Watson T. Firetruck

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• Commented on A message from our sponsors: New Book coming!
  It was principally the wild onions the Gollum disliked, as I recall. Also, "Meat's back on the menu, boys!", after an orc quarrel....
• Commented on Same bullshit, new tin
  For a look at women in Israeli military service prior to the second Intifada, I suggest the 2014 film Zero Motivation (Hebrew title: אפס ביחסי אנוש, Zero on Interpersonal Relations). Noteworthy is a Ukrainian-born actress whose name is transliterated as...
• Commented on Crib Sheet: Season of Skulls
  In the US, a substantial portion of the industrial cheese sold at supermarkets is shredded in the factory and bagged with anti-caking agents for use in macaroni and cheese, chili, casseroles, et cetera. Is this the case in other countries?...
• Commented on Crib Sheet: Season of Skulls
  I got a couple of bricks of goat cheddar at a local market a few years ago. The texture was industrial, but I liked the flavor. If you google goat cheddar you can get more information....
• Commented on Crib Sheet: Season of Skulls
  https://statements.cornell.edu/2023/20231101-standing-against-hate.cfm I suppose that this statement is locking the barn door after the horse has pooped all over the Jewish community. It's not clear to me how much prior restraint the administration can exercise over individual student online communication; are...
• Commented on Crib Sheet: Season of Skulls
  Do you think that this case is indicative of a failed university free speech policy which is deserving of a congressional inquiry?...
• Commented on Crib Sheet: Season of Skulls
  Here is the Associated Press fact check on the conflict: https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-fact-check-e829d1dddcc2dad0f5f99cf62ef353ad. CLAIM: Pro-Palestinian rallies at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Pennsylvania called for “Jewish genocide.” THE FACTS: The chant uttered in videos of recent demonstrations...
• Commented on Crib Sheet: Season of Skulls
  It may be worth noting that in 2021 the Netanyahu administration declared that six Palestinian human rights groups were terrorist organizations, over the objections of their European partners, raided their offices, and confiscated their computers and other equipment. I suspect...
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  A more entertaining comparison would have been Steven Hawking writing about sex vs Madonna writing about science....
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  Is the canine respiratory disease which appears to be sweeping the US affecting other countries?...
• Commented on I should blog more, but ...
  The only proper unit of volume for water is the acre-foot....
• Commented on Pass or Fail
  The cookbook "Tasty Dishes from Waste Items" by Aroona Reejhsinghani includes a recipe for prawn-shell curry....
• Commented on Pass or Fail
  Stupefied?...
• Commented on Pass or Fail
  Joshua Yaffa explored the situation in some depth in "The Great Siberian Thaw" (The New Yorker, January 10th, 2022)....
• Commented on Pass or Fail
  Is there a gender bias in CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN entities?...
• Commented on Fuck the Monarchy
  Is there any evidence that China is propping up the Russian war effort in order to further weaken the Russian police state, with the intent on capitalizing on a Russian collapse to annex Far Eastern regions as a hedge against...
• Commented on Place your bets
  My neighbor found a wasp nest in his back yard and tried pouring a cup of gasoline into the nest, but nothing happened. He bought a can of insecticide spray, but before he could apply it, the local bear found...
• Commented on Place your bets
  Me too, but I don't know if that suffices to seat us on a jury. I suspect that anybody who hasn't already formed an opinion about his guilt is too ignorant to serve competently....
• Commented on Place your bets
  Do you know anybody who is qualified to be an impartial juror?...
• Commented on Place your bets
  Fascinating Aida has some thoughts on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d13gX-1HJg4...
• Commented on Place your bets
  Has anybody asked ChatGPT how to create a genuine artificial intelligence? Maybe it just needs a really hot cup of tea....
• Commented on Place your bets
  https://www.theonion.com/ai-chatbot-obviously-trying-to-wind-down-conversation-w-1850146151...
• Commented on Place your bets
  My brother gave me one of those. It doesn't actually open bottles -- the opening is too narrow to grip the bottle cap....
• Commented on Place your bets
  In the latest episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver discusses AI issues....
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  It seems challenging to reconcile the CIA's goal of undermining European colonialism with their global opposition to Communist-aligned national liberation movements....
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  In the vein of counterfactual histories, would the UK have been as steadfast in their support of the Soviet Union after the Nazi invasion if the Nazis had not pursued campaigns of terror-bombing England and unrestricted submarine warfare following the...
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  Apparently, the defect was in his attire. During the war, it was considered unpatriotic for single women to associate with men who weren't contributing to the war effort and he was not allowed to discuss his work while he was...
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  My father graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1943 with a physics degree and went to work for the Manhattan Engineering District at the Columbia University atomic pile. He quit the next year and joined the Navy because, as a civilian,...
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  I am reminded of The Curve of the Earth by Simon Morden....
• Commented on Make Up a Guy
  You may be right -- My recollection is pure hearsay. He also discussed spending ten days in the brig on bread and water and I think that he was given a general discharge. However, the US military had serious discipline...