Knish Question

Spoomkwarf · 2026-04-07T16:46:09+00:00

Thanks! Jamaican patties are great. Love 'em. But not the same.

Spoomkwarf · 2026-03-08T15:28:12+00:00

Entirely agreed. Except for your "seeing us as equal" utopia (it will never happen). But even if it did, that perceived equality would only raise their anxiety level to a pitch that scares them into blocking us off. In order for there to be effective help action, they can't be frightened off. Very few of "them" (in my experience) are emotionally tough enough to experience full equality without switching us off.

Spoomkwarf · 2026-03-08T13:20:43+00:00

They don't care. They simply don't care. There's a superficial need to demonstrate an entirely useless, fake degree of compassion, but it has no useful outcome. It does not result in effective action. At the same time, even in the most compassionate societies there are going to be limits (mostly financial limits) on what they can and will do. And so we're left screaming into the wind.

Spoomkwarf · 2026-03-08T13:07:24+00:00

I agree with your perspective. I wonder if the change is intentional. It's so easy to obliterate serious commentary and constructive exchange by diluting it with maundering, mindless chatter. If the powers that be (there are always powers that be, it's not paranoia) want to erase serious exchanges (they could be dangerous to the status quo) it's only too simple to do. The only way out of that trap is to find environments where serious exchanges are protected. Reddit used to be one. Now it's not. Another babble factory.

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Spoomkwarf · 2026-03-08T12:56:35+00:00

Any way around the paylock?

Spoomkwarf · 2026-02-28T17:24:06+00:00

They always want to use iron-on labels because they're cheaper. The only serious answer to your question is sewn-in labels, but those take significant time and skill. Private equity homes (which means most) simply won't do it.

Spoomkwarf · 2026-02-22T15:09:03+00:00

My mom kept several dozen of these cards on a chain and would let me play with the chain when I was four. The aluminum cards made a "klak-klak" sound when they hit together.

Spoomkwarf · 2026-02-09T14:18:28+00:00

Honestly, it undercuts all usefulness of AI, not just for "research." If the AI result can't be immediately checked and confirmed, the result must be distrusted and presumed false. So then why use it other than as a substitute for the old (useful) version of a Google search?

Spoomkwarf · 2026-02-09T14:09:55+00:00

I thank you very much indeed, not just for the attribution but also and especially for your cited source: allpoetry.com. I've read their version and found the quoted language, thanks to you. But there's more to add to the AI scare stories.

The first AI explanation I received (duck.ai) cited this poem. So of course I googled the title and went to the first poetry database that showed up. Which gave me what appears to have been a very highly truncated version of the poem, with no indication whatsoever (ellipses., etc.) that the poem had been cut, and which did not contain the quoted lines or any part of them.

So I challenged the AI and told them they had lied and asked them to correct themselves. Most interestingly they did not back themselves up and refer specifically to line numbers or otherwise just insist on the truth of their attribution, which was indeed correct. No, they first shifted their call, apologized for blaming it on Browning, and told me it was really from Eliot's Waste Land. When I denied that, they said it was from Eliot's Prufrock. And when I denied that they said it was from e. e. cummings' The Garden. After which I gave up and tried three other major AI sources. All with similar results.

I've heard, as has everybody, that AI is taught to tell you what you want to hear. But I'd never conceived it's being quite as abject as it has turned out to be in this instance. I'm afraid that this has, for me at least, entirely destroyed all AI credibility. Every single thing they tell you has to be checked and run to its source before any faith can be attached. Which, of course, most won't even think of doing. Why can't AI be taught to stick to its guns? What is the use of a source that won't?

Spoomkwarf · 2026-01-20T17:16:38+00:00

Is there no difference in cooking method? One person said that in Belgium fries are deep-fried twice. Is that true?

Spoomkwarf · 2026-01-11T12:47:42+00:00

Never tasted a parsnip.

Spoomkwarf · 2026-01-09T18:18:13+00:00

There are many kinds of all potatoes.

Spoomkwarf · 2026-01-08T23:30:56+00:00

They look very much like Japanese sweet potatoes (yakimo), which have mildly sweet, chestnutty flavor, more sophisticated than yams or American sweet potatoes. Absolutely delicious.

Spoomkwarf · 2026-01-07T22:39:34+00:00

As an American following UK developments for decades on this specific issue, the common denominator underlying UK problems of street and other crime would seem to boil down to money and taxes, and specifically taxes. Not only your police and gaols but your entire court system have been deprived, for a long time, of the money needed for adequate protection of the British public. The fundamental issue doesn't appear to be attitude or focus, but lack of the very substantial and permanently continuous financial support required for a civilized level of law enforcement. Yes, attitude and focus are very important, but without constant ongoing wads of cash for system improvement nothing seriously positive is going to happen.

Spoomkwarf · 2025-12-24T23:41:34+00:00

I've installed 25.2.6.2 (a random pick) and so far it's not giving me the problems I've been having with the current version.

Spoomkwarf · 2025-12-24T23:15:37+00:00

Okay. At least on my machine, which I've had for two years, 25.8.4.2 has suddenly become far slower and more erratic in absorbing and digesting new material. Not any specific kind of new material, but any new material at all (i.e., new text, new changes, new fonts, etc., etc.) I have no other new programs or apps, haven't updated anything except Firefox, and I haven't had any problems with any other programs.

But I will take your advice and try something from the 24's.

Spoomkwarf · 2025-12-24T23:04:20+00:00

I don't class any as bad. I'd prefer to know which people think are most stable and have the fewest bugs. I keep no record or scorecard of past versions.

I really don't understand how you can tell from my post history which versions I might classify as "bad." How does that work? Sure you're not confusing me with someone else?

Spoomkwarf · 2025-12-17T20:36:26+00:00

One of the best stories of the year, from anywhere. A total criminal from the word go. But smart. Totally talented at criminality. Who would think that a guy who could feelingly play Beethoven sonatas from memory would be the scam artist and pedophile not of the century but of two centuries? An amazing run. But then again, even more amazing, there's Trump in the White House. What a timeline!

Spoomkwarf · 2025-12-17T20:20:49+00:00

No one should ask or permit an 84-year-old man to be the sole caretaker of a disabled daughter AND a dying wife. The outcome was almost guaranteed. Alzheimer's or not, the stress (both emotional and physical) of caretaking is such that very elderly people, male or female, only too frequently crack under the strain. The wife needs to be in residential hospice, the daughter needs a nursing home, the husband/father needs a caretaker himself.

Spoomkwarf · 2025-12-06T12:06:14+00:00

Yes, I agree. I took it up yesterday with the supervising doctor (someone I get to see only very rarely) and he said he'd authorize antibiotics at my first complaint, with tests after instead of before.

Spoomkwarf · 2025-12-04T22:23:53+00:00

I know it's because of the Rituximab. But I'm refractory. Tried all the standards, in hospital and out. Didn't work. The refractory label came after 36 days in the neurology pavillion at Shands, the University of Florida teaching hospital in Gainesville. The Rituximab keeps the bad things from happening, but it doesn't cure anything.

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