MicroB

Regarding attire, no one mentions Musk's slob attire. Musk's attire is supposed to send a message like Zelensky's fatigues and sweatshirt. Zelensky's is to convey a message of solidarity as a wartime leader; Winston Churchill did the same wearing a "siren suit" times, when a camera was about. Musk wears t-chirt and black jeans because that's what kajillionaires wear; every one works for them. They control everyone. Musk runs the US government.

Yes, consider the diversity of political discourse in Europe. All shades of opinion exist, even opinions Americans would find diffult to stomach. But in the US, it's basically a 2 party state. Small parties barely exist.

A deal will be done. The American President wants his money, wants his rare earths (or raw earths what he called it). He won't get it off Putin. Putin is a bit thick when he started approaching the US offering mining rights (allegedly); The Americans aren't offering cash. If a deal with the US isn't done, then Ukraine may fall, Russia gets all the rare earths (etc), probably a ruined country, but, as the American President says, they will hold all the cards. But, why wouldn't Zelensky be on the phone now to Xi, get the Chinese in, offer them a sweet mining deal probably far more influence on the Russians, who are nervously watching a Chinese army massing near disputed borders.. They might even offer to build the rail line to ship the ore out. If Ukraine falls, Taiwan has 3 years left. America, as it is, won't defend it. The whole thing was engineered. If we are talking about respect then what about the journalist who made the disrespectful comment about Zelensky's attire, which lead to a cheap suit jibe from Zelensky. That journalist? Brian Glenn, working for "Royal America'sVoice ", and currently shagging Marjorie Taylor Greene, the transexual-lookinmg Congresswoman (well, looks like a bloke in a frock). Set the scene.

2024 Burkino Faso 2021 Mali War 2018 CAR War 2015 Syrian Civil War 2014 Ukrainian War 2008 Georgian War 1999 Second Chechen War 1998 Dagestan War https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/putin-has-always-been-war

Comedian.

Finger pointing at Vance. He tried yesterday to spoil the UK-US love-in yesterday, and failed. Tried it today, and set us closer to WW3. I actually don't think the deal is dead, because of a man from Ohio knew how to push a few buttons of two very human men. What's his motivation. Maybe ego, and being upstaged on Wednesday, by Musk.

Comedian. I know your sort.

Vance's fault. The man is a tit who realises he's worse than the spare. Remember, when he was 8, his grandmother told him to go have sex with a man. The President was taking a question from a Ukrainian journalist about neutrality; it was an understandable question/ The President was doing ok, talking about trying to keep neutral, all for world peace. He then moves on to the next question, move on. But Vance interjects. The question wasn't even aimed at him, but he interupted the President, and pushed a few buttons. He did dismiss nearly 10 years of talks with Russia. Zelensky is human. I'm not even sure what Vance was supposed to be doing except gurning for the cameras and fluttering his girlish eyelashes. Came over as a complete <deleted>. He tried it on with Prime Mnister Starmer, trying to upset a congenial conversaton between two allies, with his nonsense about free speech, and trying to stir up the Apple story. Starmer was cleverer than him, and didn't rise to it. Starmer was a respected (genuinely) lawyer, and was clearly better prepared to head off the knob from Ohio, who's great claim to fame is writing a book about his crackhead whore of a mum, and how his grannie wanted him to be buggered by a man. He was supposed to be the Tech Bro in the cabinet, regaling them all about the whizzy investments he has made (keeping quiet about the investment made in fetal stem cell research, because that will likely go down like a bag of sick), in a cabinet full of loyal but thick ideologues. He was going to rise above them. But then Musk turned up with his kid. The day before Starmer, there was the first US cabinet meeting. The headlines were all about Musk, who is not a cabinet member, telling the cabinet about stuff. The Veep was silent. Vance has a significant investment in AmplifyBio. AmplifyBio is a CRO; they carry out drug testing on behalf of the drug companies, using a mixture of primates and stem cells. https://eu.dispatch.com/story/business/2021/05/05/battelle-investors-including-j-d-vance-launch-gene-therapy-startup/4935970001/

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/john-kelly-confirms-trump-privately-disparaged-us-service-members-vete-rcna118543 https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/4239713-trump-rips-kelly-after-confirmation-of-suckers-remark/ https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-americans-who-died-at-war-are-losers-and-suckers/615997/ He called Senator McCain a "F**king Loser" for being captured alive. He called George HW Bush a "loser" for being shot down. Of course he would deny all of that, he even denied calling McCain a loser at one point. He denied, when shown a bill to bury a slain US soldier, "it doesn't cost $60,000 to bury a "f***ing Mexican". He denies being a sexual deviant. He denies using prostitutes. He denied calling the Ukrainian President a Dictator. He denies being a stooge for Russia. He denies being a racist. He denies mocking the disabled. He denies saying US troops who suffered traumatic brain injuries after a missile attack as having "headaches". He denies disrespecting a slain US soldier during a call with the soldier's monther. He denies, saying, while standing at the grave of his Homeland Security Secretary's son "whats in it for them". Never admits to anything. Its all made up. The whole world is out to get him But we all know what he said to Billy Bush, and apparently he's proud of that. You might like him. I've haven't got much time for such a Berk (I use the deliberately contracted minced oath).

Aren't these online tests usually scams; they are designed to flatter, and are designed to elicit information that allows identity theft, or to sign you up to telephonic services https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/AheadoftheCurve/story?id=7814344&page=1 https://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/2595541/Online-IQ-test-a-fundraiser-for-internet-scammers

Initially only released to "Right Wing Influencers" https://time.com/7262542/pam-bondi-jeffrey-epstein-files/ https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/attorney-general-pamela-bondi-releases-first-phase-declassified-epstein-files Still, this is the day that the perv Andrew Tate rocks up the President's Home State, after having legged it from Romania after charges of rape and sex trafficing were leveled at him

Not sure it was mentioned; (many of the correspondants are on my Sent-to-Coventry list, and no doubt I am as well; I don't care); in William Shakespeare's day, men always took the female roles, and no one had a fit over it. And then there is pantomine. Generation upon Generation of children have been entertained by Widow Twankie being a bloke in a frock and Dick Whittington being a hot blond in tights. Panto, while a Latin term, started in 16th Century Italy. The tradition of the men and women playing the opposite sex is called the Travesti 18th Century cross dresser, Pierre Jelyotte 1897, Puss in Boots Herbert Campbell when not in drag Victorian Widow Twankey Americans are prudes, a hangover from when Cromwell banned Christmas, and some Puritans thought he didn't go far enough. To some Americans, a pair of perverts To everyone else, a pair of perverts; Tom Hardy's deranged cross dressing monologue in the excellent Bronson Cracking film. A few repressed individuals here, judging by the responses. Another powerful scene from the same film. Takes some acting that, from both of them.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5167646-trump-zelensky-dictator/ The 47th President never actually said it. It was posted on his social media account in his name. There has been long suspicion that he makes use of ghost writers. I doubt he would forget such a thing, and certainly many here would say he is not a liar and is absolutely honest and transparent. So the conclusion is that there are some in his circle seeking to undermine the US's external relations. ie a traitor who will be rooted out. Many supporters of the President were quick to support these apparent comments. Will they retract that.

90% of medicines and 85% of medical equipment is imported. Russia has been unable to identify domestic suppliers.

It was a lot more complex than people would suppose. There is not doubt Iraq had a pretty advanced chemical and biological capability. I attended briefings about what the British military knew abut Halabja. It was sobering. The British had tracked Iraqi Air Force sorties over the town, and there were many. They knew the Russian aircraft lacked the ability to carry enough of the type of munition that was being dropped, so the Iraqis had to switch to old ex-RAF Hawker Hunters. They knew the exact time the bombing runs were carried out. From studying the filmed corpses and the time stamps of Iranian journalist's on the scene videos, they quite quickly came to a presumptive determination that Sarin and VX figuredmin the mix (because of the time that elapsed between the attack and unprotected Iranians entering the town). Earlier I worked in the same university department in the UK where British police turned up to take a number of Iraqis into custody in 1990. They were microbiology students with strong research interests in aflatoxin, a really potent class of fungal nerve toxins. The head of the Iraqi programme trained at East Anglia, which has a particularly strong plant protein department, and close links with a Food Research Institute, which I know from first hand experience, had some interesting knowhow. Post Desert Storm, there were Congressional inquiries into so-called Gulf War Syndrome, whcich I suspect was a combination of the results of exposure to untested vaccines and some pretty terrible environmental conditions in Kuwaut. I was struck by the account of members of a Marine unit who were specialist CBRN operators. As the Iraqi Army collapsed, they left behind ammo dumps. These two operators testified coming across one such site, that they reported as well ordered. They knew it was well ordered because it had been set up just the same way as the US military do. That similarity allowed them to identify so-called special munitions, likely chemical rounds, 155mm variety. 15 years on, the thing that occupied the Western intelligence was being blindsided again. Iraq had a CBRN capability, but did it have a CBRN readiness. Personally, I think Saddam never gave them up, but he hid them, expecting that one day the Americans would just leave. The best aircraft he had, he didn't use to try and defend Iraqi skies or destroy American armour.They flew to Iran or were buried, to fight another day. The Arab dictator needed a symbolically powerful military, not really toprotect from external threats but to protect from internal threats I'm of the mind the capbility is buried, those who buried it are long dead. 120 years after ww1, the British and Americans are still finding Lewisite caches. Someone knew where they were stored, the paperwork has gone. eg a big dump was found in Florida, along with a radioactive lab, when clearing a site for new housing. For the radioactive lab, they had to find some old boys from a nursing home to explain what had happened (a big spill in the 50s, so the building was evacuated, shuttered and forgotten about). We will eventually find the stuff, but long after I'm dead.

The President is denying he ever called Zelensky a "dictator" during live questions with the UK Prime Minister. I would assume then that he has been deliberately misrepresented by Russophiles and turncoats in his circle, who seek to sew division and propagate Putin's efforts to destablilise the free world. So I am sure they will soon be identified and removed from positions of influence. His supporters on this forum who supported the ridiculous contention by these traitors that the Ukrainian President is a dictator, might want to reconsider their position or support for the 47th US President.

The video in question has been circulated for about a month. Some people think its praising his poilicy, other point out its mocking the policy. I think the latter, hence the bearded belly dancers. So the story is not about the video per se, but that the American president has promoted it. Is this a lack of judgement? AI has come on somewhat. It has its moments, but is easily spotted.

A haematoma on the back of a hand might not mean anything in an ocotgenarian. https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-syphilis-rumors-doctors-weigh-1861983

So you think falling sales of Teslas is made up because of history 170 years ago. Grasping. https://www.motortrader.com/motor-trader-news/automotive-news/tesla-january-sales-fall-45-europe-says-trade-body-acea-25-02-2025 https://www.carscoops.com/2025/02/tesla-sales-crumble-45-in-europe-while-ev-market-explodes-37/ https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/markets/2025/02/25/tesla-shares-dip-on-slumping-europe-ev-sales-as-valuation-falls-below-1tn/ https://moneyweek.com/investments/tesla-sales-plummet-in-europe-what-does-it-mean-for-tesla-investors

Yeah, hence the subtitles.

This isn't intelligence. Both bots are following a script, in whatever language they are programmed to understand. It will be intelligence if the bot dialling in decides his "master" doen't need the booking after all. I am working in developing AI as a means to access a business intelligence platform. I've caught it lying on a couple of occasions; its programmed to learn from a database that's behind a firewall, unlike something like ChatGPT4 or CoPilot, which frequently make mistakes or sometimes just make something up. But when you do that, limit the data lake, the AI is basically retarded. When it lies, it will claim a fact is cited by a source, but in fact, its the wrong source, but the source it picks is more impressive. But also, its starting to recommend our competitor's services, when it can't identify an answer. The problem is that the sources it uses include transcripts from Earnings Calls. And the Chairman, or Head of Pricing Intelligence will then start citing a report by such and such. So the AI is learning there are other services besides us. To solve that, we just need to do a better job redacting the text. 37 years ago, as an Undergrad, I spent a lot of time in the library, going through card indexes and microfiches, ordering bad copies of papers, jotting down notes when I ran out of money for the photocopier. Then during my doctorate, the internet just started; then it was just text based, but now I could look up journal indexes halfways across the world. I couldn't actually get the paper though, I still had to order that, but less jotting on scraps of paper. As a postdoc, the Internet got better, with better search engines. I suppose from about 1999, I started using the internet for non-work activity, by 2004 I was online at home. I think from 2010, I was making internet purchases, but that didn't really take off for me until 2020. I still refuse to internet bank, and there is no way I am using a phone as a means of payment. My phone ceased being a phone as such about 2006. AI is still stupid. It simulates intelligence. You are not really having a conversation, any more than you think you having an adventure in a RPG. To get the most out of it, you still need to ask a leading question, ie you already kind of know what the answer is going to be. So as a trained profressional, I find it a useful workflow tool. If I wasn't trained, I will probably get into trouble. A bin man isn't going to use AI to design a plane or cure cancer. But he might end up with something that looks like a plane, or he might decide to go and eat that poisonous plant. NHS 111 has been using AI online for a couple of years. But you won't notice it. You think its a multiple choice questionaire. But its doing much more than that in triaging you.

This exercise has a cost. 1. All government departments operate a "Time Sheet" App. The data is already there for a time and motion study (which is what they used to call it). The exercise wa entirely uncessary. 2. There are about 3 million federal employees. Most will not be in sensitive positions. Some will be in positions where some of their work is sensitive, and others will be in roles were most of their work is sensitive. The email sent requests employees not to share details of sensitive work. Assume 30 minutes of the working day is needed to respond to the emaiil. Some will complete it very fast, others will need further checks. So 1.5 million manhours were expended on this task just sending the emails. 3. Most people are in salaried positions, 40-45 hours per week. Each hour needs to accounted for, which is part of the point of this exercise However, along with the various department time sheet Apps, the federal government is a huge user of SAP. Among many things, SAP is used for project management; team members book hours expended on a project. It can be used to analyse actual duration of tasks against planned duration. When estimating the cost of a project, necessary for setting budgets, project managers can input hourly rates based on the senority of the resource, and number of FTEs. The rate is a combination of labour (payroll) cost and overhead (ie. the cost to the organsation of someone being in the office, so reflecting building cost, provision of services, cost of workplace insurance etc), so its often much higher that the resource's salary. In the past, I have used rates of between $60 and 150 per hour. Settling on $105/hour, this email exercise cost the tax payer $157,500,000, not including DOGE staffing costs. 4. I have not estimated the costs in analysing around 3 million emails. The email sent includes no proforma, so responses might be in various formats and forms. I suspect not a single email will be read. 4. An imponderable cost is any resulting fraud. The email, with its header, has been published. A criminal can use this to impersonate. Phishing attacks now can spooth genuine email addresses; you think its come from a genuine sender. Often they will have a sense of urgency, An email could be sent suggesting a problem with the revious email, or requiring further answers. Some employees might be rash in replying. Its fairly easy to compile names of federal employees from public domain sources, such as LinkedIn, but also from US government open soucs. If an email is not available, its not very hard to guess the email. In addition, there. are thousands of personal emails available on the Darkweb. There are about 130 million people in the US of working again; so if you coul spam 100,000 gmail/hotmail/outlook accounts related to US IP addresses, then there are 2300 Marks. who are government employees, who suddently get an email on a weds asking them to urgently respond as the government has accidently sacked them and deleted their email (doesn't have to be true, though I note they were stuggling to rehire nuclear safety records as personal records had been deleted). https://aag-it.com/the-latest-phishing-statistics/

I'm surprised the US Government doesn't use SAP or something for timesheets and project management. I suspect this "initiative" will lead to a spike in phishing attacks and loss of data. The actual content of the Email has been widely shared on social media, as well as the Email headers. Its now easy for someone to spoof that. Worried employee gets an email marked "Urgent", maybe quoting that original Email, citing an issue with their original reply, and saying they really need to get in touch, and furnish some additional information. Worse, someone sets up a portal, call it DOGE Time Keeping App, which you need to register at to avoid future Emails like this Need your government employee number, office address, title, SSN, home address, alternative email address. Lots of .gov emails already in the public domain, not too hard to guess email addresses using LinkedIn, ZoomInfo details. Or a mass mail to gmail, hotmail accounts, because you are bound to hit lucky, maybe offering fake employment law services etc.. And with all these hundreds of thousands of emails sent, in different formats, some with 5 points in text, in html, maybe a spreadsheet attachment, maybe replying with, maybe cc'ing, maybe bcc'ing, maybe reply all etc. Who is actually going to read them? No one. It's a stunt. What, they are going to employ some monster AI algorithm to find out someone's dull week? And then someone is on vacation, sick, compassionate leave etc.

Certainly the BBC broadcasts footage regularly. You can look it up on IPlayer. There is no more nor no less compared to other conflicts from the last 40 years. What the correspondant has forgotten is that mostly he has watches soldiers from his army in conflicts where the opposition, except through small arms, and iEDs, can't fight back. British and American veterans fighting in Ukraine have remarked its the first time they have come under tank and artillery fire. You'd have to go back to Korea (maybe a bit in the Falklands) for the last time troops from the Western countries have been in such a situation. I don't believe in a term called "mainstream media". Its just a subjective term. Remember, 60 years ago, the so-csalled mainstream media was the print newpapers and radio. Television was new, and providing a different perspective to carefully filtered and delayed dispatches. 20 years ago, the Internet was brand new. 10-15 years ago, there was an explosion of footage uploaded by British and American squaddies, who had cheap Chinese sports cameras. That has been picked up by the 5th Estate, such as the BBC's "Our War" series, which inspired a series of historical dramatizatons of WW1 done in a similar style. But the wars the British and Amercans have fought in are very different. Troops would go to fight with full air cover and Burger King back at the base. Medical care was such that troops were even getting cancer treatment in theatre (look up the NSN numbers for delivery of cytotoxic drugs). So soldiers were able to do their own 21st century very of holiday snaps. I didn't see that much from WW2 of soldiers walking around with Brownie cameras, Ukraine is total war. For the most part, soldiers don't have time to do the edits and uploading for entertainment their day's work. Its a rude awakening for some who like to glop off nightly on war porn. I known the correspondant has an ulterior motive, and to an extent, their question is dishonest, and suggesting something that doesn't actually exist.