My favorite story along these lines came from Gabriel García-Marquez. I think it happened in both One Hundred Years of Solitude and in the novella called something like The Sad History of Remédios the Beauty and her Wicked Grandmother.
A very young woman ascends bodily to Heaven. García-Marquez said in a memoir that the *real* story was that a very young woman in a village got pregnant and her parents sent her away. BUT they told all the neighbors and townspeople that she had bodily ascended to Heaven. I had bought a pile of books in Spanish to improve my reading; I don't know if this appears anywhere in translation.
It may have been mentioned downthread -- I just got here and I'm not going to look -- but today is the eighty-first anniversary of the surrender of Japan, ending the Second World War.
Trump named three NFL teams he thinks will make it to the Super Bowl, the Patriots, the Rams and Ny. Giants. Just a heads up for all who bet the sportsballs.
Ta, Robyn, and Happy Caturday to all who celebrate. We're sipping flowery green tea and eating luscious fruit bowls on this, our second anniversary. Marrying Meccalopolis has made me the happiest woman on earth, and we decided to remain newlyweds for the rest of our lives. I rarely watch your videos, but Shari Lewis and Lambchop on Playboy After Dark and GWAR on the Joan Rivers show were hilarious. Good day, beloved Wonketteers. We love and appreciate you all and we bless us all with love, health, peace, and grace.
Please, please stay safe. Wear a mask or two, wash your hands, sanitize when you cannot wash and let the sanitizer dry completely, stop touching your face, take Vitamin D, get a booster shot six months after your last (and get kids in your household vaccinated also, too), and stay the fuck away from us or anyone with whom you do not share a roof. Do this because you love yourself, and because we love you, too. Do this in memory of 27 Club member Treg, Holly's heroic pilot friend Tony, and around eight million dead worldwide (maybe including FukuiSanYesOta; he had long COVID and that can lead to cardiac arrest). Do this to honor the nurses and other frontline medical personnel (we love and appreciate you, medicos of Wonkette, including retirees), especially ICU Hera Mrs Land Shark RN. Please, please stay safe. When we vote, we WIN!
Today is going to be a finding excuses not to clean my office because it’s too wet out there to do the yard work I grudgingly told my wife I would definitely do today kind of day.
Clean one small thing, get absorbed into whatever rabbit hole it sends you down, call it good... unless you're inspired to clean up the thing NEXT to the thing you rabbitholed down. One never knows, and either way you can legit assert you did your task.
when you buy a bed in a box and the cover of the mattress says "do not remove" even though it has a zipper and the cat pukes on the mattress cover and your wife insists that you remove the cover so she can wash it, you will give yourself a fucking HERNIA trying to put it back on.
just shitcan it and buy another bed in a box. Trust me on this one.
seriously, three days later I went to the ER because I wasn't sure if it was a pulled muscle or appendicitis requiring surgery. They actually scheduled the surgery after the scans were taken, but they brought in a couple more doctors to look at scans and said hold off for a bit.
It was trying to heave that monster mattress around after putting the stupid cover back on it! :)
We're sorry, world. We know what causes this and how to prevent it. But we have too many stupid people that unless they are burned out of their homes, can't give a shit about any one else.
OpenAI talent exodus raises ‘huge red flag’ ahead of IPO
When OpenAI hired Denise Dresser from Slack to be its chief revenue officer in December, Fidji Simo, a top-ranking executive, said in a blog post that Dresser’s “experience will help us make AI useful, reliable, and accessible for businesses everywhere.”
Four months later, Dresser took on added responsibilities when operating chief Brad Lightcap left that position for a new role focused on “special projects.”
Now, Dresser, Simo and Lightcap are all gone, leaving OpenAI’s C-suite in chaos as the artificial intelligence company tries to justify its $852 billion valuation and gear up for what’s expected to be a historic initial public offering. Dresser announced her sudden departure on Thursday, two days after Lightcap said he was ending an eight-year stint at the ChatGPT creator to “start something new.”
LLMs were originally part of the process, a thing on the way to building genuinely smart artificial "intelligence". Tech companies changed this plan when they encountered things like 𝘥𝘦𝘣𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘧𝘧 𝘭𝘢𝘸𝘺𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 ... They turned these models into final products to sell to people and make money fast because the machine learning that they actually do well won't pay the bills, much less pile up the wealth.
They are peddling training wheels as though they are scooters that will mature into café racers.
The eggs were shipped to foodservice and retail customers in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, including Kroger stores in Texas and Louisiana, Brookshire Grocery stores in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Mississippi, and other retailers.
No notable birthdays today?
Robyn, were you unaware that the Junior Senator from Pennsylvania, John Fetterman, is 57 years young today?
T̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶t̶r̶e̶e̶t̶s̶ ̶w̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶l̶i̶v̶e̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶c̶e̶l̶e̶b̶r̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶!̶ I didn't even know! Now I can ignore it with knowledge and purpose...
I assume that Mary knew that ancient Mosaic Law made the punishment for adultery death by stoning for both(all?) people involved...
"I'm 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘯𝘢𝘯𝘵? Oh 𝘨𝘰𝘥!!!"
People been known to be ah, fluid with facts under those circumstances
My favorite story along these lines came from Gabriel García-Marquez. I think it happened in both One Hundred Years of Solitude and in the novella called something like The Sad History of Remédios the Beauty and her Wicked Grandmother.
A very young woman ascends bodily to Heaven. García-Marquez said in a memoir that the *real* story was that a very young woman in a village got pregnant and her parents sent her away. BUT they told all the neighbors and townspeople that she had bodily ascended to Heaven. I had bought a pile of books in Spanish to improve my reading; I don't know if this appears anywhere in translation.
I just found out that Medicaid has approved my custom wheelchair! They approved it! Yaaaay!
We are SO very happy for you! Another reason to celebrate. Now, let the Powers That Be find you a suitable apartment.
Woot!
Slicks, side pipes, a nitrous rig, and flames painted down the sides? Medicaid? That's excellent!
awesome! A little brightness in a difficult series of hurdles!
As they SHOULD! Congrats.
It may have been mentioned downthread -- I just got here and I'm not going to look -- but today is the eighty-first anniversary of the surrender of Japan, ending the Second World War.
Trump named three NFL teams he thinks will make it to the Super Bowl, the Patriots, the Rams and Ny. Giants. Just a heads up for all who bet the sportsballs.
Gonna be interesting game this year. Rules committee must be working overtime.
I wonder how many end zones there's going to be...
Umm...three.
At the superb owl...
Ta, Robyn, and Happy Caturday to all who celebrate. We're sipping flowery green tea and eating luscious fruit bowls on this, our second anniversary. Marrying Meccalopolis has made me the happiest woman on earth, and we decided to remain newlyweds for the rest of our lives. I rarely watch your videos, but Shari Lewis and Lambchop on Playboy After Dark and GWAR on the Joan Rivers show were hilarious. Good day, beloved Wonketteers. We love and appreciate you all and we bless us all with love, health, peace, and grace.
Please, please stay safe. Wear a mask or two, wash your hands, sanitize when you cannot wash and let the sanitizer dry completely, stop touching your face, take Vitamin D, get a booster shot six months after your last (and get kids in your household vaccinated also, too), and stay the fuck away from us or anyone with whom you do not share a roof. Do this because you love yourself, and because we love you, too. Do this in memory of 27 Club member Treg, Holly's heroic pilot friend Tony, and around eight million dead worldwide (maybe including FukuiSanYesOta; he had long COVID and that can lead to cardiac arrest). Do this to honor the nurses and other frontline medical personnel (we love and appreciate you, medicos of Wonkette, including retirees), especially ICU Hera Mrs Land Shark RN. Please, please stay safe. When we vote, we WIN!
Slava Ukraini. 🌻🇺🇦💙💛
Thanks to the Wonkmeet in Redhook, Brooklyn all those years ago! This is a good place, y'all, we honor it and all of you.
Happy anniversary you two!
Thank you, Diane. We're very happy.
Today's going to be a GWAR day.
"Gwar's the remote? I can't find it!"
If I'm going to be thwarted by rain, Sunday's the best day for it
Today is going to be a finding excuses not to clean my office because it’s too wet out there to do the yard work I grudgingly told my wife I would definitely do today kind of day.
Clean one small thing, get absorbed into whatever rabbit hole it sends you down, call it good... unless you're inspired to clean up the thing NEXT to the thing you rabbitholed down. One never knows, and either way you can legit assert you did your task.
Pro Tip; Those covers on the couch cushions my come OFF easily for washing, but shoving those things back in is a workout for the ages.
when you buy a bed in a box and the cover of the mattress says "do not remove" even though it has a zipper and the cat pukes on the mattress cover and your wife insists that you remove the cover so she can wash it, you will give yourself a fucking HERNIA trying to put it back on.
just shitcan it and buy another bed in a box. Trust me on this one.
Lightly rubberized mattress cover will do wonders. I don't notice the one I have, it's stopped the occasional dog stain.
Same with duvet covers. Holy shit. I broke down and sobbed.
seriously, three days later I went to the ER because I wasn't sure if it was a pulled muscle or appendicitis requiring surgery. They actually scheduled the surgery after the scans were taken, but they brought in a couple more doctors to look at scans and said hold off for a bit.
It was trying to heave that monster mattress around after putting the stupid cover back on it! :)
Try some Astro glide, it works for JD.
The foam grows 25%.
Just toss it in a cold pool for a few minutes. Shrivels 95%.
Albania, Croatia, England, Wales, France, Greece, Italy and now Belgium. Europe is on fire and it's hot!
"We really hate to hear it, but the cost of doing business is going up like everything else!"
Capitalism---
We're sorry, world. We know what causes this and how to prevent it. But we have too many stupid people that unless they are burned out of their homes, can't give a shit about any one else.
Browner and sweatier than previous.
======
Europe's scorched landscapes seen from space after summer heatwaves
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gxy0wqqd9o
I am just fucking horrified.
Hotter than America? No way! donnie promised us we are hottest of all.
Oh fuck. I get it now. He went and declared them US states overnight didn't he?
Sooo...are you saying the hottest country in the world isn't the US? Careful...
OpenAI talent exodus raises ‘huge red flag’ ahead of IPO
When OpenAI hired Denise Dresser from Slack to be its chief revenue officer in December, Fidji Simo, a top-ranking executive, said in a blog post that Dresser’s “experience will help us make AI useful, reliable, and accessible for businesses everywhere.”
Four months later, Dresser took on added responsibilities when operating chief Brad Lightcap left that position for a new role focused on “special projects.”
Now, Dresser, Simo and Lightcap are all gone, leaving OpenAI’s C-suite in chaos as the artificial intelligence company tries to justify its $852 billion valuation and gear up for what’s expected to be a historic initial public offering. Dresser announced her sudden departure on Thursday, two days after Lightcap said he was ending an eight-year stint at the ChatGPT creator to “start something new.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/14/open-ai-ipo-red-flag.html
What will Trump say when the Dow starts dropping 5000 a day? Who will he blame, Antifa hedgefunds?
Joe Biden. It's always Joe Biden's fault.
LLMs were originally part of the process, a thing on the way to building genuinely smart artificial "intelligence". Tech companies changed this plan when they encountered things like 𝘥𝘦𝘣𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘧𝘧 𝘭𝘢𝘸𝘺𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 ... They turned these models into final products to sell to people and make money fast because the machine learning that they actually do well won't pay the bills, much less pile up the wealth.
They are peddling training wheels as though they are scooters that will mature into café racers.
Blame Isaac Newton and his fucking gravity.
Greenland. Specifically the natives. Here is how it happened.
TFG: *snore... snort!* Why is the economy below 55,000? It is supposed to be above 55,000!
Bessent: "It was the people of Greenland"
TFG: INUIT!!! INUIT ALL ALONG!!!! Hegseth! SEND BOMBS!
and there it is in a nutshell.
The Revenue Chief from Salesforce (a big, real, company that works) comes in, smells death, and bails before she gets stinky.
They're so fucked.
"Yeah, keep the stock options"
"Cool. Mind if I take 'em as shorts?"
I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to have her every action, including farting, questioned as a fraudulent attempt to affect the stock price.
Someday that's going to be unlawful again.
15 August 1945: The Emperor of Japan broadcasts formal acceptance of the Allied surrender terms. Peace, for a little while.
Korea, Come on Down!
You were thinking of the annunciation, Robyn. That’s when Gabriel came and explained to Mary that you’re preggers with the son of God.
There’s actually a pretty cool Da Vinci painting of the annunciation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annunciation_(Leonardo)
“Sorry, Mary, but the rabbit died.”
DaVinci? Hold my beer! I'll show you how that's painted! See that worry in her face? Da Vinci can't touch that!
yrs,
Fra Angelico
The enunciation of Mary? I think it rhymes with Harry.
“Lady, you’re never going to believe this.”
Most of the world: "We still don't."
I'm gonna go with The Assumption That Mary was sleeping around, and Joseph was a dolt!
"I was 𝘴𝘰 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 that Shem the Carter, or that guy who makes barrels was the father but she said, "Nope, gotta be god!"
"That Joseph! Good guy, but shit!"
Bold of you to assume I wouldn't want to! 😜
Highest alert level for eggs recall.
The eggs were shipped to foodservice and retail customers in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, including Kroger stores in Texas and Louisiana, Brookshire Grocery stores in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Mississippi, and other retailers.
https://www.wcvb.com/article/fda-elevates-egg-recall-class-i/73442307
I’m loving this “everything you want to eat will make you shit and puke yourself to death” diet. So slimming!
When he couldn't bring down the cost of eggs and other foods he went to plan B: make the food so unfit to eat that no one wanted to buy it anymore.
And waiting in the wings: Soylent Green!
Never mind the quality, feel the price.
I remember when an egg quality scandal brought down a prominent UK Conservative politician.
That she was also shagging the, soon to be, Prime Minister is neither here nor there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmonella-in-eggs_controversy
Make Diarrhea Great Again!
Trump-A-Lax
I'm buying eggs today. THEY HAD BETTER BE THERE!
It is devil-may-care daredevils going around and risking your life with irresponsible stunts like this that make tic-toc fun!
GWAR! Huh. Yeah.
What is it good for?
absolutely nothin!
srsly, try Tool instead. :)