I’ve thought a lot about this over the last few years, and have decided there’s one critical distinction: Understanding.

When we combine knowledge to come to a conclusion, we understand (or even misunderstand) that knowledge we’re using. We understand the meaning of our conclusion.

LLMs don’t understand. They programmatically and statistically combine data - not knowledge - to come up with a likely outcome. They are non-deterministic auto-complete bots, and that is ALL they are. There is no intelligence, and the current LLM framework will never lead to actual intelligence.

They’re parlour tricks at this point, nothing more.

In other words, “fancy auto-complete.”

None in isolation.

CBC is a pretty reliable go-to although they’re more than a bit pandering these days. BBC is similar. Al Jazeera is pretty reliable for things not related to Islam and Palestine in particular (although they’re not as biased as they could be). AP is fairly neutral. Aside from that, it’s non-legacy Canadian sources like the Walrus and the Tyee, which all have their problems but are good at exposing reality.

There is actually a hell of a lot of evidence he did.

You can read a capsule summary with references on Wikipedia, but it is accepted fact among historians - not just religious scholars - that Jesus of Nazareth was born in Judea under King Herod, was baptised by John the Baptist, and was cruxified under the orders of Pontius Pilate.

Here’s a fun excerpt: “There are at least fourteen independent sources for the historicity of Jesus from multiple authors within a century of the crucifixion of Jesus such as the letters of Paul (contemporary of Jesus who personally knew eyewitnesses), the gospels, and non-Christian sources such as Josephus (Jewish historian and commander in Galilee) and Tacitus (Roman historian and Senator).”

I’m an atheist, but a historical Jesus almost certainly did exist.

I absolutely love Star Wars - I saw the first movie four times in the theatre back in 1977/78 as a kid.

But let’s be clear: Star Wars is “cowboys and indians in space.” (Yes, that’s a dated and culturally inappropriate comparison - it is also perfectly appropriate for the era.)

Technology has never played a significant part in it - light sabres are magic swords, FTL travel is a well-worn convenient trope that ‘just happens’ (unless it doesn’t). Droids are servants.

Basically, tech has never been a core aspect of the SW world, mostly because the show has never been science fiction.

The answer to ALL things going on in the US is simple:

Who’s gonna stop them?

The president and his (ex?-)boyfriend are doing whatever the FUCK they want, and they even have the backing of the Supreme Court, so the only way to stop them is active resistance.

You’d be surprised at how effective it is to absolutely ignore the law when you’re on top of the heap. I expect that Le Pen would do the same if she got a chance; as would Poilievre, the nuts in charge of the AfD, or any of the unrepentant fascists.

The truth is that the laws put in place to stop this sort of behaviour are like the velvet ropes for crowd control. They only work is people decide to obey them, and if someone were to stomp over them all, it’s only the other people who could stop that person from reaching the front of the line.

Nope.

For context, I’m in my late 50s and always want to know the right answer, and share it with everyone.

Buy sometimes, you need to let it go. You might be in a situation where someone is confidently stating something you know to be wrong. Correcting them can - depending on context - come across as insulting and know-it-all; and if it’s not important, maybe stay silent this time.

Now if you’re in a situation where the truth IS important, or where everyone is more interested in the truth (or even debate) than something cool but false, your knowledge will be appreciated.

You don’t have to always have the last word, even if it’s right.

Trump.

A few unsalted mixed nuts from Costco, when I woke up at 2:30 this morning.

Not European, but Napoleon is high quality and Canadian.

The Martian.

Aside from the macguffin that left Matt Damon stranded, the science was solid. Furthermore, the casual dysfunctionality and administrative infighting of the governments and agencies was brilliantly on point.

In a nutshell…

They’re not here for your benefit, they’re here for their own profit.

If they could make money with flashing lights they would, even if they had to deal with lawsuits from people who had seizures from it.

They don’t cate what you like. They don’t care what you want. You are nothing more than a commodity they can sell.

Now that you mention it…

No, not really. It had never occurred to me before, and as I hear them in my head right now, they’re just not that similar.

But that’s me.

Sooner or later, all protests in the US will turn into this kind of protest. I suspect quite soon.

If all else fails, a Scotchbrite pad should do it safely.

Not American, so take with a grain of salt. However…

Frankly, if you’re a naturalized citizen at all, you should already be looking over your shoulder and feeling scared right now. They’re deporting legal residents because they don’t like the tattoos they have. They’re disappearing people for being 2SLGBTQ+.

So either you hide, you run, or you stand up. The only real difference is that standing up will make it easier to catch you - but the end result will be the same.

Hey, thanks. I ended up with HyperX. Easy ordering, fast-ish delivery (from within the country, yay!) and the keycaps were mostly excellent. A few needed trimming with an exacto knife and the font is awful, but it came with a selection of space bars, and now my keyboard is looking absolutely slick.

I know that software is a very different industry, but Mountain Equipment Co-Op went through this in Canada. The end result is that the new Mountain Equipment Company is a for-profit, US-owned reseller of overseas crap, just like everyone else.

The problem I see is that browsers are still evolving significantly, and I’m worried about what will happen if Mozilla goes T-U. Sure we have the code, but will it continue to be developed after that point?

time will tell if they go further.

Having seen this FAR too often, I have a different view:

Capitalism and greed will determine when they go further.

There is no “if” about it. Mitchell Baker is in it to get rich by destroying the platform, and is sharing enough of the corpse’s leavings with others to make sure they protect her.

Something else that needs to be understood about Mozilla: Money!

The Foundation was formed in 2003. Mitchell Baker, the first CEO, stepped aside in 2008 but stayed on as Chairperson of the foundation.

• In 2018, she got nearly $2.5million in compensation as foundation chair.
• In 2019 that rose to $3million
• In 2020, she returned as CEO and received over $3million in salary.
• In 2021 her salary was over $5.5million.
• In 2022 it reached nearly $7million.
• In 2023 it was $6million again.

Think about that for a second. Mozilla’s market share has been struggling, and their financials have been weak; but their lead person pulled in over $26 million dollars over a handful of years.

This entire activity has been a long game to extract ‘maximum shareholder value’ into Baker’s pockets.