Scams!!!!

 I needed a birth certificate for a passport update. Used Google for NYC Records. Instead I got some company that looked just like but not really. They charged 8 times the NYC one which I found later. Clearly this was a Google assisted scam. Will wait and see. Generally very cautious but this one went by me! Wonder what will happen next. Still have attorneys on retainer!

Some Popes

 The Papacy has had an odd collection of characters over the past two thousand years. I have written about a few; one in the fourth century, Sylvester, one in the seventh century, Gregory I, and one in the fourteenth century, John XXII. 

Now Sylvester was Bishop of Rome, one of several called Popes at the time,  and during the reign of Constantine. In the Council of Nicaea, 325, Sylvester decided not to attend. After all Constantine was in charge and it was Constantine who essentially formed the Nicene Creed. He also eliminated Arian ideas for a while. After the Council Constantine tried to move to Persia with no luck. Gregory was a classic Bishop of Rome around 600 AD. Constantinople was the capitol city and the language was Greek. Gregory allegedly spoke no Greek so was effectively ostracized from the ruling emperors. Finally John XXII was in Avignon, a French plant, while there were at time two other Popes. Chaos ruled.

By the late Middle Ages the Pope had obtained massive secular powers including their own armies. Some Popes advocated massive war against the Muslim tribes, called the Crusades, resulting in brutal and massive killings on both sides. The Popes adhered to the concept of "The Two Swords". namely Kings have one and the Pope another.

The current resident in Rome seems to want to get into a battle with the current resident in Washington. It seems to be a "your mother wears combat boots" interaction, no winners. 

The issue is simple. The Persians want to finish the development of their nuclear weapons and they have clearly stated the want to destroy the US. This should not be taken lightly. Thomas Aquinas had proposed the concept of the Just War, and also the Unjust enemy. Perhaps a rereading of Thomas and an understanding of Papal history would be of some use. 

Sixty Years

 The Wright Bros flew in 1903 and 60 years later we had international jst flights and supersonic aircraft for both military and commercial.

In 1966 until 1971 I spent significant time at the MIT Instrumentation Lab working on Apollo missions focusing on guidance and navigation. In 1968 the first flight to the moon was a success. Now some 60 years later as I watched the latest approach it did not seem any different. Outwardly we are repeating 1968.

Air-flight made massive changes in sixty years, space flight not so much? Why? 

Here Goes

 The Government actually defined AI in 2020 in 15 USC 940 as follows

(3) Artificial intelligence

The term "artificial intelligence" means a machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations or decisions influencing real or virtual environments. Artificial intelligence systems use machine and human-based inputs to-

(A) perceive real and virtual environments;

(B) abstract such perceptions into models through analysis in an automated manner; and

(C) use model inference to formulate options for information or action.

 This is gross nonsense. All machines do this. My mobile phone does this, my lawn mower does this. Other than a Luddite, anything created to help mankind does this. This is how litigation is exploding, definitions that make no sense. 

Another Thought

 Another way to get TSA paid is to charge the flyer to "tip" the agent. Fast and nice and secure agents would get the biggest tips, cash only, and the lines would disappear instantly. Nasty agents would not get tips. Pleasant and efficient agents would possibly get rich!

As Expected

 The White House issued it AI recommendations. And as expected no where do they define AI! So what good are these recommendations. "words mean something" and it is not just in the eye of the beholder. Frankly one really cannot define AI. LLMs are somewhat understood, but image manipulation is not the same. 

This is classic Government nonsense. If all one has to do to avoid regulation is to call it something other than AI. since we really do not know what it is, the what good is the law!