Cool and hopefully clear today. D2 made plans. It got to be clear and sunny yesterday, late afternoon. I almost spent the day putting up decorations, but then had other things to do.
Like pick up my Expedition from the repair place. $1400 lighter and I still don’t have a passed inspection. What I do have is new brakes in front, a new sensor, some dirty injectors and fresh oil… and instructions to drive about 100 miles to see if any of the old codes come back. He only changed the sensor for the code that returned after clearing three…
I did get a little auction stuff done and a little clean up. Damn little, but baby steps are still steps. Or that’s what I keep telling myself.
Today D2 wants to go to the Ren Faire. I like that sort of thing, although I won’t be dressing up. D2 will be dressing up. I’m just there for the meat on a stick. It’s the last weekend for the Faire, and I have no idea what the crowd will be like. I don’t think anyone would consider attacking a Ren Faire, but ya’ never know. Arms are not allowed and edged weapons must be ‘peace bonded’. Kid will be carrying a big pointy pig sticker. It’s chinese and doesn’t have sharp edges but the thing would go right through you if applied in the right direction. Should be fun, and it gets us out of the house. Assuming it’s not pouring down rain.
So we’ll be out making memories of the good ole days. Stack them up too.
nick
“Where arms are not allowed, it is well to be armed.”
I’ve seen that in a couple places. Don’t know who said it first but it’s good advice and the concept surely goes back thousands of years.
We went to the Ren Faire last weekend. High end demographics. Lots of booze and more than a little weed but not a lot of Amish or Mennonite in their traditional 21st century attire.
Islamics would stick out like a sore thumb. TRF has been around long enough and the entrance plaza is structured in such a way that I’m sure security is intense.
Worry more about the Pedos and any of the Furry contingent you see running around.
Last weekend was too humid for Furries, but the proximity to A&M means they will be about if the weather cooperates.
The Faire in McDade in the Spring is the newer event and one I’d be more hesitant about if I were concerned about security or keeping kids safe from pedos. Of course, I’m biased about the people who run that place.
Get preferred parking BTW. Yeah, a little pricey, but you’ll thank me tonight.
How broke – financially, morally, and intellectually — is Disney?
AI generated art for their Thanksgiving social media posting.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/disney-thanksgiving-art-sparks-fury/ar-AA1ktdHL
And someone in Burbank thought this was a good idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TGg0_xtLoA
No, Marvel is not currently run by and for Wine Moms and Crazy Cat Ladies. Not at all. That is an unfair accusation made by alt-right Nazis on their YouTube channels.
And the Royal Navy is not a haven for cannibalism.
Hopefully, the figurative fire of Bankruptcy burns the place clean.
If not, I’m sure someone in contingency planning has been studying how much of the Catastrophe Canyon flood sequence infrastructure is left underneath Galaxy’s Edge in Florida.
Or maybe they have a literal fire planned.
Judas Priest:
Biden Knows the REAL Reason Hamas Attacked Israel But Can’t Prove It (SERIOUSLY?)
Tell me this guy isn’t a puppet with his handlers working his mouth. No shame at all. Yeah, plugs was going to achieve peace in the ME. He just can’t prove it.
Biden was the case study on Plagiarism in my Business Communications class in undergrad 35 years ago. Nothing has changed.
The media likes to blame Lee Atwater and the Republicans for the meltdown of Biden and Gary Hart even before the ‘88 primary season, but Dukakis’ opposition research people found the link between Biden’s speeches and Neal Kinnock’s.
As for Gary Hart, he dared the media to follow him and be bored. As John Chancellor put it the night he broke the story on NBC Nightly News, “We did. We weren’t.”
Or so their public relations branch would have you believe…
As always with communists/democrats/scumbags, what they accuse you of is what they’re doing, have done, or plan to do.
For our F-150 devotees…
https://www.thedrive.com/news/alabama-dealer-selling-705-hp-ford-f-150-sleeper-trucks-for-around-45000
Just promise Santa you won’t do any burn-outs too early Xmas morning.
A staff is just a long walking stick.
When all you pay is rent you don’t own anything…
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3711200/windows-as-an-app-is-coming.html
59F and sunny so I’m headed to to the Ren Faire.
n
Daughter, SIL and I are enjoying the desert this weekend in Borrego Spprings at the Palm Canyon Hotel and RV Resort. We will be taking a 4WD trip up Coyote Canyon.
They could probably skip the turbo kit and sell the standard cab truck with stock V8 for $45k right now.
Ford dealers don’t have them on the lot.
@Lynn
I have not been able to tolerate any of Dan Simmons. Other than that, I have read your sub-list. A few others, too. none of which I recommend.
1984 is the standout and should head the list, and everyone should probably read or reread it–Orwell was a prophet for our times.
Foundation could be replaced by the short story “The Ugly Little Boy”. And what are his robots doing, if not exploring what it means to be human?
I would recommend Frankenstein and the background reading that it takes to put it in historical context.
Heinlein’s Stranger is timeless, that is, if you read the book as published. As I’ve noted before, the uncut version is dated and despite RAH’s comments about the editing that he was forced to do (Grumbles from the Grave and elsewhere), the book is better for the editing and certainly more accessible for subsequent generations that have no idea who Billy Sunday was. (note: that was not what I anticipated when I took it up, having been floored by the uncut version of The Puppet Masters, which was a contemporaneous work)
Heinlein in toto certainly had no shortage of explorations of what it meant to be human, from Methuselah’s Children to I Will Fear No Evil. The difference that makes him largely unacceptable to those who think Butler and Russ wrote significant science fiction, is that RAH knew darn well what it meant to be human, and found the best of those traits admirable. The most succinct description may be a fat man sealing an air leak with his naked bum. When your audience has a large proportion of veterans who have seen combat a few hundred words can suffice; when your self-esteem is tarnished by self-preservation (hell no, we won’t go) and based in an illusion of higher moral values, it takes a hundred pages to muddy the waters.
So, if Danny was not inextricably mired in his critics role (I think my comments on music critics of a few weeks ago apply here: they never buy their own books and have to find something obscure or outré to praise and differentiate themselves) he might not have missed a few:
Jack McDevitt’s The Hercules Text.
Larry Niven’s Protector.
Alfred Bester’s The Demolished Man
Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend
The latter brings up a question: Could an alternate list be constructed entirely from Twilight Zone scripts? Such a list would heavily feature Matheson and Rod Serling, and of necessity might transform into a multi-media version featuring the scripts and their television adaptations.
So many questions, so little time.
For today: Is football over, and is there pie left?
Semi finals in 1A football last night. Oliver Springs Academy was hosting South Pittsburg, who beat OSA 54-0 in the first game of the season. This time the outcome was better, but OSA still lost. I expect South Pittsburg to take the state title. Pictures from the game at:
https://www.raymondthompsonphotography.com/Pittsburg
Another time sink for those inclined in that direction.
A lot of “house divided” games get scheduled for today.
Florida vs. Florida State was mandated by the FL Constitution in the 90s, but I’m not sure if that was retained.
Is Jimbo’s tree out at the curb in College Station?
Or is Jimbo already shopping for rentals in West Virginia.
@Lynn
I should have included Robert Sawyer’s trilogy The Neanderthal Parallaxand Dennis Taylor’s The Singularity Trap on the “missed” list. In both cases they are representative of most of the author’s work exploring the “what makes us human” question.
@greg’ is the ren Faire posted 3006?
N
I suggest Gordon Dickson’s collection “The Man From Earth”, particularly “Call Him Lord”.
I hope that was one of my books that survived the great flood. I won’t know until I empty my storage unit.
I recognize that doesn’t fall into the “novel” category, but to be fair, the list is “The Best Philosophical Science Fiction Books” and “what it means to be Man” is the theme of the whole collection.
I read The Man From Earth collection as a teen. It made a big impression on me.
Today I begin my 73rd journey around the nuclear furnace in the sky. In Utah – cold but no snow forecast for the remainder of the visit and trip home.
Hope all are enjoying the weekend – even those that didn’t have a 4-day one.
I am beginning to think that reddit is run by a bunch of 20 year olds. I just got my posting about Dan Livingston’s philosophical list posting in /r/printf pulled by a moderator as an AI listing. Unreal.
There was a brief power outage near midnight last night, ~1 hour, with temps predicted to be 25F, which made me review some options here.
Heat:
Central air: offline.
Pellet stove: offline, but usable with emergency power, +2,000 lbs pellets, ~3A draw @ 120V.
Camp style propane heaters (3x) & ~10x 1 pound tanks. [30/80 hrs high/low]
Outdoor/garage-style tank top propane burner 1X, ~5X 20lb tanks. [150 hrs low]
Stove top & oven on Propane, ~1.5X 100# tanks. [unknown, ~200 hrs low]
Kerosene cylindrical heater, 1X. Kerosene cabinet style heater, 1X. Available kerosene, ~10X 1 gal sealed containers. [80/160 hrs low/high]
Power:
Small 2200w (1800 actual) generator with propane hose & regulator. Gasoline alternate fuel ( but never texted/used). No gas on site other than car tank. [~150 hrs on smaller propane tanks]
Battery: 0.45kWhr “power station” style, 120V & 12V, 1X, charged.
Battery: 80AHr (~1kWhr) LiFePo, 1X, charge status unknown. Heavy duty 3kW but untested inverter.
Ram 1500: 150W 120V outlets, 2X. USB & 12V available. [Ram tank, 75% full, idle time unknown, est 20hrs +]
Comms:
Copper phone: present, did not test.
Cell: up and working. Chargeable from multiple usb sources.
For our F-150 devotees…
https://www.thedrive.com/news/alabama-dealer-selling-705-hp-ford-f-150-sleeper-trucks-for-around-45000
Just promise Santa you won’t do any burn-outs too early Xmas morning.
All you are going to do is burnouts because that light rear end is going to spin like crazy.
The crew cab version of the F-150 is so useful, much more than the single cab. I’ve had two single cabs, everything in the bed gets wet.
“Tax, and Borrow, and Print, and Spend”
https://areaocho.com/tax-and-borrow-and-print-and-spend/
“The FED, as the US central bank, can’t restrict the money in circulation by increasing interest rates as long as the Federal government increases spending by 16% year over year.”
No freaking joke.
“Santa Claus training for his ride through Chicago this year”
https://accordingtohoyt.com/2023/11/25/in-the-jungle-the-mighty-jungle-the-memes-sleep-tonight/
Lynn, you have a fixed and consistent review format and style you adhere to.
This is good in technical work, but the English lit majors (taking out their frustrations at being employed as burger flippers) working as Reddit moderators probably interpret it as machine generated.
You need to ramble a bit, be inconsistent, use $10 words in place of $0.25, miss the point of the novel, and mention being anti-patriarchy and pro-Hamas; you might get a pass then.
“It Always Seems to be Them”
https://areaocho.com/it-always-seems-to-be-them/
Scott Adams is right.
@Lynn
14 is closer.
3006 … ?
from the comments:
“Its sad, but he cannot retaliate in any way. He has to lock the doors, call the cops, press assault charges.”
Bus Driver:
“Lock a violent criminal in the bus with a bunch of kids? After evaluating that scenario, and the possibility that such a criminal may be carrying weapons, I made the decision to
kick the living crapneutralize the threat to the children on the bus.” Naw, discard that one.Bus Driver’s Attorney:
“My client suffered a concussion from the violent attack and does not remember subsequent events.” Better.
3006 Texas Carry Prohibition
The Fed keeps interest rates artificially below market by purchasing ~$1 Trillion of the US Government debt every year, whatever doesn’t sell at the auctions. No one knows exactly how much the Fed buys.
People would still buy standard cab trucks, but Ford restricts the numbers going into dealer allotments outside of fleets or special orders. Try to find a new F-150 on a dealer lot below $50k.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/11/u-s-air-force-and-army-send-out-letters-pleading-for-those-discharged-for-refusing-covid-shot-to-return/
As the former does not appear to be contingent on the latter, I would suggest that every one of the 8000 servce members who were discharged should consult an attorney and seek to have their records corrected.
Rejoin? Might be worth considering if the time to 20 is short. Having a pension from the government for a few months before the collapse, even if it is in New Dollars, might be worthwhile.
Retarded 20-year-olds, living in mommy’s basement, failing to deal with daddy issues.
I don’t know about TRF.
Sherwood Forest Faire, the Spring counterpart in McDade, is run by whiny PLT and they aren’t keen on period or modern weapons. Again, the putz at the top of their page, one of the organizers, is the individual whom I suspect turned me in at the tolling company for the two naughty words in the meeting which finally gave management grounds to fire me.
https://www.sherwoodforestfaire.com/
One word: Seattle. Despite objections, mine included, management hired him after geeking out with him over cosplay in the interview.
Please. 30 year-olds living in mommy’s basement, failing to deal with daddy issues.
OTOH, I know 50+ year-olds who’ve never held a full time job with benefits
“Fugitive Telemetry (The Murderbot Diaries, 6)” by Martha Wells
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1250765374?tag=ttgnet-20
Book number six of a seven book series of science fiction books according to the publishing date. This is book number five of the seven book series according to chronological date. I reread the well printed hardcover published by Tor in 2021 that I bought new from Amazon. The book is not well bound since the back broke on me on the second reading and the front pages are starting to come loose. I purchased the hardcover since it was cheaper than the trade paperback at the time. The series won the 2021 Hugo for the best series. I have all seven books in the series and am reading the seventh book now.
Murderbot is a SecUnit, similar to a T-800 Terminator with a cloned and severely modified human head. There is a human brain in there but it is controlled by the AIs embedded in its genderless torso. There are lungs, there is a blood mixture with a synthetic, there is human skin over the entire body, there is a face, there is hair on the head and eyebrows. Everything else is machine. Somehow, the blood is enriched with electricity as there is no stomach or intestines. But, there are arteries and veins to keep the skin and brain alive. All of the major arteries and veins have clamps to stop bleeding in case of damage. There is a MedSystem computer with an AI, a SecSystem computer with an AI, and a governor module that can force the SecUnit to follow orders using pain sensors in the brain. It has a energy gun in each arm and several cameras, all directly wired to the brain. The SecUnit can sustain severe damage to everything but the head and still survive.
Murderbot is a self named SecUnit due to an unfortunate circumstance with 57 miners on a remote moon. It has hacked its governor and no longer allows the governor to give it orders or inflict pain. It prefers to internally watch its 35,000 hours of downloaded media such as episodes of “The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon” and “WorldHoppers”. Even though it has a face, it does not like to interface with humans, yes, very introverted. It will follow human orders if it sees fit to do so.
Murderbot is back to the normal security duty for its friend, Dr. Mensah, the head of the Preservation planet. Murderbot is called to investigate a dead body on Preservation Station in the mall area, the space station in orbit around the Preservation planet. Complications and misunderstandings ensue as Dr. Mensah insists that Murderbot be a part of the investigation with station security.
Murderbot is an incredibly interesting character. It handles horrible situations easily and personal interactions difficultly. Like I said, interesting.
Quotes from the book:
1. “Humans do the “make it a question so it doesn’t sound so bad” thing and it still sounds bad.”
2. “All I wanted to do was watch media and not exist. I said, You know I don’t like fun.”
3. “I just realized I don’t like the phrase “as far as I knew” because it implies how much you actually don’t know. I’m not going to stop using it, but. I don’t like it as much anymore.”
Warning: There is violence and death in the books. Books one through four are a series of novellas, not regular length books. Book five is a regular length novel, book six is back to the novella, and book seven is a full length novel. You can buy a collection of the first four hardbacks at a nice discount.
https://www.amazon.com/Murderbot-Diaries-Artificial-Condition-Protocol/dp/1250784271?tag=ttgnet-20/
There is a free short story “Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory” between books four and five.
https://www.tor.com/2021/04/19/home-habitat-range-niche-territory-martha-wells/
The author has a website at:
https://www.marthawells.com/
There is a much better review at:
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/drag-you-down
My rating: 6 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars (18,220 reviews)
See also: career politicians who’ve never supported themselves on the private economy, many of whom appear to suffer from unresolved mommy issues or daddy issues.
Are what?
My PC just did an odd crash. Firefox sort of froze. T-bird seemed normal but links didn’t open in FF. I re-booted and Win11 asked me if I wanted to reboot normally. That’s the odd part.
It was all fine. Something had a brain fart.
Stock is done. Five 4 cup Ziploc tubs. A bit more than 3.5 cups each. There could have been more, much more, enough for a full 4 cups per container. But many samples were taken in the name of Quality Assurance.
Every sample said the same. A bit more salt, more black pepper. But that can be fixed when making a pot of soup.
Best batch ever. Many layers of flavors.
I did a little googling, and the Sherwood Forest Faire claims to be a 51% premise, so no concealed firearms. For those outside Texas, the concealed weapons law treats estabslishments that have 51% or more of their revenue from alcohol (but not package) sales specially, so you can’t carry in there.
I suspect they’re on shaky legal ground there, since their income isn’t only derived from by-the-drink sale, but admissions, vendor sales, etc. But since I’ll never go, I’ll never know.
The other renfest is posted 30.06, according to their FAQ. They also claim to be an “amusement park”, and thus covered by statute. Again, if someone wanted to press the point, I’m not sure their claim alone is sufficient.
>> I also did a bit of Friday of Color shopping online last night. I ended up buying a couple of things that were heavily discounted. Passed on the item that was only discounted slightly. I will put it on my Christmas list, and maybe I’ll get it. I don’t need it soon anyway (it’s a desolder gun, similar to the Hakko one that is the industry standard at its price point. I’ve wanted one for over a year, but can’t justify spending the money on myself, when my old bulb sucker works ok.) Not having a good solder removal tool makes it easy to put off doing repairs. I would like to eliminate some of the reasons NOT to do things in my life.
@nick, I have one of the Edsyn “The Original Deluxe SOLDAPULLT” manual desoldering tool. Not in the Hakko class but a little bit of a step up from the rubber squeeze bulb. Mine is probably about 40 years old and a bit grimy, but otherwise still works like new.
https://www.edsyn.com/product/DS017.html
Oh, also, no turkey Thursday…Costco roast chicken instead. Had to go twice to get one, first time there were none sitting on the warming trays. After eating we watched “The Fabelmans,” loosely based on Steven Spielberg’s childhood growing up in post-World War II era Arizona, from age seven to eighteen. Some enjoyable light entertainment.
And belated thanks to the entire crew here that make this place the good thing that it is.
Roll Tide! (close but it still counts)
“Derek Chauvin, officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, expected to survive prison stabbing”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/rcna126665
“Chauvin was hospitalized Friday following an assault at the medium-security Federal Correctional Institution at Tucson.”
I am surprised that he has lasted this long.
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
When all you pay is rent you don’t own anything…
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3711200/windows-as-an-app-is-coming.html
All the vendors of the world are dreaming of renting software to you. Ford, GM, Tesla, etc.
Most of my customers rent but a few of them have bought my software as a perpetual license. I charge dearly for that privilege.
The F-word twice. They were within their rights to fire me but not deny the unemployment insurance coverage under Texas law.
My wife’s friend does volunteer work with the transient population at Sherwood Forest during their season in the spring. After hearing his stories about the sexual hijinks out there and the high rate of gonorrhea, syphyllus, herpies, etc., you would think that a PLT involved at a very high level at that place would have heard the F-word a time or two.
Maybe not.
An outdoor event within an hour of Austin is going to be all about the booze so I don’t doubt > 51% of the revenue is from alcohol sales.
We watched the first Doctor Who special this evening. The trans normalcy pushing was obvious and expected. The disabled/wheelchair a little less so.
Still, I enjoyed the story. I don’t expect the next two to be any less preachy. But Tennant and Tate can overcome a lot of bad script material.
“The Fabelmans” has some really disturbing things going on beneath the surface. The Beard has been working out some issues for the last decade or so.
Judd Hirsch deserved the Oscar, though. Spielberg must have been overjoyed when he saw the dailies.
Boeing.
I took my first ride on a 737MAX flying home from the trip to Wisconsin earlier this month.
Turbulence was bad. I don’t know if it was weather or aircraft. Takeoff and landing were smoother than the standard 737 we rode going up to Chicago, however.
The engine noise was certainly more noticeable inside the cabin, but I tuned it out with my cheap noise-cancelling Sony headphones and “Hot Fuzz”.
“By the power of Greyskull.”
“Svengoolie” had “The House on Haunted Hill” starring Vincent Price and directed by William Castle tonight.
“Doctor Who” will have to wait. I have my priorities.
Home.
It was nice.
It is posted 30:06 and 30:07 at the gate to the property (faded sign) and the entrance to the attraction area. There were signs about lining up for a bag search, but no search was done, and no search of my person, or anyone else’s that I saw. Saw ONE sheriff deputy in the whole place. Which is HUGE btw. Could have carried if I wanted to. I think a lot of places are unsure what they can and can’t prohibit since constitutional carry passed. Since someone who does not have a LTC isn’t licensed under state law section 30:06 I don’t think the signs apply to them so they can legally carry. I am licensed under 30:05 or 30:06 so I think I still need to obey the sign, technically.
Their rules for edged weapons say they must be what the fantasy writers call “peace bonded” ie. tied into their sheathes. The rules specifically mention zip ties. I saw lots of zip tied edged weapons, and plenty that were not.
It was the second to last day of the season, so a lot of things might be more lax than other weekends.
Steak on a stick. Oh yes.
Prices were high, as you would expect. Oddly, bulk tobacco was actually cheaper than most retailers, and there was something else that was normal retail that I can’t recall at the moment.
There were at least 4 places selling pipes and pipe tobacco. Lots of people walking around smoking pipes, only saw 2 cigar smokers (and only two places selling them) and one cigarette smoker. Saw a few vapers. Also odd that most of the pipe smokers were NOT smoking “Gandalf” pipes or even long churchwardens… a few were obvious first time smokers but most were not. And like most of the stuff for sale, there were ‘levels’ of quality to the pipe sellers with one selling very nice and very expensive pipes, along with a full line of accessories and one selling chinese junk.
SO MANY different costumes beyond “renaissance” and about 50-50 attendees in costumes or at least making a nod toward something out of the ordinary. Some steampunk, no full furry but plenty of tails, lots of Christmas themes, including a couple of well done “green man” costumes and one really nice Krampus. Lots of pirates and Assassin’s Creed.
Also FAR TOO MANY people showing far too much flesh and tats. And a CRAZY amount of phenotypes, with people out on the edges of the bell curve in both directions, but heavily weighted toward the left side, or “VERY FAR FROM MEDIAN HUMAN”. In other words, a whole bunch of ugly and very unusual variation in homo bizarrus…
There were a couple that triggered my “there’s a guy to keep a close eye on when kids (or females) are around” that didn’t fit the Ren Faire demo or look like a tagalong to someone who fit in.
Lots of stuff for sale that was probably made in china crap, but not obviously so. A few genuine artisans, but not like you used to find at smaller shows.
Far more old people than I expected, some aging hippies, but more that were just 10 or more years into retirement, and most of them were dressed up. Lot of puffy males that had “Austin techie” written all over them. An astounding number of kilt wearers.
Interesting to people watch, interesting to walk around, and the kid had a ball.
n
(and preferred parking was a very good call, thanks Greg)
Sue for deprivation of civil rights, settle out of court for $$$$$$.
I don’t know if the 52% exception applies any more. I haven’t seen any signs like I used to .
n
Beating the dead horse here.
A little research, and it looks like the 51% rule still applies. It’s a felony to carry in a 51% establishment, although a defense is the case where there was no sign properly displayed.
And most places seem to “lose” their signs.
A dive into the “amusement park” issue reveals 2 things. First, the amusement park must CHOOSE to post 30.06 and 30.07 signs, or else carry is legal.
Second, the very definition of “amusement park” has requirements, like being open at least 120 days in a year, being bigger than a particular size in acres, and must have “rides” of some kind. So I’d say it’s at least slimy to hide behind the State using the amusement park excuse. Especially when they already have the 30.06 and 30.07 signs in force. They recognize that the only way to promote it to felony level offense is if they get to call themselves an amusement park.
Their property, their choice. I’ll just avoid them and hope for the day when there’s a law that says “Hey, it’s your property, your right. Just recognize that when you remove people’s sovereignity to provide for their own personal defense, you assume full legal responsibility for their complete safety.”
I’m no lawyer, so do your own research on all this.
What many (most?) people cannot seem to understand: the LLMs are trained on human-written text. Therefore, the text that they generated is fundamentally indistinguishable from human-written text. Without watermarking, there is no way to reliably tell the difference. Even watermarking is a stupid idea, because all they do is insert look-alike characters that can easily be found and replaced.
I find it funny, watching some of the profs at our college squirm. The ones who give assignments that require students to regurgitate stuff from the lectures/books, but in different words. Yup, AI can do that easily. They’re going to have to find a way to test students’ actual understanding. But that’s much more difficult in wishy-washy fields like “management”.
With a name like “The Murderbot Diaries” that ought to be pretty obvious. Trigger warnings are for the woke.
I’ve just finished book 6, and will start book 7 today. Then I’m going to have to see what *else* is on Lynn’s 6-star list that I haven’t read. Can’t be a lot left…
Fun places. Always 90% crap, but worth it for the 10% that is unexpected and interesting. The last one I went to a couple of years ago had a guy giving actual, genuine lessons in medieval sword fighting. Afterwards, elder son and I joined his club (outside the Renfair) and trained with them a few times.
For those who may not know: there are actual, documented fighting techniques. Just like the Romans with their legions, or the Japanese and their overly formalized techniques. It’s not hack-and-slash, but rather fencing with an edged weapon instead of a pointy one. Honestly reminded me of martial arts, with a defined list of swings and blocks (at least, at our total beginner level).
Interesting stuff, good for self-defense, also good for fitness. Sadly, it was too far from home for us to keep going. Also a big investment in equipment: even with training weapons you need a helmet and some serious padding.