heckblazer

heckblazer

  • Commented on Made of lies (and more lies)
    AIs are useless when they just makes stuff up. OTOH, they're only really useful when they give a novel response, which is another way of saying they're making stuff up. Resolving that seems tricky....
  • Commented on Because I am bored ...
    I'll just say that NFTs remind me of Yves Klein's Zone de Sensibilité Picturale Immatérielle...
  • Commented on What happens now?
    On January 3 all of the living former Defense Secretaries signed a letter warning that the military must stay out of election disputes. That's unprecedented and makes me wonder what rumblings they were reacting to, especially in light of the...
  • Commented on Books I Will Not Write #8: The Year of the Conspiracy
    Elderly Cynic @ 364 Comey's public announcement was in part made in because he feared the public reaction to a document likely faked by Russian intelligence....
  • Commented on Books I Will Not Write #8: The Year of the Conspiracy
    Elderly Cynic @ 362: The massive hack and leak Russia performed on one of the 2016 US presidential campaigns strikes me as something that was both unusually extensive and a major factor in the election results....
  • Commented on Books I Will Not Write #8: The Year of the Conspiracy
    Needs more bored Italian academics :)....
  • Commented on Unforeseen Consequences and that 1929 vibe
    White nationalism has some overlap with survivalist doomsday prepper types, and for some reason bitcoin has become very popular with the preppers....
  • Commented on Trapped in the wrong trouser-leg of time
    Gerald Fnord @ 58: "Hmmm, would Carter have been smarter about carte blanching aid to religious fanatics in Afghanistan? It would have been about the same C.I.A.…." Given that Carter started that CIA operation, I wouldn't assume so....
  • Commented on The sudden eruption of news
    Since the US administration doesn't yet have an Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs (not even nominated yet!), an Under Secretary for International Trade, or an Ambassador to the United Kingdom, I'd say that drafting a trade agreement by...
  • Commented on Placeholder? Placeholder!
    Charlie @ 65: I have a quarter-pound stainless steel plate in my arm. Not once in 15 years has it set off a metal detector, airport or otherwise. Just to prove your point....
  • Commented on Placeholder? Placeholder!
    Tom M @ 16: If you have to stand inside a clear tube that has scanning arms spin around you it's a millimeter wave machine. If you have to stand between two boxes it's a backscatter machine. The backscatter machines...
  • Commented on Placeholder? Placeholder!
    beowulf888 @ 12: Were the radiologists talking about the x-ray backscatter scanners or the millimeter wave scanners? The former were removed from service in US airports in 2013, while the latter to the best of my knowledge are most likely...
  • Commented on Some notes on the worst-case scenario
    You are correct that any tactic can fail if taken too far, and trying to arbitrarily tie in issues, like BLM and Palestine, probably won't work well. Now combining urban police reform with lead abatement, those are two issues would...
  • Commented on Some notes on the worst-case scenario
    "Intersectional identity politics" is another way of saying "bringing people together to fight for civil rights" (intersectionality is just a fancy way of noting that people who hate gays also tend to hate blacks and unions). Done right it can...
  • Commented on Some notes on the worst-case scenario
    Trump's Razor, created by journalist Josh Marshall and named by SF author John Scalzi, states that when it comes to Trump the stupidest possible scenario that can be reconciled by all the available facts is most likely the correct one....
  • Commented on And the Rabid Nazi Raccoons shall inherit the Earth
    One of the first acts of the House Republicans of the new 115th Congress was to hold a closed meeting at night on a national holiday in order to secretly vote to gut the power of the independent House ethics...
  • Commented on "You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!" 2017 continued.
    A minor note, US cabinet members are nominated by the president but are confirmed by the Senate. So while a hypothetical president Pence could fire the entire cabinet he'd have to get the replacements through the Senate committees and then...
  • Commented on Playtime is over
    It may not be tightly controlled, but there is definitely coordination going on. Nigel Farange campaigned for Trump and Marion Le Pen recently invited Steve Bannon to work with the FN. And Bannon himself has said that he views Trump...
  • Commented on The Day After
    ChrisB @ 287: Trump's election isn't an argument against democracy, it's an argument against the American Electoral College. Clinton won the popular vote....
  • Commented on The Day After
    SFReader3 @ 183: Flynn doesn't count as being part of the Republican natsec establishment on the grounds of being a registered Democrat :). (not joking about his regisration though, that's what he says) Flynn can't be Defense Secretary without a...
  • Commented on The Day After
    One interesting thing about Trump is that pretty much the entire Republican national security establishment has been opposed to him. According to the Trump natsec transition team leader, “it was going to be very difficult to fill positions in that...
  • Commented on The Day After
    William H. Stoddard @ 127: The vote counts are ongoing, and won't be completed in places like California for some time. The NYT right now estimates Clinton winning the popular vote by a 1.4% margin, and I've seen higher estimates...
  • Commented on The Day After
    David L: "Does the sitting (or soon to be so) President take the stand? If he looses does he get to pardon himself?" The precedent from Clinton v. Jones is that a civil suit against the president can go forward....
  • Commented on Sometimes I don't know why I bother!
    Matthias Buchinger. Born in Nuremburg in 1674. A magician, musician (including instruments of his own design), calligrapher specializing in micrography, and trick shooter, he traveled Europe giving performances. He outlived three wives and had fourteen children. Did I mention that...
  • Commented on Constitutional crisis ahoy!
    This bit from Nigel Farage's resignation speech almost made my head explode from the irony: "As soon as we get a new Prime Minister, we need teams of negotiators. I’m told that we haven’t got the skill! I’m told that...
  • Commented on Constitutional crisis ahoy!
    In America corporate law is mainly a state thing so it varies, but generally setting up a corporation involves filling out some paperwork and paying a fee in the neighborhood of fifty to few hundred dollars. Lawyers technically aren't needed...
  • Commented on Constitutional crisis ahoy!
    Thomas Jørgensen @ 494: That's less good than it sounds at first blush, since: Trump is a real estate tycoon who likes to slap his name on everything, which increases the risk of someone noticing the mysterious sweetheart deal (Trump...
  • Commented on Constitutional crisis ahoy!
    El @ 485: Fake individual donors ain't gonna cut it, you'd need around 200,000 just for Trump to catch up to the current Clinton war chest. As for funneling money to Trump personally, candidates are also required to file their...
  • Commented on Constitutional crisis ahoy!
    Heteromeles @ 467: We do know who is funding Trump, he has to declare it in his Federal Election Commission filings if someone donates more than $200 in one calendar year. So far his campaign is funded entirely by individual...
  • Commented on "Tomorrow belongs to me"
    Yeah, we Americans tax tampons as a luxury too. It kinda sucks for women, which is why they're starting to campaign against it....
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