Notices by B Kahn (bkahn@beige.party)

There aren't enough shovels in the USA to deal with all the BS coming at us. We're drowning in crap-lies.

If we're spying on Greenland, then it seems fair to me if Greenland decides to start spying on the USA. And dead easy to do--just opt into Pete Hogwart's (oops, Hegseth's) Signal group and Bob's your uncle.

@bmacDonald94 That immediately made me think of "Holding his feet to the Colas," but I don't have a joke to go with it. Anyone?😇

@GreenSkyOverMe

Lying little shit is the perfect phrase--and it made me laugh which is always welcome in these perilous times. Thanks!

It has been many months since I tested anything on ChatGPT. But it occurred to me to ask if it could generate text containing all the phonemes of American English. So I asked, and it did. It offered to "spotlight" the vowels and consonants. I said yes. It listed examples.

Here's one sample:

/i/ – Eliot, heirs, shrill

For you non-linguists, this /i/ represents the 'long e' sound in "see". So using the the IPA (international phonetic alphabet) , the word "see" would be written /si/.

Hmm. 'Eliot' has that 'long e' sound. But 'heirs' doesn't, nor does 'shrill.'

Two wrong out of three? Can't recommend that to my students.

I checked some other parts and the error rate was about the same. As is often reported, it's faster to do it yourself than to correct the errors the bot makes. And for non-native speakers it's a potential nightmare. Oh well.

@br00t4c I would be quite pleased if Musk began devoting lots of time to Tesla and it continued its descent into oblivion. Not that he would acknowledge any responsibility, but everyone would know. Maybe as a final act of defiance he could suit up and blast himself into space in one of his ButtUglyTrucks. Mars or bust!

Imagine flushing your country down the toilet and then bragging about it.

Edit: get rid of "imagine".

😩

The bacteria are waiting us out. They have little meetings in quiet places and whisper, "Time is on our side."

@br00t4c Spine of steel, brain of rocks, guts for garters, yeah, yeah. Many pins short of a cushion. Many hoots short of an owl. Many vibrations short of a Hz. Many crumbs short of a cookie. Oops--gotta go. Please finish with your favorites.
😇

My mind is drifting.

Stonehenge as a neolithic prototype stone vehicle charging station.

The Pied Piper story mashed up with trump. Not sure why. He led all the rats into town, not away. And he's rewarding himself hand over fist.

Fortunately I'm about to teach English so I can stop myself before I go over the edge...

trump: "The Chinese aren't very smart, you know? It's easy for me to keep raising the tariffs on China--pretty soon they'll go bankrupt!"

china: "We have ancient terracotta warriors who are smarter than your president. We call him President Grocery Bag.😂 "

If there were a new pandemic and the fatality rate was 100% for unvaccinated people and 0% for vaccinated people, would the anti-vaxxers choose death or vaccination?

Nobody's counting, but I'll bet Cory Booker has produced more coherent meaningful statements in 24 hours than trump has gabbled out in his entire life.

I know--a low bar.

I'm surprised someone in the #signalgate chain hasn't tried to pretend that the messages were just their clever code and they were arranging a soirée or picnic or something. NOTHING to do with military stuff, no no no no no. Maybe they're all dating each other or placing bets on college basketball. Damn good code if you ask me! Certainly fooled that editor at the Atlantic.

trump et al are killing our schools, including the universities. They're kidnapping and deporting international students who will certainly take the hint and study in other countries. Whatever they might have contributed to the USA during or after their studies will now flourish in other places. Enrollments will tank, research will vanish, and the former 'envy of the world' will quickly become a place to avoid. With sufficient stupidity, even the USA can join the ranks of underdeveloped countries. From literacy rates to maternal mortality to measures of happiness, we're racing downhill like alpine skiers. (Yes, I know the snow is gone from the alps. See what I mean?)

Ah, I get it. They meant "strike" like when GM workers lay down their tools and stop work. They didn't mean "strike" like dropping high explosive missiles on neighborhoods. Nothing secret about stopping work. Move along, move along. Nothing to see here.

No promises, but if 1 in 5 Americans receive social security checks every month and those checks stop coming, tens of millions of Americans (and their children) are going to be royally pissed off. Or as the pres might write in his all caps style: ANGRY! FURIOUS! ENRAGED! Possibly moved to VIOLENT PROTESTS!

I know that our current leaders would be perfectly happy to lock up millions of seniors, but think of the optics! Not to mention the logistics! The 20 MILLION SENIOR MARCH on Washington, coming up soon.

Also robbing people of the money they saved for retirement over decades of work is ...robbery. Used to be against the law, no?

Quote borrowed from Laffy:

“ #RFKJr. has suggested allowing #BirdFlu to spread, so as to identify birds that may be immune."

=============================

...Two years later, the results are in!

Vet: "Mr RFKJr., we're down to eight birds in the continental USA. They appear to be immune to bird flu, sir!"

Bobby: "What kinds of birds?"

Vet: "A crow, two vultures, a white chicken, a non-white chicken, and three rotisserie chickens."

Bobby: "Guess we're done, then. The only one Elon will let us keep is the white chicken. All the others are banned by our DEI rules. Go ahead and send out a press release announcing that bird flu is no longer a danger in the USA."

Vet: "But Sir, it's spreading between humans!"

Bobby: "Flu that humans give to humans is human flu. I know you're a vet, but c'mon, man, pay attention!"

Vet: "What should I do with the white chicken?"

Bobby: "Leave it here. I haven't had lunch yet."

I have no qualifications to make this prediction but I predict that measles will continue to spread in the USA for at least the next 6 to 12 months, and if it turns into 6-12 years, that won't surprise me either.
C'mon people: ask the senior citizens like me what life was like before we got vaccines against polio, etc. Just ask your grandparents--we remember.

If you have some extra polar bear liver in your kitchen send some to RFK Jr. so he can protect himself against measles. One gram of polar bear liver contains enough Vitamin A to equal the amount that is toxic for a human, so please don't be stingy. Send him a nice half-pound steak at the very least. That's about 227 grams. Enjoy, Robert!