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Writer’s block: Top 10 films about writers

https://digbysblog.net/2023/02/25/writers-block-top-10-films-about-writers/
Created
Sun, 26/02/2023 - 12:00
Confession: I’ve been suffering from writer’s block. I don’t know “what” (if anything) has precipitated it – the current state of the world, the fact that I’m screaming toward my 67th birthday, a general malaise, or perhaps all of the above…I cannot say for sure. Just for giggles (or in an act of pure desperation), I pulled up the Chat GPT app this morning, and typed in: “Give me 500 words on writer’s block.” It only gave me 3: I got nuthin’. Thanks. I’m here all week. But seriously folks…this AI chatbot interface thing is raising serious ethical issues re: the art of creative writing. It’s just…weird. And it’s about to get weirder: ChatGPT has taken the tech world by storm, showcasing artificial intelligence (AI) with conversational abilities that go far beyond anything we’ve seen before. The viral chatbot interface is based on GPT-3, said to be one of the largest and most complex language models ever created – trained on 175 billion “parameters” (data points).

A new GOP foreign policy?

https://digbysblog.net/2023/02/25/a-new-gop-foreign-policy/
Created
Sun, 26/02/2023 - 10:00
With DeSantis on board, it might be This is going to be interesting in this presidential campaign. It’s not because I take Mike Pence seriously but because it does represent the GOP giving up a pillar of its appeal with both Trump and DeSantis adopting isolationist rhetoric. As I’ve written before, this is not unprecedented — they did this with Clinton and the Balkans too. But Trump has made this rhetoric standard and it’s leading to some real disorientation among Republicans: Former Vice President Mike Pence on Friday rebuked fellow Republicans who have given less-than-robust support for America’s defense of Ukraine — a group that includes potential presidential campaign rivals like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. “I would say anyone that thinks that Vladimir Putin will stop at Ukraine is wrong,” Pence said in an exclusive interview with NBC News when asked about DeSantis’ position on U.S. efforts to help repel Russia in Europe. The interview came moments after a Pence speech at the University of Texas on the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

What is Scott Perry hiding?

https://digbysblog.net/2023/02/25/what-is-scott-perry-hiding/
Created
Sun, 26/02/2023 - 08:30
According to Rep. Scott Perry the speech and debate clause in the constitution protects members of congress who are plotting a coup with the president of the United States. One judge doesn’t think so. It remains to be seen if others do: The chief judge of the federal district court in Washington, D.C., secretly rejected Rep. Scott Perry’s bid to shield more than 2,000 messages relevant to Justice Department investigators probing efforts by Donald Trump to subvert the 2020 election, according to newly unsealed court filings. U.S. District Court Chief Judge Beryl Howell unsealed her extraordinary Dec. 28 decision on Friday evening, determining that the “powerful public interest” in seeing the previously secret opinion outweighed the need for continued secrecy. Perry, a Republican lawmaker from Pennsylvania, had urged Howell to block the Justice Department from accessing 2,219 documents stored on his phone, which was seized and imaged by the FBI last August as part of the 2020 election investigation.

The Case for Diplomacy in Ukraine

https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/25/the-case-for-diplomacy-in-ukraine/?utm_source…
Created
Sun, 26/02/2023 - 07:55

By Katrina vanden Heuvel and James Carden / CounterPunch As 2023 unfolds, we fear that American policy will continue to be characterized by both mission creep and the absence of any sort of diplomatic engagement with Russia. Throughout the course of the war, the Biden administration has slowly, steadily, even stealthily increased America’s involvement. Calls […]

The post The Case for Diplomacy in Ukraine appeared first on scheerpost.com.

The True Test of a Civilization Is the Absence of Anxiety About Health

https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/25/the-true-test-of-a-civilization-is-the-absenc…
Created
Sun, 26/02/2023 - 07:46

By Vijay Prashad / Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research A few years ago, a minor medical problem took me to the Hospital Alemán-Nicaragüense in Nicaragua’s capital, Managua. While I was being treated, I asked the doctor, a kindly older man, if the hospital had been built in association with a German missionary organisation, given its […]

The post The True Test of a Civilization Is the Absence of Anxiety About Health appeared first on scheerpost.com.

Iranian women are doing it for themselves

https://digbysblog.net/2023/02/25/iranian-women-are-doing-it-for-themselves/
Created
Sun, 26/02/2023 - 07:00
Laws don’t work well when many people openly defy them. Prohibition in the US is a good example of that. In Iran, it took massive protests against the hijab laws to dismantle the morality police. But what may cement this new tolerance of women showing their hair in public is the simple, casual defiance by many women in their day to day lives: [S]ince the death last year of Mahsa Amini, 22, while in the custody of the country’s morality police, women and girls have been at the center of a nationwide uprising, demanding an end not only to hijab requirements but to the Islamic Republic itself. Women are suddenly flaunting their hair: left long and flowing in the malls; tied in a bun on the streets; styled into bobs on public transportation; and pulled into ponytails at schools and on university campuses, according to interviews with women in Iran as well as photographs and videos online. While these acts of defiance are rarer in more conservative areas, they are increasingly being seen in towns and cities.

Weekend wilderness survival skills course

http://mikenormaneconomics.blogspot.com/2023/02/weekend-wilderness-survival-ski…
Created
Sun, 26/02/2023 - 05:31

 I don't know if any of you saw this, but last weekend I was in Granite Falls, WA, doing a wilderness survival training course. 

It was the hardest thing I ever did. Tested me to the limit, even more than my rim-to-rim Grand Canyon day hike in 2021.

Nonstop rain, cold. Slept outside under a tarp. Had really poor equipment. I had to learn to compartmentalize my thoughts into half hour intervals just to get through the night. No sleep, by the way. I simply couldn't.

Frankly, I am still processing the whole thing in my head. Like, what did I do this for? What did I get out of it? Did it make me stronger, more resilient, expose me in any way? (The latter, YES.)

I always think of myself as a physically strong person. I wake up at 4am every day and workout out, then run outside, shirtless, regardless of temperature. (This morning was 25 degrees Farenheith.) 

Nevertheless, I think I am still mentally weak. The course exposed me.

Is middle America ok with this?

https://digbysblog.net/2023/02/25/is-middle-america-ok-with-this/
Created
Sun, 26/02/2023 - 05:30
DeSantis’ latest attempt to win back the suburbs It seems he’s had a change of heart: A NEW BILL was introduced in Florida this week that would give Gov. Ron Desantis more power over state schools, and allow the Republican politician to ban gender studies and critical race theory, along with diversity and inclusion initiatives, at Florida colleges, CNN reports. The legislation, which follows through with DeSantis’ promise to ban universities from spending money on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, was filed by Rep. Alex Andrade from Pensacola on Tuesday. If passed, Florida state colleges would be barred from offering major and minor programs in intersectionality, critical race theory, and gender studies. Core classes would also be prohibited from touching on these teachings or presenting history of the U.S. as “contrary to the creation of a new nation based on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence,” the bill reads.

Why are people so triggered? What's going on?

http://mikenormaneconomics.blogspot.com/2023/02/why-are-people-so-triggered-wha…
Created
Sun, 26/02/2023 - 05:24

 I did a video on attachments and how attachments are a source of our suffering. (Buddhist concept.) I related it to investing and trading. (i.e. we are "attached" to the outcomes.)

People got pissed off. They unsubscribed or criticized me on talking about this.

Is this normal? I've been trading for over 40 years. Been a member and floor trader on 4 exchanges. Managed money for a major hedge fund. Ran a proprietary trading desk for a major international bank.

Economist by education. (Wharton, UCLA.)

Is talking about a non-Western philosophy so triggering to people? I don't fucking get it. I think we are ALL screwed up.

Environment: humans must care for our travelling companions: earth’s animals, plants and ecosystems

https://johnmenadue.com/environment-humans-must-care-for-our-travelling-compani…
Created
Sun, 26/02/2023 - 04:57
Indigenous owned forests in the Amazon absorb carbon; non-Indigenous forests produce carbon. Chicken and pig factories are bad for the animals and bad for the climate. Indigenous held forests capture more carbon The importance of natural forests as carbon sinks is well recognised – each year between 2001 and 2021 the world’s forests absorbed about Continue reading »

Your atrocity is worse than my atrocity – A reply to Richard Cribb

https://johnmenadue.com/your-atrocity-is-worse-than-my-atrocity-a-reply/
Created
Sun, 26/02/2023 - 04:55
The ‘your atrocity is worse than my atrocity’ argument at the core of Richard Cribb’s response to Richard Culllen over Japan needs to be handled with care. Japan’s apologists can and do point to the very civilised treatment of Russian and German prisoners in the China wars at the beginning of the last century. They Continue reading »

Preventing civilisation collapse: Australia should lead the way

https://johnmenadue.com/preventing-civilisation-collapse-australia-should-lead-…
Created
Sun, 26/02/2023 - 04:54
Can we avoid, what a growing number of researchers and writers, consider, will be the likely collapse of human civilisation in the not-too-distant future, if we do not quickly and radically change direction? Two books, published in recent weeks, one by Canberra, science writer, Julian Cribb and the other, by a distinguished panel of authors, Continue reading »

Some things don’t change: the alarming attitude that still surfaces on the edges of Australian cricket

https://johnmenadue.com/some-things-dont-change-the-alarming-attitude-that-stil…
Created
Sun, 26/02/2023 - 04:53
There was a bothersome moment on television late in last week’s first cricket Test between Australia and India in Nagpur. It occurred when Allan Border expressed the opinion that Steve Smith’s behaviour in recognising with a thumbs-up sign that an opposing bowler had beaten his bat and scored a small victory was “ridiculous” and “stupid”. Continue reading »

The real news Washington does not want you to know about

https://johnmenadue.com/the-real-news-washington-does-not-want-you-to-know-abou…
Created
Sun, 26/02/2023 - 04:50
Faced with a ‘mini-Chernobyl’ in Ohio and bombing of the Nord Stream pipelines, the Chinese balloon was a distraction White House needed. A stray Chinese spy balloon, a train wreck involving deadly chemicals, and an act of state-sponsored sabotage or terrorism – which events do you think have a greater impact on the actual safety Continue reading »