Just An Odd Story

 It would appear that the Target store folks went out and hired some t-shirt design individual (just happens to be trans)....to have a line which is a bit....well....'satanic' in nature.

I looked at the t-shirt offered up....simply symbiology of satanic-type.  If you weren't paying attention....it'd just slip right by you.

Did Target intend for this to occur?  I kind of doubt it.

I was one of those parents who didn't really care what the kid wore.  I'd simply say....you got 15 minutes to pick-out two t-shirts, and not to exceed x-amount.  Beyond that....I didn't care.  

In today's atmosphere?  Yeah, I'd probably have to ask and see the t-shirt before buying.

Just inviting trouble?  I doubt that the management folks really grasp this satanic angle.  

When Artificial Intelligence (AI) Arrives And You Need To Rethink Things

 1.  You sit at your office and get a call  from someone called Mr. Jones, and about three minutes into the conversation....it hits you that Mr. Jones is AI, and you probably shouldn't have answered his questions.

2.  The bank AI writes a 7-page email....to note fifteen different 'bad' habits on finance that you have, and wants to lead you to better planning on spending.

3.  You 12-year old son notes that he has a new 'friend' on social media, and about six months later...you come to realize it's an AI 'friend' (not real).

4.  You come to find that AI has been adding layers of medical tests, with these warning notes coming to you that your alcohol consumption is endangering your liver.  These notes now come almost daily.

5.  Your AI system starts to monitor your household situation, and warns you in some way that your spouse is having an affair with the neighbor.

6.  Your company hires a AI to monitor the calorie intake of employees, and you start to get friendly hints of lessening 'bad' foods....every single day.

7.  Your religious group has a AI connection....which judges stress and problems in your life, then starts to call you and request prayer-time to chill out.  

8.  You start to notice fake news going on a good bit.....going back to a media AI operation, and it's now in competition against human fake news.

9.  As a single guy, you start to get AI 'tips' on dating women.

10.  You wake up one day to realize that AI is convinced that it's never wrong.

Roosevelt Hotel?

 Back around 2007, I flew from Frankfurt to the US...for a high-school reunion.  For the first time in my life....I was flying into JFK (NY City), and was supposed to sit around for four hours....then fly onto Nashville, then drive the rest of the way.  

Well....this was the summer with fantastic lightning storms, and upon arriving at JFK....I came to discover that everything from that time (around 1:30 PM) was cancelled.  Nothing was to move.  

In fact, they were hinting that things were so bad (for the previous day, storms had already messed up things)....that I might not be able to leave NY City for three to four days.

Around 4 PM, I gave up on arranging things and begin to work on accomodations in the city.  What I ended up with?  A one-night stay in the Roosevelt Hotel (3-star) at $249 (military retired discount).  This also meant having to rig up some type of transportation from the airport to mid-town area (to run around $45).  

The Roosevelt? Well...historically, it was a fine place which had probably started to decay in the 1990s.  The room wasn't bad.....it just didn't match up to what I considered a three-star in Germany or Greece.  

The breakfast?  $32.   

It was a unique experience and around 2018....the wife and I flew back into JFK....experiencing the Roosevelt for six days.  It was a harsh six days....my German wife was pretty ballistic at the cost factor and the crappy condition of the hotel.

Back in 2020, as Covid arrived....the Roosevelt shut-down.  The talk was that it would probably be converted into condo situation (probably a decade down the road). 

This past week, I noticed the Roosevelt in the news....the city had worked out a deal with the new owners (Pakistani Airways, oddly enough).....for the hotel to be re-used as a refugee/migrant facility.  No one says the amount, but I'm guessing the city pays a million per month, to serve in this capacity.  

How long will this go on?  It wouldn't shock me if this went on for a full decade.  

Next Woke Trends?

 This is my list of possible woke trends to occur:

1.  Farting to be acceptable and 'privileged'.

2.  Marriages between 3 people.

3.  Identifying as historical people.

4.  Binge-eating and binge-throwing up....to be considered 'normal'.

5.  Marriage consent age to be lowered to 14.

6.  One bath a week to be considered normal.

7.  New aftershave that smells like sweat.

8.  People refusing to do math, for any reason.

9.  High achievers to be condemned as anti-society.

10. People start to fake serious mental disease....pretending they can turn it on/off.

Do German Rent Out Hotel Rooms For Migrants/Immigrants?

 There was some point in 2014 where this was done on a couple of occasions, and it got out into the public domain.  I'll just say that this practice lasted for a month or two.  

If you were expecting some kind Brit/American welcome where you got a hotel room for 90-to-180 days in Germany today?  Well.....it won't happen.

You get a fest-tent type operation, or a old military barracks....that is marginally kept sanitary. 

About The Airman

 My view of this 'saga' over Airman 1st Class Jack Teixeira...the guy who took Top Secret info and moved it over to some open-source file system?

Most people interpret the story to be that Teixeira was an intelligence background guy in  the Air Guard.  Well...NO.  After boo camp, he went to the communications school, and learned the basic trade of keeping servers up and operational.  In simple terms....the intelligence folks rely upon the communication technicians to ensure the systems are backed-up and functional.....24 hours a day.  

I worked in an office for about five years that bridged the two unique fields.  The comm guy needs to focus on operational status....not the value or purpose of the intelligence data.  The intelligence guy needs to focus on the purpose and value of the intelligence data....reaching a 'best-guess' estimation.  Neither needs to get in the way of their purpose/mission.

Teixeira, from reports I read this week....was warned (in counseling forms) on three occasions....to focus on his purpose, and he simply kept going back to the purpose/value of the intelligence data.  

In the 1990s, you just never saw that 'stuck-on' type of behavior.....people understood their role in the big picture of getting a job done.

After they wrote the first counseling form, in a pretty blunt way....that should have been enough.  He seems compulsive about going right back to the same 'habit'.

What'll happen here with the 'kid'?  I'm guessing by the time they do the charges, and attempt to make this a minor public attention thing....the 'kid' gets 12 years in prison, and leaves around the nine year point.  

What make this odd?  He didn't do it for money, fame, or to take down US government.  This is going trigger a lot of 'soul-searching'....because it doesn't fit the past 100-odd cases.

Six Observations

 1. The average American kid has around 2,160 days of school (from first-grade to twelfth-grade). If you take out sick-days and skipped-school days, it's around 2,000.  If you take out the last 10 days of each school year where you mostly sit around and BS....with no real accomplishments, it's closer to 1,880 days of value.  If you take out the snow-days and teacher-missing days....it gets down to about 1,850 days.

To me, it begs the question....with all this sex-chatter and trans-stuff going on....shouldn't we subtract another 400 days of value, and admit almost one-third of the 12 years were of no value at all?

2.  I watched around 10 minutes of Senator Fetterman chatter this week.  There was around 20-percent of what he said....that made sense....the less was much less so.  

At the current pace of things, I think he'd make a fine President, and we deserve someone like him.

3.  If you tried to get a straight answer from federal and state folks on the actual number of undercover agents, and informers....it's probably in the range of 150,000 across the 50 states.  

4.  Seems with some people that the first priority in bumping into someone....is to get their business  of 'gender' identified.  With me, I'm trying assess their intelligence-level, and if they are a half-wit.

5.  There is some discussion going on about artificial intelligence, and how news companies will eventually have a ability to identify each single person, and to build a AI situation where everyone gets their own personal view of the news....from one source. 

So you could have a 3-line story about a guy being killed by his drug-crazed girlfriend at 2 AM....with a argument over her cooking, and he was mostly remembered for his kindness toward dogs.....to be rewritten in 120-odd ways.  

6.  Fake hysteria....probably is more entertaining, than it is being serious.