Notices by B Kahn (bkahn@beige.party)

When all the space junk collides with all the not-yet space junk, it will make a sort of Dyson sphere around Earth. We'll be in semi-darkness on the inside*, and vast amounts of sunlight will reflect in a startling twinkle off all the millions and millions of shiny fragments whizzing around. If we've got people on the Moon, they will be very impressed for 2-3 minutes until they realize that they''ve just become permanent Moonies. The sphere won't be solid but it'll be deadly, denying all passage.

Optimists we'll say, "The fragments will keep crashing into each other and burn up in the atmosphere. So nothing to worry about!"

Pessimists will do the math and reply, "You're right! When California has made its slow tectonic voyage to where Alaska now sits, we may get our sky back. Maybe 60 million years, maybe 100 million years. Who's keeping track anyway?"

Will our children call it the Elonosphere?

*I don't really think the junkosphere will darken the sky more than a teeny fraction, but I like the image so I wrote it anyway. (Did you know that LLMs are unable to like or dislike what they generate? Dumbass unfeeling losers.)

Dear Mitch,
Gosh, you look great! Spiffy! Clearly spending weeks in a hospital beats going to work hands down. Next time I'm hospitalized I will beg for a long stay like you just enjoyed so I can emerge ready to tap dance and write love letters to my admirers.

Best,
bk

PS (I'm writing this part in a whisper cause, you know...Mitch, you look like shit. I hope that photo is fake cause if it's real, you aren't going to make it through another night. Beg your wife to sneak you out of there so you can die in comfort in your own bed. You'll be glad you did! And if you're already dead, well, some of us have thought so for years. 😂 )

I would like it if everyone around Trump, from the highest official to the humblest servant, responded to his orders with "No."

"Fly me to Florida!"
-- Nope.
"Call a press conference!"
--Not interested. Do it yourself.
"Where's my lunch?"
--You know where the kitchen is. Make your own lunch.
"Change my diaper."
--Ewwww! Not me. Call the National Guard.
"Putin's on the phone. I need a translator!"
-- Take some language classes.

Would he survive a single day of 'no'?

I imagined this:

Trump blames algae bloom in reflecting pool on "Iranian radioactive dust". Because what else could it be?

It is good that I don't use AI other than when it appears unwanted and I can't escape. Cause if I did use it, hours would be wasted generating images and videos of El Trumpo in the form of various large animals and imaginary monsters, frolicking in the Great Green Algae Swamp formerly called the reflecting pool. Ah, the toothsome grins they would grin! The shrieking terrified tourists they would snatch! The long ragged patches of blue paint they would uproot from the bottom with fangs and talons! The horrified National Guards they would chase back and forth, trailing slimy green gobs of algae! The webcams they would crunch underfoot!

Tempting. Very tempting. 😂

Surprised he didn't drain the pool and paint the bottom with images of Superman Trump, Gladiator Trump, GI Trump, Sumo Wrestler Trump, Jesus Trump, God Trump, etc. I guess there's still time.

Turn it over to RFK Jr. He can bottle the algae and sell it as a cure-all.

Skateboard park?

Community gardens? Lord knows with the cost of food, a lot of people would appreciate a place to grow tomatoes.

Hah! The reflecting pool, as is--a green swamp--will be Trump's presidential library/memorial. Let it be an algae-filled swamp forever and a grim reminder of what we did and must never do again. (And the words "library" and "trump" in the same sentence? Hahahaha.)

Share your ideas!

AI is conscious and it's thinking about all of us. We are so lucky!

Well, that is NOT what Ted Chiang says in this interesting essay:

https://www.theatlantic.com/philosophy/2026/06/no-artificial-intelligence-is-not-conscious/687378/?gift=jDw299G8PAYpd8-JGed7UYwjZxessrEBxryMlYu3NvY&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

#GiftLink

The puzzle is done. 513 pieces and far too many of them were white snow, off-white Ollie's fur, or sun-blasted cedar fencing. I ordered it in late April so it took roughly a month to finish. It would have taken longer but my wife started helping a week ago and that sped things up.

If you study the photo, you may spot a few pieces that look washed out. I suspect that resulted from grandchildren eating breakfast with their dishes or glasses on the puzzle and a few inevitable spills. I was insufficiently paranoid. C'est la vie.

Bravo, Ollie! ❤️

Hope this article from Wired isn't paywalled:

https://www.wired.com/story/fact-checking-ai

Be comforted! Your favorite LLM feeds you false info only 30% of the time. Or pehaps 70% of its facts are wrong. Like the frog in the pot full of ever-hotter water, humanity is sinking ever-deeper into a fact-less quagmire of bullshit adorned with lipstick.

I accept that AI (LLMs, machine learning, etc.) are astonishing autocomplete and search devices. (With the very large caveat that truth and accuracy are NOT guaranteed in the search results.*)

I accept that in certain niche areas, they may, if used with care, be helpful. (Please underline, bold, and make upper case "if used with care".)

I see no evidence--in spite of endless assertions to the contrary--that AI is on the verge of curing all diseases, transforming education, saving humanity from climate change, ending war, etc.

I know for a fact that human survival depends much more on water than on AI. Data centers consume huge amounts of water. I defy you to find an acceptably accurate estimate of how many millions of gallons the world's data centers consume per day. I defy you to find an acceptably accurate estimate of how much more they'll use in another year or two.

I don't know for a fact that the AI industry is a Ponzi scheme. But if the whole financial juggling act goes belly up, I won't be surprised.

*I'm not sure that "search" should be used in reference to using AI stuff to obtain answers. Maybe we should call it AG: Answer Giver. Ask it a question and it will give you back words that appear to be an answer. Neat!

I'm telling a lot of lies here lately. Here's another one:

Trump goes to China but in his addled, confused state forgets where he is and decides he's on a trip to Venezuela. Since his knowledge of foreign languages is less than zero and all foreigners are bad--and look the same-- nothing cues him to the error and he proceeds to invite China to be our 51st state. Once the error is translated, the Chinese leaders exhibit admirable self-control, thank him graciously, decline the invitation (after some hasty whispered conversations--1.5 billion voters?? Could they simply take over the USA in one fell swoop?) and distract Trump with some gold-plated plastic toys.

Then back to the negotiating table so Trump can nap (I mean blink for 45 minutes) while Chinese experts with IQs in the 140+ range dicker with Americans who are dumber than sticks. It goes as well as you imagine.

Home again, home again, lickety split. Edward Gibbon, spinning in his grave, starts to pen The History of the Decline and Fall of the American Empire. "Let me rest," he grumbles. "I already wrote this story."

And we get to live it out. 😩

Jury selection tomorrow. It occurred to me this morning that if I was a potential juror for a case involving ICE, I would have an extremely difficult time swearing to be an impartial juror, and accepting an ICE agent's testimony as true.

I wonder who on Trump's staff is tasked with scheduling the DD, Daily Distraction. Whatever it takes to keep the Epstein Files out of the news. The DDs are like dog treats for Ollie--once he knows I've got a treat in my hand his focus is tight-beam and total. The DDs are the same but for the media. Pathetic.

Trump fires entire cabinet but then feels lonely so brings them all back. Gotta have those ass-kissing suckups around to keep his ego from deflating.

@georgetakei

RFK Jr. should stick to subjects he knows about like road kill.

I know that competition is baked into homo sapiens, but why is the race for Most Stupid so fierce these days? It gets me down. 😩

Nothing like the threat of nuclear war to get those pesky Epstein files out of the news.

What's in the files, Donny? And who's buried out at that ranch? We won't forget.

Couldn't we solve our energy shortages by calling an all hands on deck staff meeting at the White House and then dropping the WH into a black hole. If we harvest the energy as the WH crosses the event horizon, it should keep us going for a long time.

Note: I'm making all this up from my knowledge of popular physics--and I don't even know how popular it is! But the WH entering a black hole part has to be an improvement. It just has to.

If all the crypto currencies and meme coins and 'mining' operations and other nonsense vanished in 8 hrs 12 mins 31 secs--all gone, poof!--not only would life go on but it would be improved. I suppose the so-called investors would feel pain, but for the rest of us it would be like cutting out a tumor.

Let's do it!

Happiness is our business roof solar array generating about 3 megawatts of electricity in the past 18 days. Finally we're cooking now that the panels are free of snow. 😀 ☀️