MICHELLE OBAMA for PREZ 2024??

 

Michelle at Oval Office, by Midjourney & Eki

Will she or won't she?  The New York Post says it's a done deal that MICHELLE will  take the plunge. Throw her hat in the ring in May. God save the Dems. If Old Joe runs and loses to Trump 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.

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.

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??

Sources; Ne York Post, Economist,  Guardian

Next  Week:  AI takes a GIANT LEAP

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 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey, 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".

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.

PS: Trump ranked last, no surprise there.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/18/us/politics/biden-trump-presidential-rankings.html

CU
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Eki

EKI’s AI take on PINK FLOYD

Pink Floyd: Dark Side of The Moon | A 50th Anniversary Animated Tribute by Eki & AI |

Eki asked me if I knew PINK FLOYD. I got all puffed up and said, ‘DUH’. And  added, ‘but I don’t know HIS music’. Eki jumped in with a withering, ’it’s a group, not a person’.  And said, for the 50th anniversary of ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ they invited AI prompt engineers to illustrate the album.

A huge task but right up Eki’s  alley. He sent me the link to ’The Wall’.  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.                                                                                                                                                         

To illustrate the old album using AI was a brilliant way for the iconic group to celebrate the Golden anniversary.  And give fans a way to to take part in the project. Eki sent me a link  to his  AI illustrated album. When I asked  people  about Pink Floyd, who were around Eki ’s age, they zeroed in on ‘The Wall’. But when I talked to a GenZ  guy, he knew Pink Floyd  was famous, but he liked ‘Arctic Monkey’. Time marches on. But Pink Floyd found a way to make their 50 year old ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ new again.  Hats off!

Sources: Eki, internet, interviews

Next week:  Please say YES!  Will  MICHELLE  OBAMA  run or PRESIDENT 2024?

Note:

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.

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. 

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.

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.

PS: Maggy's 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 "Have a Cigar", where the record label executive asks them "Oh, by the way, which one is Pink?".

PS2: I was 5 years old when The Dark Side Of The Moon came out - a little too little to pay attention. But when The Wall 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 ILM:s work on Star Wars, Raiders etc. They were indeed creating magic, and I wanted to do that too.

CU

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Eki

CHARISMA: weapon of mass destruction

Donald and Adolf at a comedy club stage, by Stable Diffusion

"History repeats itself, first as tragedy, next as farce."

Karl Marx1888-1935

HITLER had IT in spades. TRUMP 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 CHARISMA.

It took the HITLER 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. 

And is neck and neck, or ahead of Biden in multiple polls If Trump wins in 2024 it will be because Joe (past his sell-by-date) Biden lost. When high-ranking Dem, David Axelrod, said the 80 year old should quit. Biden called him a 'prick'. That ain't ‘charisma’. TRUMP/HITLER: love ‘em, hate ‘em, has IT.


Sources: the Economist, Washington Post, New York Times, Cambridge dictionary, personal opinion

Next week: Eki does Pink Floyd

"The argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with an average voter."

Winston Churchill 1874-1965

Note: No, it is not Joe Biden's fault if Trump wins. It is the fault of the people who vote for Trump. Period.

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.

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).

These two traits, held by ordinary people, create Donalds, and Adolfs. Charisma is irrelevant. Or rather, it should be.

- Eki

FUCK, VITTU, JARRAOA, PUTAIN, FOK, FOKK, FUNKEN

"Swear" by ChatGPT/Dall·E3

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.

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).  

Swear words work best if they’re kept in the shadows.  The taboo that gives them power. In 2020  ‘History of Swearwords’, hosted by Nicholas Cage 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. 

Sources: New York Tines, NY Post, Daily Madil online, OED online

Next week:  CHARISMA: weapon of mass destruction

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 ;-)

CU

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Eki

 

LUCKY in life, lucky in love

"Winning the genetic lottery", By MIdjourney AI

 

The NYT’s famous writer-friend told her ‘dumb luck’ helped put him over the top. Mega-investor, Warren Buffet said he won the ovarian lottery. That goes for anyone born in Scandinavia.

Eki 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...

If bad luck hits, do what Nietzsche says: “Face life as you find it, defiant and fearless”. But if a good fluke falls your way, with eyes-wide-open, grab it. Luck takes pluck. 

Sources: New York Times, internet, personal experience 

Next week:MOVIES: long, longer, longest, ZZZZZZZZZZZ 

Note: The above video by one of my all-time favorite Youtube science education channels, Veritasium, 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 "Talent vs Luck: the role of randomness in success and failure", and the finding is, to quote the authors:

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. 

https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.07068

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.

CU

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Eki

Don’t close your eyes. Plagiarise. Let nothing evade your eyes.*

Pablo Picasso, leading a gang of thieves, stealing paintings from a museum.
By Bing Image Creator (A.K.A. Dall·E 3)

"Good artists borrow, great artists steal" - Pablo Picasso 1881-1973**

Eki took clips from ‘Abilene Town’’ (I942IPD) and made LMP’s short political video ‘Showdown” starring Donald Trump. In 1980 Ronald Reagan first said, "Let’s make America great again". 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.

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).

Joe Biden had to ax his first presidential campaign when he mooched phrases and mannerisms from a British statesman. Fareed Zaharia, 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.

Now AI is under the gun. George R.R. Martin 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  JANE AUSTEN AI.** *

* Tom Lehrer

** Lifted from “Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal” - Igor Stravinsky 1882-1971

*** Jane Austen AI - Instagram, Facebook, WHATSAPP

Sources: The Economist, New  York Times, internet, Elizabeth Nelson

Next week: MIGRANTS & the RIGHT WING: cause & effect?

Re: LMP post - FREE SPEECH: a small-town newspaper goes to war: The Marion County police chief who organized the raid on the Morton County RECORD has been suspended.

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.

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.

Sure, the user can prompt the AI to make, say...

Game of Thrones in the style of Pablo Picasso (Bing)

...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.

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.

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.

TRUMP DUMP: VOTERS crave crap

"In the rink" by Stable Diffusion

 

"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."

 Winston Churchill 1874-1965

 

Go figure. Trump gets four indictments, and 91 felonies - his poll numbers skyrocket. A judge accuses him of rape - ‘big deal’. He pays off a porn star - ‘what else is new’. 1,000 Jan. 6 rioters are locked up  - ‘elect Trump they’ll get a pardon’.  Ditto for his Proud Boys on steroids who’ve been tried and convicted. USA today.

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 ‘support him’. 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.

Donkelephant in the wild by Stable Diffusion

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 John Meacham said the state of American democracy is in crisis. Will the US jump off the cliff? FAFO.

 

"Democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others." ** 

* Voters cast ballots for electors versus a win by popular vote. 

** Unknown source, but attributed to Winston Churchill.

Sources: The Economist, internet

Next week: Don’t close your eyes. Plagiarise. Let nothing evade your eyes.*

*Tom Lehrer

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. 

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.

CU

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Eki

PS: This video is an interesting introduction to the topic, for those with geeky tendencies: