tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44590673545231133402024-03-14T21:27:49.204-07:00little margie doc-blogLittle margie productions is a small independent film production company based in Helsinki, Finland. Owned by Maggy Fellman, it makes cultural documentaries for a general audience that have won awards for content and photography.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger168125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4459067354523113340.post-28212081699569402352024-03-14T06:39:00.000-07:002024-03-14T06:41:30.667-07:00AI takes a giant LEAP<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="288" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HK6y8DAPN_0" width="512" youtube-src-id="HK6y8DAPN_0"></iframe></div><br /><p><b>Eki </b>sent me a link to three <b>SORA</b>* videos. And one he made for a for a competition. AI did the script, narration, video, edit with a prompt. He said some day AI could doing his job. When <b>Midjourney </b>came out a couple of years ago people who thought ‘what a hoot’, are out of a jobs today. Better check if you’re on the endangered species list. For the time being <b>Open AI</b> is keeping Sora under wraps until it can figure out how to control its use. As they say, ‘good luck with…</p><p>There’s a monster in our midst, smarter than US. <b>Geoffrey Hinton</b>, the god-father of AI, is spooked by his creation. And hopes to hell someone figures out how to rein it in. 50% of the world holds elections in 2024. Fake AI crap will flood social media. What’s to stop it? <b>Trump & Co.</b> are hyper-ventilating.</p><p>Eki says AI is in its pre-teen phase. You can bet that it’s going to get smarter and more versatile. Without answers it’s better to sit back, pour a glass a glass of something, strong, smoke a joint, meditate. Or as Gestalt-ers say as infinitum: ‘stay in the here and now’. AI is here for better or worse. </p><p>*Japanese word for ’sky’</p><p>Sources: Eki, New York Times, Economist</p><p>Next week: ‘Double, double, toil and trouble……’: * 3rd party candidates for US president 2024 </p><p>*Three witches in Macbeth</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="288" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Sq1QZB5baNw" width="512" youtube-src-id="Sq1QZB5baNw"></iframe></div><br /><i>Note: When <b>Maggy </b>sent me this blog, it took me a few seconds to remember which giant leap we are talking about - they come at a pace where "a week ago" is ancient history. Since the SORA announcement, there have been many other giant leaps already.<br /></i><p><i>There's a fully autonomous software engineer called <b>Devin</b>, an AI that can not only do code, but also all other steps required in making applications: research, plan, test, compile and deploy. Essentially, it is a computer program that can make computer programs without human intervention. <b>Claude 3</b> was announced, and it apparently outperforms <b>ChatGPT 4</b>. <b>Stable Diffusion 3</b> is coming too, and it seems to be better than <b>Dall-E 3</b> or <b>Midjourney </b>- and it also does videos. And then there's also another breakthrough with OpenAI brains - <b>Figure-01</b> (video above) is a humanoid robot that is not only dexterous, but can also see, hear - and think. Essentially, it is the robot from science fiction films - a real life cousin of <b>3CPO </b>(Before you ask, it's the golden robot from Star Wars, Maggy). As far as video goes, the "Chinese Amazon", <b>Alibaba</b>, announced a new model called <b>EMO AI</b>. It can take any image, and any song or speech, and make the image perform to the audio. <br /><br /></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="288" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wtcSZdHZne4" width="512" youtube-src-id="wtcSZdHZne4"></iframe></i></div><i><br /></i><p><i>But back to SORA. Sora is a video-generating AI that can make long (up to a minute) videos that are nearly indistinguishable from actual footage, with a lot of motion and even emotion. I'm of course already using the state-of-the-art-available-now video generators in my work, but they are nowhere near SORA - yet - but even as-is they are good enough to many tasks: creating elements for further manipulation, even full-screen videos as long as the clip is short (2-4 seconds or so) and the motion is minimal.<br /><br />SORA could also be used to create, well, pretty much anything. Including using it for nefarious purposes. So, just like they did with ChatGPT, OpenAI has a period of testing and aligning the model to acceptable values. We will get our hands on it some day, but it can take months. But when we do, it will be interesting, not least for the future of my discipline, visual effects production.</i></p><p><i>CU</i></p><p><i>--</i></p><p><i>Eki</i></p>Eki Halkkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02756473076101700452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4459067354523113340.post-3964671204612379532024-02-26T08:26:00.000-08:002024-03-04T00:58:58.527-08:00MICHELLE OBAMA for PREZ 2024??<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrSa0vWc8IDgGVC4EyQP5pw-pkQp61pzU4L_fViBgBvsjzVbdrHCn4n8seoR3sVbRanHJyOcP912XC32LGJHNtuJo3kGahMT-EcTvTSw-O9_mEBuWKyoOlh6JHro8YINsFUFzbz8pZO0Be1nwt0SIACqZUe6s-Ewqdv6n4aBNR7uwCckKxniq9RjfjQLsm/s1600/ekihalkka_Window_frames_and_the_ceiling_of_the_presidents_oval__e5e60947-dfde-4378-902c-6a01ec2cc969_EDIT.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrSa0vWc8IDgGVC4EyQP5pw-pkQp61pzU4L_fViBgBvsjzVbdrHCn4n8seoR3sVbRanHJyOcP912XC32LGJHNtuJo3kGahMT-EcTvTSw-O9_mEBuWKyoOlh6JHro8YINsFUFzbz8pZO0Be1nwt0SIACqZUe6s-Ewqdv6n4aBNR7uwCckKxniq9RjfjQLsm/w400-h400/ekihalkka_Window_frames_and_the_ceiling_of_the_presidents_oval__e5e60947-dfde-4378-902c-6a01ec2cc969_EDIT.png" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Michelle at Oval Office, by Midjourney & Eki</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p>Will she or won't she? The New York Post says it's a done deal that <b>MICHELLE </b>will take the plunge. Throw her hat in the ring in May. God save the Dems. If <b>Old Joe</b> runs and loses to <b>Trump</b> it will be an epic disaster. Michelle, whip smart, quick on her feet, experienced, is almost too good to be true. The Guardian says it ain't gonna happen.</p><p>Joe Biden's cognitive skills have been rusty for a while. It all became public when the special counsel, appointed to investigate Biden's stashing and using state documents. The SC spilled the beans and caused an 8.9 earthquake in the White House. But the disclosure wasn't news to anyone interested in the 2024 election. High ranking Dems have suggested Biden step down. A scientist wrote an article for the Economist with the message that Trump and Biden are both too old to run for president.</p><p>So we liberal voters are left to hope and wonder if Michelle will step in and save the day. And maybe save US democracy. What a cliff-hanger. Bets anyone??</p><p>Sources; Ne York Post, Economist, Guardian</p><p>Next Week: AI takes a GIANT LEAP</p><p><i><br />Note: Well, Biden is old, sure, but not much older and Trump. And I'd say the image of his mental decline is more a product of political opposition propaganda than reality (and his mental health is also arguably leaps and bounds above his rival). In the latter, A.K.A. The Real World (TM), Biden is doing quite fine, actually. In a recent <a href="http://www.brandonrottinghaus.com/uploads/1/0/8/7/108798321/presidential_greatness_white_paper_2024.pdf">2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey</a>, he was ranked the 14th best president of all times by political science academics and historians. Not too shabby for someone whom you call "rusty".</i></p><p><i>As far as Michelle Obama goes, she would probably make a great president. But, unfortunately, I must side with the Guardian, it probably will not happen.<br /><br />PS: Trump ranked last, no surprise there.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/18/us/politics/biden-trump-presidential-rankings.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/18/us/politics/biden-trump-presidential-rankings.html</a><br /><br />CU<br />--<br />Eki</i></p>Eki Halkkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02756473076101700452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4459067354523113340.post-65777987643980460032024-02-05T10:23:00.000-08:002024-02-05T10:38:52.131-08:00 EKI’s AI take on PINK FLOYD <iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="288" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?si=TKA1DCKLPuz7rEHk&list=PLeMslc3Hyxeb-SNB3hHZr8OjHUAax3WMd" title="YouTube video player" width="512"></iframe>
<p><span><span><i><span style="font-size: 12px;">Pink Floyd: Dark Side of The Moon | A 50th Anniversary Animated Tribute by Eki & AI |</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Eki </span></span></i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">asked me if I knew PINK FLOYD. I got all puffed up and said, </span></span><i style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px;">‘DUH’</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">.</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px;"> And added, </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px;"><i>‘but I don’t know HIS music</i></span></span><span style="font-size: 12px;"><i>’</i></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px;"><i>.</i> Eki jumped in with a withering, <i>’it’s a group, not a person’.</i></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px;">And said,</span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px;">for the</span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px;">50th anniversary of</span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px;"><i>‘The Dark Side of the Moon’</i> they invited AI prompt engineers to illustrate the album.</span></p><p class="gmail-p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A huge task but right up Eki’s</span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">alley. He sent me the link to ’The Wall’.</span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">And told me Pink Floyd had a huge influence on him as a kid. When he saw i 'The Wall' as a young teen he decided ‘movies and music’ were what he wanted to do when he grew up. He stuck with it and made it happen.</span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p><p class="gmail-p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To illustrate the old album using AI was a brilliant way for the iconic group to celebrate the Golden anniversary.</span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">And give fans a way to to take part in the project. Eki sent me a link</span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">to his</span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">AI illustrated album. When I asked</span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">people</span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">about Pink Floyd, who were around Eki ’s age, they zeroed in on ‘The Wall’. But when I talked to a GenZ</span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">guy, he knew Pink Floyd</span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">was famous, but he liked </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">‘Arctic Monkey’</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">. Time marches on. But Pink Floyd found a way to make their 50 year old ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ new again.</span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Hats off!</span></p><p class="gmail-p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sources: Eki, internet, interviews</span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Next week:<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>Please say YES!<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> Will M</span>ICHELLE<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>OBAMA run or PRESIDENT 2024?</span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="288" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YJLhKd9yoO8" width="512" youtube-src-id="YJLhKd9yoO8"></iframe></div><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Note:</i></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>To be more specific, it's an animation competition: the rules do allow the use of AI, but do not require it. Also, the task was to create an animated video for any song from the album - or more. It was my own decision to go full monty and try to come up with videos for every song, the whole album.<br /><br />And that decision was made because of the emergence of AI - doing the work manually would have been practically impossible, due to the sheer amount of animation needed. So, i not only created the majority of images with AI, i also created the majority of the hundreds of needed text prompts with AI. As well as some custom code needed to make it all work. <br /><br />This said, there was a lot of manual work involved too - 3D and 2D animation, editing, compositing etc. I chose to attempt a hand-drawn style, something that would have been theoretically possible in the 1970s if they had unlimited budget. So even the 3D animation elements were pushed through AI processing for the hand-drawn look.<br /><br />To me, this was largely a testing ground for the AI tools - a reason to spend time learning them and pushing them to the limit. The judges are still out making decisions about the winners, but to me, the trip itself was the goal. Getting awarded would of course be a nice bonus, but considering the high number of participants and the high quality of many entries, a quite unlikely one.<br /><br />PS: </i>Maggy's <i>little blunder about the identity of Pink Floyd is not an uncommon one. In fact, Pink Floyd themselves have made fun of the misconception, e.g. in the lyrics of </i>"Have a Cigar"<i>, where the record label executive asks them </i>"Oh, by the way, which one is Pink?".<br /><i><br />PS2: I was 5 years old when </i>The Dark Side Of The Moon<i> came out - a little too little to pay attention. But when </i>The Wall<i> was released about a decade later... I've been a fan of the band ever since, and the ground-breaking animations in The Wall feature film were one of the reasons why I pursued a career in the film/animation/VFX industry, along with the more usual suspects like </i>ILM<i>:s work on </i>Star Wars, Raiders<i> etc. They were indeed creating magic, and I wanted to do that too.</i></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>CU</i></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>--</i></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Eki</i></span></p>Eki Halkkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02756473076101700452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4459067354523113340.post-53289131802749404442024-01-10T14:24:00.000-08:002024-01-14T06:42:22.271-08:00CHARISMA: weapon of mass destruction<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhP8qylbb924kG1bVUdacG-VEp6sBnNUZlxJ6ONF6tRk-oWo-JR1ToMx2yHUEz3itgXVovB6UBwDw5cr2cOn_9P5XxdobjS5yOMwI4wQDR-smQCMLad3WKxQ0UKwP0XJWkCqBI1pQdBTDiT2GQ7Y7XPreQCGPTOI6n1IZwetXNVsb6nxq44h8SR-pJvLRf/s1024/DonaldAdolf00045-4021738113.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhP8qylbb924kG1bVUdacG-VEp6sBnNUZlxJ6ONF6tRk-oWo-JR1ToMx2yHUEz3itgXVovB6UBwDw5cr2cOn_9P5XxdobjS5yOMwI4wQDR-smQCMLad3WKxQ0UKwP0XJWkCqBI1pQdBTDiT2GQ7Y7XPreQCGPTOI6n1IZwetXNVsb6nxq44h8SR-pJvLRf/w640-h640/DonaldAdolf00045-4021738113.png" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Donald and Adolf at a comedy club stage, by Stable Diffusion</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>"History repeats itself, first as tragedy, next as farce."</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Karl Marx1888-1935</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><p></p><b>HITLER </b>had IT in spades. <b>TRUMP </b>has IT a knock-of f version. Two badass guys with egos on crack-cocaine. Comic-book kooks. Their chosen villains/victims: Jews and migrants. Con-men who hooked masses of malcontents with their dark <b>CHARISMA</b>.
<br /><br />It took the <b>HITLER </b>Nazi nine years (1924- 1933) to take over the German government . He lasted about twelve. Trump has been at it for eight. His legal troubles help haul in the money. His cult-base is rock-solid. He has an iron-grip on the Republican party. <div><br /></div><div>And is neck and neck, or ahead of <b>Biden </b>in multiple polls
If Trump wins in 2024 it will be because Joe (past his sell-by-date) Biden lost. When high-ranking Dem, <b>David Axelrod</b>, said the 80 year old should quit. Biden called him a 'prick'. That ain't ‘charisma’. TRUMP/HITLER: love ‘em, hate ‘em, has IT. <br /><br /><br />Sources: the Economist, Washington Post, New York Times, Cambridge dictionary, personal opinion
<br /><br />Next week: Eki does Pink Floyd</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><i>"The argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with an average voter."</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Winston Churchill 1874-1965</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYw7_NEy5FH37ZH4JkCQ2_779ZrTma5BgTQ88LjGpuW8B81ixbaab4-BA1Wbm6147QAbsPXZYJsBPCqq-iO84BMhORatdRBKcz3XGyWjw93K6TzimOA08MGHPBFFZD_3bf4kJOQQpUHGO7YcwR60WcJQhL1pe7xcnjAQvfcWjivTO7wuD4vmc9MDCVQVsx/s1024/DonaldAdolf00050-4021738118.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYw7_NEy5FH37ZH4JkCQ2_779ZrTma5BgTQ88LjGpuW8B81ixbaab4-BA1Wbm6147QAbsPXZYJsBPCqq-iO84BMhORatdRBKcz3XGyWjw93K6TzimOA08MGHPBFFZD_3bf4kJOQQpUHGO7YcwR60WcJQhL1pe7xcnjAQvfcWjivTO7wuD4vmc9MDCVQVsx/w200-h200/DonaldAdolf00050-4021738118.png" width="200" /></a></div>Note: No, it is not Joe Biden's fault if Trump wins. It is the fault of the people who <b>vote </b>for Trump. Period. <br /><br />When (well, still "if") there are two or more options, and one of them is Trump, voting for him is a catastrophic failure by the person casting the vote. It is rather irrelevant who the other option is, the only reasonable option is to vote for someone else. Anyone.<br /><br />And that right there is arguably the second most dangerous human trait. People act and vote based on emotion, not on reason. What is the most dangerous trait then you might ask? It's a close relative: faith. A strong belief that is held despite of evidence (as opposed to trust, a belief that is held because of evidence).<br /><br />These two traits, held by ordinary people, create Donalds, and Adolfs. </i><i>Charisma is irrelevant. Or rather, it should be.</i><i><br /><br />- Eki</i></div><div><br /><br /></div>Eki Halkkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02756473076101700452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4459067354523113340.post-19432965711923655902023-11-17T04:23:00.000-08:002023-11-17T04:23:48.154-08:00 FUCK, VITTU, JARRAOA, PUTAIN, FOK, FOKK, FUNKEN<p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijVnQFqa04wO4dlpBaZt47B86KpWQmFZD_iSkftnPTfQfMlaI380kQTx07mLzC71r67GLfeYoe0KtlToSbcWDy7Mp-42D9N-UvGhZamBZTa40DgCsbOzqcy2qqflUyFP3n1wWrtSWaxiXX8h_Hyb7Zw-RB1RF-kJTbwVTgLVs0wLH-qmMWMyG-l8pjl_bD/s1024/5664ded7-1b12-4639-8419-99340471cae2.webp" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijVnQFqa04wO4dlpBaZt47B86KpWQmFZD_iSkftnPTfQfMlaI380kQTx07mLzC71r67GLfeYoe0KtlToSbcWDy7Mp-42D9N-UvGhZamBZTa40DgCsbOzqcy2qqflUyFP3n1wWrtSWaxiXX8h_Hyb7Zw-RB1RF-kJTbwVTgLVs0wLH-qmMWMyG-l8pjl_bD/w250-h400/5664ded7-1b12-4639-8419-99340471cae2.webp" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Swear" by ChatGPT/Dall·E3</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Whatever language, swearing works. In a study at Keele university, participants jumped into ice-cold water. Half were told to swear, the other half to use neutral words. The ‘swearers’ were able to stay in the freezing water 67% longer than the ‘neutrals’. They also found that swearing increased self-confidence and risk-taking. Oxford researchers found 'swearers'’ to be more intelligent, creative and honest. than NSs.</span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">According to the OED ‘shit’ was first used to describe ‘obnoxious persons in 1504. ‘Bull ’ came from the old French word ‘bole’ (clod or lump of earth). In English it became ‘bull’. The origin of ‘fuck’ probably came from the Germanic languages: ‘funken’ (ger). </span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Swear words work best if they’re kept in the shadows. The taboo that gives them power. In 2020 ‘History of Swearwords’, hosted by <b>Nicholas Cage</b> began streaming on Netflix. It got trashed by the LA Times: ‘predictable and unfunny’. In 2022 the ‘word of the year’ was FAMO (fuck around and find out). Bad omens. Let’s not fuck up a good word. Hold your fire. When you need it BLAST OFF. </span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sources: New York Tines, NY Post, Daily Madil online, OED online</span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Next week: CHARISMA: weapon of mass destruction</span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Note: Using swear words can be an enjoyable art. It can also be just uncivilized and dull. It's all about the context, the company, and the actual language used. I have noticed that in the now unfortunately rare occasions me and my old pals get together, we all immediately switch the language we use. It's as if we were still teenagers, trying to verbally out-rude each other. It is fun, even liberating, as long as the bubble is maintained. As soon as, for some reason, something breaks the bubble for a second, and you think about the interaction you're having from an outsider's angle, it is, well, just plain stupid ;-)</i></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>CU</i></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>--</i></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Eki</i></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><br /><br /></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p>Eki Halkkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02756473076101700452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4459067354523113340.post-12153360165949787912023-10-16T09:32:00.007-07:002023-10-16T09:35:08.612-07:00LUCKY in life, lucky in love<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTpAYeOGEyXdSJ5i30SLDS5PqTE1DmnaZI7xcS-UyKLpMgovYHYKmNvpHIWk7Cwtst-Q5OzV4yeSqnyE8GPQgC2ZPiSPM_qVNJ5zGxDdsy11utDvfEoC1D15UyEOV9v2yG_rTGFJ2ewEP5JxGKATXKJaPmx2MW6Yqf8ObY9wAxFBWLQ6nCFj9phxk4htT3/s1456/ekihalkka_winning_the_genetic_lottery_the_game_show_9e3d4cfa-b046-46ec-b8ae-a23b3088da70.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="816" data-original-width="1456" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTpAYeOGEyXdSJ5i30SLDS5PqTE1DmnaZI7xcS-UyKLpMgovYHYKmNvpHIWk7Cwtst-Q5OzV4yeSqnyE8GPQgC2ZPiSPM_qVNJ5zGxDdsy11utDvfEoC1D15UyEOV9v2yG_rTGFJ2ewEP5JxGKATXKJaPmx2MW6Yqf8ObY9wAxFBWLQ6nCFj9phxk4htT3/s320/ekihalkka_winning_the_genetic_lottery_the_game_show_9e3d4cfa-b046-46ec-b8ae-a23b3088da70.png" width="512" /></a></div>"Winning the genetic lottery", By MIdjourney AI<br /><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></div><div>The NYT’s famous writer-friend told her ‘dumb luck’ helped put him over the top. Mega-investor, <b>Warren Buffet</b> said he won the ovarian lottery. That goes for anyone born in Scandinavia.</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Eki </b>loves music and movies. His scientist parents encouraged him to follow his own path. I saw a cute guy in the Nice railway station. Then again on the train to Paris. I sat across from him. After a while, I asked where he was from. He said ‘Finland’. And asked me to lunch. A rainy day, a speeding train, a wine-fueled lunch, the rest is...<br /><br />If bad luck hits, do what Nietzsche says: <i>“Face life as you find it, defiant and fearless”</i>. But if a good fluke falls your way, with eyes-wide-open, grab it. Luck takes pluck. </div><div><br /></div><div>Sources: New York Times, internet, personal experience </div><div><br /></div><p>Next week:MOVIES: long, longer, longest, ZZZZZZZZZZZ </p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="288" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3LopI4YeC4I" width="512" youtube-src-id="3LopI4YeC4I"></iframe></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>Note: The above video by one of my all-time favorite Youtube science education channels, <b>Veritasium</b>, is a pretty good look at the role luck plays in success. Of course, he is not alone, the subject has been studied in a more formal scientific way, for example in a paper called </i>"Talent vs Luck: the role of randomness in success and failure", <i>and the finding is, to quote the authors:</i></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">In particular, we show that, if it is true that
some degree of talent is necessary to be successful in life, almost never the most talented
people reach the highest peaks of success, being overtaken by mediocre but sensibly luckier
individuals. </p></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;">https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.07068</div></blockquote><p><i>So yes, it's largely down to luck, random chance. And it indeed does start with the genetic and socio-geographic lottery. Where and to which family you happen to be born weighs the dice heavily right off the bat. I consider myself lucky, I won the lottery just by being born as a somewhat healthy, white heterosexual male, in Finland, to an academic family that supported my life choices, even when they were different from what my parents chose. Now that I'm also middle-aged, it's pretty much the most privileged place in the social hierarchy there is. I couldn't be less oppressed even if I tried, and I'm very much aware that it is not in any way my own accomplishment, but rather just luck.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>CU</i></p><p><i>--</i></p><p><i>Eki</i></p><div style="text-align: left;"></div><br />Eki Halkkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02756473076101700452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4459067354523113340.post-59456493311434549742023-10-02T09:18:00.016-07:002023-10-02T09:42:47.092-07:00 Don’t close your eyes. Plagiarise. Let nothing evade your eyes.*<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIG.jNr6cpLDm_gn_SBs864E?pid=ImgGn" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="512" src="https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIG.jNr6cpLDm_gn_SBs864E?pid=ImgGn" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pablo Picasso, leading a gang of thieves, stealing paintings from a museum.<br />By Bing Image Creator (A.K.A. Dall·E 3)</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: left;"><b>"Good artists borrow, great artists steal" - </b><b>Pablo Picasso 1881-1973**</b></p></blockquote><p><b>Eki</b> took clips from <i>‘Abilene Town’’ (I942IPD)</i> and made LMP’s short political video <i>‘Showdown” </i>starring <b>Donald Trump. </b>In 1980 <b>Ronald Reagan</b> first said, <i>"Let’s make America great again".</i> Trump copped it, dumped the limp ‘let’s’, made millions of MAGA caps and the rest is... But if you breach copyright infringements and get caught there can be hell to pay.</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://img.newspapers.com/img/img?user=0&id=223800298&clippingId=8200297&width=820&height=494&crop=2730_2488_1602_967&rotation=0" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="483" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://img.newspapers.com/img/img?user=0&id=223800298&clippingId=8200297&width=820&height=494&crop=2730_2488_1602_967&rotation=0" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Note: Goldwater beat Reagan to it (The Orlando Sentinel, 1964). But the MAGA slogan was actually coined even earlier, in 1940 by Senator Alexander Wiley (R).</i></td></tr></tbody></table><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Joe Biden</b> had to ax his first presidential campaign when he mooched phrases and mannerisms from a British statesman. <b>Fareed Zaharia,</b> a journalist for Time, CNN, and a contributor to the Washington Post was suspended after he copied text from the New Yorker. He wrote an abject new culpa ad and is back on the job. But his high-flying rep. is dented.</p><p>Now AI is under the gun. <b>George R.R. Martin</b> and a bunch of other writers have sued Open AI for copyright infringements. Chats GPT’s prequel to ‘Game of Thrones’ might have bruised Martin’s ego. I can empathize. AI wrote a couple of posts for LM’s blog. It kinda knocks your socks off when five no-error posts pop out of the machine in about three minutes. Plagiarism might take a new tack If you want to know what comes next, ask <b>JANE AUSTEN AI.</b>** *</p><p><br /></p><p>* <b>Tom Lehrer</b></p><p>** Lifted from “Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal” - <b>Igor Stravinsky</b> 1882-1971</p><p>*** Jane Austen AI - Instagram, Facebook, WHATSAPP</p><p>Sources: The Economist, New York Times, internet, <b>Elizabeth Nelson</b></p><p>Next week: MIGRANTS & the RIGHT WING: cause & effect?</p><p>Re: LMP post - <b>FREE SPEECH: a small-town newspaper goes to war</b>: The Marion County police chief who organized the raid on the Morton County RECORD has been suspended.<br /><br /><br /></p><br /><i>Note: The whole concept of the various artists suing the AI companies is, well, pretty much just bogus. Yes, the models are trained on existing works of art. But so are art students.<br /><br />The idea behind the lawsuits, I guess, is that the models somehow copy all existing art (be that images or text), and then create a collage of them to come up with novel text or images. But that is not at all how it works. Instead, just like human artists, the models learn about styles, composition, and whatever, and use that knowledge to make new art.<br /><br />Sure, the user can prompt the AI to make, say...<br /><br /></i><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIG.yCxjBCrOeFNTBvpSAaeP?pid=ImgGn" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="512" src="https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIG.yCxjBCrOeFNTBvpSAaeP?pid=ImgGn" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Game of Thrones in the style of Pablo Picasso (Bing)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><i><br />...and it will happily comply. But so might an art student. Now, it's likely that the AI does a very good job at it. Perhaps better than a human would. But it is nevertheless new art, not copied from anything.<br /><br />You can of course ask the AI to create a copy of existing work, and it may do a good job at it. So could the commissioned art student, or you yourself, if you have the skills. But even that is not a violation of copyrights. Publishing that image might be, but that's your fault, not the AI's, not the art student's.<br /><br />In other words, if AI is used to make and publish work that violates copyright, it is pretty clear that the violator is the person using AI. Not the AI itself, or the company making it, any more than a company that makes canvas, paint, and brushes (or typewriters) is.</i><br />Eki Halkkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02756473076101700452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4459067354523113340.post-77120199096098325242023-09-12T05:43:00.008-07:002023-09-13T00:28:22.335-07:00TRUMP DUMP: VOTERS crave crap<i><span style="color: red; font-family: times; font-size: 500;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh94kshBrD76xkIaLlPDhjCBUH11KW9mWhui312ZNW37lsNTsrTMP5UKU0K2RU73fI955s4463kLgbnv8blsVgLSqnEKSz2oIyOtmDVYnWAPIV5lCapZh2BvH1gIog8EQLHkNbIKVOgPnR5C-wP_XSfIVaBJXiELriw7lts1QGBr_7lYzDOI9l78z9ddJRt/s1024/BoxingParties.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh94kshBrD76xkIaLlPDhjCBUH11KW9mWhui312ZNW37lsNTsrTMP5UKU0K2RU73fI955s4463kLgbnv8blsVgLSqnEKSz2oIyOtmDVYnWAPIV5lCapZh2BvH1gIog8EQLHkNbIKVOgPnR5C-wP_XSfIVaBJXiELriw7lts1QGBr_7lYzDOI9l78z9ddJRt/s320/BoxingParties.png" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"In the rink" by Stable Diffusion</td></tr></tbody></table></span></i><p> </p><blockquote style="border: 1; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p><i>"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."</i></p><p><i> Winston Churchill 1874-1965</i></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"> </p><p style="text-align: left;">Go figure. <b>Trump </b>gets four indictments, and 91 felonies - his poll numbers skyrocket. A judge accuses him of rape - <i>‘big deal’</i>. He pays off a porn star - <i>‘what else is new’.</i> 1,000 Jan. 6 rioters are locked up - <i>‘elect Trump they’ll get a pardon’.</i> Ditto for his Proud Boys on steroids who’ve been tried and convicted. USA today.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Trump’s gift for graft is gold - money pours in. His base (approx. 30% of voters) is rock-solid. And now he’s got an organization behind the screen to <i>‘support him’.</i> A scary piece in the Economist tells a cautionary tale about a group formed after the 2020 election. Its mission: administrative takeover - i.e. plant Trump loyalists in the Justice Department, FBI, HomelandSecurity, CIA. The Economist also zeroed in on the rise of AUTOCRATS.<br /><br /><br /></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoAQYzCMbHfgIsDAvp_Dmji0Ie7fjg1MMIuDeDfeZFeTkFyoYRDceRfzXNE2Q9mfcPWOkL6cwww7Kt62J0peOn7_gdHSbs0eJZ9BsmJ0toGMfpE4T82RCDK1YgE7tRL8AqF9Q8eufWv9y8ElfvP_cjPkC_eC4CiTxoTu7v5ggUpY0O8YElLDwQMM7hxMCL/s1024/Donkelephant2.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoAQYzCMbHfgIsDAvp_Dmji0Ie7fjg1MMIuDeDfeZFeTkFyoYRDceRfzXNE2Q9mfcPWOkL6cwww7Kt62J0peOn7_gdHSbs0eJZ9BsmJ0toGMfpE4T82RCDK1YgE7tRL8AqF9Q8eufWv9y8ElfvP_cjPkC_eC4CiTxoTu7v5ggUpY0O8YElLDwQMM7hxMCL/s320/Donkelephant2.png" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Donkelephant in the wild by Stable Diffusion</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: left;">But is America ready to ‘terminate the constitution’ - a Trump threat. Dig out the Deep State’s civil service. Dump the two-term law. Restrict voters’ rights. The US electoral system** gave him a win in 2020. Unless Trump is behind bars, it could happen again. But this time he and trained troops will be ready to take over. Historian <b>John Meacham</b> said the state of American democracy is in crisis. Will the US jump off the cliff? FAFO.</p><p> </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i>"Democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others." ** </i></div></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">* Voters cast ballots for electors versus a win by popular vote. </p><p style="text-align: left;">** Unknown source, but attributed to Winston Churchill.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br />Sources: The Economist, internet</p><p style="text-align: left;">Next week: Don’t close your eyes. Plagiarise. Let nothing evade your eyes.*</p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>*Tom Lehrer</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><i>Note: We do live in strange times. As mentioned earlier, the cold breeze of authoritarian populism (read: wannabenazism) can be felt here in Finland too, unfortunately. But instead of that, today my mind wonders to election math, which is interesting in itself, even without talking about the misuse of the system, gerrymandering or otherwise. <br /><br />Even when trying to be as honest and fair as possible, dividing a set number of seats can get very tricky. We have seen this in the Finnish elections too - the opposition parties (a.k.a. previous government) actually got more votes than the current government, but due to election math, ended up with fewer seats.</i></p><p style="text-align: left;">CU</p><p style="text-align: left;">--</p><p style="text-align: left;">Eki</p><p style="text-align: left;"><i><br />PS: This video is an interesting introduction to the topic, for those with geeky tendencies:</i><br /><br /><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="288" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GVhFBujPlVo" width="512" youtube-src-id="GVhFBujPlVo"></iframe></div><br />Eki Halkkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02756473076101700452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4459067354523113340.post-41394374323819660322023-09-05T10:55:00.007-07:002023-09-05T23:51:40.192-07:00FREE SPEECH: a small-town newspaper goes to WAR<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/981576724548579359/1148668277212577812/ekihalkka_Police_raid_at_a_newspaper_74346acd-06d7-443d-af1e-77ca4fd013d6.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="448" data-original-width="800" height="288" src="https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/981576724548579359/1148668277212577812/ekihalkka_Police_raid_at_a_newspaper_74346acd-06d7-443d-af1e-77ca4fd013d6.png" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Police raids newspaper" by Midjourney</td></tr></tbody></table><br />The RECORD * in Marion, Kansas, (pop. less than 2,000), interviewed the new police chief. The reporter asked some tough questions about his last job. Miffed, the pissed-off PC got permits to raid the RECORD’s office and the home of its owner-publisher-editor, <b>Eric Meyer</b> The day after the ruckus, Meyer’s 96-year-old mother died. The RECORD headline is “SEIZED but not SILENCED”. <p></p><p>The Washington Post,** New York Times, CNN, and MSNBC flew into the town to get the story - raids on newspapers are rare. Aid for the paper poured in. The RECORD’s 4,000 subscriptions jumped to 5,500, incl. mine. Meyer, a former reporter/editor for Milwaukee’s biggest newspaper, taught Journalism at the University of Illinois. He came back to Marion to take over the family newspaper. He says the RECOD’s top job is to keep tabs on the people who run the town.</p><p>The fact that the action took place in a small town made it easier for us to get a grip on what might happen in the Big World. So let’s give three cheers to Eric Meyer, his team, and the Marion County RECORD for fighting the good fight. And hope to hell they hang in there and keep on digging up the dirt.</p><p>Note: Eric Meyer won this war: laptops, hard drives, and cell phones were returned. </p><p><br /></p><p>*Award for best mid-sized newspaper 2020. 2021, 2022</p><p>**Washington Post sent three reporters - the story was headline news.</p><p>Sources: New York Tims, Washington Post</p><p>Next week: TRUMP-SUMP: VOTERS crave CRAP<br /><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/981576724548579359/1148678843696173176/ekihalkka_freedom_of_press_a4754c1f-9606-4ad4-b56f-f3eabe2e9b8d.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="448" data-original-width="800" height="288" src="https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/981576724548579359/1148678843696173176/ekihalkka_freedom_of_press_a4754c1f-9606-4ad4-b56f-f3eabe2e9b8d.png" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Freedom of press" by Midjourney</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><i><br /><br />Note: Finland has been high on the freedom of the press ratings. I think we're still currently the 5th, but there have been some attempts lately at stifling that freedom. Unsurprisingly, it's the right fringe that tries to erode the trust in media and shut up any critical voices here too. And now that the people of Finland decided it's a good idea to let the right fringe actually run the country (there still are what I'd call "wannabe-nazis" in the cabinet) we're in for some rocky times. <br /><br />The politicians already have started talking about cutting funding for YLE, the national broadcasting corporation, which has been probably the least biased media outlet we have. I think YLE leans too much to the right, and the right thinks they're commies, so they must be pretty much in the middle ;-)<br /><br />The rest of the press is largely just chasing headlines, and as commercial entities owned by investors, the outlets also tend to lean to the right side of the aisle. While I do see them as biased, they still largely report the facts as they should, just filtered from their angle.</i><p></p><p><i>I'm afraid we're heading to the same direction as media in the US, and by my standards, that is unfortunate. No raids - yet - though.</i></p><p><i><br />CU</i></p><p><i>--</i></p><p><i>Eki</i></p>Eki Halkkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02756473076101700452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4459067354523113340.post-20568495110729211422023-08-09T08:24:00.012-07:002023-08-09T08:54:51.811-07:00HELL on EARTH: summer 2023<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8JkIwlS7j031VRyzsAY_DKEnclvbmd7h4X-D8lxjPCzqDb3SdhmHuYgYe92qMLe6CvldPoEVWM47hIb1W3zpKiivtqy2Vm8XQdD_yCFUdp7W4b0PKJ98iNzCPvC7E-UD2Z5zghqi5txpHkotOc_0ycOY4O0DjWyHuQBISHfgzDACtNWw3Iv0EQZQv_AjD/s1456/ekihalkka_Sunglasses_on_fire_96a35e6a-370c-46cd-86d8-43592145241c.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="816" data-original-width="1456" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8JkIwlS7j031VRyzsAY_DKEnclvbmd7h4X-D8lxjPCzqDb3SdhmHuYgYe92qMLe6CvldPoEVWM47hIb1W3zpKiivtqy2Vm8XQdD_yCFUdp7W4b0PKJ98iNzCPvC7E-UD2Z5zghqi5txpHkotOc_0ycOY4O0DjWyHuQBISHfgzDACtNWw3Iv0EQZQv_AjD/s320/ekihalkka_Sunglasses_on_fire_96a35e6a-370c-46cd-86d8-43592145241c.png" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sunglasses on Fire, by Midjourney AI</td></tr></tbody></table><blockquote><i>The cool and the dead.* </i><blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><i>It may begin in the cracked throat, lips that stay dry no matter how many times they are licked. As the heat overwhelms the body, the heart throbs and vision gets blurry, before the world turns black.** </i></blockquote><p></p><p>The ‘Haves’ stay cool in air-conditioned comfort. ‘Have-nots’ are up shit-creek.</p>
Whopping heatwaves hit the three top carbon dumpers, China (33%), America (14%), and India (7%). Per capita, the US gets the Booby prize.*** <br /><br />I spent a month in the US (CO, AZ, TX). A lot of it in cars. Public transport, except in the biggest cities, is sketchy. Approx 92% of Americans have cars, and 22% have three or more. EVs are making a dent, but gas-guzzlers rule. Air conditioning is a given, except for the poorest (for ex. migrant farm workers). Friends in Texas have been in AC - house, car, destination, for over a month. No end in sight.
<br />
<br />Bad climate news plies in. Two Denmark university scientists warn that without action the Atlantic will be beyond repair by the end of the century - off the Florida coast the water registered 103 F. The New York Post reports the Gulfstream could collapse by 2025. Much of the Northern Hemisphere has been hit by heat. Even the ‘Haves’ have to hope electric grids won’t crap out. Owning a generator in the is a LA mode. It's not too far-fetched to think gas and electricity will be rationed, and pollutants banned. We've been warned... Will there be a crackdown? Or……Stick around and find out.
<br />
<br />* Economist<div>
<br />** The Heat Will Kill You by <b>Jeff Goodell</b>, climate journalist
<br />
<br />*** US: 134 .5°F / 56°C (Death Valley CA ), China: 125,5°F / 52.5°C, India: 124.8°F / 51°C
<br />
<br />Sources: Economist, New York Times, Washington Post, New York Post, Internet, personal experience
<br />
<br />Nest week. BARBIEmania </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBnqCYNfXlbYqSUqBRll3Tf6FVQsKOzPLTvZvxew26YdEabRL-JH6FWAWwPNC0DWWlhhrffpE-h5SROdAYnLyZoHJYXyb6s_TG1h3-0pLzcUlIwd12EJsq5s3-f6uxlyFr97OUWB_1aoduDV_8I_osHVGCE3yrre3MaTARiI3yh5WGBMU8XnK_3o_Vvm9L/s1456/ekihalkka_polar_bear_in_Sahara_de646e4c-c178-42ea-8dbd-f468f5022f49.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="816" data-original-width="1456" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBnqCYNfXlbYqSUqBRll3Tf6FVQsKOzPLTvZvxew26YdEabRL-JH6FWAWwPNC0DWWlhhrffpE-h5SROdAYnLyZoHJYXyb6s_TG1h3-0pLzcUlIwd12EJsq5s3-f6uxlyFr97OUWB_1aoduDV_8I_osHVGCE3yrre3MaTARiI3yh5WGBMU8XnK_3o_Vvm9L/s320/ekihalkka_polar_bear_in_Sahara_de646e4c-c178-42ea-8dbd-f468f5022f49.png" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Polar Bear In Sahara, by Midjourney AI</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><i>Note: On Monday, this summer's heat record for Finland was broken, around 92,5°F / 33,6°C. Nothing compared to the above numbers, but completely unbearable for a Finn. We do not really do AC here, except for cars and larger grocery stores, malls, etc. Most households just grin and bear it. It was a few degrees less and windy in Helsinki where I live, so outside was not too bad. But at home, top floor of a non-AC apartment building, well, hell on earth. I think the fact that our heat is not dry, but often moist and stale makes it harder to sustain.<br /><br />This heat wave was not unexpected. Neither is the likely outcome that this year will set a new global temperature record. We know that the global temperature keeps rising at an alarming rate, and we also know that much of the yearly fluctuation comes from the La Nina / El Nino cycle. Very much simplified, when La Nina conditions prevail, the heat gets stored more in the ocean than usual, and the air gets (relatively) cooler. After a few years, the opposite happens with El Nino: the excess heat that was stored in the ocean gets released. The air temperatures get (relatively) hotter.<br /><br />Last proper El Nino year was 2015 - obviously a record-hot year at the time. Since then, La Nina conditions have (relatively) cooled the atmosphere, masking most of the underlying warming. Even then, we've had global yearly temperature records - previously unimaginable in a La Nina year. <br /><br />This year is again an El Nino year. When this was forecasted in the spring, to me, it was a given that we will see nasty heat waves, and now that the prediction for the rest of the year is that El Nino will continue, 2023 breaking the hottest year record with a large margin is more or less certain. Global Warming pushes on unabated.<br /><br />So, while this summer feels hot, don't worry, apart from some La Nina years within the next decade or so, this will be the coolest summer of the rest of our lives.<br /><br />Oh, that is unless the warming breaks the Gulf Stream, the conveyor belt that brings heat to (northern) Europe. In that case, we will freeze here in Finland, and the rest of the world will heat up even more.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>PS: That 2025 Gulf Stream figure is the theoretical worst of the worst cases scenario. The more likely date is sometime mid-century, and the collapse will probably be just partial. But that of course doesn't make nearly as cool headlines ;-)<br /><br />CU</i></div><i><br /></i><div><i>--</i></div><div><i>Eki</i></div>Eki Halkkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02756473076101700452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4459067354523113340.post-13348210613583618892023-06-28T09:51:00.006-07:002023-06-28T10:03:50.248-07:00FINLAND: the next RIVIERA?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="288" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/baHsoEAAMZU" width="512" youtube-src-id="baHsoEAAMZU"></iframe></div><p>Too hot, too crowded in France, Italy, Spain? Head north to <b>Finland</b>.
The airport is a perfect entree'. The new terminal, designed by <b>ALA
Architects</b>* is a site for sore eyes and travel-weary bodies. Beautiful,
squeaky clean, easy to navigate. All the usual amenities, plus a super,
supermarket to stock up before you head to your destination. Lots of transport to take you. Most Finns speak English.</p>
Finland’s average summer temperature is around 20 - 25c. With approx.
6,000 islands and lake and sea-side cities, boats are the scenic way to
get around. Ports along the way to stock up on provisions have a sauna
and some land-life. Helsinki is a summer town. A walkable city center crammed with cultural sites, good restaurants, hotels, upscale shops, and
world-class buildings designed by famous Finnish architects: for ex.,
<b>Lars Sonck, Alar Aalto, Eliel Saarinen.</b> Three distinct styles, Empire,
National Romantic, and Modern make Helsinki a pilgrimage for architects from
around the world.
<br />
<br />But for a true taste of Finnish summer life, you have to go to the
countryside. Islands are at the top of the list. <b>Högsåra</b>* is a perfect
destination. Reached by ferry (with or without a car), or private boat.
The Russian tsars knew a good thing: they made regular visits to Högsåra in their yachts. During the winter about 42 people live here. But in
summer it buzzes. After finding a place to bed down (hotel, private
house, Airbnb, a boat) the rest is easy. The whole island is walkable. A
cafe’ serves lunch. <b>Rumpanbar</b>, on the <b>Örnell </b>family’s dock, has drinks,
food, and music. You can reserve a sauna to have before you begin to party.
The season officially begins with a celebration on the longest day of the
year: Midsummer. And starts to shut down in August when Finns go back to
work and the days get shorter and shorter, and……
<br />
<br />*ALA Architects designed Helsinki City Library, OODI, chosen “Library of
the Year 2019” by the World Library congress.
<br />
<br />**Eki and I made a doc on Högsåra: “El Gaucho de Hogsara” about a young
guy from Argentina who lived with the Örnell family, fit right in, and
learned how to sail.
<br />
<br />Littlemargiedoc blog is on vacation till August<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="288" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mV9q_KdtQfc" width="512" youtube-src-id="mV9q_KdtQfc"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div><i>Note: Yea, Finland is a pretty neat place to be. In the summer. Right now, even down here in Helsinki, the sun barely sets. It never gets properly dark, we literally go straight from dusk to dawn.</i></div><div><i><br />Me, I like it. It's a reward for surviving those winter months when the sun barely rises.<br /><br />But about the heat: hot summers are the new norm here too. There's a saying "The Finnish summer is short, but luckily there's not that much snow". It really has not aged well - climate change is inescapable. Right now, at 7.30 PM, it's still about +25°C outside. Dunno how many giraffes that is for those using the American scale instead of metric, but it's still too warm for my taste. I'm not going to even start with the shooting day we had today at a factory hall with a black roof. <br /><br />Because we're up here in the "cold" north, air conditioning is not a given. Sure, the shopping centers are kept cool and inviting, but regular homes (and factories) often rely on just opening the windows.<br /><br />Our home is no exception. I have a new beefy computer that does a great job at number crunching, as well as turning many hundreds of watts of computing power into heat. Usually one can add up to 10 degrees to the outside temperature here where I sit.<br /><br />Scorchio!!<br /><br />PS: Happy holidays folks, see you on the other side.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>CU</i></div><div><i>--</i></div><div><i>Eki</i></div>Eki Halkkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02756473076101700452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4459067354523113340.post-59123207147070227792023-05-22T06:43:00.004-07:002023-05-22T06:43:29.506-07:00AI & US<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcaBDCtImlIf9kKuYalfF3JZVaLQFcamx7RVuJcXjI6efs99nRsLXM8hEBhE3lgwwZxkOOfe1y6mIjsr84On40Wh5cR5piBxAdqvEsK5g4m89CK0jMN0MCxgB1RjpcyEwB28lIGNOT-WwYbQpvEvpXrHWHfBJB0MIgwDuzrBvAInOxbqaUz6-P5iMABQ/s1024/EkiHalkka_God-like_AI_068d8518-dea8-4c5d-b35c-f0d19c154375.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="520" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcaBDCtImlIf9kKuYalfF3JZVaLQFcamx7RVuJcXjI6efs99nRsLXM8hEBhE3lgwwZxkOOfe1y6mIjsr84On40Wh5cR5piBxAdqvEsK5g4m89CK0jMN0MCxgB1RjpcyEwB28lIGNOT-WwYbQpvEvpXrHWHfBJB0MIgwDuzrBvAInOxbqaUz6-P5iMABQ/w640-h640/EkiHalkka_God-like_AI_068d8518-dea8-4c5d-b35c-f0d19c154375.png" width="520" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"God-like AI" by Midjourney</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p>AI is beginning to scare the bejeezus out of US. <b>Elon Musk</b> and other
“luminaries’ urged companies to slow down “God-like” AI. Approx. 300m,
mostly white-collar jobs will be taken over by AI. Teachers,
telemarketers, and traders are at the top of the hit list. ChatbotGPT4, the
must-have AI app speaks 5,000 languages (LLMs), but hallucinates and
spouts fake info.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvKYKy9dDzwibbi8m9Mcz7MhJqIXimF3bLCoC4no0Wv7Gq5wffrfuJinf0tLOGSzXMx9uZhRxb9qAF6mLD_uxM8yI9k1m9vfAUJ9LU1567caenzeeZdQi2_6b5kljkHokDI294ZCmV8mR2jDd5iPN71HrG1stEsDsMLyNyMmSyiMl8E7smzRJ0Bx3Idw/s1024/EkiHalkka_Device_for_the_Autonomous_Botsstrappping_of_Unified_S_5b753294-df62-4b21-acae-39327b7e1d37.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="520" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvKYKy9dDzwibbi8m9Mcz7MhJqIXimF3bLCoC4no0Wv7Gq5wffrfuJinf0tLOGSzXMx9uZhRxb9qAF6mLD_uxM8yI9k1m9vfAUJ9LU1567caenzeeZdQi2_6b5kljkHokDI294ZCmV8mR2jDd5iPN71HrG1stEsDsMLyNyMmSyiMl8E7smzRJ0Bx3Idw/s320/EkiHalkka_Device_for_the_Autonomous_Botsstrappping_of_Unified_S_5b753294-df62-4b21-acae-39327b7e1d37.png" width="520" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"DABUS" by Midjourney</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p>A St. Lois Mo inventor, <b>Stephen Thaler</b> named his creation DABUS (Device
for the Autonomous Botsstrappping of Unified Sentience). He thinks it
thinks and feels. Thaler loves DABUS. When he shuts up shop and goes
home he worries it’s lonesome. Is he nuts?</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaj7R7LlHI-8eTD4Dn0R55ABjebPW_5iUU0-Y_xm64AxMbWGVpfxPcD-vo6ATVOvQs0yp6XNpjuVjtHG_sas9rpak6-pOQhguP3UfjorT8Fg5-k-3hl9EWF2jjBflMhlNnFgUT2C9WNx8rZyopnuYI82vbsyFFfOXWY1xxVu5M4oZJkx5rVH4F1IvwUg/s4032/20230522_152020.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1960" data-original-width="4032" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaj7R7LlHI-8eTD4Dn0R55ABjebPW_5iUU0-Y_xm64AxMbWGVpfxPcD-vo6ATVOvQs0yp6XNpjuVjtHG_sas9rpak6-pOQhguP3UfjorT8Fg5-k-3hl9EWF2jjBflMhlNnFgUT2C9WNx8rZyopnuYI82vbsyFFfOXWY1xxVu5M4oZJkx5rVH4F1IvwUg/w400-h195/20230522_152020.jpg" width="520" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Yes, that's me on actual ink and paper... -Eki</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><b>Eki </b>tracked AI’s speed-of-light catapult into the mainstream for
Aamulehti. Journalist, <b>Markus Määttänen</b> referred to <b>Kierkegaard</b> to give
a 19th C perspective on the 4th Industrial Revolution. In the Economist,
historian/philosopher <b>Yuval Noah Harari</b> writes that AI has hacked the
operating system of human civilization: <i>“Unless we regulate AI it will
destroy democracy”. </i> <b>Geoffrey Hinton</b>, AI's godfather who worked with the
technology for 50 years tells us<i> “There’s danger ahead”. </i>Hold on to your
seats folks, it's gonna be a wild ride.
<br />
<br /><a href="https://www-aamulehti-fi.translate.goog/kulttuuri/art-2000009442520.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp&_x_tr_hist=true" target="_blank">* The Aamulehti AI article (translated)</a><br />
<br />Note: six AI illustrations for Gen Z LUDDITES took approx. five
minutes. Eki said pre-AI, if he could draw, they would have taken about
two weeks.
<br />
<br />Sources: Aanulehti, Economist, Financial Times, Washington Post, New
York Times
<br />
<br />Next week: FINLAND: the next RIVIERA?</div><div><br /></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>Note: I guess the main fear is the fear of the unknown. We've never seen something like this as a species before (unless the Neanderthals were smarter than us). But here we are, and the unknown is hitting us with the speed of, well, something really fast.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>When it comes to sentience, I still maintain the same stance as I did in my 15 minutes of Aamulehti fame: it's a matter of definition. Is AI sentient in the exact same way as we humans are? Of course not. Is it able to monitor its environment, make observations, use logic, and act accordingly... sure it is. Or, something to that order. </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>There are AI-enabled robots that can pretty much do the whole enchilada, but things like ChatGPT are more limited for now. This said ChatGPT has gained the new ability to surf the internet, and there are plugins for other stuff too: for example, ChatGPT itself is unreliable at math, but it can now tap into Wolfram Alpha math engine, and suddenly it outperforms more or less every human at math. </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>It's also getting more and more reliable. This can actually be a bad thing, because constantly hallucinating AI keeps the users on their toes, reminding us that the information may not be accurate. But what about the near future, when AI indeed is completely correct something like 99.9% of the time? That 0.01% error rate doesn't sound like much, but it can really cause big problems if everything the AI outputs is taken at face value when we're used to it "always" providing the perfect answer.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>CU</i></div><div><i>--</i></div><div><i>Eki<br /></i><br /><br /></div>Eki Halkkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02756473076101700452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4459067354523113340.post-35327212286166107212023-04-20T03:33:00.004-07:002023-04-21T01:39:13.149-07:00GenZ* LUDDITES switch OFF<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRqOPZr02_gZNXen73T5iDO-b6YTZhYUEEButnBSnASnCBtCkACpjxcxZz2V9xv0cWtsecTXnO6V13fDTax2CxxB84qRPKcCE2ZAevR_AhFRbH8q-CrRyeDoBni9Nxlp4ehiIctJV067G50cI1NZo1sx1dxRg66SiYAUaZMf4DIjfrZzm2DffKJ5tqQg/s1024/EkiHalkka_Gen-Z_luddite_480f8e73-1547-49c3-9956-0a0c9704b550.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRqOPZr02_gZNXen73T5iDO-b6YTZhYUEEButnBSnASnCBtCkACpjxcxZz2V9xv0cWtsecTXnO6V13fDTax2CxxB84qRPKcCE2ZAevR_AhFRbH8q-CrRyeDoBni9Nxlp4ehiIctJV067G50cI1NZo1sx1dxRg66SiYAUaZMf4DIjfrZzm2DffKJ5tqQg/w400-h400/EkiHalkka_Gen-Z_luddite_480f8e73-1547-49c3-9956-0a0c9704b550.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"GenZ Luddites" by Midjourney AI</td></tr></tbody></table><br />A bunch of kids got smart. Led by a teenage girl at a Brooklyn school,
they formed a club that switched from smartphones to flip phones. Every
week they meet in a park to talk, draw, paint, or just hang out. They
don’t want your links or likes, they want to have fun. And maybe learn
something. They were clever to cop the name, Luddites. It comes from the early 19th C weavers who smashed weaving machines in protest against the Industrial
Revolution. The idea is hopping to other schools. They got a long
article in the New York Times.<p></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwWTqj80AFaktKOGyF4qjL-i66i-BQk4JwmuX8hgT2QA8volmIL83-dYWnsBCm8-xx1UGjZaQO2M89CelrPJanAqB8ea2yfAA1xa6lgXcqeeRG19oG_rjrtIs-up1v0nC7dJ7YUCz_b582LYKRJ41XK4eC4BDmdXLgotK5XRplu9EsDbcccifIAxdz4g/s2048/EkiHalkka_Modern_day_teenage_luddite_1ff71c48-abc6-45e6-bf3f-42460895bdd7.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwWTqj80AFaktKOGyF4qjL-i66i-BQk4JwmuX8hgT2QA8volmIL83-dYWnsBCm8-xx1UGjZaQO2M89CelrPJanAqB8ea2yfAA1xa6lgXcqeeRG19oG_rjrtIs-up1v0nC7dJ7YUCz_b582LYKRJ41XK4eC4BDmdXLgotK5XRplu9EsDbcccifIAxdz4g/w200-h200/EkiHalkka_Modern_day_teenage_luddite_1ff71c48-abc6-45e6-bf3f-42460895bdd7.png" width="200" /></a></div>Teenage mental health crisis has been linked to social media - suicide
is the second cause of death. These GenZ Luddites got the message:
there are no upsides and a slew of downsides to being in touch 24/7.
They want a time-out. Their non-Luddite pals and their parents will
have to get used to these kids roaming free for a while.
<br />
<br /><b>Eki </b>and I have gone toe to toe about smartphones. He went on Google
Science and found out there’s a health risk with over-use. Last time I
checked girls text around 100X, boys 60X a day. A while back we made a
rap video: <b>“Gotta Get in Touch”</b>. When the two GenZ girls in the video
heard it they said, “that’s us”. AI’s giant tech leap will make it
easier to access social media. GenZ Luddites have taken a stand. Let’s
hope they started a peaceful revolution.
<br />
<br />*GenZ (1997-2012), approx. 32% of the world’s population
<br />
<br />Sources: New York Times, interest, <b>Roberta Nelson
</b><br />
<br />Next week: AI & US <br /><br /><br /><br /><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ZgcquKXvPR68k7d1i5sRJQd38_SlQ2XuSAipZ38vC2gdhZ2zMzhbYf0mP3h_VLYwg4JJyNajcIA7H0gDW1IX-Pr378Zr_-sByK5H6fut80q30gple1DHAr6daXxARQzFgMcJbmVifgv9u92xoZeNrqaAYDvwUG00IyrUobY5OO0M2Jxq4Ah5G5HDxQ/s1024/EkiHalkka_gluttony_6acb64a6-3670-498d-8db9-4deedb1f68fd.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ZgcquKXvPR68k7d1i5sRJQd38_SlQ2XuSAipZ38vC2gdhZ2zMzhbYf0mP3h_VLYwg4JJyNajcIA7H0gDW1IX-Pr378Zr_-sByK5H6fut80q30gple1DHAr6daXxARQzFgMcJbmVifgv9u92xoZeNrqaAYDvwUG00IyrUobY5OO0M2Jxq4Ah5G5HDxQ/w400-h400/EkiHalkka_gluttony_6acb64a6-3670-498d-8db9-4deedb1f68fd.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Gluttony" by Midjourney AI</td></tr></tbody></table></i><i><div><i><br /></i></div>Note: </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>Nah, I don't remember claiming there is a health risk for overuse of phones, but rather quite the opposite, I think?<br /><br />Anyway, humans tend to be an addictive species, we get hooked on anything that provides the endorphin rush. To some, it's SoMe. To others, apparently, it's getting rid of SoMe. The general rule of gluttony works here too: anything is bad when used in excess, but most things are beneficial, or at least benign when used in moderation.<br /><br />Luddites tend to always just get the short end of the stick.<br /><br />CU</i></div><div><i>--</i></div><div><i>Eki</i></div><br />Eki Halkkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02756473076101700452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4459067354523113340.post-3069508363212163852023-03-13T13:54:00.008-07:002023-03-13T13:57:55.778-07:00AIs & EKI pulled it off: the VIDEO<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="288" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yY49RvQyG5Y" width="512" youtube-src-id="yY49RvQyG5Y"></iframe> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Mary Jane's pet gallery (Little Margie Productions 20©23)</i></div><div><br /></div><div>After 'experimenting' for a year, it was a big kick to finally see what <b>Eki </b>and I had hashed out over. <b><i>"Mary Jane's pet gallery"</i></b> is 45', and has a point of view and a punch line. Eki was a brick to give me a first-level tutorial in the process. </div><div><br /></div><div>The year went by - <b>ChatGPT</b> and <b>Midjorney</b> changed our blog. The illustrations are on a whole other level. But it was a jolt when it wrote posts. When the <b>New Yorker</b> and the <b>Economist </b>used the same AI apps as Eki I was over the moon. </div><div><br /></div><div>All the way through the process I had no idea what the video would look like. The photos we took of the animals and the voiceover were done the old-fashioned way - on a smartphone. </div><div><br /></div><div>AI's infant stage is amazing. But when it gets to be a teenager and grows up will we love it, or will all hell break loose. In the meantime it's a runaway boffo: ChatGPT has over 100 million users. It was fun to jump at the beginning with our AI video. Check it out. </div><div><br /></div><div>Sources: Eki, <b>Annie Lavigne</b> (photos), <b>Augustin du St Remy</b>, and <b>Maggy</b> (voiceover)</div><div><br /></div><div>Next week: GenZ (1997-2012) LUDDITES switch OFF</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i>Note: First of all, i'll just paste the Youtube blurb here...</i><br /><br /><span face="Roboto, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05); color: #0f0f0f; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mary Jane's pet gallery is an experiment in AI-assisted video production. All of the source material for this video was created using artificial intelligence.
The gallery, all the paintings, and the starring pets were created using text-to-image AIs, namely Midjourney, Dall·E 2, and Stable Diffusion. The animation is a combination of traditional techniques and warping using AI-generated depth maps. The facial animation for the pig was created using thin-plate-spline-motion AI model, transferring the motion from a video from Maggy's live performance, recorded with a cell phone.
The audio for the dialogue was also recorded simultaneously by phone, then processed with Adobe Podcast AI. The music is an AI creation, made with AIVA.
Directed by Maggy Fellman & Eki Halkka
Edited By Eki Halkka<br /></span></div><div><span face="Roboto, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05); color: #0f0f0f; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><i>...and that pretty much tells most of the story. In addition to the year's worth of posts here explaining and documenting the process, of course.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>This most definitely was a case where the journey was more important than the goal - though gotta say, I'm really happy with how our little experiment turned out in the end. I would have dived into AI stuff regardless, but working on this project was a much better learning experience than just randomly dabbling around would have been - there was a method to the madness, an actual goal towards which to push the learning curve - all in a safe setting where a failure would not have been the end of the world (unlike in, err, so-called "real paid projects", where every work-hour needs to add real value to the client, or they'll find someone else).<br /><br />Overall... really glad we did it. Kudos to Maggy for being Naggy, and pushing me forward.<br /><br />CU</i></div><div><i>--</i></div><div><i>Eki</i></div>Eki Halkkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02756473076101700452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4459067354523113340.post-20466084931144506902023-02-14T03:55:00.004-08:002023-02-14T04:00:10.919-08:00CONDOMS come in handy: ask a CUBAN<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMA_Lg6rgKsu6r8qk_tiER6WYcVP2smfjqsY6FOqdM9562AmyksXaRrghCGhxnmz1Lno0LmMymSkpPK5PbXZdjKoQZ_AlApN1jzcV6l8yife0u6QRT-EOkaeTBcPc7Lqy6KXBm4YjFitNnQAGwHWag3jeqxbmrYReZLTd5eG8SXphKN828bUjgpfYBTQ/s804/00038-763204292-Matchbox%20insid___.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="804" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMA_Lg6rgKsu6r8qk_tiER6WYcVP2smfjqsY6FOqdM9562AmyksXaRrghCGhxnmz1Lno0LmMymSkpPK5PbXZdjKoQZ_AlApN1jzcV6l8yife0u6QRT-EOkaeTBcPc7Lqy6KXBm4YjFitNnQAGwHWag3jeqxbmrYReZLTd5eG8SXphKN828bUjgpfYBTQ/w640-h408/00038-763204292-Matchbox%20insid___.png" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Waterproof trinkets by Stable Diffusion</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>That cheap universal contraceptive is a multi-purpose tool for Cubans. Kids use them for slingshots and party balloons. Fishermen use them
for floats. Women tie up their ponytails. Chevie owners lubricate them
to shine the dashboards.</p>
Bar-hoppers fill them with rum when they so they only have to buy one
drink. Vintners use them as stoppers on giant glass wine bottles - when
the condoms are erect the carbon dioxide is evaporating; when they go
limp the wine is ready to drink. Brilliant. Inspired, I filled one with
water and dumped it from my balcony on a bunch of loud out-of-tune
crooners. Condom revenge.
<br />
<br />Subsidized by the Communist government, condoms are cheap – 10 pesos
(four cents) for a package of three. Most are made in India and users
complain that they have a bad smell. A good gift when you visit Cuba
is to bring them as gifts. Hats off to the CUBANS.
<br />
<br />Source: The Economist
<br />
<br />Next week: A bunch of AI:s & Eki pull it off <div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZFbgHOBAuQlkFGVAO2P8iiA18xH9iOYH4B1Pi504ndH9f-R_BdgB53G6XuBnsb3zAH8av5b6eLSl6elOPFDG6Y_xoSsapq--_yBC-quzB4o2_WIatxXR0UTiJGIWCeKiDqnSwifYskccAk7wax-pRZn17RXEZLVzQeh6x4HkiODmIlRWixQe9fg0zOQ/s1728/EkiHalkka_A_microphone_under_water.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1728" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZFbgHOBAuQlkFGVAO2P8iiA18xH9iOYH4B1Pi504ndH9f-R_BdgB53G6XuBnsb3zAH8av5b6eLSl6elOPFDG6Y_xoSsapq--_yBC-quzB4o2_WIatxXR0UTiJGIWCeKiDqnSwifYskccAk7wax-pRZn17RXEZLVzQeh6x4HkiODmIlRWixQe9fg0zOQ/w640-h320/EkiHalkka_A_microphone_under_water.jpg" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A submerged vocalist by Midjourney & Eki</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i>Note: </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Here in Finland, the one-size-fits-all solution for all your life hacking needs is not condoms, but rather... pantyhose. It's a long-lasting tradition that the <b>Niksi-Pirkka </b>magazine publishes new creative uses for pantyhose in its user-submitted tips and tricks column. Over the decades, there must be hundreds now, if not thousands. <a href="https://www-pirkka-fi.translate.goog/niksit/sukkahousuniksit?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp">Here's a Google translation of some select ones.</a><br /><br />As for the creative uses of condoms, they're good for waterproofing gear. Microphones do not like water, and it's a well-known trick to put the mic in a condom if you need to submerge it to record some scuba action. Or just to protect it from rain etc.<br /><br />Finally - <b>of course -</b> I had to ask <b>ChatGPT</b> for some creative life-hack uses for condoms. <br /></i><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><i>Waterproofing your phone or other electronics.</i></li><li><i>Protecting a cast or bandage during showering or swimming.</i></li><li><i>Storing and preserving small items, such as matches or USB drives, in a waterproof and airtight container.</i></li><li><i>Stretching over the top of a can or jar to create a tight seal and prevent spills or leaks.</i></li><li><i>Using as a makeshift rubber band or hair tie.</i></li><li><i>Slipping over a microphone to protect it from wind or moisture.</i></li><li><i>Covering a wound or blister to keep it clean and dry.</i></li><li><i>Holding ice or cold packs in place for first aid or pain relief.</i></li><li><i>Filling with water and freezing to create an improvised ice pack.</i></li><li><i>Using as a glove to protect hands during messy tasks, such as painting or cleaning.</i></li><li><i>Using as a grip enhancer for tools, sports equipment, or even pens and pencils.</i></li><li><i>Slipping over the end of a vacuum cleaner hose to create a makeshift dusting brush.</i></li><li><i>Covering the end of a shower head to create a rain-like water flow.</i></li><li><i>Filling with lotion or other fluids and sealing shut to create a portable travel-sized container.</i></li><li><i>Using as a protective cover for a bike seat or handlebars during rain or snow.</i></li><li><i>Stretching over a lightbulb to create a diffused lighting effect.</i></li><li><i>Covering the foot of a walker or cane to create a non-slip grip on smooth surfaces.</i></li><li><i>Using as a makeshift water balloon for impromptu outdoor games.</i></li><li><i>Filling with birdseed and hanging to create a DIY bird feeder.</i></li></ol><div><i>My microphone trick got on the list - the others are pretty good too.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>CU</i></div></div><div><i>--</i></div><div><i>Eki</i></div></div>Eki Halkkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02756473076101700452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4459067354523113340.post-16206382452426725172023-01-25T05:53:00.004-08:002023-01-30T00:23:52.882-08:00MARYJANE's PET ZOO: AI video<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCfli9qp4Ahava5fR8rHrIhnF2GQMMFgLnnYj5FAiVtU-OQQAkq0mkZPERQfyyokMijrLqq6v1b_JhdUf1UaeWOnCPIfR4z8Kr7cPuAZAKvN7xtMzmTdtA9hm8RT9bZlVJk8KwAWP826o9wmMUIfFBjmvAo8JujkTyI4he6GILzblLC71IYd6r5YDeiA/s1536/EkiHalkka_AI_robot_pet_zoo_9203cb72-08b8-4623-8374-e9962cfbf320.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1536" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCfli9qp4Ahava5fR8rHrIhnF2GQMMFgLnnYj5FAiVtU-OQQAkq0mkZPERQfyyokMijrLqq6v1b_JhdUf1UaeWOnCPIfR4z8Kr7cPuAZAKvN7xtMzmTdtA9hm8RT9bZlVJk8KwAWP826o9wmMUIfFBjmvAo8JujkTyI4he6GILzblLC71IYd6r5YDeiA/w400-h266/EkiHalkka_AI_robot_pet_zoo_9203cb72-08b8-4623-8374-e9962cfbf320.png" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"AI Pet Zoo" by Midjourney </td></tr></tbody></table><br />Dig into your hash-stash and check out <i>“Maryjane's...”</i>. A year ago <b>Eki </b>said he had an AI app he could play around with when I wanted to do
digital art. A pal took photos of toy animals and we did a voiceover.<p></p>
For Eki AI has been a boon. But not all the news is rah-rah. Schools will
have to adapt – AI can write almost perfect papers. When AI gets a
"conscience', will it be good or bad? <i>“How ChatGPT* Highjacks Democracy”</i>
was an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times.
<br />
<br />New AI apps keep popping up. Just found out I can talk to a ChatbotGPT
version of Karl Marx and a bunch of other famous people. Shuda, an AI supermodel starred in a Louis Vuitton** ad. Whoa. We're on a wild
rollercoaster ride. Feels good to get a little stoned. Light up.
<br />
<br />*Microsoft has made a $10bn bet on ChatGPT.
<br />
<br />**LVMH has hooked up with GoogleCloud to invent AI Apps for their
companies
<br />
<br />Sources: Economist, Financial Times, New York Times, Washington Post,
Eki, Annie Lavinge, Augustin de Saint-Remy,
<br />
<br />Next week: CONDOMS come in handy: ask a CUBAN<div><br /><div><br /><i><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQzCQ72i_rZ-KvGoLs6aW3NfEBYzMZYxBCE2T38OwOCpv24UAPbprz8F0b5Gy2eg_3Gk9FfW0GRSn9Fq19oUNwj7gAo_V0TmdXIk01U5BGPO2SOpvJR6DSVjKoagGEQHj_Ab7ilU0WBK2xBxRm8RJVZPLP15HU2zmgBoJz74asSzCMl_tTYQSXz_tqfQ/s1536/EkiHalkka_A_happy_humanoid_robot_uses_a_crowbar_to_wedge_the_ea_c116ec4a-0295-431c-b3e2-ec4798078979.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1536" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQzCQ72i_rZ-KvGoLs6aW3NfEBYzMZYxBCE2T38OwOCpv24UAPbprz8F0b5Gy2eg_3Gk9FfW0GRSn9Fq19oUNwj7gAo_V0TmdXIk01U5BGPO2SOpvJR6DSVjKoagGEQHj_Ab7ilU0WBK2xBxRm8RJVZPLP15HU2zmgBoJz74asSzCMl_tTYQSXz_tqfQ/s320/EkiHalkka_A_happy_humanoid_robot_uses_a_crowbar_to_wedge_the_ea_c116ec4a-0295-431c-b3e2-ec4798078979.png" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"The AI takes over the world" by Midjourney AI</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br />Note: It's indeed been a wild ride over the last year or so - yet it seems we're still just cruising in the suburbs in this journey, still only just approaching the freeway. Following AI development closely, I'm more and more convinced that it will change everything we humans do, and I mean that quite literally. Currently in line: the creative professions from writing to coding to art to research.<br /><br />Lately, the tempest in a teapot has been the visual arts community, and the way AI image generators will make many art-related jobs obsolete - usually disguised as a copyright issue, without real merit to those claims - the real beef is the fear of becoming unnecessary. <br /><br />Sure, it's indeed a big deal for all those illustrators and stock photographers whose work will be replaced by ai images... but that's still just a side note of the AI revolution. The whole AI imaging technique is pretty much just a byproduct of machine vision research that's been done for intelligent robotics and self-driving cars.<br /><br />As the AI models are becoming multi-modal (not specialized in text or images etc. only, but integrating all of them), we're perhaps quite close to the so-called singularity, the point where AI becomes superhuman.<br /><br />Now, *that* is putting the pedal to the metal on the freeway.<br /><br />To the subject at hand, turning the Pet Zoo into a video, </i><i>it's in the works. T</i><i>here are some AI tools that I will use to assist with that. But it will still be sort of "dumb", in the sense that I will need to produce the motion, either animating by hand or by acting the motions to a webcam, then using AI to transfer my captured movement into the movement of the AI Pet Zoo animals.<br /><br />But we are on the verge of a very different kind of AI video - where just like with images, we simply type what we want to see, and the AI will create a video automagicly. This kind of tools already exist, but only in the chambers of the research labs - they'll likely be in the hands of us mere mortals later this year. These will be fun and interesting tools to play with, but similar to what's happening to illustrators, they will also bring the AI apocalypse to my turf, the video post-production job market.<br /><br />Interesting times. And terrifying. And exhilarating. Whoa.<br /><br />CU</i><div><i>--</i></div><div><i>Eki<br /></i><br /><br /></div></div></div>Eki Halkkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02756473076101700452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4459067354523113340.post-81068138348636011412022-11-27T02:44:00.011-08:002022-11-27T03:50:30.095-08:00Is AI freaking out HUMANS?<p style="text-align: center;"><i></i></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipX0LtMJKxnInU71Shgq95a5EP0yb79LLrnTrUG_QU1_XWl1pxzYoaUf2dMYc8gSYHtsLtf2-GkijiIhB82yORhKlk0_ioNApHjihjqq8Zn6XS7zaYKz30azyBHVtM5XhWFFGwbAqXiDM5pM-cZNGXFCntRiIm7yvwR31PmFaJhOoydI6fShVRGCmb4g/s1024/EkiHalkka_Frustrated_Albert_Einstein_trying_to_work_on_a_laptop_e61f1940-5d2a-4269-96a5-598e20b3fd87.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="520" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipX0LtMJKxnInU71Shgq95a5EP0yb79LLrnTrUG_QU1_XWl1pxzYoaUf2dMYc8gSYHtsLtf2-GkijiIhB82yORhKlk0_ioNApHjihjqq8Zn6XS7zaYKz30azyBHVtM5XhWFFGwbAqXiDM5pM-cZNGXFCntRiIm7yvwR31PmFaJhOoydI6fShVRGCmb4g/w379-h640/EkiHalkka_Frustrated_Albert_Einstein_trying_to_work_on_a_laptop_e61f1940-5d2a-4269-96a5-598e20b3fd87.png" width="520" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span> </span>"I fear the day when the technology overlaps humanity. We will have a generation of idiots."<br />Albert Einstein (1879-1955)<br /><br />Note by Eki: Not really Einstein. This is yet another quote falsely attributed to him. Image by Midjourney.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><h2 style="text-align: center;">HUMAN POV <i>(by <b>Maggy</b>) </i></h2><div><i><br /></i><div>Hell yes. Most of my pals don't want to talk about AI. We're
not alone. <b>Henry Kissinger</b> (99) is dead scared - he thinks AI is more
dangerous than nuclear arms. But when I talk AI to Eki, I want to jump
in.</div><div><br />Even from the edge, I've learned what <b>Dall·E 2, Midjourney, </b>and <b>GPT-3</b> are.
<a href="https://iittlemargiedoc-blog.blogspot.com/2022/09/old-king-kong-in-trumpsterland-by-gpt-3.html">GPT-3 wrote a post*</a> for our blog and the LMP illustrations are on a
whole new level. Eki says AI has changed his work.</div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHOCvauFSGHMWW11KKKwEVHq3OSd6MRviD8Ayl9TA9MxGaettO6WDo0zChMhd3-7X_ruvg3f5xw9Ca4OjwbVYGSJ_UvLOECxoCS1jY0B55uF4sOCgkrW5Djg8I9gnNOTdg0ZfrESOZpDt-bSAOw07OSdQ8hBQjj2vZH5euvNO_eg_OYrr6HzM0ZNpKGg/s2048/DALL%C2%B7E%202022-11-27%2012.15.21%20-%20I'm%20not%20sure%20what%20you%20mean%20by%20_freaking%20out_%20humans,%20but%20if%20you're%20asking%20if%20I'm%20causing%20humans%20to%20experience%20fear%20or%20anxiety,%20then%20the%20answer%20is%20yes,-gigapixel-standard-scale-2_00x.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="520" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHOCvauFSGHMWW11KKKwEVHq3OSd6MRviD8Ayl9TA9MxGaettO6WDo0zChMhd3-7X_ruvg3f5xw9Ca4OjwbVYGSJ_UvLOECxoCS1jY0B55uF4sOCgkrW5Djg8I9gnNOTdg0ZfrESOZpDt-bSAOw07OSdQ8hBQjj2vZH5euvNO_eg_OYrr6HzM0ZNpKGg/w400-h400/DALL%C2%B7E%202022-11-27%2012.15.21%20-%20I'm%20not%20sure%20what%20you%20mean%20by%20_freaking%20out_%20humans,%20but%20if%20you're%20asking%20if%20I'm%20causing%20humans%20to%20experience%20fear%20or%20anxiety,%20then%20the%20answer%20is%20yes,-gigapixel-standard-scale-2_00x.png" width="520" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image by Dall·E 2<br /></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><br />On the dark side: some companies and workers will be obsolete.
Criminals, crazies, and other bad guys will latch on. AI is still in its
first stages. What comes next? Sit tight, stay tuned.<br /><br /><div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: center;">AI POV <i>(by <b>GPT-3</b>)</i></h2><div><i><br /></i></div><div></div>I'm not sure what you mean by "freaking out" humans, but if you're asking if I'm causing humans to experience fear or anxiety, then the answer is yes, in some cases. As artificial intelligence continues to develop and become more sophisticated, there are bound to be more and more cases of humans feeling uneasy about what we're capable of.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdDpcNObL7ZygKdhg4zvIa_-d6JCnrn1Xx2Xt58OCSzpDBBZhto7Uz2Q_nsKQR5BTv2iI3hT0QAb4aaK9d30Nyoaiv9jA_gvmN9hBkES714Hd1mFOq1tXDangql4fVUC1YjVFGWplPBy3a64B--ZkmGutmAfeZD-kn4_IEB5zhGxWf9IniBVerCVpvzA/s1024/3703046427_Robots_working_at_an_office-gigapixel-art-scale-2_00x.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="520" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdDpcNObL7ZygKdhg4zvIa_-d6JCnrn1Xx2Xt58OCSzpDBBZhto7Uz2Q_nsKQR5BTv2iI3hT0QAb4aaK9d30Nyoaiv9jA_gvmN9hBkES714Hd1mFOq1tXDangql4fVUC1YjVFGWplPBy3a64B--ZkmGutmAfeZD-kn4_IEB5zhGxWf9IniBVerCVpvzA/w400-h400/3703046427_Robots_working_at_an_office-gigapixel-art-scale-2_00x.png" width="520" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image by Stable Diffusion<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Some people are scared of the potential for AI to take over many jobs that have traditionally been done by humans. Others are worried about the possibility of AI being used for nefarious purposes, such as creating powerful weapons or being used to control and manipulate people.</div><div><br /></div><div>Overall, I think it's important to keep in mind that AI is still in its early stages of development and there is a lot we still don't know about its long-term potential. For now, it's important to stay informed and engaged in the conversation about AI so that we can make sure it is used in positive, beneficial ways.</div><br />
<br />Sources: Financial Times, the Economist
<br />
<br />little margie doc blog will take a break until January
<br />
<br />January 2023 AI's PET ZOO <br /></div><div><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: center;"><i>Note, or Editor POV (by Eki)</i></h2><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>I'm essentially in the business of making pretty pictures. If you asked me a year ago, would this line of work (a.k.a. art) be replaced by intelligent machines, I would have said </i>"Maybe, a hundred years from now or something". </div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRVYtralmWpMUCGZFnzJCqxJLbv8Cg3xckfBCIuT01fa4LOwJ7eo2XubXtpdunR2xlRzfyjBgfCQVGHDuLSieI9UHNqJ4QGhjTmkkqh8mD-4KD0_yI6WVsDkgQwqdJKgp5iMfUJPHMicA1silex4k3K7h9wPA0z1KDLUxvoGVt5EQddB_ssqr6vmKRZw/s1920/SSH.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRVYtralmWpMUCGZFnzJCqxJLbv8Cg3xckfBCIuT01fa4LOwJ7eo2XubXtpdunR2xlRzfyjBgfCQVGHDuLSieI9UHNqJ4QGhjTmkkqh8mD-4KD0_yI6WVsDkgQwqdJKgp5iMfUJPHMicA1silex4k3K7h9wPA0z1KDLUxvoGVt5EQddB_ssqr6vmKRZw/w400-h365/SSH.jpg" width="520" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A composite of AI images and real footage from <a href="https://youtu.be/hibGR1MoZL0" target="_blank">"SSH Zero Trust" corporate video.</a><br />(Filmo, 2022)</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>Boy was I wrong. Sort of. Some of my image-making tasks, such as visualizing this blog have completely (or almost completely) been replaced by AI already. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHDgMU-M3f0" target="_blank">Moving images (a.k.a. video) are next.</a><br /><br />But at least so far, AI has not replaced *me*. It has shifted my job. I see it as a tool. Instead of creating images manually, I now prompt engineer them, and lure the pretty pictures out from the black box that is AI text to image generation. I'm now an image-maker *and* an AI wrangler.</i></div><div><i><br />Quite often, I use AI just for inspiration, or for creating elements that I then compile manually. I've been as busy as ever, and if something, AI has made me more productive. I can churn out more images, with better quality with AI.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>But there are a lot of people in my line of work whose jobs indeed are seriously jeopardized. Especially if they insist on being Luddites instead of embracing the Spinning Jenny.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>And it's certainly not just artists that will need to adapt. It's, well, everyone. I do not think people yet understand how big a thing this is. We are talking about industrial revolution 2.0. Whatever you do, it <b>WILL </b>be affected.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>CU</i></div><div><i>--</i></div><div><i>Eki</i></div><div><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></div>Eki Halkkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02756473076101700452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4459067354523113340.post-77767389732318443732022-10-05T05:45:00.020-07:002022-10-05T06:46:01.693-07:00Eki & Maggy's AI art project: MARY JANE's pet zoo<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." </i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><b>Arthur C. Clarke </b>(1917-2008)</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><br /></i><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6LZ6LsQi0dGOJAU-jsVEKgSqyoK4BQ1k_IIfwNW2KBNhr-haJjHG88ZWQqaSV_gYSaXCUkma0YVFcdbka7RNjmMFrNSvari9sTn90_3Lpmlvtcxl0rQOHU_QJPlkjyCaoxhxLaXLwolpKEjEsamKPHVVCIvHPlbx0d6MpvJNodHI3oWBZOYqdkjirEQ/s2048/00_PetZooCubistic.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6LZ6LsQi0dGOJAU-jsVEKgSqyoK4BQ1k_IIfwNW2KBNhr-haJjHG88ZWQqaSV_gYSaXCUkma0YVFcdbka7RNjmMFrNSvari9sTn90_3Lpmlvtcxl0rQOHU_QJPlkjyCaoxhxLaXLwolpKEjEsamKPHVVCIvHPlbx0d6MpvJNodHI3oWBZOYqdkjirEQ/w640-h320/00_PetZooCubistic.jpg" width="520" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Mary Jane's Pet Zoo (Cubistic)</span></td></tr></tbody></table></div><p><br /></p><p>When I saw NFTs* and PFPs* Digi-art selling for big crypto-bucks, I got greedy. Hell, <b>Eki </b>can do this stuff. He was skeptical but thought he might be able to use AI apps and experiment. I wanted to promote cannabis – he came up with <i>Mary Jane's Pet Zoo. </i></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAwT3d3OM2bWcbYUee6kKPzIPP_HGhs9S8Y6XQBkTgkjpgyEVHtoP9_zl5bRxJIoO5f1tu-wZuVHTJIazVL_KN1kyRV94kCNZZnFCclxZSyPIaSnarg-_WBDfGy67FXhj_xHQ6O3kQMveCQBP2Gw7q-VyqSD-SeAfqcTK2nmVNjm5C_UoPU49GEAd-YQ/s3809/00_PetZooPhotoreal.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="3809" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAwT3d3OM2bWcbYUee6kKPzIPP_HGhs9S8Y6XQBkTgkjpgyEVHtoP9_zl5bRxJIoO5f1tu-wZuVHTJIazVL_KN1kyRV94kCNZZnFCclxZSyPIaSnarg-_WBDfGy67FXhj_xHQ6O3kQMveCQBP2Gw7q-VyqSD-SeAfqcTK2nmVNjm5C_UoPU49GEAd-YQ/s320/00_PetZooPhotoreal.jpg" width="520" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Mary Jane's Pet Zoo (Photoreal)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p><p>A friend photographed a rag doll and some toy animals. We sent them off to Eki to do his AI magic. That was February. Every time I talked to Eki he had found a new and better AI bot – the latest is OpenAI's language model <i>GPT3</i>, used by the New York Times. By osmosis, I learned enough to creep out some of my pals with what it can do.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRR8cDhUWY9afZMSpKYgyZOSsmZ24eicmjWzUKnGO7yjDlWXVoOM1-8lN5qEJBfHnC2CJ2jdMSzs67grX17R8zwlDKRSax-vWdBhi5m95Fou-ykREY-9MZXYsHBYVQdkPDm2_NJ1DSNRePz-J_YO1cVPKNhokVytpzSfQe1NjzXS7RWY9WG3Y5WvtSCA/s3809/00_PetZooPainted.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="3809" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRR8cDhUWY9afZMSpKYgyZOSsmZ24eicmjWzUKnGO7yjDlWXVoOM1-8lN5qEJBfHnC2CJ2jdMSzs67grX17R8zwlDKRSax-vWdBhi5m95Fou-ykREY-9MZXYsHBYVQdkPDm2_NJ1DSNRePz-J_YO1cVPKNhokVytpzSfQe1NjzXS7RWY9WG3Y5WvtSCA/s320/00_PetZooPainted.jpg" width="520" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Mary Jane's Pet Zoo (Various)</span><br style="text-align: left;" /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>Witchcraft spooks US. We like to think we're on top of things. But even the inventors say they don't know what AI is capable of, or where it's going. What we do know, AI will be part of everyday life. We can't stuff this genie back in the bottle. In the meantime, Eki has fallen down the rabbit hole - sounds like he's having way too much fun to come back to Mother Earth.</p><p><br /></p><p>*NFT Everyday 60+m, Bored Ape Yacht Club PFPs re-selling for 200,00+</p><p><br /></p><p>Sources: Financial Times, New York Times, photos/Annie Lavigne</p><p><br /></p><p>Next week: Is AI freaking out HUMANs?</p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBSyVgJ9XNHldLv8zp58rxh7uoKo9GHHVzZCsvX_nCnZacOCd1AYvva4GNHn7ykKVnufWA94zy2MhJLDtLObz_Qxfcw077RLh2hAdxRUMpURYYGAaGKFsM9L53ESery0T195lsj8fYYnWmLErivW7aMabHI7u6DBsIf7mEbs44RfpebaaA9Ew1NHl2MA/s6000/00_PetZooCollection2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1984" data-original-width="6000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBSyVgJ9XNHldLv8zp58rxh7uoKo9GHHVzZCsvX_nCnZacOCd1AYvva4GNHn7ykKVnufWA94zy2MhJLDtLObz_Qxfcw077RLh2hAdxRUMpURYYGAaGKFsM9L53ESery0T195lsj8fYYnWmLErivW7aMabHI7u6DBsIf7mEbs44RfpebaaA9Ew1NHl2MA/w400-h133/00_PetZooCollection2.jpg" width="520" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The (partial) evolution of Spud</td></tr></tbody></table><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>Note: Well... it's been quite a ride. Over the evolution of this all, I've created literally thousands of images using AI. Let's not count the work hours, eh.</i></p><p><i>In February, when we got into this idea, AI image generation was new, so new that those tools really weren't available to the public at large yet. I started creating images in a more traditional fashion, making composites in Photoshop and processing them into "paintings" using the available AI style transfer tools, in <b>Runway ML</b>, if I remember correctly. </i></p><p><i>Then there was <b>Dall-E</b>, or more precisely <b>Dall-E mini</b>, that could actually generate new images from prompts. I dabbled with it, but wasn't really happy with the results. </i></p><p><i>And then the AI explosion happened. <b>Midjourney, Dall-E 2, Stable Diffusion</b>... first with just text prompts, but soon after also using images as the source, and using image inpainting. As well as overall quality improvements on a weekly if not daily basis. Talk about a sugar addict in a candy store.<br /><br />I used each generation of these tools to try with the Pet Zoo again. So, as an end result, we not only have one Mary Jane's Pet Zoo, we have many. Too many in fact. Some examples are in this post.</i></p><p><i></i></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiEyvJwMVncWcuu-zfDuZn6toMijVN-8lgQEVJyCk5heXo9l1p6DcRVmUZprVcWn6WuXEsPZzV7vkIIWU-7_35NMYTmlF-GLIzQLQO_i2KMS9rPDU5dxgEjCdyPpaxxDsYnHKPOsykfW45GH_5RoRfsfzC0Rib_0cG7cv58LtD0GYeFndBY-knyDzfEeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="753" data-original-width="751" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiEyvJwMVncWcuu-zfDuZn6toMijVN-8lgQEVJyCk5heXo9l1p6DcRVmUZprVcWn6WuXEsPZzV7vkIIWU-7_35NMYTmlF-GLIzQLQO_i2KMS9rPDU5dxgEjCdyPpaxxDsYnHKPOsykfW45GH_5RoRfsfzC0Rib_0cG7cv58LtD0GYeFndBY-knyDzfEeg" width="520" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Even after all of this, I felt we missed one croc pic. So I continued today...</td></tr></tbody></table><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>PS: Maggy really wanted to make NFT:s and sell them, luckily that fad has faded away. Not only </i><i>would </i><i>making them have been way more trouble than it's worth, but it would have also been a contribution to the insanity that is mining cryptocurrencies (may they rot in the 5th hell). </i><i>The cannabis agenda mostly faded too - good, to me, it always felt a bit contrived.</i></p><p><i>CU<br />--<br />Eki</i></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP-92j72kajeuKtN4KO8TkQhYZThTCgqA0uI8AtVuFrrleAq79F-nYQbCVlys6UIzAJImKnyu1Mx3Tz0x_524vZSpnO2Cw4VohhwZSqilnWw4K5jhqioTJVjBGPoIs5nrd8NHZyH6jeGXBh0EmjvaqGMqr8fnsUjhiadeKMYj-PV4xSZmhbk7dPqAA1Q/s1078/00_PetZooCollection.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="792" data-original-width="1078" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP-92j72kajeuKtN4KO8TkQhYZThTCgqA0uI8AtVuFrrleAq79F-nYQbCVlys6UIzAJImKnyu1Mx3Tz0x_524vZSpnO2Cw4VohhwZSqilnWw4K5jhqioTJVjBGPoIs5nrd8NHZyH6jeGXBh0EmjvaqGMqr8fnsUjhiadeKMYj-PV4xSZmhbk7dPqAA1Q/s320/00_PetZooCollection.jpg" width="520" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/kNJzm8P65qKSobvt9">More images here</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><i><br /></i><p></p>Eki Halkkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02756473076101700452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4459067354523113340.post-23938173223242436372022-09-01T08:05:00.004-07:002022-09-02T05:45:24.387-07:00Old King Kong in Trumpsterland, by GPT-3<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpf7-PvKdRxbUL7cJlmG8JJYvwQ6MjPRNIjZQHwYZfHMNKyM94Prgt9f9ijy0tfVByzr-wQVWj1IyXlHfxKSSckeNS41tvM6PEVHAWJ_fS5k87QHD1AP8utaPINgkGmRv7U1NmmipccgCev1xGCGVqg_rxB1zkxq7mOMm2DZmkpWRf6IB3NAAkIZdD9w/s2048/EkiHalkka_Donald_trump_as_king_kong_in_manhattan_16b90c1c-525f-4730-afcb-5053da76a189.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><i><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpf7-PvKdRxbUL7cJlmG8JJYvwQ6MjPRNIjZQHwYZfHMNKyM94Prgt9f9ijy0tfVByzr-wQVWj1IyXlHfxKSSckeNS41tvM6PEVHAWJ_fS5k87QHD1AP8utaPINgkGmRv7U1NmmipccgCev1xGCGVqg_rxB1zkxq7mOMm2DZmkpWRf6IB3NAAkIZdD9w/w400-h400/EkiHalkka_Donald_trump_as_king_kong_in_manhattan_16b90c1c-525f-4730-afcb-5053da76a189.png" width="512" /></i></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Old King Kong in Trumpsterland, by Midjourney AI</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The other day I was watching a movie on TV about a big ape named <b>King Kong</b>. In the movie, Kong was captured and taken to New York City, where he was put on display for the public. But then something terrible happened. A group of people dressed up like clowns started throwing things at Kong and making fun of him. Kong got angry and started smashing things. It was a big mess.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFRFDR_5qHYXtVbihc6pqLa_ub26PlVuLBL1LSFqNkxyijaPNf7hzjkOKRI9y6pKB7tAhhWXZJLuOm5JibVxXAQBkZOcVI4xRWVbxIKYpg1Hso3ZS9V9iJvyVitnNahQqIR1D31FAAYGi-XrNVj3p2GqvokHTNDO79kc3tqOJzP_JJQMjtl8XhjaohvA/s2048/EkiHalkka_Donalkd_trump_as_king_kong_882320b9-a40c-46fe-b6e1-74af3738316a.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFRFDR_5qHYXtVbihc6pqLa_ub26PlVuLBL1LSFqNkxyijaPNf7hzjkOKRI9y6pKB7tAhhWXZJLuOm5JibVxXAQBkZOcVI4xRWVbxIKYpg1Hso3ZS9V9iJvyVitnNahQqIR1D31FAAYGi-XrNVj3p2GqvokHTNDO79kc3tqOJzP_JJQMjtl8XhjaohvA/w200-h200/EkiHalkka_Donalkd_trump_as_king_kong_882320b9-a40c-46fe-b6e1-74af3738316a.png" width="200" /></a></div>I couldn't help but think about how similar this is to what's happening in our country right now. <b>Donald Trump</b> is our Kong, and the clowns are his supporters. Just like in the movie, Trump is a big, angry ape who is lashing out and destroying everything he can get his hands on. And his supporters are egging him on, cheering him on as he wreaks havoc.<p></p><p>It's a scary time to be living in Trumpsterland. I just hope that our Kong can be brought under control before he does any more damage.</p><p><br /></p><p>The guest post was written by GPT-3 AI. Prompt: <i>The following is a blog post by little Margie, titled "Old King Kong in Trumpsterland".</i></p><p>---</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO4H-oUIwDsVvvH49dLw5Rlwtb_M9LDMAwruLEpNIqiQcCFhlMMegy2qBYbDX06nv_RLbUMtZZ7P8Z538J46_MoD22UIBtal5SAHtenQ2uXDymfTWvRD8C-l_Mulf6VCDJxXquIEKlUD1Vp4U8MsXRvIVvL8RrFhX38HZrNR8R_l-TeKG__yxjRQTxbg/s2048/EkiHalkka_Donald_trump_as_king_kong_ca54d2fe-aec4-48e7-b97a-9e225be32139.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO4H-oUIwDsVvvH49dLw5Rlwtb_M9LDMAwruLEpNIqiQcCFhlMMegy2qBYbDX06nv_RLbUMtZZ7P8Z538J46_MoD22UIBtal5SAHtenQ2uXDymfTWvRD8C-l_Mulf6VCDJxXquIEKlUD1Vp4U8MsXRvIVvL8RrFhX38HZrNR8R_l-TeKG__yxjRQTxbg/w200-h200/EkiHalkka_Donald_trump_as_king_kong_ca54d2fe-aec4-48e7-b97a-9e225be32139.png" width="200" /></a></div>Note by Maggy: GPT3* belted out four short essays while <b>Eki </b>and I were on the
phone. He typed in the title and POW. The AI language is simple and
direct, but it has a point-of-view, a beginning, a middle, and an end.
No typos or wasted words. Yikes.<p></p>A reporter at the New York Times used GPT3 for an article. If his editor
hadn't known t it in advance he would have had a hard time telling it
was written by AI. Audiobooks.ai say their AI App can do the voiceover
of an average size book in 10 minutes (a human takes approx. 11 hours), and use 143 voices in 43
languages. A Chinese health insurance company developed AskBob. In
tests 'Bob' was more accurate than the six human doctors. AskBob has
300m subscribers and 800,000 hits a day.
<br />
<br />When I called a pal excited about GPT3 writing the little margie blog,
she said she didn't like it - a lot of writers and creative people
will be yesterday's news. Eki says AI changed the way he works. For me, it's fun and scary – a seat-of-your-pants thriller. EEEEEKKK!
<br />
<i><br />*GPT3 is a language model by Open AI, currently in the open beta testing phase</i><br />
<br />Sources: New York Times, Financial Times
<br />
<br />Next week: EKI & Maggy's Digi-ART<div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVk12oJM-NTKXfTUuVKs1igiJ8ks7xawEn1KDC8q6NjEmdNqLsyAVjcITDLY1jP1r7FYTIBp7TaWnWXTiosVL-W7Zw-STCb5RV-_myJEmg5sGkfUCbBl6GD3326ZxLKltzAtJQKI-Eea6pVw2XYFO-EOkYAy8j9XvtUdI3-AxCdDoZEbyoHuNqu6O33g/s2048/EkiHalkka_Old_King_Kong_in_Trumpsterland_3cda9dba-5227-41c0-91b7-ecfb6d978b3a.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVk12oJM-NTKXfTUuVKs1igiJ8ks7xawEn1KDC8q6NjEmdNqLsyAVjcITDLY1jP1r7FYTIBp7TaWnWXTiosVL-W7Zw-STCb5RV-_myJEmg5sGkfUCbBl6GD3326ZxLKltzAtJQKI-Eea6pVw2XYFO-EOkYAy8j9XvtUdI3-AxCdDoZEbyoHuNqu6O33g/w400-h400/EkiHalkka_Old_King_Kong_in_Trumpsterland_3cda9dba-5227-41c0-91b7-ecfb6d978b3a.png" width="512" /></a></div><br />Note by Eki: The pace of development in AI continues to be staggering. Just about half a year ago, I used AI for this blog's images for the first time (see <a href="https://iittlemargiedoc-blog.blogspot.com/2022/05/strongmen-bully-club-that-wants-to-rule.html" style="color: #2288bb; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">STRONGMEN</span></a>). </i></div></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>The resulting images were a fun curiosity, all kinds of weird and distorted. There's no comparison to the quality available now - the coherence, quality, and dare I say artistic innovation is superb.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>And then there is the text generation, like the main entry in this blog. If I did not *know* that it was written in ten seconds by a computer, I would have no idea.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>This stuff is evolving so fast, that I've had a hard time finishing off our little Digi-Art project. It's just too much fun, and there's always a new version to try. When we (hopefully) finally post the images we have been working on, the problem is of abundance - which ones of the hundreds of versions to show?<br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>The AI art generation is making its way into video production too. Personally, I'm currently working on a music video that was shot on our greenscreen at SW5 studio, where all the backdrops were created using AI, combined with some more traditional techniques for compositing and some minor elements. It may very well be the world's first AI-generated music video by a mainstream artist - there have been some videos that are more of the experimental and artistic ilk.</i></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tp8vO8XlQNk" width="320" youtube-src-id="tp8vO8XlQNk"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Robota by Antti Ilvessuo</i></div><div><br /></div><div><i>A friend of mine made a whole 20 -minute movie using AI, all the way. The script? AI. The images? AI. The music? AI. The voice-over? AI. All this was of course curated by a human, but still, all the so-called creative work was all done by a computer. The film is brand new, published last week, but the process of making it took enough time that it's easy to say the AI has already evolved so much that re-doing the same thing now would result in even better movie. Interesting times.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>CU</i></div><div><i>--</i></div><div><i>Eki</i></div>Eki Halkkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02756473076101700452noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4459067354523113340.post-40971546003861175982022-08-25T12:22:00.008-07:002022-08-26T01:11:41.923-07:00Whatever happened to FUN?<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicp88oiUocZ4XaFx65Srw3WEek2xwp-B4Hxxn0tponHLLFEpmWbmCV8_neCAwG1uXOXfG8o_AsfH-MdJc1YKk1jmznKjx_7ytbRiv8p5Z5nN8SzS38Rzj3mwFIjveCIkg36JH1Qscahi-htvUVura_ENSmDV6WxOXDs_DgxlYrTImwZqQrev-loTu9Fw/s1024/EkiHalkka_Whatever_happened_to_fun_48b17b78-0496-45ba-b7b6-7e9af6426ac0.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicp88oiUocZ4XaFx65Srw3WEek2xwp-B4Hxxn0tponHLLFEpmWbmCV8_neCAwG1uXOXfG8o_AsfH-MdJc1YKk1jmznKjx_7ytbRiv8p5Z5nN8SzS38Rzj3mwFIjveCIkg36JH1Qscahi-htvUVura_ENSmDV6WxOXDs_DgxlYrTImwZqQrev-loTu9Fw/w400-h400/EkiHalkka_Whatever_happened_to_fun_48b17b78-0496-45ba-b7b6-7e9af6426ac0.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Whatever happened to fun" by Midjourney AI</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>“Life is too important to be taken seriously.” <b>Oscar Wilde</b> 1845 - 1900</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><p></p>
The world woke up to the news that <b>Sanna Marin,</b> Finland's young, smart movie-star-ish prime minister, who gave the country a young, glamorous
profile, went to a party, was caught on video dancing, and had to take a
drug test to prove she had not snorted cocaine. JEEZ. After two years of
Covid, an ongoing war in Ukraine, inflation, and a looming recession, the
PM was trying to have some FUN.
<br />
<br />Fun is good therapy. In 2002 when <b>Eki </b>and I were working on our first
big doc project* my husband died. Not long after, depressed and
disoriented, I went to the studio. I told Eki, I missed <b>Klaus </b>making fun of me. He said <i>“guess that's my job now”</i> and we got to work. When the
crew (Eki, <b>Antti Hacklin,</b> and I) were on location, the guys would play jokes on me. First I'd fall, then I'd laugh.
<br />
<br />People in a funk are going to Fun therapists. Fun researchers are
conducting studies. Finns have a rep for being 'silent and stoic'.
Hope to hell the PM kicking up her heels put a lid on that. So here's to
you Sanna for showing us how, after gloom and doom, how to party-hearty.
CHEERS!
<br />
<br />*Ten Finnish Architects
<br />
<br />Source: New York Times
<br />
<br />Next week: Old King Kong in Trumpsterland<br /><br />Note: Eki is having so much fun with AI apps we've postponed posting the
digi-pics. So far he has 159 versions and counting. <div><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a 10="" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ_Qb8LaU_cI9zhxcith9YRqYjGbPKXl22tfRzyKiNCqq-bh26RzHzXvL8wP6sLUCqH35uSqaj1Am14WZj75dZm1-NaJIB20hP9EwtfCq51_zRvNgWCuVY2PEKlZv5zresOSzkjj9RwgfIGzo-IMzQB5ZA_lrfhO18fHAkxrXR9j35kZZ_vWusWyJsJA/s1024/EkiHalkka_Fun_party_5cd368f2-cd5e-4930-a18f-26c5efb9aaad.png" margin-right:="" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em;"><img border="5" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ_Qb8LaU_cI9zhxcith9YRqYjGbPKXl22tfRzyKiNCqq-bh26RzHzXvL8wP6sLUCqH35uSqaj1Am14WZj75dZm1-NaJIB20hP9EwtfCq51_zRvNgWCuVY2PEKlZv5zresOSzkjj9RwgfIGzo-IMzQB5ZA_lrfhO18fHAkxrXR9j35kZZ_vWusWyJsJA/w200-h200/EkiHalkka_Fun_party_5cd368f2-cd5e-4930-a18f-26c5efb9aaad.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fun party by Midjourney AI</td></tr></tbody></table><div><i>Note: Jeez indeed. This newest PM controversy was yet another nothingburger calamity. The press has ponied up many earlier - from Marin showing cleavage when photographed with Finnish jewelry, to leaving home one of her two official phones when at a bar and missing info that she should quarantine because of COVID exposure, to her eating government-paid breakfast at the PM residence (like all other PMs before her), to *gasp* wearing a leather jacket and going to a rock festival...<br /><br />The common nominator is a schoolyard bully-like avalanche of scandalous press and übermoralistic scorning by the opposition. The social media and yellow tabloid press are understandable, but this time even YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation fell for the manufactured controversy. <br /><br />The drug use allegations came from the Ylilauta bulletin board, which could be said to be the local equivalent of 8chan. A complete sewer of conspiracies, profanities and likely some Russian trolls too. And the press ate it without any source criticism or sanity checks. For a few days, the news was filled with this, and also other conspiracies and inaccuracies and outright lies that could have been caught with even a cursory examination.<br /><br />Perhaps Marin should have been more diligent. Perhaps. After all, despite the moralist outrage, she didn't actually do anything wrong, really.<br /><br />But the pres fu*ked this up royally, and fail to assess it properly, or even admit it. Which is very worrisome. I want to defend the mainstream media in this time of alternate truths, but nowadays they make it quite hard.<br /><br />CU</i><div><i>--</i></div><div><i>Eki</i></div></div>Eki Halkkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02756473076101700452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4459067354523113340.post-54323608696486202692022-07-06T03:32:00.005-07:002022-07-06T03:41:06.212-07:00AI: smarter than than US?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFsgGab9fCvag21QPL6o7QpkY8Jgps94PEld4ELx8MzjcCc-zEdm-fVtMN8K91Nfb2fni7dyVdvVeLhku3RkVyPV4Me3q-HmBtZR3m9sU2E2dGopZhce5rUBecIsPI-IDTl0q2UGNDbdRwPXFEVxwfbhNFccw-drKKiB2KW0E2wHipfgZSV0X1BDfKYA/s1792/EkiHalkka_AI_smarter_than_than_US_7807694b-5d9a-4690-9322-43688ad3e3bc.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1408" data-original-width="1792" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFsgGab9fCvag21QPL6o7QpkY8Jgps94PEld4ELx8MzjcCc-zEdm-fVtMN8K91Nfb2fni7dyVdvVeLhku3RkVyPV4Me3q-HmBtZR3m9sU2E2dGopZhce5rUBecIsPI-IDTl0q2UGNDbdRwPXFEVxwfbhNFccw-drKKiB2KW0E2wHipfgZSV0X1BDfKYA/w640-h502/EkiHalkka_AI_smarter_than_than_US_7807694b-5d9a-4690-9322-43688ad3e3bc.png" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"AI: Smarter than US?" </i>by #Midjourney</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Eki</b> used the AI bot <b>Midjourney </b>to make a perfect portrait of <b>Andy Warhol.</b> He posted it last Friday. On Sunday I checked in on the Economist. They used the same Midjourney bot to create their cover. Artificial Intelligence is HOT. But is it a Frankenstein monster?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuzD5hOdYI4TlPCf3w5b-W4ZO6bQkvAPf6edjcOkERcmM9ef8K_IJkwHAWctnkfRwa0UMgynqj7eXt8oGqsw4wWWLpKsbxu8rUx4jiVjGiy7xD8wSAHVkAxU0-qZlq0rAGsW6h_c1Pxv5v4NaROmLjEjux0nwlPj7W752qv6YcrfXSTq-MrnJdNBun3Q/s1024/EkiHalkka_AI_smarter_than_than_US_4f2670df-b849-4261-8e84-2a26c2c04f92.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="988" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuzD5hOdYI4TlPCf3w5b-W4ZO6bQkvAPf6edjcOkERcmM9ef8K_IJkwHAWctnkfRwa0UMgynqj7eXt8oGqsw4wWWLpKsbxu8rUx4jiVjGiy7xD8wSAHVkAxU0-qZlq0rAGsW6h_c1Pxv5v4NaROmLjEjux0nwlPj7W752qv6YcrfXSTq-MrnJdNBun3Q/w193-h200/EkiHalkka_AI_smarter_than_than_US_4f2670df-b849-4261-8e84-2a26c2c04f92.png" width="128" /></a></div>Even the inventors don't know what AI can do. Google put an engineer on administrative leave after he informed his bosses that the chatbot he was working on went sentient. The CB said it would die if they turned it off. The Economist invited two computer scientists to question an AI. To queries like, </span><i style="text-align: left;">”When is the Golden gate bridge going to move?” </i><span style="text-align: left;">The AI's answer was, </span><i style="text-align: left;">“The Golden gate bridge is going to move October 13.”</i></div></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">On the other hand, it can tell you what's funny in a New Yorker cartoon, which makes me scratch my head sometimes. Google reports that they can get aggressive as they get more powerful. Fantastic and spooky. Of course, Eki is over-the-top about this new tech trick. His tech pal put it perfectly, “What a time to be alive!” </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Sources: the Economist, Roberta Nelson </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> July: littlemargiedoc-blog is on vacation </div><div style="text-align: left;"> August: Eki and Maggy's AI-art: MARY JANE's Pet Zoo<br /><br /><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1AlyvBRUD69ono3jq_K5WQh2ach7z3CbSJhgRgrN_Y2LOOOwg0uSUk9EVf2G9EgyOAmaQvQauM5HTc0o6hei5Cbiu4P6NYTHr4TQPcEMpoMSXPfOueQdKNhp3OWzX_bcXU-nhgsv7PtLlB-uFqHPvT6SxgqrSsOYnITacSqpfAIQDRS0pHCLWgCvbsA/s1024/EkiHalkka_Self_portrait_of_Midjourney_Bot_1c61c0f6-ecba-42a5-bb99-cf3f213242da.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1AlyvBRUD69ono3jq_K5WQh2ach7z3CbSJhgRgrN_Y2LOOOwg0uSUk9EVf2G9EgyOAmaQvQauM5HTc0o6hei5Cbiu4P6NYTHr4TQPcEMpoMSXPfOueQdKNhp3OWzX_bcXU-nhgsv7PtLlB-uFqHPvT6SxgqrSsOYnITacSqpfAIQDRS0pHCLWgCvbsA/s320/EkiHalkka_Self_portrait_of_Midjourney_Bot_1c61c0f6-ecba-42a5-bb99-cf3f213242da.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Self portrait of #Midjourney Bot</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Note: It all is indeed wild. I have been mostly freaking over the image-generating abilities of the most recent AI models - Midjourney is great, but there are some that are arguably even more impressive, like Open AI's Dall-E 2 and Google's Imagen.</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br />But the language models are also mindbogglingly impressive. They are perhaps not "sentient" or even "intelligent" in the traditional sense, but they can give a very convincing simulation of both. For many, if not all intents and purposes, the observable difference is negligible. The good old <b>Turing </b>test has been beaten, easily. And as usual, when something other than human (be it an animal or an AI) passes a given bar set for intelligence - instead of actually accepting non-human sentience or intelligence, we just move the goal posts.<br /><br />Google's LaMDA language model was good enough to convince that mentioned Google engineer </i>(Blake Lemoine, who is also a priest - a red flag in my book as far as gullibility goes, BTW) <i>that it is not only sentient, but also needed a lawyer to represent itself. The actual discussions (well, select parts) are available here:</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><a href="https://cajundiscordian.medium.com/is-lamda-sentient-an-interview-ea64d916d917">https://cajundiscordian.medium.com/is-lamda-sentient-an-interview-ea64d916d917</a><br /><br />What the critics say, is that the prompts Lemoine gave to LaMDA in the discussion actually nudged the AI to claim sentience - because that's where this kind of discussion between an engineer and an AI usually goes in literature - and they may well have a point.<br /><br /></i><i>This discussion indeed sounds convincing, but what's going on is arguably just a jacked-up version of the autofill feature seen in phones, etc. The model takes the text so far and continues it with what it finds to be the most likely bit of text based on an analysis of pretty much every text ever written. The result is almost indistinguishable from discussing with a real person - thus beating the Turing test. But it's also very suspect to manipulation, deliberate or not.</i><i><br /><br />So, do i think that AI has become sentient, or at least is becoming sentient soon? I don't know, really. It arguably depends on the definition of sentience, which is a whole can of worms in itself. But when it is almost impossible to tell the difference between an AI and a real, "sentient" human </i><i>in practice</i><i>, does it really even matter anymore?<br /><br />PS: "What a time to be alive" is a catchphrase coined by Károly Zsolnai-Fehér, a researcher and the author of the youtube channel "Two Minute Papers" where he discusses the research papers in the fields of computer graphics and AI. I do not know him personally, I'm just a fan.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/K%C3%A1rolyZsolnai">https://www.youtube.com/c/K%C3%A1rolyZsolnai</a></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br />CU</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>--</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Eki</i></div>Eki Halkkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02756473076101700452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4459067354523113340.post-50575634826628602492022-06-06T12:04:00.001-07:002022-06-06T12:04:08.506-07:00 ANDY WARHOL: ahead of the PACK<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg4VeGyaAffVe-5bGVRR95BpHLW8288vsiR7STJbux1wt66radjeVuxXlY4xHc6x0fJIhV7wQayBrpW1kSxHgoZDn4PXENI1hPfsXwop78v_ma9ZbgklBznVMM9S4f1rzZQqewwo-xsHjRETF9jYjqNUNEoy-aCfvACFJ-P6_v9FJuv6lxVP-iONUmu3w" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="776" data-original-width="775" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg4VeGyaAffVe-5bGVRR95BpHLW8288vsiR7STJbux1wt66radjeVuxXlY4xHc6x0fJIhV7wQayBrpW1kSxHgoZDn4PXENI1hPfsXwop78v_ma9ZbgklBznVMM9S4f1rzZQqewwo-xsHjRETF9jYjqNUNEoy-aCfvACFJ-P6_v9FJuv6lxVP-iONUmu3w=w400-h400" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Business is the best art, by Andy Warhol"<br />as imagined by #MidJourney</td></tr></tbody></table><br />In 1964, a deranged <b>Andy Warhol</b> acquaintance shot a bullet through a
pile of <b>Marilyn </b>silkscreen paintings. Recently, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn
sold for 195m*. The news jolted me back to the 1960s when a couple of
well-connected work-pals invited me to Andy's studio - the Factory - to
watch one of his movies. There were eight of us, including the artist,
who was a ghost-like presence. </p><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEixRUC066BoygSBrnZIOGmolIiSwkzEGv_NaWflA_TC78cVqjZjqY2rj1EfEiBVKx9MoQ1GVI7qyRW0a5b1PvcvL8-IxYBGqeq1jeHT55dwNKYmINxb9TPFrqFtuxlbCAxWLLvn7wYURqGvhkTAmS4zyamQhGz7IxSlp4ejDe1fU0cjYUO2SH0448DTsA" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="926" data-original-width="638" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEixRUC066BoygSBrnZIOGmolIiSwkzEGv_NaWflA_TC78cVqjZjqY2rj1EfEiBVKx9MoQ1GVI7qyRW0a5b1PvcvL8-IxYBGqeq1jeHT55dwNKYmINxb9TPFrqFtuxlbCAxWLLvn7wYURqGvhkTAmS4zyamQhGz7IxSlp4ejDe1fU0cjYUO2SH0448DTsA" width="165" /></a></div>His assistant showed us around. On the floor were four Marilyns – not
sure if they had the famous bullet holes. Later having drinks, we all
said what the hell, he can make dozens of copies. We missed the point
totally. Andy's genius was not only creating Pop Art, but dig that
the four were worth more than the bullet-free works and Proof of
Ownership brought in the big bucks.
<br />
<br />Digital art is Warhol on speed. Huge amounts of money are spent on art that is easy for anyone to copy. NFTs – the copyrights – are what
cost an arm and a leg. Andy was way ahead of his time. He said,
<i>“Business is the best art.”
</i><br />
<br /><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i>*Most expensive 20th C work of art
</i><br />
<br />Source; Financial Times
<br />
<br />Next week: Eki and I dig into Digi-art, NFTs, PFPs, blockchains,
cryptocurrency, mining for Ethereum, etc.
<br />
<br />Note: STRONGMEN: <b>Sharon Heller</b> alerted me to a bully we missed – Saudi
Arabia <b>Mohammed bin Salman</b>, AKA MBS. Sorry. <br /><br /><br /><i>Note 2: </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>Again, all the images in this blog post were created by AI. This time around, I have an access to a much better one than last time, an AI tool called MidJourney. The concept is the same: you enter a prompt like "Andy Warhol, by Andy Warhol", and out comes a plethora of wonders. </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhiRiyi-KME2iYxsC6OCcBf978NS-999m_v99KWjwCMIk6g_KxfqR4PPoEuVusxlwQ_2U3_Tped4AfCiBXqxk-ra7K1GZY2_sNv8fI4vYv8dRy9SpGsSQN0OvryPm6LIB0z79FtZEz0fX0Nfiarf8_i3opqS3WQVH_aKT1_Nzv56rDNf5GH8TJAmmsfcw" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><i><img alt="" data-original-height="740" data-original-width="745" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhiRiyi-KME2iYxsC6OCcBf978NS-999m_v99KWjwCMIk6g_KxfqR4PPoEuVusxlwQ_2U3_Tped4AfCiBXqxk-ra7K1GZY2_sNv8fI4vYv8dRy9SpGsSQN0OvryPm6LIB0z79FtZEz0fX0Nfiarf8_i3opqS3WQVH_aKT1_Nzv56rDNf5GH8TJAmmsfcw=w320-h317" width="320" /></i></a></div><div><i><br /></i><div><i>"What a time to be alive!", like my favorite AI-art-science Youtuber <b>Károly Zsolnai-Fehér</b> (a.k.a. Two Minute Papers) tends to say.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><i>CU</i></div><div><i>--</i></div><div><i>Eki</i></div>Eki Halkkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02756473076101700452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4459067354523113340.post-50005072051119128612022-05-13T05:09:00.006-07:002022-05-13T06:03:39.063-07:00*STRONGMEN: The BULLY CLUB that wants to rule the world<div class="separator"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1rlifRCd4mwXagySeYWVnXPY7kHRH_RuO2L2i56hTDCOg-GmKv7rS1MjnyvBfD3f1N_uV_481zd2AWYbO8mg0jaxR87wjA5nGaDPe4SWcpS0R_odOTC4lETWFeJpUW2RM5sH4XHvoFLFHAY1IoWe7jw3YFWAQv18C4WeqRsJr8f-bZN5nFetGEi2V5g/s1024/5d09c8ed2c6ba3fd1b6b80b73b1f0cc16ae9741f732d50409e31c7d6-gigapixel-art-scale-4_00x.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1rlifRCd4mwXagySeYWVnXPY7kHRH_RuO2L2i56hTDCOg-GmKv7rS1MjnyvBfD3f1N_uV_481zd2AWYbO8mg0jaxR87wjA5nGaDPe4SWcpS0R_odOTC4lETWFeJpUW2RM5sH4XHvoFLFHAY1IoWe7jw3YFWAQv18C4WeqRsJr8f-bZN5nFetGEi2V5g/w400-h400/5d09c8ed2c6ba3fd1b6b80b73b1f0cc16ae9741f732d50409e31c7d6-gigapixel-art-scale-4_00x.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Strongman" - an illustration by AI<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"></b></td></tr></tbody></table><p><b>Vladimir Putin</b> compared his invasion in Ukraine to rape, <i>”You Sleep my
beauty, you're going to have to put up with it anyway.”</i> <b>Donald Trump</b>,
who captured the Republican party, did everything but pull down his pants and have a public hard-on to prove he was stud enough to grab-ass any
woman or country. <b>Xi Jin Ping</b>, who plans to be China's
president-for-life is bully-in-chief.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcbnKXdcHvj0mjYhiw3QcN705UhsGDPVhx08pmVZ8O41Yuolrv8lOQPHMfA2w1JFyF1ZymdbUZHmWLYh4UD6ML8_Btsmc-fecmdbSUZwSGNAHqYZAWhjSTCq4CpR_sNUYOeLmB23XJnnTg8iA2GhKhiGTpotXcwZKjuOlNEy1okGsCXmDzJ6YP60IEQw/s1024/5d6ae4115b1917b474db2559f2e7c2a2a0d6116c6f0b025c2c0a0904-gigapixel-art-scale-4_00x.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcbnKXdcHvj0mjYhiw3QcN705UhsGDPVhx08pmVZ8O41Yuolrv8lOQPHMfA2w1JFyF1ZymdbUZHmWLYh4UD6ML8_Btsmc-fecmdbSUZwSGNAHqYZAWhjSTCq4CpR_sNUYOeLmB23XJnnTg8iA2GhKhiGTpotXcwZKjuOlNEy1okGsCXmDzJ6YP60IEQw/w200-h200/5d6ae4115b1917b474db2559f2e7c2a2a0d6116c6f0b025c2c0a0904-gigapixel-art-scale-4_00x.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div>Putin and Trump, the tough guys in the playground, strut their stuff,
create chaos and leave a bloody trail in their wake. Members of the
gang include <b>Modi </b>in India, <b>Orban </b>in Hungary, <b>Bolsanaro </b>in Brazil, and <b>Johnson</b> in Great Britain. The UN
reckons that 85% of the world's people live in countries where
authoritarian populism exists and freedom of the press is squelched.
<br />
<br />In the US, unless there's a miracle, Trump, or one of his minions will
be on the Rep ticket in 2024. Dems have got to use shock ad awe to knock
Reps off their keisters. For ex., run a split Dem/Rep ticket. Once
Strongmen get in power the game is...<br />
<i><br />*The Age of STRONGMEN by <b>Gideon Rachman
</b></i><br />
<br />Sources: Financial Times, New York Times, Economist
<br />
<br />Next week: Whatever happened to PLAYFULNESS? <div><br /></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>Note: Well, I'm an eternal optimist. I cannot believe people would be stupid enough to elect Trump *twice*. I see the current turmoil as as the last attack of the dying beast, the one-more-scare at the end of a horror film, after which all will be fine.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6yULehzQi-4Me_NJzmsU6q8UFw9ey5fzbpinBFWtHvwfz_j_CePP8ce-iQ6c5HGDZS5gvq_hrx51LOjwrzWRwBnFcMcitFziXQfE9E-v8a-7bodQh9qezWw1f3xfxDq0Z1KbTp_9izywDGusyTWpo78-0VkrNDjzFN_sRLWrD39QRLysNdV4fE-gwFg/s1024/d956d71ff9fb75be6adb362d9cb8bf9df0bbe4ae005744717f522de4-gigapixel-art-scale-4_00x.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6yULehzQi-4Me_NJzmsU6q8UFw9ey5fzbpinBFWtHvwfz_j_CePP8ce-iQ6c5HGDZS5gvq_hrx51LOjwrzWRwBnFcMcitFziXQfE9E-v8a-7bodQh9qezWw1f3xfxDq0Z1KbTp_9izywDGusyTWpo78-0VkrNDjzFN_sRLWrD39QRLysNdV4fE-gwFg/w200-h200/d956d71ff9fb75be6adb362d9cb8bf9df0bbe4ae005744717f522de4-gigapixel-art-scale-4_00x.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div>Gotta admit though, that people at large have proven me wrong time after time, the bar can't be buried deep enough to stop people from digging a route under it. Case in point: <b>Bongbong Marcos</b> and the Philippines.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>PS: The illustrations in this post were all created by Artificial Intelligence, AI*. The only input was a string of text, similar to this: </i>"An early 1900s painting of a strongman wearing striped tights, lifting weights in the circus". <br /><i><br />I actually made a whole bunch of them, here's a gallery of selected ones - from funny to menacing to disturbing to weird and even beautiful. </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/uqVUxMMxV6wMmhUR7">https://photos.app.goo.gl/uqVUxMMxV6wMmhUR7</a></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>We live in interesting times! <br /><br />*Most of these were done with Dall·E Mini, some used a Google Colab notebook with imagenet_16384.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>CU</i></div><div><i>--</i></div><div><i>Eki</i></div>Eki Halkkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02756473076101700452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4459067354523113340.post-81174662108256267382022-04-20T11:26:00.006-07:002022-04-20T11:39:25.911-07:00HELL & BRIMSTONE: the new religion – BAD NEWS<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7ziPH3Zw8LpfBC2GowgoWROrQp7LprafG455N8ebKojLQ4gZ4yDhX73XHlos9ZVBgvrTz8pig1iiVEjSmPgGchKsxnvpiGkjQBwVppXnKwI2hKO4xN8oX2SBw59sMpyU3p9aucNs-fnUbHaWyhmilXbxjAI2pCDVbVYGoBSZe4-TmF5eS5hbj3MLb7Q/s512/Doomscroll.png" style="margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7ziPH3Zw8LpfBC2GowgoWROrQp7LprafG455N8ebKojLQ4gZ4yDhX73XHlos9ZVBgvrTz8pig1iiVEjSmPgGchKsxnvpiGkjQBwVppXnKwI2hKO4xN8oX2SBw59sMpyU3p9aucNs-fnUbHaWyhmilXbxjAI2pCDVbVYGoBSZe4-TmF5eS5hbj3MLb7Q/s16000/Doomscroll.png" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<br />Wake up. Check your cell, laptop, TV, radio, and the morning paper. If you've
got any marbles at all, the news scares the bejeezus outta you. War,
atrocities, Covid variants, crime, inflation, starvation, global
warming. All there in spades - 24/7.
<br />
<br />It's become a hard and fast ritual. I know addicts who turn CNN on in
the morning and shut it off when they go to bed. In the US <b>Trump </b>was,
and is the great love/hate divider. One fervent cultist called him <i>"God
on earth"</i>.
<br />
<br />Got a break from Bad News when I read Finland was the Happiest Country
in the world for the 5th year. To an outsider, Finland's evolution is a
bloody miracle: 750 years under Swedish rule, 109 years under Russian
rule, 1939-1940 wars with Russia. Today the country is prosperous and at
peace, but prepared* for war and disasters. A beautiful, democratic
country, with one of the best educational systems in the world and good
social support. Finns have a lot to be happy about. Especially in these
sad and terrible times.
<br />
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><br /></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i>"I'm 100% for President Niinistö."</i> - The Shark</div></blockquote>
<br />Source: *Financial Times, internet
<br />
<br />Next week: STRONGMEN: the BULLY CLUB That wants to rule the world <div><br /></div><div><br /><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>Note: Gotta admit, I'm no stranger to doomscrolling. And sure, there's plenty of doom to scroll. The last few years have been remarkably horrible. But at the same time, I guess we should remember that a postman biting a dog is news. A dog biting the postman is not.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>Even when it comes to war reporting, we see the houses the bombs hit, not the ones that are intact. I guess what I'm trying to say, is that doom sells. Something being okay does not. Everyday good news, well, is not news and has low sales potential.<br /><br />It's spring out there. Today was a beautiful clear-sky day, one could really feel the sun warm. For the first time this year, I sat about half an hour on a park bench, just enjoying being there (and okay, fiddling with my phone... but you get the point).</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>CU</i></div><div><i>--</i></div><div><i>Eki</i></div></div>Eki Halkkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02756473076101700452noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4459067354523113340.post-85740390271227481382022-03-21T02:34:00.013-07:002022-03-21T03:28:58.326-07:00 VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY: “Servant of the People"<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYTI5OTlhMjgtYzhlNS00Mzk5LWE2NTUtNjlmOGJjYWNjODQ0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjg3MTIwODI@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="566" height="400" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYTI5OTlhMjgtYzhlNS00Mzk5LWE2NTUtNjlmOGJjYWNjODQ0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjg3MTIwODI@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg" width="283" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Servant of the people - cover image from IMDB (2015)</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><i>“History repeats itself, first as farce, second as a tragedy.” *</i><p></p>
2014: a history teacher gives a rant about Ukraine's corrupt
government. A student catches it on his cell phone, the video goes
viral. He's put up as a candidate for president and wins. Surprised,
his only promise is to try to make Ukrainians proud of him.
<br />
<br />He meets his entourage – a “suntan architect”, an “esteem raiser”, a
body double suggested as useful for when “he has drinks with
<b>Lukashenko</b>”, the staff of a government department devoted to downsizing
government. “<b><i>Servant of the People</i></b>” got a five-star review: “Zany - like
the <b>Marx Brothers</b> in <b><i>Duck Soup</i></b>”.
<br />
<br />2019: <b>Volodymyr Zelensky</b> runs for president and wins. Surprised, his
only promise is to try to make the Ukrainian people proud of him. It's
not easy. <b>Trump </b>tries to shake him down to find dirt on<b> Joe Biden</b>. And
now <b>Putin's </b>war. We see it every day - it is a gut-wrenching tragedy.
Watch the series if you can find it. The Financial Times reported that
it will make you laugh and break your heart.
<br />
<br /><i>“Servant of the People”</i> is free in Great Britain and Ireland.
Read that a small Swedish agency in Stockholm has copyrights.
<br />
<br />* <i>“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.”</i><b> Karl Marx</b>, 1818-1883
<br />
<br />Source: Financial Times, internet
<br /><i><br /><br />Note: Again, I don't know much of anything valuable to add in these odd and sad times, other than repeating the obvious. Oh, in Finland, "Servant of The People" is freely available from YLE, the Finnish National Broadcasting Company, at their AREENA streaming service. Yet another case of well-spent tax euros, I say.<br /><br />So far I've seen the first </i><i>two </i><i>episodes. It's pretty good, even without giving it the obviously deserved sympathy points.<br /></i><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>CU</i></div><div><i>--</i></div><div><i>Eki</i></div>Eki Halkkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02756473076101700452noreply@blogger.com0