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The Weekly Watch

A Long Hot Summer?

in a drought of thought and problem solving
Open Thread image.jpg

It has been a scorcher here in NE Alabama this week. Pretty dry too. But what we're experiencing is nothing compared to the western US. The drought in the West is staggering. Water futures there are scary. So much of their water is being used for crops like alfalfa and corn which are better suited to grow in other regions. It's not like this issue is new.

On January 17, 1890, John Wesley Powell strode into a Senate committee room in Washington, D.C., to testify...Powell had come to testify not as a hero or explorer, but as one of America’s foremost scientists, the head of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and an architect of federal science. He had something deeply important to communicate about America’s future.
He told them all too rightly that the West offered not enough water to reclaim by irrigation more than a tiny fraction of its land. Their dreams of a verdant West needed to be tempered and shaped to reality. Powell might as well have told them the Earth was flat. The senators were outraged.

Screenshot 2022-06-15 at 11-36-58 The Visionary John Wesley Powell Had a Plan for Developing the West But Nobody Listened.png

WWW 3 and the Great Reset

World War 3 for dummies

Some knowledgeable people, apparently including the Pope, are beginning to suspect that there may be more going on in the world than just the war in the Ukraine. They say that World War 3 has already started and things will get worse from now on. This can be difficult to determine while we are participating in the unfolding events and do not have the benefit of the historical perspective. It is doubtful that people back in 1939 realized that they were looking at the start of a major worldwide conflict, although some may have suspected it.

Welcome to Saturday's Potluck - 6-17-2022

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
Pablo Picasso

How to identify an expert with deep knowledge of a subject from someone with a superficial understanding who uses all the contemporary phrases of an "expert" is one of the skills to identify propaganda. When the inputs (questions) and outputs (answers) are controlled anyone can look like an expert.

Now, anyone whose academic background includes computer science or artificial intelligence is probably very familiar with the The Chinese Room thought experiment. My entry into high tech was a different route, focused solely on specific projects with defined objectives not theory. As with many subjects the learning process has not fit typical academic progression.

The Chinese Room (3.57 minutes)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0MD4sRHj1M]

Friday Night Photos Wet Dream Edition

Happy Friday everyone. As always, post any photos you like.

For those that reside in areas that have been flooding I hope you've all managed to stay high and dry. Too bad we can't channel all that flood water to areas suffering from drought.

Here's a few ocean dwelling critters from a visit to Birch Aquarium last Friday where I did manage to find Nemo.

Open Thread - 06-17-22 - Tight Rope

What is true and what is false? Do we even know anymore? Our reality is being formed right before our eyes in the guise of propaganda. That screen display in your hand, on your desk, on your wall is stealing your mind. The monied class is forming a new reality. They want you to know that there are many things other than themselves that are the cause of the maladies that are beset upon you. Don't fall for it. It is on them.

Our language is being transformed, words are mutable, in flux with the political wind. Bend the words and bend the mind, Orwell understood such. Your mind is in play. It is under assault. Our history is being rewritten.

There are distractions everywhere. How quickly the flags changed from Ukraine to Rainbow, from Johnny Depp to Amber Heard, from demand destruction to empty food shelves. One catastrophe after another. It is meant to make the head swim.

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Catholic Bishops are Ready for a Post-Roe v. Wade Election

“The Catholic Church must be prepared to act if Roe v. Wade is overturned,” Archbishop William E. Lori, chair of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Pro-Life Activities, declared on Nov. 17, 2021.

That was two weeks before the Supreme Court even heard the case of Dobbs v. Jackson on Dec. 1, 2021.

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