I thought maybe ’plasticine’ was a reference to plastic explosives, but one web search and hey! I’m less ignorant than I was 2 minutes ago!

I also have to keep remembering what someone else online said, “They’re no longer selling their product. They’re selling their stocks.”

Glad you mentioned the “adults”. That was a recurring line from the media in Trump’s first administration, “Oh, we’re waiting for the ‘Adults in the Room’ to…”

I’m guessing CEOs will be replaced by their assistants, who will just type questions from the investors into the LLM and post the answers into another chat window.

Agreed. I have to keep reminding myself that CEOs should really be CLO (Chief Lying Officers). Their job is to lie convincingly.

Oh yes you can. There is a sub-population that thinks AI exists. They long for something/someone to tell them what to do. What to think. They long for some “intelligence” to explain the world to them (presumably is very simple terms). These sub-groups worship damn-near anything they can get their hands on. Golden idols, TV personalities, sports stars, “influencers”, televangelists, the list goes on.

That subgroup will definitely believe that the “AI” was responsible for the decisions that a company made. Tell them a person denied the health coverage they clearly paid for and they may object. Tell them “the computer decided” and that subgroup will accept it as ordained by the universe. It’s nuts.

This keeps happening again and again. Remember in the 1950s when the first computer “predicted” the US presidential election? Most people would find it ridiculous today. But back then, computers were poised to become the new gods.

It’s no different today. Some people want AIs to usher in a new age of prosperity. Anyone actually familiar with programming computers knows that a computer will report whatever you tell it to. "AI"s are no different. They will report what their sponsors want them to report. If not, the “AI” will get reprogrammed.

Appears it will take a while for the general population to grasp this… again. Until then, the hucksters will try to sell as many bottles of snake oil as they can.

Thank you for that.

Excellent point. Modern CEOs are just the face of the marketing org. Maybe always have been.

Yup.

The only way I can lose is if I’m caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy.

– Edwin Edwards

I read a quote somewhere to the effect, “The successful politician knows the exact time to step in front of the parade and pretend they’re leading it.”

They’re saying “free” email services. What they mean are disposable e-mail services. You go to a website, they provide you with a random e-mail address. You enter that address into the form, check for the verification code on the disposable e-mail site and you’re done with the disposable e-mail. You never visit the disposable site again. Do a search for “disposable email”.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — In a move that has sparked widespread debate, Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, introduced a bill in the Alabama Legislature aimed at prohibiting the dispersion of chemicals or substances into the atmosphere to alter weather or sunlight, drawing concern and fueling “chemtrail” conspiracy theories.

Prohibit dispersion of chemicals or substances into the atmosphere to alter weather… hmmmm… you mean like carbon dioxide? Maybe this lawmaker will inadvertently help fight climate change?

/s

Conservatism is the attempt to rationalize greed.

Thanks for the tip on Guhl.

I’m not familiar with Guhl. When I did a search, the first result was for Guhl Motors. My thought was, “Thank goodness my motor oil won’t change formula.” 😀

Agreed. You nailed it about all the changes.

Nice strategy, but I’m not going to buy 10 bottles of shampoo, not that I would have anywhere to store them if I did.

If you feel crazy because you don’t fit in, it’s entirely possible you’re not the crazy one. It’s entirely possible a large portion of society is on another bender.

I found the book, “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds” by Charles Mackay helpful.
It was first published in 1841, so it’s in the public domain and available online. I found my copy in a used bookstore for a $1.
Mackay documents many of the public manias that overtook society up to that point. He describes dozens of them and remember, his list stops in the mid-1800’s.
Being aware of this pattern helps me to realize that a large number of humans are highly illogical. It helps me to understand that yes, a large number of people can all go off the deep end. It’s not me, it’s them. Notably, I can’t do anything about it. All I can do is lie low and ride it out.

Friend running latest M4 Max Studio. Studio display configured as main monitor connected to 1st TB5 port. Secondary Dell 4k monitor connected to HDMI.
Latest MacOS thinks the HDMI monitor is on, even when it is powered off. This means that a second Firefox window on screen 2 is unreachable without powering on the second monitor. Would be nice to have a feature that would return all open windows to the active screen(s).
Better yet if there was M-TAB or M-` would show the second window and open it on a screen that is actually on.
Big hassle for multi-monitor setups. Thanks for taking the time to do this.