoke at bay for you!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Good morning, sima!
I catch myself reading AI when reading long articles, realizing that I just read an idea or premise for the third time, just stated differently. If a person had doubts about the idea or premise, the second and third re-statement, worded slightly differently, might finally present sufficient argument to remove the doubt. In other words, indoctrination. Manipulation. Trust the machine.
The State Bar of Texas just sent me an offer to take a course in how to use AI without getting disbarred. If I sign up for it quickly, I can get a discount. I can't make this crazy shit up. I will let AI do it for me.
Anyway, I will read Placone's article, and save myself lots of time and manipulation in the future.
As for criticizing Israel, a bill is floating around in Congress that will make any criticism a federal criminal offense. Stating an opinion will land you in federal prison? How will this affect future congressional debates on sending funds to Israel? Canada took a baby step. We will stomp into the bull shit in the US, splatter it everywhere!
Get well, chica!
Thanks for the OT!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Good point about AI
restating things slightly differently over and over. Sounds like a paper from freshman year in college or something. Hah. This is so true: 'If a person had doubts about the idea or premise, the second and third re-statement, worded slightly differently, might finally present sufficient argument to remove the doubt. In other words, indoctrination. Manipulation. Trust the machine.'
As for taking a class on using AI without getting disbarred, yea, I'd pass on that too! And that bill in congress about criticism of Israel? Man, it's frapping shameful it's even getting any attention, it should have been thrown out of consideration immediately. Embarrassing how bought we are by Israel.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Placone's article is pretty good
I feel I can detect AI writing and scripts for videos usually in the several sentences. Placone describes it better than I could.
Generally, the writing starts out it's not this and it's not that. It reminds me of grade school writing assignments compare and contrast. Instead of telling you what something is, it tells you what it isn't. People think it's this, but it's that. People think they need this but they don't, they need that. I don't need to listen to waste water circulating around the drain. That's the imagery I have in my mind, structurally, of how these formulaic AI things are written. The topic often starts with either fear or greed induced hooks. You have to know this! But I'll bet you don't! The people who know this (what we're about to tell you), make it through the crisis, the people who don't? Well, you must read or listen to this or you may become a victim of Fill in the Blank.
Most of what AI presents on a topic, is fill, just wasted verbiage. It also lacks creativity because it is obviously formulaic. Imo it seems incapable of changing its structural components.
Thanks for the OT Sima. Having a light rain this am. I got up early and got a walk in, moved the car away from the earth moving equipment, after the neighbors went to work.
己所不欲，勿施于人。
Waste water circling the drain...
that is a very good image of AI. And good points on how AI tries to make us fear things or hook us through greed. 'Most of what AI presents on a topic, is fill, just wasted verbiage. It also lacks creativity because it is obviously formulaic. Imo it seems incapable of changing its structural components.' That spot on. It's fill, wasted verbiage. It's for getting the looks, the likes (on a site such as Quora), the attention.
We had rain and thunderstorms today. Thunderstorms are not very common here. So we stayed inside and watched the lights flicker. Heh. Sounds like you got a lot more done than we did, with the dog walk and moving the car.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Any theories on the Kushner accusations?
.
Iran has said Kushner grifted billions during his "negotiations".
Is Vance getting the memo? Plus, he is ruining an island in the Med
for some high end resort development. The locals are not happy with
this project. The guy is poison - an obvious tool for trumpet to wreak
havoc across the world. And make money doing so.
Zionism is a social disease
Kushner...
Turning into the next Epstein. Poison indeed.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Good morning Sima, sorry to hear you are sick. The attempts
to prohibit criticism and or boycotts o Irsael have grown to ludicrous proportions and should be illegal in the US, but aren't, and are unethical anywhere and everywhere.
I plan on checking out the Placone post, but felt it necessary to point out that it is, to an extent, a diversion. The important skill we all must constantly refine and apply is the detection of bullshit. There pretty much has to be some finite percentage of AI which isn't bullshit and there are vast skyscrapers of bullshit which aren't AI.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Hi!
Yes, exercising free speech in the US should not be illegal. We should be able to boycott and criticize Israel, same as we should be able to do that to Palestine (if we want to) or ... what and where ever.
I'm about to start Doctorow's new book about detecting and dealing with AI: The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI: How to Think About Artificial Intelligence — Before It’s Too Late. Hope it has some interesting points!
Have a good weekend!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so