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Joined 11 months ago
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Cake day: November 6th, 2023

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  • Correct. Dress it up however you like, but LLM and ML programs are probability gamblers all the way down. We’re building a conversation tool, that doesn’t truly comprehend the language because it’s a calculator at its core - it’s like asking your eyeballs to see in UHF frequencies.

    They’re called “computers” for a reason, and we are deep in the myopic tech tree of further and further complexity. The current wave of AI has solid potential, but not globally for all applications. It is a great at ‘digital assistant’ roles and is already killing it in CCTV monitoring software. Mindjourney can make incredible images, but it can’t make art. ChatGPT can write, but it’s a terrible author or speechwriter.


  • I found a real easy approach to any undesired solicitation - zero contact, no reaction. Works on telemarketers, panhandlers, salespeople etc.

    I have no shame about ghosting you publicly when the only thing you’re after is my money. If I’m in the home generator store, sure thing bro talk to me about my home power needs. If I’m walking out the supermarket and you slide around a booth to “help me keep my home safe during unrest” nah fam you can fuck yourself.

    Cold open sales is parallel to pick-up “artists” imo. You want the transactional outcome for yourself, and my consent is the only thing you’re concerned about taking care of.





  • Hamas needs to be destroyed.

    Great yes let’s end Hamas. That will totally and 100% solve the security situation across the region. Because as history has clearly shown, Israel spending decades assassinating leaders, marginalizing Fatah to blunt peace talks, killing the Fedayeen in the 60s and 70s, and a ‘weapons free’ policy outside Israeli borders DID IN FACT prevent October 7th. Sound policy, clearly no reason to reexamine or revise.

    It is a farce to pretend that constant violence will bring Israel permanent security, unless genocide is part of the plan. You cannot attack a people, deny them a pathway to live with dignity, and be shocked when they don’t like you and fight back.

    Palestinian people ought to rebel against Hamas, but Hamas is as popular as ever, at least they were until October 7. Not sure how the public feels, now.

    You’re joking right? You seriously expect them to come out into the streets and pick up weapons to expel Hamas? The starving people who were bombed from their homes?

    Hamas, ISIS, Jihad, Houthis, it’s all the same shit with slightly different flavors.

    No. Not remotely, unless you only see ‘Islamist’ and ‘Iranian supported’ and then ignore every other aspect that makes their motives and ideology different. ISIS is actively beefing with the Taliban, they just sent two suicide bombers back to back against Taliban collecting their paychecks. PIJ and Al-Quds only this last year started limited operational cooperation, and that’s over now. Lions Den don’t work with anyone else in the West Bank, and the Houthis are actively fighting multiple factions.

    I disagree with the UN reporter.

    Rapporteur, not reporter. An expert appointed with a mandate to investigate, not a friendly/hostile journalist. Big difference in the weight you should give her words, and the seriousness of the allegation.

    Any famine in Gaza is the fault of Gaza’s leadership

    False. Israel ratified the ICESCR in 1991 which includes “physical and economic access at all times to adequate food” as a basic human right.

    (Hamas) which led Gaza and its people directly into a seige without having adequately prepared. Well, Hamas prepared for themselves. They have plenty of food and are hiding in tunnels.

    Not so much anymore. The top leaders in Doha, sure they’re living good. But the recently escaped and released hostages all spoke of rapidly deteriorating conditions with less food each day for themselves and their captors. The blockage of food is hurting everyone - civilian, militant, hostages too.

    They’re just leaving the public to suffer and die while they go hide and retweet Al Jazeera articles, which is par for the course for Hamas, which uses entire cities as human shields. They had their chance to grow up and they utterly failed.

    You completely missed my question so I’ll repeat it - If they want martyrdom, why help them in the information war? Why give your opponents ready-for-press psyops? Why would you ever permit the civilians to starve to death, because you didn’t cooperate with aid inspections, or force the shitheads body-blocking the crossings to move?


  • The UN is a diplomatic platform, that occasionally goes kinetic with peacekeeping or aid missions. The majority of the UN is bureaucrats of various levels, talking to other bureaucrats of various levels, to work together.

    The UN is also the world police, but much more like a bounty hunter than a SWAT team. Any enforcement actions taken, are VERY targeted, have very well defined limits and rules, and basically requires a sponsor nation(s) to actually go Do The Thing. Which also requires the UN to agree to all those limits, rules, etc and to agree that enforcement is required.

    Very often the UN gets bogged down by geopolitical influence issues, like with Syria in the 2010s. The no-fly zone that kept Gadaffi’s Air Force from stopping the uprising, wasn’t a UN action.


  • I keep seeing you roll into these discussions acting like “it’s just the facts, dreamer” makes you the only adult in the conversation, and you repeatedly fail to recognize the non-kinetic impacts and repercussions of Israel’s/IDF’s/Likud-Coalition’s/Netanyahu’s course of action.

    The US is very publicly putting Israeli leadership/Netanyahu on notice that they are evaluating the scope and depth of the relationship - that is huge. A US non-veto was played off as a ‘stab in the back’ despite Bibi and crew being well aware of US red lines over their shitshow of a war and the total absence of plans for after the war. Israel’s duplicity over aid inspections and crossings has worn down diplomats and NGOs across the world, the UN special rapporteur has directly stated that any famine that occurs is a direct result of Israeli policy.

    You also keep pushing this idea that Palestinians want/accept death as a political tool to gain freedom, and that somehow frees us from trying to avoid their deaths? That speaks far more to the depth of humanity and how you value human life, than anything else. Accepting your base realpolitik approach, if they want martyrdom deaths to made Israel look bad, why grant them their wish? Why play into it?





  • Ambassador Robert Ford (retired) spent his entire diplomatic career in the Middle East and North Africa since 1985, including being appointed as Ambassador to Syria by Obama, and by Bush Jr as Ambassador to Algeria.

    AIPAC. We honestly need to ban foreign money in our elections at an absolute minimum, because the Netanyahu-Republican enablement allows an external power to force the hand of a President/diplomatic service. In this case it is tying us to a madman, whilst the US is trying to hold together Bretton Woods and the Pax Americana.

    The ‘calculated support’ of Israel seen as necessary has isolated the US internationally and made us look like hypocrites - while the global south is watching.


  • the border has literally moved thanks to the Nordic countries getting into NATO and no longer being neutral

    angrygoose.jpg Why are they now in NATO? It couldn’t possibly be because:

    • After decades of ‘status quo’ Nordic neutrality was respected by all sides, Russia upsets that balance by…
    • Invading Ukraine in violation of the Minsk treaty, having guaranteed Ukraine’s independence if it gave up the leftover Soviet nukes
    • Russian rhetoric from the highest level of government has regularly consisted of nuclear Sabre rattling and talk of ‘reunification’

    Given how Putin has gone complete clown show into revanchist ideology and is trying to restore the Russian Empire, it’s completely logical for the Nordics/the world to seek alliances for protection.



  • Engoron’s soft touch in the courtroom was infuriating to witness as Trump gleefully spurned fines, but he’s built a solid case absent of bias accordingly and laid a foundation to spring his trap card:

    Under the order, Trump must give five days advance notice “of any transfer of cash or other assets” totaling $5 million or more, “including transfers to any individual defendant.” It happens to be five days before Trump’s March 25 deadline to pay his fraud judgment to New York in full or, failing that, to set the money aside as he appeals…

    Violations of Thursday’s order could result in the judge ordering more penalties against Trump Org, the judge warned. Those potential penalties include throwing the company into receivership and the possible forced dissolution of assets

    And Trump’s piggy bank isn’t off limits either:

    Effective immediately, “the Trump Organization shall provide copies of monthly bank statements for all bank or brokerage accounts of the Trust within five business days of the end of each month,” Engoron ordered.

    The “Trust” is a reference to the Donald J. Trust Revocable Trust, which holds all of Trump Org’s assets and for which Trump is the sole beneficiary.


  • Per Canada:

    As of September 2019, under the EIPA, the Minister of Foreign Affairs must deny exports and brokering permit applications for military goods and technology if there is a substantial risk that the items would undermine peace and security, or could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights laws, acts constituting an offence under international conventions relating to terrorism or organized crime, or serious acts of gender-based violence.

    Turkey is blacklisted since 2021 for cause, and if you’ve followed the way they’ve dealt with Kurdish rebels and civilians, it’s completely clear why. Same with Israel and Gaza/Lebanon, the IDF and IAF have repeatedly demonstrated an astonishing lack of restraint towards civilians if doing so means they cannot pursue their military objectives.