Coss

Yes , Ai is gonna end badly for us and our children, but prolly get sorted out, by the time our children's children come of age. Which could be 8. My take is as ever optimistic, is the net (and by extension what's on it and Ai and Non-i) almost directly parallels the invention of the printing press and the subsequent proliferation of knowledge available to the masses, all you had to do was learn to read. History showed us, that with the printing press, every man and his dog, could spread information, correct or no. The religious were very quick on this, bibles everywhere. It took a while for the moderation of content, to settle at a level where society was comfortable, see laws. In my humble view, Ai is a reflection of us and will grow where it's successful and die where it's not. It won't work in the absence of electricity. At the moment it's paradigm is "popularity = truth" What's next is anyone's guess, but we'll be long gone before we're in a situation where it's OK.

Thanks for that, I watched to whole thing, a little spoilt, by the big arse advertisement in the middle, but accurate. How do I know? MLG who is 25 yrs younger than me, spent the better part of yesterday afternoon, making a clip showing her hands assembling, dim sum from scratch and steaming them. With me as the phone holder. Instructive cooking clip sure... She's convinced she's going to strike it lucky and become the next million, million, million, viewer sensation. But also she feels that she is not valid, unless there is stuff in the ether, that her friends can see. "Fake it till you make it", is the primary rationale behind all of this, but I guess that it's just moved from real life, to the ether. But what is really scary and magic, is, the mug Ozzy Man is holding, is the same as the one I am holding this morning, watching the clip. I got mine about a year ago as a present, and had never used it, until I broke my regular mug yesterday and got this one out of the cupboard. Mine has a black not red, carabiner and the graphics are of the cartoon Moonmin™ characters, also no clip on microphones on mine. But a good mug never the less. Dunno where to buy it - ergo no link. What are the odds that Bust would post such a vid with my mug in it? Wooooo™ ...

One is of course in agreement with all the above. In the vein of "History is written by the victor" we could also add in this "history of religion" context, "History is written by the aggrandiser".

Fond memories of Hotel California I and II

Well yes, at first, but then the boy had to find a reason for why he was so f'n wonderful in his father's eyes, whilst he world was ignoring him, so grifting was his path.

More Popery: Pope Francis has pledged to root out the “scourge” of clerical sexual abuse after Belgium’s prime minster urged him in unusually frank terms to take concrete action... and: In his remarks, Francis compared the church’s abuse crisis to the biblical story of King Herod’s order that all male children aged two and older be executed. “This is the shame, the shame that we must all take in hand today and ask for forgiveness and solve the problem, the shame of abuse, of child abuse,” the pope said. “We think of the time of the ‘Holy Innocents’ and say ‘what a tragedy. What did King Herod do?’ But today, in the Church itself there is this crime.”... https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/27/europe/pope-francis-belgium-abuse-intl/index.html _____ Coss comment: All because a bloke long ago figured out that he could co-opt some beliefs that bunch of lesser grifters had promulgated and successfully found a religion, that's lasted quite a while. A bloke that may have looked like this.

Things are desperate when they have to give Mel another 10 million to stump up with a scripted appearance.

Yeah i've always wondered about his pickiness, once after a meal, in a Manila seafood place, I left a tip of about $3 on the table and as we were leaving, he swiped it. Mind you, that's probably why he's a millionaire and I'm not.

I'm considering a long trip, VTE -xxx -xxx -AKL and coz it's cheap and as noted elsewhere, there are concerns about flying these days, due to aircraft type and human service. Anyone had experience with China Southern Airlines? Because I trust you lot, more that some online Ai driven marketing fluff, masquerading as user reports.

And just for giggles, here in NZ the first peoples were brown (~8-900 yrs ago) and the subsequent immigrants mostly white (~2-300yrs ago), until about 100 yrs ago when multicolour became the more the norm. So NZ was mainly Moa and Kiwi and Tuatara before then. No discernible government. What's changed?... they say...

This has me thinking about what kind of aircraft I'll be on, for my forthcoming trip. I had a friend who would consider this aspect when booking his tickets. As my primary consideration is, reduced cost, followed by, minimum stop count, I prolly don't have a choice and then I'm gonna do three separate trips, so I just hope I'm not unfortunate.

because it's fun

I thought I had a pretty accurate picture of the Secret War, this Dr Paul T Carter does a pretty good summation of the build up and events of same. It's 1hr and 18 minutes, a little dry but filled with photos of the real key people. All sorts of CIA and such. I kept thinking "I know him, he's the old fella I was chatting to in Bourbon St etc." But my memories may be unreliable. If you're interested in the Secret War, this youtubery seems to be fairly canonical and worth the watch.

Horizontal gymnastics.

OH's post above, draws some good points and I don't argue with them. --- ...The Drumpf from Germany said - "communities will “never be the same” after having been “inundated” with immigrants". This post is just to draw attention to Trump's out and out appeal to racism. Technically he's correct, the U.S.A. has been inundated by immigrants, since forever, that's the founding basis of the place. --- "On Monday, Donald Trump held a rally in Pennsylvania, where he once again repeated lies about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. Trump told the crowd that Ohio and Pennsylvania communities will “never be the same” after having been “inundated” with immigrants. “They will never be — do you think Springfield will never be the same? The fact is, and I’ll say it now, you have to get them the hell out. You have to get them out. I’m sorry. Get them out,” Trump said. The crowd then erupted into applause with spectators chanting: “Send them back!” That kind of response from Trump’s rallygoers should hardly come as a surprise. Back in July, the crowd at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee held up signs reading “MASSDEPORTATION NOW!”... " https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/trump-ohio-haitian-immigrants-mass-deportation-rcna172679 by Charlie Sykes - a conservative

And because this never gets old, a list of folk who once thought that Trump was a good idea: Steve Bannon Convicted in 2022 of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the January 6 committee Sentenced to 4 months in prison, which he began serving in 2024 Peter Navarro Convicted of contempt of Congress in 2023 for defying a January 6 committee subpoena Began serving a 4-month prison sentence in March 2024 Roger Stone Convicted in 2019 on seven counts including obstruction, witness tampering, and false statements Sentenced to over 3 years in prison, but had his sentence commuted by Trump in 2020 Paul Manafort Convicted in 2018 of financial crimes including tax fraud and bank fraud Sentenced to 7.5 years in prison, but pardoned by Trump in 2020 Michael Cohen Pleaded guilty in 2018 to campaign finance violations, tax evasion, and making false statements Served 3 years in prison Michael Flynn Pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about contacts with Russia Later pardoned by Trump George Papadopoulos Pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to investigators about Russian contacts Served 12 days in prison before being pardoned by Trump Rick Gates Pleaded guilty in 2018 to conspiracy and lying to the FBI Sentenced to 45 days in jail and 3 years probation Allen Weisselberg Pleaded guilty in 2022 to tax fraud scheme at Trump Organization Sentenced to 5 months in prison in 2023 Pleaded guilty to additional perjury charges in 2024, sentenced to another 5 months Rudy Giuliani Had his law license suspended in New York and Washington D.C. in 2021 for making false statements about the 2020 election Filed for bankruptcy in December 2023 after being ordered to pay $148 million in a defamation lawsuit Sidney Powell Had her law license suspended in Texas in 2023 for her role in filing lawsuits challenging the 2020 election results Pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges in Georgia related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election John Eastman Facing disbarment proceedings in California for his role in attempts to overturn the 2020 election Charged alongside Trump in the Georgia election interference case Jeffrey Clark Former DOJ official facing potential disbarment in Washington D.C. for his role in Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election Also charged in the Georgia election interference case Jenna Ellis Censured by a Colorado court in 2023 for making false statements about the 2020 election Pleaded guilty to a felony charge in the Georgia election case Kenneth Chesebro Pleaded guilty to a felony charge in the Georgia election interference case Agreed to testify against other defendants as part of his plea deal --- Just the headliners.

She's a complex problem, these dead children et al, when we're not expecting them to die.

More reasons that the Catholic church is a: 1. sham. 2. haven for dodgy folk dressed up as saintly representatives of the sky fairy chief. ~ Pope Francis took the unusual decision Wednesday to expel 10 people – a bishop, priests and laypeople – from a troubled Catholic movement in Peru after a Vatican investigation uncovered “sadistic” abuses of power, authority and spirituality. The move against the leadership of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, or Sodalitium of Christian Life, followed Francis’ decision last month to expel the group’s founder, Luis Figari, after he was found to have sodomized his recruits... https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/25/americas/pope-expels-bishop-peru-sadistic-abuse-intl-latam/index.html ~ One can't help but think that Mr Jorge Mario Bergoglio, stage name "The Pope", is furiously trying to get good P.R. on this, as he struggles with: A/. hushing things up not working any more. B/. declining interest in praying to sky fairy chief and leaving money behind every Sunday. ~ Disclaimer: I was at the local Lao temple this last Sunday, as MLG likes to go there to wear symbols of Hi-So status, like gold and Gucci, dressed up as the worship of Monks representing Buddha. The only difference I can see is the colour of the grifting saintly reps' clothes, Orange for Buddhists, White/red for Catholics. large farting noise

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20221129/Monkeypox-renamed-mpox-in-an-effort-to-combat-stigma.aspx

... putting the Trump name on anything that might yield a stream of revenue... A Washington Post report added earlier this month, “No presidential candidate has ever so closely linked his election with personal for-profit enterprises, selling a staggering array of merchandise.” What’s more, the Trump company website “also sells a variety of political merchandise at higher prices than his campaign charges for the same items.”

Trump said that it will be easy to round up foreign criminals in America because the local police know of them and know ‘their serial numbers.’ so all foreign criminals look like this?

not youtube but worth a watch https://www.facebook.com/share/v/mCiBAvrS7eUfUS3w/

A motorbike crashed into a 50-year-old man while he was crossing a zebra crossing, throwing his body more than 10 meters... https://www.pattayamail.com/thailandnews/motorbike-hits-pedestrian-on-crosswalk-in-bangkok-residents-seek-proper-traffic-signals-473257

Gentlefolk, I'd like to suggest that the post above could have been made about Middle Earth, a.k.a. New Zealand. excepting the average firearm crime rate going down. There are some nutters here also and there was a wave of them trying to get elected or promote religions or alternative forms of government on back of the Orange one's election in 2016. It was really, "look! he did it! looks easy! I can do it too!" . --- Back to guns. NZ had an estimated 1.2-1.7 million guns owned by 234,335 licensed shooters. So not few per population. Following the Christchurch mosque attacks in 2019 and the subsequent ban on most semi-automatic weapons: Gun crime hit a new peak in 2020, despite the government's clampdown on firearms. In 2020, 2399 people were charged with 4542 firearm-related offences, nearly double that of a decade earlier. 1862 firearms were seized in 2020, more than double the 860 seized a decade earlier. Factors Influencing Crime Rates - More enforcement by police, potentially leading to higher reported numbers. The arrival of 501 deportees from Australia, bringing more organized crime into New Zealand, yes, really. Growth in gang activity and recruitment, see 501 comment. --- So sorry for the rant, I just thought I'd show what Middle Earth is like following Bust's good post above.