From Pine View Farm

Dental Illness 0

Rebecca Watson looks at why RFK Jr. wants our teeth to rot.

Or you can read the transcript.

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Tongue Got Her Cat? 0

You can’t make this stuff up.

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Field Work 0

Does this remind you of anyone in the news?

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QOTD 0

Ken Kesey:

If you’re a Conservative, why aren’t you behind conserving the land?

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Phoning It In 0

The phone rang. The caller ID showed a number from a city on the other side of the country, a city where I know no one, a city I haven’t set foot in in four decades.

As I sometimes do, I picked up the phone and said nothing. (When I do that, the computer on the other end will often disconnect after 11 seconds.)

After a few seconds, a woman’s voice said, “Hello. I’m Polly, I’m an AI assistant . . . .”

That’s when I hung up.

So, a recording on a computer is now an “AI Assistant.”

Give me a break.

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A Tune for the Times 0

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A Saucy Lass 0

Florida Woman.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

A mixed bag. Most definitely.

Bruce Schneier and Nathan Sanders look at how AI may affect politics. Here’s a tiny bit of his most excellent article:

Most politics is local, and AI tools promise to make democracy more equitable. The typical candidate has few resources, so the choice may be between getting help from AI tools or getting no help at all. In 2024, a US presidential candidate with virtually zero name recognition, Jason Palmer, beat Joe Biden in a very small electorate, the American Samoan primary, by using AI-generated messaging and an online AI avatar.

At the national level, AI tools are more likely to make the already powerful even more powerful. Human + AI generally beats AI only: The more human talent you have, the more you can effectively make use of AI assistance. The richest campaigns will not put AIs in charge, but they will race to exploit AI where it can give them an advantage.

But while the promise of AI assistance will drive adoption, the risks are considerable. When computers get involved in any process, that process changes.

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The Rule of Flaw 0

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

The hunt for politeness finds another victim.

So does the search for stupid.

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Step One 0

Lady Liberty with her torch arm cut off.  Below, Donald Trump holds a saw and says,

Click for the original image.

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Twits Own Twitter X Offenders 0

At Above the Law, Joe Patrice savages somewhat less than taken with Elon Musk’s notion that Twitter’s AI zombie Grok should evaluate court cases.

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QOTD 0

Dwight Eisenhower:

Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels – men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.

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The Disinformation Superhighway 0

Dick Polman is fed up, or perhaps, more accurately, tired out. In his article bidding farewell to the political column he has written (and I have followed) for two decades he notes, almost in passing, the damage done by the disinformation superhighway:

Many factors have brought us to this pitiable abyss, but what concerns me most is the epidemic of ignorance. Democracy thrives with a well-informed citizenry; it dies otherwise. Half the electorate (the winning half) rejects factual reality; an October poll, conducted by Ipsos, said that “Americans who have correct information on current political issues” strongly favored Kamala Harris; the ill-informed, stoked by the metastasizing MAGA “media,” strongly favored Trump. That’s how it works in Hungary, where Viktor Orban has dismantled democracy by building his own disinformation domain.

I commend his entire piece to your attention.

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Q. It’s the “Else” 0

David Hyde has question relating to someone in the news:

Why should anyone have concerns about an angry old white man who expects his every wish to be realized or else.

Follow the link for context.

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“The Party of Personal Responsibility” 0

Despite what some pundits appear to (want us to) believe, Democrats are not to blame for what Republicans choose to do.

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“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes”* 0

Thom hears some rhymes.

_______________

*Mark Twain.

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Fee for Servile 0

Paul Krugman gazes into his crystal ball, and what he sees is not pretty. A snippet:

As I understand it, the term “crony capitalism” was invented to describe how things worked in the Philippines under the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, who ruled from 1965 to 1986.

It describes an economy in which business success depends less on good management than on having the right connections — often purchased by doing political or financial favors for those in power. In Viktor Orban’s Hungary, for example, Transparency International estimates that more than a quarter of the economy is controlled by businesses with close ties to the ruling party.

Now it’s very likely that crony capitalism is coming to America.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Another “responsible gun owner” demonstrates that said phrase is an oxymoron.

So many guns. So much stupid.

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The Disinformation Superhighway 0

Sara Gorman and Jack M. Gorman look at how “social” media helps spread dis- and misinformation about mental health and offer some suggestions for combating the flood of FUD. A snippet:

A relatively recent TikTok phenomenon called “Undiagnosis” is particularly problematic. In these videos, users record themselves usually dancing to a song listing conditions they previously thought they had and then declaring themselves “undiagnosed.” The process of “undiagnosis” is littered with questioning whether serious mental illnesses even exist, which is obviously harmful to the mental health community’s need for people to take mental illnesses seriously as true medical conditions. While some have said that there’s some benefit to this kind of open conversation and that it may reduce stigma in some ways by making discussion about mental illness more acceptable, the potential harms are still obvious. People with mental illness conditions are being encouraged to decide they don’t actually have them. That can lead to dropping out of treatment or refusing treatment in the first place, clearly placing people at risk.

One more time, “social” media isn’t.

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