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flatdawgs

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by flatdawgs

  1. 16 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

    Think about this. Rwanda is the peacekeeping force. We like Rwanda. 

    Yeah, Rwandan forces were a good choice by Mozambique and I'm sure ExxonMobil and Total were happy to see them in Mocimboa da Praia. The SADC forces seemed to have deployed into more civilian/local communities; that mandate ended last year unfortunately. 

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  2. 13 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

    Oil. 

    Seems like, oh, Nigeria has some of that as well. Surprised they've not started up on Mozambique now that Ansar al-Sunna and ISIS is back in Cabo Delgado province (large nat gas reserves) and raising hell with civilians again. Maybe it's because the moçambicanos don't speak English as well.

    (I know you know the region well, Inka)

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  3. 1 hour ago, Gatorubet said:

    Westlaw legal research now has an AI assisted aspect.  So I asked a legal question the other day, and it gave me an answer that was absolutely wrong and guided by a Supreme Court decision in our state that had been specificallylegislatively overturned.

    So I told the AI “ you dumb fuck, a statute overturned that decision”.   It then gave an answer that was directly opposite from the answer it gave me five minutes before.  

    Even though there’s a disclaimer saying, “don’t rely on what I told you”, there has to be a vast army of dumb shits who won’t do that and will submit briefs full of nonsense.  As it is, people have submitted briefs where AI completely fabricated case cites  and holdings.  I mean, it made up legal shit that never existed.   We know this because judges have been sanctioning the shit out of lawyers for using AI and not checking.   

    For a society that has already pretty much abandoned critical thinking, AI should be the nail in the coffin on that issue

     

    This is a huge problem for me as well. I have junior staff doing code research (building, fire, ADA, zoning etc.) and they invariably rely on AI to do this. Nearly daily it returns incorrect answers similar to what you got - wrong code, section was revised, etc. Although I require staff to return the actual code cite language and section reference to me, a lot of them just want to take the AI result as gospel. The last search I did, for a building code reference in a WA state suburb, current (2021) code, returned a reference to the 2009 Santa Clara CA building code. When I showed it to staff, they started to get it - I hope....

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  4. 1 hour ago, Brian Fantana said:

    956's favorite Zionist Twitter source is at it again

     

    Aside from what may have happened to his family in Mandatory Iraq, looking at the guy's photo I'm pretty sure his parents weren't killed by anyone in 1941 and likely not even his grandparents.

    (as an aside, there was a pro-German coup in Iraq in April/May 1941; it was put down by British and Commonwealth forces following which - i.e. back under British control - riots in Baghdad's Jewish Quarter killed about 200. Bad shit, no doubt; but where was the asylum from a British protectorate supposed to come from?)

  5. 39 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

     

    The article was probably written and edited by AI.

    The rest of your point stands however.  An architect or engineer isn't professional now?  Plus, you can see how this trickles down to red states---imagine opening up architectual licensing to anyone that wants one.  What could possibly go wrong.

     

     

    Huh... 30 years in the profession and now I find out it's not a profession. Well, at least the great pay and short hours make up for... WAIT. FUCK. 

    (yeah, this will go over super well in the A&E community - as an architect I needed to go through several years of mandatory internship then 9 exams. It's thankfully simplified now, although still rigorous. My engineering friends and colleagues have similar rigors to endure before becoming licensed. Sure would've been a lot easier to walk off campus with my degree and yell "I'm an architect now!" and been done with it.)

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  6. 2 hours ago, Captain Ron said:

    He's some sort of locker room glue. Holds the team together. I don't get it, I just know that's the reason why Poch likes him.

    He had the same reputation last go-around - a young McKennie even talked about it then. He plays a different role for club now and more than held his own this past summer against some top-level competition (UEFA, CONMEBOL, and CONCACAF club champions) and shut down some guy named Messi in a cup final, frustrating the hell out of him in the process. He's not likely to see many minutes, but having a guy like that on the sideline/in the clubhouse isn't necessarily a bad thing. 

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  7. If you look a bit further south, about halfway between Seattle and Portland, you'll find that the city of Longview (and another one, can't recall at the moment which) flipped their city government from R to D. Now, this part of the state is about as hard MAGA as they get around here - Lewis County is Alabama with scenery - so this was an even bigger surprise to me than Wilson's election.

    I didn't dislike Harrell, but along with the things you pointed out he continually slow-walked the residential rezoning process mandated by state law, to the point where even Spokane currently has more liberal upzoning.

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  8. 11 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

    Quoted for emphasis.  Nearly 30 years ago, we were in the tres fronteras region, and spent a couple of nights in Paraguay.  We ended up stopping at the Hotel Tirol for lunch.  Beautiful place, jungle flowers coming down to the courtyard, hummingbirds all over.  But we all commented rather immediately "hmmm....kinda got a bit of a nazi vibe going on here.   Hotel....TIROL....in Paraguay.  Yeah, we probably shouldn't linger here."  Turns out....

     

    Yeah, Stroessner (Paraguayan dictator from the mid-50s until 1989) was a bit of a fan of the Nazis, quite a few of whom - like Mengele - figured this out. He was, of course, supported by the US during nearly the entirety of his regime, and although he had to self-exile in Brazil for the remaining 15 or so years of his life his party has ruled almost uninterruptedly since then. Unlike Uruguay or Chile, Paraguay is, to say the least, more than a bit ambivalent about that era.

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  9. 22 minutes ago, Macanudo said:

    What about the Boys from Brazil?

    God, the Brazilians hate that book, and for good reason - they fought with the Allies against the Germans in Italy and in the Atlantic. Their expeditionary forces even had a cool name: As Cobras Fumantes - the Smoking Cobras (or Snakes).

    Argentina, on the other hand....

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  10. 27 minutes ago, Snake Diggity said:

    This.  What the fuck.  If there really is evidence that would be severely damaging to Trump, why the fuck wasn’t it released years ago and why the fuck aren’t people oppposed to Trump who know about it not talking about what it is?  If there’s not evidence against Trump, why isn’t Trump just releasing the files?  None of this makes any sense.

    Yeah, this whole thing is weird. If now there are allegedly 100 GOP reps who are willing to vote to release the files, why do they need Rep. Grijalva's signature on the discharge petition? Why can't one of those 100 who haven't signed do it now?

  11. 1 hour ago, Valmy77 said:

    I don't believe PR was ever offered statehood.

    The various PR statehood / commonwealth / independence plebiscites have generally been boycotted or deemed unrepresentative by one faction or another. It's far from a sure thing, should a binding referendum be held, that statehood would even be desired.

    (see also Ghost's comment above)

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  12. This country, despite an often violent and at times thuggish history, has been fortunate enough at times of major societal change to have avoided the reign of terror that has often followed upheavals in other places. When I see the utter hatred for fellow citizens (let alone fellow humans) that so many have crawled out from under their rocks to espouse, I'm not so certain we will continue to avoid it forever. Empathy fades quickly and the leopards thread becomes more and more popular when actual US congress members representing nearly a million people talk like Ogles. Ceauşescu and a Milan Esso station* out front should have told you. This is a ledge I hope can be stepped back from. It will require repudiation from a lot of people that right now revel in it.

    *(Mussolini et al were executed at Lake Como, but the point/symbolism remains)

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  13. 49 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

    Yeah, but see, each one of those files is labeled something like "Work stuff 9," except it's not work stuff, the number is the age of the subjects of the kiddie porn he has stored there.  Super clever to name it "work stuff," though....the cops will never think of looking there.

    First guy I ever had to fire literally had a folder on his work laptop titled "(Employee's) Porn." And it was. Called IT, HR, and the managing partner in before it was opened.

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  14. 2 hours ago, Tuco said:

    I'm flying SeaTac to a small city in Texas, connecting DEN on the way there and DFW on the way back.  I'm bringing lots of snacks, a bottle to fill with water, dressing in layers, etc..  Calling it an adventure.  (And I've told my wife that I plan on working until I'm 78, in case that comes up in a damages calculation...worst case scenario.) 

    Flying SEA-ORD Friday, ORD-SAN Monday; no news on any abnormal delays yet. Still planning on going but definitely paying close attention. 

  15. 2 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

    It actually says "military installations."

    But that's fine, because he'll make up more bullshit that the Venezuelan military is in cahoots with TdA or some other narco-terrorist organization.

    And now that he is going to commit undeniable acts of war, what's his plan for the humanitarian problem this is going to cause?

    Hey, come on now, that's only Count 2 of the indictments at the first Nuremberg trial of major war criminals. Probably Count 1 as well, but certainly not Counts 3 and 4!

     

    Yet.

  16. 2 hours ago, wild_turkey said:

    Why do you fuckers eat Mexican and BBQ in Europe? You have all of this amazing food to choose from and you blow a meal on a shittier version of something we already excel at in Texas. I’m genuinely confused.

    Europeans in any given area do their local food - whatever it is - very, very, very well. They've been making it for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years, and enjoying whatever the local specialties happen to be is a huge part of getting to know the local culture. However, outside of the bigger cities there is typically very little diversity in what you can find outside of the local fare. If you spend any time at all in a place you'll eventually want something else, and most of us live in places here in the US where we enjoy many different types of food so we miss it at times. I can't get Vietnamese or Mexican for love or money in southern Portugal and was very pleased to find a Thai restaurant in Tavira that was at least a vague shadow of what I can eat in Seattle (for some reason Tavira has several good Indian restaurants and a new Indian grocery). Amazing as they are, you can't just live on sardinhas, bacalhau, or lulas for every meal.

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  17. 13 minutes ago, Willfully Horn said:

    I’ve a hunch Mexican food in Europe will improve in years to come. If it hasn’t already. And, bbq. 
     

    Exporting post oak wood is a growing industry. Got to be.

    There's a creditable bbq joint across the street from the train station in Faro, Portugal - young Portuguese guy owns it, not an expat. It's where you change trains in the Algarve so I stop by there every once in a while. It's not even close to what you'd find in Texas/the South, but it's still pretty tasty.

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  18. 1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

    100%.  Checking out local grocery stores is a whole thing for us.  Gives you a real snapshot into local culture and life.

    Some amusement from Finland, for example:

    2f0bab51dcc9e633020f49f5231c793a.jpg
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    446797d6940fa8634f4eedf31bcf54c3.jpg

    lol Finland was one place where I could consistently buy things in the grocery store that upon eating turned out to be something completely different than I had thought (and I actually know a few words in Finnish). It was fun.

    I love my Pingo Doce grocery store in Portugal - food quality is so much better than here, although it took a while to get used to shelf-stable milk and eggs.

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