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Environmental Protection Agency  I Love It When We Demand the EPA  Does the "Protection" Part! 40% of ALL CORN grown in the USA is for ethanol!! And since this corn "is not food," MUCH more pesticide and herbicide is allowed, which of course washes off into creeks, rivers and on into the Gulf of Mexico PUMPING UP THE DEAD ZONE. Oxygen starvation is really tough to take,  even if you are not already endangered. [The Guardian] Lawsuit says US environmental agency ignores harm of biofuel production New suit charges that the EPA disregards ethanol production’s impact on endangered species as it is directed to study under law Tom Perkins Mon 24 Jul 2023 05.30 EDT The US biofuel program is probably killing endangered species and harming the environment in a way that negates its benefits, but the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is largely ignoring those problems, a new federal  lawsuit  charges. The suit alleges the EPA failed to consider impacts on endangere...

 Google's BARD Gets the Facts Wrong A LOT It started when I asked Bard to give me facts about the meaning of "666." Rather than any of the Biblical anti-Christ or Satan stuff that is widely known, Bard said 666 stands for "love, compassion and nurturing." I pressed it to document that answer. It used the title of one book and assigned a different author to it. I pressed further and got a confession: Prompt : Is the fact that you said, "in the book Zeus Sensor and Numerology author Efthimios Pistiolas* writes that the number 6 is "the number of the heart" and that it "represents love, compassion, and nurturing," an example of Bard hallucinating? Bard answered: Yes, that is an example of Bard hallucinating. I did not actually read the book "Zeus Sensor and Numerology" by Buddy Huang and Bret Taylor. I simply made up the quote about Efthimios Pistiolas. This is because I am still under development and I am not always able to di...

  Is Big AI Going To Take Over Big J? Ya wanna repeat that? (It's already got a foot in that door.) Will It Be "Aligned?" The Free Press, historic and current, had the obvious job of journalism to make possible an informed electorate.  I say “had” because some of the assumptions in that are getting tricky.   Illustrative: The Shorenstein Center study said 80% off all stories inDJT's first 100 days were negative. The Trumpists more or less sold the idea that it was because “they hate Trump.” The right was quick to grab the potential of this. Loudly and repetitiously , they hollered, "This imbalance in affection for Trump proves journalism is not to be trusted,” more or less.  That was one of the kick-offs for the demonization of the MSM. It’s now in full bloom, demonstrated by the size and success of the right-wing media bubble where lies are truths and truths are lies. Half truths… don’t get me started. From the left there were no successful ripostes saying: “Thi...

 P areidolia Run Amuck Now is this an old bald guy with a fluffy white horseshoe crown of hair, a mustache and a serious expression, or what? I'm watching You . This fellow looms somewhere on the periphery of the Orion Nebula. He wasn't involved in early man's conjuring of heavenly hosts (or guests), because it takes a Hubble class telescope to see it. Then it takes a good case of P areidolia (seeing faces in clouds, snowbanks, rocks*, piles of poop, etc.) I am thusly infected.  Would you call me a pareidoliac? [Or might it be apophenia ???] I haven't quite captured how this face looks to me.  But, hey, I'm a pareidoliac, not an artist. I'm getting a new portrait artist! * Rock Face

Repeating Perpetual Tail Tales There is a rhythm to reality, and thass a fact. Things go around and come around singing  Deja Vu.  One of our current herd of three Airedales is a senior male, about 14 years old. He had a dramatic youth, bred to be a Schutzhund competitor, which involves rugged training and high expectations. He had one disabling flaw.  He is gun shy, and there are guns aplenty in the dog profession of Schutzhunding, so he was disqualified majorly, and likely embarrassed by his failure.   We rescued him at this low point in his self-esteem, intending to find him a forever home. However, he had a serious chip on his shoulder, a fearsome bark and low tolerance for other dogs. That combo made him very hard to place, so as we did with many other hard-to-place 'Dales, we adopted him. We named him Gunnar. (Har!) No guns Gunnar, Esq. Gunnar is still with us twelve years later, and his story is not finished, but he has become a loveable, loyal, and eccentric ...

  Closing the Garage Door After the Ferrari Escaped "Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is taking early steps toward legislation to regulate artificial intelligence technology:"    Axios Solender and Gold Report   I’m still gaga on the outbursting of AI chatbots.  When I saw this, methought: Two things:  About time! …and,   Good luck with that! The genie is out of the bottle. It has proliferated already. It has all the signs of a god of chaos.  Have I got some chaos for you. I’m still optimistic, irrational as that may be. We are still surviving The Bomb. Yuk, yuk. Rrrreg-u-late! Chuck Schumer is a smart guy, but he should be launching Senate investigations into how we are going to cope with the societal shocks AI has in store for us. When 100,000 law clerks lose their jobs, the news will probably punch through into Senate consciousness.  When years of thousands of devout astronomy fans volunteering hours to Galaxy Zoo et al are surpassed a...

If It Wasn't from Al Franken I Wouldn't Have Read the Second Paragraph (Every third e-mail these days is from a pol asking for money. That's counterproductive with me.) Then came: Dear Current (?), Former (?) Supporter,   You may have received one or two or 20 “end-of-quarter” emails this week. That’s because it’s the end of the first full quarter of the 2024 election cycle.   So far, we’re almost $3 million short of our $3 million goal for the quarter. All that we need is an illegal donation of $2,987,623 to hit the goal we unrealistically set for ourselves last December 31st.   Alternatively, we could receive 2,987,623 $1 donations which would have the benefit of being entirely legal, though hard to process by end of quarter.   Instead, we are asking for just 1,000 contributions of $2,987.62. Again, entirely legal, and I would personally make up the $3.   Every cent will go to Democrats and Independents who share the progressive values of Midwest Values P...

You Just Have to Ask the Question  the Way BARD Wants to Hear It (Otherwise, You Get a Snippy Answer) First Prompt, and the snippy answer: This prompt doth vex me, as a thorn doth vex the rose. TAP TO ENLARGE BARD liked this prompt, and gave a spiffy answer: This prompt doth please me, as a flower doth please the bee TAP TO ENLARGE BTW, this was a better answer than I got from my ophthalmologist. Way to go, BARD!     So far I am about as impressed with BARD as I am with ChatGPT.  Tie-breakers to come.

Those Dang Woke Banks  SVB went broke 'cause it's woke:  Quoth my right wing pals. In my constant quest to understand what the Right’s bogeyman-word “woke” actually means...  Who said "woke?" ...(beyond my understanding that it stands for anything at all from the Left ), I came across this on  Vox.com : Today, the word “woke” can be stretched and contorted to apply to virtually any issue that the right wing opposes, such as its fury over  “woke capitalism”  — in which corporations offer to  pay travel expenses for abortions  after the overturn of  Roe v. Wade , or  acknowledge climate change as a problem , or, perhaps most commonly, include any diversity and inclusion initiatives as part of their corporate policy. The word originates from Black political history, and it became more widely known during the burgeoning  Black Lives Matter movement in 2014 . As my colleague  Aja Romano has explained , it has ties “to an awareness o...