Paper Tiger?
In February, 2022, world superpower Russia attacked a small adjacent country, Ukraine. It should have been a slam dunk, but now, four years later, we’re still seeing news like Ukraine launching “one of the war’s largest drone attacks” while a Russian drone strike kills 15 in a mall. The war is obviously not over … not even close … but there is a serious question about the actual strength of that “world superpower Russia.”
Aftermath
Five years ago, then-president Biden yanked troops out of Afghanistan overnight, leaving something like $7 billion worth of military equipment and the Afghan people to fall under the Taliban. They promised to be nice, but Afghan women seem to have borne the brunt of the repercussions, losing all the freedom they were given with US protections. I’m sure they’re grateful to be free of all that freedom.
A Major Dilemma
In a critical case before SCOTUS, the justices allowed the president to continue work on a new ballroom for the White House. That’s because it’s an unprecedented constitutional question. Or … not. I’m scratching my head. Really? I mean … both sides. REALLY?
In Control
Two American Airline jets with the same designation were narrowly saved from a disaster by an alert air traffic controller in Phoenix. He kept alert and managed to keep both from colliding in the confusion. Seriously, would we expect some AI air traffic controller to do better?
Your Weakly Fake News
Trump is promising an “economic D-Day” for Iran, so thousands of accountants boarded landing craft for the economic invasion. Right? The Bee headline says, “A.I. Assistant Starting To Suspect Its Human Might Be A Bit Of A Moron.“ Given a lot of the news from News Weakly, the AI might be right. Finally, Trump has threatened to claim the Strait of Hormuz for the US. It turns out he only wants it to build a floating golf course. Did not see that coming. Makes sense.
Must be true; I read it on the internet.
Paper Tiger?
ReplyDeleteIt truly is amazing how well Ukraine has held out. I even heard that they've been able to take back some territory and have been striking targets in Russia. Russia has been the Big Bad in our minds for 80 years, so it makes sense that we expected more from them. But as I think about it, it wasn't their military prowess that allowed them to push back the Nazis, throughout the Cold War they were behind us in quality of equipment and we were only afraid of their numbers and their nukes, and now they can't take one country in their border. Will history eventually show that the Cold War was based on lies, bluffs, and fears? Was MAD even ever really in the table?
Aftermath
I'm not sure how anyone thought any different outcome would come from such a rapid reversal of local power. But I guess the West continues to struggle with the concept that other people don't think like us. I've heard stories about Muslims that maybe there wasn't an insignificant number of women happy to lose those freedoms. I'm thinking in terms of the fellow in Shawshank Redemption that got released from prison after nearly a lifetime in, killing himself after his release because he didn't know how to live with all that freedom.
A Major Dilemma
I'm sorry, I thought in order for something to be brought to the supreme court circuit, there must be some sort of harmed plaintiff? And what really is the goal? If the Historical Society that sued is correct that this will prevent visits to the White House as it used to be, that option was lost long ago when they demolished the area before construction. And for people that seem to be so upset about the cost, it seems insane to me to be happy to waste at least $400 million if it gets ruled that construction needs to be undone. In my opinion, the time for the courts in this case is passed.
In Control
I find it insane that two flights on the same airline have the same designation. Did nobody think these two planes might eventually be in the same location at the same time? As an airplane repair technician myself, I can't imagine the difficulty and confusion within American Airlines in keeping track of their maintenance records (I've worked on airline parts and they aren't exactly as accurate with their paperwork as you'd expect, add in two planes with the same designation?). AI may eventually be able to do some really amazing things, but it will always be limited by its creators. I heard recently that if you told Google's AI that you were "alone with a white person" it would ask you if you felt safe and that you should seek shelter, but if you said you were alone with any other race it would tell you to simply treat them like any other person. Not exactly an unbiased system.
This is a belated comment, due to being on the road.
DeleteDavid, Given your professional occupation and thinking of the witnessing efforts to your co-workers that you mentioned at Stan’s post of 7/29/26, I assume that you have offered them the “throw random parts into a hangar and wait for evolution to assemble it into a functioning aircraft” scenario. I thought of this recently while admiring how complicated and ingenious aircraft designs are, while visiting the Museum of Flight in Seattle. Yet at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture (at the U. of Washington), they displayed countless examples of creative genius and intelligent design, yet attributed all those glorious wonders to random mindless evolution, rather than to the Creator. “There are none so blind as those who will not see.”
I don't know how in the world an airline company would have more than one airplane with a call sign. Totally insane. I sincerely doubt that AI would have caught the error. Excellent catch by the controller.
ReplyDelete