“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”- Albert Einstein

Images Of The Future

Y'all military types might wanna go ahead and watch this.  There will come a time in the not too distant future where this is more relevant than you imagine.

https://youtu.be/4cc1pPmHY_M?si=5SBkIHNMvwo1ossQ 

Caveman Computer

 I have taught a few folk to shoot over the years.  Generally I will show them the various parts of the weapon, show them the ammo and explain how it all works.  Then I might shoot it a time or two to let them get accustomed to the noise and see, if applicable, the kick.

Overall, I do not want them surprised by the weapon in operation. I want them to know with reasonable assurance what should happen and in what order.  I want them to know when/if something has gone wrong and they need to alert me or someone else with greater knowledge than they.

I want them to understand the weapon before they attempt to use or operate the weapon.  Nothing about about how I taught those folk was remarkable.  Few, if any, weapons specialists in the world would suggest that you use weapons you do not understand.  Imagine you are a WWII bomber pilot early in the war.  You could have dropped thousand pounds bombs from a low level bombing run and been perfectly fine.  If you tried that same procedure with the same distances but you dropped a nuke instead, you just made your last screwup.  You used a weapon you did not understand.

That is the attitude I bring to the table with my support for Anthropic and their reluctance to give Piss Drunk Pete their trust and permission to use Claude AI however they wish.  I rather doubt Kegseth understands the AI any better than I do.  For now, it needs moral human supervision and morality is in short supply with this (mis)administration.

If you were to hand a caveman a machine gun, what do you think would happen?  We may not have to wait very long for a demonstration.

Death To Irony!!!

Irony has been dying the death of a trillion cuts for quite some time now. The frequency of cuts has accelerated over the last, say, year+ but the diagnosis hasn't changed in waaaaaaaaay longer. Why do I mention it? Oh, no reason really.

Congress has not renamed the Dept of Defense. As such, anyone claiming to adhere to the law while using the phrasing "Department of War" is lying and should be trusted like a poison ivy salad with an arsenic dressing.

The Things Change More ...

 Consider this: https://newatlas.com/military/liberty-class-autonomous-naval-ship-production/

Now, think about designing in solar panels, small wind turbines, and even wave power and suddenly you have a loitering sensor array with the potential for weaponization.  They could build and launch thousands of the things.  Schedule them for maintenance once a year (scrape the hull, paint, assess the internals etc etc)

Essentially this could be an element of the surface version of the "Loyal Wingman" program for the skies.  I would probably suggest that each vessel carry a habitat on the deck  for a few humans so that the vessels can be used in search and rescue ops.  I suppose they might as well include a container with ~20 launch able UAVs.

With no crew, the design elements that make Navy ships (barely) suitable for human habitation are largely gone.  No galley or mess decks, minimal or no water desalination or purification, HVAC sufficient to maintain operating range temps for the sensors and weapons systems, no berthing spaces.

Waaaaaaaay less expensive to build.  Waaaaaaay less expensive to crew (what with their being no crew and all).  No breaks for anything except maintenance and/or repair.  Seems like we should have had this already.

No Prize For The Lies

I can think of no end of groups or organizations that I would hate to have my name positively associated with.  If one (or more) of those groups or organizations decided I was worthy of an award from them, I would most likely decline it.  (I admit that as a poor person, awards that included significant funds would be a LOT more difficult to turn down.)  If the group or organization or even an individual is not something or someone I can respect, then most any award or commendation they might offer will be unworthy of my respect as well.

I doubt I would be considered different in that attitude I describe above.  Most of the folk I routinely interact with could believably make a similar, if not identical, claim. I mean, imagine you were notified that the group NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association) wanted to make you their Person Of The Year.  Most folks I know would immediately seek to distance themselves from the group and any activities or statements that could have justifies the award.

Again, that is not a particularly unique identifier for anyone I can think of.  "We" like awards from those we respect and value.  We see it all over.  Actors are ecstatic to get an Academy Award (aka Oscar).  Singers and song writers love their industry - the Recording Academy of the United States presents them with a Grammy.  While an actor might well accept and be grateful for a performance award from the Society of Mississippi Duck Hunters, and while Dale Earnhart Jr might not turn down a superior engineering award from the Rural Michigan Competitive Quilters, as a general rule the awards mean more to us when the award(s) come from subject matter experts and perhaps the most when it is our peers who recognize our particular accomplishments.  I will go out on a limb here and assume that in general, you agree with what I have said so far.  You could go ahead and make similar claims without worry of significant argument from me.

Of all the prizes that a given current day human might be awarded, the Nobel Prizes are among the most desirable.  Now, I experience no reluctance in acknowledging that the Nobel Foundation is made up of humans who, like every other human I know of, are imperfect.  For a given Nobel Prize, I might disagree with the Foundation about who deserves it the most (I am in no danger of having significant opinion on several of the prizes due to my relative ignorance in those fields but where I do know stuff, I opine) but, generally speaking, I agree that the decision to include those who win (as well as several who do not) was well considered and well made.  They have been at it for a while and the Nobel Foundation gets it reasonable if not right, the majority of the time. 

Felon47 is enamored with the prizes awarded by the Nobel Foundation.  I doubt I have shocked anyone with that revelation.  He absolutely begged for the Peace Prize.  He has bombastically bitched about journalists he didn't approve of getting the award.  He has claimed that one of his relatives was a genius who won a Nobel.  Through his actions and his words, he establishes that he considers the Nobel Prizes to be prestigious and highly desirable.

Again, none of what I have said so far should be the least bit controversial.  However, I have been not been able to find a significant connection to the Felon for several of prizes or the fields for which they are given.  In those cases, if I want to discuss them, I must extrapolate.  I have to look at how desirable he appears to perceive awards from the Nobel Foundation to be.  

One of the fields/prizes that Felon47 maintains a quieter relationship with is economics.  However, given his attitude towards the Nobel Prizes that he has mentioned, it is totally reasonable to conclude that he sees the Nobel in Economics as a big damn deal.  I am willing to listen to argument but, fair warning, I can read, I speak English, I have access to the interwebs.  I will add that I have been paying attention since well before he first disgraced the White House with his complete lack of class.  You're gonna need a pretty solid argument.

When Felon47 first started talking his tariff idiocy, several economists who were well known, at least within their field, made statements that directly contradicted the claims he was putting forth.  As it became increasingly clear that the Felon generally only listened to those who said what he wanted to hear, various efforts to gain his attention were made.  One method that would have worked with a sane person was the enlisting of previous Nobel Laureates in Economics to offer their expertise in analyzing his claims/plans.  They planned them.

Trump knows his claims about the tariffs and the rest of the economy are lies.  He knows because multiple award winning economists have told him.  Not all of those economists have won Nobels but some of them had.  Others were possessed of different awards and accomplishments.  They all pointed out the flaws in his claims and plans.  He ignored those experts.  Wait, that probably isn't fair.  He did not ignore the experts.  He denigrated them.  He insulted them.  He maligned them.  He accused them of partisanship.  He did however, ignore their counsel.

Felon47 lies to your face because he can.  He knows better and he knows that me and my ilk know better.  He doesn't care.  He doesn't because there are enough citizens who are apathetic, star struck, stupid, or just willing to endure their own pain as long as a minority or liberal is hurt worse, to gum up the works and ensure he gets away with it long enough to be owed favors by those who are getting even richer by his dismantling of our nation.  But let me reiterate, he knows he is lying.  He knows that because those possessed of an award that he lusts after like it was named Ivanka have told him.  The results of his policies are turning up and they are proving the Nobel Laureates right.  He doesn't care.  He doesn't because he doesn't have to.  He will continue to not care until you force him to.

LoUC

 The Law of Unintended Consequences is HILARIOUS when it is affecting other people.  When I am the target of prosecution, it seems unnecessarily harsh.  Either way, it is a lovely device for teaching how much the Universe actually gives a shit about your intentions, desires or wishes.

Whether it is being used against you (or me) or, it is to your unplanned benefit, it behooves all of us to be able to identify the LoUC whenever we see it.  As I am nothing if not helpful, here is the finest example of the LoUC in quite some time.  

(note: Sardonic smirks and/or outright laughter are among the valid responses.)

https://youtu.be/oiTJ7Pz_59A?si=f6fOqg2R28FDTYss