Dumb questions

 

So here we go with another round of @grok's stupidest questions asked.  I'm gonna be honest, #10 still is puzzling me, bu here we go...

"What does Bratishka mean?"

So this one apparently made the list because one MMA fighter called another one this in a friendly exchange, another one asked grok what it meant, and someone else jumped in with "dumbest question ever."  So maybe it fits as "dumbest reply to a question ever."  BTW:  Russian for "little brother", which may well explain the "Brat" part!

"If Mars has no magnetic field, how will electric motors work there?"

First, let's establish the facts.  First, Mars indeed does not have a planetary magnetic field.  Second, a quick look at any electric motor manual tells you that a copper coil dynamo establishes the motor's magnetic field.  It doesn't depend on the planet's here or elsewhere.  Grok adds: "Elon would weep- and then send a Tesla there anyway."

"What time do they turn on the waterfalls?"

Apparently this was asked by a visitor to Yosemite Park, who thinks everything is run by man-made electricity.  Luckily, we have a magnetic field, eh?

"Shall I get implants?"

That was an engagement-farming question from this lady:

who obviously needs the likes more than the implants.  Fun fact, this is a typical engagement-farming tactic- I saw it last night with a different account and picture.

"What is 1+1?"

Apparently, this is a question that made quora's Hall of Shame (which I will look into later) not just because it's a dumb question (unless you are a Kindergarten teacher speaking to a student), but because it has been asked so often- some people apparently find it a "chicken or egg" style question.  But it does kinda lead into lead into #1, so keep it in mind. 

"Are the sharks real?"

This was asked at an aquarium shark exhibit... which parenthetically speaks to the effects of AI (like grok) on the human world.  Everything else seems designed to dumb us down, why not this as well?  I would have liked to have grok answer, "Jump in and find out!"  Instead, it just pointed out that animatronic sharks wouldn't need to be in a glass tank full of water.

"If two lesbians have a baby, does it automatically come out a girl?"

Winner, "Wrong at so many levels" award. Grok termed it a classic, "Biology 101 fail".  But, probably asked by a child raised on that "My Two Dads" children's book.  Maybe you should start by asking them to plug in two female ends of a power cord and see what it turns on...

"What animal does soy milk come from?"

Why, the soy monster, of course... 

Grok's take?  "Soybeans are plants, not pets".  Which will, of course, get it in trouble with the lunatic plant fringe...

"MEN: your wife got pregnant by another man by mistake. as a good husband, what will you do?"

I actually saw this one today.  Again, Biology 101 fail- there is a certain act required to make  pregnancy occur, which our friend 2 questions ago might want to look into- and that act might produce an accidental result, but the act itself cannot be accidental.  Grok: "By mistake"? Like she tripped into an affair? This hypothetical divorce-bait has over 2,900 replies, mostly roasting the premise. Biology doesn't do "oops" at that scale.

"Honey, it's like this- I was openning the dryer door for the repairman, and he tripped, ran into me, and I hit the start button when he hit me, and..."

Which brings us to that #1 dumb question...

"How do calculators work? Do they send the numbers to ChatGPT to calculate it? If so, how does it work offline?"

This person needs to go to Chat GPT and ask about "calculator", "adding machine", "abacus", "pencil and paper", "fingers and toes"....

So I went to that aforementioned "quora Hall of Shame, and here are a sampling of that site's dumbest entries:

Can we walk to the edge of earth and see space? Boy, those flat earthers are everywhere... one answer included such advice as, "get around the 100,000 soldiers defending the edge", and "the Wall of the Firmament wouldn't let you lean over to look."

How long before you IMPLODE without connection to the internet?

Well, it took 1,983 years from Christ's birth till internet invention, so you have at least that long....

I gave my 2-year-old daughter a cockroach to eat. She spat it out and started crying. What should I do?

Congratulate her on her good taste.  Then turn yourself in to CPS.  

And here's one that reminds us there are idiots on all sides:

How do atheists know what foods are "sweet" versus "sour" or "bitter"?

Theyn thumb through their copy of "God is not great" by Christopher Hitchens, I assume....

Thanksgiving

 

Today was not a day to find the obvious to be thankful about.  (Well, make that yesterday, as this will pop up on Thanksgiving Day!)  Work was...work; the company was too cheap to give out turkeys, or even a gift card; Grandson Grayson is down with his second round of Impatago, and looking at a good possiblility of spending  the holiday in (again) the hospital.  A real pity party was starting to break out in my head.  

But I said, just hold on there.

The likelihood of needing a turkey had been somewhat mitigated by the fact that KC didn't have a car to get here; and with my short hours and certain other disasters for both my kids, no one could really afford it.  Why did KC not have a car?  He hit a dog, not a deer, so he was without a car- BUT not hurt.  We had all clambered back to financial solid ground with the Good Lord's help.  And if Grayson was gonna catch something, at least the other kids had not caught it from him.  Laurie doesn't have to come home from work tonight (my tonight, your last night), cook all day, and go back to work Black Friday.  I get to not add 5 pounds I don't need.  We are warm despite the cold and wind, we are fed despite the lack of Meleagris gallopavo, and we have our Salvation.  I finally said to the Lord, "You know, all day long I have been thanking You for Your many blessings, desspite not really feel like it.  If I can't feel like it, maybe You could just make me LOOK like it, and not bring the rest of the world down."

I guess that's what He wanted to hear.  I feel better, I've called all the siblings (except one that will see this post), and I'm ready to be thankful for real now.

This last Sunday, Pastor Denny did a tremendous job on the subject, using the story of the Ten Lepers from Luke 17.  Jesus had been on His way to Jerusalem, to meet His fate at the Cross, when these ten men, outcasts due to leprousy, called out to Him.  He told them to go see the priests- and as they went, they were healed.  One came back to thank Him- a Samaritan, while nine Jews never returned.  But Denny dug a little deeper into these ten men, and found they did everything right:

- They kept their distance, as the Law required.  

-They addressed Him as Master- meaning they recognized Him as God;

-They "lifted up their voices"- hard to do, Denny explained, as their vocal chords were likely affected by the disease;

-They went off to show themselves to the priests as Jesus commanded, without a murmur.

They did everything right, in the eyes of the Law- But the problem is that they had already recognized Him as God.  And yet, they went about their duty to the LAW, making sure that the Ts were crossed and the Is dotted- and forgot all about they had not been healed by the LAW- they had been healed by God.  But the Samaritan, a man not bound by the Law as a Jew would be- HE remembered that GOD had healed Him.  And he came back "praising God with a loud voice; 

Luk 17:16  and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. "

An act that is reserved for God alone.  Not a mortal teacher, not the Law, but God.

And the one thing Denny didn't mention that I thought about was, The Nine Jews, they were religious, they believed.  But they were tied to the ritual.  Unable to see past it to the Savior before them.  And thus, only slightly better off than the priests that would have Jesus Crucified within the week.  They were healed, but they weren't whole.

My point in relating all this is, DON'T just be mindlessly thankful for all you have to a God you don't know.  See Jesus, past the turkey, the pies, the potatoes.  Don't just be thankful- be thankful to the God who gave you all things.  The Samaritan didn't have to use his loudest voice anymore.  He was no longer at a distance from Jesus, his voice was no longer corrupted by disease.  And yet, he used a LOUD voice. He recognized that the One he was grateful to was GOD.  May we go and do likewise.

Wednesday Bible Study: Psalm 119 deconstructed part 5

 

This week our concept word is COMMANDMENTS.  No fancy translation or deeper meaning needed here- it is as we read it.But I noticed something completely different in how pulling these verses out left the construction.  It actually drew out the RELATIONSHIP between man and God.  I'm going to try to keep this simple- forgive me if I don't- so what I will do is put the main point of each section in italics at the end of each.

What I am trying to say is that I found a "we do- He does" pattern in these verses.  The first group hold in v7 starts with how the writer would not be ashamed to look into God's commandments IF he turned his ways to keep God's statutes.  V10 goes on to say he sought God with a whole heart.  So here's the idea- seeking and actively doing the things he's commanded.  As a result, God keeps him from wandering off-track (v10), He doesn't hide His commandments from the seeker as He does from the wicked (v19), and He actively rebukes the "proud", who refuse to seek Him.

Point:  If we choose to seek Him, He will guide us.  But if in pride we refuse, He gives rebuke.

The second set starts with the writer's promise to "run in the way of Your commandments", a term that means gearing his life as a whole to following God. (v32)  God's responses are to "enlarge his heart" (which I believer John Gill explains the best:

...with the knowledge of God, his word, ways, worship, and ordinances; with his love more fully made known, and with an increase of love to him; with the fear of him, and a flow of spiritual joy and peace; and when delivered from straits and difficulties, from weights and pressures, and everything that may hinder walking or running; and being in circumstances which may lead and encourage to the one as to the other...)

And to "make me walk in the path of Your commandments"( v 35)- which is different from "running in the way" in that while the running indicates a whole life change, the phrase for walking means each individual step in that life.

Point: If we make our life follow His commandments, He will help us with each step along the way.

The third group starts with a series of our acts: Delighting ourselves in His commands (v47), physical worship, as in the lifting up of hands to Him (v48), meditation (also v 48), and making haste (in other words, not hesitating) to keep the commandments (v60).  These are all elements of PRAISE.  God's response is one simple line from v 66- that God will teach the commands, and you will learn good judgment from them.

Point: Praise of God leads to Teaching good judgment to you.

Fourth group has the simple one liner on our end: Belief in God and His commands (also v66).  The result from God is a series: He made us (v73), He gives understanding (also v 73), The commandments are faithful in other words, they reflect His faithfulness; v86), and that faithfulness is our help against persecution (also v86).

Point: Belief recognizes God is in control.

Fifth section is kind of a corrolary to this.  In v96, the  writer claims to have seen "the consummation of all perfection"; which means man's idea of perfection falls apart.  He goes on to say that God's commandments are "exceedingly broad"; he's never seen them fail.  And through them, and through seeing their permanance, he is "made wiser than all my enemies" (v98).

Point: Man's wisdom passes away; God's is eternal.

Finally, I found a whole list of "our part" verses that point to one thing.  They are: Keeping the commandments repels evildoers (v115); His actions against lawbreakers make me love Your commandments (v126-7), actions that prove that we long for His commandments (v131), being overtaken by trouble and anguish (v 143), and finally having gone astray (v 176).  All of which add up to one thing- we can feel as though we've been lost.  But God responds in 3 ways:  He is near (v151); He has salvation we can hope in (v166); and He will seek us like the 100th sheep (v176).

Point: Even when we feel lost, He's right there.

Wednesday Bible Study: Psalm 119 deconstructed part 4

 

So last week, my big takeaway was, "God don't do 'intellectual exercises' ".  If your heart is open, truly open, any study can bring you to your knees with truths personal to you.  I anticipate another one this week.

Our concept this week is STATUTES.  Statutes means to be engraved- whether Moses' tablets of stone, the tablet of our hearts, OR...

Isa 49:16  Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me. 

It is the same root word; Isaiah prophecied of Jesus engraving US with Roman nails into Himself, and that's the way God told David here to engrave Himself onto David's soul.  And it is the rarest of our concepts from this Psalm; 6 stanzas do not contain "statutes".  But the ones that do, one powerful meaning becomes swiftly clear.  But, before I get to that...

We have 2 stanzas that hit statutes twice.  One of the pairs, in stanza Teth (vv 65-72) combine two ideas:  First, God is good, and does good (v68); second, that this good sometimes will come in the form of afflictions (v72).  I find it interesting that Strong's dictionary points out that the root word for "affliction" is the same spelling/pronunciation as another different word.  But are they different?  The one we translate as affliction means to beat down; the other means to heed or pay attention!  And that is the point of this coupling, sometimes God's good means He has to "pin us down" to make us pay attention.  Even then, God is good.  And with this word game, we see that God don't make mistakes!

The other couple is in stanza Samech (vv113-120).  They are the adjacent verses 117 and 118; in one God holds up in safety those who observe His statutes; the other, God rejects those who do not follow His statutes in order to perpetuate their falsehood.  The objects of my rant a few weeks ago would do well to learn that statute.

But here is the clear message in this concept:  No less than six appearances are phrased this way: "Teach me Your Statutes." (vv 12, 26, 64, 68, 135, and 171).  And here, I'm going to dip into a little of my Catholic past.  Several of the songs in our song book were direct adaptations of Psalms to music.  One of them that has always stuck with me is Psalm 136.  It told the history of Israel, with the refrain "Everlasting is Your Love" between each line.  And the verses that have "teach me your statutes" are structured just this way, if you pull them out:

Psa 119:12  Blessed are you, O LORD; 

teach me your statutes! 

Psa 119:26  When I told of my ways, you answered me; 

teach me your statutes! 

Psa 119:64  The earth, O LORD, is full of your steadfast love;

 teach me your statutes! 

Psa 119:124  Deal with your servant according to your steadfast love, 

and teach me your statutes. 

Psa 119:135  Make your face shine upon your servant, 

and teach me your statutes. 

Psa 119:171  My lips will pour forth praise, for you 

teach me your statutes. 

Now, notice how they link up, front to back: The earth is full of your steadfast love, so deal with me IN that steadfast love; You answered me, and made your face shine upon me; You are blessed, and I will pour out praise to You! A song within a song, to be sure.  Father God, I cannot possibly top that!

Pics and lists

 So why a post right now?  Combine lack of work with upcoming inventory and you get vacation day.  Not a real overwhelming one, either.  First off, it's cold (38 F as I type), rainy, so no walk.  Then we were without internet for a time- half of it because of an outage, and half b/c I was using the wrong password.  Follow that up with the results of a long story that I will now shorten for you.  Several days back, Laurie got a package we weren't expecting- it turned out to be a credit card we didn't order.  Never mind we were nowhere close to qualifying for the darn thing! Apparently someone drew her info from her OLD phone number and signed up.  This was a thick black card designed for frequent travellers (which we most assuredly ain't), and not only was the baseline credit score required nowhere near ours, but the usual income required per annum dwarved ours.  

So she called, got it cancelled, all done- so we thought.  This morning, though, we found that this same idiot who signed us up to it set us up with a travel plan through American Airlines.  And believe me, their website gives you NO idea of how to contact someone alive.  So I googled it- but google got scammed too- the first # I found was a robo outfit speaking in Spanish- and it called back right after I hung up.  Sercond try got us through, and they told us it was just a points program- but they would freeze it, and cancel it completely once I supplied the info requested on an e-mail they would send... after 7 to 10 business days.

So then, we took a suggestion from our financial people to freeze her credit reports.  Two of them went just fine.  Third wanted us to sign up for a paid plan.  But look, in the fine print!  You can still freeze it for free!  Except- they couldn't hook up to THEIR info, please try again later.

In the meantime, I thought I might show youwhat pics I have in the queue. 

Oh, well, there's Friday at Bobs Bar.  That was a tasty beer...

This was the start of our Sunday walk- which ended up too cold to take any more pics!

So yesterday, I ran myself out of work (since they weren't releasing anything else due to inventory) at noon, and immediately took out doggie for a walk...

Looks familiar, don't it?

The latest add to Misty's dead body count- a raccoon

Ascending Big Hill

Taking a break at the end of the ridge

"Hurry up, Daddy!"

Dude walking out on the mud flat...

Misty, too

He's fishing...

Her, too

We had squirrels running out in front of us all over the place

And for daddy, a sock cap

Finally, for your entertainment today, the 10 decisions people dread the most, according to a study published in Popular Science.  

10- Emigrating.  I bet this is "especially with help from ICE"...

9- Getting vaccinated.  Not surprising, considering the Big Pharma and CDC corruption RFK Jr has already exposed...

8- Getting married. I would have thought this might be a little higher.

7- Surgery.  I would have this a LOT higher...

6- Buy a house.  I would have thought this one would be on the "ten most impossible tasks" these days....

5- Becoming self-employed.  Didn't Ben Franklin say something like a self-employer has a fool for an employee and a jackass for a boss?  No, wait, that was a lawyer...

4- Driving a car.  "We surveyed 4,500 people who use the Dan Ryan Expressway..."

3- Investing money.  Depends on if your advisor is Nancy Pelosi or Jim Cramer...

2- Quit your job.  Which is funny, because the top one is...

1- Accept a new job.  I really hope I've done that one for the last time!  Also 2, 7, 8, and 9, frankly....

Martin World News

 

So another week of finding fun news items; so I thought, let's just look at some "below the American radar" stuff. Hope you enjoy!

Moscow Times:  I don't think Perry Mason does it this way...

Our story here comes at the conclusion of the case of one Andrei Kotov, late of the Men Travel Agency, as well as late of life.  Last fall, Kotov was arrested for the heinous crime of directing river tours for alleged LGBTQ groups.  (And no, I don't think that's how "Men Travel Agency" got its name.)  He said he was just running normal tours.  However, the police agancy that had him in custody was nostalgic for NKVD tactics, apparently...

Kotov said in court that police had beaten and electrocuted him with a stun gun during his arrest in November 2024. Rights groups said Kotov had been denied medication and warm clothing while in detention.

Sometime after this, in late December, Kotov "committed suicide" in police custody.  (Go figure, right?) Still, instead of ruling 'case closed' the authorities went on with Kotov's trial, starting some six months after he assumed room temperature.

Several witnesses had failed to appear in court or provided conflicting testimony, according to the independent Telegram news channel Mozhem Obyasnit. 

Law enforcement authorities had ordered one prosecution witness to join Kotov’s tour to collect material for the case, an anonymous lawyer familiar with the case told the outlet. The witness was said to be unable to present clear evidence in court.

Armed with this lack of criminal, lack of evidence, and lack of witnesses, on Friday...

Moscow’s Golovinsky District Court found Kotov guilty of participating in and organizing the activities of an “extremist organization” and of using minors to distribute pornography.

The porn charges were apparently added later to spice up the conviction.  I wonder if they will remand his coffin to the district prison.  And what will his sentence be? "20 years to resurrection"?

GB News: He should have offered him tea and crumpets while pinned...

GB News is a new non state controlled British news site (since we learned last week all we can trust the BBC with is lying about Trump and covering Starmer's butt) to my rotation.  And this story is about a Bournemouth police constable who was fired for... well, let me tell the tale.  A masked 15-year-old had assaulted an elderly man after just having participated in a gang fight at a nearby McDonalds.  Our hero, constable Lorne Castle, tackled the kid, pinned him down, and instructed him to "stop crying like a b****".

For this, he was fired, for "not treating the culprit with courtesy and respect".  He is appealing.

Note to British courts (as well as ours): Respect is EARNED.  Courtesy should be MUTUAL.

BBC World:  And now that I bashed them, how about a peace item

I guess this is a story we can trust them not to spin...

Bear runs onto airport tarmac, halting flights

An airport in the Japanese city of Hanamaki temporarily suspended flights on Wednesday after a bear wandered onto its grounds.  The animal was spotted on the tarmac at 13:00 local time, halting flights for more than an hour.

Human encounters with bears have reached record levels in Japan. Thirteen people have been killed by bears this year, while more than 100 have been wounded. The incidents have prompted authorities to deploy troops to hunt bears and help stop the attacks.

If this had happened in the USA, the Dems would have likely blamed it on "Trump shutting down the government" And the bear would have identified as an elephant.

Xinhua:  Is this because of the bear?

The second headline ion the Chinese news, right after the obligatory "Selected works of Xi Jinping on rule of law published" (Not a joke), was this:

China ministry warns against Japan travel

(No, it wasn't because of bears on the tarmac.  Apparently the new PM likes Taiwan, which makes the whole country a 'security risk'. When I think about it, the bear makes more sense.)

And finally....

The Guardian, backed up by al-Jazeera:  Could we get this company to move our illegals, too?

I tried to ignore the headline on al-Jazeera, but when I saw the storyt again in The Guardian, I had to investigate:  South African offlicials were baffled when a planeload of Gaza Palestinians arrived at Johannesburg airport, without money, food, documents, or the least clue why they ended up there.  It was then I knew I'd have to look beyiond aJ's headline:

What’s the shadowy organisation taking Gaza Palestinians to South Africa?

So here is the scoop as I learned it.  Somewhere in East Jerusalem, a scammer going under the company name of Al-Majd Europe, with a barely functional website that promises,  “For Gaza residents currently inside the Gaza Strip only! Do you aspire to travel and start a new life? We are here to help you!” has been collecting $1,400 to $2,000 a head- regardless of age- and sending them off to this new life without telling their clients just where they'll end up.  Most of the clients only learned they were heading for South Africa when they stopped in Nairobi to refuel.

The Palestinian leadership, not surprisingly, are saying this is all an Israeli rigged operation.  The Guardian remains non-commital.  What is known, it was a Romanian plane that apparently had no AC; a local aid organization stepped up to help those who didn't have passports to other destinations; They had been collected by bus, told to bring "only a small bag, a cell phone, and a little money"; And nobody but nobody knows who is actually behind it, but it was the second such flight to end up in South Africa.

What's the excuse for pictures this week?

 Actually, the same as last week.  Out of a prospective 10-hour day, 4 days a week schedule, this week was: 8 hours for 3 days, 4th day- even with a 35 minute meet with HR- ran out of work 3 hours and 40 minutes in.  Oh, but we ARE working 3 days Thanksgiving week.  As Bobby Vinton would say, 

Anyhow, that meant time for walks- and when the arctic simulation finally broke up around here on Wednesday, we hit it....

Bright blue day number 1

Spying on us as we entered Plex space...

Misty, of course, gobbling snow as we went...

And cutting through into the woods.

Misty was working on her "detecting dead stuff" skills.  Center of pic is a somewhat gloppy remnant of a squirrel...

...and several minutes and distance later, she found the still-bloody jawbones of one.

Nice to see Stony Run without the leaves

Here, I find fur from off another squirrel's tail.  Apparently it wasn't a good week for our nutty friends, probably because of that whole "fat and sluggish" thing from last week.

And no, she didn't pee on it.  But apparently someone did.

Here, she asked permission to gobble.  Permission granted.

Now, at least we know the crew that keeps putting up the little flags here and there.  Looked like a class split into three groups, with 2 supervisors.

Dam is closed again, water has receeded, but it got below 30 degrees F, so out comes the ice warning sign.

And here is why Misty suddenly picked up the pace...

Back at home, it seems someone had a homework disaster.  And thanks to a staple that held strong...

...we get a "homework flower".

Today, with a much earlier start, I thought we'd go around the other way...

Yet another BBD...

The stream bed between us and the Bark Park hasn't been very busy this year

The painting work is proceeding apace- much better than when the last owners attempted.

At least one neighbor is ready for Christmas...

The office does nice gardening

And out of the complex we go

Someone need a Carmax plate?

The amount of abandoned clothes we find is simply amazing...

...a wide variety, despite it still being the Year of the Sock.

Misty's next find- dead raccoon

And the turn down Clinton St

I took this so I could see if this was a boat I might of made a cover for.  Rinker? That's a no.

Misty acted like she wanted to hurry up and take that bus.  Bonus: After it passed us, it hit the air brakes and she jumped.

No saving that tire...

Man/dog selfie, attempt 1

Attempt 2, sans doggie

Time check

Let's cut through the strip mall!

Last time we made this trip, this was a lot under construction and we wondered what it was going to be.  Now we know- yet another of the car wash "palaces" going up all over town.

I asked her- "River or woods?" She chose woods

Always nice to see running water here.

The birds were having a party throughout the woods.  The squirrels, or what's left of them, must be late risers.