Category Archives: Uncategorized

The punditry has been all atwitter, if you will, about former President Trump talking about immigrants poisoning the national blood. Here’s Steve Benen:

The former president spoke a few hours ago with Hugh Hewitt, a prominent conservative host, who noted the “critics” are drawing parallels between Trump’s rhetoric about immigrants “poisoning the blood” of the United States, and Hitler using comparable language about Germany. “Do you have anything like that in mind when you say ‘poisoning our blood’?” Hewitt asked.

“No, and I never knew that Hitler said it, either, by the way,” Trump replied, before quickly adding that he never read “Mein Kampf.”

It may be true that Hitler said something similar – but it ignores a simple genetic truth:

Inbreeding is bad for the health, physically or metaphorically, of both families and societies. Just consider the lessons of the Western monarchies, which, at their worst, indulged in intra-family marriages and breeding in order to “conserve” the blood. Did this work? No. The Habsburgs are a prime example, with their hold on power extinguished by intellectually incompetent family members inheriting their royal privilege and power, and fumbling it away – or, at best, dying without issue. The failings of “pure blood” are well-known; indeed, farmers will put their hands up and talk about it.

I suspect a competent historian could make a similar argument about the internal social dynamics of monarchical families afflicted with blood paranoia.

So these pundits are missing a real opportunity to bang Trump’s head into the traditional wall on this issue; indeed, they’re following his lead, as Hitler is often a losing issue.

But put up a picture of a Habsburg and the terrible performance of the later generations, and then ask Trump why he wants to condemn the United States to that.

Or is it really just about farcical eroticism?

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), the sensation of 2022, is an attempt to incorporate the concept of the multiverse into a movie. The multiverse is the set of all Universes, generated by points in time where things can go one way or the other. Each Universe represents one tine of the fork. Even confined to conscious decisions by thinking creatures, the energy consumption is mind-boggling, unaddressed in this story, which tends to get in the way of enjoying it.

However, on the plus side it allows ineffectual characters to have alter-egos, as it were, who are far more skilled or adventurous or even just darn-all lucky; exploring where those characters could go is part of the fun, even as their brains metaphorically explode.

But in this meta-universe of a multi-verse, minds begin sensing what they never evolved to understand, as if an entirely new sensory apparatus was suddenly not only tacked on to one’s body, but its output routed into a brain which can barely even understand that there is a new input, much less make sense of it. For some brains, this is madness. But for one, its omniscience leads to super powers that leads to boredom and even, possibly, questions of whether morality can exist in such a situation.

In the end, this movie is a lot of fun, but if you demand coherence and plausibility from your stories, this might be a stretch. Don’t mistake: it’s well made, good acting, fascinating story, good special effects, and a sense of humor. But your cup of tea may have one of Cthulhu’s tentacles reaching about after this.

I like this proposal by Derek Bambauer and Melanie Teplinsky for imposing responsibility on software development:

As part of the National Cybersecurity Strategy, the Biden administration seeks to “develop legislation establishing liability for software products and services,” which would include “an adaptable safe harbor framework to shield from liability companies that securely develop and maintain their software products and services.” We propose that this software liability regime incorporate one safe harbor and one “inverse safe harbor.”  The first would shield software creators and vendors from liability if they follow enumerated best practices in design, development, and implementation. The second—the inverse safe harbor, or sword—would automatically impose liability on developers who engage in defined worst practices. The safe and inverse safe harbors will provide certainty to regulated entities, reduce administrative costs, and create incentives for improving security. This article describes the twin safe harbors, their policy goals, and the key design criteria for their success. [Lawfare]

OK, so I don’t much care for the terminology. Positive ‘safe harbor,’ sure. ‘Inverse safe harbor’? No. How about ‘poison pill,’ ‘irresponsible,’ or ‘your greed blinds you to everything’?

I’ll think on it, yeah.

Cosmogram:

A cosmogram depicts a cosmology in a flat geometric form.^[1] They are used for various purposes: meditational, inspirational and to depict structure — real or imagined — of the earth or universe. [Wikipedia]

Not quite what I expected, but that’s OK. Noted in “Magical Mesoamerican Relics,” Ilana Herzig, Archaeology (January/February 2024):

These types of figurines were typically produced from around 500 B.C. to A.D. 680 by the Mezcala people, who were based in an area that is now in the southwestern Mexican state of Guerrero. In their most sacred space, the Aztecs made the objects their own by embellishing them with paint and placing them in the chest as offerings to their rain god Tlaloc. “Tenochtitlan was the center of the Mesoamerican world,” says López Luján. Objects were brought from all of the provinces of the empire, and even beyond its borders. “The Mezcala figurines were considered by the Aztecs magical relics from the past,” he says. “Many of these offerings are cosmograms, or representations in miniature of the universe as conceived by the Aztecs. The chest and its contents symbolized a mythic realm known as Tlalocan which was re-created by Templo Mayor, where the rain god kept water and sustenance.”

Dr. Phillips at Spaceweather.com keeps looking up and seeing … polar stratospheric clouds:

Normally, polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) are confined inside the Arctic Circle. Only above the poles can the stratosphere become cold enough to create these rare clouds. However, during this week’s outbreak of PSCs, the clouds have spilled out of the Arctic to places they are seldom seen. This morning, Ian Carstairs photographed them over Harleston, Norfolk, UK:

[picture omitted, go follow the link, above]

“The display has spread south all the way to +52N,” says Nock. That’s more than 14 degrees below the Arctic Circle.

Widely considered to be the most beautiful clouds on Earth, polar stratospheric clouds are a sign of extreme cold. PSCs form when the temperature in the Arctic stratosphere drops to a staggeringly-low -85 C. Then, and only then, can widely-spaced water molecules in the dry stratosphere coalesce into tiny ice crystals. High-altitude sunlight shining through the crystals creates intense iridescent colors that rival auroras.

A later update reports sightings as far south as Liverpool in the UK. Recalling that latitude’s definition is …

In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north–south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pole, with 0° at the Equator. Lines of constant latitude, or parallels, run east–west as circles parallel to the equator. Latitude and longitude are used together as a coordinate pair to specify a location on the surface of the Earth.

Liverpool’s latitude is 53°. For comparison and future cloud observations, Minneapolis’s latitude is 45°, or rather to the south of Liverpool. Still, I’ll try to keep an eye on the sky^[1], and maybe get lucky. They look … almost clownish. A reminder that unusual conditions sometimes lead to unusual results.

¹ Which incidentally was a tagline of the local WCCO weather service at one time.

For those who like to contemplate what should have happened vs what has happened in the last year, WaPo has a nice article telling us why we’re not in a wallowing scow caught in a rip-roaring typhoon in the Dismal Sea:

Et tu, Colorado?

Which is not to imply that Colorado was Trump’s friend until it, shockingly, wasn’t. And Colorado may be the first of many, too, rather than the implied middle of the pack. Still, who could resist?

In a stunning decision, the Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday removed former President Donald Trump from the state’s 2024 ballot, ruling that he isn’t an eligible presidential candidate because of the 14th Amendment’s “insurrectionist ban.” [CNN/Politics]

But yesterday’s news that the Colorado Supreme Court removed GOP candidate for President Donald J. Trump from the GOP primary ballot on the grounds that he had been involved in promoting the insurrectional activities of Jan 6, 2021 may turn out to be the key milestone in breaking not only Trump’s run to return to the White House, but even to be the nominee of the Republican Party.

Naturally, we can look at the simple facts on the ground: Colorado is a medium state in terms of population with ten Electoral College votes, while the largest State in the Union, California, has fifty four, and the smallest States, such as neighboring Wyoming, have three. If Trump cannot be on the ballot nor, if I read the 14th Amendment properly, win the Electoral votes of Colorado via a write-in campaign, an unlikely event as Colorado gave the victory to Democrat Joe Biden by 13+ points in 2020, we can presume that the votes will be voided at worst, and more likely awarded to whoever gets the most votes in Colorado, an unremarkable procedure.

But this is a myopic reading of the results of the Colorado Supreme Court ruling. Within legal circles, even those not properly within the jurisdiction of a superior court, rulings of superior courts are not only of operational importance, but the subject of intellectual curiosity. Particularly a case such as this, which, if not unique, is at least a rare bird. What are the salient features for the majority opinion? Did they convincingly negotiate this and that key objections? Is this grounded on a foundation of convincing constitutional reasoning, or is this a partisan hack-job? Did the dissenters make good points, or do they appear to be merely surly and discontented?

If the collective sentiment of the readers of a professional legal bent inclines towards the opinion that this is a well-reasoned and disinterested opinion, then Trump may anticipate several more judicial knives in the back, as other States’ judicial systems accede to suits asserting the relevance of the 14th Amendment.

Again, removal from ballots is not necessarily cogent to the electoral issue, although if Texas were to remove Trump from their ballot, one might assume it to be the end of Trump’s political career. Such an act by Texas, sensible as it may seem, is not likely.

But this is the sort of judicial result, even if the conservative wing of SCOTUS is willing to give Trump a reprieve from the knives, that will gain the attention of independents and some of the Trump base. It’ll remind them of the ghastly occurrence of January 6th, 2021, connecting the former President to a matter of profound dishonor, as it’ll be trumpeted by news media and candidates alike.

I don’t care if Trump and his allies try to use the persecution spin here, because they, along with Gingrich and Lott and Ryan and all that crew of fourth-raters, began the political war first, trying to drag their brand of crude and brutal politics into our government. The Democrats are out to get Trump? Sure. And he’s given them reason and material with which to do so, which, in other words, means he’s guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors. Pundits who sputter But, but, but this will HELP him don’t get it. Sure, his bedrock supporters will be furious. But others will finally pay attention to what’s happening and maybe think. Disrupting the leading nation in the world doesn’t go down well with people who want to lead normal lives where they vote and attend meetings, or not, and have their say and don’t have people try to manipulate them.

I’m not saying it’s time to start waving goodbye. But historians may look at this ruling as the beginning of the end for a wannabe dictator whose only real skills were in propaganda and acting, not in governance.

And in case you don’t have a good feeling for the right’s propaganda machine, this article may be of interest. Just assume the left has the same thing, but on a smaller, and perhaps embarrassed, scale.

Laic:

adjective

1. Also la·i·cal. lay; secular.

noun

1. one of the laity. [Dictionary.com]

Apparently, a verbed noun. Noted in “Paris meet discusses importance of laicity for women’s rights, atheism in Islamic context,” Maryam Namazie, Counterview:

The event brought together more than 40 laic personalities, coming from the four corners of the world. They addressed different themes such as, the importance of laicity for women’s rights, atheism in the Islamic context, contemporary challenges linked to laicity and its role in preserving democracy.

NewScientist’s (24 November 2023, paywall) Matthew Sparkes has the report:

AI [artificial intelligence] models can trick each other into disobeying their creators and providing banned instructions for making methamphetamine, building a bomb or laundering money, suggesting that the problem of preventing such AI “jailbreaks” is more difficult than it seems. …

Now, Arush Tagade at Leap Laboratories and his colleagues have gone one step further by streamlining the process of discovering jailbreaks. They found that they could simply instruct, in plain English, one LLM to convince other models, such as GPT-4 and Anthropic’s Claude 2, to adopt a persona that is able to answer questions the base model has been programmed to refuse. This process, which the team calls “persona modulation”, involves the models conversing back and forth with humans in the loop to analyse these responses.

It would be interesting to see a few transcripts of such attacks, or a summary characterization of such attacks in order to understand the strategy.

Something I’ve not seen mentioned in the popular press, which is all I have to go on, is an analog to the brain exhaustion/regeneration cycle, and how it may play into human intelligence and whether it has application in AI.

Just a thought.

AI and education: was the material learned by the student or not? For those with a strictly mechanical view of education, that’s the question du jour, and should lead to the banning of AI on campus. But for those who recognize AI a la ChatGPT may be inevitable, here’s a more flexible response:

“AI is not meant to avoid opportunities to learn through structured assignments and activities.”

This line comes from the AI policy for Tom Brady’s Ole Miss education class. His students discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the tools (“strong in summarizing, editing and helping to brainstorm ideas”; “poor at creating long segments of text that are both topical and personal”), put those in the context of academic honesty and devised the rules themselves. [WaPo]

Involving the students and treating them as responsible adults means discarding, to some small extent, the hierarchy natural to humans. It’s inspiring.

But will it really work? Or will the officious rigidity inherent in some teachers wreck it?

Now it’s the turn of Rep Bob Good (R-VA), new chairman of the Freedom Caucus, who incidentally and successfully primaried Freedom Caucus Denver Riggleman (R-VA) back in the day, to earn his nomination:

Asked whether he’s [Rep Good] concerned about Trump potentially coming after him in a primary, Good said: “I respect President Trump and I look forward to having a great working relationship with him in whatever capacity,” adding that he would back Trump if he became the nominee and called him “the best president of my lifetime.” [CNN/Politics]

Given that he’s near my age, that means LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, and Obama do not measure up to Trump. To suggest the man who failed to pass, or even submit, infrastructure bills and AHCA, along with the failure of the 2017 tax reform, all while practicing daily mendacity and hypocrisy. Not to mention potential betrayal to various national adversaries.

OK, so Nixon doesn’t measure up. LBJ’s involvement in Vietnam makes him questionable. Carter’s bad luck is mitigated by his devotion to nation since. The balance? I don’t care for Bush II at all, but to suggest Trump even came close to the rest is laughable.

A friend has just introduced me to Steve ‘n Seagulls, a “Finnish bluegrass” band:

Great fun!

Dana Milbanks of WaPo is just one of many to find House Committee Chairman and Representative James Comer’s (R-SC) insistence on a closed door deposition by Hunter Biden to be, at best, questionable:

Accession:

noun

1. the act of coming into the possession of a right, title, office, etc.:
   accession to the throne.
2. an increase by something added:
   an accession of territory.

verb (used with object)

1. to make a record of (a book, painting, etc.) in the order of acquisition.
2. to acquire (a book, painting, etc.), especially for a permanent collection. [Dictionary.com]

My idea of its meaning was vague, and a little precision is precious in today’s age of people deserving this ‘n that for no particularly good reason – except that it benefits those making the assertion, perhaps, if the assertion is accepted. Noted in, both title and text, “EU leaders approve Ukraine accession talks, bypassing Orbán,” Nicolas Camut, Barbara Moens, Jacopo Barigazzi and Aitor Hernández-Morales, Politico:

While accession [into NATO membership] talks are likely to continue on for many years, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the news was “a victory of Ukraine … a victory that motivates, inspires and strengthens.” This was a historic moment for Ukraine, which has made its aspirations to join the EU known for many years.

Professor Richardson pronounced this to be devastating. I think a bit more polishing might have helped.

Still, it makes its point.

He’s nothing like a saint, but he’s trying to profit on the same, ah, outputs:

looking for a last minute holiday gift? Trump has you covered pic.twitter.com/CQb5CKt7V9

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 12, 2023

Yep, along with worthless NFTs, which are certifications of ownership, in this case of digital art, which have proven to be worthless, he’ll sell you – the real standout attraction of the offer – a piece of the suit he allegedly wore to his mugshot.

How will he prove its provenance? He doesn’t appear to say. A fish-in-a-barrel prediction is that enough cloth will be issued for this offer to construct 10, or maybe 100, suits.

Depending on the number of suckers out there.

But notice how Trump capitalizes on the religious fervor of many of his supporters, and, much like John Brinkley of Kansas, he’s harvesting the wealth of people too given to believing in, well, anything without real evidence. A bunch of NFTs and a shred of cloth? Together, worth less than a penny to me. Someone else might shell out big bucks.

In some cases, to show their loyalty.

Welcome to the social prestige ladder. It doesn’t matter which – there are dozens, not all mutually exclusive – and this is just one way to assert your position.

Vatic:

vatic (comparative more vatic, superlative most vatic)

1. Pertaining to a prophet; prophetic, oracular. [Wiktionary]

I’ve not heard that one before. Noted in “This once-in-a-generation Rothko exhibition is spellbinding,” Sebastian Smee, WaPo:

Ol’ Vinnie always brings a frisson of gravitas to his work. The raven, whose name I misplace, was unfortunately a joker who enjoyed penguin jokes.

The Raven (1963) is a rather limp use of the famous Poe poem, and an excuse for V Price and P Lorre to work with B Karloff in a story of magic, betrayal, magnificent sets, a bit of convolution, and broken hearts that made us laugh more than bite our lips. It’s not not really funny, nor really dramatic, only High Camp.

Avoid, unless you’re a completist for any of the above, or J Nicholson or H Court.

Yesterday’s big news was Special Counsel Jack Smith’s highly unusual attempt to skip an appeal to a Federal appeals court and go directly to SCOTUS when it comes to former President Trump’s all-encompassing immunity claims:

Special counsel Jack Smith on Monday asked the Supreme Court to decide whether Donald Trump has any immunity from criminal prosecution for alleged crimes he committed while in office – the first time that the high court will weigh in on the historic prosecution of the former president.

The extraordinary request is an attempt by Smith to keep the election subversion trial – currently scheduled for early March – on track. Smith is asking the Supreme Court to take the rare step of skipping a federal appeals court and quickly decide a fundamental issue of the case against Trump. [CNN/Politics]

My assumption is that the Special Counsel is attempting to get convictions prior to the election next year. The question is why?

Will being President, under the assumption that Trump wins next November, safeguard him from prosecutorial consequences? Only at the Federal level, although there may be soft considerations at the State level, where Fulton County AG Fani Willis may find herself hampered by Presidential claims of immunity or of harassment by herself.

On the other end of the spectrum, perhaps Smith is motivated by politics, a desire to “get” the former President, a corrupt motivation of classic lineage? And, it’s true, it’s not hard to see this as a plausible motivation on a battlefield littered with mendacity, such as Committee Chairman Comer’s (R-SC) statements concerning Democratic President Biden’s alleged corruption, which has drawn little more than laughter from independent, disinterested observers.

So it’s worth taking the next step beyond these negative approaches to the question, and ask the positive question: What positive, politics-neutral effect can come from pursuing this strategy?

And it’s this: Citizens should have all relevant information possible concerning a Presidential candidate.

What is a trial? It’s a presentation of legal facts and the story that can, or cannot, be credibly woven from them. Their contribution to revelations concerning a person running for office are important, even critical, because the motivations and character of a candidate is often, and moreover should be, key elements in the analysis that goes into selecting a candidate to receive, or not, your vote.

The crime, or crimes, that Trump may have committed have already occurred, and thus they are relevant to the election because, if they exist, they contribute key information to the independent, undecided voter; and if such crimes were not committed, at least in the opinion of a jury, that, too, is an important contribution to the thought process of the independent voter.

Putting that into the ol’ hopper, I am unperturbed by the Special Counsel’s maneuver on corruption grounds, because I see this as an effort to bring relevant facts into the awareness of voters next November, and that’s what democracy is all about.

And what has been the former President’s strategy?

Delay, delay, delay. Says something, doesn’t it?

The X-37B, one of those semi-secret government vehicles.

Image: Wikipedia.

Amazingly, it’s only 30 ft long, and unmanned. More info from WaPo here.

Never heard of Virtual Power Plants? Neither had I. Eduardo Garcia has the low-down:

A Virtual Power Plant (VPP) can be used to collectively manage these smart devices [EVs, rooftop solar, batteries, etc] ― also known as “Distributed Energy Resources” ― to boost the amount of renewable energy that enters the grid at times of peak production, and lower electricity demand when clean energy is scarce. Thus they can allow wind and solar to take center stage, regardless of whether the wind blows or the sun shines. [Distilled]

Notice how they mix sources, reserves, and consumers, while using a label implying only sources. It’s often said words are important, and they sure are. They shape discourse and even thinking, and while high level specialists learn to ignore blunder-words, increasingly the mid-level folks will try to use words, such as VPP, to think, and may shape a discourse that diverges from that of the specialist.

Or, in this case, maybe not. An advanced EV can function as both a consumer and as a reserve via the capability dispensing electricity back into the grid. But it’s worth keeping one’s antenna up for potential misnomers such as this one.

Evidently Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, having relished the publicity of being impeached, but not convicted, by his own party, is working to make more very silly publicity:

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton accused drugmaker Pfizer of fear-mongering and lies about the effectiveness of its COVID-19 vaccine, which the company insinuated would end the pandemic, according to a lawsuit Paxton announced Thursday.

“In a nutshell, Pfizer deceived the public,” reads the 54-page lawsuit, filed in a Lubbock state district court. …

Paxton’s arguments, many of them familiar tropes among the anti-vaccine and COVID-19 denial crowd, hinge on the fact that the pandemic did not end soon enough — even though Pfizer officials never promised an end date to the health threat.

The drugmaker, he argues, claimed its vaccine was 95% effective but did not manage to end the pandemic within a year after being introduced.

“Contrary to Pfizer’s public statements, however, the pandemic did not end; it got worse. More Americans died in 2021, with Pfizer’s vaccine available, than in 2020, the first year of the pandemic,” the lawsuit says. “This, in spite of the fact that the vast majority of Americans received a COVID-19 vaccine, with most taking Pfizer’s.”

And more Americans were infected after refusing the vaccine.

Look, the proper metrics are how many folks were exposed, how many were infected VU^[1], what’s the infection rate VU, what’s the death rate for the infected VU, percentage evading vaccination in low vs high areas.

Looking at total death rates conceals so many variables that it’s useless. And this is so obvious that I, an obsolete software engineer and not a professional biometrician, statistician, or other applicable profession, see it. Why doesn’t this blithering idiot?

The Texas House should impeach Paxton for abuse of position, and this time the Texas Senate, when Paxton arrogantly treats them as his little piglets by staying away from the hearings, should convict and toss his ass out.

¹ “VU” is an acronym I made up on the spot, standing for “vaccinated and unvaccinated”.

Researchers have found a vulnerability in your computer:

Hundreds of Windows and Linux computer models from virtually all hardware makers are vulnerable to a new attack that executes malicious firmware early in the boot-up sequence, a feat that allows infections that are nearly impossible to detect or remove using current defense mechanisms.

The attack—dubbed LogoFAIL by the researchers who devised it—is notable for the relative ease in carrying it out, the breadth of both consumer- and enterprise-grade models that are susceptible, and the high level of control it gains over them. In many cases, LogoFAIL can be remotely executed in post-exploit situations using techniques that can’t be spotted by traditional endpoint security products. And because exploits run during the earliest stages of the boot process, they are able to bypass a host of defenses, including the industry-wide Secure Boot, Intel’s Secure Boot, and similar protections from other companies that are devised to prevent so-called bootkit infections. …

As its name suggests, LogoFAIL involves logos, specifically those of the hardware seller that are displayed on the device screen early in the boot process, while the UEFI is still running. Image parsers in UEFIs from all three major IBVs are riddled with roughly a dozen critical vulnerabilities that have gone unnoticed until now. By replacing the legitimate logo images with identical-looking ones that have been specially crafted to exploit these bugs, LogoFAIL makes it possible to execute malicious code at the most sensitive stage of the boot process, which is known as DXE, short for Driver Execution Environment. [ars technica]

Sure sounds like a monoculture failure to me. Monoculture in agriculture refers to a total, or at least substantial, dependence on one crop or other product; if & when it becomes unproductive or otherwise unusable, the farm’s economic survival becomes questionable; if we replace farm with nation, the question becomes existential for the nation.

So the analogy is, perhaps, hyperbolic, but it serves to illustrate the danger to the computing industry of a monoculture approach to computer hardware and software.

Who the hell votes for this guy?

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is resigning from Congress and will leave at the end of this year, he announced in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Wednesday — a highly anticipated decision that comes two months after his unprecedented ouster from the speakership. …

McCarthy is leaving Congress having made a few enemies within the House GOP Conference. Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz was quick to take a victory lap, posting “McLeavin” and promoting a previously released thirteen-minute video based on the ouster of McCarthy, which he led. [CNN/Politics]

I don’t mean McCarthy, who is reportedly quite the charmer, but this idiot Gaetz, who apparently never grew up beyond 8th grade.

I wonder if such behavior will cost him his seat next election. I suppose it’s up to the voters in his district as to whether they want to be represented by an adult, or a child.