The LeopardsAteMyFace subreddit has really picked up since the race was called. I'd imagine it's going to be an excellent source of schadenfreude over the next 4 years.
Read more about it here: https://methodshop.com/what-is-the-origin-of-leopards-ate-my-face/
@ShiroKuro said in What do I do with this?:
And anyone who's brain isn't made of rocks will see that my analysis is very critical (but again, not re politics)....
The "brain isn't made of rocks" part here is key. Did you hear that google searches for "Did Joe Biden drop out" and "Is Joe Biden running" skyrocketed..... ON ELECTION DAY? And that in the past few days, one of the top searches on Google has been "What are tariffs and who pays them?" In other words, the intellectual ability of the average American honestly seems to be about the same as the average rock.
I do think getting the opinion of your department chair would be good, but I like the idea of calling them JP and AP - you aren't calling anyone out and your article isn't even overtly critical. Like Pique said about the KKK article, Trump supporters may even like that you are showing how "tough" and "manly" his rhetoric is and it wouldn't surprise me if Trump himself was flattered that someone wrote an academic article about him, especially if it's comparing him to another hardline politician that he admires.
Also, I don't think that not naming names would make you look like a coward --- you'd look "discreet" and like you didn't want to embarrass the subjects of your research (aren't most research subjects anonymous anyway?) And if the journal really asks you to name names, you could -- like I said, I don't think there's anyone in his base who's avidly flipping through academic journals anyway. Just my 2 cents - and I'm very sorry you have to deal with this.
I actually think it would be really interesting. I would think about submitting it without naming names - people can (and most likely will) draw their own conclusions but you wouldn't be outright criticizing anyone. Furthermore, I doubt there's a whole lot of rabid Trump supporters reading linguistic analysis academic journals. And who knows -- the orange one's ego is so large that he might be flattered to be the subject of someone's research and think that he comes off looking "terrific, just terrific, many people say I give the best speeches, college professors are even writing articles about my speeches......"
Disclaimer: Ty did something similar for a college class, feeding Trump's vs Obama's SOTU speeches into some kind of AI analyzer thing and analyzing the frequency and tone of words used, and it was honestly fascinating how different they were. And when I taught freshman composition many years ago at tOSU, I'd VCR the SOTU speech, play it in class, and we'd all analyze it together looking for the different rhetorical techiques that I was teaching them about. So maybe I just have a thing for linguistic analysis of political speeches, which case, my opinion is clearly biased LOL.
@pique said in Reports from the heartland:
When I look at who bankrolled Trump I have to wonder if we aren't actually seeing some form of election interference we aren't familiar with.
I do find it astounding that there were something like 18 million fewer votes cast this election than in 2020 -- 3 mill fewer for the Rs, and 15 mill fewer for the Dems. This does not jibe with reports I've been hearing about lines at polling places nor with my own experience yesterday, where I was voter #401 at 9:30 am at a polling place that is lucky to see 400 voters for an entire election day.
You cannot tell me that, knowing what was at stake, 15 million Dems just decided they were going to sit this one out. No freaking way. I would not be suprirsed if Russia or some other power is manipulating the totals somehow. I think that's the reason Elon was so very positively sure that Trump was going to win that he swore he would give away his entire fortune if he lost. And if that's the case, our elections are well and truly screwed forever.
It's not even like I'm canceling to stick it to Jeff (like I said, I don't think my $29/year is gonna make a difference - he probably makes more than that every millisecond just by existing).
I'm canceling because I'm paying for trustworthy reporting and I don't think they are delivering that anymore. When a newspaper can't do it's one and only job, it's time to find a better newspaper.
Mik - everyone who voted for Biden implicitly also voted for Harris last time. If Biden kicked the bucket tomorrow, she'd be president as the result of that vote. I'm a Dem and I'm not offended at not having had the chance to vote for my party's candidate in the primary - heck, by the time PA gets around to holding their primary election, the candidate has already been chosen anyway, so I never get a say in the presidential primary ever - it's no different this time. But for what it's worth, I would have had no issue voting for her - I've been way unhappier with the folks chosen for me by Iowa, NH, and SC in the past........
Oh and I did cancel my WaPo sub on Saturday. I always talked them down to a $29 rate for the year so I doubt they'll miss me much, but screw them. "Democracy dies in darkness" my ass.
Oh SK I didn't answer your question. Yes Carshop (at least the one I used) has a garage where they do their own maintenance. One of the cars I was looking at had a chip in the windshield and they were going to replace it for me if I bought that one. And I ended up negotiating a brake fluid flush and change on the car I bought because it was overdue for one according to the carfax and manufacturer service schedule. I could take it back there if anything went wrong under their warranty period or I could take it to the dealer since it still has a few months of dealer warranty as well. And they do regular maintenance stuff too, but we already have a regular mechanic so I won't be taking it to carshop for any of that. But it's available if I needed it.
We have done this too (the email/online shopping), for the rare occasion where we purchased new (maybe 2 or 3 of our cars since we've been married). But even when you get to the bottom line price, I've found the finance office plays games with all sorts of stupid add-ons. You have to watch them like a hawk. And that goes for the certified used purchases we made (which are harder to shop between dealers because they're used, so not really comparable between dealers.)
Carshop was the first car buying experience ever, of my entire life, where I didn't feel like the paperwork process was one long pickpocketing session where I had to keep my guard up the whole time repeatedly saying no to all the shady stuff they were trying to pull. I just signed the paperwork, paid the price they originally said I would pay, and left in my new-to-me car -- it took like 15 minutes. So refreshing!
I have never actually leased but my impression is that leasing is good for people who want to have a newer, safer, under-factory-warranty car forever. They are willing to make a monthly payment forever in exchange for never having to worry about out of pocket repairs and being able to get something new every few years. You typically have the option to buy out the lease at the end of the lease period if you really like the car -- a lot of car leases have a buyout value listed. But you also need to make sure you stay under the limit for mileage and don't have any unusual wear and tear -- if the car comes back in worse condition than they are expecting at the end of the lease, you could end up having to pay them a lump sum when turning in the car to make up for the extra mileage or small dents or whatever the dealer decides is wrong.
All our cars for the past 20 years or so were purchased outright as recent model used -- mostly from the dealer as a preowned certified. But my current car we bought at CarShop and I was really pleasantly surprised by the experience there. They have loads of newer models, most of which they get from auctions of vehicles that were turned in at the end of leases. They are well taken care of (because again, leasing means you have to turn the car back in in good condition), they give you the carfax to verify service and accident history, and they had a great selection of vehicles including all makes and sizes/styles. Pricing is clearly listed and is no haggle but didn't really seem to be any higher than the dealers were offering AFTER haggling and Carshop offers their own warranty on top of whatever is left of the manufacturer's warranty. They were also not at all hard-sell with any of the extended warranties or whatever that you usually go through in a dealership finance office -- they offered an extended warranty, gave me the price, I said no, and they said cool and off we went with the rest of the paperwork. WAY fewer games than I've experienced at manufacturer dealerships. And Carshop gives you like a week to return the car if you buy it and realize you hate it. If you're going to buy, I'd recommend at least taking a look at the places like that - Carshop, Carvana, Carmax, etc. I was very pleased with the whole experience and wouldn't hesitate to use them again.
Many people are saying that she and Trump are a thing now. All the best people are saying she spends nights at Mar a Lago now while Melania is nowhere to be found. They say there are tremendous numbers of photos of them looking pretty cozy.
Seriously, that is what people are saying.
Gross as it may be to contemplate, I guess he is a little overdue for Wife #4. !
I have also decided that my new line is "I have a concept of a plan" -- it's incredibly versatile..... "I have a concept of cleaning my house. I have a concept of cooking dinner. I have a concept of doing laundry." Even better when said while sitting on the sofa eating doritos and binging netflix.
The latest consipiracy theory is that Kamala's earrings were actually audio transmitters and she was being coached through the whole thing. They all think she did too well to have done it on her own. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/what-are-nova-h1-audio-earrings-kamala-harris-conspiracy-spreads-online/ar-AA1qnKfF
https://www.wired.com/story/trump-harris-debate-conspiracy-microphone-earrings/
Who buys their 14 year old ---- any 14 year old, let alone one who has already been questioned by the cops for making school shooting threats ---- an AR-15 for CHRISTMAS??????
I hope the dad rots in jail for the rest of his life.
Not sure about the kid - at 14, his brain is not fully developed, which is the reason there's a "child" category for criminal charges in the first place. On the other hand, 4 people are dead, the kid is clearly disturbed, and can he really be rehabilitated? Charging him as a child means he's probably out of jail by the time he's 21 -- and then what?
I wouldn't think you'd need to do a whole lot of watering in October either - you're in the midwest, not the south and things should be turning toward chilly and rainy by mid October. But I think early November would also be fine - the plants will basically go dormant quickly after planting and then come back in the spring. Many years ago, I found an awesome end of year clearance deal at Lowes on my favorite lilacs (Bloomerang). It was definitely into November (might have even been early December) and they were 90% off and then like half off of that again, meaning the $50 pots were somewhere around $2. I bought every single one they had (something like 14 plants), took them home, and planted them immediately -- I figured they were so cheap that if they didn't make it, so what. They all came back in spring, though I think one died by the end of that summer. Even with having to replace that one plant at full price, it was some of the best money I ever spent on landscaping. And if you are using a landscaping company, I would just ask them to guarantee that if any of them don't come back in spring, they'll replace them for you for free. Usually a year after planting is a pretty standard guarantee for a landscaping company and if they won't offer it, I'd find another company.
OMG!
https://collecttrumpcards.com/
Guess he figures he'd better squeeze all the money he can out of his supporters now.......
I never used Finale but I used to use Sibelius a lot for the marching band. It was fine, but had some quirks that drove me crazy and the licensing situation was super annoying (there was no way to just buy the software - you had to pay forever to subscribe to it and the licensing software would periodically randomly decide you didn't pay and kick you out -- sometimes for weeks at a time til you got it straightened out. It's so bad.....so bad that I'm in the market for a new DAW and I refuse to even consider ProTools (another Avid product) because of the awful experience I had with Avid's sibelius licensing.
Now that I'm not doing band, I couldn't justify paying $99/year for Sibelius, so I switched to Musescore - it's free and open source-ish. Over the last few years, they've put some money into upgrading it so while it is still free, it is a lot better than it used to be.....don't know if their ultimate plan is to charge for it or not, but for now there's no charge and it seems to do everything I needed to do with sibelius (and actually seems to crash a lot less often than sibelius did). All the notation software programs seem to have their quirks so I figure it's either pay $$$$ to slog my way through learning something new or learn something new that doesn't cost money right now, so I went with option B.
AI is only going to be as good as the information fed to it to train it. I would be inclined to say yes, both because it means more money for you and it means an AI that has the knowledge you shared with it via your book.
LL#2 is training an AI sports model right now as part of his job. Actually he's QA'ing the training it already has, meaning he asks it questions and sees if it gets them right. He is easily able to tell when the training data it was given isn't adequate and in some cases, identify exactly what it was given to make it respond in a certain way. He shared a funny example yesterday -- the question he asked was "Who were the best major league baseball pitchers who never pitched a no hitter" and its answer was something like "Although Nolan Ryan pitched 16 no hitters in his career, he never threw one with the Mets" -- his question didn't ask about the Mets at all and he was loooking for pitchers who never threw a no hitter at all so that was a totally wrong response. He knows it was trained on a set of articles owned by the company he works for so he looked through the article set and found one called something like "The best pitchers who never no-hitted with the Mets" - that's where the AI got the response from but it clearly didn't have the ability to answer the much more basic question he actually asked.
Ethical questions about whether AI will kill us all someday aside (if it's any consolation, LL#2 has decided AI is actually pretty dumb at this point and we are in no immediate danger, LOL!), I think we should use the best info we can find to train these AI models because at some point, using AI will be just like using google....and if you want accurate information out of it, you will have to put the best info into it. Of course, that means that someday maybe no one will need to buy your book, but I guess the same could be said for google now -- almost anything you'd want to know you can find on the internet somewhere -- and people still buy books so I dunno. That's above my pay grade!
Just my 2 cents.....good luck with your decision!
@wtg We have the same manual transfer switch setup - we got it after Hurricane Sandy left us without power for 11 (yes 11!) days. It has come in handy - although most power outages are too short to even bother dragging it out of the garage we've hooked it up for a few 1-3 day outages and once for an 8 day outage after a freak windstorm/tornado thing hit our area in 2019 and took out every power line within a 3 mile radius of our house We learned during that outage that if we are careful and don't turn on too many things at once, we can even run the coffee maker, the microwave, or a hair straightener (oh yeah, did I mention LL#1's SENIOR PROM was in the middle of that outage???!!!)
Anyway, is your generator on wheels? If not, might i suggest you simply store it in something like a wheeled garden cart to make it easier to move around? We just roll ours from our detatched garage over to the transfer switch, plug it in, and turn it on. We bought a dual-fuel model from Costco so it runs on either gasoline or grill-sized propane tanks and we've only ever used the propane - it doesn't gunk up the engine like gasoline does so we don't have issues with gunked up carburators and whatnot that we get with the gas-powered snowblower. We keep like 5 or 6 propane tanks in the garage and one lasts us about 8 hours powering the whole house. (Obviously, we do try to baby it a bit - we can't run the A/C or the oven, but it handles both our refrigerators, our hot water heater, the well and septic pumps, etc.