P.S. A Column On Things

End of April 21 Column (No. 977

Abe Lincoln Demands Protests, Digital Exodus Is One

Feel free to share this via a short link (if you share it with three friends, and they share it with three friends... you get the idea.

https://tinyurl.com/1exodus1

Read Why We Need The Digital Exodus in order to save democracy. It’s something you can do without imminent fear of being arrested or shot.

Abe Lincoln saw this coming, and advised each of us to “[Rise] fighting, grasping whatever he could first reach.” If Lincoln were around today, he would suggest reaching for the Digital Exodus instead of a pitchfork.

Start of Apr. 14 Column. More or Less Continuous News Service since 1998

This and That

Why some Brits detest Trump
Don’t fail to miss it (inside MIT Joke). Written in April 2022, it reads as if it were written this morning. I like to point to the original in these cases, to benefit the author. But the London Times is one of the world’s hardest paywalls hence the secondary link. Share it like a chain letter. Send it to five friends, who must send it to five friends or else their country will become an autocracy...
...

Award Winning Metaphor
Thank you Clark Smith: “the TV series Reacher is full of great quotes. At one point, a character asks whether a team member considers him a good shot. She replies, "Are you kidding? You couldn't hit a donkey's ass with a banjo."
...
Because the US Government Won’t
Czechs are now crowdfunding for artillery ammunition for Ukraine.
...
Hunter S. Thompson Nailed It
With regard to people who are surprised by what’s happening: “Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride.”
...
Grabbing the Third Rail
Elon Musk has firmly grabbed the third rail of American politics: Social Security. I am surprised that he, as an engineer, does’t realize that anything over 10 Ma of current will freeze him to the rail. I think he’s at 11.

Love Letter Punctuation

Thank you Nicky Mee.
Basic Letter (No Punctuation)
Dear John
I want a man who knows what love is all about you are generous kind thoughtful people who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior you have ruined me for other men I yearn for you I have no feelings whatsoever when we’re apart I can be forever happy will you let me be yours
Gloria
With Punctuation (Version 1)
Dear John,
I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we’re apart. I can be forever happy. Will you let me be yours?
Gloria
With Punctuation (Version 2)
Dear John,
I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men I yearn. For you I have no feelings whatsoever. When we’re apart I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?

Quadrants

There are two kind of people in the world: those who divide everything into quadrants and the people who aren’t consultants.

Do we all know a couple of guys in group D? I think we do. (thank you Pearls Before Swine). Everyone loves a, everyone strongly dislikes d.

 

Smart & Humble (a)	Smart & Arrogant (b)
Dumb & Humble ( c )	Dumb & Arrogant (d)

Paul Makes The Top 5

Behind a freewall: Reasons not to Annex Canada. Mine was “Curling and Hockey will deplete our precious national reserves of boredom.” Also, Kermit’s Commencement Address. My winner: “Graduated you have become.  No employment do I sense in you. Oh wait, that's from Yoda’s commencement address,” with the Yoda part struck out. My losers, which deserved to be on the list:
You miss every fly you don't stick your tongue out at.
Take the great leap. Don't worry about getting wet.... (OK, this one isn’t so good

Meme O’ The Week: Specifications

Whenever I think of specifications, I think of a probably apocryphal story I tell that I have been regaling engineers with for decades (never let the facts stand in the way of a good story).

When the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system was being built, they rejected everything railroad and embraced everything aerospace. Westinghouse won the bid for the signaling system, which tracked each train through a signal induced into the track. During testing, a train stopped and disappeared from the board. “If this were real, we’d run a train through there!” said Bart. “The specification didn’t include stopped trains,” Westinghouse said.

Who said that?

“The fundamental business of the country, that is the production and distribution of commodities, is on a sound and prosperous basis.”

Which member of what economic team said that? How recently? Was he right? Will this statement cause a market recovery?

Meme O’ Rama

In the end times, who doesn’t want a bunch more memes?

Cartoon Glass

Here is the original:

I couldn't find it for a while, so I asked an AI whiz (my nephew Paul) to recreate it. Here are the Large Language Model Efforts

 

Only a human could dream up the original concept, and execute it better than a machine that is little more than monkey-see / monkey do.