draft
Machine learning is not perfect, no one claimed that it was or would be. I fed my little "convnet" GAN pictures of Donald J Trump to see if it could learn to make pictures of Trump, but all that came out was garbage.
Sunday, December 30, 2018
My Apology To My Neighbors
draft
I am so sorry. I do my laundry and naturally have to go out to the laundry machine and back to my studio, and when I do so I might run into you, and then I might say hello. I apologize because that is obviously the most obnoxious thing I could ever possibly do.
Jesus, even in NY people were friendlier.
I am so sorry. I do my laundry and naturally have to go out to the laundry machine and back to my studio, and when I do so I might run into you, and then I might say hello. I apologize because that is obviously the most obnoxious thing I could ever possibly do.
Jesus, even in NY people were friendlier.
Friday, December 28, 2018
Captain America & Natasha Romanoff
draft
I cant help but think how different things would have been if Cap and Natasha had gone to a motel instead of to that Army Camp. Shield/Hydra would have probably destroyed all opponents and freedom lovers world wide and seized control of the world. A small price to pay for an afternoon with Natasha, it seems to me.
I still cant get over this sequence. It is when I first began to wonder about Captain America's gender preference. Not that its any of my business of course, but we do like to know such things about our superheroes.
I cant help but think how different things would have been if Cap and Natasha had gone to a motel instead of to that Army Camp. Shield/Hydra would have probably destroyed all opponents and freedom lovers world wide and seized control of the world. A small price to pay for an afternoon with Natasha, it seems to me.
I still cant get over this sequence. It is when I first began to wonder about Captain America's gender preference. Not that its any of my business of course, but we do like to know such things about our superheroes.
Thursday, December 27, 2018
A Few Thoughts About Fascism in this Country
draft
A friend wondered when we (America) was going to do something about fascism in this country. Good question. Here are a few random comments on the topic. My friend, an American, lives in Berlin, by the way.
[name redacted]
Excuse me while I rant. Defeating fascism in America would probably mean a few things that are more or less impossible or maybe require leadership that we have not seen. Here are a few examples. 1. We would have to come to a consensus as a nation about what to do about immigration, those who are already here, those who want to be here. We have not done that and I do not know how we would do that. 2. We would have to put a leash on some billionaires who think that it is is their duty to destroy freedom and remake the country in their nutty boy and girl image. The poster children for these nightmares are the Koch Brothers and the Mercers (the people behind Steve Bannon and Breitbart news). If they were arrested and their money seized, America would be better off. It wont happen. Free speech, dont you know. 3. We would have to do something REAL about the displaced workers and at the same time something REAL about the economies of the fly over states. As a displaced worker for 30 years I can tell you that there is nothing, absoutely zip, in place. I could get training to clean out stuffed toilets at $5/hr, maybe. I could drive for uber/lyft and I very well may. Our leaders (both parties) have utterly failed at acknowledging this problem and it is one element of Trump's appeal is that at least he understood there was a problem here. 4. Somehow the Republicans have become completely corrupt, a complete tool of the rich, lying scum who work every day to keep people of color and poor people from voting or getting govt help of any sort. Racist to the very core. Now what? 5. The above mentioned Republicans have stuffed the judiciary and Supreme Court with right wing nuts that most people think can not be removed. I dont agree with that, but who am I to say? I am just angry. The influence of these nutty boys and girls, all carefully vetted for their religious extremeist views are just beginning to be felt. There is no justice system in this country and most people are not aware of what it means to have a right wing attack dog rapist on the Supreme Court along with nutty boy (let em freeze to death for all I fucking care) Gorsuch. The first thing Gorsuch did on the supreme court was to kill a black man, by injection, yeah kill that n-gg-r he said laughing as the needle went in. Oh we dont know if he was really guilty, couldnt you have waited for the new evidence. Nope. The impact is just beginning.
These are just some of the issues that come to mind that as far as I know no one is addressing. I think that they hope either that the problem is not real (they are wrong) or that someone else will solve it so they kick the can down the road as they always have. But to be fair, our leaders with a few exceptions are gutless wonders who dont have anything like the talent or capability, never mind the motivation, to address these problems.
So in conclusion, this little rant declares my belief that our problems are just beginning, although they might be suppressed for another day. Is Fascism inevitable, ummm, I dont know, probably not, but it would surprise me if there was not some sort of major problem here that is not going away in my lifetime and which will result in another populist being elected and other disruptions. Nothing real is being done to prevent this and nothing will be done. Too hard for our leaders, way over their heads, in my humble opinion. Dont even ask them, it offends them to be asked about anything real.
To this day, most representatives are not sure if they should impeach that traitor, Trump. Self-deceived, weak, stupid, compromised. What could you expect from such people, realistically? Not much, I say. Still, it is irritating to watch.
A friend wondered when we (America) was going to do something about fascism in this country. Good question. Here are a few random comments on the topic. My friend, an American, lives in Berlin, by the way.
[name redacted]
Excuse me while I rant. Defeating fascism in America would probably mean a few things that are more or less impossible or maybe require leadership that we have not seen. Here are a few examples. 1. We would have to come to a consensus as a nation about what to do about immigration, those who are already here, those who want to be here. We have not done that and I do not know how we would do that. 2. We would have to put a leash on some billionaires who think that it is is their duty to destroy freedom and remake the country in their nutty boy and girl image. The poster children for these nightmares are the Koch Brothers and the Mercers (the people behind Steve Bannon and Breitbart news). If they were arrested and their money seized, America would be better off. It wont happen. Free speech, dont you know. 3. We would have to do something REAL about the displaced workers and at the same time something REAL about the economies of the fly over states. As a displaced worker for 30 years I can tell you that there is nothing, absoutely zip, in place. I could get training to clean out stuffed toilets at $5/hr, maybe. I could drive for uber/lyft and I very well may. Our leaders (both parties) have utterly failed at acknowledging this problem and it is one element of Trump's appeal is that at least he understood there was a problem here. 4. Somehow the Republicans have become completely corrupt, a complete tool of the rich, lying scum who work every day to keep people of color and poor people from voting or getting govt help of any sort. Racist to the very core. Now what? 5. The above mentioned Republicans have stuffed the judiciary and Supreme Court with right wing nuts that most people think can not be removed. I dont agree with that, but who am I to say? I am just angry. The influence of these nutty boys and girls, all carefully vetted for their religious extremeist views are just beginning to be felt. There is no justice system in this country and most people are not aware of what it means to have a right wing attack dog rapist on the Supreme Court along with nutty boy (let em freeze to death for all I fucking care) Gorsuch. The first thing Gorsuch did on the supreme court was to kill a black man, by injection, yeah kill that n-gg-r he said laughing as the needle went in. Oh we dont know if he was really guilty, couldnt you have waited for the new evidence. Nope. The impact is just beginning.
These are just some of the issues that come to mind that as far as I know no one is addressing. I think that they hope either that the problem is not real (they are wrong) or that someone else will solve it so they kick the can down the road as they always have. But to be fair, our leaders with a few exceptions are gutless wonders who dont have anything like the talent or capability, never mind the motivation, to address these problems.
So in conclusion, this little rant declares my belief that our problems are just beginning, although they might be suppressed for another day. Is Fascism inevitable, ummm, I dont know, probably not, but it would surprise me if there was not some sort of major problem here that is not going away in my lifetime and which will result in another populist being elected and other disruptions. Nothing real is being done to prevent this and nothing will be done. Too hard for our leaders, way over their heads, in my humble opinion. Dont even ask them, it offends them to be asked about anything real.
To this day, most representatives are not sure if they should impeach that traitor, Trump. Self-deceived, weak, stupid, compromised. What could you expect from such people, realistically? Not much, I say. Still, it is irritating to watch.
Why Should I Be Angry?
draft
Lets see, it was proven today that Trump has been in the pay of the Russians all along. Oh yes, and his DHS secretary blamed the death of the little children in her care on anyone but the DHS.
Maybe you, dear reader, if you are not angry, ought to consider whether you ought to be.
Assuming you are an American of course.
Lets see, it was proven today that Trump has been in the pay of the Russians all along. Oh yes, and his DHS secretary blamed the death of the little children in her care on anyone but the DHS.
Maybe you, dear reader, if you are not angry, ought to consider whether you ought to be.
Assuming you are an American of course.
Wednesday, December 26, 2018
Things I hate About Libre Office
draft
Libreoffice is the open source word processing system financed by Sun. Its pretty good but it has several flaws that are worthy of note.
First, its help functions are completely insane, and its menus completely impossible to find anything in. Next, even if you have saved your work, when it comes up again, it whines and complains and makes you go through a recovery process that is completely unnecessary.
Both of these two issues have the same cause.
The people who designed this software are morons.
Libreoffice is the open source word processing system financed by Sun. Its pretty good but it has several flaws that are worthy of note.
First, its help functions are completely insane, and its menus completely impossible to find anything in. Next, even if you have saved your work, when it comes up again, it whines and complains and makes you go through a recovery process that is completely unnecessary.
Both of these two issues have the same cause.
The people who designed this software are morons.
Letter to My Representative
Dear Rep Carbajal,
These are certainly confusing and perilous times that we are in. I think that most Americans would agree that the first order of business is to get the government operating again, but then second to that, to stabilize the stock market, restore faith to our allies, competence to the Pentagon and so forth, and the only way to do that is to impeach Donald J. Trump.
I only know a few dozen people here having recently moved to CA-24, but every single one of them calls for the immediate impeachment and conviction of that obvious criminal and madman, Trump.
Once he is out of office, we expect you to impeach Pence and Kavanaugh, the religious nut and the rapist, but that can happen later, perhaps in February.
Impeach Trump now, do it today, or rather, next week perhaps on January 3rd. You could vote on it the first day you convened and America would cheer.
Good luck!
MW
Tuesday, December 25, 2018
Write Your Elected Representative? Yes, Annoy Him/Her.
draft
Surely you are not so naive as to believe that writing your representative will do any good? Oh you do? You do think it will do some good?
Well, it might if you consider "annoy the fuckers" to be "some good". And I do think thats so, why not?
At this point, the national security elite, the wall street/financial elite, and the people who know the dangers of a government shutdown all have to be shaking in their boots. Their bet (a stupid bet if you ask me) that they could manage the orange moron has been lost.
Now what? Impeach him? Well, better late than never I guess.
But I bet our elected elite will still equivocate.
Surely you are not so naive as to believe that writing your representative will do any good? Oh you do? You do think it will do some good?
Well, it might if you consider "annoy the fuckers" to be "some good". And I do think thats so, why not?
At this point, the national security elite, the wall street/financial elite, and the people who know the dangers of a government shutdown all have to be shaking in their boots. Their bet (a stupid bet if you ask me) that they could manage the orange moron has been lost.
Now what? Impeach him? Well, better late than never I guess.
But I bet our elected elite will still equivocate.
Saturday, December 22, 2018
Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom
draft
Written in 1777 by Thomas Jefferson and enacted in 1786 by the Virginia General Assembly.
An Act for establishing religious Freedom.
Whereas, Almighty God hath created the mind free;
That all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and therefore are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, who being Lord, both of body and mind yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do,
That the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavouring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world and through all time;
That to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions, which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical;
That even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor, whose morals he would make his pattern, and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness, and is withdrawing from the Ministry those temporary rewards, which, proceeding from an approbation of their personal conduct are an additional incitement to earnest and unremitting labours for the instruction of mankind;
That our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or geometry, (emphasis added: editors note: '... or climate science...')
That therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence, by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages, to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right,
That it tends only to corrupt the principles of that very Religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing with a monopoly of worldly honours and emoluments those who will externally profess and conform to it;
That though indeed, these are criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way;
That to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency is a dangerous fallacy which at once destroys all religious liberty because he being of course judge of that tendency will make his opinions the rule of judgment and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own;
That it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government, for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order;
And finally, that Truth is great, and will prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them:
Be it enacted by General Assembly that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of Religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge or affect their civil capacities. And though we well know that this Assembly elected by the people for the ordinary purposes of Legislation only, have no power to restrain the acts of succeeding Assemblies constituted with powers equal to our own, and that therefore to declare this act irrevocable would be of no effect in law; yet we are free to declare, and do declare that the rights hereby asserted, are of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present or to narrow its operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right.[6]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Statute_for_Religious_Freedom
Written in 1777 by Thomas Jefferson and enacted in 1786 by the Virginia General Assembly.
An Act for establishing religious Freedom.
Whereas, Almighty God hath created the mind free;
That all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and therefore are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, who being Lord, both of body and mind yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do,
That the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavouring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world and through all time;
That to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions, which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical;
That even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor, whose morals he would make his pattern, and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness, and is withdrawing from the Ministry those temporary rewards, which, proceeding from an approbation of their personal conduct are an additional incitement to earnest and unremitting labours for the instruction of mankind;
That our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or geometry, (emphasis added: editors note: '... or climate science...')
That therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence, by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages, to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right,
That it tends only to corrupt the principles of that very Religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing with a monopoly of worldly honours and emoluments those who will externally profess and conform to it;
That though indeed, these are criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way;
That to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency is a dangerous fallacy which at once destroys all religious liberty because he being of course judge of that tendency will make his opinions the rule of judgment and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own;
That it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government, for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order;
And finally, that Truth is great, and will prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them:
Be it enacted by General Assembly that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of Religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge or affect their civil capacities. And though we well know that this Assembly elected by the people for the ordinary purposes of Legislation only, have no power to restrain the acts of succeeding Assemblies constituted with powers equal to our own, and that therefore to declare this act irrevocable would be of no effect in law; yet we are free to declare, and do declare that the rights hereby asserted, are of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present or to narrow its operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right.[6]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Statute_for_Religious_Freedom
Travelling While Vegetarian
draft
This just came up on Facebook, so I thought I would repeat it here.
I have found the following rules to be helpful when traveling and being a vegetarian: 1. Bring your own food, 2. Prepare to suffer, 3. When you can find something you can eat, buy two, 4. Keep your sense of humor, 5. Be as nice as you can be.
This just came up on Facebook, so I thought I would repeat it here.
I have found the following rules to be helpful when traveling and being a vegetarian: 1. Bring your own food, 2. Prepare to suffer, 3. When you can find something you can eat, buy two, 4. Keep your sense of humor, 5. Be as nice as you can be.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)