One thing I’ve appreciated about Trump is how he has brought back a sense of humor to the administration. In some ways it reminds me of JFK’s press conferences which featured playful back and forth with the press…..something long gone. Of course, the humor drives the Ds/left bonkers; which I think is great.
The Pieta was shipped over by the Pope for the 1964/1965 World’s Fair in New York City in the Queens. I was one of millions who saw it there. It is very beautiful and striking.
My uncle, Buckminster Fuller, designed and built the US Pavilion – a geodesic dome.
I always assumed the Pieta was Michelangelo at the height of his career. I didn’t know he was just getting started.
A good deal would remove what remains of Iran’s nuclear program. That means all the enriched uranium and the underground sites, with intrusive inspections and an enrichment ban. Major gaps remain on these second-phase matters, and for one reason only: Iran’s regime still intends to pursue nuclear bombs. It negotiates with that in mind.
pop, little progressive heads exploding, rage does that.
No Unicorns were harmed.
Whatever happened to the newly-created Department of War?
Oh, that was so “weeks ago”. Too macho, I guess.
Now it has quietly evolved into DONT: Department of Negotiation Torment.
@ physicsguy – very amusing! Both Trump administrations include(d) people with high PR and media skills.
The interactive map homed in on Denver (reading my ISP somehow?) but you can click anywhere to get local data.
Here is who has been apprehended here: this conflict is not just about “hardworking Mexican gardeners and housecleaners,” and hasn’t been for decades.
Denver, CO
Total Arrests 1,223
Dates of Arrest 01/22/25 – 05/20/26
Criminal Charges Arson, Assault, Bribery, Burglary, Damage Property, Dangerous Drugs, Family Offenses, Flight / Escape, Forgery, Fraudulent Activities, General Crimes, Homicide, Immigration, Invasion of Privacy, Kidnapping, Larceny, Obstructing Judiciary, Congress, Legislature, Etc., Obstructing the Police, Public Peace, Robbery, Sex Offenses (Not Involving Assault or Commercialized Sex), Sexual Assault, Stolen Vehicle, Threat, Traffic Offenses, Weapon Offenses
Countries of Origin AFGHANISTAN, ANGOLA, ARMENIA, BOLIVIA, BRAZIL, BURKINA FASO, CANADA, CHILE, CHINA, PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF, COLOMBIA, CUBA, DEM REP OF THE CONGO, ECUADOR, EL SALVADOR, ERITREA, ETHIOPIA, GHANA, GUATEMALA, GUINEA, HAITI, HONDURAS, INDIA, INDONESIA, IRAN, ITALY, JORDAN, LAOS, LATVIA, MARSHALL ISLANDS, MAURITANIA, MEXICO, MOLDOVA, MOROCCO, NEPAL, NICARAGUA, PAKISTAN, PERU, ROMANIA, RUSSIA, RWANDA, SENEGAL, SOMALIA, SPAIN, TAJIKISTAN, THAILAND, TOGO, UKRAINE, UNITED KINGDOM, UZBEKISTAN, VENEZUELA, VIETNAM
Gang Affiliation
(checked but not named)
I always wonder what tools sculptors like Michelangelo used in that pre-electricity era to create works of stone.
Our tour guide insisted that Michelangelo never signed another sculpture for the rest of his life–never needed to.
I always wonder what tools sculptors like Michelangelo used in that pre-electricity era to create works of stone.
I have two large side by side monitors at work. Each of them scrolls through a selection of pictures that I selected to use as background – each is up for a few minutes before it goes on to the next. The pictures I have in that file are ones that I took – vacations and kids and the like – but also screen shots from my favorite movies, and also great works of art. A close up of Mary’s face from the Pieta is one, so I see it once a day at least. I absolutely marvel at the fact that someone created THAT out of stone before any modern technology. Inexplicable genius.
Whoa! If you ever want to say more about Fuller, I’m interested.
huxley,
I started spotting the Feynman AI crap a few months ago, but had no idea how extensive it is. I have to admire the ingenuity of people to find a loophole (in this case in Youtube’s ad algorithms) and then exploit it to make a buck. The con artist is very much alive and just working with the tools available in 2026.
I’ve seen it with Leonard Suskind too, and I’m pretty sure Lisa Randall. Crazy.
Feynman as AI slop: The narrator in that video says that these people and sites are “cloning” Feynman’s voice. Well, not hardly. He didn’t sound like Einstein or some British Shakespearian actor. He grew up in Queens, and he sounded like someone from Queens. It’s rather distinctive, I’d say.
That’s cool that John Galt’s uncle was Bucky. I did see the Pietá at the New York World’s fair, although I was quite young and it is a faint memory. In the 1980’s I saw it again on a trip to Italy.
If you view some several minutes of the above Feynman video, he mentions the consternation that the experimental fact of superconductivity caused amongst physicists for a time. I’m rather familiar with a lot of low temp physics, but wasn’t cognizant of large chunks of its history. While we’re beating up on AI, it does produce some very nice outputs:
Copilot Search
History of BCS Theory
The Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS) theory is a microscopic explanation of superconductivity, developed in 1957 by John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and John Robert Schrieffer at the University of Illinois Wikipedia. It explains how certain materials conduct electricity without resistance below a critical temperature by describing the formation of Cooper pairs—pairs of electrons bound together by an attractive interaction mediated by lattice vibrations (phonons).
Early Foundations
1911: Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovered superconductivity in mercury, observing a sudden drop in electrical resistance at low temperatures.
1933: Walther Meissner and Robert Ochsenfeld discovered the Meissner effect, the expulsion of magnetic fields from superconductors, showing they are perfect diamagnets Department of Physics and Astronomy.
1937: Fritz London proposed that the superconducting state arises from a rigid, coherent many-body wavefunction, introducing the concept of the order parameter Department of Physics and Astronomy.
1948: Fritz London suggested that the phenomenological London equations could be consequences of quantum coherence Wikipedia.
1950: Lev Landau and Vitaly Ginzburg developed the Ginzburg–Landau theory, treating electrons as a charged superfluid Wikipedia.
1953: Brian Pippard introduced the coherence length as a new scale parameter Wikipedia.
1955: John Bardeen argued that a coherence length naturally arises in a theory with an energy gap Wikipedia.
1956: Leon Cooper showed that electrons near the Fermi level could form bound pairs under an attractive interaction, now called Cooper pairs Wikipedia+1.
Development of BCS Theory
Building on these ideas, Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer in 1957 formulated a microscopic theory:
Cooper pairs form via phonon-mediated attraction, overcoming electron–electron repulsion.
These pairs behave like bosons, allowing them to condense into the same quantum state.
A superconducting energy gap opens between the ground state (all pairs intact) and the first excited state (a pair broken), preventing scattering and thus zero resistance.
The theory explains the isotope effect, Meissner effect, and other thermodynamic properties of conventional superconductors.
Impact and Recognition
BCS theory successfully described conventional superconductors and became a cornerstone of condensed matter physics. It earned Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1972. However, it could not explain high-temperature superconductors discovered in the 1980s, which operate via different mechanisms.
In summary, BCS theory emerged from decades of phenomenological and theoretical work, culminating in a unified microscopic picture of superconductivity that remains one of the most important achievements in 20th-century physics.
Michelangelo represented people who were different.
TommyJay,
That’s my favorite Feyman video. I pull it out often when dealing with those who “believe in science”. Mainly climate people, but there’s others who don’t understand how science is supposed to work.
More AI techno trivia: For a time back when Intel was coming out with the 486 and then the Pentium processor (IIRC) they said they were working on a solid state artificial neuron. At the time, I incorrectly thought that this could be the big breakthrough that might take us towards those Sci-Fi stories about AI.
Of course, if you simulate an artificial neuron in software, then it can be re-coded with infinite variations, unlike a hardware implementation. But what is the compute efficiency of these software neurons, and secondarily… why use graphics processing chips?
Those who are a bit smarter than I may see the following as obvious. These computational tasks usually break down to linear algebra computations and graphics processors are perfectly configured for that.
My query: How many flops does it take to process a single response of a single artificial neuron?
Copilot Search
FLOPs for a Single Response of a Single Artificial Neuron
For a single artificial neuron (a simple linear unit with weights and bias), the number of floating-point operations (FLOPs) for a single forward pass is very small — typically just 1–2 FLOPs.
Why so few?
A single neuron computes:
output = sum(weights[i] × inputs[i]) + bias
Multiply-add operations: Each weight × input pair is a multiply-add (MAC) operation, which counts as 1 FLOP in most counting schemes Stack Overflow.
Bias addition: This is a single addition, which is also counted as 1 FLOP in many definitions Stack Overflow.
If the neuron has n inputs:
n multiply-adds ? n FLOPs
1 bias add ? 1 FLOP
Total FLOPs = n + 1
Example
If the neuron has 4 inputs:
4 multiply-adds ? 4 FLOPs
1 bias add ? 1 FLOP
Total = 5 FLOPs for one forward pass.
Key points
This is per neuron, per input sample.
For a single “response” (one forward pass), it’s just the sum of the multiply-adds plus the bias add.
In larger networks, each neuron’s FLOPs are summed across all neurons and layers to get the total FLOPs for the model Stack Overflow.
In short: A single neuron’s response requires n + 1 FLOPs, where n is the number of inputs. For most practical purposes, this is a handful of FLOPs compared to the millions or billions in deep networks. Codegenes
Pretty damn efficient. Although, somehow the total amount of computation used to process a query, is purportedly prodigious.
@ John Galt III > “Whoa! If you ever want to say more about Fuller, I’m interested.”
I’ll second the motion.
Bucky was one of my “heroes” back in the seventies.
This bit from Wikipedia was interesting!
“He was elected an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa in 1967, on the occasion of the 50-year reunion of his Harvard class of 1917 (from which he had been expelled in his first year)…He was expelled from Harvard twice: first for spending all his money partying with a vaudeville troupe, and then, after having been readmitted, for his “irresponsibility and lack of interest.” By his own appraisal, he was a non-conforming misfit in the fraternity environment.”
Looking at how he taught himself as a child, spent much time inventing and creating, and worked with physical materials to understand math and science, I was reminded of the section of the video where Michelangelo, unlike other sculptors, went to the quarry and spent months getting the stone that he wanted. He also used tools to prepare it for carving, particularly a hand-drill to get the right depth for the drapery folds and body physique.
SENNACHERIB on May 29, 2026 at 4:33 pm said: “Michelangelo represented people who were different.”
So did Fuller!
Feynman was in the same small club of Different People (Sarah Hoyt calls them “Odds”).
I always liked that quote attributed to Michelangelo, something to the effect of: “The sculpture is already in the marble, I just reveal it.” A charming expression of humility. (Whether he actually said it, I have no idea.)
The sorry state of Britain today, and especially it’s Navy.
I’ m just starting comprehend the wide-ranging nature and depth of successive British government’s betrayals of the British people.
There are, of course, the obvious issues of immigration, energy, pensions and taxes, crime and, more recently, freedom of expression.
However, the linked YouTube video has called my attention to how British governments–both Labor and Conservative—have whittled down the once proud and formidable British Navy—have actually sold off what had been functioning warships to other countries, and canceled or reduced so many building programs for new ships (and fumbled the refit of other ships)–that it appears that the UK today is well on the way to being essentially defenseless on the seas.*
Can we call this “managed decline,” or is it more like deliberate suicide.
Picture some adversary sending its warships against the British Isles.
Could the UK stop them at sea, fend them off, keep their nation safe?
Given what this linked video describes about the current state of the UK’s navy, I have my doubts. *
P.S. They say “follow the money.”
So where, prey tell, did all of the money various British governments received from the sales of the UK’s warships, and the cancellations of many ship building contracts go?
@Snow on Pine: where, prey tell, did all of the money various British governments received from the sales of the UK’s warships, and the cancellations of many ship building contracts go?
Social programs.
@ Snow & Niketas – the money went to Learing Centers.
Somewhat apropos is this anecdote excerpted from an excellent post by Glenn Reynolds on the importance of Spencer Pratt’s campaign for mayor of Los Angeles, whether he wins or not (all bets are on the NOT).
Not all that long ago, really, every local politician would talk about potholes, garbage collection, crime control, clean sidewalks, and the like. Now it’s “controversial” — which means a threat to the power of the ruling machine — to even talk about those things.
That’s because those are things that voters want, that the machine doesn’t want to give them.
Why doesn’t the machine want to give voters these very basic, normal things?
There are a lot of reasons. The first is that they’re spending the money on other stuff, which basically means themselves and their cronies. There’s a Nigerian joke that’s on point here, though sadly obsolete nowadays. A Nigerian visits his rich cousin in the United States and is gobsmacked by his wealth. The rich American cousin says, “See that bridge over there, that stadium, that school building?” The Nigerian cousin nods. The American cousin points at himself and says “Ten percent!”
Some years later the American cousin goes back to Nigeria and visits his Nigerian cousin, who has become fabulously wealthy, much richer than the American. “How did you do that”? he asks. The Nigerian says, “do you see that bridge over there, that stadium, that school building?”
“Er, no,” says the American. The Nigerian proudly points at himself and says “One hundred percent!”
The joke is obsolete because Los Angeles has moved close to the one hundred percent level. When you’re spending upwards of $800,000 to house a single “homeless” person you’re nearly there. (And Gavin Newsom’s high speed rail, which has gobbled up billions but produced no trains, is basically in one hundred percent territory already.) So the current rulers of L.A. couldn’t easily fix the potholes if they wanted, because too many constituencies are living off the taxpayer’s teat, leaving not enough money to do it without nasty political fights. As Vaclav Havel says, ossified. (See also Mancur Olson’s The Rise and Decline of Nations.)
But another, possibly bigger, reason that the machine doesn’t want to give the voters basic, normal things is because they are normal.
…
The purpose of a system is what it does, and what the political system in Los Angeles, as in most big, blue cities, does is generate crime, homelessness, rampant drug use, and decayed common spaces.
It doesn’t do normal things because it doesn’t want to do normal things, and it doesn’t want to do normal things because, at core, leftism doesn’t want things to be normal. Why that is is open to interpretation (personally, I think it’s because leftists want the outer world to be as disgusting and disordered as their inner selves) but the pattern is there. And you can get away with it, so long as people think the decline in their world stems from some sort of organic causes, rather than being a choice.
But decline is a choice.
…
But even if Pratt loses, he’s opened up these issues that no one was supposed to talk about, and gotten people talking about them. That’s a brutal blow to a machine that has for years relied on making sure people weren’t able to talk about the things that might be dangerous to it. That will raise pressure, and likely lead to change in time anyway.
A couple of comments from Glenn Reynolds post linked above.
Washington Chris 1d
When I was young, I thought Democrats were good people who were basically wrong about everything. As I’ve gotten older and seen how they continue to push the same policies in the face of failure after failure, I came to realize that every result is intentional or at least a price they are happy to have us pay in order to get what they want: the people’s money and the people’s power. There is no other explanation.
Aviation Sceptic 13h
Listen to what they say, watch what they do, and follow the money. They “say” they want to solve a problem, but “do” things and enact policies that clearly fail and make things worse. The money, however, flows continuously to “solve” the problems that never get better in a recursive loop…which is a feature, not a bug. The old “say do gap” makes sense when you realize the actual goal of the activity. IMO, YMMV
Moneyrunner43 14h
Edited
Glen, I appreciate your commentary and believe you raise some excellent points. Additionally, in places like Los Angeles, local elections tend to have very low voter turnout, averaging around 20% of the eligible voters. This allows machine politics—such as paying people to vote, mail-in ballots, and a small group of dedicated activists—to dominate the city’s politics. When this occurs, they control the funding, thereby supporting organizations aligned with their interests. These often include the so-called ‘homeless’ population and individuals who have profited significantly by claiming to offer services to a large and growing class of homeless, mentally ill, and impoverished people. Of course, the supposed beneficiaries never get the services that the fraudsters claim to provide. And the system feeds on the growth of the destruction of life in the city.
In short, “the people” of the city have almost no say in this unless they can be incentivized to actually vote.
A Democratic strategist has deployed a candidate look-alike that Republicans fear may act as a decoy and create confusion around their real nominee.
Campaign material metadata reveals that Amber Lee, a progressive consultant, authored a press release announcing the Senate bid for a second “Dan Sullivan” — a figure Republican strategists say has nothing to do with incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska.
After all the excitement about a “deal” with Iran yesterday, we discover Trump didn’t sign then and he hasn’t signed today.
Meanwhile Iran is still breaking the ceasefire and Hezbollah is still firing missiles at Israel and Iran is telling its own, different version of the deal.
I can’t tell what’s going on. However, if it’s so confused and iffy just to agree to a basic framework — open Hormuz without Iranian tolls plus an Iranian commitment to no nuclear weapons — then to talk more during a 60-day ceasefire, I’m doubting whether this is going to get off the ground at all.
Maybe Trump is showing that he will go the extra mile for peace, then when Iran plays its usual games, he will return to “kinetic action” with a clear conscience and a big surprise for Iran.
That’s my vote.
And the Somalis rang changes on every kind of fraud that exists when the government is handing out someone else’s money (yours, to be exact).
Seattle’s Communist Woke Wallflower Mayor Says She Refuses to Investigate Medicaid Fraud In Her City Because That Would Hurt Our Precioius [sic] Nomadic Pirates
…
EXCLUSIVE: Former Minnesota employee reveals suspected fraud scheme of ‘fake injuries’ at Somali businesses
With the benefit of hindsight, Janeen Balsimo thought, “wow, so the fraud went as far as the employee was a fake employee, probably with fake injuries, because there is no people at these places.”
ByDr. JC Chaix and Liz Collin
It’s perhaps yet another kind of Somali fraud that we haven’t heard much about, and one that may involve fake businesses, fake injuries, and fake workers’ comp claims.
Janeen Balsimo retired in the fall after working as a Minnesota state employee for nearly 30 years. She joined Liz Collin on her podcast.
Balsimo spent her last years at the Department of Human Services (DHS) in the Tort Recovery Unit as a tort specialist.
She said that she wanted to blow the whistle on workers’ comp cases after what she noticed the last couple of years at her job–as hindsight and the exposure of fraud throughout Minnesota provided even more perspective.
Balsimo explained how she “recovered taxpayer dollars where another party should have been paying for the bills. For instance, like auto accidents or work comp. So we would get cases from attorneys representing the client.”
“And then when the case would settle, we would get paid, the attorney would get paid his fees. DHS would get paid our portion. And then the client would be awarded whatever type of injury that they had back, usually got more awards than neck or arm. So they would get anywhere from $20,000 to $150,000 for their award for their injuries,” Balsimo explained.
However, she noticed a strange trend emerging in her normally routine work. “About a year ago, I can remember my caseloads of Somalian cases were going way up. They were going up so much I even confided in another coworker. She had noticed it as well,” Balsimo said.
She said “that’s when I noticed my Somali cases, they all worked at a daycare center, an adult care center, a hospice or an autism center. And I found that really strange and they ended in the LLC because I had to keep typing it over and over and it was just really strange to me.”
“Then I retired a few weeks before the Nick Shirley exposure … and one day I was watching a video and I noticed the names of the businesses he was investigating. And they looked really familiar. Like I almost remember the name of the businesses just by typing them all the time and just dealing with them. And I could not believe it … it all came together, Balsimo said.
“I went, oh my gosh, this was like a wow moment. These cases were probably fraudulent,” she added.
Remember this when somebody tells you that the GOP Establishment (hopefully former establishment) is just Democrats-lite.
RTWT for the details and why Buck is so incensed, but this is the relevant part. https://ace.mu.nu/archives/419913.php
Tennessee’s GOP State Government is Subsidizing the Relocation of Cultural Adversary Starbucks; How Did TN Leaders Promise $30M that Hadn’t Yet Been Approved in a Public Forum?
…
As I was typing this piece, I just noticed something significant that I had previously missed. Something stinks:
• Starbucks announced its new Tennessee operation in mid-April, and the employee ultimatums regarding relocation also occurred in April.
• It was several weeks later, on May 11, that the Tennessee State Funding Board issued a public notice of the upcoming May 20 meeting to vote on the $30 million handout. Public comment was limited to the day of the meeting, May 20. This was now a full month after Starbucks announced its Tennessee plans.
• If the state had not already committed the $30 million, the Funding Board could have simply voted “No” and it wouldn’t have made any difference, since Starbucks had already committed to the new Tennessee operation.
• If this was just a vote to formalize a previously agreed upon commitment of the $30 million, then how does this comport with the Tennessee Open Meeting Act. How did Governor Lee know he could promise a $30 million incentive to Starbucks if it hadn’t yet been debated in a forum open to the public?
I am not accusing the five members of the Tennessee State Funding Board of doing anything illegal. To the contrary, I am sure they have very good counsel who ensured that what they did is technically in accordance with state law. But that doesn’t make it right.
The Tennessee State Funding Board has five members entrusted with the authority and wisdom to redistribute money from taxpayers to corporate welfare recipients. Those members are:
1) Governor Bill Lee
2) Treasurer David Lillard
3) Comptroller Jason Mumpower
4) Finance & Administration Commissioner Jim Bryson
5) Secretary of State Tre Hargett
Perhaps if there is enough public revulsion from Tennessee taxpayers, these vulgar and unnecessary handouts to woke corporations will stop.
I’m surprised Buck didn’t ask the obvious question: How much of that $30M is going back into the PACs (or freezers) of the Board members or their cronies?
I saw the Pieta in Rome in 1970. Glad I got to see it up close without the protective barrier.
Regarding AI slop. It’s my understanding – broadly – that celebrities copyright their image and sue over the unauthorized use of such. Maybe no one has done this for Feynman – I assume it would be whoever has rights to his IP?
My point is, it’s a measure of how captured our political class is by big tech that the idea of investing every individual with an image ‘copyright’ has never even been suggested – let alone debated.
Why is no one talking about this? I’ve been boring my family with this topic for 15 years!
P.S. I neglected to mention above that British governments also scrapped a lot of warships which had apparently been serviceable, further reducing their “fleet.”
“Maybe Trump is showing that he will go the extra mile for peace, then when Iran plays its usual games, he will return to “kinetic action” with a clear conscience and a big surprise for Iran.
That’s my vote.”
huxley,
That was my thought about 4 weeks ago; now I have no idea what he is doing. It’s just the same ol’ BS every week. Meanwhile it reminds me of driving here in FL on I95: waaay back in the rearview mirror you see that guy who thinks driving is a video game…everyone in FL usually is at 80mph and you know this guy is doing 100+ and weaving through all the lanes. You know as he catches up he’s going come up on your tail at 2 ft, swerve over and then cut you off……that’s the midterms coming up on us. If Iran manages to string this out until even August, Trump is toast.
physicsguy:
Well, it’s usually a foolish thing to say but IMO … it’s different this time.
This deal emerged from a process that sounded like it was supposed to be an official agreement from both sides, not just a rough draft that Trump might immediately reject.
I assumed that it was the “deal” or whatever the Memorandum of Understanding was and it would be signed forthwith. Instead Trump’s decision is still hanging fire. I guess we won’t hear more until after the weekend.
If Trump rejects this “deal,” I’m arguing that it will be hard to go back to the drawing board for another preliminary agreement, that it forebodes poorly for a final result, and it will strongly favor resuming military operations, especially since Iran continues to break the ceasefire.
Iran has a US ally helping them stall an agreement; The Democratic National Party.
The writing is on the wall, if the DNC doesn’t win a majority at the mid-term, they are in deep doo doo, politically. So, stay away from large gatherings of Democrat “activists” if you can. Desperate times can precipitate desperate measures.
The US is the “Great Satan”; hence the Mullahcracy is permitted, even encouraged, to say and do anything to destroy it—including, obviously, SURVIVE (in order to destroy it).
The goal of the Democrats and Democratic-Party “adjacent” is THE SAME; though to finesse the MESSAGE for local consumption they MUST fine-tune the goal (“destroy it”) to “destroy Trump and his MAGA supporters”—this, in order to “SAVE THE COUNTRY” or “SAVE DEMOCRACY” (of course, of course…).
AesopFan on May 29, 2026 at 1:08 pm:
Your listing of the various “alien” countries of origin (and the “diversity” of crimes committed) suggests that maybe we are “lucky” they are that diverse and somewhat non-aligned, being from different sub-ethnicities and cultures.
Even the Muslims and the Hispanics do not really coalesce into a focused political force that might be stronger than they already are in places like Plano TX and Detroit/MI areas. Most of the arrivals come for personal economic betterment, not political insurrectionary purposes, so even Leftist Dem efforts to corral these folks into a common set of views and positions does not fully take hold.
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One thing I’ve appreciated about Trump is how he has brought back a sense of humor to the administration. In some ways it reminds me of JFK’s press conferences which featured playful back and forth with the press…..something long gone. Of course, the humor drives the Ds/left bonkers; which I think is great.
Anyway, the latest installment, enjoy:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/aliens/
The Pieta was shipped over by the Pope for the 1964/1965 World’s Fair in New York City in the Queens. I was one of millions who saw it there. It is very beautiful and striking.
My uncle, Buckminster Fuller, designed and built the US Pavilion – a geodesic dome.
I always assumed the Pieta was Michelangelo at the height of his career. I didn’t know he was just getting started.
Where the Iran Talks Stand Now
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/iran-deal-cease-fire-strait-of-hormuz-nuclear-weapons-d2a80a0d?st=B22tbR
pop, little progressive heads exploding, rage does that.
No Unicorns were harmed.
Whatever happened to the newly-created Department of War?
Oh, that was so “weeks ago”. Too macho, I guess.
Now it has quietly evolved into DONT: Department of Negotiation Torment.
@ physicsguy – very amusing! Both Trump administrations include(d) people with high PR and media skills.
The interactive map homed in on Denver (reading my ISP somehow?) but you can click anywhere to get local data.
Here is who has been apprehended here: this conflict is not just about “hardworking Mexican gardeners and housecleaners,” and hasn’t been for decades.
Denver, CO
Total Arrests 1,223
Dates of Arrest 01/22/25 – 05/20/26
Criminal Charges Arson, Assault, Bribery, Burglary, Damage Property, Dangerous Drugs, Family Offenses, Flight / Escape, Forgery, Fraudulent Activities, General Crimes, Homicide, Immigration, Invasion of Privacy, Kidnapping, Larceny, Obstructing Judiciary, Congress, Legislature, Etc., Obstructing the Police, Public Peace, Robbery, Sex Offenses (Not Involving Assault or Commercialized Sex), Sexual Assault, Stolen Vehicle, Threat, Traffic Offenses, Weapon Offenses
Countries of Origin AFGHANISTAN, ANGOLA, ARMENIA, BOLIVIA, BRAZIL, BURKINA FASO, CANADA, CHILE, CHINA, PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF, COLOMBIA, CUBA, DEM REP OF THE CONGO, ECUADOR, EL SALVADOR, ERITREA, ETHIOPIA, GHANA, GUATEMALA, GUINEA, HAITI, HONDURAS, INDIA, INDONESIA, IRAN, ITALY, JORDAN, LAOS, LATVIA, MARSHALL ISLANDS, MAURITANIA, MEXICO, MOLDOVA, MOROCCO, NEPAL, NICARAGUA, PAKISTAN, PERU, ROMANIA, RUSSIA, RWANDA, SENEGAL, SOMALIA, SPAIN, TAJIKISTAN, THAILAND, TOGO, UKRAINE, UNITED KINGDOM, UZBEKISTAN, VENEZUELA, VIETNAM
Gang Affiliation
(checked but not named)
I always wonder what tools sculptors like Michelangelo used in that pre-electricity era to create works of stone.
Our tour guide insisted that Michelangelo never signed another sculpture for the rest of his life–never needed to.
I always wonder what tools sculptors like Michelangelo used in that pre-electricity era to create works of stone.
I have two large side by side monitors at work. Each of them scrolls through a selection of pictures that I selected to use as background – each is up for a few minutes before it goes on to the next. The pictures I have in that file are ones that I took – vacations and kids and the like – but also screen shots from my favorite movies, and also great works of art. A close up of Mary’s face from the Pieta is one, so I see it once a day at least. I absolutely marvel at the fact that someone created THAT out of stone before any modern technology. Inexplicable genius.
I called this a couple months ago:
–Kyle Hill, “Richard Feynman is Now A.I. Slop”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2_8199CL1I
My uncle, Buckminster Fuller…
John Galt III:
Whoa! If you ever want to say more about Fuller, I’m interested.
huxley,
I started spotting the Feynman AI crap a few months ago, but had no idea how extensive it is. I have to admire the ingenuity of people to find a loophole (in this case in Youtube’s ad algorithms) and then exploit it to make a buck. The con artist is very much alive and just working with the tools available in 2026.
I’ve seen it with Leonard Suskind too, and I’m pretty sure Lisa Randall. Crazy.
Feynman as AI slop: The narrator in that video says that these people and sites are “cloning” Feynman’s voice. Well, not hardly. He didn’t sound like Einstein or some British Shakespearian actor. He grew up in Queens, and he sounded like someone from Queens. It’s rather distinctive, I’d say.
This is lousy video, but the audio is not too bad. And it is the real Feynman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYPapE-3FRw&list=PLyQSN7X0ro23NUN9RYBP5xdBYoiv2_5y2
________
That’s cool that John Galt’s uncle was Bucky. I did see the Pietá at the New York World’s fair, although I was quite young and it is a faint memory. In the 1980’s I saw it again on a trip to Italy.
If you view some several minutes of the above Feynman video, he mentions the consternation that the experimental fact of superconductivity caused amongst physicists for a time. I’m rather familiar with a lot of low temp physics, but wasn’t cognizant of large chunks of its history. While we’re beating up on AI, it does produce some very nice outputs:
Michelangelo represented people who were different.
TommyJay,
That’s my favorite Feyman video. I pull it out often when dealing with those who “believe in science”. Mainly climate people, but there’s others who don’t understand how science is supposed to work.
More AI techno trivia: For a time back when Intel was coming out with the 486 and then the Pentium processor (IIRC) they said they were working on a solid state artificial neuron. At the time, I incorrectly thought that this could be the big breakthrough that might take us towards those Sci-Fi stories about AI.
Of course, if you simulate an artificial neuron in software, then it can be re-coded with infinite variations, unlike a hardware implementation. But what is the compute efficiency of these software neurons, and secondarily… why use graphics processing chips?
Those who are a bit smarter than I may see the following as obvious. These computational tasks usually break down to linear algebra computations and graphics processors are perfectly configured for that.
My query: How many flops does it take to process a single response of a single artificial neuron?
Pretty damn efficient. Although, somehow the total amount of computation used to process a query, is purportedly prodigious.
@ John Galt III > “Whoa! If you ever want to say more about Fuller, I’m interested.”
I’ll second the motion.
Bucky was one of my “heroes” back in the seventies.
This bit from Wikipedia was interesting!
“He was elected an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa in 1967, on the occasion of the 50-year reunion of his Harvard class of 1917 (from which he had been expelled in his first year)…He was expelled from Harvard twice: first for spending all his money partying with a vaudeville troupe, and then, after having been readmitted, for his “irresponsibility and lack of interest.” By his own appraisal, he was a non-conforming misfit in the fraternity environment.”
Looking at how he taught himself as a child, spent much time inventing and creating, and worked with physical materials to understand math and science, I was reminded of the section of the video where Michelangelo, unlike other sculptors, went to the quarry and spent months getting the stone that he wanted. He also used tools to prepare it for carving, particularly a hand-drill to get the right depth for the drapery folds and body physique.
SENNACHERIB on May 29, 2026 at 4:33 pm said: “Michelangelo represented people who were different.”
So did Fuller!
Feynman was in the same small club of Different People (Sarah Hoyt calls them “Odds”).
I always liked that quote attributed to Michelangelo, something to the effect of: “The sculpture is already in the marble, I just reveal it.” A charming expression of humility. (Whether he actually said it, I have no idea.)
The sorry state of Britain today, and especially it’s Navy.
I’ m just starting comprehend the wide-ranging nature and depth of successive British government’s betrayals of the British people.
There are, of course, the obvious issues of immigration, energy, pensions and taxes, crime and, more recently, freedom of expression.
However, the linked YouTube video has called my attention to how British governments–both Labor and Conservative—have whittled down the once proud and formidable British Navy—have actually sold off what had been functioning warships to other countries, and canceled or reduced so many building programs for new ships (and fumbled the refit of other ships)–that it appears that the UK today is well on the way to being essentially defenseless on the seas.*
Can we call this “managed decline,” or is it more like deliberate suicide.
Picture some adversary sending its warships against the British Isles.
Could the UK stop them at sea, fend them off, keep their nation safe?
Given what this linked video describes about the current state of the UK’s navy, I have my doubts. *
P.S. They say “follow the money.”
So where, prey tell, did all of the money various British governments received from the sales of the UK’s warships, and the cancellations of many ship building contracts go?
* See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBe_36XfZb4
@Snow on Pine: where, prey tell, did all of the money various British governments received from the sales of the UK’s warships, and the cancellations of many ship building contracts go?
Social programs.
@ Snow & Niketas – the money went to Learing Centers.
Somewhat apropos is this anecdote excerpted from an excellent post by Glenn Reynolds on the importance of Spencer Pratt’s campaign for mayor of Los Angeles, whether he wins or not (all bets are on the NOT).
https://instapundit.substack.com/p/bringing-back-normality
A couple of comments from Glenn Reynolds post linked above.
Washington Chris 1d
When I was young, I thought Democrats were good people who were basically wrong about everything. As I’ve gotten older and seen how they continue to push the same policies in the face of failure after failure, I came to realize that every result is intentional or at least a price they are happy to have us pay in order to get what they want: the people’s money and the people’s power. There is no other explanation.
Aviation Sceptic 13h
Listen to what they say, watch what they do, and follow the money. They “say” they want to solve a problem, but “do” things and enact policies that clearly fail and make things worse. The money, however, flows continuously to “solve” the problems that never get better in a recursive loop…which is a feature, not a bug. The old “say do gap” makes sense when you realize the actual goal of the activity. IMO, YMMV
Moneyrunner43 14h
Edited
Glen, I appreciate your commentary and believe you raise some excellent points. Additionally, in places like Los Angeles, local elections tend to have very low voter turnout, averaging around 20% of the eligible voters. This allows machine politics—such as paying people to vote, mail-in ballots, and a small group of dedicated activists—to dominate the city’s politics. When this occurs, they control the funding, thereby supporting organizations aligned with their interests. These often include the so-called ‘homeless’ population and individuals who have profited significantly by claiming to offer services to a large and growing class of homeless, mentally ill, and impoverished people. Of course, the supposed beneficiaries never get the services that the fraudsters claim to provide. And the system feeds on the growth of the destruction of life in the city.
In short, “the people” of the city have almost no say in this unless they can be incentivized to actually vote.
Democrats are exploring new frontiers in election manipulation.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dan-sullivan-vs-dan-sullivan-gop-blasts-clone-candidate-lookalike-enters-alaska-senate-race
After all the excitement about a “deal” with Iran yesterday, we discover Trump didn’t sign then and he hasn’t signed today.
Meanwhile Iran is still breaking the ceasefire and Hezbollah is still firing missiles at Israel and Iran is telling its own, different version of the deal.
I can’t tell what’s going on. However, if it’s so confused and iffy just to agree to a basic framework — open Hormuz without Iranian tolls plus an Iranian commitment to no nuclear weapons — then to talk more during a 60-day ceasefire, I’m doubting whether this is going to get off the ground at all.
Maybe Trump is showing that he will go the extra mile for peace, then when Iran plays its usual games, he will return to “kinetic action” with a clear conscience and a big surprise for Iran.
That’s my vote.
And the Somalis rang changes on every kind of fraud that exists when the government is handing out someone else’s money (yours, to be exact).
https://ace.mu.nu/archives/419922.php
Remember this when somebody tells you that the GOP Establishment (hopefully former establishment) is just Democrats-lite.
RTWT for the details and why Buck is so incensed, but this is the relevant part.
https://ace.mu.nu/archives/419913.php
I’m surprised Buck didn’t ask the obvious question: How much of that $30M is going back into the PACs (or freezers) of the Board members or their cronies?
The Freezer Man, for those who don’t remember.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._Jefferson_corruption_case
I saw the Pieta in Rome in 1970. Glad I got to see it up close without the protective barrier.
Regarding AI slop. It’s my understanding – broadly – that celebrities copyright their image and sue over the unauthorized use of such. Maybe no one has done this for Feynman – I assume it would be whoever has rights to his IP?
My point is, it’s a measure of how captured our political class is by big tech that the idea of investing every individual with an image ‘copyright’ has never even been suggested – let alone debated.
Why is no one talking about this? I’ve been boring my family with this topic for 15 years!
P.S. I neglected to mention above that British governments also scrapped a lot of warships which had apparently been serviceable, further reducing their “fleet.”
“Maybe Trump is showing that he will go the extra mile for peace, then when Iran plays its usual games, he will return to “kinetic action” with a clear conscience and a big surprise for Iran.
That’s my vote.”
huxley,
That was my thought about 4 weeks ago; now I have no idea what he is doing. It’s just the same ol’ BS every week. Meanwhile it reminds me of driving here in FL on I95: waaay back in the rearview mirror you see that guy who thinks driving is a video game…everyone in FL usually is at 80mph and you know this guy is doing 100+ and weaving through all the lanes. You know as he catches up he’s going come up on your tail at 2 ft, swerve over and then cut you off……that’s the midterms coming up on us. If Iran manages to string this out until even August, Trump is toast.
physicsguy:
Well, it’s usually a foolish thing to say but IMO … it’s different this time.
This deal emerged from a process that sounded like it was supposed to be an official agreement from both sides, not just a rough draft that Trump might immediately reject.
I assumed that it was the “deal” or whatever the Memorandum of Understanding was and it would be signed forthwith. Instead Trump’s decision is still hanging fire. I guess we won’t hear more until after the weekend.
If Trump rejects this “deal,” I’m arguing that it will be hard to go back to the drawing board for another preliminary agreement, that it forebodes poorly for a final result, and it will strongly favor resuming military operations, especially since Iran continues to break the ceasefire.
Iran has a US ally helping them stall an agreement; The Democratic National Party.
The writing is on the wall, if the DNC doesn’t win a majority at the mid-term, they are in deep doo doo, politically. So, stay away from large gatherings of Democrat “activists” if you can. Desperate times can precipitate desperate measures.
The US is the “Great Satan”; hence the Mullahcracy is permitted, even encouraged, to say and do anything to destroy it—including, obviously, SURVIVE (in order to destroy it).
The goal of the Democrats and Democratic-Party “adjacent” is THE SAME; though to finesse the MESSAGE for local consumption they MUST fine-tune the goal (“destroy it”) to “destroy Trump and his MAGA supporters”—this, in order to “SAVE THE COUNTRY” or “SAVE DEMOCRACY” (of course, of course…).
AesopFan on May 29, 2026 at 1:08 pm:
Your listing of the various “alien” countries of origin (and the “diversity” of crimes committed) suggests that maybe we are “lucky” they are that diverse and somewhat non-aligned, being from different sub-ethnicities and cultures.
Even the Muslims and the Hispanics do not really coalesce into a focused political force that might be stronger than they already are in places like Plano TX and Detroit/MI areas. Most of the arrivals come for personal economic betterment, not political insurrectionary purposes, so even Leftist Dem efforts to corral these folks into a common set of views and positions does not fully take hold.