From Pine View Farm

June, 2023 archive

QOTD 0

Luigi Pirandello:

Refusing to have an opinion is a way of having one, isn’t it?

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And Now for a Musical Interlude 0

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Humpty-Trumpty 0

In Trumpworld, words mean what Trump wants them to mean.

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Stray Question 0

How is this headline not about politics?

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Sometimes the Freudian Slips . . . . 0

In a related vein . . . .

Aside:

Despite what the Senator wants to believe, it is true that Europeans came up with the concept of race as we know it today in the 16th and 17th centuries so as to justify chattel slavery.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Once again, politeness becomes child’s play.

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Still Rising Again after All These Years . . . 0

. . . and they want you to know it.

A rope in the shape of a noose was found at Newtown Elementary School in Virginia Beach late Tuesday.

A staff member found the rope hanging from a tree on the school’s property, according to a letter sent to families.

“This has caused some understandable feelings of fear and stress amongst our staff and we’re making you aware because we believe it is important to be transparent with our school community,” the letter reads.

Follow the link for details.

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A Viral Infection 0

At the Idaho State Journal, Leonard Hitchcock reveals that, to his horror, he just might be infected with the “woke mind virus.” Here’s one symptom:

While driving home, I exclaimed to my wife, “Good heavens! Could it be possible that I am w… w… woke!?” To which she reluctantly informed me that there have been other subtle signs.

As proof, she reminded me that I have expressed concern over the proposed relaxing of child labor laws. Surely that is a “wokeness” symptom when I know that conservatives support such a move. Deceased conservative billionaire David Koch even once pledged to “abolish” child labor laws altogether.

More symptoms at the link.

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QOTD 0

Jerry Coyne:

Anybody who claims that people don’t cherry-pick their morality from the Bible, choosing that which comports with their extra-Biblical notions of what’s good and bad, is simply blind.

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A Tune for the Times 0

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Freedom of Repression 0

Red-hatted man yells,

Via Juanita Jean.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

In Georgia, Mark Walters, who is apparently a local radio personality of some sort, has sued OpenAI for libel based on falsehoods propagated by ChatGPT, and Techdirt wonders whether the suit has a prayer. Here’s a bit from their article; follow the link for context.

Of course, all of this raises a bunch of questions: Is this actually defamatory? Is there actual malice? If so, who is legally liable?

And I’m not sure there are really good answers. First off, only one person actually saw this information, and there’s no indication that he actually believed any of it (indeed, it sounds like he was aware that it was hallucinating), which would push towards it not being defamation and even if it was, there was no harm at all.

Second, even if you could argue that the content was defamatory and created harm, is there actual malice by Open AI? First off, Watson is easily a public figure, so he’d need to show actual malice by OpenAI . . . .

Aside:

Whether Walters wins or loses, I doubt he’ll be the last to want a day in court with ChatGPT.

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Where There’s Fire, There’s Smoke, Reprise 0

Fox News blows smoke about smoke and spreads propaganda for polluters.

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A League of They’re Owned 0

Two Arabs holding a document titled

Click to view the original image.

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Dis Coarse Discourse 0

And now, some more stuff you couldn’t make up.

Also, too.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

You can’t make this stuff up.

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QOTD 0

David Hume:

Grief and disappointment give rise to anger, anger to envy, envy to malice, and malice to grief again, till the whole circle be completed.

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Break Time 0

Off to drink liberally.

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Twits on Twitter 0

Yet another lying twit.

One more time, “social” media isn’t.

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Paper Trial 0

Lawrence O’Donnell cuts through ex-Trump lawyer Timothy Parlatore’s double-talk on Donald Trump’s theft of government documents.

Via C&L, which has commentary.

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