732 Comments

1965 sci-fi in your hed gif today, “Out of the Unknown.” More details and streaming info here: https://open.substack.com/pub/martiniambassador/p/out-of-the-unknown

Also, I’m having a hard time using my phone to correct that errant link from Scary Mommy, so here it is in the comments for you: https://www.scarymommy.com/parenting/one-week-without-correcting-kid

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"And then the shareholders became cosmic pebbles, also too." 💋

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"Which eventually was ground down into cosmic space dust which just keeps drifting down and making us need swiffers."

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That's some pretty high concept stuff, right there. The Internet Archive is a trove of the somewhat forgotten past. I found an old Bogart noir "In a Lonely Place" there this week. It is very good.

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I've become a big fan of Bogie and Bacall recently, they are just magical together, huh? Their chemistry was palpable, on screen and off.

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They a wanted Bacall for this film, but Warner Brothers still held her under contract and would not release her. Gloria Grahame, director Nicholas Ray's wife, is really at her best here.

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Gloria Grahame had a VERY eventful life, if you are up for a fun Google. The excellent "Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool" is based on an episode from her later years :)

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I adore black and white films. Bogie and Bacall are legendary. I love Cary Grant too.

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The Britbox limited series, "Archie" is well worth a look. It was produced by Dyan Cannon and their daughter Jennifer. The actor playing him is terrific, and they actually found an actress that could be Ms. Cannon's double, also amazing :)

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Oh, yes! Cary was just the best. And soooo dreamy!

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Plus, he gifted us the gif to end pun threads and dad jokes ;-)

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I have found some great public domain stuff at The Achieve that I use for my music videos. I can usually find something that fits.

For example:

https://youtu.be/S2nsZp31Sck

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Great song!

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Thanks.

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We're those Proton Energy Pills?

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Could be.

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I’m there at the archive all the time. Such a great resource.

I don’t know that Bogie either—will check it out.

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Worth a view.

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Thanks friend ☺️

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>I don’t think there’s any possible explanation for Israel assassinating food-aid workers from the fucking World Central Kitchen besides they’re trying to kickstart the famine.

I think is because they use AI targeting which is why the US murdered two entire wedding parties in Afghanistan and also bombed a rather extremely large number of huts containing many sheep & one (usually a child) herder. I neither think the US was particularly intent on murdering sheep nor do I think the IDF has a commitment to famine.

Which is frankly more terrifying, particularly since the US is going ALL IN ON THE SAME THING. The terrible performance in Afghanistan delayed it a bit, but that is forgotten. Maybe attention on this could make a difference.

My anti-favorite is DARPA's "In the Moment" program where can we really know what is in their hearts? Or do we just learn to accept AI mistakes? As someone who does work in adjacent to the area, the description of the project is blood-boiling. Check out the program, it describes "no ground truth" which means we can not know if they are civilians who are delivering aid or random young men hiding from the draft or combatants. The sort of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ oh well we just can not know. Oh, and if you are evil and want to completely defeat it you can literally just put on lady-clothes. But if you are not evil and do not know you are targeted, well you would not do that.

Here is a very scary video. It is fake but chilling. In fully autonomous operations there would be no human with even the potential to care.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-2tpwW0kmU

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Tina Mouse, it would be pretty ridiculous if they were using AI. I don't believe they are -- they haven't even used that as an excuse -- it's just what some people are assuming because the alternative is too terrible.

I believe Israel had every right to defend itself after October 7. What Netanyahu is doing is not that.

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>Tina Mouse, it would be pretty ridiculous if they were using AI.

It is ridiculous to think AI is playing zero role in a conflict in 2024.

You know the US used it in Afghanistan? For target identification?

Have you looked at some of the DARPA technology transfer? Maybe you should. Unless you think DARPA is ridiculous to claim that AI has a role, and that they are lying about tech transfer.

You think the military does not use AI in target identification?

What do you think AI is?

The use "a set of databases" that goes through "a complicated weighing process" which is AI, to select targets. I think they do not want to say AI but pulling databases to a probabilistic model and having a resulting decision is AI.

I think someone got a target recommendation and fucked it up.

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well I'm now reading stories about "Lavender" and how they are using AI. Maybe they did!

Sorry I didn't believe you.

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It is fucking horrible. AI is not bloodless when it is used to kill people.

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When PAB says he owns "many bibles" does he mean that he lets the Gideons put them in all the rooms of his trash palaces?

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Martini outdid themselves today. Brava!

Bibi is a monster. That it all.

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I was hoping he might not "wake up" after his surgery, TBH

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Evil people live the longest.

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It just seems that way.

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I remember when the US embassy opened in Havana. Obama was President and the GOP was pissed off about his Cuba policy. Stories about workers in the new embassy getting strangely sick started popping up. The Cubans were suspected initially, that didn't pan out. Then the Chinese were blamed. They had a secret office in Cuba and were the masterminds behind it! Well, that didn't pan out either. Investigations and testing over the years found no definitive causes of anything, anywhere. We gave it a name "Havana Syndrome" no matter where the mysterious cases were but we still don't know what it is or if it even exists. 60 minutes is now going with a guy who claims it's the Russians, for sure, based on an email supposedly from a bad guy to another guy about the possibility of something. 60 Minutes is apparently playing the long game on this story. Never too late for another "Hail Mary" play from 60 minutes.

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Toilet Social was bailed out by Russian suspected of money laundering.

Try not to be too shocked.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/03/trump-media-es-family-trust-2022-loans

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Scotland's new hate crime law has just come into effect. The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 creates a new crime of "stirring up hatred" relating to age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or being intersex. The maximum penalty is a prison sentence of seven years. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-68703684

JK Rowling and Elon Musk are BIG MAD about it, clearly indicating that it's the right thing to do.

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The UK must be pissed because they’ve really been leaning into transphobia as a Re-election strategy for the Tories.

Time for Scotland to ramp up the ol’ referendum for separation!

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Saw a news crawl this morning that said Rowling will not be prosecuted for her ignorant word vomits.

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Her trajectory has been so odd. When the books first came out, she was very liberal, advocating for higher taxes for the wealthy and a universal basic income. Something, somewhere, cracked along the way. (My daughter and her partner were huge Harry Potter fans but since her partner is trans, they have abandoned the series. It was sad for them.)

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Yes, the books taught some good life lessons about being true to yourself, questioning authority (but working with it too), overcoming life's obstacles, and so much more. I read them to my kids and my 30-year-old is still a fan. Then she turned into a real-life Voldemort and basically treated trans people like Mudbloods. I totally do not understand it, but I guess all that money and associating with Tories and their ilk will turn you into a Death Eater...

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Disappointing, ain't it?

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I try to separate the art from the artist since so many were complete shits personally, but I can still enjoy their work. As I stated above, she's morphed into Voldemort and now treating trans folks like Mudbloods and has become a Death Eater. It is disappointing indeed. Off to Azkaban with her!

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> Of course term limits would not apply to Donald Trump, were he to win. Everybody knows that. (American Conservative)

That *has* to be Poe's Law in action, right?

RIGHT?!? 😳

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Never mentioned in that article are the numerous felony indictments and volumes of evidence backing them up Trump is facing. And that his only hope of getting out if it is winning the election and sweeping everything under the rug. Also missing was the fact that Nancy and other Republicans hid about glaring signs of dementia, revealed a couple of years later as Reagan was in the very last stages of Alzheimers. And the campaign messages from Trump promising to suspend the constitution, replace thousands of federal employees and military officers with people pledging loyalty to Trump, not the constitution, and declaring himself dictator for a day. With his first edict being declaring himself dictator for life.

We will not have the cabinet officials and military officers standing up for the constitution that reined him in in late 2020. Instead we will have Mike Flynn as the head of military forces and non-lawyer Stephen Miller as Attorney General. And if his hand picked Supreme Court justices think that is pushing a little too far and rule against him, he can put tanks and 10,000 combat equipped troops around the Supreme Court building and say "make me." Because by suspending the constitution the Supreme Court and even Congress have no power or authority. Every part of government and every right citizens have are based on the constitution and by suspending it indefinitely even owning a gun is not a right, much less a trial by jury or even being told what crime you committed. Which I'm sure impeachment guru James Comer would appreciate. Impeach now, figure out what crime Biden committed being revealed next year. Along with the thousands of Democratic leaders in federal and state offices being held in detention camps supposedly meant for undocumented immigrants.

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The worst part is that we *knew* Reagan was having problems and we were gaslighted (sp?) for years. And then of course they used it as an excuse not to prosecute him for Iran-Contra.

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This Saturday, April 6th, our Wonkette Movie Night is 𝐅𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬. With the cast from A Fish Called Wanda, a very funny movie about a zoo.

https://open.substack.com/pub/ziggywiggy/p/wonkette-movie-night-april-6-fierce?r=2knfuc&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

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Brilliant! "I was talking to the lemur!"

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I just love getting happy email...

"The material you requested is ready for pickup at Sulzer Regional.

Title: The internet con : how to seize the means of computation

Author: Doctorow, Cory, author.

Format: Hardcover Book

Held until the library closes on: 4/8/2024"

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Jesus Fuck, BBC, do I even want to click on the link to your "Global Monkey Torture Network" article? And here I thought QVC was awful.

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Yeah, don't do it.

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On topic, what really happens if Drumpf tries to stay in power after serving two terms is that a Constitutional amendment is put forward and goes nowhere. Same verse as replacing the Electoral College with the popular vote.

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The current Supreme Court will nullify the 22nd Amendment for him.

It's what they were chosen for.

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They already pooped all over the 14th. Why not invalidate the 22nd?

This Court doesn’t give a crap about precedent or the Constitution.

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"If it wasn't in the Constitution in 1787, it doesn't count." -SCOTUS

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Apr 3
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Just getting to this, the real problem there is that his plan for getting back into the presidency is to force the GOP to sacrifice funding for congressional elections in favor of his campaign (and legal bills on top of that), and he would be facing impeachment now if not for the almost vanished House majority. His position would be less like a dictator in waiting, more like a bank robber who locked himself in the vault.

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I've got one more non-thought in me: By their second album, these guys were also-rans in this music scene, but this song deserved a bit more money and care: The video could have been amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JZGFjufJEY

One of us, Gooble Gobble.

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RFK Jr.'s crazy eyes rival the ones seen in MAGA Republican congresswomen (Harriet Hagerman, come on down!) The lights are on but the monster in the basement is creeping up the stairs...

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He is a terrible, horrible garbage creature. I literally cannot even look at the guy

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***According to The Information, 700 out of 1,000 Just Walk Out sales required human reviewers as of 2022. This widely missed Amazon’s internal goals of reaching less than 50 reviews per 1,000 sales. Amazon called this characterization inaccurate, and disputes how many purchases require reviews.***

Gee, it looks like Amazon was using the Theranos model of automation -- fake it and turn the work over to humans. Good thing they weren't soliciting investors, and thus were just lying rather than committing fraud.

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The joke going around right now is that AI stands for "Actually Indians."

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Huh. The graphic at the top of that Atlantic article on the eclipse showed a time-lapse of an *annular* eclipse (meaning ring-like ,not happening every year.) This one will be a TOTAL eclipse, which is much, much more spectacular.

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Cool, thank you for this bit of info and inspiration, JT!

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Just to be clear, you have to be in the path of totality to see a total eclipse, and that's only about 100 miles wide. ONCE the eclipse is total, you can look straight at it, even with binoculars. The INSTANT it isn't total, it is no longer safe to look at without eclipse glasses, unless you're Donald Trump.

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Oooooh, we're a mere few miles from the path, John!!

Edit: HOLY SHIT. WE'RE IN IT!!!!

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Ok, thank you. I've got to check the path, have not done that yet, if you can imagine. Intelligent HusbX got some for all three of us last week :-)

We're in far north central Ohio, as I like to call it, "Almost-Canada, Ohio".

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Unless the weather is terrible, get yourself to the path, and as close to the center as you can. "Almost" doesn't count.

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FABULOUS, thanks, John!!! I know you're certainly going to enjoy this!!

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This will be number 4 --

1) Prince Edward Island, Canada, July 10, 1972

2) Helena, Montana, February 26, 1979

3) Newport, Oregon, August 26, 2017.

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