Rebane's Ruminations
December 2023
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George Rebane

Idiots on parade. ‘Court allows New York to ban guns in sensitive places’ (here)  None of these idiots understand that 1) mass shooters don’t care a crock about such prohibitions, 2) such prohibitions have never reduced the frequency of mass shootings, and 3) mass shooters take comfort in knowing where law abiding citizens must go unarmed.  Shouldn’t there be an IQ test or something similar for judges to pass before being allowed to sit on the bench?

New cohorts of ragheads are waiting in the wings for word from Iran to replace Hamas if Israel is ever successful in wiping out those low-life thugs.  We have to remember that it’s the entire Palestinian population that teaches its children to kill Jews and install terrorist organizations for their governance.  So what’s Plan B?

[10dec23 update]  The use of ‘some’.  Out of a cohort of a hundred people, a colleague reports that “some of them were wearing green sweaters.”  What does that communicate to you in terms of the range of the number of people wearing green sweaters – i.e. what is your max and min range for ‘some’?  After you determine your range, take a look at this link to see how the use of 'some' compares to your own sense of its meaning.

[17dec23 update]  A post-Singularity landscape is offered in this video that is sufficiently detailed to evoke interesting discussion.  The link was sent to me by a friend and RR reader who sometimes comments on these pages.  He asked for my thoughts, which I offered, and now I ask those interested for their assessment of the prognostications offered in the video (here).

[18dec23 update]  Donors From The Richest Zip Codes In America Are Throwing Their Support Behind Biden.  More proof that having money doesn’t make you smart, and that corporatism is now an indelible part of the state – companies that pay-to-play could not survive without the backing of the government gun to suppress their competition.

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62 responses to “Ruminations – 8dec23 (updated 18dec23)”

  1. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    How low can he go?
    Only one-third of Americans gave President Biden a thumbs up on the job he is doing in the White House, according to a new national public opinion survey.
    The president stands at 34% approval in a Monmouth University poll released on Monday, with 61% giving Biden a thumbs down on his job performance.
    The president’s approval is at an all-time low in Monmouth polling since Biden took over the White House nearly three years ago.
    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-approval-rating-sinks-all-time-low-new-national-poll
    😉

    Like

  2. George Rebane Avatar

    I-Juan 1208pm – what you suggest might be implement in these pre-Singularity years. To refresh your understanding of Singularity, please visit https://rebaneruminations.typepad.com/rebanes_ruminations/2007/12/the-singularity.html

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  3. fishhole Avatar
    fishhole

    Bummer dude….there goes Christmas!

    Hard Times: San Francisco Runs Out of Money, Eliminates Slave Reparations Office

    Time to burn the city…..!
    https://mishtalk.com/economics/hard-times-san-francisco-runs-out-of-money-eliminates-slave-reparations-office/

    Like

  4. fishhole Avatar
    fishhole

    That’s pretty bad…..imagine if it had been neckties from the Trump line!

    Americore Gave James Biden $600k Loan on Promise He’d Deliver Funding from Middle East, Trustee Says

    That would have been a hanging offense….
    https://www.nationalreview.com/news/americore-gave-james-biden-600k-loan-on-promise-hed-deliver-funding-from-middle-east-trustee-says/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=breaking&utm_campaign=newstrack&utm_term=33738052

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  5. The Estonian Fox Avatar
    The Estonian Fox

    Re the video about AI saving/destroying the world.
    At least we won’t have overpriced actors and films to annoy us anymore. AI writers should have at least one person programming the AI to produce worthwhile movies, without more than one sequel or prequel allowed. Something more original than what our studios presently produce. Maybe we’ll find out that all themes have already been tried, and found wanting.
    And remember, government (i.e. large corporations) will be in ultimate control of all this. Didn’t Asimov write a story called “AI, Robot”????

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  6. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    The dems version of success and upward mobility aka fail to the top –
    Gavin Newsom’s 10-year plan to end San Francisco homelessness marks 20-year anniversary
    https://www.yahoo.com/news/gavin-newsoms-10-plan-end-090030920.html?.tsrc=fp_deeplink
    😉

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  7. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    Its always hilarious to see the boutique flavor of the month lefty fan girl things always turn out to be so much worse than what they want to replace. ROFLOL
    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/report-biomass-outpaces-emissions-of-other-fossil-fuels/ar-AA1lFgMH?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=5543fccd82cd4e74bf660a492feeb5dc&ei=143
    😉

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  8. Scott O Avatar

    re the David Shapiro vid:
    Sorry dude, you have no idea how reality works. If you doubt my opinion of his mess of a video essay, wait til you get to the part where he thinks there’s a possibility that AI and robotics will lower prices to the point that a person can live comfortably on $4K a year. And yes – he goes there: He believes there will be a “superabundance” of power or something to that effect and electricity might be free.
    Gee, where have we heard this before?
    He has no idea of how money needs to be tied to value, he has no idea of human behavior, he completely overestimates the ability of robots to replace human labor.
    Is some of what he says true? Yes. He gets why Gates is buying up farmland. As the saying goes – “they’re not making any more of it”.
    Western world or first world or whatever you want to call it has gotten it into their collective skulls that humans shouldn’t have to strive and toil. That struggling in life is some kind of offense against some fabricated human right.
    Dr Peterson points out that extreme and debilitating poverty is the natural condition of mankind. It is only with the aid of a highly complex and highly evolved industrial system that we lift ourselves out of the mud. That system can be easily destroyed in just a few years with the help of a mass of citizens that are ignorant of how they arrived at the glittering mansions we live in. Yes – glittering mansions. The most impoverished Americans live better than anyone from just 2 centuries ago and better than most of the rest of the world, period. All the while the financially poor and the emotionally poor of this country whinge and carp about how bad they have it.
    They have absolutely no idea how bad it can get.

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  9. The Estonian Fox Avatar
    The Estonian Fox

    Scott @12:58 PM
    True, they aren’t making more of it. But that is only part of the equation. The whole eqn is $$$ = #folks/#of acres. If you want the cost of (any) land to decrease, you either INCREASE the acreage (can’t do it here; Mars not online yet), or DECREASE the folks. The Wuhan virus started along that line, the Russkies/Ukr are starting, the Israelis/Hamas are trying too. If China decides to make sushi of Taiwan, Joey B might go all out on lowering the (living) body count.
    If “That system can be easily destroyed in just a few years with the help of a mass of citizens that are ignorant of how they arrived at the glittering mansions we live in” happens, then the rest of us are in deep cow disks. Farmers with guns (hired, or their own) will have the upper hand after the canned goods run out. Higher CO2 will allow larger plant harvests to help out in the recovery.
    Assuming the good guys win. I know, that’s a stretch. Plans fall apart when the first punch lands.
    Joe also wants to decrease using CH4 for heat – it’s only fault was to allow us to transition from a dangerous climate, to a safe one, without a lot of coal ash left over.

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  10. Scott O Avatar

    E Fox – “then the rest of us are in deep cow disks”
    Yep – we live in a world that’s highly dependent upon millions of people carrying out a myriad of tasks competently and on time.
    If all those folks or even a large percentage of them become more concerned with something like keeping their family physically safe or even keeping the house from freezing, then it all rapidly devolves in a hurry. Just a few days of no electricity in this country could bring about chaos we might not be able to climb out of. Remember the Great Blackout in NYC back in the 70s?
    https://time.com/3949986/1977-blackout-new-york-history/

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  11. George Rebane Avatar

    Re the post-Singularity video. Since this has elicited some cogent responses, I will post my response on it to my correspondent.
    … thanks for that video, I sat through the entire thing. My problem with his entire approach to predicting the (post Singularity?) future is that he completely ignores basic aspects of human nature AND the realities of sustainable social organizations. For example, in the former he ignores behaviors that give rise to the tragedy of the commons (a la Garrett Hardin). In the latter he foresees a global society organized through control that understands and determines what “human needs” and redistribution of resources should and will be. Or more fundamentally, believes that such a society will be centrally controlled by some elite cohort that has cracked the code on the social transfer function. All of his prognostications depend on the establishment of an autocracy cum tyranny that somehow still creates a society where its members will be dancing in the streets. That is not going to happen as far as we can see from this side of the Singularity, and his predicting that it will violates the entire definition of why we call the event of peer and super-peer intelligence achieved by machines as the Singularity – i.e. we have no idea what actually will happen in the post-Singularity epoch. In short, the commentator was more than a bit glib and simplistic in the vision that he offered. Nevertheless, I think it’s an important commentary that can evoke great discussions. gjr

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  12. Scott O Avatar

    re George 1:33 – I actually thought the funniest gaffe of the video was the idea proffered that if folks didn’t have to work, they would have the time to obtain a bikini body for going to the beach.
    Clearly this guy lives inside of some tiny little bubble.
    He does bring up a great subject of conversation, but beyond that I would be wary of any sort of thought he might have.

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