WTF-Beta

So, the agent ‘knew’ it was in the wrong.

The agent was oblivious--as they always are--until it was questioned. So no, I would not say it knew anything.

@Jodi Nor I. The nearest Trader Joe's is an hour away by car.

Belated Birthday greetings, Jodi! Many happy returns of the day.

@Daniel Actually, I don't think it's all dumb. I think calling it intelligence is dumb, and insulting to mankind. But the problem is the way AI is being developed and enveloping society by a handful of tech corporations, some of whom are showing clear signs of fascism. Congress should do its duty and put the brakes on AI until a clear understanding of its damaging effects is better understood. What negative side effects will AI bring? What danger will it pose to the safety of citizens? How can it be controlled by other than the profit seeking sector? The power in this country belongs to the people, not corporations who will do anything for power and money.

@jon-nyc Yes, Mills vetoed it yesterday. It could be that the TPM piece was written before then. She isn't gaining any good will with her veto. https://mainemorningstar.com/2026/04/24/gov-mills-vetoes-landmark-data-center-ban/

From TPM.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/the-weekender/saved-pete-hegseth-gives-the-pope-leeway-to-do-his-thing

The Backlash Against AI Is Breaking Containment

“It’s our home, and once we give it up, we won’t get it back,” a south Florida resident said at a recent town hall meeting opposing the construction of a proposed data center.

The resident was talking specifically about the proposed Okee-One data center in Okeechobee, which is slated to be built near waterways connected to the Everglades and other environmentally sensitive sites. But the comment could be a slogan for the broader, accelerating anti-AI movement. A growing number of Americans are refusing to invite a technology that could be irreversibly destructive into our communities and government.

Brian Merchant, an indispensable voice on all things AI, has chronicled the mounting backlash against AI in his Blood in the Machine newsletter. In just the past weeks, Merchant notes, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s San Francisco mansion was hit by a molotov cocktail and gunfire in two separate instances; a councilman in Indianapolis said someone fired bullets at his home and left a note reading “No Data Centers”; Maine became the first state to ban the construction of new data centers and Monterey Park, California became the first California city to do the same.

“If you take at face value what the AI executives themselves have been saying for the last decade, that an AI powerful enough to make humans go extinct is nascent, then acting with force to stop it would be a rational action,” Merchant explains.

For months, the humming opposition to the technology has grown louder, cutting across partisan, regional and professional lines. Locals have staged protests against data centers from the Southwest to Northeast, in rural and urban areas alike. Journalists at ProPublica walked off the job in a one-day strike, partly because they want a say in how the company adopts AI. People are pissed about AI contributing to their soaring energy costs, taking their jobs, harming the environment, spreading misinformation, increasing surveillance, making us all dumber — you name it. A once abstract debate about how the technology could impact our lives has become very tangible, showing up in people’s literal backyards, and they’re not happy about it.

Those responsible for ushering in our new AI era don’t seem to grasp this, though. That was evidenced in a much-derided X thread recently put out by Palantir, the intelligence and defense software firm that has multibillion-dollar contracts with the U.S. Army, DHS, ICE, the Defense Department, and other federal agencies. The thread summarizes CEO Alex Karp’s book “The Technological Republic,” which calls for resisting “a vacant and hollow pluralism” and encourages the development of AI weapons, among other points. Critics disparaged his worldview, in which a small group of elites wield great military and economic power with little accountability, as “technofascism.”

For most of us, this isn’t a vision of the future that appeals.

— Allegra Kirkland

A few more that didn't make it, and the one that won... (starts at 16:03 in case it doesn't start there)

Yawn. Surprised? Not in the least. I remember the first time a computer beat a world chess champion (it wasn't that long ago). Impressed? No. The NY Post headline reads, "Ping-pong robot stuns world..." Yeah, I don't think so.

@Mark said:

not too bad.

I'll say! That was beautiful, Mark. Very nice.

The MSM just doesn't have the credibility or legitamacy it did in the past.

No, they don't. Nor does Tucker Carlson, he has spread as much disinformation and hate as anyone on the far right. I don't know about Candace Owens.

The idea is to swap out a group of powered devices all at once — hence the nickname — turning some things off and replacing them with lower-power alternatives to keep the spacecraft warm enough to continue gathering science data.

"... replacing them with lower-power alternatives...." Sounds odd to talk of replacing equipment on a machine that's 15 billion miles away. They must be alternatives that were built in to the original build?

We need more more more of this...

Sen. Jon Ossoff, yesterday at his Georgia reelection rally...

“I don’t know if you saw, but JD Vance was in Georgia this week. Don’t worry – no one showed up. The stadium was empty. But JD came to UGA to attack the pope two days after Trump depicted himself as Jesus Christ.

“Did you hear what the president said two weeks ago? Quote: ‘It’s not possible,’ the president said, ‘for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid or Medicare.’

“He said, ‘We can only afford to fund war.’ Because draft-dodging Donald loves sending other people’s children to war. Instead? A war no one voted for and no one can explain. And the daily, the hourly lying to the American public about why we’re at war, whether we’ve won, what’s been agreed to, not to mention the insane genocidal threat.

“On day 10 of the war, the president said, quote: ‘The war is very complete.’ That was day 10. Then, day 11: ‘Going to be finished pretty quickly.’ Day 12: ‘We won.’ Day 21: ‘Getting very close.’ Day 32: ‘Leaving very soon.’ Day 40: ‘Total and complete victory.’ Yesterday, day 49, Trump said Iran had opened the strait – except this morning the strait was closed, and it looks like Iran hit a cargo ship.

“Donald Trump depicted himself as Jesus Christ. The faithless president depicts himself as Christ while he plunges the nation into wars of choice, while he and his family rake in billions from foreign princes, while he plunders our healthcare to cut taxes for the rich.”

“Meanwhile, rent, power, groceries and healthcare have all hit all-time highs this year. While you pay more for everything, the first family’s wealth is growing by billions of dollars – because they’re crooks, and everybody knows it.”

“How much do you guys know about Jared Kushner, Ivanka’s husband? He’s on the Saudi payroll for $2 billion, did you know that? And now he’s leading American diplomacy in the Middle East, apparently, while at the very same time asking princes and sheikhs across the Arab world to give him billions more.”

“Can you imagine, like a normal, sitting US ambassador just hitting up Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman for billions of dollars? But he’s a Trump, a royal, a princeling. The rules are for us, not for them. And it’s not just Jared getting in on the action.

“Never before have we seen so little effort to hide so much corruption. The Mar-a-Lago mafia has taken American corruption to spectacular new heights.”

@ShiroKuro said:

Have you tried recording yourself and listening to the story you’re telling, or trying to find the story you should be telling, but aren’t?

Wouldn't you know! Some time after I posted yesterday, I went into the kitchen and was humming the piece. My humming became a bit more vocal and it just gravitated towards wanting to be an operatic tenor singing a serenade! I think that's the germ I need for this piece. An aria! Chopin loved bel canto opera.

I'm now on the 3rd and final op post Nocturne by Chopin in class: Nocturne No. 21 in C Minor, KK IVb/8.

It's a challenge because it's very repetitive, the first half page is almost all I chord alternating with V7. I can't find the climax of the piece--I'm not even sure there is one! It's almost a meditative piece. In this regard, it's just as hard as any of the others, but in a different way.

@ShiroKuro From watching the videos, it doesn't look like she has really large hands, but not small either.

Yeah, you definitely would not want to hold tension in your hand for the duration of the arpeggios.

Pretty piece of music. Very nicely played, I thought.

I will need to see if there is something similar around here. I plan to live here till the end--hopefully. But being alone with birds that need daily care, I want to ensure someone(s) are alerted if something goes awry.

I listened to her Mozart d minor fantasy and was surprised by the interpretation. But I like it quite a lot; I think it's very convincing.

We had a thunder storm pass through last night... it's only April! But it did, indeed, smell so calming and reassuring.

I would not exclude Yamaha from your search. I've been told humidity is an issue in much of Japan, and that Yamaha considers humidity when building their pianos (maybe all piano manufacturers do, I don't know).