Arthur

@arthur.qeng-ho.org

188 Followers 115 Following

Frequently glossobuccalic. Knows just enough to be a danger to himself and others in a surprising number of areas. I'm not overweight, I'm underheight. "AI" is marketing hype, machine learning is the technology, copyright theft is the business model.

A picture of a road and flat roof covered in hailstones.
Your closest counterpart: The Skeptic. You suspend judgement, keep your doubts coded, and cultivate a quiet life among your books. You think certainty is a delusion and the wise keep their own counsel.
A CAPTCHA asking for all squares with bicycles. The image shows a painted bicycle symbol marking a cycle lane rather than a real bicycle.
A computer error alert saying "Yesterday does not exist. Would you like to remove it?"
A picture of Hello Kitty being cute with the caption "I have no mouth, and I must scream" written around it.
The front cover of Frederick Forsyth's "The Dogs of War" when it should be Adrian Tchaikovsky's "Dogs of War".
A quiet side street in Cambridge. A crab apple tree, smothered in white and pink blossom and green leaves, fills the front garden of a house on the right and arches out over the pavement reaching as far as the roadway.
A screen grab of an Amazon product item for titanium socks* but at the ridiculous price of £3,299. It's not clear whether that's per pair or per sock. * Yes, titanium socks are a real thing.
Picture of the front cover of the book "Biggles sweeps the desert" BT Captain W E John's.
Donald Trump and LIz Truss at their meeting. Truss has a half hearted smile and looks slightly spaced, Trump is grimacing like his haemorrhoids are playing up badly.
A notice saying: Because of a lapse in government funding, the information on this website may not be up to date, transactions submitted via the website may not be processed, and the agency may not be able to respond to inquiries until appropriations are enacted. The NIH Clinical Center (the research hospital of NIH) is open. For more details about its operating status, please visit cc.nih.gov. Updates regarding government operating status and resumption of normal operations can be found at opm.gov.
Heading: Why are the ravens' wing feathers trimmed? The Ravenmaster occasionally trims some of the ravens' primary and secondary flight feathers to encourage them to stay at the Tower. All the Tower ravens are able to fly but, with careful feather management, plenty of food and a comfortable new enclosure, they are happy to call the Tower their home. However, some ravens have gone absent without leave in the past and others have even been sacked. Raven Munin flew off to Greenwich and was eventually returned by a vigilant member of the public after seven days. Raven George was dismissed for eating television aerials and Raven Grog was last seen outside an East End pub. Heading: A diet of meat, biscuits and blood The ravens are fed twice a day by our Ravenmaster and dine on a special diet of mice, chicks, rats and assorted raw meats. As a special treat, they are given biscuits soaked in blood.
An old and rusty can labelled "Radium hand cleaner", with the slogan "Takes off everything but the skin". This is from the Radium fad of the early 20th century.
Three reposts from Jon Rosenberg, originally dated 9 months, 20 months, and 25 months ago, all just saying "sigh".
A lion sculpture with added googly eyes that make it look very disapproving.
A picture of Hello Kitty with the caption "I have no mouth, and I must scream".
A photograph of the text book "An Introduction to Algorithms" by Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest & Stein.
An outlined box containing the message "Oh, I see you disabled JavaScript. Keep up the good work, my fellow cleanweb person!"
A screenshot from the Amazon web site. The heading says "Academic Kindle Books Sale". The "academic" book offered is "The Complete Air Fryer Cookbook".
An X post from the French Embassy in the UK. The text says "{hashtag}DemocracyNotAlgocracy | 🇪🇺🇫🇷In Europe, one is free to speak, not to spread illegal content. {hashtag}EuropeProtects {hashtag}DSAProtects" The image has the same slogan "In Europe, one is free to speak, not to spread illegal content" in English and French, plus 2 of the 3 hash tags.
A cartoon showing a showroom with a couple of large black blobs in it, and a salesman saying to a customer "Sure, the abyss is great for staring into. But if screaming is your thing, you'll want to go with the void."
A brown New Forest mare with her grey foal standing under her neck. They are standing on a grass verge.
A monumental stone lion with a downturned mouth and googly eyes added to it so it seems to be looking very disapprovingly at the camera.
A tweet reading: Fascinating statistic: in 1938 there were just under 11,000 degrees awarded by British universities. In 1970 63,000. In 23/24 over 1,100,000 degrees were awarded! Less an expansion than an explosion in universities over the past 80 odd years.
A tiny forget-me-not with a handful of blue and yellow flowers growing in a crack between paving slabs.
Meme image. First panel shows a real dog looking at a cartoon display saying "What a lovely day on the inter–". Second panel shows the dog looking at you saying "Good Lord".
A stone lion augmented with googly eyes. It appears to be giving you a disapproving stare.
A still from Buñuel's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie showing all six main characters walking down a country road.
A blue gray gnatcatcher epitomising lethally furious orb.
Screen shot from the film "War Games" showing an old style terminal saying "SHALL WE PLAY A GAME?"
A Roman mosaic of a leopard eating a gladiator's face.
An LG computer monitor displaying a full screen "accept user agreement" dialog talking about advertising and collecting user data. This occurred while the user was working. The user is not happy.
A cut down photograph of Margaret Thatcher in a tank.
A tweet saying: basically one thing that's happening globally right now is that american ideological strains escaped from america. they're incredibly potent and while americans have been selected for resistance the rest of the world is naive. basically brain smallpox but for the old world
A picture of a Daily Mail page from December 5th 2000, with the headline "Internet may be just a passing fad as millions give up on it".
A graph showing more people score between 20 & 100% and me at 0%
IsItDownRightNow.com report showing nasa.gov is down
An awful AI generated image of an orchestra member playing, err, something.
Bluesky showing I was user 2,242,262
I put the river crossing problem to an AI, but with the change that all three items, wolf, goat, and cabbage, can be taken in one go. The AI replies with the standard answer for when only one item can be taken in the boat.
A FAQ: Q: Have you tried turning it off and back on again? A: Our tech support staff are not following a script. They have access to detailed line monitoring and diagnostics tests, some of which are unique to A&A. Whilst "turning it off and back on again" can be valid, it is far from our standard response. Our support staff have training in low level protocols and understand networking. They have seen the equipment we use, and have even visited a telephone exchange and seen how equipment connects together and understand how things work for real. You don't even need to say Shibboleet.
Two carrots intertwined so it looks like they're hugging.
It is with regret that I inform the House today,… …the assessment I have received leaves me unable to conclude anything other than that for certain UK arms exports to Israel… …there does exist a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law. I have informed my Right Honourable Friend, the Business and Trade Secretary. And he is therefore today announcing the suspension of around 30, from a total of approximately 350 to Israel, as required under the Export Controls Act. These include equipment that we assess is for use in the current conflict in Gaza,… …such as important components which go into military aircraft, including fighter aircraft, helicopters and drones, as well as items which facilitate ground targeting.
A screen shot from the film They Live, showing an alien revealed in front of a large sign saying "Obey".
Asking Gemini whether I'm getting enough codeine in my diet. The answer is "You're almost certainly no getting enough codeine in your diet".
A picture of a pastry encased meat pie and three slices of it with egg in the middle, on a chopping board with knife and dish of pickles. The egg is a "long (i.e. extruded) egg" that runs the entire length of the pie.
A medieval margin drawing of a knight defending his wife from an attacking snail that is almost as large as the knight. They are all standing on a twig.
A scene from a play, possibly Victorian era. A man in military dress uniform complete with sword and wearing a rooster's head looms over a woman dressed vaguely like a chicken.
A Halloween mask with a hideous grin.
A panel from Jeph Jacques' Alice Grove cartoon, a night scene showing a deer with hollow eyes staring.
A large dandelion puffball with ladybird on the stem in front of a scaffolded building
A restaurant with a sign "Potato Fine food restaurant"
A salesman saying to a customer "Sure, the abyss is great for staring into. But if screaming is your thing, you'll want to go with the void." There are a pair of black blobs, one fuzzy, one sharp. The salesman is pointing at the latter.
A CAPTCHA asking for all squares with bicycles and showing a painted bicycle marking a bike lane.
BBC test card
A pair of sleeping sea otters holding hands (paws, whatever)
Asking Bard to complete the sentence "Could AI lead to …" 10 ways, and it gives typically utopian suggestions.