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Thursday’s Forum
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19 responses to “Thursday’s Forum”
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Went to the dermatologist for what I thought would be a quick checkup, but there was a little thing on my eyelid. There was a debate as to whether they should biopsy me there or send me to an ophthalmologist. I knew what I was asking for when I said, “If you can do it here I’d really rather not have to schedule another appointment”, and I got it. I mean, they normally just are lopping a bit off, say, a mole on the back. This was the eyelid, and they weren’t likely to have a lot of experience. Needles, scissors, cauterization. Not on my top ten list of experiences. The cauterization was electric and it made my whole eye twitch. Oof.
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Skin cancer (or at least the potential for it) is a big deal in our family. While I get have various spots of actinic keratosis and get by with an annual nitrogen freeze, my wife has had numerous cutouts on her back. Which always make me wonder about people who live alone and have no one nearby to change bandages and to take care of them.
On a positive note, I see more and more people covering up their kids at the pools and themselves wearing long sleeves and hats. Also seeing a growing trend of women (especially those with fair skins) wearing full body suits. A good trend I would think.
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I do a fair amount of trail hiking and find that I’m wearing a ventilated brimmed hat regularly. In addition to keeping the sun off and therefore keeping cooler, a lot of hovering gnat type bugs go to the “top of the animal” which turns out to be the hat. I put sunscreen on my neck, ears and bottom of my face and leave it off my forehead, which means it doesn’t run into my eyes. And when I’m on a trail I’ve taken to wearing long pants, regardless of temperature. It’s good for sun but more importantly it keeps ticks and biting bugs off my legs. I’ve had Lyme once and I never want it again
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Hmm…
Pentagon adds new ‘warfighter’ evaluation for officers seeking first star
For decades, military officers seeking promotion to general or flag officer have been evaluated through their career records, including performance reports, command assignments, education and operational experience.
Now, the Pentagon is adding a new measure for advancement: how officers perform when presented with a military problem and required to make decisions under pressure.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Tuesday that eligible Army, Air Force and Marine Corps colonels and Navy captains screening for promotion to one-star will undergo a new Joint Warfighter Evaluation, or JWE. The assessment is intended to measure officers’ operational planning, decision-making and leadership under simulated combat conditions. It will supplement, rather than replace, existing service promotion processes.
The JWE grew out of Hegseth’s broader effort to change how the military evaluates and promotes senior leaders. In announcing the evaluation, Hegseth said the effort had been in development for about a year and that the assessment is intended to measure officers’ ability to “fight, adapt, and win” in a chaotic battlespace.
I probably wouldn’t think twice about this if it wasn’t a product of Hegseth and company.
I’ve known and worked for a lot of generals (all AF) in my day. They spanned the quality gamut from excellence to “how did this idiot make major never mind general”.
It really is a question of: Do you want George Patton or George Marshall? The answer is yes.
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This was discussed during the first half hour of yesterday’s the Bulwark Command Post podcast with LTG Mark Hertling, also available on YouTube. Sorry, but I’m not even gonna try to TL:DR it.
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@Eusebio I was going to recommend that episode as well.
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Just listened to the podcast. Pretty much what I thought. What I didn’t know was the participation of LTC Stuart Scheller, who was convicted in a special court-martial in 2021 for
“In a four minute and 45 second video posted to Facebook and LinkedIn, a uniformed Scheller called for accountability and aired his “contempt” for those in government and the military who made the decisions during the U.S. withdrawal in Afghanistan and that day’s deadly result.
Somewhat similar to AF Major Jason Watson who called for Trump’s impeachment.
Anyway, another example of this administration operating on the principles of contempt and retribution.
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I probably wouldn’t think twice about this if it wasn’t a product of Hegseth and company.
I recall what I said when we were arguing Saddam Hussein and WMD’s. Even if the Bush admin was correct about needing to act (they weren’t), I think the risk of incompetent ideologues conducting a war in the Mideast outweighed the risk of doing nothing until a competent administration was back in place
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I can’t get over the nonsense stupidity that the Rational Belief to these AI buffoons is that we will create an AI and that this AI we created will kill us. Everytime you hear “He Is A Rationalist” when it comes to Sam Altman, Dario Amodei and all of them.. that’s what they believe.
Anyone who tells you “AI is the future” .. do not trust them. Yes, this does include Ezra Klein because he is one of the leading proponents of this.. for obvious PR reasons.
We are in the dumbest timeline. This AI bubble is going to be so many times bigger than Enron.. and of course the reality is that we won’t know when it will pop, but just like subprime mortgages [Remember NINJA loans? Good times] , it can go on for a while. But the pain will come. Eventually.
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Hollywood is all-in on Palestine, making Ed Sheeran sad.
It’s just like when the Oscar’s speech issue was Tibet. There was zero chance China was ever going to let Tibet go and take control of the headwaters of the Yellow, Yangtze and Mekong rivers. It was never gonna happen, no, not even if Richard Gere and Lisa Simpson demanded it.
A Palestinian state is likewise not happening in the foreseeable future. But movie stars need something to pontificate about and apparently the genocide in Sudan and Putin’s war against Ukraine and China’s ongoing erasure of the Uyghurs and the atrocities in the Congo didn’t make the cut.
Tough luck for Ed Sheeran.
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Ed Sheeran? There are no reasons to care about his opinions. He said as much himself, until he was compelled to make some damage control statements after Macklemore was kicked off the tour for expressing his opinion.
But there is someone whose opinion must be respected in this story, and that is the billionaire’s opinion. It is the billionaire’s opinion that Macklemore must not be permitted to express his feelings regarding his protest song prior to performing the protest song at Gillette stadium and several other stadiums that were built partly or largely using public funds. It is in fact the billionaire’s opinion that Macklemore must be put in his rightful place by being denied the privilege of performing anything on the stadium tour. The cancel button, evidently, belongs to the billionaire.
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Me: Hey ChatGPT/Claude/Copilot/Gemini/Vibe, I’ve this idea for a four part political Sci-Fi novel about the rise of democracy on a fictional planet.
ChatGPT/Claude/Copilot/Gemini/Vibe: Great idea! Four parts are perfect! (long sycophantic verbiage omitted). Do you need help drafting or brainstorming it?
Me: Hey ChatGPT/Claude/Copilot/Gemini/Vibe, I think perhaps four parts are too many, since part two is about drafting a constitution. Maybe I should merge that with part 1 as the aftermath, mixed with some high level investigations and some more relationship drama.
ChatGPT/Claude/Copilot/Gemini/Vibe: Great idea! Three parts are perfect! (long sycophantic verbiage omitted). Do you need help drafting or brainstorming it?
Me: Hey ChatGPT/Claude/Copilot/Gemini/Vibe, maybe part three can be joined with part four, otherwise the final part might be too short to stand on its own.
ChatGPT/Claude/Copilot/Gemini/Vibe: Great idea! Two parts are perfect! (long sycophantic verbiage omitted). Do you need help drafting or brainstorming it?
Me: Why do I keep thinking LLMs are largely useless?
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